Chances Are, You Won’t Be Able to Afford College

I recently saw this interesting article on Black Enterprise:  Chances Are,You Won’t Be Able to Afford College. 

It seems folks are now paying FOUR TIMES what they paid for a degree 20 years ago, yet having a degree is no guarantee of a job, let alone a good one.  It never has been for African Americans. 

However, a university education enriches our lives in many ways that cannot necessarily be measured.  A good education is priceless (many universities are doing their best to put a price on it, though). 

In Britain, the Head of Oxford University wants to put up the tuition fee to a level higher than the £9,000 ($13,500) limit currently set by the government.  And bear in mind, the new limit is THREE TIMES the previous limit set by the New Labour government. 

In this way, Britain is becoming more like the U.S., and this is a bad thing.  More and more people are being priced out of education.   This is something I feel very strongly about, and that is why I have devoted a lot of time and effort to finding a solution.  

Hundreds of people have found an alternative way to raise the funds they need to finance their education.  For more information, click here for Shaking the Money Tree and to download my free report. 

Education should be available for all, not just for the privileged few.  

Black Film: 83 Days

At a recent African Odysseys film event, we were privileged to view the trailer for 83 Days. 

George Stinney Jr. was a 14-year-old boy who was accused of murdering two white girls in South Carolina in 1944.  They had asked him where they could pick flowers and he had given them directions. 

A number of people were rounded up once the girls’ bodies were found, but they were all let go after George admitted he had seen the girls and given them  directions. 

George’s family were first taken out of the County, then out of the State.  So there he was, all alone, with no one to support or advise him.

The officials said he had confessed to the murder of these two girls, but they did not produce a confession.  When he was put on trial, his court-appointed lawyer was a tax attorney with no trial experience, who offered no defense.  There was no evidence against George, but he was convicted.   To this day, there is no transcript of the trial. 

So, at the age of 14, George Stinney Jr. became the youngest-ever person to be executed in the United States.  (However, we are still imprisoning children.) 

The producer, Ray Brown, said they had come up against opposition while researching this film.  As a result of their efforts,  George Stinney Jr. has now been pardoned.  

This is a story that needs to be told, and I am glad the film will be released next year.  Unfortunately, we need to remember that this was just one of a long line of State-sponsored murders of people of African heritage – and not just in the U.S.A. 

 Click here for more details of 83 Days.