(NNPA)—The comedienne, talk show host and actress Mo’Nique has become just the fifth African-American woman to win an Oscar. Her portrayal of Mary Jones, the revolting and depraved mother of Precious, was arguably masterful, and she now joins Hattie McDaniel (who played a maid), Halle Berry (who played a sex-starved fool), Whoopi Goldberg (who played a medium in “Ghost”), and Jennifer Hudson (who played a singer).

(NNPA)—The three major Black Methodist denominations—American Methodist Episcopal (AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion) and Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME)—emerged from their joint Great Gathering conference here last week with a plan to establish Saturday Academies in cities across the nation as a way of improving the plight of young African-American males.

A pilot project is scheduled to begin in the Washington, D.C.-area in May, with a Saturday Academy rotating between three churches in the major Methodist denominations. Organizers say the concept will be expanded later to 13 regions across the United States.

(REAL TIMES MEDIA)—Throughout the 2008 election many people compared Barack Obama to Superman. There were pictures of him opening up his shirt a la Clark Kent to reveal a big “O.” There was a photo of him posing arms akimbo in front of a giant Superman statue, not to mention dozens of cartoons with him cut and pasted onto Superman’s body on YouTube. During the Alfred E. Smith Memorial dinner in 2008, where it’s traditional for presidential candidates to poke fun at themselves and the opposition, Obama finally got into the act with the Superman comparisons when he said, “Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor El to save the planet Earth. Many of you—many of you know that I got my name, Barack, from my father. What you may not know is that Barack is actually Swahili for ‘that one.’”

(NNPA)—“I pledge to responsibly commit my time and talent to ensure that the nation is empowered to eliminate racial gaps and disparities in housing, education, employment and health  care by 2025...”

Last week, the National Urban League officially kicked off its centennial celebration and takes its century-long fight for equal opportunity and empowerment to the next level. The centerpiece of our celebration is a bold, new social mobilization campaign which we are calling “I am empowered.”