4 The HBCU Advocate


The Civil Rights Movement: We May Have Won the Battle But Are Winning Today?


Editorial


Volume 3 Number 4 JoAnna Pendergrass FROM PAGE 1


started thinking about early college admission at Hampton, applied, was accepted in 1998 and offered a partial scholarship. Thus, her college educational journey began!


Listening to her speak about her


family, the love, encouragement and support shown to her, one realizes how she has become so successful - through persistence, commitment.


focus and


degrees from Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia


in Biology, (2003) and Virginia- Maryland


College


The HBCU Advocate Publisher Angela Jones and N.C. A&T Four member Jibreel Khazan BY ANGELA JONES


International


I attended a fundraiser for the Civil


Rights


and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina,


recently, to celebrate


Center the


60th Anniversary of the Sit-Ins. The Sit-In Movement was started by four students from my alma mater, North Carolina A&T, on February 1, 1960. The students, Ezell Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel


Khazan), Franklin McCain,


Joseph McNeil and David Richmond, bravely took a stand against the racial injustices of the era by sitting down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter where ‘colored’ people were not served. The fundraiser, which was well by approximately


attended 2,000


people including, another A&T alumus Reverend Jessie Jackson, Sr., actor Danny Glover and the governor of North Carolina, paid tribute to the actions of these four students. They set-off a domino effect that launched civil rights protests throughout the country. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hammer were some of the activists that emerged during that era. While the tenacity of the four


A&T students should be commended, we have to ask ourselves, “Are African Americans in a better position in the categories of education, finances or health than we were in the 1950s? Is the environment at schools as nurturing for African American children as it was in the 1950s?” What good are new books if children


are so psychologically


traumatized by being a minority in the classroom or being taught by teachers who look at them as inferior. Please do not assume that the dynamics at school do not affect the psyche of these young minds. It was designed to do so. Are we financially better off


than we were in the 1950s? There are individuals in the African American community who some might call “tokens,“ who are doing quite well. Professional


athletes, entertainers


and anyone else who can distract us from dwelling on our plight are well compensated. That does not mean the race, as a whole is moving forward at the same pace as other races of people. The wealth gap is real, the


homeownership gap is real and the savings gap is real.


In 2016, $17,600 in wealth was


attributed to Black households while the median White household’s wealth was $171,000 or 10 times more than Black


households, according


to AmericanProgress.org. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's net worth is estimated between $160 and $196 million; and college-educated Black households have 30% less wealth than noncollege degree White households. When it comes to healthcare,


African Americans do not fare any better than the financial inequality reality. Just try to find an African American doctor in private practice. If you can find one, they are so few and far between that their schedules remain booked solid.


I wonder what would have been the economic


outcome if


desegregation did not take place. I often think African Americans must have been tricked into pushing for it. Who would choose to send their young innocent children into a lion's den every day without being tricked? Although I had not been born, as yet, during the 1950s, from what I have heard, there were more Black


doctors, more Black-owned


businesses, and better educated and well rounded Black youth. Black people even owned more land in the 1950s than today.


Some African Americans work for themselves, homeschool their children,


attend Historical Black


Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); their doctors are African American and their


dentists are African


American. So, I guess one could say, they are segregated and I do not see a problem with it. Maybe it is one of those things where I had to see it to believe it. Right now, I do not understand how segregation could have been worse than what African Americans are


experiencing today.


By working together and supporting each other, as other communities do, African Americans can eventually rediscover the wealth and happiness of our forefathers.


The HBCU Advocate


Angela Jones, Publisher Chris Parks, Editor


Rae Willis, Graphic Designer Brenda Buchanon, Contributing Writer Sales and information info@thehbcuadvocate.com


Copyright pertaining to contents of this edition. All rights reserved. TheHBCUAdvocate.com


Medicine, Blacksburg, - Doctor of Veterinary


Pendergrass holds - Bachelor’s of Veterinary


Virginia Medicine


(2010); she earned a Postdoctoral research fellowship in drug addiction from Emory University,


Georgia (2010-2012); is a freelance medical writer and owner of


Atlanta, JPen


Communications, LLC; and a proud member/officer of the American Medical Writers Association, Southeast Chapter. Pendergrass is a veterinarian


but said she did not open a private practice. The definition of a typical veterinarian is a professional who diagnoses animal health problems, treats and dresses wounds, vaccinates against


diseases in animals, and


advises pet owners about feeding and behavior. She is a veterinarian by training but did not believe private practice was a good path for her, so after completing her fellowship at Emory, she made the conscious decision


to become a full-time


medical writer in 2012. After some hesitation, Pendergrass finally made the jump from employee to business owner by opening her freelance medical


writing business, JPen


Communications, in August, 2016. “In 2015, I left my second job as


a medical writer,” she said, “I looked for full-time writer jobs but didn’t find anything I wanted to do.” Sometime later, a friend suggested Pendergrass meet with her business coach in 2016 for some helpful advice. She met with the business coach, but said she was “still on the fence” about whether to continue looking for a full-time job or possibly opening her own business. As a result of the consultations, the coach helped her understand what it


meant to work for yourself rather than someone else. Was she apprehensive about becoming a freelance medical writer? Yes, however working with the coach, she said, “changed my mindset” and gave her the confidence to start JPen Communications, LLC.


milestone in her life? and love for education. in


veterinary school,


What helped her reach this Her passion


While still Pendergrass


said the professors instilled in their students to “speak to pet owners with compassion.” She didn’t realize her journey would lead to becoming a medical writer but her professors’ message remained in her mind’s eye and helped propel her medical writing career.


Pendergrass said she


became passionate about pet owners’ education and wanted to write about the complexity of veterinary medicine but, but she said, “in a way the public can understand.” Her desire is to assist her readers to “learn more about their own health and their pet’s health” according to Pendergrass. She is not only passionate about her field of


expertise but compassionate as


well for her readers and their pets. The excitement in her voice is


prevalent and the passion for her work is explicit. On average, Pendergrass writes for approximately two to three hours per article; writes for five to six websites; works, on average, 12 to 15 hours per week; and the articles are usually 500 to 700 words in length.


could


When asked what advice she give young girls


interested


in the field of veterinary science, Pendergrass opined: “Stay focused on academics; don’t be afraid to love science and math; shadow a veterinarian; stay committed to your dream (there will be many obstacles in your way- people may not see you as the traditional image of a veterinarian); do not be discouraged; and do not be afraid to do something different with your degree.” Pendergrass also


advised,


“Take your expertise and degree to do something completely different, if that is your desire.” That is great advice from a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, freelance medical writer and business owner.


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