News & Information
The Washington (DC) Fisk Alumni Association Sponsors a Fundraiser, “Jubilee,” at Arena Stage, May 26, 2019
The Washington Fisk Alumni Association members invited Fiskites and friends to join them on Sunday, May 26, at the Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington, DC 20024, for dinner at 5:30 p.m., followed by the play “Jubilee,” an inspirational a cappella tribute with more than three dozen songs. This was a fundraiser celebrating Fisk University. Click here to see a printable copy of the flyer (below) in PDF format.
Representative John Lewis, Fisk ’67, Attends Keel Laying for Class of Navy Ships Named for Him
Honorable
John Lewis
Fisk ’67
SAN DIEGO—Yesterday Rep John Lewis, Fisk ’67, attended a keel laying ceremony for the first in a class of Navy ships named after him. There are 20 ships in the John Lewis class, which will all be Fleet Replenishment Oilers. The first of the class, the USNS John Lewis, is projected for completion in April of 2020. The rest of the John Lewis class of ships will be built over the next 10 years and will stay in service for 40 years, serving 85,000 service men and women and 11 air craft carriers. Yesterday’s ceremony took place at the General Dynamics-National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego.
The laying of the keel is the Navy’s way of acknowledging the beginning of a ship’s construction. At that stage some initial components of the ship have already been built, and the keel laying ceremony involves joining those components together. At that time John Lewis’s initials were also etched into a ceremonial steel plate to be displayed on the ship, along with those of Ms. Alfre Woodard, the ship’s sponsor.
Tuskegee University Baccalaureate Speaker, the Rev. Dr. William E. Flippin, Sr., is Fisk Alumnus ’74
Rev. Dr. William Flippin, Sr., Fisk ’74
Tuskegee University has selected pastor, author and life coach Rev. Dr. William E. Flippin, Sr., Fisk ’74, as its speaker for the University’s 2019 Baccalaureate Service, which will take place on Friday, May 10 at 10 a.m. in the University Chapel.
Flippin attended Fisk University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and business administration. While a student at Fisk, he was an active member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and today, continues his commitment to the fraternity as a life member. He holds a master of divinity degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Flippin also holds a doctorate of ministry from the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, and is a certified life transformational and leadership coach.
LaVerne Prager ’56 Donates $100,000 to Establish the Karsten Prager Endowed Scholarship
LaVerne Lane Prager ’56 (Center), Daughter Debra and Son Kevin
According to LaVerne Lane Prager (’56), Fisk University was the first predominately Black school she attended. Before enrolling in Fisk in 1954, she attended Michigan University for two years. Her Fisk experience taught her many things that were not found in classrooms or books and played a significant role in her social development. It was at Fisk, Laverne says, that she forged relationships that still exist today. After spending two years at Fisk, she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1956 and returned to Michigan where she obtained a master’s degree in social work.
Nashville Police Oversight Board Names Chicago Attorney, Fisk Alumnus ’84, As Top Director Candidate
Atty William Weeden ’84
Nashville’s police oversight board has named its top candidate to become the group’s executive director. Chicago attorney William Weeden, Fisk ’84, got the nod Tuesday night after the board interviewed five finalists.
Metro will now extend a formal job offer.
In his interview last week, Weeden praised Nashvillians for putting together a grassroots effort to pass a ballot measure to create the police oversight board.
Clark Atlanta University’s Ronald E. Mickens (Fisk ’60) Wins the 2018 Blackwell-Tapia Prize
Ronald Mickens
Fisk ’60
The National Blackwell-Tapia Committee has announced that Dr. Ronald E. Mickens (Fisk ’60) is the recipient of the 2018 Blackwell-Tapia Prize. The award recognizes a “mathematician who has contributed significantly to research in his or her field of expertise, and who has served as a role model for mathematical scientists and students from underrepresented minority groups or has contributed in other significant ways to addressing the problem of the underrepresentation of minorities in math.”
Nashville Fisk Club Newsletter, February 4, 2019
Editor’s Note: Fisk University recently corrected a longstanding error in the picture depicting Jubilee Hall, as on page eight of this newsletter, and fixed here on the University’s website; probably, after this newsletter issue had gone to press. It has to do with the building previously listed in Fisk’s history as Julibee Hall, in 1876 which, actually, was of Bennett Hall, demolished many years ago. The University is commended for having made this important correction. To read this attractive and informative newsletter, click here.
Dr. Josie R. Johnson ’51 to Release Memoir
Dr. Josie Johnson, Fisk ’51, the daughter of a Houston civil rights activist, has been on the front lines of the struggle for justice and equality since she was a teen, going door-to-door to campaign in Texas for the removal of a “poll tax” used to deny African-Americans the right to vote. A graduate of Fisk University in Nashville – a historically Black university – Johnson became an influential figure in politics, serving as chief of staff for multiple campaigns and serving as a Minnesota DFL delegate who cast a vote in the historic 2008 presidential election that saw the election of the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama. She holds the distinction of being the first African-American to serve on the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents. Read more.