Founded in 1976 by Rev. Dr. Thomas Kilgore, Jr., The USC Black Alumni Association is a leadership network established to strengthen the legacy of educational attainment and excellence of USC black students. The BAA provides scholarship assistance, career mentoring and cultural advocacy through alumni volunteer involvement, philanthropy, and social enterprise. 

On March 10, 2016 USC’s Black Alumni Association celebrated over 40 years of providing resources, guidance and support so desperately needed to help African American Students navigate the challenges and pressures of earning a college degree at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities.  While the event was a black tie event, it also had the feeling of a family reunion with classmates who had not seen one another since graduation.  Old friends once again were together reminiscing about their undergraduate and graduate school days now in the past.

University President C.L. Max Nakias kicked off the night by celebrating the work and generous gift of former USC students Dr. Verna and Peter Dauterive.  The Dauterives, who met on the campus of USC, presented the university with a 30 million dollar gift which has now become the Dr. Verna and Perter Dauterive Hall on the University Park campus.  The gift at the time of its award was the largest gift by an African American to any institution of higher learning in the country.

The mistress and master of ceremony for the evening were USC alumnus and football star Rodney Peete and his beautiful wife, actress Holly Robinson Peete.  The night’s honorees were past USC Black Alumni Board President and current California State Assemblyman Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr., Ms. Julia Wilson CEO and founder of Wilson Global Communications, Dr. Deara Okonkwo, Neftalie Williams, Dr. Maulana Karenga, Ph.D. who received the Eme Visionary Award and Director John Singleton who received the Legacy Award.

Former USC BAA Scholar and President of the Northrop Grumman Foundation Sandra Evers-Manley was the keynote speaker.  Ms. Evers-Manly not only inspired the crowd with her speech of how USC BAA supported her, but she gave insight on how her meeting former NAACP Board Member and founder of the NAACP Image Awards Willis Edwards helped guide her path in life. She also inspired the room when she announced that she was personally making a donation to the BAA of $400,000 to continue the legacy of success for the organization.  “USC has been good to me and all of my success in life is based upon my faith in God, my family and the many lessons and blessing I received here during my time as a Trojan,” said Evers-Manly.

“We are so honored to have received such an amazing gift from my friend and classmate Sandra Evers-Manly.  The night was a huge success and through her gift and the support of our many corporate sponsors, Alumnus and friends the BAA will be able to continue the work we have been doing for our kids in helping them to graduate from USC,” said USC BAA Executive Director Michèle G. Turner.

BAA Scholars are represented in nearly 100% of USC schools, which also include the Keck Medical School, Gould School of Law, and the Ostrow School of Dentistry. The BAA scholarship is awarded based on both financial need and merit considerations. It is applied for and awarded annually. BAA scholarship awards are matched on a 2:1 basis for undergraduate students—where for example, a $500.00 contribution would become a $1500.00 scholarship award, with the match available for the first $1,000 awarded per student. While the matching award is not available for graduate scholarships, the USC BAA is one of the few USC organizations to offer scholarships for graduate level students.

Scholarship awards are only provided through the generosity of donor contributions to our annual scholarship fund or specific named endowments.

In addition to providing scholarships, the BAA is intentional about networking and opportunities for competitive access for our students and alumni. There is specific programming by BAA Committees that focuses directly upon workforce success and leadership for future alumni, especially offered through our "Legacy Through Leadership" initiative programs.

“The theme of our 40th year celebration, “Legacy 360°,” celebrates past, present and future leadership and achievement of black alumni at USC, laying a foundation for the narratives of our next 40 years,” said Turner.

The evening closed with the USC marching band performing the schools fight song with everyone in attendance standing and flashing the tradition USC “V” fingers for VICTORY….. FIGHT ON!

Capping his remarkable visit to Cuba, President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared an end to the “last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas” and openly urged the Cuban people to pursue a more democratic future for this communist nation 90 miles from the Florida coast.

With Cuban President Raul Castro watching from a balcony, Obama said the government should not fear citizens who speak freely and vote for their own leaders. And with Cubans watching on tightly controlled state television, Obama said they would be the ones to determine their country’s future, not the United States.

“Many suggested that I come here and ask the people of Cuba to tear something down,” Obama said. “But I’m appealing to the young people of Cuba who will lift something up, build something new.”

On the streets of Havana, the president’s address sparked extraordinarily rare public discussions about democracy, and some anger with Cuba’s leaders. Cubans are used to complaining bitterly about economic matters but rarely speak publicly about any desire for political change, particularly in conversations with foreign journalists.

Juan Francisco Ugarte, Oliva, a 71-year-old retired refrigeration technician, said the American president “dared to say in the presence of the leaders, of Raul Castro, that (Cubans) had the right to protest peacefully without being beaten or arrested.”

Omardy Isaac, a 43-year-old who works in a gift shop, said, “Cubans need all of their rights and I am in favor of democracy.”

Later, Obama sat beside Castro at a baseball game between Cuba’s beloved national team and the Tampa Bay Rays of America’s Major League Baseball. Leaving the game early for Jose Marti International Airport, Obama was met there again by Castro who walked him to Air Force One.

They chatted in relaxed fashion, any awkwardness or tension apparently gone from the previous day’s news conference that saw Castro hit with tough questions from U.S. reporters.

How quickly political change comes to Cuba, if at all, is uncertain. But the response from at least some Cubans was certain to be seen by Obama as validation of his belief that restoring ties and facilitating more interactions between Cuba and the United States is more likely than continued estrangement to spur democracy.

“What the United States was doing was not working,” Obama said. He reiterated his call for the U.S. Congress to lift the economic embargo on Cuba, calling it an “outdated burden on the Cuban people” — a condemnation that was enthusiastically cheered by the crowd at Havana’s Grand Theater.

The president’s visit was a crowning moment in his and Castro’s bold bid to restore ties after a half-century diplomatic freeze. While deep differences persist, officials from both countries are in regular contact, major U.S. companies are lining up to invest in Cuba, and travel restrictions that largely blocked Americans from visiting have been loosened.

After arriving Sunday, Obama plunged into a whirlwind schedule that blended official talks with Castro and opportunities to soak in Cuba’s culture. He toured historic sites in Old Havana in a rainstorm, ate at one of the city’s most popular privately owned restaurants and joined a big crowd for Tuesday’s baseball game.

The fans roared as Obama and his family entered the stadium, which underwent an extensive upgrade for the game. Castro joined the Obama family and sat alongside the president behind home plate — one of several moments from the U.S. president's trip that would have been barely imaginable just months ago.

Obama also met Tuesday with about a dozen dissidents, praising them for showing “extraordinary courage.” The group included journalist Miriam Celaya, attorney Laritza Diversent and activists Manuel Cuesta and Jose Daniel Ferrer.

The White House said the meeting was a prerequisite for Obama in coming to Cuba. Yet the gathering did little to appease those who say he hasn’t gotten enough human rights concessions from the Castro government to justify the American economic investment expected to pour into the island.

Cubans have been riveted by 15 months of changes in their country’s relationship with the United States. But they’ve learned of it almost entirely through state-run media who have focused on two primary themes — the embargo’s continued responsibility for Cuban economic problems and the importance of Cuba changing at its own pace, not one imposed by Washington.

Obama’s speech was the first opportunity for Cubans to hear his vision of warming U.S.-Cuban relations as closely linked to Cuba's internal evolution. It’s a vision of free speech, free assembly and the ability to earn a living without relying on a centrally controlled economy.

The president appeared to deliberately use neutral terms to describe the Cuban state: “a one-party system” and “a socialist economic model” that “has emphasized the role and rights of the state.”

Obama’s last day in Cuba was shadowed by the horrific attacks in Brussels, where scores of people were killed in explosions at the airport and a metro station. The president opened his remarks by vowing to do “whatever is necessary” to support Belgium.

Associated Press writers Josh Lederman, Andrea Rodriguez and Peter Orsi contributed to this report.

Singer and songwriter Charlie Wilson continues to stand the test of time. The living legend’s career is like a fine wine, it only gets better with age.

His career spans over 30 years, dating back to the days in the funk trio Gap Band. Wilson first made his name with a string of hits including “Outstanding,” “You Dropped A Bomb On Me,” “Yearning For Your Love,” Early In The Morning” and “All of My Love.” The Group retired in 2010.

The eleven-time Grammy nominated artist is still considered to be the uncrowned king of R&B ushering in the 90s’ “new jack swing” that inspired the likes of Guy, Aaron Hall, Keith Sweat and most notably R. Kelly. Wilson’s vocal style is undoubtedly an influence on contemporary music as he continues to rack up countless features with some of today’s biggest names such as Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Jamie Foxx and DJ Mustard. 

“I’m just Uncle Charlie, everybody’s calling me,” says Wilson when talking about collaborations. “They keep me current as well because they know I’m going to deliver because I’m a hit maker. They want that flavor as well. I’m going to keep making hits until my clock stops ticking.”

Coming off a breakthrough year with the release of his sixth solo album “Forever Charlie”, many do not know that Uncle Charlie had the highest grossing R&B tour in 2015.

“I went from clubs to theatres, from theatres to arena’s.  And I’ve been selling out every arena all over the country,” said Wilson. “I could give you some top urban names that wasn’t selling as much as Uncle Charlie was because we was busting them places up.”

2015 brought more favor to Wilson as he added Best Selling Author to his list of credits. His memoir, “I Am Charlie Wilson,” released in June of 2015, is both a New York Times Best Seller and Washington Post Best Seller as well as receiving an honorary mention for non-fiction from the Black Caucus of American Library Associations, Inc.

“Well, first of all, we are nothing without God,” said Wilson when discussing his spirituality and faith. “He is our creator, he is definitely our provider and I believe in him and I trust in him and everything is working out fine for me. I had in my life earlier days took off on a tantrum, forgot about God and ended in some precarious places and as soon as I got my faith back everything started working.”

Wilson is not shy when discussing his troubled past. He loves to share his story on 20 years of sobriety.

“Well you know you can give up on yourself and give up on God and you can end up on the streets basically,” said Wilson. “I just lost that contact with God for a small amount of time. You can dibble and dabble and try things, that’s why I tell youngsters, it ain’t cool to do all of that. When I first started testing alcohol and drugs, I thought it was cool smoking cigarettes. I thought I was looking good doing it and it just turned into something slowly and slowly just more devastating for me in my life. I ended up on the wrong street. But God, every time I looked up, God was there for me, every moment. I testified, I have a testimony, if you never been to Kansas City you can tell nobody how to get there. I have been to hell and back. I always tell people listen man, you need to get your life straight, put God first in everything you do and trust me everything will work good. For those that love him, everything will work good for those who love the lord.”

Raised by a minister father and mother, the Tusla, Oklahoma native discovered he had a musical gift when he was about five years old. He can remember being in school and singing “I left my heart in San Francisco.”

“When I got to the last part of singing the song, girls were screaming so loud in that gym and when I finished they just charged the stage and I took off running the wrong way and went down a hall way into the first door that I seen and it was the girls bathroom. And they was just in there screaming like no other and it frightened me a little bit because I didn’t know why they was running after me. It didn’t seem right until I got through and my mom kind of got tickled and said, ‘No that’s a good thing, its good baby its okay, you did good’.”

Wilson created a group with one of his best friends and as they played at the local YMCAs, the gigs went from being lightly chaperoned with predominately kids in attendance to once the word spread around town on how good Charlie’s group was, there were just as many adults and chaperones attending as there were kids.

“It was more grown people than it was my own peers,” Wilson said. “Then it went from there to still being very young playing into some clubs because we could play. We sounded like adults and we performed like adults and it just went from there to my brother came and ask me to join a group he had.”

Wilson in 2009 received the coveted Soul Train Icon Award and the BET Awards’ 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, he is a 2005 BMI Icon Award honoree, was named Billboard’s No. 1 Adult Artist in 2009 and received the Trump Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

“My favorite collaboration moment was the lifestyle achievement award for BET when Snoop came out and Pharrell came out and Justin (Timberlake) came out and we just smashed the building and we smashed millions television sets,” said Wilson.  “I will never forget it and BET will never forget it because I hold the highest rating that was ever watched. First it use to be Michael Jackson and I topped that so I’m wearing the crown right now. So for those that didn’t know that I got the highest rating, I’m holding the seat right now. Like somebody’s mom told me  ‘Charlie Wilson, I don’t care who they get don’t worry about it, it ain’t going to be nobody to top that for a long, long time.’ It was Stephen Hill’s mom (laughs).”

Now in remission following a bout with prostate cancer, he became a spokesperson for the Prostate Cancer Foundation in 2008 to promote awareness and educate the male community about a disease that afflicts one in six American men and one in three African-American men.  Most recently, Wilson participated in the Stand Up 2 Cancer telethon in 2014.

“I’m having the best time of my life-teaching youngsters about drugs and alcohol, about cancer being a spokesperson for life,” said Wilson. “I believe that God helps those that help themselves and I believe that if you have faith with works you can go to the mountaintop whatever your mountaintop is. But faith without works is dead. You have to want to do something, you have to want to go further in your life, you want to have to make a difference, inspire others and with that in faith and trust in the lord you can do anything you want to do.”