FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:

African American Studies Program
University of Houston
713-743-2811

Shar-day Campbell
Honey Brown Hope Foundation, Marketing Communications
University of Houston Alumni
281-499-7966 | shar-day@honeybrownhope.org

“A Genesis of African American Engineering, Architecture, and Urban Planning”

(Houston, Texas-February 16, 2012)- In honor of African American History Month and the vast contributions that African Americans have made to America, the Honey Brown Hope Foundation has teamed up with University of Houston’s African American Studies Program to present “A Genesis of African American Engineering, Architecture, and Urban Planning” on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 10:00am in Agnes Arnold Hall 628.

This African American History program is designed to highlight Benjamin Banneker’s contributions to our nation as a self-taught author, scientist, mathematician, astronomer, publisher and urban planner. Some of Banneker’s contributions include: predicting the solar eclipse in 1789, creating the first wooden clock in America, conceiving the reverse mortgage concept, and publishing six almanacs in twenty-eight editions.

At the age of 60, Benjamin Banneker was appointed by President George Washington to a team of three surveyors to plan the future Washington, District of Columbia. After Pierre L’Enfant, the head architect, was fired for his temper and took the plans for the District of Columbia, Banneker recreated the plans. In 1791, the Georgetown Weekly Ledger reported that Banneker’s skills proved Thomas Jefferson's black inferiority theory false.

Guest speaker Peggy Seats will discuss the contributions of Benjamin Banneker. Seats is the executive director of the Washington Interdependence Council. Its principal mission is the Benjamin Banneker Memorial in Washington, D.C., which is the only other African-American national memorial besides Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that Congress has authorized. She has spent a lifetime in service to the social, civic, political and economic advancement of the African-American community.

“Houston, the District of Columbia has a problem; we have the worst minority gap when it comes to engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities,” said Seats. “However the problem does not stop at our nation’s Capital, the number of minority students pursuing S.T.E.M (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees and careers has flattened or even declined in recent years. That is why I am elated to join the University of Houston’s African American Studies Program in recognizing Banneker, America's First Black Man of Science, as an exemplary role-model of what all students can achieve in the S.T.E.M fields.”

“As part of our community outreach initiative, the University of Houston’s African American Studies Program is pleased to partner with the Honey Brown Hope Foundation to promote cultural literacy among students, faculty and staff,” said Dr. James Conyers, director of University of Houston’s African American Studies Program. “Our ultimate success as a nation depends on mutual respect, which we develop through the mutual knowledge of each other’s contributions.”

About the University of Houston’s African American Studies Program:
The mission of African American Studies is to provide students with a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate education that provides the opportunity to engage in a creative intellectual experience based on the systematic study of the life, thought, and practice of African peoples in their current and historical unfolding.

About the Honey Brown Hope Foundation:
Under the leadership of Tammie Lang Campbell, the Honey Brown Hope Foundation gives hope a chance and keeps it alive through its diversity appreciation, cultural literacy, environmental awareness, drama, character building, writing, voter empowerment and parenting programs. Since its inception as a non-profit organization in 1991, the Foundation has collaborated with schools, universities, businesses, other community organizations and the City of Houston to offer its programs. For more information, visit www.honeybrownhope.org, call 281-499-79-66, email honeybrownhope@honeybrownhope.org and/or connect on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.