ROBERTA FLACK
GRAMMY AWARD WINNING
NC NATIVE, SINGER ROBERTA
FLACK, DEAD AT 88
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Her ballads were haunting. Her voice soothing.
And her artistry, legendary.
Songstress Roberta Flack, a native of Black Mountain, NC, died Monday surrounded by family. She suffered a stroke in 2016, then two years later collapsed on a concert stage. That episode forced her to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
In 2022, Ms. Flack was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, which took away her ability to sing.
She was 88.
To a generation, her remarkable songs like ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “The First Time Ever I saw Your Face” represented an era of black music that has rarely been duplicated since her debut in the 1970s. Ms. Flack was a classically trained musician, and during her career, performed on almost two dozen albums, which produced five Grammy Awards - two of which were consecutive honors for Record of the Year.
It wasn’t until 2020 that Ms. Flack received the recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. That same year she told NPR, "I think everything you do as a Black person in this country represents a struggle for survival.”
She told the N.Y. Times in 1973 that she was 100% musician who was dedicated to her art.
Roberta Flack received a full music scholarship to Howard University at the age of just 15 years-old. Originally, she aspired to become an opera singer, or a concert pianist at Carnegie Hall, a goal that she finally did achieve later in life.
She was once a music teacher. It was 1970 when she was later the sole musical guest on a Bill Cosby TV special. The following year, Ms. Flack released, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” which won her her first Grammy Award, and was used in the Clint Eastwood film, "Play Misty for Me."
Ms. Flack holds the distinction of singing at the funeral of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, as well as for many philanthropic causes like AIDS research.
Later in the 1970s, Ms. Flack partnered with prolific singer Donny Hathaway for memorable hits like "You’ve Got a Friend,” “The Closer I Get to You” “Where is the Love” and the dance single “Back Together Again.”
Hathaway died after jumping from a hotel window in 1979.
Their partnership yielded two Grammy nominations in 1980.
The musical legacy of Roberta Flack is manifested in superstar singers like Lauryn Hill, India Arie and Alicia Keys.
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born in Black Mountain on Feb. 10, 1937 to Laron and Irene Flack. Laron played the piano, and Irene was an organist in church. Little Roberta began playing the piano by ear when she was four, later mastering the craft to play Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.
A virtuoso, Ms. Flack attended the only black high school in Arlington, Va.after her family moved there before winning her full scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she further studied piano, before changing her major to music education.
Ms. Flack graduated Howard at 19, and began teaching English literature in Farmville, NC. She later moved back to Washington, D.C. to teach, and moonlight during the evenings there performing in nightclubs, in violation of school district policy.
It was during a summer benefit concert in 1968 that she was first discovered by jazz musician Les McCann. He sent a tape of her performance to Atlantic Records, and from that day on, Ms. Flack never looked back.
Roberta Flack has always been fiercely independent, and fiercely protective of her work. She was also very proud to be a Black woman, and a Black female singer with a unique sound.
"I am a person who has managed to last because I have chosen to stay true to my own ideals and principles, and true to my own experience," she told the Washington Post in 1989. "I am a Black person who sings the way I do. I am not a Black person who sounds anything like Aretha Franklin or anything like Chaka Khan. I know what I am and I don't want to, and I shouldn't have to, change in order to be who I am."
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US DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE’S
“1890” STUDENT AID PROGRAM
SUSPENDED AT NC A&T, EIGHTEEN
OTHER HBCU’S ACROSS NATION
BY Cash Michaels
contributing wrier
A pioneering national scholarship program for Black students studying agriculture and “…food, natural resource and other related sciences,” has now been suspended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the government, thus far, has not explained why.
North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro is one of the 19 HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) affected by the program’s suspension.
According to a February 21st story in the Economic Times, the USDA “…
has suspended its 1890 National Scholars Program, a significant initiative that provided scholarships to students attending HBCUs. This program aimed to support students from rural and undeserved communities pursuing degrees in agriculture and related fields. The suspension is pending further review, as indicated on the program’s official website.”
Per the USDA website, “It was established in 1992 as part of the partnership between USDA and the 1890 land-grant universities.”
At North Carolina A&T, spokesman Todd Simmons issued the following statement Monday:
We have had 104 scholar participants in the 1890 National Honors Scholarship Program since its establishment. We have 20 current scholars, and have been assured their funding will remain intact. We are discussing this important program with the UNC System and our elected representatives and are hopeful that support for the program’s future will be fully restored.
North Carolina Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-12-NC), an alumna of NCA&T, told the Economic Times she “…criticized the suspension, stating it undermines efforts to make higher education accessible and to correct historical racial discrimination within the land-grant system.”
Rep. Adams is co-founder of the Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus. Last week, she blasted Pres. Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk for their efforts to close the U.S. Dept. of Education, firing thousands of employees.
At presstime, there have been no published reports about slashing USDA’s programming or personnel by the Trump Administration.
But that didn’t stop Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, from telling The Hill, “The Trump Administration’s decision to suspend the 1890 Scholars Program ‘pending further review’ is an outrageous disruption that undermines efforts to make higher education accessible for Black students and correct our nation’s history of systemic racial discrimination within the land-grant system.”
Rep. Clarke continued, “President Trump repeatedly promised the American people that he would work to lower the costs of living and create greater access to economic opportunity, including for Black communities,” she continued. “Since January 20th, 2025 this administration has been on a cruel rampage, showing us every day that hard working Americans are not their priority. Instead of working to make our lives better, the Trump administration continues to try to take our country backward.”
Per the USDA website, “The scholarship provides recipients with full tuition, fees, books, room and board. Scholars attend one of the 1890 land-grant universities and pursue degrees in agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines. The scholarship may also include work experience at USDA. The program is a crucial part of USDA’s Next Generation efforts.”
The website continued, “USDA awarded 94 1890 scholarships in Fiscal Year 2024.”
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WAR AGAINST DEI
CONTINUES IN NC
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
President Donald Trump’s war against DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies has certainly hit North Carolina as legislation has been proposed to remove it from all of state government, and the president’s cuts to educational funding take hold.
Tens of millions of dollars of federal education grants used to “strengthen teacher recruitment and retention, reduce vacancies, and improve hiring processes” for at-risk student needs in schools across North Carolina, have been cut off by the Trump Administration, according to published reports. As a result, recruiting efforts for more teachers have been hurt, and those already on the job are at risk of losing their employment.
In their termination letter, those teachers are being told the special program they were working under “…includes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.” The letter also alleged that teachers were being trained in “divisive ideologies.”
Many teachers may lose thousands of dollars in earned bonus and stipends as well.
Several school systems across North Carolina reportedly plan to appeal the loss in grant funding, arguing that the programs funded were working very well, and there was no evidence of waste, fraud or abuse.
Meanwhile, several Republican state lawmakers filed a House Bill 171 last week seeking to ban”…the promotion, funding and implementation of DEI programs within state agencies, including in hiring practices, training programs and the establishment of DEI offices.”
“House Bill 171 is about eliminating the divisive and ineffective DEI bureaucracy in state and local government,” primary bill sponsor Rep. Brendan Jones (R- Columbus) told the Carolina Journal. “These programs have injected politics into hiring, promotions, and contracting, prioritizing ideology over qualifications and competence. Government jobs and opportunities should be awarded based on merit, not forced quotas or political mandates.”
HB 171 also prohibits the use of state funds for DEI initiatives, as well prohibiting state agencies and local government from accepting federal funds requiring compliance with DEI policies.
Penalties for violating HB171, if passed, include criminal charges.
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