Dr. Kweisi Mfume Urges Students to Define Themselves VIDEO

(Worcester, Mass.) -- NAACP CEO, Congressman and Author Kweisi Mfume told the crowd gathered at Worcester State College’s Third Annual “Courageous Conversations” lecture to, “Define yourselves. Don’t let pop culture or others tell you who you are.” The talk was sponsored by Third World Alliance, Diversity Office and Multicultural Affairs Offices.

Kweisi derided current pop culture and urged students to strike out on their own path. “When we allow song lyrics to defame us we have to stand up and say, ‘we have a problem.’” He urged students instead to get involved and make a difference, stressing that the need is critical. He cited statistics showing that one out of six children lives in poverty; two million people lost their pensions last year; 1 million more lost their jobs and 47 million people in the U.S. are worried about healthcare. But he stressed that the situation is not hopeless. “I have not given up on the American dream and I ask that you not give up.”

He admitted that to persevere is sometimes difficult but told the story of how he turned his own life around and embraced a life of community activism. “When I was in high school, I dropped out at age 16 after my mother died of cancer.” The experience hardened him and he found himself “running with a gang” and fathering five children out of wedlock by age 22. He remembers the fateful night when he began to turn it around, “something came over me. I saw my mother and felt her deep disappointment in me. I was cold in the middle of a hot July night.”

It wasn’t easy, “because you don’t just turn in your letter of resignation to a gang.” But Mfume persevered. He received his GED, attended community college and transferred to a baccalaureate institution to complete his bachelor’s degree and completed his Ph.D.

Kweisi Mfume, former president of the NAACP and former Congressman from Maryland, delivers a speech at a NOAA function during Black History Month,

Kweisi Mfume served as national speaker for the “Obama for America” Presidential campaign. He got his start in politics winning a grassroots election for Baltimore City Council by only three votes in 1979. During his seven years of service in local government, he led the efforts to diversify city government, improve community safety, enhance business development and divest city funds from the apartheid government of South Africa.

In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served on the Ethics Committee and the Joint Economic Committee of the House and Senate, where he later became the Chairman. He successfully co-sponsored and helped to pass the American with Disabilities Act and strengthen the Equal Credit Opportunity Law. He co-authored and successfully amended the Civil Rights Bill of 1991 to apply the act to US citizens working for American-based companies abroad. He also sponsored legislative initiatives banning assault weapons and establishing s talking as a federal crime. Mfume also served as Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and during his last term in Congress, he was appointed by the House Democratic Caucus as the party’s Vice-Chairman for Communications.

Mfume became President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAACP on February 20, 1996 after being unanimously elected to the post and served there for nine years. Mfume is credited with helping to raise over 100 million dollars in outside contributions for the organization while at the same time developing its national Corporate Diversity Project and establishing 75 new college-based NAACP chapters. His five point program of advocacy included civil rights enforcement, educational excellence, economic empowerment, health advocacy and youth outreach. In 2006, he was a candidate for the United States Senate from the State of Maryland.

He serves as a member of the Gamma Boule Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Masons and Big Brothers. In addition, he serves on the John Hopkins University Board of Trustees, the Morgan State University Board of Regents, the African American Advisory Board of PepsiCo and the National Advisory Council of Boy Scouts of America.

In 1984, he earned a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts, with a concentration in International Studies, from Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he is the recipient of 10 honorary doctorate degrees and hundreds of other awards, proclamations and citations; he is also author to the best-selling autobiography, No Free Ride. ###

Contact: Lea Ann Scales Assistant Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing
Phone: 508-929-8018 February 8, 2010

VIDEO CREDIT: WorcesterState

PHOTO CREDIT: This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties.

Blacks with MS Have More Severe Symptoms, Decline Faster than Whites, New Study Shows

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Fewer African Americans than Caucasians develop multiple sclerosis (MS), statistics show, but their disease progresses more rapidly, and they don't respond as well to therapies, a new study by neurology researchers at the University at Buffalo has found.

Magnetic resonance images (MRI) of a cohort of 567 consecutive MS patients showed that blacks with MS had more damage to brain tissue and had less normal white and gray matter compared to whites with the disease.

Results of the study were published ahead of print on Jan. 20 at www.neurology.org and appear in the Feb. 16 issue of the journal Neurology.

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, MD, UB associate professor of neurology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, is first author on the study. Weinstock-Guttman directs the Baird Multiple Sclerosis Center in Kaleida Health's Buffalo General Hospital.

"Black patients showed more brain tissue damage and accumulated brain lesions faster than whites, along with rapid clinical deterioration," confirms Weinstock-Guttman. "The results provide further support that black patients experience a more severe disease, calling for individualized therapeutic interventions for this group of MS patients."

"White matter" refers to the parts of the brain that contain nerve fibers sheathed in a white fatty insulating protein called myelin. The white matter is responsible for communication between the various gray matter regions, where nerve cells are concentrated and where cognitive processing occurs.

"Initially, multiple sclerosis was considered primary a white-matter disease," says Weinstock-Guttman, "but today we know that the gray matter may be more affected than white matter."

In general, black MS patients tend to have more severe and more frequent attacks, followed by an incomplete recovery even after the first episode. Studies on signs and symptoms of MS among populations have shown that blacks experience gait problems sooner after their diagnosis, show faster cognitive decline than whites with MS, and become dependent on a wheelchair sooner, she notes.

The study's MRI scans were conducted at the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC), part of the Jacobs Neurological Institute/UB Department of Neurology. Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, a UB associate professor of neurology, is director of the center.

Seventy-nine black patients and 488 white patients were entered in the study. Participants were older than 18 and had been scanned within 90 days of their most recent clinical visit. Black participants were significantly younger, and their disease was more severe than white patients, despite having MS for a shorter amount of time.

"Results of the MRI scans showed that the aggressive disease process in blacks appears to be associated with increased macroscopic and microscopic tissue damage, as measured by specific MRI parameters," says Weinstock-Guttman.

"Based on our MRI findings, a plausible hypothesis that would explain the more aggressive disease in blacks compared to whites with MS may be that blacks have a reduced capacity for remyelination, the brain's ability to repair the protective myelin sheath. However, to confirm this hypothesis, we will need to conduct more longitudinal studies."

Murali Ramanathan, PhD, associate professor in the departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Neurology in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, respectively, also contributed significantly to the study.

Additional contributors were David Hojnacki, MD, Michael G. Dwyer, Sara M. Hussein, MD, Niels P. Bergsland and Frederick E. Munschauer, MD, former chair of the UB Neurology department, now vice president of U.S. medical affairs for Biogen Idec in Boston, Mass.

The study was supported by grants from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the UB Pediatric MS Center of Excellence.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.

Contact: ljbaker@buffalo.edu 716-645-4606 Release Date: February 5, 2010