Blog | United Black Family Scholarship Foundation
August Message From Our Founder
August Message From Our Founder Some two decades ago, I entered the California prison system as an unsuspecting 26 year old man unaware of the challenges that lay ahead. Indeed, as the years went by I would go through the fire: race riots, the SHU, lockdowns, etc....
Slavery is Abolished… By Max Parthas
Slavery is Abolished... By Max Parthas Slavery never ended. Not a solitary day has passed where it but for a single second suddenly ceased. It wasn't solved, it evolved from slaves on plantations to involve caged convicts being leased. Or, warehousing bodies for...
July Message From Our Founder
July Message From Our Founder By Ivan Kilgore What is the 4th of July to America's incarcerated, homeless, black, and poor? I have been incarcerated 24 years. Prior to my imprisonment, I recall how my family, friends, and I celebrated this occasion. As a child, like...
Juneteenth and Modern-Day Slavery
Juneteenth and Modern-Day Slavery By Isabella Cain Does slavery persist in modern-day society? In short, yes. American society would love to say that institutionalized slavery was outlawed in 1865 when Congress passed the 13th Amendment. However, there is one clause...
June Message From Our Founder
June Message From Our Founder By Ivan Kilgore As the nation celebrates Juneteenth this month, it pains me to know and continue to experience what remains of the dehumanizing culture that sprung from the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Without question, slavery lives with...
May 2024 Message From Our Founder
What in society would exist if not for a radical thought? Would there be vision, invention, technology, or medicine? What advancements would the world bear witness to or be without? What nations would we claim as citizens if not for the radical thought of nation...
April Message From Our Founder — Ivan Kilgore
My journey is one of a transformative educational process that occurred in American prisons. In 1995, I was 21 years-old. I had barely graduated high school two years prior with a 1.75 G.P.A. By the time 1995 came around, I was sitting in the Seminole County Jail in...
Setting the Stage: Malcolm X and the “Transformative Life”-By Zebulon Miletsky, Ph.D.
Malcolm's Family Malcolm X, also known as EI-Hajj Malik EI-Shabazz, was originally born Malcolm Little, in Omaha, Nebraska to Earl and Louis Little on May 19, 1925. Very few details are known about Malcolm's parents except that they were early followers of Marcus...
March 2024 Message from Our Founder
March 2024 Message From Our Founder By Ivan Kilgore In 2014, with the assistance of family and friends, we incorporated the United Black Family Scholarship Foundation (UBFSF). Prior to this, I had spent seven years attempting to persuade my older cousin to sign on as...
March 2024 R.E.B.U.I.L.D. Highlights
March 2024 R.E.B.U.I.L.D. Highlights By Cheyenne Hughes, R.E.B.U.I.LD. Volunteer & Service Coordinator As a 4th year Political Science major and being able to understand head on and be allowed the privilege to take courses that discuss the concepts of...
Unmasked Benevolence: Unveiling the Systemic Racism of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Unmasked Benevolence: Unveiling the Systemic Racism of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex By Glenn E Martin In the modern narrative of philanthropy, the non-profit industrial complex often presents itself as a bastion of altruism, a beacon of hope in a world beset by...
The New Civil Rights Movement for Our Times: Ending Mass Incarceration
The New Civil Rights Movement for Our Times: Ending Mass Incarceration By Zebulon Miletsky, Ph.D. On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’m proud to talk about the Media & Marketing Internship programs we have undertaken at Stony Brook University. Martin Luther...
Black History Month Message from Ivan Kilgore
Black History Month Message By Ivan Kilgore I once had no perspective or understanding of the importance of black history. I grew up in Wewoka, Oklahoma, a conservative red-state with an extremely biased perspective on this matter. We know the story... The Civil...
The Dichotomy Between African and American
The Dichotomy Between African and American By Edwin “Tariq” Turner *1st published by MinutesFromSix* Before I engage in the topic of discussion at hand, I would like my readers to know that while writing this document I have set aside all emotional attachments to the...
The State of Black America
The State of Black America By Willie Mack **First Published By People’s World** The last few years have seen a rise in attempts to erase African American history in schools. Efforts by conservative and racist politicians and activists to ban the teaching of Critical...
The Terrible Beauty Of Hip Hop, Ft.Ivan Kilgore,Mike B & Big Chief at O.T.S Studio!
The Terrible Beauty Of Hip Hop, Ft.Ivan Kilgore,Mike B & Big Chief at O.T.S Studio!
Two New Amazing Board Recruits
David McDaniel and Catherine Perkins are just amazing people! And WE want know you to how they have been there for our founder in building this organization. For the past two years, David and Ivan were incarcerated at Solano State Prison in Vacaville, California....
A Queen, Two Kings & A Vision
David McDaniel, Catherine Perkins and Kenneth Roebuck are just amazing people! And we want you to know just how they have been there for our founder in building this organization. That said, we're excited to announce they have entered into our board of directors...
Black Lives Matter Movement
Have you ever read or heard about a click of rogue California correctional officers dubbed the “Green Wall?” What about the Oakland Police Department’s “Riders?” Or the “Rampart Division” of tine LAPD? How about those “Gladiator Fights” orchestrated by prison officials at the California State Prison, Corcoran, which resulted in 31 prisoners killed by police bullets? Certainly, you heard about the white police officer in OKC who was recently sentenced to 266 years for raping black women? Or the 21 or better officers at the LA County jail who were recently sentenced to federal prison? And who could forget Rodney King or what racist pigs did with fire hoses during the 1960s? It wasn’t that long ago.
Leadership
Tiffany Munoz, Mark Ledbetter and Yusra Dawood By Mark Ledbetter According to the national bestselling author Mark Sanborn, "[leadership is] an invitation to greatness we extend to other”. What started out as a mere interview turned into me receiving and accepting...