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United Travel Credits Giving HBCU Golf Programs Wings, Expanding Range of Traditionally Underfunded Teams

NNPA NEWSWIRE — On Wednesday, some 23 years later, and on her 41st birthday, no less, Levister was at Memorial Park Golf Course to watch three of the players she coaches at Prairie View A&M University play in the pro-am at the Cadence Bank Houston Open. Christian Latham, who is working on his master’s degree in architecture, and seniors Rondarius Walters and Taylor Harvey, a member of the women’s team, would play with Phil Griffith, who is a vice president of operations for United Airlines’ Houston hub, and PGA TOUR pros Stewart Cink and Matthew NeSmith.

Published

4 years ago

November 26, 2022

Oakland Post

Mesha Levister (second from left) was at Memorial Park Golf Course to watch three of the players she coaches at Prairie View A&M University play in the pro-am at the Cadence Bank Houston Open.

By Helen Ross, PGA Tour, Special to NNPA Newswire

James Levister thought it would be a phase.

Sure, he was an avid golfer. A 4 handicap at his best, in fact.

But when he started his 3-year-old daughter, Mesha, playing golf, he figured she would eventually get tired of the game.

He was wrong, though. His daughter loved playing with her dad on weekends — she finally beat him when she was 16 and never lost again — and she thrived on the challenge of the game.

“It was our thing,” Mesha said. “I liked that it was hard, and I continued to play because it was hard. But for me, when I was small, it was about being with him and doing something different.”

She played four years of varsity golf and basketball at her Florida high school, got scholarship offers in both sports, and wanted to turn pro. Eventually, she had to choose between the two.

“I told my dad I would rather play golf because there are fewer people that look like me playing golf,” said Levister, who is African American. “I wanted to be a trendsetter…I felt like I had something to give in the game. I didn’t realize what it was back then as a little 17-year-old.”

On Wednesday, some 23 years later, and on her 41st birthday, no less, Levister was at Memorial Park Golf Course to watch three of the players she coaches at Prairie View A&M University play in the pro-am at the Cadence Bank Houston Open.

Christian Latham, who is working on his master’s degree in architecture, and seniors Rondarius Walters and Taylor Harvey, a member of the women’s team, would play with Phil Griffith, who is a vice president of operations for United Airlines’ Houston hub, and PGA TOUR pros Stewart Cink and Matthew NeSmith.

“I hope that they get an out-of-this-world experience that they may not have ever gotten — ever,” Levister said. “Or that it opens up their eyes to the maximum potential and drives them to be whatever they want to be.”

The pairing with Griffith is no accident. United Airlines, in partnership with the PGA TOUR, has earmarked more than $500,000 in grants to 55 golf teams at HBCUs like Prairie View.

Each school gets $10,000 in travel credits to bolster travel and recruiting budgets and potentially help more than 250 student-athletes compete in places that may have been out of reach.

United and the TOUR recently announced a multi-year extension of their official marketing relationship, extending the annual commitment to HBCUs through 2025.

Griffith also attended a clinic earlier this week in which golfers from another Houston-area HBCU, Texas Southern, worked with youngsters from the First Tee. He’s excited about the impact the grants are having.

“I’m very impressed with these kids and when I look at where I was back then, if you don’t know that something exists, yeah, it’s kind of hard for you to aspire for,” Griffith said. “And a lot of the things that these kids are doing today, I had no aspirations for because I just didn’t know.

“I think as we continue this program,” he added, “just opening their eyes and showing them valuable and effective ways of getting there, it’s going to be a lot of fun over the years. That’s what I’m hoping.”

All in it together

Levister coaches the men’s and women’s teams at Prairie View A&M, which is the second-oldest public university in Texas.

She’s also done double duty at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), as well as at Lincoln University in Jefferson, Missouri.

“It’s interesting to see the dynamic and be able to create a culture here of togetherness and make sure that everybody roots for everybody because we’re all one team,” Levister said.

Forging something of a non-traditional path is second nature to Levister. When the women’s team at her college in Florida disbanded, she was recruited by NCCU to play on its men’s team.

She played No.1 and was the team’s most valuable player as a freshman, also earning Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Rookie of the Year honors.

After 9/11, Levister left school and went home to Wash., D.C. She was the first African American to win the 2004 Virginia Women’s Amateur and was named the state’s female golfer of the year. She turned pro in 2006 and joined the Symetra Tour in 2010.

Life on the road could be lonely, though, particularly for a young woman who was often the only African American entered in an event.

“I’m still a golfer, regardless,” Levister said firmly. And she can’t shake the memory of being pulled over by a policeman in New York.

“The cop came over and asked the other tour player that was in the car, who was a white female, instead of asking the normal stuff, he asked the young lady that was in the passenger seat, ‘Are you OK?’” Levister said.

“So, for me that was a little bit of a traumatic experience…But he let me go. So, he really pulled me over just to check on the person in the car.”

After Levister’s father died in 2014, she decided to quit the tour.

She still competed, winning the 2015 EP Pro Women’s Championship, but began to focus on teaching. She joined the staff at NCCU in 2020 and helped start the women’s program before heading to Prairie View A&M.

She’s only been there about a month, but she already feels accepted by her players, who share her goal of returning the Panthers to dominance in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

And she wants to make it easier for others to follow her path.

“I am definitely all about how I take on life now,” Levister said. “I just want to be a good person, do the right thing and break glass ceilings for the next people behind me so they don’t have it as hard as I did.”

Keeping the program alive

When Prairie View A&M lost its golf coach last fall, Latham had just graduated magna cum laude, finishing his architecture degree in three years, and started working on his master’s.

But the team needed a coach, and Latham stepped up in a big way. “He really held the fort down last year for both of the teams,” Levister said.

Like Levister, Latham was a multi-sport athlete who started playing golf because of his dad. But his favorite sport was baseball — his grandfather Cliff Johnson played 20 years in the major leagues, including two World Series with the New York Yankees.

By the time Latham got to high school, though, he had become disillusioned with baseball. He endured racist taunts, many times from the adults and coaches who flat-out lied to him.

“I lost my passion for baseball,” he said. “I didn’t even want to play anymore. So that’s what really got me stuck into golf because it’s like at the end of the day, no one can else say anything about me as long as I’m shooting a score I need to shoot.

“So that’s how I really got into it. And I just focus on golf only now. That’s what brought me.”

The summer before he entered high school in Katy, Texas, a Houston suburb, Latham spent every day at the golf course.

He shot 111 in his first tournament, but by the end of the summer, he broke 80 for the first time.

With continued improvement, he began to think about playing in college and verbally committed to Prairie View A&M after his sophomore year.

In addition to studying for his master’s, where he’s designing a practice facility for the golf team as a class project, and hitting balls on the range, Latham is getting hands-on experience by working at an architecture firm several days a week.

He also has a 14-month-old son named Kai — who is full of “joy and happiness,” Latham said — half the week.

“He’s like my little twin,” Latham said. “So now I got him a plastic set of golf clubs and seeing him wanting to play with that is pretty cool.”

Just because he’s working on his master’s degree doesn’t mean Latham is giving up on his dream to play golf professionally, though.

He’s already played in one APGA event and hopes to play well enough this year to finish in the top five of its collegiate rankings, which would give him scholarship access to the tour’s events through the remainder of the 2023 season.

“I’m not going to just stop that goal and stop that dream,” he said.

“I’m going to still work hard this semester to try to get to that level or continue to just add on to where I should be.”

Giving players wings

With the travel credits provided by United, schools like Prairie View A&M will be able to compete in higher profile events that might otherwise seem out of reach — quite literally.

Levister, who once rode 11 hours from Durham, N.C. to Port St. Lucie, Florida, for a college tournament, has already started putting those credits to work.

“Even in the short time that I’ve been here, it’s saved us a tremendous amount of time and money just to be able to have access to go over to Houston Airport and to fly,” she said.

“Just to reduce costs of travel helps tremendously because now we can use those funds to give them a better experience as a student-athlete and a college golfer.”

Latham remembers a 15-hour bus ride from Houston to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where the Panthers played in — and won — the 2021 PGA Works Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

With two travel days each way and the tournament itself, the Black Panthers were gone nine days.

That’s why on Wednesday Latham planned to thank Griffith for United’s support. That United and organizations like the PGA TOUR are seeing value in HBCU golf has been a big help.

“I want to say it makes us feel more comfortable when we’re not having to travel,” Latham said, “cramped up for 14 hours, 16 hours, when we could just make a two-hour plane ride. And it makes an impact on the team.”

“I mean, we’ve had times to where people didn’t even have enough seats on the bus,” he continued, “and we’re just kind of all locked up or having to make multiple trips to get somewhere because we don’t have enough room to bring everybody.”

“So, it means a lot. Gives us the opportunity to try to feel more like a sports program because we see other sports programs get to travel like that. And we never necessarily got to.”

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Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

1 day ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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Venus Williams Calls a Sabalenka Exit a Tragedy

ROLLING OUT — Crucially, Williams did not read the comment as a real farewell. She said she did not believe Sabalenka truly wanted to leave, calling such an outcome a loss for both the player and the sport.
The post Venus Williams Calls a Sabalenka Exit a Tragedy appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 days ago

June 7, 2026

Oakland Post

The seven-time major champion read frustration, not a real goodbye, in the world No. 1’s words

By David Kesiena | Rolling Out

When the world’s top-ranked player said she wanted to walk away from the sport, Venus Williams chose empathy over alarm.

Aryna Sabalenka’s blunt remark after her French Open quarterfinal collapse rattled plenty of fans, but Williams heard something different in it. The seven-time Grand Slam champion treated the comment as the raw reaction of a hurting athlete rather than a serious signal about her future.

The collapse that triggered the comment

Sabalenka looked headed for a routine win over Diana Shnaider. She took the opening set 6-3 and built a commanding lead in the second, climbing to 4-1 and later serving for the match at 5-4 while sitting just two points from victory.

Then everything unraveled. Shnaider stormed back to steal the second set 7-5 and bageled the world No. 1 in the third, with Sabalenka dropping 12 of the final 13 games in gusty conditions that reached around 26 mph. The 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 result sent Shnaider into her first Grand Slam semifinal and extended Sabalenka’s long wait for a maiden Roland Garros title.

In the aftermath, Sabalenka did not soften her feelings. She told reporters she had no thoughts and no emotions left and felt like quitting on the spot. She described being stuck in a deep, dark mental hole during the match, unable to find her way back.

What Venus Williams said about Sabalenka

Williams reacted with understanding. She admitted the moment made her sad and said she had been swept up in Sabalenka’s emotions, feeling a surge of empathy for her. She praised the Belarusian for laying everything bare on court, where every feeling shows.

Crucially, Williams did not read the comment as a real farewell. She said she did not believe Sabalenka truly wanted to leave, calling such an outcome a loss for both the player and the sport. Rather than scold her, Williams offered a gentle observation about the rhythm of professional tennis. She suggested players might benefit from a little more time to gather themselves before stepping in front of the cameras, a quiet acknowledgment that athletes are routinely asked to dissect painful defeats before the sting has faded.

Sabalenka walks it back

The story did not end on that bleak note. Within days, Sabalenka signaled she was not actually quitting, framing the press-conference outburst as heat-of-the-moment honesty rather than a plan. At the time of the loss she had also left the door open, saying she would see how she felt in a few days and hoped to get back on track mentally. The walk-back lined up with how Williams had read the situation from the start.

It is not the first time a Paris quarterfinal has pushed Sabalenka to her limit. In 2024 she exited at the same stage and skipped her press conference entirely because of illness, with the tour later releasing her quotes on her behalf. The pattern underscores how heavily this particular tournament has weighed on her despite deep runs in recent years.

For now, attention shifts to the grass. Wimbledon offers Sabalenka a quick chance to reset, and a strong showing there would turn this French Open meltdown into a footnote rather than a turning point.

Originally published by Rolling Out — https://rollingout.com.

The post Venus Williams Calls a Sabalenka Exit a Tragedy appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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COMMENTARY: Using Art, Healing, And Community to Transform Mental Health Dialogue

THE CAROLINIAN — Operating at the intersection of the arts and mental health, Darkness RISING uses music, storytelling, wellness programming, and community engagement to inspire healing while addressing barriers that have historically prevented many Black Americans from accessing mental health support.
The post COMMENTARY: Using Art, Healing, And Community to Transform Mental Health Dialogue appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

3 days ago

June 7, 2026

Oakland Post

By Judaea Ingram | Special to The Carolinian

RALEIGH, N.C. – Music filled the air as families danced through the crowd, children gathered around activity stations, and community members explored wellness resources from local organizations. Black-owned businesses lined the streets while people stopped for chair massages, conversations, and moments of connection inside the wellness suite.

At the center of the event stood a simple but powerful reminder:

“You Matter.”

For Darkness RISING, those words represent far more than a slogan. They reflect the organization’s mission to break the stigma surrounding mental health in the Black community while creating spaces centered on healing, honesty, and hope.

Operating at the intersection of the arts and mental health, Darkness RISING uses music, storytelling, wellness programming, and community engagement to inspire healing while addressing barriers that have historically prevented many Black Americans from accessing mental health support.

The organization hosts a variety of programs and events throughout the year, including block parties, wellness workshops, mixers, kickoff events, community classes, and Darkness RISING: Live — a free annual arts and wellness festival now celebrating its ninth year.

The festival combines entertainment with healing-centered resources, featuring live music, dancing, singing, food trucks, Black vendors, children’s activities, mental health resources, wellness spaces, and opportunities for open conversations about mental health.

While the events may feel celebratory on the surface, organizers say the deeper purpose is creating safe spaces where people can feel comfortable discussing mental health without fear of judgment.

Darkness RISING also provides free nationwide resources, including a Black Mental Health Resource Packet, a Black Mental Health Provider Database, and its “Find Me a Therapist” initiative, which helps connect individuals with culturally competent care.

The organization’s work is rooted in addressing longstanding inequities that continue impacting mental health access within Black communities.

Historically, segregation, redlining, racial discrimination, incarceration, poverty, and unequal healthcare access have contributed to higher rates of behavioral health challenges while simultaneously limiting access to proper treatment and support. Darkness RISING approaches those issues through what organizers describe as a transformative justice lens, focusing on healing rather than punishment and creating equitable wellness opportunities for marginalized communities.

Its REBUILD program specifically supports justice-involved and formerly incarcerated people of color through free therapy and wellness support, while the REBUILD Youth program focuses on young people impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs.

For Rudolph, therapy became life-changing after decades of incarceration and years of rejection after returning home.

“Came home in 2015, started my own computer company, investing in real estate, did the normal thing and got some jobs here and there and was met with rejection after rejection and people telling me I am not a good person,” Rudolph shared. “Even had a rejection in church.”

He said one of the hardest battles became overcoming the mental barriers created during incarceration.

“I got in touch with a couple of friends, and they explained to me how I had to get over the mental hurdles and get rid of the way my prison mindset was in order to survive and become successful,” he said.

Rudolph later moved to North Carolina hoping for a fresh start, but the struggle continued.

“Things were looking bad,” he said. “Could not get a job. The struggle was real.”

Eventually, therapy and support through organizations like Darkness RISING helped begin his healing process. He said working alongside other justice-involved men through therapy gave him the ability to rebuild mentally while finding community with people who understood his experiences.

Stories like Rudolph’s reflect the foundation behind Darkness RISING’s mission: ensuring people feel seen, supported, and worthy of healing regardless of their background or circumstances.

Community members who attend the organization’s events often describe them as emotionally transformative.

Some participants say Darkness RISING encouraged them to seek therapy for the first time, while others say the organization gave them a safe space to openly discuss struggles they previously kept hidden.

“I have been encouraged by the beautiful, generous, brave and open individuals who come together and use their talents to create art, share personal experiences and provide hope to those who may be struggling with mental health,” one participant shared.

By combining art, wellness, education, and community outreach, Darkness RISING continues changing how mental health conversations happen within the Black community.

Not through silence.

But through healing, honesty, connection, and joy.

Originally published by The Carolinian — https://caro.news.

The post COMMENTARY: Using Art, Healing, And Community to Transform Mental Health Dialogue appeared first on BlackPressUSA.