LITTLE ROCK Christopher C. Mercer, one of the first black students at the University of Arkansas' School of Law, died Tuesday, according to a release from the school. He was 88.

Mercer was a 1955 graduate of the school, passing the bar exam with the highest score in his group. He was one of a group of black students known as the "Six Pioneers" who integrated the school.

Mercer also served as an aide to Daisy Bates during the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock Central High School and drove the nine students involved to and from the school every day for the first semester.

Mercer practiced law for 58 years and was honored with the Silas Hunt Legacy Award in April of this year. He was also the first black deputy state prosecutor in the South.

Jane and I are saddened by the news of C.C. Mercers death, said U of A Chancellor G. David Gearhart. We had known him for many, many years and always had the utmost respect for him. He was an outstanding leader and advocate, a great Arkansan and a much loved member of the Razorback community. He will long be remembered and celebrated as one of our most influential alumni. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to his family and salute C.C. for his life of service to others.

Read more in tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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Christopher Mercer, civil rights activist, dies at 88

TWENTY years after his death, the legacy of Dr. Peter Jepson-Young has endured with the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation.

Born and raised on the North Shore, Jepson-Young was a gay Vancouver physician who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1986, shortly after graduating from UBC medical school.

After living with the disease for four years, Jepson-Young attempted to stem the tide of misinformation and to correct stereotypes related to HIV/AIDS by appearing on the CBC-TV show, the Dr. Peter Diaries.

"It was huge for him to go on TV," recalled his mother, Shirley Young while speaking to the North Shore News in 2010. "Here he was losing his vision, he didn't even have his guide dog yet, and he was going to go on television and say 'Hello, my name is Peter. I'm a doctor, I'm gay and I have AIDS.'

"We thought for sure he'd become the victim of a gay bashing."

Jepson-Young appeared on 111 episodes until his death in 1992 at the age of 35.

The shows were eventually turned into the documentary The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter, which was nominated for a 1994 Academy Award for best documentary feature.

Five years after Jepson-Young's death, the foundation he spearheaded opened the Dr. Peter Centre in Vancouver's West End.

The centre currently helps 400 people suffering from HIV/AIDS who also face extreme poverty, mental illness, addiction, and homelessness by providing day therapy and residency programs.

In 2010, Jepson-Young was posthumously awarded the UBC Medical Alumni Asssociation's Silver Anniversary Award. Shirley Young accepted the award on his behalf.

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Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation turns 20

DETROIT, MI -- Monica Smith enrolled at Wayne State University Law School in 2005 alongside 22 other black students.

The next year, after Michigan voters passed a ban on affirmative action in university admissions, Smith saw only 11 new black students enroll.

"After me, that was the end of affirmative action, and the number of black students coming in was cut in half," Smith said.

That ban was declared unconstitutional Thursday by a deeply divided federal appeals court.

"This means a lot to me," said Smith. "This means that my brother, my cousins, other people in Detroit, the Latino and black students can go to Wayne State Law School and Medical School."

In an 8-7 en-banc decision, the 6th Circuit Appeals Court ruled that the ban made it more difficult for minorities to convince a university to favorably alter its admissions policies than for alumni or other groups, violating constitutional equal protection.

"Michigan cannot force those advocating for consideration of racial factors to traverse a more arduous road without violating the 14th Amendment," the majority ruled.

"The actual issue here is: Do black and Latino and Native American people have the same political right to go to the regents or the faculty and ask to adjust the admission standards as the citizens of Grosse Pointe, as legacy candidates, as athletes, as anybody else does? It's a pure question of political equality," said Detroit attorney George Washington, of the group that challenged the ban, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN).

Voters in 2006 approved the ban 58 percent to 42 percent in a statewide ballot proposal known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

"During those six years, the lives of many, many black and Latino students have been changed forever," said Washington.

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After court strikes down affirmative action ban, Detroit activists predict minority enrollment will double at ...

By ALAN FROMAN

ThisWeek Community News Friday November 16, 2012 10:07 PM

The Grandview Heights High School Alumni Association has announced three recipients of the 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award.

The award honors GHHS graduates, living or deceased, who went on to great success after high school.

"When you look at how many people from Grandview have succeeded in so many career areas, well, this little old school has done alright," said Ron Harris, past president of the alumni association. "It's impressive that so many successful people have come from our small community."

The GHHS distinguished alumni for 2012 are:

* Eric Browning, class of 1972. Browning is a surgeon and health humanitarian now living in Findlay. He has conducted five surgical mission trips to the Univers Medical Center in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. Browning is a specialist in general surgery, thoracic surgery and surgical oncology at Findlay Surgical Associates Inc.

* Jean (McQuilkin) Carfagno, class of 1957. Carfagno is the founder of the Chemical Dependency Treatment Center of Torrance, Calif., now known as the Thelma McMillen Center. The facility is the second highest endowed treatment center in California, behind only the Betty Ford Center. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School of Psychology at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Carfagno has also served as a member of the adjunct faculty of Mission College of Sylmar, Calif., and Lindenwood University West.

* Morgan Jones, class of 1945. Jones was a film and television actor whose credits included more than 170 roles in television. He had recurring appearances in Highway Patrol during the 1950s and The Blue Angels. His screen credits included a lead role in Roger Corman's 1957 science fiction film Not of This Earth, as well as roles in Apache Woman (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), Fear Strikes Out (1957) and Bells Are Ringing (1960).

A display with composite photographs of each of the 27 award recipients is located in the hallway by the cafeteria in the high school.

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Three GHHS grads lauded for career achievements

Nov. 13, 2012

Alumni leaders advise students at Human Ecology forum

Mark Vorreuter

Mark Vorreuter

To thrive at Cornell and beyond, learn to persevere and give back, physician Abiola Dele-Michael '01 advised undergraduates in the College of Human Ecology. He gave the keynote remarks Nov. 3 at the college's Association for Students of Color (ASC) 18th Annual Alumni-Student Forum, "Moving Forward: Directing Your Future," in Martha Van Rensselaer Hall.

At the event, 60 students -- most from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds -- networked with alumni working in medicine, fashion design and management, and psychiatry; received practical and inspirational advice; and bonded over shared Cornell experiences.

"Education is the gateway out of poverty toward success," Dele-Michael, a human biology, health and society major and a cardiovascular medicine fellow at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, told students. "And part of that is acknowledging others' sacrifices for you by helping others yourself."

Dele-Michael outlined skills students must master to graduate and succeed in the workplace, starting with identifying mentors. "We all have different stories and backgrounds, and we each require guidance to navigate the resources at Cornell or anywhere," he said.

Unique people and opportunities at Cornell grew his skills in leadership, critical thinking and stress and time management, particularly his training as an emergency medical technician and as an intern at New York City's Department of Health through Cornell's Urban Semester Program, he emphasized. Those experiences have served him well as a physician, he added.

Similarly, he urged students to be open to new experiences and never fear asking questions.

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Alumni leaders advise students at Human Ecology forum