Whether you’re staying in the Twin Cities or are looking for a road trip, check out some of the events happening across Minnesota over St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
ST PAUL, Minn. — After two years of pared-down St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, the Twin Cities is about ready to burst with the luck of the Irish.
ST PAUL, Minn. — After two years of pared-down St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, the Twin Cities is about ready to burst with the luck of the Irish.
St. Patrick’s Day falls on Thursday, March 17, which is when Minneapolis and St. Paul will hold their annual parades, but there are plenty of events that are scheduled through the weekend.
Grant is the only person to have played in the NFL, CFL and NBA
Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant has died at the age of 95, the Minnesota Vikings announced on Saturday morning.
Grant coached in the NFL and in Canada for 28 seasons. His teams appeared in the playoff 20 times with him at the helm.
He piloted the Vikings to an impressive four Super Bowls, although he never won the Lombardi Trophy.
Hall of Fame head coach Bud Grant acknowledges the crowd before speaking as the Minnesota Vikings honor their 1969 team during halftime of the game against the Oakland Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium on September 22, 2019, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
“We are absolutely heartbroken to announce that legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach and Hall of Famer Bud Grant has passed away this morning at age 95,” the Vikings said in a statement Saturday. “We, like all Vikings and NFL fans, are shocked and saddened by this terrible news.”
Grant became the first person to be enshrined in the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He compiled a career regular-season record of 158-96-5 in the NFL.
Born Harry Peter Grant Jr., “Bud” joined the Navy during World War II after he graduated from high school. He went on to play football at Naval Station Great Lakes. His coach, Paul Brown, would go on to co-found the Cleveland Browns.
Head Coach Bud Grant of the Minnesota Vikings walks off the field after an NFL football game circa 1970 at Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Grant was the head coach of the Vikings from 1967 to 1983 and in 1985. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Grant went on to have an outstanding athletic career at Minnesota, where he excelled in football, basketball and baseball. He was later drafted by the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers and the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
Grant took up basketball at first and won a championship with the Lakers. He averaged 2.6 points per game over two seasons in the NBA.
Head Coach Bud Grant of the Minnesota Vikings stands with his team prior to the start of an NFL football game circa 1977. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
When Grant made the change to football, he played on defense and offense for the Eagles. He finished his NFL career with 56 catches, 997 receiving yards, and seven touchdowns. In 1952, he joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL.
After four season with the Blue Bombers, Grant was offered the head-coaching position in 1957. He went back to Minnesota in 1967 after a decade of coaching in the CFL. In 1969, the Vikings won the NFL championship and advanced to Super Bowl IV but ultimately suffered a 23-7 to the Kansas City Chiefs.
When the 1983 season came to a close, Grant decided to retire. He was briefly lured out of retirement in 1985 when the Vikings had a disappointing 3-13 season under coach Les Steckel.
Despite never winning a Super Bowl, the legacy Grant left on the Minnesota Vikings is unmatched.
Billboard has called Sylvia Robinson “Hip-Hop’s First Godmother,” but she still never seems to get the credit she deserves for cultivating the genre of rap. In the summer of 1979, Robinson conceived and produced the single “Rapper’s Delight.” This took a culture of music that thrived on the street and helped to foster it into an art form that was suddenly commercially viable. The song became the first rap single to dominate the radio and the charts, hitting number 36 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and becoming the first rap record to sell over one million copies.
Black History Month honors the contributions of African Americans to U.S. history. Among the prominent figures are Madam C.J. Walker, who was the first U.S. woman to become a self-made millionaire; George Washington Carver, who derived nearly 300 products from the peanut; Rosa …read more
Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War, all while carrying a bounty on her head. But she was also a nurse, a Union spy and a women’s suffrage supporter. Tubman is …read more
In 1915, Carter G. Woodson traveled to Chicago from his home in Washington, D.C. to take part in a national celebration of the 50th anniversary of emancipation. He had earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Chicago, and still had many friends there. As he …read more
Baptist minister and social activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) dedicated his life to the nonviolent struggle for justice in the United States. King’s leadership played a pivotal role in ending entrenched segregation for Black Americans and to the creation of the …read more
Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born Black nationalist and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement, which sought to unify and connect people of African descent worldwide. In the United States, he was a noted civil rights activist who founded the Negro World newspaper, a shipping …read more
George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist and inventor who developed hundreds of products using peanuts (though not peanut butter, as is often claimed), sweet potatoes and soybeans. Born into slavery before it was outlawed, Carver left home at a young age to pursue …read more
More than 60 years after the abolition of slavery, anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston made an incredible connection: She located one of the last survivors of the last slave ship to bring captive Africans to the United States. Hurston, a known figure of the Harlem Renaissance who …read more
Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until 1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying …read more
Thurgood Marshall—perhaps best known as the first African American Supreme Court justice—played an instrumental role in promoting racial equality during the civil rights movement. As a practicing attorney, Marshall argued a record-breaking 32 cases before the Supreme Court, …read more
At the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, African Americans carry placards demanding equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing and an end to bias.
Warren K Leffler/Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Every February, the U.S. honors the contributions and sacrifices of African Americans who have helped shape the nation. Black History Month celebrates the rich cultural heritage, triumphs and adversities that are an indelible part of our country’s history.
This year’s theme, Black Health and Wellness, pays homage to medical scholars and health care providers. The theme is especially timely as we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected minority communities and placed unique burdens on Black health care professionals.
“There is no American history without African American history,” said Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C. The Black experience, she said, is embedded in “everything we think of as ‘American history.’ “
First, there was Negro History Week
Critics have long argued that Black history should be taught and celebrated year-round, not just during one month each year.
It was Carter G. Woodson, the “father of Black history,” who first set out in 1926 to designate a time to promote and educate people about Black history and culture, according to W. Marvin Dulaney. He is a historian and the president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
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Woodson envisioned a weeklong celebration to encourage the coordinated teaching of Black history in public schools. He designated the second week of February as Negro History Week and galvanized fellow historians through the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which he founded in 1915. (ASNLH later became ASALH.)
The idea wasn’t to place limitations but really to focus and broaden the nation’s consciousness.
Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was an American historian, a scholar and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson was instrumental in launching Negro History Week in 1926.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
“Woodson’s goal from the very beginning was to make the celebration of Black history in the field of history a ‘serious area of study,’ ” said Albert Broussard, a professor of Afro-American history at Texas A&M University.
The idea eventually grew in acceptance, and by the late 1960s, Negro History Week had evolved into what is now known as Black History Month. Protests around racial injustice, inequality and anti-imperialism that were occurring in many parts of the U.S. were pivotal to the change.
Colleges and universities also began to hold commemorations, with Kent State University being one of the first, according to Kaplan.
Fifty years after the first celebrations, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month during the country’s 1976 bicentennial. Ford called upon Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history,” History.com reports.
Why February was chosen as Black History Month
February was chosen primarily because the second week of the month coincides with the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Lincoln was influential in the emancipation of slaves, and Douglass, a former slave, was a prominent leader in the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery.
Lincoln and Douglass were each born in the second week of February, so it was traditionally a time when African Americans would hold celebrations in honor of emancipation, Kaplan said. (Douglass’ exact date of birth wasn’t recorded, but he came to celebrate it on Feb. 14.)
Thus, Woodson created Negro History Week around the two birthdays as a way of “commemorating the black past,” according to ASALH.
Forty years after Ford formally recognized Black History Month, it was Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, who delivered a message of his own from the White House, a place built by slaves.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama host the annual reception for Black History Month at the White House on Feb. 18, 2016.
Mike Theiler/Pool/Getty Images
“Black History Month shouldn’t be treated as though it is somehow separate from our collective American history or somehow just boiled down to a compilation of greatest hits from the March on Washington or from some of our sports heroes,” Obama said.
“It’s about the lived, shared experience of all African Americans, high and low, famous and obscure, and how those experiences have shaped and challenged and ultimately strengthened America,” he continued.
(Canada also commemorates Black History Month in February, while the U.K. and Ireland celebrate it in October.)
There’s a new theme every year
ASALH designates a new theme for Black History Month each year, in keeping with the practice Woodson established for Negro History Week.
This year’s Black Health and Wellness theme is particularly appropriate, Dulaney said, as the U.S. continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“As [Black people], we have terrible health outcomes, and even the coronavirus has been affecting us disproportionately in terms of those of us who are catching it,” Dulaney said.
“There’s never been a time where Black people and others should not celebrate Black history,” Broussard said. “Given the current racial climate, the racial reckoning that began in wake of George Floyd’s murder … this is an opportunity to learn.”
NPR has compiled a list of stories, performances and other content that chronicles the Black American experience for Black History Month. See the whole collection here.
Martin Luther King Day for the year 2023 is celebrated/ observed on Monday, January 16th.
Martin Luther King Day also called MLK Day, King Day, and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Day is observed on the third Monday of January, which is close to King’s actual birthday on January 15. The earliest Monday the holiday will ever be celebrated is January 15th and the latest is January 21st. The day is a federal United States holiday with all government and most business offices closed.
Martin Luther King, Jr was a Baptist minister and social activist that had a huge impact on the civil rights movement of the 1950’s in the United States. King was assassinated in 1968 and will be remembered for his non-violent protests against segregation and his “I have a Dream [1]” speech.[2]
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed MLK Day into law and 3 years later it was first observed. By the year 2000, all fifty states officially observed the day. Another related holiday back in 1948, National Freedom Day was signed into law by President Truman as a national observance recognizing the outlaw of slavery enacted earlier during 1865 under President Lincoln during the civil war years.
Minnesota Senate Democrats have chosen Bobby Jo Champion as the next president of the Minnesota Senate, the first Black person to do so. The announcement was made on Thursday, November 10, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of the Minnesota State Senate
Sen. Bobby Joe Champion of North Minneapolis was on Thursday named as the new Senate president, becoming the first Black person to do so. The Senate president presides over Senate business and ensures members follow parliamentary procedures.
The move came two days after the state elected Black women for the first time to the state Senate and Democrats won back the upper chamber by a one seat majority.
During a media briefing Thursday to announce their new leadership, Sen. Kari Dziedzic, also of Minneapolis, announced she was elected as Senate Majority Leader while Sen. Ann Rest of New Hope will chair the Senate Tax Committee and Sen. John Marty of Roseville becoming the Finance Chair.
“I think one of our biggest things is ensuring that we’re talking to Minnesotans about what their needs are, so we can go to those events and we testify in committee or the floor we can say, ‘Here’s what Minnesotans are telling us’,” Champion said.
Champion has served in the Minnesota Senate Since 2012 after having served two terms in the House after he was first elected in 2008.
He is a practicing attorney and has previously served as an assistant attorney general under two Minnesota attorney generals.
“Even though I have the skills and qualifications, it was not lost on me that the Minnesota Senate has never had a president who was a person of color,” Sen. Champion said.
Hamlin collapsed after a hit during the first quarter of ‘Monday Night Football’
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A scary and emotional scene unfolded early during Monday night’s game between the Bills and Bengals. With 5:58 remaining in the first quarter, Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed seconds after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. He received immediate medical attention on the field and was transported to the UC Medical Center in Cincinnati.
Hamlin, 24, suffered a cardiac arrest following the hit with his heartbeat restored on the field, the Bills announced in a statement early Tuesday morning. The team further divulged that Hamlin is “sedated and listed in critical condition.”
The frightening event sent shockwaves through, not only the sports world, but the world at large. This week, U.S. President Joe Biden even spoke with Hamlin’s mother and father, via Bloomberg News. On Wednesday, the Bills gave an update on their player, saying Hamlin has shown some signs of improvement, but that he remains in critical condition:
“Damar remains in the ICU in critical condition with signs of improvement noted yesterday and overnight.
“He is expected to remain under intensive care as his health care team continues to monitor and treat him.”
The “Monday Night Football” matchup between Buffalo and Cincinnati was officially postponed by the NFL shortly after 10 p.m. ET. The league released the following statement:
Tonight’s Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game has been postponed after Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsed, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced.
Hamlin received immediate medical attention on the field by team and independent medical staff and local paramedics. He was then transported to a local hospital where he is in critical condition.
Our thoughts are with Damar and the Buffalo Bills. We will provide more information as it becomes available.
The NFL has been in constant communication with the NFL Players Association which is in agreement with postponing the game.
Hamlin received CPR on the field for several minutes while being placed on a stretcher and eventually into an ambulance. He was given oxygen upon entering the ambulance, which transported him and some family members to the hospital.
On Tuesday morning, family spokesperson Jordon Rooney provided an update on Hamlin: “I can’t speak specifically on his medical condition. All I’ll say is, he’s fighting. He’s a fighter. … The family’s in good spirits. We’re honestly just taking it minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour. … What’s most important is to give the family their privacy. … His family is going through a lot right now.”
“On behalf of our family, we want to express our sincere gratitude for the love and support shown to Damar during this challenging time. We are deeply moved by the prayers, kind words and donations from fans around the country.
“We also want to acknowledge the dedicated first responders and healthcare professionals at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center who have provided exceptional care to Damar. We feel so blessed to be part of the Buffalo Bills organization and to have their support. We also want to thank Coach Taylor and the Bengals for everything they’ve done.
“Your generosity and compassion mean the world to us. Please keep Damar in your prayers. We will release updates as soon as we have them.”
Monday’s game was temporarily suspended after coaches Sean McDermott of the Bills and Zac Taylor of the Bengals spoke on the field. About an hour later, the NFL decided to postpone the game. It chose not to address a potential rescheduling of the game in a media call late Monday night. That decision will ultimately rest in the hands of commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Bills decided to fly back to Buffalo early Tuesday morning. Numerous members of the Bills and Bengals visited the hospital late Monday night.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Bills released the following statement:
Damar Hamlin spent last night in the intensive care unit and remains there today in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
We are grateful and thankful for the outpouring of support we have received thus far.
Around 11:30 p.m. ET Monday, Hamlin’s agent, Ira Turner, provided a statement to NFL Media: “Please continue to pray for Damar and his family. We currently have no update at this time. Will ask that you keep the family in your prayers.”
Hamlin is in the middle of his second season with the Bills. He earned a spot in Buffalo’s starting lineup this season after appearing in 14 games as a rookie. Hamlin played collegiately at Pittsburgh, where he tallied 276 tackles and six interceptions.
Hamlin’s character and work ethic led to him making the Bills’ 53-man roster as a rookie despite being a Day 3 draft pick. That same work ethic helped him become a starter this season.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24, remains in critical condition with signs of improvement, the Buffalo Bills said in an update Wednesday. He is expected to remain in intensive care.
Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field on Monday night during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bills are holding meetings and a walk-through Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots, the team said. The NFL said the Bills-Bengals will not resume this week.
NFL is investigating every possible cause of Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, chief medical officer says
From CNN’s Jen Christensen
Dr. Allen Sills speaks during a media call on Wednesday, January 4. (NFL)
The NFL is investigating every possible cause behind the cardiac arrest of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, which resulted in his collapse mid-game against the Cincinnati Bengals, according to the NFL’s chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills.
“I know there’s been a lot of theories and a lot of discussion about commotio cordis, and that certainly is possible,” Sills said Wednesday on a press call.
Commotio cordis happens when severe trauma to the chest disrupts the heart’s electrical charge, causing dangerous fibrillations.
Sills said it is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning it might be the diagnosis if doctors don’t find any other causes.
“You have to have the right type of blow hitting at the right spot on the chest with the right amount of force at just the right time in that cardiac cycle. So a lot of things have to line up for that to happen,” Sills said.
Doctors will look for any potential congenital or other abnormalities with Hamlin’s heart, he said. Every player gets a physical before each season, and doctors take a detailed medical history, which includes American Heart Association screening guidelines related to potential cardiac issues.
Sills said any time a player is evacuated from the field, the NFL and its medical experts do a detailed review of what happened. They will also look specifically at the role of protective equipment.
“I think that’s something that certainly we want to look at,” he said. “We do know that padding over the sternum can be protective to blows in situations where commotio cordis is a consideration, so that is something that certainly will be discussed.”
Currently, players’ shoulder pads typically fit in an area that covers the sternum, he said.
Sills said that in some cases, the medical team will not be able to determine what caused the problem.
Regardless of the cause, what helped in this situation was that the NFL had the right people and equipment in place to provide “an extremely rapid response,” he said.”
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24, remains in critical condition with signs of improvement, the Buffalo Bills said in an update Wednesday. He is expected to remain in intensive care.
Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field on Monday night during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bills are holding meetings and a walk-through Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots, the team said. The NFL said the Bills-Bengals will not resume this week.
NFL is investigating every possible cause of Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, chief medical officer says
From CNN’s Jen Christensen
Dr. Allen Sills speaks during a media call on Wednesday, January 4. (NFL)
The NFL is investigating every possible cause behind the cardiac arrest of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, which resulted in his collapse mid-game against the Cincinnati Bengals, according to the NFL’s chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills.
“I know there’s been a lot of theories and a lot of discussion about commotio cordis, and that certainly is possible,” Sills said Wednesday on a press call.
Commotio cordis happens when severe trauma to the chest disrupts the heart’s electrical charge, causing dangerous fibrillations.
Sills said it is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning it might be the diagnosis if doctors don’t find any other causes.
“You have to have the right type of blow hitting at the right spot on the chest with the right amount of force at just the right time in that cardiac cycle. So a lot of things have to line up for that to happen,” Sills said.
Doctors will look for any potential congenital or other abnormalities with Hamlin’s heart, he said. Every player gets a physical before each season, and doctors take a detailed medical history, which includes American Heart Association screening guidelines related to potential cardiac issues.
Sills said any time a player is evacuated from the field, the NFL and its medical experts do a detailed review of what happened. They will also look specifically at the role of protective equipment.
“I think that’s something that certainly we want to look at,” he said. “We do know that padding over the sternum can be protective to blows in situations where commotio cordis is a consideration, so that is something that certainly will be discussed.”
Currently, players’ shoulder pads typically fit in an area that covers the sternum, he said.
Sills said that in some cases, the medical team will not be able to determine what caused the problem.
Regardless of the cause, what helped in this situation was that the NFL had the right people and equipment in place to provide “an extremely rapid response,” he said.”
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