Professional wrestlers becoming movie stars didn’t begin with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena, or Dave Bautista. It’s been going on for years. Whenever Hollywood needs tough guys and badass women with screen presence and performing experience, its first stop is the squared circle. The best stars know how to perfectly combine character and athleticism. With big budget franchises taking over the industry, it’s time to figure which Black wrestlers will be next to make the move to the big screen.

Jamie Foxx was recently hospitalized for a non-specified “medical complication,” according to his daughter, Corinne Foxx. The comedian-actor is recovering following the hospitalization.

Corinne Foxx posted the news on her Instagram page on Wednesday. “We wanted to share that my father, Jamie Foxx, experienced a medical complication yesterday. Luckily, due to quick action and great care, he is already on his way to recovery,” she wrote. “We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers. The family asks for privacy during this time.”

It is unknown why Foxx’s “medical complication” was not disclosed. Alan Nierob, a spokesperson for the Academy Award-winner, told CNN that there are no intentions to release anything beyond Corinne’s IG statement, writing, “Nothing more, at this time, than what was posted.”

Recently, the film “Back in Action,” featuring Foxx, filmed in Georgia.

This year, Foxx, 55, will star in the film “Strays.” He, and co-star Will Ferrell, are voice acting as live-action stray dogs in the R-rated Universal Pictures comedy, premiering this summer. He will also star in the film “They Cloned Tyrone” with John Boyega and Teyonah Parris. The sci-fi film about a government conspiracy will premiere later this year on Netflix.

In addition to Foxx’s film projects, he continues to host Fox’s music competition show, “Beat Shazam.” The show also features his daughter as the program’s DJ. “Beat Shazam” was renewed for its sixth season, returning to Fox on May 23.

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In an effort to highlight the people who are leading colleges and universities across the nation, we at Watch The Yard reached out to University of North Carolina at Greensboro and did an interview with Hazael Mengesha the 2022-2023 Student Government Association president.

The position of SGA president is a highly respected role and there is a special pride that one takes in being elected by their peers to lead. Mengesha, who is majoring in Kinesiology; Biology and Chemistry, is from Raleigh. He is a proud Fall 2022 initiate of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

We interviewed Hazael Mengesha, and talked to him about his position, goals, future and what it means to hold this type of leadership position in 2022-2023.

Read the full interview below.

What is the biggest thing you’ve learned as an SGA president so far?

Serving as SGA President has shown me the importance of communication between all campus stakeholders to achieve a goal. It has taught me how to effectively delegate work, not only to level the load but also to strengthen my peers as leaders. And most importantly I have learned that a listening leader is the best type of leader.

What made you decide to attend University of North Carolina at Greensboro for undergrad?

Coming from a specifically diverse high school drew me to UNC Greensboro in its similarity. The resources they offer for first-generation students and Black students attracted me as well. Ultimately, UNCG’s effort to invest in my education by providing me with the Blue and Gold Scholarship sealed the deal. Now after being here for 3 years, it has shown me way more than I could have expected and is a blessing I am forever grateful for.

How has University of North Carolina at Greensboro molded you into the person you are today?

UNC Greensboro has provided me with experiences that will accurately prepare me for life after graduation. Having the opportunity to connect with students that come from all over has allowed me to get a glimpse of the different experiences of my peers. Being more eager to understand this aspect of a person’s life journey has developed me into a better advocate on the behalf of the student body. Reflecting back on my journey at UNC Greensboro, this inclusive community has stimulated my intellectual desire to learn, which has better prepared me for an impactful life. This part of my life has definitely expanded my passion to be an advocate and engaged member of my community.

What specific initiatives have you headed up this year (or are planning) and how do you think they will improve the school and surrounding community?

Entering the 100th Session for our SGA we had three pillars we wanted to uphold; those being structure, impact, and transparency. For the first time since the Fall of 2019, our Senate has reached full capacity with representatives from various student populations such as our non-traditional students and commuter students. Our main focus right now is to use this moment to reach all our constituents for a greater influence on our community. We ensure our students are supplied with all of the resources on campus by hosting initiative weeks including our Community Wellness Week and Spring Break Safety Week. During these weeks we host daily initiatives such as our annual Food for Fines program with parking services, blood drives with the American Red Cross, and safety walks for campus accessibility. We also took a strive to reconstruct our association in areas that needed to be strengthened especially in ways of holding ourselves accountable. By prioritizing our efforts of building community for our students, it has created a consistent structure so future administrations can build upon what we have established.

How is your SGA administration/school currently working on attending to the mental health of students?

UNC Greensboro and our Student Government Association have worked tirelessly to advocate for better mental health resources on our campus. Our institution has revamped our Student Health Services upon feedback from our community by investing in Psychiatrists, a more diverse counseling group, as well as an online after-hour counseling center. We also worked with our Office of Accessibility Resources & Services to establish sensory lounges around campus to provide a space for our community to unwind. Our SGA is continuously providing educational opportunities for our students to help strengthen the awareness on mental wellness.

What does leadership mean to you?

Leadership is the understanding of how to utilize resources that are within your reach to influence those around you. It is the ability to stay resilient in the face of adversity. Leadership is the confidence that arises within an individual who is persistent on a target.

We now live in a digital world, what do you think schools need to do to represent themselves online in 2022/2023?

In this world of technology, it is critical for our institutions to develop a strong presence on social media and other forms of telecommunication. Schools should construct methods to effectively display what campus climate looks like. Being able to keep our campus supporters informed, and also critically attract prospective students, is the key in creating a tight-knit community with members who are from all over the world. Since online communication is the number one form in our generation, our schools should begin implementing initiatives that use online resources to better serve our community. These initiatives should particularly target our local communities by providing information on topics such as food and housing insecurities, sustainability, and community engagement.

Why do you think Watch The Yard is important to Black students and college culture?

Watch The Yard is important to Black students and college culture because of its ability to create a space for our community to engage. It uplifts and displays the achievements of our peers which is significant in our world today. Watch The Yard provides opportunities for the Black community to be inspired by one another and stimulate future leaders.

What do you plan on doing after graduation?

Upon graduation, I will pursue my Master’s in Health Administration. While overseeing healthcare facilities I want to advocate for more equitable and accessible services. Later on, I want to eventually do the same by launching similar resources back in my home country of Ethiopia.

We at Watch The Yard would like to commend Hazael Mengesha for his work as the SGA president of University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Share this on Facebook and help us highlight Hazael Mengesha and University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The legacy continues ✊?⚡️
Congratulations are in order for singers K.Michelle and Montell Jordan as both of their sons have followed their steps in joining the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., also referred to as the Divine Nine, reports Blavity.

In a heartwarming post to social media Montell shared that his son Skyler recently joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity at the HBCU of ASU. Skyker is also signed as a D1 football player.

“It’s rare when you get to be a father, friend and now a brother. I love you, my son, my friend, my brother,” reads Montell’s captioned . “Grateful for the brothers who are part of you journey. Your sands and those that MADE your journey memorable.”

Five Louisiana law enforcement officers pleaded not guilty to their charges in connection to the fatal arrest of Ronald Greene, according to The Associated Press. Greene’s mother was surrounded by the support of other families of police brutality victims.

Four Louisiana State Police troopers and one Union Parish sheriff’s deputy were arraigned Tuesday, five months after the grand jury slammed them with charges including obstruction and malfeasance. Master Trooper Kory York is facing the most serious charges including negligent homicide, the report says. The five were caught on body camera beating, choking and dragging Greene and leaving him on the ground in shackles while failing to render aid. He died on the scene.

These officers may not even be facing the court if it wasn’t for Greene’s family filing a wrongful death lawsuit in 2020. The State Police didn’t initially investigate the incident. Instead, Greene’s family was told he died after crashing his car into a tree.

Read a breakdown of the charges from KNOE 8 News:

Lt. John Clary, the ranking officer on the scene almost four years ago, faces charges of malfeasance and obstruction of justice. An internal investigation revealed Clary mislabeled his body-camera footage. Once it was eventually found, it showed graphic parts of Greene’s beating not captured on any other cameras at the scene.

York and Clary were suspended from State Police in January but are still entitled to receive any leave and compensatory pay. Trooper Dakota DeMoss and Capt. John Peters each face a count of obstruction of justice. Union Parish Sheriff’s deputy Chris Harpin faces three counts of malfeasance in office. DeMoss was fired in 2021, and Peters has since retired.

According to York’s attorney, plea bargaining for his client is off the table meaning they are willing to take it all the way to trial to prove the deputy’s innocence. That deputy was heard in the footage asking Greene, “s—t hurts, doesn’t it?” as he was being violently detained.

Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, was surrounded in support by the family’s of other Black people who died while interacting with police. Present was Oscar Grant’s family, who was shot by a transit officer in 2009, the family of Andrew Joseph, a teen who was killed on a interstate after an officer ejected him from a state fair in 2014 and the family of former NFL player Glen Foster Jr. who died in police custody two years ago.

“What we saw on those videos clearly without a doubt — everyone knows — was the murder of a Black man. You can’t continue to sugarcoat the murder of a Black man while he was driving,” she told reporters outside the courthouse.

Updated 4/07/2023 at 5:00 p.m. ET

In a move that shocked the nation on Thursday, Tennessee lawmakers voted to expel two Black state representatives from the House of Representatives. Despite being Democratically-elected, Justin J. Pearson and Justin Jones can no longer serve in the statehouse, effectively disenfranchising the tens of thousands of people who voted for them.

The firestorm in Tennessee began after the lawmakers joined a gun regulation protest at the Capitol in the wake of a horrific school shooting in Nashville. A vote over whether “The Tennessee Three” should be allowed to remain in office ended with two lawmakers expelled. However, Representative Gloria Johnson, who is white and also participated in the protest, was allowed to keep her seat. This raised obvious questions about racism.

It’s also worth noting that Pearson’s district is 31 percent Black and Jones’ district is 61 percent Black, which means that the decision disproportionately disenfranchised Black voters. The news has alarmed Democratic leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris who has planned an emergency visit to Nashville today.

In order to unpack what this all means for Tennessee, Black voters, and the nation as a whole, The Root sat down with Ohio State University Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries.

What Does This Mean for Black People in Tennessee?

Jeffries says that as disturbing as the decision to remove these democratically-elected lawmakers from the statehouse is, this isn’t coming entirely out of left field.

“I was shocked but not surprised,” Jeffries told The Root, who teaches race and history. “Because of the trajectory of GOP politics over the last decade and knowing the history in places like Tennessee dating back to the Reconstruction Era.”

During the Reconstruction Era, white supremacist Democrats would use similar tactics to expel Black lawmakers who’d briefly gained political power after the Civil War, Jeffries explained. Today, GOP lawmakers have typically used more subtle ways—like gerrymandering—to disenfranchise Black Americans and other marginalized groups, he says.

“It’s not like African Americans haven’t been effectively disenfranchised,” Jeffries said. “The difference is they’re taking it to the next level and saying we’re not even gonna pretend as though you have a voice, right? We’re just going to completely say you do not have one, and we do not care.”

Vice President Kamala Harris Travels to Tennessee

Harris has also taken note of the severity of what happened in Tennessee. Harris has planned an urgent visit to Nashville today to meet with the expelled lawmakers.

“Six people, including three children, were killed last week in a school shooting in Nashville,” Harris tweeted ahead of her visit. “How did Republican lawmakers in Tennessee respond? By expelling their colleagues who stood with Tennesseans and said enough is enough. This is undemocratic and dangerous.”

A White House official who spoke to USA Today said that Harris was going to support the thousands of young voters who spoke out against gun violence. She is also expected to renew calls to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Republicans Are Likely to Use the Tennessee Playbook

The obvious next concern is whether other Republican led-state legislatures will take note of what happened in Tennessee. According to Jeffries, we’re justified in being worried.

“I can guarantee you that we will see something similar in similar places going forward,” he said. “That is a bad precedent.”

Whether it’s anti-Democratic measures to ban women’s rights, decrease voting rights, or censor what can be taught in schools, “when one red state does it, the others will follow,” Jeffries said.

He also noted that the laws in Tennessee are not unique, and we could see this being done on a national scale. “Don’t be surprised if we see this when you have either Black legislators or progressive legislators trying to amplify their voice,” he said. “In one way or another, rules will be used to silence them.”

Members of the same political party that accuses a New York prosecutor of being politically-motivated for indicting ex-president Donald Trump on Tuesday expelled two duly-elected Black lawmakers from their posts for leading a legal, peaceful protest against gun violence.

Justin J. Pearson and Justin Jones are no longer members of the Tennessee House of Representatives after the Republican supermajority in the state legislature’s lower chamber voted to oust both men–and tried to kick out a third–following a loud protest at the state’s capitol in Nashville on Tuesday. Both men are Democrats and both had been elected by constituents in heavily Black districts.

Pearson had represented Tennessee’s 52nd district, which stretches from Nashville’s southeast corner and into its suburbs, and includes Nashville International Airport. Jones’ 86th district stretches north-to-south on the west side of Shelby County, including parts of Memphis. The 86th district’s residents are 61.1% Black.

As of Thursday evening, the Tennessee General Assembly’s web pages for each district listed the seat’s as “vacant” and photos of both former legislators had been removed.

The Republican-led vote to expel Pearson and Jones came in the wake of anger from many Tennesseeans over the legislature’s refusal to consider any new gun-control reforms following a mass shooting at The Covenant School, a Nashville parochial school, left six people, including three children, dead. The assailant, a former Covenant student who was killed by police, used an AR-15 assault rifle, a powerful semi-automatic weapon that has been used in multiple deadly mass shootings and which many argue should be banned.

That shooting framed an angry protest at the Capitol, which Jones and Pearson joined. Republicans argued that their participation violated the legislature’s rules, using that as a rationale to call a vote to expel them, along with a third Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson.

But Johnson–who is white–actually survived the vote to remove her from her seat, telling reporters afterwards that she believes race played a part in how the votes went down (ya think?).

Jones gave an impassioned speech on the House floor just ahead of the vote.

“For so long this body, drunk with power, has modeled for the world what we know as nothing less than authoritarianism. And today is the climax of that behavior.”

Both expelled lawmakers are eligible to run for their seats again, but for the time being, their constituents have no representation in Tennessee’s General Assembly.