Feb 19, 2021
Echoing Martin Luther King, Jr. s call for the fierce urgency of now, the Black Student Alliance at Sweet Briar College is hosting events this Black History Month that celebrate Black culture in the past and present.
Bijou Barry, president of the BSA at Sweet Briar, said the group wanted to emphasize self-care and the role it plays in activism this month as well.
In a virtual Kinks & Kurls event Friday for students, the BSA focused on celebrating and exploring the diverse varieties, textures and styles of hair. Hair is an extension of who I am, Barry said. It s an extension of my voice; it s an extension of my identity.
Lynchburg-area colleges and universities Wednesday reported a total of 47 active COVID-19 cases among students and staffers â the lowest case total since students began returning to local campuses in mid-January.
For the second week in a row, Liberty University reported 39 total cases, according to weekly updates from the universityâs COVID-19 dashboard.
At least 33 Liberty students and 6 employees currently are sick with COVID-19. Last week, the university reported 29 student and 10 employee cases. Liberty defines an active case as an infection reported in the last 10 days.
Liberty, which with 15,000 students is the largest local college or university, began holding in-person classes in late January after students spent the first week of the semester taking online classes to help limit the spread of the virus. The approach was aimed at minimizing a spike in cases in the first weeks of the semester as students from across the country returned to campus.
âI think your house is on fire,â they told her.
Bart, who had been staying less than half a mile away from her Amherst County home with her mother, began frantically dressing as more phone calls came in.
âAnd I get back over to the sanctuary and the house was totally engulfed,â Bart remembered.
Bart, a former Sweet Briar College professor, left her comfortable and clean office job 17 years ago to start Sanctuary Farm Everlasting Care, a safe haven for rescued animals of all kinds. Only recently had she applied to become a 501c(3) nonprofit.
Now smoke, flames and debris had taken it over.
She was 66. The two
married in 1985 when Jim was in his second term in Congress and Martha was a research assistant at the World Wildlife Fund. In addition to her husband, she is survived by three children (Mary, Jamie and Hayes) and one grandchild, Jay. A native of Mississippi, Cooper attended Sweet Briar College and earned a master s degree in ornithology from Mississippi State University. Among other jobs, she worked on the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. According to her obituary, her favorite bird was the Eurasian hoopoe. “Martha was wary of politics until she lived in Shelbyville with Jim’s mother for a few months in 1984 to manage Jim’s first re-election campaign,” the obituary noted. “The experiment worked.”
Martha Cooper, wife of Rep. Jim Cooper, dies at 66 after battle with Alzheimerâs disease
Photos provided by Rep. Jim Cooper s office.
and last updated 2021-02-04 12:07:12-05
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) â Martha Hays Cooper, wife of U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, has died after what her family called âyears of struggling with Alzheimerâs. She was 66.
Rep. Cooperâs office confirmed her passing Thursday morning, saying she died peacefully at her home in Nashville.
She married Jim Cooper in 1985 after the two met in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Sweet Briar College in 1976 and from Mississippi State in 1980 with an M.S. in ornithology.