Shocking Cheslie Kryst Death

 

Cheslie Kryst Death

Cheslie Kryst, former Miss USA, dies at 30. Police said Kryst jumped from a Manhattan building and was pronounced dead at the scene Sunday morning. Kryst was the 2019 winner of the Miss USA pageant and a correspondent for the T.V. program Extra. Obituaries.  

Enlarge this image. Miss North Carolina Cheslie pictured as she Kryst wins the 2019 Miss USA final competition in Reno, Nev., in 2019. Kryst, a correspondent for the entertainment news program Extra has died at age 30. Jason Bean/A.P. hide caption. Jason Bean/A.P.   

Miss North Carolina Cheslie, pictured as Kryst, wins the 2019 Miss USA final competition in Reno, Nev., in 2019. Kryst, a correspondent for the entertainment news program Extra has died at age 30. Jason Bean/A.P. NEW YORK — Cheslie Kryst, the 2019 winner of the Miss USA pageant and a correspondent for the entertainment news program Extra, has died at age 30.

Police said Kryst jumped from a Manhattan apartment building and was pronounced dead at the scene Sunday morning. Her family confirmed her death in a statement. "In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Cheslie," the statement said. "Her great light inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength. 

She cared, she loved, laughed, and she shined. Cheslie embodied love and served others, whether through her work as an attorney fighting for social justice, as Miss USA, and as a host on Extra.

But most importantly, as a daughter, sister, friend, mentor, and colleague – we know her impact will live on," her family said. Kryst, a former Division I athlete and North Carolina attorney, won the Miss USA pageant in May 2019 and competed in the Miss Universe pageant.

When Kryst was crowned, it marked more than a personal triumph: It meant that for the first time, three Black women were the reigning Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss America.   

In a statement Sunday, the nationally syndicated program Extra called Kryst "not just a vital part of our show, she was a beloved part of our Extra family and touched the entire staff. Our deepest condolences to all her family and friends.".   

The University of South Carolina mourned the former student-athlete, calling her "a woman of many talents." Kryst also held an MBA from Wake Forest University. Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina recalled meeting with Kryst in 2019 to discuss issues affecting their home state. According to police, Kryst's body was found at approximately 7 a.m. Sunday in front of the Orion building, a high-rise on West 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan.

Her body was found in a Manhattan neighborhood near Times Square. She worked for a law firm and as a correspondent for television's "Extra.". Miss USA 2019 Cheslie Kryst at the NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on June 19, 2019.Bruce Bennett / Getty Images file.    

A woman whose body was found on a New York City street early Sunday was identified by police as lawyer Cheslie Kryst, 30, a former Miss USA who also worked as a correspondent for television's "Extra.".   

New York police said the body, which was found on West 42nd Street, appeared to have fallen from an elevated position and that Kryst's death was most likely the result of suicide. Her family said in a statement: "In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Cheslie. Her great light inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength.".  

Kryst competed as Miss North Carolina USA when she won the Miss USA title in 2019. She was a top 10 finisher in the next Miss Universe competition.   

Although her fame came from her pageant achievements, she was also a lawyer who worked for a firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. On April 28, 1991, Kryst was born in Jackson, Michigan, and went to high school in South Carolina before graduating cum laude from the University of South Carolina.   

Kryst told the North Carolina Bar Association's blog in 2019 that she was inspired to enter pageant competition by her mother, April Simpkins, who was Mrs. North Carolina in 2002. "I remember watching her win and going to appearances with her during her reign," Kryst said. "Her title provided her with a platform to advocate for issues that were important to her, and people listened.".  

It took Kryst five tries to win the North Carolina title before she went on to take Miss USA. She acknowledged her tenacity by citing a quote widely attributed to Winston Churchill: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.".  

Her time at the Charlotte offices of Poyner Spruill LLP's office appeared to be fruitful. It elevated her to the position of diversity adviser in 2020 after her pageant sabbatical in 2019. "She is passionate about criminal justice reform and has worked pro bono for clients serving excessive time for low-level drug offenses," the firm said in 2020.  

She said in 2019 that she worked as a civil litigator while carving out her own time to reduce the sentences of deserving inmates. The firm also noted that Kryst served on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and was an "impact ambassador" for the nonprofit women's support group Dress for Success.   

According to her credits, Kryst's work at "Extra" appeared to be occasional. "Our hearts are broken," the entertainment news show said in a statement. "Cheslie was not just a vital part of our show. She was a beloved part of our Extra family and touched the entire staff.".   

1619 Project

On Sunday morning, President Trump tweeted an offensive on the 1619 Project, intimidating to reserve funding from California institutions developing the favored journalism project concentrated on the progress and influence of work. Together with his newest tweet, the President's actions raise a troubling question:

Why is that the Trump administration threatening to censor the way schools teach about slavery and racism within the United States?

The President's declaration came in acknowledgment of a tweet from an unsubstantiated account declaring that California schools were teaching the 1619 Project curriculum. In response, Trump tweeted: "Department of Education is watching this. If so, they're going to not be funded!"

The 1619 Project is long-form journalism and multimedia initiative of The NY Times Magazine, started in August of 2019, 400 years after African slaves first landed on America's shores. In its words, the project "proposes to reframe the country's memoir by setting the consequences of slavery and therefore the supplying of Black Americans at the very center of our social anecdote." The 1619 Project coupled up with the Pulitzer Center to acquire a foundation curriculum to use 1619 Project content in classrooms.

Trump's Sunday morning tweet continues a trend of his administration's provocative actions regarding educational approaches to racial injustice in America.

For example, on Friday, the Trump administration announced that it had been getting to cease diversity training deemed anti-American. During a two-page memo addressed to the leadership of federal agencies, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought specifically directed national executives to start the method of identifying contracts with race-related content that it finds offensive.

"All companies are commanded to start to locate all contracts or other company operating compared with any education on 'critical race system,' 'white prerogative,' or the other training or publication effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the us is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil," the memo states.

Despite the timing, Trump's tweet is not the first instance the Trump administration and its allies targeted the 1619 Project. In July, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced congressional legislation, titled the "Saving American History Act of 2020," with the stated purpose of "preventing federal funds from being made available to show the 1619 Project curriculum in elementary schools and secondary schools."

The recommended legislation challenges that "an activist change is now gaining impulse to dismiss or confuse this history by pretending that America wasn't founded on the ideals of the Declaration [of Independence] but rather on slavery and oppression." It goes on to state that "the 1619 Project may be a racially divisive and revisionist account of history that threatens the integrity of the Union by denying truth principles on which it had been founded."

Both Trump's tweet, also as Cotton's proposed legislation, beg a troubling question: why are Republican leaders trying to censor the teaching about the history of slavery and racism within us, and why now?

During a time when we are engaged in an emotional and increasingly confrontational dialogue over the legacy of its racist past, educators across us also are exploring ways to raised teach the narratives of racial privilege and injustice that have led to the pervasiveness of institutional racism in America. By threatening to censor content that it finds objectionable, the Trump administration isn't only treading dangerously on the underlying principles of a free and democratic society; it's also acting during a deeply hypocritical manner because it otherwise generally endorses local autonomy on problems with education and faculty choice.

But perhaps most troubling of all, Trump's tweet and, therefore, his administration and allies' arguments demonstrate a belief that history should be taught how that limits criticism. Further, Trump himself has shown that he is willing to require actions to constructively censor those whose views of history conflict with those of the administration.

That's not teaching history, that's shaping national propaganda.

For a president who proudly proclaims that he has done more for the Black community than the other President in American history, his efforts to censor the painful story of the Black experience in America are a slap within each Black's face who lived that account from the past to this.

Silent Parade Of 1917

The parade was held on July 28, 1917, along Fifth Avenue in New York City, and as Google points out the only noise, "was the battle away from the battery." Google chose the Google Doodle Silent Parade to honor "one century later."

At that time the parade was also called "silent protest parade". The NAACP organizers wrote in a PR brochure for the parade marched to awaken "conscience country".

On July 28, 1917, Google said, "The only sound on Fifth Avenue in New York City was clunk of the drums, while about 10,000 children, women and African-American men marched in silence in what became known as the Silent Parade."

This was followed by historical violence scenes in East St Louis on July 2, 1917, Williams wrote, where "the white mob's knife shovel, shot and indiscriminately blasted someone with black skin. Men, women, children, elderly, disabled - no one was spared". According to Black Past.org, violence of the audience also called slaughter of San Luis del Este and "was an important catalyst for silent parade. This terrible event took fire six thousand blacks from their homes and left hundreds of deaths."

The silent parade of 1917 was in part a protest against mob violence and lynchings of African Americans, according to Chad Williams at the University of Brandeis "had become even more scary."

Williams told the violence that preceded the parade in a column published by The Miami Herald. "In Waco, a crowd of 10,000 white Texans attended May 15, 1916, lynchning a black farmer, Jesse Washington. A year later, May 22, 1917 a black forest shaker, Ell people, was killed by more than 5,000 white seek revenge in Memphis "Wrote Williams.