Spelman has a thing for science. Atlanta’s Spelman College produces the most African-American graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees in science and engineering, according to the latest college stats. The small private liberal arts college for women with a student body of about 2,200, sent 150 Black students on to Ph.D. degrees in those traditionally male disciplines from 1997 to 2006, according to a survey by the National Science Foundation. That’s more than any other undergraduate program in the country except the much larger, coed Howard University, with 224. Howard, another historically Black institution, has about 7,000 undergraduates. As for the other Georgia institutions, Morehouse ranked fifth in the country with 99; Georgia Tech came in 48th with 32; and Emory didn’t make the top 50. “Spelman really shatters many of our ideas about women in science and math, and Black women in science and math in particular,” said Lily McNair, Spelman’s associate provost of research.

General Motors names its first Black design director. Just as the struggling auto industry seeks new capital to save its life, one of the big three picks a Black woman to head up its North American design division. Read more here.

Filipino hate-mailer is sentenced to nearly four years

Twenty years worth of hate mail - directed at Black men who married or dated White women - got David Tuason almost four years in prison. Read more at BET.com/News.

HBCU Spelman gets $17 million gift.

Historically Black Spelman College in Atlanta got a surprise package in the form of a $17 million gift to fund an endowment for that will help acquaint its students to the rest of the world. “In the context of an increasingly global economy and a world made smaller by technology, it is more important than ever that students, faculty and staff are prepared for active engagement with the international community,” said Spelman President Beverly Daniel Tatum in a statement. She said that the anonymous gift will help the all-women’s college establish Gordon-Zeto Endowed Fund for International Initiatives, named after Nora Gordon (the first Spelman graduate to teach in the Congo) and Flora Zeto (the first Congolese student to graduate from Spelman). Also covered under the endowment is the Gordon-Zeto Dean for International Inititiatives, who will be the senior administrator of Spelman’s international programs; the Nora Gordon Scholars Program, which will support study abroad programs for Pell grant eligible students, giving first priority to those interested in studying in Africa; and a travel fund to support short-term study trips by students and faculty.

A March for Jobs and Freedom. When hundreds of thousands of people descended on the capital for the March on Washington 45 years ago this week, it was the largest political gathering the nation had ever seen. The event was later recognized as the tipping point in the fight for civil rights. See the pictures here.