Vol. 29, Issue 26
BRIAN JACK
By: Shelley McKinley, Ed.D.
Brian Jack, CEO and Owner of Brian Jack Productions, LLC was born and raised in Dayton, Texas. Music seems to be his birthright since he watched and studied other family members as they performed in their zydeco and gospel bands and later picked up the accordion without any formal training. His mother is from Lebeau, LA and his father is from Barrett Station with roots in Elton and Washington, LA so time spent with extended family in Texas and Louisiana gave Brian the opportunity to learn how to play the guitar at 14 years old. Taught by his uncle in Louisiana, who played in zydeco bands,
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and his uncle in Texas who had his own gospel group, Brian stated, “I got lessons from both uncles. I got lessons in Lebeau in the summertime from my mother’s brother and lessons from weekend to weekend from my father’s brother in the Crosby area.”
The Negro who lives on the patronage of philanthropists is the most dangerous member of our socie , because he is willing to turn back the clock of progress when his benefactors ask him so to do.
- Marcus Garvey
PROJECT 2025
Brian on pg. 3
On a trip to Baytown for boudin, Brian’s Godmother bought a toy accordion for her grandchildren, however they never played with them. “I asked my mother, ‘do you think she’ll give it to me?’ because I’m looking at a toy but once I fooled around with it, it was tuned and had the buttons and played like a real instrument,”
political power, allow for alternathoritarian states contain democratic political parties, legislatures, and elections, which are managed in such a way as to entrench authoritarian rule, for example gerrymandering and a restric- tion of social services, including education.
eral democracy, which the bipartisan Freedom House, the oldest American institution defending global more than elections and majority rule. Liberal democracies
Project on pg. 3
Authoritarian regimes generally abolish or restrict civil liberties, concentrate political power, and impede and weaken free elections that allow for alternations of power. Authoritarian states might nominally contain democratic institutions such as political parties, legislatures, and elections, which are managed in such a way as to entrench authoritarian rule, for example gerrymandering and a tion of social services, including education. Authoritarianism’s opposite is liberal democracy, which the bipartisan Freedom House, the oldest American institution defending global democracy, de nes as encompassing much more than elections and majority rule. Liberal democracies are typi ed by governance based on
In June the Supreme Court ruled, in spite of the Eighth Amendment, protecting us from excessive nes, or cruel and unusual punishment, it is acceptable to arrest, ne, and remove fellow citizens who can’t a ord homes. Without o ering alternatives Judge Gorsuch wrote “Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many,” but he said federal judges lack any “special competence” to inform cities how to manage it. He brazenly recommended that since sleeping in public is now a criminal act, the accused should pursue the “necessity defense” when apprehended. (A necessity defense is an admission of guilt with claims that the act was necessary. Not all states recognize the necessity defense, but even when it is permitted it is
seldom successful.)
In Grants Pass, Oregon, a town with no homeless shelter, the penalty for sleeping in a public park is $295. at’s a bargain compared to a law signed by Governor Abbott; he allows nes up to $500 and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has warned that failure to enforce this will result in “costly litigation and a loss of state grant funds.”
Spiraling rent costs, a dearth of a ordable housing, and the end of federal pandemic funds caused homelessness to soar 12 per cent last year nationally. e elderly, young LGBTQ community members, and Blacks are the most exposed.
“Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent. “Punishing people for something they can’t control, like homelessness, is cruel and unusual.”
Her sympathy is bolstered by her experience of growing up in public housing. She expressed exasperation with her conservative colleagues. “Instead, the majority [justices] focuses almost exclusively on the needs of local governments and leaves the most vulnerable
America’s constitutional democratic governance system is being rewritten and restructured in front of our eyes with the legal complicity of the not so Supreme Court, and some national media outlets. Consequently, we have no good news. Too many White males both Republicans and Democrats desire power by going through the backdoor. It’s about Kamala Harris, not Biden’s mental acumen. James E. Carter justly and morally managed e White House, but Obama proved that e White House could be Godly managed morally and justly by a Black man. Many Whites got mad, and up jumped, Donald J. Trump, in a White Privilege MAGA hat. Now, the USA is tittering on White Dictatorial Autocracy. Power
without collective societal responsibility is absolute chaos. Here’s the bad news, too many Americans refuse to acknowledge God’s words and promises: “ e Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.” (Psalm 68: 11). e not so Supreme Court politically shredded the American legal accountability model that: “no one is above the law.” In a default sense the Supreme Court has declared that the President of the United States of America is a King, and the American people are his subjects, and must be governed by the ungodly whims of King Trump. What is more democratically frightening is the response of certain national news outlets to the lack luster performance of President Biden in the debate on June 27, 2024, hosted by CNN. Former President Donald J. Trump is a bold convicted felon with three additional pending criminal cases, including attempting to overthrow American democracy on January 6th, 2021, resulting in the death of six Americans, including three police o cers. What a shame! Yet not one major newspaper outlet has called for
“We Africans in America have been socially engineered to reject our past, and far too many of us live in a state of suspended animation. We deny the historical realities confronting us daily. Too many of us mistakenly believe that the past has no bearing on the present and is unrelated to the future. Thus, we have been conditioned to live our lives disconnected from cultural values, principles, and ideals - essential for peaceful living.”
- Anthony T. Browder
Bobby Mills, Ph.D.
Esperanza Jazz Paz
Arrested on pg. 4
Media on pg. 4
Project
the consent of the governed, accountable institutions, adherence to rule of law and respect for human rights. ey have independent courts, an independent press, and a thriving civil society. Liberal democracies are open to changes in power, “with rival candidates or parties competing fairly to govern for the good of the public as a whole, not just themselves or those who voted for them.”
e path to authoritarianism usually rst involves democratic backsliding, propelled by political gures and parties with authoritarian instincts who employ speci c tactics. ese factors are evident in Project 2025, which explicitly advocates politicizing independent institutions by replacing the federal bureaucracy with conservative activists and removing independence for many agencies. It advocates for gutting what it calls the “Deep State,” a conspiracy theory shared by the Project’s authors that blames civil servants for a coordinated e ort to undermine a conservative agenda. Project 2025 claims to already be recruiting and training those who would replace career civil servants, with Project Director Paul Dans saying, “We want conservative warriors.”
Trump and many of his supporters have bought into the idea that this Deep State undermined his presidency, particularly regarding his relationship with Russia, and by sabotaging his policies. For example, the Project claims that “bureaucrats at the Department of Education inject racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America’s classrooms” and “bureaucrats at the State Department infuse U.S. foreign aid programs with woke extremism about ‘intersectionality’ and abortion.” ere is no evidence for these claims.
Perhaps most ominous, Project 2025 targets the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI. e Project states the following about the next president, “he will need to decide expeditiously how to handle any major ongoing litigation or other pending legal matters that might present a challenge to his agenda” rather than allowing the DOJ and FBI to act independently to ensure the rule of law. A very real
fear with Project 2025’s recommendations for the president to take control of investigations and prosecutions is that a president will abuse that power to target political rivals and those who disagree with their policies. Since Watergate, presidents of both parties have worked to ensure the independence of prosecutions from political in uence. ere are several elements of the project that spread disinformation about medical issues including COVID, abortion, sexual and reproductive health rights, sex education, and other issues, including DEI programs, climate change, civil rights, and marginalized communities, especially the LGBTQ+ community. e entire project is devoted to aggrandizing executive power by centralizing authority in the presidency, and a key aspect of democratic backsliding is viewing opposition elements as attempting to destroy the “real” community, an essential aspect to quashing dissent. Project 2025 paints progressives and liberals as outside acceptable politics, and not just ideological opponents, but inherently anti-American and “replacing American values.” Targeting vulnerable communities is a core tenet of Project 2025. Certain populations, in particular the LGBTQ+ community, are treated as deviants with ill intent rather than humans and Americans, and do not appear to exist within the far right’s framework of those deserving of fulsome human rights and protection from discrimination. Perhaps even more frightening, the le , the LGBTQ+ population, and the “woke,” are described as subversive elements aimed at destroying the country and its “real values.” e attack on the LGBTQ+ population is particularly ominous as recent research by UCLA’s Williams Institute has found a correlation between democratic backsliding and diminution in the rights of LGBTQ+ communities. LGBTQ+ people are the canaries in the authoritarian coal mine.
Brian Cont.
Cont. explained Brian. His Godmother gave him that toy accordion and within a few days Brian had learned several songs. at motivated him to continue to learn how to play the accordion.
While still a guitar player in the family band, they had a show at Ellington Field and Brian’s cousin realized that he le his accordion at home. He went back to get it, but was not back by show time. Brian said, “Well I got my little toy with me, so we put the little toy on the microphone and we played some instrumental songs. My uncle sang a few songs that I knew until my cousin got back with his accordion.” Even though he got back on guitar that night, the experience motivated him to stick with the accordion.
Brian saved his money to buy his rst real accordion in Louisiana the next summer. “My uncle who taught me guitar took me to the local music store where they sold accordions and that’s how I got my rst accordion.” His love for the accordion took over and in 1994 he started his own band now known as Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers. He is known for hits like “Pretty Face, Ugly Ways”, “Gotta Be Me” and “Good Good Lovin’” just to name a few.
Zydeco has always been a fun, upbeat, upli ing kind of thing for Brian. “Trail riding and zydeco are cultural and about family. I write trail
ride-driven songs. I don’t really write songs from real life experiences,” stated Brian. e music is for the culture and passed from generation to generation. “I always say I’m Brian Jack from Low Woods, TX!”
Brian is known to be a jack of many trades. In 2012 he decided that he wanted to spearhead his own marketing so he picked up the camera and taught himself the photography business. He now owns a successful Professional Photography business, Brian Jack Vision that was founded in 2020. “My brother is a photographer, and I started calling him to do promo shots for me. I think I started calling him too much,” laughed Brian. Brian’s brother, Eugene Jack Jr., told him what camera to buy and gave him pointers to get him started.
It was during a show at Jack’s Grill that Brian met his future wife, Jenna. “I don’t think she knew who I was, I was still up and coming then,” shared Brian. ey are happily married and have three children, Christopher, Carter and Brianna. Brian is also a dynamic studio engineer and owns Rock da House Studios of Humble, TX, where he has released several studio albums. His music can be found on all digital streaming platforms.
Protect Democracy points to two other factors as key to growing authoritarianism: stoking violence and corrupting elections. Trump was notorious for stoking violence against political opponents, those who upheld Project on pg. 4 and Christopher Jack
in our society with an impossible choice: Either stay awake or be arrested.” is ruling applies to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, California and a handful of other Western states, not Houston, but it does o er permission for our city to contemplate di erent processes.
Mayor Turner’s O ce on Homelessness had a better idea. Instead of oppressing the victims, they invested in long-term housing and service plans that de-
creased the city’s unhoused population by more than 60 per cent in a decade. Case managers made accommodations available to each client, including shelter, literacy, food, physical and mental health. But rst, housing. “Once we house somebody, the last thing we want them to do is recidivate back onto the streets. We will never house somebody without services. e services is what keeps the person housed. And the housing is what makes the services e ective,” explained Mark Eichenbaum in Janu-
ary when he was Mayor Turner’s special assistant on homeless initiatives.
“What do you call somebody experiencing homelessness, who’s in the shelter? ey’re still homeless.”
Not to be outdone, Houston Mayor John Whitmire has announced “My administration has developed a sensible homeless plan that I’ll release soon … We can do better and will study the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to understand what additional e ective measures it allows.”
Donald J. Trump to get out of the political race for the Presidency of the USA, based solely upon his criminal mindset, convictions, and lack of moral character tness. e question is why? Is it simply about business and advertising dollars rather than moral leadership character, intellectual integrity, and Presidential leadership vision, because we all know: “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14: 34). More importantly: “Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (Proverbs 29: 18). It is an empirical, veri able fact that former President Trump only has a self-serving vision, not a multi-cultural democratic nation-state building vision. Shame on US.
No doubt about it, where there is spiritual rejection and ignorance of God (Eternal Truth), crime and sin run rampant, because the carnal mind is enmity toward God. Now, we all know why Donald J. Trump has a criminal mind, and absolutely zero understanding of public morality.
Public morality is grounded in knowledge of God, and keeping God’s Laws, The Ten Commandments. Hence, for individuals as well as nations to live in peace and harmony individuals must be willing to keep God’s laws, because fear of God produces wisdom, respect, reverence, trust, and soul saving liberation. Question: America why fear individuals who do not have the power to do eternal harm? This is why the fear of God is wisdom, because: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And
in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, Thou doest desire truth in the innermost being.” (Psalm 51: 6). Major newspapers calling for Biden to step-aside is not undue election interference, it’s simply partisan politics. For example, why haven’t these same Newspaper organizations called for Donald J. Trump to step-aside because he is a convicted criminal, and is facing (3) additional criminal indictments? ments? Media hypocrisy personified. The press is conservative, and most news outlets will not tell the absolute truth, period. The press is about power, money, and ratings. MSNBC is somewhat of an exception. America, the real issue is not Biden’s mental acumen, but the Godly survival of multi-cultural democracy.
Biden’s 2020 election win, and election workers. And during his campaign rallies where supporters violently attacked people, he verbally attacked immigrants and other communities, and even suggested he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it. Trump’s words and his authoritarian ways have made the U.S. a more dangerous place based on an October 2023 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute. Nearly one in four Americans now believe political violence is justi ed to “save” the U.S., a higher number than just two years ago. e numbers grow even higher among Americans who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, to nearly one in every two people; among Americans who like Trump, to 41 percent; among Americans who believe in the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, to 41 percent; and among Americans who believe the core tenet of white Christian nationalism, that God
intended America to be a new promised land for European Christians, to 39 percent. is has real world implications. A Reuters investigation published in August 2023 showed that political violence began rising in 2016, in tandem with Trump’s leadership. Research from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE) published that same month found that threats against public ofcials are growing. And, of course, there was the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, which was encouraged by Trump, and combined stoking mob violence with corrupting elections to prevent certi cation of the 2020 presidential results. NCITE found that the second most targeted group for political violence were elected o cials and those who run or manage elections, who have been abandoning their positions in droves since 2020 due to threats from Trump supporters and the election denial movement that grew in the wake of Trump’s constant barrage of lies about the
outcome of the 2020 election. is has profoundly harmed America’s election system. Trump has been identied as a key factor in American democratic backsliding. e Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance found in 2021 that the U.S. “fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a signi cant number of steps on the democratic scale.” e Institute pointed to Trump and called his baseless questioning of the legitimacy of the 2020 election results a “historic turning point” that “undermined fundamental trust in the electoral process” and culminated in the Capitol insurrection. America’s V-Dem democracy index score shows a peak in 2015 and a sharp decline a er 2016. In 2018, the U.S. was downgraded to a “ awed democracy” by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual Democracy Index report and by Freedom House.
HISTORY
SCHOOLHOUSE BECOMES AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUM
By: Cianna Morales
Relocated and rebuilt, the Cornland School — a one-room schoolhouse that served Black children in Chesapeake before desegregation — is continuing its mission to educate the community.
e school, built in 1902, was slowly falling down at its original location on Bene t Road. Water was rising and plants and wildlife were encroaching on the old building when community members and city o cials started raising money to save it 14 years ago.
In 2021, the school was moved 6.2 miles to Glencoe Street, and a ribbon cutting last week welcomed alumnae and local residents to the newly restored building, now a museum.
“I can’t describe it,” said Mildred Brown, an alumna, at the event. “The last time I saw it, it was in crumbles.”
Brown, a lifelong Chesapeake resident, attended the school when she was 6 years old. She will turn 94 next month.
She and three other women, all in their 80s and 90s, toured the restored building then circled a Maypole — a tradition that has traveled from one continent to another, and has deep roots in African American history.
Emma Nixon, 88, and Pauline Sykes Smith, 89, walked with colorful ribbons wrapped around their hands. ey both attended Cornland. Wanza Snead completed the group. Her husband went to the school too.
e building was located on the Sneads’ property, and it was Snead who approached Chesapeake councilmember Ella P. Ward in 2010 about preserving it. e group of women represent the last surviving classes of the school. It closed its doors around 1953, according to the Cornland School Foundation, a group dedicated to its preservation. Brown v. Board of Education, the supreme court ruling to desegregate schools, was decided in 1954. Before that, Cornland had been operating since Reconstruction. Some historical records indicate it started in 1885. It was founded by formerly enslaved people, and is one of the region’s earliest Reconstructionera e orts at formalized education for African American students. In 1902, an old school building was sold for $18. Another structure — the current Cornland School — was built for $314.50.
Raising money to preserve the school has been a labor of
love, councilmember Ward said. She chairs the Cornland School Foundation, and the group has been meeting monthly for the last 13 years.
Ward initially raised $150,000 through fundraisers, but it wasn’t enough to move the school. e city contributed $400,000. e Parks, Recreation and Tourism o ce also contributed the 12 acres of land where the school now stands on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp near Lake Drummond.
“ is is the cornerstone of what’s going to be a historical district in the
city of Chesapeake for years to come,” Ward said, “so that people know what it was like for people of color, for African Americans to go to school in 1903.”
A $5 million contribution from the state will go toward the historical district as well.
e Cornland School is a stop on Chesapeake’s African American Heritage Trail. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.
e schoolhouse, with its fresh coat of
white paint, shined in the sunlight the Saturday it made its debut as a museum. Inside, a classroom is recreated with school desks, a teacher’s desk and a chalkboard. e roof was replaced, and lighting, air conditioning and a ramp added.
But elements of the original building remain — in the walls, the oors and the original potbelly stove that used to be stoked to keep students warm.
e historical classroom is augmented with modern displays that
tell the story of the school, like posters and a touch screen that plays video interviews.
Sykes Smith attended Cornland School in 1947.
“I’m just enjoying what I see,” she said. “It’s beautiful inside and out.”
Nixon said the refurbished building brings back many memories.
“It’s so good that they nally got it here and the Lord spared me to see it,” she said. “I’m thankful to everybody that helped to get it done. ey did a good, good job and I’m so proud of it.”
SPORTS
BLACK AMERICAN ATHLETE
By: Keir Simmons and Corky Siemaszko
DeHart Hubbard was the rst black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event. Hubbard studied at the University of Michigan starting in 1921, and the following year he won the rst of six straight AAU long jump titles. He also won the AAU triple jump in 1922 and 1923 and at the NCAA he won the 100-yard dash in 1925 and the long jump in 1923. In 1925 he set a world record of 25-10⅞ (7.89) when he took the NCAA title for a second time, and then in 1926 he con rmed his ability as a sprinter when he equalled the world record of 9.6 for 100-yard dash. Although injured, DeHart Hubbard won the 1924 Olympic long jump comfortably; he was again injured in 1928 when he nished 11th. Between these two appearances he had the best mark of his career in 1927 when he jumped 26-2¼ (7.98), but the mark was not recognized as a world record, because the take-o board was one inch higher than the landing pit. In all, Hubbard bettered 25 feet on eleven occasions and was undoubtedly the greatest jumper of the pre-Owens era.
A century ago, at a small stadium just outside Paris, a college track
and eld star from Ohio named William DeHart
Hubbard took a dramatic leap forward for himself and for all African Americans back home in the segregated United States of America.
By defeating the best long jumpers in the world at the 1924 Paris Olympics, Hubbard became the rst Black athlete to win an individual gold medal at the Games.
Hubbard’s nephew Kenneth Blackwell, the former secretary of state of Ohio, told NBC News his uncle recognized that he was carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of Black Americans on his muscular frame when he raced down a track toward a sand pit and leaped into history.
“He wrote his mother a letter that I now have framed, and the letter simply said that he was going across the ocean to become the rst Negro to win an Olympic medal in track and eld, to make her proud, but also to show there are no boundaries that cannot be broken,” said Blackwell, who was once mayor of Hubbard’s hometown, Cincinnati.
A copy of that letter will be on display this month at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, at an exhibition celebrating the centennial of the 1924 Olympics.
While the language Hubbard used is slightly
di erent from the way Blackwell described it, the point the young athlete was trying to get across is the same.
“Tell Papa I got his letter, but have been busy traveling etc., and have not had the time to answer. Tell him I’m going to do my best to be the FIRST COLORED OLYMPIC CHAMPION,” Hubbard wrote. Hubbard underlined the uppercase words for extra emphasis.
Blackwell said his uncle also quali ed to compete in the 100-meter dash and the high hurdles but was denied the chance because of racism.
“When he got here, he was told that the 100 and the high hurdle were white-only events,” he said. “He couldn’t compete. And he won the gold medal on the long jump.”
Camille Paddeu, a curator at the Musee Municipal d’Art et d’Histoire in the city of Colombes, where the main stadium for the 1924 Paris Olympics is located, told NBC News her research confirms that Hubbard was blocked from competing in other events because he was Black.
Hubbard’s victory was one of several Olympic rsts at the 1924 games, which were held in and around the City of Lights as the Roaring ’20s were underway.
LEGAL NOTICE
e Houston Independent School District Purchasing Services Department located at 4400 West 18th Street, Houston, TX 77092 is soliciting Request for Proposals (RFP) via the District’s electronic bidding portal. Proposers may login to view speci cations and submit their responses at the following link https://houstonisd. ionwave.net/Login.aspx until 10:00 a.m. (CST) ursday, August 8, 2024, for the following solicitation: RFP 25-07-02 Communications Support and Services Pre-proposal conferences via Microso Teams will be held in conjunction with these RFP’s. Information regarding dates, times, and a link to join the meeting is located within the electronic bidding portal under the “Event Details” tab speci c to the solicitation.
