to
in a “buy-cott” at a Harlem area
National Action Network spearheads Costco ‘buy-cott’
By Aria Brent AFRO Staff Writer
abrent@afro.com
On a cold January day members of the National Action Network (NAN) joined the organization’s founder and president, Rev. Al Sharpton, as he implored the Black community to put their money to action. The place? A local Costco in East Harlem, N.Y.
The “buy-cott” was organized following the inauguration of America’s 47th president. On day one of
“Costco has continued to put effort and support towards Black and Brown communities, as well as other groups that need a space to feel comfortable while they get their daily necessities.”
his second term in office, Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders– including one designed to kill diversity, equity and inclusion
(DEI) initiatives on the federal level.
Since Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, leaders from major corporations across the nation have reversed
course on the DEI measures proudly touted after the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd Jr. Walmart rolled back their DEI initiatives in November 2024, and Target followed suit in January 2025. Still other major companies, like Costco have held the line.
As a result, Sharpton called on the Black community to spend their dollars inside of stores that recognize the importance of keeping diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of their brand. On Jan. 25, he led a busload full of consumers
to the Harlem Costco to financially support the business. Costco leaders, similar to those at JPMorgan Chase, have been praised for a strong commitment to the cause as other businesses choose to fold under pressure.
“As we celebrated the legacy of Dr. King while Donald Trump took the oath of office, I promised to not only boycott companies that abandon their DEI commitments but support those who upheld them,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Costco has
Black Press encouraged to hold U.S. president accountable as chaos reigns in first 100 days of new administration
By Megan Sayles AFRO Staff Writer
As the 47th president of the United States makes good on his promise to decimate
diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs on the federal level, renowned civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump has called on the Black Press to help Black communities across the country.
The lawyer gave a galvanizing address at the National Newspaper Publisher Association’s (NNPA) Mid-Winter Training Conference, underscoring the vitality of preserving the freedom and power of the Black Press and its role as the “North Star” for African Americans. During the conference, held Jan. 22-24, Crump said the nation’s Black communities will require the leadership of the NNPA now more than ever.
“History will ask the question: ‘Where were you when they tried to roll back our civil rights,’ when they tried to destroy diversity, equity and inclusion and when they tried to say to our children that Black history doesn’t matter?’” said Crump. “I make the argument to you all that this time in history we must challenge the souls of Black people at every opportunity we get because there will be some people who will take the past of least resistance, and we have to be
Ben Crump is working hand in hand with members of the Black Press to ensure that the fight for civil and human rights continues.
ready to call them out.”
Crump has represented a number of high-profile clients whose loved ones died at the hands of police, including the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.
The attorney has also previously been honored by the NNPA, winning Newsmaker of the Year in 2014 and the Freedom-Fighting Legal Achievement award in 2020.
The attorney contended that the Black Press is the only entity who can hold the Black community, lawmakers and the president accountable, and they must be diligent in delivering hard-hitting news.
Former White House aide and television and film producer Keith Boykin recently delineated the eight goals of the federal DEI programs that the 47th president vilified and eliminated.
They included: Data collection, understanding who is and who isn’t in the federal workforce Paid internships, supplying underserved communities with opportunities and experience
Recruitment, ensuring that the government does not solely employ the regular hires and posts job announcements in places where other
How halting police reform agreements could threaten the Black community
By Ashlee Banks Special to the AFRO
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.-8) recently criticized the Trump administration for halting agreements between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and police departments identified for reform by the DOJ as a result of patterns of misconduct. The move that could significantly impact Black communities
disproportionately affected by systemic issues in law enforcement.
“I don’t fully understand the rationale behind that particular executive order,” Jeffries told the AFRO. “I look forward to reviewing it, but it sounds like another effort to undermine the ability for there to be equal protection under the law in the United States of America.”
The decision to suspend reform agreements raises concerns among civil
rights advocates, as these agreements often target police departments with documented histories of racial bias and excessive use of force—issues that disproportionately harm Black Americans.
While U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (RFla.-19) voiced support for the administration’s reassessment.
“If [Attorney] General [Pam] Bondi decides to go through these agreements
The National Action Network under the leadership of Rev. Al Sharpton (center) provides transportation for a number of people
participate
Costco after the company’s defiant response to federal pressure to end DEI programs.
Photo courtesy of Meta (Facebook) / National Action Network
Photo courtesy of Meta (Facebook) / National Action Network AP Photo / David Zalubowski
Black migrants caught in the crossfire of birthright citizenship battle
By Ashlee Banks Special to the AFRO
On Jan. 23, a federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to strip U.S. citizenship from children born to undocumented parents, labeling the action “undeniably unconstitutional.” This marked the first significant legal challenge in a multi-state effort to counter the policy, which has drawn sharp criticism for disproportionately affecting Black migrants and their families.
Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was a landmark provision meant to ensure citizenship rights for formerly enslaved African Americans following the Civil War. For over 150 years, it has served as a cornerstone of equality in the United States, guaranteeing citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Yet, just two days after being sworn in for his second term, Trump issued an executive order to undermine this protection in a stated effort to curb unauthorized immigration.
The order would deny U.S. citizenship to children born after Feb. 19 if their parents reside in the country without legal status. It further bars federal and state agencies from recognizing such individuals as citizens, effectively blocking them from obtaining crucial documentation like birth certificates and passports. Critics argue this measure directly targets Black migrant communities, particularly those from the Caribbean and Africa, who already face systemic discrimination within immigration and legal systems.
U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.-9), a daughter of Jamaican immigrants, condemned Trump’s executive order.
“We will not yield to Mr. Trump’s impropriety, illegality, and cruelty. He will not intimidate us,” Clarke said in a statement. “My citizenship is my birthright. If Donald Trump wants to tell me, my family, my neighbors in Brooklyn and across New York and around the United States that our citizenship is illegitimate and we are not proper Americans, then he should expect to hear from the tens of millions of Americans he just disgraced. We are witnessing a shameless abuse of power, and I can say with certainty the immigrant community will not stand by as it progresses further.”
The executive order immediately faced legal challenges nationwide, with at least 22 states and several immigrants’ rights groups filing lawsuits. Washington, Arizona, Oregon, and Illinois led the first case to receive a hearing, prompting
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the Jan. 23 court decision to temporarily suspend the policy for 14 days. This reprieve allows both sides to present further arguments about the constitutionality of Trump’s order.
For Black migrant families, the stakes are deeply personal. Many come to the United States seeking refuge from political instability, economic hardship, or systemic racism in their
home countries. Advocates warn that rescinding birthright citizenship would leave countless Black children stateless, denying them access to education, healthcare, and job opportunities while reinforcing the marginalization of their communities.
U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37) stated that the executive order is fun-
damentally cruel.
“Donald Trump cannot erase the fundamental truth that the United States is a nation of immigrants. He may push his anti-immigrant agenda, but he cannot diminish the diverse cultures and identities woven into the tapestry of our country,” Kamlager-Dove said in a statement.
Black immigrants make up roughly 10 percent of the U.S.
“We are witnessing a shameless abuse of power, and I can say with certainty the immigrant community will not stand by as it progresses further.”
foreign-born population but are disproportionately affected by immigration enforcement. Policies like the one proposed by Trump compound these challenges, leaving Black migrants more vulnerable to deportation,
detention and economic instability. The Trump administration has defended the executive order, arguing that it aligns with the original intent of the 14th Amendment. In a statement, the Department of Justice vowed to “vigorously defend” the policy, claiming it “accurately interprets the Constitution.” However, legal experts and historians have widely refuted this interpretation, noting that the amendment was specifically designed to prevent the exclusion of any group based on their ancestry or status.
Birthright citizenship, or jus soli, the “right of the soil” is a principle upheld by about 30 countries worldwide, including Canada and Mexico. While it has long been a cornerstone of American identity, Trump’s order represents a dramatic departure from this tradition, reigniting fears of exclusion and second-class citizenship for millions, particularly in Black and Brown communities.
As the legal battle unfolds, advocates for immigrant and civil rights are rallying to ensure that the principles of equality and inclusion remain intact. For many Black migrants, the fight to preserve birthright citizenship is not just a legal issue, it is a matter of survival.
Thousands flee fighting in Congo as rebels claim they’ve captured the key city of Goma
By Justin Kabumba and Chinedu Asadu The Associated Press
Thousands fled the city of Goma on Monday as fighting raged between Congolese forces and rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda, who claimed to have captured eastern Congo’s largest regional hub.
Pockets of chaos and gunfire had some people hunkering down as the rebels marched into the city with a population of about 2 million. Others hurried to safer areas of the province; some applauded and cheered on the rebels from the roadside, even shaking hands with them. Many, however, tried to flee into neighboring Rwanda, marching in the heat and through the night along roads with heavy traffic, clinging to their babies, clothes and other belongings on their backs and heads.
Goma is a key location in the conflictbattered North Kivu province whose minerals are critical to much of the world’s technology. Rebel groups have long fought over control of eastern Congo’s mineral wealth, and the conflict has often pitted ethnic groups against one another, with civilians forced to flee their homes and seek protection from armed groups.
It was unclear how much of Goma was occupied by the rebels, but the events are a huge escalation in the decades-long battle between the two countries.
“There is shooting all over the city. We don’t know who is shooting, whether it’s the M23 or our soldiers,” said Patrice Naanga, a resident of Goma.
The Congolese government confirmed the presence of M23 rebels in Goma, 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of capital Kinshasa, but stopped short of saying they were in control of the city. “No centimeter will be given up!!!” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya wrote on X as he called for support for the country.
A fire at the city’s Munzenze prison on Monday morning resulted in the escape of thousands of inmates. “All the prisoners who were detained came out, whether women, men or minors, everyone came out,” said Mwamisyo Ndungo, one of the escapees who estimated that more than 2,000 fled the facility.
The M23 rebels are one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich region in a decades-long conflict, one of Africa’s largest. The rebels temporarily took over Goma in 2012, before they were forced to pull out under international pressure, and resurfaced in late 2021, with increasing support from Rwanda, according to Congo’s government and United Nations experts. Rwanda has denied such support.
Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
accused Congo of failing to enter a dialogue with M23, which it described as a “Congolese rebel group fighting to protect their community.” That failure, it said, has prolonged the fighting that continues to present “a serious threat to Rwanda’s security and territorial integrity, and necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture.”
The advance into Goma is the culmination of a prolonged battle between the rebels and the Congolese security forces that saw several towns along the Rwandan border falling to the insurgents.
Analysts have warned the latest escalation could further destabilize the region, which is already home to one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than 6 million people displaced, including more than a third of North Kivu’s population.
A regional hub for trade, security and humanitarian efforts, Goma’s airport, which is key for transporting supplies, has been shut following the fighting.
Rwanda’s state television also showed several Congolese soldiers surrendering in the Rwandan town of Rubavu after crossing the border from Goma.
UN peacekeeping mission prioritizing its personnel and facilities
Speaking at a virtual press briefing on Monday, U.N. peacekeeping chief JeanPierre Lacroix confirmed M23 has made significant advances in Goma but added that “there’s significant fighting” going on in the city. “Therefore it’s very fluid and still very volatile, and increasingly dangerous in terms of the impact on the already very much affected civilian population,” said Lacroix.
Lacroix said he has heard estimates of 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandans in Goma, but “it’s difficult to tell exactly what the numbers are.”
The U.N. peacekeeping mission is also prioritizing the protection of its personnel and premises as well as that of civilians sheltering in its facilities in and around Goma, he said.
The U.N. Security Council has asked the M23 to immediately reverse its advances. Other countries including the United States, United Kingdom and France have also condemned the rebel push.
Congolese government, which cut ties with Rwanda over the weekend, said the country is “in a war situation” and accused Rwanda of committing “a frontal aggression (and) a declaration of war.”
Rwanda accuses Congo of enlisting and fighting alongside Hutu rebels and former militiamen responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, particularly the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a group formed by the Hutus who fled to Congo after the killings.
Residents seek safety across the border in Rwanda
The M23 rebels’ march towards Goma threw the city into chaos, from hospitals overstretched with injured residents to internally displacement camps being hit amid intensified shelling that forced displaced families to once again grab what was left of their belongings before loading them alongside their children into cramped vehicles and scooters.
As some residents remained indoors worried for their safety, hundreds including children on Monday trekked for hours to other parts of North Kivu and to cross over the border into Rwanda where several Congolese forces have surrendered.
“We are fleeing because we saw soldiers on the border with Rwanda throwing bombs and shooting,” said Safi Shangwe, who was among those on the move. See more on afro.com
AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa
Smoke rises over Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo on Jan. 27 as M23 rebels make their way to the center of the town.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Some members of the Black immigrant community are scared to go about daily life as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents increase their efforts to remove anyone deemed to be in the country illegally.
The hidden cost of police recruitment: How poor vetting keeps the cycle of misconduct going
By Megan Sayles AFRO Staff Writer msayles@afro.com
In December 2024, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) announced its newest hire for chief of detectives in the agency’s operations bureau, former Boise, Idaho Police Chief Ryan Lee. BPD touted his efforts to address hiring and retention challenges. But, the department neglected to include his history of alleged misconduct.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean asked Lee to step down from his role in 2022 after complaints from nine officers concerning verbal abuse, a hostile work environment, favoritism and investigation interference emerged. Lee is not the first officer to have a problematic past come to light.
Unsplash / Spenser H.
Conversations related to recruitment and training practices for police are growing louder, as instances of excessive force by officers with a proven track record of misconduct capture media headlines. Credit:
race to bring on new police officers has caused problems. According to Joyner, a number of police corruption scandals have been exacerbated by accelerated hiring practices.
“This rings true for all organizations throughout the country when agencies are working diligently quickly and through pressure to fill police academies, hiring standards get lowered and individuals oftentimes get a pass for things that would have disqualified them,” said Joyner.
He added that one major issue in police departments is that internal background units are understaffed. Despite them being overtaxed by the demands of background investigations, he believes they should be held responsible for officers who are negligently hired.
(NOBLE) believes that departments should be focused on acquiring candidates who demonstrate integrity, accountability and preparedness. Col. Lamar Davis, a NOBLE member and retired superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said they must have soft skills that allow them to build robust relationships with the community while also maintaining their technical skills.
“Sometimes it’s just that the hiring police agency doesn’t know that the officer has a problematic history, and they’re not doing sufficient vetting,” said Bonds. “A lot of time it’s an issue of the police department having pretty low standards.”
Across the nation, police departments are complaining about the recruitment challenges and staffing shortages they face. Because of this, Bonds said some agencies may lack better options. Rather than rush to fill vacancies, she said, this should raise questions about why the
Following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, it was revealed that Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, had a history of excessive force and misconduct allegations. Over the course of his career, which began in 2001, two disciplinary letters and 18 complaints were filed against him. These instances have fueled a broader, ongoing conversation related to training and hiring practices for police. According to Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, there are a number of reasons why officers may be hired or retained in spite of questionable track records.
Black press
people can see them
Professional development, enabling people who are hired to grow their skills and become better workers
Fair treatment of people with disabilities, ensuring they can secure jobs and access proper accommodations
LGBT fairness, guaranteeing that the spouses and families of LGBT employees receive the same benefits as other families do
Pay equity, evaluating government polices, hiring and salaries to ensure women and people of color are not paid less for the same jobs as their counterparts
Opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, examining barriers to employment and giving a fair shot to qualified applicants who have served their time
Boykin explained that these objectives are not radical, illegal or immoral. Instead, they are rooted in the democratic principles of America, making certain that the government is a place where all employees are treated with dignity and respect.
As attacks on racial justice escalate, Crump acknowledged there will be many challenges that African Americans face on the road ahead. He encouraged them to embrace abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ perspective that without struggle there can be no progress.
“As long as we’re struggling that means we’re fighting, and as long as we’re fighting that means we’re progressing,” said Crump. “That’s what it’s about— making sure our Black children have a future that says that they have an equal opportunity to the American promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
He continued by emphasizing the importance of preparing Black youth to persevere and fight against any attempt to strip them of their rights. Crump said they must be well-armed to defend against the school to prison pipeline, the prison-industrial complex, voter suppression and the denial of access to quality health care and capital.
“We don’t want them to be well-armed with any means of assault weapons and violence,” said Crump. “We must make sure that our children are well-armed with intellect, diplomacy and strategic thinking. In the end, the press must make sure that our young children are more intelligent than those who would seek to oppress them. That’s why we have to stand at the frontline.”
country needs so many police officers in the first place, especially as other municipal employees may be able to carry out tasks that law enforcement have traditionally handled.
There are also psychological and sociological factors that contribute to people overlooking the precarious pasts of police officers.
“There’s a presumption that people are blowing things out of proportion and that there are two sides of the story even when there is an issue,” said Bonds. “There’s often a real strong sense that officers should have each other’s back, and there’s this mentality that police officers can’t do anything wrong.”
According to the Mapping Police Violence project, 1,361 people were killed by law enforcement in 2024, and African Americans were 2.8 times more likely to be killed than their White counterparts. In
Police reform
Continued from A1
2023, there were 1,356 people killed. This statistic makes it even more critical for hiring and training standards to be comprehensive.
“Until organizations are courageous enough to hold everyone in the process accountable, we will continue to have unqualified people hired
“Until organizations are courageous enough to hold everyone in the process accountable, we will continue to have unqualified people hired into a position where they have to go into a community that needs them the most, but trusts them the least.”
Ersie Joyner, senior consultant for the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR), explained that the recruitment process is the most important component of organizational health, success and sustainability.
Like Bonds, he said the
and is able to pause them, that’s an appropriate thing to do, but we’ll see where we go from there,” said the Florida lawmaker.
“When you have a new administration come in, like we saw with the previous administration, there were a lot of pauses to the specific agreements you’re talking about,” Donalds told the AFRO “It depends on the granular nature or lack thereof of the investigation by the Merrick Garland DOJ. And let’s just be perfectly clear, the Merrick Garland DOJ has many credibility issues.”
In a memo issued Jan. 22 , acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle wrote, “The new administration may choose to reassess settlements and consent decrees that were negotiated and approved under the previous administration.”
into a position where they have to go into a community that needs them the most, but trusts them the least,” said Joyner, who is also a retired police captain with the Oakland Police Department.
The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement
This decision could directly disrupt reforms in cities like Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky—places where high-profile incidents of police brutality against Black residents sparked national outrage. The Justice Department under the Biden administration had worked to finalize agreements in both cities to address systemic failures within their police forces.
The agreement in Louisville, finalized in December, followed an investigation into the city’s police department after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, during a botched raid in 2020. The proposed reforms included requirements for officers to “utilize proper deescalation methods” and avoid unnecessary use of force.
Similarly, the agreement with Minneapolis sought to address patterns of racial
“Proper vetting is nonnegotiable and should include documentation of completion of a rigorous police academy training program, including physical fitness, legal instruction and field training,” said Davis. “Additionally, a thorough background investigation that includes criminal history, employment record checks and personal references is critical, and a psychological evaluation to determine fitness for duty is recommended.”
He contended that agencies typically abide by these standards. But, when they don’t, it suggests that accountability is discounted, particularly in communities that have historically had strained and contentious relationships with police.
“We have to stop this, and that starts with our response to negative information revealed during background investigations,” said Davis. “Addressing these challenges requires moral courage, but in the interest of our departments’ ability to serve communities effectively–and even more importantly, in the interest of citizens–agencies must adopt standardized hiring practices that vet allegations of misconduct and policy violation and immediately disqualify candidates with confirmed egregious past misconduct.”
bias and excessive force uncovered after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer in 2020. Among other measures, it proposed reforms to “prevent excessive force, end racially biased policing, improve interactions with young people,” and “safeguard the public’s First Amendment rights.”
For many in the Black community, these reforms represent a critical step toward accountability in law enforcement and safety for vulnerable populations. Suspending these agreements undercuts efforts to repair strained relationships between police and Black communities, who disproportionately experience the consequences of police misconduct.
President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have long opposed the use of court-mandated consent decrees as a tool for reforming police practices, favoring a “back the blue” stance that prioritizes law enforcement even in cases of misconduct. Critics argue that this approach effectively shields problematic officers from accountability while leaving communities of color exposed to harm.
As the agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville remain pending before judges, the Justice Department’s memo could enable the Trump administration to reverse or weaken the deals. This echoes previous efforts during Trump’s first term to derail similar reforms, such as the Obama-era consent decree in Baltimore after the killing of Freddie Gray, another Black man, in police custody.
For Black communities, the potential rollback of reforms represents not just a setback in addressing police misconduct but also a broader message about the administration’s priorities. Advocates worry this could deepen mistrust in the justice system and signal a lack of commitment to addressing systemic racism.
Unsplash/ Matt Popovich
Democratic lawmakers hope that police reform agreements stay in place under the current presidential administration.
How closeted racist memorabilia continues to fuel generational racism
By Melanie N. Latson New York Amsterdam News
Jan. 20, I was reminded of a troubling experience my realtor husband had a few months ago during an in-home consultation with a client. To my surprise, while he was on this visit, I received a video displaying shaky footage of a 360-degree view of the client’s bathroom covered from counter to ceiling in racist blackface memorabilia. From watermelons to sambos to mammies, this space easily rivaled the extensive collection within the walls of the Jim Crow Museum. Almost as disturbing as the memorabilia was the irony that this client was willing to work with a Black professional while proudly owning and displaying these items.
My husband stood in that bathroom facing a conundrum Black Americans so often face — so much progress, yet so far to go. In today’s times right in Metro Atlanta, a Black man found himself deep within the outlandish imagination of a racist White man, the most dangerous place for any person of color to be. In Jordan Peele fashion, after quickly documenting, he knew it was time to “get out!”
As an Atlanta native, raised in the Black Mecca of civil rights and being a grandchild of community activists, I have had a front-row seat to the growth of a thriving, Black-majority metropolitan area, but I also know all too well the regressive past of the sundown towns surrounding it. I have had the safety of living in community with Black judges, doctors and teachers, while also experiencing the fear of dwelling in the deep South where our hospitals, schools and libraries are often adorned with the names of White supremacists of yore.
The Jim Crow Museum urges that to truly use “objects of intolerance to teach tolerance,” we must, as a society, continuously witness, understand and heal. What my husband saw that day has led me to wonder if much of America is stuck at simply witnessing with no care to understand or heal. As my husband walked out of the bathroom that day, he noticed something very different: the many pictures of the homeowners’ grandchildren throughout the home. When he told me about this, I thought back to memories of my grandparents’ house: the savory aroma of soul food and hallways lined with pictures of family, friends and good times. However, the grandchildren of these homeowners were learning a far different lesson and taking in the unsavory, pungent aroma of White supremacy. Without saying much, they are teaching their grandchildren a mouthful by this choice of peculiar home decor.
As an educator who has taught from the Bay Area to the shores of Georgia on a small island, I have passionately planted social justice as a pillar of my teaching to ensure that my students did not just learn how to read and write, but also how to show compassion, respect, civically engage and lead in their community. As I thought about the grandkids that visit this house of horror, my heart ached as I questioned if the work I had done with my students was enough for them to boldly advocate, activate and disrupt injustice when they witness it throughout life–even if it is within their own family. I wondered what these grandchildren thought about the
objects and how they translated those ideas to the people of color they see in the world.
While I created my classroom to be an inclusive safe haven, I vividly remember the racial tension my students dealt with all too often in their community. I remember when a Black student shared that he saw his best friend (a Latino male) at a neighborhood playground over the weekend. He then expressed his sadness and frustration in overhearing his friend’s parents say that they could not play together because he was Black.
I also remember when a White student invited everyone to her birthday party except for the few Black students in our class. While I used this as a teachable moment to discuss inclusion with my students, my frustration was more with the parents who created this situation than the kids who were collateral damage in a situation that they could not fully digest. Racism, you see, is like a nefarious virus that spreads and spreads, never seen yet always felt.
I cringe at the vicious attack on conversations about race in U.S. classrooms through the never-ending anti-critical race theory bans because, little do these legislators know, the kiddos are the ones who are longing to discuss their confusion, sadness and anger about the scary “R word.”
Contrary to ignorant beliefs, we, the ”woke teachers,” have no desire to indoctrinate, but a commitment to affirm, educate and liberate all of our students. While Black and Brown kids have never had the privilege to not know, in a particular way,
the White kids have always known, too. Throughout history, they knew when they watched their parents yell racist vitriol at Black people, they knew when they could never bring their Black friend over for a play date, and they knew when they witnessed injustice with no explanation other than the question of race at hand. In a Trump-era America, where the quiet parts are often screamed for all to hear, we must no longer pretend that our kids are too fragile to digest the topic of racial injustice. To be clear, not every White child with racist grandparents will become racist; many will push back and disrupt injustice, but let us not make it hard for them to do so. Initiatives like Project 2025 have plans to erase all of the ugly parts of American history and replace it with lies that will leave our youth miseducated and
ill-equipped to become civically engaged change-makers in our world. Parents, now is not the time to assume your kids are learning everything in school. It is your time to shine and introduce your children to culturally inclusive literature and discussions. While we can’t change who is in the White House, we can change what conversations we do and do not allow in our communities. Our fight is in our voice. Let us not be quiet about the things that matter most. While they yell the racist parts out loud, let us mute their lies with bold and undying truth that disrupts inequity and fuels racial justice. This commentary was originally published by New York Amsterdam News.
The soul of a nation: Love, hate and the legacy of Dr. King
By
The chasm between the dream and the despair grows wider each day. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once ascended the pulpit at Riverside Church and offered a vision that sought to heal a fractured America. The transformational lessons that King shared with the country were heartfelt and powerful. He urged us to shift away from a society focused on possessions to one centered on the value of people. He championed love, justice and the unifying power of community.
Today, we are on the precipice of change, as Donald Trump wields the power of the Office of the Presidency for a second time. His inauguration was not a celebration but an indictment. Where King preached unity, Trump thrives on division. Where King labored for the beloved community, Trump’s America is a confederacy of grievance, a theater of cruelty dressed in the guise of strength. This moment is a reckoning, a stark reminder of the choices before us: the mountaintop or the abyss. A kingdom of things
“We must rapidly begin shifting from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society,” King
proclaimed. Yet here we are, 58 years later, kneeling before the golden idols of profit, power and property rights. Trump embodies the thing-oriented America that Dr. King warned us about — a man for whom wealth is a virtue, disinformation is currency and people are pawns. Under Trump’s shadow, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism have not just survived — they’ve flourished. Racism marches openly now, its hood removed, emboldened by winks and nods from the highest office. Materialism reigns supreme, as billionaires are exalted while the poor are far too often forgotten. Militarism cloaks itself in the guise of patriotism, deploying force not to defend against external threats but to silence those who dare to speak truth to power.
King saw these forces as interlocking gears in a machine designed to crush humanity’s spirit. Trump, however, has turned the machine into a spectacle, a grotesque carnival of division and deceit. And yet, even now, the dream refuses to die. Love vs. Hate King’s dream was rooted in love. Not the saccharine sentimentality found on greeting cards, but a revolutionary love that seeks justice and confronts power. His
was a love that declared, “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It was a love that held the oppressor accountable while extending the hand of reconciliation.
Trump knows no such love.
His rhetoric is a weapon pitting neighbor against neighbor and stirring hate and fear where there should be solidarity. He does not speak of the ties that bind but the walls that divide. His vision of America is not one where all are welcome to the table; instead, it resembles a fortress where the privileged hoard and the marginalized are discarded to continue the difficult but winnable fight for justice.
Love is not weakness, King taught us. It is actually one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Love has the ability to both uplift and heal, even in the most tragic of situations. And yet, love is mocked in Trump’s America, dismissed as naïve in a world that rewards cruelty. But we must not forget: love is also resistance. To love in the face of hate is to defy the systems that seek to break us. The price of silence At Riverside, Dr. King reminded us that silence is a betrayal. “There comes a time when silence is betrayal,” he said, admonishing those who stood idly by while
war raged abroad and oppression festered at home. That betrayal, that silence, is alive and well today. It is the silence of those who know better but refuse to do better, who refuse to speak out against injustice. In this moment, we find a deafening silence of those who see Trump’s lies, his cruelty, his disdain for democracy and respond with a shrug.
We are reminded of the hardlearned lesson that silence is not neutral. It is a choice, and it sides with the oppressor. In this era of polarization and disinformation, silence allows lies to become truths and hate to masquerade as policy. We must no longer remain silent because to do so is to become complicit in dismantling King’s dream. The mountaintop and the abyss Trump’s inauguration on a bitterly cold day is not just the beginning of a presidency; it symbolizes the crossroads that we all must face willingly or unwillingly together.
Martin once stood at the proverbial mountaintop and saw the promised land, a place where justice flows like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. On the other hand, Trump offers not a vision but a void, a descent into the abyss of greed, fear and exclusion.
As we honor Dr. King’s vision, we must never forget that it was not just a dream; it was a demand.
A demand that we confront the systems that perpetuate inequality. A demand that we reject the false gods of wealth and power.
A demand that we build a nation where love is the law and justice is the foundation.
The urgency of now
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today,” King warned us. “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.”
That urgency remains in 2025.
Trump’s Presidency is a test of our resolve, a call to action for those who believe in the dream.
This is not the time for despair, though the weight of the moment tempts us toward it.
This is the time for resistance, for courage, for the kind of revolutionary love that King embodied.
It is a time to speak, to march, to organize, to refuse to let hate have the final word.
The dream lives on The dream Dr. King carried to the mountaintop is not his alone.
It belongs to all of us. It lives in the hearts of those who refuse to bow to hate, refuse to be silent in the face of lies, and refuse to let the light of justice be extinguished.
Trump may sit in the highest office, but he does not hold the highest truth. That truth is Dr. King’s truth: love is stronger than hate, justice is more powerful than oppression and the dream of togetherness is worth fighting for. The question before us is simple, yet profound: Will we surrender to the abyss, or climb toward the mountaintop? The dream endures, and so must we.
The president wants to cut taxes on the rich, but states can choose differently
We won progressive taxes in our state by showing people just how unjust our tax code was. Other states can follow. As President Donald Trump moves through the first month of his second presidency, one of his first agenda items is to slash taxes on corporations and the rich. The results will be more inequality and less revenue for the programs Americans rely on. The good news? States can make their own tax codes more equitable. And everyday people can help. In our state, Washington, people voted overwhelmingly this past November to protect our state capital gains tax on the ultra-wealthy. This was a hard-fought victory by a movement of people who believe we need a better tax code. Let’s back up Despite our “blue state” status, Washington’s tax code has long been one of the most inequitable in the country because it over-relies on regressive measures like sales taxes and property taxes. That forces low- and middle-income earners to pay the biggest portion of their income in taxes to fund the programs and services we all rely on. In 2010, an initiative to enact a tax on high earners in our state failed miserably. Although many people — including lawmakers — proclaimed the death of progressive taxes in Washington, advocates came together with a long-term goal of building public support for progressive revenue. Our organizations were two of many that did this work. From interfaith organizations to affordable housing advocates to union leaders, we created coalitions to hold lawmakers accountable to build an equitable tax system.
In addition to organizing and legislative strategies, our coalitions prioritized shifting the public narrative. With the help of public opinion, strategic communications, and messaging research firms, we spent over a decade talking to people in Washington to better understand their deeply held beliefs about taxes. We learned that most Washingtonians felt the impacts of our upside-down tax code but didn’t realize just how much it favored the rich. And in focus groups and community meetings, we heard people vocally support taxes when they understood the services they provide. In media interviews, legislative testimonies, community events, and town halls, we showed how creating a budget that funds our communities requires the wealthy to pay what they owe. We tied taxes to critical programs and services like child care, education, parks, and safety net programs. We also highlighted how our tax code — which was designed to favor White, landowning men over everyone else — is harmful to communities of color and low-income people. Buoyed by grassroots organizing and legislative efforts, national momentum for taxing the rich, and some wealthy spokespeople who said “we want to pay this,” our coalitions helped our legislature pass a capital gains tax in 2021. See more on afro.com This commentary was originally published by OtherWords.org
N. Latson
Photo: Courtesy photo Dr. Mustafa Ali is a thought leader, strategist, policymaker and activist committed to justice and equity. This week, he discusses how to cre -
positive change in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Photo courtesy of LinkedIn / Melanie N. Latson
Mustafa Ali Word in Black
By Eli Taylor Goss and Treasure Mackey
Courtesy photos Eli Taylor Goss (left) is the executive director of the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, a research and policy organization that works to advance economic justice. Treasure Mackley (right) is the executive director of Invest in Washington Now,
If you think some of America’s leaders are fine with people inhaling formaldehyde– you could be right
By Willy Blackmore Word In Black
When nominating former Congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency in November 2024, the 47th president of the United States said he would quickly deregulate American industry while “maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” And so, naturally, he kicked off his presidency with a flurry of executive orders that rolled back environmental regulations.
None of the rollbacks are good news for anyone but the oil and gas industries. And on the clean air front, in the coming weeks, we should expect the Trump administration to challenge the elimination of cancer-causing formaldehyde.
In early January, the Biden Administration’s EPA released a report on formaldehyde, finding that the very common chemical — found in everything from embalming fluid to hair relaxers to car exhaust — is an “unreasonable risk” to public health. That designation is
‘Buy-cott’
Continued from A1
often a precursor to strict new regulations, if not an outright ban. Addressing the formaldehyde risk effectively will not only require regulating industry, but also addressing communities where the risk is the highest — namely, urban Black and Brown neighborhoods.
The EPA report was published after a ProPublica investigation found that more cancer cases are caused by exposure to formaldehyde than any other air pollutant.
“The public health risks from formaldehyde are greater and more prevalent than widely understood,” according to the ProPublica story. While the EPA says that formaldehyde caused 20 cases of cancer for every 1 million Americans, the investigation found that the agency did not include its own scientists’ risk calculations for myeloid leukemia, a potentially fatal blood cancer linked to formaldehyde exposure. With that risk included, the cancer incidents from formaldehyde exposure jump to 77 cases for every 1 million people.
While formaldehyde naturally occurs in lumber — and construction materials, furniture, and other wood-
stood by their DEI programs because they see them as both the right thing to do and a smart business strategy. NAN will live by its own promise to support the companies who support us.”
Many companies like Meta (Facebook) and McDonald’s began the downsizing or dissolution of their DEI programs before Trump officially took office on Jan. 20. News of the change to Target’s DEI plan broke on Jan. 23.
The Minnesota based retailer is well recognized for their wide selection of minorityowned brands and inclusive memorabilia for occasions like Black History Month and Pride Month, making their decision to alter their DEI program a surprise to many customers and vendors alike.
Since Target’s announcement regarding DEI, the Black community has been split down the middle. While some Black consumers believe a full boycott is the only response to companies nixing their DEI plans, others say that could hurt Black entrepreneurs who have products on the shelves in big box stores like Target.
Social media personality and entrepreneur Tabitha Brown has a series of products available to the public via partnerships with both Target and Wal-mart. She took to social media to address the grievances that many consumers were feeling following Target’s announcement. She also addressed how a boycott of the retailer could impact minority business owners.
“I know many of you are asking about the recent DEI announcements at Target and as disheartening as it is for me, I’m not the only one affected by this. It’s [disheartening] for everyone who is a woman-owned business, minority-owned businesses, Black-owned businesses,” she stated in a video, shared via Instagram on Jan. 25. “It’s for so many of us who work so very hard to be placed into retail–to finally be seen and approved for retail. Contrary to whatever the world might tell you– it has been very hard for Black owned businesses to hit shelves–which is why it’s such a big deal when we do.”
Brown noted that she empathizes with customers’ decisions to boycott certain businesses. However she also explained how many minority-owned businesses would be negatively affected by the decision to no longer shop at the large retailers she and so many other Black entrepreneurs work with.
“If we all decide to boycott and [say] ‘no, we are not spending any money at these organizations,’ listen– I get it – and if that’s how you feel, I 1,000 percent get it…but so many of us will be affected. Everyone does not have the funds or the means or the space to house their own products,” she said. “The thing that concerns me the most is if we all decide to stop supporting said businesses and say ‘I can’t buy nothing from there…’ they can
The new administration is making its mark by rolling back regulations that protect the environment, leaving Americans exposed to cancer-causing chemicals such as formaldehyde.
based materials can release the chemical into indoor air, where concentrations are often the highest — it is found in outdoor air, too. And the highest levels of formaldehyde in outdoor air are found in urban environments, where car exhaust, factories and power plants contribute to emissions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts indoor levels at between 0.02 parts per million and 4 pm,
with the outdoor urban air at 0.001 to 0.02 ppm. In other words, being outside in a city can mean continuing to get a “low” level of indoor exposure even with the fresh air.
than the local average, while White communities have below-average emissions.
percent higher concentrations — with 44 percent of formaldehyde emissions coming from petroleum and other industrial sources — while White residents “were exposed to below average HCHO [formaldehyde] concentrations in all domains because their homes were located further from primary HCHO emission sources.”
But despite what Trump may say about clean air, he has a track record from his first term as president, when formaldehyde regulation also came up as an issue at the EPA. What transpired doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
then remove those products from the shelves and then put their preferred businesses on the shelves.”
While many have agreed with Brown, her video has also received a significant amount of backlash, with some Black consumers labeling her message and request to patronize the Black businesses of Target as “inappropriate,” given talks of a full boycott.
“I’m not gonna lie, this is a little disingenuous,” said Michael Mcmanus, in response to Brown’s video on Instagram. “The number of Black business owners in these stores is far fewer than the number of black people being impacted by the decisions made by these companies.”
Meanwhile, fellow Black business owners and fans of Brown came to her defense.
“[I] definitely understand and can relate as someone who has had products in [Target]. My t-shirts sold out within days and unfortunately I wasn’t brought back on board,” said Ashley Price. “Fortunately I am able to pivot and continue to sell online from my own store, but of course having retail recognition is always a win.”
Despite a shifting social and economic landscape, the companies continuing their DEI work are a shining example of how to push forward in the fight for equity.
Several customers shared how much they appreciate Costco’s intentionality when it comes to continuing their DEI initiatives.
“As a consumer, I deeply value Costco’s commitment to DEI. I feel safe and secure knowing that the organization prioritizes creating an environment that aligns with my values and caters to my needs,” said Cameron McQueen of Orlando, Fla. “Sharing the same principles with Costco assures me that I’m being heard and respected as a customer. The actions of the organization shows me that they prioritize not just what’s best for them, but what’s best for me and other consumers. This strengthens a relationship that feels more personal than transactional, which is why I will continue to support and return to Costco.”
Other Costco members shared similar sentiments, noting the DEI decision by the company has caused a rush back to their stores.
“Costco has continued to put effort and support towards Black and Brown communities, as well as other groups that need a space to feel comfortable while they get their daily necessities. They have shown time and time again that they will stand against policies that are implemented by the government that wants to tear down said communities,” Sydnee Smith of Columbus, Ohio told the AFRO. “They’ve demonstrated that they are for the people and that they will continue to be for the people despite the actions of this current presidential cabinet and for that reason alone I will remain a Costco member.”
“The public health risks from formaldehyde are greater and more prevalent than widely understood.”
In parts of the country where there are both lots of heavy industry and significant Black populations, like southeast Texas, this plays out in a familiar way: Black neighborhoods (as well as Latinx and Asian communities) are exposed to higher levels of formaldehyde
A study published last year in the journal American Chemical Society looked at racial disparities in formaldehyde exposures in and around Beaumont, Texas.
The city, just east of Houston, is nearly half Black, and is home to an ExxonMobil refinery, as well as other petrochemical facilities. The researchers found that Black residents in Beaumont had 7
In 2018, the agency’s deputy assistant administrator for research and development was David Dunlap, who had previously worked for Koch Industries. In his role at EPA, Dunlap worked on risk assessments for toxic chemicals, but had said on multiple occasions that he would recuse himself from working on the formaldehyde assessment because his former employer is one of the leading producers of the chemical. But records made available by the Freedom of Information Act show that Dunlap only stepped away from that assessment after working on it in at least two instances — and on the day he signed his recusal documents, the agency killed the formaldehyde risk assessment altogether.
This article was originally published by Word In Black.
Unsplash/ Matt Boitor
BALTIMORE-AREA
Commentary
A peoplefirst plan to balance the budget and ‘leave no one behind’
By Gov. Wes Moore
I grew up shaped by broken laws and broken policies.
I lived in a majority Black and Brown community that was overpoliced. My father died when I was three years old from a rare but curable condition because he was overlooked by our health care system. My mother had to work multiple jobs to support me and my sisters, hunting for employment in a job market that pushed women of color to the margins.
This was the context of my youth, and as a result, I began to think that lawmakers didn’t always make decisions with me, my neighbors and my loved ones in mind – whether it be on issues related to public safety, education or the economy. With that skepti-
AP Photo / Daniel Kucin Jr. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says education, tax reform and “work, wages and wealth” are all top priorities when it comes to balancing the state’s budget. Shown here, Moore, speaking at the Dundalk Marine Terminal on Oct. 29, 2024 in Baltimore.
the organization’s semi-annual student showcase, which allows Baltimore youths to present their video games and
From video game design to
cybersecurity: How
Code in the
Schools
is shaping Baltimore’s future innovators
By Megan Sayles AFRO Staff Writer msayles@afro.com
On a Saturday afternoon students from across Baltimore City Public Schools come together at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Their task for the day? Create a video game, complete with heroes, villains or whatever their young minds can conjure up. Working in teams, the students use code to bring their virtual worlds to life. The annual meet, called the “Game Jam” is the brainchild of husband and wife team Gretchen and Michael LeGrand. Back in 2013, the pair launched Code in the Schools, to introduce underserved
“Video game design is still a very strong part of our curriculum as it’s the thing that a lot of students are interested in, but cybersecurity is something that we’re growing as the industry in our region grows.”
Baltimore youth to computer programming. The couple pulled from their respective backgrounds in education, mental health and video game development experts to design a curriculum that would prepare Baltimore City Public School students for higher education and careers pathways in technology and circumvent the structural barriers that often keep Black and Brown students from pursuing tech professions.
Though Gretchen LeGrand stepped down from the organization in 2023, she has handed over control to co-executive directors Dianne Conley, Andrew Pham and Stephanie Alphee. Even with over a decade of educating students under its
Baltimore DPW workers speak out on poor conditions: ‘They care more about trash than they care about us’
By Megan Sayles AFRO Staff Writer msayles@afro.com
Forty-five-year-old Djorrel Dunn was a laborer for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) for 18 years before deciding that something needed to change. He had no choice. Dunn says the job’s physical toll on his body left him on the operating table on three separate occasions due to elbow, knee and shoulder injuries.
While on light duty after his third surgery, Dunn decided to obtain his Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). He needed reprieve from working behind the truck. The 10 hours of manual labor had simply become too much.
“It’s a real physical job, and it’s like they don’t care about us,” said Dunn. “They care more about trash than they care about us.”
The Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) has been under scrutiny for substandard working conditions following the onthe-job deaths of two waste workers, Ronald Silver II and Timothy Cartwell. Both men died just months apart from each other in 2024, with Silver succumbing to heat in August and Cartwell crushed to death in November.
Baltimore Peace Movement to celebrate life with first ceasefire weekend of 2025
By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
Back in 2017, a group of community leaders came together to address escalating gun violence in the city of Baltimore. They wanted to deter violence and bloodshed and instead inspire peace and fellowship amongst residents. Thus, the Baltimore Peace Movement- first known as Baltimore Ceasefire- was born.
Under the organization, founding members Erricka Bridgeford, Letrice Grant, Ogun Gordy, Jakia Jason, Michelle Shellers and Darnyle Wharton organized ceasefire weekends that called for 72 hours of peace. The first observance took place in August 2017, and since then Peace Promise Weekends have been held quarterly each year.
“The premise of it was to have so many events happening in the city that were advocating peace, happiness and love that nobody would want to do anything violent,” said Wharton. “Instead of just telling people to put down the guns, we wanted people to be
Ogun Gordy
Darnyle Wharton are the founding members of Baltimore Peace
formerly known as Baltimore Ceasefire. The organization holds Peace Promise Weekends each quarter of the year, encouraging Baltimoreans to have 72 hours without any violence.
able to be around people of like minds and like hearts.” Baltimore Peace Movement collaborated with other nonprofits and community leaders to fill the Peace Promise Weekends with events, like barbecues, basketball tournaments and marches.
The organization’s name was changed a couple years ago to pull focus away from the murders in the city and put emphasis on the power and promise of peace. Over the years, it has named schools, like Creative City Public Charter School, Peace Movement Schools. This designation means that the institution commits itself to holding events for students and the community during Peace Promise Weekends.
It’s also grown its ambassador program to enable more individuals to hold gather-
ings during the weekends.
This year, the Baltimore Peace Movement intends to forge relationships with local churches to put on their own peace events and promote peace to their congregation.
In recent years, Baltimore has seen a reduction in gun
ment to achieve this, but he also stressed the importance of recognizing Baltimoreans themselves.
“Instead of just telling people to put down the guns, we wanted people to be able to be around people of like minds and like hearts.”
violence. In 2023, it experienced a 20 percent drop in homicides, and in 2024 it experienced a 23 percent decrease. This marked the lowest levels of homicides since 2015. Wharton applauded the work of local govern-
“It’s the community of people who chose to be peaceful. You can have all the crime plans and do all of the prosecutions that you want, and that’s a great thing,” said Wharton. “But, if the people are not going to be peaceful, you’re going to continue to get violence.”
See below for a snapshot
Continued on B3
Photo courtesy of Code in the Schools
Stephanie Alphee (left) and Andrew Pham, two of three co-executives of the Code in the Schools program, give remarks at
coding projects to others.
Photo courtesy of Darnyle Wharton
(left), Jakia Jason, Erricka Bridgeford, Letrice Grant, Michelle Shellers and
Movement,
CASH Campaign of Maryland announces Baltimore City and County locations for free tax preparation
By Megan Sayles AFRO Staff Writer msayles@afro.com
The Creating Assets, Savings and Hope (CASH) Campaign of Maryland announced its Baltimore City and Baltimore County locations for free tax preparation services on Jan. 31 at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Individuals or households who earned $67,000 or less in 2024 are eligible for the service but must make an appointment ahead of time.
The free tax preparation will run until the end of tax season, April 15, but the CASH Campaign of Maryland urged people not to wait.
“It is our goal to help eligible Marylanders get all the tax credits and refunds they deserve including the Earned Income
“These are difficult times for many, which is why CASH is a strong advocate in Annapolis for programs and tax credits that help lift up low-to-moderate income Marylanders.”
Tax Credit (EITC), now in its 50th year of helping hard-working taxpayers move out of poverty. Maryland’s own EITC and Child Tax Credit put funds back into the pockets of those who need it most, as well as the economy,” said Co-founders Robin McKinney and Sara Johnson in a Jan. 31 statement. “These are difficult times for many, which is why CASH is a strong advocate in Annapolis for programs and tax credits that help lift up low-to-moderate income Marylanders. As we always say, ‘Earn It, Keep It, Save It.’”
Last year, the CASH Campaign of Maryland served more than 7,500 households in Baltimore, racking up over $11.7 million in federal and state refunds for taxpayers. Individuals can call 410-234-8008 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. or go to www.bmorefreetaxes.org to schedule an appointment.
Code in the Schools
Continued from B1
belt, Alphee says the organization’s work is only expanding.
“Video game design is still a very strong part of our curriculum as it’s the thing that a lot of students are interested in, but cybersecurity is something that we’re growing as the industry in our region grows,” said Alphee. “We’re also doing a lot of stuff around traditional coding, web development and app development, and we’re adding things like cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence.”
Code in the Schools initiatives include the Prodigy Program, an after-school computer science education course; CodeWorks, a summer experience in partnership with Baltimore City YouthWorks to enhance workplace-ready tech skills for residents aged 14 to 21; and Game Jam, a video game design competition.
Within the Prodigy Program, students choose from tracks, including game development, data science, 3D printing and cybersecurity. Many of the tracks prepare participants to pursue industry-level certifications in cyber, networking and information technology.
In October, Code in the Schools was awarded $200,000 from the Baltimore Digital Equity fund to advance its work in training and certifying the city’s young people in information technology.
“Through this leadership change, we’re trying to think about what our students need in this post-COVID educational landscape. Now that they have a really robust understanding of what coding and computer science is, we have career pathways for them,” said Alphee. “If they’re just looking to keep their technology skills sharp and use them to work at the port, drive a bus, become a doctor or be an IT professional, we want to make sure those pathways are accessible to them. They [must] have the computer science skills to participate in our economy.”
At times, Baltimore City youth face negative perceptions, engendering low expectations about their achievements and capabilities. Al-
Photo courtesy of CASH Campaign of Maryland Individuals and households who earned $67,000 or less in 2024 are now eligible for the Creating Assets, Savings and Hope (CASH) Campaign of Maryland’s free tax preparation services. Appointments can be made at 10 locations across Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
The CASH Campaign of Maryland’s 2025 locations include:
Baltimore City
Central Enoch Pratt Free Library 400 Cathedral St. Baltimore, MD 21201
University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Community Engagement Center 16 South Poppleton St. Baltimore, MD 21201
Center for Urban Families 2201 North Monroe St. Baltimore, MD 21217
Morgan State University School of Business 1700 East Cold Spring Lane Baltimore, MD 21251
Loyola Clinical Center 5911 York Road, #100 Baltimore, MD 21212
The Weinberg Y in Waverly 900 East 33rd St. Baltimore, MD 21218
We Are CASA 2706 Pulaski Highway Baltimore, MD 21224
Baltimore County
Baltimore County Public Library Randallstown Branch 8604 Liberty Rd. Randallstown, MD 21133
Department of Social Services 6401 York Rd. Baltimore, 21212
University of Maryland Baltimore County’s Apartment Community Center 1000 Hilltop Circle Catonsville, MD 21250
Photo courtesy of Code in the Schools
Code in the Schools’ flagship program, the Prodigy Program, enables students to select from computer science tracks, including video game development, cybersecurity, computer networking and physical computing. The organization was created to connect Baltimore’s underserved and underrepresented young people to higher education and careers in technology.
phee explained that if a person limits or relegates a student’s potential to stereotypes, they spur a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“The news media does a great job of telling Baltimore students who they are and what they’re capable of,” said Alphee. “We have to be louder than that. We have to drown out that noise because I have never seen a Baltimore student who wasn’t capable, amazing and could do all of the things they wanted to do despite their circumstances. I’ve only ever seen Baltimore as the most fertile ground for dreams to grow.”
Brandon Carter, a senior at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, became a part of Code in the Schools programming when he was in the
seventh grade. His mom noticed his interest in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and urged him to join the organization.
He said his affinity for the subjects sparked when he was given an interactive robot that introduced him to coding and artificial intelligence. Carter, a participant in the Prodigy Program, wanted to understand the technology and hardware that made the robot work.
Over the years, he said he’s been able to further his understanding of computer programming.
“I thought this was the only place where I would be able to learn coding,” said Carter. “This year, I started taking a class at my school
that teaches Java [programming], and I’m actually finding that I can take some of the information I’m learning at my school and apply it here.”
Currently, he’s designing an explorative video game that challenges players to survive while being pushed around the ocean.
“I am actually going to try to continue doing game development as a side hobby because I want to get better at it,” said Carter. “I plan to get into some form of engineering in the future.”
25-year-old Faith Gibson’s first experience with Code in the Schools was two years ago as part of DataTrail, an education initiative spearheaded by the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health. The paid, 14-week course introduces young adults, high school students and GED-graduates to data collection, analysis and interpretation.
After completing the program, Gibson decided she wanted to try another CodeWorks track, game development. It had been a life dream of hers to create her own video game, and she jumped at the opportunity to join the summer course.
“I had absolutely zero knowledge whatsoever about coding,” said Gibson. “The best experience I had was modifying games.”
Though a novice, Gibson’s instructor placed her in the advanced class. She spent time programming a game opponent and doing 3D modeling. Today, Gibson is a part of the Prodigy Program, and she was able to unveil her game, Tiger Express, during Code in the Schools’ showcase on Jan. 23.
In Tiger Express, the player’s wife has forgotten to bring her lunch to work. As traffic is heavy in the city, the player takes to the rooftops to deliver their wife’s lunch on time, dashing across roofs, hopping along balconies and climbing ladders.
Gibson said the sense of community, boost in self-confidence, focus on critical thinking and fun have kept her engaged with Code in the Schools. In spite of the headaches that debugging can cause, she believes the experience has helped her understand her potential.
“It’s very uplifting to realize that I’m more capable and smarter than I tend to think I am. If I’m met with a hard problem, I can overcome it in a reasonable amount of time,” said Gibson. “It’s been more of a journey of discovering myself. Along with building my game up to how I want it to be, I’m also building myself up to how I want to be.”
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBC Universal.
A pledge for peace
Continued from B1
of the events happening during Baltimore Peace Movement’s February Peace Promise Weekend: Peace Movement Opening Rally
Hosted by Brigit Molony and Lynijah Forman, this event will kick off Baltimore Peace Movement’s first Peace Promise Weekend of 2025 in West Baltimore. Community members are invited to join the Baltimore Peace Movement squad and ambassadors to celebrate positivity and promote peace in the city.
Date: Feb. 7
Time: 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Location: Mt. Holly and Edmondson Ave. Baltimore, MD 21229
Sacred Space Ritual for Brian Reed Sacred Space Rituals exist to pour love and light into a place where violence resulted in a loss of life. Brian Reed, 59, died by gun violence on Jan. 18, 2025. Community members are invited to celebrate his life and his transition in Northwest Baltimore.
Date: Feb. 8
Time: 11:09 a.m. - 11:39 a.m.
Location: 5600 Groveland Ave. Baltimore, MD 21215
DPW workers
Continued from B1
Prior to the deaths, Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming issued a scathing report after visiting DPW facilities and observing what she described as “dangerous conditions.”
Now, co-workers of Silver and Cartwell are coming forward with their own concerns, ranging from unfair compensation to retaliation from supervisors for reporting workplace injuries.
“When I was a laborer, we would get threatened when we would call out sick or get hurt behind the truck. We would have to go on light duty, and they started treating us badly,” said Dunn. “They would take you off of your main truck. It was like we were in the doghouse.”
Today, Dunn is a solid waste driver, but he remem-
bers enduring harsher treatment from his supervisors in his former position. He also said he’s still grieving the untimely, preventable deaths of his colleagues.
Silver, 36, died of hyperthermia, a heat-related illness, in August 2024 as temperatures climbed to 100 degrees. Cartwell, 60, was crushed by a trash truck in November.
“I just try to be as safe as I can and keep my men as safe as I can,” said Dunn.
Like Dunn, Kevin Hill attempted to receive his CDL to become a truck driver for the department. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful. When he arrived for training he was instead removed from the class. He still does not know the reason why.
“The only thing I know is that when I came to class, the
A people-first plan
Continued from B1
cism as my earliest foundation, I have tried to ensure that decisions I make as governor are informed by a simple but powerful question: “What will this choice mean for Marylanders who have felt overlooked and left behind, just like I did as a young man?”
That guiding principle has taken on profound significance as Maryland weathers the worst fiscal challenge our state has seen in at least 20 years – even worse than that of the Great Recession. In meeting the demands of the moment, I knew that Marylanders deserved more than band-aid solutions to big problems. We need to make strategic, targeted changes that both address our current fiscal predicament and make life better for our children, workers and families in the long-run. That is exactly what we’ve delivered.
Our proposal to balance the budget will help build an economy that grows the middle class and gives everyone a pathway to work, wages and wealth. At the center of our plan is a policy-backed commitment to get Maryland’s economy growing again. When Marylanders own more than they owe, when entrepreneurs can get their vision for a company off the ground, and when the racial wealth gap narrows, all of us win. I want Maryland to be the best place for everyone to start a business and contribute to our economic growth – no matter their background.
We have proposed $750 million for investments in economic development, to make Maryland more business-friendly and uplift the ambitions of both current and future entrepreneurs. These strategic investments go handin-hand with legislation we are introducing to reform the procurement process and streamline public services that help Marylanders start a business.
As we make it easier for Marylanders to leave their fingerprints on our state’s economic narrative, we also have an obligation to nurture the next generation of workers, leaders and visionaries. That’s why our budget plan increases funding for K-12 education and continues to advance priorities laid out in the Blueprint for
lost their lives to gun violence in January and a viewing of Baltimore-based documentary “The Body Politic.”
Sacred Space Ritual for Richie Briggs Richie Briggs, 36, died by gun violence on Jan. 9, 2025. Community members are invited to memorialize the life of Briggs and support his loved ones in Northeast Baltimore.
Date: Feb. 8
Time: 2:40 p.m. - 3:10 p.m.
Location: 5900 Daywalt Ave. Baltimore, MD 21206
“The Body Politic” Film Viewing and Discussion
This documentary, made by Baltimore director Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, follows Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott during his first year in office. It depicts Scott’s efforts to implement a new violence reduction plan to combat escalating gun violence in the city. Community members are invited to watch the film and discuss it on Zoom.
Date: Feb. 9
Time: 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Location: Hosted by Baltimore Community Mediation Center virtually For a Zoom link to watch the film, please visit https://baltimorepeacemovement.com/calendar and click on details listed for the Feb. 9 event, “The Body Politic Film Viewing and Discussion.”
Zoom Meeting ID: 898 0016 5947
Zoom Passcode: 625504
instructor told me that ‘they’ told him to put me out of the class. I wasn’t going to argue with the man,” said Hill. “I just left.”
The AFRO reached out to DPW with an interview request to discuss the complaints heard from Baltimore City’s DPW workers. While a statement was promised, as of Jan. 28 no comment from DPW had been received by the publication.
Hill told the AFRO it wasn’t the only time he was denied opportunities to advance within the agency.
“This has been ongoing. I’ve never had an interview for anything I’ve [applied] for since 2017,” said Hill. “Somehow, all the departments have ‘lost’ my paperwork.”
He maintains that during
Department of
his 13 years with DPW, he has always arrived an hour early and has never missed a day of work.
Hill shared email correspondence he sent to American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local #44 leadership with the AFRO, showing his attempts to understand why he was kicked out of the CDL class.
summer to denounce the department for its poor working conditions, and he’s continued to advocate for better treatment.
He said there has been some progress made as a result of the media frenzy sparked by the deaths of Silver and Cartwell.
Maryland’s Future. At the same time, I am introducing legislation to fix the teacher shortage and ensure every Maryland student gets the attention they need to thrive. Education is the foundation on which we build everything else and must take priority.
Another key element of our strategy is reforming the tax code to make it simpler, fairer and pro-growth. For the third year in a row, we will not raise the sales tax or the property tax, and we are closing corporate tax loopholes to help lower the corporate tax rate and generate business activity. We are doubling Maryland’s standard deduction and expanding the Child Tax Credit, which directly benefits working-class households. Nearly two-thirds of Marylanders will receive a tax cut. In fact, 82 percent of Marylanders will see either a tax cut or no change in their taxes at all.
While we work to grow the economy and ease the strain on pocketbooks, we are also taking additional steps to narrow the budget gap. We have proposed targeted spending cuts and are asking us Marylanders who have done exceptionally well financially to invest a little more to make sure we have the country’s best public schools and continue to see historic decreases in violent crime. These decisions weren’t easy. But they will help us live within our means and have the resources to invest in key priorities like economic growth, education and public safety. No matter the hurdle, we must stay laser-focused on Maryland’s greatest asset: our people. Our budget proposal meets that test. In partnership with the Maryland General Assembly, we are proving what a government of action looks like – one that is responsive to the needs of our communities and crafts policies rooted in our shared vision of a state big enough for the aspirations of all. At every stage of assembling this budget plan, I have asked: “What will this choice mean for Marylanders who have felt overlooked and left behind?” The answer is now clear: More money in your pocket, more pathways to a good-paying job and more opportunities to turn an idea into a business.
Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) employees say they are concerned with substandard pay, nepotism, unfair treatment and work conditions at the agency. The department has been under fire following the on-the-job deaths of two DPW waste workers, Ronald Silver II and Timothy Cartwell, both of whom died just months apart in August and November 2024, respectively.
He also asked union leadership to explain why he hadn’t been selected to interview for new positions and how his applications were lost. The emails were sent in May, June and July 2024. As of January 2025, Hill says he has still not received a reply to any of his inquiries.
Hill alleges that some hires in the agency have been a result of nepotism, with candidates securing roles they are unqualified to do.
“I need them to get rid of everybody who shouldn’t even be there,” said Hill. “Check their qualifications and see how they really got there.”
Stancil McNair, an employee of DPW for 13 years, took to social media last
“I don’t want anybody to think that they haven’t made any changes,” said McNair. “They did do a lot of training as far as the supervisors, but at the same time, this is like a wound that’s been opened for so long that it’s infected. Now you have to get all of the infection out before you can close the wound up.”
Right now, McNair said his biggest issue is the pay he and his co-workers receive. Currently, he makes $21 an hour, but he’s started a side hustle making logos and murals to offset his living expenses.
“With the cost of living going up, we are not getting raises. We are basically working for nothing,” said McNair. “People are really fighting for overtime to make it. That’s how bad it is.”
Photo courtesy of Darnyle Wharton
The next Baltimore Peace Movement Peace Promise Weekend is Feb. 7-9. It will kick off with a rally in Edmondson Village and include Sacred Space Rituals for those who
Photo courtesy of the Meta (Facebook) / Baltimore City
Public Works
Coppin State hosts 27th Annual Basketball Academy
By AFRO Staff
The 27th annual Basketball Academy was held on Jan. 25 at Coppin State University’s Physical Education Complex, located at 2523 Gwynns Falls Parkway. The event provided younger athletes an opportunity to hone their skills in a sports clinic, while high school players were given a chance to compete against other teams.
Each year, Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) hosts the Basketball Academy, which BCPS officials describe as a program “dedicated to enriching the lives of young people and increasing opportunities for inner-city youth in and around the Baltimore metropolitan area.”
This year’s matchups featured several intense games. Loch Raven edged out Poly, 54-52. Archbishop Curley narrowly defeated Benjamin Franklin, 45-44. Edmondson-Westside High School dominated Chesapeake High School, 8844, while Baltimore City College secured a victory against Oxon Hill, 72-38.
The Basketball Academy aims to expand opportunities for young athletes by providing programs that enhance their skills while promoting sportsmanship, education, mentoring and personal development, according to BCPS.
Since its founding in 1997, the Basketball Academy has served approximately 12,600 students. More than $146,000 in scholarships has been awarded to student participants.
Chris Cummings, a student at Perry Hall Middle School, sharpens his skills on the court.
Coach Darryl Wade serves as director of the Basketball Academy’s clinic.
Khalil McCollough takes part in the basketball clinic activities for younger students.
Brian Cosby, of Deep Creek Middle School, goes for a basket.
Coaches Tiffany Silver and Timmy Daughton take part in the sports clinic offered to middle school students at the 2025 Basketball Academy.
Coach Sam Brand, of The Sanctuary Collective, gives directions.
Diane Leach (left) and Darnetta “Toots” Heath serve as Basketball Academy committee members.
Archbishop Curley High School’s Miguel Davis (#4) (left) looks on as teammates Greate White (#5), Giampaolo Tripodi (#24) and Dante Watkins II (#2) try to block Cedric Harville (#0) (center), of Benjamin Franklin High School, from taking a shot at the basket.
David Talley Sr. (left) enjoys the tournament with his children David Talley Jr. and Heaven Talley.
Sian Tucker (left) enjoys the game with her father and brother, Larry (center) and Sage Tucker.
Omar Smith (#1) shoots a free throw for Baltimore City College.
AFRO Photos/ James Fields
After schools burn, what happens to Black students?
The destruction in Altadena and Los Angeles could mean kids there will deal with a variety of academic and mental health challenges
By Quintessa Williams Word in Black
When Inez Moore’s father called her after a long day, she couldn’t believe what she had just heard: “We lost the house.” Thirty years of family memories were “gone in an instant,” says Moore, a professor in the College of Education at Cal State, Fullerton.
Both the Eaton Fire that destroyed large swaths of Altadena — a historically Black community in Los Angeles’ northeast suburbs — and the Palisades Fire, which razed the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on the Westside of L.A., impacted Moore’s family.
The Eaton Fire destroyed Moore’s childhood home in Altadena. The Palisades fire burned Pacific Palisades Charter High School, the high school she was bussed nearly 40 miles away to attend. “This didn’t just hit the woods or the mountains — it reached our neighborhoods, impacting our lives and our schools,” she says.
At least 10 schools across the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Pasadena Unified School District, serving Altadena, have been severely damaged or destroyed. PUSD has been closed since Jan. 8. Schools in LAUSD and other area districts are temporarily closed due to evacuation orders and the poor air quality caused by toxic smoke and ash.
The reality is that climate change is no longer just a science class lesson — education’s new normal now involves shuttering schools, displacing families, and deepening the racial inequities that have long plagued America’s education system.
And when disasters like these fires strike, not everyone suffers equally. Students in Black communities like Altadena are facing a triple threat: the burden of displacement that disrupts their education, increased risk of PTSD, and limited access to resources and federal aid.
Schools burned, students and families displaced
Each year, about 7.4 million children across the United States are affected by wildfires. A large portion of these kids are in California. In 2018, over 1 million California students missed school due to wildfires, with the most vulnerable facing compounded challenges such as missed meals and learning loss, according to an analysis of California Department of Education data by CalMatters.
The academic impact of disasters such as wildfires can be profound. Extended school closures often lead to significant learning loss, especially for Black, low-income families who are already falling behind their peers at an alarming rate. Studies from the National Center for Homeless Education reported that children affected by natural disasters are at a greater risk of chronic absenteeism, lower test scores, and higher drop-
out rates. These impacts could be even further heightened for students displaced by disasters.
Moore understands this reality. “Much like during the pandemic, these students are losing access to stable learning environments,” she says. “If they’re displaced, where are they supposed to go?”
Black communities also often bear the brunt of natural disasters like wildfire devastation. According to a report by the National Equity Atlas, communities of color are more likely to live in areas with fewer resources to mitigate disaster impacts, making recovery more difficult and prolonged. That means schools in those neighborhoods, which are often underfunded, will also face significant hurdles in rebuilding afterward.
“A general perception is that communities most affected by wildfires are affluent people living in rural and suburban communities near forested areas,” the report’s lead author, Ian Davies, a graduate student at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, told Nature. “But there are actually millions of people who live in areas with a high wildfire potential and are very poor or don’t have access to vehicles or other resources, making it difficult to adapt or recover from a wildfire disaster.”
Communities that are mostly black, Hispanic, or Native American have been found to experience a “50 percent greater vulnerability to wildfires compared with other communities,” Davies said.
Lasting trauma
Beyond the classroom, the trauma of losing everything — homes, belongings, schools — can
have lasting effects on children’s mental health.
“Many of these kids have never experienced this kind of loss before,” Moore says. “They’ve lost their clothes, their toys, their computers. For a child, it feels like they’ll never recover.”
According to The Society for Research in Child Development, “As many as 50% of children report post-traumatic stress symptoms after experiencing a disaster, such as recurring thoughts about the disaster, hypervigilance, or difficulty concentrating.” The organization reports that “trauma exposure can alter brain anatomy and functioning, inhibiting learning and memory processes, which can interfere with learning at school.”
However, accessing mental health resources, especially culturally competent therapists, remains an uphill battle for Black children and families. The American Psychological Association reports that only 3% of psychologists across the nation are Black, despite the unique cultural and systemic factors that often influence mental health experiences in the Black community.
“It’s going to be emotional for our students. I can only imagine that maybe they think: ‘Will it happen again?’ or ‘Am I safe?’” Denisha Jordan, a teacher at Valley Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in LAUSD, told Education Week.
A system stacked against us
A significant factor in these challenges for Black communities is the disparity in federal aid distribution. A 2022 report from the Center for American Progress found that predominantly Black neighborhoods received less FEMA funding than White neighborhoods for similar levels
of damage.
For instance, Moore’s father, who lived in their family home for over 30 years, recently faced hurdles when filing an initial FEMA application, which she says was denied because he had insurance. “Insurance companies are overwhelmed and have yet to send assessors to affected areas. Without specific documentation from the insurance company, FEMA assistance is stalled. It’s hurdle after hurdle,” she explains.
Moore also notes that communities like Altadena would likely suffer financially more than wealthier suburbs because many people don’t have the resources to experience navigating complex bureaucratic systems.
“You’re going to have some folks who are not going to get as much as they deserve, and some folks who may get more than actually they need,” she says.
The consequences of such systemic issues further accelerate racial wealth inequality — where studies show that White residents living in counties struck by natural disasters see their wealth increase by as much as five times the rates of White people not struck by natural disasters. Meanwhile, Black communities lose wealth in the wake of these disasters. They experience less investment, longer waits on funding, and even struggle to receive public assistance to meet their disaster-based needs.
This disparity, in turn, ends up affecting schools’ ability to reopen and students’ ability to resume their education.
Feeling the effects for years to come
Isaac Opper, a senior economist for the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institution, told Education Week that the mental, emotional, and academic damage of these fires will be seen in students for years to come.
“Figuring out how to mitigate that damage, though, will be an ongoing challenge for educators, as climate change causes more severe and frequent disasters,” said Opper, who has studied the effect of natural disasters on people. “A highly-decentralized education system means there’s not tons of communication across districts and across states, on what the best practices are.” Disasters like these fires could catalyze people to work together to “repair and mediate the effects.”
As for Moore, her parents are safe with her at her home in Riverside, California. “My family, we’re lucky to have a place to stay and each other to lean on,” she says. “But the road ahead isn’t easy. Recovering from this isn’t just about rebuilding homes — it’s about healing, regaining stability, and ensuring our children and families don’t fall through the cracks in the aftermath of such a devastating loss.”
This article was originally published by WordinBlack.
From problem child to education equity warrior
By Aziah Siid Word In Black
Growing up in South Los Angeles, Chase Moore experienced first-hand the challenges many Black boys face in school: disciplinary suspensions and being labeled a “problem” student — prime entry points for the school-toprison pipeline.
Football became Moore’s escape route. He was a high school star, and played for the University of Texas Longhorns, a college powerhouse. His campus activism in Austin and passion for education policy, however, started Moore on a path that led to a job as special advisor to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
His remarkable journey, however, will end in about five days, when President Joe Biden leaves office and Cardona goes with him. With President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to dismantle the Ed Department — and his choice of Linda McMahon, a businesswoman with little experience in education, to replace Cardona — Moore is worried about what comes next for himself, as well as the young Black boys he fought for, like the one he used to be.
“For me and many others, January 20 is my last day working for the federal government, so that means that a lot of people are not just nervous about the work that they’ve been working on, but actually their livelihood,” says Moore, equity lead of the White House
end, advice Moore has taken to heart.
“We had an emergency meeting with some of our higher-ups at the Department of Education, and they were essentially reinforcing that we had an expiration date, but we have an opportunity to run a hell of a race for the next 80 days,” Moore recalled.
After dedicating years of networking and research on building more equitable education systems under the Ed Department’s Black Initiative, Moore is not optimistic about what comes next, but he plans to continue the work. And he has advice for parents, teachers and private citizens on how to push back on Trump’s more harmful education policies.
Local elections matter
Black Initiative. “How are they going to pay rent? What (does) their next step look like?” Moore’s job as special advisor to Cardona is to coordinate programs, initiatives and activities for districts across the country aimed at addressing educational inequalities that hold back Black K-12 students from reaching their potential. Last fall after the election, Cardona and other leaders in the department promised themselves to not get distracted and work until the
The presidential election comes around every four years and gets the lion’s share of attention. But there are other smaller, more local elections where voters can have more of a direct impact. Moore says that’s where the rubber meets the road in school issues; participating in local elections literally gives voters a say in laws and policies that will affect everything from filling potholes to school disciplinary policies.
“It’s very normal in our community — that ‘My vote doesn’t count’ narrative,” Moore says. “If you go to a grocery store, if you go to the barbershop, you’ll find Black people literally saying, ‘My vote doesn’t matter’ right? But it does, and it’s very important,
especially at the local level.”
Citizen groups and other organizations are constantly working behind the scenes on problems and issues that affect their communities — including how schools are run, what resources they lack, what should be on the curriculum and even disciplinary policies.
“We’ll get online on Twitter, Instagram, on Shade Room and we’ll get all upset and mad if some outrageous educational thing happens, such as dismantling Black history,” Moore says. But the problem actually occurred upstream, Moore says, when “we didn’t show up in local elections when we could have voted for a school board member to share our interests.”
Mobilizing and joining coalitions
As part of his Education Department responsibilities, Moore was in frequent contact with progressive edreform organizations like the Zinn Education Project and We Need Diverse Books, among others. Connecting with those nonprofit groups can help parents resist Trump’s education agenda by staying ahead of public education issues, organizing and being proactive against policies that may be harmful or discriminatory towards their children.
“It’s extremely important that we find coalitions nationally, and we find ways to mobilize beyond just the federal government, whether the US Department of Education gets dismantled, whether it does not, no matter what,” Chase says. ”The work still has to get done.”
Those coalitions, he says, should also include partnerships with philanthropic organizations. One example is the latest book ban awareness events conducted by the New York Public Library.
“They got money, they got resources, so how can we still leverage what we do in a different way?” Moore says. That, he says, involves “thinking about national, state, local coalitions and how much further do we have to go — thinking of it in a more strategic way.”
Get a clear picture of what K-12 should be
Working in the Biden Administration while still in his 20s, Moore says his perspective immensely on what actually matters when it comes to understanding the needs of Black students. He believes those who set education policy for disadvantaged students like he was in elementary school needs younger, more credible voices that can have impact.
“The tradition — you got to teach for 30 years at a Title I school to understand said issue doesn’t exist anymore,” he says. “I’ve been in a room where I’m the youngest person, the only black male, but I’m just as qualified, so I definitely want to add the beautiful impact of those that come from different frameworks.”
This article was originally published by
AP Photo/John Locher
A jungle gym melted and destroyed by the Eaton Fire is seen at a school, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Altadena, Calif.
Photo courtesy of Meta (Facebook)/ California Association of Black School Educators Chase Moore current special advisor in the U.S. Department of Education makes plain the situation for Black students and the best way to move forward to protect your student.
‘Superwoman’ Towana Looney, the only person in the world with a functioning pig organ, is thriving after a record two months
By Lauran Neergaard
The Associated Press
An Alabama woman passed a major milestone on Jan. 25 to become the longest living recipient of a pig organ transplant – healthy and full of energy with her new kidney for 61 days and counting.
“I’m superwoman,” Towana Looney told The Associated Press, laughing about outpacing family members on long walks around New York City as she continues her recovery. “It’s a new take on life.”
Looney’s vibrant recovery is a morale boost in the quest to make animal-to-human transplants a reality. Only four other Americans have received hugely experimental transplants of gene-edited pig organs – two hearts and two kidneys – and none lived more than two months.
“If you saw her on the street, you would have no idea that she’s the only person in the world walking around with a pig organ inside them that’s functioning,” said Dr. Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health, who led Looney’s transplant.
Montgomery called Looney’s kidney function “absolutely normal.” Doctors hope she can leave New York –where she’s temporarily living for post-transplant checkups – for her Gadsden, Alabama, home in about another month.
“We’re quite optimistic that this is going to continue to work and work well for, you know, a significant period of time,” he said.
Scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike to address a severe shortage of transplantable human organs. More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list,
most who need a kidney and thousands die waiting.
Pig organ transplants so far have been “compassionate use” cases, experiments the Food and Drug Administration allows only in special circumstances for people out of other options.
And the handful of hospitals trying them are sharing information of what worked and what didn’t, in preparation for the world’s first formal studies of xenotransplantation, expected to begin sometime this year. United Therapeutics, which supplied Looney’s kidney, recently asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to begin a trial.
How Looney fares is “very precious experience,” said Dr. Tatsuo Kawai of Massachu-
setts General Hospital, who led the world’s first pig kidney transplant last year and works with another pig developer, eGenesis.
Later pregnancy complications caused high blood pressure that damaged her remaining kidney, which eventually failed, something incredibly
“I love talking to people, I love helping people. I want to be, like, some educational piece for scientists to help others.”
Looney was far healthier than the prior patients, Kawai noted, so her progress will help inform next attempts. “We have to learn from each other,” he said.
Looney donated a kidney to her mother in 1999.
rare among living donors. She spent eight years on dialysis before doctors concluded she’d likely never get a donated organ – she’d developed super-high levels of antibodies abnormally primed to attack another human kidney.
So Looney, 53, sought out the pig experiment. No one knew how it would work in someone “highly sensitized” with those overactive antibodies.
Discharged just 11 days after the Nov. 25 surgery, Montgomery’s team has closely tracked her recovery through blood tests and other measurements. About three weeks after the transplant, they caught subtle signs that rejection was beginning – signs they’d learned to look for thanks to a 2023 experiment when a pig kidney worked for 61 days inside a deceased man whose body was donated for research.
Montgomery said they successfully treated Looney and there’s been no sign of rejection since – and a few weeks
ago she met the family behind that deceased-body research.
“It feels really good to know that the decision I made for NYU to use my brother was the right decision and it’s helping people,” said Mary Miller-Duffy, of Newburgh, New York.
Looney in turn is trying to help others, serving as what Montgomery calls an ambassador for people who’ve been reaching out to her through social media, sharing their distress at the long wait for transplants and wondering about pig kidneys.
One, she said, was being considered for a xenotransplant at another hospital but was scared, wondering whether to proceed.
“I didn’t want to persuade him whether to do or not to do it,” Looney said. Instead she asked if he was religious and urged him to prayer, to “go off your faith, what your heart tells you.”
“I love talking to people, I love helping people,” she added. “I want to be, like, some educational piece,” for scientists to help others.
There’s no way to predict how long Looney’s new kidney will work but if it were to fail she could receive dialysis again.
“The truth is we don’t really know what the next hurdles are because this is the first time we’ve gotten this far,” Montgomery said. “We’ll have to continue to really keep a close eye on her.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Executive order could increase prescription drug prices
By Jennifer Porter Gore Word In Black
In a flurry of executive orders signed just hours after he took office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump rescinded a Biden administration order on prescription drugs — a move that could hike drug prices for millions of Medicare and Medicaid enrollees.
“On average, Americans pay two to three times as much as people in other countries for prescription drugs, and one in four Americans who take prescription drugs struggle to afford their medications.”
At the same time, Trump also reversed Biden’s efforts to make it easier for people to enroll in Medicaid or to get insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Approximately 67 million adults have health coverage through Medicare, and 11 percent of them — just over 7 million — are Black. The vast majority of enrollees are aged 65 and older, but younger people with disabili-
ties are also covered.
The Trump order rescinds an executive order President Joseph Biden signed in 2022 that’s intended to lower the cost of most prescription drugs. It also comes as new polling finds that half of Americans say the federal government isn’t spending enough on Medicare and Medicaid. MSNBC reports that the new administration said the “recission order” is aimed at “deeply unpopular” and “radical” Biden policies.
Drafted in conjunction with the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s order instructed the
federal government to negotiate some prescription drug prices, with a goal of limiting out-ofpocket prescription drug costs for people on Medicare.
Signed into law during Biden’s first term, the IRA included a cap on annual out-of-pocket prescription costs of $2,000, a rule that was to become effective this year. That law also capped insulin costs for Medicare recipients at $35 per month.
“On average, Americans pay two to three times as much as people in other countries for prescription drugs, and one in four Americans who take prescription drugs struggle to afford
their medications,” Biden said when introducing the measure in 2022. “Nearly three in 10 American adults who take prescription drugs say that they have skipped doses, cut pills in half or not filled prescriptions due to cost.”
Trump’s order won’t affect this benefit since it became law through congressional action. But Biden’s executive order also identified a list of prescription drugs that Medicare and Medicaid recipients would have been able to obtain for just a $2 monthly copay. Drugs considered for that list treat diabetes, high cholesterol, and thyroid issues.
Biden’s order also directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to find ways to lower prescription drug costs for recipients. Trump’s Executive Order overturned that move and halted efforts to improve access to high-cost cell and gene therapies.
A recent KFF Health Tracking Poll shows that just over half of respondents (51 percent) believe the rate the federal government is spending is “not enough” on Medicare, and nearly half (46 percent) say the same about the Medicaid program, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll.
The poll finds that, while lawmakers are considering major changes to Medicaid and Medicare — including possible spending cuts — the majority of the public supports the programs. The poll also found that almost twothirds of adults (64 percent) still support the 2010 Affordable Care Act or ACA, frequently known as Obamacare.
This article was originally published by
Word in Black.
AP Photo/ Shelby Lum
Towana Looney, who received a pig kidney transplant in November 2024, goes over notes about her recovery with Dr. Jeffrey Stern at NYU Langone Health.
Unsplash/ National Cancer Institute Protections put in place while President Joe Biden was in office are being rolled back.
After schools burn, LA’s biggest Black church is the classroom
By Aziah Siid Word In Black
When the Palisades wildfires swept through areas of metropolitan Los Angeles in January, they consumed or severely damaged 10 schools in the Pasadena and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Evacuation orders and poor air quality forced schools to remain closed, reminiscent of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But families of displaced students are seeking alternatives to ensure their children’s education won’t backslide into learning loss. L.A.’s Black churches are stepping up to help.
That includes West Angeles Church of God In Christ, a longtime staple of the city’s Black worship community. The Crenshaw Boulevard megachurch is providing educational opportunities for students while schools are closed, helping them stay focused on their work — and offering a distraction from the ongoing disaster.
Deacon John Wilson, director of West Angeles’s Education and Enrichment Program (EEP), says the church is going above and beyond to open its doors to both returning and new students whose education has been disrupted by the fire. The goal, he says, is to be a lifeline for families and students dealing with a series of traumatic events.
West Angeles aims to have “have at least 12 Black students who go to Palisades High School come in,” Deacon Wilson says. “We have a group of Black kids over there, and I reached out to the parent group, and we had some we already knew about who were in our program already on the way.”
Students from neighboring districts will be able to come in from 8
a.m. to 6 p.m. for meals, homework help, technology assistance if their schools are open remotely, and additional emotional support if necessary.
Decades of serving students Beginning in 1991 as a faithfocused program for West Angeles teens, the ministry has evolved to emphasize “academic excellence and enrichment” and has expanded its services beyond church members to include all community residents.
The EEP is specially designed to help middle and high school students navigate the difficult teen years and get the academic and social support they need to go to college. They provide after-school tutoring, summer bridge courses, personal finance seminars, information about STEAMbased careers and more.
“We have all this technology
for them, and we’re gonna have activities,” Wilson says of students affected by the fires. “We are gonna help you with your homework be-
In an executive order, California
Gov. Gavin Newsom has allowed displaced students to attend school outside of their district, making it
“Don’t isolate your kids, and if they’re old enough to understand what’s happening, let them see the news. Let them understand what’s happening. That’s what I’ve told a couple of families already.”
fore you go home, and it’s gonna be a good situation. You’ll meet some new friends. A lot of them will meet people they didn’t know in their schools.”
easier for students of schools damaged or destroyed in the fires to use temporary facilities. The governor has also vowed to help schools avoid penalties for not meeting minimum
Faith leaders work to protect undocumented folks
By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware Word In Black
When the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde stepped up to the pulpit at the traditional presidential inaugural prayer service on Jan. 21, she was focused on one thing: handling business. As the first woman to serve as the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, she confronted President Donald Trump, pleading for mercy on behalf of people she said are terrified by his administration’s hardline immigration plans.
“Millions have put their trust in you,” Budde told Trump at the Washington National Cathedral. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
Budde’s plea reflects a larger anxiety rippling through immigrant communities and faith leaders nationwide after Trump signed
“Millions have put their trust in you. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
a slew of executive orders on immigration, declared a national emergency on the southern U.S. border and announced plans to deploy troops there. He has also threatened to end birthright citizenship and expanded the scope of immigration enforcement to include raids at houses of worship — long viewed as sanctuaries, off-limits to immigration offices.
All of this has left many — including the 6 percent of undocumented immigrants who are Black — scrambling for legal protections and moral support.
Budde went on to list the many vulnerable groups, including LGBTQ children in families of all political backgrounds, farmworkers who “pick our crops and clean our office buildings,” and keep restaurants running.
“They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” she added. “They pay taxes and are good neighbors.”
Budde’s appeal is in step with other faith leaders who have spoken out against the administration’s policies. In an interview, Pope Francis labeled the mass deportation plan “a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing, pay the bill for U.S. problems.”
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, echoed those concerns before Trump took office. During a Jan. 19 pilgrimage in Mexico City.
“For members of faith communities, the threatened mass deportations also leave us with the searing question, ‘What is God telling
us in this moment?’ People of faith are called to speak for the rights of others and to remind society of its obligation to care for those in need,” Cupich said. “If the indiscriminate mass deportation being reported were to be carried out, this would be an affront to the dignity of all people and communities, and deny the legacy of what it means to be an American.”
Disappearing safe spaces
Trump promised his “day one” task would be mass deportations as he sees that as a sure way to, in his words, make America great again. With his new directives, long-standing protections of sanctuary are being eliminated. The term sanctuary applies to places officially designated as such, which means that even people wanted for crimes can hide in those places. Houses of worship have never needed that singular designation, but it has for decades been a forgone conclusion that no law-enforcement of any kind would happen
school year requirements. The order explicitly directs state agencies to work with destroyed or damaged schools to “develop a plan for serving displaced students and rebuilding.”
Keeping students’ spirits up
While parents might want to protect their children from the pain and uncertainty the disaster has wrought, Wilson believes children don’t need to be shielded from difficulties. Rather, he says, parents must be compassionate but realistic: “You know this is a tough situation. We know you miss your friends, but we’re going to try to work this out.’”
At the same time, instead of allowing their kids to languish in unstructured time away from school, Wilson says parents “should try to design time they can spend with their old friends away from the school. Not knowing when they can return to their old routine can be triggering for young people who have just put the pandemic lockdowns behind them.
“This is really tough on kids. You should see what they’re saying on social media,” Wilson says. “They’re saying, ‘Oh, shoot, it’s just like the pandemic. Here we go.’ It’s not a good thing.”
Most importantly, the deacon encourages families to “talk, talk, talk, talk” to their kids. Conversations — even on difficult topics — are better than trying to shield them from the challenges the whole family may face.
“Don’t isolate your kids, and if they’re old enough to understand what’s happening, let them see the news,” he says. “Let them understand what’s happening. That’s what I’ve told a couple of families already.”
This article was originally published by Word In Black.
in a house of worship or a school operated by houses of worship.
But under Trump, raids to grab undocumented immigrants can happen with no notice in places that in the past have been considered safe.
Vashti Murphy McKenzie, president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, said in a statement her organization is “deeply concerned” about the president’s order eliminating safe spaces. If raids start in houses of worship, she warned, “these actions cannot be undone and will have lasting detrimental impacts on the most vulnerable, especially our children.”
The negative impacts “will go far beyond those who ICE is looking to detain and/or deport,” she said. “It will affect families and communities across this country, even those not being targeted. These are certainly not markers of a vital and healthy democracy.”
Erasing birthright citizenship
Trump also announced that under his administration, being born on American soil will not guarantee U.S. citizenship. But the American Civil Liberties Union swiftly vowed to fight any such order, citing the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens.”
“Denying birthright citizenship would deprive countless people of the basic right to vote, serve on juries, hold certain jobs, and be a full member of American society,” the ACLU stated. “It seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans.”
For now, faith communities and immigrant rights groups remain in a state of high alert — preparing legal challenges, offering sanctuary and spiritual support, and calling on the Trump administration to reconsider. In the words of Bishop Budde, they are pleading for the most basic kindness toward people who are simply striving for safety and stability in the only home many of them have ever known.
Unsplash/ Sam Bayle
Faith leaders are speaking up and taking action as the 47th president of the United States targets immigrants for deportation.
Unsplash/ Sam Bayle
Black churches are stepping to fill the gap for these parents and students of California who are looking at uncertainty as they are unable to return to school.
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION 2024FEP000142 MAY 11, 1990 Date of Death JOE DEAN DAVIDSON Name of Decedent
NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGN
PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS
BRYAN T. DAVIDSON AND DANIEL DAVIDSON whose address are 10811 GOLF COURSE TERRACE, MITCHELLVILLE MD 20721 was appointed representative of the estate of JOE DEAN DAVIDSON deceased, by the ORPHAN’S Court for PRINCE GEORGES County, State of MARYLAND, on DECEMBER 11, 2024. Service of process may be made upon 831 INGRAHAM STREET NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20011 whose designation as District of Columbia agent has been filed with the Register of Wills, D.C. The decedent owned the following District of Columbia real property: 827 51ST STREET, SE WASHINGTON DC 20019. Claims against the decedent may be presented to the undersigned and filed with the Register of Wills for the District of Columbia, Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001 within 6 months from the date of first publication of this notice.
Date of first publication: JANUARY 17, 2025 Name of newspaper, and/or periodical: Daily Washington Law Reporter AFRO-American
BRYAN T. DAVIDSON DANIEL DAVIDSON Personal Reperesenative
TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 01/17, 01/24, 01/31/25
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION ADMINISTRATION NO. 2024ADM001497
KENDRICK JON-ALARIC GARY Name of Decedent
VICKEY A. WRIGHT-SMITH 1629 K STREET, NW #300 WASHINGTON, DC 20006 Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs
MARCIA KENNER GRIFFIN, whose address is 112 CIVIL COURT SUFFOLK, VA 23434 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of KENDRICK
JON-ALARIC GARY who died on AUGUST 31, 2023
without a Will and will serve without Court supervision.
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION ADMINISTRATION NO. 2025ADM000007 ANNE E. LEWIS Name of Decedent Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs
ANITA L. BUTLER whose address is 6615 GRAFTON ST, DISTRICT HEIGHTS, MD 20747 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of ANNE E. LEWIS who died on SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 with a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance In this proceeding. Objections to such, appointment shall be filed With the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before JULY 24, 2025. Claims against the decedent shall be presenTed to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before JULY 24, 2025, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.
Date of first publication: JANUARY 24, 2025 Name of newspaper and/or periodical: Washington Law Reporter AFRO American Newspapers
ANITA L. BUTLER Personal Representative
TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 01/24, 01/31, 02/07/25
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION ADMINISTRATION NO. 2024ADM001548
CLYDE RISPUS Name of Decedent Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs
SARDAE RISPUS whose address is 1500 SOUTH-
Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before JULY 17, 2025. Claims against the decedent shall be presenTed to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before JULY 17, 2025, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of first publication: JANUARY 17, 2025 Name of newspaper and/or periodical: Washington Law Reporter AFRO American Newspapers
KECIA HILL Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 01/17, 01/24, 01/31/25
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION ADMINISTRATION NO. 2024ADM1382 GRETA AVIS CROSSLEY Name of Decedent
NATALIE S. WALKER, ESQUIRE 1101 CONNECTICUT AVE., NW, SUITE 402 WASHINGTON, DC 20036 Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs MARCIA C. POWELL, whose address is 135 COLONNADE AVE., SW, ATLANTA, GA 30331 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of GRETA AVIS
All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance In this proceeding. Objections to such, appointment shall be filed With the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before JULY 17, 2025. Claims against the decedent shall be presenTed to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before JULY 17, 2025, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.
Date of first publication: JANUARY 17, 2025
Name of newspaper and/or periodical: Washington Law Reporter AFRO American Newspapers
MARCIA KENNER GRIFFIN Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 01/17, 01/24, 01/31/25
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION ADMINISTRATION NO. 2024ADM001500
MILBERT A. CROSSLAND, SR. AKA
MILBERT CROSSLAND Name of Decedent VICKEY A. WRIGHT-SMITH 1629 K STREET, NW #300 WASHINGTON, DC 20006
Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs
MILBERT A. CROSSLAND, II, whose address is 1147 46TH STREET SE WASHINGTON, DC 20019 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of MILBERT A. CROSSLAND, SR. AKA MILBERT CROSSLAND who died on OCTOBER 13, 2023 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance In this proceeding. Objections to such, appointment shall be filed With the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before JULY 17, 2025. Claims against the decedent shall be presenTed to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before JULY 17, 2025, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of first publication: JANUARY 17, 2025 Name of newspaper and/or periodical: Washington Law Reporter AFRO American Newspapers
MILBERT A. CROSSLAND. II Personal Representative
TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 01/17, 01/24, 01/31/25
VIEW DR APT 313 OXON HILL, MD 20745 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of CLYDE RISPUS who died on NOVEMBER 24, 2017 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance In this proceeding. Objections to such, appointment shall be filed With the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before JULY 24, 2025. Claims against the decedent shall be presenTed to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before JULY 24, 2025, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of first publication: JANUARY 24, 2025 Name of newspaper and/or periodical: Washington Law Reporter AFRO American Newspapers
SARDAE RISPUS Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 01/24, 01/31, 02/07/25
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION ADMINISTRATION NO. 2024ADM001527
FRANK PEPPER LANEY, III Name of Decedent
BERNARD C. COLEMAN, JR. 12240 ROCHESTER DRIVE FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA 22030-6345 Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs
PATRICIA LANEY WILLINGHAM whose address is 5274 BRADGEN COURT, SPRINGFIELD, VA. 22151 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of FRANK PEPPER LANEY, III who died on SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance In this proceeding. Objections to such, appointment shall be filed With the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before JULY 24, 2025. Claims against the decedent shall be presenTed to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to
Name of Decedent RONIKA R. WOOD PRO SE 5804 ANNAPOLIS ROAD #612 BLADENSBURG, MD 20710 Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs
RONIKA R. WOOD whose address is 5804 ANNAPOLIS ROAD #612 BLADENSBURG, MD 20710 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of RONALD S. JONES who died on JULY 26, 2017 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance In this proceeding. Objections to such, appointment shall be filed With the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before JULY 24, 2025. Claims against the decedent shall be presenTed to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before JULY 24, 2025, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of first publication: JANUARY 24, 2025 Name of newspaper and/or periodical: Washington Law Reporter AFRO American Newspapers
RONIKA R. WOOD Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 01/24, 01/31, 02/07/25
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION ADMINISTRATION NO. 2024ADM001536
THOMAS L. ATWATER AKA THOMAS LEONARD ATWATER Name of Decedent Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs ADRIANNE L ATWATER whose address is 5609 RAMBLEWOOD AVE, CLINTON, MD 20735 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of THOMAS L. ATWATER AKA THOMAS LEONARD ATWATER who died on OCTOBER 10, 2022 with a Will and
Effective immediately, The Afro
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF BALTIMORE CITY REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING SERVICES AND TRAINING PROVIDER TO PROVIDE PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL SERVICES RELATED TO ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE
RFP NUMBER: B-2030-25
The Housing Authority of Baltimore City (“HABC”) requests proposals from interested and qualified firms to provide professional and technical services related to environmental compliance. Field No. 1 – Environmental Services and Consulting: consultation services and technical support to HABC to ensure environmental compliance with applicable laws and regulations; Field No. 2 – Training Provider: provide training to HABC employees relating to environmental matters affecting the agency.
PROPOSALS WILL BE DUE no later than 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, February 21, 2025.
A non-mandatory pre-proposal conference will be held on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., which will be scheduled as a virtual meeting.
The entire RFP can be viewed and downloaded by visiting https://habc. bonfirehub.com/projects on or after Monday, January 27, 2025.
Questions regarding the RFP should be directed in writing to the address and individual indicated below and must include the reference: HABC RFP Number B-2030-25.
Housing Authority of Baltimore City Division of Fiscal Operations, Procurement Department 417 E. Fayette Street, Room 414 Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Attention: John Airey, Senior Vice President of Procurement Tel: 410-396-3261 john.airey@habc.org
Bids received after the date and time set will be rejected.
Due by 1:30 p.m. Local Time, Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Project: P588001 – Severn Chapel Area of the Bacon Ridge Natural Area Sonication No.: CAP25000195
Contact: Katie Garafola – 443-336-4648
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF BALTIMORE CITY REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS PROJECT FINANCE CONSULTING SERVICES FOR REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT RFP NUMBER: B-2029-25
The Housing Authority of Baltimore City (“HABC”) is requesting proposals from qualified and interested individuals or firms to provide services associated with all or any of HABC’s real estate development initiatives.
PROPOSALS WILL BE DUE no later than 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, February 21, 2025.
A non-mandatory pre-proposal conference will be held on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., which will be scheduled as a virtual meeting.
The entire RFP can be viewed and downloaded by visiting https://habc. bonfirehub.com/projects on or after Monday, January 27, 2025. Questions regarding the RFP should be directed in writing to the address and individual indicated below and must include the reference: HABC RFP Number B-2029-25.
Housing Authority of Baltimore City Division of Fiscal Operations, Procurement Department 417 E. Fayette Street, Room 414 Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Attention: John Airey, Senior Vice President of Procurement Tel: 410-396-3261 john.airey@habc.org
Some
artists lost their life’s work in LA wildfires, fellow artists are now helping them recover
By Leslie Ambriz
The Associated Press
Anthony Obi never imagined the night of Jan. 7 would be the last time he’d step inside his safe haven.
The Houston rapper, known professionally as Fat Tony, has lived in the Altadena neighborhood for a year and says he and his neighbors were prepared for heavy winds and perhaps a few days of power outages.
“I totally expected, you know, maybe my windows are going to get damaged, and I’ll come back in like a day or two and just clean it up,” said the rapper.
But residents like Obi woke up the following morning to news that thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods had been burned to ash, destroyed by flames that wiped out large areas of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Although the neighborhoods are on opposite ends of the county, they are known hubs for many of the city’s creative community, housing filmmakers, actors, musicians and artists of various mediums.
“LA is not just rich, famous people who have giant mansions that were destroyed,” said visual artist Andrea Bowers, who is assisting artists recover. “So many members of our community lost everything, they lost all their artworks and their archives, that’s irreplaceable, a lifetime of labor and a lifetime of research.”
“A lot of my collectors lost their homes,” said figurative and conceptual artist Salomón Huerta, who lost his Altadena home of three years to the Eaton Fire and worries the art scene in LA will downsize as a result of the wildfire. “Before the fire, I was in talks with certain collectors. And then, after the fire, they’re not in a good place to talk. I’m hoping that there’s support so that the art scene can still thrive. But it’s going to be tough.”
Obi and Huerta lost not only personal treasures, business opportunities and homes but also vital equipment and professional archives, adding to their emotional burden.
Huerta left behind slides and transparencies of past work that he had planned to digitize for an upcoming book.
“Everything’s gone,” Obi said. “All of my stuff that is related to Fat Tony music that was in that house is gone, and it was the motherlode of it.”
From aftermath of one fire, a support network is born
Kathryn Andrews never imagined she’d experience another wildfire in her lifetime.
The conceptual artist was forced to flee her Pacific Palisades neighborhood as smoke drew near, the second time in four years she’s had to escape a wildfire.
She lost her Juniper Hills property to the 2020 Bobcat fire, which burned a large section of rural Los Angeles County.
“I’ve already experienced one home being burned. I think you have a different focus after that. Maybe we become a little bit less attached to material things. And we began looking at a bigger long-term picture, thinking about, you know, how we live together in community, how we live in relation to the land and how we can work together to solve this,” she said.
Andrews is the co-founder of relief effort Grief and Hope, which aims to support creatives financially as they enter the long road ahead and was founded alongside a group of gallery directors, art professionals and artists like Bowers, Ariel Pittman, Olivia Gauthier, and Julia V. Hendrickson.
“Our primary goal is getting people triage money for just whatever the most emergent need is,”
said Pittman.
The fundraising effort began shortly after the fires broke out with a Go Fund Me seeking $500,000. They have now raised over $940,000 of their new $1 million goal via non-profit art space The Brick. As of Jan. 28, Grief and Hope has received more than 450 inquiries, and Pittman says the funds will
have made very long term commitments in their work, including the five of us, towards building community and building sustainability around artists and art workers in our city and beyond,” said Pittman.
For Grief and Hope, creating a more sustainable future for artists throughout the city begins with affordable studio spaces and housing.
“These are people who already have made very long term commitments in their work…towards building community and building sustainability around artists and art workers in our city and beyond.”
be evenly distributed to applicants. The deadline for artists to submit a needs survey has concluded, but the relief effort will continue fundraising until mid-March.
Grief and Hope also has five different groups of volunteers providing peer-to-peer support, helping with medical needs, safety issues and renter’s issues and collecting survey data to better serve their creative community.
“These are people who already
Creative tools lost, and a long road ahead
For photographer Joy Wong, losing her home of eight years meant losing the beauty of Altadena. She describes the overall area as “a pocket of heaven.”
“I didn’t want to leave,” said Wong, who safely evacuated with her husband and 2-year-old daughter. “We were just so in love with this house, and it wasn’t just my house. It was also my studio space.”
Many, like Obi, Wong and Huerta, have started GoFundMe accounts. Meanwhile initiatives and relief efforts have popped up around Southern California ready to assist with clothing donations, art supplies, professional equipment for creatives and more.
“I’m applying to everything,” said Obi, who needs to replace his instruments and recording equipment.
Wong said she’s received much support from family, friends and colleagues.
“I think I just have to kind of lean on the community and get back into shooting,” she said. “I got to get all my gear back, too. It’s going to be a long road, but it’ll be OK.”
How some artists see LA’s arts scene can be reborn
Superchief Gallery co-founder and director Bill Dunleavy said he believes that this is an opportunity to rebuild long-needed infrastructure for the arts throughout Los Angeles.
“Quite a lot was lost and in the areas affected by the fire. And it’s going to affect rent prices and studio prices and art markets and everything else,” said Dunleavy. “I’ve been so impressed with the amount of compassion that people feel and the sense of duty people have felt to help with this.... I hope that continues into the coming years.”
Creative director Celina Rodriguez said she hopes freelance artists and creatives continue to work and shoot production or projects throughout the city, rather than leaving because of the wildfires.
“Having lost so many locations that we would shoot, typically in Malibu, Topanga, the Palisades, all throughout. We will have to absolutely come together and figure out how we can continue working in Los Angeles ... and urging people to shoot productions here,” she said.
Rodriguez and Dunleavy began collecting donations at the Downtown Los Angeles gallery and within 48 hours transformed it into a bustling donation center with over 150 volunteers. The duo are now working with displaced families to make sure their daily needs are being met.
Dunleavy said the relief effort has only encouraged him to take this work beyond just the donation center and explore the possibilities of non-profit work for the community.
“All of our wheels are turning now that we’ve seen the power that just self-organizing can have.”
Wendy Williams speaks out: ‘I am not cognitively impaired; I am in prison’
By Stacy Brown NNPA Newswire
Wendy Williams stunned her fans and others when she made a surprise Jan. 16 call to “The Breakfast Club,” where she revealed deep frustrations with a conservatorship she described as “emotional abuse.” Despite her diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia in 2023, Williams was assertive.
“I am not cognitively impaired,” she demanded. “But I feel like I am in prison.”
The former talk show queen and radio host expressed her discomfort with being placed in a maximumsecurity care facility alongside much older residents. “I’m in this place where the people are in their 90s and their 80s and their 70s,” she told Charlamagne Tha God. “There’s something wrong with these
people here on this floor.” Williams then criticized her conservatorship. “This system is broken,” she declared. Williams then described her isolation, having lost her autonomy with her pets taken away and her finances under strict control. Her niece, Alex, also on the call, shared that Williams’ guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, retains control over Williams’ older phone and restricts her financial autonomy.
During the interview, Williams shared her longing to visit her 94-year-old father in Miami for his birthday, though it remains unclear if she will be allowed to travel.
“At 94, the day after that is not promised,” Williams remarked.
Alex voiced concern about potential repercussions from the guardian following the interview, recounting a critical conversation: “I said,
Despite her diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive
in 2023, former talk show and radio host Wendy Williams asserts she is not cognitively impaired.
‘You know, we do this; you’re ready for what’s on the other side?’ And as she said, ‘I have to do this. There’s nothing else I could do at this point.’”
The family also raised concerns about being in the dark regarding Williams’
location during the airing of the documentary “Where is Wendy Williams.” The interview concluded with Williams using her iconic catchphrase, “How you doin’?” Charlamagne encouraged listeners to amplify the story
on social media. Just one week prior to Williams calling into the show, Charlamagne had described another phone conversation he had with Williams over the Christmas holiday.
“She seemed perfectly
fine to me… there ain’t nothing incapacitated about Wendy Williams,” Charlamagne told his audience. He recalled a humorous moment from that call when Williams playfully thought he was recording.
The conversation around Williams’ conservatorship has contributed to a growing national dialogue about such legal arrangements. The cases of Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes have already brought attention to potential abuses. Additionally, as reported by ESPN and NPR, the situation involving football player Michael Oher further complicated the discourse. After turning eighteen, Oher was under a conservatorship managed by the Tuohy family rather than being adopted. This allegedly led to the family profiting significantly from his earnings, including royalties from the movie “The Blind Side.”
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Rapper Anthony Obi, aka Fat Tony, is an Altadena, Calif. resident whose home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
Photo courtesy of NNPA Newswire
aphasia
WASHINGTON-AREA
Circulator system ends in D.C. as residents complain of poor service on WMATA Metro routes
By Ashleigh Fields Special to the AFRO
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) ended the D.C. Circulator Bus service on Dec. 31, 2024 after 19 years of service, citing low ridership following the pandemic.
The Circulator service had stops at popular sites including Union Station, the National Mall and L’Enfant Plaza, and touted a ridership of 1.9 million. The bus system employed approximately 300 drivers, many of which were laid off due to the closure.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) now employs around 78 of the Circulator former drivers under a different system with lower pay rates.
“By consolidating more bus transit under the Metrobus brand, we can strengthen the District’s overall transit network, avoid duplicative services, and operate more efficiently,” Acting DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum said following the city’s announcement of the closure.
three nights as part of the production’s nationwide tour.
Preparation pays off: Duke Ellington grad
Jayna Elise delivers the goods as ‘Tina’
By D. Kevin McNeir Special to the AFRO
Jayna Elise proved you can come home again this month when she returned to the District riding in the lead role of “TINA – The Tina Turner Musical.
The 22-year-old actress spent her formative years in Prince George’s County and graduated from one of nation’s most prestigious high schools for students interested in careers as actors, singers and musicians: The Duke Ellington School of the Arts (DESA) in Washington, D.C.
During the musical’s recent three-day stint here in D.C. at the National Theatre – the latest leg of the production’s nationwide tour – Elise, who first began performing at the tender age of 4, showcased her acting prowess and shared her God-given vocal abilities, much
AFRO spotlight on excellence:
How
to the delight of standing room only audiences.
“Opening night in D.C. was amazing and with a lot of us from the cast originally from the area, our friends, family and classmates showed up and showed us so much love,” Elise said.
Elise was careful to thank local television networks who helped promote the show and gave a special shoutout to Georgetown Cupcake, the D.C.-based “cupcakery” that provided tasty treats to the cast and crew on opening night, Jan. 24.
But she also paid tribute to the teachers who helped her secure the foundation that has helped catapult her to success in what she described as “the role of a lifetime.”
“Duke Ellington was an amazing adventure and a place where so many of us learned that if you really want
mentoring
By D. Kevin McNeir Special to the AFRO
Each year mentors do incredible work to help the next generation find their path to success.
And while activities vary across the nation from one community to another, the goals remain the same: raise awareness of mentoring in its various forms; recruit individuals to mentor, especially in programs that have long waiting lists of young people; and promote the rapid growth of mentoring by recruiting organizations to engage their constituents in mentoring.
But at its core, according to Janaiha Bennett, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Youth Leadership Foundation (YLF), mentoring focuses on the individual.
“We don’t focus on the ethnicity of the youth we mentor because it
Greater Washington Urban League opens applications for Fall 2025 scholarships
By Megan Sayles AFRO Staff Writer msayles@afro.com
The Greater Washington Urban League (GWUL) and its young professionals’ auxiliary, the Thursday Network, are now accepting applications for Fall 2025 scholarships. The awards range from $1,000 to $8,000, and are open to high school and college students. The deadline to apply is Feb. 20, and selected candidates will be notified by Feb. 28. With support from corporate sponsors, like the Charlotte Elizabeth Yancey Eights Trust, the GWUL has distributed more than $2 million in scholarships to over 300 young adults over the years.
In order to be eligible for a scholarship, students must live or attend school in Washington, D.C., Prince George’s County, Md. or Montgomery County, Md. The program is open to current high school seniors and college freshmen, sophomore and juniors.
As part of the application process,
the Youth Leadership Foundation’s
program helps D.C. youth achieve successful outcomes
doesn’t give you a good picture of the student, their expectations or from where they’re coming,” said Bennett who joined YLF in 2018 and lives in the Brightwood community in Northwest D.C. with her husband and their six children.
“Our job is to help youth discover who they are, to uncover their many dimensions and to help them and others see a more holistic view of the person they really are,” she said.
But how does that happen? Bennett said it’s all about developing relationships.
“We hold several
Mentor Day events each year when we bring all of our mentors, who are volunteers, and their mentees together for meaningful conversations and different activities of engagement – from sporting events, even rock climbing, to board games like chess,” Bennett said.
“Everyone needs a mentor at some point in their lives – it’s been that way throughout the history of humankind. Youth have their own unique set of problems and challenges, and we know that when they have someone to talk to about their struggles –someone just a little older
Photo courtesy Julieta Cervantes
Duke Ellington School of the Arts alum, Jayna Elise, 22, puts the “T” in Tina as she stars in the lead role of “TINA – The Tina Turner Musical.” The show recently stopped in D.C. at the National Theatre for
Applications for 2025 Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program open
By Aria Brent AFRO Staff Writer abrent@afro.com
On Jan. 27 Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Department of Employment Services (DOES) announced the opening of the 2025 application period for the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (MBSYEP). District youth between the ages of 14 and 24, as well as employers interested in hosting participants, are invited to apply online at summerjobs.dc.gov
“For 46 years, the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program has been a cornerstone of opportunity for young Washingtonians, helping them build confidence, explore careers and prepare for their futures,” Mayor Bowser said in a statement. “This year’s theme, ‘Banking on the Future,’ focuses on exposing young people to careers in finance while equipping them with essential financial literacy skills. Spread the word to families and businesses: it’s time to apply for the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program.”
“For 46 years, the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program has been a cornerstone of opportunity for young Washingtonians, helping them build confidence, explore careers, and prepare for their futures.”
For nearly 50 years, MBSYEP has provided purposeful summer employment opportunities to D.C., youth, allowing them to earn income, develop vital skills and discover career options. Each summer, thousands of young people gain hands-on training and mentorship through partnerships with hundreds of local employers. These experiences provide participants with the tools needed to achieve long-term career success.
In 2024, nearly 12,000 youth participated in the program thanks to the support of approximately 800 host employers. 54 percent of these participants are residents of Wards 7 and 8. Building on this success, the 2025 program will run from June 24 to Aug. 2, offering a six-week work experience across both the public and private sectors. The application deadline for youth is March 6, while employers must apply by June 1. 2025 is the first year the Pathways to Finance Grant will be featured with the program. This grant was developed by the DOES Office of Youth Programs (OYP) and will provide high school students aged 16 to 18 with a specialized six-week learning experience. Participants will spend five weeks exploring careers in fields like accounting, economics, international finance and risk management through internships. Additionally they will be afforded opportunities for university visits and professional shadowing at leading financial institutions nationwide. Since 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) High School Internship Program has supported MBSYEP participants entering
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it, you have to work for it – you have to put in the time,” she said. “Still, this is very different for me because I see myself more as a songwriter than a singer. But the lessons I learned from Duke Ellington have paid off and it hasn’t been that hard changing my daily regiment from handling studio work to getting geared up for an almost three-hour show.
“Talking, singing and acting take a toll on your body and your voice, so I have to exercise, rest
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“These changes will allow our partners at WMATA to better serve thousands of bus riders while using resources more cost-effectively.”
However, residents have shared WMATA’s service amid freezing winter temperatures have been subpar. Washingtonians complained of inaccessibility to metro routes and other services as the first snow storm on Jan. 6 covered the District with sleet and ice.
The Rhode-Island Ave. Brentwood bridge to the Metro’s red line was filled with ice causing riders to stumble while trying to trek to the train’s platform due to the city’s failure to put down salt.
and treat my voice with care,” she said.
Elise is no stranger to the spotlight, having made notable appearances on hit television shows, such as “America’s Got Talent” and “American Idol” –both for which she was a finalist.
In September 2024, a few months after the May 2024 American Idol season 22 finale, Elise took on the lead role of the Queen of Rock ‹n› Roll, Tina Turner, in the second national
The second snow storm on Jan. 20 brought difficulties for the impaired who needed to travel to work, medical appointments and other meetings even in the inclement weather. Metro Access workers declined to pick up several riders in need of transportation to dialysis appointments.
One of those people was Mary Artis, an 80-year-old woman with dementia. Artis was left in the snow after her motorized wheelchair tipped over in bushes following a Metro Access driver’s decision not to pick her up claiming the wheelchair was too heavy.
“I just felt this time, enough was enough. I’ve made complaints over and over again,” Artis’s daugh-
their senior year by offering insights into financial services and federal
OCC has pledged $5 million to support this program through 2030.
“We are so excited to continue another year where thousands of young people have an opportunity for their first job,” said Department of Employment Services Director Dr. Unique Morris-Hughes in a statement. “MBSYEP gives youth the tools and supports they need to become the District’s future leaders in all aspects of life.”
Applications for the Career Ready Early Scholars Program (CRESP) are also now open and accepting submissions. This program is designed for middle school students aged 9 to 13 residing in the District, CRESP provides comprehensive career exploration opportunities.
The MBSYEP application kickoff event was hosted at ARTECHOUSE, a leader in digital and experiential art. Recognized for its innovative, technology-driven exhibits, ARTECHOUSE embodies the creativity and forward-thinking approach that aligns with MBSYEP’s mission to inspire and empower the next generation.
For more information about MBSYEP and CRESP, or to apply as a participant or host employer, visit summerjobs.dc.gov
tour of “Tina -The Tina Turner Musical.”
But what is so impressive about her performance is the way she prepared for the role.
“People often ask me if I have seen the movie ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It” and they’re surprised when I tell them I haven’t,” she said. “I have seen clips, but I’ve never watched the entire movie. I didn’t want to be tempted or to be accused of copying from it. The film and the
actors deserve all the awards they received, but this musical is not like the movie.”
“For me, I wanted to be true to the integrity of our production,” said Elise.
And while Elise has been on plenty of stages and auditioned countless times, she said she had butterflies in her stomach for the first few performances when the tour kicked off last fall.
“I was very nervous because there are so many facets to
the show,” she said. “I have to concentrate on my singing, I have to focus on the props, I have to watch the lighting and blocking. It’s a lot more than just signing a few lines. But the cast, crew and directors are fantastic, and I am so grateful for this opportunity,” said Elise. “I realize that I have some huge shoes to follow and fill, and I am honored to be able to pay tribute to the life, the legacy and the woman – Tina Turner.”
ter, Consuelo Edwards told NBC 4. “My thing is, I think MetroAccess really needs to do better and be more accountable.”
Edwards said she put her mother in the care of the driver who didn’t communicate that he was leaving her on the curb. Artis was left there for an hour until a neighbor heard her calling for help.
“The incident is under investigation and the people involved will be held accountable for their actions if proper protocols were not followed,” WMATA said of the incident. However, they did not immediately respond to the AFRO’s request for comment on other riders experiencing the same denial.
Photo courtesy of D.C. Office of Youth Programs
The highly anticipated Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program is now accepting applications from both participants and employers for summer 2025.
government careers.
Courtesy photo
D.C. residents are sad to see the end of service for all Circulator routes. The plan to discontinue the popular free mode of transportation was announced last year by District Department of Transportation (DDOT) officials.
Scholarships
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students must submit proof of financial need. This can be fulfilled with a full copy of their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA) Submission Summary or the first two pages of their federal tax return. They must also provide one written essay and one video essay, two letters of recommendation and their official transcript.
The money awarded will go exclusively to tuition costs and will be sent straight to bursar’s or student accounts office at the school they attend.
To apply and find more information, visit gwul. org/gwulscholarships or email scholarships@ thursdaynetwork.org
Mentoring program
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– it can make all the difference,” she continued. “We have about 40 mentors, most of whom are either in college or in the early years of their careers, so they’re between 18 and 26 years old. They undergo rigorous training so that they can help their mentees sort through their own experiences, set realistic and achievable goals and then chart a path that they agree to follow.
Bennett said the commitment of her mentors, mentees and staff are what really sets her organization apart.
Over the course of a year, YLF serves between 300 and 360 youth, boys and girls, whose ages range from 7 to 17. After-school, Saturday and summer programs are in neighborhoods based in Congress Heights, Anacostia, Brookland and Columbia Heights. Schools they serve include Washington School for Girls and several K-8 schools that are part of the Catholic Consortium: St. Augustine, St. Anthony, St. Francis Xavier and St. Thomas More. Bennett remembers one nine-year-
old boy who found himself struggling at home who turned to his mentor for help.
“During the pandemic with schools closed, one of our mentees went to his mentor because things were so tense at home,” she said. “His grandmother was the head of the house, and it was crowded, it was noisy, and it was unkept. Being housebound was making it very difficult for the child. So, his mentor suggested that they set some goals, one of which was helping his grandmother by washing the dishes for one week.
“His grandmother was touched and from that one week, the little boy helped change the tone in their home. Others in the house stepped up to help, too. He learned that he did not have to just be the subject of his circumstances,” said Bennett. “He learned that he could make a tangible contribution that impacted him and the others in his home. It was a powerful experience.”
For more information on Youth Leadership Foundation the visit www. helpingkids.org.
Unsplash/ Element 5 Digital
Current high school seniors and college freshman, sophomores and juniors can now apply for scholarships from the Greater Washington Urban League for the Fall 2025 semester. Awards will range from $1,000 to $8,000, and the application deadline is Feb. 20.
A life well lived: Honoring the legacy of Dr. Renee Starlynn Allen
On Jan. 20 Dr. Renee Starlynn Allen, known as “The People’s Emcee” in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area, took her last breath. The beloved Dr. Allen earned her title and a permanent place in hearts of many around the region as a television and radio personality with her top rated show on WLVS, titled the “The Renee Allen and Friends Show.”
To the AFRO, Renee was a friend and an ardent supporter who, along with the late Edgar Brookins, kept the AFRO top of mind throughout D.C.
Dr. Allen could often be seen at an AFRO event and last September, served as the emcee of AFRO’s D.C. High Tea. She was also a board member of several organizations to include We Will Survive Cancer (WWSC); the American Veteran’s Ball (AVB); American Mothers Inc. (2nd Vice President, AMI Maryland Chapter) and Open My Heart Foundation. Dr. Allen also served as the secretary, historian and lifetime member of Sisters 4 Sisters Network, Inc., where the motto is: women helping women to connect.
Dr. Allen, of Springdale, Md., served in the United States military for 22 years. She worked in the METU Mayo-Clinic Unit with Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. During her time in the military, Dr. Allen served in the Granada Invasion and Desert Shield/ Desert Storm. She ended her
career of 22 years honorably and highly decorated.
The inaugural host of the Women’s Business Report on WJLA – TV7, Dr. Allen had seven books and anthologies under her belt. She was the visionary author of “The J Word,” a book featuring a diverse group of women who share their testimonies of jealousy.
In 2022, Dr. Allen received the 2022 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Biden for over 10,000 hours of volunteerism and her commitment to humanity. In 2023 she earned the Heels and Motivation Award which represents women who connect, educate and inspire others. H.E. Dr. Allen (AMB) also spoke on the United Nations floor regarding the importance of Education and received the Danny Glover and Platinum Who’s Who Certificate of Achievement at the United Nations High Level Summit 2023.
Dr. Allen will be laid to rest on Saturday, Feb. 1. The family will receive friends between 10:30 a.m. and noon, with a service immediately following the viewing time. The service will be held at the Sanctuary at Kingdom Square, 5300 S. Crain Highway, in Upper Marlboro, Md.
Dr. Allen is survived by her mother, Charlotte Frazier; two sisters, Lisa Frazier and Sonya Frazier, and one son, Chase Allen.
AFRO Photo / Patricia McDougall
Dr. Renee Allen, honorary board member of the Open My Heart Foundation, speaks to those gathered at the Red Dress Gala in Feb. 2023.
Photo courtesy of Eddie Patton
Dr. Renee Starlynn Allen, cofounder of DMV 48 Men of Power, hosts a Feb. 24, 2023 event Honoring Rahman Ali, brother of Muhammed Ali, at the Bethesda Marriott.
AFRO Photo / James Fields
Dr. Renee Allen enjoys a moment with Congressman Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.07) at the 2023 AFRO High Tea in Baltimore.
Rest in peace
Dr. Renee Allen
Oct. 18. 1961 - Jan. 20, 2025
AFRO Photo / Patricia McDougall
Dr. Frances “Toni” Draper (left), AFRO CEO and publisher, addresses the
2024 AFRO High Tea audience in D.C. after induction by longtime AFRO supporter and event host, Dr. Renee Allen (right).
AFRO Photo / Patricia McDougall
Dr. Renee Allen (left), Peggy Morrison and Monique Anderson-Walker enjoy the 2024 AFRO High Tea in D.C. at Shiloh Baptist Church.
Courtesy photo A decorated veteran, renowned author and community leader, Dr. Renee Allen enjoyed a full life while also impacting the lives of many.
Courtesy photo Dr. Renee Allen serves as mistress of ceremonies for the 2022 D.C. High Tea at the Masonic Temple.
Courtesy photo