Baltimore-Washington Afro-American Newspaper August 6 2016 by AFRO News

Volume Volume 125 123 No. No.120–22

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AUGUST 6, 2016 - AUGUST 12, 2016

Inside Voting Rights in Black-and-White By José Felipé Anderson

Here Comes the Gold

Washington • Minority

Journalists Host Joint Convention in D.C.

Baltimore • Korryn Gaines

New Book Explores Gains and Losses Under Obama

AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda

Venus Williams of the United States returns a ball to her sister Serena Williams, during a practice session on the central court ahead of the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Venus has four gold medals, the same as her sister, Serena.

By James Bentley AFRO Associate Editor jbentely@afro.com

670k That’s how many people have liked the AFRO Facebook page. Join last week’s 2,200 new fans and become part of the family.

Through Aug. 6 The National Urban League is holding its annual conference in Baltimore. This year’s theme is, “Save Our Cities: Education, Jobs + Justice.” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said in a statement, “’Save Our Cities: Education, Jobs + Justice,’ the theme of the 2016 National Urban League Conference campaign represents an unprecedented mobilization to influence public policy through grassroots political action.” Leading up to the convention, The Greater Baltimore Urban League

Photo by Kamau High

From left: Julie Lenzer, director of entrepreneurship at the Economic Development Administration, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Nikita Haysbert, daughter of Raymond V. Haysbert Sr., Marc H. Morial,, National Urban League president and CEO and J. Howard Henderson president and CEO, Greater Baltimore Urban League cut the ribbon at the opening of the Raymond V. Haysbert Sr. Entrepreneurship Center in Baltimore.

opened the Raymond V. Haysbert Sr. Entrepreneurship Center at its headquarters. Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Nikita Haysbert, Raymond’s daughter, were among those in attendance. J. Howard Henderson, president and CEO, Greater Baltimore Urban League, said in a statement, “The Greater Baltimore Urban League is excited to serve as the local host for the 2016 annual conference. The 2016 conference will provide unparalleled opportunities for local Baltimore community members, business leaders and our youth to engage with leaders throughout the country.” The four-day event at Continued on A3

Compiled by Amina Georgie Special to the AFRO

Join Host Sean Yoes Monday-Friday 5-7 p.m. on 88.9 WEAA FM, the Voice of the Community. 17

In 1938, theAFRO wrote a five part series about the importance of the National Urban League (NUL) to the United States. As the 2016 National Urban League Conference begins in Baltimore, here are excerpts from the series. Improved Health During 1930 [The Urban League] was responsible for getting proper representation on White House conference on child health and protection. It secured representation in connection with

President Hoover’s Emergency Employment Committee – thus assuring the consideration of colored workers in public works and other governmental projects creating work for the unemployed. Gave Fellowships During the school year, 1937-38, the league maintained two fellowships for social work training. These were held by William Y. Bell Jr., a graduate of Northwestern University, assigned to the University of Pittsburgh and John Caswell Smith Jr., graduate of Continued on A3

Louisiana has become the first state to equate attacking police officers to a hate crime. On Aug. 1, more than 400 new laws went into effecting including Act 184 which is also

Photo by Danita Delaney

Steve Harvey

commonly known as the Blue Lives Matter Bill. This bill creates additional penalties for targeting police officers firefighters and EMS personnel. In Louisiana, a person convicted of a hate crime can have an additional five years added to their sentence and a

Continued on A3

Obama Shortens Terms for 214 Prisoners; 67 had Life sentence By Josh Lederman The Associated Press

Harvey Hosts Neighborhood Awards

Steve Harvey hosted the 2016 State Farm Neighborhood Awards from July 22-24 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. The weekend consisted of an art gallery, a singing competition, a concert on July 22, a nominee luncheon on July 23, the awards show and a beach party on July 24. See more pictures on A5.

By Jerica Deck Special to The AFRO

President Barack Obama on Aug. 3 cut short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 life sentences, in what the White House called the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent crimes related to cocaine, methamphetamine or other drugs, although a few were charged with firearms violations related

Continued on A3

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File

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Louisiana’s Blue Lives Matter Bill Makes Assaulting Police a Hate Crime

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Urban League Convention Aims to ‘Save Our Cities’

Killed, 5 Year-Old Wounded, After Standoff with Police

President Obama cut short sentences for mainly non-violent crimes related to drugs.

The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

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NATION & WORLD

Former Ala. KKK Member Convicted of 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing Killing 4 Little Black Girls—Up for Parole

to be brought to justice to begin with,” Jones said. “I think that mitigates against the fact that he is an elderly man now.”

Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. was a young Ku Klux Klansman with a reputation for hating blacks in 1963, when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four black girls during the civil rights movement. Today, Blanton is old and imprisoned, the last survivor among three one-time KKK members convicted of murder in the bombing. Soon, Alabama’s parole board will decide whether Blanton (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP) deserves to be free after serving 15 years of a life term This undated file photo for murder. shows Alabama inmate The board has scheduled a Thomas Edwin Blanton hearing for Aug. 3 to consider Jr., a one-time Ku Klux parole for the 78-year-old Klansman convicted in Blanton. Inmates are not the 1963 church bombing allowed to attend parole that killed four black hearings in Alabama, but opponents of Blanton’s girls in Birmingham, Ala. release are expected to Alabama’s parole board address the three-person is scheduled to consider board when it meets in Blanton for early release Montgomery. during a meeting on Aug. The president of the 3. Alabama NAACP, Bernard Simelton, said releasing Blanton at a time when protests are occurring nationwide over police killings of black people would send a horrible message. NAACP chapters statewide are sending letters in opposition to Blanton’s release, and the Birmingham chapter is sending a busload of people to oppose parole, he said. “It would be a slap in the face to those young ladies and their families to release him,” Simelton said. Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 for being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a dynamite bomb that exploded outside 16th Street Baptist on Sept. 15, 1963. The blast killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Morris, also known as Cynthia Wesley. The girls, who were inside the church preparing for worship, died instantly in a hail of bricks and stone that seriously injured Collins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph. Their deaths inside a church on a Sunday morning became a symbol worldwide of the depth of racial hatred in the segregated South. Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blanton on the state charge, said Blanton shouldn’t be released since he has never accepted responsibility for the bombing or expressed any remorse for a crime that was aimed at maintaining racial separation at a time Birmingham’s public schools were facing a court order to desegregate. “This was, as I said during the trial, an act of terrorism before the word ‘terrorism’ was part of our everyday lives,” Jones said. Jones plans to attend the hearing in opposition to Blanton’s early release, and so do several relatives of the girls and the current pastor of 16th Street Baptist, the Rev. Arthur Price. The crowd will include Rudolph, who survived injuries including the loss of an eye and testified against Blanton at his trial. “I’ll be there. I’m not saying what I will say until then,” said Rudolph. Long a suspect in the case, Blanton was the second of three people convicted in the bombing. Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, and Bobby Frank Cherry, who was convicted in the bombing in 2002, both died in prison. Blanton and Cherry were indicted in 2000 after the FBI reopened an investigation of the bombing. Evidence against Blanton included secret recordings that were made using FBI bugs at his home and in the car of a fellow Klansman turned informant. While board members could consider Blanton’s advanced age in deciding whether to grant parole, Jones said that shouldn’t be a factor. “It took (38) years for him

By The Associated Press

Memorial to 1st Black Marines Dedicated at Camp Lejeune

(Lisa Miller, City of Jacksonville via AP)

In this Sept. 21, 2015 photo provided by the City of Jacksonville, the monument for the Montford Point Marines, the nation’s first black Marines, is seen in Jacksonville, N.C. Forty-five Montford Point Marines are scheduled to attend the dedication July 29, at Lejeune Memorial Gardens. At the dedication of a memorial July 29 honoring the first Black U.S. Marines, John Spencer imagines his mind will recall what it was like to become a Montford Point Marine. “I’ll think about the trials and tribulations we went through to prove that we were good Americans and that we loved our country and were willing to fight for it,” said the 88-year-old Spencer, who served 20 years in the Marines and 10 years in the reserves. Spencer is one of 45 Montford Point Marines who plan to attend the dedication of the national Montford Point Marine memorial at Lejeune Memorial Gardens at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. The $1.1 million memorial includes an anti-aircraft gun and a bronze statue of a Montford Point Marine. About 20,000 men trained at the segregated Montford Point camp from 1942 to 1949 following President Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order that led to the desegregation of the Marine Corps, the last branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to admit blacks. In 1948, President Truman signed an executive order that officially ended segregation in the military. In 2012, Montford Point Marines received the Congressional Gold Medal for their role in desegregating the military. Spencer was just 15 years old when he left his home in Hyde County in 1943 and lied about his age to join the Marines. He rose to the rank of staff sergeant as he served in World War II and the Korean War. The Montford Point Marines weren’t allowed on “mainside,” or Camp Lejeune proper, and they slept in huts, not barracks, Spencer said. Training was different, too, Spencer said in a phone interview from his home in Jacksonville, North Carolina. “We had training comparable to White Marines, and it went one step further,” he said. “They were a little bit harder on us because they didn’t want us anyway.” The inclusion of Black Marines was seen as an experiment, and “they didn’t have any idea of keeping us in the Marine Corps,” Spencer said. “But before the war ended, they understood we were just as good or better as the present Marines.” Norman Preston, 94, left Selma, Alabama, when he was 17 years old and moved to Ohio, where he worked for the Pullman Car Co. He was a military police officer at Montford Point who ended up working at Pearl Harbor. Even as a military police officer, he was not allowed onto Camp Lejeune, Preston said. He didn’t want to talk more about the experience training at Montford Point. “That’s history in the past,” said Preston, who lives in Wallace, North Carolina. “You forget it.” The gun and statue are the first phase of the memorial. Organizers need to raise about $334,000 for a second phase that has an estimated cost of almost $500,000 and will include benches and brick pavers. In 1974, Montford Point Camp was renamed Camp Johnson in honor of Sgt. Major Gilbert Johnson, a Montford Point drill instructor. It’s the only Marine Corps installation named in honor of an African-American.

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The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 6, 2016

Urban League Convention

What Urban League Means

Continued from A1

the Baltimore Convention Center will feature panels, sessions and workshops presented by political, business, and entertainment leaders and influencers on topics including education, business, the economy, health, and justice. The N.U.L. Experience Hall, which is free and open to the public, will include exhibits, entertainment, a Volunteer Zone, Health Zone and chances to win exciting prizes. The Presidential Plenary, which will take place Aug 4., is a longstanding tradition of the Conference, acknowledging the indispensable relationship between the nation’s highest office and its leading civil rights and social justice community, according to Morial. “As we convene in Baltimore to deliberate solutions to the economic and social challenges our cities are facing, it’s vital that those contending for the highest office in the land be part of that conversation,” Morial

August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016, The Afro-American

Continued from A1

said. Presidential Candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald J. Trump, emerging from one of the most racially-charged primary campaigns in recent history, have been invited to address the Conference. Trump declined while Senator Tim Kaine(Va.), Clinton’s vice presidential running mate, will address the convention. New to the convention experience this year is the family-focused Community Day on Aug. 6, which is expected to attract thousands of Baltimore-area residents for informative and entertaining exhibits and workshop sessions. Another new component to the convention this year will be Wells Fargo’s Neighborhood Renovation Program, a small business renovation contest (full disclosure: this reporter was one of the judges on the panel). The Conference will also present a Career & Networking Fair, a One-Day Entrepreneur Summit and a Young Professionals Summit. Speakers at this year’s

conference include U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr., Congressman Elijah Cummings (D) Md., BET Chair and CEO Debra Lee, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Former Baltimore Mayor and University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore Gas & Electric CEO Calvin G. Butler Jr. and Attorneys William H. ”Billy” Murphy and Benjamin Crump, representing the families of Freddie Gray and Trayvon Martin. “As a leading corporate citizen, we and our parent company, Exelon, focus on building communities where we serve our customers and where our employees live. BGE has been part of the Baltimore fabric for 200 years. As a conference cochair and sponsor, I invite everyone to join us to build a brighter future together and develop solutions that move Baltimore forward,” Butler said in a statement.

Obama Shortens Terms Continued from A1

to their drug activities. Almost all are men, though they represent a diverse cross-section of America geographically. Obama’s push to lessen the burden on nonviolent drug offenders reflects his longstated view that the U.S. needs to remedy the consequences of decades of onerous sentencing requirements that put tens of thousands behind bars for far too long. Obama has used the aggressive pace of his commutations to increase pressure on Congress to pass a broader fix and to call more attention to the issue. One of the inmates, Dicky Joe Jackson of Texas, was given a life sentence in 1996 for methamphetamine violations and for being a felon with an unlicensed gun. He told the ACLU in a 2013 report that a death sentence would have been preferable, adding, “I wish it

additional drug treatment, educational programming or counseling. He called on Congress to finally pass a criminal justice overhaul to bring about “lasting change to the federal system.” Presidents tend to use their powers to commute sentences or issue pardons more frequently at the end of their presidencies, and Obama administration officials said the rapid pace would continue during Obama’s final months. “We are not done yet,” Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said. “We expect that many more men and women will be given a second chance through the clemency initiative.” Though there’s broad bipartisan support for a criminal justice overhaul, what had looked like a promising legislative opportunity for Obama’s final year has mostly fizzled. As with Obama’s other priorities, the intensely political climate of the presidential election year has confounded efforts by Republicans and Democratic in Congress to find consensus. Obama has long called for phasing out strict sentences for drug offenses, arguing they lead to excessive punishment and incarceration rates unseen – Neil Eggleston in other developed countries. With Obama’s support, were over, even if it meant I were dead.” the Justice Department in recent years has Another recipient, Debra Brown of directed prosecutors to rein in the use of harsh Tennessee, was convicted of selling cocaine in mandatory minimums. 2002 and sentenced to 20 years. Both Brown’s The Obama administration has also and Jackson’s sentences will now end Dec. 1, expanded criteria for inmates applying for along with most of the rest of those receiving clemency, prioritizing nonviolent offenders commutations Wednesday. who have behaved well in prison, aren’t closely All told, Obama has commuted 562 tied to gangs and would have received shorter sentences during his presidency — more than sentences if they had been convicted a few the past nine presidents combined, the White years later. House said. Almost 200 of those who have Civil liberties groups praised that benefited were serving life sentences. policy change but have pushed the Obama “All of the individuals receiving administration to grant commutations at a commutation today — incarcerated under faster pace. The Clemency Resource Center, outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws — part of NYU School of Law, said more than embody the president’s belief that ‘America 11,000 petitions are pending at the Justice is a nation of second chances,’” White House Department and that the group believes 1,500 counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post. of them meet the administration’s criteria to be Eggleston said Obama examines each granted. clemency application on its specific merits But the calls for greater clemency have to identify the appropriate relief, including sometimes sparked accusations from Obama’s whether the prisoner would be helped by opponents that he’s too soft on crime, an argument that is particularly resonant this year as presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton trade claims about who is best positioned to keep the country Identification Statements safe. Baltimore Afro-American – (USPS 040-800) is published weekly by The Afro-American Newspapers, 2519 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4602. Subscription “Many people will use Rate: Baltimore - 1 Year - $70.00(Price includes tax.) Checks for subscriptions should words today like leniency and be made payable to: The Afro-American Newspaper Company, 2519 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4602. Periodicals postage paid at Baltimore, MD. mercy,” said Kevin Ring of POSTMASTER: Send addresses changes to: The Afro-American Newspapers the group Families Against Company, 2519 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4602. Mandatory Minimums. “But The Washington Afro-American & Washington Tribune – (0276-6523) is published what really happened is that a weekly by the Afro-American Newspapers at 1816 12th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009-4422. Subscription Rate: Washington - 1 Year - $70.00(Price includes tax.) group of fellow citizens finally Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C. got the punishment they POSTMASTER: Send addresses changes to: The Washington Afro-American deserved. Not less, but at long & Washington Tribune, 2519 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4602. last, not more.”

“All of the individuals receiving commutation today — incarcerated under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws — embody the president’s belief that ‘America is a nation of second chances.”

Springfield College, assigned to the New York School of Social Work. Study Racial Life During the past year, the league’s research department completed a report on the social conditions of colored people in WinstonSalem, N.C. and placed it in the hands of the interracial committee there for its use in approaching local problems. Added Affiliate Recently, the league added the Greater Little Rock, Ark., Urban League as a fullfledged affiliate. At the same time it laid the groundwork for similar organizations in four other cities and took preliminary steps in this direction in seven other cities. Five-Year Program Officers of the league envisioned a fiveyear program at a total cost of $250,000,

involving the employment of five field representatives and a field supervisor whose duties it would be to organize new cities and coordinate the local activities of the movement. 200 Employees There are over 200 employees in the organization. In each of these league cities white and colored members constitute the boards of control, which guarantee at all times one organization within the community where the best thought of the white mind can meet with the best judgment of the colored citizens. Placed Many in Jobs Placed at least one quarter million colored persons in jobs – many thousands of them in positions never held before. Handled the first large group of colored migrants to the North. Awarded fellowships annually in social work for twenty-eight years to worthy students.

Blue Lives Matter Continued from A1

$5,000 fine for additional felonies. Many other states, including Louisiana, already have additional laws for assaulting members of law enforcement. The new law is seemingly the first to use occupation as a basis for discrimination in a hate crime. Typically a hate crime is motivated by race, religion, or sexual orientation. The bill allows vocation to be added to the list of marginalized groups. “I don’t think that it’s constitutional,” Ernest Johnson, president of the Louisiana NAACP, told the AFRO “I haven’t seen a group like the KKK…that kill police officers because they’re police officers.” After a string of tragic events related to law enforcement, there has been nationwide tension between civilians and police officers. On July 5, a video of a police officer shooting Alton Sterling six times in Baton Rouge Louisiana circulated around the web. This sparked protests against police brutality across the country. On July 17, Gavin Eugene Long killed three police

officers in Baton Rouge, causing many to worry about the safety of police officers. This helped to ignite the Blue Lives Matter movement which supports protecting law enforcement. Although the bill was originally passed in May before the incidents occurred, some feel that it is a response to the growing protests against police brutality. “I think that this law down here is a knee jerk reaction to the black lives matter movement,” said Johnson. Other states may soon follow suit. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot has proposed numerous times that crimes against law enforcement should be hate crime in Texas as well. In July he released a statement saying “At a time when law enforcement officers increasingly come under assault simply because of the job they hold, Texas must send a resolute message that the State will stand by the men and women who serve and protect our communities.” Texas also has experienced violence both against African Americans and police officers. On July 7, Micah

Xavier Johnson allegedly killed five police officers and injured nine who attended a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. The next day he was killed by the police with a remote controlled robot bomb. Many agree that steps need to be taken to protect law enforcement, including Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) who signed the bill into law earlier this summer. In a statement Edwards said, “The men and women who put their lives on the line every day, often under very dangerous circumstances are true heroes and they deserve every protection that we can give them. They serve and protect our communities and our families. The overarching message is that hate crimes will not be tolerated in Louisiana.” The Louisiana State Police Department did not respond to a request for comment from the AFRO. “We don’t need it. The police officers are already being protected,” said Johnson. “I think that Louisiana took that a little too far.”

The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

COMMENTARY

Voting Rights in Black-and-White

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit made a historic civil rights statement last week. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz’s unanimous decision invalidated North Carolina’s controversial voter law, that among other things, added impediments to voting including requiring certain types of so called “official” forms of voter identification before people could cast their ballot. The court enjoined enforcement of several provisions of the state law that it concluded stifled many Black voters from participating in the political process. The North Carolina law, enacted shortly after the Supreme Court’s controversial 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, intentionally weakened voter rights protections put in place by President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Voting Rights Act. Judge Motz reasoned that the state (Republican controlled) generally assembly rushed this legislation right after the Shelby County decision to intentionally pass one of José Felipé the “most restrictive voting rights laws since the Jim Crow era.” She determined that a lower federal court judge should not have Anderson upheld the state law. Rejecting the law as unconstitutional, her opinion concluded, that the state law was not race neutral, announcing that the trial judge “seems to have missed the forest in carefully surveying the many trees.” After judiciously examining the racially polarized nature of North Carolina voting traditions, she pointed out that the restrictive provisions “targeted African-Americans with...surgical precision.” The ruse by the North Carolina Republican controlled legislature in the alleged interests of voter accuracy, proposed “cures to problems that did not exist.” Judge Motz’s opinion concluded that the state’s motivation was racial and discriminatory and that “the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the states true motivation.” The state took away minority voters opportunity simply because they “were about to exercise it.” An example of the North Carolina Republican’s racially discriminatory motivation was the legislature’s nullification of the continued use of expired identifications in spite of such use previously being valid in prior elections. The court noted that African-Americans, who had been voting at a higher rate, subsequently experienced difficulty obtaining the type of government issued identification now required under the new law. Judge Motz also noted that under the new restrictive voting laws, early voting dates were shortened. Such legislative action followed data requested by the legislature which showed African-American voters took advantage of early voting as a result of their inability to get to the polls on Election Day. This legislative change also eliminated one of the two “souls to the polls” Sundays in which African-American churches provided transportation to voters to help them cast their ballot. Judge Motz described the “need to avoid voter fraud” rationale used by the state of North Carolina (Republicans) as justification for enacting the new restrictive voting laws as being “a solution in search of a problem.” This opinion shows the important need for judges to examine the details of discriminatory intention for purposes of using their equitable power to prevent implementing discriminatory laws. The

court should be applauded for its courageous insight. In addition to North Carolina, courts in North Dakota, Texas, Kansas and Wisconsin have within the past 30 days shown comparable disfavor to similar Republican enacted restrictive voting ID laws by striking them down. We can only hope this trend continues to banish forever such anti-democratic, unconstitutional illegal practices from our law books, thereby allowing all citizens broader unimpeded access to America’s ballot boxes. José Felipé Anderson is a Professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and an Adjunct Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Our Journey Toward ‘One America’ Is at a Crossroad

Elijah Cummings

When I rose to support the Democratic Party’s Platform at our National Convention in Philadelphia last week, I could not help thinking of my family’s long and continuing march from the fields of South Carolina through the factories of Baltimore - and onward toward the “One America” that should be every American’s dream. I thought about my daughters, when they were younger, about teaching them that there will be no limit to what their vision, talents and hard work could achieve — and rededicating myself to making that promise

a reality. There in Philadelphia last week, I realized that our former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was about to exemplify that same empowering promise for all the capable young women in our country. Equally important, the Democratic Party Platform that we adopted is the most progressive in our history, a prescription for constructive change in America that will expand the horizons of opportunity for my daughters and for all Americans. With these poignant reflections lifting up my heart, I spoke to the Convention and the millions joining us at home about this national journey that we have been taking together. I began by recalling my parents’ beginnings as sharecroppers on a farm in South Carolina where they had neither running water nor indoor toilet, but where their souls were filled with hope for an empowering education for their children and an America creed

securely anchored in love of country and the nobility of helping others. These interconnected values were at the center of all that our parents taught us. My father, the late Robert Cummings, a man who left school after the fourth grade to plow the fields and pick the cotton, was one of the smartest people whom I have ever known. When I was young, he taught me that the true test of a man (or woman) is not how much we help ourselves in life — but whether we help those who are less fortunate than we. “Son,” he told me, “you go to school to get blessed so that you can bless others.” Six decades later, I told our Convention in Philadelphia, this is the same standard – the same bridge between our own sense of selfworth and our respect for the worth of others - that we Democrats continue to advance today. It was the visionary and determined Americans in our Democratic Party who opened the doors of opportunity for me and millions of other children across this great country – who fought for desegregation, Head Start, good schools, and more affordable college. It was Americans who had been blessed so that they could bless others who fought for and passed Social Security, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, who fought for the rights of workers and veterans, who made the dream of home ownership possible for millions of American families. In 2016, it still is the people of our Democratic Party, our coalition of conscience and vision, who fight for civil rights and voting rights, who fully understand that when a person’s right to vote is denied, so also is their ability to shape their own destiny. We continue on this journey toward “One America” together, united as Americans and as human beings, whatever our backgrounds, our race, our religion, our gender or the person we love may be. Unified, we march together toward the land we were promised, understanding that “Black Lives must Matter,” to each of us as

humane, civilized human beings, understanding that our diversity is not America’s problem but our greatest promise as a people. Yet, we also recognize that the safety of the American People is also a civil right, and that our communities and law enforcement officers work best to uphold that fundamental right when we work together. All of these reasons are why I am so gratified that our Democratic Platform has a visionary and practical agenda of economic empowerment, civil rights, the public’s health, and the protection of our environment at its core, addressing directly the challenges that are at the center of people’s lives. I should also note that our Democratic Platform is not a document to gather dust on our shelves. Rather, it is a firm, public and irrevocable commitment to every citizen of our great nation -- a blueprint of our vision for America and the standard for our accountability in the years to come. You can read it at demconvention.com/platform/. I have shared these reflections with you, as I did in Philadelphia, because our nation, once again, is at a critical crossroads in our shared journey. We have reached a moment in our long history both of great promise and of considerable danger. For our nation to choose the better (and, I would submit, essential) road in November, we all must be clear about the sharply contrasting futures at stake – and we must act accordingly. My father, looking down on us from heaven, would commend the commitments that we have made, but he would also say to those of us who have been blessed that now is the time for us to bless others. By our actions between now and Election Day 2016, he would remind us, we will be determining the future of our society for the generations of Americans yet to be born. Congressman Elijah Cummings represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. He also served as Chair of the National Democratic Party’s 2016 Platform Drafting Committee.

It is Never too Early to Make Voting Plans

John R. Hawkins III

Let’s not wait until Nov. 7 to plan for Nov. 8 (the last day to cast your ballot). Who knows, you may want to plan to take some folks with you to the polls. That takes planning. Remember you can always vote early. Remember this: A provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, championed and pushed through Congress by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and others such as the then soon to be named Justice Thurgood Marshall fought hard for African-Americans and others discriminated against to have

the right to vote. We owe it to their toils and struggles to vote in every election. The direction of public education, health, justice, taxes and much more, depends on those whom we elect. From my foxhole, here are some things to keep in mind as the election approaches. The totality of public policy and actions affecting us every day

are determined or impacted, including the prioritization or their exclusion, by those we elect in D.C., voter registration this year ends on Oct. 17. Members of Congress and the Senate and the President of the United States (POTUS) as well as local and state leaders are decided by you exercising your right to vote or your decision not to vote. We are talking about those who make decisions concerning your public safety, health, education, welfare, justice, housing, zoning, infrastructure, finances, economics, religious practices and most other aspects of those freedoms, rights and privileges many of us hold as entitlements that come with being an American. The next POTUS will nominate at least one Supreme Court Justice. The actions of our entire government depend on whom we elect – by either voting or not voting. You help vote for the person you do not want to be elected by not voting for the person you want to be elected. Like many, I say “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.” I would add to that, “…because your inaction helped elect them.” Voting is not something that just happens. You must take affirmative steps to do it and take even more actions to amplify the effect of your vote by helping those who share your views to vote. Many may share your beliefs but may not realize the importance of voting or have easy access to a voting booth. To be meaningful, voting should not only be a noun, but an action verb. Wherever you live, you must be registered before you can vote.

Most reading this are registered; however you may want to assist those not currently inclined to participate so that they may exercise this right made possible by our civil rights mentors. In D.C., voter registration this year ends on Oct. 17. Early voting begins fifteen days before Election Day and ends at 4:45pm the day before. No photo ID is required. In Maryland, voter registration this year ends on Oct. 18. Early voting begins the second Saturday before Election Day and ends the Thursday before Election Day. No photo ID is required. In Pennsylvania, voter registration this year ends on Oct. 11. It does not have early voting but has absentee voting for service members who are deployed. In Virginia, voter registration this year ends on Oct. 17. Early voting begins 45 days before Election Day and ends at 5 p.m. the Saturday before Election Day. Photo ID is required for all. From my foxhole, we dare not fail to exercise our right to vote and help others to vote. Your mission is to vote and help others to vote. If you decline, don’t complain about the winners. Maj Gen US Army (ret) John R. Hawkins III, JD, MPA is President and CEO of Hawkins Solutions Intl., a government relations and lobby company. His last military assignment as a “two star” was Dir., Human Resources Directorate for the Army worldwide and prior to that Deputy Chief Public Affairs for the Army, world-wide.

August August6, 6,2016 2016--August August12, 6, 2016, 2016, The The Afro-American

StateFarm Neighborhood Awards Weekend By Joyce Delaney Special to the AFRO The 2016 State Farm Neighborhood Awards was a three-day weekend event held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. from July 22-24. The Neighborhood Awards honor educators, entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, churches, schools, and others for the roles they play in uplifting their communities. The weekend events included State Farm Color Full Lives Art Gallery; Sing Your Way Competition; Nominee Luncheon; Freedom Friday Concert with performances by Charlie Wilson and Keith Sweat; Freedom Friday After Party; State Farm Neighborhood Awards with performances by the O’Jays, Maxwell, and Erykah Badu; VIP After Party; and Beach Party with a performance by Jill Scott. Photos by Danita Delaney

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The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Hundreds applied, now meet the 8 Howard University students who were selected to DISCOVER THE UNEXPECTED—a first-ever fellowship program by Chevrolet Malibu in partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Teams will share good news stories from Detroit, Washington D.C., Chicago and Atlanta. Plus, they’ll get to navigate their city in an all-new 2016 Malibu. Join them on this exciting journey that is sure to inspire us all.

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August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016, The Afro-American

WASHINGTON-AREA

Presidential Conventions

D.C. Residents Disappointed by Lack of Statehood Talk

Black Journalists and Hispanic Journalists Jointly Convene in D.C.

“Overall, it was a good convention and it brought home the fact that Hillary Clinton is the right choice and Donald Trump isn’t.” – Ed Potillo could have mentioned D.C. statehood given that she supports it,” W. Philip Thomas, a Ward 3 political activist and volunteer for the District’s delegation, told the AFRO. “Other than that, I think the convention noted Continued on B2

Photo by LaTrina Antoine

Media professionals line up at registration booths at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Northwest D.C. to network with colleagues and receive information at the 2016 NABJ/NAHJ convention. The convention will run until Aug. 7. By AFRO Staff The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), in partnership with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), are using the political atmosphere of Washington D.C., combined with the upcoming elections, to not only enable media professionals to enhance their skills in print, broadcast and digital news coverage, but also to strengthen the Black and Brown vote, according to a convention executive. The joint convention, themed “One Mission, Driving Innovation,” began on Aug. 3 and will run to Aug. 7 at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park. Highlights of the convention include a discussion on race on Aug. 4, an address by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Aug. 5, a Salute to Excellence Awards Gala on Aug. 6 as well as workshops that will teach participants how to expand their skill

New safety concerns at Metro surfaced July 29, as a train derailment left commuters scrambling to find alternative ways to work and shut down the East Falls Church station in Northern Virginia. While the incident, which left one rider injured, further vexed commuters already inconvenienced by system-wide repair slowdowns, a new report indicates continued breaches in safety protocol. The East Falls Church derailment occurred just hours after Metro’s new chief safety officer, Patrick Lavin, described a series of mistakes made by operators that could have proven disastrous at the board’s July 28 meeting. In what Lavin described as “ongoing problems with red

sets. The awards gala will honor professional and collegiate journalism that best covered the Black experience or addressed issues affecting the worldwide Black community during 2015. “We hope [the convention] will be a great spirit of networking [and] opportunity of training for our membership,” Drew Berry, NABJ executive consultant told the AFRO on Aug. 2. In addition to the workshops, luncheons and galas offered at the convention, a career fair consisting of more than 105 companies, organizations and academic institutions, including all the major media companies will also be offered. Berry said more than 3,000 participants have already registered to attend the convention. Registration is still available onsite for media professionals who which to attend the convention. Membership in NABJ or NAHJ is not required. To see a full list of scheduled events visit nabjnahj.com.

‘Beat the Streets’ Aims to Strengthen Community Relations in Ward 4 By Linda Poulson Special to the AFRO D.C. agencies and residents in the Petworth community gathered July 27 for an afternoon of food, fun, and entertainment called “Beat the Streets.” The event was part of a community outreach effort by the D.C. government to strengthen relationships and assist poor residents in Ward 4. District agencies present at the “Beat the Streets” event included the Metro Transit Police Department, University of the District of Columbia, Drug Free Youth.com, MedStar Family Choice, and the Department of Employment Services, among others. “This is really nice, they really need to do more of this,” said Terry W., 60, a longtime resident of Petworth who said that gentrification has increased costs so much that he can no longer afford to live in the area.

Derailment Ignites Frustrations By Shantella Y. Sherman Special to the AFRO ssherman@afro.com

Search for New Chancellor As District Schools Set to Open By James Wright Special to the AFRO jwright@afro.com

By James Wright Special to the AFRO jwright@afro.com Even though D.C. played an active role at the recent political party conventions for presidential office, several residents were disappointed by the silence on statehood. The primary business of the conventions was to nominate presidential candidates and their running mates, including billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for the Republican party and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) for the Democratic party. The Democrats met July 25-28 in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center. “I felt that Clinton

signal violations,” he detailed a near head-on collision on July 5, that stemmed from an operator, agitated that he could not take a scheduled break, driving through red light signals and operating the train with his radio silenced. The Glenmont-bound Red Line train allegedly entered

workers to jump out of the way and onto the elevated platform against the wall. As the train kept moving, the workers realized the train wasn’t authorized to keep moving, and began screaming for the operator to stop. The operator heard those yells, and the train halted 300 feet past the workers. “It was the two track workers on the track yelling at the train

“The gentrification has made it more difficult,” said Carolyn Smith, clinical director of the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that serves families in Ward 4 with children under the age of 18. “We work with the homeless families that come from D.C. General. It has been virtually impossible to find affordable housing for those families in Ward 4 now. We used to work with landlords that helped us and kept their rents reasonable, now most have sold their properties, torn them down, and made condos out of them.” Despite the hardships gentrification has caused on the area’s residents, the event enabled them to relax and enjoy go-go beats and R&B music. “We’re just here to enjoy ourselves and have fun,” said Nicole Stewart, manager of the girls dance group Eesha’s World from New Jersey. “I’ve been doing this for 12 years now and I love D.C. I think getting Continued on B2

command center. The two trains came to a stop 2,000 feet away from one another. Lavin also reported that when passengers were removed from the cars, Metro engineers neglected to de-energize the third rail, exposing them to potential electrocution. “I don’t think ‘red signal violation’ truly captures what happened. This was flagrant,” Lavin

“I don’t think ‘red signal violation’ truly captures what happened.” – chief safety officer Patrick Lavin

a switch that had changed direction moments before. The train then traveled at 12 mph causing two roadway

operator that finally captured his attention,” Lavin said in a statement. Another train had been headed in an oncoming direction but had stopped after receiving an emergency radio alert from the operations

told the Washington Post. “It turned into this childish debate. It wasn’t this rushrush mentality put on [the operator] by management . . . He was concerned for a different reason.” Continued on B2

District classes are scheduled to start in less than three weeks while at the same time there is a nationwide search for a new public school chancellor. Current Chancellor Kaya Henderson is set to step down on Oct. 1 after five years on the job. Mayor Muriel Bowser will name her replacement following the search. As summer heads into its remaining weeks,

Courtesy Photo

Chancellor Kaya Henderson will be leaving her job on Oct. 1. District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) officials are preparing for the 20162017 academic year. For the traditional schools, new teacher orientation will begin on Aug. 10-11 and the first day of school is Aug. 22. In the schools with the new extended-school year, which is nearly year-round with frequent breaks, students return to school on Aug. 8. While D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson has said publicly that DCPS is the “fastest improving school district in the country,” a recently released study by WalletHub titled {2016’s Best & Worst Schools Systems}, said that the District as a state ranks 47th among 51. The school system’s rank for quality was 50th out of 51 and its safety rank was 24 out of 51. The study said the District had the highest dropout rate and the lowest math, reading, Continued on B2

D.C. Experiences Most Violent Day in Weeks By Briana Thomas Special to the AFRO

Up until July 30 the District had gone 14 days without a homicide, but six separate shootings on July 30 left three people dead, making it one of the most violent days in weeks. One of the shootings included a homicide along Interstate 295 which caused traffic delays early in the morning on July 30. Police said they responded to a report of gunshots around 2:28 a.m. on July 30. Officials said they found 25-year-old Judonne Stephens and another man suffering from gunshot wounds inside of a vehicle at the Firth Sterling Avenue overpass in Southeast. Both of the victims were transported to a local hospital for treatment. Stephens died on July 31 from his injuries, police reported. Sean Hickman, a spokesperson for the police department, told the AFRO Aug. 1 that no arrests have been made in the case and police are searching for suspects involved in the crime. Several other shootings took place on July 30 as well. According to police reports, the first shooting took place at a little after 2 a.m. in the 900 block of Emerson Street NW close to the Brightwood Park neighborhood. It was followed by the Interstate 295 homicide near Suitland Parkway and another shooting, occurring at 2:40 a.m., in the 5300 block of Georgia Continued on B3

The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

Conventions Continued from B1

the differences between Clinton and Trump. One is focused on solutions while the other is focused on rhetoric.” Ed Potillo, vice chairman of the D.C. Democratic State Committee and chairman of the Ward 7 Democrats, agreed that none of the major speakers talked about statehood while the Democratic platform fully endorsed it. “That only shows that we got more work to do,” he said. “We are a colony but we send people to war and we pay federal taxes but have no voting representation in the U.S. Congress. We have to find a way to make this right.” Potillo continued, “Overall, it was a good convention and it brought home the fact that Hillary Clinton is the right choice and Donald Trump isn’t.” Potillo, along with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), and chair of the D.C. Democratic State Committee D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large), represented city Democrats. Highlights of the convention for District residents included Bowser announcing the city’s delegate count for president on July 26 and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) speaking on behalf of District statehood on July 27.

African-American women played key roles in the Democratic convention. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie RawlingsBlake (D) served as convention secretary while Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) served as the chairman; District television commentator and activist Donna Brazile was selected as the interim chair of the party, and the Rev. Leah D. Daughtry lead as chief executive officer of the event. E. Faye Williams, president/CEO of the National Congress of Black Women, told the AFRO she was proud to see Black women in charge of the convention. “The women who ran that convention are people that I know and they are friends,” she said. “Black women cleaned up the problems [that started to fester] and things ran smoothly.” [Brazile was made interim chair after Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) was forced to step down following revelations of embarrassing emails top Democratic party officials sent to one another about former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.] Sandra “S.S.” Seegars, a longtime Ward 8 activist, didn’t attend the Democratic convention and told the AFRO this was the first time she watched it thoroughly. She said she enjoyed Clinton’s and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s speeches

and agreed with Williams on Black women managing the convention, particularly regarding Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) unruly factions. “Women are organizers while men tend to be competitive,” Seegars said. “Women work better together than men and women should run conventions more often.” While the District is a Democratic enclave, with a 10 to 1 voter registration advantage over the Republicans, the D.C. Republican Party made its presence known at the GOP Convention that was held July 18-21 in Cleveland at the Quicken Loans Center. Bowser appeared at the convention with a table supporting D.C. statehood even in the face of a Republican platform that rejects statehood and wants to eliminate District-voter supported budget autonomy. Jill Homan, who is a District’s national committeewoman to the Republican National Committee, told the AFRO, “We Republicans are united in spirit in support of our nominee,” she said.

Metro

Ward 4

Chancellor

The train operator was fired, and five employees, were reportedly, disciplined for inadequately following safety protocol. “WMATA has to retrain its entire workforce – management needs to understand they have humans working the system and the employees need to understand that they have the lives of their passengers in their hands,” Ward 6 resident Mary Sands told the AFRO. General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said experts from Metro, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Federal Transit Administration, as well as an outside consultant brought in by the transit agency, are looking into several possibilities as to why the train derailed including excessive heat, operator error, and track conditions.

together with the police is lovely because they get to see the other side. They’re protecting us and we feel safe, I’ve never had any problems with the police.” Police Lt. A.W. Washington was in charge of the event. “We sponsor street activities in the community and bring different resources in one location and encourage people to interact with their neighbors and the police officers, meet city officials, and come out and take advantage of the city agencies that are here,” Washington told the AFRO. Washington credits the police department’s partnership with the community as the reason for low crime in the area. “The crime in this area has been significantly been reduced,” he said. “Our partnership with the community has been outstanding, and because of that we have been able to reduce crime by double digits. The last violent crime was about three or four months ago.” According to the police crime data, as of Aug. 2, the immediate area had two incidents of violent crime and 17 incidents of property crime, mostly theft, in 2016.

and the lowest math, reading, and SAT scores. One positive note in the report said that the District had the lowest rate of bullying in schools. In face of the report and Henderson’s assessment of her district, parents, and community members spoke out on what needs to be done to make the upcoming academic term a success. Marvin Tucker, executive director of the One City All-Star Extravaganza (OCASE) Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes education through athletics, told the AFRO that in many cases, students don’t have the proper supplies to learn in class. He said that even though the District’s economy is “doing great and the unemployment rate is down, there are families that are struggling to get by.” “There are some students who don’t have school supplies to have a productive year,” Tucker said. “These students need extra help and we do that by providing backpacks and the other things that they need.” Douglas Sloan, a Democratic political commentator and an advisory neighborhood commissioner for 4B09 in Ward 4 said he is looking forward to his six-year-old attending Shepherd Elementary School for first grade. “The school and the atrium has just been renovated and that is pretty exciting,” Sloan told the AFRO. “They need to complete the cafeteria and make other renovations but I am pleased with what they have done.” However, Sloan said that he has concerns about his child’s school day. “There needs to be more recess at the schools,” he said. “Right now, they are getting about 30 minutes a day and it really should be about 60 minutes daily. More recess will fight childhood obesity and physical activity should be just as important as music and art in the curriculum.” On July 29, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced a 17-member DCPS Rising Leadership Committee that will provide her with recommendations during the process to select a new chancellor. The committee is scheduled to meet three times during the chancellor selection process to gather and synthesize information about the candidates before making its recommendation to Bowser. The committee will hold three community forums so that the public can provide their input into the process. The forums will be at Roosevelt High School on Aug. 30 from 6:30-8 p.m., Eastern High School on Sept. 7, and Savoy Elementary School on Sept. 14 from 6:30-8 p.m.

Continued from B1

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August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016, The Afro-American

Violent Day Continued from B1

Avenue NW. Then police also reported a shooting in the 2400 block of Elvans Road SE at about 3:15 a.m. A few minutes later, Edward Roberts Jr., 29, was shot and killed in the 3500 block of 14th Street NW. Police said they responded to a report for sounds of gunshots. Authorities added they found Roberts Jr. suffering from numerous gunfire wounds. He later died at an area hospital. At about 3:50 a.m. a 19-year-old girl was shot and killed inside of a residence on Good Hope Road in SE. Police said they found Anaiona Gaston from Hyattsville, Md. in the 2300 block of Good Hope Road suffering from a gunshot wound. D.C. Fire and EMS personnel pronounced the victim dead at the scene. Police arrested Malik Fields, 21, of Southeast, for suspected connection in the murder. Fields is being charged with second degree murder while armed and will appear in court on Aug. 15, according to D.C. Courts. A 6-year-old boy was struck by gunfire around 5 p.m. on July 30. Officials said he was shot in the leg not far from a playground outside of an apartment complex in Southeast. Police said at least one gunman opened fire, but the child was not the intended target. Police are now searching for suspects involved in the incident who were described as two men wearing black masks at the time of the shooting. The boy is reported to be alive and at a local hospital as of July 30.

WASHINGTON AREA

COMMUNITY CONNECTION Alexandria, Va.

Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance Hosts Sexual Freedom Summit Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance will host its seventh annual Sexual Freedom Summit from Aug. 4-7 at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, 5000 Seminary Road. The event is where everything comes together in spectacular conversations about sexual rights. Onsite registration is available: one-day registration fee onsite is $120, weekend pass registration onsite is $185, and the full Summit registration, onsite, is $225. For more information, visit sexualfreedomsummit.org.

District Heights, Md.

The PG Valor Basketball Team Announces First Open Tryout

The American Basketball Association (ABA) expansion team and Prince George’s County’s first professional basketball team will be hosting their first open tryout for their inaugural season on Aug. 5 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at New 24 Fitness and Basketball (formerly Run & Shoot), 6417 Marlboro Pike. The tryouts are open to residents in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Players will not need to attend multiple tryouts. All applicants must be eligible to play in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and complete the required paperwork. Registration forms are available at pgvalor.com. For more information, contact the team at pgvalorbasketball@gmail.com or 240-308-8254 or visit pgvalor.com.

Washington, D.C.

Galaxy 5000 Hair Extension Showroom Grand Opening

Homicide Count

2016 Total

Past Seven Days

73 3

Data as of Aug. 3

The grand opening of Galaxy 5000 Hair Extension Showroom, 1002 Florida Ave. NE, is scheduled for Aug. 6. Throughout the day (11 a.m.-7 p.m.) there will be free food and drinks, a live hair demonstration, live entertainment, and a DJ. The shop will hold a fashion show at 4 p.m. The shop is giving 40 percent off merchandise from 11 a.m. to noon and 30 percent off storewide. The first 10 customers will receive $50 in rewards.

Jamal Harris Project Presents Fashion Airlines

The Jamal Harris Project will hold its 10th Annual fashion presentation on Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Blind Whino, 700 Delaware Ave. SW. The airline themed exhibition will take participants on a worldwide journey, featuring fashion influences from cultures in South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Miss Black USA Pageant

Miss Black USA, the nation’s premier pageant for women of color, will commence in D.C. on Aug. 7 at the University of the District of Columbia Performing Arts Theatre, 4200 Connecticut Ave NW, from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. The pageant will feature more than 25 contestants from across the United States. With society’s uproar of #RaceRelations as it relates to #BlackLivesMatter, the pageant will also take time for a call to action to share with women and men the importance of a Movement to change how society views race. The winner of the pageant will receive a $5,000 scholarship, trip to West Africa, career development opportunities and other amenities. Ocielia Gibson, Miss Black USA 2011, will host the event and Laundau Murphy Jr., winner from America’s Got Talent, will provide musical entertainment. Tickets can be purchased at eventbrite.com/ e/2016-miss-black-usa-pageant-tickets-25443988655.

Silver Spring, Md.

Light the Way Foundation Hosts Youth Film Summer Camp

On Aug. 7 Light the Way Foundation, in partnership with Root Branch Productions, will host a Film Summer Camp, for youth with limited resources from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. During the camp, youth between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, will make a short film. Throughout the process, participants will have hands on experience in learning productions behind the camera. The event is scheduled to be held at the AFI Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road. Free public parking is available at Wayne Avenue Garage, 921 Wayne Avenue, and Town Square Garage, 801 Ellsworth Drive. For more information, visit lightthewayfoundation.org.

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For these pictures and more go to afro.com/slideshows.

The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Georgiana Thomas Grand Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star and The Prince Hall Freemason and Eastern Star Charitable Foundation celebrated D.C. youth with its annual jurisdictional scholarship program which was held at the historic Masonic Temple in Northwest D.C. June 4. The keynote speaker was CBS Radio WPGC News Director Guy Lambert. The Masonic Family awarded over $95,000 to graduating seniors from the Washington Metropolitan area. The Jurisdiction is led by the Honorable Norman L. Campbell, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge and Venecia C. Bessellieu, Grand Worthy Matron, Georgiana Thomas Grand Chapter, OES, PHA. The scholarship event was attended by D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1).

Phyllis S. Byrd Your Fraternity Princess Matron Alaina Wheeler, Prince Patron Hassan Grand Worthy Matron Venecia C. Bessellieu, Grand Worthy Patron Albert Pope and the 2016 Worthy Matron and Worthy Patrons

Foundation President George C. Lacy, Vice President Kelli J. McCoy-Burkett, Guy Lambert, Grand Master Campbell, Former Scholarship Recipient and Speaker Daisha Wise, Grand Matron Bessellieu and Grand Patron Pope

RWJGW Anthony Corbitt, Grand aster Norman L. Campbell, RWSGW Quincy G. Gant picture with Grand Lodge scholarship recipient Alexis D. Murray Phyllis S. Byrd Youth Fraternity Directress Catrice Vandross and Order of the Knights of Pythagoras Director Arnold Hudson

Guy Lambert (middle) with scholarship committee members Vice President Kelli J. McCoy-Burkett, Director Shari L. McCoy, Chair Glaceria Mason, Karen J. H. Robinson, and Lynne Fairfax

Barbara J. Hamilton (MD) Jurisdiction), Phyllis S. Byrd Youth Fraternity Ast. Directresses Patricia Ireland, Brenda Huff, Norma J. Brooks, Grand Youth Directress Catrice R. Vandross, GWM Venecia C. Bessellieu, Ast. Directresses Shirley Evans Cooley, Stephanie E. Williams and Grand Youth Supervisor Ramonda Fabian of Simon-Cunningham Grand Youth Fraternity of MD

GTGC Grand Chapter Officers Sheila E Smith, Ricardo Montague, Patricia L. Young, Grand Worthy Matron Bessellieu and Grand Worthy Patron Pope pictured with D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1)

Georgiana Thomas Grand Chapter Officers (top) picture with the Past Grand Worthy Matrons Jane Robison, Joan L. White, Patricia A. Mabry, Julia Edwards, Margaret E. Anderson and Past Grand Worthy Patron Rev. Ronald Boykins

WPGC95.5 News Director Guy Lambert

Mistress of Ceremonies Past Matron Lola B. Knights.

Photos by Shari L. McCoy

Grand Master Normal L. Campbell, Grand Worthy Matron Venecia C. Bessellieu, Grand Worthy Patron Albert Pope and Foundation Vice President Kelli J. McCoy-Burkett pictured with jurisdictional scholarship recipients

Councilmember Brianne Nadeau

HBCU Council of Shiloh Baptist Church Loretta Brown Marjorie Bingham, Patrick Bingham and Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham The HBCU Council of Shiloh Baptist Church in Northwest D.C. hosted its annual signature scholarship event, a “Sweet White Jazzy Night,” on June 25 on the roof-top of the church’s Family Life Center. Proceeds from the event provide scholarships to students attending HBCUs. Photos by Rob Roberts

Andrea Robinson, Brenda Henderson and Daphne Blackwell

J. Otis Harne Jr., President, Muriel Lewis and Daryl Branson

Muriel Lewis, Rev. James H. Grigsby and Rita Bibbs-Booth Andrea Tyler, Dr. Tommy Tyler and Nancy Tyler-Brown

The Collaboration Band and Show

Rachael Dorsey, Diane Simpson and Sylvia and Mike Wiggins Rev. George and Rachel Mensal

To see more of these photos and purchase them visit afro.com/slideshows. To purchase this digital photo page contact Takiea Hinton: thinton@afro.com or 410.554.8277.

August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016, The Afro-American

Interview

ARTS & CULTURE

‘Are We Better Off’ Explores Gains and Losses Under Obama JM: Let me answer the question another way. The President became quite emotional about transgender student rights, threatening to pull Department of Education funds from school districts that do not comply with federal regulations. Black children are suspended from school three times more than White children are, and there is no evidence that Black children are three times as unruly. Has the President ever threatened to pull the Department of Education dollars from a school with these disproportionate suspensions? African-Americans have rarely been the beneficiaries of Presidential rhetorical excess.

By Kam Williams Dr. Julianne Malveaux has long been recognized for her progressive and insightful observations. She is a labor economist, noted author and colorful commentator. Her contributions to the public dialogue on issues such as race, culture, gender and their economic impacts are shaping public opinion in the 21st Century America. Dr. Malveaux is the founder and President of Economic Education, a 501-c3 organization focused on personal finance and economic policy education and their connection. She will be speaking at the National Urban League convention in Baltimore on Aug. 4. Here, she talks about her new book, “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy.” KW: Well, are we better off after eight years of Obama? JM: The economy is better than the one President Obama inherited, Dr. Julianne Malveaux talks about Obama’s legacy. and unemployment is lower, but the unemployment rate gap remains large. Black a jobs bill that could not clear Congress. The Republicans child poverty is higher. As I write in the epilogue, “Yes, we simply would not work with him. can. No, he didn’t.” President Obama didn’t push Black people backward, but he missed the opportunity to move us forward.” KW: What about all the Black-on-Black violence in so many inner cities across the country. Do you really KW: In the Introduction, you ask, “How does President think the president could have put a dent in it from Obama treat his people?” before criticizing him for not Washington, D.C.? After all, his own Chief of Staff, reciprocating the overwhelming support he’s received from Rahm Emmanuel, became Mayor of Chicago, and the the African-American electorate. You say, “He scolds instead body count has only escalated there? of uplifts, and offers tepid gestures to our needs.” What do JM: President Obama’s choice of Rahm you think he could have done in terms of jobs, housing and Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff was questionable, education? and perhaps cover-ups around the police violence against Black people in Chicago is reflective of JM: If some of the recovery money had gone to cities Mr. Emmanuel’s values. Did Rahm Emmanuel serve instead of states, the urban population, read “Black” and President Obama or did he serve himself as he prepared to “Brown,” would be better off with recovery jobs. While the run for Mayor of Chicago? I don’t use the term Black-onbanks got big bailouts, a sizeable chunk of African-American Black violence, since I’ve never heard the term White-onwealth evaporated because so many people lost homes. Some White violence. Most violence is intra-racial, and much of of the federal programs to help homeowners were never fully the violence in African-American communities is a function implemented. And President Obama’s pick of Arne Duncan as of drug availability, joblessness and poverty. Obviously these Secretary of Education was abysmal. conditions predate the Obama presidency and the president has Cutting HBCUs was unconscionable. Implementing new limited ways to dent this violence. But funding war weapons regulations on Parent Plus loans, which cost HBCUs 28,000 in cities, as opposed to more community policing, is not the students, was hostile. At the same time, it is important to solution. note that, except for his first two years, which were a missed opportunity, President Obama faced rabid opposition from KW: It seems that Obama will be better remembered for the Republicans. Indeed, as soon as he took office, Senator LGBT than African-American civil rights. If Trayvon had been Mitch McConnell announced that his top priority was to deny transgender, do you think the Attorney General would have President Obama a second term. The president did introduce charged George Zimmerman with a federal crime?

Bowie Bulldogs Eye Road Back to Championship

By Mark F. Gray Special to the AFRO

Seven was a lucky number for Bowie State football in 2015. It was head coach Damon Wilson’s seventh season and his team won the CIAA North Division with a 5-0 record and 7-0 conference mark. Despite playing the final three games with a fourth string quarterback the Bulldogs still managed to play in the conference’s title game. However, that’s when the luck ran out. The Bulldogs 9-3 record and trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs wasn’t enough to wash the nasty taste of the heartbreaking loss to Winston Salem State in the CIAA Championship Game from their mouth. Bowie blew a 14 point second half lead and lost on a field goal as time expired to give the Rams their third title in five years. For the second straight season they are predicted to win the north division and eight players earned preseason all-conference team honors. Fifteen starters return and several could compete for player of the year awards on each side of the ball. If the Bulldogs can solidify their questions at quarterback the receiving corps could emerge as the conference’s best. Nyme Manns - a redshirt senior from Baltimore was magnificent in 2015. Manns was first team all-CIAA last year with 1,104 receiving yards and tied for the conference lead with 13 touchdowns. His 92 receiving yards per game also ranked second in conference despite catching passes from four different starters.

Manns returns as just one cog in an offense that was electrifying in 2015. Bowie State led the conference averaging over 37 points and 441 yards of total offense per game. The Bulldogs also rushed for nearly 195 yards per contest last year and could be nearly as prolific this season. Sophomore Robert Chesson should play a bigger role too. He only touched the ball 40 times in 11 games but averaged nearly five yards per carry. Chesson also gives them and explosive playmaker who can score from anywhere on the field and on special teams. Meanwhile their defense was stifling as well in 2015 and could be even better this year. Eight starters return although filling the hole at cornerback where perennial all-CIAA performer Curtis Pumphrey locked down for the last three years is vital. Mervo’s William Flowers, III could push to be in the starting mix during preseason camp. The Bulldogs front seven will be as stout as any in their league which should take some pressure of Pumphrey’s successor. Two preseason first team all-conference players will anchor the middle of their defense. Senior tackle Sean Copeland returns after playing beast mode in the CIAA Championship Game after spending most of the contest in the Winston Salem State backfield. Linebackers Kevaugn Townsend and Ian Scott should benefit from the havoc that Copeland can cause up front also. However, Bowie State’s biggest question will be at quarterback where -despite Continued on C6

KW: You also talk about how outspoken critics of Obama, like Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, have ended up ostracized by the Black community. Do you think this has had a chilling effect, and did it make you less willing to disagree with the President? JM: Tavis Smiley lost lots of corporate (Facebook) support after he was critical of President Obama, and Dr. West has lost some esteem. I think that Smiley and West come at the President somewhat differently though, and I find some of West’s criticism too personal and base to be credible. Still, the way they were treated has caused many to bridle their tongues when discussing President Obama. I had my own challenges with the Obamaites when, in 2008, appearing on a program with Tavis and Cornel, I gave then-candidate Obama’s nomination acceptance speech a B. At the time I was President of Bennett College for Women, and actually had disgruntled members of the public write my Board of Trustees and faculty, and address me in ugly and disparaging terms, including Black women calling me the N-word. Ugliness does not bridle my tongue, and while some of the consequences of being an honest critic of this President have been unpleasant, I can manage. Don’t get me wrong. As I write in the book, I do not regret either of my votes for President Obama, nor my support of him when he ran for the Senate before that. I get excited as I ever did when I see that Black man on Air Force One. But I won’t settle for symbolism, and our President’s record should be open for analysis. Continued on C6

SPORTS

Ravens Pre-Season Update

An Inside Look at Week One of the Baltimore Ravens’ Training Camp

(AP Photo/Gail Burton)

Baltimore Ravens tackle Ronnie Stanley, center, warms up during NFL football training camp in Owings Mills, Md., on Aug. 3. By Perry Green Special to the AFRO The first week of training camp for the Baltimore Ravens is in the books, and there are a lot of good things for Ravens fans to be excited about. Continued on C6

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Superior Court of the District of District of Columbia PROBATE DIVISION Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 Administration No. 2016ADM773 Greta P Brown Decedent NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Ramona T Brown and Maureen L Brown, whose addresses are 315 Myrtle Ave, Albany NY 12208 & 50 East 106st Apt 13A, Ny, NY 10029, was appointed personal representatives of the estate of Greta P Brown, who died on May 28, 2016 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., 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before January 22, 2017. 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 January 22, 2017, 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 first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of Publication: July 22, 2016 Name of newspaper: Afro-American Washington Law Reporter Ramona T Brown Maureen L Brown Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY REGISTER OF WILLS 07/22, 07/29, 8/5/16

Superior Court of the District of District of Columbia PROBATE DIVISION Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 Administration No. 2016ADM687 George Powell Decedent Jamison B Taylor 1218 11th St., NW Washington, DC 20001 Attorney NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS G e o r g e P o w e l l J r. , whose address is 1417 Stansbury Ave, Richmond, VA 23225, was appointed personal representative of the estate of George Powell , who died on April 16, 2016 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 (or to the probate of decedent´s will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor Wa s h i n g t o n , D . C . 20001, on or before January 22, 2017. 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 January 22, 2017, 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 first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of Publication: July 22, 2016 Name of newspaper: Afro-American Washington Law Reporter George Powell Personal Representative

Superior Court of the District of District of Columbia PROBATE DIVISION Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 Administration No. 2016ADM768 Sterling E King Jr. Decedent Darryl F White 302 Mississippi Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20910 Attorney NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Robbie Walker-King, whose address is 1415 Geranium Street, NW, Washington, DC 20011, was appointed personal representative of the estate of Sterling E King, Jr., who died on June 29, 2014 without a will, and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose where-abouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before January 22, 2017. 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 January 22, 2017 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 first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of Publication: July 22, 2016 Name of newspaper: Afro-American Washington Law Reporter Robbie Walker-King Personal Representative

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August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016, The Afro-American

The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

New Book Explores Gains and Losses Under Obama Continued from C1 KW: Do you think the African-American agenda might have been placed on the Obama administration’s back burner because of a hesitancy on the part of Black leaders to question or criticize the President? JM: Absolutely. You will not get fed in your mama’s house if you do not bring your plate to the table. Some of our leadership has been so happy to be there that they haven’t pushed our agenda. I don’t know how many off the record conversations I’ve had with African-American leaders who would not be quoted and refused to make their sentiments public.

Bowie Bulldogs Eye Road Back to Championship Continued from C1

(Photo courtesy of Bowie St. Athletics/Lawrence Johnson)

Bowie State senior receiver Nyne Manns is a 2015 first team all-CIAA selection and hopes to lead them back to the conference title game this year.

Nyema Washington leading them to the championship after gaining invaluable experience – he is not the incumbent starter heading into preseason practice. Whoever wins the job will have to do a better job protecting the football while taking advantage of as good a collection of skill position players as any team in Division II. “I feel great about what we having returning from our championship team and blending that group of guys with our recruiting class,” said Wilson. “We fully understand what it takes to get back to the conference championship and NCAA post season play”. Six of the eight preseason all-CIAA conference players are seniors from Baltimore. While the future is promising it is now or never for this home grown Charm City Crew.

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KW: What grade would you give Obama? JM: Depending on the day of the week it varies. At the moment, though there are just a few months left in our President’s time in the Oval Office I’d like to give him an incomplete and hope he surprises me. Actually, overall he gets a solid B, but for his work with Black America he gets a low C, at best. “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available where books are sold now.

An Inside Look at Week One of the Baltimore Ravens’ Training Camp Continued from C1

The Ravens practiced two days in just shells and helmets on July 28 and 29, before practicing in full pads on July 30 at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, Md. Among the outstanding moments of camp so far: Flacco’s Back Former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Joe Flacco is officially back on the field, returning from an MCL injury that sidelined him for the final six games of last season. He’s wearing a brace on his knee—something he said he’ll wear all season—but showed no signs of hobbling. He showed he still has perhaps the strongest arm in the NFL, launching deep balls with ease during the first few days of camp. He tossed a beautiful 60-yard pass for a touchdown to rookie receiver Chris Moore during practice on July 29 that sent fans attending the practice into cheers. Pitta Looks Like He Was Never Gone Tight-end Dennis Pitta returned to practice after missing most of the last three seasons due to back-to-back hip injuries. It’s amazing to see him back on the field, considering Pitta once thought his career would be over after fracturing the same hip twice in two years. But the way the veteran tight-end has looked in camp, you would think he was never injured in the first place. Pitta is running all his routes fluidly, and does not appear to be limping. Flacco has been targeting him often in camp, and he’s caught almost everything thrown to him. That’s not surprising at all, considering how good Pitta is when healthy. He’s Flacco’s best friend on the team and the chemistry they have on the field is obvious. Pitta was one of the main reasons Flacco was so good during the Ravens Super Bowl run in 2012. His talent was severely missed during the last three years, and having him back is a true blessing for Ravens Nation. Who Impressed the Most? Former Towson University running back Terrance West looks like the best running back on the team so far in camp. He’s lost some weight and runs with more of a burst, but also shows great vision in finding running lanes to dash through. Veteran running back Justin Forsett will more than likely get the nod to start the season, but don’t be surprised if West gets a lot of touches once the season is underway. First Round Pick Ronnie Stanley is the Real Deal It’s not easy for a rookie to take on the left tackle position, which is one of the hardest jobs in football. Most defenses put the best past rusher on the left to attack the blind side of a quarterback; Stanley understands that and has looked sharp so far at the position. It’s obvious he’s a very talented player, considering he was drafted sixth overall this spring. But he’s modest, something his veteran teammates appreciate. All-pro right guard Marshal Yanda said the rookie “works hard and keeps his mouth quiet and that’s what you like to see from a good rookie.”

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Korryn Gaines Killed, 5 YearOld Wounded, After Standoff with Cops

Race and Politics

A Conversation with Police Commissioner Kevin Davis

Sean Yoes Senior AFRO Contributor Facebook

Korryn Gaines By Juliet Linderman Associated Press In the midst of a fivehour standoff that turned deadly, Facebook granted an emergency request from the Baltimore County Police Department to take offline the social media accounts belonging to a woman who wielded a shotgun at officers. Baltimore County Police officers shot and killed Korryn Gaines, 23, after she barricaded herself inside her Randallstown apartment with her 5-year-old son and pointed a shotgun at officers attempting to serve an arrest warrant on charges stemming from a March 10 traffic stop including disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police Chief Jim Johnson said on Aug. 2 that the department made the emergency request to have Gaines’ social media accounts suspended after she posted videos online showing the standoff. People who saw the postings, Johnson said, responded by encouraging her to not comply with police. Videos posted on Facebook and Instagram appeared to show Gaines, who was Black, talking with police in the doorway to her apartment and to her son during the standoff. In one, she asks her son what the police are trying to do. “They trying to kill us,” the boy says. “Do you want to go out there?” “No,” he says. The standoff on Aug. 1 began after three officers went to Gaines’ apartment to serve arrest warrants on her and her boyfriend, Kareem K. Courtney, 39, according to police. He left the apartment

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Zion Harvey, a nine-year-old from Owings Mills who underwent a double-hand transplant last summer, threw out the opening pitch when the Orioles defeated the Texas Rangers on Aug. 2. Harvey, who lost his hands and feet to an infection, became the youngest patient to receive a double-hand transplant when he had the procedure done at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in July 2015.

Baltimore Music Artists

Choose Beats Not Bullets By Alexis Taylor Special to the AFRO “They call Baltimore the ‘The City that Reads,’/ But sometimes it feels more like “The City Bleeds,”/ And the politicians never take care of me / So we got to stick together if we want to be free” – Isis Ayers, 9th grade Though some of the gritty lyrics sharply contrast against the innocence of their faces, the words of Isis Ayers and her fellow interns at the Beats Not Bullets Internship Program are straight from the heart. The pain is real, but so too is the vibrant ray of hope offered by their clear, strong voices and will to thrive. Kariz Marcel speaks to interns of the Beats Not Bullets Internship Program about “It’s our perspective,” grammar in emails and other forms of written communication. said Isis Ayers, a rising high school freshman. Ayers said the program helps her express “The whole goal is to get them ready for a professional herself. “I write about what I’m going through.” setting. The business side of it is really important,” said Kariz Twice a week the Beats Not Bullets Program interns meet Marcel, whose own Afro EDM compositions set both Light to hone the skills needed to create and record music. They also City and Artscape ablaze earlier this summer. “Before we even learn the finer points of navigating the music industry and how get into the creative side and start writing and making beats, to conduct solid business. we make sure that we handle business first.” In a city that has logged 174 homicides, as of Aug. 3, since New Year’s Day, the teens of Beats Not Bullets are offered not only a safe haven during the city’s hot summer months, but a chance to process their thoughts and emotions through the recording arts. “We’re speaking what we have gone through- our struggles. We’ve experienced more at a young age than people who may

“We’ve experienced more at a young age than people who may be older.”

– Jason Davidson

Continued on D2

Back to School

Honest Advice for Baltimore Public School Teachers By Alexis Taylor Special to the AFRO If you think teachers spend the majority of their time making Play-Doh and singing in circle time- take another look. A lot has changed since the 80s. Common Core State Standards now require kindergarteners to “Solve addition and subtraction word problems, and add and subtract within 10 by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.” Could you do that at six? Could you weave it into a fun and engaging literacy lesson today?

In addition to meeting increasingly rigorous academic standards, the state of some urban communities has left teachers standing in the gap for students who need extra support in developing socially, emotionally, and physically. According to data released from Baltimore City Public Schools, between 2008 and 2013, “the number of City Schools students identified as homeless doubled.” In 2013, BCPS had 2,716 homeless youth in classrooms across Baltimore City alone. This means that educators are much more than “just teachers.” Educators are social

workers for the students in unstable homes or living conditions. Educators are child psychologists unraveling the reasons behind a student suddenly acting out in class or refusing to eat. No one can be “just a teacher.” In fact, even the novice educator has to be a master planner with the patience of Buddha, an advocate in the trenches, and in some cases- the only father or mother figure a student knows. It’s All About You- Kind of, Not Really As a teacher, you set the tone and culture for the classroom. And while your

role is important- it is no more important than the role and experience of the student. Providing structure is crucial, but equally important is choosing battles carefully- and sometimes, taking time to check yourself. Who cares that hours were spent preparing a “fun” activity? If it bombs, you must plan something else- preferably something that will better engage students and have them do a majority of the work. Who cares that you want every child sitting perfectly on the carpet- if one prefers to sit attentively in a chair is it really worth the war? Sometimes

we have to make reasonable sacrifices or bargains for the greater good. Organization is Key

Continued on D2

Past Seven Days

Many communities of color and poor communities across the nation have been under siege in their own

neighborhoods and homes for generations because of seemingly ubiquitous crime. And many have also felt besieged by brutality and misconduct at the hands of some of the law enforcement officers sworn to protect and serve them. After the murder of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge last month, many members of law enforcement across the nation have adopted that siege mentality, perhaps understandably. It is an all too familiar feeling for many of the men and women of the Baltimore City Police Department since the days of last April’s uprising and the subsequent indictments of the six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. “Morale is such a real thing, but it’s sometimes difficult to measure. And it’s person by person and sometimes it’s day by day. But, I do know post unrest, a historic event, with what happened last year and that gave cops a lot of anxieties and that affected our morale,” said Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, Continued on D2

Baltimore Optician Retires After 35 Years

Courtesy photo

Andre Smith began his career as an optician in 1971, at the age of 17. By Crystal Nunn Special to the AFRO Andre Smith, owner of Ashburton Opticians, recently retired after 35 years in the business. Smith began his career at the age of 17, working at the family owned business, “Smith and Smith,” under his aunt, Continued on D2

174 2016 Total

Data as of Aug. 3

The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

Race and Politics Continued from D1

during an interview Aug. 1 on â&#x20AC;&#x153;First Edition.â&#x20AC;? Davis spoke at length about the current state of the BCPD rank and file and the effect of morale on their performance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Going through the trials of the police officers also affected the morale of the police officers...it was a real impact on morale. As we also contend with these national events going on, whether there are cops being shot and killed in Dallas or Baton Rouge, or whether its controversy surrounding questionable police involved shootings,â&#x20AC;? Davis added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those all affect morale and they get you to question your chosen profession. Is this for me? Do I still want to be a cop? Is this my calling? And I just think that we are in a better place with morale and I also know that morale is sometimes a house of cards. One critical incident can impact the morale of an organization like this overnight. So, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something I pay attention to,â&#x20AC;? Davis concluded. Despite the seemingly poisonous air that sustains (or chokes) the tenuous (but essential) relationship between the Baltimore City Police Department and the Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Attorneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office, Davis suggested the professional relationship between he and Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is not a perilous one.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;My relationship with Marilyn Mosby is a necessary relationship. She and I speak several times a week about matters that never make their way to the Baltimore Sun or the six oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock news,â&#x20AC;? Davis said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the business of the police commissioner and the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attorney. And the relationship that exists between detectives and assistant stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attorneys is a strong relationship and it has to be a strong relationship. There are moments in

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Is this for me? Do I still want to be a cop? Is this my calling?â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Kevin Davis time...where there will be a division of opinions and there will be a moment where we may agree to disagree on some things, but ultimately we never let that impact our commitment to the community,â&#x20AC;? Davis added. University of Maryland Law Professor Doug Colbert has

been a frequent contributor to â&#x20AC;&#x153;First Edition,â&#x20AC;? as weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve reported on the trials of the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Colbert argues that from the law enforcement reform perspective, despite the outcomes of the trials, they have shed light on policing in poor communities, providing vital insight and information as we go forward in the struggle for meaningful law enforcement reform. Davis said the dialogue is taking place in Baltimore and most big cities across the nation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The crime fight is really won...when police officers engage in Constitutional policing in between those responses to 911 calls. Where we chose to spend our time, who we chose to speak to? What stop, question and frisk scenarios we chose to get involved in based on reasonable suspicion and probable cause?,â&#x20AC;? Davis said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know that a police department with less anxieties and a healthy dose of morale, are more likely to be involved in the very active crime fight that ultimately makes our community safer.â&#x20AC;? Sean Yoes is a senior contributor for the AFRO and host and executive producer of First Edition, which airs Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on WEAA 88.9.

Korryn Gaines Continued from D1

with a 1-year-old boy before the standoff and was arrested. Gainesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mother, Rhonda Dormeus, told The Baltimore Sun her daughter ignored Courtneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pleas to surrender. During a Facebook call Monday, Dormeus said she heard him tell Gaines â&#x20AC;&#x153;it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worth it, to just come on out,â&#x20AC;? and then the â&#x20AC;&#x153;phone went dead.â&#x20AC;? Dormeus went to the scene but wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allowed to speak to her daughter, something she said might have helped calm her daughter and end the situation peacefully. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I do feel like they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to hurt her,â&#x20AC;? Dormeus said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel like they exhausted all the means of negotiation.â&#x20AC;? Dormeus said Gainesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political views â&#x20AC;&#x153;werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t for everybody.â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Not all of her beliefs I agreed with,â&#x20AC;? Dormeus said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Her heart was in a good place, she loved her Black people, and she just wanted them to see things for what she felt it really was.â&#x20AC;? Authorities said Gaines was armed during the standoff with

you.â&#x20AC;? An officer shot at her and Gaines fired two shots, but missed the officers, who returned fire and killed her, police said. Gaines also posted videos from the March traffic stop on her Instagram account. Police

â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Ś I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel like they exhausted all the means of negotiation.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Rhonda Dormeus a 12-gauge pistol grip shotgun that was legally purchased last year and toward the end of the negotiations pointed it directly at an officer and said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to kill

said she was pulled over because instead of a license plate, she had a cardboard tag that said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Any government official who compromises this pursuit of happiness and

right to travel will be held criminally responsible and fined, as this is a natural right and freedom.â&#x20AC;? During the stop, she said officers were trying to â&#x20AC;&#x153;steal her car,â&#x20AC;? that she wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t complying with officersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x153;criminalâ&#x20AC;? way. She said they would have to â&#x20AC;&#x153;murderâ&#x20AC;? her to get her out of her car, according to court documents. Officers said she had to be pulled from the car and repeatedly yelled â&#x20AC;&#x153;record thisâ&#x20AC;? as a crowd of people gathered while police were arresting her. Facebook restored Gainesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; social media pages after the standoff ended, but a pair of videos that violated the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s standards have been blocked from public view. The boy was wounded in the arm during the exchange

of gunfire but is in good condition at a hospital. Police were not sure whether he was hit by the gunfire or shrapnel. Gainesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; boyfriend is charged with second-degree assault, which stems from a fight with Gaines, police said. He has been released on his own recognizance. The department did not release the names or races of the officers involved, who were placed on administrative leave. Their first initials and last names will be released 48 hours after the shooting, in accordance with the departmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contract with the Fraternal Order of Police. The department is bringing body cameras online, but none of the officers had one. Court documents show Gaines filed a lawsuit against a former landlord,

Beats Not Bullets

Back to School

be older,â&#x20AC;? said Jason Davidson, 17. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My friend died right in front of my face at a young age. That changes your whole mindset.â&#x20AC;? Aside from gaining insight on making rough drafts, editing work, and blind carbon copying emails, the interns are also picking up strong mentors who have paid their dues to the Baltimore community and art scene. Artists and instructors like Kevin â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ogunâ&#x20AC;? Beasley and Otis â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vitoâ&#x20AC;? Eldridge help conduct the sessions that are based on the curriculum created by Marcel. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was a Baltimore youth,â&#x20AC;? said Damond Blue, who told the AFRO his own experience with an arts organization in middle school inspired him to give back. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important because there are less resources in the community today. There are less playgrounds, recreation centers, and places where kids can seek refuge. We wanted to create that ourselves and we are all Black men doing this so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a different perception and a different vibe. It gives the world something else to see other than what they see on CNN. â&#x20AC;&#x153; Blue created the program in partnership with his Damond Blue Music Group and Marcelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kariz Kids Youth Enrichment Services. The mentors will continue to work with students throughout the school year to make sure their interns stay on track academically. The men hope to hire the teens in their own organizations as peer-to-peer mentors, while also spreading their curriculum to other schools and community organizations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good program because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s keeping me out of trouble,â&#x20AC;? said Haymar Sims, 15. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You know thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of dangerous stuff going on out here in the streets- especially in the Cityperiod.â&#x20AC;? Sims said he enjoys learning about how to upgrade his work by swapping basic words and phrases for expressions that make people do double-take and ask â&#x20AC;&#x153;What word did he just say?â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m actually teaching them while Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m teaching myself,â&#x20AC;? said Sims. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I can be something different.â&#x20AC;? For more information on the Beats Not Bullets Internship Program go to damondblue.com/ beatsnotbullets.

Organization can make or break the teaching experience- especially when teaching multiple subjects to more than 30 students. Classrooms must be functional for both teacher and student. Visibly displaying your Instructional Framework, unit goals, and lesson targets ensures that day-to-day instruction aligns with year- long plans. Organizing students by academic level with corresponding activity bins cuts down misbehaviors as tasks are finished. Hanging wall organizers frees up floor space in smaller classrooms, and designated bins for all papers collected and returned keeps an unsightly mountain of paper from burying the teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desk. Everyone feels better, and students in a tidy room show more respect for the classroom by properly using materials and cleaning up behind themselves.

Continued from D1

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alleging she was â&#x20AC;&#x153;exposed to a sea of leadâ&#x20AC;? as a child, which contributed to â&#x20AC;&#x153;neurodevelopmental disabilities or injuries.â&#x20AC;? A medical expert who evaluated Gaines wrote that she â&#x20AC;&#x153;had a history of problems with anger and impulsive behavior,â&#x20AC;? and visited her school counselor on several occasions. The suit identifies Gainesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; father as Ryan Gaines, a police dispatcher. Baltimore City Schools spokeswoman Edie HouseFoster confirmed Tuesday that Gaines was a 2010 graduate of one of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best magnet high schools, Baltimore City College. Gainesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; uncle Jerome Barnett told The Baltimore Sun that Gaines â&#x20AC;&#x153;was feisty, but she was smart and she was respectful.â&#x20AC;?

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Communication is a Must, Collaboration is Key In order to meet studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s academic needs there must be clarity on environment, personality, and culture- none of this can be assumed. Communication with students, parents, family members, school administration and service providers is a requirement in truly understanding a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavior and learning style. To foster better communication, text parents throughout the day with pictures of their studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and tips on continuing the learning at home. The quick text logs communication and also gives students an incentive to do their best work. At the beginning of the year, ask parents to complete a needs survey. If a student has no running water or electricity, this will impact learning. Keeping positive, respectful, open lines of communication increases the chance that a parent will express a need that can then be filled.

Beg, Borrow, Steal: The Internet is Your Friend- Sometimes Teaching- especially in the beginning yearsis not the time to reinvent the wheel. Teachers Pay Teachers, Pinterest, and a slew of other websites offer everything from scripted lesson plans to fun and engaging writing prompts and art projects for every section of the Common Core State Standards. In 2016, the possibilities are endless. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a book you want to read? Find the readaloud with one search Youtube. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the funds to visit the pumpkin patch? Take your students on a virtual field trip! Communicating with the grade-level teams goes a long way in easing the pressures of teaching. Fellow teachers can give new ideas and participate in peer observations. Communication and collaboration with service providers can ensure that students get exactly what they needand sometimes a double-dose of instruction on a targeted skill. Live Where You Work Words cannot express the delight of a child seeing their teacher out of context. And the joy is not one-sided. Standing in the grocery store line with someone you taught how to read gives an immeasurable sense of pride. Living where you serve grounds the work that you do while giving a behind-the-scenes look into the community as you build connections. When you know where students are coming from you can better assist them in reaching their academic and social goals- and the instant celebrity status doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hurt. Alexis Taylor is a teacher in a Baltimore City public school.

Optician

Continued from D1 Helen Hitchens. Smith then went on to study Optical Science at the University of Maryland, and opened Ashburton Opticians with his aunt in 1981. The well-respected business is located on Liberty Heights Avenue in Baltimore, and has been meeting the optical needs of residents for over 30 years. Smith even received a letter of commendation from President Barack Obama, which he described as, â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of the highlights of being in the business.â&#x20AC;? Smith, who retired on June 30, is looking forward to helping his wife, Joyce, promote her new novel â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cut Like a Knife.â&#x20AC;? After devoting decades to the business, Smith told the AFRO that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be traveling, running more races, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;and doing a lot of fishing,â&#x20AC;? now that he is retired. Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brother, Kevin, is now running the business.

August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016, The Afro-American

“SUPPORT OUR YOUNG PEOPLE IN MUSIC” Hello my dear friends, how are you? Are you enjoying this beautiful, hot weather the Lord has given us? I love it even though it doesn’t like me. Because of health reasons, I am unable to hang outdoors and I know many of you are in the same situation, but honey child, it is my kind of season. The outdoor concerts and festivals are off the hook this summer. I have so much to tell you and I am not sure if the AFRO will allow me to get it all in or not with my pictures too. But I am going to try it any way and pray on it. I want you to follow me and remember to support our young people in music. They are playing all over Baltimore. The young lady pictured in the next column is a very gifted Gospel ‘Mime’ Dancer. I don’t give too many compliments about gospel dancer, because I never could understand why during service in church these people would decide to do a ballad dance. It just never made since to me. But I had the opportunity to see two Gospel Mime Dancers, which to me is totally different from someone whaling around on the floor kicking their heels up, spinning around in circles and sliding around on the floor with bare feet. The Gospel Mime Dancer actually performs the gospel songs with their facial expressions and the movement of their hands and body language. I think it is beautiful. This young lady, Thomasina Burton, is only in her early 40’s but she is awesome. I will let you know where she is going to be performing as soon as I can. I am so proud and tickled to death about two of my last winners of the Rosa Pryor Music Scholarship Fund, a sister and brother team who will be featured in their own show with the renowned musicians; Brian Kooken, Robert Shahid and Greg Hatza at the Caton Castle Ephraim and Ebban Dorsey, sister and Lounge on brother, winners of the 2015 Rosa Pryor Music Scholarship Fund, will headline their Aug. 13 at 6 own show with Greg Hatza, Robert Shahid p.m. Please my friends, and Brian Kooken at the Caton Castle Lounge, 20 S. Caton Avenue, in Baltimore support the on Aug. 13 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Promoter young people. Also on for this event is Eleanor Janey and Dr. that same Donna Hollie, former board members of day, Aug. the organization. For ticket information, 13, the late call 410-566-7086.

Congresswoman’s “Ruth M. Kirk Community Family Fun Festival” will celebrate their 22nd Annual event at Franklin Square Park, from noon until 8 p.m. featuring all sorts of vendors including delicious foods, arts and crafts and yours truly with my books. The entertainment will be provided by Nevita & Company, Simply Black and my group from out of Washington, D.C. “Signature Live.” On Aug. 14 the fun will continue with live entertainment by M.C. Booze, Rebirth, Robert Rucks Band and the Spindles. Bring your folding chairs and blankets and enjoy. It was a sad day in East Baltimore last week when we all said farewell to the Poet’s “BMA 2016 Jazz in the Sculpture Garden Summer Concerts” will begin August 6 with Athletic Club, 918 E. North Tizer Quartet featuring Karen Briggs. Show time is 7 p.m. at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, Md. For ticket information call 443-573-1701. You can bring your own folding chairs and blankets. Avenue. Last week the club celebrated the beginning and the end of a beautiful historical, popular, well respected nostalgic private club that opened their doors 54 years ago. So many of the dedicated, strong members have passed away and or are up in age and have health issues and the club was unable to replace them. Carl Beasley has been General Manager and said he could not hold on any longer. Shutting down and leaving with a great Thomasina Burton, reputation was a good thing. renowned “Gospel Mime We will miss the Poet’s. Thanks Dancer,” was beautiful at Beasley for all the support you the recent Zion Baptist and your organization gave Church Community to the community and to my Festivals in East Baltimore. organization. A member of New Life Well for my jazz lovers Evangelical Church, she and fans, you would enjoy this has performed at many one. It is a “Tribute to Left churches such as Temple Bank Jazz Society featuring Baptist Church, F.T.C. B. John Lamkin 3rd Trio with Church and Kingdom Donald Harrison, Andrew Workers International Adair, Vicente Archer, and John Ministries, just to name a Lamkin 3rd at Caton Castle, few. A must see act. 20 S. Caton Avenue on Aug. 6

from 6-10 p.m. Again these are all young musicians. MJ Productions, with D.J. Mike Jones, is hosting his 4th Annual Black & White Cabaret at Diamondz Events Hall, 9980 Liberty Road in Randallstown, Md. on Aug. 5 from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. It is B.Y.O.B., free set-ups and live entertainment by the Rollex Band and DJ T.C. Flash and DJ Mike Jones. For ticket information, call 443-525-5016. The Kuumba Ensemble Members and Rosalyn Gaines will host their fundraiser on Aug. 6, called “Jazz/R&B under the Stars Extravaganza” at The Lorraine Garden, 1021 Hartmont Road, Catonsville, Md. featuring Kendall Leonard. It is a “Cure for Cancer Fundraiser.” The event is BYOB, finger foods and a lot more. D.C. Washington passed Well, my dear friends, it is away July 22 in his home. time for the “fat lady to sing.” His Memorial Service I am out of time and space. was August 4 at St Paul I’ve got to go and fix dinner for Methodist Church, 501 my sister, Maxine. Remember Reisterstown Road. if you need me, call me at Condolences to his family 410-833-9474 or email me at and the Mason Brothers rosapryor@aol.com. of Hiram Grand Masonic Until the next time, I’m Temple. musically yours.

BALTIMORE AREA

COMMUNITY CONNECTION Send your upcoming events to tips@ afro.com. For more community events go to afro.com/Baltimore-events Rotary Club of Annapolis Crab Feast

The 71st annual World’s Largest Crab Feast, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Annapolis, is on Aug. 5. The event is open to the public from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, 550 Taylor Ave, Annapolis, Md. 21401. Visit annapolisrotary.showare.com/crabfeast or call 1-877-333-9667 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. This special event is a major fund-raiser which benefits local community and cultural non-profit organizations.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s Back to School Rally

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings- Blake’s Back to School Rally and Community Day Expo is August 6 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Baltimore Convention Center Expo Hall, 1 West Pratt Street, Baltimore. The expo will include free backpacks and school supplies, free childhood immunizations, live music, a gamezone, a health zone and more. Children must be present with a parent or legal guardian. Parents must show a current valid state issued photo ID to verify Baltimore City residency. For more information call 443-984-1650 or email back2schoolrally@baltimorecity.gov.

Howard County Fair

The 71st annual Howard County Fair is Aug. 6 – Aug. 13 on the Howard County fairgrounds in West Friendship, Md. The fair is opened from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information visit howardcountyfair.org.

Before you climb

higher

look for the wire.

Smart energy. It’s in the overhead power lines that deliver safe and reliable energy to your home or business. But those same power lines must also be avoided. If you’re planning to do work, keep all ladders, poles or landscaping equipment at least 10 feet away from them— that’s the law. Call BGE at 800.685.0123 before starting any work within 10 feet. Also don’t build playhouses and tree forts in trees with power lines running through or near them. To learn more about safety around power lines, visit BGE.COM.

Ins

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For these pictures and more go to afro.com/slideshows.

The Afro-American, August 6, 2016 - August 12, 2016

Mike Bailey and James Carroll Inez Sander and Emim Bey

The Bentalou neighborhood held its 2nd annual community cookout, July 30th outside the Easterwood Park Stephanie

Recreation Center in Baltimore, as part of the AFRO’s Clean/Green Block program. Visitors were able to enjoy free food, soft drinks, and various vendors such as Enoch Pratt Library, Wells Fargo, Mind Heart and Body Program, and Voter Registration. (Standing) Kimberly While

Hockaday and Andrea Freeman

Tina Davis and Joan Webb

Lyles and JoeAnn Oatis, (Sitting) Patsy Nwagbaraocha and Lynn Middleton

Arlene Fisher from the 40th District of Baltimore City Central Committee

Bro. Michael Smith (Baltimore Unit Junior and Young People VP and Master of Ceremonies)

the young ones were able to receive face paintings, popcorn and free books to take home. Officials like Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Democratic candidate for City Council in District 7 Leon F. Pickett all gave remarks at the event. Mohammad Akhtar, Barbara Williams and Thurmond Toland Sr.

Marilyn Brown and David Harcum from Enoch Pratt Free Library

Recipients of Awards and Citation: Standing: L-R: Rev. Hudson, Rev. Robertson, Rev. Mason, Rev. Yeargin and Rev. Sparrow Seated: Rev. Howard, Rev. Bond, Rev. Whipple, Rev. Albury, Rev. Young, Rev. Thomas, Jr., Rev. Wright and Rev. Baugh

Rev. Dr. Cleveland T.A. Mason II and wife

The Interdenominational Church Ushers Association of Maryland (ICUA) Baltimore saluted Baltimore pastors for leadership and selfless acts of kindness on April 29 at the Forum Caterers in Baltimore. The ICUA presented each pastor with an engraved pen and letter opening set, a magnet with pictures of each pastor on it, commemorative greetings from Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, an executive citation from Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, a certificate of recognition from Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and a ceremonial resolution from Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young. The ICUA of Maryland is an interfaith Christian organization affiliated with the National United Church Ushers Association of America and the Eastern Region Church Ushers Association. Vanessa W. Lucas is the president of ICUA Baltimore Unit.

Rev. Stephen L. Thomas Jr. and his mother

Marilyn Mosby, her daughters and Darlene Copeland

Barajean Shaman giving health tips

Photos by Chanet Wallace

Sis. Sallie Chatman escorted by Clevon Mason

Lavinia Alexander hosted a bull roast on April 21 and politicians and friends gathered at Martins West in Baltimore for a fund raiser for the upcoming election. A. Dwight Pettit, Kevin Parson, Kweisi Mfume, Mary Conaway, Belinda Conaway, Carlton and Darlene Douglass, Rev. Dr. John Lunn, Bishop Dr. Robert E. Johnson and Elder Jacqueline F. Johnson and AFRO columnist Valerie Fraling were among the guests. Lavinia Alexander is the clerk for the circuit Court of Baltimore City. Chloe Nicole and Shanai Dunmore

Belinda Conaway, Kevin Parson and Jessica DuBois

Curtis Alexander and Lavinia Alexander

Rev. Rodney R. Hudson and wife

Sis. Maya Tibbs (Baltimore Unit Junior and Young People President), Sis. Cynthia Hicks (Maryland State President), and Sis. Vanessa W. Lucas (Baltimore Unit President)

Rev. Dr. Grady A. Yeargin, Jr. and wife

Photos by JD Howard

Scott Mun, Mr. Son and Mr. Yoo

Tony Smith, Ernie Bratton, and Robert Toliver

Rev. David W. Young and wife

Patricia Tunstall, E. Gaines Lansey and Yvonne Lansey

Elder Jacqueline F. Johnson and Bishop Dr. Robert E. Johnson Sr.

Darlene and Carlton Douglass

Valerie Fraling, Kweisi Mfume and Patricia Tunstall

A. Dwight Pettit, Lavinia Alexander and Kweisi Mfume Catherine Kirkley, Lavinia Alexander and Denise McCready Gladys and Michael E. Gales Sr.

Mercai Huth, Wayne Johnson, Myung Kim, Young Yoo, Young Kim, David Ko

Photos by Anderson R. Ward