Daytona Programs pay tribute to moms See page 5
PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit #189 Daytona Beach, FL
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JULIANNE MALVEAUX: Claim your destiny even in a tough economy Page 4
A ROUNDUP OF LOCAL SPORTS See page 7
East Central Florida’s Black Voice
www.daytonatimes.com
MAY 17 - MAY 23, 2012
YEAR 37 NO. 20
Voting the focus of NAACP banquet
PEOPLE SPEAK
National attorney talks about past and present battles BY JAMES HARPER DAYTONA TIMES harperjames59@yahoo.com
History is repeating itself as forces opposed to minority participation in the voting process have been working since 2010 to pass discriminatory laws making it harder for Blacks to vote, according to Dale Ho, an attorney
with the National NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Ho was the featured speaker at the Volusia County-Daytona Beach NAACP’s 39th Annual Freedom Fund and Awards Banquet on May 11 at the Plaza Resort and Spa. The theme for this year’s banquet was “This is My Vote, This is My Voice.” Quoting Novelist William Faulkner, Ho said, “What we are seeing today is ‘the past is never dead, indeed it is not even past.’”
History lesson Ho said that 150 years ago when Black slaves were given their freedom – between 1860 to 1870 – there was an “explosion of diversity in our electorate.” He noted that there were several states in which Blacks made up more than 30 percent of the state houses because AfricanAmerican men were able to vote for the first time and there were Black men being elected to Congress for the first time. Like White women, Black women would not get the right to
vote until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920. Unfortunately, said Ho, the wave of Blacks being elected didn’t last as the White majority passed laws creating poll taxes, and literacy tests, which most Blacks were not able to pass in order to vote. Prior to getting voting rights, it was illegal for Black slaves to read and write.
‘Period of darkness’ During the 1890s and for decades thereafter, there was a “period of darkness” in reference
BETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY GRADUATION 2012
A fond farewell
to Blacks trying to vote, Ho explained. Ho explained that it would not be until 1965, under President Lyndon Johnson, and the passing of the Voting Rights Act during the Civil Rights Movement, that many of the discriminatory laws would be struck down. “We’ve seen a flowering of democracy since then. Nationally the gap almost vanished in minority voter participation,” Ho said. Ho, who is assistant counsel of Please see NAACP, Page 2
Retired B-CU athletic director to be honored at golf tournament BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES butleramj@yahoo.com
Lloyd “Tank’’ Johnson, BethuneCookman University’s former athletic director, will be honored during a golf tournament next month. The honor takes place on June 2 at the ninth annual Elisha J. Strapp Invitational Golf Tournament at LPGA International in Daytona Beach. “It’s a great honor. The young man that Lloyd “Tank’’ started this was like a Johnson son to me. He was greatly involved in the city. Golf was a second love for me. Before I got ill, I played it a lot,” said Johnson. Commented Sandra Strapp, a coordinator of the event, “Mr. Johnson was such a driving force in the athletic community at Bethune-Cookman as the athletic director. He recruited a lot of great students and great athletes including my late husband, Mr. Strapp.”
Top: Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed embraces a Bethune-Cookman University graduate. The spring commencement was held Saturday at the Ocean Center. It was Reed’s final graduation; her retirement was official on May 13.
Helped to start Florida Classic
Center: Graduates enjoy embraces from faculty, family and friends. Bottom: Former State Senator Tony Hill was the commencement speaker. Shown with Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed, he also was bestowed an honorary degree of Doctor of Law on Saturday.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BETHUNECOOKMAN UNIVERSITY
Johnson ran B-CU’s athletic department for 19 years and helped to create the Florida Classic, the annual football weekend now in Orlando that pits the Wildcats against longtime rival Florida A&M University. “We had been playing them for years in a home and home series between Tallahassee and Daytona. They had an 8,000-seat stadium and we had 5,000 here at Memorial Stadium. The game always was attractive to our alumni and the state,” Johnson explained. “In 1972, we lost a close one in Daytona; then in 1973 we won in Tallahassee. It was our first win over them in 19 years. Myself and their athletic director, Hansel Tookes got together because of the need for a bigger venue. I got the Speedway in Daytona for the 1974 game after hearing that Father Lopez Catholic High played there. We had 25,000 fans. The following year we played in Tallahassee at Doak Campbell Stadium on Florida State’s campus, which had 35,000 seats. We used the Citrus Bowl in Orlando in 1977. All this led to the Classic in 1978.”
Oversaw move to Division I In addition, Johnson oversaw BetPlease see JOHNSON, Page 2