Play helps youth cope with issues SEE PAGE 3
East Central Florida’s Black Voice
EE FR
CHARLENE CROWELL: WILL CONGRESS TURN BACK THE CLOCK ON FAIR HOUSING? PAGE 4
STRONG SPRINTERS AND JUMPERS ON MAINLAND HIGH TRACK TEAMS SEE PAGE 7
MARCH 9 - MARCH 15, 2017
YEAR 42 NO. 10
www.daytonatimes.com
A bigger and better Bike Week? Organizers of event in Black community hoping to bring in more vendors and boost economy BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES
Bike Week 2017 rolls into town this weekend and area merchants and organizers are hoping this one will bring more vendors, bikers and money into the Black community. The annual biker event starts March 10 and ends March 19. “We don’t really know until the weekends. We always hope to have more vendors. They usually arrive later in the week. Right now we have a good number of vendors,” said Barbara Turner-
Hymes, entertainment coordinator for the Second Avenue Merchants Association (SAMA). The goal is to grow the event to its past glory and even better.
‘Like Mardi Gras’ SAMA is a non-profit organization created by several business owners along MMB. SAMA organizes the Bike Week festivities along MMB. C/Style Entertainment & Productions handles the entertainment. “Our goal is to always have it grow. It’s difficult because it costs money to do the event. People don’t know about the cost. We want this to be a festival-type event like Mardi Gras. Our hope is that the community and city come out and support us and welcome the bikers, especially along the Avenue (Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard),”
Turner-Hymes commented.
‘Clean adult event’ Once again, Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard (MMB), historically known as Second Avenue or The Ave., will be filled with Biker festivities over the next two weekends. In the past, thousands of bikers and and locals have congregated to the area during Bike Week to relax, listen to music, and patronize food and merchandise vendors. The second weekend is usually the busiest of the two. Referred to as the world’s largest motorcycle event, hundreds of thousands of bikers descend on the area in March. The economic impact of Bike Week in Volusia County is reportedly about $75 million. African-American organizers See EVENT, Page 2
FILE PHOTO
Bikers are rolling into town for the major motorcycle event. This marks the 76th anniversary of Bike Week.
A lesson in Florida’s Black heritage
PHOTOS BY DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Seniors with the Oasis program at the John H. Dickerson Center board a bus on Feb. 24 for the east coast Black Heritage Trail Tour.
B-CU students and local senior citizens spend a day exploring AfricanAmerican history on the east coast. FROM STAFF REPORTS
To celebrate the close of Black History Month, Daytona Beach’s Leisure Services Department in collaboration with Bethune-Cookman University’s College of Liberal Arts spent a day touring some of Florida’s Black history sites on the east coast. History professor Dr. Anthony Dixon and about 50 students from his African-American history and Florida history classes were part of the Black Heritage Trail bus tour. Joining them were 55 senior citizens from the Leisure Services Senior Oasis Program at the John H. Dickerson Center. The sites included the fol-
‘Eye-opening experience’
See LESSON, Page 5
WINTER SPRINGS – Former Daytona Beach resident Dr. Valarie Greene King, a pioneer in educational and workplace diversity that has become standard operating procedure in top-performing schools and businesses, died Feb. 26 after a decade-long battle against breast cancer. She was 70. Born in Hawthorne, Fla., to James R. Greene and Mildred Barlow Green, her family moved to High Springs, then Titusville, then Cocoa, where her father served simultaneously there as principal of Monroe High School and as president of Carver Junior College. (Carver was an all-Black junior college, as community colleges Dr. Valarie Greene King were called then, during Florida’s era of racial segregation. It is now known as Eastern Florida State College.)
Homecoming queen After she graduated from Cocoa’s Monroe High School in 1963 – where she was elected homecoming queen and then Miss Monroe High – the family moved to Daytona Beach in 1964 after both her parents were hired by then-Bethune-Cookman College. Her father became an instructor and supervised student interns; her mother was the school’s librarian who also taught English. King went on to earn a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Atlanta’s Spelman College, then earned a master of education degree in counselor education from North Carolina Central University and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the American University. During a 35-year career as an administrator, counselor and psychologist, she worked at BethuneCookman College (now University); Southern Methodist University, Dallas; and the University of Central Florida, Orlando.
lowing in Jacksonville: Kingsley Plantation, the historic Durkeeville community, Edward Waters College and the Ritz Museum. St. Augustine sites were Fort Mose Historic State Park, the Lincolnville Historic District and the Accord Florida Civil Rights Museum. The purpose of the Feb. 24 trip was “to bridge the gap between the academic examination of history and the public awareness of the affected community.’’ The trip brought together two generational views of African-American history and the uniquely different attitudes and reflections of their meaning and significance.
The older group was more inquisitive and experienced more of an emotional reaction to the historic spots than their younger student counterparts.
Diversity pioneer Dr. Valarie King dies at 70
World traveler The group pores over artifacts at the Lincolnville Museum in St. Augustine.
According to her sister, former Daytona Beach City Commissioner Cassandra Greene ReynSee KING, Page 2
ALSO INSIDE
COMMENTARY: MARC MORIAL: PRIVATE PRISONS RESURRECTION REPRESENTS PAY TO PLAY | PAGE 4 EDUCATION: CHANCE THE RAPPER DONATES $1 MILLION TO CHICAGO SCHOOL SYSTEM | PAGE 8