Daytona Times - December 05, 2013

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Daytona

‘Tis the weekend for holiday parades and events

U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit #189 Daytona Beach, FL

How pro athletes go from rags to riches and back to rags See page 7

East Central Florida’s Black Voice

See page 3

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DECEMBER 5 - DECEMBER 11, 2013

YEAR 38 NO. 49

EE FR

JAMES CLINGMAN: It’s time for incarcerated PRESORTED to become ‘prisonpreneurs’ See page 4 STANDARD

Local lawmaker pushing personal finance class

PEOPLE SPEAK

Bill would require high school students to take course BY ASHLEY THOMAS DAYTONA TIMES aysheldarcel@gmail.com

State Senator Dorothy L. Hukill (R-Port Orange) and Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen (R-Fort Myers) are introducing legislation requiring high school students to take a half-credit, full-semester course in personal financial literacy to meet graduation requirements.

Beginning with students entering grade 9 in the 2014-2015 school year, State Bill 212, coined the “Personal Financial Literacy Education Act,” would require standard high school diplomas to include one-half credit for instruction in personal financial literacy and seven and one-half, rather than eight, credits in electives.

Economic challenges cited The course would beef up the financial component already re-

quired in an economics class lawmakers added last year. “Many young people in this state graduate from high school without having a basic knowledge of financial literacy and money management,” Hukill offers in the context of the bill. “The Legislature finds that, in Dorothy light of the recent Hukill economic challenges nationwide, sound financial management skills are vitally

important to all Floridians, particularly high school students, and … requiring educational instruction in financial literacy and money management as a prerequisite to high school graduation in this state will better prepare young people for adulthood by providing them the requisite knowledge to achieve financial stability and independence.”

Some resistance As a former educator at Mainland High School, Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry has reser-

vations about the bill. “The bill, while well-intended, is another example of state legislators adding more mandates to a curriculum that is increasingly cluttered and serves to further restrict local control of our schools,” Henry explained. “My experiences in two separate Florida districts do not support the need because most of the content mentioned is already covered and supported by programs like Junior Achievement,” he added. Please see class, Page 2

‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ Negro spirituals to take center stage at civic center FROM STAFF REPORTS

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handmade quilt of reproductive fabric from the Civil War era will form the backdrop for a program to be presented at the Center for Civic Engagement at Bethune-Cookman University on Dec. 7. “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” written and directed by storyteller and Civil War re-enactor Mary Fears, will feature six performers singing the “Sacred Sounds of Slavery,” songs known today as Negro spirituals. Dr. Howard Thurman, a former professor at Boston University and a former resident of Daytona Beach made a study of those slave songs and penned his views about their creation in The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death, Friends United Press. 1999. His book is a reference for the program. As in all of Fears’ programs, this Negro Spirituals’ presentation is based on documented resources: “The Sounds of Slavery’’ by Shane and Graham White; “Dark Midnight When I Rise, the Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers’’ by Andrew Ward; and a book with the original songs published in 1887 with the title, “Jubilee and Plantation Songs, Characteristic Favorites as Sung by the Hampton Students, Jubilee Singers, Fisk University Students and other Concert Companies.’’ The spirituals in the program are taken from this book in which the original version of “Go Down Moses” has 25 stanzas.

Dramatization by locals Narrators and soloists clad in period clothing as those in bondage and free people of color will tell the stories which inspired the creation of the plan-

tation melodies or cabin songs as they were originally called. The program will include a dramatization of a scene from Andrew Ward’s “Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers’’ and truelife experiences of Frederick Douglass who made comments about the slave’s singing in his books. It was the Fisk Jubilee Singers who toured the northern cities and European countries abroad in the early 1870s who introduced this musical phase of Black culture to the world. This program presents the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. In 187l when the nine Fisk University students embarked on their first of three tours, they accomplished for themselves and this nation, a dem-

Above: Mary Fears, (far left) stands before other Civil War re-enactors. A program with various reenactments and Negro spirituals will be held at Bethune-Cookman University on Saturday.

onstration of the dignity, intelligence and educability of African-Americans. Although at that time, the end of the Civil War and the l3th Amendment had declared the end of slavery, Black Americans were still perceived by many as members of an inferior race and many expected their first performances to be comical as minstrel shows. Their introduction of the plantation melodies to vast audiences proved to the world that there was something of lasting value in African-American culture. Years earlier, the well-known orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass had also traveled

Left:John H. Anderson depicts abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass.

Please see SPIRITUAL, Page 2

Local Democrats elect new leaders BY ASHLEY THOMAS DAYTONA TIMES aysheldarcel@gmail.com

The top two spots of the Volusia County Democratic Party have seen a shakeup since February’s election of Vonzelle Johnson as chair and Emma Brinkley as vice chair. Both officers resigned in recent months and have been replaced by Leslie Pierce as the new chair

and Jean Jenner as the vice chair at Monday’s meeting of the Volusia Democratic Executive Committee. Johnson, a DeLand city commissioner, sent a resignation letter to committee members Oct. 31 explaining that due to a job promotion he was “forced to resign from the chairman’s position within the Volusia Democratic Party. The organization will need someone leading the charge who

can be very responsive and on the ground,” the letter stated. “Unfortunately, I cannot be effective in those regards due to this new undertaking. I shall do what I can to the best of my abilities to help with the transition to a new chairman and continue to support efforts.”

New leadership Pierce, a native of Bos-

Vonzelle Johnson

Leslie Pierce

ton who has lived in Volusia County for 25 years, has taken that charge and is ready to move the party forward into the 2014 election cycle and beyond. She was elected vice chair after Brinkley stepped down

and as Chair following Johnson’s resignation. “The room went wild, everyone was all excited,” Pierce told the Daytona Times, referring to the evening she was elected. “We’re hoping we can take all the momentum and excitement that was in the room Monday night and keep it moving into this next election cycle.”

Reorganization The party, which is fueled by volunteers, has an office location in DeLand

and meets once a month on the Daytona Beach campus of the University of Central Florida at Daytona State College. “We’re going to make sure that everyone has a role,” Pierce said. “We are putting processes in place, what can be expected of office staff. How we communicate and what we need to do. Our volunteers have been very busy because of the transition and the reorganization of the party,” Pierce added, stating that Jenner has exPlease see LEADERS, Page 2


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