Expert advice on managing money in 2016 SEE PAGE 8
EE FR
JEFFREY L. BONEY: Keep your chicken dinners and give us sound policy and advocacy SEE PAGE 4
HOW TO KICK OFF A YEAR OF GOOD HEALTH SEE PAGE 3
East Central Florida’s Black Voice DECEMBER 31, 2015 - JANUARY 6, 2016
YEAR 40 NO. 53
www.daytonatimes.com
Durham’s appointment ‘undermines Black people’ That was the statement offered by the local NAACP president on Daytona’s hiring of the minister and community leader. The mayor begs to differ.
BY PENNY DICKERSON DAYTONA TIMES news@daytonatimes.com
The recent appointment of the Rev. L. Ronald Durham as a full-time city government earning $75,000 per year with full benefits has added fuel to the ongoing adversity between the City of Daytona Beach and the local chapter of the NAACP. An African-American, Durham’s official title will be asset management director/special projects. In this capacity, he will perform community outreach and other special projects assigned by Daytona Beach
City Manager Jim Chisholm. While Durham is a well-respected community stalwart, the recent announcement by Chisholm is deemed Rev. L. Ronald as a decision that “undermines Black Durham people,” said Cynthia Slater, Volusia County-Daytona Beach NAACP president. “The city manager’s appointment of Reverend Durham to serve as community liaison for the city rais-
es the issue of accountability on his part,” Slater told the Daytona Times this week. “My question is, ‘Who is Chisholm accountable to?’ ” Durham resigned in May as senior pastor of Greater Friendship Baptist Church in Daytona Beach after 12 years. After leaving the church, he became a full-time community relations coordinator for Halifax Health Hospice in Volusia and Flagler counties.
Diversity report At a Dec. 2 commission meeting, city Human Resources Director James Sexton presented a report
that disclosed that of the 35.4 percent African-American population in Daytona, only 18.7 percent of the municipality’s workforce is Black. The city’s total minority workforce stands at 25 percent. From November 2013 through November 2015, non-Whites filled 33 percent of the city’s vacancies through internal promotions, Sexton noted. While Sexton’s diversity report fulfilled a previous commission request, the seemingly abrupt appointment of Durham negates the city’s claim to be “proactive” in hiring by posting open positions in Please see DURHAM, Page 6
F.R.E.S.H. BOOK FESTIVAL 2016
Orlando author to discuss ‘A White Man’s Woman’ at Jan. 9 event BY DAYTONA TIMES STAFF news@daytonatimes.com
Malvin A. WilliamsTyson, left, poses with Yamma Brown, the daughter of the late singer James Brown, at a book festival this year at the University of Central Florida.
W
hen the F.R.E.S.H. Book Festival gets underway this month in Daytona Beach, one of the featured authors will be Malvin Ann Williams-Tyson of Orlando whose book is titled “A White Man’s Woman.’’ Based on a true story, WilliamsTyson tells how a Black girl was molested and raped by White men while growing up in Arlington, Ga., a small town near Albany. That girl was Georgie Mae Lang, Williams-Tyson’s mother. Two of Williams-Tyson’s siblings have White fathers as a result of rape. “It is my mother’s biography. It illustrates how she was treated as a young teen in this small town in Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s before the Civil Rights Movement when Jim Crow laws were practiced very strongly. In addition to Jim Crow laws, there were also unspoken rules that tormented her during this time,” Williams-Tyson told the Daytona Times. “One of those unspoken rules in that town was White men could rape and have their way with young Black girls without any consequences and the Black community was not allowed to say anything or question their actions. Once that happened to a young Black girl, she was labeled and called ‘A White man’s woman,’ meaning that other White men in the community would target her also.’’ Williams-Tyson said her mother was first raped at age 16 and gave birth to her first son at age 17. The book goes into detail about the bitter hatred and abuse that Blacks Please see AUTHOR, Page 2
Malvin A. Williams-Tyson has been in the Army Reserve nearly 30 years.
Bethune-Cookman alumna finding success with innovative ‘Purse Props’ BY PENNY DICKERSON DAYTONA TIMES news@daytonatimes.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF LESLIE JOHNSON DORSETT
Leslie Johnson Dorsett created Purse Props after attending an event and realized there wasn’t a place for her purse. The floor was not an option. The compact style wallet opens up to form a purse stand.
ALSO INSIDE
Some women call them “handbags’’ while older generations prefer the more dated moniker, “pocketbooks.’’ The more fashionable millennial term is is a “purse,” and for as long as they have collectively crowded church pews, claimed their own movie theater chair or longed for public bathroom hooks to hang upon, the female gender’s most necessary accessory has sought an alternative to being placed on the floor. The latter is a known “no-no.’’ According to studies, the bot-
tom of a purse carries more germs than a bathroom toilet and “about a third of them have fecal bacteria on them,” confirmed Charles Gerba, a University of Arizona microbiologist who has studied bacteria living on handbags. Bethune-Cookman University alumna Leslie Johnson Dorsett has found the perfect alternative in her trendy invention, “Purse Props.” She has created a support device that is compact and practical enough to eliminate most medium to large purses, diaper bags, or tablet computer satchels from being placed on unsanitary surfaces. Further, Dorsett’s Purse Props
boast a sleek design, affordability, and are arguably the “next big thing” to add to the lady arsenal of must-have gadgets.
Impressive dossier Upon graduating from Bethune-Cookman in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech communication education, she began her 27-year educational track as an English teacher at Nova High School in Davie. A Florida native, she has spent the last 21 years as a certified school counselor and, in 1995, earned a Master of Science in guidance and counseling folPlease see SUCCESS, Page 2
COMMENTARY: MARGARET KIMBERLEY: BLACK LIVES DON’T MATTER IN ISRAEL | PAGE 4 ENTERTAINMENT:‘BLACK PANTHERS’ AND ‘CREED’ AMONG BEST MOVIES OF 2015 | PAGE 5