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FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

VOLUME 27 NO. 6

A SLAVE TO HIS BASE

President Trump spoke almost exclusively to his Republican supporters during his latest State of the Union speech; Democrat Stacey Abrams blasts Trump and the GOP in response.

COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union speech, delivered Tuesday night, following a government shutdown that left many people irreparably damaged, was taken in stride by African-Americans and Democratic leaders who express little hope for change.

“We meet tonight at a moment of unlimited potential. As we begin a new Congress, I stand here ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for all Americans,” Trump said in the speech in which he never mentioned the hardships of the historic shutdown which, for weeks, put thousands of Americans either out of work or caused them to work without pay.

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

‘One nation’ “Millions of our fellow citizens are watching us now, gathered in this great chamber, hoping that we will govern not as two parties but as one nation. The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or a Democrat agenda. It is the agenda of the American people.”

The lofty words of the president resonated little with Democrats and Black leaders as he ignored the pain of the shutdown for

Democratic women in the U.S. House of Representatives dressed in white for President Trump’s State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. which he initially claimed credit. Besides that, America had heard it all before. Even during his inaugural address, he promised to be president for all the people ‒ after which his administration has become one

of the most racially and culturally divisive in history.

Trump’s speech got intense applause from Republicans, especially as he menSee SOTU, Page A2

Billions to come?

OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY, INC.

A new Omega man

New weed chief sees potential

BY DARA KAM NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE ‒ Saying hemp is poised to be a “multibillion-dollar industry in the state,” Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried on Wednesday appointed the state’s first cannabis czar.

Fried, a Democrat elected in November who made increasing access to medical marijuana one of the cornerstones of her campaign, tapped Holly Bell, a former banker, to serve as director of cannabis. Fried created the position after taking over the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services last month.

Bell, who has a degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University, has worked as a cannabis consultant in other states and helped “build the infrastructure to create Tennessee’s industrial hemp program,” according to a news release issued by Fried’s office Wednesday.

Hemp now legal

Minister Louis Farrakhan (seated), longtime leader of the Nation of Islam, fulfilled a longtime desire when he was initiated into the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. on Feb. 2, 2019. The fraternity has more than 700 chapters worldwide. Its cardinal principles are Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance, and Uplift.

Fried said Bell will work with farmers and scientists to help develop Florida’s nascent hemp industry following the passage of a federal farm bill that broadly legalized hemp, a cannabis plant that does not contain euphoriainducing THC. Also, Bell will monitor other state agencies’ activities regarding medical marijuana.

“The stakes are really high here in our state to get this right. Studies show that Florida can be the number one state in America for medical marijuana and to help involve and bring up this industry,” Fried told reporters at a news conference announcing Bell’s appointment.

See HEMP, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Doctors skip opioid training

NATION | A6

Running for president while female Primary will test Booker’s optimism

ALSO INSIDE

OBITUARY | B2

Popular soap star dies at 52

‘Choice’ students have college focus, study claims SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

The lower-income, mostly nonWhite students participating in the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program ‒ now serving 100,000 students in private schools statewide ‒ are up to 43 percent more likely to enroll in four-year colleges than like students in public schools, and up to 20 percent more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

The outcomes for scholarship students are even stronger for stu-

dents who use the scholarship four or more years. Those students are up to twice as likely to attend a four-year college than their publicschool peers, and up to 45 percent more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees, according to the study.

Researchers reported college enrollment and degree completion for two groups of students: those who began using the scholarship in grades 3 -7, and those who began using the scholarship in grades 8-10. They found scholarship students had better outcomes across the board.

Long waiting list The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship was created in 2001 and is funded through corporate contributions. It now serves 99,453 students in 1,799 private schools, and has a waiting list this year of roughly 13,000 students.

Sixty-eight percent of scholarship students are Black or Hispanic. Their average family income is $25,755 a year.

A decade’s worth of standardized test scores shows they were typically the most struggling stuSee STUDENTS, Page A2

GUEST COMMENTARY: DINIZULU GENE TINNIE: WHY THIS IS A MILESTONE YEAR IN BLACK HISTORY | A4 GUEST COMMENTARY: OSCAR H. BLAYTON: LEGAL DOUBLE STANDARDS KEEP US IN SHACKLES | A5

FOCUS

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FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Racist White people, own up to your horribleness First, we had Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam confessing to being in either blackface or a Ku Klux Klan robe in a photo on his medical school yearbook page.

Then he denied doing so, but volunteered that he did slather on some shoe polish to imitate Michael Jackson.

Now we have movie star Liam Liam Neeson dropping Neeson his bombshell confession that he once wandered the streets, armed with a club, wanting to kill a random Black man years ago.

A website’s expose forced Northam, 59, to confront his past or, at least, his yearbook version of his past.

Voluntary disclosure Neeson, 66, unearthed his past practically unbidden in a

CARLA HALL GUEST COLUMNIST

17-minute hotel room interview with writer Clemence Michallon for Britain’s Independent newspaper. Neeson is energetically promoting his new film, “Cold Pursuit,” a tale about a man seeking revenge for the death of his son at the hands of drug dealers.

On the surface, neither of these anecdotes (and that word seems too lighthearted for all this) seems to have much in common beyond centering on a White man of uncertain age who should have known better than to do what he did when he did it. And as reprehensible as costuming yourself in blackface is, it’s not as dangerous as hunting for a Black man to beat up.

But they’re both about some unsettling racist urge that seems to be tattooed under the skin of far too many White people in the modern era ‒ and by that I mean by 1984, the year that Northam’s yearbook photo came out.

The difference here is that Northam, for all his liberal politics and his Black church-going, has just acted like a dolt trying to explain himself. Neeson, on the other hand, confessed that what he did was horrible. And it was.

Hunting a Black man The actor brought it up as a cautionary tale about the perils of seeking revenge in real life.

Years ago, when a friend told Neeson that she had been raped by a man she did not know, he asked her what race the rapist was and then, filled with rage, he wandered the streets (presumably England or Ireland, but he kept a lot of details out of his story) in search of any Black man.

The Independent quotes him saying: “I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody ‒ I’m ashamed to say that ‒ and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some … ‘Black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could … kill him.”

He says now that “it was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that.” He apparently hurt no one and eventually realized what he was doing was awful.

Was he a racist or just a tightly wound man capable of vindictive violence? Or was he both?

Of course, he was a racist. He was roaming the streets trying to find a random Black man to kill. And he gave every indication of being capable of violence.

That’s a pretty explosive combination. And his revelation about himself is deeply disturbing. The question is, how much has he changed since then?

Sincerity or publicity?

Frankly, I wish he would talk more about what he’s learned from this ‒ and whether he’s dealt with whatever racism he still harbors. No doubt, he will be given more opportunities to talk about this as he continues his press tour. He should take them. He shouldn’t shy away from the subject now. He put this in play.

He started a conversation about violence and about racism. The way he conducted himself years ago was despicable.

But having a conversation about what he’s still learning from his actions is something that could benefit us all.

Not that Twitter is giving him much of a pass. Was he moved in the moment of the interview to confess this (as the Independent story suggests)? Or was this a calculating ploy on his part to gin up even more publicity for his new film?

Neeson has become hugely popular as the everyman avenger in a spate of successful action movies, starting 10 years ago with “Taken” and its sequels. He doesn’t really need to relate this story to get people into theaters to see it. And he runs the risk that people will be so offended by his story that they won’t go see the movie.

HEMP Bell said she helped Tennessee farmers embrace hemp as an alternative to tobacco, soybeans, cattle and cotton ‒ crops similar to those grown in Florida.

Other uses

‘Alternative crop’

SOTU from A1

tioned his quest for a “border wall” which has become widely known as a dog-whistle to his base and a core race issue. As he pushed the need for the wall in the speech, he never mentioned his campaign promise that “Mexico will pay” for the wall.

Stacey “In the past, Abrams most of the people in this room voted for a wall, but the proper wall never got built. I’ll get it built,” he said.

Democrats respond Stacey Abrams used the Democratic State of the Union response Tuesday to blast President Donald Trump for the 35day partial government shutdown, calling it a stunt that “defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people ‒ but our lives.”

Abrams, who narrowly lost a bitter contest last year for governor of Georgia, used the nationally televised address to not only criticize Trump and his policies, but to jab Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for his recent verbal assaults on a House Democratic voting rights and election bill that he has labeled a Democratic “power grab.”

“This is the next battle for our democracy, one where all eligible citizens can have their say about the vision we want for our country,” Abrams said. “We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be cast and

Carla Hall writes for the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the products contain or are advertised as containing low levels of non-euphoric cannabidiol, or CBD. The products, sold in oil, edible or even wholeflower form, are untested in Florida and have become a source of confusion for law enforcement officials and prosecutors.

from A1

“Hemp is a multibillion-dollar opportunity and potential for the state of Florida and the agriculture community as an alternative crop. After 80 years of stalled progress, we can finally begin to put cannabis to work for farmers, consumers and patients here in Florida,” Bell said at a news conference.

Fried, a lawyer and onetime medical marijuana lobbyist, called cannabis her department’s “top priority.” She also ticked off a list of problems with the state’s implementation of a constitutional amendment, approved by voters in 2016, that legalized medical marijuana for a broad swath of patients.

Insurance companies do not cover the cannabis treatment, cities have prohibited marijuana operators from opening retail stores, and “we don’t have enough licenses” for operators to meet patient demand, Fried said.

“When we have a supply problem, we can’t reduce the cost,” she said.

A full explanation

GERALDINE WILKINS/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Hemp fiber, shown in this file photo, is a cannabis plant that does not contain euphoria-inducing drugs. It is used for rope, textiles and plastics, among other things.

System revamped?

The state also needs to revisit the “vertical integration” system that requires operators to grow, process and distribute cannabis and related products, Fried said.

Moving away from vertical integration could involve opening

counted is a ‘power grab.’”

McConnell, R-Ky., has led the charge against the Democratic House bill that seeks to repair the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court fractured in 2013. The bill would also make Election Day a federal holiday, require presidents and vice presidents to release their tax returns, and restore voting rights to certain felons who have served their time.

‘Threat to democracy’ “Let’s be clear: voter suppression is real,” Abrams said. “From making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places to rejecting lawful ballots, we can no longer ignore these threats to democracy.”

To Democrats, Abrams represents both a dream deferred and a rising star. To Republicans, she is a vanquished foe whose political moment has passed ‒ even if she refuses to recognize it.

Abrams was aiming to take a step to further stardom Tuesday night in delivering the Democratic response. The Yale-educated lawyer and former Georgia state House Democratic leader was the first African-American woman and non-sitting public official to deliver a rebuttal to a presidential address.

Voting rights focus She used the moment to reintroduce herself to a nation that watched the hotly contested and racially charged election in red state Georgia between her and eventual winner Republican Brian Kemp. The Mississippi-born daughter of United Methodist ministers told her family story Tuesday and returned to one of her signature political themes: Voting rights.

Abrams, who sought last year

the industry to companies that wouldn’t be responsible for all aspects of the cannabis business.

For example, some companies could operate solely as dispensaries or as growers.

While many of the items Fried identified would require action

by the Legislature or the state Department of Health, the agriculture commissioner said she intends to crack down on unregulated hemp-based products being sold at gas stations, grocery stores and smoke shops throughout Florida.

to become the nation’s first African-American female governor, turned most of her attention to Trump. She described how, during the shutdown, she volunteered to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers while “they waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of hope since they hadn’t received a paycheck in weeks.”

“Making their livelihoods a pawn for political games is a disgrace,” Abrams said with a multiracial, multicultural crowd of people standing in the background.

“The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the president of the United States, one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people ‒ but our values,” she said.

fenders who he had pardoned under new bi-partisan criminal justice reform.

Tough election In the nearly three months since she lost to Kemp, Abrams has become a very public reminder of the battle over voting rights and voter fraud that surfaced during the bitterly fought campaign.

Georgia became the epicenter of the skirmish with many Democrats and other Abrams supporters claiming that Kemp stole the election as he purged hundreds of thousands of mostly minority voters from the rolls while Georgia’s secretary of state. The office oversees elections.

Republicans call Democrats’ stolen-election claim sour grapes and brand Abrams a sore loser for refusing to recognize Kemp’s win as legitimate.

Trump laid out some key bipartisan goals such as research to end childhood cancer and HIV/AIDS as well as successes, including economic gains, infrastructure, and criminal justice reform. Guests in the gallery included formerly incarcerated of-

First released Those guests included Alice Johnson, who had served nearly 22 years of a life sentence as a first-time drug offender and Matthew Charles, sentenced to 35 years for selling drugs now “the first person to be released from prison under the First Step Act,” Trump said.

Despite the bipartisan highlights in the speech, Black leaders note that his “racist” views and policy omissions far outweigh the positives.

“Once again the President used the State of the Union as an opportunity to spew the same racist rhetoric, that does nothing but bolster his detachment and disinterest towards the real issues that plague our nation,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

“While President Trump rallied for a wall on the border and credited his presidency for lowering unemployment numbers, which he touted after the longest government shutdown in our

STUDENT from A1

dents in their prior public schools. According to the most recent funding comparison across education sectors, the value of a scholarship is 55 percent of per-pupil spending in Florida district schools.

Step Up For Students is a

Following the passage of the federal farm bill, which took hemp off the list of controlled substances, the state needs to oversee industrial hemp ‒ which is used for rope, textiles and plastics, among other things ‒ as well as all aspects of hemp-related products that are ingested or used in other ways by humans or animals, Fried said.

“Part of all of this is getting CBD to be regulated here in our state, grown here in our state, manufactured here, processed here, delivered here and to be part of ‘Fresh From Florida.’ This is a consumer issue. It is our job to make sure that the citizens of our state who are buying CBD know what is in it. You don’t have that right now,” she said.

When asked what her first task will be as the agriculture department’s cannabis chief, Bell paused.

“That’s a good question,” she said. “I’ve got to do a lot of research and get to know the team and work with the commissioner and put an outline together for her vision. Then, we’ll be implementing that.” nation’s history, he conveniently overlooked the voter suppression, over policing, gun violence, and detrimental and xenophobic immigration policies that his administration has instituted that disproportionately affect communities of color.”

Deeds, not words Jim Clyburn, the most powerful Black member of Congress as House majority whip, pointed out that Democrats are ready to work with Trump.

“We welcome his words of comity and are hopeful there will be issues like infrastructure, prescription drug costs, and defeating the spread of HIV where we can find common ground. However, as House Democrats, we know the role we were elected to play and, as my faith teaches me, we know we will be judged on our deeds, not our words.”

Hazel Trice Edney of the Trice Edney News Wire, and William Douglas and Julianna Rennie of McClatchy Washington Bureau / TNS all contributed to this report.

nonprofit that administers four state-supported scholarship programs: the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for lower-income students; the Gardiner Scholarship, an education savings account for students with special needs; the Hope Scholarship, for victims of bullying; and Reading Scholarship Accounts, for public school students who struggle with reading. For more info, go to https://www.stepupforstudents.org.

FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

FLORIDA

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Doctors, dentists in state skip required opioid training

BY CHRISTINE SEXTON NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE—About one in four Florida health care providers failed to take a two-hour continuing ed-

ucation course on proper opioid prescribing by the required Jan. 31 deadline, according to state officials.

The Florida Department of Health now is preparing to send non-compliance letters advising the provid-

ers that they have 15 days to take the mandated course or face disciplinary action, agency spokesman Brad Dalton told The News Service of Florida.

“If the department does not receive a response

within 15 days from receipt of the notice, a formal complaint will be initiated,” he said.

No complete number The health department does not know how many providers took the course,

only the overall compliance percentage, according to Dalton.

In Florida, physicians, podiatrists, dentists, physician assistants and advanced registered nurse practitioners can prescribe

controlled substances for the treatment of pain.

But prior to a law passed last year, only physician assistants and advanced registered nurse practitioners were required to take continuing education courses on controlled substances as part of their licensure requirements.

2018 mandate The new mandate impacts an estimated 114,000 Florida health-care providers.

While the state did not have a breakout that showed compliance rates for each profession, Dalton said overall compliance among all professions was 74.2 percent.

The mandate was included in sweeping legislation on opioids that put limits on prescriptions for opioids and required providers check a statewide prescription-drug database before prescribing potentially addictive pain medications to patients.

The 2018 law specifically required all health care professionals registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and authorized to prescribe controlled substances to take an education course on opioids.

Reminders sent The course covers the current standards for prescribing controlled substances, particularly opiates; alternatives to the standards; nonpharmacological therapies; prescribing emergency opioid antagonists; and the risks of opioid addiction following all stages of treatment in the management of acute pain.

The state sent reminders about the requirement throughout the year to affected providers, Dalton said. The state medical quality division sent 13 emails to all affected practitioners advising they were required to take the course.

Nine of the messages were sent in December and January, Dalton said.

The course was required to be offered by a “statewide professional association of physicians that is accredited to provide educational activities” for the American Medical Association or the American Osteopathic Association.

Nurse’s effort According to research, 80 percent of heroin users first abused prescription drugs, whether their own or someone else’s.

Other studies show that a patient’s chances of addiction increase as the number of days a first prescription for opioids lengthens.

A former neonatal nurse from Fort Lauderdale, Janet Colbert cared for the drugaddicted infants born to heroin-addicted mothers.

She also helped console friends who had lost children to drug overdoses, and eventually helped launch the anti-opioid advocacy group Stop the Organized Pill Pushers Now, known by its acronym, STOPP Now. Colbert says that she’s disappointed with the continuing education compliance rate but she’s not surprised.

Some criticism She is hopeful, though, that the state takes enforcement seriously.

“We need to make sure folks keep with this because way too many people are dying,” Colbert said.

While lawmakers lauded most of the changes in the sweeping opioid bill, the continuing-education requirement faced criticism.

One legislator accused the bill sponsor of including it in the bill in order to gain the support of the Florida Medical Association, which had balked at imposing prescribing restrictions on doctors.

EDITORIAL

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FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Are we forgetting 400 years?

As Black History Month (BHM) 2019 begins, we might easily find ourselves simultaneously gratified, impressed, and nearly overwhelmed by the rich smorgasbord of programs and activities taking place in South Florida alone (diligently compiled by the Miami-Dade Office of Black Affairs and other sources).

This reflects a rapidly-growing availability of previously lost and hidden information steadily coming to light in this new day ‒ or what Native American First Nations people have recognized as a “Time of Awakening,” from which there is no escape or going back to past ignorance.

This year, for example, many are learning for the first time this year that February 1, the anniversary of the 13th Amendment officially ending legal slavery in the U.S. in 1865, is officially National Freedom Day, signed into law in 1948 by President Truman to celebrate the freedom enjoyed by all Americans. This is thanks to the dedicated efforts of Major Richard Robert Wright.

Pushed for recognition Wright was born into slavery in Georgia in the 1850s. After a distinguished military career and numerous remarkable achievements in education and business, he launched his campaign in 1941 to establish the holiday – a fitting beginning of Black History Month.

However, just as this rapidly increasing knowledge and awareness might make this year’s BHM the most empowering ever, enhanced by the 2019 National Black History Theme of “Black Migrations,” there is a striking absence in virtually all of the programs listed on this full calendar of any reference to one of the most significant Black migrations of all time.

That is the fateful 1619 arrival from Ndongo, Angola, West Africa 400 years ago of the first “20

DINIZULU GENE TINNIE GUEST COMMENTARY

and odd” captive Africans to be brought into British-occupied Native North America, at Point Comfort, Virginia (not Jamestown, as is usually reported).

Their arrival notably occurred more than a year “Before the Mayflower” (the title of Lerone Bennett Jr.’s classic study of America’s Black history), but also more than a century after the first Africans of the modern era, free and enslaved, had come to the Spanish-claimed territory of Florida peninsula and other coastal settlements (including one which was destroyed by a slave revolt).

Note that there are much earlier documented African arrivals in the Americas centuries before Columbus, or the African presence among Indigenous peoples long before then.

More than one incident In that larger historical and geographical context, the storied landing of a few Africans brought to a remote British North American outpost on the ship “White Lion” might seem to be almost insignificant, considering how commonplace such human trafficking had become since the early 1500s under Spanish and Portuguese flags.

(In case you didn’t know, the White Lion’s captain had stolen these same Africans from a Spanish vessel which he attacked and raided, and then sold the captives to the English settlers as commodity in exchange for food and supplies.)

That very point about context is convincingly made in Dr. Michael Guasco’s September 2017, article in Smithsonian magazine,

Trump and Democrats attack Venezuela During the 2016 presidential campaign this columnist wrote, “Who’s the Fascist?” and asked why President Barack Obama and his predecessors were rarely labeled with the dreaded “Fword” despite having earned the designation.

In the wake of the Donald Trump coup attempt against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, the question is still relevant.

Little-known Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president after conducting secret negotiations with the Trump administration. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had publicly threatened Venezuela many times.

Guaidó made his move after getting the go-ahead from the U.S.

With Democratic support The Trump team’s recognition of the coup attempt is fascism by any definition of the word. But if Trump, Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton can be called fascists, what do we call Democrats who immediately jumped on the coup d’état bandwagon?

Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Christopher Murphy of Connecticut and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi were among the first to support this blatant violation of international law. The phony resistance showed their true colors right away.

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Durbin went from Trump critic to bragging about his conversations with Guaidó. He called Trump’s recognition of the usurpation “appropriate” and hailed Guaidó as a “patriot.” Murphy said, “Getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States.” Pelosi bestowed the all-purpose “authoritarian” label upon Maduro and falsely declared that she stood with the Venezuelan people.

These Democrats may have better manners, facility with the language, and never wear a Make America Great Again hat.

But they are not much better than the president they otherwise pillory. When push came to shove, they backed fascist U.S. imperialism.

Just a few Only a few congressional Democrats spoke out against Trump. Tulsi Gabbard and Ilhan Omar were among them. Bernie Sanders tried to have it both ways; he condemned Maduro and then meekly and obliquely stated opposition to the coup. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted Ro Khanna’s mealymouthed call for dialogue.

The same critique of the aggressors and half-assed appeas-

cautioning against the dangers of overemphasizing the single 1619 incident at the expense of ignoring how much equally or more important history preceded, surrounded, and followed it.

Even without that caveat, other factors have already long been in play which serve to downplay the importance of those particular African men and women’s arrival in the Virginia colony.

On the one hand, many thoughtful observers astutely refuse to give undue importance to historical occurrences which become emphasized as parts of “his-story,” presented and defined by the settlers’ perspectives only.

On the other hand, there is also the inescapable factor of traumatic pain and unhealed psychic wounds associated with such stories which lead many African descendants to prefer not to be reminded of them, even though they continue to haunt our every hour ‒ whether we acknowledge them or not.

Knowledge empowers us And that becomes the most important point today. “Knowledge is power,” and we are all certainly more empowered by knowledge of the collective history which has played such a prominent role in making us who we are today than by ignorance ‒ or worse yet, myths, lies, and propaganda ‒ calculated to disempower us.

This milestone 400th anniversary year of the single incident that began the relationship for the next four centuries among Africans, English, and Native Americans in North America is the ultimate “teachable moment,” an opportunity not to be missed, especially in this Time of Awakening when information abounds, and a new generation is coming of age as yet another is being born.

A quadricentennial only comes once. Only the present

ers in this country applies to liberal leaders around the world like Justin Trudeau of Canada.

Canada is thought of as a more progressive and enlightened nation than the United States. It may have gun control and free healthcare. But Canada is a vassal state, a puppet government that is committed to aiding and abetting United States aggressions.

Canada was quickly followed

by European nations Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom. They pompously declared that they too would recognize Guaidó’s pretend-presidency if Maduro didn’t call for new elections within eight days.

One must conclude that the leaders of those governments are every bit as fascist as Donald Trump.

Hypocritical Democrats and craven leaders from abroad should not be given any cover in this disgraceful episode. Ultimately they believe in “manifest destiny” and the Monroe Doctrine, which posited that the entire hemisphere was U.S. property to be treated anyway that the hegemon chose.

They don’t really believe in democracy, because they are actively undermining the will of the people who elected Hugo Chavez first and then Maduro.

Canada’s Trudeau, Great Britain’s Theresa May, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Angela Merkel and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez believe that the global South nations have no rights that Europeans feel the need to respect.

A clear-cut test Venezuela is a clear-cut litmus test for anyone who claims to support the norms of democratic governance. The people of that nation have chosen a left party to lead them. But the United States opposes their choice

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: 2019 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

DAVE GRANLUND / POLITICALCARTOONS.COM

generations can gather and preserve historical facts that were either unavailable or too painful for those before us, and may well be lost and forgotten forever if we do not pass them on to those who come after us.

Among the most important facts of 1619 ‒ even more than knowing what those Africans and the millions who came after them, both on ships and as descendants for the next 400 years contributed to the building of the nation that we know today ‒ is the knowledge of who those first surviving Africans (like all others to follow) were.

What happened?

What did they feel upon their arrival in this strange place? How did they interact with one another and with the English settlers and the Native Nations which surrounded them? What indelible marks did their lives-thatmattered make on the society of which they were an integral part, regardless of what social status the settlers attempted to force upon them?

By going back to this beginning, without forgetting and by including that larger historical

aberration. Trump and Pompeo are behaving no differently than Obama and Clinton did in Libya.

And they spun the same lies as Bush father and son did in order to attack Iraq. Trump is just the latest presidential fascist who carried out crimes with bipartisan support. and works with its allies to undermine their nation.

These interventions must always be opposed. There can be no condemnation of Maduro that justifies U.S. interference.

Corporate media talking points about who is or isn’t a dictator must be ignored. The Venezuelan people are suffering, but that is because of U.S. sanctions and their destruction of the economy.

It is clear that Democratic Party leaders don’t really believe in fighting for democracy.

Their own party suffered twice in the past 20 years as a result of the very undemocratic Electoral College. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton both won the popular vote, but were cheated out of the presidency. Neither they nor any of the party leadership protested the result. Hillary Clinton wouldn’t even demand a vote count.

Yet the same Democrats who betrayed their voters and gave up without fighting make the case for a bogus power grab in a faraway country. They are a sham of a party and fight only for the worldwide oligarchy.

The same elected representatives in that party have used unverified claims of Russian election interference as a substi-

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Dinizulu Gene Tinnie is a South Florida-based artist, activist and historian. Click on this commentary at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

It must also be pointed out that Venezuela is no

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

and geographic context around those 20-plus first Africans in British-occupied North America, we take full advantage of the proverb, “The past is present, the future is now.”

Yesterday is not tomorrow, which will be largely defined by what we do. As products of our ancestral past, what we do with our knowledge in the present moment shapes the future of our next generations.

This is why this milestone 400th year adds so much power and significance to all of our various inspired Black History Month and year-round activities.

This is why each of these activities will benefit us and their audiences by including prominent public mention and recognition of this anniversary. Conversely, we will lose a precious and invaluable opportunity forever by not doing so.

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tute for giving the people what they need and want. Yet without a hint of irony, they very openly approve of meddling with the rights of Venezuelans.

Presidential similarities It must also be pointed out that Venezuela is no aberration.

Trump and Pompeo are behaving no differently than Obama and Clinton did in Libya. And they spun the same lies as Bush father and son did in order to attack Iraq. Trump is just the latest presidential fascist who carried out crimes with bipartisan support.

Venezuela is the proverbial line in the sand. One either supports the right of self-determination or not. The obvious fascists like Trump and Bolton and their smarter, smoother collaborators like Trudeau are cut from the same cloth. They must all be opposed.

Margaret Kimberley is a cofounder of BlackAgendaReport.com, and writes a weekly column there. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com. Click on this commentary at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC, P.O. Box 48857 Tampa, FL 33646, publishes the Florida Courier on Fridays. Phone: 877-352-4455, toll-free. For all sales inquiries, call 877-352-4455; e-mail sales@flcourier.com.

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FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Cory Booker hates public schools U.S. Senator Cory Booker (DN.J.) announced his presidential campaign last week. There’s plenty about Booker’s record worth examining, from his extremely cozy relationship with pharmaceutical companies to his bizarre public defense of Wall Street. But nothing in Booker’s past is as damning as his record on schools.

For close to two decades, Booker has been at the forefront of a nationwide push to dismantle public education. According to Booker, the education system is the main cause of our society’s fundamental problems, rather than, say, inequality and unchecked corporate power. As he explained in a 2011 speech, “Disparities in income in America are not because of some ‘greedy capitalist’ ‒ No! It’s because of a failing education system.”

Public schools responsible Public schools, Booker continued, are also responsible for mass incarceration and racial injustice. To combat such evils, Booker has openly praised Republican leader Betsy DeVos’s organization American Federation for Children for fighting to win the final battle of the civil rights’ movement.

Scapegoating underfunded public schools for deeply-rooted racial and economic problems makes little sense. But it’s been a ticket to the top for Booker. In fact, it was by hitching his star to the corporate-backed “education reform” movement that Booker first rose to prominence.

Booker’s big political break came in September 2000, when he was tapped to give a keynote speech to the archconservative Manhattan Institute. Calling the Newark school system “repugnant,” Booker claimed there was “great evidence” that large groups of children “cannot succeed in the public school system.”

Yet rather than improving this system by increasing school funding or building public “community schools,” Booker made a hard case for charter schools as

ERIC BLANC GUEST COLUMNIST

well as school vouchers, i.e., state funding for parents to pay for private schools. To give this pitch a social justice veneer, he quoted Frederick Douglass and steeped his arguments in the language of racial justice.

Big-money support Booker’s eloquent advocacy of corporate anti-racism quickly caught the eye of wealthy hedgefund investors interested in pushing privatization. In Dale Russakoff’s “The Prize,” a detailed account of philanthropic efforts to reform Newark’s public schools, Booker notes that though he “became a pariah in Democratic circles for taking on the Party orthodoxy on education,” his 2002 mayoral bid was boosted by “all these Republican donors and donors from outside Newark, many of them motivated because we have an African-American urban Democrat telling the truth about education.”

One of Booker’s main financial backers, Whitney Tilson, was honest about the profit motivations for large hedge-fund investors like himself. Charter schools, he explained to the New York Times, are the ideal philanthropic opportunity for such business leaders because “[h]edge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small amount of capital into a large amount of capital.”

While the over $3 million in campaign contributions Booker received from his school reform sponsors was not quite enough to buy him the 2002 election, Booker’s 2006 mayoral bid was victorious.

Due in large part to his zealous commitment to privatization, Newark has gone from having less than 10 percent of students in charters in 2008, to over 33 percent today. By 2022, 44 percent of the city’s students are set to be schooled in these publicly-

Legal double standards keep us in shackles It’s time we stop lying to ourselves. The lie is that in America, everyone is equal under the law.

First, we must understand what “Law” actually is. In its most basic form, law is a process of authoritative control whereby certain members of a particular community establish and maintain a specific public order.

This definition may seem like a mouthful, but history can help us unpack it.

Control through laws Nazi Germany had anti-Jewish laws. The racist regime of South Africa had apartheid laws. The Southern states in this country had Jim Crow laws. The Nazis, the Afrikaners and the Southern segregationists all had authoritative control over their respective national and state communities.

And with that control, they each ordered their societies in the manner they desired.

In each of these instances, it is not difficult to identify those community members who

OSCAR H. BLAYTON, ESQ. GUEST COLUMNIST

sought to maintain a specific public order. Nor is it difficult to identify the “specific order” they sought to maintain.

For Blacks in South Africa and the segregated southern United States, subjugation was the public order. In the case of Jews living under Nazi control, it was extermination. For these people, those were the laws.

Good or evil A law need not be just or fair or benign to be the law. Law, like a gun or any other tool, can be used for good or for evil.

To disguise the fact that laws can be cruel, unjust and designed to harm certain members of our community, “Blind

Raise the Wage Act is long overdue Nowhere in the entire country can a full-time worker earning the federal or state minimum wage afford a two-bedroom apartment a fair market rent.

One in nine U.S. workers are paid wages that can leave them in poverty, even when working full time.

Over the last 40 years, wages for the lowest-paid workers have barely budged, while wages for the wealthiest have more than tripled.

MARC H. MORIAL TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

claim as a value an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, our dismally insufficient federal minimum wage is practically a crime. That’s why the National Urban League supports the Raise the Wage Act of 2019, legislation Criminally low recently introduced by Rep. BobIn a nation that calls itself the by Scott. land of opportunity, where we The bill would gradually raise

EDITORIAL

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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: VIRGINIA GOVERNOR'S RACIST YEARBOOK PAGE

financed but privately-run institutions.

To “make Newark the charter school capital of the nation,” Booker in 2010 reached out to Republican governor Chris Christie and billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Christie agreed to cede Booker an exceptional degree of mayoral control over education; Zuckerberg then gave Booker a whopping $100 million for the project.

Wasted millions Despite long-standing myths about the private sector’s efficiency, much of Zuckerberg’s money was squandered in $1,000-a-day consultants and other ill-thought-out initiatives.

And despite this massive private sector cash inflow, Booker’s reforms have done nothing to actually improve public education in Newark schools, even if one judges school quality through the dubious criteria of test scores. These reforms did succeed in rolling back teacher union power, shrinking the public sector and undercutting democratic control over education.

One of Booker’s signature campaigns was to promote charters by closing underperforming public schools. Rather than trying to improve these through providing additional support, Booker argued that “I don’t think pouring new wine into old skins is the way. We need to close them and start new ones.”

Another key Booker initiative was to impose “merit pay” in 2012, which tied teachers’ salaries to the evaluation of a panel composed primarily of non-educators. Yet even from the highly questionable criteria of improving test scores, Newark’s merit pay policy has been a failure.

In 2013, Booker’s hedge-fund supporters in Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) doled out $250,000 to elect him to the U.S. Senate. In Congress, Booker fulfilled the mandate of his corporate backers by supporting initiatives like the extension of Washington D.C.’s school voucher system. He also joined the advisory board of DFER, which has successfully pushed school reform

Justice” was the myth created to foster the notion of a fair legal system in America. But observations in most American courtrooms will instruct us that what passes for justice in this country is not color-blind.

Our laws are written with highsounding words, full of dignity and sensibility. But words are not deeds. And as in courtrooms, the long arm of the law, embodied in the form of law enforcement officers, reaches out into the streets and neighborhoods where we witness the double standards that are applied in enforcing our laws written in lofty language.

Even though the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended slavery more than 150 years ago, people of color are still forced to wear the shackles that are the double standards in our country’s legal system. Bigots and racists use our system of laws and law enforcement to police Black and Brown bodies, making it clear to people of color that we are neither welcome nor expected to exist in White spaces.

Ohio maintains a specific public order that allows Whites to walk the streets with automatic rifles unmolested by the police, but justifies gunning down

the minimum wage to $15 by 2024, index future minimum wage increases to median wage growth, and guarantee that all workers are paid at least the full federal minimum wage by phasing out the subminimum wages for tipped workers, youth workers and workers with disabilities.

Had the minimum wage kept pace with worker productivity since the 1940s, it would be just under $22 per hour – more than triple what it is now. Instead, the vast majority of the gains from that increased productivity have gone to the wealthiest.

The average CEO pay is 271 times the average pay of the typical American worker. In 1978, CEO earnings were about 30 times the typical worker's salary.

The Urban League movement has long advocated for a federally-mandated living wage tied to the rate of inflation. It is a central

MATSON / CAGLECARTOONS.COM

address at a charter school rally in New Orleans. But as union leaders and socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have pointed out, LA teachers were primarHe’s not alone ily fighting to stop a billionaireBooker is not an anomaly in funded plan to privatize their his party. The administration public school system. of DFER-backed Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Watch their actions Duncan was deeply commitIt’s a sign of the changing politted to school privatization. Un- ical winds that corporate Demoder their watch, the number of crats like Booker are now obliged charter schools nationwide dou- to gesture support for striking bled, and teachers’ unions in public school educators. Don’t liberal cities like Chicago were confuse Democratic Party leadforced to confront Democratic ers’ words and deeds. mayors just to stay afloat.

Though Booker is a serious Donald Trump’s presidency threat to public education’s surand the recent upsurge in eduvival, in some ways we should be cator strikes has placed Booker and the Democratic Party es- thankful that he is running for tablishment in a bind. Simul- president. By throwing his hat intaneously appeasing corporate to the ring, Booker has ensured funders and an increasingly left- that school privatization will beleaning working-class electorate come a central point of debate this primary season. Booker’s is not an easy task.

Booker’s response has been candidacy will be nothing less to tone down his proselytiz- than a popular referendum on ing for privatization and to re- corporate education reform.

For the future of public verse his long-standing support for Betsy DeVos, with whom he schools, Booker must not onhad served on the Alliance for ly lose his presidential bid ‒ he School Choice board between needs to lose big.

2004 and 2008. Though Booker Eric Blanc writes on labor voted against DeVos’s appointmovements past and present. ment as secretary of education, he was quick to explain on CNN Formerly a high school teacher that his stance on school reform in the Bay Area, he is a doctoral student in the sociology dehadn’t “changed one iota.”

Booker professed his support partment at New York Univerfor LA educators the very same sity. This article previously apweek that he gave the keynote peared in Jacobin. with the Democratic Party and, more recently, has taken the lead in trying to stop the teachers’ strike wave.

a Black man who is purchasing a BB rifle in an open-carry state.

And it finds no fault in a police officer executing a 12-year-old Black boy for playing with a toy gun in a park. This is the law in Ohio.

Local funding

men represent 65 percent of all citizens targeted for civil forfeiture. This is still the law in South Carolina.

Historical process The slave codes, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Jim Crow laws of years past and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act just a few short years ago are all part of a process of authoritative control by certain community members to establish and maintain a specific public order that keeps people of color in shackles. There are many more laws that do this, but the list is too long to discuss in this short commentary.

We must pull back the curtain to determine the true public order purpose of each law governing our lives and to identify those community members who seek to establish and maintain them.

Once we do this, then we can ask ourselves whether this is the America we want for ourselves.

And if not, what are we going to do about it?

Many cities and states maintain a specific public order that targets people of color for fines and the confiscation of property in order to fund local and state governments. Ferguson, Mo., was proven to use the disproportionate levying of fines on people of color to fund their municipal activities. That was the law in Ferguson.

The state of South Carolina’s civil forfeiture law allows police to confiscate money and property from people merely suspected of having committed a crime.

This is often done without a trial, and in some instances, without even an arrest.

Black men are subjected to this law at a rate vastly disproportionate to their numbers in the general population. A statewide Oscar H. Blayton is a former journalism project in South Carolina titled “TAKEN” reports that Marine Corps combat pilot while comprising only 13 percent and human rights activist who of that state’s population, Black practices law in Virginia.

element of our comprehensive blueprint for eliminating economic disparity, the Main Street Marshall Plan.

A fair living wage raises the living standards of workers and stimulates the economy to benefit the nation as a whole.

In fact, researchers estimate that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage would increase sales by around $2 billion each year. Raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would lift wages for 41 million American workers, including 40 percent of all African-American workers. The average age of workers who will benefit from the bill is 36.

No impact

study last year examined the effect of minimum wage increases in six cities and found pay increases for workers and no significant employment reductions.

A more extensive study by the London School of Economics examined the impact of 138 separate minimum wage increases implemented between 1979 and 2016, and found no overall reduction in low-wage jobs.

Income inequality in America threatens not just economic stability of our nation, but our democracy itself. Full-time workers shouldn’t live in poverty anywhere, but especially not in the wealthiest nation on earth. The Raise the Wage Act would bring the federal minimum wage in line with economic reality.

Moderate increases in the minimum wage have little to no Marc Morial is president and impact on employment. A Uni- CEO of the National Urban versity of California at Berkeley League.

TOJ A6

NATION

FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019 utive office. That wasn’t just Hillary Clinton.”

But for Democrats in 2020, for the first time in the history of presidential campaigns, being a woman is probably more a political asset than a liability.

Clinton’s tactic

MARCUS YAM/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

From left: Kamala Harris’ husband Douglas Emhoff, Harris, holding her niece’s daughter Amara Ajagu, 2, and the rest of her family and friends. They were on stage as she waves to the crowd at the end of her speech at her presidential campaign rally in Oakland, Calif., on Jan. 27.

Running for president while female 2020 presidential hopefuls testing differing strategies to interest voters

BY JANET HOOK LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

WASHINGTON – When Elizabeth Warren launched her 2012 Senate bid in Massachusetts, some Democrats there worried.

Another woman had run two years earlier and failed miserably. But Warren ignored warnings that she would be “another Martha Coakley.”

She beat the incumbent by more than 7 percentage points and became the first woman elected to statewide office in Massachusetts.

Now Warren is among a record number of women running for president in 2020. Again, they’re operating in the shadow of failure — Hillary Clinton’s unsuc-

cessful White House bid in 2016 — but also the widespread successes of women in the 2018 midterm elections.

The gender card Sen. Kamala Harris of California joins Warren and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the upper tier of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. Each takes a different tack in navigating the powerful crosscurrents of being a woman in national politics.

Gillibrand plays the gender card most emphatically, emphasizing her record on protecting women from sexual assault and her support for female candidates. Explaining why she is running for president, she often begins, “As a young mom … ” Harris’ campaign rollout, including a Jan. 27 kickoff rally in Oakland, focused more on her connections with the Black community and a career in law en-

forcement that breaks from gender stereotypes.

Varied approaches Warren tells her story as the daughter of an economically struggling family, putting class, not gender, at the center of her campaign.

“There is no uniform approach to how these women will navigate gender in the campaign,” said Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“While Gillibrand sees and discusses politics and policy through a gender lens, Warren’s primary focus has been on class.

In her rollout, Kamala Harris has already shown that she will embrace and discuss being a Black woman in power.”

The sexism strain Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii also has announced a long-shot

bid for president, with considerable focus on her status as a military veteran. The field of female candidates may grow if Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a former prosecutor like Harris, decides to run.

“I love that fact that we have four women running, and that America gets to see what different forms of female leadership look like,” Gillibrand said.

‘Still tougher’ Women historically have had a harder time winning executive offices than legislative ones. Even with a record number of women running for governor in 2018, just nine of the nation’s 50 governors are now women.

“Solo leadership is still tougher for women and people of color,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who is an expert on women in politics. “There is still a little concern about the difficulty of electing women to exec-

Women — as voters and candidates — became the vanguard of the party’s resistance to President Donald Trump, from the 2017 Women’s March to the midterm elections that drew out female candidates in record numbers.

The congressional midterms saw the largest gender gap in modern political history, as Democrats won 59 percent of the female vote, with just 40 percent voting Republican. Men, by contrast, favored Republicans by a 4-point margin, 51 percent to 47 percent, according to exit polls.

Clinton tried two very different approaches to gender as a political issue. When she sought the Democratic nomination in 2008, she essentially ran away from the subject.

“I am not running as a woman,” she would say. “I am running because I believe I am the best qualified and experienced person.”

Eight years later, she talked often about the history-making potential of her campaign to “shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling.”

The current crop of female candidates doesn’t follow either of those paths.

Harris on racism Harris’ introduction to voters put more of a spotlight on race than gender: She announced her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, gave her first press briefing at Howard University, the historically Black college she attended in the 1980s, and scheduled her first campaign event in South Carolina — at a gala for [Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.], a Black sorority she belongs to.

During her Oakland rally, Harris spoke bluntly about racism in the criminal justice system and society at large. “I’m running to fight for an America where no mother or father has to teach their young son that people may stop him, arrest him, chase him or kill him because of his race,” Harris said.

Harris’ tough-on-crime record has drawn skepticism from some on the party’s left, but it could appeal to public safety-conscious moms in the suburbs, including White women whose votes for Trump proved pivotal in 2016.

A ‘lane for hope’? Primary to test Booker’s message of optimism Has his critics

BY KATIE GLUECK AND ALEX ROARTY MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU/TNS

WASHINGTON – Love. Unity.

“Courageous empathy.”

For years, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has preached the politics of inclusion and optimism.

Now, his newly announced presidential bid will test whether that message can connect with a Democratic base that is infuriated by Donald Trump’s presidency — and ready for a fight.

“Together, we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose,” he said in a video released the morning of Feb. 1.

“Together, America, we will rise.”

It’s an approach that reminds some Democrats of the hopeand-change message of President Barack Obama, while others caution that airy promises of harmony alone won’t satisfy an increasingly progressive base eager for substantive plans for change.

“Especially given the history of Barack Obama in this state, there is definitely a lane for hope, for inspiration,” said Norm Sterzenbach, former executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party.

“And it’s a proven message that has worked with Iowa Democrats in the past.”

Sellers on specifics However, former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers, who hasn’t endorsed a Democratic presidential contender but praised Sen. Kamala Harris’s 2020 efforts, warned that candidates will be on the hook for more specifics.

“You can leave the kumbaya, ‘heal the world’ wherever you are,” Sellers said. “When you come down here, you’ve got to have some substance, a sense of our history, a sense of our shared struggle.”

SEAN RAYFORD/GETTY IMAGES/TNS

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) addresses a crowd during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Dome event on Jan. 21 in Columbia, South Carolina. The event has become a regular stop for presidential candidates.

Booker, the former mayor of Newark, N.J., who was elected to the Senate in 2013, is running in a historically large and diverse primary field. If elected, he would be the country’s second AfricanAmerican president. In a sign of the diverse coalition he is seeking to build, his first three post-announcement interviews are scheduled to be with African-American and Latino-focused outlets.

Iowa first While he has been overshadowed nationally in recent weeks as Democrats including Sens.

Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris announced presidential plans, most Democratic strategists and officials consider Booker a top-tier

contender who has spent months building relationships and laying organizational groundwork in the early voting states.

Booker is expected to head to Iowa Feb. 8 and 9, to South Carolina on Feb. 10 and 11, and then to New Hampshire over President’s Day weekend.

“I think the moment that he gets in, you’re going to see activists, party folks coming out of the woodwork for him fairly quickly,” said Brady Quirk-Garvan, the chair of the Charleston County Democrats in South Carolina.

“To me, he has the ability to inspire people, but also comes with the back up of substance,” he added, pointing to Booker’s recent work on successful criminal justice reform efforts.

‘A huge splash’ Sterzenbach recalled Booker’s appearance in Iowa last year, when the senator attended the state party’s fall gala on the same day Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court over vehement Democratic opposition. Most politicians, he said, would have delivered an “angry, fiery” speech.

But Booker opted for a different approach, extolling the need for hope and optimism even in the face of grim circumstances.

“It was a much more difficult path. But I think the reward is higher, because that means more if you can inspire, versus anger,” Sterzenbach said. “He made a huge splash.”

In other corners of the Democratic Party, there is more skepticism of Booker. He’s received substantial contributions from the pharmaceutical and financial services industries — both of which have a big presence in New Jersey — and he’s publicly defended Wall Street in the face of Democratic attacks.

In 2012, Booker made national headlines when he suggested the Obama campaign’s criticisms of private equity firms like Bain Capital were “nauseating to the American public,” remarks he quickly walked back.

His team now says that the Booker campaign will not accept contributions from corporate PACs and federal lobbyists, and that Booker “opposes super PACs aiming to support his or anyone’s candidacy for president,” although there is already a super PAC launched on his behalf.

Appealing message But many of the party’s increasingly fierce and vocal populists are unlikely to soften their criticism of him, especially in a field of Democratic candidates that features rivals like Warren and, potentially, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“People do care about the fact that the country is so divided and find a message of unity appealing, but I suspect economic messages will be stronger than that message,” said Judy Reardon, a veteran New Hampshire Democratic strategist.

“People are very concerned about the fact that the middle class and working class families have been struggling and falling behind while at the same time, the very wealthy are doing better and better.”

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Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is shown with his new head coach Brian Flores and General Manager Chris Grier at a press conference at the Miami Dolphins training facility in Davie on Feb. 4. Flores becomes the Dolphins’ first Hispanic head coach and its second Black one.

FROM PATRIOT TO DOLPHIN

With Brian Flores’ hire, the Miami franchise becomes the only NFL team with a Black head coach and Black general manager.

BY SAFID DEAN SUN SENTINEL/TNS

DAVIE – The Brian Flores era has begun in Miami.

One day after leading the New England Patriots defense that held rising Rams coach Sean McVay and one of the NFL’s most potent offenses to just a field goal, Flores jumped on a plane with his family and traveled to South Florida to be introduced as the new Miami Dolphins coach on Monday.

“It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours,” Flores said with a smile, as his wife Jenny and children Miles, Maxwell and Liliana looked on during his introductory press conference.

Flores — the 37-year-old, first time head coach — and the Dolphins agreed to terms officially on Monday morning, shortly after the Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday night in Atlanta.

January interview Flores was the first of six candidates to interview for the Dolphins job with team owner Stephen Ross and general manager Chris Grier on Jan. 4. He became known as Miami’s top candidate on Jan. 11.

The Dolphins have been consistently mediocre, with a 199201 record since 1994, and missing the playoffs for the 15th time in the past 17 seasons.

Ross and Grier hope Flores, who won four Super Bowls and has coached in seven championship games, can lead the Dolphins franchise through a rebuilding process with hopes to recreate New England’s winning ways in Miami.

Bumps, pain expected “Every week, we’re going to go out there with the idea we’re going to win a game,” Flores said when asked directly about the team’s perceived plans of tanking to improve the roster for sustained success, as Ross and Grier have coined it.

“There’s going to be pain in that, too. There are going to be bumps in the road… there will be some pain, we know that.”

Flores, wearing a black suit with a striped teal tie, spoke for nearly 20 minutes on a variety of topics including his teamfirst philosophy, his time un-

This welcome appears on the Miami Dolphins website. Flores spent years on the coaching staff of the New England Patriots. der Patriots coach Bill Belichick, his Honduran family’s upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, and his rises through the coaching ranks.

Patriot since 2004 Flores knew he wanted to become a head coach after helping the Patriots win Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014, but did not expect to be one as soon as he did.

This season was the first Flores, New England’s linebackers coach the last three years, filled the role of Patriots’ defensive play caller, despite not having the official title of defensive coordinator.

Flores had been with the Patriots since 2004, where he began as a scout for four years, before he joined the coaching staff in various roles for the last 11 years.

“I was not in a rush to be a head coach,” he said. “I had a great job in New England.”

Sought a leader But Flores’ leadership qualities and plans for short term and

long term success piqued the interest of Ross and Grier to hire him as the next Dolphins coach.

And the Dolphins’ plans for the same potential success aligned with Flores’ vision for his first head coaching job.

“What we were looking for was a leader,” Ross said, “and that was probably the most important aspect of what we were looking for as opposed to what we’ve seen a lot of the other teams looking for offensiveminded coaches because of the success of Sean McVay and other great offensive minds.”

First Hispanic coach Flores, who is Honduran, will be the first Hispanic coach and the second Black coach (interim Todd Bowles) in Miami Dolphins history.

Flores will also be the second Hispanic coach in the league (joining Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera, who is Puerto Rican) and the third Black coach in the NFL (along with Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn).

With Flores and Grier, the Dolphins will be the only NFL team to have a Black coach and Black general manager.

“When you call people around the league, and people he’s worked with, and players, they all said he’s has leadership, is a leader of men, the presence he has, how he carries himself, and how players connect with him and want to play for him,” Grier said of Flores.

Winning direction The Dolphins have not won the AFC East since 2008. They have not won a playoff game since 2000. They have not won a Super Bowl since winning backto-back in 1972 and 1973.

They may not be near to accomplishing those lofty goals just yet.

But they hope Flores and his winning pedigree can lead the Dolphins franchise in a winning direction.

“We’re going to do everything possible to win games, build a culture, and build a winner here,” Flores said.

“We’re going to do everything possible to win games, build a culture, and build a winner here.”

– Brian Flores Miami Dolphins head coach

EVENTS, OBITUARY & BOOKS

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FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

STOJ

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Miami: The Fifth Annual “Walk Together Children” Black History Month event, a walking tour of Overtown, is 10 a.m.

Feb. 16, at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. More info: 305-633-3583 or e-mail glwillingham@hotmail.com Fort Lauderdale: Judah Word Ministries International will present a Pastors and Leaders Conference hosted by Apostle W.L. Mitchell on March 13-16. It will include services, workshops and a boot camp. Details: 945-791-2999 Miami Gardens: The Orange Bowl Florida High School Football Showcase is Feb. 16 at St. Thomas University. Details: orangebowl.org/community/youthsports/ showcase.

Clearwater: Jazz legend Herbie Hancock will perform at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Feb. 15.

Miami Beach: Meek Mill: The Motivation Tour stops at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater on Feb. 19.

Tampa: Maze featuring Frankie Beverly performs Feb. 22 at the Yuengling Center.

Miami: The Jazz Roots Series is at 8 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center.

Punta Gorda: The Ultimate Motown Experience will be at the Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center on Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.

SEAL

The singer performs Feb. 16 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota.

BOBBY BROWN

Miami Gardens’ Jazz in the Gardens lineup includes Lionel Ritchie, Teddy Riley, Bobby Brown, Stephanie Mills and the O’Jays. Details: Jazzinthegardens. com

Miami Gardens: The city’s annual Robotics S.T.E.A.M. in the Gardens Competition is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 9-10 at St. Thomas University. More info: kbrown@ miamigardens-fl.gov or 786-376-7012.

KOOL & THE GANG

The band takes the stage at the Florida Strawberry Festival on March 2 at 7:30 p.m.

‘Young and the Restless’ star Kristoff St. John dies at 52

BY ELLA TORRES NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/TNS

Kristoff St. John, who starred in the soap opera “The Young and the Restless,” was found dead in his home on Feb. 3. He was 52.

His fiancee, Kseniya Mikhaleva, confirmed his passing on Instagram.

“How did it happen ??? How ??? Why did you leave so early ???? and left me alone … .. I can’t believe,” she wrote Monday. The two announced their engagement in September.

‘Impacted everyone’ St. John’s attorney, Mark Geragos, also confirmed the news in a moving Twitter post.

“Few men had the unique strength, courage & sensitivity that @kristoffstjohn1 lived every single minute of every day. He impacted everyone he met and millions who he inspired and in turn admired him,” Geragos said.

“On behalf of @MiaStJohnBoxer & @TheStJohnFamily thank you for all of your love.”

Police were called to St. John’s

went psychiatric treatment back in October 2017 following a “scare regarding his mental health,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

“I want the world to know the truth about what is happening with Kristoff, because currently there is inaccurate, and fabricated information being reported by certain online outlets. No parent should ever have to bury their child, and for those who do, it is a nightmare that haunts you forever,” she said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly.

“The death of our beloved son Julian, has taken a toll on both of us. He is an actor and while he may appear whole on the outside, his heart is broken. As a society we need to start taking mental health seriously and realize that no one is immune.”

San Fernando Valley home after friends asked them to check on him, according to TMZ. His body was found inside, the site reported.

There was reportedly no sign of foul play, however alcohol may have played a role.

Six Emmys St. John was best known for his decades-long role as Neil Winters on the soap. Since joining the show in 1991, he has been nominated for more than a dozen NAACP Image Awards and six Emmys.

In 1993 and 2008, he won the Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, respectively.

Son committed suicide His death comes about four years after son, Julian St. John, committed suicide in a mental health care facility in Long Beach, Calif. He was 24.

Julian St. John had long struggled with schizophrenia and addiction, his mom, boxer Mia St.

KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES/TNS

Kristoff St. John is shown at the 44th NAACP Image Awards at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2013.

John, wrote on her website. Both Kristoff and ex-wife Mia filed filed a wrongful death suit against the facility, claiming that they lied about how often they checked on Julian.

“His legacy will live on in our hearts and for those that continue to suffer from this insidious

Book shows how plantation mistresses sustained slavery DR. GLENN C. ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

“Who would choose black, in any capacity except he be held as a slave, and so bound to be obedient and faithful,” an affluent white southerner asked.

To this rhetorical question she added her conviction that African Americans were “the most inferior of the human race, far beneath the Indian or Hebrew… poor, uneducated, stupid, lazy, self-indulgent.”

Such sentiments were, of course, pervasive in the pre-Civil War South. It may be a bit surprising that they were expressed by a woman. Even more surprising, however, is the extent to which plantation mistresses were actively involved in the day-to-day management of their slaves.

Embraced roles In “They Were Her Property,’’ Stephanie Jones-Rogers, an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, draws on court records and oral histories of former slaves to challenge the view that 19th-century southern mistresses were “gentlewomen,” unlikely to know

about, or assist in the affairs of their fathers or husbands.

Focusing on women who owned slaves in their own right (usually through gifts or inheritance), Jones-Rogers demonstrates that they embraced their role, “assumed positions of power over slaves within and outside their households, and challenged anyone who attempted to infringe upon that power.”

Even when their treatment of their chattel seems benevolent or “maternal,” she maintains, it was motivated, in no small measure, by a desire to maximize profits.

Control over ‘property’ Legal cases make it clear, JonesRogers reveals, that married women often assumed control over slaves “as a consequence of their husbands’ poor judgments, misdeed, and misfortunes.”

To circumvent laws of “couverture,” they insisted on prenuptial contracts, sued their husbands for a separation of their “moveable” property, and sued creditors who seized slaves “who rightfully belonged to them” to pay their husbands’ debts.

Many courts treated these “mistresses of the market” as

BOOK REVIEW Review of “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South’’ by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers. Yale University Press. 320 pages. $30. distinct persons, not individuals joined in unity with their husbands. Nor did many slave-owning women hesitate to approve brutal methods to discipline their “property.”

Violence, cruelty Often, but not always, they del-

disease. My ex-wife Mia, Julian’s sisters Paris and Lola and I, are all devastated beyond words and belief,” St. John said in a statement.

Mental health statement The actor reportedly under-

egated punishment to others.

One plantation mistress, JonesRogers indicates, whipped her slaves with nettle weed branches, which contained chemicals causing long-lasting, painful effects. Others refused to feed their slaves properly.

Another woman’s violence toward her slaves caused her husband to take off, taking the slaves he owned with him and leaving her with the three she had brought with her to the marriage.

Jones-Rogers also refutes one of “the slave trade’s best-kept secrets”: the ubiquity of White women in buying and selling slaves.

Along with plantation masters, mistresses usually employed family, friends, and agents as proxies, but sometimes bid at auctions themselves. Most often, they used their own households to bring slave markets to them, acting for their husbands as well as themselves.

Exploitative practices During the Civil War, JonesRogers points out, women often had sole responsibility for managing their plantations. When Union soldiers were near, they hid their slaves, imprisoned them, or relocated.

When the war ended, many plantation masters and mistresses retained their landed estates and their sense of entitlement.

They began to “build their lives

Response to loss Just two weeks before his death, St. John retweeted a Twitter post about losing a child.

“Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins on the day your child passes, and ends the day the parent joins them,” one user wrote.

“Never a truer word was spoke,” St. John replied. “Thanks for posting this.”

anew” by negotiating with former slaves to work for them, all too frequently using exploitative and coercive practices to deprive freed men and women of the compensation they deserved.

Helped sustain slavery As she demonstrates that her plantation mistresses were coconspirators, not passive bystanders, in sustaining slavery, Jones-Rogers helps us understand why “they and many of their female descendants” hid their economic interests in perpetuating slavery, and told “preposterous stories” about the moral obligations, love, and loyalty, they felt toward “savage Africans,” and the heavy burden the “peculiar institution” placed on individuals “who did not enjoy the blessed privilege of turning their servants off when inefficient or disagreeable but had to keep them for life.”

Although Jones-Rogers does not quantify the number of slaveowning women in the antebellum South, “They Were Her Property’’ also reminds us that men were not – and are not – alone in their support of racial segregation and White supremacy.

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.

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FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

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Guest hosts filling in while Williams battles illness FROM WIRE REPORTS

“Empire’’ actor Jussie Smollett is shown in May 2018 at a Fox Network event in New York City.

JOHN LAMPARSKI/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES/TNS

Smollett performs in L.A. days after Chicago attack

BY AUGUST BROWN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – “I’m OK.” That was the first thing Jussie Smollett told the sold-out Troubadour in West Hollywood on Feb. 2 when he walked onstage.

The show was the R&B singer and “Empire” actor’s first public appearance since he reported to Chicago police a vicious attack that authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime.

“I’m not fully healed yet, but I’m going to,” Smollett said, fighting back tears as he addressed the crowd. “I’m gonna stand strong with y’all. I had to be here tonight. I couldn’t let those (attackers) win. I will always stand for love.”

Black, gay, artistic With that, the room burst into cheers, and Smollett took his voice back.

Family, friends and fans in the audience were profoundly moved by Smollett’s resilience in performing just days after the incident, in which two people allegedly approached the 36-yearold actor and musician while

CNN investigates Brown’s death FROM WIRE REPORTS

A new CNN investigative series is exploring claims that iconic singer James Brown was murdered. The three-part digital series is published on CNN’s website.

Those close to Brown have said they want an autopsy or a criminal investigation into his 2006 death.

Dr. Marvin Crawford, who signed the renowned singer’s death certificate at an Atlanta hospital, said he never believed Brown died of natural causes.

“He changed too fast,” Crawford told CNN. “He was a patient I would never have predicted would have coded. … But he died that night, and I did raise that question: What went wrong in that room?”

Brown’s official cause of death was of a heart attack and fluid in the lungs on Dec. 25, 2006. He was 73.

According to CNN, Brown’s manager, widow, son, friends and associates all claim to have questions about the music icon’s death.

There’s also an account of a circus singer, who claims Brown was murdered. She also alleges that Brown sexually assaulted her.

In addition, the series explores the 1996 death of his third wife, Adrienne Brown.

She reportedly died after having plastic surgery.

To read the series, visit CNN.com/JamesBrown.

yelling racist and homophobic slurs.

Before Smollett took the stage, his siblings surrounded the microphone to give a brief statement, where Joel Smollett Jr. said, “As his big brother, I wanted Jussie to sit this one out … but tonight is an important part of Jussie’s healing. He’s been a fighter since he was a baby … But above all else, he is the epitome of love.”

In the audience, many fans said they felt a personal obligation to be there and stand up for Smollett and the communities — Black, gay, artistic — that he represents.

‘Five steps back’ The news of the assault “was gut-wrenching to hear, in this day and age.

It was a sobering reminder of hate,” said Carrington Bester of Los Angeles. “It was important to be here to support him. This speaks to his integrity and commitment to his art.”

Jametta Bailey-Hailey, who traveled from Springfield, Massachusetts for the show, said, “I called my mother and literally

cried” after hearing news of the attack. For every step forward in the fight against racism and homophobia, Bailey-Hailey said, “it’s like we’re walking five steps back.”

But, Bailey-Hailey added, Smollett’s grit and commitment to music was a glimmer of hope.

“We stand with him, nothing’s going to stop him.”

Smollett looked determined not to let the attack define his performance.

Lyrical messages He did open with a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” as apropos a statement as he could have made.

But he danced and sang with genuine joy as he performed songs such as “HaHa (I Love You)” and “Heavy,” a centerpiece of his “Empire” performance that, he admitted, “kinda has a new meaning to me.”

On “Need Freedom,” he drew lyrical connections between what happened to him and a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, as well as the racial tensions that led to numerous protests in Ferguson, Missouri,

FLORIDA’S

finest

and the police-shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

But most of the set turned the ballads and club cuts from his “Empire” and solo work, such as “Insecurities” and “Conqueror,” into implicit assertions of his own resilience.

Gay mentors He even cracked a few wry jokes about the experience. After telling his story about trying to fight off his attackers, he grinned and said, “I’m the gay Tupac.”

More earnestly, he said that he owed his self-confidence to the example set by the pioneering gay television actor Wilson Cruz (who was in the crowd), and artistic north stars such as Alvin Ailey and James Baldwin.

Stayed optimistic On the stage, he told the crowd in sharp language that he “fought the … back” against his assailants. But in the end, he dedicated his set to keeping up optimism and kindness, even when one can face such visceral, physical hate.

“This hateful rhetoric that gets passed around, it has to stop,” he said.

“I’ve been guilty of it too.

We who celebrate love can get wrapped up in so much hate. It’s not that we become hateful, but it waters down our love. We can’t let that happen.”

Guests hosts are filling in for Wendy Williams as she recovers from complications from Graves’ disease.

Nick Cannon, who currently emcees “The Masked Singer” on Fox and MTV’s “Wild ‘N Out,’’ stepped in as the guest replacement on “The Wendy Williams Show” this week.

“The Wendy Williams Show” began airing new episodes this week for the first time since Williams announced she was taking an “extended break” from the show.

Other guest hosts are “Orange Is the New Black’’ actor Jason Biggs, Feb. 7, and actress Keke Palmer, Feb. 8.

Sherri Shepherd, former cohost on The View, will guest host the show on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12. Actor Michael Rapaport steps in on Feb. 13. On Feb. 14 and 15, Bravo host Jerry O’Connell is scheduled.

Indefinite leave Williams, who announced her diagnosis with Graves’ disease — an immune system ailment characterized by the overproduction of hormones by the thyroid — last year, released a statement earlier last month revealing she would be leaving the show indefinitely and would have to spend “significant time” in the hospital due to complications from the condition.

Her show had been airing reruns since December.

Williams also took a threeweek hiatus from the show last year after announcing her diagnosis.

Information from EURWEB.com and New York Daily news were used in this report.

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier.com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/glamour/ fashion photography, please!)

In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age.

Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

Thousands of Caribbean culture lovers converge on South Florida every year before and during the Columbus Day weekend to attend the annual Miami Broward Carnival, a series of concerts, pageants, parades, and competitions. On Carnival Day, “mas” (masquerade) bands of thousands of revelers dance and march behind 18-wheel tractor-trailer trucks with booming sound systems from morning until nightfall while competing for honors.

Here are some of the “Finest” we’ve seen over the years. Click on www.flcourier to see hundreds of pictures from previous Carnivals.

Go to www. miamibrowardcarnival. com for more information on Carnival events in South Florida.

CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

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How much do you know about Black leaders in arts and entertainment? Take our test and find out.

Louis Armstrong. Denzel Washington. Oprah Winfrey.

Black Americans, all, who’ve left a vital, indelible mark in the world of entertainment.

But that’s just a start. For Black History Month, we offer a board game on important people in the arts. Use this game to test how much you know. Or use it to learn something.

By working your way around the board, you’ll meet fascinating people who’ve made remarkable contributions to literature, music, dance, television and film.

Some questions are about people living today, so current you can see them on TV, in movies or concerts. Others focus on people from the past, their stories found in books or on the Internet.

OK, everybody ready? You

need one die and playing pieces for each team (coins for one team, buttons for the other, for example) to mark the squares. The game ends when every square has a marker. It might be helpful to have a nonplayer checking answers.

Here’s how to play: Divide into two teams and flip a coin to see who goes first.

The first team throws the die and moves the appropriate spaces. If the team answers the question correctly, place a marker on that square (the marker remains throughout the game). If the team gets it wrong, the other team tries to answer that question and mark the square. If no team answers the question correctly, the square remains empty for this round. The second

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team then throws the die and proceeds around the board.

(Note: Each turn begins at the open square after the last question asked. For instance: The first team rolls a three and lands on the question about the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. The next team starts counting with the fourth square. Let’s say that team rolls at two. The team’s question will be about the St. Louis dancer.)

Teams continue throwing the die and moving around the board, skipping squares filled with markers. Teams will have to travel around the board more than once to hit every square. The team with the most markers on the board wins.

But if you’ve learned something along the way, how can you lose?

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Which record company, founded

by Berry Gordy (right), launched Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas?

1

She was the first Black performer to win an Oscar for her controversial role as Mammy in the epic film “Gone With the Wind.”

Atlantic

Sun

Hattie McDaniel

Motown

Chess

Cicely Tyson

Called “Poet Laureate of Harlem,” he rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Richard Wright

Eddie Rochester Anderson

Ernest Gaines

Leslie Uggams

James Weldon Johnson Langston Hughes

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Famed comedian who co-starred in “Silver Streak” and “Harlem Nights” and won Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.

This hip-hop innovator who started her career as the lead singer of the Fugees won five Grammy Awards in 1999 for her solo work.

BY LIZ DOUP AND MARGO HARAKAS SUN-SENTINEL, SOUTH FLORIDA ILLUSTRATIONS BY BONNIE LALLKY-SEIBERT

Redd Foxx

Richard Pryor

Lauryn Hill

Whitney Houston

Chris Rock

Eddie Murphy

Lil’ Kim

Queen Latifah

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The artist and professor is known for her “story quilts,” including “Tar Beach,” which shows a child soaring through the clouds over Harlem.

This playwright and civil rights activist won two Pulitzer Prizes, for “Fences” in 1986 and “The Piano Lesson” in 1990.

Faith Ringgold

Margaret Burroughs

Charles Fuller

Alice Childress

Betye Saar

Elizabeth Catlett

August Wilson

Langston Hughes

He photographed for Life magazine, authored about a dozen books and directed several motion pictures, including 1971’s “Shaft.”

Bill Cosby

Robert Townsend

Gordon Parks

Sidney Poitier

SOURCES: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA; BRITANNICA.COM; “BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA”; THE NEGRO ALMANAC; SUN-SENTINEL RESEARCHER BARBARA HIJEK.

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Since her start in TV news in Nashville, she’s built a media empire that includes a TV show, a magazine and movies.

Born in St. Louis, she danced her way across the United States, then moved to France and became the toast of Paris.

Lena Horne

Josephine Baker

Melba Moore

Leslie Uggams

Cicely Tyson

Diahann Carroll

Ruby Dee

Oprah Winfrey

ANSWERS: 1-D, 2-A, 3-B, 4-D, 5-C, 6-B, 7-A, 8-C, 9-B, 10-A

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FOOD

FEBRUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 14, 2019

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A Valentine’s Day shellfish feast When you want to make a fuss without making a fuss

BY NICK KINDELSPERGER CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

The last place you’ll catch my wife and me on Valentine’s Day is dining at a restaurant. Since I’m a food writer, I eat out nearly every day, and few calendar dates strike me with more fear than Feb. 14.

See, Valentine’s Day is one of a handful of occasions when everyone else decides that they have to go out too. Good reservation times vanish. Service becomes harried. Count in the cost of scheduling a baby sitter, and we might as well walk around with our credit card number plastered onto our foreheads.

Instead, we celebrate Valentine’s Day at home, using it as an excuse to ignore the entire world (with the exception of our daughter). Plus, we splurge on items we’d hardly be able to afford at a restaurant. You know the good stuff: Champagne, shellfish and fancy chocolate.

E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Mussels can be cooked myriad ways; this version keeps it simple with tomatoes, white wine, garlic and red pepper flakes, for a little heat.

Stress-free and fun Cooking at home, of course, is not without its own hassles.

Sweating in the kitchen for hours to craft the perfect romantic meal can feel just as stressful as braving the wilds of the restaurant scene on Valentine’s Day. That’s why our menu consists of items that require the least amount of effort to prepare, yet make you feel like a million bucks.

Instead of dirtying a bunch of silverware, we devour all the food with our hands, maybe because it’s romantic, allowing us to satisfy some primal urge, but mostly since it’s more fun.

Oysters and champagne Oysters need nothing more than to be opened. While this does require some finagling — and you will need to purchase an oyster knife for stress-free shuck-

E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Oysters make the simplest starter for a seafood feast — just shuck and eat. A bottle of bubbly is all you need. ing, and an old towel helps avoid serious injuries — once popped, all you need to do is slurp away.

Sure, some might like a squeeze of lemon or a drop of a vinegary mignonette, but if you score great oysters from a trusted fishmonger, why cover them up?

Oysters slurped straight from the shell just beg for champagne.

It’s no trouble to find a good bottle in the $30 to $40 range from a

nice wine shop. While that’s far more than we’d normally spend for a night at home, know that the same bottle would cost about $100 at a restaurant.

Fuss-free mussels The next course is mussels.

Even though you’ll be purchasing the bivalves by the pound (3 pounds is about right for two), they are still among the most af-

fordable shellfish options around.

And they couldn’t be simpler to prepare.

Just create a flavorful base, add the mussels and cook until they spring open. Sure, mussels need to be cleaned and debearded — a five-minute job if you’re counting — but they can be cooked in less than five minutes.

While there are innumerable versions of the dish (one of our favorites is with coconut milk and green Thai chile paste), this year we are going with a simple combination of tomatoes and white wine.

End with chocolate Saute some onion and garlic, add some tomatoes and the wine, dump in the mussels and, three minutes later, dinner is served.

The only way you could screw this up is if you forget the crusty bread to dip into the musselimbued liquid. Seriously, dunking fresh bread into the liquid is probably the best part, so don’t

MUSSELS WITH TOMATO AND WHITE WINE Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 10 minutes Makes: 2 servings 3 pounds mussels 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano 1 cup crushed canned tomatoes 1/2 cup dry white wine Handful fresh parsley, chopped Crusty bread 1. Rinse and scrub mussels under cold water. Remove beard from mussels, if necessary. Discard any mussels that won’t close if gently pressed.

2. Heat oil in a large pot set over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and salt; cook until onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and oregano; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the tomatoes; cook until they have slightly thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour in wine.

3. Increase heat to high to bring to a boil. Add the mussels, cover the pot and cook, stirring every minute, until all the mussels have opened, 3 to 4 minutes. Discard any that don’t. Turn off the heat; add the parsley.

4. Divide mussels and liquid between two large bowls. Serve with crusty bread.

Nutrition information per serving: 426 calories, 19 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 102 mg cholesterol, 24 g carbohydrates, 8 g sugar, 43 g protein, 1,618 mg sodium, 3 g fiber

forget that, OK? And then we end with chocolate, because why wouldn’t you?

Usually, that just means a nice bar of dark chocolate, though we’ve been known to spring for a few chocolate truffles. Whatever your chocolate craving of choice, it will work here.

And that’s it. With a minimal amount of effort, you have a shellfish-stocked meal, plenty of bubbly and never have to worry about asking for the check.