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JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

VOLUME 23 NO. 27

A WEEK TO REMEMBER An even-tempered President Obama tries to keep a historic week in perspective, while foreign policy challenges remain.

COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House was bathed in rainbow colors last week in honor of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

A raise is coming Federal rules will boost overtime pay

WASHINGTON – Prodded to gloat about his indisputably good run over the last week, President Obama’s instinct on Tuesday was to downplay.

“One of the things I’ve learned in this presidency is that there are going to be ups and there are going to be downs,” Obama said. “I might see if we can make next week even better.”

Since his presidential team first began to gel during his 2008 campaign, friends and advisers have talked about the cool and even temper of the former law professor.

He cautions his team against getting too high or too low, said one longtime adviser, and he follows the maxim himself

– even after the perfect storm that converged for the White House last week: The Supreme Court upheld the heart of Obama’s signature health care act and legalized gay marriage nationwide. He signed a package of bipartisan trade bills into law.

And as the nation reeled from a brutal mass homicide in a Black South Carolina church, Obama delivered an address of healing and unity.

Highest in years A CNN poll found that 50 percent of respondents said they approve of the way Obama is handling the presidency, a height for the last two years. His overall ratings got a boost from improving reviews of his handling of race relations and the economy, the network reported.

But when asked about the run of good fortune Tuesday, Obama answered like a two-term president well aware of how quickly the winds can shift.

“My best week, I will tell you, was marrying Michelle,” he said at a news conferSee OBAMA, Page A2

NASA / INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

Lost going into space

BY MICHAEL A. MEMOLI TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU /TNS

WASHINGTON – Millions of Americans could see a boost in wages or reduced workload as a result of new federal regulations on overtime pay the Obama administration is unveiling this week.

Under the regulations, privatesector workers who make up to $50,400 a year will be guaranteed the right to earn additional pay if they work more than 40 hours per week.

Currently, only workers who make $23,660 a year, or less than $455 a week, have those same protections.

Long time coming The salary threshold had not been raised for a decade when Obama ordered the Labor Department to conduct a review last year, calling the figure outdated.

The president planned to discuss the change Thursday – after the Florida Courier’s press time – in a trip to Wisconsin, and previewed it in a Huffington Post op-ed posted Monday night.

“We’ve got to keep making sure hard work is rewarded. Right now, too many Americans are working long days for less pay than they deserve,” he said.

The change is likely to please labor advocates who had called on the administration to consider raising the threshold to salaries of at least $42,000 per year. They say See JOBS, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Senator presses for answers on SpaceX explosion NATION | A6

SayHerName movement honors slain women NATION | B1

Douglass’ thoughts about Fourth of July

ALSO INSIDE

RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on its seventh mission to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) broke apart on June 28, after launching from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It’s the third explosion of a NASA-affiliated resupply rocket in eight months. Read a story about the explosion on A3.

NAACP warns Black churches after fires

BY MATT PEARCE LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS

The NAACP warned Black churches Tuesday to take “necessary precautions” as authorities in Southern states investigate whether several church fires over the last week were arsons.

Citing a series of arsons that struck Black churches across the South in the 1990s, the NAACP used a hashtag that went viral this week and tweeted Tuesday, “Almost 20 years later, we must again ask, #WhoIsBurningBlackChurches?”

Officials said arsonists targeted two Black churches last week in Knoxville, Tenn., where a van was destroyed, and Charlotte, N.C., where a church building was destroyed. No arrests have

been made or suspects identified in those cases. No motives have been given.

Investigators were also looking into what caused the fires that destroyed Black churches in Macon, Ga., and Warrenville, S.C., though officials said they have not found a cause or any evidence of criminal intent in those blazes.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has taken the lead on investigating the fires in Charlotte and Macon. A spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that there was no update on those cases.

“The bulk of the attacks appear to be ‘random’ acts of vandalism, the work of ‘teenagers’ and ‘copycats’ rather than hard-

ened conspirators,” Jim Campbell, an assistant professor of history at Northwestern University, wrote in a 1996 opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times titled “America’s Long History of Black Churches Burning” that was shared widely over social media on Monday.

Common incidents Church fires are relatively common in the U.S. According to the most recent data available from the National Fire Protection Association, officials responded to 1,660 fires at religious and funeral properties in 2011, down from 3,500 in 1980.

About 16 percent of those church and funeral-property fires were intentionally set, which equals about five arsons

a week, according to the association.

But the specter of Black churches burning – especially after the June 17 massacre that left nine parishioners dead at a Black church in Charleston, S.C. – is unnerving, given the nation’s long history of racial violence against Black churches.

A spike of arsons against Black churches in the South during the mid-1990s led to the creation in 1996 of the National Church Arson Task Force, which investigated at least 827 arsons, bombings or attempted bombings at religious buildings that occurred between 1995 and 1999.

The task force includes the FBI, the ATF, U.S. attorneys, local prosecutors and other federal and state law enforcement.

Of that 827, at least 269 involved Black churches, with 185 of those churches located in the South, according to a 2000 report.

COMMENTARY: CHARLES CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 BOOKS: ‘THE FERGUSON REPORT’ NOW AVAILABLE IN BOOK FORM | B4

FOCUS

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JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

The perils of the politics of symbolism The Confederate flag is in ignominious retreat, shunned by GOP presidential hopefuls and officeholders and banned from the shelves and catalogues of Wal-Mart, Sears and eBay. In hot pursuit, vowing to exorcize the demons of old Dixie, is a suddenly aroused array of Black preachers and politicians that have found new relevance in wake of the Charleston church massacre.

The slaughter of nine innocents by a White youth intent on fomenting race war has, at least temporarily, energized and elevated the politics of symbolism, by which great victories can be claimed without putting a dent in real structures of power. Dylann Roof’s rampage also reminds Black folks that the Republicans began replacing the Democrats as the White Man’s Party half a century ago, and have since provided a haven for all manner of White supremacists and their paraphernalia.

Hillary benefits Hillary Clinton, who has participated in the murder of many millions of Black, Brown and Yellow people but, like most of her ilk, has the good sense to avoid association with swastikas and Confederate insignia, will prof-

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

it from the carnage at Emanuel A.M.E. The “Confederate” presence in the GOP makes the Democrats the “Black” party, by default, eliminating the need for Democrats to actually do anything of substance for Black people.

The infinitely evil Mrs. Clinton (“We came, we saw, he died,” she ‘joked’ about the murder of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi) shares responsibility for the genocide of six million Congolese. She becomes a “lesser” evil.

The atrocity in Charleston was meant to set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the total subjugation or physical elimination of Black people in the United States. Roof’s “manifesto” is quite clear on this. The killer is also aware that he is not so very different from the great mass of White people who, he writes, “run to the suburbs,” or those that propose the establishment of an all-White homeland in the “Northwest Front” to get away from Black people.

Roof believed he had “no choice” but to try to instigate the final battle by committing a crime so vile, Blacks would be compelled to strike back (at whom?), or that other Whites would mount similar attacks – or both.

Roof’s depraved provocation was felt, correctly, as an attack on all Black people.

Symbolic demands However, preacher-politicians of the old, accommodationist Negro school are perfectly suited to dealing with horrific assaults on Blacks by private White actors. They forgive, they call for reconciliation, and they make symbolic demands whose acceptance or rejection will not seriously alter the balance of power.

The demand that South Carolina remove the “Stars and Bars” from in front of the state capital building is wholly symbolic, directly affecting one pole and one piece of cloth. The state’s governor and top Republican legislators would never consider letting go of the flag if it had not already become as much a burden as an asset to the GOP. With or without the Confederate flag, White racists will still know which party the Blacks

seem to favor – and go in the opposite direction. However, an even larger cohort of Whites might also no longer feel comfortable in the GOP until it is cleansed of symbolic Confederate taint.

“Reconciliation,” therefore, comes cheap – and, in fact, redounds to the benefit of the former offender. Whites in South Carolina will get the chance to feel as good about voting the Confederate-free Republican ticket, as White Democrats in Iowa felt voting for Obama.

Power relationships are unaffected – which is fine with the collaborationist Black preachers and politicians.

Playing defense The Black Misleadership Class is especially eager to appear vibrant and relevant, having been on the defensive for the better part of a year. For the first time in two generations, grassroots activists seeking Black community control of the police and a transformation in social and economic relations have effectively challenged the Black power brokers.

The Black political class – a virtual annex of the Democratic Party with no real experience in advocating for Black people’s col-

JOBS from A1

an increased threshold could help stimulate the economy by boosting middle-class workers’ wages or triggering new hiring to prevent the need for paying the higher overtime rate.

Some exemptions

ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Shalonda Sanders delivers documents in a Chicago-based law office. Millions of salaried workers like her will get a pay raise if they work overtime.

OBAMA from A1

ence at the White House alongside Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. “That was a really good week. Malia and Sasha being born … excellent weeks. There was a game where I scored 27 points.

That was a pretty good week.”

Last week, he said, “was gratifying.”

Subject to change The president’s agenda could still be disrupted on any number of issues. Obama ticked them off during Tuesday’s news conference.

Tuesday’s deadline on negotiations concerning Iran’s nuclear program was moved back to next week, and Obama noted that there are “deep-seated disagreements and divisions” that could still derail a deal.

The Greek financial crisis is probably not a matter of grave concern to Americans, he said, but it could have a “dampening effect on the entire world economy.”

Though Rousseff brushed over the significance of the National Security Agency eavesdropping on her phone calls, Obama left room for the possibility that the spying scandal could erupt again.

“There’s still going to be differences occasionally, but that’s true with every one of our close friends and allies,” he said.

‘Squeeze every ounce’ After all the caveats, though, came a reminder that Obama still occasionally feels the urge to brag.

“In many ways, last week was simply a culmination of a lot of work that we’ve been doing since I came into office,” Obama said.

His instructions to his team are to “squeeze every last ounce of progress” out of his remaining time in the Oval Office.

He’s pushed forward overtime pay for more Americans and is pushing a deal to improve roads

and bridges, he said. He’ll work on bipartisan legislation to reform the criminal justice system and fight for free community college.

“Are we going to make this a more inclusive economy, a more inclusive society, a more fair, just society?” he asked. “If that’s our North Star and we keep on tacking in that direction, we’re going to make progress.”

However, Obama’s foreign policy record is unsettled and may not be fully established until years after he leaves office. Here’s a look at offshore challenges:

Afghanistan After taking office in 2009, Obama oversaw a major buildup of U.S. troops and civilians aimed at curtailing a resurgence by the Taliban. He expanded training of Afghan security forces and bolstered efforts to improve governance. But he also said he would begin withdrawing U.S. combat forces at the end of 2011.

In June 2013, the Afghan government assumed full responsibility for the country’s security, and the U.S. combat mission ended in October 2014, leaving military trainers and advisers and U.S. Special Forces dedicated to fighting al-Qaida.

The Taliban, however, have pressed their insurgency, overrunning areas once secured by U.S. forces.

This year, Obama slowed the withdrawal of U.S. military trainers and advisers, and Special Forces, haunted by the experience of Iraq, where U.S. troops returned last year after the virtual collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of Islamic State.

The situation lately has turned urgent, with Taliban attacks intensifying in northern Afghanistan. It’s unlikely that Afghan forces will have prevailed by the time the U.S. withdrawal is completed in December 2016. But with Obama leaving office the following month, dealing with Afghanistan will pass to his successor.

Iraq It’s almost certain that Obama

also will bequeath the crisis in Iraq to the winner of the November 2016 presidential election.

Fulfilling an election promise and an agreement negotiated by President George W. Bush, Obama oversaw the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq in December 2011. The more than 3,500 troops who have returned since last year’s Islamic State onslaught are trainers and advisers, sent to help rebuild and bolster the moribund Iraqi army.

The U.S. strategy, however, has been badly hampered by the Shiite-led government’s failure to recruit significant numbers of minority Sunnis to help fight the Islamic State alongside Iranbacked Shiite militias.

After Islamic State captured Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, in May, Obama indirectly acknowledged that his strategy wasn’t working when he approved the deployment of 450 additional U.S. military trainers and advisers and accelerated the delivery of arms and hardware to Baghdad.

Administration officials haven’t ruled out the possibility of sending more U.S. troops, including some who might be placed with Iraqi combat units.

Syria Obama’s efforts to keep the U.S. out of the Syria conflict have been fitful. An initial push to bolster Syrian exiles as the face of the opposition foundered on the exiles’ internal bickering. Arming opponents to Syrian President Bashar Assad foundered as alQaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, and other Islamist groups came to dominate the movement.

The need to counter Islamic State in Syria was made more immediate last summer by the murders of three Americans held by the extremists. But the effect of the U.S. bombing campaign there remains uncertain.

U.S. bombing helped thwart Islamic State’s push on Kobani, but the subsequent cooperation between the U.S. Defense Department and Kurdish defenders of Kobani, the People’s Protection

Salaried employees who earn more than the threshold can be denied overtime pay if they fall under broad exceptions for administrative, executive or professional work. It’s unclear whether those exemptions will be clarified, as the president had requested.

The president said the change would affect nearly 5 million workers in 2016, and cast the change as part of the economic vision he outlined in his State of the Union address this year.

“In this country, a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.

Units has angered NATO-ally Turkey, which views the them as a terrorist group.

The conflict in Syria clearly will outlast the Obama administration.

Russia Obama – who initiated a “reset” in relations with Russia when he took office – now is embroiled in a standoff with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the 2014 seizure of Crimea, and Moscow’s support for separatists who control self-declared pro-Moscow republics in eastern Ukraine.

Obama’s approach to Russia had some successes. The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty further reduced the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. The countries cooperated in the negotiations with Iran and the delivery of supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

But the United States now has to reassure NATO allies worried about Putin’s intentions by staging joint military exercises, and by positioning in Eastern Europe enough weapons and armor to equip a combat brigade. The United States and the European Union also have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions on Moscow.

Still, Putin called Obama on Thursday for the first time in four months. Obama focused on Ukraine, telling Putin that Russia needs to live to up to the terms of a ceasefire deal that included “the removal of all Russian troops and equipment from Ukrainian territory,” the White House said.

Middle East Obama was viewed warily from the start by the Israeli government and its U.S. supporters, partly because of a early opposition to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.

Israelis also were dismayed that Obama traveled to Egypt but not to Israel in his first term.

He sought to make up for lost ground on his first trip to Israel as president in 2013, backing an aggressive push by Secretary of State John Kerry to restart Is-

lective interests – feels, correctly, that they are losing their grip on the community. The misleaders are counting on presidential election year fervor to drown out the new movement.

Hillary Clinton and her slickster husband know she needs every Black vote to win in 2016. Her campaign will attempt to curl up as tightly as possible with the Black preachers and reconcilers, while painting the Republicans as irredeemable Confederates – whether they have renounced the flag or not.

Ghoulish as it may sound, the Charleston church massacre has given a shot of adrenalin to the Black Misleadership Class, especially the old-school preachers, who can wage symbolic struggle against the demons that live in people’s hearts, while presenting no threat whatsoever to the rich men that rule the United States, or their police.

Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Email him at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

That’s at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America,” Obama wrote.

Significant step The president has touted positive economic trends since he took office at the height of the Great Recession. But middle-class wage growth has lagged even as the stock market has reached record highs, and a vocal wing of the president’s own party has pressed him to do more to address income inequality.

The overtime rules change is one of the most significant steps the administration can take without congressional action. The Fair Labor Standards Act, passed in 1938, gives the administration broad authority to set the rules without seeking lawmakers’ approval.

Republicans are nonetheless likely to oppose any changes, which they say could harm the economic recovery.

raeli-Palestinian peace talks and pledging to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Kerry’s diplomatic effort collapsed a year later.

Obama and Netanyahu’s relationship – never friendly – plunged when Netanyahu accepted House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint session of Congress in which the Israeli leader denounced the emerging nuclear agreement with Iran.

Guantanamo On his second day in office, Obama signed an executive order to close the prison for suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The administration, however, encountered vociferous opposition from Congress, which has passed legislation blocking the closing and the transfer of detainees to the continental United States.

Supporters of closing the prison partly blame Obama for the center’s continued operation, charging that he has never made closing it a priority even while contending that it is a recruitment tool for extremists.

Cuba Obama upended 50 years of U.S. foreign policy in December by agreeing to restore diplomatic relations with communist-ruled Cuba and authorizing an expansion of travel and trade with the island.

“I don’t expect a transformation of Cuban society overnight, but I’m convinced with engagement we can more effectively stand up for our values,” Obama said.

Just this week, the two countries announced a plan to open embassies in each other’s capital.

Jonathan S. Landay, Lesley Clark, Christi Parsons and Michael A. Memoli of the McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS) all contributed to this report.

JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

SunPass customers now paying a little bit more NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

SunPass users will see an increase in tolls when traveling on Florida’s Turnpike starting this week. The 1.6 percent went into effect due to a 2007 state law that allows state officials to adjust SunPass and toll-by-plate rates every year based on changes in the consumer price index.

The change will result in fee hikes of an extra penny or two at most toll plazas.

The cost of a trip the entire length of Florida’s Turnpike – 309 miles from Wildwood to Florida City – will increase from $20.07 to $20.41 for SunPass customers.

“Toll-by-plate” motorists, who are billed when a photo is taken of the vehicle’s license plate passing through a tolling location, also will see a 1.6 percent increase this week. The toll hikes are expected to generate about $11 million a year.

Central Florida turnpike system roads impacted by the change are the Seminole Expressway, the Southern Connector, the Beachline Expressway West, the Polk Parkway, the I-4 Connector, and the Daniel Webster Western Beltway Part C. Other roads affected include the Sawgrass Expressway in Southeast Florida, the Veterans Expressway, the Suncoast Parkway and the Homestead Extension. Florida Department of Transportationowned toll roads seeing a similar increase are Alligator Alley, Pinellas Bayway and Sunshine Skyway.

Cash rates, which are higher than those charged to SunPass users, will not change before 2017. The law only allows cash rates to be adjusted, also based on the CPI, once every five years.

FLORIDA

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Senator seeks answers about SpaceX explosion Third disaster in past year involving cargo ship heading to space station

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is sounding the alarm about the future of U.S. space flights but industry officials in Florida remained calm after the latest explosion of a cargo rocket on Sunday, June 28.

Nelson met with SpaceX and NASA officials on Monday to discuss why the resupply rocket exploded. The diBill saster was the Nelson third in the past year involving a cargo ship headed to the International Space Station.

Before the briefing, Nelson raised questions about a possible shortage of supplies on the space station and the reasons for the unmanned Falcon 9’s explosion just over two minutes after blasting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sunday.

“We would be remiss to underestimate the gravity of the situation right now,” Nelson, a Democrat who is the ranking member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said in a press release issued Monday morning.

‘A mishap’ But officials at Space Florida, a quasi-government agency created to expand the state’s space in-

dustry, called the disaster a “mishap” that will be quickly solved

by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the California-based company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Rockets “fly in unforgiving environments,” Space Florida President Frank DiBello said in a statement.

“From time to time mishaps will happen,” DiBello said. “In its short history SpaceX has built an impressive record of success and I have no doubt that the company will get to the bottom of the problem, fix it and continue on successfully.”

Earlier this month Space Florida agreed to take over the former Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. The plan is to use the three-mile runway as a testing ground for new companies and technologies for the next 30 years. Space Florida, which intends to charge fees to private companies to use the grounds, is expected to pump about $5 million into upgrades.

What it carried Sunday’s unmanned launch was carrying 4,000 pounds of supplies, including a new docking port, to the space station.

NASA reported that the explosion won’t impact operations at the ISS, which has enough supplies to get through at least October. The next resupplying mission is set for July 3 from Russia, with another planned for August.

The disaster also isn’t expected to alter the July 22 launch from Kazakhstan, scheduled to deliver the next crew members to the space station.

But the Federal Aviation Administration investigation into Sunday’s explosion could keep

PHOTOS BY RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

Top: The moon shines early on Sunday, June 28, as the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch its seventh official Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission to the orbiting International space Station from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Above: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is shown after it breaks apart.

SpaceX – which had successfully flown to the ISS six previous times and has a $2 billion contract with NASA for 15 resupply missions – grounded for months.

Cause still unknown Officials from Space X on Monday continued to investigate the explosion, which occurred shortly before the first stage shutdown.

“Preliminary analysis suggests the vehicle experienced an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank approximately 139 seconds into flight,” SpaceX stated in a release.

“Telemetry indicates first stage flight was nominal and that Dragon remained healthy for some period of time following separation.

Our teams are reviewing data to

determine root cause and we will be able to provide more information following a thorough fault tree analysis.”

The disaster comes after other recent resupply mission failures and as NASA continues to depend heavily upon Russia, even as the Ukraine crisis has strained relations between the two countries, to support the space station.

A robotic Russian cargo freighter with 3 tons of food and fuel began spinning out of control after reaching orbit in April and, instead of reaching the ISS vessel, burned upon returning to Earth’s atmosphere. In October, a private Orbital Sciences-built cargo launch to the ISS exploded shortly after launching from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE FOR BLACK STUDENTS. NO EXCUSES. The classic guide from Florida Courier publisher, lawyer and broadcaster CHARLES W. CHERRY II PRAISE FOR ‘EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE’: “This guide for African-American college-bound students is packed with practical and insightful information for achieving academic success...The primary focus here is to equip students with the savvy and networking skills to maneuver themselves through the academic maze of higher education.”

– Book review, School Library Journal • How low expectations of Black students’ achievements can get them higher grades; • Want a great grade? Prepare to cheat!

• How Black students can program their minds for success; • Setting goals – When to tell everybody, and when to keep your mouth shut; • Black English, and why Black students must be ‘bilingual.’ …AND MUCH MORE!

www.excellencewithoutexcuse.com Download immediately as an eBook or a pdf Order softcover online, from Amazon, or your local bookstore ISBN#978-1-56385-500-9 Published by International Scholastic Press, LLC Contact Charles at ccherry2@gmail.com

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Twitter @ccherry2

FILE PHOTO

Selfie-stick users put smartphones and cameras on the ends of poles to extend their reach, frequently capturing theme-park moments through self-portraits.

This selfie, using the stick, was taken earlier this year at a Bethune-Cookman University commencement.

Heads up: Don’t take your selfie-stick to Disney World

BY DEWAYNE BEVIL ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

Walt Disney World is banning selfie-sticks from its theme parks, citing safety concerns, a company spokeswoman said last week.

Under a new policy, which took effect Tuesday, the poles won’t make it past the bag check at any Disney World theme park.

The sticks also won’t be allowed in Disney World water parks or DisneyQuest, a gaming attraction at Downtown Disney.

“We strive to provide a great experience for the entire family, and unfortunately selfie-sticks have become a growing safety concern for both our guests and cast,” Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said.

Selfie-sticks also are forbidden at Disneyland Resort in California. The prohibition kicked in at Disney’s parks in Paris and

Hong Kong on July 1.

Guests will be checked for the equipment during the routine bag check that happens near the parks’ entrances. They will have an option of turning in their selfie-sticks for pickup later or to go back to their cars or hotel rooms to stow them.

Incidents at park Visitors will be told of the policy in locations such as the parking lots and at the resort’s hotels. The prohibition will be added to the park rules post on Disney World’s website.

The issue has been building at Disney. Previously, the sticks were prohibited from its rides, and “no selfie-sticks” signs were at select rides, such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom. Cast members have given verbal warnings to rule breakers.

Several incidents preceded the change, but of-

ficials have been discussing the rules for some time, Disney said. Last week at Disney California Adventure park, a roller coaster was halted after a passenger pulled out a selfie-stick.

The ride was closed for an hour.

Selfie-stick users put smartphones and cameras on the ends of poles to extend their reach, frequently capturing theme-park moments through self-portraits.

The tools have been banned in public places — including some museums and stadiums — worldwide for obstructing views or causing safety issues.

Disney World already prohibited items such as skateboards, inline skates, wagon, folding chairs and glass containers, according to its official website, which also lists “other items that we determine may be harmful or disruptive.”

EDITORIAL

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JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

Some Whites feel church killer ‘could be my son’ The Charlotte massacre was a premeditated stab at the heart of Black America, and at one of the moral epicenters of the African Diaspora. It was the latest in a long history of calculated and explicit acts of racial terrorism perpetrated against African-Americans.

This was neither random nor without context. Yet, I continue to hear many observers describe their “shock” and “surprise.”

Even a casual reader of American would know that there has never been a cessation of racist beliefs and racial conflict in America.

White supremacists have never waived the white flag.

Gotten worse The Confederate flag is their banner de jour. Indeed, racial tensions have only worsened of late. Almost daily we are bom-

when Barack Obama took office.

MATTHEW C. WHITAKER NNPA GUEST COLUMNIST

barded with news of unarmed Black people being shot while talking, walking, running, working, playing, and now praying while Black.

Indeed, the Southern Poverty Law Center reveals that there has been a 30 percent increase in hate crimes since 2000. It reported that the number of so-called Patriot groups, including armed militias, skyrocketed following the 2008 presidential election, rising from 149 groups in 2008 to an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012.

The number fell to 874 in 2014 – nearly six times higher than

Absolution granted When I rejected a White male acquaintance’s attempt to describe killer Dylann Roof as a “misguided kid,” he angrily declared, “Roof could be my son.”

This man and millions more like him identify with Roof. They grant the baby-faced, salad bowl haircut-wearing White supremacist the kind of absolution that many people of color can only imagine receiving were, heaven forbid, the tables turned.

They do not see Roof as the latest in a long line of racist mass murders – the most recent, hateful, violent personification of our grossly unequal and unjust system, which is characterized and fueled by White dominance and disavowal of White supremacy.

They see him not as the harbin-

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: AMERICA’S CONTINUING WOUND

PATRICK CHAPPATTE, THE INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 261 “Bury the man; continue the plan” – Why doesn't the Black Christian church get much respect anymore? Because of fearful, egg-sucking, boot-licking, weakkneed, tight-sphinctered, non-strategic, photo-opportunity 'leadership.'

Example: That feel-good Charleston, S.C. rally 48 hours after the murders gave “We Shall Overcome” political cover to White politicians like Gov. Nikki Haley who are determined to keep South Carolina – the heart and spine of American White supremacy and the racist Confederacy – in the racial Stone Ages.

Nine Black folks weren’t in the ground yet. Real leadership would have let state leadership sweat, and made REAL DEMANDS of them. Yet Negro preachers held hands in an AFRICAN Methodist Episcopal church, and gave White South Carolina POLITICIANS comfort and support they have done NOTHING to deserve? BLASPHEMY! MLK didn't hold hands and sing “We Shall Overcome" with Alabama’s governor after four Black girls were murdered in Birmingham. And when he eulogized those girls, he called the racist Dixiecrats out.

You want to memorialize “the Charleston 9?” Move the Rev. Clementa Pinckney's agenda forward. Fund S.C.'s deplorable public schools. Expand Obamacare.

Address Black folks' disproportionate pain in the state…

Gay marriage – Bro. Prez sent a tweet

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

that “#lovewins.” My Christian friends believe that Jesus will be here by month’s end, since the end is near.

Maybe. But I see things differently. This is a stunning lesson in focused political and economic power; Black people, take note.

Whether you are for or against gay marriage, the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered community has been relentless in pushing its agenda everywhere and through multiple presidential administrations and Congressional iterations. They never rested on small victories. They agitated Obama even when he supported them. (“Great job, Barack! Here's what we need you to do next…or else.”)

Last week, a LGBT activist even heckled Bro. Prez in the White House – something for which any Black activist would be shamed and shunned (see Cornel West.)

THAT is how it's done. “No permanent friends, no permanent enemies; just permanent interests.” El hajj Malik el Shabazz (Malcolm X)…

Contact me at cccherry2@gmail. com.

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.

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ger of violent bigotry, but an unwitting victim.

mise as people of color for this to happen.

How to help

Eyes open

To my White brothers and sisters who have taken up the struggle and descended upon Charleston, signed petitions, written letters, donated to the cause, and otherwise acted in the aftermath of Roof’s carnage, thank you for you support.

Don’t stop. People of color need relief and you’re next up at bat. If true change is to be made, we will need all hands on deck – especially yours.

The absence of racism is not the presence of anti-racism. We need more than good intentions.

We need Whites to, as Mahatma Gandhi urged, to “be the change you wish to see.” Racism will not go away until we eradicate it, and you must be as invested in its de-

To people of color, wake up and keep your heads on a swivel. There is no shelter or sanctuary for Black people in America.

The American promise is virtuous and our advancements are real, but our trek in the wilderness continues.

We will not surrender and we will not back down. We’ll start by relegating the Confederate flag, the symbol of White supremacy and hatred that Roof so proudly waved, to museums where it belongs.

Matthew C. Whitaker is founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University.

40 reasons Blacks and the poor are incarcerated Editor’s note: This is Part 2. Other reasons will be listed in upcoming weeks.

6. Traffic tickets are big business. And even if most people do not go directly to jail for traffic tickets, poor people are hit the worst by these ticket systems. As we saw with Ferguson where some of the towns in St. Louis receive 40 percent or more of their city revenues from traffic tickets, tickets are moneymakers for towns.

7. The consequences of traffic tickets are much more severe among poor people. People with means will just pay the fines. But for poor and working people, fines are a real hardship. For example, over 4 million people in California do not have valid driver’s licenses because they have unpaid fines and fees for traffic tickets. And we know unpaid tickets can lead to jail.

8. In schools, AfricanAmerican kids are much more likely to be referred to the police than other kids. African-American students are 16 percent of those enrolled in schools, but 27 percent of those referred to the police. Kids with disabilities are discriminated against at about the same rate because they are 14 percent of those enrolled in school and 26 of

BILL QUIGLEY GUEST COMMENTATOR

those referred to the police.

9. Though Black people make up about 12 percent of the US population, Black children are 28 percent of juvenile arrests.

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that there are over 57,000 people under the age of 21 in juvenile detention. The US has 10,000 children in adult jails and prisons any given day.

10. The War on Drugs targets Black people. Drug arrests are a big source of bodies and business for the criminal legal system. Half the arrests these days are for drugs and half of those are for marijuana.

Despite the fact that Blacks and Whites use marijuana at the same rates, a Black person is 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than a White person. The ACLU found that in some states Black people were six times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than Whites.

For all drug arrests between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. Black drug arrest rate rose dramatically from 6.5

to 29.1 per 1,000 persons; during the same period, the White drug arrest rate barely increased from 3.5 to 4.6 per 1,000 persons.

11. Many people are in jail and prison because the US has much tougher drug laws and much longer sentences for drug offenses than most other countries. Drug offenders receive an average sentence of 7 months in France, twelve months in England and 23 months in the US. 12. The bail system penalizes poor people. Every day there are about 500,000 people are in jails, who are still presumed innocent and awaiting trial, just because they are too poor to pay money to get out on bail. Not too long ago, judges used to allow most people, even poor people, to be free while they were awaiting trial – but no more.

In a 2013 study of New York City courts, more than 50 percent of the people held in jail awaiting trial for misdemeanor or felony charges were unable to pay bail amounts of $2,500 or less.

Bill Quigley is legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor.

Hillary Clinton can’t see mass incarceration Just last month, young Kalief Browder committed suicide. Browder was arrested at age16 for the alleged theft of a backpack.

Without being formally charged or tried, Browder spent 3 years at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island complex – two of them in solitary confinement.

Lacking competent legal representation and isolated in part because he was not a member of any street organization, Browder was relentlessly beaten and abused by both staff and inmates during his incarceration. He made several prior suicide attempts during and after his time at Rikers.

Making improvements On the outside, in the hopeful estimation of his family and friends, Browder’s condition seemed to be improving.

At the time of his death, he was attending city college classes, his grades were going up, and his panic attacks and other PTSD symptoms seemed to be retreating – until his mother found him hanging from an open window one morning.

Less than a week later, in another world just six miles downstream from Rikers, Hillary Clinton kicked off her campaign with a Roosevelt Island campaign rally, eagerly covered by Melissa

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Harris-Perry and MSNBC. Roosevelt Island is a moated community, inhabited in large part by United Nations employees and such, many quite well-to-do.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is no dummy, and she employs some of the cleverest marketers around to craft every photo opportunity, appearance and most of the words that come from her mouth. Not much escapes their notice, except of course those matters they deem just not worth noticing.

Her people knew People on Hillary’s team knew who Kalief Browder was. They knew Rikers was just six miles upstream, and they knew it wouldn’t embarrass New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio because deBlasio had already acknowledged the tragedy.

They knew the crowd was Hillary’s no matter what she did or did not say.

For Team Hillary, the life and death of Kalief Browder – and hundreds or thousands like him – just didn’t make the cut. Other points, other matters were too pressing, too urgent.

Since becoming a presidential candidate again in the last few weeks, Hillary has learned to make her lips say the words “mass incarceration.” She’s said it more often in the last couple months than Bernie Sanders has in twenty years.

A Black issue?

But it seems to be one of those things she’ll only come out with in front of Black and other receptive audiences, as though Black mass incarceration and the prison state were the exclusive creations or problems of Black and Brown Americans, instead of something she and her husband expanded dramatically during their last terms in the White House.

The entire Black political class is maneuvering to deliver the Black vote to Hillary (sometimes through Bernie Sanders in the primary season). It’s instructive to note that when their candidate has a free hand and a friendly White audience before which to speak, the prison state and mass incarceration, which virtually define the Black experience of government, are simply not worth mentioning.

Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact him at bruce.dixon@ blackagendareport.com.

JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

EDITORIAL

A5

‘May grace now lead them home’ Editor’s note: Here are excerpts from President Obama’s eulogy of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney in Charleston, S.C. on June 26.

“They were still living by faith when they died,” Scripture tells us.

“They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on Earth.”

We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith.

A man who believed in things not seen. A man who believed there were better days ahead, off in the distance. A man of service who persevered, knowing full well he would not receive all those things he was promised, because he believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed.

To Jennifer, his beloved wife; to Eliana and Malana, his beautiful, wonderful daughters; to the Mother Emanuel family and the people of Charleston, the people of South Carolina.

Didn’t know him well I cannot claim to have the good fortune to know Rev. Pinckney well. But I did have the pleasure of knowing him and meeting him here in South Carolina, back when we were both a little bit younger.

The first thing I noticed was his graciousness, his smile, his reassuring baritone, his deceptive sense of humor – all qualities that helped him wear so effortlessly a heavy burden of expectation.

Friends of his remarked this week that when Clementa Pinckney entered a room, it was like the future arrived; that even from a young age, folks knew he was special. Anointed. He was the progeny of a long line of the faithful – a family of preachers who spread God’s word, a family of protesters who sowed change to expand voting rights and desegregate the South.

Clem heard their instruction, and he did not forsake their teaching. He was in the pulpit by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23.

He did not exhibit any of the cockiness of youth, nor youth’s insecurities; instead, he set an example worthy of his position, wise beyond his years, in his speech, in his conduct, in his love, faith, and purity.

Area needed him As a senator, he represented a sprawling swath of the Low Country, a place that has long been one of the most neglected in America.

A place still wracked by poverty and inadequate schools; a place where children can still go hungry and the sick can go without treatment. A place that needed somebody like Clem.

His position in the minority party meant the odds of winning more resources for his constituents were often long. His calls for greater equity were too often unheeded, the votes he cast were sometimes lonely.

But he never gave up. He stayed true to his convictions. He would not grow discouraged. After a full day at the capitol, he’d climb into his car and head to the church to draw sustenance from his family, from his ministry, from the community that loved and needed him. There he would fortify his faith, and imagine what might be.

Rev. Pinckney embodied a politics that was neither mean, nor small. He conducted himself quietly, and kindly, and diligently. He encouraged progress not by pushing his ideas alone, but by seeking out your ideas, partnering with you to make things happen.

He was full of empathy and fellow feeling, able to walk in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes. No wonder one of his Senate colleagues remembered Sen. Pinckney as “the most gentle of the 46 of us – the best of the 46 of us.”

Preaching, politics Clem was often asked why he chose to be a pastor and a public servant. But the person who asked probably didn’t know the history of the AME church. As our brothers and sisters in the AME church know, we don’t make those distinctions. “Our calling,” Clem once said, “is not just within the walls of the congregation, but…the life and community in which our congregation resides.”

He embodied the idea that our Christian faith demands deeds and not just words; that the “sweet hour of prayer” actually lasts the whole week long – that to put our faith in action is more than individual salvation, it’s about our collective salvation; that to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and house the homeless is not just a

YIN BOGU/XINHUA/SIPA USA/TNS

call for isolated charity but the imperative of a just society.

What a good man. Sometimes I think that’s the best thing to hope for when you’re eulogized – after all the words and recitations and résumés are read, to just say someone was a good man.

You don’t have to be of high station to be a good man. Preacher by 13. Pastor by 18. Public servant by 23. What a life Clementa Pinckney lived. What an example he set.

What a model for his faith. And then to lose him at 41 – slain in his sanctuary with eight wonderful members of his flock, each at different stages in life but bound together by a common commitment to God.

Good people Cynthia Hurd. Susie Jackson.

Ethel Lance. DePayne MiddletonDoctor. Tywanza Sanders. Daniel L. Simmons. Sharonda ColemanSingleton. Myra Thompson. Good people. Decent people. God-fearing people. People so full of life and so full of kindness. People who ran the race, who persevered.

People of great faith.

To the families of the fallen, the nation shares in your grief. Our pain cuts that much deeper because it happened in a church.

The church is and always has been the center of African-American life – a place to call our own in a too often hostile world, a sanctuary from so many hardships.

Over the course of centuries, Black churches served as “hush harbors” where slaves could worship in safety; praise houses where their free descendants could gather and shout hallelujah – rest stops for the weary along the Underground Railroad; bunkers for the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement. They have been, and continue to be, community centers where we organize for jobs and justice; places of scholarship and network; places where children are loved and fed and kept out of harm’s way, and told that they are beautiful and smart – and taught that they matter.

That’s what the Black church means. Our beating heart. The place where our dignity as a people is inviolate. When there’s no better example of this tradition than Mother Emanuel – a church built by Blacks seeking liberty, burned to the ground because its founder sought to end slavery, only to rise up again, a phoenix from these ashes When there were laws banning all-Black church gatherings, services happened here anyway, in defiance of unjust laws. When there was a righteous movement to dismantle Jim Crow, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached from its pulpit, and marches began from its steps. A sacred place, this church. Not just for Blacks, not just for Christians, but for every American who cares about the steady expansion – – of human rights and human dignity in this country; a foundation stone for liberty and justice for all.

We do not know whether the killer of Rev. Pinckney and eight others knew all of this history. But he surely sensed the meaning of his violent act.

Violent history It was an act that drew on a long history of bombs and arson and shots fired at churches, not random, but as a means of control, a way to terrorize and oppress. An act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination; violence and suspicion. An act that he presumed would deepen divisions that trace back to our na-

tion’s original sin.

Oh, but God works in mysterious ways. God has different ideas.

He didn’t know he was being used

by God. Blinded by hatred, the alleged killer could not see the grace surrounding Rev. Pinckney and that Bible study group – the light of love that shone as they opened the church doors and invited a stranger to join in their prayer circle. The alleged killer could have never anticipated the way the families of the fallen would respond when they saw him in court – in the midst of unspeakable grief, with words of forgiveness. He couldn’t imagine that.

The alleged killer could not imagine how the city of Charleston, under the good and wise leadership of Mayor Riley – how the state of South Carolina, how the United States of America would respond – not merely with revulsion at his evil act, but with big-hearted generosity and, more importantly, with a thoughtful introspection and self-examination that we so rarely see in public life.

Blinded by hatred, he failed to comprehend what Rev. Pinckney so well understood – the power of God’s grace.

Thinking about grace This whole week, I’ve been reflecting on this idea of grace. The grace of the families who lost loved ones. The grace that Rev. Pinckney would preach about in his sermons. The grace described in one of my favorite hymnals – the one we all know: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind but now I see.”

According to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God – – as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us, for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind. He has given us the chance, where we’ve been lost, to find our best selves.

We may not have earned it, this grace, with our rancor and complacency, and shortsightedness and fear of each other – but we got it all the same. He gave it to us anyway. But it is up to us now to make the most of it, to receive it with gratitude, and to prove ourselves worthy of this gift.

Blind to pain For too long, we were blind to the pain that the Confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens.

It’s true, a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life now acknowledge – including Governor Haley – as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.

For many, Black and White, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation.

Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness; it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought – the cause of slavery – was wrong. The imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong.

It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s history; a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds.

It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have transformed this state and this country

None of us should believe that for the better, because of the work of so many people of goodwill, a handful of gun safety measures people of all races striving to form will prevent every tragedy. People a more perfect union. of goodwill will continue to debate the merits of various policies, Don’t stop there as our democracy requires – this By taking down that flag, we is a big, raucous place, America express God’s grace. But I don’t is. And there are good people on think God wants us to stop there. both sides of these debates. WhatFor too long, we’ve been blind ever solutions we find will necesto the way past injustices contin- sarily be incomplete. ue to shape the present. Perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some Losing our way tough questions about how we But it would be a betrayal of evcan permit so many of our chilerything Rev. Pinckney stood for if dren to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow we allowed ourselves to slip into a up without prospects for a job or comfortable silence again. Once the eulogies have been delivered, for a career.

Perhaps it causes us to examine once the TV cameras move on, what we’re doing to cause some to go back to business as usual – of our children to hate. Perhaps it that’s what we so often do to avoid softens hearts towards those lost uncomfortable truths about the young men, tens and tens of thou- prejudice that still infects our sosands caught up in the criminal ciety. To settle for symbolic gesjustice system – and leads us to tures without following up with make sure that that system is not the hard work of more lasting infected with bias; that we em- change – that’s how we lose our brace changes in how we train and way again. equip our police so that the bonds It would be a refutation of the of trust between law enforcement forgiveness expressed by those and the communities they serve families if we merely slipped inmake us all safer and more secure. to old habits, whereby those who Maybe we now realize the way disagree with us are not merely racial bias can infect us even wrong but bad; where we shout when we don’t realize it, so that we’re guarding against not just ra- instead of listen; where we barcial slurs, but we’re also guarding ricade ourselves behind preconagainst the subtle impulse to call ceived notions or well-practiced Johnny back for a job interview cynicism.

Rev. Pinckney once said, “Across but not Jamal.

So that we search our hearts the South, we have a deep apprewhen we consider laws to make it ciation of history – we haven’t alharder for some of our fellow cit- ways had a deep appreciation of izens to vote. By recognizing our each other’s history.”

What is true in the South is true common humanity by treating every child as important, regard- for America. Clem understood less of the color of their skin or that justice grows out of recognithe station into which they were tion of ourselves in each other. born, and to do what’s necessary That my liberty depends on you to make opportunity real for every being free, too. That history can’t American – by doing that, we ex- be a sword to justify injustice, or a press God’s grace. shield against progress, but must be a manual for how to avoid reBlind to mayhem peating the mistakes of the past – For too long, we’ve been blind how to break the cycle. A roadway to the unique mayhem that gun toward a better world. violence inflicts upon this nation.

He knew that the path of grace Sporadically, our eyes are open: involves an open mind – but, When eight of our brothers and more importantly, an open heart. sisters are cut down in a church That’s what I’ve felt this week basement, 12 in a movie theater, – an open heart. That, more than 26 in an elementary school. any particular policy or analysis, But I hope we also see the 30 is what’s called upon right now, I precious lives cut short by gun vi- think – what a friend of mine, the olence in this country every sinwriter Marilyn Robinson, calls gle day; the countless more whose “that reservoir of goodness, belives are forever changed – the survivors crippled, the children yond, and of another kind, that we traumatized and fearful every day are able to do each other in the oras they walk to school, the hus- dinary cause of things.”

That reservoir of goodness. If band who will never feel his wife’s warm touch, the entire communi- we can find that grace, anything is ties whose grief overflows every possible. If we can tap that grace, time they have to watch what hap- everything can change.

Amazing grace – how sweet the pened to them happen to some sound, that saved a wretch like other place.

The vast majority of Americans me; I once was lost, but now I’m – the majority of gun owners – found; was blind but now I see. want to do something about this.

And I’m convinced that by ac- They found grace knowledging the pain and loss of Clementa Pinckney found that others, even as we respect the tragrace.

Cynthia Hurd found that ditions and ways of life that make grace.

Susie Jackson found that up this beloved country – by making the moral choice to change, grace. Ethel Lance found that grace. DePayne Middleton-Docwe express God’s grace. tor found that grace. Tywanza Sanders found that grace. Daniel God gives grace L. Simmons, Sr. found that grace.

We don’t earn grace. We’re all Sharonda Coleman-Singleton sinners. We don’t deserve it. But found that grace.

Myra Thompson God gives it to us anyway. And we found that grace. choose how to receive it. It’s our Through the example of their decision how to honor it. lives, they’ve now passed it on to None of us can or should expect a transformation in race rela- us. May we find ourselves worthy tions overnight. Every time some- of that precious and extraordinary thing like this happens, somebody gift, as long as our lives endure.

May grace now lead them says we have to have a conversation about race. We talk a lot about home. May God continue to shed race. There’s no shortcut. And we His grace on the United States of don’t need more talk.

America.

TOJ A6

NATION

JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

SayHerName remembers female victims of unarmed Black males.

“We’re putting racism at the forefront, but people aren’t putting gender at the forefront,” Kumodzi said.

“If all lives matter, you have to do that.”

Lack of videos Activists say there are several reasons Black female deaths are not widely known. There are far fewer of them than those involving men and boys. In addition, videos implicating police in female deaths have not surfaced as they did in the cases of Garner, Rice and Walter Scott in North Charleston, S.C., in April.

But protesters at the May rallies said numbers and videos should not matter.

They worry that if Americans are not aware of female victims, the abuses against them will be allowed to continue, hampering efforts to reform policing overall.

“You can’t leave one group behind, or you’ll just cause another problem down the line,” said Kisma Herman, 18. She said the onus is on national leaders, from the White House on down, to include women when they talk about justice and police reform.

‘Boys have sisters’

CAROLYN COLE/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Natasha Duncan stands at the corner in Brooklyn where her sister, Shantel Davis, was shot by a policeman three years ago. Shantel was unarmed.

Movement demanding justice for slain Black women

BY TINA SUSMAN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

NEW YORK — Four months after Eric Garner died during an altercation with police on Staten Island, officers in Cleveland found themselves struggling to subdue a 37-yearold with a history of men-

tal illness.

As in Garner’s case, the person was Black, unarmed, and soon dead. As in Garner’s case, the death was declared a homicide.

Tanisha Anderson became one of more than two dozen Black females who have died in custody or confrontations with law enforcement since 2000, but whose names never caught fire in the call for police reform as “Black Lives Matter” marchers called out the names of Black males: Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice,

Freddie Gray.

Anderson’s name remains largely unknown, even though she was killed just nine days before Rice, the 12-year-old shot by Cleveland police while playing with a toy gun.

Justice for women Now, relatives of the women are trying to make sure their names are not forgotten and they have joined forces with some of the same activists who marched in protests demanding justice for slain men.

Supreme Court to decide affirmative action case in the fall

Sharing their stories As she spoke, relatives of dead women and girls

The victims They include: Alberta Spruill, 57, who died of a heart attack when New York police acting on bad information broke down the door of her apartment on May 16, 2003, and threw a concussion grenade inside.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a 7-year-old Detroit girl who was shot dead exactly seven years later when police raided the home where she was sleeping.

Tarika Wilson, 26, who was shot dead on Jan. 4, 2008, in her Lima, Ohio, home by police searching for her boyfriend.

After two mistrials, a judge in April dismissed the remaining misdemeanor charge against the officer who shot Aiyana.

In Wilson’s case, her family received a $2.5 million wrongful death settlement.

In Spruill’s case, the city settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $1.6 million, and police apologized.

Even in cases involving women with histories of violence or crime, activists say there is no excuse for failing to call attention to their deaths.

“The numbers are not as high, so it’s easy for them to be swept under the rug,” said Natasha Duncan, whose sister, Shantel Davis, was shot to death by a New York police detective on June 14, 2012, after the stolen car she was driving crashed. “The movement needs to make sure they are not forgotten.”

Report: Domestic extremists deadlier than jihadists since 9/11 attacks

BY ZENITHA PRINCE TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

BY DAVID G. SAVAGE TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU/TNS

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a University of Texas case for a second time to decide a constitutional challenge to affirmative action policies at colleges and universities.

At issue is whether the university’s policy of seeking to enroll more Black and Latino students discriminated against a White student who was turned down for admission.

Two years ago, the justices debated the Texas case for most of their term, but failed to issue a clear ruling. Instead, they sent the case back to a lower court to reconsider the university’s policy, but it was upheld again.

The court announced Monday it will hear the White student’s appeal in Fisher vs. University of Texas.

This time, they are demanding justice for slain women in a movement called SayHerName.

“If all Black lives matter, women should be raised up as well,” said Karl Kumodzi, 23, who attended a New York rally last month, one of dozens held across the country to publicize the women’s names.

Kumodzi noted that it was women who launched the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which has swelled into a nationally known pressure group calling attention to deaths

“It starts on a national level, like with our president’s initiative, My Brother’s Keeper,” Herman said.

President Barack Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper after Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, Black 17-year-old, was shot to death in 2012. The initiative is aimed at mentoring young Black men and boys and helping them find jobs.

“It makes it seem like the boys come first, the boys matter, but these boys have sisters, and they come from mothers,” said Herman, adding that activist groups often have urged women to set aside gender-specific issues for the sake of the broader civil rights movement.

“The brothers are supposed to come first and then, once they’re OK, we can pay attention to the sisters,” Herman said.

“But we’ve been waiting so long.”

stood on a stage in Manhattan’s Union Square telling the stories of their lost daughters, mothers and sisters.

“What happened to my daughter was unjust. It was very unjust,” Anderson’s mother, Cassandra Johnson, said as about 200 protesters waved large photographs of the women and chanted, “Say her name.”

Like cases involving men and boys, most of the females’ deaths have been mired in controversy, with police saying they felt threatened and witnesses alleging officers overreacted. Also like the cases involving men, most of the women were unarmed, many had histories of mental illness, and some had previous run-ins with police.

Some, though, were just unlucky.

JAY JANNER/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN/TNS

Abigail Fisher, left, and her attorney, Edward Blum walk out of the Homer Thornberry Judicial Building in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 13, 2013. Fisher, a White high school graduate at the time, was turned down by the University of Texas at Austin. She claimed she lost her spot because of an unconstitutional use of race as a factor.

Impact on minorities The case, to be heard in the fall, could pose a threat to the college and university policies across the nation that includes admission preferences for qualified minority students.

Lawyers for Abigail Fisher, the White student who was turned down at the Austin campus, argued the Constitution’s guarantee of equal pro-

tection of the laws forbids any use of race as a factor in admissions. The young woman enrolled instead at Louisiana State University and has since graduated.

Nonetheless, her lawsuit against the University of Texas remains alive.

Justice Elena Kagan said she will sit out the case, leaving at least a possibility the justices could split 4-4 and fail to issue a ruling.

In the years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many Americans have been killed by domestic terrorists than by Muslim extremists, according to a new report by New America, a Washington, D.C.-based research center.

Forty-eight persons have been killed in plots designed by White supremacists, anti-government zealots and other nonMuslim fanatics, compared to 26 killed by jihadists, according to the report’s tally.

The most recent and one of the most devastating homegrown terror acts occurred in Charleston, S.C., where nine members of an African-American church were slain by a self-avowed White supremacist. Other plots often target police officers, members of other minority and religious groups and civilians.

Violence underestimated The lethal attack on South Carolina’s Emanuel AME Church was one of 19 carried out by non-jihadists since 9/11, compared to seven by Muslim extremists, according to the count, compiled by David Sterman, a New America program associate, and supervised by Peter Bergen, a terrorism expert.

The new report highlights the gulf between public perception and the reality faced by law enforcement, said John J. Horgan, who studies terrorism at the University of Massachusetts.

“There is an acceptance now of the idea that the threat from jihadi terrorism in the United States has been overblown,” Horgan told The New York Times. “And there’s

CURTIS COMPTON/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/ TNS

Linda Dayson holds a sign as members of the public and church members enter the “Mother” Emanuel A.M.E. Church for service on June 21, four days after the mass shooting that claimed the lives of its pastor and eight others a belief that the threat of right-wing, antigovernment violence has been underestimated.”

A demographic breakdown of the 183 homegrown extremists identified in the period examined showed them to be overwhelmingly U.S.-born citizens of an average age of 34. The majority is male (88.5 percent) and White (90.7 percent).

This story is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper.

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Editor’s Note: On July 5, 1852, anti-slavery crusader Frederick Douglass spoke at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Rochester, N.Y. Excerpts appear below.

MOLLY RILEY/MCT

Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a ceremony honoring Frederick Douglass in front of a statue of Douglass inside the U.S. Capitol in Washington June 19, 2013.

What to enslaved Africans is the Fourth of July?

The Fourth of July...marks the beginning of another year of your national life...Nations number their years by thousands.

You are...still lingering in the period of childhood. Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder, and the reformer’s brow heavier.

Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interests nation’s jubilee.

Why am I here? ...(W)hy am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?

Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us, I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.

The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me.

This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.

Fellow-citizens; above your

national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.

If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!”

To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.

From the slave’s perspective Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July!

Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America!

I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

No persuasion needed But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already.

There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a Black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punish-

ment of death, while only two of the same crimes will subject a White man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being?

It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave.

Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters?

Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

Fire and thunder O! Had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream

of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy ñ a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

Defiled Christianity (T)he church of this country... takes sides with the oppressors.

It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slavehunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.

For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Welcome atheism! Welcome anything! In preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines!

These ministers make religion a cold and flinty hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs.

But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies His fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man.

All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation ñ a religion, a church, and a worship, which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God.

Inconsistency, hypocrisy Americans! Your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent.

You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties),

is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen.

You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill.

You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America.

You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a three-penny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hardearned farthing from the grasp of the Black laborers of your country.

You profess to believe “that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth,” and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own.

You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you “hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, “is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose,” a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.

I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies.

The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a byword to a mocking earth.

It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes.

Oh! Be warned! A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!

I still have hope ...(N)ot withstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country...I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope.

No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference.

The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness.

But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind.

Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth.

Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all pervading light.

CALENDAR

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JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

STOJ

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Plantation: Judah Worship Word Ministries will observe the anniversary of Dr. Willett L. Mitchell, senior pastor, on July 17 at 7:30 p.m. and July 19 at 8:15 a.m. at 4441 W. Sunrise Blvd.

More information: 954-791-2999.

Fort Lauderdale: PBS talk-show host Tavis Smiley is scheduled to speak at 10:30 a.m. July 18 at the South Florida Book Festival at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center Others at the July 17-18 event will include authors Eric Jerome Dickey and Edwidge Danticat. Festival lineup: www. broward.org/Library/Services/Pages/default.aspx.

Pompano Beach: The Blanche Ely High School class of 1965 is celebrating its 50th reunion July 25-31. More information: Call Bettye Allen Walker at 954-849-0980.

St. Petersburg: Tickets are on sale for a July 25 show with Kenny “Babyface’’ Edmonds at the Mahaffey Theatre.

Orlando: Catch reggae artists Beres Hammond and Tarrus Riley on Aug. 22 at Hard Rock Live Orlando.

Fort Lauderdale: Steel Pulse takes the Stage on July 14 at Revolution Live.

Miami: Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable World Tour stops at AmericanAirlinesArena on Sept. 20, Orlando’s Amway Center on Sept. 23 and Tampa’s Amalie Arena on Sept. 24.

D.L. HUGHLEY GEORGE LOPEZ CHARLIE MURPHY

Hollywood: Smokey Robinson takes the stage July 25 at Hard Rock Live Hollywood for an 8 p.m. show.

The actors and comedians will be part of the Black and Brown Comedy Get Down on Aug. 7 at Amway Center in Orlando.

Jacksonville: The comedian Sinbad performs Aug. 7 at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville.

St. Petersburg: Catch Jill Scott on Aug. 8 at Hard Rock Live Hollywood or Aug. 9 at the Mahaffey Theatre in St. Petersburg.

Pompano Beach: Mt. Calvary Baptist Church will celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Rev. Anthony Burrell. Fellowship begins July 8 at 7:30 p.m. and ends on July 12 at 11 a.m. The church is at 800 NW 8th Ave. Tampa: The Tampa Bay Theatre Festival will host Jazz in July at 8 p.m. on July 3 at the Crowne Plaza Tampa Westshore Hotel, 5303 W. Kennedy Blvd. More information: tampabaytheatrefestival.com.

Miami: Sam Smith performs July 20 at the AmericanAirlines Arena and July 21 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa.

Tampa: Candy Lowe hosts Tea & Conversation every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at 3911 N. 34th St., Suite B. More information: 813-394-6363.

Miami: Nicki Minaj: The Pinkprint Tour stops at Bayfront Park Amphitheatre on July 20. The 7 p.m. show will feature Tinashe, Dej Loaf and Meek Mill.

Miami Dolphins schedule evening scrimmage SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

For the first time in team history, the Miami Dolphins will host an evening scrimmage at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 7 at Ocean Bank Field at Florida International University Stadium.

Parking lots will open at 4 p.m. for a special tailgate and fan festival, and stadium gates will at 6 p.m. The “Back to Football Powered by South Florida Ford” practice is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. and will feature an intrasquad scrimmage, current player and alumni autographs followed by a fireworks show.

Tickets for the scrimmage can be purchased for $5 at dolphins.com with free parking. Seating will be limited to the first 15,000 fans that reserve tickets. As an added benefit, Dolphins season ticket members will be able to purchase tickets in special reserved sections via their online account manager.

13 practices Overall, the Dolphins will host 13 “Back to Football Powered by South Florida Ford” public practices at the Doctors Hospital Training Facility at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Players are sched-

PATRICK FARRELL/MIAMI HERALD/TNS

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, left, is shown with the Fins’ new defensive player Ndamukong Suh at a news conference on March 11 in Davie. uled to take the field for the first training camp practice of the year at 8 a.m., Thursday, July 30.

During training camp, practice will begin inside the practice bubble, which will not be visible to the fans attending. However, the team will begin drills on the two outside fields approximately 30 minutes after the announced scheduled start time. Fans planning to attend any open training camp practices can reserve their free tickets and 2015 training camp information at www. dolphins.com/trainingcamp.

Special practice The team will host a special training camp practice for Finatics season ticket members at 1:15 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 15 and the final scheduled open practice

will take place at 8 a.m., Monday, Aug. 17.

Seating at the team’s facility will be limited to the first 2,000 fans in the bleachers, located on the west side of the practice facility. Parking is available at the Nova Southeastern University LRITC garage, located near the intersection of University Drive and S.W. 30th Street, between Griffin Road and I-595. Access to this garage is off University Drive and S.W. 30th Street.

This is the 23rd year the Dolphins have hosted training camp at the Doctors Hospital Training Facility at Nova Southeastern University in Davie.

For the most updated information, call the Dolphins practice hotline at 954-452-7004 or visit www. dolphins.com/trainingcamp.

GREATER FRIENDSHIP MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA PASTORAL SEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT Please visit our pastor vacancy announcement at www.greaterfriendship.net (open positions), fgbci.org or www.nationalbaptist.com for qualifications and instructions on applying. To be considered for the position, interested candidates must apply. All candidate resumes must be submitted by July 31, 2015.

© 2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

STARTS FRIDAY, JULY 10

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

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JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Lillian Raven has become known as one of the top Black pinup models around. With a background and degree in TV and film as well as an extensive knowledge of music and entertainment from the ’50s and ’60s, she produces work that is reminiscent of pinup models of the past. In her spare time, she likes to rock out at metal concerts, work out at the gym and spend time with animals and volunteering.

Contact Lillian at: facebook.com/ LillianRavenPinup or Lillianraven13@ gmail.com.

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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.

lillian kam

Kareem McMichael is an actor, model and recording artist. The ambitious Macon, Ga., native has been featured in many films and stage plays, including “Macbeth’’ and “The Amen Corner.’’ He plans to continue building his brand stating, “I am a man of many skills and love every skill I do. I am thankful to everyone that has taught me and encouraged me.

I have been blessed with various talents and I want to share all that I can with the world.”

Contact Kareem at: facebook.com/karmackam or karmacent@yahoo.com.

Credit: Ama Lea

Credit: Image by Carlos

Once-gay McClurkin denounces Supreme Court ruling

Anderson, Ross were the big winners as hosts of BET Awards

BY RICARDO A. HAZELL EURWEB.COM

The 2015 BET Awards shaped up to be very best in a five-year stretch of very good BET Awards shows.

As is often the case, the very best stars in the Black pantheon of entertainment elite, as well as transracially affiliated White artists, were in attendance to a BET Awards that was expertly hosted by the comic styling of Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson of the hit ABC comedy “Black-ish.”

From the very beginning, the duo successfully and seamlessly segue between silly skits, award presentation and snappy repartee in between performances by P. Diddy, Lil’ Kim and the rest of Bad Boy, The Weeknd and Alicia Keyes, Big Sean, Chris Brown, Nikki Minaj and Meek Mills, as well as French Montana, Patti LaBelle and many more.

The legendary MC Lyte used her signature vocals to punctuate the evening’s festivities as the lead

NOMINEES AND WINNERS Best New Artist Dej Loaf Fetty Wap Rae Sremmurd Sam Smith – Winner Tinashe Best Female Hip-Hop Artist Azealia Banks Nicki Minaj – Winner Tink Iggy Azalea Trina Dej Loaf Best Male Hip-Hop Artist J. Cole Drake Common Kendrick Lamar Winner Big Sean Wale

announcer as well.

Despite the great performance turned in by Diddy, there were quite a few chuckles as he fell through an opening in the stage.

However, the saying is the show must go on, and he continued on in true showmanship fashion without a hitch.

Speech by Smokey “Empire” was definitely in the house as Jussie Smollett, Yazz and Serayah performed as well. Meanwhile, Smokey Robinson shut ‘em all down with a speech that both admonished younger performers for their narcissism, but uplifted them for their talents as well.

Sam Smith won the BET Award for Best New Artist. But Anderson accepted the award in his place wearing a hysterical toupee based upon the crooner’s actual hairstyle.

Michael B. Jordan, star of summer blockbuster hopeful “The Fantastic Four,’’ gave a rousing tribute to those who fell to

Best Female R&B/ Pop Artist Beyoncé – Winner Janelle Monáe Jhené Aiko Ciara Rihanna K. Michelle Best Male R&B/Pop Artist The Weeknd John Legend Trey Songz Usher August Alsina Chris Brown - Winner Best Group A$AP Mob Migos Rae Sremmurd – Winner Rich Gang Young Money Jodeci Best Collaboration Chris Brown – “Loyal (feat. Lil Wayne & Tyga)”

Big Sean – “I Don’t F**k with You (feat. E-40)” August Alsina – “No Love (Remix) [feat. Nicki Minaj]” Common & John Legend – “Glory” – Winner Chris Brown – “New Flame (feat. Usher & Rick Ross)” Mark Ronson – “Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars)” Best Actress Gabrielle Union Kerry Washington Taraji P. Henson – Winner Tracee Ellis Ross Viola Davis Best Actor Anthony Anderson Idris Elba Jussie Smollett Kevin Hart Terrence Howard Winner

EURWEB.COM

Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross made quite a pair at the BET Awards, which aired on June 28. police brutality, as well as acknowledgement of those who have fought White supremacy from Ferguson, North Charleston, Los Angeles, New York and all places in between. This is significant seeing as though the absence of such overtures on other shows drew the ire of the Black digital illuminate.

Icon Award for Jackson Homage to Janet Jackson performed by Tinashe, Jason Derulo, Ciara and was capped by an appearance by Ms. Jackson herself to accept the Ultimate Icon Award.

As usual, there were naturalBest Movie “Annie” “Beyond the Lights” “Selma” – Winner “Think Like a Man Too” “Top Five” Best Gospel Artist Deitrick Haddon Erica Campbell Fred Hammond Lecrae – Winner Mali Music Michelle Williams Video of the Year Beyoncé – “7/11″ Winner Chris Brown – “New Flame (feat. Usher & Rick Ross)” Chris Brown – “Loyal (feat. Lil Wayne & Tyga)” Big Sean – “I Don’t F**k with You (feat. E-40)” Nicki Minaj – “Anaconda” Common & John Legend – “Glory”

ly many different individuals in the media and in the blogosphere as well who felt the BET Awards haven’t changed one bit. However, I can recall a time of industry tensions among artists, rampant beef on wax and behind the scenes, horrid performances and an all around adversarial atmosphere between new and old artists.

This award show was filled with love, stellar performances and tributes to the greats. But whether one enjoyed it or not, it’s still about entertainment. Were you not amused? All and all, we ain’t mad at the 2015 BET Awards.

Video Director of the Year Benny Boom Beyoncé, Ed Burke & Todd Tourso – Winner Chris Robinson Fatima Robinson Hype Williams Sportswoman of the Year Brittney Griner Candace Parker Serena Williams – Winner Skylar Diggins Venus Williams Sportsman of the Year Chris Paul Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Lebron James Marshawn Lynch Stephen Curry Winner Coca-Cola Viewers’ Choice Award Beyoncé – “7/11″ Dej Loaf – “Try Me”

Kendrick Lamar – “i” Nicki Minaj – “Only feat. Drake, Lil Wayne & Chris Brown)” Winner Rae Sremmurd – “Throw Sum Mo (feat.

Nicki Minaj & Young Thug)” The Weeknd – “Earned It” Centric Award Avery Sunshine – “Call My Name” Jazmine Sullivan – “Dumb (feat. Meek Mill)” Mark Ronson – “Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars)” Sam Smith – “Stay with Me (feat. Mary J. Blige)” The Weeknd – “Earned It’’ – Winner Check local listing for the next airing of the BET Awards.

It should come as no surprise that Donnie McClurkin is not to thrilled with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).

The gospel singer and minister took to Facebook shortly after the high court’s landmark decision on June 26, legalizing same-sex marriage across the united States.

McClurkin, who claims to have been converted from his once gay life is not down with the new ruling.

“GOD has set the only standard for marriage to be between man and woman…in biology, in physiology, in history, biblically & scripturally and that .. I will NEVER speak against!” – read his Facebook post.

He went on to quote scripture from Romans 3:3,4, which reads: “What then? If some did not believe, does their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God? Absolutely not! Let God be true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: ‘so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.’”

Finally, he added: “We are at the end and the church has to arise now and STAND in evangelism with the TRUE GOSPEL or BOW it’s knee to this new society and counterfeit gospel. Which will it be?”

Donnie McClurkin

BOOKS

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JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

STOJ

Book aims to debunk myth of absent Black fathers gang member turned tow truck driver and gang interventionist, pulled in Leap and an initial group of fathers with whom he had already been speaking.

“It was kind of like a dream come true,” said Cummings about the group’s formation.

BY TRE-VELL ANDERSON LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Jorja Leap is no ordinary professor. She’s got what many would call “street cred.”

Sitting in her office at UCLA, where she teaches at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, she points to two photos hanging above her desk. The first is of her with Father Greg Boyle, founder of Los Angeles’ Homeboy Industries, an organization that works to steer people from gang life.

She’s done extensive work with Father Boyle and the men and women he helps mentor.

The second, in black and white, is of Black and Latino men and their children. These are members of Project Fatherhood, former gang members and ex-cons with whom Leap has worked for the past five years at the Jordan Downs apartments in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood.

They are the subject of her new book, “Project Fatherhood: A Story of Courage and Healing in One of America’s Toughest Communities” (Beacon Press; 256 pages, $24.95). All proceeds benefit Project Fatherhood Jordan Downs.

“I knew the minute they started talking, I had to bear witness, and it became important to me that their stories were out there,” said Leap. “We don’t have books about poor Black fathers. We have books about men of color who have raised themselves up, but we also need to know of this experience.”

Questioned riots

BEACON PRESS/TNS

Jorja Leap’s “Project Fatherhood” is a culmination of four years of conversations and weekly meetings with the fathers of Jordan Downs that reflect the authentic experiences of these men as they navigate parenthood.

‘Ferguson Report’ a reminder that the struggle continues

‘Dream come true’ Project Fatherhood was started by the late Dr. Hershel Swinger, a clinical psychologist and former senior vice president of Los Angeles’ Children’s Institute. The program provides therapy, support and training for low-income urban fathers.

In 2006 under Swinger’s

leadership, Project Fatherhood received a $7.5-million federal grant to replicate itself in smaller iterations throughout Los Angeles County. Some of those groups have come to focus their attention on fathers in jail and gay dads.

The one at Jordan Downs began in 2010 when Michael Cummings, a former

REVIEW

BY DAVID L. ULIN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

The timing couldn’t be more appropriate: Barely five days after Dylann Storm Roof allegedly killed nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Justice Department’s “The Ferguson Report” (New Press; 174 pages, $20 paper), first made public in March, came out in book form.

What do these events have in common? Nothing, and everything. One is an act of domestic terror, the other an account of what appears to be a long-standing pattern of discrimination by the Ferguson, Mo., police department.

But what they really trace is a kind of through line, in which we are reminded, again, how deeply disrupted our supposedly “post-racial” society is over the question of race.

“One of the hallmarks of American racism has been the devaluation of black lives,” writes Theodore M. Shaw, former director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in his introduction to “The Ferguson Report.” “… Ferguson puts the lie to twentyfirst century America’s claim of post-racialism.”

That’s not new information. Ferguson, after all — like Charleston — is part of a continuum. “Black lives matter,” Shaw observes. “Yet even after Ferguson, unarmed Black men continue to die at the hands of police.”

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray: This is just a sampling from the last 12 months.

Damning indictment Still, “The Ferguson Report” is especially damning, for it reveals an institutional culture that targets African-Americans. From the report: “Nearly 90% of documented force

used by FPD officers was used against African-Americans.

In every canine bite incident for which racial information is available, the person bitten was African -American.”

And this: “We have found substantial evidence of racial bias among police and court staff in Ferguson. For example, we discovered emails circulated by police supervisors and court staff that stereotype racial minorities as criminals, inkling one email that joked about an abortion by an African-American woman being a means of crime control.”

Abortion as a form of crime control? If a single image can encapsulate an entire story, this one does.

Part of the problem is that Ferguson’s policing has been corrupted by a civic culture that values revenue generation over public safety. According to the report, “City and police leadership pressure officers to write citations, independent of any public safety need, and rely on citation productivity to fund the City budget.”

As a consequence, “[o]fficers sometimes write six, eight, or, in at least one instance, fourteen citations for a single encounter. Indeed, officers told us that some compete to see who can issue the largest number of citations during a single stop.”

Too many arrests It is not the job of the police to serve the citizens, in other words, but to shake them down.

To be fair, this is not overtly a racial issue, but a social one. The insistence on maximizing income closely mirrors America’s corporate culture, in which growth trumps all concerns and workers are expect-

Leap jumped at the opportunity to serve as the group’s “master social worker,” as Cummings called her, because it was a chance to return to South Los Angeles, a place she calls home.

Until age 10, Leap lived in the South LA neighborhood of Westmont. Her mom and dad went to high schools in the area, and her grandparents are buried there. Her first memory of Watts, however, centers on what her uncle called the “social uprisings” of 1965.

“I remember not being frightened by the riots,” Leap said. “I remember just wanting to know why.”

Eventually, she would “learn about the kind of poverty in Watts and the economic dislocation that existed.” While pursuing her master’s in social work from UCLA, she requested a field assignment in South Los Angeles. There, she experienced a revelation as “a minority in a sea of black faces.”

“It is the moment that changed my life,” Leap said.

Gang expert A petite woman, raised Greek, she found acceptance in a community where, as she said, many who look like her are

ed to produce more and more by executives who see employees and customers alike as commodities.

In a community, though, such as Ferguson — where an African-American majority is policed by a largely White constabulary — race can’t help but be a dominating force.

“Data collected by the Ferguson Police Department from 2012 to 2014,” the report explains, “shows that AfricanAmericans account for 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests made

by FPD officers, despite comprising only 67% of Ferguson’s population.”

No charges I could go on, but it’s too depressing — or perhaps not depressing enough. By that, I mean that even in light of all this data, change is not assured.

The Justice Department, for instance — even as it issued this report — did not bring federal charges against police officer Darren Wilson, who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson. When officials such as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio have spoken out on police violence, they’ve been accused of not having their officers’ backs.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, debate is amping up again over the Confederate flag that flies at the state capital. Finally, I want to say, although this is about 150 years overdue. And yet, it seems to fit a pattern: Something happens, and we talk about it for a while, then forget until it happens again.

And happen again, it will.

If “The Ferguson Report” has anything to tell us, it is that. It is a chilling, disturbing account of police dysfunction, but even more of social dysfunction, of the lies we tell ourselves.

In Ferguson, the report reveals, officials argue “that it is a lack of ‘personal responsibility’ among African-American members of the Ferguson community that causes African-Americans to experience disproportionate harm under Ferguson’s approach to law enforcement.” These same officials, the report continues, routinely fix tickets for one another, as if the law did not apply to them.

Personal responsibility. I believe in it. As I believe that the law is a two-way street. “The Ferguson Report,” however, insists otherwise, reminding us in the clear, concise language of an affidavit, how far we have to go.

scared to drive through, let alone work.

But Watts is where she felt she belonged. “I’m basically a gangster at heart,” she said, laughing. “They know who’s one of theirs.

They know who cares and who’s there for the photo op.”

Thirty-five years later, Leap has become an internationally recognized gang expert who calls former gang members friends and family. In “Project Fatherhood,” she showcases some of their stories.

The book is a culmination of four years of conversations and weekly meetings with the fathers of Jordan Downs that reflect the authentic lived experiences of these men as they navigate parenthood.

The book, Leap said, debunks the myth of the absent Black father.

“It wasn’t the absent Black father,” she said. “It was not the conventional father, not the Bill Cosby father ... but he was a presence in his children’s lives.”

Honest conversations The men who participated and continue to participate are no different from any other parent.

“These men’s desires and intentions are to be providers, economically independent, raise their children and they want their children to go to college,” Leap said. “Who does that sound like? Every [single] person I know.”

According to Leap — who also wrote the 2012 book “Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me about Violence, Drugs, Love, and Redemption” — these men

‘Mislaid’ takes on race and sexuality

have a sophisticated, nuanced understanding of race, as demonstrated by their conversations recorded in “Project Fatherhood” of the 2013 shootings by former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner, the election of President Obama and the death of Trayvon Martin.

“With the fathers, I have had the deepest, most intellectually informative, honest conversations I’ve ever had,” she said.

Leap hopes that those who read the book will take a lesson that can also be applied to the unrest seen in response to police brutality across the nation in cities such as like Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore.

“It’s about poverty and about race,” she said. “Police brutality is the symptom.”

As co-leader of the group and a central voice in “Project Fatherhood,” Cummings agreed the experience has been transformative for participants and their families alike. It proves that “everybody can be a father no matter what your situation is or what it looks like.”

Cummings and Leap together, with help from a number of others, have also begun a Project Fatherhood group at Jordan Downs’ neighbor, Nickerson Gardens. The plan is to “reinforce what’s a strength in this community in a very real way,” Leap said.

“Watts is different,” she continued, “but Watts is worth it.”

REVIEW

BY DR. GLENN ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

As “Mislaid,’’ Nell Zink’s second novel, begins, Margaret Vaillaincourt, a first-year student at Stillwater College in rural Virginia, and a lesbian with lofty literary ambitions, marries Lee Fleming, a gay professor and poet, after an unplanned pregnancy.

They have two children, Rhys Byrd and Mireille. After 10 tense years, Peggy comes home from Safeway, her arms full of groceries, to find her husband in a net muscle T-shirt getting it on with a teenage boy. Overtaken by a mad impulse, she drives Lee’s “irreplaceable VW thing” into the lake.

When he threatens to have her committed, Peggy takes flight with her 3-year-old daughter, reluctantly leaving Byrdie behind, to be raised by his dad. To escape detection, Peggy and Mireille live in an abandoned shack and adopt an African-American identity.

In the South, which was governed for centuries by the one-drop rule, Zink reminds us, it was not difficult “to get your head around” blond, blue-eyed Black people.

Imaginative and offbeat, “Mislaid’’ satirizes conventional assumptions about family values, social class, race, sexuality, and the drug culture in the “New South” of the 1970s and ‘80s. Zink is not afraid to push the envelope.

‘Black and proud’ When “Meg Brown” registers her daughter “Karen” for the first grade, the clerk asks her to consider having her be White. “We’re black and proud,” says Meg. “I’m blond,” Karen objects. “There’s no blond race,” the clerk replies. “But it don’t matter. All God’s children attend the very same school. We like to know who’s Black so we can help them out with affirmative action and a free hot lunch.”

And the principal of the school, who voted for George Wallace for president, can’t help thinking that this “petite female with a white body and black soul” might someday “be a sort of dream come true, assuming she moved away to the city and pursued a career in show business, broadly defined.”

To increase Black enrollment in the “academic” track to two and head off allegations of tokenism, the principal sees to it that Karen skips a grade.

Tedious, sentimental Unfortunately, the novel does not

always hit its target. Zink’s narrative is, at times, tedious and overly sentimental. “I’m glad I grew up black,” Mireille/Karen confesses, “because it’s cooler, but it’s white people who run the place, obviously.”

Progress doesn’t come when Blacks “come out of the closet,” Zink reminds us, “black people have been out of the closet since time immemorial – but when they can make money selling vital necessities, not cream soda and carrot cake.”

And, surprisingly, Zink opts for a happily-ever-after ending. To be sure, the villainous Vaillaincourts want nothing to do with Peg. And, with her minority scholarship at the University of Virginia in jeopardy, Mireille must transfer to NYU.

Happy ending?

Far more important, however, Mireille and Byrdie find each other – and almost instantaneously embrace their parents. Mireille no longer thinks anyone in her family is truly unhappy. Peggy finds a woman who is literally crazy about her and starts what may well be a successful career as a writer.

Lee has inherited First Family of Virginia money, learned to respect people’s boundaries and “to speak and listen and care about the world.”

He has concluded that he must have passed something down to his daughter “in his semen after all. The divine spark.” It’s the first time in his life he has ever felt like a man.

Life has a goal, Lee emphasizes, but “harping on it is counter-productive.” You are left to wonder when, why and how he – and Peggy, Byrdie and Mireille – have become so pleasant, patient, and profound.

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He wrote this review for the Florida Courier.

TOJ

JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

FOURTH OF JULY

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Celebrate the Fourth of July with fun crafts and activities

BY LYNN ZIMMERMAN, JOY HOWARD, CHRISTINA HIBBS, SARA WELLS AND KATE JONES FAMILYFUN MAGAZINE

Join the big parade or stomp around the backyard to the beat of this recycled coffee can.

Drum: Trace a 10½-inch circle on a Tyvek sheet (we used a mailing envelope) and cut it out. Lay the circle over the open end of a 27.8-ounce coffee can. Secure it about 2 inches from the rim with rubber bands.

Pull the Tyvek taut and trim the excess. Use strips of clear tape to hold the Tyvek in place and remove the rubber bands.

Cover the edges of the Tyvek with colored duct tape, using a single strip

around the perimeter of the can. Use more duct tape to embellish the rest of the can. Measure and cut a length of ribbon for the neck strap and knot its ends. Tape the ribbon ends (just above the knots) to the side of the drum.

Mallet: Cut the neck from a 12-inch balloon.

Stuff the remaining piece with half a paper towel sheet. Squeeze a bit of white glue into the balloon and insert the tapered end of a chopstick. Secure it with a strip of duct tape and let it dry.

A steady hand leads to success in this carnival-inspired challenge, in which players try to set a bottle upright using a ring on a string.

Use red and blue washi or decorative tape to embellish two 18-inch wooden dowels (we cut a 3-foot dowel in half ), two cleaned and dried plastic bottles (we used 12-ounce soda bottles), and both rings of a 3-inch embroidery hoop (we bought ours at a craft store for $2.50). Use one color for each 3-piece set.

Tie each hoop to its matching dowel with a 28-inch length of string.

Place ½ cup rice in each of

the two ziplock bags. Add 12 drops red food coloring to one, blue to the other.

Seal each bag and shake until the rice is evenly tinted. Snip off a corner of each bag and funnel the rice into its matching bottle. Screw on the caps.

To play: Mark spaces on a flat playing surface with child-size hula hoops or use chalk to draw two 24-inch circles. Lay a bottle in the center of each. At “Go,” players use their rods to right their bottles.

If a player’s bottle rolls out of the circle, he must retrieve it and start over.

The first to stand his bottle up wins.

Tricolored spritzers offer a refreshing way to celebrate the Fourth. Make several trays of ice cubes with beverages colored red, white and blue. (We used cranberry juice, water and Powerade Mountain Berry Blast.) To serve, place the cubes in separate buckets and let guests make their own drinks with plain seltzer.

Our downloadable template and simple technique make it easy to create a few of these fireworks-like decorations.

Print our template for the center (from familyfunmag.com/printables) on card stock. Cut out the circle, then trace it twice on corrugated cardboard. Cut out both circles. Make several rings of tacky glue on one cardboard circle and attach striped paper straws, alternating red and blue, and leaving 2 inches of space in the center. Thread a 1-inch straw piece onto a long length of fishing line or string and knot the ends. Attach the straw piece with tacky glue to the center of the cardboard circle.

Add rings of glue over the straws and gently press on the other cardboard circle.

Let the glue dry. With a glue stick, attach the card stock center. Trim the straws to different lengths. Hang with the fishing line.

Set up a crafting station where you can turn plastic cups into custom caps, and creative sparks are sure to fly. Along with 18-ounce disposable cups, we put out sparkly pipe cleaners, pom-poms, card stock, glue dots, tacky glue and tape. If you like, you can print our templates for brims at familyfunmag.com/printables. To keep hats on heads, cut 18-inch lengths of elastic beading cord and knot the ends. Use duct tape to secure the ends, just below the knots, to the inside of the cups.

FOOD

B6

JULY 3 – JULY 9, 2015

STOJ

4 JULY TH OF

Casual and colorful desserts made easy

DIPPED ICE CREAM CONES Yield: 12 ice cream cones 1 bag (12 ounces) Bright veryone will be bringing some­ White thing to the 4th of July picnic, Candy Melts Candy but you can bring the grand fi­ Sugar ice cream cones nale. Each of these tasty sweet treats Jimmies 6-Mix Sprinkle captures the flair of the 4th without Assortment the fuss. In just a little time, you can add patriotic color and fun flavor Rainbow Jimmies to classics like cupcakes, ice cream Melt candy in microwave safe cones and cookies. bowl. Dip cones about 1 inch Dipped Ice Cream Cones: Add color deep around opening of cone. and crunch to your cones with a dip in Cut small hole in tip of bag and red, white or blue melted Candy Melts drizzle melted candy 1 inch candy and a variety of patriotic sprin­ deep around opening of cone. kles. The Cone Cakes baking rack holds Tap cone lightly to smooth, and the cones for drying and serving. sprinkle with jimmies. Position cone in cone rack. Let chill, Red, White and Blue Swirled Cup­ cakes: Everyone loves picnic treats they about 10–15 minutes.

Add ice cream scoops at party can grab and eat, and these July 4th cupcakes also bring pyro­technics to the and serve in cone rack.

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

E

plate. Each is topped with an explosive three-color swirl of icing, easily cre­ ated with the Color Swirl Three-Color Coupler.

S’mores Crispy Cereal Treats: These crunchy cereal bars pack the flavor of traditional s’mores while being much neater to eat. The marshmallow, cereal and candy mixture is laced with warm cinnamon graham and creamy vanilla custard flavors using Treatology Flavor concentrates.

Creamy Coconut Cookie Flag: Give the day a flag-waving finish with red, white and blue royal iced cookies that hold up to the heat using the Color Right™ Performance Color System. The tropical taste combination of toasted coconut and creamy vanilla is just right for summer.

It’s a great feeling to bring a dessert that can’t miss. The Wilton Test Kitchen devel­ oped these deliciously easy ideas to go with your summer celebration so you can enjoy the fireworks with everyone else. For more party ideas, visit www.wilton.com.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE SWIRLED CUPCAKES Yield: 12 cupcakes Favorite cupcake recipe or mix 1 4.5-pound tub White Ready-To-Use Decorator Icing Color Right Performance Color System Icing Colors Red (formula 186): 2 cups icing + 40 R White: Reserve 2 cups icing Deep Blue (formula 647): 2 cups icing + 26 B + 8 R + 4 P Bake cupcakes according to package directions in red, white and blue standard baking cups.

Tint icing following color formulas above. Prepare Color Swirl 3-Color Coupler according to package directions, filling one decorating bag each with red, white and blue icing and fitting with tip 1M. Pipe a swirl on each cooled cupcake top.

S’MORES CRISPY CEREAL TREATS Yield: 20 servings 6 tablespoons butter 1 bag (16 ounces) regular-sized marshmallows 1/4 teaspoon Warm Cinnamon Graham Treatology Flavor Concentrate 10 drops Creamy Vanilla Custard Treatology Flavor Concentrate 1/4 teaspoon salt 10 cups crisped rice cereal 1 bag (10 ounces) mini marshmallows, divided 1 1/4 cups Light Cocoa Candy Melts candy, divided Prepare 13-by-9-inch baking pan with vegetable spray.

In very large saucepan, melt butter over medium high heat until it smells nutty and browns slightly. Reduce heat to medium low; stir in regular marshmallows, warm cinnamon graham and creamy vanilla custard flavors, and salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth.

Remove from heat; stir in cereal, 3 cups mini marshmallows and 3/4 cup light cocoa candy. Press into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining mini marshmallows and press lightly to adhere.

In small microwave-safe bowl, microwave remaining 1/2 cup candy on 50 percent power in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until candy is almost melted. Stir thoroughly until smooth and drizzle over treats. Let cool completely.

CREAMY COCONUT COOKIE FLAG Yield: About 3 dozen 3-inch cookies Cookies 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1 egg 1/4 teaspoon Toasted Coconut Treatology Flavor Concentrate 8 drops Creamy Vanilla Custard Treatology Flavor Concentrate 3cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Icing 3/4 cup + 3 teaspoons water 12 cups (about 3 pounds) confectioner’s sugar, sifted 6 tablespoons Color Flow Mix Color Right Performance Color System (see colors tinted below) Icing Colors Red (formula 32): 1 1/2 cups icing + 62 R + 8 O Deep Blue (formula 647): 1/2 cup icing + 27 B + 5 P + 6 R White: Reserve 2 cups icing Note: Make and decorate cookies 1 day in advance to allow for drying time.

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and flavors. Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough.

Divide dough into 2 balls.

On floured surface with rolling pin, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 inches in diameter by 1/8 inch thick. Cut cookies with star nesting metal cookie cutter. Dip cutter in flour before each use.

Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 8–11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

Prepare Color Flow icing. Tint icing following color formulas above. Use tip 3, a parchment bag and full-strength icing to outline cookies: 32 in red, 21 in white and 16 in blue. Let cookies dry 1–2 hours.

Thin 1 cup red, 1/4 cup blue and 1 cup white icing. Use thinned icing and dis­posable decorating bag to fill in cookies. Fill in 8 of blue outlined cookies with white icing and remaining cookies with matching outline color.

Let dry 8–12 hours.

To serve, arrange cookies on tray in stars and stripes design.