Florida Courier - September 04, 2015

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REMEMBERING VOTING RIGHTS MATRIARCH AMELIA BOYNTON ROBINSON See Page B4

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SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

VOLUME 23 NO. 36

LOCKED, LOADED, READY TO PROTECT

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Seeking a pardon Sisters request help after prison release

BY NY MAGEE EURWEB.COM

Jamie and Gladys Scott – the “Scott Sisters” – were incarcerated in Mississippi for 16 years for an armed robbery that, according to court testimony, yielded $11.

They have consistently denied involvement in the crime, and although neither sister had a prior criminal record, they were each sentenced to serve double life.

Sentences suspended On Dec. 29, 2010, Gov. Haley Barbour suspended their life sentences on the condition that Gladys donate a kidney to Jamie, who suffers from kidney disease.

The sisters were released from prison on Jan. 7, 2011.

They moved to Pensacola, where they remain on parole for the rest of their lives, and where Jamie continues to receive medical treatment.

Jamie and Gladys chatted with EURweb recently about what life has been like since their release.

They also wish to encourage activists to support their continued fight for freedom by signing an online petition asking President Obama to write a letter of recommendation to the state of Mississippi requesting a pardon or full clemency.

Tough transition COURTESY OF DAMON BARRS

Damon Barrs is an NRA-certified pistol instructor. He teaches a concealed weapons permit class in the Daytona Beach area.

Black Florida gun enthusiasts tell the Florida Courier why they believe it’s necessary to stay ‘strapped.’

BY KARSCEAL TURNER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

‘NEGROES WITH GUNS’ PART 7 Editor’s note: The title of this series is taken from the 1962 book titled, “Negroes with Guns” by Robert F. Williams, a North Carolina native and Marine Corps veteran who advocated armed self-defense by African-Americans.

T

he ongoing epidemic of shootings in various venues once deemed relatively safe – among them, the massacre at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, in Charleston, S.C.; the Aurora, Colo. movie theater shootings; shootings at a recruiting center and a Navy facility in Chattanooga, Tenn. – has the attention of the entire nation.

Gun control as a whole, and Florida gun laws in particular remain a hot topic.

In Florida, the “Stand Your Ground” law has been the subject of much scrutiny. The law removes the duty to retreat before using force in self-defense. It generally allows people to “stand their ground” instead of retreating – if they reasonably believe doing so will “prevent death or great bodily harm.” Florida passed the law in 2005.

permanent resident alien, unless serving overseas in the United States Armed Forces.

Reasons an individual may be denied a concealed weapons permit include a felony conviction (unless civil and firearm rights have been restored by the convicting authority); a conviction for violation of controlled substance laws or multiple arrests for such offenses; or a record of drug or alcohol abuse.

Why carry?

The Florida Courier reached out to various gun enthusiasts in Florida to determine why they feel concealed carry licenses are necessary.

South Daytona resident Damon Barrs is a National Rifle Association (NRA) -certified instructor. Barrs has held a permit since 2012 and stressed the importance of obtaining one.

He is employed by Mason Avenue Pawn in Daytona Beach and is well-acquainted with firearms. He personally owns a Glock 19, but has plans to obtain more guns.

‘Concealed carry’ requirements “A CCP (concealed carry permit) allows you In Florida, one must be 21 years of age or to protect yourself outside of your home,” Barrs older; be able to demonstrate competency said. “I always tell people, ‘It’s better to have with a firearm; currently reside in the United See GUNS, Page A2 States; and be a U.S. citizen or deemed a lawful

“They don’t want to release us because they do feel like we’re guilty,” Jamie said. “They pardon murderers and rapists. No one was killed or hospitalized in our situation, but (they) won’t give us a pardon.”

The Scott Sisters explained that the transition from prison back into society was quite arduous and scary.

“Being locked up for so many years, you lose touch of reality,” said Jamie. “Doing simple things like going into the store to buy things freaked us out in the beginning. The prison system don’t teach you how to transition back into the world. Only thing they teach you is how to come out and be angry.”

New book The sisters penned a book, “Resurrecting Life, From Double Life Sentences,” which chronicles their early life struggles, the robbery conviction and subsequent release. They are touring with the book, hoping their story will inspire others and give hope.

However, the state of MississipSee PARDON, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Court clears way for lawsuits against banks The appeals court did not rule

BY JIM SAUNDERS on whether the banks violated THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA the Fair Housing Act – only on whether the city should be able TALLAHASSEE – A federal ap- to pursue the cases. peals court Tuesday said the city of Miami could pursue lawsuits Discrimination alleging that three major banks violated the Fair Housing Act by allegations targeting non-Whites for predaThe lawsuits alleged that the tory loans. banks used discriminatory lendA three-judge panel of the ing practices that, ultimately, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- led to home foreclosures, lowpeals overturned lower-court de- er property-tax revenues and incisions that dismissed the city’s creased costs for such things as lawsuits against Bank of Amer- police and fire services. That alica, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. legations involved types of bor-

ALSO INSIDE

rowing including subprime loans and interest-only loans.

“The city claims that the bank targeted Black and Latino customers in Miami for predatory loans that carried more risk, steeper fees, and higher costs than those offered to identically situated White customers, and created internal incentive structures that encouraged employees to provide these types of loans,’’ the appeals court said Tuesday in the Bank of America case.

But in a document filed in February, Bank of America argued that a federal district judge correctly dismissed the city’s claims.

Bank of America also said that many of the allegations against it were related to the mortgage company Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America

bought in 2008.

The appeals court rulings – a 57-page opinion in the Bank of America case that was heavily cited in shorter Citigroup and Wells Fargo opinions – focused on issues such as whether the city had legal standing to file the lawsuits and whether it had met a statute of limitations.

City has ‘standing’ The three-judge panel said Miami had done enough to allege injuries that gave it standing in the case.

The appeals court sided with the banks on one issue – the dismissal of what is known as an “unjust enrichment” claim raised by the city. But it sent the rest of the cases back to a federal district court for further litigation.

Teacher says she was fired because of Black mate NATION | A6

Rev. Al Sharpton’s rise to political insider TRAVEL | B1

Biloxi’s bouncing back too OBITUARY | B4

NBA great Darryl Dawkins dies of heart attack

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: ELIZABETH ANN THOMPSON: IS ‘LAUGHING WHILE BLACK’ ANOTHER BURDEN? | A4

FOCUS

A2

SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

To men, #Cat Lives Matter Of all of the columns that I have written over the past 30 or 40 years, the columns that get the most responses are the columns about chasing the “cat!” #Black Lives Matter. But to many men, #Cat Lives Matter just as much!

If a man sees a cat he thinks he will enjoy, he will court the cat; chase the cat; and pay for the cat.

If it is necessary, he will even eat the cat, so to speak!

Cat variety Cat attractiveness, however, is in the eye of the cat chaser. Some men like a big cat and some men like a smaller, tighter cat. Some men like a wet cat, while some men prefer a less wet or moist

PARDON from A1

pi recently denied them entry as part of their tour, and the sisters believe the decision was an attempt to silence them.

“I think writing this book has affected us going back to Mississippi,” Jamie Scott said. “We’ve been telling our story from day one. I think actually putting it in black and white, Mississippi denied our entry because they don’t want people to read it.”

‘Racial prism’ Their lawyer at the time, Chokwe Lumumba, said that the way the state handled the case had “a racial prism to it,” saying, “Two White girls would have no way gotten two life sentences.”

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

kitty toys and kitty trips, for example, the cat will be glad to see you and play with you.

But when the cat cash stop flowing, sometimes the cat will roam – just like the dogs roam that chase the cat.

cat. Some men like a smart cat; others don’t care what the educational or intelligence level the cat has.

The best cat to have is the cat that loves and wants you. Who wants a cat that will rub up against anybody at any time?

Who wants a cat that will lick you today and lick your friends and neighbors the next day?

Cats are like humans in a way.

If you are the one buying kitty treats, kitty clothes, kitty milk,

Cat-related travel

“People can see that racism is still going on,” said Gladys. “Why deny us entry into Mississippi?

That’s our home. Anybody that looks into this can see that something’s not right.”

carcerated. Every time my grandson hears a knock on the door, he’s scared it’s somebody to come take me away.

“It frightens me because I know one day they can come and knock on my door and put handcuffs on me and he’ll go back to the state, and I don’t want him to have to live like that. I want him to have a normal life. Like me and Jamie, we don’t have a normal life – and now my burden is on him. Why should a child have to live like that?”

The Scott Sisters feel the state is violating their rights by requiring that they report to a parole officer for the remainder of their lives.

“We’re seeking a good lawyer,” Gladys said. “We need somebody that’s gonna fight for us.”

You can support the Scott Sisters continued by signing an online petition at www.change.org.

Family problems The sisters both had children before they were incarcerated, with Gladys giving birth to a daughter in prison who was raised by her mother.

“They live in Florida with us,” Gladys said of their kids. “My mom did the best she could. She brought them up there, (but) when we got out, they don’t know us. We’re trying to build it, but it falls apart because it goes back to they don’t know us.

“I have custody of my oldest grandson,” Gladys continued, “and Jamie has custody of my sister’s daughter, the one that passed away while we were in-

In these days and times, the domestic cat is at a distinct disadvantage. More and more men have been getting a chance to evaluate that international cat.

Men travel to Amsterdam to chase that “Red Light District” cat. They travel to Brazil, Columbia, and Costa Rica to try that South and Central American cat.

They travel to Aruba, St. Maarten, the Dominican Republic, and

other countries to try that Caribbean cat – and so on and so forth.

That international cat comes in all colors and flavors. That international cat works hard for the money. That international cat doesn’t beg, nag or blow up emotionally. And that international cat wants you to leave after the cat nap, just as much as the cat chasers wants to leave the cat.

If you don’t know, the Colombian cat is the standard of cat excellence. If you don’t believe me, ask the Secret Service or the CIA.

Undesirable cat Not every cat gets chased.

Some cats are too mean; some cats are too sick to chase. Some cats have history and experience issues; some cats lack versatility.

And some cats have more baggage than the cat chasers want to deal with.

COURTESY OF EURWEB.COM

GUNS it and not need it than to need it and not have it.’ I believe it is well worth it,” he said.

Barrs said a CCP course is a great educational tool. He teaches a basic gun safety class.

“We spend about two hours going over the dos and don’ts, and when you can and can’t carry,” Barrs said. “In addition, we spend an hour at the gun range, teaching you how to handle the gun, and what to do if it jams and in other situations.”

Barrs charges $65 for the course, including the gun range use and the class. In addition, the class allows participants to qualify for a concealed weapons permit – barring any civil injunctions set by courts.

Family protection Charles Thomas also believes that legally carrying a concealed weapon is important. Thomas has had a CCP for nine years.

After growing up on Jacksonville’s Northside, the 34-year-old felt the need to be armed for his personal safety and that of his family.

“I just joined NRA within the last year,” Thomas said. “I was sketchy at first, knowing the NRA has more of a political nature. But ultimately, they support our Second Amendment rights, which apply to everyone, regardless of skin color,” he said.

Thomas has been a weapons enthusiast since childhood. “I’ve had a great love and respect for firearms since I was small,” he exclaimed.

Currently he has a large collection of weapons ranging from pistols to semi-automatic rifles – commonly known as “assault rifles.”

“I make sure my weapons are in good working order. I train every three or four months; I don’t have as much time as I used to,” Thomas told the Florida Courier.

Blacks ‘afraid’ “For the average responsible Black person I believe it is very beneficial to have a CCP. I believe that many Blacks are afraid of guns. The reason is they have never been properly trained on how a firearm works. Once they get that understanding, they are eager to own and carry a firearm,” he added.

“If enough Blacks obtained a CCP and were properly educated, then many of our neighborhoods would safer – one street at a time,” Barrs concluded.

Barrs is also an NRA supporter.

“There are a lot of benefits of NRA membership,” he said.

“They not only advocate for Second Amendment rights, but also provide insurance for one’s weapons along with other perks.

I’ve been a member for two years and strongly advise becoming a member,” he continued.

‘Polite society’

Society ‘brainwashed’ Byron Brown believes mainstream society has been coerced into thinking Blacks are savages, even though the vast majority of recent shooting atrocities were committed by non-Blacks.

He has been a Florida resident for 11 years. The 29-year-old has been a weapons enthusiast for as long as he can remember.

“I’ve been fascinated since I Byron first heard the reBrown port of a weapon.

My father was a hunter,” Brown said.

No license Although Brown does not possess a concealed carry permit and isn’t an NRA member, he currently owns three weapons –

KARSCEAL TURNER / FLORIDA COURIER

Charles Thomas poses with weapons from his personal armory. a rifle, shotgun, and a handgun.

(A CCP is not necessary to legally own a firearm in Florida.) He trains about once a month.

“I really need to get to the range more often; I don’t get out as often as I should. I mainly go for sport and target shooting, but I am armed and prepared to protect myself,” Brown said.

“A CCP is necessary for people in business to have one. It’s not necessarily needed for non-business owners or people that don’t handle cash or anything of value,” Brown opined.

“It’s important that Black people undergo weapons training to have a knowledge and understanding of what one is dealing with regarding firearms such as how to handle and load them, etc.”

Black ‘savages’ “Africans are viewed as savages, so other ethnic groups already try their best to stay away from us. I only feel afraid when I encounter a mass of Caucasians or Caucasians in a position of power,” Brown declared.

He gave his thoughts on the recent shootings in public venues.

“Nowhere is safe. We are human beings capable of horrible things at any point in time. Our reasoning is the only thing that separates us from animals. One ethnic group is continuously showing us who the real savages are.

“There is a fear of Negroes with guns because the Caucasians know exactly what a mass of Africans can do with knowledge and power (firearms),” he continued.

Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. You can also “Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook.

The Scott sisters’ transitions from double life sentences in Mississippi to living in Florida with family members have been difficult.

“We will revolt and take the power right out of their possession.

“The war between the African and the Caucasian never ended,” Brown concluded.

from A1

If all you are bringing to the cat bed is a cat, that is not enough.

You ought to at least purr correctly or have a good conversation. You ought to at least have an energetic cat rather than a feline that just lies around expecting the chaser to create all of the magic.

And, most importantly, you ought to have a cat that can excite the anaconda and keep the snake at attention, so to speak! #Cat Lives Matter! When there is not a good cat in a relationship, the relationship is not a good relationship!

In explaining the need for persons to possess a concealed weapons permit, Thomas cited a quote from novelist Robert A. Heinlein: “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

“I think when criminals know that law-abiding citizens have no protection, it’s a very bad situation for the law-abiding citizen. Criminals prey on vulnerable people. A CCP changes the tide and gives people the ability to defend themselves,” Thomas believes.

‘Different beast’ “For Blacks, carrying a concealed weapon is a necessity because we face a different beast.

People should invoke their Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“Although it was not written with me in mind as a Black man, it still applies to me in this day and age. We have the right and should exercise that right,” Thomas said.

“There is all-out warfare against the Black community and we must have the ability to defend ourselves. This doesn’t mean anyone should become a vigilante. But law-abiding citizens, including people of color, should have the ability to defend themselves at all costs.

“We must be mindful when becoming the aggressor after some-

one has invaded our home, that everyone has the right to defend themselves at all costs,” he added.

Doesn’t feel safe Thomas said as a Black man he does not feel safe in America.

“I am heartbroken about what has happened in our country today. I am close to the Trayvon Martin family. Seeing our community being taken advantage of…I do not feel safe for my children or the children in my community. We are not being protected properly and are not protecting ourselves. I don’t feel safe, but I am optimistic that the country can do better.”

Thomas said there is a fear of “Negroes with guns.”

“America hates the idea that the same laws written to arm the mainstream now works both ways for Black people. Law-abiding citizens don’t come in a certain color. If a law-abiding citizen has a gun, that isn’t a problem. If a criminal has a gun, it becomes a problem. America needs to clean its glasses,” he added.

Friend killed Thomas knows from personal experience that carrying a concealed weapon has its own risks.

“My concern in having my permit is that I lost a friend who had a concealed carry permit. One night in Tampa, someone tried to rob him. He reached for his weapon, but instead was shot and killed by the robber. From that point, I didn’t carry my weapon for a long time. I questioned whether the incident would have occurred without the weapons being introduced.

“We must be mindful that we must be safe with guns. And when dealing with criminals, it is always in our best interest to adhere to what’s going on at that moment and try to make it home safely.

“Guns are not always the answer. Sometimes we need to slow down and think and not rush to that option before attending to our own safety. Safety is always number one. One isn’t invincible just because one has a gun.”

“I would never want to pull my gun and kill someone. I prefer to live and let live,” Thomas concluded.

Damon Barrs will teach a new CCW class this month. To sign up, contact him at 386-682-0478.

Karsceal Turner is an awardwinning independent journalist regularly covering Central Florida human-interest features and sports.

SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

FLORIDA

A3

Edward Waters researchers working to crack genetic transmission code Dr. Anita Mandal and husband Dr. Prabir Mandal are biology professors at Edward Waters College.

Two Edward Waters College (EWC) professors are working to decipher a protein code that could be used to manipulate and possibly end several widespread diseases. Biology professors Dr. Prabir K. Mandal and Dr. Anita Mandal collaborated with Dr. Mishra Sudish from Michigan State University to conduct the pilot study. Their research could lay the groundwork to end diseases such as hypertension, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

In a new paper pub-

lished by Bioprocessing & Biotechniques, the professors describe using dog cardiac cells and cloned E.coli to observe protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) and its inhibitors 1 and 2.

“Protein phosphatase is well known for its role in the transfer of viruses between bacteria. If we can decode exactly how this happens, profound health advances can be made in our lifetime,” said Dr. PrKey observations were made during the study, but further funding and re-

Hot design ideas to keep your bill cool.

search are needed to learn how to fully manage the enzymes.

“We have the expertise, but lack the facility to conduct this kind of study at EWC,” said Dr. Anita Mandal. “That is why our partnership with Michigan State University and Dr. Sudish is so crucial.”

Dr. Anita and Prabir Mandal are not only partners in science, but they are also partners in life. They have been married for 26 years.

Both have been teaching at Edward Waters College since 2008.

Former teacher says she was fired for having Black mate FROM WIRE REPORTS

A former Orange County schoolteacher is suing the school system, stating that she was discriminated against because her mate is Black.

According to WESH TV station, Audrey Dudek, a former math teacher at Edgewater High School, says she was fired in 2013 after school officials learned that her then-boyfriend Stacey Cobb is Black.

They have since married.

“This isn’t about sending a message,” Suzanne Tzuanos, an Orlando attorney whose firm is handling Dudek’s case, told the news station. “This is about getting justice for a teacher who was terminated unlawfully.”

Ridiculed for choice

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According to the lawsuit viewed by WESH, school officials were “shocked and offended” after learning that Dudek’s husband, Stacey Cobb, is Black, and that she associated with Black faculty members.

The lawsuit also alleges that some faculty didn’t like Dudek because she played “Black music” in her classroom and some students had dubbed her classroom, “Club Audrey.”

“The assistant principal complained to her to her face, talking to, and I quote, those people, referring to Black members of the faculty and staff,” Tzuanos told WESH. The lawsuit also says she was subjected to a racially charged skit that was performed by Edgewater assistant principal Anthony Serianni, principal Michelle Erickson and other White faculty members who allegedly were dressed in Afro wigs and baggy clothing, had gold teeth and wore black face, according to WESH.

Refutes budget response

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In addition, Dudek claims that her performance evaluations suffered.

The school district told the news station that the teacher’s contract was not renewed due to budget cuts.

However, Dudek’s lawyer countered: “The budget didn’t go down in that period of time.

The Florida Commission on Human Rights investigated Dudek’s claims and found there is reason to believe that Dudek was “treated differently based on her gender and race association,” according to the station.

The school district “denies all allegations of discrimination by Ms. Dudek,” noting it “will not comment any further due to pending litigation,” WESH reports.

According to the news station, Dudek is seeking “unspecified damages for pain, suffering and loss of dignity.”

A story by theroot.com was used in this report.

EDITORIAL

A4

SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

Katrina and the logic of genocide The very upscale New Yorker magazine marked the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a celebration of the benefits that supposedly accrued to the 100,000 mostly Black and poor people forced into exile from New Orleans.

“Starting Over,” by magazine staff writer Malcolm Gladwell, a biracial Canadian who made his bones promoting the hyper-aggressive “broken windows” police strategy, concludes that involuntary displacement is a good thing for people who are stuck in “bad” neighborhoods or bad cities where poverty is high and chances for upward mobility are low.

Black ‘exodus’ Since every heavily Black city in the country fits that description, the logic is that Black people should be dispersed to the four winds and prevented from forming concentrated populations.

The forced exodus of Katrina should be replicated as public policy, for the good of both the purposely displaced and society as a whole.

Gladwell deploys selected studies of neighborhood and county economic health to buttress his inherently racist argument. One study rates locales by the statistical chances that children of people in the bottom fifth of society will move up to the richest quintile. Places like Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Minneapolis – all quite White – score very well by this measure, with Seattle at the top.

New Orleans Parish is almost at the bottom, scoring 99th out of 100 counties, just ahead of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Virtually all of the bottom-scoring locales ranked by Harvard University’s Raj Chetty, on whom Gladwell relies, are heavily Black and Brown: Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York’s

Slavery justified GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Bronx borough.

The conclusion is clear: such places of low economic mobility must be broken up, and their populations scattered.

Life of exile Another study shows that prison inmates that relocated to other cities because they could not return to their no-longer-existing New Orleans neighborhoods were less likely to go back to prison. Gladwell quotes David Kirk, a sociologist trained at the University of Chicago, now teaching at Oxford.

“Those who went home had a recidivism rate of 60 percent,” said Kirk. “Those who couldn’t go home had a rate of 45 percent.

They moved away. Their lives got better.” Conclusion: in addition to hard prison time, offenders from Black inner cities should be sentenced to a life of exile, in the interest of diminished recidivism.

Gladwell’s numbers games are nothing new. Apologists for imperialism, slavery and Jim Crow have long abused statistics to prove the benign effects of their savagery.

The White regime in South Africa justified apartheid by citing statistics that showed Black South Africans lived longer and were better educated than Blacks elsewhere on the continent, i.e., they never had it so good. In reality, highly regimented Black labor had created an economically developed society in South Africa, a small portion of the benefits of which trickled down to the Black majority.

Jimmy Carter is America’s best former president I became an admirer of Jimmy Carter shortly after he took office as the nation’s 39th president. I was 12 years old at the time.

I felt differently about Carter than his predecessors. I actually felt a personal connection, like I could relate to him.

Like me, he was Baptist and like many of my relatives, he taught Sunday school. Unlike Richard Nixon, who left office in disgrace and who seemed to struggle with a host of demons, and unlike Gerald Ford, whose administration supported the apartheid South African regime’s efforts to suppress liberation movements in Angola and Mozambique, he seemed well-intentioned and decent.

Visited Africa So like millions of Africans, I was elated when in 1978 he became the first American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to make an official visit to the continent.

LEKAN OGUNTOYINBO NNPA COLUMNIST

FDR’s visit to Liberia in 1943 was just a brief stopover on his way to Tehran. He needed something. It was in the midst of World War II and he wanted to implore Liberian President Edwin Barclay to end his country’s neutrality and expel German expatriates.

But Carter was different. He seemed genuinely interested. He visited Liberia before heading to Nigeria, where he hung out for a few days. And for those few days, our eyes were glued to the television as we watched him, his wife Rosalynn, youngest daughter Amy, and their entourage of more than 400 people tour Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial (and at the time its political) capital.

Is ‘laughing while Black’ another burden to bear?

ELIZABETH ANN THOMPSON GUEST COMMENTARY

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA

A group of 11 women, 10 of them African-American, were kicked off a Napa Valley wine train in California for being too loud.

Lisa Johnson and her fellow book club members chronicled the incident on social media. It went viral.

The management of the wine train subsequently apologized,

American segregationists made similar comparisons between Africans on the continent and “their” Blacks, whose forced labor was the engine that propelled the U.S. to world power and unprecedented technological heights. A statistical case could be made that the best way for an African woman to ensure that her descendants would have at least some access to Western wealth and science, would be to offer herself to the captain of the nearest slave ship.

By Gladwell’s warped reasoning, young Black people in New Orleans with a history of encounters with the criminal justice system should be picked up and exiled straight from the street to Seattle or Salt Lake City, before their next conviction, for the greater good.

If the exiled young man was raised in a neighborhood of deep poverty, the rest of his family should probably be sent out of town, too – but not to the same city as the son, since that would tend to further concentrate the Black poverty that, according to Gladwell, makes cities go bad, and would also reinforce the son’s bad habits.

Momma and daughter get a ticket to Minneapolis. Not that Minneapolis would welcome a steady flow of new Black arrivals; neither would Salt Lake City and Seattle, nor any other mostly White destination.

Behavior, policy Black populations in the United States are concentrated because of White supremacist behavior and capitalist public policy. Black people didn’t design the ghettos, or create 67 percent Black majorities like pre-Katrina New Orleans, or today’s 82 percent Black Detroit.

White “flight” – a refusal to share urban space with Blacks –

Went to church My personal connection soared on the Sunday of his visit when he worshipped at First Baptist Church Lagos, my grandparents’ and parents’ home church, and a congregation where my late grandmother, Comfort Okekunle Oguntoyinbo, was ordained a deaconess in 1946 – becoming the first woman from our ancestral village to hold such a position.

NATE BEELER, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

and government and corporate economic and spacial engineering concentrated Black Americans in the inner cities (and, previously, the “Black bottoms”) of the United States. The Black cities were then starved of capital and jobs, saturated with drugs, and locked down by a thoroughly racialized criminal justice system – the largest and most pervasive on the planet.

The Gladwells of the world maintain that the Black poor must pay for the crimes of White supremacy and capitalism through perpetual exile, traveling from city to city in pursuit of a squat in the “best” neighborhood: “The neighborhoods that offer the best opportunities for those at the bottom are racially integrated. They have low levels of income inequality, good schools, strong families, and high levels of social capital (for instance, strong civic participation).”

Good neighborhood Sounds like a neighborhood with good jobs, where the police do not prey on the young.

Black people, like anyone else,

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

and other countries accountable on human rights issues. He has served as an election observer in dozens of countries.

Biggest battle

Fearlessly outspoken

We loved his seeming approachability and openness. We applauded his decision to place African-Americans, including Andrew Young, in high-profile positions. We saluted his efforts to help end White minority rule in Rhodesia. And we were saddened when his political career was cut short at the polls by Ronald Reagan, a man many Blacks around the world considered insensitive at best.

Over the decades, we watched delightfully as Carter reinvented himself as a statesman, laborer for Habitat for Humanity, peacemaker, champion of democracy, human rights activist and warrior in the battle against diseases such as guinea worm.

His efforts abroad earned him a well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He has been persistent in holding Nigeria, Sudan, Haiti

He has complimented authorities in countries when the elections were free and fair. He has been outspoken when they weren’t. He’s been fearlessly outspoken about Israel’s reckless disregard of the rights of Palestinians.

Jimmy Carter been a relentless peacemaker who has championed the plight of Haitians. He was probably the first ex-president to call for re-thinking the misguided Cuban embargo.

At home, he’s not been afraid to take on the most controversial issues. He’s been quick to point out that much of the malicious criticism against President Obama is motivated by racism.

It’s been an unlikely path for this farm boy from the nation’s most conservative region, this relative of slaveowners who fled to Brazil after the Civil War because slavery was still legal in that South American country, and yet refused to be defined by his culture or his heritage. Like Lyndon B. Johnson, another Southerner, Carter has earned a place in the pantheon of America’s most progressive presidents on the issue of race.

then offered a private dining car to the club and 39 of its members’ friends. (Management claimed it kicks White folks off at least once a month for being noisy.)

Academic researchers have analyzed the way White people react to people of color in so-called “White spaces” and how Blacks are “policed” by other patrons and by management in restaurants, theaters and other public places. Black and Brown children and adults are more likely to be shushed, stared at or kicked out of places where White people perceive that they do not fit.

After hearing about the recent incident, Norma Ruiz, a Latina, went public with her experience on the same Napa train. She described how she was asked by another patron to quiet down. Her group – all Latinas – moved to a different area of the train and was then warned by staff, though not booted off.

Ruiz had booked her birthday celebration on the train because when she previously rode on it, she saw a group of White women being boisterous and having fun.

As a society, we need to come to grips with the way people of

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Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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

CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

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would thrive in such surroundings, as minorities or majorities.

But such places do not remain integrated long in the U.S. They are either reconfigured by White flight, or ethnically cleansed by gentrification.

Once Whites flee, the structures of public and private support are withdrawn. White supremacist behavior in a capitalist society means that the presence of “too many” Black people will always devalue property and neighborhoods, so Blacks will always be chasing Whites in search of “good” neighborhoods that turn “bad” once too many Blacks find them.

It is far too kind to say that Gladwell and his White supremacist sociologists and statisticians blame the victim. The logic of their reasoning is genocidal: the elimination – rather than mere deconcentration – of “bad” populations.

Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Angela van Emmerik, Creative Director Chicago Jones, Eugene Leach, Louis Muhammad, Lisa Rogers-Cherry, Circulation Penny Dickerson, Staff Writer Duane Fernandez Sr., Kim Gibson, Photojournalists

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Now, the world is watching nervously as he fights the biggest battle of his life: brain cancer. Since making his diagnosis public, he has handled himself with grace, courage and dignity. He seems to be at peace with himself. He even taught Sunday school at his home church in Plains, Ga. a few days after undergoing the first in a series of radiation treatments for the disease.

Historians haven’t judged Carter’s presidency kindly. In truth, his presidency was hobbled by a weak economy, the Iranian hostage crisis, the pitiful failed attempt to rescue the hostages, and Carter’s lack of savvy in navigating the nation’s capital. I suspect the evaluation of presidential historians won’t change much in the coming decades.

But I suspect that the moniker he was tagged with decades ago – America’s best former president – won’t change, either.

In both roles, he tried to do the right thing. He just did the job so much better after he left the White House.

Lekan Oguntoyinbo is a Dallas-based independent journalist. Contact him at oguntoyinbo@gmail.com. color are judged and punished for behavior that is seen as harmless when performed by White people. This phenomenon is really about Black and Brown people having the nerve to make ourselves visible when we are still living in an era of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.” Let’s hope all the attention raises public consciousness, lifts the burden of public opprobrium, and allows Black and Brown people to cut loose and have fun.

Elizabeth Ann Thompson is a freelance writer in Oakland, Calif.

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SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

Wanted: Serious Black middle-class leadership Black folks in the United States businessmen, doctors, and lawyers are in dire need of committed, tal– must come back to the Negroes ented, visionary members of the who made them in the first place Black middle class who are ready or be purged by the Black masses.

A. PETER to assume serious leadership in BAILEY the ongoing confrontation with HAROLD CRUSE, EDUCATOR TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM proponents of White supremacy/ – The reason that the debate on racism. Those who are prepared middle-class Blacks…We’ve got to Black economy has gone on back to assume that responsibility improve the purchasing power of and forth is because the idea is should be guided by the following the total community. closely associated with nationalobservations: ism and the integrationists would CARTER G. WOODSON, HIS- rather be tarred and feathered LERONE BENNETT JR., JOURTORIAN/EDUCATOR – In the than suspected of the nationalist NALIST/HISTORIAN – The Black taint…. Building a Black economy schools of business administramiddle class can no longer avoid could be done with the aid of attrition, Negroes are trained excesits destiny. The Black middle class butes that the Negro has never desively in the psychology and ecocan no longer avoid the necessity veloped, i.e., discipline, self-deninomics of Wall Street and are, of redefining itself in terms of the al, cooperative organization and needs of Black people. It is nec- therefore, made to despise the op- knowledge of economic science. essary now for the Black middle portunities to run ice wagons, class to become the servant of the push banana carts and sell peaDR. MARTIN LUTHER KING Black community and not the me- nuts among their own people. For- JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER – diator of the White community. It eigners, who have not studied eco- Black Power is also a call for the is not necessary for all Blacks to do nomics, but have studied Negroes, pooling of Black financial resourcthe same thing. But it is necessary take up this business and grow es to achieve economic security. for all Black people to do some- rich.

While the ultimate answer to the thing. It is equally important for Negroes’ economic dilemma will ADAM CLAYTON POWELL be found in a massive federal prothe Black community to judge individuals on the basis of their con- JR., POLITICIAN – Black com- gram for all the poor along the tributions. Some men can write, munities of this country –whether line of A. Philip Randolph’s Freesome can fix cars, some can cook, it is New York’s Harlem, Chicago’s dom Budget, a kind of Marshall some can raise hell; all – the writ- South and West Sides, or Philadel- Plan for the disadvantaged, there er, the mechanic, the cook, the hell phia’s North Side – must neither is something that the Negro himraiser – are valuable because their tolerate or accept outside leader- self can do to throw off the shackskills are complementary and not ship –Black or White. Each com- les of poverty. Although the Nemunity must provide its own local gro is still at the bottom of the ecocontradictory. leadership, strengthening the re- nomic ladder, his collective annual EARL B. DICKERSON, EN- sources within its own local com- income is upwards of $30 billion.

TREPRENEUR – As more and munity. The masses should only This gives him a considerable buymore Blacks move into the middle follow those leaders who can sit ing power that can make the differclass, they owe a responsibility to at the bargaining table with the ence between profit and loss in mathe Black community. If Blacks go White power structure as equals ny businesses. Through the pooling into the White community to get and negotiate for a share of the of such resources and the developthe know-how, and then stay there, loaf of bread, not beg for some of ment of habits of thrift and techthey are only pushing further away its crumbs. We must stop sending niques of wise investment, the Nefrom the possibilities of Blacks ev- little boys whose organizations gro will be doing his share to graper becoming economically suffi- are controlled and financed by ple with his problem of economic cient. I call upon these young men White businessmen to do a man’s deprivation. If Black Power means and women to get the experience, job. Because only those who are the development of this kind of to get the foundation, and, before financially independent can be strength within the Negro commuthey are too old, to move back in- men. This is why I earlier called for nity, then it is a quest for basic, necto the Black community to help Black people to finance their own essary, legitimate power…. There Blacks achieve economic equal- organizations and institutions. In are already structured forces in the ity. The economic insufficiency so doing, the Black masses guar- Negro community that can serve in the Black community can nev- antee the independence of their as the basis for building a powerer be improved to any substantial Black leadership. This Black lead- ful united front –the Negro church, extent merely by employing a few ership – the ministers, politicians, the Negro press, the Negro fraterni-

Black business figures don’t lie Taken every five years and published in phases over two or three years, the Economic Census of Black-owned businesses has finally been released. It contains information captured in 2012 on Black businesses and those owned by others; it also contains information on revenues and employees within those businesses.

At first take, the numbers are astounding, but a closer analytical review may cause the reader to question our economic status in this country and the progress we must make in order to reach parity and claim a proportionate share of business in America.

Compare the numbers A comparison of the 2007 and 2012 Black business stats shows an increase in firms from slightly more than 1.9 million to 2.6 million. Annual revenues for Black firms went from $135.7 billion to $187.6 billion. Black firms

More statistics JAMES CLINGMAN NNPA COLUMNIST

with paid employees went from 106,566 to 110,786. The number of employees within Black firms increased from 909,552 to 1,045,120. The number of Black firms without employees (sole proprietorships) went from 1,815,298 to 2,482,382.

The comparison between 2007 and 2012 should lead the reader to ask, “How is it that with a $1.2 trillion aggregate income among Blacks, our businesses have only $187.6 billion in annual receipts?”

Another reasonable question: “Why such a dearth of Black businesses that have employees and such a preponderance of oneperson businesses?”

There are 1.9 million Asian firms in the U.S. with annual receipts of $793.5 billion. IndianAsian firms number 382,521, yet command annual receipts of $251 billion. Hispanics have 3,320,563 firms that earn more than $517 billion annually. Crunch the population numbers and see what you find.

The larger message in this latest information is not only the celebratory aspect of entrepreneurship and business start-ups among Black people, but also the fact that we do not support our businesses to the degree we should – and can, with $1.2 trillion in our pockets – and we are not growing our businesses to the point of being able to hire others.

Please let this economic information marinate in your mind for a while. It is vital to our economic growth and our collective economic empowerment. We can

EDITORIAL

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: GERMANY AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS

TOM JANSSEN, THE NETHERLANDS

ties and sororities, and Negro professional association. We must admit that these forces have never given their full resources to the cause of Negro liberation…. But the failures of the past must not be an excuse for the inaction of the present and the future. These groups must be mobilized and motivated. This form of group unity can do infinitely more to liberate the Negro than any action of individuals. We have been oppressed as a group and we must overcome that oppression as a group.

ro-American community an independent voter; we propose to support and/or organize political clubs, to run independent candidates for office, and to support any Afro-American already in office who answers to and is responsible to the Afro-American community.

Economic exploitation in the AfroAmerican community is the most vicious form practiced on any people in America: twice as much rent for rat­ infested, roach-crawling, rotting tenements; the Afro-American pays more for food, clothing, insurance rates and so forth. The Organization of Afro-American Unity will wage an unrelenting struggle against these evils in our community. There will organizers to work with the people to solve these problems, and start a housing self-improvement program.

We propose to support rent strikes and other activities designed to better the community.

These are concrete, achievable guidelines for a group of people who are serious about promoting and defending their cultural, economic and political interests in this country.

BROTHER MALCOLM X, HUMAN RIGHTS LEADER – Basically, there are two kinds of power that count in America: economic and political, with social power deriving from the two. In order for the Afro-Americans to control their destiny, they must be able to control and affect the decisions which control their destiny: economic, political, and social. This can only be done through organization. The Organization of AfroAmerican Unity will organize the Afro-American community block by block to make the community aware of its power and potenContact A. Peter Bailey at tial; we will start immediately a voter-registration drive to make apeterb@verizon.net, or 202every unregistered voter in the Af- 716-4560.

use these latest data to boost ourselves beyond mere discussions that always include terms like “Black buying power.”

Until we harness that so-called “power” and leverage it to our own benefit, it will continue to be power only for those with whom we spend it. And right now, we are not spending very much of it with Black-owned businesses.

A caveat Don’t get so hung-up on comparing Black stats to those of other groups except as a measurement of proportionality. Those groups arrived at where they are via other routes and means. They did not suffer the mistreatment that Black endured under slavery, Jim Crow, Black Codes, general market and ownership restrictions, lack of access to credit markets and business subsidies, and the list goes on. My only reason for including them is to point out the fact that they are taking care of their own by not only starting businesses, but by growing them and hiring their own people.

We must do much better than we are doing right now. We must stop relying on politics and politicians to pull us out of the ditch that many of them dug for us and threw us into. Our charge is to be much better stewards of our $1.2 trillion by cutting way back on what we buy and from whom we buy it.

Our charge is to build more businesses to scale and begin hiring hundreds of thousands of Black people, as economist Thomas Boston has called for, as well as many others. A great website to keep up with these data is Brother Akiim DeShay’s Black Demographics.com.

The numbers are out, y’all.

Don’t sleep on them; act upon them. They ain’t lying.

James E. Clingman, founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce, is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people.

Contact him via www.blackonomics.com.

A strong message for the Christian community A few weeks ago, Dr. Jamal Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore, hosted the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan from the Nation of Islam on The Word Network. A night that was filled with information, encouragement, and enlightenment drew much criticism from those within the Christian community.

One of the reasons why is because Christianity was in some sense partnering with Islam. In other words, two different faiths were coming together on The Word Network, a Christian broadcaster, to address the “hell” that’s going on in the United States, especially within the African-American community.

Dangerous people After the broadcast, many viewers of The Word Network decided to discontinue watching it because it was suggested by some that it was ‘un-Christianlike.’ Sadly and shamefully, people like this are just as dangerous as people who commit injustice.

People can disagree about faith and religion. However, when it’s apparent that this disagreement

DR. SINCLAIR GREY III GUEST COLUMNIST

won’t allow them to work together to bring about justice for all of God’s people, we have a problem.

Perhaps Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had it right when he uttered the words, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

The church has been brainwashed into having programs to make people feel good and shout, without addressing policies and issues that affect people everyday.

Many of the church leaders are so obsessed with money, fame, and popularity that speaking the truth has become unpopular. No longer are they speaking for God. Instead they are speaking about will cause more people to join their church and give offerings.

You can see this happening in many churches throughout the U.S. Preach about money and relationships and you’ll get all the “Amens.” Preach about social jus-

It’s time for people of all faiths to come together and learn how to work together. When socalled Christian television networks are more concerned about ratings than about practicing what they preach, we have a serious problem.

When people of all faiths learn to love one another and not point the finger at one another, work can be done. tice and civic responsibility and it,” “We need to bring prayer back you’ll get a lot of silence. in schools,” or “We need to bring more people to Jesus” – without doing anything else.

Saying nothing Too many people like to stay in As a minister, I will go on record and say that many pastors, their comfort zone and because preachers, and lay people have they like to stay in their comfort been conditioned to remain si- zone, inaction occurs. That’s why lent to the point of not saying when they see two individuals anything publicly about poverty, coming together like Rev. Bryant homelessness, lack of quality ed- and Minister Farrakhan striving ucation, and political issues, just to make a change and eventually to name a few. They quickly ut- unlock and undo slave thinking, ter the phrases, “Let’s pray about they become paranoid.

Slave religion Any religion that keeps you in bondage intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually has made you its slave. Any religion and/or any leader that discourages you to work for peace and unity is wrong and simply evil. Those who continue being conformed to this ideology have been “Took! Hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray!

Run amok!” as Malcolm X said.

It’s time for people of all faiths to come together and learn how to work together. When so-called Christian television networks are more concerned about ratings than about practicing what they preach, we have a serious problem. When people of all faiths learn to love one another and not point the finger at one another, work can be done.

Solving the problems of this world takes a collective effort and those who are unwilling to put aside their religious differences are part of the problem.

Dr. Sinclair Grey III is a speaker, writer, author, life coach and radio/television talk show host. Contact him at www.sinclairgrey.org,

TOJ A6

NATION

SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

From political outlier to powerful insider Rev. Al Sharpton’s appearance has changed, but his push for justice and equality the same

BY TINA SUSMAN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

NEW YORK — It was a blazing hot day, but Al Sharpton didn’t break a sweat as he waited to take the stage at a Brooklyn rally, dressed as usual in a perfectly cut suit and tie, his arms crossed and his leather-clad feet planted firmly, almost statue-like, on the ground.

The crowd was there to remember Eric Garner, an unarmed Black man who died one year earlier in a scuffle with a White police officer on Staten Island, and Sharpton was one of many speakers. But Sharpton had called this gathering, and as he stood beneath a tarp out of sight of the fidgety masses, it was clear he was in charge.

He checked his watch. He checked to make sure Garner’s widow, Esaw, was by his side. He checked his phone for messages, and he eyed the other speakers as if silently timing them.

When it was his turn to speak, Sharpton strode to the microphone, arms held up as if in victory. He scoffed at critics who he said had expected people to protest Garner’s death “for a few weeks, and then move on.”

“But we’re still here,” he bellowed in his gravelly baritone.

“We’re not going anywhere.”

Powerful insider The same could be said for Sharpton, who has morphed from political outlier to powerful insider with access to the president, the mayor and the police commissioner, and who jets around the country railing against police abuse and racial profiling.

“This is someone who has gone from velour tracksuits and gold medallions to business suits and a TV show on a major network,” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University and longtime Sharpton observer.

During Sharpton’s most controversial days, in the 1980s and early ’90s, critics slammed the Brooklyn-born Baptist minister as a troublemaker who fueled racial animosity plaguing the city.

In 1984 he led protests demanding prosecution of Bernhard Goetz, a White man who shot four Black teens he said tried to mug him on the subway. Two years later, Sharpton rallied marchers after a White mob assaulted three Black men in the Howard Beach section of Queens.

Life after Brawley Sharpton rocketed to national attention the following year when he became the most visible and vocal supporter of Tawana Brawley, a Black 15-year-old who accused six White men of sexually assaulting her, smearing feces on her body and carving racial epithets into her skin. A grand jury determined she had made up the story.

“That’s a blemish that will nev-

CAROLYN COLE/LOS ANGELES/TIMES/TNS

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Gwen Carr, second from right, Eric Garner’s mother, leave a rally that was in commemoration of the oneyear anniversary of the death of Eric Garner in Brooklyn on July 18. er go away,” Greer said of the incident’s effect on Sharpton’s image.

It made him politically hazardous to most White lawmakers, but it did not deter Sharpton from taking on more cases.

In recent years, killings of unarmed African-Americans that have ignited public outrage have provided a fresh pulpit for Sharpton: Trayvon Martin, a 17-yearold shot in Florida in 2012; Garner, 43, who died in July 2014; Michael Brown, an 18-year-old shot by a White policeman in Ferguson, Mo., three weeks after Garner died; and several more since Brown.

“He is just a genius at inserting himself into national conversations,” Greer said. “You’d be ill-advised to underestimate this man.”

Polarizing, prominent figure Sharpton, 60, couldn’t agree more.

He is as polarizing as ever, perhaps more so now in this era of leaderless movements such as Black Lives Matter, which see Sharpton’s tightly controlled National Action Network as outdated.

But Sharpton is also as prominent as ever, leading weekly rallies at the network’s Harlem headquarters, hosting a radio show whose recent guests included Hillary Rodham Clinton, delivering eulogies for Garner and Brown, and attending funerals in June for victims gunned down in a Charleston, S.C., church by a man authorities say is a White supremacist.

His MSNBC show “PoliticsNation” has been on five nights a week for four years. (The show is going to once a week on Sunday starting Oct. 4. Sharpton’s weeknight show, which aired at 6 p.m., ended Sept. 4.)

“They said I wouldn’t be on four weeks,” Sharpton cracked as he relished July ratings showing the network beating CNN in his time slot.

Sharpton was in his MSNBC office, which is a reflection of him: compact and neat.

He is rail thin, almost bird-like, thanks to a diet of wheat toast and salads and a daily workout regimen that begins shortly after he rises at 4:30 a.m.

His biggest fear Sharpton insists he has not changed that much other than his obvious physical transformation, which includes a more than 100-pound weight loss and an elegant new wardrobe. He says that society has changed and that the views he espoused in the 1980s and ’90s about racial profiling, “stop and frisk” tactics and police abuse are no longer considered radical.

But Sharpton also has widened his repertoire to emphasize mainstream issues such as health care, education, same-sex marriage and immigration.

All of them affect Blacks, and advances in those areas could be lost if a Republican wins the White House, Sharpton said after delivering his weekly sermon at the House of Justice, the network’s headquarters.

Losing the White House is his biggest fear, and his sermon had focused on the need for AfricanAmericans to prevent that by being politically active and not giving in to despair despite a national landscape still rife with inequality.

Sharpton was operating on about four hours’ sleep, having flown in that morning from leading a rally in Cleveland to demand law enforcement reform. But he spoke without notes for more than an hour, his voice booming through the cavernous room.

Concern about disconnect The sermon turned personal as Sharpton remembered his mother, who scrubbed floors, directing him to wait by the mailbox on the first and 16th of each month to ensure nobody stole their welfare checks or food stamps.

“It wasn’t my fault how I was born, but it’s going to be my fault how I leave here,” he told the mainly Black crowd of about 200, exhorting them to vote.

“Everything we have fought for is at risk,” he said in an interview after the sermon. “I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency.

If you get one more Republican Supreme Court justice, they will have locked a majority around voting rights, around immigration, around affordable housing.

We will lose a lot of what we’ve gained in the last 50 years.”

He worries about the effect on Black Americans when Obama leaves office and they no longer have the image of a Black president and his family crossing the White House lawn.

“If you think there’s a disconnect now, imagine what it’ll be like for the next president,” said Sharpton, who sees seasoned leaders such as himself as key to shaking up elected officials.

Protest changes That has put him at odds with young African-American activists who deride him as old school and self-serving. Powerful, centralized leaders are not necessary, they say, when social media can produce huge protests anywhere in minutes.

“When you look at the people coming up now, they identify as queer, there are a lot of Black women. It doesn’t look like the kind of Black leadership we had in the past,” Greer said.

This has not escaped Sharp-

ton’s movement. At the April convention, the leader of the network’s Iowa chapter, Frantz Whitfield, said the organization needed to reach out to young people.

“A lot of the older people and the adults know Rev. Sharpton, but if you ask the young people who Rev. Sharpton is, a lot of them don’t know,” Whitfield said.

A captain Indeed, most faces at the House of Justice rallies tend to be middle-aged and older. Julian Alexander Hemmings, who is 16 and lives in New York City, was an exception at a July gathering, and he joined the network that day. His parents are active in civil rights causes, and that is how Hemmings became familiar with Sharpton.

“Al Sharpton to me is the sort of agent or catalyst who can move us forward,” said Hemmings, who thinks leaderless groups lack the momentum to force change.

“We need people who can bring ideas into practice. We need action. Twenty people, 40 people, 60 people in one room bickering won’t get things done,” he said. “We need someone to be a kind of captain.”

For him, that captain is Sharpton, or Rev, as most people call him.

Sharpton insists he has no issue with his youthful critics. “If that’s your model and it works, fine,” he said, adding that his network has plenty of highranking organizers much younger than he is.

But Sharpton shows no sign of slowing down, and if he is grooming anyone to replace him, he isn’t saying.

“I’m just a working person,” he said.

LAPD officers now wearing body cameras

BY KATE MATHER LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

After nearly two years of fundraising, testing and crafting policy, Los Angeles police officers hit city streets Monday morning wearing chest-mounted body cameras.

The rollout marked a significant moment for the LAPD, pushing Los Angeles forward in becoming the largest U.S. city to use the devices on a widespread scale. The cameras distributed Monday are the first of more than 7,000 that will be purchased and deployed across the LAPD in the next several months.

Dozens of reporters huddled outside a San Fernando Valley police station in the pre-dawn hours Monday, waiting for officials to speak about the new technology. Inside, about two dozen officers watched one last demonstration about the devices before trying them on.

“This is a big moment for us,” said Capt. Todd Chamberlain, who oversees the LAPD’s Mission Division. “I think they realize that

they’re making history today.”

A first for officers Mission Division, which covers San Fernando Valley cities including Sylmar and Panorama City, was the first to get the cameras. Any uniformed officer assigned to the division will wear the devices, Chamberlain said.

It’s the first time the officers there will use cameras — although some LAPD patrol cars are equipped with cameras, that technology has not yet expanded to include Mission.

South L.A.’s Newton Division is scheduled to get its body cameras in about two weeks; specialized units including SWAT will get theirs by the end of the month. The city intends to purchase 7,000 additional cameras, the first of which are slated to be deployed by the end of the year.

No public reviews Use of body cameras by officers has drawn significant attention in recent months amid a heated national debate about policing. Ad-

vocates say the cameras will help bring clarity to controversial officer-civilian encounters, guard against officer misconduct and help clear those falsely accused of wrongdoing.

However, concerns linger over the LAPD’s planned use of the technology, particularly about who will get to see the videos from the cameras and when.

The LAPD policy — approved by a 3-1 Police Commission vote in April — allows officers to review images from the cameras before writing reports or giving statements to internal investigators. But the LAPD has said it does not plan on publicly releasing the recordings unless they are part of a criminal or civil court proceeding.

Critics, including the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said giving officers but not the public a chance to look at the images undermines the accountability that the cameras are intended to reinforce.

AL SEIB/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck addresses LAPD officers at deToledo High School in Los Angeles on July 13. The LAPD rolled out a “stand down” training for its officers aimed at deescalating situations where they might otherwise use force.

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SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA

SEPT. 4 – SEPT. 10, 2015

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

An overdue Oscar for Spike Lee See page B5

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BILOXI

COMES BACK STRONG AFTER HURRICANE Mississippi city’s casinos, resorts and other tourist attractions bustling again

BY ELEANOR HENDRICKS MCDANIEL SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

T

en years ago, A.J. Holloway, the mayor of Biloxi, Miss., referred to Hurricane Katrina as “our tsunami.”

According to MSNBC, the 28-foot storm surge that came ashore destroyed 90 percent of the structures, including bridges and streets, along the Biloxi-Gulfport coastline. Some sections of the city were leveled.

Debris rose to a height of eight feet.

Vacation cottages and historic buildings, like the home of Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, were decimated. The lower floors of casinos and high-rise hotels were swept away.

Today, Biloxi is back, and is once again one of the best places to splash in the Gulf of Mexico’s crystal clear waters. The 62-nonstop miles of shoreline have lured back thousands of visitors. But I approached my first trip to Mississippi with trepidation.

Memories of its unfortunate past crept from the recesses of my mind.

But no worries! Everyone I met was more than friendly and respectful.

They welcomed me with lots of sincere Southern hospitality.

Charm of Beau Rivage Pick your spot along the 26-mile stretch of white powdery sand.

Tranquil waves gently kiss the shore, unlike the wild Atlantic. As I ventured out up to my knees, I could see my toes digging into the sandy bottom. The water was clear and clean.

Back on land, I soaked up the sun while my friends participated in the water adventures of parasailing, kayaking and wave running.

We stayed at the fabulous Beau Rivage Resort and Casino (www.beaurivage.com), which lost its first three floors to Hurricane Katrina.

By August 2006, the resort had been restored to its former grace and charm.

As you approach the entrance under the shade of live oaks (a la “Gone with the Wind”), a floral sign with the resort’s name (no crass neon here) welcomes you. Beau Rivage is understated style and elegance inside and out.

The elegance continued in my guestroom with a canopy bed, a Grecian marble bath and a balcony overlooking the Gulf.

Favorite with Floridians The amenities include a lush tropical pool area, a nearby golf

course designed by Tom Lazio, a shopping promenade, a full-service spa and salon and more. Each weekend, big name entertainers such as Jay Leno, the Four Tops with the Temptations and LeAnn Rimes headline the theater.

For gamblers, the 85,000 squarefoot casino is considered to be the best on the Gulf coast. Casino bus trips leave frequently from Florida, heading to Beau Rivage.

Among the more than one dozen restaurants, cafes and bars, I enjoyed the chic but unpretentious BR Prime restaurant, which features a classic steakhouse menu consisting of well-aged prime beef, fresh Gulf seafood and three-pound Australian lobster tails.

Suthern history Old cities and towns boast of their heritage and culture and Biloxi is no different. Many places worth visiting are located along scenic Beach Boulevard, like Beauvoir (http:// www.beauvoir.org), the vacation home and presidential library of Jefferson Davis.

As for the history of the South, nothing could be more southern than the president of the Confederacy.

You can tour the mansion that was built between 1848 and 1852, and didn’t become Davis’ property until it was bequeathed to him in 1877 by its owner, Sarah Ellis Dorsey. He lived there until his death in 1889.

The wrap-around porch, part of the slate roof and several support beams were blown away. Water flooded the interior, damaging period furniture, pictures and decorative artifacts. The building has been meticulously restored.

Remembering Katrina Another “must-see” is the OhrO’Keefe Museum (http://georgeohr.org), an innovative collection of modern buildings devoted to the arts. Designed by the internationally acclaimed architect, Frank O. Gehry, the complex houses the avant-garde works of ceramist George E. Ohr, known as the “Mad Potter of Biloxi,” in addition to contemporary and traditional art.

The museum is commemorating the impact of Katrina on Biloxi in exhibits, book readings, luncheons, discussions led by community leaders and more.

Biloxi has reclaimed its title after Katrina as the South’s perfect vacation getaway.

Eleanor Hendricks McDaniel is an experienced travel journalist who writes for print magazines, newspapers and online magazines. She has lived in Paris, Florence (Italy) and Philadelphia.

She currently resides in Ormond Beach. Check out her blog: flybynighttraveler.com and follow her on Twitter: ellethewriter.

Top: Sam Bolden of Pensacola came into the re-opening of the Beau Rivage ready to play on Aug. 29, 2006.

JOHN FITZHUGH/

BILOXI SUN HERALD/TNS

Above: This view, taken on Aug. 31, 2005, shows that the Beau Rivage (top) suffered less damage during Katrina than other casinos, such as the nearby Hard Rock.

DAVID PURDY/ BILOXI SUN HERALD/TNS

Left: The Beau Rivage hosts many musical acts.

MARY ELLEN BOTTER/ DALLAS MORNING NEWS/TNS

Below left: The Biloxi Lighthouse is the city’s most famous landmark.

There are plenty of water activities for families to enjoy.

HURRICANE KATRINA

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SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

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Storm altered landscape, lives in Mississippi in seeing each new house or business filling gaps along the beach highway.

Familiar landmarks have returned with new looks.

There’s the trademark Pepto-Bismol pink Sharkheads in Biloxi, a block long with its gaping shark’s mouth at the entrance.

More recently, Fun Time USA, a Gulfport theme park, announced plans to rebuild. Biloxi has a new minor league baseball stadium, subsidized with cleanup funds from the BP oil spill in 2010.

BY ANITA LEE SUN HERALD/TNS

BILOXI, Miss. — The desperate voices on the phone told emergency dispatchers Hurricane Katrina was much worse than anyone imagined — “We’re drowning!” — but until Desiree Hernandez stepped from the windowless bunker at a Biloxi, Miss., fire station into the air outside, she had no idea.

“I looked down to Highway 90 and there was nothing there,” she said. “And it was just so surreal. When you knew all the businesses — and you knew, ‘OK, that was Ruby Tuesday’s, that was the Shell station, that was that.’

“Where’s all the hotels?

Where did all that stuff inside of all those buildings go? … Where are the signs? … Where did it go?”

Kelvin Schulz and three of his children were among the desperate that day. But he was in Bay St. Louis, not Biloxi. Katrina’s hurricane-force winds extended 115 miles from the center when it made landfall Aug. 29, 2005, on the Mississippi-Louisiana line.

The Schulzes were on the second floor of a twostory brick building that 36 years earlier had survived what everyone considered the worst hurricane imaginable, Camille.

‘Too old for this’ Hurricane Katrina, they and thousands of others discovered, was even worse. The family swam out of the building as it fell apart, but Schulz’s mother-in-law, Jane Mollere, refused to budge. Water lapping at her calves, the 80-year-old looked at him and simply said, “Kelvin, I’m too old for this.”

A survivor of Camille, the frail woman knew what

Took people in

SUZY MAST/BILOXI SUN HERALD/HEAD

A sign saying “I Survived Katrina” stands outside of a home in Waveland, Miss., that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Ten years after the storm, South Mississippi is still in the process of rebuilding. lay ahead. She was one of 167 South Mississippians who lost their lives to Katrina.

Ten years out, the empty lots stretching from Waveland to Pascagoula, including the one where Mollere perished, attest to Katrina’s strength. She was a hurricane like no other, but should not serve as a barometer of the next storm.

And there always will be a next hurricane.

‘We got flattened’ The Gulf Coast has prepared by building a stronger backbone: hardened harbors and public buildings, homes constructed or remodeled to stronger codes, and emergency re-

sponse communications designed to work through disaster.

“We got flattened,” Haley Barbour, the governor who presided over Katrina recovery, told the Sun Herald. “We actually bore the brunt of the worst natural disaster in American history and after awhile, the American people realized that. And they watched Mississippians, the courage and character of these strong, resilient, self-reliant people. And there’s no doubt in my mind that, when all was said and done in the wake of Katrina, the way our Mississippians responded did more to improve the image of our state than anything that’s

happened in my lifetime.”

The night before Katrina hit, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove and emergency responders were on Henderson Point, monitoring the water level, which was already rising.

“When I got out of the truck,” Hargrove said, “I took a flashlight and shined it on the ground.

And I knew we were going to be in trouble at that point because there were insects moving to the north, towards high ground. And I’ve always been taught by my parents and my grandparents — old folklore — that if the animals and birds and insects start moving and flying away, something bad’s

fixing to happen, because they have a second sense about them. “ … That just reinforced the information we were getting about how bad this was going to be.”

Area rebounding The population has shifted north, according to the U.S. Census. In Harrison County, the population has finally surpassed pre-Katrina levels, but four cities along its coastline have fewer residents than they did before the storm.

Hancock County’s population is still below pre-Katrina levels, while Jackson County’s population has rebounded.

Coast residents delight

Residents whose homes were lost or damaged are finally feeling like they have resettled to a new normal.

Michael Kovacevich, who lives on East Biloxi’s peninsula, rebuilt his mother’s house next door and his own home.

When the storm started, he had nine people in his house. By the time it ended, there were closer to 30.

“People say, ‘You’re a hero,’” he said. “No. You’re sitting on a porch and you’re looking at little kids across the street going underwater, you go get them, you know? That’s the thing to do. The water’s not over your head yet, you can go get them early.

Kovacevich’s neighborhood is mostly vacant lots, but he’s happy to be there nonetheless. The storm has changed his outlook.

“It was rough and it changed a lot of lives,” he said. “A lot of difference in the way you live, too. Before the storm, I had a lot of antiques and I would go to auctions.

“That don’t mean nothing anymore, all that. You can forget all those antiques and all the fancy stuff and just live comfortable. Enjoy life.”

Many Latinos who went to Gulf Coast for Katrina work stayed and thrived

BY KAREN NELSON BILOXI SUN HERALD/TNS

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Many hardworking Hispanics with skills in construction and roofing poured into the Gulf Coast for jobs after Katrina, joining other Hispanic nationalities.

They would sleep in parking lots, in tents and on the bare ground because there were no rooms to rent. They helped tremendously in rebuilding the Coast.

Their nail guns pounded from sun up to sun down, seven days a week in the early months.

Without the Hispanic labor force, crawling out from under the debris would have taken considerably longer. These workers, many of the immigrants, were willing to endure conditions that many American workers might not have accepted.

From Florida, Cuba They came from large cities around the U.S. and from Texas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and their home countries. They hailed from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and South and Central America.

There are 21-plus Latin American countries or regions and today, each one of those is represented on the Gulf Coast, according to organizations that work with the community.

Many workers moved on. Early estimates from the Hispanic community were that South Mississippi’s Hispanic population tripled to 60,000 (a third of them living in the United States without documentation) and then settled closer to 30,000 in the years after the storm. Census figures list the numbers considerably lower, but there is much doubt that the Census can accurately estimate the somewhat elusive population.

Those who stayed have taken root and the population is growing, no matter how you count it.

Started businesses When the construction jobs dried up, some opened businesses — landscaping, real estate, auto sales, churches and especially restaurants and groceries, so they could have authentic, native food.

Those who sent for their families have changed the face of the Coast forever.

Census data showed that between 2010 and 2013 in Harrison County, Miss., the Hispanic population increased by nearly 8 percent. In Hancock County, it was up 13.5 percent and the boost was largest in Jackson County with a 15.5 percent jump.

In the Pascagoula-Gautier School District, the population of English learners

COURTESY OF PASCAGOULA SCHOOL DISTRICT/TNS

Students at Gautier High School celebrate their Latin heritage through dance during a presentation at the school in October 2014. more than doubled from 196 in 2005 to 463 in 2007.

In the following years, the district has seen a steady climb in enrollment that reached 708 this past school year, said Frank Catchings, director of federal programs for the district. While not all of these students are Hispanic, more than 90 percent of them are.

Church attendance swells The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, the Gulf Coast Latin American Association and El Pueblo stepped up to address the needs of the community, connecting new immigrants with local resources.

The Diocese of Biloxi has Catholic churches that now offer Mass in Spanish at nine services from Pascagoula to Wiggins. This year, the diocese has ordained two new priests from Mexico, bringing the number of Hispanic priests to five.

“They are very much better at taking care of the (Hispanic) community than I was,” said the Rev. Paddy Mockler, pointing out jovially that he speaks Spanish with an Irish accent.

Said city spokesman Anne Pitre, “They’re purchasing land and starting businesses. It has lead to some real revitalization in east Pascagoula.”

The city that has started a new festival, Festivo Hispano, at River Park on Sept. 22, is looking to be more inclusive in its practices. Employees who interact with the public are taking Spanish classes.

“For my personal growth, I’m learning to write Spanish,” Pitre said, “so I can translate brochures and public notices.

“The Hispanic population in Pascagoula has grown from 5 percent to 11 percent in the last few years,” she said. “That’s huge, huge growth.”

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CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

STOJ

SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

SAFETY

Ready for recovery

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Tools to prepare for emergency response FROM FAMILY FEATURES

O

rganizations often send out an all-staff email if bad weather is predicted, but would you know what to do in a serious emergency if you or family members were at school, a house of wor­ship or work? Where would you take cover? What is the safest route to get there? And what is the plan should you be forced to shelter in place, separated from family during a time of duress?

All organizations, not only businesses, need to think about these issues, and they also must consider how to carry on some level of business operations if a weather event disrupts power, water, office operations or other services.

“Emergencies can hit without warning, and the after-math can affect small businesses and schools the most,” said Dominick Tolli, vice president of prepar­edness and health and safety services for the American Red Cross.

The good news is that pre-planning tools exist to enable businesses and organizations to measure how ready they are to deal with emergencies. The self-paced Red Cross Ready Rating program (www. readyrating.org), for example, begins with a self-assessment that meas­ures an organ­ization’s ability to handle a dis­aster and gives instant customized feedback on how to improve.

The first assessment provides a score on how prepared an organization is and pro­vides steps and resources needed to improve disaster and emergency preparedness. The assess­­ment covers items from hazard vulnerability to conti­nuity of operations and employee readiness.

More than 12,000 Ready Rating Members have joined the program to improve their preparedness level.

The program, which the Red Cross offers at no cost thanks to sponsor participation, encourages members to recognize five essential components of prepared- ness. Though geared toward businesses, schools and other organizations, the guidance applies to individ- uals as well:

1. Commit to preparing.

JIM MACMILLAN/PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS/TNS

A Red Cross volunteer carries a child through the Astrodome in Houston on Sept. 8, 2005. The child was a Hurricane Katrina evacuee.

Increasing your ability to be ready when an emer- gency strikes involves several steps. Among the most impor­tant are: making preparedness a priority, engaging senior leadership and appointing someone to assess your readiness level.

EMERGENCY HELP IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND

2. Understand threats to your place of work.

For instant access to expert guidance, the official Red Cross First Aid app gives advice on how to handle the most common first aid emergen­ cies. Also try the Red Cross Emergency app, with more than 35 realtime weather and emergency alerts and safety info­rmation. The apps are free and available in app stores for smart­ phones and tablets. Search for American Red Cross or text “Apps” to 90999.

Gather information about possible emergencies that could impact you or your business, and understand your ability to respond to and recover from a disaster or other emer­gency. This means knowing the types of disasters you are most likely to encounter in your location and workplace environment and having plans to address them.

3. Ensure you have the right equipment and your facility is ready.

An emergency response plan describes, in writing, the steps you will take to protect your business, employees and cus­tomers before, during and after an emergency. You’ll need to make sure that you have supplies, equip-ment and other resources on hand to support your emergency plan.

4. Practice your plan.

The key to implementing your plan is to make prepar­ed-ness a way of life. By con­ducting drills (at home or at work), you can test your plans and make sure everyone knows what to do, and where to find and safely use equipment and emer­gency sup­plies. An emphasis on preparedness ensures you are better equipped to respond to and recover from an emergency.

5. Help your community get prepared Preparedness cannot be done in a vacuum.

“In order to be a truly resilient community, all its parts (households, businesses, schools, non-profits and the government) rely on each other in many ways,” Tolli said. “If everyone is prepared, that positively influ­ences how well the community bounces back from a disaster situation.”

Hosting blood drives, contributing supplies or services to emergency response efforts, and adopting a local school or school district in support of its disaster and emer-gency preparedness programs are all examples of how you can help.

TRAINING TO SAVE A LIFE Accidents or emergencies can happen any­where: at home, in someone’s community, at the local school. Having someone nearby who is properly trained substantially increases the likelihood a victim will survive a medical emergency.

However, simply knowing how to admin­ister life-saving support isn’t enough, said David Markenson, M.D. of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council and chief medical officer at Sky Ridge Medical Center.

He points to a recent study by the Institute of Medicine that suggests the rate of death from cardiac arrest could be signif­icantly reduced if more people stepped forward to help.

“There seems to be a great fear of doing greater harm, or not doing

enough,” Markenson said. “The reality is that in the majority of cases, doing something is better than doing nothing at all, and most people will feel more comfortable taking that step when they’ve been trained in the basics.”

Not only is it important to know how to perform life-saving techniques, it’s also necessary to understand when to use them.

Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops beating. A person experiencing cardiac arrest is unresponsive and not breathing or gasping. Death is imminent. Administering CPR and an Automated External Defibril­lator (AED) within a few minutes may help reverse the effects.

Heart attacks happen when the heart stops receiving blood flow; they can cause cardiac arrest. Symptoms may be imme-diate and severe

or escalate slowly. Pain, shortness of breath and nausea are all symptoms.

Unless cardiac arrest occurs, immediate emergency care is the best response for someone who may be suffer-ing a heart attack.

Hands-only CPR is a technique involv­ing no mouth-to-mouth contact that is a perfectly acceptable option if you see a stranger collapse in public.

Infant/child CPR incorporates special techniques to accommodate the physiological differences between a child and an older victim, such as more flexible bones and a narrower airway.

The American Red Cross offers a variety of courses in first aid, CPR and the use of AEDs, which can give you the skills to act if an emergency occurs. To learn more, visit www.redcross.org/TakeAClass.

CALENDAR

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SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Jenkins-Wisner, known as “Queen of the Keys,’’ gives what’s being called a farewell performance Sept.

10-13 at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

The concert will feature Jade Simmons.

TYRESE

Singer Tyrese Gibson will headline the first 95.7 Beats By The Bay music festival on Oct. 24 at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg. The lineup includes Anthony Hamilton, Blackstreet, 112, Whodini and Rob Base.

Tampa: Journalist and filmmaker Paula Madison will speak at the USF School of Music Concert Hall at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10, which will include the showing of her documentary “Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China.’’ Purchase tickets at Eventbrite.com, Finding Samuel Lowe Tampa.

Orlando: The Opal Network Alliance’s South Florida Women’s Summit is Oct. 28-29 at the at the Bonaventure Resort & Spa in Weston.

More information: www. onatoday.com.

St. Petersburg: Tickets are on sale for a Nov. 13 show featuring the legendary Chaka Khan at the Mahaffey Theater.

St. Petersburg: Swiyyah Woodard will have a book release event for her second book, “Don’t Call Ne Crazy!

Again! Woodard also will talk about her journey with schizophrenia. The event is at Readers Choice Books and Gifts, 4341 34th St. S. More information: www.swiyyah. com.

Miami: Catch actor and comedian Martin Lawrence on Sept. 11 at the American Airlines Arena’s Waterfront Theatre and Sept. 12 at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa.

KIM COLES & WRECKX N EFFECT The Allstate Tom Joyner Family Reunion returns to Orlando Labor Day Weekend. The talent lineup includes Frankie Beverly and Maze, Wreckx n Effect, Johnny Gill, along with Kim Coles and others from the cast of “Living Single.’’

More information: www. blackamericaweb.com.

Fort Lauderdale: Paulette Brown, the first Black woman president of the American Bar Association, will speak on Sept. 19 at the Fifth Annual Women of Color Empowerment Conference.

It will be held at the Bahia Mar Resort & Spa, 801 Seabreeze Blvd. More info: www.SouthFloridaWomenofColor.com.

Miami: Shaquille O’Neal will host Barry University’s 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. Soho Studios, 2136 N.W. First Ave. Wyclef Jean will perform.

Tickets: Call 305-899-1156.

Sponsorships: partnerships@ barry.edu.

STOJ

Jacksonville: The Festival of Praise Tour featuring Kim Burrell, Fred Hammond, Israel Houghton, Donny McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker will make a stop at the Veterans Memorial Arena on Oct. 11. Other stops are in Fort Myers, Lakeland,

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.

Jacksonville and Pompano Beach. More details: www. festivalofpraisetour.com.

Sarasota: The West Coast Black Theatre Troupe will present “The Color Purple’’ Oct. 14-Nov. 21. More information http://westcoastblacktheatre.org.

NBA, hoops fans mourn passing of Darryl Dawkins

BY BARBARA BARKER NEWSDAY/TNS

Darryl Dawkins, whose flamboyant personality and backboardshattering dunks earned him the nickname “Chocolate Thunder” and forced the NBA to introduce breakaway rims, died Aug. 27 at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania. He was 58.

His family released a statement saying that the cause of death was a heart attack.

“It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved husband and father, Darryl Dawkins, who succumbed today to a heart attack,” his family said in a statement on Aug. 27. “Darryl touched the hearts and spirits of so many with his big smile and personality, ferocious dunks, but more than anything, his huge, loving heart.”

‘Chocolate Thunder’ Dawkins played 14 seasons in the NBA, including seven with the Philadelphia 76ers and five with the New Jersey Nets.

The 6-foot-11 Dawkins became the first player to be drafted directly out of high school in the first round when the Sixers took him with the fifth overall pick in 1975. Dawkins averaged 12 points, 6.1 assists and 1.4 blocks per game over the course of his career, but his statistics were overshadowed by a larger-than-life persona that made him a much-needed fan favorite in an era when the league was struggling with it’s popularity.

Nicknamed “Chocolate Thunder’’ by Stevie Wonder, Dawkins was a showman who named many of his favorite dunks. Those names included “Dunk You Very Much,” “Yo Mamma,” and “Spine Chiller Supreme.”

Shattered backboards He may be most remembered for shattering two backboards with dunks during a three-week span in 1979. The moves led to the NBA passing a rule that made shattering a backboard an offense that could be punishable by fine and suspension. It also led to the league’s 1981 adoption of breakaway rims.

“The NBA family is heartbroken by the sudden and tragic passing of Darryl Dawkins,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “We will always remember Darryl for his incredible talent, his infectious enthusiasm and his boundless generosity. He played the game with passion, integrity and joy, never forgetting how great an influence he had on his legions of fans, young and old.”

Dawkins went to the NBA Finals three times with the 76ers, losing to the Portland Trail Blazers once Darryl and Lakers twice.

Dawkins “We’ve lost a dear friend and an iconic figure, both on and off the court,” 76ers CEO Scott O’Neil said in a statement on behalf of the organization. “We remember fondly not only his thunderous dunks, but more important his powerful presence and personality. Simply put, Darryl Dawkins was beloved-by his family, friends, former teammates and his fans all over the globe. His endearing charm, infectious smile and unparalleled sense of humor will be sorely missed. ‘Chocolate Thunder’ will always have a special place in our hearts.”

From Orlando, ‘Planet Lovetron’ Dawkins was from Orlando but famously claimed he came from the planet Lovetron. He was also a fan favorite with the Nets, and helped the team go to the playoffs four times in his five seasons.

“The entire Brooklyn Nets organization is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of legendary player Darryl Dawkins,” the team said in a statement. “As a member of the Nets in the 1980’s, Darryl, known as Chocolate Thunder, entertained fans on the court with his powerful dunks and effervescent personality, and also made an enormous impact in the community.”

A private funeral service was held Wednesday in Catasauqua, Pa.

Tampa: A football game featuring Florida A&M University and the University of South Florida is at 7 p.m. Sept. 5 at Raymond James Stadium.

Miami Gardens: BethuneCookman University faces the University of Miami on Sept. 5 at Sun Life Stadium

in Miami Gardens. The football game kicks off at 6 p.m.

St. Petersburg: R&B singer Keith Sweat takes the stage Sept. 5 at the Mahaffey Theater, 400 1st Street S. Clearwater: Legendary concert jazz pianist Lillette

Tampa: Candy Lowe hosts Tea & Conversation every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at 3911 N. 34th St., Suite B. More information: 813-3946363.

Jacksonville: Multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones will be at the Ritz Theater and Museum on Oct. 3 for an 8 p.m. show.

Amelia Boynton Robinson, civil rights icon, dies at 104

BY ANN M. SIMMONS LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

She never became a household name, but the grainy photos of Amelia Boynton Robinson crumpled on the side of the road in Selma, Ala., after being tear-gassed and beaten by state troopers came to be one of the most searing images of America’s civil rights struggle.

Repulsed by the images of what became known as “Bloody Sunday,” Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists quickly flew to Selma and, after one more failed attempt, succeeded in leading a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery.

Though she was clubbed, gassed and left splayed along the road in the first attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Mrs. Robinson’s resolve to fight for change only seemed to deepen.

She was invited later that year to the White House when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. She became the first Black woman to run for Congress in Alabama.

And in March — 50 years after the violence in Selma — she crossed the span again, this time in a wheelchair and pushed along by President Barack Obama.

No grudges Mrs. Robinson, known as “Queen Mother” to her devotees, died Aug. 27 from natural causes at the age of 104, her son, Bruce Boynton, told The Associated Press.

She told the Los Angeles Times in a February interview that she held no grudges against those who nearly took her life in 1965.

“I was taught to love people, to excuse their hate and realize that if they get the hate out of them, that they will be able to love,” said Mrs. Robinson, whose role in the struggle was captured in the 2015 Oscarnominated film “Selma.”

Studied under Carver She was born in Savan-

PHOTO COURTESY OF ONYX AWARDS

Amelia Boynton Robinson, escorted by Lateefah Muhammad, received special recognition in March at the 11th Annual Onyx Awards in Orlando. nah, Ga., on Aug. 18, 1911, and helped her mother distribute leaflets for the women’s suffrage movement, according to details published on her website, at http://www.ameliaboynton. org/2.html.

At 14, she attended Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth, now Savannah State University. Two years later she studied under AfricanAmerican botanist and inventor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee University.

Her career took a winding path — she taught, prepared taxes, worked in insurance and real estate, and helped rural women with food preservation and home economics while working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mrs. Robinson, who outlived three husbands, said her parents were instrumental in influencing her efforts to promote equality because they treated everyone as equal, and with respect.

They “never looked down at anybody,” she said.

Inspiration to generations She became a registered voter in 1932, a time when many Blacks, particularly in the segregated South, were barred from voting by state and local authorities who imposed obstacles such as poll taxes and literacy tests.

She became the first Black woman in Alabama to seek a seat in Congress, and though her bid was unsuccessful, she won about 11 percent of the vote — a noteworthy effort considering few Blacks were then

registered to vote.

Her trailblazing inspired future generations.

In 1965, Mrs. Robinson and her husband, Samuel Boynton, with whom she raised two children, had held planning sessions for the Edmund Pettus Bridge march at their home in Selma.

Beaten but not bowed She recalled that a trooper struck her on the shoulder and then again at the base of her neck, knocking her unconscious. Fellow activists came to her aid and she was hospitalized. She said the tear gas damaged her esophagus.

In later years, Boynton Robinson continued championing human rights and equality for all through her work with the Schiller Institute, which was founded by controversial fringe politician Lyndon LaRouche and his wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

The veteran activist would eventually grow disappointed over what she viewed as apathy among the Black electorate, which she said had “gone back to sleep.” She urged younger African-Americans to heed the sacrifices of those who fought for civil rights.

But more than four decades after Bloody Sunday, she would still be alive to witness the ultimate reward of her labor — the election of Barack Obama, America’s first Black president.

Her funeral was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 6 at Tuskegee University Chapel in Tuskegee, Ala. On Sept. 8, at 1 p.m., a walk in her honor is scheduled cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

STOJ

SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

B5

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.

erica

Entrepreneur and nursing student Erica Jones graduated from Albany State University with a Bachelor of Psychology degree in 2009. At that time, the Atlanta native began her career in modeling and started her business in shoe design (www. styleversusfashion.com). Contact Erica at twitter.com/stylevsfashion.

Photo credit: Michelle Masso

kevin

Kevin Dorival has a dual clothing line, One Woman Army and One Man Army. He’s also an inspirational speaker, play director, mentor and author of “The Courage To Believe.” He can be reached at www.TheCourageToBelieve.com or Facebook.com/ TheCourageToBelieve CREDIT: Robertson Sejour/Sejour Glamor Shots

And the Oscar finally goes to Spike Lee Filmmaker snubbed for ‘Do the Right Thing’ to be honored by Academy Awards in November

BY GLENN WHIPP LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Spike Lee’s relationship with the Oscars was defined nearly 25 years ago when the Motion Picture Academy gave its best picture award to “Driving Miss Daisy,” a musty, modest movie about the relationship between a cranky Georgia widow and her Black chauffeur while largely ignoring Lee’s beautiful, uncompromising look at American race relations, “Do the Right Thing.”

In the ensuing quarter century, Lee has never softened when asked about the academy’s vote that year.

“They’re always going to go with the passive Black servant instead of a movie that asks tough questions and offers a perspective they might not be comfortable with,” Lee told me in

a 2008 interview. “The Oscars’ assessment of a movie’s quality usually isn’t held up by history. That’s why they don’t matter.”

On ‘Selma’ Last year, after Ava DuVernay’s powerful civil rights drama “Selma” received only two Oscar nominations, Lee offered a characteristically blunt assessment that included a particular profanity tied to any reference to “Driving Miss Daisy.”

“That doesn’t diminish the film,” he told The Daily Beast, talking about “Selma’s” scant showing.

“Nobody’s talking about … ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’ That film is not being taught in film schools all across the world like ‘Do the Right Thing’ is. Nobody’s discussing ‘Driving Miss … Daisy.’

So if I saw Ava today I’d say, ‘You know what? … ’em.

You made a very good film, so feel good about that and start working on the next one.’”

Following Belafonte It’s likely then that Lee will have a few choice words for academy mem-

bers in November when he receives an honorary Oscar at this year’s Governors Awards dinner in Hollywood. (Gena Rowlands and Debbie Reynolds will also be honored.)

The event isn’t televised, offering recipients the opportunity to speak at length and from the heart without the fear that an orchestra is preparing to play them off the stage.

Harry Belafonte gave a profoundly moving speech at last year’s dinner, receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Belafonte pointedly condemned Hollywood’s treatment of minorities in the past and appealed to the film community to “use their gifts” to “see the better side of who and what we are as a species.”

High in relevance So even though Lee, 58, says that the Oscars “don’t matter,” you can bet he’ll use the stage of the Governors Awards to air a bold take on today’s movie industry.

As for his appraisal of the 1990 Oscars, Lee — nominated that year for original

JAY L. CLENDENIN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Spike Lee and wife Tonya are shown at the 86th annual Academy Awards on March 2, 2014 at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles. screenplay — is absolutely correct by just about any measure.

In the American Film Institute’s 2007 poll of film

artists, critics and historians, “Do the Right Thing” placed at No. 96, slightly after “Pulp Fiction” and immediately before “Blade

Wilson says God has anointed him and Ciara EURWEB.COM

EURWEB.COM

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is in a relationship with popular singer Ciara.

Don’t expect Russell Wilson to give an interview without mentioning his girlfriend Ciara, and vice versa. Are they aiming for power couple status? The Seattle Seahawks quarterback appears in a feature for the latest issue of Rolling Stone in which he claims God meant for him and the popular singer to be together.

Although they claim to be abstaining from sex, and he has yet to put a ring on it in an effort to forge ahead with their lifetime

of certain bliss, Wilson says God wants him and Ciara to do something “miraculous and special.”

“I knew God had brought me into her life to bless her and for her to bless me and to bless so many people with the impact that she has and I have,” Wilson told Rolling Stone. “He has anointed both of us — he’s calling for us to do something miraculous and special.”

“We connect so well, and we have the same vision,” he shared.

“It’s a perfect fit, you know? Is it weird? No. It feels right.”

Wilson married his high school

sweetheart, Ashton Meem, in 2012, but they divorced shortly after the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory in 2014. There have been recent rumors that his ex is stalking and harassing him and Ciara on the low on social media because she’s jealous of their relationship.

Healing water?

Wilson also tells Rolling Stone that he credits the “healing properties” in a sports drink that he’s an investor in for aiding in his recovery from a head injury he suffered in last season’s NFC Cham-

Runner.” (I’d argue all three should be ranked much higher.)

“Driving Miss Daisy” didn’t make the list.

pionship Game.

“I banged my head during the Packers game in the playoffs, and the next day I was fine,” Wilson said in the story. “It was the water.”

Wilson is referring to Reliant Recovery Water, a product which he also claims “miraculously” healed an unnamed teammate’s knee injury.

“I know it works,” he said, according to the story. “Soon you’re going to be able to order it straight from Amazon.”

Wilson’s agent Mark Rodgers, who was present at the time of the interview, pumped the breaks on Russell’s claims by saying, “Well, we’re not saying we have real medical proof.”

FOOD

B6

SEPTEMBER 4 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

TOJ

Brisket over briquets:

Easy ideas with grilled leftovers FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Although brisket is generally regarded as a cool weather dish, you may be surprised how this ultimate comfort food works in delicious recipes that help you hang on to the fading days of summer.

A traditional Barbecued Beef Brisket prepared low and slow over a charcoal grill is sure to be a crowd pleaser for a backyard tailgate or a casual gathering with friends. Leftovers can help warm up a cool morning with a decadent serving of Barbecue Benedict, and you can look forward to a Grilled Greek Salad Pita with Beef Brisket for a tasty midday meal.

As any grill master knows, achieving grilling greatness begins with a charcoal fire. These recipes, created by world champion pitmaster Chris Lilly, showcase how Kingsford® Charcoal can help you achieve an authentic smoky flavor that will delight the taste buds of your family and friends. Each briquet contains natural ingredients and real wood for a delicious cookout every time.

Find more recipes featuring your favorite grilled meats at www.kingsford.com.

BARBECUE BENEDICT Makes: 6 servings Prep time: 45 minutes Cook time: 7 minutes 1 white onion cut into 1/2-inchthick strips Onion Marinade Barbecue Benedict Sauce 3 English muffins cut in half 1 pound leftover beef brisket 6 poached eggs Onion Marinade: 9 tablespoons soy sauce 3 tablespoons lemon juice 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 6 tablespoons water 6 teaspoons dark brown sugar 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder 3/4 teaspoon black pepper Barbecue Benedict Sauce: 3 egg yolks 1 teaspoon vinegar 1 teaspoon water 1 cup butter, melted 1/4 teaspoon salt Pinch of cayenne pepper 3 tablespoons of your favorite KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce

In small bowl, mix onion marinade ingre­dients. Pour marinade into resealable plastic bag and add onion strips. Let marinate for 30 minutes.

For sauce, place egg yolks, vinegar and water into stainless steel bowl and vigor­ously whip until mixture is thickened and doubled in volume. Place bowl over sauce pan con­taining barely simmering water (just below boil), making sure bottom of bowl does not touch water. Whisk continuously, making sure eggs don’t get too hot or they will scramble. Very slowly drizzle melted butter into mixture while whisking rapidly until mixture thickens and doubles in volume.

Remove from heat and stir in remaining sauce ingredients.

Build charcoal fire for direct grilling. Place onion strips in grill basket and cook directly over hot coals (approximately 450°F), stirring often for 5 minutes or until onions brown and start to soften. Remove onions from grill and set aside.

Place English muffin halves directly over hot coals for 2 minutes or until toasted. Remove each from grill and top with leftover beef brisket, grilled onions and a poached egg. Drizzle with Barbecue Benedict Sauce.

GRILLED GREEK SALAD PITA WITH BEEF BRISKET Makes: 8 stuffed pitas Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 6 minutes Greek Dressing: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 1/2 tablespoons Kalamata olives, minced 4 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 4 pita bread rounds, cut in half forming 8 pockets 1 cucumber, cut into 1/2-inch slices 1 tomato 1/2 red onion, cut into 1/2-inch slices 2 cups romaine lettuce, cut into 1-inch pieces 1/4 cup feta cheese 1 pound leftover beef brisket In small bowl combine all Greek dressing ingredients. Set aside.

Build charcoal fire for direct grilling. Place pita bread directly over hot coals (approximately 450°F) and cook for 1 minute on each side or until grill marks are visible.

Place cucumbers, whole tomato and onion directly over hot coals (approximately 450°F) and cook, turning once, for 4 minutes or until they brown and start to soften.

Remove vegetables from grill and dice. Place vegetables into medium bowl and stir in dressing. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes before adding romaine lettuce and feta cheese.

Fill each pita pocket with leftover beef brisket and grilled Greek salad.

BARBECUE BEEF BRISKET Makes: 8-10 servings Prep time: 30 minutes Cook time: 5-6 hours 1 beef brisket flat (5-6 pounds) 1 tablespoon beef bouillon base Dry Rub 1 cup beef broth Dry Rub: 1/2 tablespoon salt 1/2 tablespoon paprika 1/2 tablespoon black pepper 1/2 tablespoon sugar 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon oregano 1/8 teaspoon ground coriander Build a charcoal fire with Kingsford charcoal for indirect cooking by situ­ating coals on only one side of grill, leaving other side void.

Cover entire brisket with beef bouillon base. In small bowl, mix dry rub ingredients and coat brisket with rub. When cooker reaches 225°F, place brisket on void side of grill and close lid. Cook for 4 hours, until internal temperature reaches 160-170°F. Remove brisket from grill and place in shallow baking dish or disposable aluminum pan. Pour beef broth over brisket and cover pan with aluminum foil. Place baking dish in cooker for an additional 1-2 hours, until internal temperature reaches 185°F. Remove baking dish from grill and let meat rest undisturbed for 20-30 minutes. Slice brisket across grain and serve.