Florida Courier - December 23, 2016

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CELEBRATING OUR 10TH YEAR STATEWIDE!

Cities forever changed by mass shootings See Page B1 www.flcourier.com

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

VOLUME 24 NO. 52

WHAT’S NEXT FOR HBCUs?

BY WILLIAM DOUGLAS MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU / TNS

WASHINGTON – What does President-elect Donald Trump know about historically Black colleges and universities?

That’s what leaders and advocates of the nation’s HBCUs, the common shorthand for historically Black schools, have been trying to figure out since Trump’s surprising victory in November’s presidential election.

“What are the priorities for HBCUs in the new administration? I don’t know,” said Ronald Carter, president of Johnson C. Smith University, a four-year private HBCU in Charlotte, N.C. “I think it’s a bit premature to try to guess or de-

In discussions Leaders of HBCU officials and Historically Black Trump advisers have been Colleges and huddling, having discusUniversities are sions that some particidescribe as listening searching for ways pants sessions and sales pitches to work with the for the incoming administo heavily invest in incoming Trump tration the 100-plus HBCU camadministration. puses, which are home to

Reality TV personality Omarosa Manigault, at the podium, is expected to be a critical link between HBCUs and Donald Trump.

duce what he’ll do and what the priorities will be for higher education in general and Historically Black Colleges and Universities in particular.”

But it appears that the incoming 45th president is trying to learn as much about Black colleges as the institutions are trying to learn about his level of his commitment to funding and supporting their campuses.

former reality-show star who serves on Trump’s transition team, attended a December meeting of HBCU presidents in Atlanta hosted by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

Manigault, who gained fame in the first season of “The Apprentice,” is a graduate of Central State University in Ohio and Washington’s Howard Universi-

about 300,000 students.

Earlier this month, Sam Clovis, a national co-chairman and policy director for Trump’s campaign, met with Johnny Taylor, president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, at the fund’s Washington office, continuing a conversation about HBCUs that had begun during the Republican primaries. The fund is an HBCU support and advocacy organization.

Omarosa Manigault, a

DAVID T. FOSTER III/CHARLOTTE OBSERVER/TNS

ty, both HBCUs.

Knows the struggle “She knows about the difficulties HBCUs face,” said Tashni-Ann Dubroy, president of Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. “The HBCU presidents that were in the room were there to inform her about current challenges that she might not be in tune with.”

There are 107 HBCUs in

THE CHRISTMAS SEASON

The Dolphins give back

the United States and U.S. Virgin Islands. North Carolina tops the list, with five public and five private fouryear institutions.

Several HBCU campuses are struggling financially, suffering from low endowment compared with predominately White institutions, and dealing with aging facilities.

See HBCUs, Page A2

‘The Prince of PanAfrikanism’ Dr. Umar Johnson to lecture in Florida

BY ANDREAS BUTLER FLORIDA COURIER

This week, Miami Dolphins players, coaches, cheerleaders, Miami Dolphins Women’s Organization members and mascot “T.D.” welcomed 125 preselected kids from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach elementary schools to the Dolphins Holiday Toy Event at Baptist Health Training Facility. Players Jakeem Grant and Lafayette Pitts helped give out toys.

JACKSONVILLE – The self-proclaimed “Prince of Pan-Afrikanism,” Dr. Umar Johnson, is coming to Florida.

Pan-Africanism promotes freedom, unity, self-determination, and self-sufficiency as well as economic, political and social independence for Africans and their descendants worldwide.

Johnson, a certified school psychologist and advocate of Pan-Africanism who shot to national prominence with the release of the popular “Hidden Colors” video series, will deliver a Ujimaa Kwanzaa message at the Regency Square Mall Event Planning Center in Jacksonville on December 28.

His Kwanzaa tour includes stops in Baltimore on December 26 and in Detroit on December 30.

“I’ve been on this tour for six years.

My tour isn’t about the cultural aspects of Kwanzaa but it is more politically-minded,” Johnson told the Florida Courier.

He will appear at Fort Lauderdale’s Rev. Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park on January 18, 2017 in what’s called See JOHNSON, Page A2

Florida leads states in Obamacare enrollment THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Florida led the nation with 1.3 million residents signing up for 2017 coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act by a Monday deadline, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday.

Floridians seeking health insurance through the federal marketplace were up more than 14 percent from the 1.14 million Floridians who had signed up during the same time last year, federal officials said. More than 1.5 million Floridians were covered by the federal program, which is also known as Obamacare, in 2016.

The 1.3 million Floridians

ALSO INSIDE

signed up for 2017 coverage will grow, as the number does not include consumers who were automatically enrolled in the program, federal officials said.

More to come The number also only reflects those signing up for coverage beginning Jan. 1. Floridians can still enroll in Obamacare through Jan. 31, with the coverage beginning March 1. Updated numbers, including the automatic enrollees, will be released next month.

In a phone conference with reporters, Sylvia Burwell, the Health and Human Services secretary, said the Florida numbers, and the record 6.4 million

consumers who signed up nationally for the Jan. 1 coverage, reflect the fact that the federal health care program “is vital to them and their families.”

Burwell said the federal health care program faces “head winds” as President-elect Donald Trump and Congress have vowed to repeal Obamacare.

But she said Floridians who sign up for the 2017 coverage will be covered through next year, as the debate evolves over repealing and replacing the program in Washington, D.C.

Still no plan Congressional Republicans are considering a “lightningstrike” rollback of Obamacare

early next year to kick off the Trump era, but first they have to agree on a plan.

The Republican plan would take advantage of “reconciliation,” a budget-related mechanism to circumvent the 60-vote threshold in the Senate and prevent Democrats from being able to block legislation on their own. By striking early, the GOP could set itself up to invoke the same procedure again later in the year on a broader range of targets, including tax cuts.

Passing something in Trump’s first 100 days would allow Republicans to claim a big win early on, and conservatives are demanding the GOP deliver quickly.

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Damages from hurricanes near $1.6 billion NATION | A6

Lawmakers back program to probe lynchings SPORTS | B4

FOOD | B5

Donations up Recipes after Elliott for holiday jumps in kettle leftovers

COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: GO TO WASHINGTON TO FIGHT FOR BLACK SELF-DETERMINATION | A4 COMMENTARY: DR. WILMER LEON: IT’S WINTER IN AMERICA WHEN DEMS WONT DEFEND DEMOCRACY | A5

FOCUS

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DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

Fake news and Black America At one time in history, the only news that Black people could get was the news they got from Black media. Positive news articles back in the day about Black scholars, Black philosophers, Black entrepreneurs, Black socialites, Black entertainers, Black athletes and Black clergy could only be found in The Pittsburg Courier, The Atlanta Daily World, The Chicago Defender, The Amsterdam News, The Black World and other Black media.

Today, most African-Americans get their news from the digital devils! To many of the people that look like you, if it’s not on Twitter, it’s not news. If it’s not true, it wouldn’t be on Facebook or other Internet sites.

And, worst of all, if it’s not in the White-owned and controlled so-called mainstream media, some people that are not reading this column believe that the news and information couldn’t be worthwhile!

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

Nothing new Most news reports have always been fake – or at least lacking in factual content. The idiotic idea that “fake news” just began with Hillary Clinton’s loss to President-elect Donald Trump is laughable to America’s and the globe’s world-class journalists.

It is easy to fake news stories in the United States because Americans love less information. They want their news in bits. They prefer the soundbite over the documentary. They enjoy news that is quick, fast and easy. They hate to have to read more than a paragraph. They like news they can listen to for only a minute or two, and broadcast news that lasts shorter than the Viagra commer-

cials that follow it!

Most political campaigns that can afford it hire a group of professional people they call “opposition researchers.” These people are hired to locate the worst voting records, the most unsavory news reports and the most disgusting photographs they can find of the candidates that they oppose. They twist, turn, or fake what they find to make final reports even worse.

Easy to find You don’t have to hire someone all of the time to dig up dirt.

People with their own personal vendettas will create fake web sites or make real-looking fake Internet posts to defame or encourage hate about a candidate, a political party or a political policy that they don’t like.

What Trump lovers did to get people to hate Democrats was sad, no doubt, but Democrats could have done the same type things to Republicans. Demo-

crats could have responded to fake news stories by exposing lying authors, fake websites, and slimy degenerate perpetrators to the voters that wanted the truth about opposing candidates!

Yes, the true news of today is the news that newspaper editors, Internet managers, broadcast owners and news directors and media corporations want true news to be. Everything else is fake, false or corrupted!

It is impossible for FOX News and MSNBC News to both be so different and both be true at the same time. Things have gotten so bad that the Emmys need to add another award category: “Best Fake News Story of the Year!”

It all depends If the news reporter is with you, you are a rebel and a freedom fighter. If the newsman is against you, you are a terrorist. If the network is with you, you are a legitimate protester. If they are against you, you are a thug and a criminal!

If your nation or foreign country supports capitalism and greed, you are a democrati-

JOHNSON from A1

“Meeting of the Minds #1: Building A Revolutionary Academy For Our Children.”

The way forward Johnson believes that Black America must embrace Black nationalism.

“All ethnic groups in the U.S. build culturally realities that are self-sustaining. Indians, Chinese, Jews, Arabs and everyone else has their own. Everyone practices nationalism in the U.S. except Black people. If we don’t embrace our own nationalism, we will continue to be the last fiddle and a permanent underclass in society.”

According to Johnson, most Black people deny who they are.

“It starts with identity.

Blacks identify more with being American than African despite the injustice, racism, police brutality, incarceration and unemployment that they face here in America. They just make a disconnection between themselves and Africans.”

Johnson says that voting is important, but Black America must go further.

“Voting is irrelevant until Blacks organize the vote.

We must supplement a strategy that is important to politicians.

“Politicians protect power, not earn it. People get into politics to protect power.

You become president to protect power. Every president, senator and lawmaker either already comes into office as a millionaire and/ or leaves as a millionaire and sometimes billionaire.”

Different ‘lives’

COURTESY OF DR. UMAR JOHNSON

Dr. Umar Johnson takes American education to task in print and online.

Lives Matter entities. The first is the grassroots movement which started in Ferguson, Mo. I support that one. The other is the official one, but is organized and funded by Whites,” said Johnson.

Johnson supports ‘Black Lives Matter,’ but warns that it is two different movements.

“There are two Black

Black-owned media critical

HBCUs

dents and supporters, like Taylor, often criticized the nation’s first African-American president, mainly arguing that changes to Pell grants and other loan programs harmed the financial health of some campuses and contributed to declining enrollment.

from A1

Campaign issue HBCUs became an issue on the campaign trail.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton proposed $25 billion to help support low- and middle-income students at private HBCU campuses. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, backed establishing a $30 billion fund to support private nonprofit HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions.

The outcomes of the Trump meetings are of intense interest to the HBCU community after nearly eight years of an Obama administration that invested more than $4 billion in Black colleges over the past seven years, according to Department of Education figures.

Still, some HBCU presi-

The Black media has an important role to play in

Better than Obama?

Taylor, a political independent who was a campaign fundraising bundler for Clinton, thinks HBCUs may fare better under Trump, whose campaign overture to African-American voters was “What the hell do you have to lose?”

Trump won 8 percent of the African-American vote, compared with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s 6 percent in 2012.

“We are hopeful and optimistic about a better relationship with the Trump administration than the one we had with the Obama administration,” Taylor said.

Marybeth Gasman, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Center

uplifting Black America.

“We need our own information. We need a Pan-African intelligence network that is not diluted to get our message across. Propaganda serves for economic and military action. We must control our image. It costs, though.

“The United States spends over $5 billion on misinformation in the me-

dia. Seventy-five percent of Black media outlets are about sensationalism and don’t cover what needs to be covered. It’s entertainment-driven. They are worried about Kanye going to the hospital, reality TV, etc.”

for Minority-Serving Institutions, said Obama’s HBCU legacy was being judged too harshly by some in that community.

“I think there are a couple of people in the HBCU community who aren’t pleased with Obama. It’s about five or six loud people,” Gasman said. “I think stepping back and actually looking at the data, looking at his legacy with HBCUs, I think he has a strong legacy. I do think all presidents could do more at HBCUs.”

“Whatever one thinks about Mr. Trump the person, I think what few of us can deny is that his worldview is that of a businessman,” Taylor said. “What we’ve tried to do in these meetings is to tie into what he’s already committed to and say, ‘Yep, makes sense to us, too.’”

One potential area for partnership: Trump is committed to repairing the nation’s infrastructure, proposing to spend $1 trillion to rebuild roads, bridges and tunnels.

Rep. Alma Adams, DN.C., co-author of a House of Representatives bill that would make it easier for HBCUs to obtain low-cost capital to finance improvement projects on campus, hopes some of those roads Trump wants to fix run through HBCU campuses.

“I would hope the incoming president would carve out somewhere in his infrastructure program a niche for HBCUs,” she said in an interview. “We clearly need work on these campuses.”

Trump transition officials

Outstanding results In their discussions, Taylor and the college presidents tout statistics, noting that while Black colleges represent only 3 percent of the country’s two-year and four-year institutions, they account for about 20 percent of degrees awarded to African-Americans and generate 25 percent of all the bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields earned by AfricanAmericans annually.

Focus on education Johnson is critical of the American education system. He is convinced that it

cally elected political leader. If your foreign government disagrees with capitalists, war mongers, and corporate exploitation of natural resources like oil and commodities, you are a dictator, a despot and a murderer!

If only Black people had read Black newspapers and visited Black news sites, they would have known exactly who America’s political players were, who the political devils were, and who the Black political professionals were that they could trust.

The devil’s reporters were wrong about who would win the 2016 elections. Our people were wrong to parrot, to puppet and to believe the fake news stories that the devil created.

Support The Gantt Report and support Black-owned media that will give our people the other side of the story: the true side!

Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.

“Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants. net.

is crippling Black youth and putting them into a schoolto-prison pipeline.

“The No. 1 function of the American school system is to train Black kids to be American. They might can’t read or write, but they know the national anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

“Blacks are taught to do more to be accepted by Whites. Blacks who assimilate into society are taught to be loyal to and defend the White supremacy system,” Johnson explained.

During his Kwanzaa tour, Johnson says he will emphasize critical issues for Black parents with regard to educating Black children, such as school rights and school law; the “special education” process; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and psychological education, including information on medications that Johnson believes are destroying Black children’s capacities to think; and students’ First Amendment rights, especially the right to remain silent during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Johnson is also advocating for the National Individual Black Parent Association, a new organization which he says will assist parents in fighting racism in schools.

“We must educate our children. We want to reach out to the parents. Parents play a role in uplifting our people. There is a lot of information that Black parents need that is effective legally and professionally in a world that is made to manipulate them,” Johnson exclaimed.

Johnson also want to create the Frederick DouglasMarcus Garvey Academy, a school to teach African males worldwide.

Trump no worse Johnson isn’t upset about

didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.

Trump’s ‘New Deal’ As a candidate, Trump said little about HBCUs beyond a general promise to “ensure funding for historical Black colleges and universities” during a speech in Charlotte that his campaign billed as a “New Deal for Black America.”

His nomination of Betsy DeVos, a charter school and voucher advocate for K-12 education who hasn’t said much about higher education, gives some HBCU presidents and supporters pause.

“I don’t know what commitment she has to higher education and, more specifically, I’m not aware of any interest she has in HBCUs,” said Adams, cofounder of the Bipartisan Congressional HBCU Caucus.

“Since the presidentelect has talked a little bit about HBCUs, we’re going to spend some time trying to educate this president …

Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump.

“Trump will be no worse than the George W. Bush or George H.W. Bush,” Johnson believes. Still, he thinks, “The doom and gloom coming from Black folks has merit.

“Trump will just ignore Blacks like other Republican presidents. Blacks can’t complain. (Barack) Obama did nothing for us.

“Trump got more Black votes than the last two Republican candidates combined. Young Blacks didn’t look at (the election) from the civil rights movement’s standpoint. Instead, they were disgruntled with Obama and the Democrats, who give them nothing.”

Unite and fight Johnson thinks that a Trump presidency could benefit Blacks.

He explained, “It can help us politically and economically to unite and lift ourselves up out of despair.

The Obama illusion is over.

The Obama illusion hypnotized us into believing that we would be accepted into American society. We are back to overt and traditional racism. Now we can get back to solving our own problems.”

Johnson hasn’t shied away from criticizing Obama.

“Obama did nothing for Black people. He passed legislation that favored immigrants, women and gays – but not Blacks. Obama became president because he was accepted by Whites.

“Other than being a Black president of a White country, the world would not have known about him.

There are Black presidents of Black nations worldwide.”

For more on Dr. Umar Johnson, his Kwanzaa Tour and other events, go to www.drumarjohnson. com.

about our historically Black colleges and universities that will then be somehow transmitted to the new secretary of education.”

Key appointment One gauge for Johnson C. Smith University’s Carter is what Trump does with the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which President Ronald Reagan established in 1981 to help strengthen HBCUs. “I’ll be very interested to see who will be appointed to head the White House Initiative on HBCUs or will the president-elect decide, ‘OK, I don’t see that it’s part of my administration,’” Carter said.

“Then we become concerned,” he said, “because we must hope whoever is going to head that office will be able to tell us specifically what are the priorities of the Department of Education and what are the priorities of President-elect Trump as it relates to HBCUs.”

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

FLORIDA

A3

Damages from hurricanes Hermine and Matthew near $1.6 billion

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

Workers cut up a massive oak tree that closed Haven Drive in the Ivanhoe District of Orlando after winds from Hurricane Matthew pass through central Florida on Friday, Oct. 7.

TALLAHASSEE – Hurricane damages in Florida have reached at least $1.59 billion from the two storms that hammered parts of North Florida and the East Coast this year, according to the latest numbers from the insurance industry and the state.

The numbers don’t include agricultural losses

and some damages that local governments are handling without state assistance. Also, the director of the state’s Division of Emergency Management said the numbers remain preliminary and depend in part on future state funding.

Still, the costs tied to Hurricane Hermine and Hurricane Matthew, for which the state expects to receive substantial reimbursements from the Fed-

eral Highway Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are the highest for disasters since the much more expensive 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, Division of Emergency Management Director Bryan Koon told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.

“That’s to be expected.

Hurricanes are our most expensive disasters,” Koon said as he outlined damag-

es to government entities.

Compared to 2004 Damages from Hurricane Hermine, which made landfall in a sparsely populated part of the Big Bend and swept through Tallahassee in early September, stand around $213.6 million. The total includes $147 million in individual property-damage claims that have been reported to the Office of Insurance Regulation.

The more-powerful Hurricane Matthew, which stayed offshore but caused damage Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 in Northeast Florida, clocks in at $1.376 billion.

By comparison the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research has placed damages from the 2004 hurricane season, in which four hurricanes hit the state, at $45 billion.

The Matthew total includes 112,000 individual property-damage claims, representing $729 million in value. Volusia, Duval, Brevard, St. Johns and Flagler counties represented most of the claims.

The Matthew figure also includes $430.8 million in damages to government facilities and structures, including damage to a 1.3-mile section of Florida A1A in Flagler Beach that caused Gov. Rick Scott to order expedited repairs.

Direct costs Koon said the state’s share of storm-damage costs is expected to be offset by money from the federal government and local contributions.

Hermine is expected to directly cost the state about $9.6 million, from emergency protective actions to debris removal, with local government contributions reaching more than $5 million.

Matthew may require about $130.3 million from the state, a figure that includes $77 million being sought from the Legislature in 2017 for an estimated $217 million in beach, dune and park repairs from Duval through Indian River counties.

Supreme Court sets date for arguments on felons’ rights

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The Florida Supreme Court has scheduled arguments March 7 on a proposed constitutional amendment that would automatically restore voting rights for many felons.

The court issued an order Monday setting the date for arguments on the initiative, which could go on the November 2018 ballot.

A group known as Floridians for a Fair Democracy has submitted 71,207 petition signatures to the state, enough to trigger Supreme Court review of the proposed ballot wording. If the Supreme Court signs off, the group then would need to collect hundreds of thousands of additional signatures to put the measure on the ballot.

Proposed constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot needed 683,149 signatures, though that number will change for 2018 initiatives. Restoring the voting rights of convicted felons has long been a controversial issue in Florida.

The proposed “Voter Restoration Amendment” would automatically restore voting rights for felons who have served their sentences including completion of parole or probation. The initiative would not apply to felons convicted of murder or felony sex offenses.

EDITORIAL

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DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

Stay tuned for my talk with billionaire Bob Johnson One of the post-election highlights for me was the meeting between Donald Trump and Bob Johnson. Billionaire to billionaire, Democrat to Republican, Black to White, businessmanto-businessman, capitalist-tocapitalist, meeting on a relatively even playing field to discuss some of the “what now” issues was intriguing to say the least.

After the meeting, Mr. Johnson wrote a press release and did several interviews to disclose the particulars of that meeting.

While the press summed up Mr. Johnson’s comments in one sentence – “Let’s give Trump a shot” – there was much more to the meeting than that.

How do I know that? I interviewed Johnson after his meeting with Trump.

Open conversation During our nearly one-hour conversation, he spoke openly about his political position visà-vis Trump’s victory, and his thoughts, recommendations, and reflections on a Black strategy moving forward.

One of the main things Johnson discussed is our penchant to vote as a bloc for one party, in this case the Democrats, without reciprocity. His words recalled similar words by Carter G. Woodson and Malcolm X on that same point.

Mr. Johnson recommended that Black folks should be independent and bloc-vote only for candidates who support our in-

JAMES CLINGMAN GEORGE CURRY MEDIA

terests locally and nationally, regardless of their party affiliation.

Let the church say “Amen!”

Register as ‘NPA’ Bob Johnson, based upon what he called a “seismic shift” in our politics, said we must follow what former U.S. Representative William “Bill” Clay, Sr. told us: “Your political philosophy must be selfish and pragmatic.

You must start with the premise that you have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.”

My follow-up question was, “Then would you recommend that Black voters register as ‘Non-Party Affiliated’ at their local Boards of Elections?” His answer: “Absolutely, yes.” Bingo!

Remember when Donald Trump was asking Black folks, “What do you have to lose?”

My immediate answer to his question was another question: “What do we have to gain?”

Without my leading Mr. Johnson during their conversation, Johnson shared his message to Trump on that question by saying, “You should be telling Black people what they have to gain by voting for you.”

Mr. Johnson cited some very

basic business principles which he has put into play via his conglomerate of ventures; for instance, an equity fund to assist mid-level businesses.

I asked if he thought Blacks should form a similar collective fund for start-ups and micro businesses, and why we don’t have such a fund now. He agreed that we should have a fund, but on why we don’t have one, he simply said, “That’s a head problem, Jim.” In other words, the only thing stopping us from doing that is our lack of consciousness and willingness to sacrifice for and support one another.

Again, that’s much of what I have written and spoken about for 20 years: psychological enslavement.

Confirmed our work By that time in our interview, I was on cloud nine because Robert L. Johnson, owner of numerous businesses and donor of millions of dollars to political campaigns, was confirming the work and philosophy of The One Million Conscious and Conscientious Black Contributors and Voters (OMCCBCV). I never mentioned our movement to him during our conversation, but his answers to my inquiries substantiated the direction The One Million is taking to move Black people from our current status to our highest potential.

There was so much we discussed, and Mr. Johnson’s responses, insights, and direc-

Does the CBC really care about Black people?

illegal, transgendered or radical Muslim extremist refugees, because they seem to get all the benefits that only American citizens are supposed to get. But I digress.

In a previous column, I discussed the hypocrisy running rampant within the Democratic Party when it comes to the hiring of Black staffers. I must have struck a serious nerve, because I received an anonymous email from someone with seemingly high-level Democratic credentials that was most surprising.

I have no idea who this person is, or what his/her agenda may be, but I was able to verify the details of the email I received.

Lecturing others

Details confirmed I called several friends who work for Democratic elected officials in Congress and the Democratic National Committee.

While not wanting to comment on specific members of the Democratic caucus, they agreed that the essence of the content of this anonymous email was very accurate.

This email contained such detailed information on each Democratic member of Congress that it had to come from someone

RAYNARD JACKSON NNPA COLUMNIST

with intimate access to this type of sensitive data.

What was sent to me was a listing of every Democratic member of Congress and who their fundraisers were. What’s ironic is that only one member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has retained a Black fundraiser. The rest have either a White, Asian, or Hispanic person doing their fundraising.

Yet, these same members of the CBC have the gall to criticize the U.S. Senate for their lack of diversity when it comes to hiring Black staffers. Mind you, most CBC members themselves have very few Blacks in positions of power on their personal staffs or committees.

Maybe Black Democrats should simply “self-identify” as

Go to D.C. to fight for Black self-determination If the U.S. ruling class and the spies and national security goons that serve them wanted to divert attention from the crimes and crises of capitalism, they have temporarily succeeded. In this insane post-election season, all the corporate media talk about is the outrageous fiction that Russia is the greatest threat to American domestic peace and tranquility.

Jim Crow stole the election, as usual, but the corporate media and Hillary Clinton’s minions blame it on the Russians.

Tens of thousands of people will descend on Washington to denounce Donald Trump’s inauguration – which, given his horrific appointments and domes-

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

tic policies, would be the righteous thing to do.

If Clinton had won, she too should have been confronted with vast crowds of demonstrators determined to bring her “to heel” for crimes of mass Black incarceration and a whole list of other offenses against humanity.

Useless Black leaders But it is already clear that the

Last year, members of the CBC traveled to Silicon Valley to lecture executives from Apple, Google, Intel, SAP, and Pandora about the lack of Blacks in their workforce. Their thenchairman, U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina said, “All of them are deficient. None of them have African-Americans on their boards of directors, and that is very disappointing because African-Americans are part of the customer base of all five of these companies.”

Maybe members of the CBC should have a visit to their own member’s offices and determine why most of them have no Black chiefs of staffs and no Black fundraisers. In the immortal words of Michael Jackson, maybe members of the CBC should take a look at that man in the mirror, and ask him to change his ways. If they want to make the world more diverse, take a look at themselves and make that change.

So, before Black folks continue useless and self-serving Black Misleadership Class, who work for the Democratic Party rather than for their Black constituents, will be making common cause with the CIA and the war profiteers, shouting about Vladimir Putin who – to paraphrase Muhammad Ali –never called anybody the N-word (that we know of ), or kicked millions of poor women and children off welfare, or imposed a reign of terror in Black communities. That was the Clintons, remember?

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will also be in Washington around the time of the inauguration – on January 14, the day before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The coalition won’t join hands with Hillary’s friends on Wall Street and the Pentagon. Instead, Black Is Back will declare to the world its intention to fight for Black self-

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: CHRISTMAS 2016

BOB ENGLEHART, CAGLECARTOONS.COM

tions are just what we need to do NOW. We cannot afford to wait, to analyze, to meet, to hold a convention, or continue to theorize the future and lament the past.

We can shape our future. We can determine our destiny simply by doing what not only Bob Johnson said, but what many of our elders have said over the years. We simply need to act.

Watch for it My entire Q & A with Mr. Johnson will be published soon, but I wanted to let my readers know about it now, so that we can start moving immediately to leverage our dollars and our votes against the two systems that run this nation and the world: economics and politics. The OMCCBCV has already planned to kick off one part of that strategy in February 2017. Stay tuned.

Please watch for my entire interview with Mr. Johnson and to complain about what “Whites” are not doing for us, maybe we should look at what we’re not doing for ourselves.

Why should others do for us what the Black members of Congress are not willing to do for us?

Why do they refuse to hire capable Black Democrats with fundraising experience?

Won’t stand up The CBC, like Africa in the United Nations, is the largest voting bloc in the U.S. Congress.

They can stop any piece of legislation presented in the House.

Thus, they have supreme leverage and never use it to push forward any policy that they claim to care about.

Blacks are the largest voting bloc, but have no Blacks in leadership positions in the House.

Why did they turn their backs on the esteemed Congressman Jim Clyburn when he got ousted from leadership so that Steny Hoyer could assume a leadership post?

So let’s get this straight. The CBC goes around the country lecturing Silicon Valley about their lack of diversity, though they are guilty of the same thing.

They complain about the lack of diversity on corporate boards, determination in every aspect of life, despite the rise of Donald Trump and his version of White nationalism.

The Black is Back Coalition is telling the incoming administration that Black people are their own liberators. And, that is a very different kind of message than you’ll be hearing from the Black servants of the Democratic Party who have made a pact with that section of the U.S. ruling class that has rallied around Hillary Clinton – a raving, maniacal war criminal who is culpable in the death of millions.

Just get paid The Black Misleadership Class can imagine no other way to function except to become junior partners with one powerful group of oppressors or the other. Independent Black politics is alien to them, because they see no money in it – no profit in the

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start planning for major changes in the way we play politics and the way we use our economic clout to build a strong foundation for our children and grandchildren.

What Mr. Johnson shared with me is not esoteric or proprietary, and it’s certainly not new. However, sometimes with our people, the same message can come from different sources and, depending on the messenger, our people will follow it. I am grateful that Mr. Johnson chose to speak out on these issues.

More to come.

James E. Clingman is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. His latest book, “Black Dollars Matter! Teach Your Dollars How To Make More Sense,” is available on his website, Blackonomics. com, and Amazon Kindle eBooks. but at least Corporate America takes care of their own – Whites.

But the CBC won’t even hire their own when it comes to fundraising jobs. So, if Whites hire those that look like themselves, why won’t the CBC do the same?

Diversity is not an either/or proposition. It’s a both/and. CBC members criticize Silicon Valley for having few Black staffers, they criticize the U.S. Senate for having few Black staffers, but they’re silent when it comes to their own conscious decisions not to hire Black fundraisers for their own campaigns.

So, if Silicon Valley and the U.S. Senate can be labeled “racist” for their lack of Black staffers, shouldn’t the CBC have to wear the same label?

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered Super PAC established to get more Blacks, especially entrepreneurs, involved in the Republican Party. For more information, visit www.bafbf. org. liberation of other Black people.

And so, they methodically sacrifice Black folks’ interests, and the hopes and dreams of all oppressed peoples, in return for some squatting room at the feet of the enemy. The Black Misleaders have no shame, and no demands either, except that they get paid.

The Black is Back Coalition, on the other hand, has put forward a 19-point agenda to guide the fight for Black self-determination, a human right of all peoples and the basis of solidarity among the oppressed – points that will be thoroughly discussed on January 14 in Washington, D. C. The struggle is not about choosing between Trump and Clinton; it’s about Black self-determination and bringing down this evil system.

Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com.

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DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

It’s winter in America when Democrats won’t defend democracy “One person, one vote” is the cornerstone of Jeffersonian democracy. Implicit in this ideal of one-person one vote is the assumption that if a person is registered to vote they will be allowed to do so and if they cast a vote – that vote will in fact be counted!

The African-American community is very sensitive to the vote because of the torturous and bloody history that reflects the struggles and battles that have been fought in order to secure its right to vote.

Why? Why would a citizen take the time to cast a vote if that vote is not going to be recognized and counted? Why would Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer risk her livelihood, her life and the security of her family to secure the franchise if the vote that she risked her life to secure would not be counted?

Mrs. Hamer put her life on the line so that America would live up to its fundamental precepts enabling all of its citizens to enjoy the freedoms found in the home of the free and land of the brave.

It was Mrs. Hamer who said, “One night I went to the church.

They had a mass meeting... and they talked about how it was our right that we could register and vote... That sounded interesting enough to me that I wanted to try it. I had never heard, until 1962, that Black people could register and vote...

“When they asked for those to raise their hands who’d go down to the courthouse the next day, I raised mine...I guess if I’d had any sense I’d’ve been a little scared, but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do to me was kill me and it seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember.”

DR. WILMER J. LEON III TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

Ensuring that every eligible voter can vote and every cast vote is counted should be the fundamental focus of every secretary of state in this country regardless of their party affiliation. Every vote that was cast in this 2016 election should be counted and the election should not be certified until they are.

Why did Ms. Ruby Sales, Ms. Annie Pearl Avery, Mrs. Dorie Ladner, Willie Ricks and so many others in SNCC and other organizations risk their lives during those long hot days and dangerous dark lonely nights on those hate-filled treacherous back roads in Alabama, Mississippi and other parts

The Democratic Party is falling apart I guess you can say that the Clintons have lost their mojo. Their swagger, charisma and charm do not work on the common folk. But celebrities still idolize them.

Donald Trump appealed to the common folk. It was clear that he felt their pain and related to the daily struggles. He didn’t run for the money and power. He already has that. His message was clear and believable – America is broken and he is going to fix it.

Massive crowds The slogan “Make America Great Again” became contagious.

No one has ever filled up arenas and stadiums like he did – not even Obama.

Hillary Clinton has proven over the last decade that she was just about the money and removed from any empathy towards the middle and lower classes. She claimed that she would emulate the Obama administration “like a third term.” That was not a prom-

HARRY C. ALFORD GUEST COLUMNIST

ise; it was a threat.

Like Obama, she claimed she would rid the country of coal production. She would say it in states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania – states who lost over 60,000 jobs. Trump said he will open the closed mines and rehire the fired miners.

Hillary was a very poor candidate, but the establishment Democrats were going to make her their candidate no matter what happened. She was so cocky that she only campaigned in 33 of the 50 states. Three of those were Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania which were supposed to be her states per the polls. She lost them big-time. The biased media

Fighting for Southern human rights The need to organize against various oppressions is ever-present across America. But the South is the region which illustrates most clearly the need for Black people to assert their political and human rights. It is the innermost part of the belly of the beast.

The Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) recently met in Jackson, Miss., for their 20th annual convening. This SHROC conference was dedicated to the late Chokwe Lumumba, mayor of Jackson and a force behind Cooperation Jackson, an effort to free majority-Black cities from decades of corrupt and ineffectual leadership. The SHROC theme was “Forward Ever, Backwards Never: 20 Years of Advancing a Global South Agenda for Human Rights.”

Fruitful discussions Activists and labor organizers met to strategize and to familiarize one another with their struggles. International solidarity was on the agenda with guests such as Jesus “Chucho” Garcia, the Ven-

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

ezuelan consul in New Orleans.

This columnist joined a panel that included Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka as we discussed liberation, what it means, and how to make it a reality.

As should always be the case when the left gather together, direct political action was in order. The assembled group joined workers at the Renault-Nissan auto plant in Canton, Miss. We protested a wide variety of unfair labor practices and the thwarted efforts to form a union.

Mississippi competed with other Southern states to see who could race to the bottom fastest.

The state ultimately subsidized the Renault-Nissan corporation with $1.3 billion in public funds for a plant where 4,000 men and women are employed.

EDITORIAL

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT:: HOLIDAYS AND THE MILITARY

of the South, convincing sharecroppers and other oppressed African-Americans that it was worth the risk to register to vote and then to show up at the polls to vote?

Same motivation Why have White supremacists used lynching, the burning of homes and churches and other tactics of domestic terrorism to keep people of color from exercising their 15th Amendment right? As investigative journalist Greg Palast has written, they’ve changed their tactics from white sheets to spreadsheets, but the motivation and outcome is still the same.

One person, one vote is the ideal that America has used time and again as a philosophical weapon against its enemies and the rational for undermining if not overthrowing tyrants, dictators and “evil” heads of foreign governments. With this premise being true, I have four questions: First, in the context of this recent 2016 presidential election, with the irrefutable evidence that is presented by Greg Palast and others, why is the Republican Party the party of voter suppression and election fraud? Why have 30 Republican Secretaries of State used Kris Kobach’s “Crosscheck” program to remove legally registered voters from the rolls.

According to Palast, “Starting in 2013 – just as the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act – a coterie of Trump operatives, under the direction of Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, created a system to purge 1.1 million Americans of color from the voter rolls of GOP–controlled states.”

DAVE GRANLUND, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM

cratic Party is so conspicuously silent and so reluctant to challenge these crimes and pursue these criminals? They should be fighting to the death to protect voting rights and count the votes of every citizen who cast or tried to cast a ballot.

Third, why has President Barak Obama and his Attorney General Loretta Lynch been conspicuously silent on this issue? It’s not that the election was stolen from Hilary Clinton; it was stolen from the American people and as president of “all Americans,” he should be using his bully pulpit to call attention to this fraud.

He swore an oath to protect this country from all enemies both foreign and domestic. If the CIA can track Russian hackers, why can’t the Department of Justice track Republicans? You don’t have to go to the Kremlin. Just go to Kansas!

Wasted effort

President Obama has said that his pet project after he leaves office will be to restore the right to vote as a Constitutional right.

Well, that’s great and quite noble.

Close the door after the cows are out of the barn and in the fields trampling the crops. Once Trump Nothing to say gets hold of the Supreme Court, Second, why is it that the Demo- Obama’s efforts will be moot. had her thinking it was going to be a cakewalk.

She would raise well over a billion dollars from her very rich and out-of-touch minions. She would use her foundation, the Clinton Foundation, like it was here multimillion-dollar piggy bank. Her daughter Chelsea took $3 million from it for her own wedding, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

Her destiny Life was just a bowl of cherries for the Clintons. Winning the election and becoming president was her due. Who cares about fraud investigations or vote-rigging against her opponent, Bernie Sanders? Hillary will not be denied! But there is a God, and He does not like ugly.

On voting night, the phony media kept claiming she was in the lead. Then as we started to conclude the tallies the truth came out and hit the Democratic Party like a ton of bricks. Donald Trump and the middle-and lower-classes would not be denied. The electoral vote totals showed that Trump won in a landslide.

Establishment Democrats were Corporations like Renault-Nissan target the Southern states, whose retrograde history of slavery and Jim Crow segregation creates a compliant and largely nonunionized source of labor. The workforce at this plant is 80 percent Black.

Not enough But corporate welfare from Mississippi wasn’t enough for Renault-Nissan. Fully 40 percent of workers at the plant aren’t employees at all, but instead are hired by a temporary agency.

They are deprived of the full pay and benefits that their Nissan counterparts receive. Organizers spoke of people who are fearful of protest because this work place presents better opportunities than the region as a whole.

Mississippi is consistently ranked among the worst states in the nation because of sparse spending for public needs and its infamous history of oppressing Black people. The song “Mississippi Goddamn” immediately comes to mind when “The Magnolia State” is a topic of discussion.

Mississippi exemplifies the suffering created by capitalist predation. It was created by a White settler population who successfully demanded the removal of the in-

nearly in catatonic shock and cried like newborn babies. The leaders of the DNC went into denial. Many of them still think they can find a way of bumping Trump off his new throne. But the American people have spoken, and there is nothing they can concoct to change that.

Moving on up

Fourth, why has most of mainstream media failed to do half of the investigative reporting that Greg Palast has done on this issue?

Why is the Fourth Estate allowing this fraud to be perpetrated upon the American people?

Ensuring that every eligible voter can vote and every cast vote is counted should be the fundamental focus of every secretary of state in this country regardless of their party affiliation. Every vote that was cast in this 2016 election should be counted and the election should not be certified until they are.

If every vote is not counted because subversive tactics were employed to ensure that they would not be, then the powers that a President Trump will derive and exercise will not be just, because the consent of the governed will not have been granted.

If one person, one vote is supposed to be the cornerstone of our democracy, then those who engage in the acts of subverting that right are un-American.

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the producer and host of the call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Leon” on SiriusXM Satellite radio channel 126.

Trump, who appears not to be “racist” or a “misogynist” and all the rest of those nasty things.

Listen, Democrats!

Our military is about to get stronger with our troops paid properly. They will become the BEST-PAID, BEST-EQUIPPED AND BEST-TRAINED military in the history of the world. That alone ensures our future and our economy. Our 45th president is walking into a mess created by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama.

But he is a successful businessman and a truth-telling, courageous, God-fearing human being.

Watch our worldwide problems start to fade away. This is going to contrast against the ideology of the current Democratic National Committee. They had better change their faulty lying ways if they expect to remain an important part of our political process.

Putin did not defeat Hillary.

Trump did.

Fortunately, the misery index that the Democrats created via the Obama approach is starting to fade away even before Trump is inaugurated. Companies who were thinking of shutting down their American plants are turning those decisions around. They are buying into making “America great again.”

The stock markets are heading towards record levels. The middle and lower class families are starting to see real hope. It looks like we are finally going to turn the misery index around. All this and Trump has yet to be sworn in. He is still filling up arenas, anticipation is of joy and optimism.

Harry C. Alford is the coMeanwhile, the Democratic leadership is going bonkers. They founder and president/CEO of are still in denial. Democrats still the National Black Chamber of want to demonize the person Commerce. digenous population. That genocide was committed so that another could take place.

Chattel slavery made cotton king, and in the process created hell on earth for enslaved people who were shipped and bred as commodities to keep the plantation economy thriving. Liberation was still a long time coming, as short-lived Reconstruction was followed by nearly 100 years of reaction and race-based terrorism.

Heroes like Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers and Chokwe Lumumba lifted their people up with revolutionary love. They were uncompromising, and each paid a personal price. But they accomplished heroic acts and their memories were an inspiration to the SHROC attendees.

Useless Democrats

ing to bat for their voters or the unions on whom they depend for money and foot soldiers.

Malcolm X said that, “Any place south of Canada is the South.”

Mississippi is not alone in using public funds to give handouts to multinational corporations like Renault-Nissan. These workers are not unique. The levels of suffering are relative. All workers exist on a precipice and hope they won’t be made redundant by the movement of international capital and the work of self-serving politicians.

Continue the struggle The struggle of Black people in places like Mississippi was the template for every movement of the last 50 years. At SHROC, one sees that can still be the case as self-determination is obviously the order of the day.

Protesting president-elect Trump doesn’t serve much of a purpose if treacherous Democrats still get votes, money and energy from activists. Cooperation and struggle are most needed now. SHROC is among those leading the charge.

The Nissan workers’ plight is also an example of the useless Democratic Party as it functions in the political duopoly. In 2008, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party campaigned on the promise of passing the Employee Free Choice Act. Popularly known as “card check,” the Renault-Nissan workers could have easily formed a union had this legislaMargaret Kimberley’s coltion been passed. Instead, the Democrats talked a good game umn appears weekly in BlackAbut never had any intention of go- gendaReport.com.

TOJ A6

NATION

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

Lawmakers back program to probe Jim Crow-era lynchings

BY ANNA DOUGLAS TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of lawmakers are close to extending the life of a Department of Justice program designed to solve cold cases where racism was likely a motive.

The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act — named for a 14-year-old African-American teen who was brutally kidnapped and lynched by two White men in Mississippi in 1955 — could be one of the final pieces of legislation President Barack Obama signs into law before leaving office. The U.S. House and Senate passed the bill this month by voice vote, with unanimous support.

The bill was shepherded through the House by civil rights era hero and Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat who has said the effort to solve racially suspicious crimes is essential to heal America from past injustices and heinous acts of violence against AfricanAmericans.

Emmett The Emmett Till Till bill, Lewis has said, is one way to “wash away these stains on our democracy.”

‘Sunset’ provision The Reauthorization of the original law from 2008 would allow Justice Department attorneys and investigators to expand their work and help more victims and their surviving families.

The pending legislation would

TIME TO CASH IN!

DAVID PIERINI/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Above is the mud-caked grave marker for 14-year-old Emmett Till, photographed on May 5, 2009 at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. The teen’s murder in Mississippi in 1955 is considered one of the events that accelerated the Civil Rights Movement. add 10 years to the timeframe the Justice Department considers, allowing investigators to take on cases of crimes through 1979 instead of the current 1969 end date.

Lawmakers also want the original “sunset” provision in the 2008 law removed. Other updates to the legislation include clarifying the Department of Justice’s reporting requirements for investigations and ensuring the federal office works closely with state officials, local activists and other interested entities.

Work praised In a statement following the

bill’s passage in the Senate, one of its supporters, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, praised the ongoing work of civil rights workers.

“Investigators can now work to discover the truth and to seek justice under our legal system for the families of these victims,” Burr said.

“Every American is worthy of the protection of our laws.

I want to thank the Till family, Alvin Sykes, congressman John Lewis, and all of the civil rights activists who helped make this law a reality. Today’s victory is theirs.”

Other sponsors Sykes, a justice and civil rights activist, inspired and championed the original Emmett Till legislation.

Other key sponsors of the legislation in the Senate this year include Sens. Patrick Leahy, DVt., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. In the House, the bill’s original sponsors include Lewis and Reps.

Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.

Proponents say the bill will enable the FBI and the Department of Justice to look into close to 200 cases of people targeted in racially suspicious violence.

Veteran refused free meal makes deal with Chili’s

BY MARC RAMIREZ DALLAS MORNING NEWS TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Ernest Walker, the Army veteran whose free meal was taken away by a Chili’s restaurant manager who doubted his military service, has reached an agreement with Brinker International, the restaurant’s parent corporation, that includes a donation to an advocacy effort for veterans.

Walker went to a Chili’s in Cedar Hill, Texas, on Veterans Day to take up the restaurant’s offer of a free burger. He said a managErnest er there wouldn’t Walker accept proof of his military service after another customer questioned whether Walker had served because he is Black.

Walker said the manager also doubted the validity of his service dog.

Separate donation As the veteran began recording the exchange on video with his cell phone, the manager grabbed Walker’s leftovers and walked away.

Chili’s apologized to Walker for his experience and placed the manager on leave. In addition to donating to Walker’s new veterans’ campaign, a separate donation to the Feed Our Vets organization will provide 100,000 meals to veterans in communities where homelessness and hunger are rising.

Walker’s effort, called Feed A Million Soldiers, aims to help veterans deal with the challenges they face as they move from military to civilian life.

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Seven-year-old Kyndall Whitley, with her mother Krisinda Whitley, signs a poster as visitors flock to the roadside memorial at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 29. Forty-nine people were shot and killed by a gunman in the largest massacre in U.S. history, on June 12.

Cities forever changed by mass shootings How massacres changed communities, residents of Aurora, Blacksburg, Charleston, Columbine, Newtown, Orlando and San Bernardino.

nearby Chino, said the attack inspired his congregation “to show what true Islam stands for” and how attackers followed an “ugly perversion of the faith.”

CHARLESTON JUNE 17, 2015

BY KEVIN SPEAR ORANDO SENTINEL TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

ORLANDO – The grief is strikingly similar, no matter where the shooting happens.

It’s “people on their knees praying.”

It’s “weeping, wailing … moaning.”

It’s “Satan was here.”

But what happens in the days, months, years — even decades — afterward? How does a city heal, and what does it learn?

A rallying cry, inevitably, after each shooting is: “It does not define us.” But maybe it does.

After the Pulse nightclub attack in June, Orlando Sentinel staff went to cities of the nation’s worst shootings to explore how the massacres changed them.

San Bernardino, Calif.; Charleston, S.C.; Aurora, Colo.; Newtown, Conn.; Blacksburg, Va.; and Denver’s suburb of Columbine were alike in their early months of grieving.

In time, each went a distinct way, depending on the circumstances of the crime and the essence of the community.

SAN BERNARDINO DEC. 2, 2015 The shooting a year ago was a gut punch to a smog-plagued community struggling with crime, lack of jobs and selfworth. Closings of military bases and a steel plant sapped the economy. The desert city filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Gathered for training and a holiday party, 14 San Bernardi-

Residents of Aurora, Colorado, attend a vigil marking the fourth anniversary of the 2012 mass shooting in a movie theater that killed 12 and wounded 70 on July 21 in Aurora. no County health workers were slaughtered by a colleague; 22 others were injured.

The gunman and his wife, of Pakistani backgrounds, died in a hail of police fire. The FBI said foreign terrorists had inspired them.

Jorge Heredia and his coworkers had waited in an Amazon warehouse, many crying, in lockdown and within hearing of the shooting.

Afterward, mourners gathered near the scene, pinning remembrances to an industrial fence. A local artist drew “SB Strong” across an arrowhead, the shape of a natural landmark on a mountain above the city.

The logo caught on instantly as empowering.

“It did bring people together,” Heredia said of the shoot-

ing. “But underneath that was this underbelly of confusion and angst.”

More united A year later, San Bernardino, Calif., is moving away from what had seemed to be a catalyst of shock and anger that would reverse the city’s ill fortune.

“Surviving this together was something that brought us together, made us into more of a community,” said City Clerk Gigi Hanna, passionate defender of her home. “But that’s not easy to sustain.”

Like Orlando, San Bernardino has a significant share of residents who think of their real homes as elsewhere.

“There is a huge part of our population that moved here because homes were less expen-

sive,” said David Wert, San Bernardino County spokesman.

“You have a lot of people who identify with where they came from — L.A. County, Orange County.”

Clergy connects But one group that was brought together was clergy, who united in response to acrimony over religion’s role in the attack.

That was especially so “among faith communities that had never had any contact with the Islamic community,” said Rabbi Hillel Cohn of Congregation Emanu El, formerly of San Bernardino and now in neighboring Redlands. “Some of that has continued.”

Amjad Khan, spokesman for Baitul Hameed Mosque in

You can’t be in Charleston and not be struck by where it happened.

A 21-year-old avowed supremacist from South Carolina went to the heart of the city and to Bible study in the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. When the shooting stopped, the pastor and eight others were dead or dying.

Painted entirely white, Mother Emanuel, as the steepled church is called, rises into the skyline as a beacon for a living memorial. It’s separated only by a sidewalk from Calhoun Street and is blocks from anywhere Charleston tourists would typically want to go.

This summer, they walked up to the church every few minutes, often for photos, including selfies, although there was little suggesting the “Emanuel Nine” tragedy or how it opened wider wounds.

Hatred the cause Unlike ever-churning Orlando, Charleston — a leading slave port and now a top tourism destination — devotes itself to sense of place and history.

In South Carolina’s steamy Low Country, the city preserves and profits from antebellum legacy. Residents not born there are described as “off” from somewhere else.

But the two cities are a match in mass murder. Many in the Black community of Charleston and in the gay community of Orlando have no doubt the shooting victims were targeted for who they were.

See CITIES, Page B2

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NATION

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

STOJ

PHOTOS BY JOE BURBANK//ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

Above is a panoramic view of Sandy Hook Elementary School on July 26, the new school built on the site of a mass shooting where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in 2012.

CITIES

“I had never heard gunshots before, and your mind is trying to place and figure out what is happening,” said Kristina Anderson, speaking about chaos in her sophomore French class.

“I often describe it as an ax being taken to a piece of wood.”

from B1

In the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook shootings, the attackers’ mental illnesses were blamed.

In Charleston and Orlando, “they died because of hatred,” said Princess Hollis, College of Charleston student and member of the LGBTQ justice group Southerners on New Ground.

Reliving it

Forgiveness prevailed For Charleston Area Justice Ministry, an association of 30 churches, the shooting must be a defining point in the city’s history.

“We are talking about redemption, to redeem not only Emanuel Nine but the institution of slavery that just permeates life here,” said Danny Reed, minister at the Unitarian Church in Charleston, one of the association’s members.

Immediately after the massacre, Charleston braced for a race riot.

But in court two days later, victims’ families forgave the alleged assailant, an act so compelling the church and city were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

“How can you not honor that? It changed everything,” said Marjory Wentworth, poet laureate of South Carolina and an author of the book “We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel.”

“It became this sort of transcendent grace that permeated everything after that,” Wentworth said.

Knowing ‘their place’ But others, Black and White, only saw further injustice.

Jon Hale, a College of Charleston history professor, said the city feared violence: “The narrative that I thought was shoved on Charleston was one of unity and then, of course, of forgiveness.”

Charles Heyward, retired Presbyterian minister, said African-Americans did not erupt because under a history of repression “everybody knows their place.”

“The families offering their forgiveness right up front, I just think that’s part of understanding our place,” Heyward said.

There is growing regret that memory of Emanuel Nine endures even as its potency for change fades.

State Rep. Wendell Gilliard said his city is getting back to “business as usual and it’s dangerous.”

Added Ansley Pope of Southerners on New Ground: “It’s going to take a lot more than a year and a massacre to make people want to shift and change their minds.”

SANDY HOOK DEC. 14, 2012 Newtown, Conn., seems more compact than its population of 28,000 would suggest. The New England village snuggles privately in thick woods, a long commute from urban threats.

Sandy Hook Elementary is in its own sanctuary, beyond a firehouse at the end of a narrow road and hidden by a curtain of trees.

It was there that a 20-year-old local resident shot his way through a school window. He had murdered his mother that

Stephen and Cheyenne Izaguirre, from Austin, Texas, visit the Columbine Memorial, located near Columbine High School, July 22, 2016. Columbine is the site of a mass shooting that killed 12 students and one teacher in 1999. morning, taking from her a military-style rifle. The attacker killed 20 children, six staff and, finally, himself.

The children were 6 and 7 years old.

The five minutes of violence shattered confidence that the close community of Sandy Hook could raise families in a safe environment.

“It hurt us in a way that nothing else could have,” said Patricia Llodra, Newtown’s First Selectman, a mayorlike position.

Bonds preserved Four years later, the town’s cohesiveness has preserved the bonds of tragedy.

Of 20 families of the slain children, only one has left, a move that had been planned before the shooting. From Llodra and others, it’s evident the town has gained toughness.

They call it resilience.

But, said Monsignor Robert Weiss, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, daily conversation can be a word or two from despair.

“There are some who want to get past this, there are some who are still living in it, and there are some still trying to understand and cope with it,” said Weiss.

Half-million cards The Monsignor and St. Rose of Lima rose to the agony, conducting nonstop funerals and responding to an avalanche of sympathy.

“I would say our parish alone received well over a half-million cards, letters, prayer chains, diaries, rosaries,” Weiss said. “Our house, you couldn’t even walk through the hallways.”

Another force is Llodra, former Sandy Hook teacher and the town’s chief executive then and today. She is guarded, analytical and vigilant for a new normal.

“We have to accept that our brains are rewired,” Llodra said. “Those of us who were closest to the event, the most impacted, probably have the most change in our brains. So we need to understand who we are, that we process things a little bit differently.”

After the shooting, Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden were determined to change a nation’s behavior.

Sandy Hook Promise They founded Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), which teaches students and staff to recognize and respond to warnings of violence. Having connected

with a million students nationwide, SHP partnered this fall with Miami-Dade County schools, the nation’s fourth-largest district.

There is no end to research, speeches and managerial tasks. The two scrimp on time for meals, sleep and the grief counseling they know they should be getting.

Hockley lost her 6-yearold son, Dylan. Barden lost his 7-year-old, Daniel.

“It took the ultimate loss, the ultimate tragedy for us to finally wake up and say ‘we have to do something,’” Barden said. “I’m not proud of that.”

AURORA JULY 20, 2012 On anniversaries of the theater shooting that killed 12 people and wounded 70, Todd Ponton and Jeremy Barber erect a dozen crosses, each with a red heart and victim’s photo, along a busy road near the site of the attack.

Last year, many people lingered at the impromptu memorial, the two area residents said.

“This year, nothing,” said Ponton, watching as a young woman in tears sat on a sidewalk in front of a cross, one of few visitors during a 30-minute span.

With a population of 350,000, Aurora is larger than Orlando and other cities Sentinel staff visited. Its metro area, which includes Denver, has 2.8 million residents.

Aurora lacks a downtown skyline and is mostly suburban. What residents tend to note about the city is not cohesiveness but diversity, with 133 languages spoken in public schools.

‘Victory moments’ At the attacker’s trial last year, it took the judge an hour to read 165 verdicts of guilty, resulting in a life sentence for each murder and more than 3,000 years for attempted murders.

The courtroom cheered.

Chelsea Sobolik was with friends in the theater, and some were wounded.

She recalls “victory moments,” such as getting out of bed days after the attack and going to a movie a year after.

With the trial over, her healing continues, and Sobolik is considering a career in victim advocacy.

“People tend to forget about things that aren’t making media buzz anymore,” she said. “It makes people who were affected feel like everybody has forgotten about them.”

VIRGINIA TECH APRIL 16, 2007 Renee Cloyd gives the impression she has found, not lost, her way with grief.

She is calm, adroit and frank. If you live in Blacksburg, Va., you probably know her.

Her daughter, Austin, nine days from turning 19, was among the first fatally shot in a classroom and the only victim from Blacksburg.

“Austin is my mark on the world,” Cloyd said. “I hope to live healthy until I’m 92.

But if I die tomorrow, then I’ve done my thing.”

Her daughter grew up volunteering, including with Appalachia Service Project, repairing homes of the region’s poorest.

After Austin died, her parents immersed themselves in volunteering. Her father, Bryan, a Tech professor, enlisted students and went to Haiti to build a school and a bridge.

Both Cloyds led Tech students in Appalachia Service Project trips, recruiting then-Gov. Tim Kaine and his wife to pitch in.

Good from evil They helped launch the university’s VT Engage, connecting students with community service.

They invested the money they got from the survivors’ fund in a scholarship in their daughter’s name. Recipients have worked with soy milk in Kenya, Syrian refugees in Germany and clean water in Virginia.

“We’ve had people say to us, ‘we are proud of how you are handling it,’” said Cloyd, who then offered her belief they were part of something much larger.

“My faith allows me to say Satan was here that day.

Before this happened, I wasn’t big on talking about Satan,” she said. “However, God turned that and made something good of it.”

32 killed The school is storied and acclaimed, and western Virginia’s fame, joy and a primary employer.

Its home, Blacksburg, sits picturesquely in the lap of canopied mountains and far from the cultural gravity of a big city.

The school and town are inseparable from the shooting, in which a student chained doors shut as he killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.

Students from the time of the shooting have moved on. One, however, is an unflinching, unforgettable tie to the tragedy, say those who encounter her.

The classroom was on the second floor of a building with doors the attacker chained shut. Anderson was shot when the rampage began and then twice more.

“He came back again, and that was very scary because the first time was so, so quick. … But the second time there was more time between the shots. As I’m sitting there, kind of laying there, panting, almost going between opening my eyes and closing them, you’re hoping he doesn’t see you, you’re hoping that it’s not going to be you, and he shot me in the lower back.”

Anderson directs the nonprofit Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools that she founded to ensure memory of the massacre continues in “meaningful ways.” In telling her story, pegging it to safety initiatives, she seeks to thwart violence “years before it happens.”

There are many small and large instances of the spirit of volunteering in Blacksburg in the aftermath of the attack.

John Welch’s French teacher was killed. Mired in grief, he created Teach for Madame, organizing Tech students for French instruction in grade schools.

Welch graduated as the program expanded.

COLUMBINE APRIL 20, 1999 A mile high and still dwarfed by towering Rockies, the suburban community of Columbine High School in Jefferson County feels enlivened by scenery and mountain breezes.

It also is at peace with its tragedy.

A dozen students and a teacher were killed, and 21 were wounded when two seniors went on a rampage and then killed themselves.

Carolyn Mear’s son, a sophomore, escaped injury by hiding in a cafeteria closet. The tragedy compelled her to earn a doctorate. She is now a Denver University professor, writing and speaking about community trauma, something she experienced intimately while waiting with families for word of her son.

“There were people crying, sobbing, there were people catatonic, there were people angry, there were people on their knees praying,” Mears said. “I thought, ‘this is what it is like to be human. This is a world I never knew, this incredible uncertainty: Is my son alive or dead?’”

‘I Love U Guys’ The attack provoked changes in police tactics and fostered efforts to prevent or respond to such violence. It has also made Columbine a focal point of how to deal with shootings.

Educators from across the U.S. join a symposium each summer at Columbine brought about by an attack in 2006 at Platte Canyon High School, less than an hour from Columbine.

A gunman held seven girls hostage and killed

one, Emily Keyes, after she texted “I love u guys” to her parents.

They founded “I Love U Guys” Foundation, which provides emergency protocols for schools nationwide.

The symposium gets emphasis at lunch in the Columbine cafeteria, where the attackers had planted propane bombs that didn’t explode.

The first shot to death was Rachel Scott, 17.

Rachel’s Challenge Her father started Rachel’s Challenge, based on a “code of ethics” she wrote weeks before her death that included her belief that an act of compassion can start a chain reaction of compassion.

The program, with a $5 million annual budget, goes to 1,000 schools a year in nearly all states to lessen bullying and foster a “culture of kindness.”

“We don’t tell students what to do,” said Rob Unger, chief executive officer.

“We tell the story of young lady who made a huge difference in lives.”

ORLANDO JUNE 12, 2016 The Pulse shooting was the nation’s deadliest. How will it be remembered, and will the community come together or drift apart?

Orlando is defined by people from elsewhere and not deeply rooted, as are San Bernardino and Aurora. In those cities, the memory of the massacres appears less resolute.

Newtown, of “faith, family and friends,” said Monsignor Weiss, defines closeknit. Blacksburg is a connected, informed college town. If your parents aren’t from Charleston, some residents say, you are nearly an outsider. Memory has solid footing in those places.

But as healing communities have taken on sweeping issues of gun control and safer schools, Orlando, like Charleston, has been challenged with addressing something more finite: its own identity.

Call to action Thousands in Orlando heard a call to action during a candlelight vigil one week after the Pulse shooting.

“We cannot sit by and lose any more lives to senseless acts of violence,” said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. “We cannot allow the deaths of 49 of our brothers and sisters to be in vain. We cannot let any more of our children grow up fearful, fearful of telling their parents, telling their pastors, telling their friends what is in their hearts.”

Nearly five months later, at Orlando’s Come Out With Pride celebration in November, Pulse was spoken of by many as a reminder that bigotry endures but also as perhaps an awakening.

With the Pride parade about to start, Richard Vergara arrived in an Uber cab four blocks from crowded Lake Eola Park. He got out to walk, wearing a rainbow tank top and assorted bead necklaces. An Orlando policeman on a bike immediately rode up to him.

“He asked me if I would like an escort,” Vergara said, astonished and grateful for the gesture of concern.

“That would have never happened a few years ago.”

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DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

Viola Davis will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Jan 5, the first star of the year to be honored. The star of the new movie, “Fences,’’ has a long list of accomplishments. She has won an Emmy for her starring role in ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder,” two Tony Awards for her roles in “Fences” and “King Hedley II” on Broadway.

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Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier. com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/ glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

Donald Glover has been nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of best performance by an actor in a TV series, musical or comedy.

He stars in the new series, “Atlanta.” He won a Critics Choice award this month for the role.

JAY L. CLENDENIN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Book on Mary J. Blige was more than 20 years in the making

BY TIMOTHY FINN KANSAS CITY STAR/TNS

Danny Alexander has been writing about music for decades for various print and online media. He spent three years exploring the music of one of his favorite artists, Mary J. Blige.

In March, the University of Texas Press published the Kansas City writer’s book, “Real Love, No Drama: The Music of Mary J. Blige,” which covers the arc of her 25-year music career.

Alexander spoke to The Star recently about Blige, her stature in music and what he learned from this project.

Q: What prompted you to write this book?

A: I wanted to write about women in the past quarter century, and no one really compares to Mary J. Blige in terms of the depth, stature and complexity and evolution, the maturity and substance.

Women in general and Black artists very often aren’t talked about as artists. Some White men are analyzed to death. Everything they do is an artistic statement. I wanted to write about her as an artist.

Q: When and how did you become interested in her music?

A: My first reaction to her wasn’t really positive. I was into the wave of music she was part of, that whole steady growth of women singers who seemed to come in the wake of Janet Jackson’s “Control,” Black women mixing hip-hop and soul and R&B in the late ’80s and early ’90s who took a larger role on the radio than before. I was really into that: Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, Jody Watley, Pebbles and others.

Mary J. Blige came along and there was all this hype about Puff Daddy and the idea that this was something new, and she was the queen of hip-hop/soul and was doing something no one else had done. To me it sounded like the Puff

Daddy version of the sort of New Jack Swing kind of music happening at the time. I let Puff Daddy’s name lead me to believe she was a producer’s pawn.

Q: What changed your mind?

A: I didn’t really get into it at all until “My Life” (1994).

What really caught me was that Rose Royce cover, “I’m Goin’ Down,” which was really moving and powerful and hit me like great soul music.

When she broke away from Puff Daddy and made “Share My World,” I was surprised how powerful and ambitious it was. From then on, I thought she’d grown into the role she was supposed to be playing.

She didn’t have the strongest voice. But she did have her own thing, this sort of rawness that got over, especially with the rappers at the time.

That video of her and Method Man, “You’re All I Need,” that was very symbolic of what she represented at that moment: an R&B singer who could be embraced by rap.

Q: Talk about her voice, which is so elemental to her identity.

A: I think it’s gotten better. Her voice was pretty rough when she started. It was affected. She grew up in both Pentecostal and Baptists churches, and she learned a lot from singing in the Pentecostal church.

She knows how to make

people feel things with her voice. It’s very raw and powerful, and over the years she has figured out how to refine it. I think she’s a much better singer today than she has ever been.

Q: What is her place in music today?

A: I think of her in terms of a certain movement I think is important in terms of pop music history: the late ’80s to early ’90s, when women were like 25 percent of the hit singles. It’s never been that high again.

She is sort of the survivor of that group. There is also Mariah Carey. But people look at them differently.

Mary is now someone people perceive as having substance.

She spent 15 years writing about trying to be in a committed relationship and marriage and the ups and downs of everyday life as opposed to the huge romantic drama and struggles of youth.

In my head, that’s sort of a Springsteen comparison: What do you do once you’re no longer a rebel, when now you’re the grownup?

I think of only a handful of artists that way.

It’s hard to think of others in R&B who kind of represent the working class the way she does. Everyone does it on some level, but she seems like an everyday woman, and everyday women relate to her.

Q: What did you discover or learn from writing your book?

A: It took about three years of my life, not counting the 20 I spent listening to her music.

When you embark on something like that, it’s kind of a gamble. I was really happy I liked her more at the end of it than when I started. I liked her enough to say that I thought she was one of the most important figures in music over the past 25 years, but by the end of it, I really saw her as peerless and admired on all sorts of levels.

UNIVERSOUL CIRCUS

See the Xtreme Motorcycles and other acts in the UniverSoul Circus on Jan. 26 through Feb. 2 at the Prime Osborn Convention Center Area in Jacksonville.

MIKE EPPS

Tickets are on sale for the Miami Festival of Laughs is Jan. 14 at the James L. Knight Center. The 8 p.m. show will feature Michael Blackson, Benji Brown, Arnez J, Mike Epps, Jay Pharoah and Felipe Esparza.

EARTH, WIND & FIRE

Tickets are on sale for a March 9 concert featuring Earth, Wind & Fire at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Orlando: The fourth annual MLK South Street Jazz & Blues Cookout takes place Jan. 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the John H. Jackson Center, 1002 W. Carter St. Details: Dropd. williams@gmail.com or call 407-234-1527.

Clearwater: Catch Gladys

Knight on Jan. 20 at Ruth Eckerd Hall for an 8 p.m. show.

Tampa: The Tampa Bay Soul Fest featuring Brian McKnight, Johnny Gill and Al B. Sure is Jan. 15 at the USF Sun Dome.

Orlando: A Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson Tribute is 7 p.m. Dec. 28 at the House of Blues Orlando.

Miami Gardens: Obamacare Awareness workshops and enrollment will be held every

Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Betty T. Ferguson Center, 3000 NW 199th St. Licensed agents will be on site.

Jacksonville: An Evening with Nth Power takes place Dec. 30 at the Ritz Theatre.

Orlando: The Roots will perform Dec. 29 at the House of Blues Orlando and at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on New Year’s Eve.

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HOLIDAYS

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

STOJ

Multicultural dolls a hit for retailers Demand for more diversity drives stores to add more brands

BY KAVITA KUMAR STAR TRIBUNE/TNS

MINNEAPOLIS – One of the few items on the Christmas list of Emily Noreen’s 4-year-old daughter is a doll she can call her own.

“I want her to have something preferably that looks like her, which is hard because their father is African-American and I’m White,” Noreen said.

So she was heartened to find more than one option in the Our Generation line, a less-expensive alternative to American Girl, while perusing the toy aisles of Target. After some deliberation, she picked out a doll named Nahla, whose skin is a bit darker than her daughter’s but whose curly hair was pretty close.

Richard Barry, chief merchandising officer for Toys ‘R’ Us, said the changes in the toy aisles are happening as toymakers and retailers alike are finally listening to customers’ demands for more diversity.

“We hear from customers,” he said. “We get applauded on the things we have, but they are also very keen to tell us the things we don’t or the things they would like us to have. We feed that back to our manufacturing partners.”

Journey Girls The need for more multicultural options was one of the insights Toys ‘R’ Us took to heart when developing its private-label line of dolls called Journey Girls. Launched in 2010 with four dolls, it has expanded to seven dolls of all shades.

While a spokeswoman said the blond-haired, blue-eyed doll is the most popular, Barry said the racially diverse offerings across many brands have been selling well, giving manufacturers more confidence to do even more. You can see it, he said, in the success of Hasbro’s Baby Alive dolls.

“A key driver of the success of that brand this year has been diversity and ethnicities,” he said.

“Hasbro has always had the blueeyed, blond-haired Baby Alive doll. In adding other ethnicities, they’ve seen demand for that line significantly increase. It’s definitely working.”

More selections Toys ‘R’ Us also recently started carrying American Girl’s Truly Me collection in select stores, which includes dozens of dolls of all shades, eye colors and hairstyles, including one without hair and that come with accessories such as crutches, diabetes kits and wheelchairs.

American Girl added another Black character to its lineup of historical dolls this summer, a girl who grows up in civil rightsera Detroit.

Earlier this year, Wal-Mart also expanded the range of skin colors and hairstyles in its My Life As and My Sweet Love doll collections, including even adding an 18-inch boy doll, a first for a mass retailer, said spokeswoman

PHOTOS BY LEILA NAVIDI/MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE/TNS

The Our Generation doll display is shown at the Champlin Target on Dec. 7 in Champlin, Minn.

“As this country is forged in more mixed marriages and more different ethnic background getting married, you can’t label anymore,” he said. “Everybody looks different.”

Remembering Addy

A diverse collection of dolls is on display at the Champlin Target on Dec. 7 in Champlin, Minn.

Danit Marquardt.

There also are two new Disney princesses this year, joining Elsa and Ariel. Products featuring Elena of Avalor, who is Latina, and Moana, a Hawaiian heroine, are a common site on shelves this holiday.

Makeup for Barbie Barbie, who set an unrealistic standard of beauty for generations of little girls, received a major makeover this year.

Mattel, which had seen sales of its flagship brand faltering for years, hoped to make Barbie more relevant with a new Fash-

ionistas line with dolls that come in with seven different skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles.

She was also finally given more realistic body proportions and comes in three sizes — curvy, petite and tall. The changes have helped Barbie get her groove back with sales rising this year.

“It’s doing extremely well,” said Jim Silver, editor of toy review site TTPM. “It’s one — if not the — hottest segment of Barbie.”

He added that it’s meaningful that Mattel has refrained from labeling the new Barbies, but instead has given them a range of skin tones and eye colors.

Anthonia Akitunde, editorin-chief of Mater Mea, a website focused on women of color, remembers her excitement when American Girl introduced Addy Walker in 1990s, the brand’s first Black character.

Even though she couldn’t afford one, it was still a special moment for her.

“I was excited to see someone with brown skin,” she said. “She had a gap (in her teeth) and I had a gap. There was something comforting in seeing a doll who on the surface level looks like me.”

These days, she sees her Facebook news feed light up whenever there are new launches of other racially diverse dolls. She recalled the buzz, for example, about Naturally Perfect Dolls, which are primarily sold online and celebrate kinky and curly hair as an alternative to Black dolls with straight hair.

Still, she hears about fights in the toys aisles when daughters want a White doll while the mothers insist on getting a Black doll.

“If all she’s seeing is Elsa and this long braid, it’s hard to counter that messaging,” Akitunde said.

Social Security’s gift to kids is security

BY NICOLE TIGGEMANN TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

This is the season of caring.

No matter your religion or belief, December is also considered a time to focus on the children we love.

Whether we’re wrapping Santa’s gifts, buying Hanukkah treats, decorating the house in celebration of Kwanzaa, or volunteering for a toy drive, children add joy to the holiday season. And we at Social Security definitely know a thing or two about helping children.

Often overlooked in the paperwork that prospective parents fill out in preparation for a child’s birth is an application for a Social Security number and card.

Typically, the hospital will ask if you want to apply for a Social Security number for your newborn as part of the birth registration process. This is the easiest and fastest way to apply. The Social Security card typically arrives about a week to 10 days after that little bundle of joy.

What you’ll need A child needs a Social Secu-

rity number if he or she is going to have a bank account, if a relative is buying savings bonds for the child, if the child will have medical coverage, or if the child will receive government services.

You’ll also need a Social Security number for a child to claim him or her on your tax returns.

If you wait to apply, you will have to visit a Social Security office and you’ll need to: Complete an Application for a Social Security Card (Form SS5); Show original documents proving your child’s U.S. citizenship, age, and identity; and Show documents proving your identity.

Qualifying for SSI Remember, a child age 12 or older requesting an original Social Security number must appear in person for the interview, even though a parent or guardian will sign the application on the child’s behalf.

Social Security is dedicated to helping children with qualifying disabilities and their families through the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.

To qualify for SSI:

The child must have a physical or mental condition, or a combination of conditions, resulting in “marked and severe functional limitations.” This means that the condition(s) must severely limit your child’s activities; The child’s condition(s) must be severe, last for at least 12 months, or be expected to result in death; If your child’s condition(s) does not result in “marked and severe limitations,” or does not result in those limitations lasting for at least 12 months, your child will not qualify for SSI; and The child must not be working and earning more than $1,090 a month in 2016. (This amount usually changes every year.) If he or she is working and earning that much money, your child will not be eligible for benefits.

Learn the details about benefits for children by reading our publication, Benefits for Children with Disabilities, available at www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs.

This column was prepared by the Social Security Administration. For answers to specific Social Security questions, call toll-free 800-772-1213 or visit www.socialsecurity.gov.

Prettie Girls!

Stacey McBride-Irby has begun to see a cultural shift. She grew up playing with White Barbies, which inspired her to go to work at Mattel.

She worked there for 15 years, designing a line of So In Style Barbies in 2009 with four different skin tones and fuller noses and lips compared to the previous Black Barbies who were basically identical to the White versions.

She left Mattel several years ago to start her own diverse line called Prettie Girls! dolls, which come with a South Asian, East Asian, Hispanic, African, African-American and White character.

Wal-Mart has started carrying it. In fact, she said, it was the nation’s largest retailer that approached her at a toy fair.

“Consumers have been voicing their opinion, and fortunately the retailers and manufacturers are finally listening,” she said. “And consumers are finally purchasing the dolls they’re crying out for.”

It’s a reflection, too, that the notion of beauty is much broader today, a message that is hitting home as more diverse models and actresses become more common.

“It’s not just a mom telling a little girl that black is beautiful, but they can see it on the TV or in a magazine,” she said.

Or in a doll.

Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott (21) jumps into the Salvation Army red kettle after scoring a second quarter touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, Dec. 18 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

RICHARD W. RODRIQUEZ/ FORT WORTH STARTELEGRAM/TNS

Ezekiel Elliott’s celebration boosts donations to Salvation Army

BY CLARENCE E. HILL JR. FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM/TNS

A small jump for Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott has spurred a big jump in donations for the Salvation Army.

Elliott’s now viral end zone cel-

ebration in which he jumped in the red kettle bucket in the back of the end zone during Sunday’s 26-20 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has brought a great amount of attention and money to the Salvation Army.

Per ESPN’s Darren Rovell, the Salvation Army raised $182,000 though online donations in first 14 hours after Elliott’s red kettle jump. That’s a 61 percent increase.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Salvation Army and its annual fundraiser during the holiday season.

STOJ

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Transforming that leftover holiday turkey or ham from an ordinary dish you heat up in the microwave or let go to waste into an extraordinary meal may be easier than you think.

From flatbread pizza to a hearty stew, enhancing your everyday meals is easy with Holland House Cooking Wines, available in five flavors – Marsala, Sherry, White, Red and White with Lemon. The premium, flavor-enhancing cooking wines are a go-to countertop ingredient and can be used to add a bold boost to any dish whether it’s around the holidays or just pasta for an any-night family dinner.

These recipes from Guy Meikle, corporate chef for Mizkan America, Inc., show how easy it is to whip up a new twist on holiday leftovers with Holland House Cooking Wines. You can also find quick tips for boosting the flavor of everyday meals on the label of each bottle.

Find more recipes and tips at HollandHouseFlavors. com.

FAMILY BARBECUE TURKEY MINI FLATBREAD Servings: 4 Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes 2 cups Holland House Marsala Cooking Wine 1/2 cup barbecue sauce 1 1/2 cups roasted turkey, large diced 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 tablespoons yellow onion, small diced 1cup zucchini, large diced 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese 1 cup smoked Gouda cheese, shredded 1 cup fontina cheese, shredded 2 flatbreads (approximately 8 inches each)

2 teaspoons cilantro, chopped Heat oven to 400 F. In small saucepan, reduce cooking wine to about 1/2 cup. Mix with barbecue sauce.

Toss diced turkey with about 1 tablespoon of sauce and set the entire mixture aside.

Heat oil and saute onion and zucchini about 3 minutes over high heat. Season with garlic salt and remove from heat; mix in Parmesan cheese. Set aside.

In small bowl, mix Gouda and fontina cheeses together and set aside.

Spread each flatbread with an even layer of barbecue sauce. Top each with 1 cup cheese and half the zucchini and turkey mixtures.

Bake 10 minutes.

Garnish with chopped cilantro then cut flatbreads in half to serve.

TURKEY AND CARAMELIZED ONION JAM STUFFED EMPANADAS Servings: 15 Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup turkey, diced into 1/2inch cubes 2 tablespoons dried figs, diced into 1/2-inch cubes 1 cup button mushrooms, minced 3 tablespoons caramelized onions 2 tablespoons Holland House Marsala Cooking Wine salt, to taste pepper, to taste Empanada Dough (recipe below) 1 egg, beaten Cranberry Dipping Sauce (recipe below) Heat oven to 350 F. In pan, heat butter; add turkey, figs, mushrooms and caramelized onions.

Deglaze pan with cooking wine; season with salt and pepper, and cool.

Roll out dough 1/8- to 1/4inch thick and cut into 15 3-inch circles.

Brush egg on entire disc of dough, eliminating any air bubbles, and place 1 table­spoon filling in center of each circle.

Fold dough in half and crimp with fork; prick top with toothpick to let steam out.

Place empanada on greased sheet tray and brush with remaining egg; bake 15 min­ utes until golden brown.

Place on plate and serve with Cranberry Dipping Sauce.

EMPANADA DOUGH Servings: 15 Cook time: 5 minutes 2 1/4 cups allpurpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 4 ounces butter 1 egg 1/3 cup ice water

FOOD

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar Sift flour and salt.

Cut butter into small cubes and blend into flour.

Whisk together egg, ice water and vinegar.

Add egg mixture to flour and mix until just incorporated.

HEARTY HAM AND BEAN PROTEIN BOWL Servings: 4-6 Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 30-45 minutes Total time: 3 hours 1 ham bone 12 cups water, divided 2 bay leaves 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns 1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus 3 tablespoons, divided 1 cup yellow onion, small diced, plus 3 tablespoons finely chopped, divided 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1/4 cup Holland House Red Cooking Wine 3 cans (15 ounces each) pinto beans, undrained 1/2 cup sour cream 8 ounces wild rice 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

B5

On table, knead dough; wrap and chill 1 hour.

CRANBERRY ORANGE MARSALA DIPPING SAUCE Servings: 15 Cook time: 5 minutes 1 1/2 cups whole cranberry sauce

1/8 teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons Holland House Sherry Cooking Wine 3 cups fresh okra, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces at an angle 1 1/2 cups grilled corn kernels 1 1/2 cups kosher dill pickle, sliced 1/4 cup parsley 4 teaspoons tarragon To prepare broth: In 4-quart stock pot, combine ham bone, 8 cups water, bay leaves and peppercorns. Bring to boil.

Reduce heat and simmer, covered, about 2 hours. Strain broth and set aside.

In same stock pot, heat 1/4 cup oil and saute 1 cup onion and garlic 2 minutes. Pour in red cooking wine and reduce by half. Add in canned pinto beans; no need to drain. Bring to boil and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer soup about 30-45

2 tablespoons whole unpeeled orange, finely chopped 3 tablespoons Holland House Marsala Cooking wine Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

minutes, or until liquid is reduced to stew-like consistency.

Place sour cream in mixing bowl and ladle in some cook­ing liquid to temper it. Add back to soup while stirring. Let simmer a few minutes.

To prepare rice: In small saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons oil. Add remaining onion and saute 1-2 minutes. Add rice and stir until coated with oil.

Pour in remaining water and cook covered about 45 minutes, or until rice is tender. Remove from heat and rest, covered, 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and sherry cooking wine.

In 10-inch skillet, heat remain­ ing oil. Saute okra about 3 min­ utes, or until slightly charred.

For each bowl: Place rice and stew in center and garnish with 1/4 cup grilled corn, 1/4 cup diced pickles, 1/2 cup okra, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley and sprinkle of tarragon.

B6

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

Whether it’s your first or your fiftieth Kwanzaa, Publix wishes you the happiest of holidays.

For fifty years, the celebration of Kwanzaa has brought family and friends together to rejoice and reflect on the principles of Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith.

Publix wishes you and yours a Joyous Kwanzaa.

S

FOOD

B6

DECEMBER 23 – DECEMBER 29, 2016

Put a fresh take on post-holiday sandwiches FROM FAMILY FEATURES

For most people, the day after a big holiday gathering means two things: a refrigerator filled with opportunity and a marked lack of energy. Fortunately, there are easy ways to make the most of the remnants of your holiday meal so you can take it easy and enjoy a day filled with good food and good rest.

Sandwiches are a natural solution for post-holiday noshing, but all those excep­tional entrees practically beg for one last chance to shine. Put a fresh, wholesome twist on this year’s sandwiches by ditching the traditional condiments and dressing up your bread with a new kind of spread. New hummus-based Sabra Spreads – available in Garlic Herb, Honey Mustard and Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper – have 75 percent less fat than the leading spread, mayonnaise, and pair perfectly with sandwiches and wraps of all kinds.

Make an upgrade with these stepped-up takes on the traditional turkey sandwich and more, and find additional mouthwatering inspiration at Sabra.com.

GRILLED PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM AND ARUGULA SANDWICH Recipe courtesy of Chelsey of C it Nutritionally Servings: 2 Mushrooms: 4 portobello mushroom caps, stems removed 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/2 tablespoon olive oil freshly ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika Sandwich: 1 baguette (12 inches), cut into two pieces and halved lengthwise 2 tablespoons Sabra Spreads Garlic & Herb 1 roasted bell pepper 1 cup arugula Gently clean portobello mushroom caps with cloth just prior to preparation.

In medium to large bowl, combine balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and whisk together with fork. Add mushroom caps to bowl and soak until mushrooms are saturated with marinade.

Remove mushroom caps from bowl and place on plate.

Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and smoked paprika.

Gently coat grill, grill pan or large skillet with olive oil or nonstick spray and heat over medium heat.

Sear mushrooms for about 2 minutes on each side, until cooked through and mushroom caps darken in color. Set cooked mushrooms aside.

To assemble sandwich: coat bottom piece of baguette with spread. Add roasted bell pepper, arugula and cooked mushrooms.

In clean skillet over medium heat, sear assembled sandwich about 3 minutes on each side until bread is heated through.

TURKEY SANDWICH WITH CRANBERRY AND HUMMUS Servings: 1 2 slices sourdough bread Sabra Spreads Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Bibb or Boston lettuce purple onion, thinly sliced leftover turkey, sliced about 1/4-inch thick cranberry sauce salt, to taste pepper, to taste Cover one slice of bread with spread then layer lettuce, purple onion, turkey, cran­berry sauce, another layer of lettuce, salt and pepper.

Add another squeeze of spread and second piece of bread.

TURKEY, PROSCIUTTO AND HUMMUS SANDWICH Servings: 1 2 slices whole-wheat bread, toasted Sabra Spreads Garlic Herb tender arugula leftover turkey, sliced about 1/4-inch thick 1 ounce thinly sliced prosciutto Cover bottom slice of bread with spread then layer arugula, turkey and prosciutto to build club-style sandwich. Add another squeeze of spread and top piece of bread.

TOJ

GARLIC TARRAGON ROASTED BEET SANDWICHES Recipe courtesy of Stephanie McKercher of The Grateful Grazer Servings: 2 Roasted beets: 3 beets (about 1 1/2 cups), peeled and sliced in thin rounds 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves salt, to taste pepper, to taste Garlic Tarragon Spread: 1/4 cup Sabra Spreads Garlic Herb 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves salt, to taste pepper, to taste Sandwiches: 2 whole grain rolls 1/2 apple, sliced in thin rounds 1/2 cup micro greens 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion Heat oven to 425 F and prepare baking sheet. In mixing bowl, combine beets, sesame oil and tarragon then spread on baking sheet. Roast until beets are tender and browned in areas, about 25-30 minutes.

While beets are roasting, use same mix­ ing bowl to prepare spread. Stir together spread, tarragon, salt and pepper. Cover bowl and store in refrigerator until beets are ready.

Remove beets from oven and allow to cool slightly before assembling sandwiches.

Slice rolls in half and spread garlic tarragon spread on inside of each roll. Top bottom half of roll with beets, apple slices, micro greens and red onion, then top with remain­ ing half of bun.

CHICKEN AND WAFFLES SANDWICH Recipe courtesy of Chelsea LeBlanc of Chelsea’s Choices Servings: 4 1 tablespoon egg whites 2 teaspoons Sabra Spreads Garlic & Herb 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary, plus additional for garnish 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon paprika 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 4 boneless, skinless chicken tenders 4 frozen waffles 1/2 cup fresh spinach 4 tablespoons Sabra Spreads Honey Mustard 1/2 cup maple syrup Heat oven to 425 F and line baking sheet with aluminum foil.

In medium bowl, whisk together egg whites and garlic and herb spread.

On plate, gently mix together panko bread crumbs, 1 teaspoon rosemary, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper.

Dip chicken into egg white mixture then into bread crumb mixture.

Place on baking sheet and bake 15-20 minutes, or until internal temperature is 165 F, flipping chicken at halfway mark.

In toaster oven, toast waffles until warm and crisp. Cut into fourths and top with spinach and 1/2 tablespoon honey mustard spread.

Cut chicken tenders in half and place atop waffles. Top with another waffle quarter.

Garnish with rosemary and serve with maple syrup.