VOL IX ISSUE 6 November 6, 2019
MY TRUTH
Veteran journalist’s Jeremiah, Barack, and B groundbreaking show V L. H H o l y H a n d s ! boasts impressive numbers The courage that allowed us., said Malcolm X. Unfortunately, most of us have QUIT PLAYIN’ y
Cheryl Smith Publisher
Love is...
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African Americans to confront chattel slavery, the Black Codes, Jim Crow, and secondclass citizenship were not emboldened by America’s “founding fathers.” We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on
We didn’t seat a representative in the Continental Congress. No, for us…for Black people in Maya Angelou’s “Yet to be United States,” our “Founding Fathers” wore robes and ecumenical vestments.
little knowledge of the part that preachers played in our race and our history. Meet Jeremiah Wright! Dr. Jeremiah Wright is a throwback to the petulant See QUIT, page 5
Rep. Bass addresses media
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent With Dr. Lisa Pecot-Hebert
Have you ever lost someone and thought, “I wish I had spent more time with them?” It’s a horrible feeling. For years, I’ve heard people quote the late, great Maya Angelou. Then one day, I was with that phenomenal woman and we were talking about many of her friends who had transitioned, and she said those profound words to me: “Growing old isn’t for sissies!” As I get older, I see that there are challenges, and one of the biggest challenges is losing people you care about. Which brings me to my truth. At FAMU’s Homecoming a few weeks ago, I saw Theresa, or “Tee” as I called her. So much was going on, with the football game (against North Carolina Central University), parade, parties, reunions, tailgates and more. I would have loved to spend more time with Tee, but she was celebrating 40 years as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, with other members of the Tenacious 30 of the Beta Alpha Chapter. I was flooded with memories of the great times we had in school and after we graduated. We became extremely close our senior year. After graduation she took a big time job in Texas working for Diamond Shamrock. I stayed in Tallahassee, working for a newspaper, the Capital Outlook. Tee was just a phone call away. Whenever I needed someone to listen to me, she was there. I remember saying I wanted a change and she suggested that I move to Texas and see what was available, because after all, she said, “Texas is the land of opportunities.” I took the leap and she was with me every step of the way. I couldn’t ask for a better friend. She helped me with my job search, let me drive her car until I got transportation and was overly generous with her love and support. We were both in love and trying to figure things out and as we navigated through life, stuff happened. Then Tee moved back to Florida. I stayed in the land of opportunity. Decades later I am still here. Tee got married, had a child and sadly, I wasn’t there to share those special moments with her. Over the years, I thought of her often. And while we can’t turn back the hands of time, I am grateful that Tee is still alive for me to tell her I love her and that she was a blessing in my life. And that is the same case with Lisa PecotHebert. Last weekend I was on the University of Southern California’s campus, attending a National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Board meeting. During lunch a woman tapped me on my shoulder. When I turned around and saw her beautiful face; I wanted to cry! It has been years. I met Lisa decades ago when she was just Professor Pecot-Hebert and an advisor to the NABJ student chapter at Xavier University. She and another journalist, New Orleans Association of Black Journalists President Michelle Miller were running things. I absolutely loved being in the company of those best friends! Then one summer Lisa came to stay with me while she participated as a Fellow at the Dallas Morning News. It was Lisa and her son, Joseph; and me and two of the Three Live Crew Plus One, Annya and See MY TRUTH, page 4
WA S H I N G T O N — O c t o b e r 31, 2019 — Today, by a party
line vote of 232-to-196, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives took the historic step of passing a resolution formalizing the parameters of the next phase of the impeachment inquiry. An important move in a process that could eventually lead to the impeachment of President Trump. Shortly after the resolution was passed, Congresswoman
Rep. Karen Bass
Karen Bass (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, briefed publishers and editors from the Black Press of America during an exclusive conference call with members of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association (NNPA). The congresswoman explained to Black Press publishers what has transpired and what to expect going forward. “I wanted you to know, first and foremost, that we did not vote to impeach the president. We passed a resolution that had five major points,” Bass stated. “Over the last few months, we have been involved in an impeachment inquiry, and our Republican colleagues had wanted us to vote on an inquiry,” she said. “What we did today was See BASS, page 5
Texas Education Commissioner visits GISD
Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath with GISD staffers By Tiffany Veno
Special to the Garland Journal
What do you do when the Commissioner of Education visits on National Boss’s Day? You give him a great #GarlandUSA welcome. On Oct. 16, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath visited Austin Academy for Excellence, walking the same Garland ISD halls he did decades ago. The campus greeted him with a
string quartet and receiving line of cheerleaders and student ambassadors. In addition to meeting students and staff, Morath also toured several classrooms, witnessing the rigorous instruction that takes place all across GISD. “We start every year with the goal of growing each student by at least one year regardless of current level,” said Austin Academy Principal John Fishpaw.
I WAS JUST THINKING... By Norma Adams-Wade Been by Moore Park lately? You know, the obscure 24.6-acre recreational green space near the 8th and Corinth Street DART station and the Santa Fe Trestle Trail? Yes, that one. The one that practically every young sports-minded African American male youth and young adult in Dallas considered almost a second home during and after World War II. I was just thinking ...., are any young AfricanAmerican youths, male or female, wondering how this
once vibrant and essential, now disregarded, location came to be? Do they wonder who was Moore and how did he deserve having a park named for him? I mentioned a few weeks ago that I would explore that topic. I stopped by Moore Park recently just to see if it remained as I remembered from my last visit some years ago. A lone black truck was parked at the park’s wood barricades – perhaps quietly eating a sandwich for lunch break. A few early drops of rain hit my car windshield as I got out to walk around
Leading the Commissioner to English, math, science and special education classes, Fishpaw showed him how the district is preparing all students for college, careers and life. He also let him know that his alma mater would implement the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program in 2020-21. But perhaps the most interesting sight Morath saw
Washington, DC - On September 4, 2018, Roland Martin’s vision became a reality. That “vision” was of a digital show dedicated to providing the Black community with news and information from an explicitly African American perspective. Roland Martin Now, a little more than a year later, #RolandMartinUnfiltered has evolved into a powerhouse daily digital news and information platform, amassing 100.7 million views across YouTube, Facebook and Periscope, with nearly 435 million minutes viewed. “Many people told me I was crazy to do this, but as someone who launched the first Black news source audio podcast at the Chicago Defender in 2005 and a video podcast in 2006, I understand that African Americans were tired of mainstream media ignoring the many issues impacting us on a daily basis,” Mr. Martin said. “And as a student of history, when I think about pioneering Black media journalists such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett; John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish, the first two editors of the nation’s first Black newspaper Freedom’s Journal; Robert Abbott of the Chicago Defender; C.A. Scott of the Atlanta Daily World; and Edwin Nathaniel Harlston of the Pittsburgh Courier, we have always had Black media outlets that spoke to our issues and concerns from a Black point of view, with no filters.” As a completely digital platform, and with the fast emergence of streaming technology, the past National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Journalist of the Year is positioning #RolandMartinUnfiltered to be one of the major providers of Black news and informational content to the nation. With NBC News and Fox News launching streaming news services in the last year, as well as digital expansion at CBS News, ABC News, CNN and other networks, Mr. Martin says he launched his venture at the right time. “Black America has never relied on mainstream media to tell our stories. We also want to serve as a conduit to the many Black professionals and experts who would never get a shot on broadcast and cable news,” says Mr. Martin, who is credited with advancing the careers of frequent cable news commentators such as Angela Rye, April Ryan, Laura Coates, Shermichael Singleton, Paris Dennard, David Swerdlick, Paul Butler, Gianno Caldwell, Monique Pressley, Scott Bolden, Yodit Tewolde, and so many others. Establishing Mr. Martin’s point, during the past year, #RolandMartinUnfiltered covered a plethora of topics, events and personalities critical to the Black community, including: Being one of the first national outlets to shine light on the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean in the L.A. apartment of Democratic
See GISD, page 5
See MARTIN, page 2
BATTER UP! – and remember. Right away the baseball diamond caught my eye – like a centerpiece on the Thanksgiving table. You cannot talk about Moore Park without talking about baseball. That sport was crucial for African American youth in Dallas during that era – and even after baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson joined Major League baseball as its first Black player in 1947. Researchers say Eighth Street Negro Park was renamed Moore Park in 1940 honoring William Moore (some media reports incorrectly identify him as
Henry Moore). He was an early African American civil rights advocate who worked with the early NAACP and civic groups on equality issues, including getting parks in African American neighborhoods
and eliminating poll taxes that blocked many African Americans from voting. A street in the 8th Street community also is named for Moore. There is so much lost See THINKING, page 5