Texas Metro News

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Judge Lisa Green honored by Dallas Lawyers Magazine

MY TRUTH

JOY

By Cheryl Smith, Publisher

The month of August was filled with answers, especially if you take into consideration an important question, “Why?” I’ve heard people pose the question when someone transitions, even though they don’t want to question “God.” When I first moved to Dallas in 1981, I visited a restaurant called “Smokey John’s Barbecue.” I actually visited weekly, to pick up my Black newspapers, get some fish and on the second Saturday of each month, attend Florida A&M University Alumni meetings. John Reaves It was also the place where the first meeting of the Dallas Metroplex Council of Black Alumni Associations was held. The owner, John Reaves, Thelma was the best, and Youngblood his restaurant was a fun place, especially on Friday nights when there was entertainment and some of any and everybody came by for a good time, fellowship and great food. Well, Mr. Reaves died last month and many shared their fond memories of him and the Smokey John’s BBQ experience. Meanwhile, the National Association See MY TRUTH, page 4

DALLAS SKYLINE New Pro Basketball Club makes Dallas home By Dorothy J. Gentry Sports Editor

The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is a haven for sports lovers. Pick a sport and there’s bound to be a local professional team to root for; the Dallas Mavericks, Cowboys, Wings, Texas Legends, Texas Rangers, FC Dallas, Dallas Sidekicks and more. Add one more team to that long list; the Dallas Skyline, a new professional basketball team that now calls Dallas home. The owner and general manager is 28-yearold Prescott Mack, a Garland, Texas native and licensed FIBA sports agent who is excited about bringing a team to the D/FW Metroplex. “What we are bringing is the third division of pro basketball in the United States,” he said. “There is the NBA, the G League, and then there is us (TBL). We are a legitimate, professional basketball team and we are excited to be here.” Dallas Skyline is the 10th team from The Basketball League (TBL), a new professional basketball league with teams throughout the nation. TBL recently acquired the North American Premier Basketball League. Teams include Albany Patroons, Kansas City Tornadoes, Owensboro Thoroughbreds, Raleigh Firebirds, Tampa Bay Titans, San Diego Waves and now the Dallas Skyline. The team was awarded the franchise in March and has spent the past few months building its basketball brand, including strategically bringing in staff, building its market and working to set their basketball foundation. “We are one of the biggest markets in the League. We expect to win,” Mr. Mack said. “So we wanted the best of the best. There is so much talent here in Dallas.” Much of the front office staff, including the

Assistant General Manager Christian Ross-Francis and General Manager Prescott Mack at recent D/FW Association of Black Journalists mixer at the Attache’ Cigar Lounge

coaching staff, have been hired. These include assistant general manager Christian Ross-Francis; head coach Chris Terrell; assistant head coach Finis Craddock; director of player development Ronnie Black; manager of community relations Sara Parsons, and DJ/community liaison, DJ Queen Agnes. Texas Metro News/Garland Journal caught up with Mr. Mack and Ms. Ross-Francis during the recent Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Black Journalists’ mixer. They talked about bringing the team to Dallas, what fans can expect, serving as role models to other young, Black professionals and more. See SKYLINE, page 7

VOL. 7 NO. 52 September 4, 2019

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400 Years in Virginia. 500 Years in Slavery. By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Correspondent

In August 2018, the National Newspaper Publishers Association began a series on the transatlantic slave trade. The series started in conjunction with the annual United Nations International Day of Remembrance. With the observance of the first African landing in America, some question whether it’s the 400th or 500th anniversary. Historians point out that the 400th anniversary is the 400th year of the Anglo-centric history of Africans in the Americas. “Dating the history of Africans in North America to 400 years ago reinforces this narrative of English superiority,” Greg Carr, the Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, told Time.com. “Remembering the Spanish and indigenous sides of the history is more important now than ever as the people are closing the borders to those who are descendants from people who were here when you came,” Carr said. In his 2013 PBS documentary, “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., said slavery was always an essential ingredient of the American experiment. Gates called slavery, “The supreme hypocrisy,” and “capitalism gone berserk.” The first African to come to North America was a free man who accompanied Spanish explorers to Florida in 1513 – or 106 years before the 20 Africans who were kidnapped and brought to Point Comfort, Va., in 1619, Gates said. “The father of our country was one of its largest slave owners,” Gates said in the documentary. “Because of the profound disconnect between principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the simultaneous practice of slavery, we’ve had historical amnesia about slavery,” he said. Indeed, the slave trade began in the 15th century, said Boniface Chidyausiku of Zimbabwe. It was driven by colonial expansion, emerging capitalist See 400, page 4


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