December 2015 Edition

7 9

Honoring The Past, Celebrating The Future

By Charleta B. Tavares

Help More Babies Live To CelebrateOne

By Ericka Clark Jones

10

Not So Happy Holidays

By Elizabeth Joy, MBA

Jesse Thomas

InHealth, CEO The Will To Achieve FREE

December 2015

Publisher’s Page Founder & Publisher Ray Miller Layout & Design Ray Miller, III Assistant Editor Ray Miller, III Staff Keia Sykes Photographer Steve Harrison

Contributing Editors Tim Ahrens, D.Min Tim Anderson Lisa Benton, MD Roderick Q. Blount, Jr. M.A. Stephanie R. Bridges Iris Cooper, MBA Marian Wright Edelman Layden Hale Cecil Jones, MBA Ericka Clark Jones Elizabeth Joy, MBA Philip Lewis Jacqueline Lewis-Lyons, Psy.D William McCoy, MPA Ambrose Moses, III Kenrya Rankin Charleta B. Tavares Netta Whitman

The Columbus African American News Journal was founded by Ray Miller on January 10, 2011 The Columbus African American News Journal 750 East Long Street Columbus, Ohio 43203 Office: 614.340.4891

I have always valued the poets right to tell the truth without fear of retribution. The notion of having the responsibility to speak on behalf of a people, to challenge the norms of society, and to liberate communities and individual minds is freeing, in and of itself. Conversely, if one believes that they are constrained and not at liberty to fully express themselves, the cell that they have voluntarily entered will rob them of their creativity, courage, and worth to their people.

I view my role as the Publisher of The Columbus African American to be synonymous with an arranger and orchestra conductor. It is my task to insure that we are telling a coherent, informative, and challenging story. We are blessed with exceptionally gifted contributing writers who know their subject matter as practitioners, and not necessarily as trained journalists. Therefore, they approach their writing assignments with a resolve to improve people’s lives. The following poem written by Margaret Walker, in 1937, frames exactly the manner in which we organize each edition of The Columbus African American. Within the ten verses of For My People, Walker speaks of Faith, Work, Art, Education, Family, Poverty, Survival, Hope, Freedom, and Justice. Follow the rich tapestry and symmetry of the anthem she has written.

For my people everywhere singing their slave songs reapeatedly: their dirges and their ditties and their blues and jubilees, praying their prayers nightly to an unknown god, bending their knees humbly to an unseen power; For my people lending their strength to the years, to the gone years and the now years and the maybe years, washing ironing cooking scrubbing sewing mending hoeing plowing digging planting pruning patching dragging along never gaining never reaping never knowing and never understanding; For my playmates in the clay and dust and sand of Alabama backyards playing baptizing and preaching and doctor and jail and soldier and school and mama and cooking and playhouse and concert and store and hair and Miss Choomby and company; For the camped bewildered years we went to school to learn to know the reasons why and the answers to and the people who and the places where and the days when, in memory of the bitter hours when we discovered we were black and poor and small and different and nobody cared and nobody wondered and nobody understood; For the boys and girls in spite of these things to be man and woman, to laugh and dance and sing and play and drink their wine and religion and success, to marry their playmates and bear children and then die of consumption and anemia and lynching; For my people thronging 47th Street in Chicago and Lenox Avenue in New York and Rampart Street in New Orleans, lost disinherited dispossessed and happy people filling the cabarets and taverns and other people’s pockets and needing bread and shoes and milk and land and money and something - all our own; For my people walking blindly spreading joy, losing time being lazy, sleeping when hungry, shouting when burdened, drinking when hopeless, tied, and shackled and tangled among ourselves by the unseen creatures who tower over us omnisciently and laugh; For my people blundering and groping and floundering in the dark of churches and schools and clubs and societies, associations and councils and committees and conventions, distressed and disturbed and deceived and devoured by money-hungry glory-craving leeches, preyed on by facile force of state and fad and novelty, by false prophet and holy believer, For my people standing staring trying to fashion a better way from confusion, from hypocrisy and misunderstanding, trying to fashion a world that will hold all the people, all the faces, all the adams and eves and their countless generations; Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a bloody peace be written in the sky.

Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; let a people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs be written, let the dirges disappear.

Let a race of men now rise and take control.

What a clarion call to justice! We all need to exercise our poetic license to speak the truth, and to back-up our words with action. Now is the time!

With Appreciation and Respect,

editor@columbusafricanamerican.com

Ray Miller Founder & Publisher 3

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

In This Issue

24

The Bottom Line: It’s 4th Quarter

24

How To Avoid Financial Indigestion From The Holidays

25

Is Crowdfunding A Game Changer For African Americans?

27 New Progressive Leadership Academy Cycle VIII Begins

Jesse Thomas CEO, InHealth Ohio Cover Story – Page 18

11

‘Tis The Season For Better Health

25

David D. White: First Black Graduate of Capital University Law School

35 5

6 7

28

Book Bags & E-Readers

29

“March 1 & 2” The Perfect Gifts For The Holidays

30

Celebrate Kwanzaa

31

David D. White: First Black Graduate of

Capital University Law School

By Lisa Benton, MD, MPH

By Roderick Q. Blount, Jr., M.A.

32

Winter Energy Assistance Program

33

Ugly Truths It’s Way Past Time For America To Face

34

Okay, Content, Balanced and Happy

By Stephanie Bridges

Dismantling Racism on College and University 11 Campuses

Are HBCUs Offering Web 15 Based Courses?

Honoring The Past,

16 Celebrating The Future

‘Tis The Season for Better Mental Health Meet New 20-Year Old

8

Healthy Food is Good Medicine

Bus Boycott

9

What’s Stress Got To Do With It?

18

COVER STORY

20

9

Help More Babies Live to CelebrateOne

Holiday Shopping: Celebrate Black Owned

10

Not So Happy Holidays

Businesses

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

Brown University Commits $100 Million To Diversity

34

Kim Blackwell Named Ebony Magazine’s Top 100

35

Okay, Content, Balanced and Happy

37

Distribution List

38

Community Events

Councilman Hillary Clinton Commemorates Anniversary of

23

Legislative Update 4

All contents of this news journal are copyrighted © 2015; all rights reserved. Title registration with the U.S. Patent Office pending. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited.

Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, and illustrations will not be returned unless accompanied by a properly addresses envelope bearing sufficient postage. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials.

CAANJ

1 HIGHER EDUCATION

DISMANTLING RACISM ON COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES

By William McCoy, MPA The highly publicized events at the University of Missouri have intensified the spotlight being directed to racism on college and university campuses. The University of Missouri’s president, Tim Wolfe, resigned on November 9, 2015 after a series of campus demonstrations protesting his lack of appropriate action in addressing racist incidents on the University’s Columbia campus. Later, the same day, R. Bowen Loftin, chancellor of the Columbia campus, announced his plans to step down January 1, 2016.

This trail of events began with a hunger strike initiated November 2nd by a graduate student, Jonathan L. Butler, who said he would not eat until Tim Wolfe resigned or was forced out of office. The crisis escalated on November 7th, when players on the University of Missouri football team stated that they would not participate in any football related activities until Wolfe was no longer president. The coaching staff supported its players. Faculty called for a walkout of classes on Monday and Tuesday in support of student protesters. And hundreds of alumni signed a letter to Governor Jay Nixon calling for Wolfe’s ouster.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) is “dedicated to the conscientious investigation of the status and prospects for African-Americans in higher education” (see website: https://www.jbhe.com/). The Journal’s website features four webpages, which list and describe over 100 “campus racial incidents” that have occurred during the past few years.

In addition to University of Missouri-related incidents, JBHE “campus racial incidents” include White students dressed in KKK outfits carrying Confederate flags at Wheaton College, singing racist songs at the University of Oklahoma and Duke University, and numerous incidents involving racist graffiti, blackface, lynching nooses, and threats against Black students.

Black faculty have also been targeted for racist depictions, graffiti, and threats. At UCLA, Dr. Christian Head was depicted as a gorilla being sodomized by his White superior in a slide shown during a presentation to medical center staff. At Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Dr. Carlos Minor filed suit alleging he had been assigned to teach a course load that is double that of many of his colleagues and that his department chair treated him in a racist manner. How about Hillsdale College president, Larry Arnn, who referred to Black students as “the dark ones,” during a Michigan legislative hearing and continues to hold his job several years later?

According to one JBHE entry, “It comes as no surprise that in the aftermath of campus protests on issues dealing with race, there has

been a backlash, with several race-related incidents occurring on campuses across the nation.” Indeed, across the board, colleges and universities are experiencing a rise in racial incidents aimed at Black students. Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that in 2012 there were 791 reported hate crimes on college and university campuses in the United States- a slight increase from 2011. Of these 791 reported hate crimes, 355, or 44.8 percent, were motivated by race (Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2014, published U.S. Department of Education, 2015).

Despite the backlash, resistance to change, and persistent denial that there is a problem by some people, something needs to be done to address the problem of racism on college and university campuses. Some activists say the unrest taking place on campuses highlights the failure of administrators, faculty, and students to address racism. The stakes, as the University of Missouri case shows, are rising not just for Black and White students, but administrators as well.

So what can or should be done to address racism on college and university campuses? “It’s great to have race talks, and get people together, and have student input- but if you don’t see anything that changes the way (a) university functions, it’s really just fluff,” said Palca Shibale, a University of Washington senior. “That’s why you see student protests- not just here, but around the nation,” she said in an article published by the Seattle Sun-Times (Katherine Long, November 30, 2015). These conversations will need to go further, and result in real action, to make a difference. Faculty and administrators “like to tell us what we want to hear, to get us to quiet down,” said Uriah Powell, a junior studying public health at the University of Washington.

“But talk is not enough . . . We want to see legitimate change on this campus” (Katherine Long, 2015).

Many people, Black and White, are fearful of the addressing racism honestly and directly. Far too many decision-makers opt for tired, timid 5

“diversity training” and culturally-competent policies and platitudes, as a “solution” to the problem. They want to avoid discussing slavery, Jim Crow, the Trail of Tears, internment of Japanese-Americans, and other historical events that helped foster and strengthen an ideology of White supremacy and practice of White privilege. They are afraid to take stock of and confront our individual beliefs, experiences, and training regarding racism.

Here is wisdom: Information alone does not change attitudes or behaviors. The work of attitudinal and behavioral change is just thatwork, “heart work,” not just “head work.” We need to invest in high-impact, experiential approaches to reaching the hearts of people and teaching them new ways of interacting with people who are different than them. The Violence Interruption Experience (VIE) is one such intervention. VIE helps people recognize, resist, and interrupt or change violent and abusive attitudes and behaviors. VIE-type training helps people confront the explosive issues of violence, racism, power dynamics, and alliance-building in a way that brings people together. Violence, abuse, and racism are learned behaviors and can be unlearned. However, we must have the courage to confront these issues directly, boldly, and thoughtfully.

William McCoy is president of The McCoy Company- a world-class personal services consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, community economic development, and training. The McCoy Company helps clients articulate and achieve their vision, solve problems, and pursue their opportunities. Mr. McCoy is one of the nation’s leading proponents of Violence Interruption Experience training and has worked with hate groups, violent offenders, students and faculty at colleges and universities, and a myriad of others on the issues of violence, race, change, and alliance-building. He is a published author, award-winner, and sought after public speaker. William McCoy can be reached at (614) 785-8497 or via e-mail at wmccoy2@ themccoycompany.com.

TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015 The

ARE HBCU’s OFFERING WEB-BASED COURSES?

By Cecil Jones, MBA Are HBCUs offering WebBased Courses?

Is Offering Web-Based Courses Important?

What is an HBCU? HBCUs are Historically Black College and Universities.What are Historically Black Colleges and Universities?

great technology and business programs. Some have superior students focusing on teaching or social services at graduation. Some HBCUs are public/state supported colleges, some are private colleges, some are rural, while some are in urban cities. Most are in the southeastern portion of this country. The amount of their offering of web-based courses and online degree programs vary. 24 0f the 10 HBCUS offer online Bachelor degrees (http://hbcu-levers.blogspot. com/2014/07/hbcus-online-and-blended-degree. html#Directories)

A formal definition is: “any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans…” (U.S. Department of Education - http://sites.ed.gov/ whhbcu/one-hundred-and-five-historicallyblack-colleges-and-universities/).

Web-based courses allow that student who in the past may drop out to work full-time, to continue and complete their education. This mode of education allows students that are on campus to be more flexible and take courses that may have time conflicts, when offered as face-to-face courses. There are students with disabilities who thrive in an online educational environment.

Web-based degrees and courses have matured far past the boring state of just reading many pages of text and words, online. It includes video; it includes talking with their class and professor online person-to-person when needed.

Is it Important to Offer Online, Web-based Courses?

Web-based learning is an important portion of collegiate educational delivery. This importance is indicated by the growing numbers of degrees and courses being delivered online in higher educational institutions. The emerging significance of this web course distribution medium is implied by the number of colleges that have moved to offering courses and even entire degree programs via the web in recent years.

Economic benefits result from efficient usage of web-based courses (no physical building costs, utility bills, facilities and classrooms needed).

In addition to organizational financial needs as a reason for the growth in web-based course delivery, this is also a mode that is desirable to young students (Crews, 2014; Educause article Our OHIO HBCUs ‘Understanding the Learning Personalities of We are blessed to have two HBCUs in Ohio in Successful Online Students’) Wilberforce, Ohio. They are about 20 minutes The conveniences (schedule and location) may from Dayton and only one hour from downtown benefit students whose calendar schedule or Columbus. Some of their professors and other physical remoteness impede the taking of face- employees commute from cities like Columbus, to-face desired courses. These courses may Cincinnati, Springfield and Dayton. appeal to students who want or need web-based State University (http://www. education and courses. Web-based education at Central home may fit students with various disabilities centralstate.edu/elearning1/#) shows their Fall that have a challenge physically sitting in a chair 2015 list of online courses from Business, in a classroom for more than a few minutes. This Criminal Justice, Early Childhood Education, form of education also allows the HBCUs (and Economics, Education, English, Geography, any college) to reach an expanding market: the History, Hospitality Management, Management growing population of non-traditional working Information Systems and Psychology. adults who want to earn a degree but also want to continue in the workforce.

Why focus on Online Web-based courses and degrees at HBCUs? As all colleges continue to adopt this method of instruction, their peer colleges may look to We are an online world. We shop online: think adopt this mode of teaching for various reasons Cyber Monday (and every other day). We stay including to remain competitive and relevant to in touch via online tools (Facebook, email, new and existing students. Colleges cannot avoid YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo, Pinterest, Instagram, being in competition with other peer colleges.

Drop Box, etc.). We take seminar online. A few colleges offer free, large courses. HBCUs are Are HBCUs offering Online, Web-based and want to be competitive. HBCUs want to provide education in the methods that students Courses? (and others) expect. This includes web based HBCUs are often grouped as one block of courses. colleges since a common portion of their missions often includes focusing on providing our society Web-based courses allow students to take with college educated African-Americans. courses during the summer, while returning However, HBCUs are different. Some have home to do their internships or work other jobs.

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

6

It includes access to articles and books that are online. It includes receiving educational support and feedback in a way that young people interact every day. It includes access to many modes of learning and interaction with classmates and others.

It is important that HBCUs (all colleges) include web-based courses and degrees in their strategy for delivering education.

Participate in some HBCU’s activities. The colleges in Ohio are not far away and offer seminars, sports, cultural and other events that you love.

Help Us to Help You The purpose of this column is to provide useful information and knowledge that you can use, today. If you have a techonology question (how to get something done, what business, process or software solution might be available for your situation, etc.), please email the question or comment to admin@accelerationservices.net for response.

Having managed technology, communications and business functionality for multiple Fortune 100 companies, Cecil is a technology and management leader. He reaches technology, business and communications courses. He is a past president of many organizations including BDPA (Technology group), and Columbus Association of Black Journalists. He serves on the Executive Committee of boards including the Vice-Chairman of IMPACT Community Action Agency.

2 HEALTH

CAANJ

HONORING THE PAST, CELEBRATING THE FUTURE

By Charleta B. Tavares

PrimaryOne Health held their inaugural awards event, “Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Future” on November 12th at the Downtown Hilton Hotel.

The event celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Community Health Centers in America now known as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), one of the most successful programs developed out of President Lynden B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. They also celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Community Health Centers in Columbus and the 18th Anniversary of

PrimaryOne Health.

During the celebration the organization honored the late Congressman Louis Stokes, posthumously for his lifetime commitment to: support the medically underserved; eliminate health disparities among African Americans and racial/ethnic populations; and the creation of the U.S. Office of Minority Health (created after the Ohio Commission on Minority Health*).

The Honorable Angela Stokes, daughter of Congressman Stokes accepted the award on behalf of the family. The organization also

surprised former CEO, Thomas Horan, with the first Health Care Justice Award.

Over 250 people attended the salute and as a result of the strong support of sponsors and ticket sales, PrimaryOne Heath raised over $20,000.

The Host Committee for the event included Ed Roberts (chair), Sue Moore, Lorraine Brock, John Tolbert, Yolanda Aldea, Nikkie Green, Heather Robinson, and Carla Hicks. All proceeds will be deposited into the PrimaryOne Health Charity Fund which is housed at the Columbus Foundation. The fund will be used to assist with the non-medical supports for those in Central Ohio. The account was established by the board of directors to raise flexible funds to address the social determinants that impact health outcomes for patients.

There are currently 45 FQHCs or Look-ALikes in sixty-five of the 88 counties in Ohio.

These centers have 250 sites serving more than 500,000 patients annually. There are four FQHCs in Franklin County Heart of Ohio Family Health Center, Lower Lights Christian Health Center, PrimaryOne Health and Southeast, Inc. PrimaryOne Health is a Federally Qualified Health Center system providing comprehensive primary care, OB-GYN, pediatric, vision, dental, behavioral health and specialty care at ten locations in Central Ohio.

symbolic of the District’s new Health Sciences Academies. The inaugural White Coat Ceremony was facilitated by OSU cardiologist Dr. Quinn Capers. Dr. Capers shared with the youth during the ceremony his dream of becoming a physician since the age of five which was confirmed by his sister. The white coats which are identified with the designation of “doctor” in the health care community were presented to the youth by their parents/family, Dr. Capers, School Board members Gary Baker, II (President), W. Shawna Gibbs, Ramona Reyes, Bryan Steward (VicePres.) and Board member-elect Eric Brown along with Superintendent Dan Good and Allesia Gillison, Chief Academic Officer (Dr. Capers’ sister). The Health Sciences Academies

are a partnership with the East Side PACT and The Ohio State University to provide an infusion of hands-on-learning, extracurricular, and cocurricular experiences focused on health sciences in all seven CCS schools on the Near East Side.

*The Ohio Commission on Minority of Health was created in 1987, the first in the United States which was sponsored by former state Representative and Senator Ray Miller, Jr. Celebrating the Future

This event celebrates the future of our children in the Columbus City Schools and the desire East High School’s Inaugural “White Coat that they will successfully matriculate through Ceremony” high school and on through their post-secondary and graduate education in one of the health care professions…including “doctor”.

Charleta B. Tavares is the Chief Executive Officer at PrimaryOne Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) system providing comprehensive primary care, OB-GYN, pediatric, vision, dental, behavioral health and specialty care at 10 locations in Central Ohio.

The mission is to provide access to services that improve the health status of families including On November 24, 2015 as part of East High people experiencing financial, social, or cultural School’s Honor Roll Assembly, students in 9th barriers to health care. www.primaryonehealth. and 10th grades received special white lab coats org.

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TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015 The

CAANJ

HEALTHY FOOD IS GOOD MEDICINE

By Tim Anderson

A few years ago around this season, I had a conversation with Ms. Rashida, my mom.

The conversation centered around my knowledge of foods that heal the body and providing that information to the community. With very little convincing and because I am a certified mama’s boy, I took upon the task of writing a white paper titled, The IMB (In My Backyard) Wellness Matrix. And every year just about this time, as our waist lines begin expanding from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s traditional cuisines, I email copies of the IMB Wellness Matrix. This year, I have decided to utilize the Columbus African American News Journal to promote how foods heal the body. If you would like a full copy of the IMB Wellness Matrix email your request to me and I will certainly see that you receive a copy.

Before I provide you with a list of foods that heal our body, allow me to provide background information from my perspective, of course.

Americans have a food addiction, perpetuated by the high amount of salt, unhealthy fats and sugar in our diet. On average, Americans consume more than one hundred and sixty (160) pounds of sugar each year. Most of this sugar is prepared in foods outside of our homes in restaurants, prepackage foods and drinks. More than 100 years ago Americans consumed on average less than four pounds of sugar a year. Back in the day as a child, our drink of choice was Kool-Aid. Taking a cup or more of sugar, to a tablespoon of Kool-Aide, and mixed with a half-gallon of the local tap water (there was no such thing as purified drinking water sold in bottles back then) stirred, chilled and ready to drink.

Since the sixties, generations have been raised on sugar water (with sweeteners’ names like fructose and sucrose and of course simple white sugar), then add artificial coloring and artificial flavoring. We now have an epidemic of diabetes and obesity in this country this is directly linked to our diet. In our community, African Americans have an absurd disproportional rates of diabetes and obesity; with African American woman having the highest rate of obesity of all ethnic and racial populations in the United States. Have we ever thought what chemical and hormonal changes have occurred as a result of our over-saturated diet of salt, unhealthy fats and sugars? Can these adverse chemical and hormonal changes be reversed? And if so, how do we accomplish what would seem to be an impossible task.

The fundamental question is what are the conditions that promote chronic diseases,

some cancers and other diseases? Here are the basic biological and chemical causes in our body that establish a foot print for chronic diseases and other diseases. They are chronic inflammation, glucose tolerance, and oxidative stress. Separately and together these conditions in our body are responsible for obesity, diabetes, hyper tension, cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease and some cancers. Chronic inflammation promotes the cellular environment to support tumor growth. In addition, the American Heart Association reports that chronic inflammation significantly contributes to heart disease and strokes. For those who are not familiar with oxidation in the body, its similarity is rust on metal made of iron such as, sheet metal on cars or a cast iron skillet. Over time, the combination of air, iron and water (moisture) will result in rust. Once formed it will penetrate through and spread under the metal surface and destroy the metal. Oxidation in the human body produces a similar destructive pattern, by breaking down and destroying cells and adversely affecting organ functions. Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) is the elevated blood sugar levels higher than normal yet low enough not to be classified as type 2 diabetes. IGT is a factor for developing both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

These three conditions will ultimately lay the foundation for chronic diseases and cancers.

• Spices, such as ginger, turmeric and curry Foods high in antioxidants

• Legumes (beans, peas, lentil) • Berries • Apples • Plums • Kiwi • Prunes • Pecan • Artichoke • Russet potatoes

Foods that improve blood sugar

• Skinless chicken breast

• Other cuts of lean meat

• Salmon

• Sweet potatoes

• Lima beans

• Spinach

• Cinnamon

• Oatmeal

• Vinegar

• Peanut

• Tofu However, researchers have discovered that whole • Whole wheat pasta foods with their bright colors, unique texture and • Quinoa composition hold amazing healing properties.

These nutrients are found in plant based foods Now here is the amazing part about eating these only and are refer to as phytonutrients (plant based foods, when we exercise, mediate or laugh we compounds). In general, phytonutrients protect produce a powerful molecule called, glutathione. plants from adverse environmental factors. But This molecule is the foot soldier for defending it has also been proven that these phytonutrients our body from chronic diseases, cancers and when consumed as a daily part of our diet protect other diseases. Glutathione is found in every us from oxidative stress, chronic inflammation cell in the body and is depleted by stress and an and impaired glucose tolerance. In fact, even unhealthy diet of high calories and low nutrients. when these conditions exist, phytonutrients can The good news is that glutathione can be restored reverse these harmful effect in our body if part of in the body with foods high in antioxidants. So this holiday season and beyond, heal and protect our daily diet. your body with healthy foods, exercising, So what foods are the good medicine? Well here mediating and punctuated with lots of laughter. is a list and by no means is this list complete, And on those upcoming cold winter days, take a however these foods contain ample about of hot cup of organic (without antibiotics or MSG) unsalted or low sodium chicken broth and a phytonutrients and healthy fats. quarter of a lemon, and seasoned with a pinch of dry thyme and rosemary herbs. Let the lemon Foods that improve oxidative stress and dry herbs seep for a couple of minutes in

• Oily fish, such as, salmon, mackerel, the hot chicken broth. Then sip and enjoy. It is my morning drink of choice for those blustery

sardines, tuna (healthy fats) winter days, I am sure it will become one of your

• Red onions, tomatoes, broccoli, red favorite healthy drinks also. It is all, just good

cabbage, brussel sprouts, kale, medicine. collards and other dark greens, red

grapes and pomegranate Tim Anderson is a contributing columnist of The Columbus African American, with a writing

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (a healthy fat

cooked at low temperature or not at all) focus on community health and healthcare. He is the founder of In My Backyard Health and

• Freshly brewed green tea Wellness.

• Dark chocolate

The Columbus African American News Journal • December February 2015 2015

8

CAANJ

WHAT’S STRESS GOT TO DO WITH IT?

By Jacqueline LewisLyons, Psy.D. It’s that time of year again. We are officially in full Holiday mode. It is a wonderful time of year, but for many of us, the constant doing, shopping, planning, etc…all gets to be a bit overwhelming.

Without much warning at all, some people find themselves battling colds or flu, experiencing restless nights, or more challenging issues, such as heart attacks. This happened to a friend of mine last week. He would have described himself as healthy, and handling the pressures of day to day life well until he experienced severe chest pains at work. He actually drove himself to the hospital (not recommended) and the diagnosis was a heart attack. This was an eye opener for him and those around him. After two days in the hospital and a heart cath procedure, he is looking to make some significant changes in his lifestyle.

These types of incidents happen every day, but I find that most people are still in denial of stress affects the body. You may be surprised to

know that the American Medical Association has identified stress as the basic cause of more than 60% of all illnesses and diseases. This is a wakeup call for all of us. It is possible that we are unaware of how stress impacts our bodies. Here is a little cheat sheet to show how damaging the effects of stress can be. Let’s start at the top of our heads and work our way down. Many of us tolerate headaches on a regular basis. Have you considered why it happens rather than just swallowing a few more pain killers? Some people feel dizzy when their anxiety increases.

How are you interacting with others? Irritability and anger are signs of stress.

higher rates of obesity. Is it any surprise that food is the most abused anti-anxiety drug of choice?

Moving on down the body, we find that stress can negatively sex drive. If you are not feeling good about yourself, intimacy is often pushed aside or forgotten. Many physical ailments from muscle pain and tension to fibromyalgia are related to high levels of stress. And, we cannot ignore the fact that stress plays a major role in disorder such as alcoholism and substance abuse, reckless behavior, and suicide. These are conditions that are basically under our own control. We have to be proactive about self-care, and make better choices. As we look at the end of another year, Your facial muscles also respond to stress. Do let’s make a commitment to ourselves and our you grind your teeth or have problems with your loved ones to make our health a priority in 2016! jaw locking up? The obvious conditions we associate with stress include an increased heart Dr. Jacqueline Lewis-Lyons’ office is located in rate, heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, north Columbus. Her practice centers on helping but that’s just the tip of the ice berg. What’s clients with depression and anxiety related below the surface, what we don’t see are the daily doses of cortisol building up in our systems, and disorders. In recent years, after discovering a attacking us from the inside. Digestive problems love of running, she expanded her practice to can be fairly common; the incidence of IBS and include services related to Sport Psychology appetite problems (overeating or loss of appetite) for athletes of all ages and levels. To reach her, are increasing in adults as well as children. As a call 614-443-7040 or email her at Jacqui@ result, we are dealing with weight problems and DrLewisLyons.com.

HELP MORE BABIES LIVE TO CELEBRATEONE While the need is great throughout the county, we

By Ericka Clark Jones are concentrating our early efforts in the Linden, 3 babies die in Franklin Near South and Near East neighborhoods County each week – and our where infant mortality rates are the highest friends and neighbors are and the partners are committed to long-term collaboration. not talking about it.

Every year in central Ohio, Sleep related deaths are the leading cause of 150 babies die before their infant death for babies one month to one year first birthdays. That’s three babies every single of age. Every year, we lose the equivalent of a week right here in Franklin County and three kindergarten class due to unsafe sleep practices. families who have suffered an unbearable loss.

The good news is many of these deaths are Tragically, African American babies are dying preventable. at two and a half times the rate of white babies Columbus Public Health and CelebrateOne are throughout the county. working to reduce these deaths through several Columbus’ infant mortality rate is one of the safe sleep initiatives. First, we are educating worst in the country. Eight neighborhoods lose parents, grandparents and caregivers on the more babies than others in our city: Linden, Near ABCs of Safe Sleep. Babies should always sleep South, Near East, Hilltop, Franklinton, Northeast Alone, on their Backs and in a Crib – every sleep Columbus, Southeast Columbus and Northland. and every time. This is information that each of us can share with our families and friends.

Yes. Infant mortality is a crisis in our community.

The safest place for a baby to sleep is Alone in Yes. There is something that each of us can do to the room where adults sleep, but not in bed with parents. Two out of three babies who died while better this outcome for families. sleeping were sharing an adult bed, couch or Columbus Public Health is helping to save more chair. babies through CelebrateOne. With a goal of reducing infant mortality by 40 percent and Babies also should always be placed on their cutting the racial disparity in half, CelebrateOne Backs to sleep. Babies who sleep on their backs was created to implement the Greater Columbus can breathe easier and are less likely to choke Infant Mortality Task Force recommendations than those who sleep on their stomachs. This to ensure that we have more healthy moms point is by far the most contrary to past practices and moms-to-be, healthier babies and healthier and demands a change in how we do things. This also should be stressed and modeled with our communities. beloved family members when caring for babies.

CelebrateOne, Columbus Public Health, hospital Likewise, empty Cribs with a firm mattress and and community partners are combating factors fitted sheet are safest for your baby. The crib that contribute to infant mortality, including also should be free from bumper pads, pillows, prematurity; exposure to tobacco and other toxic blankets and stuffed animals which can suffocate smoke during pregnancy and in the early days of or strangle a baby. infant life; multiple health inequities and sleepSkipping one of these steps puts an infant at risk. related deaths.

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Eighty-nine percent of babies who died while sleeping were either not alone, not on their backs or not in a crib.

Remaining silent and skipping the conversation about the ABC’s of safe sleep is not an option for the parents of infants in our lives.

Safe cribs are available for eligible parents who cannot afford them through the Cribs for Kids Program at Columbus Public Health.

Additionally, Columbus Public Health is recruiting and training Safe Sleep Ambassadors to have loving conversations with families, friends, neighbors and church members throughout Columbus neighborhoods. The next free training is scheduled for January 23rd.

This is how we can make a difference, one baby at a time.

Since June, we have held over 24 meetings with parents, residents, and community stakeholders and I am encouraged by the momentum we are building. Together we are developing neighborhood-specific partnerships and action steps that will create healthier places to live.

It will take all of us working together to help more babies thrive. Parents and pastors, caregivers and community residents - all of us – are part of the solution. Please join me and have the conversations that help more babies live to Celebrate One and thrive each and every year beyond.

Erika Clark Jones is the Director of Community Strategies for CelebrateOne at Columbus Public Health. She’s a Columbus resident and native with experience spanning across public affairs, community engagement, constituent relations and strategy development. Her experience includes 10 years working in the Mayor’s office where she led Southern Gateway Initiative comprised of residents, local businesses, nonprofit and community foundation stakeholders.

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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3 MENTAL HEALTH 6

NOT SO HAPPY HOLIDAYS

By Elizabeth Joy, MBA, LSW Tis the season for lights, trees, gift giving and gathering with loved ones. While many of us are familiar with the euphoric feeling that accompanies the arrival of the holiday season, many are also familiar with the stress and blues that tend to show themselves as well. So what’s behind the holiday funk? Here are some common challenges and things you can do to address them: 1. We are experiencing pressure to spend more than we have or feel inadequate in what we are able to give. For many, the holiday season comes with an unspoken rule which mandates us to get gifts for family and friends and of course, it has to be a good gift, right!? We wreck our brains trying to figure out what qualifies as a “good gift” and are often torn as to where to draw the line on how much we can spend.

• Take a moment to review your beliefs and traditions. Where did they come from?

What are they rooted in? What is the intention behind the tradition? Check in with yourself to be sure that the “reason for the season” hasn’t been lost in the shuffle. Perhaps there is room to make adjustments without losing the essence of the tradition.

2. Our reality doesn’t match the picture perfect images we see on TV. The image of unity, harmony, and pure bliss highlight the perfect family. Quickly the warm and fuzzy feelings we get when we see them subsides and reality sets in. You realize you’re still mad at your brother and haven’t spoken to him in ten years. Family members are suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, physical ailments, and other struggles. It doesn’t exactly resemble the images on TV.

as well as relationships lost through divorce or separation. Sometimes just being at a certain home or hearing a specific song can trigger memories that remind us of how much we miss them.

want/refuse help (31%) being the top barriers to treatment of depression. MHA National Survey, 1996

• Suicide is the 16th leading cause of death for African Americans and the 3rd leading

• Grief is a normal response to the loss of cause of death for African American males ages someone you love. Healing takes time. Don’t be 15-24. CDC, 2010 Fatal Injury Report too hard on yourself. If you’re mourning the loss of a loved one, consider starting a new tradition Depression is not normal. It is a diagnosable mental health disorder. Although many who to honor them. have depression do not commit suicide, statistics Although many believe that the holiday season consistently show a strong link between brings an increase in suicide, statistics show depression and suicide. Symptoms of depression otherwise though there are some statistics that include: show that suicide rates increase as the holiday season ends. Statistics do reflect an increase in • Persistent sadness, anxiety, or “empty” mood symptoms of depression during the holidays.

• Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism • Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness, It is important to note that there is a big • Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies/activities difference between holiday blues and depression. • Decreased energy, fatigue Considering the tendency to avoid discussions • Difficulty concentrating about depression in the African American community, the following may surprise you: If you are experiencing any of these symptoms

please seek out a professional for help. There

• African American adults are 20% more are many ways to effectively treat depression.

• First remember that no one and no likely to report serious psychological distress family is perfect. Every family has struggles than White adults. US HHS Office of Minority Happy Holidays and many may be beyond your control. Give Health yourself and your family permission to be human Elizabeth Joy is founder of Survivors To Alivers, (imperfect). Perhaps there is room for change • African American adults are more likely however. Avoid developing a list of everything to have feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a non-profit organization focused on empowering everyone else can do to make the family better. worthlessness than are White adults. US HHS trauma survivors to overcome challenges and achieve restoration. Her organization offers Remember, the only person you can change Office of Minority Health and control is you. Does someone deserve an online support groups and a space for trauma apology from you? It is time to forgive? Have • African Americans are more likely to survivors to connect and support one another. you been being judgmental or inconsiderate? believe that depression is “normal.” US HHS Elizabeth is a speaker, life coach, and author Check in with yourself for opportunities for Office of Minority Health of “You Survived… Now What? A Road Map growth. to Reclaiming Life.” For more information • 63% of African Americans believe that visit www.survivorstoalivers.org, email ejoy@ 3. We miss a loved one who has passed on or is survivorstoalivers.org, or call 614-332-1592. no longer in our lives. Holidays are a painful depression is a personal weakness with denial reminder of loved ones who have passed away (40%), embarrassment/shame (39%), and don’t

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TIS’ THE SEASON FOR BETTER MENTAL HEALTH

By Lisa D. Benton, MD, MPH

Suicide rates are rising for young, yes really young, black males and females. You may have been aware of the not often mentioned increase in depression and suicides in young black men during the 1990’s. However, a study published this year in JAMA Pediatrics by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital showed that while the overall trend for other ethnic and racial groups stayed constant, for elementary school aged black children the rates have nearly doubled.

In a prior column I wrote about the health and wellness benefits of smiling and laughing. They include releasing endorphins that counteract stress, temporarily reduce high blood pressure and rapid heart rates.

Smiling also improves your mood, helps relieve pain, boosts your immune system and makes you Data shows that less than half of adults suspected of having a mental health problem and only more productive.

20% of children that need help actually get it.

One of my guilty pleasures is celebrity sleaze. Whether it is depression, considered the most Perhaps it’s the fact that after I’ve had a long common mental health problem, bipolar disease, hard day and am exhausted, I never fail to learn schizophrenia or PTSD (post-traumatic stress about some action or activity by someone living disorders) men are less likely than women to on camera 24/7 that leaves me laughing or seek help. wondering did he or she just really do, say or For most medical, behavioral and mental health react to that!? problems, it’s fair to extrapolate that because of In more instances than not, that aberrant and their reluctance to seek care that black men may extreme behavior that keeps us tuned in, is a be the least likely among all racial and ethnic manifestation of a chemical imbalance in the groups to look for help prior to and in the midst brain and body or mental illness that is not of a mental health crisis. being treated. I’m often left wondering why the entourages and everyone in the celebrity’s inner Many other reasons are suggested for these circle are not trying harder to get their star the troubling statistics. For African Americans the mental health counseling and psychiatric care gap in wealth equality and education inequality contribute to the greater numbers of untreated that is so much needed. mental illness problems for us.

The extremes in behavior and personality changes In addition to concerns about the shame and fear by those in the spotlight are often concerning. that come with receiving a diagnosis of a mental Katt Williams, Chris Brown, DMX, Lauryn Hill illness, distrust of the medical system to properly and Jessie Jackson Jr, are among a few African care for and treat illness in African Americans Americans artists and celebrities diagnosed with still exists. mental illness. After very public and dramatic I’ve hear more than my share of complaints, --a behavior, their cries for help got attention. lot of them very valid. “The doctors and nurses Often times many more of us are not as fortunate don’t understand or look like me; the medication and it’s only in hindsight after some personal or is too expensive; I don’t like the way it makes community tragedy as we look back with regret me feel.” and remorse that we put the pieces together and learn when, where and how we missed the cries Hearing those concerns should remind everyone of us and especially those who have a part in for help.

caring for people within the behavioral and mental health care system that so more attention is needed.

There is a shortage of psychiatrists and psychologists from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds that match the patient populations they serve. There is also a shortage of alcohol and drug rehabilitation and specialized treatment facilities.

The costs of newer psychiatric medications is more, sometimes harder to get covered by insurance and their side effect profiles may not have been as thoroughly tested since there are fewer minority patients participating in clinical trials. With these findings in mind, having care delivered in an environment that takes into account the social and cultural background of the patients can be critical to their best chance for recovery.

Consider the picture of mental and behavioral health closer to home, as you prepare to gather with family and friends for the holidays. Your family is quietly whispering and making allowances or excuses for the relative that everybody knows is a little bit “different”, “off”, “cra, cra” or has extra “drama”, or whatever metaphor you chose to describe their behavior and actions, inserted here.

In my family there is a story that has grown into an urban legend of sorts, about a great, great-uncle, a veteran, with anger management “issues” who chased his wife down the country road with a turkey carcass on Thanksgiving.

Whatever you may be thinking, that is not normal behavior! Unfortunately this occurred in a time when mental help was so much harder to get and at a time with much greater distrust of the medical community by African Americans due to segregation of care.

As you gather and give thanks for all of your blessings in this season, ask and pray for wisdom.

Educate yourself about how to reach out and reach in to the family members and friends you get a chance to where it seems something may be off balance. Help them get help and step out of the shadow of sadness and despair. Know that in the process you’ll have a hand in brightening the stories to tell to generations in years to come.

SideBar 15 of Best and Free Health Benefits of Smiling http://www.sunwarrior.com/news/15-healthbenefits-of-smiling/ MentalHealth.gov http://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/mythsfacts/index.html Suicide Trends Among Elementary School-Aged Children in the United States From 1993-2012, JAMA Pediatrics, July 2015 http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article. aspx?articleid=2293169 Dr. Lisa D. Benton, MD, MPH (The Doctor is In) breastsurgeonlb@gmail.com Twitter: @dctrlisa (415) 746 - 0627

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䘀䄀䤀吀䠀

䤀匀 吀䄀䬀䤀一䜀 吀䠀䔀 䘀䤀刀匀吀 匀吀䔀倀 䔀嘀䔀一 圀䠀䔀一 夀伀唀 䐀伀一ᤠ吀 匀䔀䔀 吀䠀䔀 圀䠀伀䰀䔀 匀吀䄀䤀刀䌀䄀匀䔀⸀

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䬀䔀夀一伀吀䔀 匀倀䔀䄀䬀䔀刀㨀

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䄀䰀䰀 吀䤀䌀䬀䔀吀匀 䄀刀䔀 匀伀䰀䐀 䤀一 䄀䐀嘀䄀一䌀䔀Ⰰ 一伀 吀䤀䌀䬀䔀吀匀 䄀吀 吀䠀䔀 䐀伀伀刀⸀ 倀䰀䔀䄀匀䔀 䌀䄀䰀䰀 㘀㄀㐀⸀㈀㔀㈀⸀ 㠀㘀㠀 䘀伀刀 䴀伀刀䔀 䤀一䘀伀刀䴀䄀吀䤀伀一⸀ 圀圀圀⸀䴀䰀䬀䨀刀䈀刀䔀䄀䬀䘀䄀匀吀⸀䌀伀䴀

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The TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

4 POLITICS

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Meet The 20-Year Old Councilman Hoping To Change His Hometown For The Better

By Philip Lewis Fellow - Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- Jewell Jones is a city councilman who still needs to finish his homework each night, but he has big ideas for improving his community.

The 20-year-old made history when he was sworn in as the youngest person to ever sit on the City Council of Inkster, Michigan, a town nestled on the outskirts of Detroit. Jones, who represents the city’s 4th District, is also a full-time student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

A lifelong resident of Inkster, Jones began dabbling in local politics when he was about 8 years old.

“My parents would drag me around to different things in the community. I was very involved in my church,” Jones told The Huffington Post.

“Serving the people in this capacity has always been pretty natural for me.”

In the past few years, he has been even more active and helped out on political campaigns for Michigan state Sen. David Knezek (D) and Inkster’s Mayor Hilliard Hampton.

Jones said that what started off as a joke with one of the councilmen in his district blossomed into a serious City Council campaign.

“I told him maybe I could run and he kinda took it seriously,” Jones said. “And I went ahead and threw my hat in the race, got all the signatures that I needed to get on the ballot and this happened.”

Finding balance between the campaign and being a full-time student was the difficult part. On top of majoring in political science and finance, Jones is involved with several on-campus organizations -- including the Army ROTC, Black Student Union and Student Veterans Association.

“I was taking it day to day, but it was just a daily challenge of seeing if I focus on the campaign right now, or should I focus on school,” the newly minted councilman said. “But my support system was really good.”

Some people have questioned his experience and ability to lead, Jones says, because of his young age. But he isn’t worried about being unprepared.

“I have quite a lot of responsibility and roles right now that I’ve had for quite some time now,” Jones said. “It kind of molded me to be good at this job.”

Jones, a junior at the university, still plans to graduate in the spring of 2017.

Knezek, who is the youngest senator in Michigan at age 29, says he met Jones when the councilman was 16 and immediately saw his potential for

leadership.

“We need more Jewells in politics across this country. We need more young people who won’t simply settle for sitting on the sidelines complaining about how others are running things,” Knezek told HuffPost. “I was so happy when Jewell won and I look forward to working with him to make Inkster the best place to live, work, worship and raise a family. The future is bright with young leaders like Jewell Jones stepping up to the plate.”

Jones joined an all-black city council where he intends to improve the city’s parks and recreational services, increase public safety and foster economic opportunities. The significance of being a young, black man with a rising public profile, however, is not lost on him.

“I think where race would come in is the way that a lot of our young black males have been on the media, for a lot of different things, negative things,” Jones told HuffPost. “I think it’s good to see a young brother doing something positive -- and it’s all positivity and it’s nothing negative about it.”

Inkster has seen its share of problems -- such as urban blight and high poverty and illiteracy rates.

The town has also grappled with police brutality, including the beating of 57-year-old Floyd Dent during a traffic stop earlier this year.

A recent report from the U.S. Justice Department cited Inkster’s police department as one of the least racially representative forces in the nation, according to The New York Times, with only five black officers patrolling the city’s streets alongside 21 white officers in a city with a population that’s more than 70 percent black.

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Changing the demographics, and culture, of the city’s police department is something Jones said he intends to do by vetting police recruits more thoroughly. Jones would also make police officers visible in the community by having them attend different events, as opposed to residents only seeing and interacting with officers when they are enforcing the law.

“We are definitely going to be more focused on community policing,” he said. “We’re trying to start an organization -- I’ve been talking with the police commissioner and the [police] chief -that will allow us to have scholarships for young people in the community so we can send them [to the] police academy. It’s kind of expensive for some people who would like to go, and they just can’t afford it.”

Jones seeks to ensure officers are spending their time protecting and serving the community.

“There were a few bad actors in the police department,” he said. “And the way that the media portrayed that [Dent] incident kind of, you know, gave the entire police department a bad look. So we’re focused on trying to get out of that and turn things around.”

But fostering the next generation of change is what Jones said he looks forward to the most.

“I want to make sure that we get young people involved, not just in the political arena, but in all aspects of the community, to make sure that we are sustainable,” he said. “I’m going to be focused on the youth primarily, but also economic development as well as public safety.”

“People inspire me,” he added. “We’re laying the foundation right now. Great things are ahead.”

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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HILLARY CLINTON COMMEMORATES THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT On the 60th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Hillary Clinton delivered an address at the National Bar Association’s “The Role Lawyers Played in the Montgomery Bus Boycott’s Commemoration Tour” on the acts of courage and sacrifice from many throughout the civil rights movement and the work that remains. The 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and pivotal role Rosa Parks played led to tens of thousands of African Americans mobilizing as a force for change, and ultimately led to the U.S. Supreme Court ordering full integration of the Montgomery bus system.

Please see a full transcript of the remarks below: “Thank you. I’ll tell you what, I have to say to President Krump if this lawyer business doesn’t work out for you I imagine there’s a church or two that might call you to the pulpit instead of to the bar. This is the day the Lord has made, honestly. Wow. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

And I have to thank all of you for the great honor of participating in this anniversary tribute. What a wonderful idea, Attorney Gray, as so many of your ideas have been over the years. I listened very carefully as several speakers pointed out that it would be more than appropriate for Attorney Gray to receive a certain President Medal of Freedom. Well, I’ll tell you, I’ve already written the President telling him I think that’s a good idea. And I’ve already gotten the congresswoman to agree that when she goes to the Christmas party at the White House, she’s going to raise that – not just with the President, but importantly, with Mrs. Obama.

“It is such an honor to be here, and I want to thank everyone for this invitation and I particularly want to recognize a few people who are with us, starting with your congresswoman, whom I have had the great privilege of getting to know and working with and looking forward to be a partner with her. I want to acknowledge Mayor Strange. Thank you for having us here in your city. And Chairman Dean of the Montgomery County Commission, thank you. Mayor Ford of Tuskegee, thank you so much. I also want to thank Reverend Handy for opening up this historic church to us today. And I had a chance to visit with Reverend and Mrs. Handy, and indeed, he was called to this church, and I am looking forward to working to support the kind of mentoring and outreach programs that he is putting in place here. We need more of that for more of our children.

“And I am so pleased that Paulette Brown could be with us today. Those of us who know of her career and her rise, first through the NBA, then through the ABA, really hold her in such high esteem. And I thank you for your highlighting the many women in the civil rights movement, particularly the lawyers. Because, as Ben said, my first job out of law school was for the Children’s Defense Fund, for Marian Wright Edelman. She was someone who I heard about when I was in law school and saw one day on the bulletin board – there used to be such things in the pre-internet world called bulletin boards. I saw where she was going to be speaking at Yale

Law School, where she had graduated and where I was then a student, and I went over to hear her speak and I was just so impressed. Here’s the first African American woman to pass the Mississippi bar, working on behalf of civil rights but focusing on the needs of children, which to me is the really overwhelming challenge that we face today.

“I listened to her and then when she finished, I went up to her and I said to her – I said, “I’d like to come work for you this summer.” She said, “Well, that’s fine, but I can’t pay you.” And I said, “Well, I have to get a job because I’m putting myself through law school,” and I said to her, “If I can figure out how to get paid, will you give me the job?” She said, “Well, that’s an offer I certainly won’t refuse.” So I applied for and got a law student Civil Rights Research Council grant. It enabled me to go to work that summer, and then when I graduated I went to work fulltime, later chaired the board of the Children’s Defense Fund, and to this day I count myself very lucky having seen that little notice on that bulletin board all those years ago.

“And I especially am honored to be with the Reverend Bernice King, someone whose moral clarity and call to action is certainly rooted in her father’s work, but is uniquely her own. Her voice is one that deserves the closest attention, and I am grateful she is here with us.

“When I think about a lot of the great names that we have heard today, I am always impressed and, frankly, a little humbled. Attorney Gray is a distinguished man, but he was a very young man when he took on these cases. It is easy now in retrospect to somehow assume that the results were foreordained, and that the time to end segregation and oppression and inequality before the law was drawing to a close. But I don’t think we should ever assume that. It took the courage of so many, and among the most courageous were the lawyers who took on the challenges in the courts and in the streets.

“Another person I had the great privilege of working with was John Doar, who argued pivotal voting rights cases while serving in the Department of Justice, and memorably had to step in between police and protesters to stop a bloodbath in Jackson in 1963, after the murder of Medgar Evers. I remember asking John Doar once, as I was a very young lawyer at the time of this question, “Weren’t you afraid?” “Of course I was,” he said, “but I was representing the law.

I was representing the constitution. If we don’t stand for that in the worst of times, how can we live with ourselves?”

“Or think about Louis Stokes, who we just lost. He was fighting stop and frisk back in the 1960s. And Elaine Jones, a dear friend who defended death row inmates and helped get the death penalty abolished in 37 states as a lawyer with the NAACP legal defense fund. I think of judges like Frank Johnson here in Alabama, who took his seat on the bench just a few weeks before Rosa Parks was arrested, and struck down the Montgomery bus segregation law as unconstitutional, then did the same for parks and

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restaurants, restrooms, libraries, airports, and the Alabama state police. Or his counterpart in Louisiana, Judge Skelly Wright, who overturned dozens of segregation laws there and before Brown ordered LSU to enroll black students.

“These jurists, like many of the lawyers who were taking these cases, endured death threats and cross burnings. They were reviled by many of their neighbors. They’d walk down a street and see friends they had known since childhood who would turn their backs on them. But they didn’t back down because they too believed in the Constitution, in the rule of law. And they knew that segregation was a distortion of justice, not an expression of it. They also knew that sometimes, lawmakers get it wrong. And when that happens, it’s up to lawyers and judges to make it right. That’s what many lawyers felt then and it’s what many lawyers feel now. Our work isn’t finished. We do have to pay it forward.

There are still injustices perpetrated every day across our country, sometimes in spite of the law, sometimes, unfortunately, in keeping with it.

There are still too many Americans, especially too many African Americans, whose experience of the justice system is not what it should be.

There are still too many ways in which our laws and our policies fall short of our ideals.

“So even as we celebrate all that our country has achieved in the past 60 years, we must, in keeping with the legacy of those who have gone before, look to the future and the work that is left to do.

“We must reform our criminal justice system.

It can be, and all too often is, stacked against those with the least power. There is something profoundly wrong when African American men are still far more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes, and sentenced to longer prison terms for doing the same things as a white man. There is something profoundly wrong when a third of all black men face the prospect of prison during their lifetimes.

Right now an estimated 1.5 million black men are missing from their families and communities because of incarceration and premature death.

And too many black families mourn the loss of a child.

“I’ve met with too many mothers who have lost their children – lost to senseless, incomprehensible violence. My heart breaks for them. Many of these women are doing something quite remarkable: they are turning their grief into a powerful call to action for our nation.

“We can’t go on like this. We’ve got to change.

We must strengthen the bonds of trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. In too many parts of America today, that trust has broken down. Let’s remember that everyone benefits when there is respect for the law and when everyone is respected by the law.

“And as we work to deliver real reforms that can be felt in our communities, there’s a lot of good work to build on. Across the country, many Story Continued on page 17.

CAANJ police officers are out there every day inspiring trust and confidence, honorably doing their duty, putting themselves on the line to save lives.

And many police departments are deploying creating and effective strategies, demonstrating how we can protect the public without resorting to unnecessary force. We need to learn from those examples, build on what works, chart a new course in how we approach punishment and prison.

“The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. And our country has nearly one-third of all the world’s women prisoners. The numbers of people in prison are much higher than they were 30 or 40 years ago, even though crime rates are much lower. And of the more than 2 million Americans incarcerated right now, a significant percentage are nonviolent offenders – people held for violating parole, or minor drug crimes, or who are simply awaiting trial in backlogged courts. Keeping them behind bars does little to reduce crime, but it does a lot to tear apart families and communities. It’s time to change our approach and end the era of mass incarceration in America.

“And we must do more to address the epidemic of gun violence that is plaguing our country. I consider this a national emergency. The vast majority of Americans, including the vast majority of gun owners, support commonsense steps to reduce gun violence like comprehensive background checks and closing the loopholes that let guns fall into the wrong hands. But even after what we’ve seen in Paris and in other places, Congress won’t even bring up a bill that will prohibit anyone on the no-fly list from buying a gun. Think about it: it seems reasonable to assume if you are too dangerous to fly in America, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America.

And we must get rid of the special immunity Congress gave the gun industry, something that was a mistake – plain and simple – that needs to be reversed.

“And yes, we must strengthen that most fundamental citizenship right: the right to vote.

I thought we’d solved that problem thanks to many of the lawyers we are honoring today. But unfortunately, there is mischief afoot, and some people are just determined to do what they can to keep other Americans from voting. Now, I know because I was here at Joe Reed’s invitation a few weeks ago about the dispute that’s going on in Alabama, where there’s a strict new voter ID law in effect, and then a lot of the DMV offices in every single county where African Americans make up more than 75 percent of registered voters were closed. Now, that would make getting driver’s licenses and personal ID cards much harder, which, in turn, would make voting much harder too.

“The right to vote is so fundamental to our democracy, but it’s also about people’s dignity.

The right to stand up and say, “I am a citizen. I am an American. My voice and my vote count.”

No matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or how much money you have, that means something.

“As Ben was saying with that powerful quote from Justice Marshall, before the law we are all to be equal, and in the voting booth we are all to be equal as well, and that cannot and must not be

And then he started talking about love. Love, he taken away.

“And finally, we must be honest about the larger said, is one of the pinnacle parts of the Christian and deeper inequalities that continue to exist faith. And there is another side called justice.

And I love this, especially as a recovering lawyer.

Justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which would work against love. Standing beside love is always justice.

“Now, decades after her place in history was secured, Rosa Parks came to Washington to sit with me at the 1999 State of the Union. She looked beautiful in a jeweled-colored dress with her head crowned in a long braid, just like in her booking photos the day she was arrested. The entire Congress rose to give her a long standing ovation. You see, all of our nation’s leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike, united in their esteem for her, when she was once the focal point of perhaps the most divisive issue of our time, well, that was a powerful indicator of how far we had come.

“Rosa hadn’t changed much. She was the same lovely, dignified, determined person she always was. But America had changed. It’s always struck me how, depending on the way you look at it, Rosa Parks either did something tremendous or something rather humble. On the one hand, she helped ignite a social movement that sought to finish the work of the Civil War and redeem the promise of the 13th, 14th, and 15th, across our country. You can’t credibly talk Amendments. On the other hand, she finished about reforming our criminal justice system her shift at the Montgomery Fair Department and strengthening our democracy without also Store, took her regular bus home, sat where she talking about increasing economic opportunity, and other African Americans always sat, and, improving education, giving more support to when the bus driver ordered her to move, she working families. Our children deserve the best quietly, so quietly – if the bus were still running, start in life. And we have to do more to make that no one could have heard her above the engine possible. Now, I do have this most wonderful, noise – said, “No.” amazing 14-month-old granddaughter. And I listen carefully to Ben talking about Brooklyn “That’s how history often gets made, doesn’t (ph). And I’ve got no doubt that he and his wife it? On an ordinary day, by seemingly ordinary are going to do everything it takes to make sure people, doing something extraordinary. It’s only she’s prepared to pursue her dreams. But I want when we look back that we realize that’s the day when everything began to change. That’s how it that for every child. was with December 1, 1955.

“And you cannot credibly pledge to do your part to make our country more just without also “I suspect Rosa Parks would be the first to being willing to take a look at yourself, at our say that what happened 60 years ago today own lives, our own preconceptions. We each and everything that followed was the result of need to do the hard work of rebuilding our countless acts of courage and sacrifice by people bonds with one another.

This isn’t just about from many walks of life. And I’m sure she strengthening ties between police and citizens would also, Attorney Gray, acknowledge the – although that is very important. It’s about critical role that attorneys play. strengthening ties across society, between and “As we look forward, I hope we keep in mind among neighbors, colleagues, even people with what we can do on days like this to begin to whom we profoundly disagree. It’s about how make a difference. Maybe only with a few we treat each other, what we value together. people. Maybe, though, to start ripples that will “This is so fundamental to who we are, as change history. There is no doubt in my mind a nation, and everything we could hope to that the power of our Constitution, of the rule of achieve. And those of us who serve in politics, law, of the courage of those who fight to uphold or who want to lead our country have a special it, is one of the great assets the United States of responsibility to bring Americans together, not America has. Let us go forth today, challenged pull us apart. And it may be unusual, hearing to do our part to make sure that this generation a presidential candidate say we need more love will see the work of justice and equality, as well and kindness, but that is exactly what we need as love and kindness. right now. Indeed, it’s what we have always “I look forward to being your partner in the years needed. ahead. Thank you all very much.”

“After the first day of the bus boycott 60 years ago, that evening, thousands of people were Submitted By Hillary For America jammed in the streets, inside the church, when Martin Luther King, Jr. stepped to the pulpit. www.HillaryClinton.com You go back and read what he said that night, of course he spoke about (inaudible), about citizenship, about fairness under the law.

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

CAANJ

5 COVER STORY

THE WILL TO ACHIEVE: JESSE THOMAS FROM THE COTTON FIELDS TO THE CORNER SUITE

By Ray Miller Publisher Jesse Thomas is a very dignified and respectful man. As he talks about his early years, growing up on a plantation, being the son of a sharecropper, chopping and picking cotton from the age of eight years old until he was 15, one is left to imagine how these experiences shaped the life and attitude of this high achieving executive.

he was responsible for $3 billion in healthcare procurement for more than 440,000 Illinois residents. In addition, he held leadership positions with Molina, UnitedHealthcare, Colorado Access, HealthPlans of America, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana among others.

“Leaving a legacy in one’s career matters.

Healthcare CO-OPs like InHealth Mutual are of, for and by the people–inherently linked to the spirit of our founding fathers,” said Thomas.

“I’ve dedicated my career to improving the health and quality of life for vulnerable and underserved persons through better healthcare access, educational choice and community outreach; I am truly honored to lead InHealth Mutual because I know we can have an impact in changing the health care industry for the better.”

With a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, Thomas completed graduate studies in management and accounting at Eastern Michigan University and at the Master’s candidate level in psychology at Houston Baptist University.

Born in a small town just outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Thomas speaks of the prejudices he had to endure with no malice in his voice.

His parents migrated to Chicago, Illinois from the Mississippi Delta and the move split the family. His mother and father separated when he was three years old and his mother returned to her home in the south. She did not like the big city life of Chicago. Conversely, Thomas saw Chicago as the land of opportunity and made the “I’ve been in the industry for thirty-five years, most recently as president of the south division decision to stay with his father up north. of WellCare Health Plans from 2010 through In chronicling his youth--schooling, jobs, 2013. There, I oversaw a $3 billion budget for promotions, church, and the encouragement of plans in Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. adults--Black and White--one can readily see Serving as CEO of InHealth Mutual, which the ambition of the young Jesse Thomas and operates in the public sector, was a natural the resulting wisdom that is the by-product progression. I’ve had a storied career, but despite of his ascent to positions of power and major my accomplishments I wanted to leave my mark. It was providential that I would end up at responsibility throughout America. this place at this point in time. It’s a watershed moment, given how the health-care landscape Fast Forward to Today is changing after the passage of the Affordable Jesse Thomas, CEO of InHealth Mutual - Care Act (ACA) in 2010.

With more than 30 years of relevant business, insurance, healthcare and public service Under the co-op program, the federal government experience, Thomas took the helm at InHealth offers low-interest loans to eligible nonprofit Mutual on October 1, 2013. His deep expertise groups to set up and maintain health insurance includes business expansion, strategic planning, co-ops. They exist in twenty-three states now. public policy and community advocacy. Most InHealth Mutual was one of the last to be recently, he served as president of WellCare authorized, but Ohio is now the third largest Health Plans South Division in Atlanta, GA, in loan commitments, behind New York and where he led plan presidents in GA, KY and Illinois. We’re providing access, innovation, and SC and oversaw a $3 billion budget, more than competition within the marketplace.

900,000 members, 500 employees, and numerous I often say the best-kept secret of the ACA is the contracted providers and hospitals. small section that focuses on co-ops. A co-op is Widely respected as a progressive and tireless essentially the credit union of health insurance. champion of innovatively advancing health care The savings we receive—any surplus—goes reform, Thomas served as Chief/Administrator back to our members through enhanced benefits in the Office of Healthcare Purchasing for or lowered premiums. As a result, we have a real the Illinois Department of Health and Family incentive to keep people healthy. We didn’t want Services where he led the implementation of an to take a cookie-cutter approach with insurance Executive Order to consolidate the healthcare as indemnification for sickness. procurement function of the departments of Central Management Services, Corrections, That’s not how health insurance traditionally Human Services, and Veterans Affairs. As such, works, so we had the opportunity to be disruptive The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015 February 2015

18

innovators in the space. But to do so, we needed to understand where the disparities existed between needs and coverage. We put together a statewide steering committee with representation from individuals, insurance brokers, community organizations, and human service agencies, and we had conversations about solving disparities in healthcare. One result was the inclusion of acupuncture in our plan. Another was what we call two plus two—two free visits for physical health and two for behavioral health without deductibles or co-pays. We also incentivized members to answer health-history questions by reducing the individual deductible by $250 and family deductibles by $500 for those who did so.

That gave us visibility and helps us ensure that members get the right care at the right place at the right time. For example, if someone has diabetes, we know they may need to see a podiatrist for circulation issues and an ophthalmologist for vision issues. Then we have a case manager coordinate that care, and some elements are free.

We continue to seek ways to bridge disparities in access to care, and to do so in a culturally sensitive way. Many disparities exist because of failure to appreciate differences in experiences.

We have to treat people the way we want to be treated.”

InHealth Thomas said, “so this share cropper from the Mississippi Delta, who had to grow cotton, soybeans, vegetable gardens, hogs, chickens and all of that stuff, took that pension for growth to the business place and grew businesses as a result of his experience.” Here is the important thing,

CAANJ it is less about awards and kudos than finding a sweet spot. That sweet spot for me has turned out to be the right alignment of partnership between the public and private sector to improve the health and the quality of life for vulnerable, underserved and uninsured individuals.

The Affordable Care Act We have tried since President Roosevelt in 1900 to get to universal access in health insurance.

We’ve finally done so with the Affordable Care Act, under President Obama. Acrimony at times and controversy a plenty, but I think there is something more concerning about not having healthcare accessible to all Americans.

Acrimony and politics aside, we have to figure out ways to find common ground and clean up objectionable provisions of the Affordable Care Act - - but not scuttle or jettison this historic law.

All too often, those with behavioral health and mental health issues are stigmatized.

But the percentage of individuals who have comorbidities, meaning they have both physical and behavioral health circumstances, is greater than thirty percent in this state. And if we want to have a prosperous, economically stable community and marketplace we have to keep our citizens healthy. There is an old, but true statement, “I don’t care how much money you have, you can be a millionaire. You can be a billionaire, but if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.”

(Left to Right) Angela Cornelius Dawson, Director of The Ohio Commission on Minority Health, Jesse Thomas and Dr. Gregory Hall

Medicaid card. And their Medicaid card was tantamount to a hunting license. They had a license to hunt for a provider or physician that would take that card, but many would not. But once you got in a health plan where you were getting a certain amount of compensation for that care, they were able to recieve the care they needed. What are some of the innovations we looked at? Well, a couple of things: we did a listening tour around the state and put together a statewide steering committee and we wanted to push the market in a way that was not a one size fits all, a cookie cutter approach. We wanted to make sure that we knew what the disparities were in access in the communities all around the state.

And we learned some interesting things. We tried to fashion our products to accommodate those things. And one of the great surprises to us was that people love acupuncture. That is not one of the essential health benefits, it’s not mandated.

But the public told us they wanted it so we put it in. Most carriers don’t cover acupuncture, we do.

The other advantage of the Affordable Care Act is helping adults, who despite their college education, struggle to get a foot hold in the economy. Many of them are saddled with high college debt. Some live at home and some don’t live at home. But, the bottom line is that your healthcare needs can differ greatly between birth and age twenty six. Whether you are at home or not there is an opportunity to decompress the expense of young and emerging populations who are trying to get into the marketplace, but the burden of health insurance is too great. The Affordable Care allows a student to stay on their parent’s insurance until age twenty six.

One of the other innovations is centered around something we heard from our steering committee So, for those who are one hundred and thirty on these listening tours. These products are eight percent of the federal poverty level and fashioned around the medallions. So you have above all the way up to four hundred percent platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. And at the are eligible for healthcare subsidies. Subsidies platinum level you have the highest premium but means that I am mandating and requiring you to the lowest out of pocket and as you come down have insurance, but then I am going to mandate those medals and you come down to bronze for this unfunded mandate on families that are example, it is going to have the lowest premium already struggling. So, these subsidies that are and the highest out of pocket. Your deductibles, funded through tax credits will go to individuals and copays and coinsurance are going to be who need them. higher. And so a lot of people, because they are mandated by law to have coverage are choosing InHealth Innovations the bronze but they have insurance and there is still a barrier to access to care because there We are talking about access, innovation, and deductibles are thousands of dollars before it competition, that is what we are chartered to do. is one hundred percent paid for. We decided at But, with respect to access, we took it at face Inhealth to provide what we call two plus two value. Meaning that individuals who couldn’t because there should be parity between physical access or get insurance before, now have an health and behavioral health. We have offered opportunity to get it. And I have spent a lot of two free visits; for physical health and we offer time in the government space in Medicaid and two free visits for behavioral health specialists.

I come across many individuals who have their So that barrier of going to get your health care 19

that at least for the first two visits is something that you don’t have to pay for.

The co-op health insurance will pay that for you.

And so, to do that we need to have some sort of visibility into their health history. And how do you do this since you don’t medically underwrite and you don’t do those questionnaires to decide to give someone a higher premium. We had a voluntary health checklist and the patients would complete it, allowing us to know what type of conditions they had. While, we could, not medically underwrite, we could assign a nurse to be a Case Manager to write a care plan to ensure that diabetics, those with chronic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, and those who are pregnant and have high risk pregnancies could have a health plan drawn up for them.

We either add benefits, such as acupuncture, some free visits, some free supplies, and free visits of things that I have just described or we reduce the premium. And our premium on average, has been five to seven percent lower than our competitors. We are indeed doing those things that we were chartered to do and that is to provide access, innovation, and competition. The other interesting thing about the co-ops required in our agreement is that by the time the majority of our board members have to be policy holders, they have to be members, Our foundation board that was made up of eight individuals that brought a subject matter expertise from a number of disciplines; insurance, law, strategic plan academia, public service, you name it. Those constitute the board that was the foundation board for the first year of operation. The second year of operation was a transition board, we had to add at least one policy holder member to that board and we went beyond that and added three. Our eight member board went to eleven members. We now need eight members of the fifteen members starting in January 2016 to be policy holders. We will add five policy holders to Continued on page 20.

The TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015

CAANJ to achieve, to overcome and endure. The other would be around communication. The effectiveness of communication is the outcome you get. Perspectives are different. I put together an acronym called GABE that always helps me in effective communication. G-Always get out in front of an issue, A-Always about the money (It is always about the bottom line) B-Be proactive (Have the will to achieve and you are willing) E-Early and Often. That other thing is faith.

I am a man of faith. I believe that there is not much separation between the temporal and the spiritual. A good leader is a good follower.

Community Service

(Left to Right) Jesse Thomas, Rev. Dr. Victor Davis, Rev. Dr. Otha Gilyard, Bishop Timothy Clarke, Rev. Dr. Lewis Macklin, II, Ray Miller, Publisher

our board, adding to the three we already have. and energized in and around what the co-ops So it really is a health insurance company that is represent. We have been talking to community colleges about establishing programs that would of, for and by the people. be about food preparation and food preparedness.

The significant spend, and I am not in Medicaid Infant Mortality now, but the Medicaid budget is long term care.

One thing that is a great frustration to me, dealing We have people who are living in institutions with what I have for so long in the government versus community and community based home space, and dealing with the involvement of services. We can get community home health the underserved, is to know that we have an workers to go in and help with the activities infant mortality rate in the state that is just of daily living, helping them to be mobile and unconscionable. Ohio has one of the highest ambulatory, getting them the services and the support that they need in their homes. Those are rates of Infant Mortality in the nation. the things that I think healthcare ministry can And in Franklin County, despite the prosperity embrace. It can be community health workers, and the progress of this county, it is somewhere food preparations held in churches that are large around seventy-five out of the eighty-eight enough and resourceful enough, can have clinics counties. We can do better than that, we can within their facilities. They can have blood absolutely do better than that. And I want our draws and just a whole host of things, and so we Miracles and Milestones program that help see the faith community as excellent potential our youth, these babies to not only survive partners. Our Project REACH was designed with but to thrive. Some of these principles that are that in mind. The Pastor at Mt. Gilead has been providing an incentive for these moms to come in a significant partner with us in that regard, Rev. and make sure they are learning all they need to Rebecca Tolson, who is the Executive Director learn about helping their babies to thrive and get of the Ohio Council of Churches had been a them prenatal care and postpartum care to ensure partner in that as well. So, we have reached out, that there are indeed miracles and milestones in at Project Reach, we had Hindus, and the Jewish community, and the Christian community and the life of these babies. others there. We are trying to reach out to the Engaging the African American Community entire community that has influence, these are people who influence the influencers. And I Yes, we have a lot of work to do. That is in think with those efforts we can help improve large measure why I want to involve the faith the quality of life for all of us, throughout our community. You were at our conference and I community. really appreciated the remarks that you brought.

The guy in our community is the pastor. People Leadership Lessons looking for answers go to their faith community.

That is why it is important to me, as a man of faith Having the will to achieve. Despite the warps to have embraced the faith community. Most of and imperfections, in America, it is still the land the great movements in history, whether it was of promise and plenty, where I believe progress about civil rights, social justice, voting rights, and prosperity can be enjoyed by every willing suffrage, you name it, those things had significant heart. Don’t whine about and get frustrated about genesis in the faith community. We believe that an uneven playing field, feeling like you are a we can get the faith community galvanized victim in some way and have been discriminated against, get over it. You need to have the will The 2015 The Columbus Columbus African African American American News News Journal Journal •• December February 2015

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Active in his communities, Thomas has served on numerous boards and committees around the country. While in Michigan from 20082010, he served with Detroit Area Agency on Aging and Greater Detroit National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. Further, he served with LifeSkills Charter Schools in North and South Columbus, OH and Denver, CO among others. Currently, he serves on the board of Go Build Georgia Education Foundation for the Workforce Development Agency, and on the board of advisors of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Politically active, Thomas was the healthcare policy advisor to Rick Snyder during his 2010 Michigan Gubernatorial run; and he was himself a candidate/nominee for the U.S. Congress in 2000 on healthcare and education reform.

InHealth Mutual About InHealth Mutual: InHealth Mutual is a nonprofit CO-OP – a consumer operated and oriented plan – built for members by members to provide quality, affordable health insurance that is responsive to the needs and wants of all Ohioans. Given its nonprofit status and focus on individuals and small businesses, its governing board of directors will include members (policy holders) after the initial start-up period and profits will be used to enhance benefits or lower premiums. Being accountable to members versus stockholders is a paradigm shift InHealth believes will result in better health insurance for the people it covers. For more information, visit www.inhealthohio.org.

Dr. Brian Smedly, Dr. Ho Luong Tan, Jesse Thomas

CAANJ

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

SUPPORT BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES

As you prepare to do your holiday shopping, The Columbus African American would like for you to consider supporting African and African American owned businesses. Everyone has been inundated with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, many of which neglect our communities.We hope that as you continue to shop this holiday season, please support companies that give back to our communities through employment, resources and/or donations. Please use this as a guide to help navigate the marketplace.

RESTAURANTS

SUPER CHEF’S

FAMILY AFFAIR

TOOTIE’S CHICKEN & WAFFLES

Downtown - 199 E. Broad St., 43215 Gahanna - 1344 Cherry Bottom Rd., 43230

3781 S. Hamilton Road, 43125

1808 E. Livingston Ave., 43205

There is nothing like having a home-cooked meal!

And if that is what you crave, then head over to Family Affair off of State Route 33 and Winchester Pike and come prepared to eat! With their fall-offthe-bone ribs, cake-like cornbread and delicious sweet tea, you will probably need a nap afterwards!

For more information, visit their website at www.

FamilyAffairCateringCo.com

You can’t go wrong with chicken and waffles! Tootie’s will get you ready to start your day with a hearty breakfast made with fresh real eggs, juicy bacon and hearty grits. You can’t sleep in on them, because they pack it in early! So if you are in the Driving Park neighborhood, stop by and treat yourself to a great meal at a great price!

BLACK ART PLUS

SOLE CLASSICS

REPLENISH SPA

43 Parsons Ave, 43215

846 N. High Street, 43125

124 S. Washington Ave., 43215

Looking to make an investment? Well, then look no further than Black Art Plus. Art appreciates and the stores’ owner, Dr. George Miller, will appreciate your business. Aside from paintings and photos, check out his collection of fine African sculptures and so much more. This is one place where you can take your time to puruse and enjoy. For more information and store hours, visit them online at www.BlackArtPlus.com.

Sometimes having a unique pair of shoes is not enough. Custom shoes are about as unique as you can get. If you want to get a really cool gift for a young person who is into designer shoes, then check out Sole Classics in the Short North. This place is a one-stopshop for everything hip! And if you can’t find it in the store, then visit their website at www.SoleClassics. com

Don’t let the holiday stress get you down. Instead, Replenish yourself by taking a yoga class or schedule a deep tissue massage, a facial or perhaps an acupuncture session. It may be cold outside, but this warm, natural environment will not only ease your mind, but also soothe your soul. For more information about their services, visit them online at www.ReplenishWith.us

Breakfast and More is probably the best way to describe this restaurant. Before you go, please plan to bring your appetite! With selections like the Hulk Breakfast Sandwhich or Pineapple Upsidedown Pancakes, this place is only for super heroes! For more menu options and prices, visit their website at www.MySuperChefs.com

STORES

ONLINE BEVEL

GREGORY SYLVIA

www.GetBevel.com

www.GregorySylvia.com

Finally a razor designed for black men!

If you want a clean shave without those annoying razor bumps, then Bevel is the razor for you. Order one today and see the difference for yourself.

21

Are you looking to make a statement at that next holiday party? If so, then complete your next outfit with a designer Gregory Sylvia handbag and watch people turn their heads to see what’s on your arm.

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

CAANJ

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CAANJ

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

By Senator Charleta B. Tavares

The Ohio Senate passed Senate Bill 188 on November 17, 2015 unanimously (31-0).

The bill would designate the month of April as “Genocide Awareness Month”. Senate Bill 188 was jointly sponsored

by Senator Charleta B. Tavares (D-Cols.) and Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cinc.) who advanced the idea to increase awareness on the acts of genocide committed throughout the world and right here in America. The following is an excerpt of Senator Charleta B. Tavares’ floor speech in support of Senate Bill 188:

conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Despite the best efforts to prevent the tragedy of genocide from occurring after World War II, we have seen genocide occur across the globe in places like Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. North America has its own shameful history with genocide. It is estimated that during the trans-Atlantic slave trade over a million Africans perished during the middle passage when crossing the Atlantic and millions more through brutal mutilations, horrific conditions, “Good afternoon Mr. President and members of separating children and deaths by slave owners the Ohio Senate. Thank you for providing the and others. opportunity for Senator Seitz and me to present Senate Bill 188 which will designate the month Most of the instances of genocide have taken place in the month of April. April marks the of April as Genocide Awareness Month. beginning of the Armenian genocide and April The term genocide was first coined after World 24 is Armenian Genocide Awareness Day, the War II by a Jewish-Polish lawyer named issuing of the “Final Solution” which started Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin first coined the term the holocaust occurred in April of 1933 and back in 1944 while working with the U.S. April 17th is Cambodian Remembrance Day Department of War. The term first appeared in acknowledging the start of the Cambodian Lemkin’s published text Axis Rule in Occupied genocide. On April 5, 1995 the siege of Sarajevo Europe which studied the path of destruction and took place in Bosnia and April of 1994 was the occupied areas of Nazi held territories. The word start of the Rwandan genocide after the plane of genocide comes from combining the Greek word the Rwandan President was shot down. “geno” meaning race or tribe, and “cide” which is the Latin word for killing. During the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1946 the term genocide was used as a descriptive in the indictment against former Nazi leaders, however, genocide does not appear in the final judgment because the word was not yet a legal term. That would change on December 9, 1948 when the United Nations sanctioned the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide which made genocide a crime under international law. Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide was given the following definition:

this chapter of history and to infuse it with meaning is thereby choosing to struggle for the preservation of the bedrock moral values that alone make possible the existence of a wellordered society. This is a commitment to uphold human rights, above all, freedom and the sanctity of life, and the opportunity for people to live side by side in harmony.

I hope that Ohio will be the next state to join in the struggle to uphold the basic rights of all human beings and make the commitment to raising awareness about genocide to prevent it from occurring in the future…”The bill passed out of the Criminal Justice Committee unanimously (10-0) and will now go to the Ohio House of Representatives for committee deliberations and vote. If you are interested in testifying or weighing in on the bill, contact your state Representative at www.ohiohouse.gov. The replays of the Senate Session and floor speeches can be viewed on the Ohio Channel (Archives – November 17, 2015) at www.ohiochannel.org.

Additional Contacts

The committee schedules, full membership rosters and contact information for the Ohio House and Senate can be found at: www.ohiohouse.gov and www.ohiosenate.gov respectively. If you are interested in getting the House Calendar each week of the General Assembly, contact the House Clerk, http://www.ohiohouse.gov/ housecalendar/house_calendar.pdf or your state Representative. Senate calendars are available at The dark and tragic history April shares in the www.ohiosenate.gov; contact the Senate Clerk’s genocide of people throughout the world is the office at (614) 466-4900 or your state Senator. reason Senator Seitz and I introduced Senate Bill 188 in hopes of drawing attention to and The Ohio General Assembly sessions and the preventing these crimes and atrocities in the House and Senate Finance Committee hearings future. can be viewed live on WOSU/WPBO and replays can be viewed at ohiochannel.gov (specific House Currently there are 4 states that recognize April and Senate sessions can be searched in the video as “Genocide Awareness Month” and those archives). If you would like to receive updated states are Texas, New Hampshire, Minnesota information on the Ohio General Assembly and and California. Our state does not have many policy initiatives introduced, call or email my tools at its disposal to help combat genocide office at 614.466.5131 or tavares@ohiosenate. but recognizing April as Genocide Awareness com to receive the Tavares Times News monthly Month is a step that we as legislators can take to legislative newsletter. ensure that the victims of past atrocities are not forgotten while continuing to educate Ohioans Senator Charleta B. Tavares, D-Columbus, is about genocide. Our Statehouse grounds has proud to serve and represent the 15th District, a Holocaust memorial dedicated to the over 6 including the historic neighborhoods of million Jews who perished at the hands of the Columbus and the cities of Bexley and Grandview Nazis. A quote inscribed on the memorial by Heights in the Ohio Senate.

Avner Shalev reads:

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, such as:

a) Killing members of the group

b) Causing serious bodily or mental

harm to members of the group

c) Deliberately inflicting on the group Every human being who chooses to remember

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TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015 2015 The

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6 BUSINESS

THE BOTTOM LINE: IT’S 4TH QUARTER! AND I DON’T MEAN FOOTBALL!

By Iris Cooper, MBA Its fourth quarter in the business world and Black Friday was last month.

Black Friday is the day that signifies whether the store lost money for the year or is “in the black”.

For retailers, this quarter is do or die; if profit is not made by the Friday after Thanksgiving, the year-end financial report will be red instead of black. For other industries, the fourth quarter is a time to reflect on the annual financial results, and to speculate about the future based on past data, gut feel, and a respectable dose of optimism. This period is the last chance to win the profit game and all adjustments must normally be made by December 31. Of course, the “commissioner” (aka the IRS), will wait until April if the fiscal and calendar year are the same.

There are no bands or cheerleaders celebrating the team at this time; the owner must strategically select all plays with focus on closing pending sales, assuming all other operational tactics were executed properly. A contentious law suit or uncollectible debt is nice to eliminate at year -end too, with favor to the home team. The tension of the fourth quarter is evident in the office, as workers scurry hither and thither to eliminate

any possibility of error on reports or orders. All legs, all moving toward the same goal. However, if the numbers are in the red, but the team has systems must be programmed for profitability. committed that defeat is not an option for the Football teams may go into overtime when the future, the game is still worthwhile; there is scores are tied, permitting new opportunities nothing more crucial to winning than a team that for points. Business goals also have a bit of believes in the leader and that together, miracles financial wiggle room; delaying expenditures are possible. or holding a slow receivable a bit longer can magnify the net income before tax for this period. Happy Holidays from JustAskIris!

These actions, often known as “managing the bottom line”, are customary measures to reduce Iris Ann Cooper hails from Evansville, Indiana. taxable income. However, certain enterprising She worked in the financial service arena for business owners may also desire to massage the over twenty-five years, providing funding for numbers to please another institution: the bank. housing, commercial real estate, nonprofits, and Banks like to see positive numbers at year-end, small businesses. reflecting a company worthy of a sustained or She is the owner of “JustAskIris!” an increased lending limit. entrepreneurial coaching firm. Iris is one of

the founders of Glory Foods, Inc., a national The fourth quarter can also be a time of gratitude food marketing company, among several to employees and other stakeholders that have other enterprises. She is the former Director demonstrated loyalty to the firm. Externally, of the Ohio Division of Entrepreneurship and holiday gatherings or customer gifts reflect the Small Business, featuring the Small Business value of personal relationships. With internal Development Centers, under Governor Ted stakeholders, an off-site year-end retreat can Strickland. In 2011, she was appointed to the US Small Business Administration Regulatory generate new ideas and strategies that were left Fairness Board. Iris obtained a BA degree in the locker room during the previous quarter, in Journalism and an MBA in Marketing from and also show the team that their opinion really Indiana University. She is “ABD” in the DBA matters to the quarterback owner. program at Walden University, majoring in For the owner, there is obviously a win-win outcome when the numbers are in the black and the team is functioning as one mind with many

Entrepreneurship. She teaches marketing courses at Franklin University and provides content guidance for its entrepreneurship program.

HOW TO AVOID FINANCIAL INDIGESTION FROM THE HOLIDAYS

By Netta Whitman and Layden Hale Remember the old “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” Alka-Seltzer commercial? Well, too often holiday spending can produce the same type pain as the overeating man in the classic antacid commercial.

January credit card nausea does not have to happen, though. Or if it does, it can be minimized when, surprisingly, consumers follow a handful of spending rules before Christmas Eve: • Use cash only when shopping. Leaving credit cards at home reduces impulse buys.

It becomes harder to spend when you see the money dwindling away.

• Carry only one credit card if necessary.

Leaving home with a single credit card creates a debt ceiling when shopping. Carrying multiple

cards significantly risks debt as you fail to resist inexpensive homemade holiday gifts or stocking purchasing gifts for yourself, relatives, friends stuffers. and co-workers.

Presentation of a gift or sentimentality can also • Comparatively search the internet for be valuable without being costly. Finding a photo sales on a product you want. While the word of long ago, when someone was much younger, “Sale” might be tempting, you might surprise and placed in a frame, can be greatly appreciated. yourself with a cheaper buy by looking at what other stores or companies are pricing a product, Ultimately, the season represents an exercise of particularly high-end electronics. self-control. Those willing to advance without planning, budgeting and buying need to keep One of the best ways to control your urges only one question in mind: “Is it a need or is to develop a holiday season spending want?” In many cases, people buy things that are plan, identifying the likely cost for presents, not needed but spend the rest of the year paying decorations and food. it off.

Large families also can limit expenses by having gift exchanges. A family member pulls from a hat the name of another family member, Mom, Dad, brother or sister, niece or nephew, and that is the only person they are responsible for providing a gift at a holiday gathering.

Going on line does not have to be a spending adventure. Rather, ideas are available there too to make the holiday season survivable. The web site Pinterest can provide a treasure of

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Layden Hale is a senior counseling advisor for Homeport. Netta Whitman is Homeport’s Assistant Director Learning & Engagement.

Individuals interested in learning more about credit and budget counseling, or post-holiday financial fitness courses, can contact Homeport’s Learning & Engagement Department at 614221-8889 extension 134.

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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IS CROWDFUNDING A GAME CHANGER FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS?

By Ambrose Moses, III If President Obama is correct in stating that access to capital through crowdfunding is a potential game changer for small businesses, the question is, “Are African Americans ready to play the crowdfunding game?”

Discussion: Some of us have been evangelizing and preaching about crowdfunding, seemingly, as if it were the Second Coming. Well, unlike the Second Coming, for Regulation Crowdfunding we now have both the final rules and the date on which it will happen. That date is May 16, 2016.

On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law. Title III of the JOBS Act legalized crowdfunding as a way for average citizens to invest and for entrepreneurs to raise money to start or grow their businesses. The JOBS Act also required the U.S. Securities and Ex-change Commission (“SEC”) to develop rules and regulate crowdfunding under Title III. As the President explained before signing the law, “because the U.S. is still recovering from one of the worst recessions in our history, the last few years have been pretty tough on entrepreneurs. Credit has been tight. And no matter how good their ideas are, if an entrepreneur can’t get a loan from a bank or backing from investors, it’s almost impossible to get their businesses off the ground.” For African American entrepreneurs, this lack of access to capital has been, and is, even worse.

Title III of the JOBS Act is part of the solution.

Here is what happens because of this law. For start-ups and small businesses, this law is a potential game changer. Before the new law and rules, you could only turn to a limited group of investors -- including banks and wealthy individuals -to get funding. Laws that were nearly 80-yearsold made it impossible for others to invest. But a lot has changed in 80 years, and it was time that our laws did as well. Because of Title III of the JOBS Act, start-ups and small business will now have access to a big, new pool of potential investors -- namely, the American peo-ple. For the first time, ordinary Americans will be able to go online and invest in entrepreneurs that they believe in.

Of course, to make sure Americans don’t get taken advantage of, the websites where folks will go to fund all these start-ups and small businesses will be subject to rigorous oversight.

The SEC is going to play an important role in implementing the new law.

On October 30, 2015, the SEC approved the final owned businesses, helping to harness the elusive rules to implement Regulation Crowdfunding “cir-culating dollar”. under Title III of the JOBS Act. As a result, Regulation Crowdfunding will begin on May 16, Conclusion: 2016. The countdown has begun.

While many African Americans and African The role of African Americans in the world American-owned businesses, like many other of crowdfunding is still evolving. Charlie Amer-icans, are not yet ready to engage actively Tribbett and Larry Baker in Chicago, William in Regulation Crowdfunding, with a little work, Cunningham in Washington, D.C., and Rodney they can quickly be ready.

Sampson in Atlanta are a few of the Brothers that I’ve met who are on point in helping to define Those who want to participate in Regulation and shape the crowdfunding space as a more Crowdfunding should take a few next steps. inclusive arena.

1) Start defining your crowds by actively Initially, we must determine the primary connecting with one another online and offline. question. Is it “how much playing time African Ameri-cans will get under the new rules”? Or, 2) Crowdfunding investors should learn the basics is the question “are African Americans ready to about investing and Regulation Crowdfunding. play un-der the new rules”? I submit that being ready to do crowdfunding under the new rules is 3) Entrepreneurs should learn the basics of the first issue African Americans must address Regulation Crowdfunding and hire lawyers to because, if they are ready to play under the help them get their businesses in shape to qualify new rules, they can “play with everyone else”, as an “issuer” under the new rules and pass a due “create their own league”, or “do a combination diligence review. of the two”.

Stay tuned to this space as we work to create, In other words, whether or not African Americans educate, and activate crowdfunding within Afriget “playing time” is completely within their can American community. control because, with the new rules, African Americans have the financial resources, creative Ambrose Moses, III is a lawyer and writer tal-ent, professional expertise, and business skills whose mission is to promote and obtain “. . . to create their own crowdfunding economy. legal, social, and economic justice for all.” His primary areas of practice are business, 501(c) Under the new rules, African Americans can be (3)/nonprofits, and crowdfunding. Ambrose crowdfunding investors who invest into African regularly presents with community and business American-owned businesses that are located in development organizations on business and lawAfrican American communities and that employ related topics. people living in African American communities.

Some of the money earned by these workers Email: info@MosesLaw.pro • Website: www. can then be spent with other African American- MosesLaw.pro • Telephone: (614) 418-7898

To Advertise in The Columbus African American contact us at: editor@columbusafricanamerican.com Ray Miller, Publisher 750 East Long Street, Suite 3000 Columbus, Ohio 43203 614.340.4891 The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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Join the Tawi Family Village as they celebrate 50 Years of Nguzo Saba December 26, 2015 - January 1, 2016 For more information on upcoming Kwanzaa Events In Central Ohio Call 614-258-0495 The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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7 PLA CYCLE VIII

NEW LEADERSHIP CLASS BEGINS

On Wednesday, November 18, 2015, the new fellows of the Progressive Leadership Academy (PLA) held their first class. Cycle VIII met at the Griffin Student Center at Ohio Dominican University. To kick-off the new cycle, various alumni from previous cycles came out to show their support and to offer words of encouragement. In September 2016, the PLA and the Ray Miller Institute for Change and Leadership will celebrate its 10th anniversary with over 350 combined graduates from both programs. Below are photos from the first class of Cycle VIII.

Angela Dawson, Director of The Ohio Commission on Minority Health, shares some words of wisdom with the new class.

Cycle VIII Fellow, Councilmember Jaiza Page

Cycle VIII Fellow, Rodirick Dye

Cycle VIII Fellow, Quiess Johnson

State Senator Charleta B. Tavares welcomes the new class.

The Fellows of Cycle VIII listen to former alumni share words of welcome.

Charles E. Newman, a graduate of Cycle VII, shares his experience with the new class.

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

Cycle VIII Fellow, Brooke Brown

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The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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By Ray Miller, MPA In The Face of Inequality - How

The Heart Led Leader - How Living

Black Colleges Adapt

and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life

By Melissa E. Wooten

By Tommy Spaulding

A quarter of black Americans earn college degrees from black colleges, yet questions about the necessity of black colleges abound. In the Face of Inequality dissects the ways in which race and racism combined to shape the experiences of America’s black colleges in the mid-twentieth century. In a novel approach to this topi, Melissa E.Wooten combines historical data with a sociological approach. Drawing on extensive quantitative and qualitative historical data, Wooten argues that for much of America’s history, educational and social policy was explicitly designed to limit black colleges’ organizational development. As an alternative to questioning the modern day relevance of these schools, Wooten ask readers to consider how rac and racism preclude colleges from aquiring the resources and respect worthy of them.

In his first book, It’s Not Just Who You Know, world renowned leadership speaker and former CEO of Up with People Tommy Spaulding talked about the power of building genuine and lasting relationships both personally and professionally. In his new book, The Heart-Led Leader, Spaulding turns his focus to ourselves - to who we are. Authentic leaders, Spaulding says, live and lead from the heart. The values and principles that guide our lives and shape our ability to lead others is far more important than our title, or our ability to crunch numbers, or the impressive degrees we display on our walls. To effect true transformational change, heartled leaders draw on the qualities of humility, vulnerability, transparency, empathy and love. Illustrated with stories from his own life, and from some of the exceptional leaders he has met and worked with over the years, Spaulding unpacks what those qualities mean.

THRIVE - How Better Mental Health Care Transforms Lives and Saves Money

The Son Also Rises

By Gregory Clark

By Richard Layard and David M. Clark

How much of our fate is tied to the status of our parents and grandparents? How much does it influence our children? More than we wish to believe. While it has been argued that rigid class structures have eroded in favor of greater social equality, The Son Also Rises proves that movement on the social ladder has changed little over eight centuries. Using a novel technique tracking family names over generations to measure social mobility across countries and periods - renowned economic historian Gregory Clark reveals that mobility rates are lower than conventionally estimated, do not vary across societies, and are resistant to social policies. Clark examines and compares surnames in such diverse cases as modern Sweden and Qing Dynasty China. He demonstrates how fate is determined by ancestry and that almost all societies have similarly low social mobility rates. Challengin popular assumptions about mobility and revealing the deeply entrenched force of inherited advantage, this book is sure to prompt intense debates for years to come.

Mental illness is a leading cause of suffering in the modern world. In sheer numbers, it afflicts at least 20 percent of people in developed countries. It reduces life expectency as much as smoking does, accounts for nearly half of all disability claims, is behind half of all worker sick days, and affects educational achievement and income. There are effective tools for alleviating mental illness, but most sufferers remain untreated or undertreated.

What should be done to change this? In Thrive, Richard Layard and David Clark argue for fresh policy approaches to how we think about and deal with mental illness, and they explore effective solutions to its miseries and injustices. Layard and Clark discuss how mental illness can be prevented through better schools and a better society.

Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery and

The Harlem Hellfighters

the Troubled History of America’s Universities.

By Max Brooks In 1919, the 369th infantry regiment marched home triumphantly from World War I. They had spent more time in combat than any other American unit, never losing a foot of ground to the enemy, or a man to capture, and winning countless decorations. Though they returned as heroes, this African American unit faced tremendous discrimination, even from their own government. The Harlem Hellfighters, as the Germans called them, fought courageously on - and off - the battlefield to make Europe, and America, safe for democracy.

Author Max Brooks and acclaimed illustrator Caana White bring this story to life. From the enlistment lines in Harlem to the training camp at Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the trenches in France, they tell their heroic story of the 369th in an action-packed and powerful tale of honor and heart.

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

By Criag Steven Wilder Many of America’s revered colleges and univerisites from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to Rutgers, Williams College, and UNC were soaked in the sweat, the tears, and sometimes the blood of people of color. The slave economy and higher education grew up together, each nuturing the other. Slavery funded colleges, built campuses, and paid the wages of professors. Significantly, as Wilder shows, our leading universities, dependent on human bondage, became breeding grounds for the racist ideas that sustained them.

Ebony and Ivy is a powerful and propulsive study and the first of its kind, revealing a history of oppression behind the institutions usually considered the cradle of liberal politics.

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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“MARCH 1 & 2” THE PERFECT GIFT FOR THIS CHRISTMAS more children not reading in America today. The greatest non-readers are young boys. Graphic Novels and comic books have become one of the main sources of getting young boys to read.

Once they are readers they will never stop. The evidence also points to that fact.

By The Rev. Dr. Tim Ahrens What New York Times best seller has more pictures than words?

When I picked up March 1 and March 2 I intended to simply have Congressman Lewis autograph the books and give them away as a gift.

Once I started reading the books, I could not put them down. They are great reads. Congressman Lewis and Andrew told me that the books are now required freshmen reading at Georgia State University, Michigan State University and Marquette University. March Book One was also ranked #2 on The Village Voice‍ ‘​s 2014 list “The 10 Most Subversive Comics at New York Comic Con.”

If you know the answer to that, you must be aware of Congressman John Lewis’ March 1, March 2 and soon to be released March 3. Using the powerful life story of John Lewis, author Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell bring the Civil Rights Movement to life in the March series. This unlikely trinity of storytellers has rejuvenated the powerful witness of John Lewis in his 75th year of life.

In March 1, we jump into John Lewis’ story with the beatings on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. The entire story is framed inside the first inauguration of Barack Obama and wrapped around that story as we step into John’s early life on the farm in Pike County, Alabama. We see John grow into his role as a Civil Rights leader at a very young age. We go all the way through the Nashville Sit-in Movement.

March 2 takes us from the Nashville to the Freedom Rides, the Birmingham Movement all the way through the March on Washington. The fast pace story and historic depth is tremendous.

In September I was honored to spend time with Andrew Aydin and John Lewis in Congressman Lewis’ Cannon House Office Building in Washington D.C. as this unlikely pair told me the back story of March.

John Lewis became a U.S. congressman for Georgia’s 5th congressional district in 1987. While working on his 2008 reelection campaign, Lewis told his telecommunications and technology policy aide, Andrew Aydin, about The Montgomery Story and its influence.

Now famous for reaching millions of children and youth during the 1960’s, The Montgomery Story told of the Montgomery bus boycott movement of 1955 and 1956. Andrew convinced Congressman Lewis to make a graphic novel about his life. John agreed but only if Andrew would write the story. When they found Nate Powell, the illustrator added “punch” to the powerful story line.

While other people are buying their children and grandchildren the latest game system this Christmas, why don’t you buy them March 1 and March 2. March 3 will be released soon. But, buy the gifts early – so you have time to read them before wrapping and giving them away.

Rev. Dr. Tim Ahrens is the Senior Minister of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in downtown Columbus. A church known for its witness to social justice since its birth as an abolitionist congregation in 1852. Rev. Ahrens is the fifth consecutive senior minister from Yale Divinity School and is a lifelong member of the United Church of Christ.

A growing body of evidence points to more and

March - Book 1 & March - Book 2

By John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper’s farm, to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African American president.

Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize for Swallow Me Whole.)

March is a vivid first-had account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditation in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.

Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a climax on the steps of City Hall.

Book Two picks up after the success of the campaign in Nashville and follows John as he joins the Freedom Riders and travels deeper into the south to fight racism and oppression. Faced with beatings and police brutality, imprisonment and even murder, John and his peers pushed forward and paved the way for the first march on Selma.

Inspired by a 1958 comic book “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,” John Lewis now has his own story book to bring to life the struggles of the civil rights movement. Order your copy today and share March with the next generation of young people.

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The TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015

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LENDER

Every year in our community, 150 babies never get the chance to celebrate their first birthdays.

It's a crisis that's caused by everything from exposure to tobacco smoke and unsafe sleep practices to babies being born too small or too soon. Learn how you can help us make sure more babies in our community reach their first birthdays at CelebrateOne.info.

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015 February 2015

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8 HISTORY

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DAVID WHITE: THE FIRST BLACK GRADUATE OF CAPITAL UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL the Ohio State University, majoring in Social Administration and also received an elementary teacher certification. Frances White worked as an interviewer with public housing, a policewoman (one of the first three in the City of Columbus) in the Juvenile Department, as a child welfare worker and as a visiting teacher.

She retired, after 32 years of public service, as Coordinator of School Volunteer Services with the Department of Human Relations in the school system. She also dedicated her time to numerous professional, civic, church and human relations projects. Her affiliations included Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Columbus Chapter of Links, Inc., Zonta Club International, Directions for Youth (formerly Friends in Action), and The Daughters of the King. She was a member of St. Philip Episcopal Church for more than 60 years.

By Rodney Q. Blount, M.A.

I am currently teaching a class on cultural diversity in the workplace to college students. Each chapter of the text I use discusses different cultures (primarily minorities), their history/ culture, and the challenges that they face in and out of the workplace. Distinctively, it also includes a list of recommendations for each group, as well as for employers, about possible solutions to improve their opportunities and working conditions. In virtually every chapter education was listed as a key part of the success of any group or individual. African Americans had been particularly limited in their access to education, especially higher education, with very few even having access to high school education until well into the twentieth century.

However, there were many who paved the way in the education arena. Attorney David D. White was among the trendsetters who broke down color barriers in education and became a very successful citizen who used his skills to improve the community.

David D. McKinley White was born on Jan. 31, 1901 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to David and Sallie (Matthews) White. After moving to Columbus with his family, White put a heavy emphasis on his education and graduated from Commerce High School in Columbus in 1919. He was also an excellent athlete. White’s quest for knowledge allowed him to attend The Ohio State University (1923) and receive an accounting degree from the Columbus College of Commerce (now better known as Franklin University) in 1926. However, David D. White’s signature achievement was his graduation from Capital University’s Law School in 1931. He became the first African American to graduate from Capital University’s Law School, 28 years after the law school was founded. He had to be not only smart, but determined to face the challenges on his route to secure his law degree due to being the only African American at Capital University Law School.

as a person who was very meticulous in his approach to law. He was a good businessman, a good lawyer and a good friend.”

David White was not only an instrumental force in education and in his profession, he was also very active in the community. White was a member of the Columbus Bar Association Board of Governors, the Ohio Public Defender Commission, the Ohio State Bar Association’s Council of Delegates, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and served on the Ohio Court of Claims. He was on the board of directors of Columbus State Community College and for Columbus Technical Institute, where he served five terms as secretary. White also headed a special committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that helped blacks get jobs in clerical positions in financial institutions around Columbus. In addition, he was a member of St. Marks Lodge #7 and a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi for over 50 years where he served as the East Central Province Polemarch from 1945-1949. He was a After graduation, White led a successful career trustee Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church as an attorney. He practiced for more than 57 for many years before becoming a member of St. years as a partner in the firm of Bell, White and Phillips Episcopal Church where he remained Ross and retired as a senior partner in 1988. He for the rest of his life. had previously served as an issuing deputy in the Columbus Municipal Court beginning in 1926.

He was also at one time the treasurer and auditor Atty. David White was married to Frances for Douglas Loan and Finance Company. His Anderson White for many years. Mrs. White years of dedicated service to his profession was very accomplished in her own right. Mrs. garnered him high esteem from his colleagues. Frances was born in Abingdon, Virginia, but Napoleon A. Bell, a law partner of White’s for grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where she graduated more than 25 years, said, “I remember David from East High School. She matriculated to The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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Attorney David D. McKinley White was an outstanding Columbus citizen. His leadership extended to the African American community where his involvements enhanced the welfare of race relations in the city. He paved the way for many African Americans and other minorities at Capital University including my aunt who is a graduate of Capital University Law School. His wife Frances was equally accomplished and they led a long and prosperous life together. Napoleon Bell, Esq. said, “He (ie. White) was a gentleman of the highest order. He was always holding out a hand to help those less fortunate.” The esteem that the community had for him is reflected in the David D. White scholarship established by Capital University’s African American Law Alumni Association in 1989. David White passed away in 1992 at the age of 91. He will truly be missed, but his legacy will continue to live on.

Works Cited: Columbus Dispatch (October 28, 1985, November 19, 1987, July 22, 1992, March 14, 1999, May 9, 2007) http://law.capital.edu/DavidDWhite/ Who’s Who in Colored America, Volume 6 (copyright 1942) ecpkapsi.com/province-history/ Roderick Blount is an Educator and Historian.

He received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Ball State University and a Masters of Arts degree from The Ohio State University. His work has been featured in several publications.

Roderick is a native of Columbus, Ohio and is a member of several organizations.

Photo provided by Terri Botsko, Director, Law Alumni Relations at Capital University Law School.

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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9 COMMUNITY RESOURCES

IMPACT COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OFFERS WINTER CRISIS PROGRAM

COLUMBUS — IMPACT Community Action’s Emergency Assistance Department is offering six Super Saturday events from November 21 through March 19, 2016 to make it easier for busy households to apply for its Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) and Winter Crisis Program (WCP). Super Saturday is a customer-focused event to provide additional access to the Home Energy Assistance Program/ Winter Crisis Program (HEAP/WCP). The Super Saturdays are scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on November 21, December 5, January 9, February 20, March 5, and March 19.

IMPACT’s HEAP/WCP helps low-income households in Columbus and Franklin County who are at or below 175% of the Federal Poverty Guideline. Through the WCP, IMPACT and the Ohio Development Services Agency are providing a one-time payment of $175 toward a utility bill if service is in threat of disconnection, is terminated, is new service, or if the service is being transferred. Customers must bring the following information with them:

1. Valid, government-issued photo identification (i.e., a driver’s license)

2. Social Security numbers for everyone in the household (regardless of age)

3. Proof of income for the past 90 days for everyone in the household age 18 and older

4. Current gas and electric bills

5. A copy of the lease, if the service is currently disconnected

6. Households claiming zero income must provide a current tax transcript *WCP helps income-eligible families at or below 175% of the 2015-2016 Federal Poverty Guidelines:

The WCP is available during regular office hours on Mondays through Fridays from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Appointments are provided based on availability and are made by calling 866.747.1038. Appointments may be scheduled up to 28 days from the time of the call. A limited number of walk-in services are available each work day starting at 6:30 a.m.; and customers typically arrive earlier to secure a space in line.

The demand for appointments and walk-in service remains high and may exceed staff capacity at times.

For additional information about the WCP or other Emergency Assistance services, please call 614.252.2799 or visit www.impactca.org.

To Advertise in The Columbus African American contact us at: editor@columbusafricanamerican.com Ray Miller, Publisher 750 East Long Street, Suite 3000 Columbus, Ohio 43203 614.340.4891 The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

CAANJ

10 RACE RELATIONS

UGLY TRUTHS IT’S WAY PAST TIME FOR AMERICA TO FACE

By Marian Wright Edelman On November 14, Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia announced the university will rename two buildings on campus named for two 19th century Georgetown University presidents: Thomas F. Mulledy, who in 1838 arranged the sale of 272 slaves from Jesuit owned Maryland plantations and used the profit to pay Georgetown’s construction debts, and William McSherry, who also sold other Jesuit owned slaves and was Mulledy’s adviser. The sale ignored the objections of some Jesuit leaders who believed using the money to pay off debt was immoral and their demands that families be kept together.

Georgetown’s action followed a student sit in outside President DeGioia’s office but it was part of a longer ongoing process examining the university’s historical connections to slavery.

The renaming was one step recommended by the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation established by the President this school year. Recently student protesters at Yale University repeated calls to rename its Calhoun College honoring slave owning Vice President and South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, already a subject of campus wide discussion.

For years the college featured a stained glass window depicting Calhoun with a chained Black slave kneeling in front of him. After complaints the slave’s image was removed but Calhoun’s remains as does his shameful legacy that haunts our nation still. Georgetown and Yale are among the growing number of colleges and universities struggling to come to terms with their historical connections to slave owners, slave labor, and slave profits and the scars they leave on campuses and our nation today. What values do we want to hold up for our young as worthy of honor and emulation?

Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island was the first Ivy League university to move forward with a large scale investigation of its history under the leadership of former president Ruth Simmons. In 2003 she appointed a Committee on Slavery and Justice to learn more about Brown’s past ties to slavery and wealthy benefactors involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Brown family included slave owners and slave traders as well as at least two members who became active abolitionists. The committee learned 30 members of Brown’s governing board owned or captained slave ships and slave labor was used for some of the school’s construction.

Brown is far from alone. In his groundbreaking 2013 book Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and

the Troubled History of America’s Universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scholar Craig Steven Wilder documented many of these connections. In the book’s prologue he says: “In short, American colleges were not innocent or passive beneficiaries of conquest and colonial slavery . . . The academy never stood apart from American slavery—in fact, it stood beside church and state as the third pillar of a civilization built on bondage.”

The nation’s oldest colleges depended on direct

one of Wilder’s examples, Dartmouth College founder Eleazar Wheelock’s personal doctor arranged for a slave’s skeleton to be wired up for study and his skin tanned at the college shop and made into a cover for his instrument case.

Ongoing university “research” throughout the nineteenth century bolstered many of the racebased claims used to support slavery.

Across our country this ugly and profoundly morally defective past is finally being brought

and indirect wealth from slavery and the slave trade. Slaves helped build many university buildings including some at Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia. Students sometimes brought slaves to college to serve them, as George Washington’s stepson did when he attended King’s College in New York City, now Columbia University. Many university founders and early presidents owned personal slaves including Dartmouth, Harvard, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and more, and some colleges owned slaves. William and Mary, one of the slave owning colleges, produced one of the most awful stories Wilder shares—that of founding trustee Reverend Samuel Gray, who “murdered an enslaved child for running away”: “Rev. Gray struck the boy on the head, drawing blood, and then put a hot iron to the child’s flesh. The minister had the boy tied to a tree, and then ordered another slave to whip him. The boy later died. Gray argued that ‘such accidents’ were inevitable, a position that seems to have succeeded, as a court declined to convict him.”

Slave corpses were used in a number of the colleges’ medical and scientific experiments. In

into the light. Brown University’s Committee on Slavery and Justice said: “We cannot change the past. But an institution can hold itself accountable for the past, accepting its burdens and responsibilities along with its benefits and privileges.” More universities and institutions must follow Brown’s example and engage in a thoughtful process of truth telling of their own and America’s history in order to lift the indefensible blot of slavery on America’s dream which plagues us still.College students, faculty, and administrators seeking an honest historical accounting on their campuses are to be applauded. Only the truth will make us free and move us forward together.

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Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind (R) mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www.

ChildrensDefense.org

The TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015

CAANJ

BROWN UNIVERSITY PLEDGES $100 MILLION TO ADDRESS CAMPUS RACISM

By Kenrya Rankin via colorlines.com Brown University is hoping a new plan will help the Providence, Rhode Island, school create a more inclusive environment for its 8,800+ students. On Friday, president Christina H. Paxson announced that the school will invest $100 million dollars over the next decade toward meeting the goals in her new plan, called, “Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University.”

The actions in the plan—which is meant to address diversity and racism on campus— are organized around four pillars: Creating an inclusive learning environment, building and supporting a diverse community, creating pathways for knowledge and success, and creating accountability measures. Paxson posted the plan online as a working document and asked students, faculty and staff to review and give feedback between now and December 4.

Then the document will be modified to take into account the input and a final version of the plan will be released before the semester is over.

Elements of Paxon’s proposal include: Doubling emergency funds for low-income students for health insurance, trips home for family emergencies, laptops and books, and access to dining and housing for those who remain on campus during school breaks.

Hiring a dean dedicated to supporting first generation and low-income students.

Orientation for new faculty and staff will include training and awareness workshops around issues of race/racism, gender/sexism, sexual and gender identity, ability, and the intersectionalities across these areas.

Additional diversity and sensitivity training for the Department of Public Safety.

Establishing a committee on curriculum changes.

Expanding the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the Center for Slavery and Justice and creating an initiative on Native American and Indigenous peoples.

The plan comes days after a November 12 demonstration where hundreds of students gathered at a solidarity rally to talk about their experiences with racism at Brown. Watch a video of the Blackout Rally below.

Kenrya Rankin Naasel is an award-winning author and editorial consultant whose insight have been tapped by leading outlets, including The New York Times, Huffington Post and ThinkProgress. She has published three books, most recently, “Bet on Black: AfricanAmerican Women Celebrate Fatherhood in the Age of Barack Obama.” Kenrya earned her undergraduate degree in journalism from Howard University, and her master’s degree in publishing from New York University. She is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, and currently lives in the Washington, DC area with her family.

KIM BLACKWELL NAMED EBONY MAGAZINE POWER 100

Columbus, OH (November 24, 2015) EBONY magazine has named Kimberly A. Blackwell, PMM Agency Founder and Chief Executive Officer to its 2015 EBONY Power 100. Each year the EBONY editorial team selects the 100 most influential and inspiring AfricanAmericans in the country to salute remarkable achievements. These power players have had noteworthy accomplishments over the past year, representing a variety of fields, including politics, business, education, media, religion, music and more.

“As the curator of the African-American experience, EBONY is proud to salute this remarkable group of leaders,” says Chairman Linda Johnson Rice. “When the company was started by my father, his vision included celebrating African-Americans at our finest. It is a great honor to acknowledge the accomplishments of the 2015 Power 100 honorees and our 70th Anniversary on one spectacular night.”

“I am sincerely appreciative to EBONY for having been selected among this year’s honorees,” said Blackwell. “As a business owner, to be recognized in the vision, spirit and legacy of its founders, the late Mr. and Mrs. Johnson,

is quite humbling. With too many to mention, gratitude must be shared with a community of supporters who have assisted the growth, influence and impact of PMM. 16 years young, with tremendous runway ahead, I realize daily that with success, significance must accompany the opportunities we create and the differences we make for others.”

“Kim has undeniably established herself and PMM as one of the most trusted, valued and proven branding firms, not only in the City of Columbus but throughout the nation,” said Mayor Michael B. Coleman, City of Columbus.

“Beyond Kim’s credibility and performance as a top marketing executive, broad networks and strong influence, she is clearly a top leader in business. In addition to the hats she wears well as a successful women’s business enterprise, industry thought leader and mentor to many, Kim continues to take on civic and governance responsibilities on the many boards in which she serves. A Buckeye beyond any borders, we couldn’t be more proud of Kim’s infectious impact and this deserved achievement.”

A marketing maven, Blackwell has been recognized among the game changers in business.

Honored with Blackwell this year are other executives blazing industry trails with EBONY Power 100 Corporate Crowns that include Kaiser Permanente Chairman & CEO Bernard Tyson, President & CEO of JCPenney Marvin Ellison, Coca-Cola CFO Kathy Waller and a host of other respected leaders. “Kim Blackwell has to be the sister Malcolm Gladwell was talking about when he coined the phrase ‘connector’ in The Tipping Point,” said Brickson Diamond, Chief Operating Officer, The Executive Leadership Council

The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

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and Board Chair, The Blackhouse Foundation.

“She sees beyond the monikers of big player and small player, finding the connective tissues that unearth opportunity. Kim identifies the players and the opportunities then gets the deal done, elevates the brand and delivers - again and again. Guaranteed. As a member of the Executive Leadership Council, we applaud Kim’s recognition in this year’s class.”

Of her numerous boards, Blackwell currently serves on the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC). NWBC is a non-partisan federal advisory council serving as a source of independent counsel to the President of the United States, Congress, and the SBA on economic issues of importance to women business owners. “Kim Blackwell is one of the most innovative minds in managing brand franchises that exist in the marketplace today, said Carla Harris, Chair, National Women’s Business Council, Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley. “She has an unparalleled ability to assess consumer sentiments and can thoughtfully and creatively craft messages that drive customer engagement and commercial results. She is also an outstanding philanthropist, giving her time, talent, and treasures, while also leveraging her vast network to make a difference in her community and in this country. It has been a privilege to serve with her on the National Women’s Business Council.

This is a well-deserved honor for Kim.” The 2015 Power 100 list will appear in the December/January issue of EBONY, on newsstands starting November 25. Honorees will be saluted in Los Angeles next month. The full list of the EBONY Power 100 and gala details can be found at http://www.ebony.com/ power100-2015/.

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

CAANJ

11 LITERARY ART

OKAY, CONTENT, BALANCED AND HAPPY

By Stephanie Bridges The African American community has never been lauded for its approach to addressing mental health.

In recent years, we have moved further away from ignoring, beating and praying our “demons” away, and closer to seeking therapeutic healthcare solutions for mental illness. With the glorious advent of Obamacare being in full effect, we now have more options than ever; however, having options doesn’t always make it easier to make a choice.

Sylvia watched intently as her husband played the piano. Her eyes were a much better gauge than her ears when it came to Robert’s performances.

They all sounded great to her, but his perception was all in his hazel eyes. They would light up, flash brightly and dart to and fro, if he was pleased. If he was disappointed, his eyes would glare ferociously through the keys as if it was all he could do to recall where his fingers should tap next. Tonight was a triumph! The excitement of the crowd was palatable; roses were strewn across the wooden planks of the stage. Sylvia tried unsuccessfully to count them between the watchful glances at Robert’s dancing eyes. He would be up all night. He was always up all night. But on good nights he wanted company.

On bad nights, he wanted to be alone to beseech the sun, Why, how could you leave me so? The sun would console him with a ray of light, and in a decided fashion reprimand him for still being up and hurry him off to sleep the day away.

Sylvia would need coffee tonight. If she dozed off, Robert would nudge her gently, “Are you sleep?” as if they were teenagers who made a pact to stay up until dawn trolling social media, raiding the fridge, and having experimental sex.

“No, no, I’m up my love,” Sylvia would reach for him, “I’m here,” and kiss his countenance back to security. Sylvia wasn’t 100% sure Robert even enjoyed performing anymore. “You know you don’t owe anything to anyone. We don’t need the money,” she would urge.

“I know my love. Thank you for being so sweet.

It’s really not that bad, though. My fans give me energy; they remind me that I’m alive: a rocker with a classical shtick,” Robert would laugh at his favorite motto.

Sylvia continued, “But Robert, you get so manic, and the crash is always so hard. I think the medicine is helpful.”

“Look, even if I didn’t perform, I wouldn’t allow myself to be drugged and out of it for the rest of my days. I don’t want to be pleasant. Pleasant is for luncheons. I don’t eat lunch.”

“I don’t want you to be pleasant; I want you to be okay. Content. Balanced. Happy,” Sylvia’s

words sounded foreign even to her as they trickled off her tongue.

Sylvia could have sworn there was a time when Robert was happy. It was impossible that he had always been such a brooding child. She would not have married him, would she? They had been together nineteen years and Sylvia loved Robert more today than she had the day they exchanged vows, but she was exhausted. If he was up, he could go weeks without sleeping. He would literally, write, play, practice, and perform for days on end. If he was down, his body would curl in on itself. At night, she would just rap her form around his because she could not penetrate his being.

Some nights she would cry with him, others she would swear under her breadth just audible enough for him to glean, if he ever did care to listen. But most nights she would lie next to him awaiting marching orders. I’m cold; it’s too hot; I’m hungry; I feel sick; I can’t sleep; I can’t wake up. It took time but now she understood each code. She would be up and down three/four times a night adjusting the temperature, making sandwiches, mixing cocktails, escorting him to the restroom to purge or just pee and bringing him chamomile tea to help him relax or caffeine to help him wake.

Then out of nowhere Robert would show up.

Sylvia would awake to the smell of coffee, orange juice, omelets and toast. Robert would bring her breakfast in bed, run her a hot bath and massage her feet with oil.

“Wow, you are so beautiful in the morning. God blessed me with an angel,” he would announce to the world through their condominium walls as he wiped a single tear. Robert would hold Sylvia tightly, he would prepare her favorite comfort foods, they’d watch funny movies – giggling until they cried. But most of all he would be attentive. He would listen to her words, get lost in her brown eyes, and attend to her every whim. On rare occasions he would even go out; shopping, dancing, dinner parties, visiting family, errands. You name it.

In the beginning Sylvia loved these days that would peak through the clouds and emerge as tangible evidence of good times and great memories. But as the years stuttered, jerked, and grind to a halt resentment anxiously awaited its turn. I better enjoy this while it lasts. No telling the next time he will press his body instinctively against mine, walk with me in the park, wash a dish or even brush his teeth. And why is it ‘the brand new Robert’ always emerges, when I am ready to leave, the letter written, apologies rehearsed?

Hate was next in line, but thankfully it never got its full turn. Ten years into the marriage, Robert had a concert one evening and Sylvia watched as his stony eyes stared intently at every press of each key. The crowd was amazed, roses scattered

35

across the wooden boards, and even Sylvia would have floated on each note if her ears were given permission to listen, but only her eyes watched.

Robert would only give stark one word answers in response to Sylvia’s attempts to be reassuring, “The crowd loved you. The sound was the best I’ve heard in a long time. Your timing was impeccable.” Doors to the car, apartment, restroom and guestroom would slam. Early in the marriage, Sylvia would try to get him to come around, but he made it painfully clear that he wanted, no needed to be alone. It was the only time he ever yelled at Sylvia. She had already decided on this particular evening, if her husband’s eyes didn’t shine brightly off into the distance, she wouldn’t say a damn thing to Robert, she would ignore his brooding, and enjoy an evening to herself. Robert was quiet and all the doors slammed on cue.

Sylvia planned to wash and deep condition her thick, kinky locs, use the mani/pedi system that was still new in the box, marathon watch “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”, and binge eat whatever sweet treats would fit in her gut.

Oh, and she had a good mind to compose a five page “Dear John” letter. But despite all her preparation, she sat and thought about Robert.

She gave considerable thought to Tom, the butcher at the plaza. How his eyes would light up whenever she walked in the deli.

“I need something special tonight,” Sylvia would announce to the market and not just the man behind the counter.

“Why yes, Mrs. Luttrelle. I read in the paper about the concert tomorrow night, so I already have a special cut of lean roast ready. I know Mr. Luttrelle loves his turkey sliced thicker, so I’m going to carve that for you now,” Tom paused and added with sincerity, “Tell him I said, hello.”

“Definitely, Tom, I will. Robert is always so grateful for the special attention you give to his discriminating palate,” Mrs. Lutrelle lied. “I’m sure he will probably be with me next time I come out,” her voice cracked on the words “be with me” and she cleared her throat.

“Oh, no I understand. He is a busy, important man. Jet setting across the country, entertaining the masses. I’ll see him one of these days, I’m sure.” Robert was world renown among the classical sect and that made Sylvia somewhat of a local celebrity in the small town where they lived.

She thought about, La’Bel, the boutique where she bought her gowns for his performances.

“Oh, Mrs. Luttrelle, I’m so glad you are here!

You know we saw you in the blogs, and you were wearing a redo. Beautiful yes, but you’re kind of a big deal and represent our brand, as well,” Claire, the shop owner, spoke with urgency in Story Continued on page 36

The TheColumbus ColumbusAfrican AfricanAmerican AmericanNews NewsJournal Journal• •December February 2015

CAANJ Story Continued from page 35

her voice. “I have a few dresses already pulled for you in the back - straight off the runway!

Amber, go get the dresses for Mrs. Luttrelle.”

She shooed her intern toward the back.

Sylvia smiled broadly, “Yes, you’re right. I am kind of a big deal.” The ladies both laughed.

“And where is Mr. Luttrelle?” Amber chimed in a little too eager as she emerged with a rack of dresses. Sylvia watched in horror as she pushed in enough dresses to adorn a whole audience at the opera. Sylvia would pick out two or three without trying them on and be on her way.

“He’s busy preparing for Saturday night’s show.”

Robert was actually rolled up in a ball on the walk-in closet floor two shots of whiskey away from a coma.

When Robert shopped with Sylvia, it was always a bigger, better production. Tom insisted he try an elaborate tray of twenty new meats sliced so thin that they melted in your mouth before you could chew, and then Robert would order a thick cut of turkey.

“How can meats be new?” Robert would question Sylvia under his breath, and they would snicker both of their eyes sparkling.

The ladies at Boutique La’Bel would pull out bottles of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries just for Robert, while Sylvia modeled dresses for what seemed to her hours.

As more drinks were poured, the dresses would get shorter, neck lines lower and his hands freer.

It was reminiscent of the early days, when all of her ensembles were deemed “inappropriate” for polite company.

“We’ll take them all! Some for the public and some for the private show,” Robert would declare whimsically. Sylvia would kick her leg up high, spin round, and bend low to foreshadow what was to come.

Sylvia also thought about rubbing Robert’s back, cheering him on to pee, or sponge bathing him when the bed sheets began to reek. Robert hadn’t changed. It was Sylvia who had changed.

She got out of the bed and walked passed the mani/pedi system still in the box; the shampoo and conditioner that guaranteed thick and shiny twenty something ringlets on middle aged women’s hair; the television ready to deliver drama and more drama; and the bejeweled floor length gown she had dazzled in just hours earlier.

Downstairs, she opened the fridge and pulled out the meat still wrapped in white deli paper. She made a sandwich fit for a rocker with a classical shtick. Sylvia headed back upstairs and stopped at the guest room door and sat down. She scarfed down the sandwich and a pickle and drank a bottle of sparkling water. She burped long and loud and then listened intently for any movement behind the door.

Her last thoughts before dozing off to sleep were the early days in their marriage; when Sylvia would cuss out Robert’s fans if they were too flirtatious or Jack Daniel’s had won the night; when she would fall asleep at the symphony, and he would assure her it was okay. “Just try to stay awake next time because the optics aren’t good,” he’d urge in a delicate tone. Sylvia remembered how Robert defended her when his mother called her a tramp, and a tear rolled down her cheek when she recalled how he had forgiven her when the pictures surfaced of her affair with the violinist. “He’s not even the first chair,” Robert

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chided.

She longed for the man behind the drywall who was probably just sitting wide awake waiting on the sun to promise him it was okay to rest his tired hazel eyes. She would never leave, hand him one of those stupid letters, or allow hate to creep in her spirit. That night even resentment died a slow but necessary death.

The next morning, Robert found Sylvia sleep on the floor in front of their guestroom door. He picked her up and carried her to bed. He cleared the dishes in the hallway and went down to cook breakfast. Sylvia awoke to see Robert bright as the morning sun. By the look of things this mood would probably last a full week at least. Sylvia learned to appreciate all of him, but this was the Robert she could show off in public. It would be a great time to visit with Tom at the deli, see the ladies at La’Bel Boutique and even spend a day with his mother. She was getting older and more forgetful. Thank God. Sylvia sat up and leaned against the pillows.

Robert sat the tray down over her lap with a glass of orange juice and a breakfast fit for an angel married to a rocker with a classical shtick.

“Oh, thank you, Love,” Sylvia chimed childlike.

It was her turn to be spoiled. Robert reached over and grabbed the pill organizer that sat on Sylvia’s bedside table. He opened the dispenser that read Sunday, and handed Sylvia her orange juice, so she could wash down okay, content, balanced and happy.

Stephanie Bridges is an author and active writer.

A native of Columbus, she is a contributing writer for The Columbus African American.

CAANJ

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The Columbus African American News Journal • December 2015

CAANJ

COMMUNITYEVENTS December 4-6, 2015 Winter Fair Are you looking for some unique gifts for the holidays? If so, visit the Winter Fair which features over 400 artists, photographers, jewelers and more. For more information visit the website below.

December 12, 2015 The 6th Annual Mistletoe Party Join the men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., as the celebrate their annual Mistletoe Party. This is a great way to enjoy the holidays and have some fun. For tickets call 614-915-7195 or visit the website below.

Location: Ohio Expo Center Address: 717 E. 17th Ave, 43211 Time: Fri & Sat: 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM, Sun: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM Admission: $7.00 Web: www.WinterFair.org

Location: Hyatt Regency Columbus Address: 350 N. High Street, 43215 Time: 9:00 PM - 2:00 AM Admission: $30 or $300 per table Web: www.AlphaColumbus.com

December 4, 2015 Town Hall Meeting - Congressman John Conyers The National Jobs for All Coalition and several local community organizations will welcome Congressman John Conyers to a special town hall meeting to talk about the war on poverty and other issues. For more information, call 614-519-8178

December 12, 2015 Comedian - Wanda Sykes For one night only, celebrate the comedic genius of Emmy-Award winning comedian, Wanda Sykes at the historic Palace Theatre. For tickets, call 614-469-0939.

Location: Trinity Baptist Church Address: 461 Saint Clair Ave., 43203 Time: 6:00 PM Admission: Free

Location: Palace Theatre Address: 34 W. Broad Street, 43215 Time: 8:00 PM Admission: Call for prices.

Web: www.Capa.com

December 5, 2015 Clark Kellogg Classic Join Clark Kellogg for his annual basketball classic, which features some of the best teams from Central Ohio. For game times and more information, visit the website below.

December 29, 2015 Harlem Globetrotters in Columbus Come and check out the coolest players in basketball history. The world-famous Harlem Globetrotters will be in Columbus for one day only. For more info, visit the website below.

Location: Ohio Dominican University Address: 1216 Sunbury Road, 43219 Time: First Game Starts at 1:30 PM Admission: Call for prices.

Web: www.ClarkKellogg.com

Location: Schottenstein Areana Address: 555 Borror Dr., 43210 Time: 1:00 PM & 6:00 PM Admission: Call for prices.

Web: www.HarlemGlobetrotters.com

December 5, 2015 King Arts Complex - Holiday Fusion Come out and celebrate the holidays at the King Arts Complex.

This one day event will feature unique holiday gift ideas, music and activities for the kids.

December 31, 2015 First Night Columbus Celebrate the New Year at the annual First Night Columbus. An evening of family friendly activities, music and food at COSI. For more information, visit the website listed below.

Location: King Arts Complex Address: 867 Mt. Vernon Ave, 43203 Time: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM Admission: Free Web: www.KingArtsComplex.com

Location: COSI Address: 333 W. Broad St., 43215 Time: 5:00 PM - Midnight Admission: $15 Web: www.FirstNightColumbus.com

December 10, 2015 Financial Wellness Workshop Maximize your tax refund, protect your identity, rebuild your credit and much more. Sponsored by the African American Male Wellness Walk, this event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP your attendance by Tuesday, December 8 at 614-574-7511.

January 18, 2015 31st Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast Celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the largest breakfast in the country. This year’s keynote speaker is Susan L. Taylor, former editor of Essence Magazine. For tickets or more information call 614-252-0868 or visit the website below.

Location: OSU African, African American Extension Center Address: 720 Mt. Vernon Ave, 43203 Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Admission: Free Web: www.AAMWwalk.com

Location: Columbus Convention Center - Exhibition Hall C Address: 400 N. High Street, 43215 Time: 7:00 AM - 10:00 AM Admission: $40 per person, $400 per table of 10 Web: www.MLKjrBreakfast.com

December2015 2015 The Columbus African American News Journal • February

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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3 All Students Wear Uniforms 3 Teachers and Staff Who Care!

3 Individualized Instruction to Meet the Needs of the Whole Child 3 LIMITED SPACE. UNLIMITED POTENTIAL!

Strong Academics—2 hours of reading/language arts, 1.5 hours of math, 1 hour each of science and social studies daily 3 Daily Character Education

Choose from 1 of 5 conveniently located campuses!

1258 Demorest Rd. • Columbus OH 43204 E-mail: ssantos@performanceacademies.com Phone: 614-318-0606

1875 Morse Rd. • Columbus OH 43229 E-mail: medwards@performanceacademies.com Phone: 614-318-0600

3474 Livingston Ave. • Columbus OH 43227 E-mail: wconnick@performanceacademies.com Phone: 614-324-4585

Information Meetings will be held at each school for interested parents.

Please check the websites for dates and times.

2220 South Hamilton Rd. • Columbus OH 43232 E-mail: ntate@performanceacademies.com (Grade 4-8) jpammer@performanceacademies.com (Grade K-3) Phone: 614-314-6301

274 E. 1st Avenue, Suite 200 • Columbus, Ohio 43201 E-mail: ahaman@performanceacademies.com Phone: 614-318-0720

www.performanceacademies.com 40

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015