July 2019 Edition

Columbus & Dayton

July 2019

7 15 18

FREE

Wealth and Violence: Where Do We Go From Here Progress or Regress?

By Eric Johnson, PhD

Africans in America, Are We Healthier?

By Charleta B. Tavares

Diversity in The Nation’s Physician Work Force Saves Lives

By Quinn Capers, IV, MD and Christian A. Capers

ERIKA CLARK JONES Fighting to Reduce Infant Mortality

AARP Andrus Award for Community Service

Know an extraordinary volunteer age 50 or older?

Show your appreciation by nominating him or her for the 2019 AARP Ohio Andrus Award for Community Service.

AARP’s most prestigious Ohio volunteer award recognizes individuals who are sharing their experience, talent and skills in ways that significantly enrich the lives of others. The Ohio winner will receive a $1,500 prize, which will be donated to an eligible nonprofit of the winner’s choice! Only one Ohio individual or couple is selected each year.

The nomination deadline is July 23, 2019 For more information, eligibility requirements and nomination forms, visit AARP.org/AndrusAward or call 1-866-389-5653.

Visit AARP.org/AndrusAward for more info!

Recognize an exceptional Ohio volunteer!

PUBLISHER’S PAGE Founder & Publisher Ray Miller

Layout & Design Ray Miller, III

Assistant Editor Ray Miller, III

Distribution Manager Ronald Burke Student Interns Jada Respress Olivia Deslandes

Lead Photographer Steve Harrison

Contributing Editors Tim Ahrens, D.Min Lisa Benton, MD, MPH Stephanie Bridges Rodney Q. Blount, Jr., MA Quinn Capers, IV, MD Christian A. Capers Marian Wright Edelman Ted Hesson Eric Johnson, PhD Cecil Jones, MBA Robin A. Jones, PhD Bruce Luecke Darren Lundy, MBA William McCoy, MPA Malika Reston Matt Stevens Charleta B. Tavares

The Columbus African American news journal was founded by Ray Miller on January 10, 2011

The Columbus & Dayton African American 503 S. High Street - Suite 102 Columbus, Ohio 43215

“Ignorance is bliss.” It is difficult to find a phrase as clear, concise, and true as this one. This proverb summarizes the statement, “What you don’t know cannot hurt you.” There is no question that today we have far too many people who are happy and satisfied in not knowing what is impacting and affecting them, even in their perpetual state of unawareness. Those of us who are “Woke” know for sure that one’s lack of knowledge can not only hurt you, it can kill you.

As our consistent readers know, each monthly edition of The Columbus & Dayton African American has a particular editorial focus. Even as we address the major issues of employment, education, health, housing, transportation, criminal justice, arts & entertainment, history, sports, and the environment; there is a theme which links all of the articles together and allows us to present a coherent story to you. That theme or editorial focus for this month is titled, “Progress or Regress: What Direction Are We Heading?”

It would be a deficient approach to address this topic in the absence of a Janus like perspective, i.e., giving fair consideration to past history and current reality. How timely it is that many of us would now be focused on the 400 Year History of people of African descent in America.

While some would rather bury the past, we know that it is essential for us to commence this discussion by recognizing the first 20 Africans to reach the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in August of 1619. They were not brought to America as tourists or immigrants.

They were brought by Dutch traders who had seized them from a captured Spanish slave ship after they had been sold off and stolen from their homeland in Africa. While the “20 and odd Blacks” who arrived on the Dutch Man-of-War ship began their stay in America as indentured servants, it wouldn’t take long before Africans would be forcibly brought to America as slaves.

In addressing this theme, I recalled an excellent book I had read titled, Inherently Unequal, written by a felicitous and brilliant author--Lawrence Goldstone. In describing the “practical problems of assimilating four million newly freed slaves,” Goldstone describes the African descendants with these words, “The overwhelming majority were illiterate and utterly unsophisticated in either self-maintenance or self-governance.” He went on to say, “ They lacked even rudimentary knowledge of social organization.” I share these words only to underscore even how a conscious, supportive White man viewed people of African descent.

If Goldstone were forced to totally trade places with the newly freed slaves one wonders how sophisticated and knowledgeable he would be in either self-maintenance or self-governance.

As we approach this 400 Year milestone and assess whether we are progressing or regressing, let us always be careful not to blame the victim. Consider the following: • According to the last Census, there were 37.1 million African Americans

comprising 12.1% of the U.S. population. This number increased to 42 million

when including Multiracial African Americans, making up 14% of the total

U.S. population.

• In 1968 (54.4 %) of African American adults, age 25-29 were high school

graduates, compared to (75%) of whites. In 2016, 92.3% of African

American adults age 25-29 were high school graduates with 22.8% having gone on

to complete a bachelor’s degree or higher (up from 9.1% in 1968). Among Whites,

95.6% are high school graduates and 42.1% have a bachelor’s degree or higher (up

from 16.2% in 1968).

• In 1968, with a poverty rate of 33.5%, African Americans were three times more

likely to live in poverty than Whites. In 2016, the Black poverty rate--22%--was

only slightly lower than it was almost 50 years ago, but still 2.5 times higher than

the White poverty rate.

• Black households have only 10 cents in wealth for every dollar held by White households. In 2016, the median wealth of White households was $171,000.

That’s 10 times the wealth of Black households ($17,000)--a larger gap than in

2007. Close to 80% of White’s own a home, whereas only one-third of Blacks are

homeowners. And while 56% of White households own retirement accounts, only

one-fifth of U.S. Blacks have them.

• Police killed 1,147 people in 2017. Black people were 25% of those killed despite

being only 13% of the population.

• In 2017, Ohio had the second highest rate of drug overdose deaths involving

opioids in the U.S. There were 4,293 reported deaths--a rate of 39.2 deaths per

100,000 persons, compared to the average national rate of 14.6 deaths per 100,000.

In 2011, prescription opioids were the main cause of 710 overdose deaths reported

that year. By 2017, prescription drugs accounted for 947 reported deaths.

We need your feedback on what has been presented here. In fact, we need to hear from you regarding solutions and new approaches to addressing these and other critical issues.

Ignorance is not bliss and we should and must act with a greater sense of urgency.

With Appreciation and Respect,

Office: 614.826.2254 editor@columbusafricanamerican.com www.CAANJ.com

Ray Miller Founder & Publisher 3

The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

In This Issue

9 23 33 5

American Racism 1619-2019, 400 Years Later?

By: Robin Jones, PhD

Affordable Housing Needs Still Large Despite Success

COVER STORY

23

Affordable Housing

Needs Still Large

Despite Success

24

Census to Leave Citizenship Question Off 2020 Questionaire

25

Legislative Update

26

Ohio Legislative Black Caucus 2019 Statewide Conference

28

Kamala Harris Surges in 3 Polls After Strong Debate Performance

29

Book Bags & E-Readers

31

New Level of Shame

32

Deafeating Devastation and Disaster

33 Are African American’s

Moving Forward Economically?

By: Bruce Lueke

34

Job Apocalypse or Opportunity?

Are African Americans Moving Forward Economically?

35

Reverend’s N. L. Scarborough & E. A. Parham Trailblazing Pastors of Trinity Baptist Church

36

Black Librarians at The Vanguard

By: Darren Lundy, MBA

AARP Volunteers Lead the Way 10

Technology Took My Job

(Is This You?)

Forgiveness

15

The Inaugural American

7

Wealth and Violence:

Awards Ceremony

Where Do We Go From

16

Africans In America -

Here Progress or Regress?

Are We Healthier?

8

Black Enterprise

Development in America

17

Freshen Up Your Food This Summer

9

American Racism 1619 -

2019, 400 Years Later?

18

Diversity in the Nation’s Physician Work Force Save’s Lives: Progress and the Threat of Regress

6

20

Emanuel and The Power of

The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

4

37

Community Events

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.

COMMUNITY AARP VOLUNTEERS LEAD THE WAY

By Stephanie Bridges AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, social welfare organization with a membership of nearly 38 million that focuses on issues that matter to people 50-plus. Ernestine Johnson, the Regional Volunteer Leader, and Fred Woods are both dynamic and dedicated volunteers with AARP. I was pleased to see the joy in which they interacted with one another and shared their stories about the work they do for the organization. No doubt, much of that comes from the autonomy to create a network of volunteers who are valued and supported in their efforts. Oftentimes, volunteering is a luxury that many, especially in the African American community, cannot afford. Ernestine shared that volunteers under her leadership are able to be involved as much or as little as they feel comfortable - without judgement. Volunteers are also provided travel reimbursement and catered meals. Ernestine stressed that she makes sure her volunteers are treated well.

One of Ernestine’s volunteer recruitment efforts was an event called, Stepping Up, Stepping Out. In a cocktail party environment, AARP volunteers shared their passion for the work they were doing; and as a result of Ernestine’s invitation, the positive atmosphere and the compassion in which the individuals spoke, Fred and his late wife, Debra Woods, signed up to be a part of the organization. Speaking of compassion, Fred is a retired nurse, and one of the first events he became involved in and continues with to this day, is Caregivers. His wife, Debra, did an amazing job decorating the stage, where Jerry Revish interviewed Regina Belle about being a caregiver. Ernestine recalls that on that rainy day, Fred, assisted each arrival with an umbrella in hand to escort guests into the building one by one.

Another passion of Fred’s is staying fit.

He walks everyday as a form of exercise and enjoyment, so it makes sense that he is now leading the AARP Passion Team for the African American Male Wellness Walk (AAMWW). Fred is recruiting people to be a part of the AARP Passion Team to walk/run, provide water and support, and staff the AARP table. The AAMWW will be held Saturday, August 10. If interested, register at https://aarp.cvent.com/ OHPassionTeamAAMaleWalk08019 or call 866-389-5653. AARP got involved with the AAMWW, when Ernestine became aware of the initiative. She enlisted the assistance of a member of AARP’s management, Ken Davis, and they went and knocked on their

Fred Woods and Ernestine Johnson, Photo by Steve Harrison

door. After the meeting, she told Ken, “We need to support that, so what do I need to do to make sure you’re not standing in the way?” Ken responded that he was completely on board, and AARP has been a sponsor of AAMWW ever since.

Fred and Ernestine shared that AARP is nonpartisan and objectively works toward recognizing and implementing solutions for the aging. This work is done by identifying issues and concerns through surveys, discussions and outreach to their target audience. AARP does not provide services, but it does act as a conduit for awareness between the issues at hand and companies and organizations that do provide direct services for fraud prevention, Medicare, Social Security benefits, and assistance with utilities, which is a local issue that Ernestine personally advocated for and more. AARP is a large umbrella with multiple divisions; including the AARP Foundation’s Senior Community Service Employment Program for unemployed and low-income workers.

The program provides job training and a modest income, while learning new skills for the current job market to adults 55 and over.

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AARP membership can begin at age 50, and volunteering is open to all ages.

Ernestine and Fred are both a testament to the purpose and passion with which each of us can live, no matter the stage of life.

Both are involved in volunteer efforts with AARP and outside the organization. It seems some people are volunteers and others just aren’t. Fred is a living example of the fun and freedom afforded by being an intricate part of AARP. So much so, his older brother became intrigued by the positive impact, and he now volunteers for the AARP Advocacy group that visits legislators. Since Ernestine accepted the leadership role a decade ago, the Central Ohio Staff has gone from twelve to over 130 volunteers and about half are African American. As exhibited, AARP values the input and incorporates the suggestions of their volunteers, members, and the overall aging populace. Ernestine wouldn’t have it any other way. For more information on how you can get involved, please call 866-389-5653.

Stephanie R. Bridges is a writer, spoken word artist, author and publisher. She has published four children’s books. and is the founder of The Bridges Book Club.

The Columbus & DaytonNews African American • July 2019 The Columbus African American Journal • February 2015

“EMANUEL” AND THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS

By Rev. Tim Ahrens, D.Min On June 17 and 19 across Columbus, Ohio and the nation, the film “Emanuel” touched people deeply as we gathered to remember the fourth anniversary of the murder of nine church members of Mother Emanuel American Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. It has been four years since white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine faithful members of Mother Emanuel Church during a Wednesday night Bible study.

The documentary examines how faith, hope and forgiveness healed the community after the tragic event. It’s woven together by the history of race relations in South Carolina and across the nation, the significance of “Mother Emanuel” Church in the history of Black churches and the hope that emerged in the aftermath of such a terrible hate crime massacre. The film features intimate interviews with survivors and family members.

The film’s executive producers are Steph Curry of Unanimous Media and Viola Davis.

Of his film, directed by Brian Ivie, Curry

says, “The documentary highlights how a horrible tragedy can bring a community together, and spreads an important message about the power of forgiveness.”

The film was made in direct partnership with the city of Charleston and the families affected by the tragedy. The producers of “Emanuel” are donating their share of profits from the film to the survivors of the shooting and the families of the victims.

this heinous act, most are finding ways, dayby-day to move on.

One of the most poignant moments in the film comes during President Barack Obama’s sermon. Our amazingly gifted “Commanderin-Grief,” spontaneously breaks into singing “Amazing Grace.” All stand and join in – holding on to one another and lifting up the power of God to heal! In her recently released book, “Grace Will Lead Us Home,” Post and Courier Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Berry Hawes builds on President Obama’s moment to address the remarkable reaction of hope and love embodied in Emanuel and the people of Charleston. Find the movie and get the book. For more information, visit emanuelmovie.com.

So many scenes stick with the viewer. In relation to the killer – there are scenes of his practicing for the killing, his easy entrance into the church for the Bible Study, the police arresting Roof with their guns holstered, the police giving him a Big Mac while interrogating him. All these scenes point Let us never forget the slain members of to the insanity of racial hatred and its deep Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, SC. seeded presence in America.

Rev. Dr. Tim Ahrens is the Senior Minister of But even more powerful than hate are the First Congregational Church, United Church interviews with some of the five survivors of Christ in downtown Columbus. A church of the shooting, family members and friends known for its witness to social justice since affected by the murders. Most of them forgive its birth as an abolitionist congregation in the shooter and are seeking to heal and move 1852. Rev. Ahrens is the fifth consecutive on. It is clear that the power of their faith in senior minister from Yale Divinity School and Jesus Christ compels them to forgive. While is a lifelong member of the United Church of there are some who struggle with forgiving Christ.

The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

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WEALTH AND VIOLENCE WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE PROGRESS OR REGRESS?

By Eric Johnson, PhD A stubborn and persistent question facing the Black community continues to be; where do we go from here? Invariably the answer hinges on the vantage point of the respondent. There are a number of metrics that have been historically used to evaluate both our status and our progress. They include unemployment rates, educational attainment, wealth generation, incarceration statistics and much more. It often seems that no matter the measurables, we are often left with a community profile that is at best complex and at worst we are forced to confront community reports that reveal we have often been simply spinning our collective wheels since emancipation and at times literally destroying ourselves. Most statistical profiles indicate progress in some areas while marking disparities in others that simply defy all logic. However, the impact wealth generation or the lack there of on our continued trek toward a better day is sobered only by the outrageous endurance of senseless violence that continues to pain and injure our communities as a whole and too many families in particular.

Economic profiles of the Black community are nothing short of stunning. A recent study on wealth inequality found that the number of Black families with Zero or negative net wealth actually increased from 1983 to 2016 from 8.5% to 37%. Just as a point of comparison the number of Latino families with Zero or Negative net wealth has decreased by 19% over the last 30 years. The median Black family net worth was $3,500 in 2016, while the median White family net worth was $147,000. In other words, the average net worth of the average White family was 41 times that of the average Black family. In 1983 the median White family net worth was 110,000 but that number rose to $147,000 in 2016 despite the housing crises that started in 2008. In 1983, the median Black family net worth was just a little more than $7,000. This study also found Black households with family incomes of more than $150,000 a year with a net worth of $18.

Is this progress or regress?

The seemingly intractable persistence of violence in Black communities should present us all with major challenges. The ghastly impact of homicide in our communities cannot be overstated. The destructive wreckage being left behind by the homicide rates of black teens and young adult is nothing short of a national crisis. The presence of these trends in Black communities should be no less contemptable than the slew of unarmed Black males who have lost their lives to police violence. It appears that Black homicide victimization is four times that national homicide rates. In addition, they are nearly 6 times the victimization rates of people in White communities. The presence of guns in the Black homicide rates should be no surprise, 85% of homicide victims in the Black community are killed by or

with guns. It is without question that these statistics are shameful in the extreme. Too many Black families across this country are burying children and young people at a rate that is simple not sustainable for survival.

The impact of violence, specifically homicide, in Black communities cannot be understood by statistics alone. Anyone who has attempted to console a mother whose son or daughter has been murdered realizes the impossibility of the task. Moreover, the effort to respond to the pain and confusion of the children in such circumstance is equally futile but nonetheless many thousands of the Black families and communities partake in this dreadfully awful ritual on a yearly basis. Sharing space and witnessing people reconcile the unforgiving truth, that they have lost a loved one forever is beyond heartrending. The seeming carelessness of those who appear all too willing to take life for reasons that seem less than frivolous is angering and it should be. The pain and devastation that is the legacy of this warped reality is in many ways incomprehensible, but that makes it no less real.

As we move closer to the four-hundred-year anniversary of the first enslaved Africans arriving in Jamestown, we are faced with some hard and uncomfortable questions.

How do we measure our progress? A question that allows for reasonable people to disagree. We, like those first twenty or so enslaved Africans have to ask: Now that we find ourselves in the reality that we do, how do we chart a course to better?

The toll extracted from the long legacy of racism, economic exploitation and political oppression continues to be paid with the lives of young Black teens and young adults and the economic future of many Black families.

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The impact of choices and personal decision making can never be removed from these analyses but the role of systemic racism that included and continues to include political and economic discrimination for the better part of the last 400 years cannot be overstated.

As we make the effort to continue the struggle to see a better day, we must take seriously obligation to educate children about the importance of human dignity and economic responsibility. While educational attainment has been the most significant tool in the arsenal of Black people for upward social mobility it has not necessarily translated into economic progress but it is not for lack of trying. Discriminatory economic practice that includes government policy played and continues to play a significant role in the lives of the descendants of those Jamestown arrivals originally from Africa. However, the question still remains are we moving toward progress or regress?

If we are not generating wealth consistently and we are killing one another at unsustainable rates it is difficult to see a net gain of progress.

While the endeavor to simply survive has its own merits considering the obstacles, if we don’t assume individual responsibility for the care of our families, we can see an increase to all the circumstances that work to our detriment. Progress begins with each of us accepting the responsibility we have to the people we claim to love. Progress or regress the direction we take is our responsibility and our choice, and it will be evidenced by what we teach our children about their worth and the worth of the people who look like them.

Dr. Eric L. Johnson currently serves as the Chief Consultant with Strategies to Succeed and is on the faculty at Virginia International University. He is the former Chief of Research Publications for the United States Air Force Academy.

The Columbus & DaytonNews African American • July 2019 The Columbus African American Journal • February 2015

BLACK ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT IN AMERICA

By William McCoy, MPA Black Americans have created and operated business enterprises, since America’s earliest days.

Business ownership provided a path to freedom for some and prosperity for other African-Americans. Wikipedia’s history of African-American businesses says, “Black entrepreneurship can be traced back to when the African-Americans were first forcibly brought to North America in the 17th century.

Many African-Americans who gained their own freedom out of slavery opened their own businesses, and even some enslaved African-Americans were able to operate their own businesses, either as skill tradespeople or as minor traders and peddlers. Enslaved African-Americans operated businesses both with and without their owners’ permission.”

The hostile environment Black people found themselves trapped in served as a catalyst for the formation of “more profitmaking businesses than one might expect” (Wikipedia). For them, business ownership was an attractive alternative to sharecropping and/or dead-end, menial labor. Subsequently, thousands of African-American-owned businesses were formed by the 1890s.

The period 1900 to 1930 is considered the “golden age of Black entrepreneurship,” according to Wikipedia. Rigid Jim Crow and segregation forced African-Americans to live in racially concentrated communities large enough to support Black enterprise. The National Negro Business League reported the number of Black businesses doubled between 1900 and 1914 from 20,000 to 40,000.

The number of doctors, lawyers, and other professionals increased sharply during this period, as well.

In the 1920s, Memphis, Tennessee was home to the nation’s first Black millionaire, Robert Reed Church (real estate speculator and founder of Solvent Savings Bank and Trust).

Charles Clinton Spaulding was president of the nation’s largest Black-owned business, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. In the early 20th century, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s “Black Wall Street” was well known. Other cities and towns were also home to thriving Black business centers.

The growing number of Black-owned businesses prompted Booker T. Washington to establish the National Negro Business League (NNBL) in 1900. By the 1920s, the NNBL had over 600 chapters. The National Negro Bankers Association, National Negro Press Association, National Association of Negro Funeral Directors, National Negro Bar Association, National Association of Negro Insurance Men, National Negro Retail Merchants’ Association, National Association of Negro Real Estate Dealers, and the National Negro Finance Corporation were created soon thereafter.

The federal government began addressing minority business enterprise (MBE) development in 1927, when then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover created the Division of Negro Affairs to help White and

Black businesses reach Black consumers.

MBE development was not included in President Roosevelt’s New Deal after 1933.

President Eisenhower disbanded the Division of Negro Affairs in 1953.

The federal government did virtually nothing else to support MBEs after 1953, until President Lyndon Johnson incorporated a special program in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Economic Opportunity and other agencies. This time, money was allocated for loans to aid MBEs. President Richard Nixon created the Office of Minority Business Enterprise (OMBE) in 1969 by Executive Order. OMBE morphed into today’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).

The federal (and state and local) government’s commitment to MBEs has fluctuated with the national political climate.

For example, in 1970, President Nixon’s Black Capitalism Program encouraged the provision of venture capital and other financing to Black businesses through the creation of SBA Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Corporations (MESBICs). MESBICs invested in numerous Black Enterprise 100 companiesincluding the nation’s largest minorityowned cable television company, minority manufacturers, Black fast food franchisees, et al. The Reagan Administration drastically cut funding for MESBICs and other federal MBE initiatives- most of which no longer exist.

In 1968, a group of insurance companies collaborated to create a $1 billion corporate social responsibility initiative that funded many Black-owned enterprises, projects, and organizations. Major corporations created minority supplier development programs and funneled millions of dollars in contracts to MBEs. Minority purchasing councils and federal, state, and local minority purchasing initiatives were also started. These efforts led to new and expanded minority-owned companies, the creation of thousands of jobs, and other positive outcomes. Sadly, many of these and similar programs were eliminated or crippled, as the nation’s politics and polities became more hostile toward AfricanAmerican interests.

The Columbus African & Dayton American African American News Journal • July• February 2019 2015

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Today, there are over 2.6 million Blackowned businesses in America (2015 U.S. Census). According to Black Demographics, Black-owned businesses accounted for one million jobs or enough to employ 4% of the Black working age population, and $187.6 billion in revenue or enough to give every working age Black person a check for $7,000. While significant, these numbers pale in comparison to those posted by Asian, Hispanic, and White-owned businesses. For example, White-owned businesses support 55.9 million jobs or 44% of the White working age population (eleven times more than Black businesses), and generate $12.9 trillion in revenues or enough to give every working age White person a check for $102,000! (See https://blackdemographics. com/economics/black-owned-businesses/ for more information.)

In conclusion, Black business development has made great strides since America’s colonial beginnings- despite institutional and individual racism, the threat and reality of racially motivated violence, and weak or nonexistent government, corporate, and institutional support. Nevertheless, AfricanAmericans should applaud the progress MBEs have made, recognize the obstacles that have been and remain to be overcome, and seize the opportunities that exist.

Successful business people, like billionaire Oprah Winfrey, know: He/she who takes no chance has no chance. You have to play to win.

“William McCoy is founder and president of The McCoy Company- a world-class, personal services consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, economic development, and training that helps its clients articulate and achieve their visions, solve problems, and capitalize on their opportunities. He has worked with national think tanks, held two White House appointments, and consulted with every level of government, foundations, and the private sector. Mr. McCoy holds a BA in economics and a MPA in finance, and is profiled in Who’s Who in the World and elsewhere. You can reach William McCoy at (614) 785-8497 or via e-mail wmccoy2@ themccoycompany.com. His website can be found at www.themccoycompany.com.

AMERICAN RACISM 1619 - 2019, 400 YEARS LATER? Most Christians believe prayer is our answer.

There is no doubt in the minds of many by calling out to The Most High he’ll hold up his end of the bargain. We as a people need to pray every day like our lives depend on it.

For those of us who watch the daily news, you realize, know and understand what is happening. Obama, a black man with a father from Kenya made it to what many believe is the highest office in the world, but definitely in America… and he couldn’t do much to help us as a people. It doesn’t matter if you believe he couldn’t or didn’t want to… either way it didn’t happen.

By Robin A. Jones, PhD The 400 Year Prophecy, Is It a Curse or a Myth?

The significance of 400 years can be traced back to a biblical prophecy concerning the children of Abraham: “As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” Genesis15:12-14 Is the 400 Year Conundrum Really Biblical?

August 2019 will mark 400 years since the first arrival of Africans to present day America. There is an interest in commemorating the contributions that Americans of African descent have made to help shape the cultural, academic, social, economic, and moral attributes of this nation.

In August 1619, the first documented Africans arrived in the English Colony of Virginia. The group, recorded upon arrival as “20 and odd Negros,” was part of a larger group of West Africans enslaved

by Portuguese slave traders. They were on their way to Vera Cruz aboard a Portuguese ship, when they were captured off the coast of Mexico by the White Lion, an English warship, flying a Dutch flag, and operating under Dutch letters of marque. The White Lion transported them to Virginia, where they were put ashore at Old Point Comfort, in what is now Hampton, Virginia, and sold as involuntary laborers or indentured servants.

Slavery had not been institutionalized at that point so these Africans were informed they would work under contract for a certain period of time before being granted freedom and the rights afforded other settlers. White indentured servants were listed along with their year of expected freedom whereas no such year accompanied the names of the African indentured servants.

Were the Enslaved Americans the only Blacks Wrought into Slavery?

The historic arrival of the group of “20 and odd Negros,” marked the beginning of the trend in colonial America where people of Africa were taken unwillingly from their homeland, transplanted, and committed to lifelong slavery and racial discrimination.

That’s right: the first enslaved Africans were bought and sold in 1619 Jamestown, Virginia, back when the European colonies were still considered British territory. (The

We as black people need to face our reality.

If the highest office of man couldn’t help us, then we need to go higher than man and reach out to The Most High. Michelle Obama stated, “When they go low we go high”. Well, Atlantic slave trade began in South America it may not have been intended for this, but it a century earlier. It’s a little known fact that sure is fitting. the majority of enslaved Africans ended up in South America or the Caribbean islands; only Is our End Near for the 400 Years? about 3-6 percent of them actually made it to North America, (Gantt, 2018).

Maybe we should tell ourselves, just pray to The Most High and don’t worry about what Regardless of the country, the stolen name to call out to.….Only one can be higher slaves or displaced blacks, had to learn the than all others. Even if you don’t believe, accustomed language of the region, e.g., pray anyway as a show of unity, or you may North American region, and the South decide to keep your participation to yourself.

American and West Indies regions. Because, You could pray daily from now through 2019 neither were their mother tongues in order because the 400 year curse ends sometime in to communicate with those in charge over 2019. We just don’t know the exact dates, them — as well as with one another — they which aren’t important anyway. had to learn the languages. And since many African-Americans from the United States As an African American, it is disheartening to and Canada didn’t know Portuguese, they see people murdered for no reason other than were unable to read the possible, available hate. As an American I’m sick of how this literature. But that’s understandable with country treats the descendants of the people that built it for free, and as a Bible believer I any culture, right? Not all literature has been will continue to pray and believe change will translated into English. come.

Why Are ‘We’ the ‘Victim’ of so Much References: Hate and ill Repute?

Gantt, D. (2018). Retrieved on June 27, 2019 How many more black men and women do from https://theblackunicornproject.com/ we have to see raped on the side of the road index.php/2018/09/27/after-400-years-offor eleven minutes, beat in the middle of the american-oppression-get-ready-for-the-yearstreet just because, and murdered on film in of-return/ front of their children before we decide to take a serious look at our options as a people? Content has been abbreviated for inclusion There’s no difference between now and when into the African American Journal. For the slave patrols were gunning our people additional details, please contact the references noted in the article. Thank you for down in the streets. reading my article.

Maybe… just maybe… if we keep marching, voting, rioting, yelling, burning stuff down… Dr. Jones has a commitment to a strong in another 400 years our great, great, great, work ethic, education and a passion for grandchildren might be able to say cops no entrepreneurship. In her 40+ years of longer get paid leave for gunning us down employment, Robin spent 30 of those in cold blood because they “feared for their years gainfully employed with fortune 50 life”. Long before being “woke” became a companies such as GE, IBM, Ashland Oil, social media trend, 400 years was a round and the U.S. Department of Energy, and Department of Defense. Robin started her figure used to tally how long we and our career path as a database developer building ancestors have been toiling in America. First, her first database for the F14 Aircraft Fighter starting as slaves, then we were segregated, planes and from there she catapulted her next as oppressed and most recently, way to the position of Interim CIO. In her disrespected as a group of people. most recent employment capacity, Robin is a retired Senior Manager PMO Director of the If the Biblical Word is True, Can We Computer Center at University of California, Believe This Will Be ‘Our’ Year?

Berkeley - Haas School of Business.

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

TECHNOLOGY TOOK MY JOB! (IS THIS YOU?)

By Cecil Jones, MBA Will technology make your current job obsolete? Will it change how you work within the next 3 years? Will it change basic things in your life (ordering groceries, ordering household items, making a doctor’s appointment, etc.)? Will it change the type of automobile your drive? Will it change how you get from place to place? These are the types of things that we must consider to: - Stay and advance in employment - Pay less for items we use everyday - Determine the basic technology which we need to understand and use Self-Driving Buses They are coming. When? Three years? Four years? Five years? The technology and test sites are here. If you ride buses, you might say “Well, I will deal with it when it comes.”

OK. If you DRIVE buses for a living, do you say “Well. I will deal with that when it comes”? Is that good planning? I don’t think so. This is how you support yourself and your family. The situation is coming (or is already here!).

Bus Drivers’ Position?

Transportation unions around Ohio are generally against Self-Driving buses. They see that bus drivers will be laid off and many of their bus drivers’ jobs eliminated. Bus driver positions have been relatively stable with major layoffs for years. Consider the bus driver who has been driving buses for 25 years, is 50 years old and is look forward to retirement in 10 years or so. That situation describes someone with a profession, has been working at it for a while but their plan for driving 10 more years in in jeopardy if Self-Driving buses roll out in 3 to 5 years.

Three years is mentioned because many union contracts are three years in length.

Many senior leaders of bus and other public transportation companies would likely keep human bus drivers driving buses, as part of their negotiation during the length of the three year negotiated contract. What happens when the contract is over?

Senior Management of Bus Transportation Companies Position? .

Public Bus Transportation companies receive some of their core funding from taxes and governmental organizations. Their budgets are usually pretty tight (revenues are just more than expenses). There are some bus companies that have tough years where their expenses are more than their revenues.

As a CEO of a public transportation company, receiving governmental and tax dollars, one wants to be economically efficient. Your budget is reviewed by other agencies. Would you order Self-Driving buses?

In many organizations, one of the largest expenses is salary for employee. If you were the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a public bus transportation company, would you want to order Self-Driving buses? Let’s say the Self-Driving buses reduced your bus driver salary costs by $millions$. Would you want to order Self-Driving buses? Let’s say you could get rid of other expenses. Would you need as large of a human resources department if you had far few employees in the company? And on and on…, similarly throughout the organization.

Have a GREAT summer!

Technology and Change

Similar situations are developing in many industries: automobile and any product you can order online. Have your noticed the Have you seen buses riding by that have just automation in your grocery stores? a few riders in a large bus? Operating buses is an expensive business, but one that is needed Take your position! Get ready! Keep your by the general public. eyes open! Plan!

Are you looking for a technology networking group to help you get smarter? What new technology or process have you learned this month? Need advice on how to look for that technology position? Are you considering technology education (courses, certificates or degrees) and need information? Do you have a business, process, project management, personnel or technology question? Please let me know. admin@accelerationservices.net Cecil Jones MBA, ABD, PMP, CCP, SCPM, FLMI, Lean Professional, 614-726-1925.

To Advertise in The Columbus - Dayton African American contact us at: editor@columbusafricanamerican.com Ray Miller, 503 S. High StreetPublisher - Suite 102 750 East Long Columbus, OH 43215 Street, Suite 3000 614-571-9340 Columbus, Ohio 43203

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

THE NEW AMERICANS MAGAZINE TO HOST INAUGURAL AMERICAN AWARDS (Columbus, Ohio) – The New Americans Magazine will hold its inaugural American Awards on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 at the Auditorium of the Ohio History Center, Columbus. It will start at 6 pm and end at 8 pm.

“The American Awards will honor individuals and organizations that have made appreciable contributions to growth and development in the new American community in central Ohio,” said Deba Uwadiae, Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of New Americans magazine.

The categories for 2019 include Social Services, Legal Service, Life Achievement, Personality of the Year, Welcoming County and Welcoming City awards.

Five organizations that assist and support new immigrants and refugees in resettling in central Ohio will receive the Social Services award for excelling in alleviating the conditions of refugees and immigrants in need of help. They include Community for Refugee and Immigration Services, ETSS Social Services, Jewish Family Services, Somali Community Association and US Together.

Two law firms, Simakovsky Law and Olawale Law Firm will receive the Legal Services Award for dedicating their resources to innovation and performing outstandingly by delivering exceptional results for their clients, specifically immigrants and new Americans.

Also two individuals, Mr. Tobias Iloka and Dr. JS Jindal are honored with the Life Achievement Awards for demonstrating commitment to their profession and service through vision, attitude and work in Ohio State and beyond thereby being a beacon in the new American community.

Jury Supervisor Frances Green of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Columbus is Personality of the Year 2019 for commitment, dedication, diligence, understanding and warmness in the way she has continually conduct the Naturalization ceremony preparing and directing the new Americans.

The City of Columbus and Franklin County are Welcoming City and Welcoming County awardees respectively for being guided by the principles of inclusion and creating communities that proper because everyone feels welcome, including immigrants and refugees.

Dr. JS Jindal

Tobias IIoka

Inna Simakovsky

Commissioner Marilyn Brown

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

HEALTH AFRICANS IN AMERICA - ARE WE HEALTHIER?

By Charleta B. Tavares There are little to no studies comparing the health and wellbeing of Africans who were captured and enslaved

by European slave traders when they entered the colonies in 1619. However, history has documented the poor and neglected health of our African ancestors during and after slavery some 400 years since arriving in what was known as America. One such researcher, Dr. Stephen Kenny PhD FHEA, stated in his study titled, Slavery, Health, and Medicine: “Considerations of health and well-being as fundamental human rights have always been at the heart of serious attempts to understand the experience and history of enslavement in the Atlantic world. As a profoundly oppressive, destabilizing, and deeply exploitative social system—and a toxic method of utilizing human labor—slavery in the Americas guaranteed negative health outcomes and enduring health problems in all of its geopolitical and historical contexts. Breaking down core elements of the enslavement process and the oppressive governance and exploitation of slave life and labor highlights how the system relentlessly undermined physical, psychological, and emotional health. The initial acts of capture, incarceration, human commodification, and forced transportation all weakened health. So too did the separation of families and disruption of communities and being held in captivity under constant surveillance, with labor coerced and closely supervised. Indeed, the health of the enslaved was constantly threatened by the rigid regulation of all aspects of daily life.

Slave health was also vulnerable to the use and constant threat of violent punishment, dangerous and debilitating occupations, as well as environmental exposure. Sexual interference and abuse were major assaults on slave health.

Poor housing and sanitation and inadequate food, water, and clothing also put enslaved people at risk of a range of debilitating diseases.”

Another study by W. Michael Byrd and Linda A. Clayton, A Medical History of African American and the Problem of Race Beginnings to 1900 provides a summary of the African/ Black experiences in healthcare from the North American slave trade to the 1900s exposing medical racism including abuse, neglect, stereotyping, and differential and discriminatory treatment.1 In addition, these two physicians have chronicled the history of healthcare racism for African American/ Blacks from before and after slavery with having the worst healthcare, health status and health outcomes of any racial or ethnic group in America. One of their research findings concluded that physicians, scientists and philosophers throughout the centuries created and perpetuated racial inferiority mythology and stereotypes – theories taught in medical

schools from the 18th through the first half of the 20th centuries.

With this historical and chronicled backdrop, how are we doing today?

In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders otherwise known as the Kerner Commission prepared a report for then President Lynden B. Johnson to examine the causes of the civil disobedience and unrest in America. The report gathered data to assess the economic, social and other inequities plaguing African Americans in 1968. The report unmasked the pervasive poverty, unemployment, housing, education and employment discrimination, as well as the over incarceration of African Americans.

Janelle Jones, John Schmitt and Valerie Wilson updated the Kerner Commission Report in 2018. Their article, which appeared in the Economic Policy Institute’s website on February 26, 2018 titled, 50 Years after the Kerner Commission, African Americans are better off in many ways but are still disadvantaged by racial inequality.

The article confirmed what our U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Kaiser Foundation, Health Policy Institute of Ohio, Ohio Commission on Minority Health etc. have documented and attempted to address over the more the five decades since the original report. That health disparities and unequal treatment, health status and premature disease and death among African Americans in America and Ohio specifically are persistent. Let us look at two health indicators – infant mortality and life expectancy.

Infant mortality. Over the last five decades, African Americans have experienced enormous improvements in infant mortality rates. The number of deaths per 1,000 live births has fallen from 34.9 in 1968 to 11.4 in the most recent data. Over the same period, whites have also seen dramatic reductions in infant mortality, with rates falling from 18.8 to 4.9 by the same measure.

I n r elative ter ms, however, Af r ican Americans have fallen behind. In 1968, black infants were about 1.9 times as likely to die as white infants. Today, the rate is 2.3 times higher for African Americans.2 Life expectancy. African Americans’ life expectancy at birth has also increased substantially (up 11.5 years) between 1968 and today, outpacing the increase for whites (up 7.5 years). However, an African American born today can, on average, still expect to live about 3.5 fewer years than a white person born on the same day.3 We can reduce these disparities and premature deaths among our babies and adults with prevention, intervention, equitable treatment, policies and funding to focus on those who are suffering disproportionately

The Columbus African & Dayton African American • July• February 2019 American News Journal 2015

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and relentlessly. We have to continue to address the racial inferiority mythology and stereotypes about African Americans, which are still pervasive in our medical and healthcare institutions and among clinicians.

Myths, discriminatory practices, and racism are not erased or do they magically disappear simply because they are recognized. We have to undue racism, systemic and covert discrimination and cultural incompetence within our healthcare organizations and institutions…we must recognize our biases, cultural disrespect and superiority complexes before we can confront them.

There are advocacy efforts to raise awareness, provide education and policy recommendations at the local, state and federal levels to address both infant mortality and life expectancy among African Americans. In the state of Ohio, the women of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus have formed the Ohio Black Maternal Health Caucus. The purpose of the Caucus is to improve Black Maternal health outcomes including the death of African/Black babies across the state and expand access to healthcare. Ohio’s rate of 20.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 births was slightly lower than the 20.7 national average. However, Black maternal mortality rates in Ohio were 46 per 100,000, roughly three times the 15.6 rate for White women. These statistics are unconscionable and have to be addressed if we are going to save our mothers and babies.

PrimaryOne Health will be working with the Ohio Black Maternal Health Caucus to provide information, trends, promising practices and clinical experts including Dr. Jeffrey Marable, OB/GYN and Director of Women’s Health who has worked with the CEO on reducing infant mortality rates. For additional information on the Ohio Black Maternal Health Caucus, contact Rep. Boyd’s office at 614.644.5079 or Rep. Stephanie Howse’s office at 614.466.1414.

Footnotes: 1 An American Health Dilemma: A Medical History of African Americans and the Problem of Race: Beginnings to 1900 2 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2016. htm 3 https://www.epi.org/publication/50-yearsafter-the-kerner-commission/#_note11 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 people experiencing financial, social, or cultural barriers to health care. www. primaryonehealth.org.

HEALTH

FRESHEN UP YOUR FOOD THIS SUMMER

By Lisa Benton, MD, MPH There is no mistaking in my mind that this summer feels hotter than last year or the year before. So far this summer I’ve travelled for work and vacation around Ohio, to California, Washington, D.C. and Europe.

In addition to touring and taking in the local fare in the European and American cities, I couldn’t help not to zone in on local practices that promote staying well and healthy.

I’ve noticed a lot of little interactions and activities that can go a long way to helping you feel and be healthier this summer and perhaps through the rest of the year.

One simple practice I saw and highly recommend was drinking more water and fresh real fruit juices without additives, corn syrup and extra sugar.

Drinking bottled and fresh water was cheaper and even seemed more fashionable in Europe than drinking cola and alcoholic beverages.

Remember years ago, when here in the U.S. water at restaurants had to be requested?

In contrast, it was wonderful to see the fresh and constantly refilled giant pitchers of water almost everywhere we dined. That was whether a straw was included or not, in the interest of decreasing plastic waste to the planet.

I especially liked that in most places we stopped in Athens, Greece, the residents reminded us of the wonderful refreshing they got from the mineral waters that ran through the city’s pipes for centuries. According to our guide, she said that keeping up the infrastructure to support the city’s water supply and reservoirs was a high priority and highly regulated. It made me wonder would we ever be able to say the same, after the crisis in Flint, Michigan or in other Ohio cities where our aging plumbing and water delivery systems are failing?

An added benefit of drinking fresh water and naturally flavored beverages without added sugar, etc. was that the young people on our trip seemed less jittery. I noticed I was too.

I also think their skin cleared up. Losing the chemicals and corn syrup has the benefit of decreasing excess dietary sugar, lowering the risk for diabetes, obesity and cavities.

I remember one girl ate a fresh tomato and complained it tasted “funny” and had a different color. It was informative watching her dad teach her about the lack of pesticides and other chemicals that were used in growing it. I noticed her relief when she learned that the tomato was just as good if not better for her.

While the U.S. and Europe both make food safety a priority, in Europe you as a consumer were made more aware of the impact of all the regulations at the point you purchased your food.

For example, all restaurants listed what additives were in the food or if it was

genetically modified. Calories and ingredients were easier to read on the labels or menus.

Additionally, it was a big deal to make sure you knew that once you bought fast or prepared food, that you were reminded to eat it within 90 minutes to cut down the risk of it spoiling.

Would your picnic or homemade potato salad pass that test? Keep that in mind when you have everything from cold cuts, to boiled eggs to salads to raw and cooked meats and fish on the grill this summer.

transfer) cards. It seemed like a wonderful cost-effective alternative that also eliminated the transportation barriers many residents may have.

Community gardens also seemed to be more visible just about everywhere I travelled here and overseas. Not only are these gardens a source for increasing the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables right in the neighborhood, they also give residents a place to learn where food comes from and to participate in the farm to table process.

People gain hands-on experience and pride in having a stake in what you eat. You learn not to settle for anything that wishes to pass for food to go into your body. The quality of what you’re eating matters more than the quantity.

Fresh fruit and vegetable stands were more prominent and always crowded in every city we stopped. They seemed to have a greater selection that the supermarkets and minimarkets and corner stores there. People walked out to these open-air markets several times a week to select fresh food and spices to prepare. Less food was kept in the freezer For one week this summer, I challenge our readers to cut back on processed foods and and as leftovers. avoid high salt and high fructose foods. Cut Food in the corner stores or their equivalent back on the corn syrup and the ingredients of the 7-Eleven stores was just as fresh even you read on a food label that you can’t though it was a little more expensive. In fact, pronounce or understand. If you have chips, I didn’t notice expired food or see molding try the ones with lower salt or select as a and stale food on the shelves since they had substitute sweet potato, kale or other veggie to rotate their inventory more frequently. chips.

That contrast in wide fresh food availability was obvious. It didn’t seem to matter what Summer is also a great time to increase the part of town you were in, whether in the hydration you get from drinking more water poorer urban neighborhoods or out in the and eating fresh fruits that are seasonal county. I wondered how we could improve like peaches, pears, cherries, blueberries, food delivery and freshness here in America. s t r a w b e r r i e s , g r a p e s a n d o f c o u r s e watermelon. An apple or two a day is still I saw one solution for getting fresh food into good for you, as are bananas which are high neighborhoods that don’t have easy access to in potassium. supermarkets up in Toledo while participating in a community health fair. Some of the Increase your intake of tomatoes, carrots, regional hospitals, insurance companies and spinach, collard and mustard greens that are non-profit community agencies there support also rich in vitamins A, C, E and K to help fresh food delivery trucks or vans where you stay in balance. Remember that you will get more benefit for diet if your vitamins, residents can climb aboard and shop. minerals and antioxidants come from closer These mobile groceries are the size of a to their sources rather than in a tablet or pill. shuttle bus and have an entry and exit to let And they may all taste a little better if they people walk in and make selections. It had are organic and locally grown. fresh and frozen meats and fish, fresh fruits and vegetables and other staples for a healthy Lisa D. Benton, MD, MPH (The Doctor is balanced diet. Residents could pay cash, In) breastsurgeonlb@gmail.com, Twitter:@ credit or use their EBT (electronic benefit DctrLisa (415) 746-0627

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

HEALTH

DIVERSITY IN THE NATION’S PHYSICIAN WORK FORCE SAVES LIVES: PROGRESS AND THE THREAT OF REGRESS

By Quinn Capers, IV, MD and Christian A. Capers Introduction: While 13% of Americans self-identify as Black or African American, only 4% of the country’s physicians are Black. Despite facing significant obstacles to becoming physicians, Black doctors have contributed to the betterment of the health and wellness of the nation for centuries.

Several decades ago, the nation had only two medical schools, Howard University in Washington, DC and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee that regularly admitted Black students. It is known that diversity in medicine improves patient outcomes. Consider the evidence: research shows that women physicians are more likely to follow evidence-based guidelines (and that their patients benefit); that African American physicians are least likely of all physicians to harbor negative implicit racial biases; and that minority patients are more likely to follow recommendations and treatment plans from doctors who share their background. In short, DIVERSITY IN MEDICINE SAVES LIVES. While we still have a long way to go with regards to producing a physician workforce that reflects the beautiful diversity in the country we serve, progress has been made.

Progress: In 2019, all 156 medical schools in the US and Canada train Black doctors.

The Ohio State University is a national leader in training Black physicians. When I matriculated into The Ohio State University College of Medicine (OSUCOM) in 1987, it was one of the least diverse medical schools in the country. Three decades later, The OSUCOM is ranked #2 of 152 majority medical schools in terms of African American students enrolled, according to a May 15, 2019 article in the US News and World Report. Gender balance is another important aspect of diversity. In the last six entering classes at The OSUCOM, women have slightly outnumbered men. Importantly, coincident with the increased diversity in OSUCOM’s classes has been an increase in academic credentials; the average class grade point average from college and standardized test scores have gone up as the classes have become more diverse. These achievements in gender and racial diversity are the result of an intentional strategy that emphasizes recruiting, eliminating implicit bias in the admissions process, and embracing holistic review in admissions. This incredible turnaround is not only good for the health of Ohioans, but as OSUCOM graduates spread out all over the nation, good for America.

Regress: Under the current presidential administration, the United States Department of Education claims that race should not be a factor in admitting students to college or

any other form of higher education and, despite the fact that the US Supreme Court has twice ruled that consideration of race in higher education admissions is legal, the Department of Education has stated that it will “investigate” schools that do so. The court’s rationale for upholding the legality of using race as one factor to be considered in admissions is based on its recognition that diversity in the classroom has educational benefits that cannot be reproduced with any other educational tool. US officials recently visited Texas Tech University Medical School to “investigate” a claim that the medical school considered the race of applicants in its admissions decisions.

Shortly thereafter, the university stated that they would no longer consider race in the admissions process. With only 156 MD schools in North America, having one of them vow to no longer consider race when making admissions decisions could be a significant blow to diversity enhancement in the medical profession. In bygone years, many African Americans overcame structural racism, subtle discrimination, and social determinants of success to become physicians. In recent years, studies show that when reviewing applications for employment, potential employers down grade qualifications if the applicant has an “ethnic-sounding” name like Jamal or Keisha. Our recent study showed that a majority of our medical school admissions committee members have “implicit white race preference,” meaning *that when they see a Black person’s face,

The Columbus African & Dayton African American • July• February 2019 American News Journal 2015

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they unconsciously associate it with negative words and concepts like “pain,” “misery,” “violence,” or “fear.” With education we can overcome these obstacles, and we are doing just that, but these studies suggest that today’s higher education admissions process is far from a level playing field. Yet efforts to enhance diversity in the medical profession, so critical to reducing racial healthcare disparities, are currently under attack by the US Department of Education.

Summary/Conclusion: African Americans have made numerous contributions to the medical profession and continue to play an outsized role in caring for underserved and disadvantaged populations, and make tremendous contributions to biomedical research and education. I am proud of our nation’s current attempts to diversify the medical profession, and particularly proud that The Ohio State University College of Medicine has become a beacon for diversity in this country. However, if we are not evervigilant progress can easily be halted or pushed backwards.

Quinn Capers, IV, MD Professor of Internal Medicine (Cardiology) Associate Dean for Admissions The Ohio State University College of Medicine Christian A. Capers English major Howard University

HEALTH

Diversity in medicine saves lives. This is a bold statement, but it is backed up by scientific studies published in the medical literature. For instance, recent studies show that Black male patients are more likely to consent to having flu vaccinations and having their blood drawn for cholesterol and blood sugar screening if recommended

by Black, rather than White or Asian doctors. The study went on to show that the Black doctors took more time with the Black patients and were more likely to ask questions about their lives outside of the doctor’s visit. The patients described the White/Asian doctors as “efficient”, they were more likely to describe the Black doctors as “caring”. In another recent study, it was found that elderly patients cared for by women physicians lived longer than patients cared for by male physicians, despite having similar diagnoses upon admission to the hospital.

The point: more women and minorities in medicine will translate into lives saved.

At The Ohio State University College of Medicine we believe that diversity helps us do everything we do in medicine better.

Through aggressive recruiting and training that reduces bias in the admission system, our College of Medicine has become one of the most diverse in the nation. Last month, the US News and World Report reported that, after excluding the four historically Black medical schools (Howard University in Washington, DC, Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, Morehouse School of Medicine in Georgia, and California’s Charles Drew University), OSU is number 2 in the nation (out of more than 150 medical schools) in terms of enrollment of Black students.

The photos below show mentoring sessions between our Black women physicians and women students and our African American Male Mentoring Roundtable, a quarterly gathering of Black male physicians and students at OSU.

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The Columbus & DaytonNews African American • July 2019 The Columbus African American Journal • February 2015

COVER STORY

SAFE SLEEP DEATHS - STILL AN ISSUE IN OUR COMMUNITY WE MUST CHANGE OUR BEHAVIOR TO SAVE OUR BABIES

By Erika Clark Jones On average, every other week in Franklin County, a Central Ohio family loses a baby due to unsafe sleep practices. And in the black community, infants die at almost three times the rate of white babies. Many of these deaths are preventable. Look at the numbers over the last three years: • From 2012 to 2016 – there were 112 sleep-related deaths in CelebrateOne neighborhoods* • In 2017, there were 9 sleep-related deaths in CelebrateOne neighborhoods* • In 2018, there were 22 sleep-related deaths in CelebrateOne neighborhoods* • In 2019 through March, there has been one sleep-related death in a CelebrateOne neighborhood* One safe sleep related death is one too many.

Safe sleep related deaths are preventable and as a community, we MUST change our behavior and ALWAYS practice safe sleep with our babies from 0 to 1-year-old. The coalition of CelebrateOne has raised the level of awareness of what the ABCs are. Many people can say the ABC’s of safe sleep – Alone, Back and empty Crib – but are families really adhering to these practices?

When CelebrateOne’s community connectors ask people if they know the ABCs of safe sleep, they recite them, know them and understand them. But they don’t always practice them. Now we must move from awareness to action by practicing safe sleep behaviors every nap, every night, every time.

The data tell us we all have more work to do – and we must address the issue together.

CelebrateOne Taking Action for Change Since 2014, CelebrateOne and its partners have been raising awareness in Columbus about preterm births and preventing infant death, including the ABC’s of safe sleep, deploying several strategies to focus in on educating the community about safe sleep practices and infant vitality. The coalition has taken on the challenge to help address social determinants of health – housing, education, transportation, health, unemployment - by instituting programs to help get homeless pregnant families into stable housing, working with all local hospitals to arm new families with safe sleep information

before they leave the hospital, working with physician offices by providing them with safe sleep information to share with their patients, collaborating with Franklin County Jobs and Family Services and more.

CelebrateOne is canvassing the community in ways we have never done. From training more Safe Sleep Ambassadors in CelebrateOne neighborhoods, to Columbus Public Health distributing nearly 1300 free cribs in CelebrateOne priority zip codes; from training over 93 community health workers and hiring more than 17 on-theground community connecters who canvass communities and educate families, to engaging and training barbers and beauticians on how to talk to their patrons about safe sleep practices. And we are engaging the faith community to help encourage families to ALWAYS practice safe sleep. We are getting the word to the community. CelebrateOne continues its efforts to encourage families to adopt new behavior when it comes to helping our babies reach their first birthdays. I ask you to join us. Here are some ways you can make a difference: Make sure your babies sleep environment is ALWAYS safe.

EVERY crib or pack n’ play should be free of blankets, bumper pads, pillows and toys.

Use this sleep environment for every nap and every night-time sleep session.

Share the room – NEVER the bed.

Keep a watchful eye on the baby by sharing the room, but not the bed. This step keeps your baby close with you but in a separate, safe space of his or her own. If you need a crib, call 311 (614-645-3111) to request a free crib.

Create a team that you can count on to

The & Dayton African American • July• February 2019 The Columbus Columbus African American News Journal 2015

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alwayspractice safe sleep when it comes to your baby.

Build a #sweetdreamsteam. That is, EVERYONE who cares for the baby needs to agree to follow these guidelines – no exceptions. Your baby should always sleep Alone, on his or her Back and in an empty Crib or pack n’ play.

Follow your Safe Sleep Plan EVERY Nap, EVERY Night, EVERY Time.

Whether you are traveling or in between residences, always follow your plan – no exceptions. Do not use the baby’s car seat or adult surfaces – like couches or beds or air mattresses – for your baby. None of these options have been approved for sleeping babies safely. Always find room for the pack n’ play when traveling or staying with others.

Become a Safe Sleep Ambassador.

You and your family can be Safe Sleep Ambassadors by participating in trainings that are held throughout Columbus to teach safe sleep practices and provide a clear understanding of the ABCs of safe sleep. We encourage anyone caring for a baby under the age of one, to attend one of the trainings.

Visit the Safe Sleep page on CelebrateOne. info to register today.

It will take every family and caregiver to make Columbus the city where EVERY baby celebrates his or her first birthday.

Remember, if you or someone you know needs a crib, please call 311 (614-645-3111) to submit a request. I also encourage you and members of the entire family to sign up for safe sleep training on the Safe Sleep page of Celebrateone.info.

For full details on ways you and your family can help reduce infant deaths in our community, please visit Celebrateone.info.

Erika Clark Jones is the Executive Director of CelebrateOne

CelebrateOne • January-March 2019

DATA DASHBOARD

Published 6/12/2019

Overall 2007-2011 Deaths ▼ Infant mortality rate A1. ▼ Racial disparity in infant mortality rate (NHB:NHW) A2. ▼ # Infant deaths A3. annual # of sleep-related infant deaths Births B1. # Births B2. ▼ % Births preterm (<37 weeks gestation) Racial disparity in preterm (NHB:NHW) B2. ▼ % Births very preterm (<32 weeks gestation) Racial disparity in very preterm (NHB:NHW) B3. ▲ % Births with prenatal care in the 1st trimester ▼ % Births with mother smoking during any trimester B4.

FC 8.6 2.4 783 26 FC 90,857 11.3% 1.3 2.1% 2.2

C1 12.2 1.9 401 18 C1 32,834 13.3% 1.1 2.3% 1.7

2012-2016 FC 8.1 2.4 765 22.4 FC 94,000 10.9% 1.3 2.1% 2.0

C1 11.7 1.6 393 14.6 C1 33,629 12.7% 1.1 2.4% 1.5

2017 FC 8.2 2.7 155 14 FC 18,800 10.6% 1.3 2.0% 1.6 70.4% 9.2%

C1 11.9 2.2 79 9 C1 6,658 12.5% 1.2 2.6% 1.3 61.5% 16.0%

2017 Eliminate preventable sleep-related deaths # of cribs distributed # of Safe Sleep Ambassadors trained Prevent Preterm Births # of newly enrolled women in home visiting # of new people enrolled in Baby & Me Tobacco Free Connect the Disconnected # of women scheduled for prenatal care by StepOne # of participants in Moms2B *Data reported through March 2019 2018 & 2019 data are preliminary FC=Franklin County C1=CelebrateOne priority areas (ZIP codes 43203, 43204, 43205, 43206, 43207, 43211, 43219, 43222, 43223, 43224, 43229, 43227, 43232) Data Sources: Franklin County Child Fatality Review and Ohio Department of Health Vital Statistics analyzed by Columbus Public Health; Franklin County Home Visiting programs; Baby & Me Tobacco Free; Ohio Better Birth Outcomes; StepOne; Moms2B

FC 1,413 628 FC 1,102 148 FC 3,537 617

2018 FC 7.5 2.5 137 29 FC 18,264 10.8% 1.3 1.8% 1.8 72.5% 9.0%

C1 10.6 2.1 68 22 C1 6,414 13.1% 1.0 2.6% 1.3 62.6% 15.9%

2019* FC 6.7 3.7 29 4 FC 4,352 10.5% 1.3 2.3% 1.9 71.7% 9.2%

2018 FC 1,635 776 FC 1,109 144 FC 3,558 687

C1 1,043 354 C1 661 78 C1 2,119 408

C1 7.5 2.0 12 1 C1 1,604 11.9% 1.3 3.3% 1.7 61.3% 15.4%

2019* FC 366 157 FC 240 25 FC 918 325

C1 227 50 C1 170 7 C1 562 194

2020 Annual Goal FC 6 1 <=113 <=16 FC 8.1% 1 1.5% 1 77.9% 1.4% 2019 Annual Goal FC 1,650 855 FC 1,800 212 FC 5,000 800

2020 Annual Goal Notes: A1. Healthy People 2020 Goal for U.S. A2. Parity A3. Death number goal based on 6.0 infant deaths per 1,000 live births (HP2020 Goal for IMR) applied to the average births in Franklin County from 2012-16 (18,800).

A3. (Sleep-related) death number goal based on 0.84 infant deaths per 1,000 live births (HP2020 goal for SUID) applied to the average births in Franklin County from 2012-16 (18,800).

B2. (% Births preterm [<37 weeks gestation]) March of Dimes Goal for U.S. B2. (Racial disparity in preterm [NHB:NHW]) Parity B2. (% Births very preterm [<32 weeks gestation]) HP2020 Goal B2. (Racial disparity in very preterm [NHB:NHW]) Parity B3. HP2020 is 77.9% B4. HP2020 is 1.4%

KiEssence Grand Beauty & Barber is one salon partnering with CelebrateOne to share safe sleep messages with clients.

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The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

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The Columbus African & Dayton African American • July• February 2019 American News Journal 2015

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COMMUNITY

AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEEDS STILL LARGE DESPITE SUCCESS

Photo by Columbus Business First

By Bruce Luecke Columbus Business First recently recognized me as one of the top 100 individuals driving the community conversation in Central Ohio.

I subsequently told our Marketing department not to publicize it.

While grateful for the honor, it is important not to let the conversations overshadow the work done daily by our organization in stabilizing 6,200 individuals – families and seniors – through quality affordable housing and wraparound services and programs in our 36 communities. Great work is also being accomplished by our peers and partners.

The focus must remain on building more homes and strengthening community support to address the shortfall in affordable housing.

So much more needs to be done knowing 54,000 families, our neighbors, are spending at least 50 percent of their income on housing, often living a paycheck to paycheck existence one disaster – medical, car, employment -from an eviction.

That said, here is a snapshot of why I remain optimistic thanks to our staff, area residents, governmental entities, area foundations, business partners and the financial community.

Currently we are deep into construction of Blacklick Crossing, a 30-apartment development across from Blacklick Woods Metro Park and down the street from Reynoldsburg High School.

At the same time, in Grove City, in a joint venture with Spire Development, we are in the process of laying underground utilities for a future 28-unit development known as Arrowleaf.

On the Near East Side of Columbus, in conjunction with the Central Ohio Community Land Trust, we are about to construct 10 homes. A shared equity resale formula will assure affordable housing for the first homebuyer and subsequent homebuyers who follow.

For the first time since 2005, Homeport has received two Low Income Housing Tax Credit awards to develop affordable housing.

And, we have a number of promising prospective deals in our pipeline.

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) on May 15 awarded $565,000 for a 32-apartment senior community in Whitehall, a second phase of our popular Hamilton Crossing apartments. OHFA also awarded $899,000 toward the financing of 50 affordable apartments and single-family homes in North Linden off Cleveland Avenue in what we are calling Kenlawn Place.

The awards came on the heels of Columbus voters approving a $1 billion bond issue that for the first time in the city history committed funds ($50 million) for affordable housing. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and the city, with the help of a consultant, will be developing recommendations to best leverage the money with private and philanthropic partners.

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Finally, on June 24 government and civic leaders, foundations and a cavalcade of financial institutions came together to announce a $100 million fund for affordable housing that will be managed by the Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County.

Founding investors include Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County, Columbia Gas/NiSource Charitable Foundation, The Columbus Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Heartland Bank, Huntington, L Brands, Nationwide, Park National Bank and PNC. The “Housing Action Fund” will provide low cost loans with “quick strike” capability to developers like Homeport to preserve and increase affordable apartments and homes in Franklin County.

“We’re all in, and all in together on this important issue,” said Columbus Foundation President and CEO Doug Kridler.

Oh, by the way, our Marketing Department did mention on Facebook the Columbus Business First article on the top 100 influential leaders. But the emphasis was where it should have been.

“Congratulations to ALL of the influential leaders named to the Columbus Business First Power 100. We are excited to see all of the affordable housing leaders listed and the momentum behind tackling the affordable housing crisis.”

Bruce Luecke is President & CEO of Homeport

The Columbus & DaytonNews African American • July 2019 The Columbus African American Journal • February 2015

POLITICS CENSUS TO LEAVE CITIZENSHIP QUESTION OFF 2020 QUESTIONAIRE

By Ted Hesson The Census Bureau will not include a question about citizenship in the printed questionnaire for the 2020 census, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed.

The decision represents a major defeat for the Trump administration five days after the Supreme Court refused to allow the question to be added without further explanation from Census officials. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s liberal wing in a surprising decision that sent the case back lower courts for further review.

It was an instance of the Trump administration suffering serious consequences from another branch of government for being less than truthful. Roberts said in his decision that the Commerce Department’s explanation for including the question was “incongruent with what the record reveals about the agency’s priorities and decision-making process.” By delaying resolution of the matter, the high court apparently forced the Census Bureau, which faced a tight deadline, to proceed without the citizenship question.

But it remained uncertain whether the citizenship question might resurface in a digital 2020 questionnaire to be prepared at a later date. Sarah Brannon, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented plaintiffs in a related New York case, said it would likely not. “It is my understanding,” she said, “that the paper and digital form must be the same.”

In a statement about the administration’s decision to publish the questionnaire without the citizenship question, Ross said, “I respect the Supreme Court but strongly disagree with its ruling regarding my decision to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. ... My focus, and that of the bureau and the entire department, is to conduct a complete and accurate census.”

The Justice Department said during litigation that the Census Bureau faced a June 30 deadline to finalize printed questionnaires.

One Census official later suggested the process could be delayed until the end of October, but that such a move would require “exceptional effort and additional resources.”

The decision to proceed with printing questionnaires may signal a detente in the lengthy legal and political battle over adding the question to the 2020 count.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The stakes were particularly high for states with high immigrant populations, like California, where officials warned for months that a citizenship question would fan fears of a government crackdown and suppress response rates. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued to block the question’s inclusion, arguing his state would forfeit deserved federal funds.

In a triumphant press conference Tuesday, Becerra said that the decision to nix the question would ensure California gets its share of federal dollars to pay for schools, road repairs and disaster response.

“They made a concession to the truth and quite honestly to the rule of law,” Becerra said, adding that “now the census will be free of the contrived attempt to silence so many people.”

it had been permitted on the census — would not have asked about legal immigration status.)

But the administration backed down. News that the questionnaire would be printed without a citizenship question circulated on Twitter after a DOJ attorney confirmed the plan in an email to plaintiffs‘ attorneys.

“We can confirm that the decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that the printer has been instructed to begin the printing process,“ the DOJ attorney wrote.

New York led a coalition of states in one of several lawsuits that argued the question would depress responses in immigrant communities and in turn would lead to lower levels of federal funding and diminished political power.

Following last week’s Supreme Court’s ruling, President Donald Trump thrust the The federal judge hearing that case, U.S. process into uncertainty when he threatened District Judge Jesse Furman, blocked the addition of the question in January, to delay the census. prompting the Trump administration to press “Seems totally ridiculous that our the issue at the Supreme Court. government, and indeed Country, cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very New York Attorney General Tish James said in a written statement Tuesday that “justice expensive, detailed and important Census,” prevailed“ and that efforts would now shift to Trump tweeted Thursday. “I have asked the outreach to ensure all residents are counted. lawyers if they can delay the Census, no matter how long,“ he wrote, “until the United Ted Hesson is an employment and States Supreme Court is given additional immigration reporter with POLITICO Pro. information from which it can make a final Hesson holds a master’s degree from the and decisive decision on this very critical Columbia University Graduate School of matter.“ Journalism and a bachelor’s degree from Boston College.

Trump again warned that he might delay the census, saying that the U.S. needed to know Jeremy White contributed to this report. “if somebody is a citizen as opposed to an illegal.” (The citizenship question — even if Article from Politico.com

The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

POLITICS

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

By Senator Charleta B. Tavares (Ret.) Conference Committee Deliberates State of Ohio’s 2-year Operating Budget Amend. Substitute House Bill 166 – both the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate passed the State Operating Budget introduced by the Governor on March 15, 2019 with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill was substantially changed in the Ohio Senate to reflect that chambers emphasis on giving tax breaks to selected businesses. Some of the Senate’s changes include: • The Senate budget removes language in the House version that would have ended Ohio’s experiment with state school takeovers.

The Senate additionally adopted language changing Ohio’s graduation requirements and the measures included on school report cards. Those differences between the chambers will need to be worked out before final passage.

• Both the House and Senate have targeted Pharmacy Benefit Managers in their budget drafts, although the House effort to limit certain pricing practices is replaced in the Senate with audits and financial assistance to pharmacies. Both chambers include language to make healthcare pricing, particularly out-of-network charges, more transparent to consumers. The Senate also added $5 million in funding for so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” fake medical clinics where women are given misleading information and delayed in their efforts to seek abortion services.

• The Senate concurred with the House plan to eliminate some tax breaks, like the one for private jet owners, but they fully restored a tax exemption for business owners on their first $250,000 in income, as well as breaks for aviation repair services and the sale of flight simulators. Senators rejected the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC) and Democrats ‘calls to make the Earned Income Tax Credit refundable, a targeted approach to keep low-income workers from being taxed into poverty. Senate amendments include a new tax on vaping products and Senators went along House plans to tax Uber and Lyft rides.

the Ohio Legislature (four Republicans and two Democrats) and one member representing the Governor. The members of the Ohio General Assembly had until June 30 to get a compromise bill to the Governor for his signature. Unfortunately, there was no compromise between the parties on several provisions including the House of Representatives’ wish to reduce the business tax loophole, the income tax rate cut, language regarding the Academic Distress Commission and school graduation requirements.

Both chambers of the Legislature passed resolutions extending the funding of government operations for 17 days while the Conference Committee continues to work out their differences in the Budget.

House Bill 6 – Bailout of Nuclear Energy Companies (First Energy) House Bill 6 will raise the price of energy supplied to all residents throughout Ohio, not just those with nuclear power plants in their portfolio. That means regardless of if your energy company let’s say AEP in Central Ohio does not have a nuclear power plant in Ohio you will pay this “tax or fee” in perpetuity (forever). The bill passed by the Ohio House included provisions to keep the other energy companies such as AEP, DP & L Duke to stay neutral by including language to extend the Ohio customers’ subsidies (set to expire in four to six years) of two coalburning power plants – one in Ohio (Gallia County) and the other in Indiana.

House Bill 6 is a bailout of FirstEnergy Solutions and its Wall Street creditors at the taxpayer’s expense – residential, commercial and manufacturing customers.

This is robbing the public to prop up and pay an obsolete, poorly run business.

Since 2009, Ohioans have saved over $5.1 billion on their energy bills; for every $1 that Ohio’s utilities invest in efficiency efforts; their customers get $2.65 in savings. A decade of investment and forward policies decisions are now being dismantled by H.B.6.

Unfortunately, Democrats in the Ohio House gave the nuclear industry the votes necessary to pass this onerous bill (53-43). They are giving the energy companies profits at the expense of their constituents in perpetuity (forever) Democrat Representatives Brown, Cera, Galonski*, Ingram*, Joe Miller, • Two additional provisions advocated by Patterson, Rogers, Sobecki, Upchurch* and the OLBC and Democrats that were not West* voted in favor of the bill. included in the Senate were funds for local communities to prepare and conduct a The bill is now in the Ohio Senate and let us complete and accurate Census Count and hope that our OLBC members Senators Craig, Maharath, Sykes, Thomas and Williams funds to pay for wage theft enforcement. do not provide the votes for FirstEnergy The bill was referred to a Conference and their Wall Street cronies rather than Committee made up of six members of stand with their constituents. Contact your The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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state Senator and the governor’s office to oppose this consumer unfriendly bill. *OLBC members voting for H.B. 6 Ohio Legislative Black Caucus: Members Priorities In an effort to bring the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus’ priorities and legislative agenda to the Columbus/Dayton African American news journals’ readers, we will continue in the next month’s edition to highlight the remaining members*. We will keep you informed on the progress of these and other bills sponsored and passed by the members of OLBC over the next two years of the 133rd General Assembly that specifically speak to the needs, opportunities and challenges facing Ohio’s African American and communities of color. *There are currently nineteen (19) members including one Asian American member participating in OLBC. For additional information on the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, contact Chris Scott, Executive Director OLBC at cscott@ ohiolegislativeblackcaucus.org If you are interested in testifying on any of the bills introduced in either the House or Senate, please contact the chair of the committee who can be found at www. ohiosenate.gov or www.ohr.gov.

Additional Contacts UPDATE: The Ohio General Assembly sessions and the House and Senate Finance Committees are televised live on WOSU/ WPBO and replays can be viewed at www. ohiochannel.org (specific House and Senate sessions and committee hearings can be searched in the video archives).

If you would like to receive updated information on the Ohio General Assembly and policy initiatives introduced, call or email your state Representative or Senator.

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. Former Senator Charleta B. Tavares will continue to send out the Tavares Times News monthly newsletter and provide information on educational forums.

To receive information or events, email tavarescrossfire2015@gmail.com Former Sen. Charleta B. Tavares, D-Columbus, is the 1st Democrat and African American woman to serve in the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate from Franklin County. She is also the first African American woman to serve in leadership in the history of Ohio and the 1st Democrat woman to serve in leadership in both the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate (House Minority Whip and Senate Assistant Minority Leader).

The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

POLITICS

OHIO LEGISLATIVE BLACK CAUCUS STATEWIDE CONFERENCE The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC) Foundation hosted its 2019 Statewide Conference on Friday, June 21, 2019 at the Sheraton on Capitol Square in Columbus, Ohio.

The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation’s mission is to advance Ohio’s Black Community through educational research, developing community leaders, facilitating public policy development, analyzing issues of social and economic importance and the promotion of diversity and inclusion in the public and private sectors. This mission came alive at this State Conference and included spirited and informative discussions on a wide range of topics.

Governor Mike DeWine brought official greetings to the conference attendees. The governor committed to come into the districts of members of OLBC members to determine what is working and what should be improved.

Discussion Session 1: Affordable Housing – disparities and discussions on public policy solutions Moderator: Lark Mallory, General Counsel and Director of CDFI Investments at Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County Panelists: Representative Erica Crawley, Ohio House of Representatives Charles D. Hillman, President & CEO – Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority Darlene Sweeney-Newbern, Director of Regional Operations – Ohio Civil Rights Commission Affordable Housing was defined as when individuals spend less than 30% of their gross income on housing costs (rent and utilities). Fair housing is defined as equality in housing that includes race, gender, disabilities, religion and sexual orientation.

Representative Erica Crawley stated that 83% of her Southeast Columbus district residents do not have affordable housing. We have an affordable housing crisis.

Impediments to affordable housing include: 1. Funding – there’s not enough 2. Deconcentration of poverty – the availability of affordable housing throughout the city or county rather than having all housing in low income areas 3. It is imperative that we serve vulnerable populations including seniors, single moms, veterans and the homeless Proposed solutions for funding affordable housing include but are not limited to: • Increasing section 8 vouchers • Support for proposed federal legislation regarding fair tax credit for housing – to put money back into the pockets of hardworking citizens • Raise minimum wage to provide citizens with affordable housing Discussion Session 2: Health Equity - Black Maternal Health - Strategies to address the significant disparity in maternal mortality rates for Black Women Moderator: Charleta Tavares, Former State Senator & OLBC member Panelists: Dr. Rocco Rossi, Board Certified in Gynecology & Obstetrics Representative Jeanine Boyd, Ohio House of Representatives Tavares, quoted a statistic in a 2000 issue of the Journal of Perinatal Education that Black women are 2 – 6 times more likely to die during pregnancy than white women. Our Black maternal health statistics are getting worse even while Third World countries in Africa are improving. Ohio maternal health statistics are worse than the U.S. as a whole.

Possible Solutions to decrease the disparities among Black women include but are not limited to: • Decrease stress in the lives of Africa American women • Use standardized criteria to eliminate racial biases against Black women • Providing women transportation to prenatal care appointments • Creating positive face-to-face interaction between medical professionals and Black women • Make women feel respected • Realize that we all have implicit biases. These biases need to be recognized to understand who we have biases against and work to overcome them.

Discussion Session 3: The New Bipartisanship in the New Administration Moderator: Alicia Reece, Former OLBC President & current OLBC Foundation board member Panelists: Representative Larry Householder, Speaker of the House Representative Emilia Strong Sykes, Minority Leader Minority Leader Sykes is the youngest minority leader in the history of the Ohio House of Representatives.

Speaker Household and Minority Leader Sykes discussed their first 100 days of the new administration. The Republican candidates who wanted to become speaker needed to secure votes from members of the Democratic to get enough votes to become speaker. Through negotiations between Representatives Householder and Sykes, Democrats provided votes which resulted in the election of Householder becoming Speaker of the House. As a result of the agreement to work in a bipartisan manner, this was the first time that 13 priority bills were passed as a result of joint Democratic and Republican sponsorship. Four additional bills that were previously introduced in the House but didn’t pass in the Senate were reintroduced and subsequently became law.

Our conference concluded with an entertaining and informative fireside chat with U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty moderated by NBC4 News Anchor Colleen Marshall. Representative Beatty discussed topics including her leadership role in the U.S. House of Representatives, the 2020 presidential election, criminal justice reform, Democratic demands that Harriet Tubman’s picture be placed on the $20 bill, and financial stability.

The OLBC Foundation thanks everyone for attending the conference and we are looking forward to the 2020 Statewide Conference. We will be developing white papers on relevant topics, hosting roundtable discussions and raising funds for college scholarships. We hope that you will become engaged with our foundation.

About the OLBC Foundation The board members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation are: Derrick R. Clay, Christie Bryant Kuhns, Tracy Maxwell Heard, Sylvester Patton Jr., Alicia Reece, Tom Roberts, Barbara A. Sykes, and Petee Talley.

Cheryl Liggins, Executive Director www.olbcfoundation.org The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

POLITICS

OHIO LEGISLATIVE BLACK CAUCUS STATEWIDE CONFERENCE 2

1

3

5

4

6

7

9

8

1.) Delegation of participants from Akron, Ohio, 2.) Affordable Housing Panel Discussion (L) Moderator Lark Mallory, Darlene Sweeny-Newbern, Charles Hill and Representative Erica Crawley., 3.) Derrick Clay, 4.) Governor Mike DeWine, 5.) House Speaker Larry Householder and Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, 6.) Congresswoman Joyce Beatty and NBC4 Colleen Marshall, 7.) Friends enjoying the evening along with Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce and State Senator Hearcel Craig, 8.)

Former State Senator Ray Miller addressing crowd, 9.) OLBC Foundation Members (L to R) Alicia Reece, Syvester Patton (President), Barbara Sykes, Derrick Clay, Christie Bryant Kuhns and Tom Roberts

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

POLITICS

KAMALA HARRIS SURGES IN 3 POLLS AFTER STRONG DEBATE PERFORMANCE

Photo by Creditspace/Rex/Shuttershock

By Matt Stevens After a strong performance in her first Democratic presidential debate, Senator Kamala Harris of California saw a significant increase in support in three polls released this week, as she and the rest of the Democratic primary field cut into the lead that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has enjoyed since entering the 2020 race.

The three polls of likely Democratic voters — two were national surveys, and one polled Iowa caucusgoers — all showed Ms. Harris leaping into second place in the days after last week’s debates. They also showed a dip in support for Mr. Biden, though more than one in five respondents still said he was their first choice to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

Taken together, the polls also continued a broader trend in which Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has gained ground as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has fallen back. Ms. Warren remained solidly in the top tier, finishing third in all three polls; Mr. Sanders, who led several polls before Mr. Biden entered the race, finished fourth in each of them. The differences between the two were within the margins of error and thus statistically insignificant.

All three polls were conducted by phone within four days of the first round of Democratic debates last week. While Ms. Harris appeared to benefit the most from her performance, gains in polling for particular

candidates immediately after debates are often temporary.

A national poll released by Quinnipiac University had the slimmest margin between Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, showing Mr. Biden with the support of 22 percent of respondents and Ms. Harris with 20 percent.

That poll surveyed 554 respondents and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points.

The Iowa poll, which surveyed 500 likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers, showed a larger gap between the two. Mr. Biden was the first choice of 24 percent of likely Iowa caucusgoers, and Ms. Harris had 16 percent support. The poll was released by Suffolk University on Tuesday and had a margin of error of four percentage points.

A third poll, published by CNN on Monday, showed Mr. Biden with a five-point lead over Ms. Harris nationally, with a margin of error of three percentage points.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., finished fifth in each of the polls, with singledigit support. Even as Mr. Buttigieg raises significant sums of money — his campaign announced this week that it had collected $24.8 million in the past three months — the new surveys indicate that he is still struggling to connect with rank-and-file Democrats.

Collectively, the new polls suggest that Ms. Harris benefited from an exchange with Mr. Biden during the debate on Thursday in which she highlighted his record on school busing and desegregation. Ms. Harris had

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been polling in the high single digits in most of the surveys taken before last week’s debate.

The same type of post-debate bump was not evident for Julián Castro, the former housing secretary and former mayor of San Antonio.

Mr. Castro memorably challenged former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas on immigration during Wednesday’s debate, and many political experts declared him the winner of the night. But his support in the three post-debate polls remained stable at around 1 percent.

Mr. O’Rourke, who was seen as a rising Democratic star after his close Senate race last year, earned only 1 percent support in the Quinnipiac and Suffolk polls. It was the first time Mr. O’Rourke received support that low in polls that can be used to qualify for the Democratic debates.

The Suffolk survey also asked Iowans which candidates had exceeded expectations at the first debates. The largest share of voters said Ms. Harris had done so, and the largest share said Mr. Biden had underperformed.

Matt Stevens is a political reporter for The New York Times based in New York.

Previously, he covered breaking news and wrote general-assignment stories on the Express Team. Before coming to The Times, he was a reporter for The Los Angeles Times, where he wrote about drought, water and the city’s west side.

Article from NYTimes.com

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

By Ray Miller The Hidden Cost of Being African American - How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality

By Thomas M. Shapiro

Reparations for Slavery and The Slave Trade - A Transnational and Comparative History

By Ana Lucia Araujo

In The Hidden Cost of Being an African American, Thomas Shapiro argues that the fundamental levels of racial inequality persist, particularly in the area of asset accumulation -- inheritance, savings accounts, stocks, bonds, home equity and other investments. The lack of these family assets along with continuing racial discrimination in crucial areas like homeownership dramatically impact the everyday lives of many black families, reversing gains earned in schools and on jobs and perpetuating the cycle of poverty in which far too many find themselves trapped.

Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade are among the most heinous crimes against humanity committed in the modern era.

Yet, to this day no former slave society in the Americas has paid reparations to former slaves or their descendants.

European countries have never compensated their former colonies in the Americas, whose wealth relied on slave labor, to a greater or lesser extent.

Ana Lucia Araujo argues that these calls for reparations are not only not dead, but have a long and persevering history. She persuasively demonstrates that since the 18th century, enslaved and freed individuals started conceptualizing the idea of reparations In different periods, despite the legality of slavery, slaves and freed people were conscious of having been victims of a great injustice.

African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade

By Anne C. Bailey

A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to Great Migration

By Steven Hahn

For centuries, the story of the Atlantic slave trade has been filtered through the eyes and records of white Europeans. In this watershed book, historian Anne C. Bailey focuses on memories of the trade from the African perspective. African chiefs and other elders in an area of southeastern Ghana-once famously called “the Old Slave Coast”-share stories that reveal that Africans were traders as well as victims of the trade.

Bailey argues that, like victims of trauma, many African societies now experience a fragmented view of their past that partially explains the blanket of silence and shame around the slave trade.

In this unprecedented and revelatory book, Bailey explores the delicate and fragmented nature of historical memory.

Emphasizing the importance of kinship, labor, and networks of communication, A Nation under Our Feet explores the political relations and sensibilities that developed under slavery and shows how they set the stage for grassroots mobilization. Hahn introduces us to local leaders, and shows how political communities were built, defended, and rebuilt.

He also identifies the quest for self-governance as an essential goal of black politics across the rural South, from contests for local power during Reconstruction, to emigrationism, biracial electoral alliances, social separatism, and, eventually, migration.

The Half Has Never Been Told Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

By Edward E. Baptist

When We Ruled

By Robin Walker In twenty-two chapters, When We Ruled examines the nature of what we call Black history; critically surveying the often-shoddy documentation of that history. Importantly, it focuses upon African civilization in the Valley of the Nile and analyzes the key historical phases of Ancient Egypt-critical exercises for any professed scholar of African history and vital pieces of Africa’s legacy. When we Ruled is a timely and immensely important work of benefit to scholars and students alike. Included are more than 100 images, 18 maps, a 15-page chronological table, index, and bibliography.

A groundbreaking, must-read history demonstrating that America’s economic supremacy was built on the backs of slaves.

Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution -- the nation’s original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America’s later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in the prizewinning The Half Has Never Been Told, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States.

In the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire, and the United States grew into a modern, industrial, and capitalist economy.

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The Columbus & DaytonNews African American • July 2019 The Columbus African American Journal • February 2015

The Columbus African & Dayton African American • July• February 2019 American News Journal 2015

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POLITICS

NEW LEVEL OF SHAME

By Marian Wright Edelman It is inconceivable that the latest headlines come from a civilized nation. “Detained Migrant Children Denied Adequate Food, Water & Sanitation in Texas.” “There Is a Stench: No Soap and Overcrowding in Detention Centers for Migrant Children.” “‘The Taliban gave me toothpaste’: Former captives contrast U.S. treatment of child migrants.”

The Associated Press report exposed the details of the inhumane conditions and neglect at the Clint, TX Border Patrol station: “Lawyers warn that kids are taking care of kids, and there’s inadequate food, water and sanitation for the 250 infants, children and teens at the Border Patrol station…Fifteen have the flu, and 10 more are quarantined.

Three girls told attorneys they were trying to take care of [a] 2-year-old boy, who had wet his pants and had no diaper and was wearing a mucus-smeared shirt when the legal team encountered him…Law professor Warren Binford, who is helping interview the children, said she couldn’t learn anything about the toddler, not even where he’s from or who his family is. He is not speaking…‘In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention, I have never heard of this level of inhumanity,’ said Holly Cooper, who co-directs University of California, Davis’ Immigration Law Clinic and represents detained youth.” Many children had not had access to a shower or changed clothes since they had crossed the border days or even weeks earlier. Meanwhile Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian argued in court that the federal government should not have to provide immigrant children with toothbrushes or soap to fulfill its legal obligation to provide them “safe and sanitary” conditions.

The spotlight on the inhumane treatment at the border comes just as the Trump administration is threatening to conduct mass deportation roundups of immigrant families, which will do real and lasting harm to countless children. This action, which the Children’s Defense Fund has condemned in the strongest terms, is the latest in a long string of actions by this administration meant to tear families apart and sow fear and panic among immigrant communities.

The hostile, xenophobic rhetoric of the administration is so pervasive that even very young children now live with the daily fear of losing a parent. The Department of Homeland Security has said that parents detained while their children are at day care or summer camp may be deported while their children are left behind. Deportations and family separations

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have dire consequences for children’s mental health and well-being, and they put enormous strain on communities—especially the already over-burdened child welfare system.

That the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement refer to this action as the “family op” reinforces this administration’s callous disregard for the children’s lives that will be harmed and the families that will be torn apart by these actions. Targeting children and families in an effort to create fear among immigrant communities is immoral and runs counter to the values upon which this country was built.

We urge the administration to stop separating children from their parents and to stop imprisoning children in unsafe, inhumane conditions. We call on Congress to refuse to fund the Trump administration’s cruelty.

And we urge state and local officials to speak out against this administration’s actions and equip their communities with the resources they need to support impacted families. It is our moral duty as a nation to protect and defend all children, regardless of where they come from or the color of their skin.

God, forgive our nation and help us to repent. ** Let the little children come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of Heaven, Jesus said.

He did not say let only rich or middle-class White children come.

He did not say let only the strapping boys but not the girls come.

He did not say let only the able-bodied children come.

All the children He bade come.

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He did not say let all my children or your children or our friends’ children or those in our families and neighborhoods and who look and act like us come.

He did not say let only the well-behaved nice children come or those who conform to society’s norms.

He did not say let a few, a third, half, or three-fourths come—but all.

Jesus said let the little children come and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven. ** Prayer for Courage to Do Justice (By Alan Paton) O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others; Open my ears that I may hear their cries; Open my heart so that they need not be without succor; Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed, and use me to bring them to those places.

And so open my eyes and my ears that I may, this coming day, be able to do some work of peace for thee. Amen.

Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe 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 Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

POLITICS

DEFEATING DEVASTATION AND DISASTER

By Recorder Brandon McClain Regardless of the position or title you may hold in this world, the most impactful role you will ever occupy within your lifetime is that of a concerned citizen. I have seen this; and more importantly, have experienced this truth firsthand. Whether serving my community as a soldier, attorney, magistrate judge; or even currently, as the Montgomery County Recorder; I’ve learned one’s strength is always at its greatest when it serves as a tool to empower the voices of those silenced in a manner which allows them to be heard by those with the ability to effectuate the change sought.

I, along with so many others within our community, awoke from the nightmare of the Memorial Day tornadoes and began to live the reality of devastation which remained.

This reality, which has destroyed the way of life for so many, has simultaneously invoked smiles of triumph and tears of agony. In the 3 weeks that have followed, a reformed sense of community has motivated those impacted (directly and indirectly) to work collaboratively towards one common goal. The devastation from the sky has left a rainbow of opportunity. Arguably, opportunities like never before.

On Tuesday, May 27, 2019, at approximately 7:30am, I exited my peaceful home and

entered into a realm of unspeakable pain where our neighbors were picking up the pieces of their lives- literally. The 19 mile stretch of tornadoes left a shocking amount of damage throughout Montgomery Countywith the hardest hit areas being Harrison Township and Trotwood. Specifically, within Montgomery County more than 1,100 structures were totally destroyed, more than 1,000 endured major damage, and more than 1,600 suffered from what has been classified as minor damage. The powerful tornadoes uprooted trees, damaged power lines, peeled roofs off of houses, brought down walls of businesses and collapsed ceilings, just to name the most common signs of destruction. As a result, much debris was and remains scattered throughout the affected neighborhoods.

By 9am, I had loaded my truck with dozens of cases of water to distribute to those who were directly affected. Why? Because the damage caused by the tornadoes left thousands of people without running water.

I was not alone on this journey, many others drove through our affected neighborhoods handing out water, collecting non-perishable items and offering aid to those who needed it in ways not even understood as of today.

This transformation started on Memorial Day, but it continues today and has showed no signs of departing. This natural disaster has produced community partnerships of strangers who have become family. These unrelated relatives have arrived in the form of

The Columbus & Dayton African American • July 2019

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churches, organizations, agencies, neighbors and strangers from throughout the region.

Reports have been documented widespread of individuals showing up in neighborhoods to cut grass, rake and doing everything they can to restore these neighborhood to their original appearance.

In the days, months and years which will soon follow the Memorial Day tornadoes, it is vital the same energy distributed to rebuild our community is maintained to heal it. One will not happen without the other. Through the devastation and destruction, our community and sense of humility has been restored. We have found a renewed sense of unity that had previously been discounted or forgotten. I am both encouraged and hopeful that this blind and unwavering support for one another will continue throughout our community.

However, it must be acknowledged that this energy will not remain without our willingness to work harder than ever to ensure it does not depart. The community we have today is not the same community we had before the Memorial Day tornadoes. Yet, we must remember and remind one another this natural disaster has forced us to pivot and discover a sense of togetherness which can yield dividends great enough to build the best community we have experienced during our lifetimes. We will always be at our best when standing by, for and with the people as a concerned citizen.

Brandon C. McLain currently serves as the Montgomery County Recorder.

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

BUSINESS ARE AFRICAN AMERICANS MOVING FORWARD ECONOMICALLY?

By Darren Lundy, MBA African Americans have been in this country for 400 years. Although many African descendants realize their ancestors did in fact inhabit North America well before that time, history continues to falsely claim 1619, as the commencement of the first African slaves inhumanely brought to Jamestown, Virginia against their will. African Americans have made tremendous progress in this country despite slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and institutional racism. A number of blacks have reached billionaire status, successful black businesses are sprouting up across America, and a black man became President of the United States. However, there continues to be debate whether African Americans are moving forward or backwards economically?

Once you get past the smoke and mirrors take a hard look at the facts. When it comes to creating wealth, African Americans are definitely moving backwards.

In 2017, the Washington Post wrote that African Americans were the only group that showed no economic improvement since 2000. This conclusion was based on CENSUS data. That same year, there was even more sobering news in a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). They found “no progress” for African Americans in 50 years on home ownership, unemployment and incarceration.

The Economic Policy Institute study pointed to the following statistics: One in four black households have zero or negative net worth, compared to less than one in ten white families without wealth.

African Americans workers still make only 82.5 cents on every dollar earned by white workers.

African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be in poverty than Whites and the median White family has almost ten times as much wealth as the median Black family.

Black unemployment rate in 2017 was 7.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 1968; still roughly twice the White unemployment rate.

In 2015 the Black home ownership rate was just over 40 percent, virtually unchanged since 1968 and trailing a full 30 points behind the White home ownership rate, which saw modest gains over the same period.

Regarding income and perhaps the most important economic metric, the average income of an African American household in 2017 was $39,490 compared to $41,363 in 2000.

A recent report by The Institute of Policy Studies The Road to Zero Wealth: How the

Racial Divide is Hollowing the America’s Middle Class (RZW) showed that between 1983 and 2013 the wealth of the median black household declined 75 percent (from $6,800 to $1,700). At the same time, wealth for the median white household increased 14 percent $102,000 to $116,800.

Many African Americans continue to deny the fact that we are slowly relinquishing the economic progress we have made over the past 50 years. This nonchalant attitude can impede our ability to create wealth.

One must all take full responsibility for one’s current financial situation and get the necessary direction and guidance required to improve financial health. “If you continue to do the same thing, you will continue to get the same result.” It’s time for change! We must stop blaming others for our financial circumstance. We must get our heads out of the sand and begin to aggressively pursue accurate information and take the necessary steps to create wealth. You must first remember to ASK AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU; SEEK AND YOU WILL FIND; KNOCK AND THE DOOR WILL BE OPENED TO YOU. It all begins with your desire to be wealthy.

It is said that knowledge is power. I do not believe the power lies in simply having knowledge. True power resides in the use of that knowledge. Financial empowerment begins when you place the onus right where it belongs, on yourself. In order to improve financially, it is imperative to first uncover what is standing in the way of your wealth and prosperity.

magnificent signs of God’s opulence. For example, look at all of the birds, fish, fruits, and vegetables on our planet. Second, wealth is our birthright. If money is not flowing into your life freely, copiously, and judiciously, you must figure out why you are not attracting more of it. Is it because you do not believe you deserve to be wealthy? Do you have limiting money beliefs that are sabotaging your ability to create wealth or are you still following your parent’s money script? If you do what your parents did with their money, you will get what your parents got as it relates to creating wealth. If you want a different financial outcome, you must make different choices.

African Americans have been in this country for over 400 years and many of us continue to struggle financially. Although tremendous progress has been made in many areas, statistics show we are going in the wrong direction when it comes to wealth creation.

It is my opinion, fear and lack of knowledge play a major role in this downward spiral.

Stop suffering in silence and seek professional help. Your future depends on it.

Give us a call for a complimentary consultation.

Darren is a Columbus, Ohio native who has earned degrees in Business, Accounting, and an MBA. He has over twenty-five (25) years’ experience in financial services. The Ohio Company, First Union Securities, and Merrill Lynch were instrumental in his career prior to starting his own Wealth Management Firm, Money Consciousness LLC, (614) 776-4311. He holds his Series 65 and Life and Health licenses. Investment advisory First and foremost, you must always services are offered through Foundations remember the eternal truth of abundance. Advisors, LLC an SEC registered investment Look around you and see all of the advisor.

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The Columbus & DaytonNews African American • July 2019 The Columbus African American Journal • February 2015

BUSINESS

JOBS APOCALYPSE OR OPPORTUNITY?

By William McCoy, MPA Steve LeVine warns of “The Coming Jobs Apocalypse,” in a May 23, 2018 online article.

LeVine says, “Congress and the Trump administration have yet to create a coherent policy response to a widely forecast social and economic tsunami resulting from automation, including the potential for decades of flat wages and joblessness. But cities and regions are starting to act on their own.” You and I should begin planning for these coming changes, even though the federal, state, and most local governments are not.

The article goes on to say that officials in Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Northeastern Ohio “are attempting to take charge by identifying jobs most at risk, skills most likely to be in great future demand, and how to organize education and industry around a new economy.” In Indianapolis and Phoenix, research has revealed that restaurant workersespecially food service workers, waiters and cooks- will lose the most jobs, followed by retail sales people and cashiers. Even more disturbing is the fact that cashiers have a 97% risk of losing their job to automation; and office workers like secretaries and administrative assistants are at 96% risk, while food servers in Indianapolis are at 94% risk of losing their jobs.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published its Projections of Occupational Employment, 2016- 2026 in October 2017. Nationally, the three occupations with the largest projected job losses during this period are: (1) secretaries, administrative assistants; (2) team assemblers (manufacturing); and (3) executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, and manufacturingrelated inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers. For the most part, these jobs require little formal education and require on-

the-job training and competency.

On the other he other hand, the occupations projected to have the “most new jobs” are: (1) personal care aides; (2) combined food preparation and serving; (3) registered nurses; and (4) home health sides. These occupations pay on average, less than $25,000 a year and require minimal formal education with the exception of registered nurses (which require a college education and pay more than $68,000 a year).

For those with, at least, a bachelor’s degree, the outlook is different. Most job openings for these people are forecast to be as: (1) general and operational managers; (2) registered nurses; (3) accountants and auditors; (4) teachers and instructors; and (5) elementary school teachers. In general, the more formal education a person has, the more favorable his or her occupational outlook.

Automation and structural changes within the U.S. and world economies, both demand that people think and act more strategically, if they want to take advantage of future occupational trends. If you are in a fast growing or high-demand occupation, you must maintain and improve your skills and credentials. If, on the other hand, you are employed in a slow-growth ore declining occupation, then you need to consider making a change. That change might involve acquiring new skills or knowledge through formal education or training.

You can also create your own job through self-employment. Many African-Americans are chronically unemployed and face significant barriers in securing traditional jobs- including individual and institutional racism, felony convictions, failed drug tests, or the inability to get to the employment centers where jobs are located. Selfemployment is something they may want to consider.

According the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 million Americans or just over 10% of the workforce

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were self-employed in 2015. The BLS reported: (1) White people are more likely to be self-employed than Blacks or Hispanics; (2) foreign-born Americans are more likely to be self-employed than native-born Americans; (3) older Americans are more likely to be self-employed than younger Americans; and (4) men are more likely to be self-employed than women.

The self-employed find ways to convert their interests, skills, and abilities into income-earning enterprises. This requires planning and strategic action, as it does for any business start-up. It also requires hard work, a willingness to take a risk, and the perseverance and tenacity to endure adversity.

If successful, self-employment can be very rewarding. If self-employment is not for you, continue to work or look for a job.

In closing, the next decade will usher in many changes in employment. Everyone who plans to participate in the coming economy should research the occupational outlook and consider his/her options. The “jobs apocalypse” forecast by some could be “jobs heaven” for you, if you think and act strategically now. Once again, I leave you with the words of Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich) who said, “Don’t search for opportunity in the distance, recognize and embrace it right where you are.”

“William McCoy is founder and president of The McCoy Company- a world-class, personal services consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, economic development, and training that helps its clients articulate and achieve their visions, solve problems, and capitalize on their opportunities. He has worked with national think tanks, held two White House appointments, and consulted with every level of government, foundations, and the private sector. Mr. McCoy holds a BA in economics and a MPA in finance, and is profiled in Who’s Who in the World and elsewhere. You can reach William McCoy at (614) 785-8497 or via e-mail wmccoy2@ themccoycompany.com. His website can be found at www.themccoycompany.com.

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

HISTORY

REVEREND’S N.L. SCARBOROUGH & E.A. PARHAM: TRAILBLAZING PASTORS OF TRINITY BAPTIST CHURCH

By Rodney Blount, Jr., MA The role of the church in the African American community has been an important one.

The church has served in many roles in the community including as a place of worship, fellowship, activism, instruction, education, community service, and the celebration of music. Churches hosted revivals, concerts, schools, fundraisers, meetings (from internal and external groups), seminars and fundraisers. People from all backgrounds gravitated to the church for the aforementioned reasons and much more. It should also be noted that the Civil Rights Movement and the African American church were often intertwined with the Civil Rights Movement’s use of churches as a common meeting place and several clergy serving as leaders. Columbus has been a fertile ground for African American churches of all sizes and they have played a substantial role in the local community. Reverends James Poindexter, Sandy Ray, Joseph Pius, Herbert W. Smith, J.W. Henderson, A.A. Shaw, and Sandy Ray were among the pioneers of the gospel in Columbus and were very active in the church and their neighborhoods. Two other Pastors, Reverends N.L. Scarborough and E.A. Parham epitomized active Columbus church leaders who went beyond the realms of their church to make progressive change.

Rev. Norlie Larrry “N.L.” Scarborough was born on July 9, 1891 in Mt. Gilead, North Carolina. He was educated in North Carolina public schools. He was a graduate of Barrett College in Pee Dee, North Carolina. Barret College was established soon after the Civil War by Rev. Adam Martin Barrett to educate former slaves in the local community. He also attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. In 1912, he married Bertha Coggins and from this union their daughter, Audrey Louise Pryor, was born.

In 1927, Rev. Scarborough moved to Columbus from Winston-Salem, North Carolina to become the third pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. He was recommended by the second pastor, Rev. T.C. Phillips, who was also a native of North Carolina. Under Rev. Scarborough’s leadership, the church grew rapidly. At that time, Trinity was meeting at old Liberty Theater located at 528 Saint Clair Ave. In 1933, the church outgrew the theater and eventually built the current location at 461 Saint Clair Ave and Atcheson Street. The purchase occurred in the midst of Great Depression. This was an amazing accomplishment for both the church and the African American community. Dr. Scarborough was elected in March 1937, as the Mayor of Bronzeville. Bronzeville, now considered the Near Eastside of Columbus, was primarily inhabited by African Americans who were not represented in the Columbus’ white political power structure.

Dr. Scarborough represented the African Americans of Bronzeville speaking for social justice and civil rights.

Rev. Scarborough was active in Baptist

Rev. N.L. Scarborough

Dr. E.A. Parham

circles and other community activities.

He was the president and founder of the Christian Crusade Association of America, Inc. (headquartered at Trinity) and the Columbus Constructive and Economic Association. He served as President of the Lott Carey Foreign Missions Convention and the Interdenominational Alliance, treasurer of the Baptist Ministers Alliance, a 33rd degree Mason, vice president of the Urban League, and trustee of the NAACP. He was also a member of the Frontiers, Franklin County Welfare Board and the assistant chaplain of the Ohio Penitentiary. On July 19, 1949, while attending the Ohio Baptist Sunday School and BTY Convention in Dayton, OH, Rev. Dr. N. L. Scarborough died. Trinity’s annex, built under the leadership of Pastor Parham, would be named the N. L. Scarborough Annex to honor Rev. Scarborough’s over 20 years of pastoral leadership.

Rev. Dr. Earley Augusta “E.A.” Parham was born on November 30, 1916, in Hertford County, North Carolina. His parents, Frederick and Bertie Britt Parham were peanut sharecroppers and he was one of nine siblings. Rev. Parham graduated from Hayden High School in Franklin, Virginia and attended Virginia Seminary in Lynchburg. He matriculated to Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina and met his wife Madeline Inez Holland. He graduated from Shaw University in 1945, Shaw Divinity School in 1946, and received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Shaw Divinity School in 1958. Parham cut hair, dry cleaned, and cooked to work his way through college and gained a favorable reputation for his spoon bread and tomato pudding.

Rev. Dr. E.A. Parham was licensed to preach on December 29, 1940, and ordained in the missionary Baptist church on January 25, 1943. He served in several congregations in Virginia and North Carolina before being called to preach at Trinity Baptist Church in Columbus in August, 1949, upon the recommendation Rev. Dr. Wendell C. Somerville. Rev. Dr. Parham led Trinity Baptist Church for 47 years and oversaw numerous ministries, programs, and projects including the provision of housing for the 35

homeless, food and clothing programs for the needy, youth outreach, and prison ministry.

Under his leadership the annex, chapel, third floor assembly room, classrooms, casket lift, elevator and gym were built. Also, Trinity became one of the first African American congregations in the city of Columbus to have an 8:00 AM worship service.

Dr. Parham served as President of Lott Carey Foreign Missionary Baptist Convention, USA, President of the Eastern Union Bible College, Dean of the Eastern Union Missionary Baptist Association and Ohio Baptist General Convention as well as the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America. He was advisor to the R. H. Boyd Publishing Company and founding president of the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Ohio. Rev. Dr. Parham retired in August 1947, and was immediately name Pastor Emeritus by his successor, Rev. Dr. Victor M. Davis, also a native of North Carolina and graduate of Shaw University.

Pastor Parham was honored with the street to the south of the church building bearing his name, E. A. Parham Street, and the renaming of the chapel to the E. A. Parham Chapel. He passed away on December 18, 2005. He was preceded in death by his wife Madeline and survived by four sons: Earley III, Frederick, Christopher, and Jonathan.

Rev. N.L. Scarborough and Rev. E.A. Parham were exceptional pastors whose leadership expanded Trinity Baptist Church exponentially. Their charismatic leadership galvanized not only their membership, but the surrounding community also. An apropos quote about Rev. Scarborough from The Ohio State News staff writers Muffett McGinnis and Dale Wright stated, “It is almost impossible to measure Rev. Scarborough’s value and contributions to Columbus. His life was interwoven with legions of the city’s citizens. The more than 3000 members of his congregation are only a fraction of those who felt his touch. People who never saw the inside of the church knew him as a kindly, benevolent man who had everybody else’s interests at heart.” I believe the quote was also true for Rev. Parham as he similarly led his large congregation and used his position to be a community builder and leader. Their impact continues through the continued growth of Trinity and their outreach ministries under the current leadership of Rev. Davis.

Works Cited https://www.findagrave.com/ The Ohio State News The Columbus Dispatch www. trinity-baptist.com/ www.ansonrecord.com Rodney 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.

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

The Columbus & DaytonNews African American • July 2019 The Columbus African American Journal • February 2015

HISTORY

BLACK LIBRARIANS AT THE VANGUARD

The Adult Reference room of the 135th Street Branch Library (later the Schomburg Library), c. 1920’s (New York City)

Black libraries and black librarians hold a special place in our society. They are the bearers and conveyors of knowledge. They educate, inform and protect, shaping the development of our minds and scholarship from a young age. As educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune wrote in 1939 for the Journal of Negro History , “ the ideals, character and attitudes of races are born within the minds of children; most prejudices are born with youth and it is our duty to see that the great researches of Negro History are placed in the language and story of the child.

Not only the Negro child but [the children] of all races should read and know of the achievements, accomplishments and deeds of the Negro. ” Her sentiment applied not only to children, but to people of all ages and races, and has been faithfully carried forward by black librarians.

Ask a young Sonia Sanchez who was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 19, 2003. In her interview, she so poignantly described her discovery of New York’s Schomburg Library after answering an ad in the New York Times and being hired by telegram for a writing position at a local firm, but rejected on site when the office learned that she was African American. Sanchez recounts: “ I got off at 135th Street, and I passed this building, and lo and behold it said Schomburg Library, and I said to a guard who was standing outside smoking, “What kind of library is this?” He said, “Lady, go inside.

Just sign a book. Go inside. The woman inside would tell you. Miss Hutson’s her name.” So I walked inside, and I knocked on the glass door, and the woman turned around.

She said, “Yes, dear. Can I help you?” and I said, “What kind of library is this?” She said, “This library is called the Schomburg. It has books in here only by and about black folks.”

And then I said with my smartass self, I said, “There must not be many books in here then.

“ From that day forward, Sanchez was given a full introduction to the world of African American literature by Jean Blackwell Hutson , the legendary librarian who served as director of the Schomburg for over thirty years and transformed it into one of the premier institutions for the study of Black history in the country.

Here in Chicago, another librarian made an impact on the lives of thousands who came through the doors of the George Cleveland Hall Library – Vivian G. Harsh . The late journalist Vernon Jarrett tells of how he frequented the library as a young man when he first arrived in Chicago, and on one occasion, Harsh introduced him to the famous Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes , “ And she took me over there and introduced me to him. And on the way out she said, “Now he lives in New York but he hardly ever visits Chicago and does not come to the library. So, young man, I just want you to know that if he needs to read a lot, what does that make for you? You’ve been reading his poetry, haven’t you, ever since you was a little boy, and he still needs a library. “ Libraries have also served as a haven for many. Ask former press secretary Avis LaVelle who talks about her library card, “ Each of us had our own library card and we’d take our little field trips over there.

During the summer, we’d read as many books as we could and get the stickers, you know, so we’d participate in their summer competitions. And, my family didn’t have any money. So, we weren’t going places for summer vacation. So, our summer vacations were, vacations that we took vicariously through our reading. ” For 2019 Tyler Prize winning climate change scientist Warren Washington , his library card proved to be a catalyst during his formative years, “ I can remember as a young boy, one of my prize

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possessions was a library card. I thought it was a fantastic place just to go and browse through and, bring home books. I was very curious about science, and so often the books I would get would be people like Einstein and George Washington Carver. It would be a mixture of black and white scientists and even women scientists. I was just impressed with their biographical stories.”

Newspaper columnist Clarence Page tells of how the library proved to be the communications tool when President John Kennedy was assassinated: “ When I was a kid, in those days before Google and the Internet and all, I would go to the public library--that’s another place I would hang out. But I’ll never forget, we had one of those classic old-school librarians who didn’t let you talk above a low whisper, wanted the place quiet. But all of a sudden, here she was bringing out this portable radio to the front desk and plugging it in and turning it up to top volume. And me and everybody else knew something weird is going on because she did not bring a radio out here and start making noise. And I’m hearing this guy reporting from Dallas that the president has been shot. Everybody asks now, where were you when Kennedy was shot. I remember very well. I was at the library. ” Today, libraries and librarians still play important roles--with the coming of the digital age--as places where a collection like The HistoryMakers can be shared and accessed by people around the world alongside the documents, photos and materials that have fascinated and awakened the curiosity of scholars for decades. There is still much work to be done to preserve and make accessible the stories and culture of African Americans throughout this nation’s history, and the seminal role of black librarians and libraries will continue well into the future.

Article from www.historymakers.org

COMMUNITY EVENTS Columbus, Ohio July 11 (Thursdays) – August 15, 2019 Annual Heritage Music Festival The King Arts Complex’s Music Heritage Festival has been a signature Columbus community celebration for nearly two decades. The festival has consistently attracted crowds of nearly 5,000 attendants each week! Our annual festival is a family event enjoyed by men, women and children of all backgrounds. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and relax in the beautiful Mayme Moore Park.

Location: Mayme Moore Park Address: 867 Mt. Vernon Ave. 43203 Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Contact: http://kingartscomplex.com/heritage-music-festival/ July 12 – August 9, 2019 JazZoo Concert Series The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and the Jazz Arts Group are teaming up to heat up your summer with some cool jazz during this JazZoo Concert Series. Presented by Cardinal Health this musical series includes artists such as, Maurice Hines sings Nat King Cole & Sinatra; critically acclaimed jazz saxophone and flute virtuoso Nelson Rangell; and, American Idol winner Michael Lynche sing your favorite soul-stirring hits from Sam Cooke to James Brown and more.

Location: Columbus Zoo & Aquarium Address: 4850 W. Powell Road, Powell 43085 Time: Gates open at 6:30 PM; concert starts at 8:00 PM Admission: Varies Contact: www.columbuszoo.org July 17, 2019 State of Black Wealth From slavery to indentured servitude under Jim Crow, segregated housing and schooling, to the seizure of property, racial discrimination and institutionalized bias have prevented the accumulation of black wealth. Join the Columbus African Council and other community partners for a conversation on the racial wealth gap and how we, as individuals and community leaders, can set a course for a more prosperous future throughout the African Diaspora in Columbus.

Location: Columbus Metropolitan Library Address: 96 S. Grant Ave. 43215 Time: 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM Admission: Free Contact: https://www.eventbrite.com July 19 -21, 2019 40th Annual Jazz & Rib Fest The famous Jazz & Rib Fest is back, presented by the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, pairs barbeque masters from across the country with both internationally renowned jazz artists and top local talent. Situated along the Scioto Mile, this free, community event offers a diverse lineup of artists and 23 award-winning BBQ teams serving up sizzling ribs, chicken and more.

Location: Scioto Mile Downtown Address: Riverfront Downtown Time: Fri & Sat. 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM; Sunday 11:00 AM – 8:30 PM Admission: Free Contact: www.hotribscooljazz.org

The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

July 20, 2019 Retirement Ready Workshop Join Darren Lundy of Wealth Conscious for an important workshop on how to prepare financially for retirement. Learn how to save, invest and how to navigate the Social Security system to maximize your earnings. Space is limited, please RSVP by calling the number below.

Location: Westerville Public Library Address: 126 State Street, 43081 Time: 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM Admission: Free (RSVP Required, Limited Space) Contact: 614-468-1660 or darren@wealth-conscious.com July 20, 2019 R&B Concert: The Spinners Up-tempo R&B and precision choreography define every performance of The Spinners as they perform hits from their more than six-decade-long career, including “The Rubber Band Man,” “Then Came You,” “I’ll Be Around,” “Games People Play,” and “One of a Kind (Love Affair).”

Location: The Columbus Commons (Downtown) Address: 160 S. High Street 43215 Time: 8:00 PM – 10:15 PM Admission: $10 and up Contact: www.ticketcity.com July 28, 2019 3-On-3 Basketball Weekend Come on out to John Bishop Park on Whitehall Weekend for our 3 on 3 basketball tournament and stick around for a spell-binding performance. MojoFlo while remaining rooted in funk, rock and jazz, manages to transcend the traditional boundaries of said genres and keep you moving.

Location: John Bishop Park Address: 4920 Etna Road, Whitehall 43213 Time: 6:30 PM Admission: Free Contact: www.whitehall-oh.us July 30 – September 28, 2019 Free Fitness Classes No contracts, no excuses! Among the park perks at Columbus Commons are free fitness classes. Sponsored by UnitedHealthcare and coordinated by Seven Studios, you’ll find seven classes every week. Two sessions will be offered, so mark your calendars to enjoy a unique open-air experience. Note: No classes on August 10, August 17, August 24, September 10, September 11 or September 24.

Location: The Columbus Commons (Downtown) Address: 160 S. High Street 43215 Time: Check online schedule for times Admission: Free Contact: https://columbuscommons.org/

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The Columbus & Dayton African American - July 2019

COMMUNITY EVENTS Dayton, Ohio July 10, 2019 Black Art Exhibit Discover the role African-American illustrators and authors play in the development and growth of the field of children’s literature. This traveling panel presentation depicts the content of the first-ever museum exhibit with the focus of African American children’s illustrated literature.

July 21 & 28, 2019 Summer Music Concerts Enjoy FREE music every Sunday evening beginning June 9 through August 25 in Riverfront Park. Don’t forget to bring a lawn chair or blanket. Most concerts start at 7pm. Full Frontal (rock, hip hop & pop) performs July 21 and Soul Express (Motown) performs July 28.

Location: Dayton Metro Library Address: 3980 Wilmington Pike, 45429 Time: 9:30 AM Admission: Free Contact: 937-463-2665

Location: Riverfront Park Address: 3 N. Miami Ave. 45342 Time: 7:00 PM Admission: Free Contact: https://www.daytonlocal.com/music/star-city-concerts-atriverfront-park.asp

July 11, 2019 Mental Health Training A basic understanding of the impact of psychological trauma helps in a broad array of interventions and treatment. This training provides a foundational overview and awareness of trauma, resilience, and trauma-informed care for anyone in the community who interacts with individuals and families who may have experienced trauma, including case managers, human services professionals, educators/school administrators, the faith community, employers, government agencies, and others.

Location: Montgomery County ADAMH Board Address: 402 E. Monument Ave. 45402 Time: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Admission: Free Contact: 937-443-0416 July 14, 2019 Blues Concert The best blues bands and performances this side of the Mississippi! Food and merchandise vendors will be on site.

Bring blankets or event seating, but no tents, pets, outside food or beverages, please. Free water.

Location: Levitt Pavilion Dayton Address: 134 S. Main St. 45402 Time: 1:00 PM – 9:00 PM Admission: Free Contact: https://www.daytonlocal.com/festivals/daytonblues-festival.asp July 20, 2019 Wellness & Safety Block Party The City of Dayton’s Department of Recreation & Youth Services welcomes you to the Community Health, Wellness & Safety Block Party at the Lohrey Recreation Center on July 20, 2019 from 12pm - 4pm. The focus of this event is to enhance community togetherness, safety awareness and healthy living. This event will feature various exhibitors, activities, food and entertainment – all FREE! Bring your family for a day of fun.

Location: Lohrey Recreation Center Address: 2366 Glenarm Ave 45420 Time: Noon – 4 p.m.

Admission: Free Contact: https://www.daytonlocal.com/events/block-partygreater-dayton-recreation.asp

August 11, 2019 Funk Festival: Concert Funk Fest, celebrating Dayton’s best-known contribution to the world of popular music is happening in Downtown Dayton. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and enjoy!

Location: Levitt Pavilion Dayton Address: 134 S. Main St. 45402 Time: 1:00 PM – 9:00 PM Admission: Free Contact: https://www.daytonlocal.com/festivals/dayton-funkfestival.asp August 17-18, 2019 Arts & Music Festival This family event brings the richness of the African American experience to Dayton and its surrounding communities through culture, education and music. Come see an African Village, a pavilion of paintings and enjoy live R&B, Gospel and Jazz performances. Merchandise and food vendors will be on site. You won’t want to miss this citywide event where diverse people will be brought together in celebration.

Location: Aug 18 - Dayton Island Metro Park; Aug 19 Courthouse Square Address: 101 Helena Street; Corner Third & Main Time: Aug 18 Noon – 8 p.m.; Aug 19 Noon – 6 p.m.

Admission: Free Contact: https://www.daytonlocal.com/festivals/dayton-africanamerican-cultural-festival.asp September 1, 2019 Groove with the beat of the drums and be free to live in the life of the reggae moment. Food and merchandise vendors on site.

Bring a blanket or event seating, but no tents, pets, outside food or beverages, please.

Location: Levitt Pavilion Dayton Address: 134 S. Main 45402 Time: 1-8 p.m.

Admission: Free Contact: https://www.daytonlocal.com/festivals/dayton-reggaefestival.asp

Please note: Information for this section is gathered from multiple commnuity sources. The Columbus & Dayton African American is not responsible for the accuracy and content of information. Times, dates and locations are subject to change. If you have an event that you would like to feature in this section, please email us at editor@columbusafricanamerican.com. Submissions are due the last Friday of each month.

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The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015

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The Columbus African American News Journal â&#x20AC;˘ February 2015 4/16/19 8:57 AM