COMMUNITY
Day of Service amplified
SPECIAL SECTION ity PG ommun C Wellness takes center stage
Thousands of volunteers spent Jan. 16 helping others to honor the spirit of Dr. Mar tin Luther King Jr. and his call to service. A4
CrossRoads News’ 12th annual Health and Well ness Expo brings health care provid ers and other resources to the Mall at Stonecrest. Inside
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Copyright © 2017 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
January 21, 2017
Volume 22, Number 39
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Thousands to march for equal rights in downtown Atlanta By Rosie Manins
About 10,000 women, men and children of all ages, races, religions and cultures are expected to march in solidarity through downtown Atlanta on Jan. 21. The diverse group of community members, local leaders and organization representatives is united in concern about the lack and degradation of social justice and rights for all marginalized people in the United States. The Atlanta March for Social Justice and Women is one of hundreds being held simultaneously in Washington and cities across the nation on the day after the inauguration of
President-elect Donald Trump. Organizers say it’s not an anti-Trump event, but that the issues they are marching for are not supported by Trump. The main march in Washington is expected to attract more than 200,000 people, including an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 from Georgia. Janel Green, a co-organizer for the Atlanta march, says it is an inclusive event for all. “It’s really a call to action, bringing together the diverse members of our community to develop a plan and mobilize to do meaningful work for equal rights and social justice in our community,” she said Jan. 18 at
a news conference in downtown Atlanta. Green said she is overwhelmed by the support shown for the local march, which she hopes could comprise as many as 20,000 people. “The weather is looking a little iffy, but this event will happen rain or shine,” she said. Participants are asked to gather before 1 p.m. at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights at 100 Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd. N.W. in downtown Atlanta. There they will hear from key leaders from across Georgia during an hourlong program before the march starts in earnest. Protesters will walk 1.7 miles through
downtown Atlanta to the Georgia State Capitol at 206 Washington St. S.W., where they will be addressed by more elected officials, leaders and representatives of supporting organizations, and concerned citizens. Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and U.S. Hank Johnson Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia’s 4th Congressional District are due to speak. March organizers also have invited curPlease see MARCH, page A2
Thurmond plans to unify county to move it ahead ‘We need each other’ to bridge divide in DeKalb
“This old north-south, blackwhite, us-versus-them foolishness is obsolete. And I as your CEO totally and completely reject it.” Michael Thurmond, DeKalb chief executive officer
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
DeKalb’s new CEO Michael Thurmond took the oath of office on Jan. 13 and invoked a new day in the county. “We will not allow the past to define us, or prohibit us,” he told a packed Maloof Auditorium at the honorary swearing-in ceremony of county elected officials. “We will learn from our mistakes but we are not going to dwell on them.” Thurmond, who won the office in landslide primary and general elections last year, takes the reins of county government after a tumultuous four years riddled with scandals. Thurmond said the enemy wants us stuck in the past and not focused on the future but declared that we will bridge this divide and build bridges of cooperation. “I tell you this, if we come together. If we work together, there are no limitations to what we can accomplish,” he said. Over four days of celebrations that included a reception, ecumenical prayer breakfast and a benefit gala, Thurmond repeated the theme of cooperation that he promised will define his administration. He also struck the chord during the 4th Congressional District’s Day of Resistance in Clarkston on Jan. 15, when he said that turning DeKalb County around is not a one-man job. “I need your help,” he told the racially diverse crowd gathered at the Clarkston Community Center. “There are people who don’t want us working together. There are people who want the north side to fight against the south side. There are people who want black folk to fight against white folk. They want the Christian against the Muslim and the Jews. But let me tell you something, right has no color.” At his inauguration, the new CEO told
DeKalb County Photo
the audience that “we need each other.” “We need black. We need white. We need north. We need south,” he said. “We need rich, we need poor and we will transform this county, the state and our nation.”
Change focus and direction Thurmond, who celebrated the start of his administration in the week that the nation celebrated the birthday of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., quoted King’s “Drum Major for Justice” speech, which he said laid out the pathway to greatness. “Dr. King said ‘anybody can be great because everybody can serve,’” Thurmond said. “Everybody in DeKalb County can be somebody because you can serve. … All you need is a heart full of grace and soul generated by love.” Making the case for a unified county, Thurmond, who was DeKalb School superintendent between 2013 and 2015, said that the county’s African-American population is declining and the white population is static. “When I left the School District, 26 percent of students came from homes where English is spoken as a second language,” he
said. “This old north-south, black-white, usversus-them foolishness is obsolete. And I as your CEO totally and completely reject it.” Thurmond told his audience not to listen to what the racists and the Klansmen say. “The people who do most of the damage,” he said. “The thing that causes most of the hurt is when the good folk fall silent.” Thurmond promised to turn Stone Mountain, which has been a symbol of racism and division, into a symbol of hope and opportunity. He said Robert E. Lee did not carve his own profile on the mountain and any anger should be with the people who are appropriating those symbols and turning them into symbols of hate and divisiveness, “so white folks and black folks and Asian and Hispanic folks in DeKalb County and Georgia won’t work together.” When we stop working together, Thurmond said, the water bill gets all crazy and messed up, potholes can’t get filled, and crack dealers take over whole communities. He promised to change the focus and direction of DeKalb County, which is one of the most diverse counties in America.
“If we can prove to America that we can work together, that we can build bridges to Clarkston and Doraville, and Dunwoody,” he said. “If we can build bridges to Lithonia and Stonecrest. If we can build bridges across the racial and economic and social divide, we will show how America can rise above all the things that separate us.”
‘They saw Americans’ Thurmond said that we need to see ourselves the way our enemies see us. When terrorists flew commercial planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, Thurmond said they did not alert any group to leave and be saved. “Those terrorists had one goal and one mission and that was to kill Americans,” he said. “They didn’t care whether the Americans were black or white or brown, or Republicans or Democrats. They saw us as we ought to see us. They saw Americans,” he said to a standing ovation. “If our enemies can see us as one, why in God’s name can’t we see ourselves as one.”