The Dallas Examiner headliners

Page 1

VOL. XXXIII  • AuGuST 8, 2019

50 cents

New Parkland Board Chair

Reforming Bail Practices

Health Pg 6

State/Metro Pg 2

Evicted and homeless:

A homeless camp under I-45 set up during the summer of 2017. Randy Mayeux of CitySquare recently lectured on the book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City to reveal how evictions are a part of the homeless crisis. – Photo by Mike McGee/The Dallas Examiner

Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes and Carolyn R. Davis – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

John McCaa of WFAA-TV and Carolyn R. Davis – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

Carolyn R. Davis and her daughter, Melissa Lashan DavisNunn – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

Bill Hall, CEO of Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity is flanked by former Councilwoman Carolyn R. Davis and Diane Ragsdale, ICDC managing director, who championed Habitat for Humanity's efforts to tear down old Carolyn R. Davis, along with other Dallas and blighted structures in Southern City Council members and other local nota- Dallas in 2012. – Photo courtesy of bles participate in the groundbreaking cere- Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity mony for the Hatcher Gardens development, June 21, 2013. – Photos by Mike McGee/The Dallas Examiner

By MIKE MCGEE The Dallas Examiner

Former Councilmember Carolyn R. Davis and Mayor Mike Rawlings unveil sweeping changes and rebuilding of MLK Boulevard and Fair Park, June 10, 2014. – Photo by Mike McGee/The Dallas Examiner

A reflection of Davis, the legacy Local leaders recall Davis’ service to the community she left behind Elsie Faye Heggins Street sign – Photo courtesy of Thomas Muhammad

Special to The Dallas Examiner

By DIANE XAVIER The Dallas Examiner

A warrior, community leader and a friend to many is how former Dallas City Council member Carolyn R. Davis will be remembered, according to Teresa Coleman Walsh, executive artistic director of the Bishop Arts Theatre Center. Davis and her daughter, Melissa Lashan Davis-Nunn, were killed in a wrong-way crash in East Oak Cliff July 15, around 7:45 p.m. Davis died that night while her daughter was critically injured but pronounced dead at the hospital two days later. Reports indicate they were killed by an impaired driver, Jonathan Moore, who struck Davis’ vehicle after traveling in the wrong lane. The loss of Davis has impacted many in the community, including Walsh. “Carolyn was an incredible mentor and shining example of women in leadership positions, so when my husband told me about her death, my entire family just mourned,” Walsh said. “We were devastated, and it was a tragedy for us.” Walsh said she met Davis when she moved from Atlanta to Dallas in 2000. “At that time, Carolyn was one of the people in the community that was helping me meet people and make relationships with community members to establish the theater,” she said. “The theater that I chartered was chartered in Atlanta, and we moved to Dallas in January 2000, and we wanted to establish roots in the Dallas area, and Carolyn was very instrumental in helping me

See Reflections Page 8

Read…

“She came to work for Innercity Community Development Corporation at age 22 as a secretary/clerk. She’d been a financial assistant at Trammell Crow Corporation,” recalled Thomas Muhammad, vice president of the ICDC board of directors, as he reflected on meeting Carolyn R. Davis. “Former City Councilwoman Carolyn R. Davis without doubt left a distinguished footprint of a powerful performance of community service. She was co-chair of the South Dallas Fair Park Connectional Alliance, a group made up of 25 communitybased organizations supporting each other in crime prevention techniques and programs.” Muhammad revealed that, as a council member, Davis applied those strategies in creating the city’s first “Code Conference” with the purpose of teaching residents the importance of code compliance and how to keep their neighborhoods clean. A major host of the conferences was John McCaa of WFAA-TV. He also credited her for changing the South Dallas Fair Park area. “She changed the look of South Dallas Fair Park for future generations in a spectacular way. A quick glance at the intersections of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X boulevards stand as a testament of her work,” he revealed. He pointed out the corner that features concrete columns of the iconic photo of the only time the two leaders met. The columns light up at night similarly to the unique giant fingers statue that lights up nightly at the end of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He also stated that she constantly lobbied public and private funding institutions to assist programs such as the South Dallas Cultural Center, the African American Museum, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, the Harambee Festival and Clean South Dallas Inc. Moreover, she also gave donations of her own money. Other efforts included her putting together the loan package that made possible the development upgrades and relocation of Elaine’s Kitchen, pushing to rename streets and roads

Support…

Behind the pain of losing everything

Al Lipscomb Way sign – File photo

in the area, and working to save needed institutions. “She was a prominent leader in helping us to save Common Ground Credit Union,” said Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes, former president of the African American Pastors Coalition. Debra Peek-Haynes, owner of Quorum Commercial, a real estate company, points out how significant the councilwoman’s role was in creating Our Community Pantry. “Carolyn made this deal happen at a time when everyone else couldn’t do it! Her leadership was awesome,” she said. The Pantry is managed by St. Philip’s School and sponsored by the North Texas Food Bank. “Construction work is currently being done at Highway 310 to redo the notorious ‘Dead Man’s Curve,’” Muhammad pointed out. “Ms. Davis not only successfully secured the funding to straighten a road that had caused numerous deaths and accidents for decades, she was able to turn the project into a jobs program targeting area residents who could be hired even if they had felony records. “Signs of famous South Dallas fighters like Al Lipscomb Way and Elsie Faye Heggins Street and others are prominent at cross streets because of Carolyn’s leadership.” As a council member, Davis led the push through several hurdles to have a portion of Grand Avenue renamed to honor Lipscomb, and a portion of Hatcher Street named after Heggins. “None of these things would have happened without the bold, brass, courageous leadership of Carolyn,” said former Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Diane Ragsdale. “I thought I was bold, but Carolyn was like a political pit bulldog.” Yet, Davis’ long history as a civil rights leader on the City Council was marred after she was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery using federal funds while she was chair of the council’s Housing Committee – for which she pled guilty in March. While everyone who knew of Councilwoman Davis’ great passionate voice for issues as they related to her district, according to Muhammad,

Subscribe...

See Service Page 8

214-941-3100

“We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty. Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers or pastors. But nearly all of them have a landlord.”

– Excerpt from Evicted by Matthew Desmond

Randy Mayeux, book reviewer at CitySquare’s Urban Engagement Book Club, recently brought the lecture program “15 Minute Business Books” to the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library auditorium for a noon lunch crowd.

Mayeux used a PowerPoint presentation to provide a brief overview and accounting of the 2016 book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Pulitzer Prize winner Matthew Desmond as part of the continuing literary series. The work covers the loss of homes by individuals and families in Milwaukee, yet Mayeux provided evidence that there were parallels between evictions occurring thousands of miles away and housing issues in North Texas as well as the state overall. For example, in December 2018, tenants residing in the affordable housing Bryan Song Apartments in East Dallas received eviction notices so that redevel-

Website measures diversity, inclusion in workplace

See Evicted Page 7

BY MATHEW SHAW The Dallas Examiner

In an era of civil justice movements and hashtags for Black Lives Matter, Me Too and LGBTQ rights, American businesses and individuals have become more aware of inequality and harassment in the workplace. To help businesses adopt better relationships with their employees, Kanarys – which keeps track of a company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion – launched a new website July 29. Kanarys.com compiles cultural and demographic data, industry trends and anonymous employee reviews to measure diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, according to the platform’s own description. Kanarys CEO Mandy Price said the idea was inspired by her own experiences in the workplace when she realized wellmeaning companies were

Incentives for School Districts to Work with Charters Education Pg 9

Kanarys CEO Mandy Price – Promotional photo

doing “surface level” diversity attempts. “Traditionally, when we’ve talked about data around diversity and inclusion, that’s been head count,” Price explained. “Any time we looked at whether people are using data, they’ve used head count, which is counting bodies and saying we have this many bodies. That’s great that we’ve recruited bodies, but what are we doing to make sure people

See Kanarys Page 8

Inside

State/Metro . . . . . . 2

Editorial . . . . . . . . . 4 Perspectives . . . . . 5

Health . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Education. . . . . . . . 9

8

13818 00799

0

Classifieds . . . . . . 11

Calendar . . . . . . . . 12

www.dallasexaminer.com


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
The Dallas Examiner headliners by The Dallas Examiner - Issuu