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Traveling exhibit higlights beauty, pride of natural hairdos in Black women Page 12
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April 9 - April 15, 2015
When should we call an unborn a person? Page 5 www.districtchronicles.com
Volume 14 Issue 33
6
Editorial
Not yet time to celebrate economic recovery
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Despite all the good economic news in lower unemployment, Blacks are still struggling at higher levels in the economic recovery.
By Julianne Malveaux
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your story ideas, stories and commentaries to lkaggwa@howard.edu
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(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Has the Great Recession ended with our economy returning to normal? That may be “conventional wisdom,” or the word we get from those who think that there is no more intervention needed to stimulate the economy. President Obama has bragging rights on the reduction of unemployment rates and the fact that economic growth is robust. Citing these improvements, our Republican Congress wants to continue to tighten the federal budget belt. Despite this, the Federal Reserve Bank’s Open Market Committee says that there is too much slack in the labor market, and that unemployment rates could be lower than they are now. February’s 5.5 percent unemployment rate is a vast improvement over the double-digit rates we experienced in 2009. And the African-American unemployment rate, at an unacceptable 10.4 percent, has also dropped since the Great Recession began. Still, wages have been stagnant, and while more people have jobs, too many of those jobs are in low-wage sectors, and others have not received raises in years. The labor market simply hasn’t recovered from the Great Recession. Workers are still struggling for stability. The Fed seems to be doing more to address labor market challenges than others are. It was
expected that the Fed would raise its interest rate, signaling banks and others to raise interest rates as well. Those increases are likely to take place before the end of the year, but not as soon as many had expected. That suggests that while some have embraced the notion of economic recovery, the Fed says we can do better. Some people are experiencing economic recovery, but too many are not. The 10.4 percent Black unemployment rate is closer to 20 percent when the number of people who have dropped out of the labor market, and when other indications of labor market underutilization are considered. The persistent racial unemployment gap is only one of the ways we can measure differences in the recovery experience. The Fed is not the only entity that recognizes that the recovery experience is mixed. The National Urban League’s State of Black America report says that African Americans are in an economic crisis. Why does the Fed recognize a phenomenon that too many others don’t? Why are they hesitating to set interest rates that are consistent with economic recovery? Why aren’t they as concerned about inflation as others are? The Fed seems to be cognizant of the fact that low unemployment rates combined with low wages are hardly a formula for economic recovery.
I’m not a pessimist. Every economic indicator seems to suggest that the economy will continue to improve, with unemployment rates perhaps dropping as low as five percent. That’s good news, and it will be great news for Democrats as we move toward the 2016 elections. New college graduates are getting better offers this year than they got a year ago, although those who graduated in 2008 and 2009 have yet to recover from their recession-related underemployment. There is some cause for optimism in coming months. But the Fed is suggesting that any celebration is preliminary. While I am not a pessimist, I am a realist. President Obama has the opportunity, in these last two years of his presidency, to address that racial economic gap. He has already spoken of income inequality in stronger ways than he did during his first term of office. Now, with little to lose, he might take the opportunity to also talk about Black unemployment, the racial wealth gap, and racial differences in other economic experiences. I’m not sure that our president will step that far out on a limb, but the Fed’s assertion that there are more possibilities for economic improvement perhaps opens the door for him to talk about the ways the overall economy benefits when the African-American community is fully engaged in economic recovery.
Finance
Banking exec earned his money
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B. Doyle Mitchell Jr. took over the helm of Industial Bank, the only remaining African American owned bank in the District.
By Jordan Shanks NNPA Intern (NNPA) – For many professionals, the road to success starts with humble beginnings. Because B. Doyle Mitchell Jr., president and CEO of Industrial Bank, inherited his business he has felt he always had something extra to prove. “There’s the impression that, in many cases, you haven’t earned it,” said the 53-year-old banker in an interview. “I dealt with that by working very hard.” Although he felt fortunate to have the opportunities he was presented with, he made sure it was clear that he earned it. “My work spoke for itself. I try to be twice as good as anybody else,” said Mitchell. Industrial Bank, which was founded in 1934 in Washington, D.C., is the only remaining African-American-owned institution of its kind in the District. In 1993, Mitchell became president of the bank, which continued the family’s long-standing tradition of keeping leadership within the family. The bank has $370 million in assets and
eight branches spanning the D.C. metro area and Prince George’s County in Maryland. As he was growing up, there was an unspoken expectation that Mitchell would take on the position once his father stepped down. At age 16, his first summer job gave him insight into the banking business as well as a perspective on the people whose lives would be touched by the work he would be able to do. “My father never said much to me about it, although I know he wanted me to [assume leadership]. I needed the job so that’s why I started working at the bank during the summer,” said Mitchell. He said while he has benefited financially from owning a successful bank, quality service and dedication to his customers continues to be his motivation. He’s also deeply engaged in the community, serving on several boards, including the DC Chamber of Commerce and the Sewell Music Conservatory. “Our service and our staff are better because we sincerely care about our customers more than
other banks do,” said Mitchell. “And that’s pretty obvious, given what happened in the economy in the last five years. Clearly mortgage bankers and a lot of other bankers took advantage of a lot of people. We simply don’t do that. We don’t have that culture in our banks.” Their culture was established by his grandfather, Jesse Mitchell, who earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Howard University in the early 1900s. He also earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School of Finance. The elder Mitchell went on to become the vice president of Industrial Savings Bank, which later became Industrial Bank. Jesse Mitchell once said, “The simple duty of a banker is to stand between and draw together the man that needs and the man that has the funds. I have done my duty and no more. The bank has created better homes, better communities and better and more useful lives.” Mitchell, the third generation banker, continues to carry on that legacy.
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Neighborhood
Ward 4 residents hear from candidates By Rachel Kersey Howard University News Service
T
Renee4Ward4.com
4 | Apr. 9 - Apr. 15, 2015 | District Chronicles
he race to replace former City Council member Muriel Bowser, who was elected to the mayor’s office during the mid-term elections, has been going on for months, but it began in earnest last week as residents poured into the Kingsbury Center in Northwest Washington, as three of the four leading candidates squared off in a debate. There were boos early on as Janelle Treibitz, the forum’s coordinator, announced that the leading contender, Brandon Todd, Bowser’s former chief of staff and handpicked successor, would not there. But as the debate moved forward between the leading candidates, Renee Bowser, Dwayne Tolliver and Leon Andrews, last Thursday, Todd’s absence was quickly forgotten. Moderator Nikki Lewis, the executive director of DC Jobs with Justice, presented questions to the candidates that allowed them to demonstrate their commitment to the community, knowledge of the pertinent issues, and strategies for community improvement. The candidates, whose campaign workers distributed literature to attendees, had 90 seconds to respond to questions about housing, jobs, development, education, crime, homelessness. Andrews said he is working to improve post-secondary education by implementing evidencebased programs in the ward to train youth and young adults. “I’m doing a lot of work here in D.C., with Mayor Bowser and some city council members, and across the country,” said Andrews. “We know what works. “I’m working with the president of the United States right now on his My Brother’s Keeper initiative, where we’re connecting the TechHire work to how we are investing in our communities.” Underemployment and affordable housing also were discussed. According to the infographic provided at the event, 72,000 families are on the DC Housing Authority waitlist for subsidized affordable
Renee Bowser (not related to Mayor Bowser) was among the candidates debating last Thursday in their bid to replace the vacated Ward 4 council seat.
housing, and family homelessness has nearly doubled in the last year, from 1,200 families in 2013 to 2,200 in 2014. “Homelessness is actually the effect,” said Tolliver. “It’s not the cause. In order to deal with the problem, we have to deal with what is causing the problem. “It could be trepidation. It could be alcoholism. It could be abuse. It could be psychosis. We need to make certain that we are providing the right resources to deal with the problem, and that will reduce the effect.” Violent crime in the district was another issue. Although murders have dropped by more than two thirds over the past 20 years, there have been 26 homicides in the city this year as of April 3, according to statistics from the Metropolitan Police Department. Two occurred in Ward 4. Just over 106 violent crimes, ranging from sex abuse and assault to robbery and homicide, have occurred in the ward this year. “I believe that we can reduce crime in our neighborhood by looking at our neighborhoods and where we have hollowed out communities because of mass incarcerations, drug arrests and poverty,” said Renee Bowser. “We need to reinvest in those devastated neighborhoods in order to have lasting
public safety.” Renee Bowser also advocated for job training and adult education for citizens returning from prison and jail and services for those who don’t qualify for food stamps or public housing so they do not commit more crimes and return to custody. Those who attended the debate said they believe it is important that citizens participate in the political process. “This is my ward,” said Keith Towery, a grant manager for the federal government. “If I don’t come out and see who I’m going to support, I might just believe the hype and go with the many yard signs I may see, which may not be really reflective of what could be best for my community.” Kevin O’Connor, a resident of Petworth, had been disinterested in the elections since the sudden death of budding politician AJ Cooper in December 2014, but O’Connor said he is getting back into the spirit of the race, and is unsure about where to cast his vote. “I know it’s really important to be involved in my community so I’m really starting to gear up and get knowledgeable about the candidates,” said O’Connor. “I’m still sort of forming my opinions.” The general election is April 28.
Divine Intervention
Baby vs. abortion: muddled morality about the unborn By Trevin Wax
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(RNS) – On March 18, Michelle Wilkins answered a Craigslist ad for baby clothes. When she arrived at Dynel Lane’s home, the former nurse’s aide attacked her, cut her open, and removed her unborn child. Wilkins survived the incident; her child did not. Hearing about this horrifying crime provokes a sense of moral revulsion, as well as a demand for justice to be carried out against the killer. However, because this crime took place in Colorado, the attacker will not face murder charges. Colorado state law does not recognize the fetus as a person unless the fetus has reached the point he or she can survive outside the womb. Today, 38 states have fetal homicide laws that increase penalties for crimes involving pregnant women or explicitly refer to the fetus as a person worthy of protection. But creating and passing these laws is a contentious process because it takes lawmakers to the heart of our society’s debate over abortion: What is the unborn? Opponents fear that some of these laws go too far in bestowing “personhood” on the unborn and may jeopardize a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion. Supporters believe these laws provide justice for women like Wilkins and Laci Peterson, a pregnant California woman who disappeared in 2002. With friends and neighbors and family members who celebrate a pregnancy, we speak of the unborn in warm and personal terms: “baby” and “child.” When debating the right to abortion, we speak of the unborn in clinical and impersonal terms: “fetus,” “zygote,” or “tissue.” One wonders if our manner of conversation conveniently shifts depending on the context, or whenever we find it necessary to distance ourselves from the humanity of the unborn. This American complexity between the morality and legality of abortion is why Cosmopolitan magazine can post an article lauding Latina reproductive rights activists and a video of ultrasounds showing how unborn babies grimace when their mothers smoke,
Americans struggle with the morality and the legality of the unborn child.
without any apparent dissonance. Cosmo readers are supposed to react with horror to the harm smoking may cause a prenatal child, while rallying to support a woman’s right to a procedure that, in the second and third trimesters, would tear the same child limb by limb. It’s why many in our society demand the harshest penalties for people who commit violent crimes against a pregnant woman or unborn child, while maintaining the right of a doctor to do violence to the unborn within the sterile confines of an abortion clinic. It’s why there is outrage at the news of fetal remains being used to heat hospitals in England, as if we ought to treat a prenatal child with more dignity after death than before. If the baby is “wanted,” he or she deserves our protection. If the baby is unwanted, he or she can be discarded. Appealing to religious grounds in opposing abortion is difficult because of society’s wide range of perspectives. Agnostics or atheists may not agree that human beings are made in the image of God, or that abortion is a sin against another human being, or that human life begins at conception.
Appealing to science is difficult as well because, while science may answer the question of when human life begins (at conception), it cannot tell us if that developing human being should be considered a “person” or at what stage of development we should consider the fetus worth protecting. But here at this intersection of science and faith, the debate over the unborn is beginning to converge. Technology is playing a larger role in these discussions. High-quality ultrasounds offer us unprecedented pictures inside the womb. Millennial parents who put together scrapbooks for their children begin with sonograms, not newborn photos. And so, as technology advances, our society is put in the increasingly uncomfortable position of both affirming and denying the humanity of the unborn. For now, however, our muddled inconsistency will deny justice to Michelle Wilkins, and no one will be charged in the death of the baby she lost. Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project and author of multiple books, including “Clear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After.“
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Cover Protestors want to hold Bowser to promises By Tonesha Townsel Howard University News Service
I
Howard News Serivce
nside the Lincoln Theater, it was all applause and niceties as newly-minted Mayor Muriel Bowser gave her first State of the District. But outside on U-Street, a corridor that is the poster child for all that is good and bad about the city’s rampant gentrification, dozens huddled in the rain last Tuesday night with signs to remind – and warn – their elected officials not to forget them. Armed with signs that read, “Equitable Development or No Development,” “Condo Madness: Stop Displacing Us,” and “Black Lives Matter,” protesters shouted and chanted to voice their concern – and sometimes displeasure – with the mayor. “Aye-Oh! Muriel Bowser has got to go,” some shouted as police gathered around the entrance of the theater to keep protestors from entering. Washington resident Chris Alcott stood in front of the Lincoln Theater holding the condo sign. “I understand that there is a dire need for improvement around the city,” said Alcott, “but at what
point do you stop sacrificing the livelihood of our residents to make it happen?” Many residents and protestors fear new developments around the city will cause displacement for those in moderate to low income homes. Bowser addressed the issue during her speech. “We know that it’s tougher and tougher for many people to start down and stay on the pathway to the middle class,” she said. She noted that in the 1960s, her parents were able to buy a home in the District on “two modest government salaries.” The median home value now is a half-million dollars, she said. “If we are going to remain a city that keeps and welcomes families, we must do more to create opportunity for them,” said Bowser. Bowser promised to address chronic homelessness, the economic divide and rapidly disappearing affordable housing that are driving many African Americans and others with moderate incomes from the city. Many of the protestors said they didn’t necessarily disapprove of Bower at this point, but are fearful of what she and the City Coun-
Protestors gathered outside Lincoln Theatre last week, as Mayor Muriel Bowser gave her State of the District address inside.
cil might do. “I just think that she needs a reminder that you need people, you need residents, you need the city to make things happen,” said Ann Wilkos while standing in the rain. “We just have to make sure that she doesn’t forget about us. “I think she’s handling things the best way she can at this point. There’s always room for progress, of course. She knows the govern-
ment and she has the experience. She has the potential to be and do great things.” Washington resident Joila Wiggins came to the address with friends who were protesting the city’s policies. “I’m going to be brutally honest,” said Wiggins. “I wasn’t too thrilled about her at first, but given the first 84 days, I am very impressed. She’s very hopeful. I un-
derstand that there may be people who are upset, but you’re never ever going to be able to please everyone all of the time. “What I appreciate is that she’s reaching back,” continued Wiggins. “The mayors prior to her reached forward for the money. She realizes that we need the money in order to run the city, but she also realizes that we need people.”
Kudos for ex-OU student Levi Pettit for confronting racism By Earl Ofari Hutchinson New America Media,
6 | Apr. 9 - Apr. 15, 2015 | District Chronicles
newsamericamedia.org
Former Oklahoma University fraternity member Levi Pettit recently stood before a bank of cameras and microphones flanked by a bevy of Black elected officials, ministers and civil rights leaders at a Black church in Oklahoma City. He apologized for his racially insensitive acts and ignorance. This was the act of a sincere young man who has been battered from pillar to post after the video surfaced of he, and his frat pals, carousing on a bus and shouting racist epithets. For speaking out, he has been the butt of snickers, derision, and flat out condemnation. The AfricanAmerican leaders who stood with and behind him haven’t been spared the vitriol either. They’ve been the object of vicious name calling and attacks for having the temerity to back him in his mea culpa. Pettit though, doesn’t deserve condemnation, he deserves praise.
He and his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, were booted from the university. His name and that of his family has been dragged deep through the mud. He’ll remain, for some time, the poster boy for offensive and disgusting frat racial antics whenever some wayward fraternity inevitably engages in them. He could have stood on the prior statement of apology and regret that he issued after the tape went viral and set off a national howl. He could have easily melted into the student woodwork somewhere, completed his studies, and gone on about his business. But he didn’t. Instead, he went very public with his apology and pledge to action. Despite the lambaste of him and the racial put downs and myopia of the detractors, this is an important step forward. The public outing of the fraternity came the same week that a study was released on racial attitudes of the millennials. The study found that young Whites under thirty are no more enlightened
Levi Pettit, whose expulsion followed a racial rant at a frat event, publicly apologized after meeting Black community members.
in their racial views – especially of Blacks – than their parents. For example, when respondents were asked, “How much needs to be done in order to achieve Martin Luther King’s dream of racial equality?” there was a huge gap in how they answered the question as opposed to young respondents of color. Forty-two percent of Whites answered that “a lot” must be done to achieve racial equality, which was
almost identical to the percent that answered the same of White Gen Xers, and 44 percent of White baby boomers. The survey finding conformed pretty much to an Associated Press survey on racial attitudes toward minorities that was conducted in 2012. That survey found that in the four-year period from a prior AP survey on racial attitudes in 2008, a clear majority of Whites (56 percent) expressed animus toward Blacks. The jump in anti-Black racial sentiment came despite nearly four years in office of an African-American president. It’s been the rare day that’s passed in the now more than six years that Obama has been in the White House that there hasn’t been a racially inflammatory video, photo, a sign, or some public figure popping off on race that has made a headline somewhere. When it does, the predictable happens. The battle lines get quickly drawn, countless individuals jam websites and chat room and boards to downplay, or worse, condemn
the critics of the actions as being too sensitive, thin skinned, or slamming them for playing the race card with their denunciation of a racial dig or taunt. The Oklahoma University frat debacle was a near textbook example of that. The fact that you have one student offender who did not play to that gate, claim victimization, and accepted fully responsibility for his racial offensive action, is cause for much hope; hope that someone actually got it, and is willing to lend a public face, their face, to those who express their disgust at racial bigotry. Pettit did the right thing when he spoke out, and so did the Black leaders who stood behind him, encouraged and ultimately embraced him. For that, I applaud and will continue to applaud Pettit. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is “From King to Obama: Witness to a Turbulent History”
Politics
Black women protest delay in confirming Lynch By Jazelle Hunt NNPA Washington Correspondent
refused to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, reproductive services are disappearing in these states, resulting in a rising maternal mortality rate among Black women, from 30 to 42 deaths out of 100,000 live births (compared to 12 deaths for White women). “Already as it stands, Black women have maternal mortality rates that are frankly unheard of anywhere else in the industrialized world,” said Jones-DeWeever at the report release event. “If you are a Black woman in America, you have a better chance of surviving childbirth if you gave birth in Libya than in the United States of America. Our women are dying because of lack of care, and there’s no excuse for that.” Black women also experience violence at disproportionately high rates; they’re more than twice as likely as all women, and three times as likely as White women, to be murdered. More than half of Black women who knew their murderers were romantically involved with them. Economic success is another uphill battle. Despite national gains, Black women’s unemployment has remained the highest among all women – 8.9 percent compared to the national rate of 5.5 percent.
NNPA
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Hundreds of Black women and girls representing the Black Women’s Roundtable descended on the nation’s capital last week to petition the Senate to confirm U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch as the next attorney general. “Loretta Lynch has been waiting over 140 days to get a vote on the floor. That’s never happened in the history of this country,” said Melanie Campbell, convener of the Roundtable, and president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP). The Black Women Roundtable is the intergenerational arm of the NCBCP. “They’re holding her up because they’re having a partisan battle,” said Campbell. “ … Why is this happening to a Black woman? The American people believe in fair play. It’s not fair, and it’s not correct.” Campbell was one of about two-dozen members of the Roundtable who visited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office on Thursday and attempted to meet with him on the matter. They were told he was busy and would not be able to meet with
them, or greet them. The women held a prayer vigil outside his office; security was called, but did not escort them out. They were able to meet with McConnell’s chief of staff; Campbell describes his response as “on-message stock answers.” In addition to meeting with representatives, the Black Women Roundtable (BWR) released its 2015 Black Women in the United States report. “This report is a little bit different than the last one in that it gives both the 50,000-foot view by providing data analysis across a variety of areas and indicators,” said the report’s editor, Avis JonesDeWeever. “But in addition to that, it’s augmented by the stories from women … who are BWR members in states all across this country, whose voices are literally infused into this report. So you not only get the data, you also get the narratives behind the numbers.” A similarity it shares with last year’s inaugural edition is the mix of celebration and concern. And the concerns are many. First, every state with a large Black population, with the exception of Maryland and Delaware, plus Washington, D.C., is home to high numbers of uninsured Black women. All of the states in question have
Melanie Campbell of Black Women Roundtable (left) and Avis Jones-DeWeever protest delay in confirming Loretta Lynch.
While that’s lower than last year, the rate has been on a slow rise, contrary to unemployment stats for other women. The good news, though, is that Black women are seizing political power as never before. This year, Alma Adams (DN.C.) became the 100th Black woman elected to Congress. There are two new Black-women mayors of major cities. Two new congressional representatives became the first Black congresswomen elected from their states (New Jersey and Utah), and Mia Love became the
first Black woman ever elected to Congress as a Republican. There are two Black women running for Senate in 2016; it’s been 17 years since a Black woman has occupied a Senate seat. Three Black women representatives, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (DTexas), and Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), were also present at the launch and spoke on the need to be involved in the reproductive, civil, and human rights, and other political conversations that impact Black women most.
2017 Senate could have three Asian Americans
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(New America Media) Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) has announced she is running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. She will challenge first term Sen. Mark Kirk. Duckworth could potentially be one of at least three Asian Americans in the Senate. She would join Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and possibly Kamala Harris who is currently the front runner in California. Duckworth was born in Thailand and her mother is Thai with Chinese ancestry. Harris’ mother in Indian and her father is Jamaican American. Duckworth and Harris could potentially also be only the third and fourth Asian Americans outside of Hawaii to ever be U.S. senators, according to Wikipedia. The others were Japanese
American S.I. Hiyakawa (R-CA) from 1977 to 1983, and John Ensign (R-NV) from 2001 -2011. Ensign is part Filipino. According to Think Progress, four African Americans were elected to the United States Senate in all of American history. The list includes former Sens. Edward William Brooke (R-MA), Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and President Barack Obama. Duckworth made her announcement on YouTube last week. In her announcement, Duckworth recalled when her father was unemployed. “ … Food stamps kept her brother and me from going hungry. That’s why I always believed if you don’t give up on yourself, our nation should never give up on you either,” she said.
District Chronicles | Apr. 9 - Apr. 15, 2015 | 7
Technology
Research: Google searching rises during Easter Week
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Data showed a spike in searches for churches on Google weeks leading up the Easter festivities.
By Tobin Grant Religious News Service
P
eople use Google and other search engines for everything – including when and where to go to church on Easter. Using Google Correlate, I tracked weekly Google searches for the word “church” for every week from 2004 through the end of 2013 (the entire 2014 is not available at this time). While searches for church remains steady during most of the year, searches spike during three weeks. < Easter (and the rest of Holy Week). This is the week with the highest level of searches < Christmas
< Ash Wednesday Each of these weeks is important, particularly for churches that follow the Western liturgical calendar. Not surprisingly, the search for churches during these weeks is correlated with searches for “Lutheran church” and “Catholic church,” both of which emphasize these holidays. We see similar spikes around Easter for searches for “Methodist” and “Presbyterian.” People search for these churches also around Christmas, but not for Ash Wednesday. The pattern is different for evangelicals and other churches that do not follow a liturgical cal-
endar. Baptist-focused searches increase a bit around Easter, less so near Christmas. Searches also increase at the end of August, perhaps because this is when many Baptist churches have “Promotion Sunday,” the day indicating that children move up to the next grade level in their Sunday School classes. The day is often seen as the beginning of the “year” in many churches. In a future post, I’ll show how the search patterns are different for Jewish congregations and other religious groups (spoiler: they spike around holy days, too). Follow @TobinGrant on Twitter and on the Corner of Church & State Facebook page.
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In the Neighborhood
District libraries, AARP give free tax service
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Fredella Baylor (left) and Carrie Nobles volunteered at Southwest Library for AARP to help residents get their taxes filed.
By Francisca Fournillier Howard University News Service
T
he April 15, federal deadline for filing taxes is right around the corner, and the District’s libraries, in conjunction with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Foundation, is providing free services to taxpayers with low to moderate income, especially seniors. Patricia Banks-Helman, a retired medical illustrator, sat reading a book, waiting patiently at Southwest Library last week to see a tax assistant. She had her tax documents tucked away in a folder with a rubber band securing them. “I heard it from my daughter who was working at the time in Virginia, and the AARP would go to her center and do the taxes,” said 80-year-old Helman. “That’s when I thought, ‘Well why don’t I? Why do I pay someone $300-plus to do very simple tax
forms. So I’ve been very satisfied.” This has been Helman’s third year coming to Southwest library to have her taxes filed. AARP Tax-Aide has about 11 tax assistance programs in the District similar to the one at Southwest library. The average site is open four to five hours a day, one to two days a week. John Willging, volunteers as the local AARP coordinator at Southwest Library. He has been volunteering with the program for 15 years and has been at the Southwest library for the past two
the test. If you pass the test, then you are qualified to prepare tax returns.” Kenneth Reavis, a transportation screener, was another taxpayer waiting for his name to be called to have his taxes reviewed. Reavis, 24, heard about the program from his mother, and this was his second year coming to the library. “It’s been great,” said Reavis. “They’re nice and helpful. It’s pretty simple and easy, right to the point. Get in and get out and I like it.” Willging said the process is simple and modern. “It’s all electronic filing on all the tax returns that we do, except there is a District Resident where rare case where there may be a rejection on a return for some reason and we can’t get it through the system,” said Willging. For more information about tax assistance, visit the AARP TaxAide programonline to find a nearby location.
Why do I pay someone ... to do simple tax forms. – Patricia Banks-Helman,
years. “Anyone can volunteer for the tax assistance program, but you are required to pass an IRS test,” said Willging, 78. “You are put through a training program that usually runs for five days. Then you take
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In the Neighborhood Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington District of Columbia ‘Yours Naturally’ exhibit depicts Black women’s natural hair journey at MLK Library “Yours Naturally: Beauty That Grows on You,” is a national traveling photography exhibition currently on display at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library through April 26. It is the first national exhibition to pay homage to the growing natural hair movement that’s rapidly spreading across America. The exhibition celebrates women of the African diaspora who wear their hair naturally. From Angela Davis’ afro, to Susan Taylor’s braids, a panel discussion last week on “The Politics
of Natural Hair, 1968-2015,” addressed the evolution of natural hairstyles in popular culture and in the media. Thirty women of diverse sizes, complexions and professions are featured in the exhibition wearing their natural hair proudly and boldly. “Yours Naturally” provides an opportunity for women with natural hairstyles to have public conversations about their private – and sometimes controversial – decision to go natural. “Being natural is about more than just a hairstyle; it’s about a lifestyle,” said model Teiko Akufo. The exhibit is produced by photographer Jason Miccolo Johnson, author of the best seller, “Soul Sanctuary: Images of the African American Worship Experience.” Johnson is an expert in documentary photography and specializes
in capturing the essence of Black culture. His photographs have been published in 20 books and are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian and the St. Louis Museum of Art. The exhibit will travel to museums, galleries, natural hair expos, heritage festivals, colleges and universities across America over the next several years. At each venue, natural hair specialists, fitness and nutrition experts, and image consultants will be encouraged to share their insights on natural hair care and discuss self-esteem and work place issues. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library is located at 901 G Street, NW in Washington, D.C. located near Metro Center and Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro stops. For more information, visit www. jasonmiccolojohnson.com.
Jason Miccolo Johnson’s traveling natural hair exhibit at MLK Library till April 26.
Kids have blast at the Zoo Easter Monday!
Robert Eubanks/DistrictChronicles
Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles
Robert Eubanks/DistrictChronicles
Robert Eubanks/DistrictChronicles
Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles
12 | Apr. 9 - Apr. 15, 2015 | District Chronicles
Parents and children descended on the National Zoo for the annual Easter Monday festivities. Family Day at the National Zoo is popular among African Americans but has been marred by violence in recent years. There was beefed up security this year but it looks like the kids did not mind at all. (Photo Credit: Robert Eubanks)