16 minute read
Religion & Spirituality
Minister Vernon Robinson, Rev Buleah Smith, Rev Dr. Christine Caton, Rev. Dr. Ava Jolley, Rev. Shaun Lee, Rev. Rashad Raymond Moore Members of Mass Choir (Lem Peterkin photos)
Known as the “Friendly church on the hill,” this past Sunday, Brooklyn’s First Baptist Church of Crown Heights celebrated its 69th anniversary with the Rev. Rashad Raymond Moore. Sixty-nine years ago the church was founded by the late Rev. Clarence Norman Sr. and 20 members. The celebrations were held on Friday and Sunday, June 24 and 26, 2022. There was mighty praise song, followed by a health and jazz fair.
In March 1953 20 men and women birthed the “First Baptist Mission of Williamsburg.” Sis. Ethel Brown hosted the first prayer service at her home, with Clarence Norman presiding. In April 1953 the New Hope Baptist Association voted to recognize the First Baptist Mission of Williamsburg as a Missionary Baptist Church. That day, the First Baptist Mission became the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg. Clarence Norman was ordained and appointed its pastor.
Under the leadership of the Rev. Clarence Norman Sr., the church continued to grow. In April of 1962, the church secured the title to a building located on Monroe Street in Brooklyn. However, two days before Christmas in 1962, tragedy struck. A fire destroyed a large portion of this new church building on Monroe Street, leaving only the gym and Sunday School rooms intact. The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg soon resumed its worship in those spaces, but the search for a new worship space lasted nearly five years.
On July 1, 1967, The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg moved into its new and current location at 450 Eastern Parkway and changed its name officially to The First Baptist Church of Crown Heights.
Understanding its call to do both ministry and justice, the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights has addressed community issues such as job training, housing development, as well as services for the homeless and the elderly since its inception. Under Pastor Norman’s anointed leadership, numerous ministers also accepted the call to preach the gospel and were ordained, including Reverends Karim Camara, Beaulah Smith, Christine Caton, Ava Jolley, and Iana Ryan. Additionally, various ministries were launched, the community was transformed, and innumerable lives were changed.
In preparation to pass the mantle of pastoral leadership, Pastor Norman installed the Rev. Daryl G. Bloodsaw as the assistant pastor in 2011. The Rev. Bloodsaw worked closely with Pastor Norman in the years to follow to implement new programs, as well as prepare the church for ministry in the 21st century.
After 62 years of service as the undershepherd of First Baptist, Pastor Norman passed away in 2015. After its mourning period, the church gathered and voted overwhelmingly to elevate the Rev. Bloodsaw to the position of pastor, a position in which he served until September 2019.
In August 2019, the church again gathered to select its next leader. Accordingly, on Jan. 19, 2020, the Rev. Rashad Raymond Moore, a young minister from Brooklyn who had served at The Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem for many years, was installed as the third pastor in the 66-year history of The First Baptist Church of Crown Heights.
Building on the legacy of Pastors Clarence Norman and Daryl Bloodsaw, the Rev. Moore continues to lead the First Baptist Church with vigor. Under his prophetic guidance, Rev. Moore has deftly navigated our church family through the current health crisis of COVID-19, establishing an online presence that has kept us connected, encouraged, and charged to be a light for our community while in crises.
The church says, “Over the last three months we have seen transition and loss all around the world, and our church family was no exception. In recent months, we have lost long-time members of our congregation—men and women whose prayers and tireless efforts helped to sustain our ministry over the past 67 years. Though they have joined the ancestors in that great cloud of witnesses, we are so grateful for all of their efforts which were devoted to ministry at First Baptist, and for everything they did while they were here.”
behalf of the Baker family, were present. Both were harshly critical of how police handle missing Black people.
“She did the police work, Ms. Baker should get the salary of all of those police officers that are supposed to be looking for her daughter in Washington, D.C. and here in New York,” said Barron. “I want to publicly criticize the police here in New York, and especially in D.C. If this was a white person, it would have been all-points bulletin out. They did not treat this case like that.”
“It’s sad that the police department did not do half as much as what Miss Baker did to find her daughter,” said Mealy. “It’s sad that the city of New York with all the resources, all these cameras, all these listening devices they have and they didn’t do what they were supposed to: find her daughter.”
The councilwoman also called Baker’s mother a “shero.” The NYPD says her return was not reported to police and is not investigating this case as a kidnapping. Another press statement will be made this week due to a time conflict with the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.
As for TiJae Baker, she’s currently recovering from the wounds, both physically and emotionally. Her mother says she was kidnapped, and showed pictures of large abrasions on her daughter’s feet and ankles.
“She’s very frightened, she wants to go into hiding,” said Toquanna Baker. “I will have to deal with the after effects when I get my daughter and her life will never be the same. My life will never be the same. This wasn’t something that she went out and did and [sought] for herself. This was done to her.”
For parents of other missing children, Toquanna Baker’s story offers hope and agency.
“I want mothers and fathers who have missing girls and boys that are missing [to know] please do not give up because she could have easily given up and turned it over to the police and let them do their work,” said Mealy. “She didn’t. She kept the fire burning, [wanting] her child to come home. And her child is home.” termination to keep this case alive,” said Hill, who at the request of Beauchamp was retained by the late Simeon Wright to represent the family. Wright was sleeping in the bed with Till when he was abducted. “It also underscores the failure of the law enforcement agencies to do what they should have been doing.” She was perturbed that even after the family presented a copy of the warrant and a letter to District Attorney DeWayne Richardson and the Department of Justice, “They have not given us the courtesy of a response. But that’s no surprise.”
If a determined team of citizens and relatives of Till can do a deep dive and find incriminating evidence, Watts said: “What other kind of evidence might be buried in LeFlore County where no one had searched before?” The AmNews’ calls to the DA and the DOJ were not answered.
District Attorney Richardson, according to Beauchamp whose documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till” (2005) intensified interest in the case that was renewed in 2004 “just passed the information on to the DOJ. He continues to pass the buck to the Feds and not do the job he needs to be doing. All we are asking the DA to do is…to convene a new grand jury to hear the case.”
Dale Killinger, a retired former FBI agent who has worked on the case for years, said he concurs with the family, Beauchamp and attorney Hill, “That any and all new evidence should be afforded the routine process of being presented to a Grand Jury. The fact that law enforcement had probable cause in 1955 to believe that Carolyn Bryant was involved in Till’s kidnapping, a kidnapping which led to his murder, is new information.”
Moreover, Killinger added in an email, “This is not the only new information which has surfaced since I presented the results of the FBI’s 20042006 investigation to a Mississippi Grand Jury in 2007, and they returned a No Bill. We also now know that Carolyn Bryant admitted to her attorneys in 1955 that Emmett Till was brought to her in the night—which corroborates information presented to the Grand Jury in 2007.
“The kidnapping occurred,” he continued, “and Donham was likely with the kidnappers or assisted the kidnappers, as the newly discovered warrant indicates there was probable cause to believe so. She admitted to her attorneys that Till was brought to the store, she admitted to the FBI that Roy Bryant, J.W. Milam and Elmer Kimbell brought him to the store. The only purpose for bringing Emmett Till to the store, or for her being with the kidnappers, would have been for her to identify him. He was subsequently murdered.”
But the discovery of new information, as in the past, is no guarantee that the Till case will be put on the docket. Even after Bryant allegedly confessed to Timothy Tyson, the author of “The Blood of Emmett Till,”that Till had not assaulted her and what she said during the trial was not the truth and then later told the FBI she never recanted her testimony, the case was never reopened. “She was lying then and probably lying now,” Hill said. “You have a woman sleeping with a man who was a racist, and it’s hard to believe that she wasn’t just as racist as he was.” No evidence was ever revealed about Bryant-Donham’s recantation. Keith Beauchamp, who has expended many years researching the Till murder case, elaborated on it, noting that the FBI had done a thorough investigation, “but they were always fighting over jurisdiction [which may be a dual one since the Feds are involved]… and we were so focused on the murder that we didn’t spend a lot of time looking closer into the kidnapping.” Even so, he added, “It’s going to be interesting to see how he [the DA] wiggles his way out of executing a warrant which is still active. They’re going to come up with everything and the kitchen sink, not to serve it.”
Since the kidnapping that is at the core of a warrant that never expires a number of legal options are still on the table, most importantly the arrest of Mrs. Bryant-Donham who remains a fugitive from justice.
“Our family, without malice, hate or vengeance, remains focused and hopeful that at the very least this physical warrant is considered as evidence, is executed legally and finally served in 2022. Carolyn Bryant-Donham or the former Mrs. Roy Bryant is alive and well. We have done our job as a family including justice advocates and ambassadors, now we expect the State of Mississippi, with the help of the DOJ to do theirs…no excuses,” Watts concluded.
Reform
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thoritarian attitudes are just as dangerous as those with racial biases. And the two often intersect. So more screenings can vet those potential bad apples out and offering more educational opportunities through the department can attract less violent officers. Myrick recalls the number of “unfit” candidates a simple psychological evaluation from the Ithaca Police Department would identify.
“We started using this test, we ended up screening out 75% of people who would otherwise have been hired,” he said. “I’m not even talking about 75% of people who applied—these folks already passed the written test, the physical, the interview, [those were] the three big steps you have to pass just on the surface. If you do that, then boom, you’re hired. We added this extra layer and 75% of them were [now] disqualified.”
But before the Ithaca Public Safety Model makes its way down to the “Big Apple,” Kasravi believes modifications need to be made.
“It’s not a copy paste thing, you have to tailor it to every city’s needs,” she said. “We’re not under the illusion that you can just take what Ithica is doing or what Berkeley is hopefully doing and just implement it across the country. But it provides a roadmap on a framework to work with.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift today by visiting: https://tinyurl. com/fcszwj8w
IT'S COOKOUT SEASON. ARE YOU READY?
New Testament Temple 3350-56 Seymour Ave., Bronx, NY 10469 Abyssinian Baptist Church 132 W 138th St., New York, NY 10030 First Central Baptist Church 117 Wright St., Staten Island, NY 10304 Union Grove Baptist Church 1488 Hoe Ave., Bronx, NY 10460 God's Battalion of Prayer 661 Linden Blvd., Brooklyn, NY 11203 Mount Pisgah Baptist Church 760 DeKalb Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11207 Bronx Christian Fellowship Baptist Church 1015 Gunhill Rd., Bronx, NY 10469 St. Paul Community Baptist Church 859 Hendrix St., Brooklyn, NY 11207 Cornerstone Baptist Church 574 Madison St., Brooklyn, NY 11221 Christ Fellowship Baptist Church 5 Sumpter St., Brooklyn, NY 11233
schools’ budgets, because of the FSF and projected decreases in enrollment, have been described as devastating by teachers and principals on the ground.
Joseph said in her newsletter that the current FSF model also “fails to account” for the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent federal dollars that elected officials knew would run out.
As a result of the enrollmentbased funding losses, teachers are being excessed or put in funded vacancies in whichever school district needs them.
“Parents and teachers are incredibly frustrated, and understandably so. My Council Colleagues and I worked to strengthen city investments for young people and schools, and instead, many schools are getting hurt in ways that are deeply unfair,” said Joseph. “The Council did its part to stand up for New York’s students. Now, it’s time for the administration to do their part.”
Joseph said she was hoping for transparency on the DOE’s part in the hearing and highlighting that the FSF was outdated.
Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilmembers Gayle Brewer, Shekar Krishnan and Lincoln Restler, among others, got into heated exchanges with the DOE during the public hearings.
More than one person who testified demanded to know why the DOE couldn’t find money for schools with $4.5 billion still left in unspent stimulus monies that got allocated to the city’s reserves. The DOE’s total budget is $37.6 billion, the schools’ cuts of $215 million is less than 1% of that budget, said Krishnan.
The DOE said that it was a “bad idea” to change the current funding allocation or restore the cuts. They acknowledged that the FSF the way it is was not a great process for budgeting. They promised that they prioritized protecting Black and Brown, low income, special education students or those living in shelters and going to school from cuts.
The DOE claimed that Chancellor David Banks was in the process of forming a commission taskforce to reform the FSF formula with the intention of fixing the process before the school year starts. DOE reps in the hearing said that schools still have time to appeal the budgeting process and that other sources of funding will technically be made available after.
Renee Freeman is a paraprofessional at the Academy of Medical Technology in Far Rockaway Queens. She joined the United Teachers Federation (UFT) in loudly rallying outside City Hall during the public hearings on the education budget.
“I’m not happy,” said Freeman. “Simply because being in the classroom every day we have seen what goes on these past two years with the social emotional issues and how the children need the support. With the budget cuts, it’s going to take people out of the classroom. It’s going to raise our class size to pre-pandemic limits, thus hurting our children, and not giving us the funding for the programs. At this point, we need our mayor to listen to us to understand us and not listen to us just to respond to us.”
Freeman said there was a 12% cut to her school in Far Rockaway. She said basically that means the school could lose teachers, but definitely lose programs like art and music. “Normally, that’s the first thing to go, music and the art programs. Those things go first because, for whatever reason we don’t see the necessity in them, but I can say that those programs are very much needed because when you’re dealing with children who have SELs, the social emotional learning issues,” said Freeman.
Freeman said the arts postpandemic are even more important in helping students cope. “They’ll draw it. They may not talk about it but they may draw it. They may write a rap about it and put it to music to get it out of them,” said Freeman, “because it has helped them, it is a release DOE is taking away.”
Freeman said that the FSF “doesn’t work.” On the topic of reforms, the teachers said that their input should be included in whatever commission the DOE creates.
Greg Monte is a Special Education social studies teacher at FDR High School in Brooklyn. “The devil’s always in the details and we want to be able to work with the mayor’s office and the DOE so that you actually have the right amount of equitable funding. That’s the bottom line,” said Monte about potential reforms to the FSF.
In reality, the city’s budget has a $700 million increase in funding allocation for school resources and programming under the Department of Education for fiscal year 2023 as opposed to 2022. This included $277 million for Summer Rising, $79 million for the expansion of the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) with 100,000 slots annually, and $30 million for the Fair Futures program that serves young people in the city’s foster care system.
The majority of city council voted yes early to the adopted budget. But, that hasn’t soothed the direct impacts to schools or the ire of advocates.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about culture and politics in New York City for The Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a taxdeductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://tinyurl. com/fcszwj8w
