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NEWSLETTER WEEKLY OUR JOIN
February 8-14, 2024
VOL. 39, No. 06
Your Community Connection Since 1994
Lies, Distortion CONTRIBUTED BY: BLACKPAST Philadelphia Dentist John S. Rock and Stereotypes— would eventually become a medical doctor and attorney who in 1865 would Why I Started become the first African American lawyer to argue a case before the Inglewood Today United States Supreme Court. In 1850, By Willie Brown
As our attention turns toward Black History Month, I find myself reminiscing on the role Inglewood Today has played in changing how Inglewood is viewed by the media. Today, Inglewood is looked upon as one of the most progressive cities in the U.S. Run by a Black mayor, with a predominantly Black and Latino population, the City boasts a stateof-the-art NFL stadium and soon-tobe NBA arena. It is set to host FIFA Soccer in 2026 and the 2028 Olympics. Crime has continued to decrease, We’ve come a long way from the days when the L.A. Times had folks scared to come to Inglewood—even scared to drive through it. Headlines depicting the city as a poor, gang-infested, hotbed for drug activity had many residents ashamed to admit where they live. As a long-time Inglewood resident, however, I knew the truth. And it was this truth that motivated me to set the record straight. I knew that, like any other community, Inglewood had areas that needed improvement. But I also knew the image portrayed by the media was seriously distorted. Inglewood was sometimes blamed for crimes that happened in L.A. Contrary to public opinion, life in Inglewood was relatively safe. I never Continued on page 7
however, he was also an abolitionist and civil rights activist. In that year 25 year old Rock gave a speech in neighboring New Jersey where he called upon the state’s white residents to treat the “disfranchised portion of the legal tax-payers” of the state fairly by extending to them the right to vote. His oration appears below. Citizens, in addressing you in favor of a disfranchised portion of the legal tax-payers of New Jersey, I feel, from the success our enterprise has already been crowned with, that intelligence, humanity and justice, may be styled characteristics of the citizens of this State Knowing, then, that I am speaking to an intelligent and human people, who believe that noble sentiment set forth in are not free and equal, (according to the the Declaration of Independence, that Declaration of Independence), we are “all men are created free and equal,” not men, because “all men are created etc. I take the liberty of speaking freely free and equal.” to you, being one of the disfranchised, We confess there is something about and I do not believe your hearts are so this we never could understand. We callous as not to listen to the voice of are denied our rights as men, at the the oppressed. same time are taxed in common with Although the above Declaration yourselves, and obliged to support the declares that “all men are created free government in her denunciations. If we and equal,” those noble words, in their are not men, why are we dealt with as common acceptation, do not and cannot such when we do not pay our taxes, or apply to the disfranchised people I am when we infringe the laws? Whenever now speaking of, because, indirectly, we become delinquent in the one, or you deny the disfranchised are men. a transgressor in the other, there is You say that all men are created free and then no question about our manhood; equal and at the same time, you deny we are treated as men, to all intents that equality, which is nothing more nor and purposes. If we are men, when less than denying our manhood. If we our taxes are due, and men when we
transgress the laws, we are men when our taxes are not due, and when we do not transgress the laws. There are many reasons why colored men should be enfranchised. We have been reared in this State, and are acquainted with her institutions. Our fidelity to this country has never been questioned. We have done nothing to cause our disfranchisement; on the contrary, we have done all a people could do to entitle them to be enfranchised. It is said, “there is not sufficient intelligence amongst us to warrant the restoration of those rights,” and that we Continued on page 7
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