PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID MINNEAPOLIS MN PERMIT NO. 32468
Conversations with Al McFarlane live from downtown St. Paul at the FLINT HILLS 2009 INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL on May 26 at 11:00 am on KFAI 90.3 FM Photo: Lois Greenfield
May 18 - May 24, 2009 • MN Metro Vol. 35 No. 20 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • www.insightnews.com
Urban League: A Legacy of leadership Elders welcome MUL President Scott Gray By Al McFarlane & B.P. Ford, The Editors
Carter wins essay contest, honored at State Capitol
Community elders Tuesday welcomed newly-hired Minneapolis Urban League president and CEO Scott Gray during the “Conversations with Al McFarlane” Public Policy Forum at the Glover-Sudduth Center for Economic Development and Urban Affairs Former Urban League board members, Bill English, the Rev. Randolph Staten, and the Rev. Ian Bethel joined the legacy leadership organization’s staff, current board members and community leadership in congratulating Gray on his appointment. Gray begins the new job June 1. He presently is director of the Madison, WI Urban League.
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The Urban League Movement: a history from www.mul.org
Part 1 in a series of 4 At the end of the Civil War, four million former slaves were suddenly on their own — four million people with no political or legal status in America. There
were no customs or traditions to determine their place. Race relations depended primarily on individual behavior. Only one thing was certain: Neither the South nor the North believed that Negroes would ever be considered the equal of whites. Even humanitarians and reformists did not foresee social equality. Thirty years passed before the status of former slaves was addressed. The position of Negroes in America was then clearly defined by law: separate
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Suluki Fardan
(L to R) The Rev. Efrem Smith, Bill English, Scott Gray, The Rev. Randy Staten, and The Rev. Ian Bethel and unequal. The law was enforced through rigid segregation and through discrimination in every sphere of daily living. These restrictions were referred to as Jim Crow laws in reference to a particularly offensive stereotype of the day. The laws on the books, however, represented only a fraction of the discrimination that was actually practiced. There were vocal dissenters both white and black - to the repression of the Jim Crow laws. The dissenters fell into two
intellectual traditions. The first approach favored a social science model to bring about economic equality. The roots of the social science model were firmly anchored in individual economic betterment. Black intellectuals, social theorists, and white philanthropists led this group. Social theory gave rise to the Social Work approach i.e. the immediate elimination of suffering. Social Work, as a discipline, sought to deal with the effects of the system rather than change the system. The
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immediate goal was to improve the status of individuals through improving working conditions in industry, increasing wages, obtaining better housing and gaining health care. The Urban League grew out of this social work model. The second approach was based on a philosophy of selfhelp and racial solidarity. Negroes alone would determine their future. This model favored using the law to effect social change
Charlie Wilson talks about prostate cancer prevention
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Champion’s bill signed into law
Suluki Fardan
Alessandra Williams, HIRE Minnesota Coordinator
$130 million protest Louis King and students at Summit Academy Opportunity Industrialization Center (SAOIC) Tuesday took steps to highlight the failure of Minneapolis city government to take responsibility for monitoring hiring and contractor compliance on multi-million dollars construction projects within earshot of City Hall. Dozens of men and women who are trained, or in training for, construction jobs walked the route
of the Marq 2 project, a federally and Metropolitan Council and city funded transportation construction project aimed at reducing congestion on Marquette and 2nd Avenues in downtown and in other critical traffic areas in Minneapolis. The project is funded by $130 million in Metro and federal funds, matched by about $50 million in city funds. The downtown portion
State Rep. Bobby Champion’s bill addressing employment barriers to people who have criminal records was signed into law last week Monday, May 11 by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The public safety policy omnibus bill, House File 1301, features two provisions that begin to address the growing problem of individuals with criminal records finding employment. One provision requires all Minnesota public employers to wait until a job applicant has been selected for an interview before asking about criminal records or conducting a criminal record check, except
for positions that already require a background check. Passage of this legislation makes Minnesota the first state to adopt a statewide “Ban the Box” law since the initiative was started by a group called All of Us or None in California several years ago. The other provision limits the admission of evidence of an employee’s criminal record against an employer if: (1) the duties of the position did not expose others to a greater degree of risk than that created by the employee interacting with the public outside of the
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West Broadway groundbreaking ceremony
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Rep. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-58B
Festival of Nations
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inspires global connectedness
Solution side of juvenile
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detention and justice By Al McFarlane & B.P Ford The Editors Part 3 of 3 Why is it difficult for Hennepin County managers to engage community resources and leadership in the solution side of juvenile detention, prevention and justice? Judge Tanya Bransford said the county had been moving in that direction. “I was co-chair as the presiding juvenile court judge, along with Fred LeFleur, who was the director of community corrections of collaboration between the Bench and the Community Corrections. The Bench does not control the purse
Khalid Naji-Allah
The Rev. Al Sharpton, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R), and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (L)
Photos: Suluki Fardan
Judge Tanya Bransford
strings, but we have been trying to push to institutional change. “Part of it is saying how we are going to work with communities. We had a part steering team that included Mad Dads and other community
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Sharpton tells why he is attending White House meetings with ultra conservative Newt Gingrich By Hazel Trice Edney NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) Republican Newt Gingrich is the former Speaker of the House who once outlined a 10-pointplan called the “Contract With America.” Civil rights leaders
fiercely attacked this plan as a “Contract on America.” He also once encouraged the Republican Party to disregard authentic Black leaders, saying, “It is in the interest of the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan to invent new Black leaders, so to speak.” Gingrich’s leadership style
has been described by political commentators such as Dr. Ron Walters, as “aggressively narrow, mean-spirited and even hateful”. Why then would quintessential Black activist and civil rights leader the Rev. Al
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Can you really get enough Lebron James?
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