Black Violin returns to the Dakota
aesthetically speaking
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Insight News June 27 - July 3, 2016
Vol. 43 No. 26 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Kimberly Holmes
Lead attorney for the governor putting her stamp on the office those serving in a leadership role is Kimberly Holmes. Appointed this past December, Holmes serves as general counsel to the governor and lieutenant governor. Holmes is the second African-American woman to hold the post under Dayton. As general counsel, Holmes advises the governor on all legal matters that hit his desk, but maybe her most important role is sitting on his panel that appoints state judges. Holmes said she has already noticed an increased diversity on the bench. “I have been talking to people of color and encouraging them to apply for judgeships because Gov. Mark Dayton is committed to increasing diversity. He has increased diversity on the bench in Minnesota by at least 84 percent. He has more than two years left (in office) and I encourage people of color to apply,” said Holmes. Holmes has spent most of her career in the government sector. She served as the chief legal officer for the Louisiana Department of Revenue and in private practice she represented
By Harry Colbert, Jr. Managing Editor What is progress? In Minnesota one of the more “liberal” states in the Union … a state that once elected a pro wrestler to the governor’s seat, a state that was home to forwardthinking humanitarian, Hubert H. Humphrey, a state that gave us Sen. Paul Wellstone and a state that produced the first Muslim elected to Congress … yet a state lumped in with Mississippi when it comes to racial disparities, progress is not easily defined. But it seems Gov. Mark Dayton is doing something to shape the definition of progress when it comes to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Recognizing a lack of diversity within state government, particularly in leadership positions, Dayton has been appointing people of color – many Blacks – to key positions within his administration and he is encouraging state commissioners and even private employers to do the same. One of
Kimberly Holmes
the Louisiana Department of Insurance, the Oklahoma Department of Insurance, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Defender’s office. Prior to accepting the position as general counsel, Holmes was assistant commissioner for the Minnesota’s Department of Revenue. “I always wanted to be involved in a role where I could be of service to the community,” said Holmes, who graduated from Drake University with a B.A. in public administration and earned her law degree from Southern University Law Center. “My first job out of law school was working as a staff attorney for the Louisiana Department of Justice for $ 22,000 a year.” Chicago born and raised, Holmes came to Minnesota in 2014 when she married her husband, fellow Drake alum, James Holmes, Jr. Since moving to the state, the attorney has become active in the local chapter of her sorority,
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Candid talk from Nekima Levy-Pounds By Harry Colbert, Jr. Managing Editor Being a community activist/ organizer doesn’t pay much … if it pays at all. It certainly doesn’t pay as much as being a tenured professor
branch president of the NAACP announced she was going to be hosting a weekly classic hip-hop show on an area radio station. For Levy-Pounds, she said she’s walking in the path that God has laid. “I didn’t expect to make the decision to leave St. Thomas. I
at a law school. So when Nekima Levy-Pounds announced she was stepping away from her tenured professorship at St. Thomas University School of Law to focus her efforts on community activism it turned more than a few heads. Heads turned again when last week the Minneapolis
had already signed my contract for the next year,” said Levy-Pounds. “But through the process of prayer I felt God was calling me in other arenas.” As one of the emerging new leaders in the region –
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Nekima Levy-Pounds
Ronald Lee Bell
Community advocate, Ronald Bell passed
Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner
‘Mississippi Burning’ case officially closed
Mississippi is still burning. Federal and Mississippi authorities announced last week they were officially closing the book on the case in which three civil rights workers were murdered in Philadelphia, Miss. by members of the Ku Klux Klan – at least one a sheriff’s deputy. While nine people were convicted for the 1964 killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael
Mr. Ronald Lee Bell, a longtime advocate for social justice, passed away suddenly on June 1 at the age of 72. Mr. Bell graduated from Vocational High School in Minneapolis and earned a master’s in social work from the University of Minnesota and was a licensed independent social worker. Prior to retiring in 2009, Mr. Bell supervised staff at Hennepin County for 20 years. His staff included
Schwerner, only one has spent more than six years in jail, and that conviction didn’t come until 2005 when the defendant was 80 years old and wheelchair bound. All initially avoided state prison terms and the federal convictions predated federal murder statutes. Chaney was African-American and Goodman and Schwerner were white.
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minority advocates who ensured appropriate cultural casework with parents involved in child protection and staff who facilitated community development/outreach at Sabathani Community Center. Mr. Bell also privately facilitated support groups for African-American men. He was an inspiring mentor to individuals and a leader
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Todd Axtell
Election 2016
Lifestyle
Community
St. Paul gets new police chief
Brandon Davis takes over as DNC chief of staff
Your thoughts become your words
Summit Academy OIC raises $570,000 for GED training program
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