Simeon Rice NFL great-turned-filmmaker talks about his directorial debut aesthetically speaking
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Insight News August 31 - September 6, 2015
Vol. 42 No. 35 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Victor Propes A pioneering spirit By Al McFarlane, Editor in Chief Victor Propes envisioned strategies and structures that could support the advancement of people of African descent in Minnesota. His legacy includes ongoing efforts that seek to quicken consciousness and processes than can deliver equity and engagement to Minnesota’s Black community. Propes passed away peacefully in his home in Des Moines, IA, August 14, 2015. A Tribute to Victor Propes will be held 5:30pm, Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 at Scratch Bar and Grill, 408 3rd Avenue North, in downtown Minneapolis’ warehouse district.
Victor Propes was a determined civil rights strategist, advocate and organizer. He was an effective executive in Minneapolis city and Minnesota state government. He was an educator and activist proponent of African history and culture. Propes was Director of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department. Later he served as Executive Director of the state’s Council on Black Minnesotans. He provided leadership to the community through various organizations including Urban Coalition, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Urban League, NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, and Pilot City (now NorthPoint Health and Wellness).
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Remembering Julian Bond Commentary
By Irma McClaurin, PhD Culture and Education Editor On hearing the announcement that Julian Bond had passed on to the ancestors, I knew greatness had left us. The event gave me pause and I tried to remember when I first found myself in the sphere of influence of this great American leader.
Remembering Julian Bond took me back to my college days. It was there I had t crossed his path and come into his political orbit. He was this great Black leader that my very white college invited to speak on campus as part of the “Program in Practical Political Education.” I was a freshmen, fresh off the bus from inner city Chicago and it’s segregated neighborhoods and separate and unequal public schools. And now I was part of a group of 18 Black students, the largest number ever admitted to Grinnell College—the first wave of integration into PWIs (predominately white institutions). The year was 1969, less than
Julian Bond
a year after the riots that were triggered by the assassination of Martin Luther King. Prior to making my way out of the projects to Iowa, I had spent that 1968 summer as part of an experimental “Great Books” summer program at Yale Summer High School. The preparation I received over the eight weeks there was my survival kit, since my high school, as wonderful as I thought it was, was woefully inadequate for the rigor of Grinnell, a very elite college in the middle of nowhere Iowa. My class was of entering Black freshmen was a cohort of 18. We were the first to break the “critical mass” barrier. Up to our arrival, there has been one, two,
three, four, maybe even ten Black students, mostly men, on campus. Now, we had a critical mass. And with that fact came surveillance and responsibility—suddenly a conversation of more than three Black students was deemed to be cause for concern, and possibly us plotting some kind of subversion. Whereas white students gathered in groups of fives, tens, and twenties, without a second thought. None of us knew the nomenclature of “white privilege” at that moment. Why Julian Bond? Why then? I can only speculate. Perhaps the college thought it prudent to have
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10 years later, Hurricane Katrina’s impact still devastating on New Orleans’ Black residents By Curtis Bunn, Urban News Service
Amelia Boynton Robinson
Congressional Black Caucus offers condolences on the passing of Amelia Boynton Robinson
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu took to the road to declare his city is “no longer recovering, no longer rebuilding” a decade after Hurricane Katrina devastated it in one of America’s worst natural disasters, but some refuse to buy that speech. For many African Americans who watched their city submerged in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for nearly a week in 2005, Landrieu’s message rings hollow. Donya Richardson, a 41-year-old retail employee, moved from New Orleans to Atlanta in advance of the storm. She returned to her old neighborhood three times - each time leaving in tears.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Aug 26, 2015 — Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman G. K. Butterfield (NC-01) said on the passing of 104-year-old civil rights icon Amelia Boynton Robinson, “Today we mourn the passing of a remarkable citizen, Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson, a civil rights activist and one of the leaders of the 1965 Bloody Sunday march of
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Jocelyn Augustino
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Business
Investment
Education
Commentary
Northside architect wins “diversity in business” award
U.S. Black Chamber pressing auto dealers for fair return on Black dollars
Access Africa! Linking education and entertainment
“Your Honor, don’t send that child to jail, give him to us!”
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