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Insight News

January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021

Vol. 48 No. 4• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

Amanda Gorman

A POETIC VISION FOR AMERICA

Amanda Gorman, 23, the first person to be named America’s National Youth Poet Laureate, captivated the world with her reading of her poem, “The Hill We Climb” at the Biden-Harris Inauguration, Wednesday. From Los Angeles, California, the 23-year-old poet and activist focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. ibtimes.com STORY ON PAGE

Page 2 • January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021 • Insight News

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Insight News • January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021 • Page 3 WINNER: 2020 T YPOGRAPHY & DESIGN, 1ST PLACE, PHOTOGRAPHY (PORTRAIT & PERSONALIT Y), 1ST PLACE, WEBSITE, 3RD PLACE

Insight News January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021

Vol. 48 No. 4• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

Finding hope in our children By Brenda Lyle-Gray Columnist

photo/skakyn

The relief payments were part of bipartisan legislation passed by lawmakers and signed into law by Governor Tim Walz in December to help restaurants, bars, gyms, and bowling centers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Governor Walz directs $67.3 million to businesses impacted by COVID-19 closures Governor Tim Walz announced the Minnesota Department of Revenue has issued $67.3 million in COVID-19 Business Relief Payments to 3,891 eligible businesses in Minnesota. The relief payments were part of bipartisan legislation passed by lawmakers and signed into law by Governor Tim Walz in December to help restaurants, bars, gyms, and bowling centers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation also provides relief options to movie theaters and convention centers, as well as direct funding to all of Minnesota’s 87 counties to set up local grant relief programs. “This relief comes at a crucial time for our businesses who continue to make enormous sacriﬁces for the health and

safety of Minnesotans,” said Walz. “This is a critical lifeline for those businesses and for the Minnesotans whose livelihoods depend on them.” The department used sales tax ﬁlings to determine which businesses were eligible for the direct relief payments under the legislation. The checks have been mailed to eligible businesses, and business owners can expect to receive them in the coming days. The department cannot release a list of businesses receiving a payment because they are a direct payment sent to business owners based on private, nonpublic tax data. “These payments will give some relief to Minnesota businesses we know are hurting

due to the pandemic,” said Revenue Commissioner Robert Doty. “Revenue employees worked diligently to set up this program to determine eligibility and get checks issued quickly to these businesses.” Eligible businesses needed to meet the program requirements outlined in the legislation. Direct payment requirements for businesses include: Being located in Minnesota Had at least $10,000 in taxable sales in 2019 Filed Sales Tax returns in 2019 and 2020 Experienced a 30% drop in year-over-year taxable sales for April-September periods

Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem Editor’s note: Gorman’s recital of The Hill We Climb was stunning

When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade We’ve braved the belly of the beast We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace And the norms and notions of what just is Isn’t always just-ice And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it Somehow we do it Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished We the successors of a country and a time Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one And yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect We are striving to forge a union with purpose To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another We seek harm to none and harmony for all Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is

true: That even as we grieved, we grew That even as we hurt, we hoped That even as we tired, we tried That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious Not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and ﬁg tree And no one shall make them afraid If we’re to live up to our own time Then victory won’t lie in the blade But in all the bridges we’ve made That is the promise to glade The hill we climb If only we dare It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy And this eﬀort very nearly succeeded But while democracy can be periodically delayed it can never be permanently defeated In this truth in this faith we trust For while we have our eyes on the future history has its eyes on us This is the era of just redemption We feared at its inception We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour

Melvin Carter

By Irma McClaurin, PhD By Irma McClaurin, PhD https://corporate. target.com/article/2020/09/lakestreet-letter

Andrea Jenkins

Commentary by Dr. By Aarohi Narain By Mecca Dana Dan Randall Alexa Harry Maya Holly Starks Colbert, Beecham Spencer, Bos Bradley Jr. Josie Johnson By Global Latisha Information Townsend Contributing Architect Howard Mayo Urban Managing Clinic News University Editor Staff Service Writer Contributing Network (GIN)Writer News Service harry@insightnews.com

Being categorized by the Minnesota Unemployment Insurance program as a restaurant, bar, gym, bowling center, or similar business Businesses that did not receive a COVID-19 Business Relief Payment but think they meet the program criteria can contact the department. An online inquiry process will be available beginning Tuesday, January 19, and will remain open through Friday, February 5. An additional round of payments will be made after that date for businesses that qualify. Businesses can visit revenue.state.mn.us and click “COVID-19 Business Relief Payments” found on the homepage for more information.

but within it we found the power to author a new chapter To offer hope and laughter to ourselves So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation Our blunders become their burdens But one thing is certain: If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west, we will rise from the windswept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked south We will rebuild, reconcile and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid The new dawn blooms as we free it For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it If only we’re brave enough to be it

News

America honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Mom and Abuela (aka Grandma), Now more than ever, we need the unfiltered views of young people. In Puerto Rico, they say the mango tree can only make mangos. Thank you for sharing your ‘mangos’ with us. Your children are already leaders. With much love, Carmen Robles Mason Moreno is fourteen years old. He is a handsome young man . . . somewhat laid back as he sits on the edge of his bed, hands stuﬀed in his powder-blue hoodie. He is quietly spoken, and very close to his mother and grandmother. One could tell he had been raised with quality parenting, strong values, and love. That little light of deep thought and intellectual astuteness from research and study has ﬂickered even brighter with time spent pretty much in (COVID19) isolation. Recently, he was willing to sit down with his beloved grandmother and talk about the 2020 unprecedented, painful events that would be a stain in our nation’s history. As a retired educator of almost 40 years, I worry about our children . . . especially children of color. They are so far behind. As Senator Bobby Joe Champion said in an interview

Mason Moreno last month with Insight News editor, Al McFarlane, “If we don’t do something more to help our children whose parents are really struggling . . . and support educators who are doing the best they can . . . we could lose a generation or two.” “Why do you think January 6th happened in Washington D.C.,” his grandmother, Carmen Moreno, asked? Mason did not hesitate to respond. “Black Lives Matter,” he said, “and had BLM protestors been on the Capitol steps, there would have been a ‘blood bath’ . . . more police and soldiers and guns!” “There was an insurrection before,” he informed her, “but not like this.” In 1898, in Wilmington, N.C., white supremacists overthrew the North Carolina state government and forced elected oﬃcials to resign. For young Mason, as well as most human beings

MORENO 4

photo/Daily Record, North Carolina Archives and History

Armed white insurrectionists murdered Black men and burned Black businesses, including this newspaper office, during the Wilmington coup of 1898.

A white supremacist coup succeeded in 1898 North Carolina By Kathy Roberts Forde, Associate Professor, Journalism Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Kristin Gustafson Associate Teaching Professor in Media and Communication, University of Washington, Bothell While experts debate whether the U.S. Capitol siege was an attempted coup, there is no debate that what happened in 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina, was a coup – and its consequences were tragic. These two events, separated by 122 years, share critical features. Each was organized and planned. Each was an eﬀort to steal an election and disfranchise voters. Each was animated by white racist fears. And each required the help of the media to be successful. Those who study Reconstruction and its aftermath know the U.S. has deep experience with political and electoral violence.

Reconstruction was the 12-year period following the Civil War when the South returned to the Union and newly freed Black Americans were incorporated into U.S. democracy. But few understand that the Wilmington coup, when white supremacists overthrew the city’s legitimately elected bi-racial government, could not have happened without the involvement of white news media. The same is true of the Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021. The news media, it turns out, have often been key actors in U.S. electoral violence. This history is explored in a chapter one of us – Gustafson – wrote for a book the other – Forde – co-edited with Sid Bedingﬁeld, “Journalism & Jim Crow: The Making of White Supremacy in the New South,” which comes out later this year. In 1898, Charles B. Aycock wanted to become governor in North Carolina. A member of the elite class, Aycock was a leading Democrat, which was the party of white supremacy in the South before the mid-20th-century political realignment that produced today’s parties. A major obstacle lay in his path to the governor’s

SUPREMACIST 5

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Minnesotans 65 and older can schedule COVID-19 vaccination at community clinics

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Page 4 • January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021 • Insight News

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JBF grant application now open for Black- and Indigenous-owned restaurants By Robin Caldwell, Contributing Writer The James Beard Foundation (JBF) announced that its JBF Food and Beverage Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans is now open for application. The Fund will award 18 (eighteen) $15,000 grants in six regions - three grants per region - of the United States to qualifying food and beverage businesses. JBF established the Fund as a part of their Open for Good Initiative to assist small independently owned restaurants, food, and beverage businesses who were hit hard during the pandemic. To qualify, a food or beverage business must be independently owned with 50 or fewer full- or part-time employees as of February 15, 2020 or a restaurant group in which each member restaurant had 50 or fewer full-or part-time employees on that date, and at least 51% owned by Black and/or Indigenous American(s). Completed applications in each

photo/monkeybusinessimages

The JBF Food and Beverage Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans is administered by New Venture Fund on behalf of the James Beard Foundation.

of the categories listed on the JBF website within each region will be reviewed on a ﬁrst-come, ﬁrst-served basis. According to JBF, “each applicant (whether an independent restaurant or one location from within a restaurant group) approved by the Fund shall receive a one-time payment of $15,000.” Funds will be distributed within 15 days of the close of applications or the application deadline of 3 pm ET, January 22, 2021. Franchise owners are ineligible. The JBF Food and Beverage Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans is administered by New Venture Fund on behalf of the James Beard Foundation. The Foundation states that as funds are replenished future rounds will be open for application. To learn more visit https://www.jamesbeard.org/ investment-fund-criteria for frequently asked questions section as well as eligibility criteria in detail.

How the Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a seat of Black power for generations in Atlanta By Jason Oliver Evans Ph.D. Student in Religious Studies, University of Virginia The high-stakes U.S. Senate race in Georgia catapulted the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church back into the spotlight. For 135 years, the church played a vital role in the fight against racism and the civil rights movement. It was the spiritual home of the civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It is now the home of the state’s first Black senator – the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at the church. As a scholar of African American religion and Christian theology, I believe it is important to understand how the Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a seat of Black power and organizing for generations in Atlanta. ‘Stone of help’ Ebenezer Baptist Church, a predominantly African American congregation, was founded in 1886, nearly 20 years after the end of the Civil War. The pastor, Rev. John Andrew Parker, served as Ebenezer’s first pastor from 1886 to 1894. Little is known about Parker

and Ebenezer’s early years. But according to historian Benjamin C. Ridgeway, Parker organized the church in a small building located on Airline Avenue in Atlanta. The name Ebenezer, meaning “stone of help,” comes from the Hebrew Bible. In the First Book of Samuel, the Israelites are said to have gathered in the town of Mizpah to offer burnt offerings to God. When their enemies, the Philistines, received notice that the Israelites were in Mizpah, they sent forces to attack them. With God’s help, the Philistines were eventually defeated. Prophet Samuel then named a large stone “Ebenezer” to remind the Israelites of God’s intervention in their battle against the Philistine army. As historians Roswell F. Jackson and Rosalyn M. Patterson observed in their 1989 article, “The selection of the name Ebenezer, ‘Stone of help,’ was profoundly prophetic.” In their view, Ebenezer’s name proved fitting to describe the role the church would come to have in the subsequent civil rights movement. Growth of the church The Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, the maternal

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grandfather of King, served as second pastor from 1894 to 1931. Williams led the Ebenezer Church into the 20th century as a religious community mobilized to fight the segregationist policies plaguing the African American community in the state of Georgia. By 1913, the church had grown from 13 to nearly 750 members. Williams developed a distinct form of the social gospel, which emphasized the importance of African Americans owning businesses and taking social action against racial and economic injustice in their local communities. Known for his powerful preaching, impressive organizing and leadership skills, Williams led several initiatives, including boycotts against a local Atlanta newspaper, “The Georgian,” which was known for using racist language against African Americans. In 1906, Williams led a fight to end the white primary system which prohibited African Americans from voting in the Georgia primaries. In 1917, Williams helped establish the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP. A year later, he was elected as branch president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, and, within five months of his tenure, the chapter’s membership grew to 1,400. As religious historian Lewis Baldwin remarks in his book “The Voice of Conscience,” “Clearly, Williams used the [Ebenezer] church as a power base and rallying point for such activities, an approach that would also be used by [Martin Luther] King, Sr. and King, Jr.” Working for social change Following Williams’ death in 1931, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., Ebenezer’s

Moreno From 3 directly or indirectly aﬀected by the relentless COVID19 pandemic, 2020 was such a bad year. A president who would not put his ego aside and just ‘listen’ when the virus was ﬁrst discovered in China . . . the fact this person of supposed leadership had other sinister plans from the beginning to divide the country . . . but why? A day of reckoning is coming where we will have to answer this question for Mason and all the other children. He also couldn’t understand why people just wouldn’t accept the necessity to wear masks and do whatever else they can do to protect themselves and other people. That behavior just didn’t make sense to him. People continue to die because the virus and other variants of the disease continue to spread. When asked how he felt Minnesota Governor Tim

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assistant pastor and Williams’ son-in-law, became the church’s third pastor. During his 40-year tenure as pastor, “Daddy” King, as he was aﬀectionately known, led Ebenezer with a mixture of evangelical faith and progressive social action. Finding warrant for social action in the Christian scriptures, King Sr. challenged other Black churches to embrace the social gospel – a late 19thcentury Protestant movement that emphasized the application of the Christian message to the social and moral concerns of society. Moreover, King Sr. led marches and rallies to protest discriminatory and segregationist policies in the city of Atlanta, including the desegregation of the Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Board of Education. In the ﬁrst 15 years of King Sr.‘s pastorate at Ebenezer, church membership grew to 3,700.

photo/Paras Griﬃn_Getty Images

Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Jan. 21, 2019 in Atlanta, Ga.

MLK’s spiritual home Ebenezer came into the global spotlight when Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the call to join his father as co-pastor in 1960. Before then, King had pastored Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1954 to 1959. During his tenure at Dexter Avenue, King served as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization which successfully led the Montgomery Bus Boycott from Dec. 5, 1955 to Dec. 20, 1956. In 1959, King resigned from his position as pastor at Dexter Avenue to serve alongside his father as well as serve as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is also based in Atlanta. From the pulpit of Ebenezer, King preached some of his more memorable sermons. In one of his sermons published in

a collection titled “The Strength to Love,” King describes racial prejudice as indicative of “softmindedness,” a person’s tendency to uncritically adhere to unsupportable beliefs. In the same sermon, titled “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart,” King argued, “Race prejudice is based on groundless fears, suspicions, and misunderstandings.” To overcome this, King argued that human beings must cultivate both a tough mind and a tender heart, a joining of a critical mind with a concern for fellow human beings. This message reverberates in contemporary movements for racial equity and justice, including the Black Lives Matter movement. While many BLM members are not aﬃliated with any organized religion, the movement emphasizes the importance of spiritual wellness for African Americans as they ﬁght for Black liberation. Since its inception, Ebenezer Baptist Church has been an institution in which evangelical fervor and progressive social activism joined to foster societal change. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the spiritual home of King from hosting the annual commemorative service in honor of the slain civil rights

leader, which usually draws 1,700 attendees. But attention to the church has been renewed following the election of Pastor Warnock to the U.S. Senate. One cannot appreciate the importance of MLK Day without understanding the tradition that formed one of America’s most inﬂuential civil rights leaders. This article originally appeared on The Conversation. It is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Jason Oliver Evans is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. A scholar of Christian thought, Evans primarily studies Christology, soteriology, creation, and theological anthropology. In his work, Evans considers how identity, race, sexuality, and gender more broadly factor into the study of Christian faith and practice. Evans’ other research interests include African American theology and religion, liberation theologies, Africana studies, gender and sexuality studies, Trinitarian theology, theological and social ethics, Scripture and theological hermeneutics, and the thought of 20th-century Reformed theologian Karl Barth. Evans is also a podcast contributor to the Religion, Race, and Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia.

Walz was doing, Mason said he believed the Govenor was doing well. “I just want him to do something to help people with small businesses. A lot of them invested everything they had to have a better life, and now it’s all gone. People who worked in regular jobs might eventually get another job, but some people who gave their businesses all they had lost their homes and their kids don’t even have internet so they can get their online classwork done. Once these business owners recovered from the damage of the riots after the murder of George Floyd, then the virus began to really change everything. The big name stores like Target and Walmart could stay open and make more money, while so many small businesses were forced to close and might not ever re-open. Where’s the fairness in that? These people really need help from people who have the resources to help them. They deserve a chance to try and re-build,” Mason said. Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan were interviewed Tuesday, January 19th, on “Conversations

with Al McFarlane.” It was the day before one the most unprecedented inaugurations in the history of our country . . . on the heels of a foiled, vicious, and well-orchestrated government siege encouraged by a racist, corrupt, despot determined to remain in power while continuing to defy and destroy the core principles of our democracy. Look at what our country escaped because “We the people” . . . some who had never voted before . . . said ‘enough’ . . . ‘no more’! We owe so much to Stacey Abrams, the Georgia politicization whose voter mobilization unseated the state’s two Republican US Senators, therby delivering control of the Senate to Democrats. The country will ‘rise up’ under new and true leadership. Minnesota will begin to heal because the state has a ‘real’ leader . . . once an educator himself . . . who worries about the children as we all do . . . one who sits down at the table with his executive team and asks . . . how can we ﬁx this . . . the broken parts

that the Pandemic of COVID19 and the community’s response to the Pandemic of 1619 have disrupted. We must create a new, better normal and not return to ‘what was’. There’s a lot of work to be done, but there is an amazing, innovative, and passionate ‘brain trust’ and powerful leadership in Minnesota that is beginning to make changes that beneﬁt all people. From the mouths of babes . . . common sense, simple life instructions. “It’s never a wrong time to do something right,” says young Mason. “Just be a good leader. Listen to people. Be willing to accept the ‘truth’ about things. Care for the people and try and make things better.” Mother, Michelle and Abuela Carmen . . . thank you for introducing me to a future leader that will continue to grow and thrive in a far less divided America. For Mason Moreno’s generation . . . for this wonderful reality, I truly pray.

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Insight News • January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021 • Page 5

America honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia Fifty-three years after Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, and 38 years after his birth date became a national federal holiday, America is now facing another pivotal moment of national racial reckoning. While parades and other festive gatherings for the heroic civil rights leader will not occur this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, national and local organizations throughout the country still will honor Dr. King’s legacy. In Florida, the Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration Committee of St. Johns County will host the 36th annual Commemorative Event in the Lewis Auditorium in St. Augustine, FL and online as a virtual event in a celebration of the memory of Dr. King and the inﬂuence he had in the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. NNPA President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., is the featured speaker. Dr. Chavis will address the theme, “Our Lives Begin to End the Day We Become Silent about Things That Matter.” Chavis stated, “Dr. King’s dream and courage for freedom, justice and equality for all must reaﬃrmed and practiced in 2021 across America and throughout the world.” The Presidential

Supremacist From 3 office. Several years earlier, Black Republicans and white Populists in North Carolina, tired of Democrats enriching themselves off public policies favoring banks, railroads and industry, joined forces. Known as Fusionists, they rose to power in the executive branch, the legislature and the governments of several eastern towns, but most importantly, the thriving port city of Wilmington, then the largest city in North Carolina. Anti-Black disinformation Wilmington, with its majority Black population and successful Black middle class, was a city that offered hope for Black Southerners. Black men had higher rates of literacy than white men, ran some of the city’s most successful businesses, such as restaurants, tailors, shoemakers, furniture makers and jewelers, and, to the dismay of Democrats, held public office. Democrats, seething over their loss of power, were determined to get it back in the state election of 1898. Aycock joined forces with Furnifold Simmons, a former U.S. representative who served as the party’s campaign manager, and Josephus Daniels, the editor Raleigh’s News & Observer newspaper. Together they hatched a plan. Using anti-Black disinformation spread through newspapers and public speeches across the state, they would whip up white racial fears of “Negro domination” and “black beasts” that preyed on the “virtue” of white women. The goal: drive a wedge in the Fusionist coalition and lure white Populists back to the Democratic fold. The press and political power The News & Observer, the most influential newspaper in the state, was the Democratic Party’s most potent weapon. Its editor called it “the militant voice of white supremacy.” For months in advance of the November election, the paper ran articles, editorials, speeches and reader letters telling lies about Black malfeasance, misrule, criminality and sexual predations against white women. White newspapers across the state, from big cities to tiny hamlets, republished the News & Observer’s content. “The prevalence of rape by brutal negroes upon helpless white women has brought about a reign of terror in rural districts,” the paper said. Daniels admitted years later this claim was a lie. Knowing the power of images, Daniels hired a cartoonist to create viciously racist images for the front page. Roughly a year after Rebecca Latimer Felton, a prominent white Georgian, gave a speech advocating the lynching of Black men for their

photo/NNPA

photo/Italia LLC

Martin Luther King Junior Memorial in Washington DC, USA which is closed to the public January 18, because of heightened security measures ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden Inaugural Committee is hosting “United We Serve: A Celebration of the National MLK Day of Service.” Participants include the Rev. Dr. Bernice King; Martin Luther King III; Chesca; Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan.; Rosario Dawson; Andra Day; Yo-Yo Ma; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Sean Patrick Thomas; Diane Warren; Lynn Whitﬁeld; and Bebe Winans. The event will be streamed live on at bideninaugural.org and on PIC social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook from 8:00–9:00 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 18. “This year’s inauguration will look diﬀerent amid the pandemic, so we’re

committed to providing dynamic programming that will engage more Americans than ever before, all from the safety of their homes,” said PIC CEO Tony Allen in a news release. “With the help of popular musicians and artists, rising stars, national, state and local leaders, and everyday Americans, we’re going to celebrate our diversity, honor those who are committed to service, and reﬂect on our history. We will come together as one nation, America united.” In Houston, the 43rd Annual Original MLK Day Virtual Experience & Live Parade of Giving occurs at MacGregor Park at 5225 Calhoun Road. There, residents are asked to drop-oﬀ donations

to be distributed to those in need. In Pennsylvania, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy with its “Food justice is social justice” campaign. The food bank will open one of its warehouses to 30 volunteers to prepare food for distribution across the organization’s 11-county service area from 9 a.m. to noon. In Atlanta, the Beloved Community Commemorative Service caps a weeklong celebration of Dr. King’s life that features a keynote address by Bishop T.D. Jakes. The event occurs online and features remarks from Grammy-winning gospel artist Kirk Franklin and

supposed assaults on white women, white newspapers across North Carolina reprinted and discussed it for days to gin up racist hostility. At the same time, the Democrats organized the Red Shirts, a paramilitary arm of the party, to intimidate Black citizens and stop them from participating in politics and, eventually, voting. Alexander Manly, the editor of the Black newspaper The Daily Record in Wilmington, then the only Black daily in the country, decided to ﬁght back. To counteract the lies the Democrats and Felton told about Black men as “beasts” and “brutes,” Manly told the truth in a bold editorial: Some white women fell in love with Black men and, if these aﬀairs were discovered, the inevitable outcome was the label “rape” and a brutal lynching. The grandson of a white governor of North Carolina and a Black woman he enslaved, Manly knew white hypocrisy well. Democrats went wild, reprinting Manly’s editorial in newspapers across the state and attacking him for insulting the “virtue” of white women.

patrolled the state, Democrats laid their final plan. Because there were few local elections in Wilmington in 1898, and Democrats viewed the city as the center of “Negro domination” in the state, they began organizing in early fall to overthrow Wilmington’s biracial government and install all white officials. After stealing the state election through fraud and violence, the Democrats sent a massive group of Red Shirts into Wilmington. They murdered an untold number of Black men in the street; burned Black businesses, including Manly’s newspaper office; terrorized the Black community, forcing at least 1,400 people to flee, many never to return; and removed and exiled all Fusionists from office, installing white Democrats in their stead. Early in the new century, Aycock sat in the governor’s office. Black citizens were disfranchised by constitutional amendment, ushering in white supremacist, one-party, kleptocratic rule that lasted at least through the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

lies that President Donald Trump and his allies churned out daily. Social media companies helped turn these lies into a contagion of mass delusion that radicalized a signiﬁcant swath of the GOP base. Since Presidentelect Joe Biden’s victory in November, Trump and his political and media allies have relentlessly pushed the massive lie that liberals stole the presidential election. Like press involvement in the murderous

The coup As the election approached and Red Shirts

While parades and other festive gatherings for the heroic civil rights leader will not occur this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, national and local organizations throughout the country still will honor Dr. King’s legacy. U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. The event will stream on Facebook and The King Center website. In California, Stanford University’s four-day online festival honoring Dr. King’s life and legacy culminates on the holiday with musical performances, documentary ﬁlms, and conversations inspired by the question, Where do we go from here? “I hope the King Holiday can become an occasion for informing people about King’s legacy and how it relates to the King Institute, but more broadly, how it relates to the San Francisco Bay Area,” Clayborne Carson, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor of History, Emeritus, at Stanford, and director of the King Institute, told the university’s news service.

“One of the things that will be made clear is that the King family has had a very special relationship with this area and with Stanford.” In Detroit, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History hosts ﬁlm screenings and other programming that includes a museum-wide live stream of the keynote speech by PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor. The Rev. Dr. Bernice King posted a heartfelt thank you on Twitter to all those observing her late father’s holiday. “Thank you for the loving, sincere ways that you honored and celebrated my father on his birthday,” Bernice King wrote in the post that included a photo of her, her father, and her mother.

events in Wilmington long ago, today’s media played an essential role in deluding and inciting supporters to violence in the attempt to steal an election. “The past is never dead,” William Faulkner wrote. “It’s not even past.”

First Amendment, libel law, journalistic standards and practices, African American history, literary journalism, and the history of the book and print culture. She is co-editor of Journalism and Jim Crow: The Press and the Making of White Supremacy in the New South with Sid Bedingfield, to be published in early 2021 by the University of Illinois Press. Kristin Gustafson Associate Teaching Professor, University of Washington Bothell.

This article was originally appeared on The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons license. Kathy Roberts Forde is a U.S. journalism historian with research interests in the

WE NEED YOUR

Then and now Across the past four years, the overwhelmingly white right-wing news media spread

Are you a Black parent or caregiver? Is your child a girl? Do you live with her? Is she between the age of 4-8 years old? Has a medical professional told you your daughter is overweight? If YES to all these questions, we want you & your child to be part of our group discussions!

We are creating a program for Black girls to help them adopt healthy lifestyle habits by using a smart doll and video series with parental involvement.

To show our appreciation, you will receive a $10 gift card.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED OR HAVE QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT DR. DAHEIA BARR-ANDERSON AT (612) 301-5919 OR MINI-ME@UMN.EDU

Page 6 • January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021 • Insight News

Insight 2 Health

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Minnesotans 65 and older can schedule COVID-19 vaccination at community clinics Minnesotans eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine can now sign up for appointments at one of the state’s nine community vaccination pilot clinics through a new website and call center launched today by the State of Minnesota. The clinics will initially serve adults age 65 and older, as well as prekindergarten through grade 12 educators, staﬀ, and child care workers. (See Who’s Getting Vaccinated?) Because this is a limited pilot program, vaccine demand is certain to outpace available doses at this time, and there will be a limited number of appointments available. Minnesotans are encouraged to remain patient as the state waits for more vaccine doses from the federal government. These initial clinics will set the state on a path for a more extensive network of vaccination clinics in Minnesota communities as the federal government increases vaccine supply. “Every shot in the arm is another step toward ending this pandemic and these clinics will help us meet the goal of getting millions of Minnesotans vaccinated as quickly and as safely as possible,” Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm said. “To be clear, we do not have enough vaccine for everyone who wants one. Appointment slots will ﬁll very quickly, and most Minnesotans will need to be patient as we wait for more vaccine to arrive in the state. But we are working hard to build a community vaccination system so we are ready along with pharmacies and clinics and others to get Minnesotans immunized once the federal government provides

those doses.” In addition to the pilot clinics, Minnesota health care systems are providing limited vaccine doses to patients 65 years of age and older. Health care providers are developing systems to let their existing patients know when they can make an appointment for a vaccine. Providers will contact patients with this information – Minnesotans should not contact their health care providers directly right now. Minnesotans age 65 and older can make appointments by visiting mn.gov/vaccine or by calling 612-426-7230 or toll free, 1-833431-2053. Minnesotans should attempt to make an appointment online before dialing the call center. Minnesotans who cannot immediately make an appointment may be able to sign up for a waitlist. Available appointments will refresh every Tuesday at noon. Minnesotans will have the opportunity to schedule appointments for both their ﬁrst and second doses of vaccine. Educators and child care providers, with few exceptions, will work directly with their employer to receive instructions on how to secure a vaccination appointment and should not try to schedule an appointment unless their employer has contacted them with information about their appointment. Appointments are required to receive a shot. Minnesotans without an appointment should not visit a community vaccination pilot site. No walk-ins will be accepted, and anyone with the

photo/Courtney Hale

Appointments are required to receive a shot. Minnesotans without an appointment should not visit a community vaccination pilot site. No walk-ins will be accepted, and anyone with the intention of walking in for an appointment will be asked to leave and given information on how to sign up for an appointment. intention of walking in for an appointment will be asked to leave and given information on how to sign up for an appointment. Those on the waitlist will be notiﬁed if they should visit a vaccination pilot site for their shot. Minnesotans who are waitlisted but do not receive their vaccine one week will need to sign up again the following week. No matter how Minnesotans make an appointment, they will be asked to provide the following information: Name Minnesota address

Phone number Email (optional) Gender/race/ethnicity Date of birth Health information, including underlying conditions, current illnesses, and allergies. Minnesotans who make an appointment should arrive at their assigned pilot site no earlier than 15 minutes before their appointment to ensure social distancing. Educators will need to show an employee ID or a paystub to prove employment. More information on scheduling can be found at Find My Vaccine: https://mn.gov/ covid19/vaccine/find-vaccine/

index.jsp. Because this a pilot program, there is a limited amount of vaccine and appointment slots available for eligible Minnesotans right now. Access will increase as the federal government provides more doses of vaccine to Minnesota in the weeks ahead. The pilot clinics are located in Andover, Brooklyn Center, Fergus Falls, Mountain Iron, Thief River Falls, St. Cloud, North Mankato, Rochester and Marshall. “This pilot program is designed to help us how to best serve Minnesotans through

our community vaccination strategy,” Commissioner Malcolm said. “What we learn now will help us ensure a smooth process when more doses arrive from the federal government and we can open more community vaccination clinics all across Minnesota. Please be patient. There is not enough vaccine for everyone who wants it. If you cannot make an appointment now, you will be able to soon.” More information is available at COVID-19 Vaccinations: https://mn.gov/ covid19/vaccine/.

WE WANT TO H E AR FR O M YO U A B O U T THE UPPER HARBOR REDEVELOPMENT

UPPERHARBORMPLS.COM

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Insight News • January 25, 2021 - January 31, 2021 • Page 7

Aesthetically It Introducing W.D. Foster-Graham W.D. Foster-Graham is a native son of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and an alumnus of Minneapolis Central High School’s Class of 1970. A graduate of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, he received a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in Black studies. He is an original member of the 3-time Grammy Award-winning ensemble, Sounds of Blackness, and has been recognized by the International Society of Poets as one of its “Best New Poets of 2003.” In keeping with his roots in south Minneapolis, he is an active member of St. Peter’s

AME Church. Retired from the ﬁeld of teaching in Minneapolis Public Schools, he considered it the most rewarding experience of his working career. Currently, he is a guest columnist for journalist and entrepreneur Wyatt O’Brian Evans from Washington, D.C. As a 5-time published independent author, FosterGraham’s Christopher Family Novel series graces the shelves of many public library system collections in Minnesota. His passion for writing was inspired

at an early age by his father, who read voraciously; in his words, his father was his “Number One fan and biggest critic.” His tastes in writing run to historical ﬁction, family sagas, and romance, seasoned with his own brand of African American ﬂavor—at the end of the day, it’s all about the love. He shamelessly admits to a love of romance novels, whodunits, and classic movies of old Hollywood. When not in writer’s mode, he loves travel on the open road and time with his husband and son. He received

inspiration from the late novelists E. Lynn Harris and Toni Morrison. One of his favorite quotes from Toni Morrison is, “If there is a story you wish to read, and it hasn’t been written yet, then you must be the one to write it.” Driven by the need to read about characters who looked like him, address the stereotypical portrayals where they existed, and his experiences with Publishing While Black, set Foster-Graham on the road to independent publishing, starting with his

ﬁrst novel, Mark My Words: A Christopher Family Novel. In the process, he discovered that Black independent authors encompass three of Kwanzaa’s seven principles: Kuumba (Creativity), Kujichagulia (SelfDetermination), and Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics). As book review editor, Foster-Graham ﬁrmly believes that representation matters, and supporting Black authors (especially local Black authors) is an imperative. Recognizing the importance of reviews for authors, his column, Sharing

Black Boy, Black Boy Sharing Our Stories

By: W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor As African American authors and poets, we have a rich

abundance of stories that need to be told and shared, and as such we create new possibilities and paradigms, as well as selfdetermination. It is with great pleasure that I share Crown Shepherd’s children’s story, Black Boy, Black Boy. Throughout the story, the phrase “Black boy, black boy, what do you see?” connects each young Black boy with their future selves, and the diversity of those occupations and careers,

role models who look like them. It is empowering when we see someone who represents us in the career of our aspirations, especially as children. For African Americans, it is imperative. Shepherd’s story was inspired by her nephews and her concern about the correlation between Black boys’ reading skills and the school-to-prison pipeline. All too often, Black boys don’t like to read because

they don’t see themselves in the books they were given. Masterfully illustrated by local artist Mychal Batson, Shepherd’s story embraces the unlimited possibilities for Black boys. She expands the limited perspectives of rapper and athlete for success, which is often reinforced by the dominant culture. She also addresses the matter of colorism. Her characters embody the entire spectrum of complexions which

comprise African Americans. As one who grew up with the Dick and Jane books of the 1950s & 1960s, Black Boy, Black Boy is the sort of book I wish I’d had in my collection as a child. Shepherd’s motivation for writing this book exempliﬁes

Our Stories, will bring light to the unique voices of new and established Black authors, and his reviews will run the gamut of ﬁction and non-ﬁction. He also believes that there are no “aspiring writers”: once you write, you are a writer. A writer’s gifts will make room for him/ her/them. He is honored to become part of the Insight News team, and he leaves you, the reader, with the following: “Believe in dreams and never give up.”

a universal sentiment and need shared by Black authors and readers: reading about characters who look like us in books written by Black authors. In her words, “Representation is everything.” As a girl, she was a huge reader; however, the books she read were by white authors. She was exposed to Black authors in diﬀerent genres later in life, and once she was, the representation inspired her to share her gift with others. Look for Black Boy, Black Boy at Ms. Shepherd’s website crownthewriter.com. Let us continue to share our stories. If we don’t, who will?

When Destiny Calls By W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor Sharing Our Stories is dedicated to the review of works by Black authors, both fiction and nonfiction. Today, I give you a nonfictional work; specifically, a biography. Written by Sharon Botts Garth, When Destiny Calls: Living Life With Purpose is the story of her grandfather, Rev. Henry Botts, Sr., who

became pastor of Zion Baptist Church, one of the prominent Black churches in the history of Minneapolis. Born in 1875 near the end of Reconstruction in Missouri, Henry Botts’ life is one of strength, service, perseverance, and a life lived by spiritual values, not only in the pulpit, but through the ways he engaged with his parishioners and his community. Though he was subjected to the challenges

which faced African Americans during those times, he wasn’t deﬁned by them. Sis. Garth takes us through Reconstruction, the Great Migration, setting down roots in north Minneapolis, his assuming the position as Zion Baptist’s pastor in the 1920s, the Civil Rights era, the growth of the Black community in the Twin Cities, and on through to his death in 1967. As a native of the Twin Cities, the historical aspects of

life for African Americans here struck home. In comparison to other major urban areas, the Twin Cities Black population (northside Minneapolis, southside Minneapolis, and the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul) was tiny, and it was subject to the practice of redlining until the ﬁnal version of the Open Occupancy Law was passed in 1969. Sis. Garth beautifully illustrates the pivotal role the churches played in the unity

and survival of the community, as well as the preparation for succeeding generations as adults and citizens. Those roles are as vital today as they were then, perhaps even more so. I have often said, “If we don’t share our stories, who will?” Thank you, Sis. Garth, for sharing the legacy of your grandfather, Rev. Henry G. Botts, Sr., and the life lessons he handed down to us. And for those of you who are intrigued

by another unique voice of Black history in the urban Midwest, look no further than your Amazon or AuthorHouse library.

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by ROBERT HARLING directed by LISA ROTHE