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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • May 16, 2018

INSIDE

Efforts to preserve black cemeteries - 5 New era in Poor People’s Campaign - 8 Failure to suppress rap and hip-hop - 10 Local schools recognize top teachers - 13 Carson: Hurting the poorest Americans - 15

Richmond & Hampton Roads

LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE

Virginia shows how Medicaid can help end the opioid crisis

Aubrey Gholson has been receiving addiction treatment at Daily Planet for eight months and is thankful for its medication-based approach.

GERMAN LOPEZ VOX - Fawn Ricciuti started using opioids a decade ago, when she was enrolled in a New Jersey pain management program. What followed is the kind of story that’s been told thousands of times over the past few years as America’s opioid epidemic has grown: Her casual use of opioid painkillers over time turned into full-blown addiction.

Her doctors eventually tried to wean her off painkillers, arguing that her dosage was too high. While that led her to use fewer opioids for a while, she’d still buy opioid painkillers from the street, she said, to manage pain stemming from painful disorders, including scoliosis. The drug use turned more recreational as she began using opioids with her ex-boyfriend, who’s also the father of her son. Pretty soon, the drugs consumed her life.

But unlike the stories commonly told in the news and coroners’ reports, Ricciuti did not overdose and die. Early in 2017, she got on buprenorphine (common brand name: Suboxone),

which does not produce a euphoric high when taken as prescribed. She said that the drug, paired with group therapy, helps her treat not just the cravings and withdrawal that come with addiction and dependence but also, along with chiropractic, the pain that led her to use opioid painkillers in the first place.

Withdrawal “is like going from being how you are now to the worst flu you can think of within hours,” said Ricciuti, who’s 33 and now lives in the Richmond, area. “Now I don’t have to stress about whether I have something [drugs] for the morning and how I’m going to get something in the afternoon.”

When this reporter spoke to Ricciuti at one of the Richmond clinics run

by Daily Planet Health Services, she said that addiction treatment, paid for through Medicaid, let her start getting her life in order — allowing her to focus more on her family and search for more sustainable work.

“I have a better relationship with my daughter, my mom,” she said. “If I hadn’t gone to treatment,” she went

on, “my daughter wouldn’t be able to do soccer because I couldn’t guarantee that I could pick her up at 5:30 to get her home every day.”

Ricciuiti reflected on her other ambitions.

“Do you know what water ice is?

“Oh, man, it’s so good. But yeah, I want to open a water ice place down here. It’s kind of like Italian ice that you run through blenders, so it’s softserved.” She added, “I got a business idea. I just want to do a couple classes and make sure that I have everything set so I’m not jumping into something over my head.”

Here’s the thing: Ricciuti’s success story isn’t unique. Despite much of the despair that surrounds the opioid crisis, the medication she’s on has been known to work for opioid addiction for decades. And it’s not the only one; two others, methadone and naltrexone, can work better for some people than buprenorphine.

Studies show that the medications reduce the all-cause mortality rate among opioid addiction patients by half or more and do a far better job of

keeping people in treatment than nonmedication approaches. In France, the government expanded doctors’ ability to prescribe buprenorphine in 1995 to confront an opioid epidemic — and overdose deaths declined by 79 percent from 1995 to 1999 as the number of people in treatment went up, according to a 2004 study published in The American Journal on Addictions.

Despite the evidence, the medications are commonly stigmatized as just “substituting one drug with another.”

But the problem with addiction isn’t drug use per se. The problem is when drug use turns compulsive and harmful — creating health risks, leading someone to neglect family and children, driving someone to commit crimes, and so on.

As Ricciuti’s story shows, buprenorphine addresses these issues by letting her get a handle on her drug use without such negative outcomes, even if it needs to be taken indefinitely. The

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The LEGACY

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(from page 1) medications don’t work for everyone, with data from France and Vermont suggesting that up to half of the people with opioid addictions won’t take up the medications even when they’re widely available — but helping just half the people in the US who are addicted to opioids would translate to potentially hundreds of thousands of lives saved over a decade.

The studies, France’s example, and Ricciuti’s story show that the opioid crisis and addiction are not insurmountable. But America hasn’t fully embraced the solutions that we know can work. According to a 2016 report by the surgeon general, only 10 percent of people in the U.S. with a drug use disorder get specialty treatment, which the report attributed to a lack of access to care.

Even when treatment is available, other federal data suggests that fewer than half of treatment facilities offer opioid addiction medications.

But how do you fix this — and build up addiction treatment in the US? Virginia offers one example. By treating addiction primarily as a public health issue and bringing treatment into the rest of the health care system through Medicaid, the commonwealth has managed to make buprenorphine, other medications, and treatment in general more accessible to patients — and it’s seeing more stories like Ricciuti’s as a result.

What Virginia has done

Addiction treatment providers are notoriously underpaid by health insurers across the U.S. That leads to big shortages in supply, because it makes it very difficult to start a sustainable addiction treatment facility. What Virginia did was use the big health plan it has control over — Medicaid, which covers low-income people — to boost reimbursement rates to addiction treatment providers.

The state started the program, the Addiction and Recovery Treatment Services (ARTS), in April 2017.

Although ARTS is still fairly new, independent evaluations from researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University have already found some promising results.

After the program went into effect, the percent of Medicaid members with an opioid use disorder who received treatment went up by 29 percent from April to December 2017 compared to the same period the previous year. At the same time, emergency department visits related to opioid use disorders went down by 31 percent. That was more than double the 15 percent reduction in emergency department use among all state Medicaid members during the same time frame.

The researchers also calculated what they would expect emergency department visits to look like with and without ARTS. The model suggested that ARTS really is to credit for the bulk of the drop in emergency department usage.

Peter Cunningham, a professor at

VCU and co-author of the evaluations, cautioned that “as we get more data and we are able to look at this over a longer time period, things might change or we might find other trends.”

But the findings suggest that a boost in treatment led to a reduction in emergency department visits related to opioid misuse — a strong indicator that there’s less untreated addiction and fewer overdoses among state Medicaid beneficiaries.

“We were pleasantly surprised to see such a rapid response,” Jennifer Lee, director of Virginia’s Medicaid program, told me.

The ARTS program offers the full gamut of treatment options, from outpatient doctors’ offices to intensive residential facilities. “We built a whole continuum of care,” Katherine Neuhausen, the chief medical officer of Virginia Medicaid and an architect of ARTS, told me. Patients are placed in treatment depending on their needs, based on guidelines by the American Society of Addiction Medicine that use a numerical scale to figure out the intensity of treatment that’s required.

A chart showing the levels of opioid addiction treatment, as recommended by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Along with bringing Medicaid reimbursement rates for addiction treatment up to average commercial rates, the state also took other steps to ensure the quality of treatment that’s provided. Under ARTS, access to evidence-based anti-addiction medications like buprenorphine is

financially incentivized with higher rates. In residential treatment, the state is also moving to mandate access to such medications — in part to meet requirements for a federal Medicaid 1115 waiver that it got for ARTS, which allowed the commonwealth to use Medicaid to pay for more treatment.

“We wouldn’t allow providers to treat diabetes in inpatients without providing insulin,” Neuhausen said.

Virginia also trained health care providers on providing addiction treatment — to ensure that more people across the state actually had an addiction treatment service in their area. And to help combat the overprescription and misuse of opioids, the state established new Medicaid guidelines for painkiller prescriptions, setting rules and extra layers of approval for lengthier prescriptions.

A cartridge like this one holds medication, known as naloxone, used to block the effects of opioids and reverse overdoses.

A cartridge like this one holds medication, known as naloxone, used to block the effects of opioids and reverse overdoses.

Clinicians at Daily Planet Health Services train their clients on how to safely administer naloxone to reverse overdoses. They say clients have reportedly saved five lives as a result.

Clinicians at Daily Planet Health Services train their clients on how to

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(from page 2) safely administer naloxone to reverse overdoses. They say clients have reportedly saved five lives as a result.

As part of ARTS, the state has also started to pay more for case managers and care coordinators who help patients with problems that go beyond their addiction, such as housing, employment, and other health care needs.

This is meant to strike the balance in policy responses that experts have called for: a mix of more treatment, fewer opioid prescriptions (while keeping the medications available to those who really need them), and addressing nonmedical contributors to addiction like unemployment and homelessness.

All of this did cost the state money.

The 2016 General Assembly allocated $5.2 million for 2017 and $16.8 million for 2018 for the program. But Neuhausen argued that the results — fewer medical and social costs as a result of opioid addiction — should end up saving money in the long run.

The scope of this program, however, is limited, because Virginia is not (yet) a Medicaid expansion state. Instead of reaching potentially all adults up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, the state’s Medicaid program only covers low-income children, pregnant women, working parents, seniors, and people with disabilities.

This limitation may explain why the program alone hasn’t reversed state overdose deaths, which are on track to go up by 14 percent in 2017, even as it has an impact within the Medicaid population.

Virginia officials acknowledge other gaps in the ARTS program, with efforts underway to boost access to treatment in certain parts of the state, particularly in the rural southwest.

The state also plans to begin attaching payments to outcomes over the next two or three years, in the hopes of providing a financial incentive for better treatment.

When asked about what Virginia is doing, outside experts said it looks promising. Patrice Harris, chair of the American Medical Association’s Opioid Task Force, said that she’s “very excited” about ARTS. Tami Mark, a health economist at the research foundation RTI International, concurred. “Insurance coverage is critical for providing access and high quality,” she told me.

“And you can see that being played out in Virginia as a great example.”

Bringing addiction treatment into health care The core idea behind ARTS is to integrate addiction treatment into the rest of the health care system — not just to make treatment more accessible, but to actually improve the quality of treatment as well.

Aubrey Gholson, 59, has seen the transformation in Virginia firsthand.

Gholson is on private insurance through his construction job. But

May 16, 2018 • 3 as Medicaid has boosted addiction treatment throughout the state, people like Gholson have benefited.

In the early 2000s, Gholson went for treatment for his decades-old heroin addiction at what was then known as the Rubicon. This treatment facility resembled something more out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest than a modern medical establishment: the flickering incandescent lights; the uninviting, bleak colors; the jaillike rooms. It also did not provide anti-addiction medications like buprenorphine and methadone for long-term treatment; instead, it only used buprenorphine for a five-day detox — an approach not backed by the evidence.

“Rubicon was just a detox. After that, you’re back in the street, but you’re clean, you have a few days’ clean time under your belt,” Gholson said. “That don’t help. That really don’t help a whole lot of people.”

Gholson relapsed, eventually ending up in prison due to drug-related crimes — stealing to get money for drugs.

Today, Gholson is getting treatment at the Daily Planet Health Services, where Ricciuti also gets care. Walking through the halls of the clinic, a visitor would think it indistinguishable from other health care facilities.

The walls are white, decorated with inspirational posters promoting good health and hope. There are rooms for doctors’ exams, and even a fish tank.

The clinic offers an array of health services beyond addiction, including dental care. And, crucially, the clinic offers buprenorphine — which Gholson has been on since last August, helping him focus on his work as well as his wife and granddaughter.

“I’m really thankful for this clinic,” Gholson said. “I think it saved my life.”

But even what was once the Rubicon has been transformed, looking much closer to Daily Planet Health Services, in part thanks to the ARTS program.

The residential treatment campus was taken over by the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA), a quasi-government agency, in the mid-2010s. In the years since then, it’s built up the facilities, renovating them to lose the mental asylum look for a more modern, clean medical style. And RBHA provides and encourages the use of buprenorphine for long-term treatment, not just the five-day detox approach that the previous owners used.

Jim May, who oversees addiction services at RBHA, told me that he wants this to be “the biggest and the best program” — something that he could send his own family to if they had addiction problems. But “if [ARTS] had not been on the table, we probably would not have pursued this venture, or not in the same way that we did. It would have been a much smaller-scale takeover. We wouldn’t have been jumping in with these huge renovations right off the bat.”

There’s a reason the old Rubicon

Clinicians at Daily Planet Health Services train their clients on how to safely administer naloxone to reverse overdoses. They say clients have reportedly saved five lives as a result.

looked the way it did: Historically, addiction treatment has been segregated from the rest of the health care system — and that’s led to horrible results. Instead of being funded through health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, much of the federal funding for addiction treatment has come through limited-time grant initiatives. And medications for addiction treatment are regulated above and beyond more traditional medicines; for example, methadone can only be dispersed in highly restrictive clinics, and buprenorphine can only be prescribed to a limited number of patients for each doctor and requires a waiver to prescribe.

All of this has worked to make addiction treatment segregated, unregulated, less affordable, and less accessible.

“It’s been siloed,” Mark, the health economist, said of addiction treatment.

“So if you look at the surgeon general’s report on addiction, a big theme is to try to integrate ... treatment to stop treating it as something separate from the rest of medical care.”

Addressing addiction treatment through health insurance, like Medicaid, ties it to the rest of the health care system — money flows to medical facilities and doctors, with health care–centered rules and regulations attached to the dollars.

Jay Unick, a professor at the University of Maryland, argued that by bringing people with substance use disorders into the overall health care system, you can also address other problems that often come with addiction — mental health issues, infectious diseases from needle use, and so on. “These are exactly the kinds of things that health insurance solves,” he said.

Mishka Terplan, the medical director at Virginia Commonwealth University Health’s MOTIVATE Clinic, characterized ARTS as “modernizing addiction treatment services through a payment structure.” As the

addiction medicine consultant for the state Medicaid program, he has supported better reimbursements for comprehensive addiction treatment — to help fully address what he described as the “bio-psycho-socialspiritual” elements of substance use disorders.

Sitting in some of Terplan’s appointments with patients, one saw how all of this looks in action. The main focus of Terplan’s discussion with patients was addiction — particularly, their prescription for buprenorphine.

But because Terplan is a doctor at an integrated health care clinic, he also covered a range of topics, from smoking cessation to post-pregnancy care to not standing up too quickly if a patient has concerning blood pressure levels. In the end, the patients walked away with a prescription and treated their illness just like they would any other medical condition.

More than anything else I saw in Virginia, these typical doctor visits seemed like the fruition of treating addiction as a medical condition. Any insurance system could help achieve this, but Virginia is leveraging Medicaid to do it.

Medicaid’s big role in fighting the opioid crisis Access to addiction treatment in the U.S. is abysmal. Evidencebased addiction treatment is in short supply — the White House’s opioid commission, for example, found that 85 percent of US counties have no specialty opioid treatment programs that provide medications for opioid addiction. The treatment that is available, meanwhile, is often very expensive and doesn’t accept insurance or isn’t covered by insurance (private or public), costing patients potentially thousands of dollars out of pocket.

An approach like Virginia’s can help address both of these problems.

Through the higher reimbursement

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4 • May 16, 2018

Va. and solitary confinement, two conflicting reports The ACLU of Virginia’s new report, “Silent Injustice,” has found that solitary confinement is a prevalent practice in Virginia prisons. It means being isolated in a windowless room the size of a parking space for 2224 hours a day, deprived of human contact, exercise, natural light and other stimulation. On average, those placed in solitary confinement in Virginia prisons stay there for 2.7 years even as the international human rights standard is no more than 15 consecutive days.

The legal advocacy group says it will take a new law to fully ban solitary confinement in Virginia, but you can put a stop to its use in our state prisons today by signing an executive order. We must prohibit this practice - which causes and exacerbates mental illness – for anyone who is a member of a vulnerable group such as people who are juveniles, mentally ill, suffering from physical ailments, disabled, pregnant and LGBT, and limit it

to no more than 15 consecutive days when applied in only the most extreme circumstances.

Despite the report, the Virginia Department of Corrections in a news release last week, said that when it comes to state prisons, Virginia stands out for operating a corrections system without the use of solitary confinement.

As states around the country grapple with the issue of maintaining safety when working with violent inmates while also giving those inmates a chance at reform, Virginia has been recognized by Gov. Ralph Northam as well as the U.S. Department of Justice for its success in limiting the use of long-term restrictive housing for offenders, noted the DOC. DOC noted that it serves as a national model for the limited use of restrictive housing because seriously mentally ill offenders can spend no more than 30 days in restrictive housing and it is exceedingly rare for offenders to be released to the

community from long-term restrictive housing.

“Under the leadership of Director Harold Clarke, Virginia has become a nationally-recognized leader in reforms that reduce the use of restrictive housing and ensure that inmates are properly prepared to succeed in society when they leave restrictive housing or any corrections environment,” said the governor’s office. “Governor Northam supports the Department of Corrections in its mission to align its incarceration practices to most effectively serve the interests of public safety, inmates and taxpayers.”

DOC notes that it works to address the fact that those with mental health issues struggle with positive reentry and seeks to ensure that preparation for release is robust and linkage to the community is strong.

Correctional officers are trained to use Corrections Crisis Intervention Teams, Mental First Aid, and Trauma Informed Care.

In Virginia, only one person was released from long-term restrictive housing to the community in 2017.

Three people were released from long-term restrictive housing to the community in 2016. In 2015, that number was four.

Since the launch the department’s award winning Administrative Step-Down Program in October of 2011, the DOC has steadily made adjustments and improvements to reduce the use of restrictive housing while enhancing lasting public safety.

DOC noted that based on the success the Administrative StepDown Program had on long-term restrictive housing, in 2014 the department developed a 70-member task force to address the use of shortterm restrictive housing and develop system-wide strategies to effectively motivate offenders toward successful reintegration into the general prison population.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) highlighted Virginia’s success in limiting the use of restrictive housing in the DOJ’s “Report and Recommendations Concerning the Use of Restrictive Housing.” The report noted Virginia’s significant reforms in the area of restrictive housing, and further identified that Virginia was looking at ways to apply the Step Down Program system wide. The Department has implemented, as recommended by the DOJ, a program to divert offenders with serious mental illness from restrictive housing. The VERA Institute of Justice has identified Virginia as one of the leaders in the nation in restrictive housing reform, and VADOC was recognized by the Southern Legislative Conference for its Segregation Step Down program at Red Onion State Prison.

In April of 2016, the department launched its Restrictive Housing Pilot Program. The pilot program created a unified approach to reduce the need for restrictive housing while at the same time decreasing risk, increasing safety and enhancing the likelihood of a successful return to general population. The program was implemented statewide recently, on May 1, and addresses improved conditions of confinement in the form of individual and group programming, methods to earn good time credit, additional recreation, increased daily out of cell opportunities, behavioral goals for progression out of restrictive housing, and increased reviews by a multi-disciplinary team.

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May 16, 2018 • 5

Virginia communities, legislators breather new life into preserving black cemeteries

GEORGE COPELAND JR. &THOMAS JETT CNS – On a hot Saturday in April, volunteers work under a bright sun and the noise of buzzing insects to find and remove unchecked nature and neglect from the graves of thousands of African-Americans, from everyday citizens to some of the most important leaders in local, state and national history.

The neighboring Evergreen and East End cemeteries serve as the final resting place of Maggie Walker, the first female bank president in the U.S.; John Mitchell, a newspaper publisher who risked his life to

crusade for civil rights; and Rosa Dixon Bowser, founder of the Virginia State Teachers Association.

“When Black Richmond was the ‘Harlem of the South,’ when Jackson Ward was known as ‘Black Wall Street,’ these are the people who made those places,” said Brian Palmer of the Friends of East End Cemetery volunteer group.

But the state of the burial grounds can be a stark contrast to the stature of the prominent figures buried there. Over the years, Evergreen, East End and many other black cemeteries across Virginia have fallen into disrepair, uncared for and unacknowledged. More recently,

concerned residents have rallied to restore, record and maintain the history of the many laid to rest.

“It is not, shall we say, stunningly beautiful to someone who is more familiar with cemeteries like Hollywood [where Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, is buried], or the Confederate section of Oakwood, but to us, it is remarkable,” Palmer said of the work accomplished in East End since community efforts increased in 2013.

Across the commonwealth, volunteers like Palmer labor to restore the state’s African-American cemeteries, shining a light on a part of Virginia’s history often overshadowed by the legacy of the Confederacy. In recent years, these volunteers have seen support from a new source: the Virginia General Assembly, which has approved state funding for cleaning up and maintaining several of these cemeteries.

American cemeteries in specific locales – Charlottesville, Loudoun County and Portsmouth. In addition, HB 284 will extend state funding to every African-American cemetery established before 1900 and allow the caretakers of those sites to receive maintenance funds from the state.

Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, who introduced both pieces of legislation, said HB 284 was meant to clear up any ambiguities in HB 1547.

“This year,” McQuinn said, “we came back to say, ‘Let’s be clear: Localities have access to these funds.’”

Palmer remains ambivalent about the legislation; his group plans to meet with McQuinn to discuss it in greater detail. Friends of East End Cemetery, a nonprofit organization, had attempted to apply to receive state funding under HB 1547 but was unsuccessful.

Even without state support,

East End and Evergreen, on the line between Richmond and Henrico County, were the first AfricanAmerican cemeteries in Virginia to receive help from the state government. In 2017, House Bill 1547 was signed into law. It allowed qualifying charitable organizations to collect maintenance funds for the two cemeteries – $5 annually for every person interred who lived between January 1800 and January 1900.

This led to a wave of similar legislation in 2018, with five bills passing the General Assembly.

Most of the bills focused on African-

members of the group remain focused on their work, a process of renewal where the number of volunteers can top 200, a donated wheelbarrow can be a huge boon and new discoveries are spotlighted on sites like FindAGrave.com.

Palmer first stepped into East End Cemetery in the summer of 2014 with his wife Erin while making a documentary. There, they encountered an armed hunting group who said they had permission to use the grounds. (Later, Palmer said he

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6 • May 16, 2018

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Memo to Republicans: I was Kanye, before Kanye RAYNARD JACKSON Why do Republicans continue to be obsessed with shiny new objects when it comes to the bblack community as opposed to being willing to keep their eyes on the prize with the “hard” work of coalition building?

I have had enough of the Kanye West-Donald Trump “bromance.”

KANYE WEST IS NOT A REPUBLICAN NOR IS HE A CONSERVATIVE! In my almost 20 years of being a columnist, I have said ad nauseum what Kanye has said, but my words seem to fall on deaf ears; whereas Kanye’s words are celebrated like he’s the second coming of Christ.

I have written columns, made speeches, appeared on TV all over the world and discussed how blacks are not monolithic in their political views; that blacks are open to the Republican Party and the conservative message; and that blacks are not opposed to Trump’s policies, just his drama.

I have criticized Obama vociferously over his neglect of the black community during his eight years in the White House, especially in regards to the murder rate in his hometown of Chicago.

The Republican Party reminds me of the child who can’t wait to get his new toys every, Christmas only to find them boring and unattractive within a week, because he is now looking for a new, shiny toy to keep his attention. This is repeated every year.

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Every year the party unofficially designates someone as their flavor of the month. People like former party chairman, Michael Steele (before he became the powerhouse that he now is), former congressman J.C. Watts, conservative pundit Armstrong Williams, and Starr Parker.

Unlike the more recent flavors of the month, at least those listed above, one could argue, have some connections with the black community. I don’t mean in terms of them all being black, but in terms of their ability to stand before the black community with some modicum of gravitas and credibility.

The more recent flavors of the month have been people like actress Stacey Dash, faux entertainers Diamond and Silk; the latest is Candace Owens.

What do all these flavors have in common? They all appeal to an overwhelmingly white audience.

None of them have any standing in The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions.

Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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the black community, nor would they be able to fill a room with blacks.

This does not mean they are not good people; they simply do not have any appeal in the black community, especially in moving blacks into the Republican Party or conservative movement.

As a matter of fact, most blacks are repulsed that the Republican Party would even think to try to push people like Candace Owens and Diamond and Silk onto our community.

Stacey Dash is a walking gaffe machine. She has talked about the need to get rid of black media like BET and awards like the NAACP’s Image Awards, because of their emphasis on the black community.

She advocated for the elimination of these platforms, even though she has made millions of dollars in movies with all-black casts (“Mo’ Money”) and she has appeared on several TV shows on BET. While white folks are entertained

by Diamond and Silk, most blacks don’t find them very funny at all.

They are viewed as modern day minstrel shows. Their audiences are predominately white and they have absolutely no standing in the black community.

Candace Owens recently blew up, because she received a tweet of support from Kanye West and met with him, recently. Again, she has no standing in the black community and appeals to a mostly, white audience.

Note to Republicans: If the goal is to appeal to the white community, then continue doing what you are

doing; but, if the goal is to move the needle in the black community towards the party, this is all a waste of time.

Unlike Republican leadership in Washington, blacks are not attracted to these shiny, bright objects you are placing under our Christmas trees.

If the Republican Party was serious about the black vote, they would highlight real estate entrepreneur from New Jersey, John Campbell, Jr. Not only is he very successful, he also has a national network of blacks that he has a great deal of standing with, who will listen to his arguments about conservatism. He, indeed, can help move the needle.

You also have former Florida Lt. Gov., Jennifer Carroll, a 20-year Navy veteran, former elected official, black woman entrepreneur from Trinidad. She is a dynamic speaker, with a very compelling personal narrative.

My point is, the party has shown how lazy they tend to be when it comes to the black community. They need to stop it with all the bright, shiny objects and focus on building relationships with and through those who have real influence within the black community.

After all, politics is all about relationships.

Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the black entrepreneur. Visit www.bafbf.org.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

May 16, 2018 • 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

can testify to the trials and errors of the past so that our kids and our grandkids will know the right paths to take in their lives. And, that is a key element of the task of preserving our nation’s heritage and ensuring its future.

Dan Weber

Hooray for seniors

Men and women who turn 65 these days can expect to live well into their 80s and, according to the statistics, 40 year olds are increasingly likely to live to 100 or more. Meanwhile, modern medicine is making strides as researchers seek treatments and even cures for the most devastating illnesses that still plague humans, including cancer and dementia.

Caught in early stages of development, cancers such as prostate, testicular and even breast cancers can be put into remission.

Meanwhile, medical researchers are reporting progress in their search for pathways to effective treatments for dealing with diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The country celebrates Older Americans Month in May and seniors, the over 50 crowd, should reflect on the “positive side” of growing old in the 21st century. We should be mindful of the contributions seniors have made to the success of “American Exceptionalism.” Remember also that the past is prologue to the future and that the knowledge, experiences, values and guidance of previous generations are an invaluable asset for future generations.

Therefore, it is imperative that we remain mindful of the wealth of understanding parents and grandparents have of the hows and whys of success and failure. They

Computers and where we fit in Way back in 2011, I had the opportunity to use redistricting software that the “big boys” use to gerrymander. This was part of a student competition to use the software for good, to try to draw lines for communities instead of incumbent politicians. It taught me and the other participants a lot and provided unique preparation to lead this amazing organization. Our team from William & Mary Law even won one of the competitions!

I have the Wason Center at CNU, the League of Women Voters, AARP, VEA, and many other orgs to thank for that awesome competition.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, this next redistricting cycle is going to be democratized in a way that we can’t even fully imagine. The software that was once only used by those practicing the dark arts of gerrymandering (plus a bunch of eager students) is now going to be available to us en masse. Anyone can draw their own lines and measure them against the political lines - in real time, and the disparity will be obvious. From my 2011 experience, I promise you that we can do better for our communities.

There’s a great group from Draw the Lines PA that is heading up the next iteration of the student competition, growing it beyond academia and into the public sphere at large. Virginia 2021 is a key part

of it here in Virginia and we are thrilled that 15 other states have expressed interest in doing the same: Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and, of course, Virginia. Draw the Lines PA in currently seeking grants to help fund access to the DistrictBuilder software and we aren’t too involved in those details, but we are taking a supporting role and getting our ducks in a row for doing a 2021 competition in Virginia.

There’s no direct action you need to take on this - I’m just sharing because I find it inspiring and hope you do, too.

We are on the cusp of something big. It’s hard to see with the day-today tosses and turns of a movement, but the big picture looks amazing.

We are over 74,000 supporters in Virginia and should be around 100,000 by the end of the year.

Thank you for pitching in during these key months leading up to our effort to amend the Virginia Constitution. Thank you for sticking with us over the years on this long battle. It’s paying off and the merry band of redistricting reform supports we had in 2014 has grown into an army of well-trained and energized activists who have put this issue at the forefront of ethics in our politics.

Brian Cannon

Exit Iran nuclear deal

President Trump showed us again that when he says ‘America First,’ he actually means ‘America alone.’ By violating the Iran deal, the president is creating a new global nuclear crisis while we’re trying to address another one with North Korea. His decision to break from the deal makes our country less safe by damaging our

diplomatic credibility, weakening our alliances, and reopening the door for Iran to start enriching uranium.

The Iran deal states that ‘under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.’ Why would the president blow up this deal and free Iran of that obligation?

President Trump has set us on a dangerous road where war becomes more likely, especially as his advisers beat the drums for regime change, which should never be a goal of U.S policy.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (VA) ***** The president’s refusal to waive certain sanctions on Iran sets in motion the dismantling of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which has successfully prevented Iran from developing nuclear weapons. While the JCPOA was far from perfect, by signing the agreement, Iran gave up 98 percent of its uranium stockpile, dismantled 2/3 of its centrifuges, rendered its heavy water nuclear reactor unusable, and agreed to unprecedented inspections that provide critical insight into, and early warning about, any attempts by Iran to accelerate its nuclear program.

Trump Administration leaders, all parties to the agreement, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is charged with its verification, have agreed that Iran has complied with its terms.

Simply withdrawing the United States from the JCPOA will not benefit the American people and U.S. national security: it will only succeed in driving a wedge between us and our allies, whose help we need to enforce any future sanctions regime against Iran, and will effectively green light Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Withdrawing from this agreement makes the United States, and the world, less secure.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (VA)

8 • May 16, 2018

Faith & Religion

The LEGACY

Poor People’s Campaign: War and racism tightly linked MARK GRUENBERG WASHINGTON (PW) —Saying he wants the new Poor People’s Campaign to “promote an agenda of truth,” its leader, the Rev. William Barber, is now explicitly linking U.S. militarism and wars to racism and a distorted U.S. economy. Echoing Dr. Martin Luther King 51 years ago, Barber declares that unless the U.S. turns away from its militaristic path, the nation is on a moral, political, and actual downhill slide.

Until now, Barber has listed a turnaround in “the war economy” as one goal the Poor People’s Campaign is advocating. The campaign officially began on Mother’s Day and then continued with mass rallies at the U.S. Capitol and more than 30 state capitols on May 14 and for 40 following days.

The drive, to push elimination of poverty to the top of the U.S. agenda, will reach a crescendo in a mass march in D.C. on June 23 and continue for years afterwards, he has previously said.

But Barber devoted his sermon in D.C.’s historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church recently, explicitly to the history and impact of war and militarism on the U.S. economy and how they’re intertwined with the nation’s history of structural racism.

Again quoting Dr. King’s famed 1967 anti-war sermon in New York’s Riverside Church, Barber declared, “A nation that spends more on its military than on social justice is a nation approaching spiritual death.”

To prevent that, the U.S. must reorient its priorities away from militarism and war and towards domestic spending against poverty, income inequality, and for workers— including the right to unionize.

Militarism and war are long-time aspects of the U.S., Barber declared.

The first European settlers brought racism, militarism, and violence with them and used it against Native Americans and against Africans brought over as slaves.

Settlers in New England, for example, waged war on indigenous

people not just with “guns that were more powerful than arrows.” In one case, they deliberately infected goods with diseases they knew the natives lacked defenses for.

Though Barber did not mention it, the other early European colonizers of the Americas—the Spaniards— defeated and wiped out the Aztecs in Mexico through infection from smallpox, for which the natives lacked immunity.

That imperial war on indigenous people continued through the exterminations of the 1800s, the “Trail of Tears,” confinement on reservations, and forced assimilation, Barber added. “Manifest destiny,” the U.S. expansionist slogan of the 1840s, was an excuse for killing and evicting natives.

Captured Africans, meanwhile, were brutally treated, whipped, and murdered after being brought to the Americas. The militarism against African-Americans, he said, even includes the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—which gun advocates now use to justify their “right to keep and bear arms”— because slaveholders wanted to make sure they had guns in case a slave uprising occurred.

Militarism and war have extended down through the centuries in the U.S., Barber said. It is linked to corporate greed and profits, he added—and it’s targeted black and brown people both at home and abroad.

Barber pointed out U.S. wars for the last half century—dating back to Vietnam and ranging forward to “narcissist” GOP bombing of Syria by President Donald Trump—have been waged against non-white people, including Southeast Asians and Muslims.

U.S. military spending, he added, is more than that of the next seven nations in the world combined, including three times that of China and nine times that of Russia. That money goes into the pockets and profits of military contractors. When war increases, so do their stock prices, Barber pointed out.

While a private in the U.S. military

Rev. William Barber participates in a ceremony in Phoenix, Ariz. earns less than $30,000 yearly, the average CEO of a military contractor earns $19 million. And most of the privates come from poor white rural communities or poor minority communities in inner cities, he noted.

Barber called it “a poverty draft.”

The militaristic tilt and the racist tinge have occurred despite warnings from everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Dwight Eisenhower. in his famed Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln blamed both North and South for the evil of slavery and said the war was just retribution for it.

And Ike’s 1961 farewell address, warning against the baleful influence of the military-industrial complex “was actually first written as the military-industrial-congressional complex,” Barber said.

“I come to connect the war economy to the five systemic ills” the U.S. suffers and the Poor People’s Campaign is fighting against, Barber said. The other four are “a system of poverty that affects more than 140 million people;” ecological disasters; “a distorted moral narrative;” and the combined oppressions of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny.

“To address those four, you have to address militarism,” he declared.

Addressing militarism and reversing it, Barber says, includes not just cutting spending for war and on defense contractors, but also foreign military aid and the

militarization of U.S. police forces, particularly those patrolling minority communities. And there was no reason, he said, for surplus military vehicles, given away by the Defense Department, to appear on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., after a police officer shot unarmed black man Michael Brown to death.

Barber also contended that U.S. military aid to Israel empowers its present right-wing government and obstructs a genuine peace there based on a two-state solution—one nation each for the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Reversing militarism also has to include diverting more money to the Veterans Affairs Department’s medical system, to care for the medically, mentally, and psychologically wounded veterans of U.S. wars, said Barber, whose home church in North Carolina is near a military base. Barber, the son and grandson of veterans, finds himself, he told the packed house, answering constant troubling questions from parishioners in the military and their families.

The vets’ psychological wounds, said Barber, come when they discover the causes they supposedly were fighting for were lies—and that they have more in common with the black and brown people they’re fighting than with the powerful elites that send them off to war. “‘My name

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May 16, 2018 • 9

(from page 5) contacted the previous owner, who contradicted this claim.)

The following year, the Palmers joined in the volunteer efforts, helping to rediscover and archive the names of people buried there more than a century ago. State officials say East End Cemetery has nearly 4,900 graves that qualify for assistance and Evergreen has 2,100.

“We’ve had quite a few groups out here,” said John Shuck, a volunteer at East End and Evergreen since 2008. The two cemeteries have received help from college students, churches, and Henrico County government. “Get people coming back out, you know, in ones and twos, but it all helps.”

Similar signs of progress are evident in Evergreen Cemetery, which covers more area than East End. Evergreen’s larger scale is matched by both the size of its volunteer force and signs of disrepair.

While the grounds are visited by both tour groups and mountain bikers, Dr. Ted Maris-Wolf of the EnRichmond Foundation, Evergreen’s new owner, emphasizes the work done so far remains “a shoestring operation.” Visitors can see support for that statement: A number of memorials are broken or obscured by overgrowth, and piles of decades-old detritus, collected by workers, line some of the paths in the lower areas of the cemetery.

Maris-Wolf, formerly a professor at Virginia Union University, Randolph-Macon College and the University of Louisiana, described the potential effect of extra revenue as a “game changer, not only for us but for all the cemeteries that will receive state funding.”

Before 2017, there were attempts in the General Assembly to provide equity in state support for graveyard maintenance, but they failed.

However, success has come at the municipal level, thanks largely to community organizing.

In 2015, the city of Charlottesville gave $80,000 to the Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery to support their work in the cityowned burial grounds. The group hopes to “restore the extant markers, to attempt to identify the many unknown burials and to share information about the known individuals buried at the historic cemetery,” alongside videos, audio tours and an active presence on

social media.

“We are very encouraged by recent legislation to provide funding for the preservation” of their cemetery and other African-American burial grounds, the group wrote. “We are hopeful that everyone will have the opportunity to tell their stories of our shared history.”

The struggle to maintain this aspect of Virginia has been long and fraught, even as the state’s black cemeteries remain unknown to most residents of the commonwealth.

Dr. Michael Blakey, an anthropologist and professor at the College of William & Mary, describes cemeteries as “the first archaeologically observable symbolic behavior, a language of memorialization, at the origins of Homo sapiens.”

“Thus, especially in slavery but for all people, cemeteries and mortuary ritual assert our humanity – human dignity – just as their desecration represents its denial.”

This is echoed by Dr. Lynn Rainville in a 2013 article published in the Journal of Field Archeology.

Documenting her research into the topic in Albemarle County, Rainville described multiple black burial grounds throughout the area, neglected and overlooked due in part to housing development, racial shifts in local demographics leading to an

absence in maintenance, vandalism and “inconsistencies in state laws.”

The result of this lack of care and gap in public awareness is evident even among the volunteers.

Robyn Young, along with her husband James Atkins and their daughter Cameron, continues to

help reclaim East End as part of the Midlothian chapter of Jack & Jill of America. But she was struck by the fact “that I can’t find family members buried in these cemeteries for either of us,” despite being Richmond natives.

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10 • May 16, 2018

The LEGACY

Rap music’s path from pariah to Pulitzer Prize LAKEYTA BONNETTE-BAILEY Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize win is a major milestone for hiphop, a genre that celebrates its 45th birthday this August.

It’s also a triumph that many, a mere decade ago, would have never predicted. As someone who teaches and studies the politics of hip-hop and rap, I was pleasantly surprised myself.

I thought of hip-hop’s early years, when some were adamant that the genre – disparaged as “pornographic filth” – would be a flash in the pan.

It was no fad, however; its music soon gained more and more mainstream acceptance. In response, many people – from parents, to politicians to community leaders – would criticize the art form and seek to suppress it.

The story of hip-hop is one of rebellion, attempts at censorship and, finally, artistic acceptance.

Rap meets success – then resistance Hip-hop traces its roots to the Bronx in the early 1970s. At first, rap music – with its focus on rhymed storytelling – didn’t play a big role. Instead, there are at least four traditional elements of hip-hop culture: DJing, graffiti art, breakdancing and emceeing.

Today, however, rap is the most prominent feature of hip-hop culture.

The central tenet of its style – rhyming over beats – can be traced back to the political poets of the Black Arts Movement, with lyricists like Gil Scott Heron using their voices as a form of resistance in the early 1970s.

Rap wouldn’t receive commercial success until the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (1979). Later, Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” (1980) also reached the the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 87 and No. 4 on the Hot Hip Hop/R&B Chart, and this was followed by the first political rap song – 1982’s “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

While rap music often explored important issues like the trauma of poverty and addiction, the lyrics also depicted violence and veered into misogyny. As rap’s popularity grew, so did criticism – both inside and

outside of the black community.

In 1993, Rev. Calvin Butts of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church organized a protest against rap music in which attendees steamrolled rap albums.

“We will not stand for vile, ugly, low, abusive and rough music,” he said.

Meanwhile, African-American political activist C. Delores Tucker became one of the genre’s most outspoken critics.

“What do you think Dr. King would have to say about rappers calling black women bitches and whores?” she wondered in 1996.

“About rappers glorifying thugs and drug dealers and rapists? What kind of role models are those for young children living in the ghetto?”

In other instances, the courts tried to intervene.

A Florida U.S. District Court ruled that Luther Campbell and 2 Live Crew’s 1989 album “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” was legally obscene, and a number of Florida record stores were banned from selling it. Members of 2 Live Crew group were later arrested for performing songs from the album in Broward County, along with store owners who continued to sell it. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals eventually overturned the ruling on the basis of freedom of speech.

Record shop owner Charles Freeman is handcuffed after selling an undercover detective a copy of 2 Live Crew’s album ‘As Nasty As They Wanna Be.’ Doug Jennings/AP Photo A big focus of critics were antipolice lyrics, which started to appear most prominently in the late 1980s. Many described the police harassment, racial profiling and police brutality that plagued inner-city neighborhoods across the country.

However, the lyrics of the group N.W.A. attracted the most attention – specifically, their song “Fuck tha Police,” which directly denounced the police in unequivocal terms.

Police unions denounced the song’s lyrics; some departments refused to provide security during N.W.A. shows, while the FBI sent a letter to the group’s label, Priority Records, calling the lyrics “discouraging and degrading to these brave, dedicated

officers.”

‘An invisible TV station’ for black people Because of these headline-grabbing controversies, it was easy for critics to discount rap as a nihilistic genre that wallowed in misogyny, self-harm and violence.

Often overlooked was the way rap music resonated with marginalized, alienated inner-city youth by detailing their daily lives in ways most media outlets wouldn’t – or couldn’t.

Chuck D of Public Enemy called rap “the invisible TV station that black America never had.” Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters was one of the few politicians who recognized its power. In 1994, she came to rap’s defense.

“It would be a foolhardy mistake,” she said, “to single out poets as the cause of America’s problems. …

These are our children and they’ve invented a new art form to describe their pains, fears and frustrations with us as adults.”

That same year, American Studies scholar Tricia Rose published her seminal study of hip-hop culture, “Black Noise.” She was the first academic to explore the complexities and positive contributions of the genre in a book-length format.

And then there was the simple fact that Americans loved rap music: By the 1990s, it had become the most popular genre on the Billboard Hot 100.

Nonetheless, perhaps because of its reputation, traditional venues were hesitant to embrace rap.

The Grammys have a contentious and inconsistent history with rap.

The first hip-hop-themed award was “best rap performance,” presented to the rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in 1989 for their song “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”

However, the Grammys didn’t

air this award during the show’s television coverage – a decision that compelled some hip-hop artists to boycott the ceremony.

In 1993, rap group Arrested Development was awarded the best new artist. Two years later, the Grammys recognized female hiphop artists for the first time, with Queen Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa each winning an award. But only two rap albums have won the coveted album of the year: Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” which was categorized as a R&B album, and Southern rap duo Outkast’s “Speakerboxx/Love Below.”

Rap gets an ally – in the White House Today, many of the same dynamics are at play. Police brutality is still a common theme of rap music, Kendrick Lamar’s work included.

“Nigga, and we hate po-po,” he raps in “Alright.” “Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho.”

The criticism hasn’t abated, either.

On a June 29, 2015 segment of Fox News, host Geraldo Rivera criticized “Alright,” arguing that “Hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years.”

Lamar responded by saying that “Hip-hop is not the problem. Our reality is the problem.”

Despite a drumbeat of criticism, hip-hop has been increasingly recognized by other mainstream award shows. Rapper Eminem and the rap group Three 6 Mafia have won Oscars. Hip-hop artists are also being voted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Tupac the most recent rapper to join the ranks. In 2017, the Kennedy Center Honors recognized rapper and actor LL Cool J, the first time they’ve honored a hip-hop artist.

President Barack Obama played

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May 16, 2018 • 11

Kodjoe to VCU graduates: ‘Give yourself permission to fail’ Actor and VCU athletics hall of famer Boris Kodjoe challenged Virginia Commonwealth University graduates to face their fear of failure and step out on faith. He was the commencement speaker at the university’s spring commencement ceremony Saturday at the Richmond Coliseum.

“The fear of failure is real. But that’s where faith comes in,” Kodjoe said. “ … Dear Class of 2018, I implore you, you must give yourself permission to fail in order to experience the privilege of success.

There’s no success without failure because there’s no triumph without adversity, no diploma without a lesson learned. Have faith that when you fall and get up again, you will win.”

Kodjoe, a 1996 graduate of the VCU School of Business, made his on-screen debut in 1998 on “The Steve Harvey Show.” Kodjoe is an accomplished actor with dozens of credits that span film (“Downsized,” “Ferdinand”), TV (“The Last Man on Earth,” “Real Husbands of Hollywood”), and theater (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”). He currently stars as Dr. Will Campbell on “Code Black,” a medical drama on CBS. He was a standout tennis player at VCU from 1992-96 and was inducted into the VCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.

Kodjoe spoke about tennis, his path from Germany to VCU to Hollywood, and the struggles he endured early in his modeling and acting career.

He expressed his hope for the future

(from page 10) a big role in the genre’s acceptance.

Even before he officially announced his candidacy for the presidency, Obama held closed meetings with rap artists such as Ludacris to discuss youth empowerment.

During his campaigns and two terms, rap artists always had his ear – he’d continue to meet with them, mention them in speeches, and even host rappers at the White House.

Following Obama’s election, views across the aisle started to shift as well. In 2009, former Republican National Chairman Michael Steele tried to woo rap artists to the Republican Party. Oprah Winfrey – who had previously denounced rap music – gave her first ever in-depth interview of a rapper when she invited Jay-Z to a show that aired on Sept. 24, 2009.

and admiration for VCU’s newest graduates.

“You have been blessed with an education that has ensured your academic development and your social awareness, an education that has given you knowledge and ignited your curiosity of the world and all of its people beyond these grounds, an education that has nurtured your confidence, fortified your integrity and expanded your socially conscious mind,” he said. “I truly admire you, because you have met the divisiveness that has been festering amongst us and built bridges using language of empathy.”

VCU awarded more than 5,000 professional, graduate and undergraduate degrees with university president Michael Rao, telling graduates they represent the future and strength of the world and called on them to use Back in the 19th and 20th centuries, there were attempts to censor slave narratives; because they detailed the harsh realities of slavery in the South, critics questioned their authenticity and accuracy. Eventually, more and more recognized the value of these narratives, and the federal government dispatched writers to record the stories of surviving slaves in the 1930s.

Over the past few decades, we’ve seen a similar dynamic with rap music. While some have attempted to silence rap because of its raw portrayal of life in inner-city communities, people increasingly see its value. Like slave narratives, rap music has given an authentic and candid voice to the voiceless.

For his part in this tradition, Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize is well-deserved.

their VCU education and experiences to make a difference.

“Graduates of Virginia Commonwealth University, we look to you with confidence that you are the light,” Rao said. “Because you received a world-class education with amazing educators, mentors and a supportive community, you are ready for the future. You will go forth and you will do great things.”

Kodjoe was awarded the honorary doctor of humane letters, VCU’s highest form of recognition, which acknowledges outstanding contributions to society through scholarship, humanitarianism, science, art and public service.

The Edward A. Wayne Medal, established in 1971 to honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions or provided exemplary services to VCU, was awarded to M. Virginia “Ginny” and Charles F. Crone in recognition of their 30 years of philanthropy and engagement with VCU that has benefited the Massey Cancer Center,

MCV Foundation, VCU College of Health Professions and the schools of Medicine and Nursing. Charles Crone is the retired president of MC Wholesale Club and former vice president of the Williamsburg Pottery.

Ginny is retired from BASF Corp.

The VCU Board of Visitors Award, which recognizes an undergraduate student for outstanding academic achievement, leadership and service, went to Terry L. Everett, a junior biology major. Everett has participated in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and Ram Camp leadership programs, and in 2015 he participated in the I-LEAD retreat. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2016, he and friends filmed a #BlackExcellence rap video, highlighting their future aspirations of becoming doctors. Everett has served as a new student orientation leader and currently serves as a student ambassador, CEO of B the Movement, and vice president of the Theta Rho Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

Ask Alma

stop drinking if she keeps providing it.

C.K., Alexandria, Va. Dear C.K.,

My alcoholic parents Dear Alma, My dad and my stepmom have been together for over 20 years. They both have and always did drink way too much. I’d even say both are alcoholics.

Recently my dad was hospitalized and obviously told he has to stop drinking. My stepmom says that’s his problem, not hers. How do I get her to see what she’s doing is wrong and how can I stop her from drinking in front of my dad? My dad won’t

This is a tough situation and I sympathize with the position you’re in. That still, however, doesn’t remove the fact that your dad has an addiction that he’s “large and in-charge” of. Let’s pause here and give you a minute to understand and resonate, this is your dad’s burden to bear.

Allow me a minute and address the consideration and compassion this deserves. I say this as respectfully as I can muster – you can’t give up crack living next door to the crack house. You feel me?

Offer your dad resources to finding a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He has to take the first step. Once associated, I’m sure they’ll direct him on what his next step should be.

Remind your father that facing his addiction is a sign of strength.

Let him know you’ll support him unconditionally. After taking hold of his responsibility, your dad will decide what to do about your stepmom. That, too, is his choice not yours. I’ll be praying for your dad, you and your family.

12 • May 16, 2018

The LEGACY

STILL STANDING Female veterans tell their stories of discrimination, harassment and trauma LEONARD HAMMONDS II Four African American women veterans, who span four decades, want you to know that through it all, they are still standing.

Janet Wilson Carter served in the Army and Army Reserve from 19782002. Louise Walker-Sostre served in the Navy from 1986-1996. Erica Upshaw-Givner served in the Army from 1992-1997, and LaShaundra Hammonds served in the United States Marine Corps from 2001-2008.

(LaShaundra Hammonds is the wife of the reporter for this story.)

After decades of what they call discrimination, racism, sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexual trauma, they are still standing.

do you often think of just “men” who served their country?

What about the countless numbers of courageous women who served this country? Or, more specifically, what about the African American women who endured so much to serve?

Walker-Sostre said she endured racial discrimination soon after she began her journey in the Navy. “I remember my first duty station in Mississippi experiencing racism,” she said. “I was working with two Ku Klux Klan members who were active duty with me in the Navy. I remember another Klan member who worked with us turning on an engine that I was working on, ripping all the skin off of my hands.”

She also spoke of having to fistfight

job,’” Walker-Sostre said. She spoke of it being the same problem when she applied for disability. She talked of being spoken down to and feeling destroyed. She also felt the same way when she applied for the VA. It took her eight years to get in the VA as a disabled veteran.

“The military is a very maledominated place. When the world has conditioned the man to think they’re supposed to have what they want, when they want, and how they want it, it trickles down not just into the military, but into every arena.”

- Upshaw-Givner “As an African American woman and a veteran you are definitely a rare breed,” said Hammonds.

“It’s about constantly proving yourself as a woman, but not only a woman, a black woman. You’re forced to become this masculine person you are not. You had to constantly keep your guard up and it hardened you.

As a woman, you want to be soft and vulnerable, but being in the military it was a struggle. Here you are trying to fight for your country and your self-identity as well. Women veterans had to fight far too many battles.

We had to fight our foreign enemies and domestic issues such as sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sexual trauma.”

When you hear the term “veteran,”

men to stop from being sexually harassed, and how difficult it was to report these incidents.

Once she was discharged, she felt she didn’t get the benefits or the services her fellow counterparts received. When she first got out, she was a single mother with two kids. She struggled with getting on welfare. She spoke of how she was denied services because a supervisor felt she had enough already.

Walker-Sostre, a veteran on assistance, was denied childcare to further pursue her bachelor’s degree.

“Right then and there, my pride just went out the door. I told them, ‘How dare you? If it had not been for me, you wouldn’t have what you have now. You wouldn’t even have this

Wilson Carter is a retired Army Master Sergeant. “I’m just sitting here reflecting,” she said, during an interview with the Courier. “It’s been almost 40 years for me. When I went into the Army in 1978, it was certainly the good ole boy network.”

Wilson Carter spoke of being 18 or 19 years old, never really being away from home. “Given that I was a dark-skinned woman, I was looked at as if I was a man. I was ostracized because I was fairly

quiet at that time and focused on what I had to do. But there were folks who would either taunt or harass me. With regards to sexual harassment, not even knowing what sexual harassment was at that time, I knew not to say anything.

This was because if I would, I would have suffered consequences for my actions.”

Wilson Carter said she left active duty because she was angry. She was furious because she didn’t feel accepted. She then joined the Army Reserve and served until her retirement in 2002. “Seeing the types of things that I saw, would I say that I’m patriotic? Absolutely not, because of my experience.”

The question of “how it feels” to be an African American veteran was posed to the four veterans interviewed for this story.

“I never recognized being a veteran until about six years ago” UpshawGivner responded. “I just came home and blended in to the best of my ability. I didn’t want to discuss my experience. So I did my best not to acknowledge my military time.

When it came to applications, job interviews, or if someone asked me, I said no.”

Upshaw-Givner, who served in the Army, had her first child at the age of 15. But that wouldn’t stop her from reaching her goals. UpshawGivner’s plan was to enlist into the Army to make a better life for herself and her daughter. She said she gave the Army everything, not knowing what she would get in return. “It was a huge sacrifice and learning experience. Through all the adversity and training, I’m still standing.

Everything that I went through showed me what I am capable of accomplishing and overcoming.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

May 16, 2018 • 13

Henrico schools crowns top teachers, leaders Henrico Schools employs about 3,900 teachers, but only one is honored each year with the division’s Gilman Teacher of the Year Award.

Nichole Gross, an eighth-grade teacher at Fairfield Middle School, was awarded that honor last week at a ceremony at Glen Allen High School. Amber Hornbarger, a fourth-grade teacher at Glen Lea Elementary School, was named HCPS’ First-Year Teacher of the

(from page 3) rates, the ARTS program encourages existing treatment providers to accept insurance and can also attract new providers since the services will now seem more financially sustainable.

For consumers, this means more potential providers — and, by covering them through Medicaid, much more affordable services.

Unlike limited-time grant programs, which many nonprofit addiction centers currently rely on, Medicaid coverage means sustained coverage, since it’s tied to health plans that will be around for years to come.

“I like to think of grants as a way to test out a new service line and see if we like it,” May said, noting that one of RBHA’s clinics for women was built up in large part with grants.

“But now we’re going to sustain it with Medicaid.”

Daily Planet Health Services told a similar story: It paid for $1.7 million in uncompensated care in 2016, when 71 percent of its patients were uninsured. If it can get even a few of its patients on Medicaid and paying more for their services, it can fill that big gap in its budget.

Another provider, Pinnacle Treatment Centers, said that it’s expanding in Virginia because of the ARTS program. “That’s exactly what’s allowing us to add more types of services,” said CEO Joe Pritchard.

All of this comes on top of the role that Medicaid is already playing in addressing addiction. According to a 2014 study by Mark and other researchers at Truven Health Analytics, Medicaid paid for about 25 percent — $7.9 billion of $31.3 billion — of projected public and private spending for drug addiction treatment nationwide in 2014. That made it the second-biggest payer for drug addiction treatment spending after all local and state government programs.

Medicaid alone can’t solve all the problems with addiction treatment in America. After all, it covers only a limited pool of low-income patients.

But Lee, Virginia’s Medicaid director, argued that “Medicaid is part of the solution to the opioid problem.” She’s touted ARTS’s success as an example

Year.

Other finalists for the Teacher of the Year Award were Trevvett Elementary School’s Jessica Capano; Matthew Togna of J.R. Tucker High School; Benjamin Fabian of Douglas Freeman High School; and Taylor Allen of Ward Elementary School.

Other finalists for First-Year Teacher of the Year were Leigh Anne Pastore of Echo Lake Elementary School and John Rolfe Middle School teacher of why Medicaid should be expanded.

That expansion is an option available to states through the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), through which the federal government pays for at least 90 percent of the expansion to include all people up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (for an individual, an income up to $16,753 a year in 2018). The Virginia legislature has been discussing the expansion for the past few months, but it’s unclear so far if lawmakers will agree to a deal.

“What we’ve seen in the ARTS program is, again, incredible results,” Lee said.

“But we’ve only been able to offer it to our currently enrolled Medicaid members.

And with Medicaid expansion, we’d be able to then offer this great benefit to 400,000 more individuals.”

Every level of government could do better on this issue None of this is to say that Virginia has solved its opioid crisis. State officials themselves cautioned that they still have a lot of work to do, pointing to a continuing increase in overall overdose deaths over the past several years in the state.

But to proponents of ARTS, the program is proof that we do have evidence-based ways to address the opioid crisis. It’s just a matter of using these tools.

“It’s not an absence of knowledge,” Terplan of the MOTIVATE Clinic said. “It’s an absence of will.”

To this end, providers on the ground said that practically every level of government could do more to expand access to treatment.

On the state level, the most common demand was that Virginia should expand Medicaid. This has been a debate for years in the commonwealth, but whether it will actually happen remains up to the legislature.

Providers also said that Medicaid’s reimbursement rates for addiction treatment could still be higher. Even under the boosted ARTS benefit, Medicaid doesn’t always cover the full cost of services.

As RBHA CEO John Lindstrom said, “You don’t get rich on Medicaid rates.” Boosting rates could also attract new providers that accept Medicaid — which is particularly needed in certain parts of the state, like the far southwest.

Nichole Gross, a teacher at Fairfield Middle School, displays her 2018 Gilman Teacher of the Year Award at a recent ceremony. With Gross are, at left, Michelle “Micky” Ogburn, Henrico School Board chair and the board representative from the Three Chopt District; Patrick Kinlaw, Henrico Schools superintendent; and Beverly Cocke, School Board representative from the Brookland District.

Devon Garrett.

“I’m grateful for all of you and what you do,” Gross told the crowd of educators. “I’m grateful for my mom, who when I acted up, made me read a novel and write a five-page essay … I’m thankful for the grandmother I never got to meet, who was an English teacher. I’m thankful for my grandfather who raised my dad to read a newspaper every single day.

In my household, literacy was always at the forefront. And I’m thankful now to be able to give other kids the same opportunity that I have a passion for.”

Gross grew up in Washington.

Her passion for teaching reading in underprivileged communities began early; at age 16, she created her own reading program through the Summer Youth Employment Program. She attended the University of Virginia, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Virginia State University and a master’s degree from Capella University. Before joining the Fairfield faculty in 2008, she spent several years working in information technology at a large corporation.

Hornbarger’s roots in Henrico County are deep. She attended Springfield Park Elementary School, Hungary Creek Middle School and J.R. Tucker High School. Her father’s family attended Glen Lea, where

Hornbarger now teaches, and her maternal grandmother was crowned “Miss Short Pump” in the 1950s.

Hornbarger received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University.

“My roots are here and I plan to stay in the county,” said Hornbarger.

“This honor is confirmation that I've entered the right career, but I know this is my first year and I still have so much to learn and explore.

I absolutely love what I do, the staff I work with and my supportive administration and specialists.

My students thrive because of the incredible foundation that Henrico County schools provide.”

The school system also announced three winners of the Chris Corallo Distinguished Leadership Award: Tuckahoe Middle School’s Earl Estes, an exceptional education teacher; Robbi Moose, the principal of Hungary Creek Middle School; and Kourtney Bostain, the division’s assistant director of instructional technology. The three were chosen from individuals nominated by their peers for their vision, passion, innovation and student-centered focus.

The award is named in honor of Corallo, a former HCPS assistant superintendent for instruction and organizational development, who died in 2013.

14 • May 16, 2018

The LEGACY

New Girls For A Change programs tackles employment inequity for communities of color It’s takes a community to enact change - which is why Girls For A Change (GFAC) has tapped Capital One, VCU, and 804RVA to help with a new program designed to address employment inequalities for girls and young women of color.

GFAC is a nonprofit youth development organization aimed at empowering black girls and other girls of color in Central Virginia to visualize their bright futures and potential through discovery, development, innovation, and social change in their communities. This year they are leading a charge to increase internship opportunities for girls of color in their Girl Ambassador Program with a Summer program called Ready to Work.

This regional collaboration between corporations and GFAC is designed to help girls in 9th-12th grades prepare for 21st century jobs - particularly those in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEAM). Currently, across the country, there are STEAM jobs that need to be filled. What’s worse, there is a clear lack of diversity among people who occupy jobs in these fields. This program seeks to create a pipeline of qualified, ready to work girls of color to fill that need and yield significant opportunities to disrupt generational poverty.

“We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with Capital One, VCU, and 804RVA to give girls of color an early opportunity to gain real-life work experience through our Girl Ambassador Program,” said Angela Patton, president and CEO of GFAC. “The girls will have an opportunity to work with top employers, build their skills, and widen their professional network.

Our vetted partners have committed to diversity and inclusion coaching to help ensure that these experiences are impactful and rewarding for everyone. Through this program, we are truly introducing black girls to the world and the world to black girls.”

GFAC’s research shows that early access to companies results in improved academic success, substantially higher college enrollment, and will create an experienced, empowered pipeline of women of color that our economy

desperately needs. Partners of this pilot program realized an opportunity to create real systemic change that improves entire communities.

Capital One, a major investor in the Richmond community, will be giving Girls For A Change a $40,000 grant to get the program off the ground.

“Capital One is excited to offer Girls for a Change a grant to fund a pilot program to increase internship opportunities for young women of color in Richmond,” said Melissa McDevitt, vice president of Diversity & Inclusion for Capital One. “The GFAC mission to inspire women of color to realize their potential closely aligns with Capital One’s commitment to inclusion and national Future Edge initiative which provides community grants to empower more Americans to succeed in the digital economy.”

VCU, a longtime supporter of Girls For A Change, will be providing the space and educational resources (laptops, design programs, etc.) for training. They are also providing faculty to assist in some of the training.

“We are happy to be a part of this collaborative effort; providing educational support and utilizing our resources and expertise at VCU Arts, through the Departments of Fashion and Interior Design. The teaching here is focused on developing a basic skill set needed for entry level jobs in these two disciplines. The student learning outcome of this wellconstructed program is a product line sheet for apparel appropriate for Target’s Athleisure Joy Lab and related home fashions, with the common thread being the fabric designs. Our aim is to inspire the girls toward viable careers, to fuel their ability to attain internships and jobs in these fields, and to empower them to become confident and successful, self-reliant and selfmotivated women.”

The 804RVA community will be lending their expertise to help the girls through training. 804RVA is a work and social club with a vast network of talented members that work in a number of different industries. Founder Larkin Garbee, who has experience developing

Angela Patton, CEO of Girls for a Change programming, has lent her expertise and access to the community to help develop the program and train its participants.

“We partnered with Girls For A Change to develop curriculum and offer access to our community.

We’re excited to leverage the tech community we’ve built over the last seven years in Richmond to provide opportunities for future entrepreneurs. Our community is excited about helping these bright, young girls develop skills and place them in apprenticeship opportunities so that they can be placed in jobs that require digital skills. It’s a full scale community effort - bringing together all of the skills at 804RVA and surrounding Universities.” said Larkin Garbee, founder, 804RVA

In addition to these great partners, Girls For A Change has also received 23 MacBook Pros and three Lenovo laptops from Twitter to help support the girls as they learn coding and other digital skills.

More than 18 girls have enrolled in the program and will complete their first internship Aug. 17. Girls For A Change is hosting an Interest job partners at Mobelux 1635 West Broad St. Richmond, on Wednesday, May, 16 from 12 - 1 p.m. Our last two Ready to Work training days were held on May 12 and May 19 before our participants receive their summer placement.

Visit the Girls For A Change website at www.girlsforachange.org or email angela@girlsforachange.org for more information.

(from page 8) into battle “only [his emphasis] if is legion,’” Barber quoted a beggar in Galilee to Jesus, in the book of Mark. The beggar was a homeless veteran.

And the intertwined racism also came through for his father, a Navy veteran of World War II, who found himself “riding in the back of troop trains in Europe while white German prisoners rode up front.” The U.S. military was deeply segregated then.

Barber faulted presidents and lawmakers of both political parties for the war and militarism emphasis. The 1974 War Powers Act, he said, for example, “means the president can order troops”

there is an attack on U.S. territory, friends, or troops—which means the other day we dropped illegal bombs on Syria.”

But he also scorned congressional Democrats for crowing about the recent government spending law allotting more money for domestic programs and for the middle class “but not more for the poor.” The GOP, meanwhile, touted the $686 billion it got for the military.

“This means we must challenge war and militarism,” he declared.

“If this is left unchallenged and uncritiqued, America will have, as Dr. King said, ‘the potential to be the greatest purveyor of violence the world has ever known.’”

May 16, 2018 • 15

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Ben Carson’s effort to ‘reform’ housing safety net would deepen poverty by hurting poorest Americans FROM WIRE REPORTS The Trump administration recently proposed fundamental changes to how the federal government helps low-income families pay for housing.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson claims his “welfare reform,” which would jack up rents on the poorest Americans and impose stricter work requirements, would promote selfsufficiency and make federal housing assistance fiscally sustainable.

As someone who has studied, taught and written about housing policy for more than 25 years, I believe the proposal would do nothing of the kind.

Housing welfare, by the numbers About 4.8 million of the nation’s lowest-income households currently receive housing assistance from the federal government, a figure that hasn’t changed much over the past decade.

About 1 million households live in public housing, 2.5 million receive housing choice vouchers that subsidize the rents charged by private landlords and 1.3 million live in apartment buildings that are themselves directly supported by the government.

These households earn very little income. The average income of a housing choice voucher recipient, for example, is US$14,454, while only 23 percent earn more than $20,000.

For decades, federal rental assistance ensured that recipients paid no more than 30 percent of their adjusted household income on rent.

If income goes down, they pay less.

If it goes up, they pay more. The cap is based on the notion, long shared by policymakers and the real estate industry, that housing is “affordable” when it costs no more than 30 percent of a household’s income.

The measure for income housing authorities have used has traditionally been adjusted for child care, medical expenses and other deductions.

Housing ‘reform’ The administration’s proposal would greatly raise the rents that virtually all housing subsidy recipients must pay – in three ways.

The rents for subsidy recipients who are not elderly or disabled would

HUD Secretary Ben Carson (R) argues his housing reforms would increase self-sufficiency. PHOTO: Pablo M. Monsivais increase from 30 to 35 percent of their income. The government would no longer take child care and medical expenses into account in determining rents. And the minimum rent recipients must pay would triple from $50 to $150 a month.

About 423,000 subsidy recipients currently earn less than $2,000 a year and pay the minimum rent of $50. Their rent would triple to $150 a month, which would consume a whole year of income for a household earning $1,800.

Families with higher incomes would also see sharp increases as well. A single-parent family earning $25,000 but with $5,000 in child care expenses would see its rent jump 46 percent from about $500 to $729.

While the plan would keep elderly and disabled people at a 30 percent cap, their incomes would no longer by adjusted for medical expenses and child care. Moreover, in order to qualify for the exemption, every adult in the household must be elderly or disabled.

A history of ‘reform’ Most fundamentally, the Trump administration proposal would finally apply the controversial welfare “reforms” that began in the 1990s to federal housing assistance.

Welfare reform began under the

(continued on page 17)

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Today, 130,000 Virginians are living with Alzheimer’s, and 400,000 are caregiving for someone who has it. We must effectively prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease soon and support those impacted by it until researchers achieve this goal.

We need your help! Together all Virginians can help us get the required 450 prepaid applications needed to be able to get DMV to produce the ALZHEIMER'S LICENSE PLATE. Amanda Chase, Senator, has agreed to present this license plate bill to General Assembly in January 2018 once 450 applications are collected.

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Katy Reed, Louisa, VA - 540-967-7098

16 • May 16, 2018

Calendar

The LEGACY

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

5.17, 7:30 a.m.

5.21, 6:30 p.m.

Hampton Roads Grow Sales Small Business Conference: Opportunities to Connect, Communicate and Collaborate! at ODU Webb Center - Norfolk, in partnership with ODU Procurement Division and CVMSDC (Carolina’s Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council) No matter how experienced you are at your business, this conference will provide education opportunities and resources to help you grow your business in areas such as government and corporate contracting, marketing, leadership and mentoring... all the resources to help your business grow to success!!

You will also have an opportunity to network and collaborate with other business owners, learn from talented and experienced speakers, visit a host of exhibitors providing valuable information to use or share with your peers and make connections Free, but you must register at: https://www.sbsd.virginia.gov/ events/save-the-date-hamptonroads-grow-sales-small-businessconference-norfolk-va/

Henrico County Board of Supervisors Chairman and Fairfield District Supervisor Frank J. Thornton will hold a constituent meeting to provide an update on the state of the county and to highlight events in Fairfield.

Thornton will be joined by County Manager John A. Vithoulkas, who presented the State of the County address in December. The meeting will be held at the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center, 1440 N. Laburnum Ave. For information, call 804-501-4208.

5.23, 8:30 a.m.

5.19, 1 p.m.

The Richmond Committee of the Virginia Prison Justice Network (VAPJN) will host a Richmond Speak-Out for Prison Justice at Second Baptist Church, 1400 Idlewood Ave. in Richmond’s Randolph neighborhood.

Titled “Confronting Justice: One Story at a Time,” the SpeakOut will be an opportunity for prisoners, former prisoners, family members, supporters and advocates to tell their stories and inform the public about the realities of life in Virginia prisons. The event will be livestreamed on Facebook and then posted on the VAPJN website.

One of the key issues to be discussed will be Virginia’s use of solitary confinement. Among those addressing this issue will be David Smith, who spent more than 16 months in solitary confinement in the Norfolk City Jail. He spoke about his experience at a recent press conference hosted by the ACLU of Virginia and other advocacy organizations.

University of Richmond hosts lecture on ageism with internationally renowned ageing expert and activist Bill Thomas A recent survey of people over 60 found that nearly 80 percent of respondents reported experiencing ageism. Examples of ageism include the assumption of memory or physical impairments, being ignored or not taken seriously and being told a joke that pokes fun at older people.

“Does this matter? Yes, it does,” says Peggy Watson, director of the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning and coordinator of this event. “Ageism compromises the health and wellbeing of older adults, and it’s a topic we should all take seriously and know more about.”

Bill Thomas, a world-renowned expert on ageing, will explore the consequences of ageism as the keynote speaker for “The Four Types of Ageism: An Ageist Society Cannot Be An Age Friendly One” May 23 at 1 p.m. in the University of Richmond Modlin Center for the Arts, Alice Jepson Theatre. Thomas’ presentation will explore how to develop communities that embrace all stages of life.

“Ageism strips our communities of multigenerational engagement and reciprocity and diminishes the ability of older people to experience elderhood, the richness and meaning of life after adulthood,” says Thomas.

This event is free and open to the public but registration is required.

The Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce Smarter Business Series, Village Bank and UPS presents “Digital Marketing Boot Camp” facilitated by Surefire Local – Marketing Cloud based out Vienna.

The series will be about Social Media, How Do You Know Digital Marketing Is Working? and other marketing tools.

The Smarter Business Series will take place at Chesterfield Career & Technical Center, 13900 Hull Street Road, Midlothian. There is breakfast & networking. Tickets are available for the series, cost range from $39 to $59 per person.

Surefire Local multiplies your marketing efforts by helping you see and strengthen all your online activities from a single platform – so you can finally get the kind of quality leads you really want.

For more information or to register you can visit www. chesterfieldchamber.com or give us call at 804-748-6364.

Submit your calendar events by email to: editor @legacynewspaper.com.

Include the who, what, where, when & contact information that can be printed. Submission deadline is Friday.

May 16, 2018 • 17

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(from page 15) Clinton administration, which in 1996 replaced a decades-old entitlement program that provided aid to poor families with kids with a new one that included work requirements and time constraints.

As a result, the number of families on welfare plunged from 4.5 million in 1996 to 1.1 million last year.

The Trump administration has been pushing to extend work requirements and sometimes time limits to other safety net programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps.

And now, with the latest proposal, the administration hopes to apply them to housing assistance.

Although the details are yet to be worked out, the administration’s bill would authorize public housing authorities and private owners of subsidized housing to impose work requirements and time limits – and even increase some rents above 35 percent of income.

Wider ramifications While some policy analysts have previously advocated that

Washington apply time limits and work requirements to housing assistance, these ideas have generally not taken hold. There are good reasons for this.

The United States confronts a housing affordability crisis of epic proportions. By the standard 30 percent of income measure, nearly half of all renters cannot afford their housing, and one-quarter spend at least half of their income on rent.

The problem is far worse among very low-income renters, with 83 percent spending more than 30 more percent of their income on rent and 56 percent spending 50 percent or more. With cost burdens like these, people often struggle to pay for food, transportation, health care and other essentials. They are at high risk of eviction and homelessness.

Employment is often of little help.

About half of the 8 million very lowincome renters who spend 50 percent or more of their income on rent do in fact work. In only 12 of the nation’s 3,142 counties can a full-time worker earning the minimum wage afford a one-bedroom home at the local

fair market rent – the rent that the Housing and Urban Development department deems suitable for a modest but adequate unit.

And average full-time earnings in numerous occupations are also well below the income necessary to afford the fair market rent. For example, a child care worker in the U.S. earns an average of $30,679, compared with the $35,680 necessary under the 30 percent standard to afford the national average fair market rent on a one-bedroom unit.

Another reason welfare reform’s emphasis on employment makes little sense for housing assistance is that most subsidy recipients who could work already do. Overall, 28 percent of all housing assistance recipients in 2017 worked. Twothirds are either elderly or disabled.

And most of the rest are single mothers, many of whom already work – and those who don’t often have young children.

Moreover, the cost of implementing work requirements would be substantial. Housing authorities would need to create new data systems and

devote staff time to determine which subsidy recipients would be subject to the work requirements, to monitor compliance with the requirements and impose sanctions when the requirements are not satisfied.

In short, the proposed changes in federal housing policy would neither foster economic self-sufficiency nor meaningful fiscal savings. They would deepen poverty and worsen the housing affordability crisis.

Last week, a group of advocacy organizations filed a lawsuit Tuesday against HUD and Carson, over his decision to delay the Obama-era rule intended to ensure that communities confront and address racial segregation.

Filed by the National Fair Housing Alliance, Texas Appleseed and Texas Low Income Housing Information Service argues that Carson illegally suspended the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act when he abruptly announced this year that cities and counties receiving federal funds won’t be required to analyze housing data and submit plans to HUD for addressing segregation until after 2020.

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18 • May 16, 2018

Classifieds STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF FLORENCE South Carolina Department of Social Services, Plaintiff, vs.

) IN THE FAMILY COURT OF THE ) TWELFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT ) DOCKET NO.: 2018-DR-21-435 ) ) SUMMONS AND NOTICE ) ) Yolanda Cooper ) Legrant Walker ) John Doe ) ) AND ) ) Ja’Quan Sincere Nirule Walker ) DOB: 06/30/2001 ) Minor under the age of 18 ) ______________________________ ) TO DEFENDANT: Yolanda Cooper: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONDED and served with the complaint for Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) and Notice of the TPR hearing in and to the minor child in this action, the original of which has been filed in the Office of the Clerk of Court for FLORENCE County 181 N. Irby St., Suite 2700, Florence, SC 29501, a copy of which will be delivered to you upon request; and if you choose to answer the complaint, to serve a copy of which will be delivered to you upon request; the undersigned attorney for the plaintiff at Hailey P. Turnblad, 2685 S. Irby Street, Box A, Florence, SC, 29505 within thirty (30) days following the date of service upon you, exclusive of the day of service.

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YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that: the TPR hearing in this matter is scheduled for July 10, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. at the Florence County Judicial Center, 2nd floor, located at 181 N. Irby St., Florence, SC 29501. ____________________________________ Hailey P. Turnblad, Attorney for Plaintiff South Carolina Department of Social Services 2685 S. Irby Street, Box A Florence, SC 29505 (843/ 669-3354/ (843) 673-9247 Bar No.: 76365

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