Concrete highways as tangible structural racism

By Ben Jealous

The racial divisions that have split our country for centuries don’t just live in people’s hearts and heads. Some of them exist in concrete and pavement running right through certain neighborhoods. They are structural racism in the most tangible sense.

In Milwaukee last month, local activists told me about their fight against that kind of division. Wisconsin’s transportation department wants to expand a crumbling 3.5-mile stretch of Interstate 94 running through the state’s largest city at a cost of $1.2 billion and about 49 acres of land in the neighborhoods adjoining the roadway.

an actual intersection between creating more equitable communities and protecting the planet.

Public works projects that encourage more traffic also increase air pollution that impacts our climate, increase noise pollution, and add to flooding and contaminated run-off that damage swimmable, fishable rivers. Those who live closest breathe the most exhaust and live with the constant drone of traffic, but the environmental impact unquestionably stretches far wider.

Stay vigilant.

let for their propaganda. Former President Donald Trump translated their propaganda into policy by issuing an executive order that banned racial sensitivity training in the federal government.

Republicans in state legislatures picked up the cause, drafting and introducing bills that placed limits on government agencies, public higher education institutions, and K-12 schools teaching “harmful sex- and race-based ideologies.” was released over the Martin Luther King Day weekend. Historians largely condemned the report, and American Historical Association Executive Director James Grossman said, “It’s a work of contentious politics designed to stoke culture wars.

“To say that the racial divisions that have existed for the last half century are due to insistence by African Americans on ‘group rights’ rather than to the depth and breadth of racism, to say that on a page where you have a photograph of Dr. King, is offensive to Dr. King’s legacy,” Grossman said. State level opposition

At the state level, academic curriculums that include concepts of racism and sexism are viewed by many politicians as threats. Thus, anti-racist courses became targets of hostile legislation.

Right-wing opposition to anti-racist curriculum

White right-wing opposition is at all governmental levels. Former President Donald Trump created the Presidential Advisory 1776 Committee by executive order in September 2020 to counter a “radicalized view of American history.”

The 1776 Committee was formed to advise the president about the core principles of the American founding and how to protect those principles by promoting patriotic education.

The bogus commission did not include a single professional historian. More insulting was their fabricated report that

There has been a recent wave of educational “gag orders” restricting the teaching of race and gender because some politicians discredit them as divisive concepts. At the core of state legislation is the desire to prevent discourse about America’s racist past and present.

Many scholars in Florida are angry and scared because Governor DeSantis plans to defund diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at state public universities. A press release describing his proposed legislation-tocome said it will prohibit higher education institutions from using any funding, regardless of source, to support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Critical Race Theory (CRT), meaning teaching about racism.

These kinds of restrictions make faculty members afraid to teach subjects on race. A new report by the RAND Corporation found that a quarter of K-12 teachers changed their curriculum or practices because of limits on how to discuss race and gender. Black teachers disproportionately were the ones changing their teaching.

Like Overton in Miami, East Los Angeles, and West Montgomery, Ala., those neighborhoods, home to poor Black and Brown residents, were subdivided 60 years ago when I-94 was built. The highway continues to cut them off today.

It’s disingenuous to make plans today that don’t consider the history of these highways in places like Milwaukee. The cost to locate interstates, built as courts were ordering desegregation of public schools and housing, was borne by communities of color whose residents were barred from home loans that would have let them move to suburbs that got disproportionate benefit from faster commutes.

Planners used code words like blight, renewal and efficiency to confuse that reality. A highway project like this creates

The estimated cost of expanding I-94 is about $40 million more than fixing the existing six lanes. That’s the same amount that a 50 percent cut in the current state budget cost mass transit systems in Madison and Milwaukee.

Most Milwaukee mass transit riders are workers riding to a job or the disabled and seniors who no longer drive. While Black and Brown riders make up a disproportionate share of the total, most riders are White.

When we see these fabricated divisions, the question we should ask is who benefits from creating them? We know from troubling experience that the self-interested find ways to separate us even when our interests are the same. Who benefits from a wider interstate? It’s clearly not its neighbors. Not the Milwaukee City Council who opposed the plan. Not drivers today or in years to come as updating the current highway without adding lanes will improve safety and reduce congestion. And not millennials that Wisconsin has spent millions to retain and attract who say they want to live in places that don’t demand driving.

A local issue like this one in Wisconsin matters even if you live three states away, because one like it may be coming to where you live soon. We’re on the cusp of many more in every state.

Historic federal funding in 2021 and 2022 to repair infrastructure and invest in a cleaner economy must be spent place by place. We need to follow the example of the folks I met in Milwaukee—stay vigilant. Never assume that decisions will be made in the best interest of everyone or the planet. Build the biggest coalitions we can, and hold officials accountable when we vote.

Ben Jealous is the incoming executive director of the Sierra Club, the oldest and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the country. He is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free,” published in January.

Black leaders, therapists needed to uplift inmates

By Courtney Bernard Clark

There have been Black leaders who had programs in the Minnesota Department of Corrections that were later dismantled for no reason. Take Shane Price of the Power for the People program, which was all over the Minnesota Department of Corrections and then one day gone.

This program gave inmates help in and out of prison. The rooms where this program was held were packed. Everyone was proud to see a successful Black man and his wife [Dr. Verna Price] caring about Black inmates who needed housing jobs and clothing, helping with the success of staying out doing what Black men are supposed to do in order to live a crime-free life. We all were hurt to hear he was not let back in to teach.

There once was a Black master barber up at Moose Lake Prison. He was hard on the brothers in his class because he wanted better from them, and everyone liked that about him. So, one day, out of nowhere, he was escorted out of the prison. We were later

Black positive officers need to be hired— someone who understands their own people.

told that the Black barber got into it with an officer over an incident with a White inmate.

There’s more, a lot more.

While I was in Lino Lakes Prison, a Black female officer

Public attitudes

submissions@spokesman-recorder.com submissions@spokesman-recorder.com.

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In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed a bill that restricts what teachers can teach in K-12 schools and at public universities, particularly when it comes to sexism and racism. The law has sparked confusion and distress among educators who fear they might face consequences for even broaching nuanced conversations about racism and sexism in the context of U.S. history.

In Tennessee, a high school teacher was fired after teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates’s essay “The First White President.” More teachers are expected to be silenced because of the current social climate. A Black principal in Texas was recently suspended without explanation after a former school board candidate complained that he was implementing critical race theory, promoting “extreme views on race” and “the conspiracy theory of systemic racism.”

Joseph Frilot, a middle school humanities teacher, learned from his curriculum manager that all the content he developed about Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement won’t be part of his lessons this year considering the Texas law that limits discourse on racism and sexism.

In Tennessee, the state’s guidance lays out major consequences for schools and educators found in violation: Schools could stand to lose millions in annual state funds, and teachers could have their licenses denied, suspended or revoked.

A July Reuters/Ipsos poll found that fewer than half of Americans (43 percent) said they knew about critical race theory and the surrounding debates, with three in 10 saying they hadn’t heard of it at all. Most Americans said they support teaching students about the impact of slavery (78 percent) and racism (73 percent) in the U.S. State laws banning critical race theory in public schools received less support (35 percent).

On all fronts there was a partisan divide, with Republicans more interested in banning talk about slavery, racism, and the teaching of critical racial issues. Students and teachers have gone to school boards to demand ethnic studies courses was told she couldn’t wear her mask that had a fist on it. She continued and was fired. The two other Black officers changed their masks; one wore the African mask, and the other Black officer wore just a black mask.

The harassment, discrimination, retaliation and slander all are Minnesota Department of Corrections trades. Black leaders are needed to be able to speak and uplift people in prison. This helps give people hope.

Black positive officers need to be hired—someone who understands their own people. Mental health Black therapists need to be hired to help with the mental issues we all struggle with. Please help us.

Courtney Bernard Clark writes from the Faribault Correctional Facility and worked to make anti-racism part of the curriculum.

Teachers want their students to understand how racism is systemic and that they can be part of a multiracial struggle to bring about change. Right-wing policy institutes, media outlets, and politicians are conniving to stifle antiracist educational projects, even though most of the public has a positive view of them.

The dominant White ruling elite continues to undermine and impede an antiracist academic curriculum because it challenges White dominant cultural beliefs about how and why the United States is racially stratified and unequal.

Dr. Luke Tripp is a professor at St. Cloud State University.

Feb. 16 - 28

The MSR celebrates Black history 365 days a year and enjoys a living legacy as one of the state’s oldest Black businesses. Find a listing of free or low-cost community events below to help you savor the richness of Black history.

Ongoing

Night Life: Nocturnal Worlds in African Art

Runs until Sept. 10

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Ave. S., Mpls.

“Night Life” presents 20 artworks from across Africa that address the various ways nighttime was, and in some cases still is, perceived and experienced. Offering warmth and privacy, sumptuously patterned blankets and basketry panels promote peaceful slumbers. This exhibit is free and is being staged in Gallery 255.

For more info, go to bit.ly/NocturnalWorlds

“Locomotion”

Runs until March 5

Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 Third Ave. S., Mpls.

Uprooted from his family, Lonnie couldn’t feel more alone. But when his class learns to write poetry, his verses take him back to a time of togetherness. As he finds his voice as a poet, Lonnie learns how poetry can bring him closer to others and himself. Based on the book by award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson, this play is best enjoyed by anyone aged nine or older.

For more info, go to childrenstheatre.org/shows-and-tickets

“Blues for an Alabama Sky”

Runs until March 12

Guthrie Theater, Wurtele Thrust Stage, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.

Renowned playwright Pearl Cleage’s award-winning drama takes place in Depression-era Har lem, where a close-knit group of four friends have their lives upturned by a newcomer whose arrival shifts the trajectory of everyone’s futures and long-held dreams.

For info, go to www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets

“TESTIFY: Americana from Slavery to Today”

Runs until March 29, 2023

Minneapolis Central Library

Cargill Gallery, 300 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Presented by former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice and NFL Hall of Famer Alan Page, and his daughter, marketing and communications professional Georgi PageSmith, the groundbreaking exhibit “TESTIFY” returns to the Minneapolis Central Library. The exhibit features more than 100 artifacts and works of art designed to foster dialogue and inspire justice.

For more info, go to hclib.org/about/news/2023/January/testify-exhibit

Community Quilt Project

Runs until July 1

Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery (MAAHMG), 1256 Penn Ave. N. (4th Floor), Mpls.

The “Community Quilt Project” features 14 quilts that symbolize themes, including Black history, Black joy, love and family, racial justice, civil rights, Black liberation, healing and freedom. The exhibit also includes a quilt honoring Minneapolis’ favorite son, Prince Rogers Nelson, that was created during the painting of the Prince mural in May/June 2022.

The “Community Quilt Project” is open for viewing during MAAHMG’s regular hours (Tuesdays through Fridays from 1-5 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am-2 pm.) Admission is free and free parking is available in the ramp at the rear of the building. For more info, go to www.maahmg.org.

Black Liberation: Dismantling of Racism in Minnesota, 1800s to 1960s

Runs until Dec. 31

Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery (MAAHMG), 1256 Penn Ave. N. (4th Floor), Mpls.

This exhibit, curated by Tina Burnside, with research assistance by Simiyah Garrison and graphic design by Michaela Spielberger, is an exploration of the Black Liberation Movement in Minnesota.

Focusing on Black-led organizations and Black leaders including abolitionists, labor, civil rights and Black Power leaders, “Black Liberation” reflects the fight for Black self-determination in Minnesota during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The MAAHMG is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 1-5 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am-2 pm. Admission is free and free parking is available in the ramp at the rear of the building. For more info, go to www.maahmg.org.

February 16

2023 History Makers at Home Award Ceremony

11 am – 1:30 pm

The Capri Theater, 2027 West Broadway Ave., Mpls.

The Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights is honoring several community leaders as part of the History Makers at Home program—a profile series featuring inspirational leaders in a wide range of fields. The awards program will take place from 11 am to 12:30 pm, and refreshments and networking opportunities are from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm at the Capri Theater. This event is free and open to the public.

For more info, go to bit.ly/MplsBHM2023.

Reflections on the Black Liberation Movement in Minnesota with Dr. Yohuru Williams

5:30 – 7 pm

MAAHMG (Fourth Floor), 1256 Plymouth Ave. N., Mpls. Dr. Yohuru Williams, distinguished university chair, professor of history, and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, will present an engaging discussion that explores the Black Liberation Movement, its catalysts and leaders in Minnesota.

Dr. Williams will also discuss the connection between events in 1975 and the racial reckoning of 2020, and the goals, strategies and challenges for Black self-determination. Admission and parking are free.

For more info, go to bit.ly/BlackLiberationMAAHMG

■ See Black History Month Events on page 9

For more information, visit northpointhealth.org/covid

Black History MontH EvEnts

Continued from page 8

February 17

Northside Celebration 2023

Three Shows, February 17 - 19

Feb. 17, 7 pm, North High, 1500 James Ave. N., Mpls

Feb. 18, 4 pm, North High, 1500 James Ave. N., Mpls Feb. 19, 2 pm, Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

Share in the joy, beauty, and energy of this collaborative concert experience that celebrates the North Minneapolis community through music. Springing from the 13-year partnership between the Capri in North Minneapolis and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, this celebration brings together traditional gospel and orchestral music with spoken word to create an unforgettable concert event featuring voices and stories of the North Side.

For more info, go to content. thespco.org/events/northsidecelebration-2023

Zealous Hellions: Charlayne Hunter-Gault in Conversation with Brandi Powell

7 pm

Mixed Blood Theatre, Alan Page Auditorium (and livestreamed), 1501 S. 4th St., Mpls.

For the first Zealous Hellions of 2023, Mixed Blood welcomes pioneering journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault in conversation with Brandi Powell of KSTP 5 Eyewitness News. In light of the recent publication of HunterGault’s new book, “My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives,” this conversation will trace her journey from desegregating the University of Georgia to her work on PBS’s “NewsHour,” The New Yorker Magazine, The New York Times and beyond. Admission is free, but advanced registration is encouraged.

For more info, go to mixedblood.com/zealous-hellions.

February 18

African American Genealogy Workshop

11 am–12 pm

Hennepin History Museum, 2303 3rd Ave. S., Mpls. This workshop, led by Hennepin History Museum archivist Michelle Pollard, will demonstrate how to navigate sites like ancestry.com and familysearch.org, as well as the National Archives to help find your African American ancestors and build an extensive family tree. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

For more info, go to bit.ly/AAGenealogyWorkshop

The Essence of Gospel with Kimberly Brown

Two Shows – 3 pm and 7 pm

Heat of the City Music Factory, 2665 4th Ave., Anoka

Celebrate the Gospel music experience with acclaimed vocalist Kimberly Brown. This is an allages show and a wonderful way to celebrate Black History Month. For more info, go to www.kimberlybrownmusic.com.

February 19

24th Annual Black History Month Concert

7-9 pm St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community, 4537 3rd S., Mpls.

Featuring a joyful gathering of musicians, storytellers, filmmakers and neighborhood advocates, this annual event digs deep into the history of South Minneapolis and the St. Joan of Arc community. Presented in collaboration with the St. Joan of Arc anti-racism ministry. For more info, go to www.eventbrite.com

Black History MontH EvEnts

Continued from page 9

February 21

“Sugar in Our Wounds” by Donja R. Love

Runs until March 19

Penumbra Theatre Company, 270 North Kent St., St. Paul

Set on a Southern plantation in 1862, this piercing drama explores queer Black love against a backdrop of imminent freedom. Two young, enslaved men torn from their families find solace in one another, propelling them into a harrowing fight for love and survival.

For more info, go to penumbratheatre.org or call 651-224-3180

February 23

Rock Your Crown Past Present and Creative

12-1 pm City of Mpls. Public Service Building, Confer. Room 100, 505 4th Ave. S., Mpls.

This is the last of four City of Minneapolis Black History Month Events held consecutively on Thursdays in February 2023.

For more info, go to bit.ly/BHMResistance

February 24

African Heritage Day on the Hill w/the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage

9:30 am-11 pm Minnesota State Capitol Building Rotunda, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, St. Paul

Join the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage for the first in person African Heritage Day on the Hill, post-COVID-19 pandemic.

This event will feature remarks from lawmakers on their current 2023 legislative plans and provide information for attendees on how to connect with lawmakers on policy issues that are important to them.

For more info, go to eventbrite.com

Continued from page 14 and a journey to get to this place where we’re preparing to unlock this and make it available to people,” continued Washington of the project through which she learned more about her father, his family, and what his life was from youth to college, to the NFL and his post-sports life in Minnesota. She added that Black History Month seems like a good time to launch her latest project. their organizations or their institutions.

“I’m really grateful and excited at the overwhelming response to everything I’ve done over the past 10 years to bring my father’s story forward,” she continued.

“This is just a really exciting time for us.”

“It’s Black History Month,” added Washington. “I do hope as Minnesota—and there’s still a lot of eyes on our state and Twin Cities, in particular—I hope that as a community, we can find ways to honor, celebrate, and do our due diligence to learn as much as they possibly can about those Black Minnesotans who really made our state better.”

‘Black Fives’ Games honor history

viEw

Continued from page 14

Find more Black History Month events on spokesman-recorder. com. Let us know about more events by sending an email to submissions@spokesman-recorder.com. faith and paved the way for and over, whether you are a sports fan or not. In addition, here a few more documentaries—in no particular order—worth watching, not only in February but any time of year:

HBO’s “Women of Troy” is the story of USC’s 1980s women’s college basketball team and how their style of play transformed the sport.

(2020)

BTN—Big Ten Network’s “Passion & Perseverance: 1999 Purdue Women’s Basketball” tells the unlikely story of the 1999 Boilermakers women’s basketball team led by Head Coach Carolyn Peck, the first Black coach to win a Division I women’s basketball championship.

(2019)

PBS’s “This is a Game, Ladies,” chronicles the 20002001 season of Rutgers University’s Scarlet Knights women’s basketball team, led by legendary Coach C. Vivian Stringer. (2004)

ESPNW’s Nine for IX series short, “Coach,” documents the personal tragedies and triumphs Coach C. Vivian Stringer has experienced in becoming one of college basketball’s most prolific and celebrated women’s coaches. (2013)

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

Asked about pushback by some elected officials around the country against Black history, like her film, being taught in schools, noted Washington, “I am not concerned about people who might not see my family’s contribution to history as valid, because I know there are enough people who were positively impacted by the desegregation of college football and positively impacted by the inclusion of African Americans in both college athletics as well as Olympic sports.

“Whether or not people recognize it or not, the contributions to American history that African Americans

Throughout February, The Black Fives Foundation and the Big East Conference have established “specially designated matchups”—in both men’s (11) and women’s (11) basketball games— as Black Fives Games recognize the pre-NBA era of all-Black basketball from 1904 through 1950. Each team will wear a shooting shirt that celebrates a historically important local Black basketball squad. Coaches have made, I think that’s what made my father’s story so unique—like my dad going to Michigan State University, and later the Minnesota Vikings. Or that my dad and other talented Black athletes would make a significant difference to the success of and staff will wear special lapel pins for the occasion. All contests are being nationally televised on CBSSN, Fox, FS1 and other media.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

Hockey

Continued from page 2 in 1998-99. The forward was chosen by the St. Louis Blues in the ninth round (No. 219) of the 1993 NHL Draft and scored 383 points (162 goals, 221 assists) in 1,060 games for the Oilers, Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabres and San Jose Sharks from 1996-2011.

Born in Detroit, Grier scored 120 points (59 goals, 61 assists) in 114 games at Boston Uni- versity. He tied Jacques Joubert for the team lead in goals with 29 in 1994-95, the season it won the NCAA Division I championship, and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award given to the top men’s player in NCAA Division I ice hockey. Grier joined the Rangers on May 19. following his playing career at Boston, where the forward scored 62 points (29 goals, 33 assists) in 65 games.

“I got to play as a hockey player, then I got to play as a coach, then I got to be an administrator,” Wright said. “From the time you’re a little kid, all you wanted to do was play. ‘Let me play the game,’ and I did.” the Anaheim Ducks in 1994.

The Chatham, Ontario, native was revered by his players. One, Tunney Murchie, and his family, donated $220,000 to have the university’s volleyball and basketball practice facility renovated and renamed The ed isn’t that meaningful to me as my players that I have out there. I’ve got lawyers, businesspeople. All the players I had that have gone forth and to just hear about their accomplishments… that’s most meaningful to me.” game against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Dec. 7, 1947. The forward scored 49 points (24 goals, 25 assists) in three seasons and helped Boston earn its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1950. It reached the championship game that season but lost 13-4 to Colorado College. Robinson assisted on its first goal of the game.

Robinson was a three-sport athlete at Boston, competing on the gymnastics and diving team. He died in 1987 at age 62. Robin Robinson-Kirkpatrick, his daughter, said photos of her father’s hockey exploits hung on the walls in the family’s home.

Edward L. Wright Practice Facility in 2010.

Wright was inducted into the University at Buffalo Athletics Hall of Fame on Feb. 18.

Ed Wright (1966-69)

Wright became the first Black NCAA coach when he accepted the position at the University of Buffalo in 1970

Wright coached at Buffalo for 12 seasons in two stints from 1970-81 and 1986-87, finishing 138-155 with seven ties. He became a scout for

“It gives me a very, very good feeling that I contributed and contributed at a high level,” he said. “Being induct-

Robinson, a native of Wellesley, Massachusetts, is regarded at the first Black American to play American college hockey. He enrolled at Boston in 1946 after returning from Army service in World War II. Robinson played his first

“Back then, going through Jim Crow segregation, the Black Power movement, the civil rights movement and everything, we respected what he did,” Robinson-Kirkpatrick said. “But as I got older, I was, like, ‘Wow, we’re getting more into history, and acknowledging that this is history that he went through.’”

Photo Credits: Boston University Athletics, Robin Robinson-Kirkpatrick, Paul Hokanson, University at Buffalo

Fostering conversations for healing and recovery Location and Hours:

Fostering conversations for healing and recovery Location and Hours:

Fostering conversations for healing and recovery Location and Hours:

23 Thursdays 11 am – 2 pm Center for Changing Lives 2400 Park Avenue, Minneapolis Conference Room 182

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• Senior citizen medication reviews

• Incentives

• Hand forearm massage

• Free lunch!

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• Incentives the SPEDCO, as mortgagee, then assigned to The United States of America, acting through the Small Business Administration, assignee, and filed in the office of the County Recorder in Hennepin County Minnesota, as follows:

Dated Date Filed Document No. March 18, 2019 March 27, 2019 T05602441

It is the intention of the above-named Petitioner to move the court for an order authorizing the Hennepin Court Administrator to accept and deposit in an interest bearing account payments from the Petitioner to the court pursuant to Minn. Stat. §117.042.