NJG | Vol. 123, No. 35 - Aug 31, 2023

NEWJOURNAL & GUIDE NEW JOURNAL & GUIDE

Vol. 123, No. 35 | $1.50

August 31, 2023 - September 6, 2023

“WE MARCH ON” Not A Commemoration, But A Continuation

By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide

“If I could speak to my grandfather today, I would say that I am sorry that we are rededicating ourselves to the work of realizing your ultimate hidden dream,” said Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking at the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington on August 26.

She was one of the last three of a long and diverse list of speakers who participated in the event themed “Not A Commemoration But A Continuation” of the Civil Rights Movement Dr. King led before his death.

She spoke after her mother, Arndrea Waters King, who heads the Kings’ Drum Major

Institute, and before Martin Luther King III, her father, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, CEO of the National Action Network (NAN), which organized this year’s event.

Speakers representing a broad rainbow of activists for gender, faith, labor, professional, civil rights, and political causes addressed the thousands who attended.

Banning books, reproductive rights and pay equity for women, federal efforts to fight discrimination

and violence, voting rights and protections for all races, were all addressed by the speakers.

King’s granddaughter said that “sixty years ago Dr. King stood here and spoke about the triple evils of racism, poverty, and bigotry.

“Now racism and bigotry are still with us. Also, gun violence in our places of worship, our schools, and our shopping centers.”

She noted gun violence which plagues America today was an issue the earlier

generation did not face, but her generation “cannot escape.”

King, who is 15-yearsold said, “This summer my generation is worrying about global warming. Along with fighting racism and poverty, we must work to save our planet.”

She noted that while her generation has been defined as cynical, she said that cynicism is “not a luxury.”

“I believe that my generation will be defined not by apathy but activism,” she said.

Then she led a chant, “Spread the Word. Have you heard ... Across the nation... We are going to be a great generation.”

Her brief speech summed up much of the words of the other speakers braving the 95-degree-plus heat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. see March, page 6A

HBCU STUDENTS MAKE VOICES HEARD AT ANNIVERSARY MARCH

By Alecia Taylor Howard University News Service

Black students from all over the nation gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate and continue marching for freedom and equal opportunities.

Thousands of people showed up Saturday morning to hear speakers honor the anniversary of the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. The 1963 march drew over a quarter of a million people from all over the nation, from different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Many speakers such as King and John Lewis were scholars from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Echoing their predecessors, Black students attended the anniversary march to

continue the legacy of those who stood as demonstrators 60 years before them.

Devonte King, a senior political science and economics double major at Howard University, attended the march with the

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Alpha Chapter. During the pandemic King attended rallies for Black Lives Matter, but he found himself soaking in the historical significance of this march in particular.

“I’ve never been to something of this magnitude before,” he said. “There’s so many people and the magnitude of the 60th anniversary is very historic.” see HBCU, page 6A

JACKSONVILE: 11 DEADLY MINUTES SHROUDED IN PURE RACIAL HATRED

New Journal and Guide Staff JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

Within hours after the deadly shooting of three Black people in Jacksonville, authorities announced the case would be treated as a hate crime.

On Saturday August 26, Ryan Christopher Palmeter, a 21-year-old white supremacist, went on a shooting spree at a Dollar General store, targeting African Americans in a historically Black community. When the

FROM THE MARCH

Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, known as “America’s Black Attorney General,” embraced his hard-earned moniker, whipping the crowd into a frenzy by insisting that he would fi ght “until hell freezes over ... then we will fi ght on the ice.”

Attorney Ben Crump

“Mother said, struggle is a never-ending process ... Vigilance is the answer.”

– Bernice King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change “Spread the Word. Have you heard ... Across the nation ... We are going to be a great generation.”

– Yolanda Renee King, 15-years-old

rampage was over 11 minutes later, Palmeter had killed Angela Michelle Carr, 52, Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29, and Amto Joseph Laguerre, Jr., 19, before killing himself. Carr, an Uber driver, was still in her car parked outside the store after reportedly dropping off a friend when she was killed; 19-year-old

Daguerre, worked at the store and was attempting to flee; Gallion was shot as he entered the store with his girlfriend who was able to escape the gunfire.

In the moments after the crime and before Jacksonville Police Sheriff T. K. Waters held the first official press conference to announce details known at that time,

news reporters speculated about the gunman, his motive, and whether or not he had acted alone.

Interviews with the city’s mayor and City Councilwoman Ju’ Coby Pittman, both at the scene, were shown repeatedly as reporters awaited the press conference. see Deadly, page 2A

MORE MARCH INSIDE see page 5A

“POSITIVE RESULTS AND MEANINGFUL CONSEQUENCES”

– By John L. Horton

WE STILL HAVE A DREAM

– By Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins HIDDEN YOUNG VOICES AT 1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON

– By Michael G. Long

2 BLACKS AMONG TRUMPERS BOOKED IN GA.

By Rosaland Tyler

Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Two Blacks are among

the 18 Trump co-defendants who were recently booked and processed at the Fulton County Jail in the Georgia election interference case.

Their names are Trevian Kutti and Harrison Floyd. While Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West and R. Kelly, surrendered

Funk Fest Brings Thousands To Oceanfront

This year’s Virginia Beach Funk Fest brought thousands to the oceanfront to enjoy some old school music and summertime fun this past weekend.The Beach Party was free and open to the public. see page 7A

to authorities on Aug. 24, at 10 a.m. and was released on bond, Floyd surrendered but was denied bond since he was considered a potential

flight risk. Bonds for Kutti and Floyd were set at $75,000 each, according to news reports. Floyd said he did not have a lawyer and is requesting a court-appointed attorney. As a result, Floyd could not reach a bond agreement with prosecutors before surrendering and is still in jail.

Floyd, a 39-year-old U.S. Marine veteran, served as the director of the political group Black Voices for

Trump during the 2020 election cycle. According to news reports, he bristled at the suggestion that he might not return for future proceedings in the case.

“There’s no way that I’m a flight risk, ma’am,” he told Judge Emily Richardson after she denied his bond request.

“I showed up before the president was here,” he added, referring to Trump. see Trumpers, page 6A

Serving Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk & The Peninsula Publishing since 1900 ... that no good cause shall lack a champion and evil shall not thrive unopposed.

Banning books, reproductive rights and pay equity for women, federal efforts to fight discrimination and violence, voting rights and protections for all races, were all addressed by the speakers.

Briana Lawimore and Zamarie Grayson, members of National Council of Negro Women Howard Section pose with other members of NCNW.

Photo:AleciaTaylor/HUNewsService.com

Sean Bowers, who writes a column for the New Journal and Guide, carried the newspaper’s banner to the March.

Photo: KimBowers

Sean and Kim Bowers of Norfolk, Va., were among the thousands who traveled to the 2023 March.This was their first national march.

Photo: SeanBowers

Ga. Law Could Oust Trump’s Black D.A.

By Rosaland Tyler

Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

State lawmakers in Georgia and federal lawmakers on Capitol Hill may try to unseat Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Recently, state Republicans in Georgia began to expedite the passage of a new law that would allow the removal of local prosecutors with the likely first target of the law to be Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, while she is in the midst of prosecuting former President Donald Trump.

The eight-person oversight commission was approved by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in May. The law outlines a series of offenses for which a prosecutor can be removed, including “willful and persistent failure” to carry out their duties and categorically refusing to prosecute crimes they are required by law to pursue.

“I am not gonna stand idly by as rogue or incompetent prosecutors refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said at an Aug. 25 event in Savannah before he signed the bill which makes it possible to oust elected district attorneys from office if they are believed to not be adequately enforcing the law. “Today we are sending a message that we will not forfeit public safety for prosecutors who let criminals off the hook.”

This spring, Willis characterized the measure as “racist,” and said Republicans were pushing the measure after the number of minority district attorneys increased from five to 14 in 2020.

“I’m tired and I’m just going to call it how I see it,” she said. “I, quite frankly, think the legislation is racist. I don’t know what other thing to call it,” she told a senate panel earlier this year, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a recent Facebook post, Georgia State Senator Clint Dixon accused the DA of prosecuting the expresident to become “some sort of leftist celebrity.”

In the post, Dixon acknowledged the “reality” of the Trump indictment in Georgia “is one of the reasons we passed a law.”

Meanwhile, according to CNN, the Republicanled House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill launched a congressional investigation on Willis –the same day that Trump surrendered at the Fulton County Jail after being charged with trying to change Georgia’s 2020

Deadly

– Gov. Kemp said at an Aug. 25 event in Savannah, Ga. before he signed the bill

election results. Committee members sent a recent letter to Willis asking if “she communicated or coordinated with the Justice Department, who has indicted Trump twice on two separate cases, or used federal dollars to complete her investigation that culminated in the fourth indictment of Trump,” according to CNN.

“The questions from Republicans about whether Willis used federal funding in her state-level investigation mirrors the same line of inquiry that Republicans used to

probe Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg who indicted Trump in New York earlier this year for falsifying business records to cover up an alleged hush money scheme,” CNN noted.

In the recent Aug. 24 letter to Willis, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote, “You did not bring charges until two-and-a-half years later, at a time when the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in full swing.”

Jordan continued. “Moreover, you have requested that the trial in this matter begin on March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday and eight days before the Georgia presidential primary.”

Jordan gave Willis a Sept. 7 deadline to hand over any documents or communication related to their request.

Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia recently told CNN earlier that she is pushing for a congressional-led inquiry into Willis.

“I’m going to be talking to Jim Jordan, Jamie Comer, and I’d like to also ask (Speaker) Kevin McCarthy his thoughts on looking at doing an investigation if there is a collaboration or conspiracy of any kind between the Department of Justice and Jack Smith’s special counsel’s office with the state DA’s,” Greene told CNN. “So, I think that could be a place of oversight.”

Willis has long declined to comment.

HAPPY LABOR DAY FROM THE NEW JOURNAL AND GUIDE

August 19, 1944

Edition of the Guide

Jordan With New Invasion

By John “Rover” Jordan Journal and Guide War Correspondent

ADVANCED AIRBASE ITALY

The only fighter opposition encountered by the formations which flew protective cover for the Armada of heavy and medium bombers that blasted a path for the Invasion (of Normandy) on the coast of Southern France was met by Fighter pilots of the Mustang Group under the command of Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.

In the Dogfight that ensued over the landing beaches in Southern France in the Toulon areas between Marseille and Nice, Lt. George Rhodes Jr., 23, of Brooklyn N.Y., shot down one Jerry plane for his first confirmed victory.

No enemy planes attacked the bomber formations and the only Jerries in the area jumped on one of the flights of four.

Lt. Rhodes knocked down a FW-190 in a blistering air battle which went on cover head while hundreds of Allied warships were discharging the tremendous Allied Army which overran the beaches on the Mediterranean and Ligurian seacoast. The fight took place close to Toulon in the heart of the invasion district.

The Negro Fighter pilots were chosen among others to escort the bombers which for four days has softened up this area and almost completely destroyed the strong coastal defenses that the Germans had built in preparation for this landing. The Invasion of Southern France has been impending for some time and huge stores of supplies and a tremendous striking forces had been assembled in Corsica for Months.

Now that the Allied soldiers are slugging it out on the beaches of Southern France the complete story for the vital role played by the Fighter Groups in the softening of the “soft underbelly of Europe” can be reported with the proper emphasis.

It is significant the Negro pilots fought their greatest air battles on mission designed to blast an invasion path. The

July 2 show near Nimes found Captain Joseph D. Ellsberry, of Oklahoma, getting three Jerries and Lt. Harold E. Sawyer of Ohio getting one. In this battle the Nazis attacked fanatically but no losses were sustained by the group.

Would Stop “Daddy” Grace Spectacle WASHINGTON, D.C.

Efforts to eliminate the embarrassing spectacle of several hundred white robed religious fanatics of the sect headed by Bishop C.M. ‘Daddy’ Grace getting “baptized” in the streets of Washington by waters from a fire department hose to the delight of a largely white audience are being made this week by Negro civic and religious groups.

Ten clergymen of various denominations and Dr. Edward Harris of the Federation of Civic Associations appealed to the District Commissioners recently asking them to deny “Daddy” Grace a permit to carry on what local citizens regard as a disgusting spectacle.

The “Show” which is scheduled for August 27 has long been a source of much indignation and dissatisfactions among Negro Citizens here.

Soldiers Rescue Marine Buried Alive; Lead To Man’s Arrest

NEWPORT NEWS

The quick thinking of two Negro soldiers, Private James Caldwell and Pfc Charles Squirewell stationed at Camp Hill and a civilian war worker, Sherman Solomon, saved a white member of the U.S. Marines Corps from being buried alive by white youths in the Warwick County dump recently.

The bizarre story was told to Warwick County Chief of Police Leroy Woody by the Marine’s rescuers is one of the cruelest attempts at crimes recorded here recently.

Duke Stanaway, 19, of Blair Avenue was arrested, charged with attempting to murder Marine T.C. Massie of Baltimore who was stationed at Parris

Pittman spoke for the crowd of Black residents waiting to learn names of the victims, whose number was unknown at the time, as she decried that Black people are no longer safe walking down the sidewalk or going into stores. News arrived early that the crime was racially motivated as police entered the store and retrieved the weapons used by the deceased Palmeter. He had painted swastikas on his Glock pistol and on his AR15 rifle. Later it was learned he had left several hate-filled manifestos, leaving no doubt he hated Black people whom he referred to repeatedly as “niggers.”

Before he set out to the Dollar General, he was spotted as suspicious by students at Edward Waters University, a small historically Black Christian university. They alerted a security guard, Lt. Antonio Bailey who turned Palmeter away from the campus after he refused to identify himself. Later it was learned the gunman donned his protective bulletproof vest under his shirt while in the parking lot of the university.

Palmeter’s background checks have provided no evidence of any prior criminal activity and the weapons were purchased legally earlier this year in April and June. He reportedly had worked at a Dollar Tree (not Dollar General) at some point, and he is reported to have scoped out

From The

Island S.C. He was found by the Negroes buried alive with three bullet holes in his head, rushed to the Riverside Hospital for emergency treatment and later transferred to the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth where his condition was critical. Chief Woody says Stanaway has confessed to the crime.

The Negroes came upon the gruesome discovery after they had driven to the end of the road leading to the Dump. They saw a man acting suspicious and after talking to him got into their car and drove away.

Solomon stopped the car after going a short distance and the two soldiers crawled back where they saw Stanaway dragging an object between 6:30 and 7 p.m.

They remained long enough to watch the man bury a body. The soldiers then rushed to the Hilton Village Fire Department where they gave the alarm. The Marine was buried in a hole made by a tree stump and covered with leaves, rubbish roots and other refuse. An old door was placed over the body.

Gandhi Sees No

Hope For Negroes

NEW YORK

Mohandas K. Gandhi declared that “there is no hope for the Negroes,” a recent report from India revealed.

The report taken from a Press interview with Stuart Gelder of the London News Chronicle quoted Gandhi as saying:

“Freedom of India will bring hope to Asians and other exploited nations. Today there is no hope for the Negroes, but Indians freed will fill them with hope.”

August 27, 1977

Edition of the Guide Davis Young Gets New Appointment

BOSTON

Davis C. Young of Newton, Mass., has been named as assistant Vice President in the Deposit and Corporations Services Division of the First National Bank of Boston.

another Dollar General site on Saturday before deciding on the one where he brandished his weapons and killed the three people.

Palmeter’s racially-slurred manifestos which he left behind espoused deep hatefilled beliefs against Blacks.

“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Sheriff Waters said at the first news conference after the shooting.

The Jacksonville, Florida, mass shooting appears to have taken a page from the playbook followed by Payton Gendron, the white supremacist, who murdered 10 mostly Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. Gendron, who is now serving life in prison without parole for the crime, drove three hours from his home to the Black community to deliberately kill shoppers and workers at Tops Friendly Markets on May 14, 2022. At the time of the Jacksonville tragedy, civil rights leaders and marchers of all races and backgrounds from across the nation were in Washington, D.C., peacefully commemorating the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

New Ship For Capt. Mulzac

He has been with the bank since 1971. He is a native of Norfolk and son of Mrs. P. Bernard Young Jr., and the late Mr. Young.

He is a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, Dartmouth College and Williams College School of Banking and has attended the University of Virginia Law Schools.

Young is a Director of Opportunities Industrializations (OIC) of Greater Boston, and a member of the Boston Urban Bankers Forum, Boston Youth Motivations, Inc., and the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Greater Boston.

Black United Fund To Launch Annual Drive

NORFOLK

The Black United Fund of Tidewater, Inc., will launch its second annual public fundraising campaign on September 1. This year’s goal is $150,000 which will be solicited primarily from the Black community

in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

“This approach to raising funds is in compliance with our determination to develop our identity as a truly selfhelp organization,” stated Sonia V. Harvin, executive director.

“As we approach our financial goal we intend to then go to the corporate community at-large for matching funds which is contrary to the usual method of obtaining funds,” she said.

“This Is not to suggest that corporations in the greater Tidewater area cannot make contributions of money or any other assistance. On the contrary they should have a sense of obligation to contribute to this worthy cause, in view of the substantial patronage our community gives them. However, such contributions would be accepted as any other public donations – gratefully but with no string attached.”

Captain Hugh Mulzac (Left) at the controls of the S.S. (Supply Ship) Booker T. Washington which he has skippered for two years carrying men, munitions and supplies to the war fronts. At the Wheel is Albert E. Simons (white), Third officer of the ship. Captain Mulzac will shortly be given command of a new, faster and larger ship.

Continued from page 1A

Palmeter’s racially-slurred manifestos which he left behind espoused deep hate-filled beliefs against Blacks.

I am not gonna stand idly by as rogue or incompetent prosecutors refuse to uphold the law.”

Photo:Courtesy Republican Gov. Brian Kemp

A Letter From Donald

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIOLOGY VIRGINIA TECH

COLLEGE SPORTS INC.

By Wornie Reed, Ph.D.

It is that time of year again – time for the awaited games of the football business. All doubts about bigtime college football and basketball being a business should have been dispelled by now.

College athletics

(specifically men’s football and basketball) is a lucrative business disguised as a branch of educational institutions. The actions this summer of big-time athletic conferences underscore the accuracy of that statement.

Let’s review some of the college sports business dealings this year, speci fi cally realignments of the Power Five conferences. UCLA, Oregon, USC, and Washington will leave the Pac-12 Conference and join the Big Ten Conference in 2024.

The Big 12 conference added Houston, UCF, BYU, and Cincinnati this year. They will add Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah in 2024. But they will lose their biggest schools, Texas and Oklahoma, to the SEC in 2024.

In addition to UCLA, Oregon, USC, and Washington leaving to join the Big Ten in 2024, four more schools are leaving the Pac12: Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. At that time, the Pac12 will have only four schools, when previously there were 12. Texas and Oklahoma will join the SEC in 2024. The ACC is not yet adding any schools in 2023 and 2024; however, rumors abound that the ACC is considering adding Stanford and Cal, which are looking for a home as the Pac-12 crumbles. Cal and Stanford are elite academic schools, giants in Olympic sports, and

College athletics (specifically men’s football and basketball) is a lucrative business disguised as a branch of educational institutions.

located in the populous and affluent Bay Area.

The conferences will no longer have geographic meaning. The Big Ten, which had 10 schools in 1991 stretching from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, will have 18 schools stretching from the East Coast to the West Coast. The SEC will have 16 teams, and the ACC and the Big 12 will have 15 teams.

Why? These realignments are all about football and all that money. Money is the primary reason for conference realignment. Athletic programs want bigger revenue shares, and conferences hope more teams will lead to larger television contracts.

In fiscal year 2022, the Big Ten had $846 million in revenue and distributed $58.8 million to each school. The SEC earned $802 million and allocated $49.9 million to each school. The ACC collected $617 million and distributed an average of $39 million; The Pac-12 earned $581 million and disbursed $37 million to each school, and the Big 12 earned $481 million and disbursed between $42 and $45 million to each school.

Most of the revenue is generated from television, which the conferences pursue vigorously. The gap in income between the Big Ten and the SEC and the other three members of the Power Five will undoubtedly grow, as the SEC’s 2020 deal with ESPN totals an estimated

$3 billion over ten years.

In 2022, the Big Ten signed eight-year deals with NBC, CBS, and Fox Sports, totaling over $7 billion, probably the most lucrative arrangement in college sports history.

Aside from the sham of presenting big-time football as an amateur activity, there are everyday adverse effects on the other sports and the so-called studentathletes. Football teams, the cause of the realignment madness, will be affected less than other sports teams as they play one game a week, usually on Saturdays. However, softball and baseball teams will have problems as they must travel across the country and play three-game sets, requiring much more travel time.

As one writer said, conference realignment means more work and less academic time for unpaid athletes. Big Ten athletes traveling coast to coast will get even less sleep and miss more classes while putting in more hours of unpaid work.

NCAA rules limit athletes to 20 hours of “sports activities” per week; however, many athletes report more than 40 hours weekly. This happens because some of their time is not counted toward the 20-hour clock – time getting treatment for injuries, attending team promotions, community service, and media obligations.

They keep squeezing these unpaid athletes to make more money for the college sports business.

FANI WILLIS IS AN AMERICAN HERO

By David W. Marshall

(TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

For decades, nations such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan have proven to be among America’s closest allies in the stand for democracy. While our allies sometimes view Americans as arrogant, the United States is a respected leader of the free world. Recently, American leadership abroad has taken a hit and called into question because politics no longer stops at the water’s edge. What is the lasting impact on America’s standing with its allies after four years of chaos under a Trump presidency and four subsequent criminal indictments? In a 2020 poll conducted in 11 European countries by the European Council on Foreign Relations, 53 percent of respondents in Germany said they either strongly agreed or agreed that a post-Trump America couldn’t be relied upon.

The Germans were the most distrustful of the future of American political leadership. After the indictment of the former president by a Manhattan grand jury, few foreign leaders offered their initial opinions on the criminal proceeding, but El Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele wasn’t silent. “Sadly, it’ll

be very hard for US foreign policy to use arguments such as “democracy” and “free and fair elections” or try to condemn “political persecution” in other countries, from now on,”

Bukele said on Twitter.

He added, “Imagine if this happened to a leading opposition presidential candidate here in El Salvador.”

The authoritarian president defended Trump in his comments, but he was correct in highlighting America’s credibility problem abroad. As the world watches, they are not only witnessing America destroying its democracy internally, but they are witnessing a democratic nation transform into the type of authoritarian government generally opposed by countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan.

What message would the American voters be sending to democracies around the world if an indicted and possibly convicted Trump was re-elected to the White House with no intentions of leaving? The world witnessed, as did many Americans, a former U.S. president go to Georgia to be arrested and fingerprinted with a mugshot like every other criminal defendant processed in the Fulton County jail. If

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. (Ret.) (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Enroute from New Jersey to Georgia to turn himself in for his arrest for all those charges, Donald Trump (now known as Inmate #PO1135809) was texting the following – even to me: “Dr. E. Faye. I hope you’ll read my personal note:

“Remarks Penned by the 45th (and Future 47thPresident of the United States)

Today, I will be going to the notoriously violent jail in Fulton County, Georgia where I will be ARRESTED despite having committed NO CRIME.

Isn’t it interesting that I went my entire life without ever getting arrested…But suddenly out of nowhere, once I decided to run for president as a political outsider and fight for the forgotten citizens of our country, I get ARRESTED FOUR TIMES within the span of just 5 months? Not only that, a judge has ruled that today’s specific spectacle may be televised for the entire world to see. The American people know what’s going on.

This is a punishment handed down from the Deep

State for daring to challenge the status quo and give a voice to the Silent Majority. The Left wants to intimidate YOU out of voting for a political outsider who puts the American people FIRST. But today, I’m walking into the lion’s den with one simple message on behalf of our entire movement: I WILL NEVER SURRENDER OUR MISSION TO SAVE AMERICA. And if you see me on TV during my sham arrest, just remember that YOU are the source of my courage, my hope, and my resolve to save America.

But if you can, please make a contribution to SAVE AMERICA during this dark chapter in our nation’s history. Thank you and God bless you. Donald Trump” Donald then suggests you

send $24 to $3,300 dollars or more for Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee! He then ends with a popup to send more by August 31st! This is a man who claims to be so rich. He flew into Atlanta on an airplane with his name there in huge letters, followed by loads of police on motorcycles and a host of black limousines to protect him paid by you as a taxpayer who may not have a dime in your pocket now; yet, he is traveling to HartsfieldJackson Airport asking you to send him money! see Trump, page 5A

ONCE MORE AMERICA FACES A RECKONING

By Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

This country faces a reckoning. The question is whether we will come together or fall apart, move forward or descend toward a moral abyss. In this time of deep discord, of partisan divide, racial tension, extreme inequality, the outcome is far from certain.

As fraught as this time is, however, it is not unique. We have faced such moments before.

When this nation was founded on the proposition that all were created equal, the Founders could not duck the question of slavery. States with large numbers of slaves wanted the slaves to be counted for purposes of representation and taxation, even though they were considered property, without any rights. To form the union, the Founders compromised in the Constitution, with slaves counted as threefifths of a person – threefifth human – increasing the number of representatives from the slave states while remaining in bondage.

Thomas Jefferson owned 600 slaves, but publicly denounced slavery as a “moral depravity” and believed that slavery represented the greatest threat to the new nation. “I tremble for my country,” he wrote, “when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

In the end it took a Civil War – with the most casualties of any war in American history – to bring an end to this depravity. That triumph was driven by an abolitionist movement, by increased slave revolts, by strong leaders like Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, and by whites and

blacks willing to risk their lives to preserve the union and eventually to save it from the moral abyss of slavery.

Then, after a period of Reconstruction when biracial majorities transformed the South, creating the first public school systems and a new economy, a relentless reaction set in, with terrorism – lynchings, murders, beatings, intimidation –stripping the new free man of their rights and driving their allies apart. What followed was nearly a century of legal apartheid – segregation – in which blacks were deprived of the right to vote, the right to sit on juries, access to public facilities and more. Once more, America was scarred by a moral depravity. see America, page 5A

Donald Trump is the GOP’s superman, then Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is proving to be his kryptonite. Trump was not afforded special treatment in Georgia, unlike his previous bookings in New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C. In charging Trump, the Atlanta-area district attorney used the state’s racketeering law, RICO, which ties the former president into a 19-member criminal enterprise typically reserved for mafia bosses and gang leaders. He faces up to 20 years if convicted of the most severe racketeering charge with little chance of a pardon. In Georgia, the courtroom will be televised where the nation and world can see and hear the compelling evidence as it is presented. This transparent access to justice at work may prove damaging to

Trump in the court of public opinion. The MAGA world is not happy.

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee, said a second civil war is “going to happen” if state and federal authorities continue to prosecute Donald Trump. While Palin may be referring to political violence, America’s second civil war has been ongoing since Reconstruction. The second civil war is the battle between those who seek ways to deny full citizenship to people of color versus those who defend against the attack on democracy and ensure that all elements of democracy are equally applied to all citizens. It is a continuation of the first civil war, which resulted in more than 600,000 deaths but left freed slaves without the benefits of American citizenship.

Therefore, the second civil war is the never-ending fight for rightful representation

in government, free and fair elections, the ability to vote without intimidation and violence, the freedom to criticize their elected officials, the right to assemble freely and to protest government actions, maintaining the rule of law, and having the right to a fair and public trial by an impartial court. Germany is telling us they see the second civil war. As a result, the United States can no longer be the dependable defender of democracy.

It has become obvious to them that far too many Americans, through arrogance, ignorance, and pride, would rather destroy American democracy in its entirety and accept an authoritarian leader (Donald Trump) who would permanently weaken all elements of citizenship and representation for people of color in what will eventually become a future majorityminority nation.

As part of the second civil

war, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump with 13 racketeering and conspiracy charges related to his attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 and was met with U.S. House Republicans launching an investigation against Willis. Georgia state lawmakers are joining the fray by also targeting Willis with a new state law that creates a state commission with the power to sanction or even oust prosecutors found to be neglecting their duties or responsible for an array of other violations (such as charging the former president).

Willis is a hero and a defender of democracy in this war. The same applies to the Tennessee Three, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Anyone resisting antidemocracy efforts intended to silence voices is a hero. Sarah Palin’s threat shows Georgia means business and is ready to fight.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faithbased organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America. He can be reached at www. davidwmarshallauthor.com.

Time and time again in our history, citizen movements have saved America from a moral abyss.

Trump’s mugshot looks into his soul, and he has the nerve to look angry. It’s gone around the world to the embarassment of our nation.

I’m sure others see what we see-a man who should already be incarcerated.

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.

Willis is a hero and a defender of democracy in this war. The same applies to the Tennessee 3, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg ... Anyone resisting antidemocracy efforts intended to silence voices is a hero.

David W. Marshall

Positive Results & Meaningful Consequences

By John L. Horton

On Saturday, August 26, the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial was held in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the civil rights movement where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his monumental “I Have a Dream” speech.

The 1963 march drew over 250,000 people from all over the United States. As a result of his leadership and magnificent speech, Dr. King became famous around the world. The following year, Congress passed the groundbreaking 1964 Civil Rights Act. In December 1964, Dr. King became the youngest person, 35 years old, to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is being reported that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will observe the March Anniversary on Monday, August 28, by meeting with the major organizers of the 1963 gathering. Additionally, all of King’s children have been invited to meet with Biden in the White House.

In the past three decades, we have witnessed the “Million Man March,” “Million Woman March” and “Million Youth March,” among others. Make no mistake about it, I agree with the tenets, principles and purposes of all these marches, however, I wonder if the “messages” have gotten back to those who need it the most. Or, will this recent March on Washington be another case of preaching to the choir?

Too, I wonder if all the money, time and effort that went into the marches could have been better spent by being more directly invested in the Black community.

Poet Langston Hughes probably put it best: “What happens to a dream deferred, does it too dry up like a raisin in the sun?” It is for these “deferred dreams” that I hurt most. It is for this unseen and untapped stream of Black resources and vitality that I search most.

Alas, for them to have substance and significance, the

Trump

Continued from page 4A

Trump’s mugshot looks into his soul, and he has the nerve to look angry. It’s gone around the world to the embarrassment of our nation. I’m sure others see what we see – a man who should already be incarcerated. For the first time in his life, he’s experiencing to some extent what poor people and those who don’t enjoy a lifetime of payments as he does from

America

Continued from page 4A

This time, it required a nonviolent civil rights movement with courageous whites joining AfricanAmericans demanding their rights. The country responded when they witnessed the horrors of the Birmingham bombing, Bloody Sunday in Selma and more. That movement for justice forced politicians to react, and with strong leaders like Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, they reconstituted America with the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, and the Voting Rights legislation. Once more coalitions like the Rainbow Coalition came together to exercise those rights, register people to vote, and elect new leaders to lead the way.

John L. Horton

march and rally participants must return home and become viable here – on the front lines of “hopelessness, powerlessness, alienation and deferred dreams.” Somehow, we must come home and just do it. It has been said that if in the days that follow, if nothing much happens, then it will have, again, been symbol without substance.

Now is a golden opportunity for supporters of the march and rally to come home and just do it – make it better for all of our children, families and communities.

Now is the time to show that we are not just “talk” and “bluster.” Indeed, it is time to do the deed. The march and rally should manifest for us three choices or options that we need to take to ameliorate upon our condition in American society: 1) action, 2) action, and 3) action. There has to be something substantive, meaningful and permanent that comes out of this most recent March on Washington. I suggest that the leadership and influential others focus on at least three points of concern.

First, we must develop and implement a plan for selfesteem and cultural awareness. We need to understand and sustain the notion that we are somebody special. We must project that we love and respect ourselves. We must empower African-Americans to gain knowledge of their history and an understanding of their humanity.

Second, we must develop an economic plan for empowering AfricanAmericans to do and provide for themselves. For example, we must emphatically

taxpayers. This is the way he thanks you by asking for even more of your hardearned money compared with what he gets. He has always experienced more than his share of special privilege!

Though he admits he was treated nicely, I wonder if it occurred to him, he received special privilege while being indicted – just as he’s enjoyed all his life. I wonder if he thought about how the Central Park 5 were treated when they were indicted and convicted though innocent.

Black people have always been used as free labor in this country. Those poor

Now, with America growing more diverse – and yet more unequal with the wealthy few capturing almost all of the rewards of growth – a new reaction is building, driven by cynical politicians who fan racial division for political profit. A reactionary majority in the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, repealed affirmative action, opened the floodgates to big and secret money in politics, and authorized political gerrymandering.

Donald Trump, personifying that reaction, launched a multi-state, multi-layered effort to overturn his loss in a democratic election to stay in power. Once more America faces a reckoning.

As history teaches us, it will take a broad coalition of concerned citizens – drawn across lines of race, region and religion – to come together to save democracy. Courageous leaders can resist the efforts to undermine democracy, as

When this particular March on Washington is over and everyone has returned home, I hope the flame is lit, the torch is passed and the fire burns brightly.

stress the benefits of a good education, job training and improved entrepreneurial skills. As a people, we must be savers, investors and producers – not just spenders, debtors and consumers.

Third, we must develop a political plan. As a people, we need to personify the political arts of cohesiveness and practicality. Through voter education, registration and participation, we must learn to get full value for our votes and to become full partners in the political process. We must support and elect leaders who have the courage and competence to “do the right things” for all of us. We need leaders who will tell us the real deal and who will encourage us to work harder and smarter.

When this particular March on Washington is over and everyone has returned home, I hope the flame is lit, the torch is passed and the fire burns brightly. In the end, this monumental event will test our true character and whether we are truly committed to this cause and all that it engenders. It has been said that character is defined by what you are willing to do when the spotlight has been turned off, the applause has died down, and no one is around to give you credit. In the wake of this recent March on Washington, African-Americans will have the opportunity of a lifetime to define their true character.

Enough said. Let’s get to work!

John L. Horton resides in Norfolk and is a frequent contributor to this newspaper.

people dressed in Blacks for Trump tee shirts at Trump’s arrest and campaign rallies are being used, but I know they won’t be voting for him! They just needed a free clean shirt and maybe a hot dog and a soda because of policies like Trump’s when he was President. I know the world noticed he never has such tee shirts for Japanese, Chinese, Koreans for Trump or other groups. He has no shame showing his disrespect for vulnerable Black people.

Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of the Dick Gregory Society and President Emerita of NCBW.

Republican officials did in Arizona and Georgia.

Courageous prosecutors like Atlanta’s Fani Willis, can seek to enforce the rule of law. In the end, however, the American people will decide if the country will continue to move forward, or if those who scorn its laws to divide us will succeed. Whether or not Donald Trump and his coconspirators are found guilty in a court of law, the threat that they represent will only be defeated by the decision of the American people at the polls. Once more we must decide the course this country will take.

Time and time again in our history, citizen movements have saved America from a moral abyss.

Time and time again, courageous leaders have responded and molded their energies into political reforms that made America better. Now once more, the country needs that movement and that leadership to move us forward.

WE STILL HAVE A DREAM

By Dedrick AsanteMuhammad and Chuck Collins

It’s now been 60 years since the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom – and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. At the rally, Dr. King famously proclaimed that all people, Black as well as white, have a “promissory note” from their government guaranteeing “the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He lamented that “America has defaulted on this promissory note” to Black citizens.

Six decades later, despite incremental progress on some fronts, the check has still come back marked “insufficient funds.” But with enough political will, we can clear it quickly. That’s the conclusion of our new report, Still a Dream: Over 500 Years to Black Economic Equality.

There are important signs of progress to mark. The unthinkably high rate of Black poverty has diminished since King’s time, falling from 51 percent in 1963 to 20 percent by 2021. But with one in five Black Americans still living in poverty – and one in 12 whites – it’s hardly a moment to pop the champagne bottle.

Other positive indicators include a sharp increase in Black high school attainment over the last 60 years and a significant decline in Black unemployment. For many important economic indicators, however, the pace of progress has been so incremental that it would still take centuries for Black Americans to reach parity with whites.

In part, our country’s failure to bridge the racial economic divide reflects the growing inequality in our society overall.

For example, the Blackwhite income gap has barely narrowed at all. In 1967, African-Americans earned 58 cents for every dollar earned by whites. By 2021, that had risen to just 62 cents on the dollar. At this rate of progress, it would take Black households 513 years to reach income parity with their white counterparts. Progress in narrowing the racial wealth divide has been even slower. In 1962, Blacks had 12 cents of wealth for every dollar of white wealth. By 2019, the last year of comprehensive data, Blacks had just 18 cents for every dollar of white wealth. At this pace, it would take 780 years for Black wealth to equal white wealth. There has been essentially no progress in narrowing the gap between white and Black rates of homeownership, another key indicator of wealth and well-being. Sixty years later, there remains

roughly a 30 percentage point gap, with 44 percent of Black households owning a home compared with 74 percent of whites.

In part, our country’s failure to bridge the racial economic divide reflects the growing inequality in our society overall.

During the last 40 years, America has experienced extreme levels of income and wealth inequality, with most gains flowing into the hands of the wealthiest – and mostly white – 1 percent. This has contributed to the stalling of progress toward racial equity, along with government withdrawal from investments such as affordable housing.

What could put us back on track? Without a doubt, the persistent Black-white divide requires racially targeted commitments to individual asset-building and other forms of reparations.

see Dream, page 6A

Hidden Young Voices At 1963 March On Washington

By Michael G. Long

Sixty years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. looked up from his prepared comments and said, “I still have a dream.” With the cadence of a seasoned preacher, he told us that his dream was “rooted in the American dream.” What he didn’t tell us was that it was also grounded in his love and respect for children.

King often referred to young people in his civil rights speeches, and that’s exactly what he did on August 28, 1963. “I have a dream,” he said, “that one day in Alabama ... little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

King’s powerful dream called to mind the students of Birmingham, Alabama, who had recently faced off against snarling dogs and high-pressure fire hoses in their protests for civil rights.

Thousands of young people – including students still in elementary schools – were arrested and jailed.

Their breathtaking courage inspired not only King but also countless marchers who had come to the nation’s capital on August 28. Strangely, though, march organizers made no room for the students. On the contrary, they hoped that younger children wouldn’t even show up for the march.

Nowhere was this clearer than in the march’s written guidelines: “You are strongly advised not to bring children under 14; children over 14 should be accompanied by a parent or guardian.”

That must have been heartbreaking to all those young Birmingham students who had put their lives on the line against Bull Connor’s police and fire forces. Or to any young student anywhere who had protested for Black freedom.

Their deliberate exclusion at the march is why King’s

About seventy-five students from Danville, Virginia, some of them younger than fourteen, also had a significant presence.

reference to children in Alabama mattered so much. He amplified the courageous contributions of young students to the civil rights movement.

King wasn’t alone. Countless adults ignored the guidelines and brought their young children to the march.

Jackie and Rachel Robinson brought 13-year-old Sharon and 11-year-old David.

Edith Lee-Payne celebrated her twelfth birthday at the march. Her mother, Dorothy Lee, wanted her to experience the Black freedom movement beyond their hometown of Detroit. A photo of Edith holding a march banner, taken by photographer Rowland Scherman, is one of the most iconic images of the day.

About 75 students from Danville, Virginia, some of them younger than fourteen, also had a significant presence

The young activists occupied the sloping hill next to the Washington Monument, sharing bone-chilling stories of police brutality. A few months earlier, police officers had clubbed them, and firefighters had trained hoses on them, until they couldn’t stand up.

Some young students even bucked the guidelines by traveling to the march by themselves. Fifteen-year-old Robert Avery and his friends, Frank Thomas and James Smith, hitchhiked to the march from their hometown of Gadsden, Alabama, where they had participated in dangerous civil rights protests. They arrived in Washington a week early, and local march organizer Walter Fauntroy hired them at three dollars a day to help make protest signs

and buttons.

March organizers had sought to limit the presence of students because of concern for their safety and because they thought that their exclusion would make it easier to maintain discipline on August 28.

The students, of course, had already been subject to untold danger, sometimes at the encouragement of the same civil rights leaders speaking at the march. They were prepared for even more danger. But no student that day was put in harm’s way, and no student disobeyed the demand for a peaceful and orderly march.

As they had done before the march, and as they would do after the march, the students bore peaceful witness to the evils of segregated society and to their own dream of a time and place where Black students and white students would be able to study in the same schools, work at the same jobs and for the same pay, and enjoy the same stores and restaurants and parks and pools.

While students didn’t have an honored place at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, they demonstrated that no one – not even march organizers – would leave them behind. It’s time for us, too, to bring them out of Lincoln’s shadows and spotlight their important role at the march – and virtually everywhere else in the Black freedom movement.

Michael G. Long is the coauthor with Yohuru Williams of More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad Chuck Collins

Continued from page 1A

A host of Black civil rights leaders and a multiracial, interfaith coalition of allies rallied on the same spot where as many as 250,000 gathered in 1963 for what is still considered one of the greatest and most consequential racial justice and equality demonstrations in U.S. history.

Arndrea Waters King, president of the Drum Major Institute, noted some forces made activism more daunting and threatened the achievements of the movement her father-in-law led in the ‘60s.

“We are here to liberate the soul of the nation, the soul of democracy from those forces who would have us all go backward and perish rather than go forward as sisters and brothers,” said King.

King said when she thought about giving up her activism, she thought about the Freedom Riders and SNCC activists and how they were abused and bombed out of houses.

She talked about recent acts of violence across the country, noting Neo-Nazis standing at the entrance of Disney World, and the woman who was shot hanging a Gay Pride Flag in front of her business in California.

Sixty years ago, women worked actively behind the scenes, helping to plan the event, but were largely absent from the speakers line up. According to the MLK Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, Publisher Daisy Bates, who was the Arkansas State NAACP President, and advisor to the Little Rock 9, spoke a few words to the crowd, and Josephine Baker delivered a two-minute speech, the longest given by a woman.

This year women not only led the organizational efforts, but many spoke on a variety of issues.

Amdrea King noted that “women are unwavering warriors in the struggle for equality.”

She used several references from the Bible to make her point; one when she said Moses could say ‘Let my people go’ because his sister Merriam saved him as an infant.

Another example was the Easter story. King pointed out that women prepared his body for burial, stood vigil at his tomb and saw him rise from the dead, “when all of the disciples had scattered after Jesus was crucified.”

MLKIII said he is concerned about the direction of the country.

“Instead of moving forward,” he said, “we seem to be moving backward. What are we going to do? We realize that it is we, the people,

Trumpers

Continued from page 1A

But the judge told Richardson one of the reasons that she was denying him bond was a pending case for allegedly assaulting a federal

Dream

Continued from page 5A

But other programs –including full employment, a government jobs program, universal health care, and a massive commitment to homeownership – would reduce racial inequality and lift up all those suffering from 40 years of stagnant wages, regardless of their race.

Many of these investments could be paid for by wealth taxes aimed at reducing dynastic concentrations of wealth and power, among other efforts to get the very wealthy to pay their fair share in our unequal country.

At the Lincoln Memorial 60 years ago, King exclaimed: “We have come

We’re here today to fight for voting rights. We’re here today to fight for civil rights. We’re here today to fight for reproductive rights. We’re here today to fight for workers’ rights.”

who can make changes and represent history in the right way.”

“We all need to be engaged,” he said. “My dad would say it is time to expand democracy, to ensure that voting rights are protected, that women and children are treated fairly ... end gun violence.

“Then one day we will be a great nation. Because we are not personifying greatness now.”

Rev. Al Sharpton was the last to speak. He said, “This is a day to show our strength as thousands of you came out today ... 60 years later (after the first March) to show a continuation of the movement.”

Sharpton said that affirmative action for college admissions is being challenged. He said next “they will go after our businesses” for those who believe in diversity.

“I want to announce today we will fight back,” he said. “We will not let you take away affirmative action.”

Sharpton said like doctors making a “house call ... we will march ... if you think you can take money out of our community.”

Sharpton said the March organized by him and MLKIII represented unity which rightwing politicians are seeking to disrupt between communities of Blacks, Latinos, women, the LGBTQ and other oppressed communities.

“We are going to march and gather by the thousands to show our unity so they will not be able to turn back the clock,” he said. “They want to stop us from voting ... but we are going to vote anyhow ... they are trying to put women back in the kitchen with an apron on ... we are not going back into the kitchen and will not put the apron back on.”

“Sixty years ago, Dr. King talked about a dream,” Sharpton said. “Today we are the dreamers. We are facing the schemers on the other side. The schemers are trying to change voting rights ... as the dreamers are standing up for it ... dreamers want to protect a woman’s right to choose... while schemers are saying we should stop at 15 weeks.”

“The dreamers are seeking to protect Gay people,” he said, “while the schemers are saying you are something that is not to be tolerated.

“The dreamers are in D.C. today,” he continued, “while the schemers are being booked at the Atlanta-Fulton County Jail.”

“We have made progress, over the last 60 years, since

officer, who tried to serve a subpoena at his Maryland home. Floyd attacked a pair of FBI special agents who served him with a federal grand jury subpoena at his Maryland home. The affidavit said Floyd body-slammed one of the agents as they were leaving and repeatedly bumped him while yelling expletives at him. He was charged with

to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”

Taking over half a millennium to close our racial economic divide is gradualism in the extreme.

To act today, based on the fierce urgency of now, we must make the investments to eliminate racial disparities within one generation.

Sixty years after bouncing the check, it is time to fulfill America’s promise with a bold response.

Dedrick AsanteMuhammad is the chief of Race, Wealth, and Community at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Chuck Collins directs the Program on Inequality and co-edits Inequaity.org at the Institute for Policy Studies.

– New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries

Dr. King led the March on Washington,” said Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. “Have we reached the mountaintop? Not by a longshot.”

Andrew Young, who spoke at the 1963 March, recalled the challenges the movement faced. But he said progress was made over time as he organized his first voter registration drive in 1963 and was elected to the Georgia Legislature and U.S. Congress. He said he was the ambassador to the United Nations.

Civil Rights lawyer Ben Crump, known as “America’s Black Attorney General,” embraced his hard-earned moniker, whipping the crowd into a frenzy by insisting that he would fight “until hell freezes over ... then we will fight on the ice.”

“As your attorney general, I declare now more than ever, that we must be unapologetic defenders of Black life, liberty, and humanity,” Crump said. “Just like they try to ban our Black history, we must tell them without Black history, you would not have American history. Just as the fight for the families of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tyre Nichols, and so many others, Americans must now fight for Black literature and culture.”

Margaret Huang, the president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, told the crowd that the march 60 years ago opened doors and spurred new tools to fight discrimination.

But new laws throughout the country that “claw away at the right to vote” and target the LGBTQ community threaten to erase some of those gains,” Huang said. “These campaigns against our ballots, our bodies, our schoolbooks, they are all connected. When our right to vote falls, all other civil and human rights can fall too, but we’re here today to say, ‘not on our watch.’”

Democratic members of Congress, including South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, called for federal voting rights protections as some states continue to restrict election rules.

“We’re here today to fight for voting rights,” said Jeffries, the first Black congressperson to lead a major political party in Congress. “We’re here today to fight for civil rights. We’re here today to fight for reproductive rights. We’re here today to fight for workers’ rights.”

assaulting a federal officer.

“I do find that based on the open charge against you there are grounds for bond to be denied at this point,” Richardson said. “So I’m going to go ahead and find that you are at risk to commit additional felonies and a potential risk to flee the jurisdiction.”

Kutti and Floyd were charged in Georgia for their role in the scheme to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. Both visited the home of election worker Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County poll worker who said she has lived in fear after she helped count ballots in the state but was singled out by Trump and his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, were accused of mishandling ballots by Kutti and Floyd. They urged her to confess to committing election fraud or be arrested.

But this past June, the Georgia Elections Board released an investigative report, which ruled that the charges levelled by Kutti and Floyd against Freeman and her daughter were found to be “false and unsubstantiated.”

Kutti and Floyd are two of 18 defendants charged in the alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

HBCU

Continued from page 1A

King reflected on his organization’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, spotlighting A. Philip Randolph, a labor activist who was also a Sigma. Randolph is credited by many as one of the predecessors of the mass demonstration that became the 1963 March on Washington. Randolph was an advocate for ending employment discrimination as well as banning segregation within the armed forces. He founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925 to improve the working conditions for AfricanAmericans working for the Pullman Company.

Some Phi Beta Sigma’s core values are brotherhood, scholarship and service, King said. Like many members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, King and his brothers continue the fight for education and equal opportunities like the Civil Rights leaders who were also part of the council.

Divine Nine members could be seen throughout the crowd, with many of their presidents speaking on behalf of the individual Black fraternities and sororities.

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc, Beta Chapter at Howard University, in collaboration with the Collegiate 100 and the Howard NAACP, assisted with organizing for Howard students to attend the anniversary march. Other organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women Howard Section honored those who came before them and their contribution in the march 60 years ago.

Students from Florida chanted “No Justice, No peace!” along with speakers, citing Florida’s laws as anti-Black.

Safia Walker and Anylia Blue said they traveled with classmates from Florida State University not only to honor the anniversary of the March on Washington, but also “advocating for their rights.”

“We’re marching for the educational rights that were taken away from us by Ron DeSantis,” Blue said of Florida’s governor.

During the legislative

session, DeSantis signed hundreds of bills pertaining to education, gender and sexuality, and immigration, causing push back from many marginalized groups. Among the bills the students mentioned were the Florida House Bill 1557, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill prohibiting public schools from instructing on gender and sexuality in grades kindergarten through third grade and the Florida Senate Bill 266, which prohibits public universities from spending state funding on diversity and inclusion programs.

Students from Florida A&M University, the state’s only public HBCU, were also came to Washington to make sure their voices were heard.

“We have a lot of stuff we’re fighting against,” Jovan Mitkens, a political science major at FAMU, said. “African-American studies is under attack, even LGBTQ [members] are under attack.”

As the president of FAMU College Democrats, Mitkens said his organization enforces education, engagement and empowerment by hosting panel discussions, registering people to vote and attending marches such as the one on the Lincoln Memorial.

Alyssa Gooby and Aniya Wright, students from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, drove over two hours to take part in what they referred to as a historic moment.

African-Americans have come a long way, Gooby said, “to be able to march here freely and be able to have so many different opportunities nowadays.”

The pair said they enjoyed being surrounded by the unity of the different students who came to the march. They

were proud to hear some speakers address issues such as police brutality and mental health in the Black community, topics they feel were not previously talked about enough. In total, Lincoln brought about 60 students by shuttle to partake in the march, according to the students.

Many marchers brought along their younger children, giving them signs and educating them on the history of discrimination in America.

Among the children were T’Kyrra Terrell, a 6-yearold who sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with her grandmother Malita Tyre. Tyre said her granddaughter has been attending marches since the age of 2; one of the more recent marches being in 2022 to commemorate civil rights activists who were beaten while marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on Bloody Sunday in 1965.

Zion Douett, 17, and her brother, Samuel, 13, of New York City drove to the nation’s capital with their father James Douett. The two siblings said even if their father didn’t bring them to the march, they would still want to attend.

“Everybody needs their support; everyone needs their attention,” Samuel said.

His sister added their generation must start paying attention and collaborating with older generations.

“[My generation] will say something but they don’t always do something. They say, ‘Oh we should do this or do that’ but they really don’t do it,” Zion said. “How crazy the policies are getting … how strict everything is getting, we have to do something. We can start small.”

Alecia Taylor is a reporter for HUNewsService.com.

T’Kyrra Terrell sits on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial listening to the speakers from Saturday’s March.

Photo:AleciaTaylor/HUNewsService.com

The King Family (L-R) Martin III, Amdrea,Yolanda

Photo: HUNewsService.com.

Virginia Beach Funk Fest Brings Thousands To Oceanfront

By Randy Singleton Community Affairs Correspondent New Journal and Guide

VIRGINIA BEACH

The Virginia Beach Funk Fest brought thousands to

the oceanfront to enjoy some old school music and summertime fun this past weekend (Aug. 25-26).

The Funk Fest featured popular 80s musical artists Evelyn “Champagne” King and Confunshun on Friday

night and Vivian Green with the 5 Star Band and the Bark Kays on Saturday night. The Virginia Beach Funk Fest Beach Party was free and open to the public.

Virginia Union Sees 31 Percent Fall Enrollment Surge

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

It is unclear if the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action in late June caused Virginia Union University in Richmond to experience a 31 percent enrollment surge when it opened its doors in late August.

But first-year enrollment at Virginia Union now stands at 550 students for the first time since 2015. More than 1,200 undergraduate and 400 graduate students enrolled at the 158-year-old school for the academic year 2023-24. More than 465 first-time freshmen enrolled and increased the total number of first-year students to 550.

Virginia Union President and CEO Dr. Hakim J. Lucas said in a recent statement on the university’s website, “Virginia Union has welcomed students for nearly 160 years, and this is one of our strongest years ever. We know that students have choices, and we are proud they are selecting Virginia

Union in rising numbers. This is especially gratifying at a time when some question the value of higher education. This enrollment is a testimony to our faculty who teach students, our alumni who inspire them, and our community that guides students to a lifetime of success.”

The historic increase was announced a few days before Virginia Union was scheduled to compete against Morehouse in the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic, which will be held over Labor Day weekend, on Sunday, Sept. 3, in Canton, Ohio. Canton is located 60 miles from Cleveland and 20 miles from Akron.

Morehouse was among a dozen or so HBCUs that predicted a historic number of students would register for classes on their campuses this fall, after the Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina in late June. The vote was 6-3 in the North Carolina case and 6-2 in the Harvard case.

First Person of Color Will Lead Minn. State Judiciary

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

Governor Tim Walz has announced that Justice Natalie Hudson is the new chief justice in Minnesota. The moves makes Hudson the first person of color to lead the state’s judiciary.

Governor Walz praised Hudson’s leadership qualities, ability to build consensus, and unwavering commitment, emphasizing that she would uphold the court’s independence.

“I have no doubt that she will excel in this role,” Walz affirmed to the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper.

Lieutenant Gov. Peggy Flanagan also emphasized the importance of Hudson’s appointment due to the gender and racial imbalance in the state’s judiciary leadership.

Only two of the 21 previous chief justices were women,

Justice Natalie Hudson

and none represented a person of color.

Flanagan told the Star Tribune that she’s urging all Minnesotans to celebrate the milestone, recognizing it as a step towards a more inclusive and representative justice system.

Hudson, 66, will replace Chief Justice Lorie Gildea.

Hudson said she was surprised by Gildea’s retirement and took time to consider the move before deciding to succeed her.

She described the opportunity as a “once-in-alifetime” chance.

As chief justice, Hudson will lead Minnesota’s highest court and oversee the judicial branch’s operations across 87 counties and the appellate courts.

Notably, following a recent state Supreme Court decision earlier in the year, she will supervise the introduction of cameras into courtrooms.

Hudson’s distinguished career encompasses public and private practice and academia.

In a notable 2018 majority opinion, she allowed a school segregation case to proceed. During her swearing-in to the high court in 2015, Hudson emphasized the importance of the judicial system’s treatment of marginalized individuals. Having won statewide elections multiple times, Hudson will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 in January 2027.

Estimated 8,000 festers

Confunshun

Evelyn “Champagne” King

AllphotosbyRandySingleton

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& MORE ...

9TH ANNUAL BAYSHORE BEACH EXPERIENCE

“OUR BLACK DISNEYLAND,” SEPT. 16

HAMPTON

Join hosts Reginald Robinson and Judy Leonard for this annual celebration of the “Vacation Paradise of the South,” with this year’s theme of “Our Black Disneyland.” Take a stroll down memory lane recalling the premier seaside resort for AfricanAmericans during the Jim Crow era.

Your engaging hosts will entertain with skits and singalongs, and enlighten with history and stories. Evening highlights include honoring inductees to the BayShore Hall of Fame 2023 class, and presentation of the 2023 Charles H. William Award of Leadership.

Accompanying the event is a weekend-long display of artifacts from Reginald Robinson’s extensive personal collection of photos,

documents and mementos from BayShore that is not to be missed. Museum admission is free all weekend to enjoy the BayShore artifact display and explore more than 400 years of the past in our galleries. In a message from Reginald Robinson, he wrote, “It’s Baytember folks! So come one, come all to the 9th Annual BayShore Beach Experience! As we celebrate “Our Black Disneyland,” BAYSHORE! Admission to this yearly family reunion is free and seating is limited. Hurry, Hurry, Hurry come one come all bring your friends bring your neighbors.

“Come see and experience a cornucopia of rare and vintage BayShore Beach artifacts on display. Come see the kiddie land carousel horse along with

the Pinto Brothers fire engine amusement car, and much, much more.

“Your evening of memorable experiences begins with a chosen selection from the writings of Helen Steiner Rice, to provide comfort to those who have recently lost loved ones. We like to pay tribute to those gone but not forgotten by announcing their names, accompanied by the tolling of the Church bells.

“After completion of the memorial dedication, there will be the invocation. For we are and always will be thankful for the opportunity to present this yearly BayShore family reunion.

“At the 9th Annual BayShore Beach Experience, your host will focus on the history of the BayShore Beach Resort,

‘Our Black Disneyland.’ This year of 2023 in the month of Baytember. We will celebrate the 100th birthday of Mrs. Virginia Lee Robinson, the inspiration behind all past, present and future BayShore Beach Experience events. “In honor of this milestone, ice cream and cake will be served. The BayShore Beach Experience is pleased to have returning, once again, the Poet Laureate of The Black Experience, the very talented Mrs. Tonya Sinclair Swindell with another great selection from her writings to share with the audience, followed by the presentation of two more spectacular artist renderings by Richmond VA artist Kenneth Shelton, the “Maestro.” see Disneyland, page 3B

Closing a Curtain at 360 Degrees

A CAREER TESTIMONY BY TERRANCE AFER-ANDERSON

In 1958, as a seven-yearold first-grader who couldn’t start school earlier because of my December birthdate, I was first introduced to the stage. It was under the direction of the late, great Ms. Jean Whidbee. Norfolk’s old St. Joseph’s Catholic School was staging the latest edition of its ever-popular annual Commencement exercises, huge musical variety events she produced, directed and choreographed. The setting was the old Norfolk Municipal Arena. I was captivated by the stage and what it offered to my creative spirit, so much so that for the past 50 years or so since Ms. Whidbee’s class, I have been divinely led to write, direct, act, and produce plays.

Currently, I’m directing Pearl Cleage’s “Flyin’ West,” a play opening September 8, at Norfolk’s Generic Theater. To my own amazement, I’ve recently decided this will be my last play. I believe the Lord is beckoning me to shift my creative energies in a new direction.

As amazing to me is that I had no idea at the time when I did Ms. Whidbee’s play at the Arena, it would prove a pivotal radius in my theatrical career, bringing me full circle. Let me elaborate.

from diverse economic backgrounds.

I only attended St. Joseph’s through the 4th grade. It and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church were both closed in 1961 to make way for urban renewal.

Everyone migrated to the allWhite St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Mary’s Academy. Yet, for each year of my four-year tenure at St. Joseph’s, my class staged a performance in the Arena.

I remember one routine from the 2nd grade.

My father built wooden shoeshine boxes for our performance. Ms. Whidbee directed and choreographed a lively routine where the boys and girls danced and sang around those quaint little wood props.

Yet, my favorite performance was in the 4th grade, donning a royal blue, double-breasted velour sport coat adorned with white buttons, white pants, a white shirt accentuated with a royal blue bow tie, and a pair of seemingly luminescent Black patent leather shoes.

All the boys were dressed the same and the girls wore frilly party dresses. We danced to the old standard “Tuxedo Junction.”

being. I’ll never forget it! I was reading William Cullen Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis” and had quite an affirming experience. The architecture of the words spoke to me so the page appeared quite luminescent, my spirit grandly seduced and peeled wide open as it nestled, energized, into Bryant’s words.

I did continue sketching and playing guitar, yet writing offered a universe all my own, the Lord seeming to peer over my shoulder, watching my growth, gauging my capacity to pay attention to His calling. Then, He blessed me with the late, great Vladimir Chernozemsky, a Bulgarian who taught me a lesson about writing I, too, have never forgotten. I was working part-time at Georgetown University Hospital and Vlad, who after two previous unsuccessful attempts, had not long ago finally escaped from behind the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain. Having once been a popular, prolific filmmaker, producing and directing

a large field of people whose principal interest had been acting. Twice now, I found myself courted by the craft of creating character.

Not too much later, in 1978, the Lord stepped things up a bit on my artistic journey, enlightening me with unquestionable clarity on how I was to serve Him, with the creative fire He so abundantly bestowed upon me. Of all things, He used a number to do so, one that eventually led me to the Bible’s Book of Revelation, specifically Chapter 22, the last chapter of the Bible. The Lord is quoted saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” I still get misty-eyed, even in this very moment, as I write those words.

The Lord was not only telling me that He is to be my everything but reminded me of what He had done 22 years earlier, when at age 5, He gloriously kindled a creative fire within, its hallmark my simple desire to share what impressed me as the beauty of all His creation.

was writing the play between trips as a messenger at the prestigious Washington law firm of Covington and Burling.

Then, the Lord blessed me yet again, having one of its attorneys take interest in my writing. The next thing I knew, the law firm, whose other clients at the time included CBS and the NFL, worked pro bono to help me start my first, nonprofit, 501 (c)(3) theatre company, Pili-Pili, Inc. Pili-pili is a Swahilian term for hot sauce. We called ourselves, “Seasoned bits of hot pepper.” But Pili-Pili didn’t endure, as quite unexpectedly, in 1980, I made a rather abrupt move back home, to be closer to my eldest daughter Dawn, who was 7 at the time. Just 2 years later, the Lord would intervene again.

Having previously worked a variety of jobs, including waxing floors at a Zayre’s department store, cleaning hulls of a ship, working as a model introducing people to the new technology of ATM machines, and as a Bell Atlantic telephone store salesperson, on January 1,

Recreation. My duties? I was to act in, produce and direct plays for a brand new theatre company, the Generic Theater.

Astonishingly, the Generic Theater where I will direct my last play was then housed in a small lounge of the Norfolk Municipal Arena, just on the other side of the wall of the theatre where I

I can’t remember what my 1st grade class performed so many years ago, but the tradition was that each class at St. Joseph’s would present some manner of a performance, a song, dance number, or a skit. Every classroom essentially served as a homeroom, most students spending their entire day in that single room. So, each class was a built-in theatrical ensemble.

Earlier, St. Joseph’s students would matriculate through the 12th grade. Yet, it only went to the 8th grade at the time, selected Black students having begun to integrate the previously all-White Norfolk Catholic High School. The frequently sold-out Commencements were at once celebrations of the senior graduates, as well as critical fundraisers for a school that catered to youths

I wasn’t aware at the time how much those St. Joseph’s Commencements had ignited my passion for the theatre. Yet, frankly speaking, through a wonderfully blessed experience at age 5, the Lord had already endowed my spirit with rich creative fervor. I’ll expound in a moment. But those years of performance between age 7 and 10, had laid a foundation that would be unmoved. My exploration of the arts would continue. I had actually begun writing poetry at age 7. But later, ever finding the need to stroke irrepressible creative impulses, I began drawing. Marvel and DC superheroes were my favorite. I eventually began playing bongos and learned to strum a guitar as well. But it was in Ms. Wimbush’s 10th grade English class at Portsmouth’s I.C. Norcom High School, a class which I failed, that I learned writing lay at the very core of my creative

films for the Communist State, he was now in the U.S. and had been reduced to working as a desk attendant at the high-rise Alexandria, Virginia apartment building where I lived.

After working the 3-11 p.m. shift in the hospital’s E.R., I would come home late in the evening and struck up an acquaintance with Vladimir, eventually sharing my writing, which he gladly critiqued. He told me once that people needed to experience my words. “When you write about rusty water,” he advised, “the reader should taste it!” Later, he would also introduce me to the craft of acting, coaching me by running scenes from Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story,” in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park.

Shortly thereafter, I sought out playwriting workshops at the legendary D.C. Black Rep. They had none but encouraged me to audition for new acting workshops they were about to launch. I did so and was selected from

Within months of such a profound revelation, I had penned my first play “For the Love of Jazz,” the tale of a struggling musician who endures a horrific tragedy on the night of the break he had sought all of his career. I

1982, New Year’s Day, I secured a full-time position with the City of Norfolk’s Department of Parks and

first performed on-stage. That got my attention. Something in my spirit prompted me to add the numbers of that New Year’s holiday, for me a holy day, as the sum total of 1, 1, 1, 9, 8, 2 is 22. The Alpha and the Omega let me know He was still watching over me. More than four decades after I became a founder of the Generic Theater, I will be returning there to direct Pearl Cleage’s “Flyin West,” in its current home, the stage down under beneath Chrysler Hall. The theater is literally a stone’s throw from where I was first introduced to the stage, at St. Joseph’s Catholic School, which once stood where the Scope Arena now stands. As a hardworking practitioner of the theatrical arts, I have been remarkably blessed by the Lord, and in my very own Norfolk hometown. But now is the time to close a curtain that has come 360 degrees.

IOTA PHI LAMBDA, ALPHA CHI CHAPTER, SELECTS 2023 BUSINESS WOMAN & SOROR

Special to the New Journal and Guide

HAMPTON ROADS

Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc. Alpha Chi Chapter recently announced the selection of Dr. Angela D. Reddix , an inspiring entrepreneur and philanthropist, as the 2023 Business Woman of the Year.

At the same time, the sorority announced Dr. Audrey Douglas-Cooke as the 2023 Soror of the Year. This distinguished recognition highlights Dr. Douglas-Cooke’s dedication to advancing the mission of the sorority on local, regional, and national levels.

Dr. Reddix, CEO of the Virginia-based healthcare management fi rm ARDX, has consistently exhibited an unwavering commitment to empowering women in business, the women’s business sorority noted in a press release.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Reddix announced her pledge to provide 13 grants, each amounting to $2,020, to assist women entrepreneurs adversely affected by the pandemic’s economic repercussions. The response to this initiative was immediate and overwhelming, as applications poured in from across Virginia, the Iota press release noted. The initial offering of grants was met with enthusiastic support from the community of women business owners, resulting in the expansion of the initiative. And because of the overwhelming support, Dr. Reddix extended her commitment and pledged to provide over $40,000 to

Disneyland

Continued from page 1B

“And not to worry, we have not forgotten the loads of fun associated with this yearly get together not at all. Throughout the evening there will be a sing-a-long or two and multiple chances to win great prizes. The BayShore Beach Scramble Board is Back! Unscramble a word associated with BayShore Beach and win a prize. Good Luck!

“But wait, there’s more, pardon the grammar, but ‘we ain’t done yet!’ Remember admission to the event is free, free, free, but upon entering the museum you will receive one ticket. Hold on to that ticket, like it states in the Green Book “you will need it.”’ Yes you will need that ticket for a chance to win a television. You must be present to win, and there will be no substitutes and absolutely and positively no exceptions!

“Your 9th Annual BayShore Beach Experience continues in this month of Baytember, as your host presents the BayShore Beach Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. This year’s class of 2023 are The Old Dominion Dental Society; Mrs. Louise Turner; The Our World Club; Sunset Lake Park; Chowan Beach; Bias Shores and Hargraves Beach. Congratulations to all our inductees!

“The honors continue with the awarding of the Charles H. Williams Award of Leadership for 2023. This yearly award for outstanding leadership and achievement is given in honor of Charles H. Williams. A native of Lexington Kentucky seeking a better education traveled to Hampton, VA enrolling at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in 1905, graduating in 1909. Mr. Williams received his B.P.E. from Springfield College in 1924 and a M.E.

aid 20 women in Virginia whose businesses have been adversely impacted by COVID-19.

“With a background as an adjunct professor in the School of Business at Norfolk State University, Dr. Reddix is not only a successful entrepreneur but also a dedicated educator. Her entrepreneurial journey began at a young age, and her passion for fostering entrepreneurship within women has remained steadfast throughout her career,” of fi cials wrote in their press release.

Upon receiving the recognition as the 2023 Business Woman of the Year, Dr. Reddix shared, “In the face of adversity during my 13 years in business, I’ve relied on tenacity and perseverance.

It is this same spirit that I hope to extend to femaleowned small businesses through these grants. I believe that these funds will offer them not only fi nancial support but also hope, reminding them that this challenging phase will pass, making them even stronger.”

Dr. Audrey DouglasCooke was selected as the 2023 Soror of the Year by Iota Phi Lambda for “her contributions and

unwavering dedication to her chapter, the broader regional community, and the national organization.”

Throughout her service, Iota noted, Dr. DouglasCooke has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to enhancing the well-being and empowerment of women.

Among her initiatives at the local level:

1. Developed and distributed a monthly health newsletter, fostering robust discussions on vital health topics affecting women of color at chapter meetings.

2. Provided leadership for the successful execution of the Black Women’s Expo.

3. Initiated multiple

health-focused initiatives, including involvement in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk and providing funding and support for a bedroom at the YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter. Further, at the regional level, she contributed to the development of the Eastern Region’s Risk Management Plan, fostering a culture of safety and well-being within the sorority; and she collaborated closely with the ERD to ensure the success of the 2022 Regional Conference, demonstrating exceptional organizational skills and commitment.

Her contributions at the national level include authoring a white paper on “Voter Registration and Voter Suppression” and drafting resolutions addressing critical issues such as paid leave and maternal mortality disparities.

For more information about Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc. Alpha Chi Chapter and its initiatives, please visit www. iotaalphachi.org.

Luther Barnes To Perform Twice At 32nd Southeast Community Day

NEWPORT NEWS

Luther Barnes is set to provide two performances during the 32nd Annual Southeast Community Day Parade and Festival & Andrew Shannon Gospel Music Celebration on Saturday, September 9, 2023. The times are noon on the Zion Baptist Church Grounds at 2016 Jefferson Avenue in Newport News and 4 p.m. at New Beech Grove Baptist Church, 361 Beechmont Drive, Newport News.

Dr. Willard Maxwell

Jr. Pastor will host, along with co-host Doc Christian and Dr. Floyd Miles.

Rev. Luther Barnes, national recording artist will be back by popular demand to perform for the Andrew Shannon Gospel Music Weekend Celebration celebrating “Building A Stronger Community.”

Luther Barnes, record producer, director,

LOCAL VOICES

songwriter, composer and lead singer of Luther Barnes and the Sunset Jubilaires is the second eldest son of Faircloth “FC” Barnes, who wrote the famous “Rough Side of the Mountain.” He is an ordained minister and native son of Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Dr. Willard Maxwell, Jr. Pastor will also host special guests, Bishop Ray Bynum and Pentecostal Followers of Christ Church Choir, Lionel T. Hines, Sr. and New Generation Marching Band, and the New Beech Grove Praise Team, The Parade at 10 a.m. will feature the Hampton University Marching Force & Ebony Fire.

The Parade Viewing Stand and Festival Site is located at Zion Baptist Church Grounds, 2016 Jefferson Avenue, Newport News, Virginia. For more information contact (757) 877-0792.

45’s Mid-Summer Nightmares

By Sean C. Bowers

“Artificial Intelligence” (A.I.) is the only defense the former President can claim at this point, after four high-profile charges have been leveled at him from Miami, to New York with stops in Atlanta and old D.C. A.I. is the only thing that can keep

up with 45’s obsessive “Fact Avoidance,” and predictively false-hood fabricating, just ahead of his light-speed lies “Tour for 2024.” In (non-)fact, A.I. will (F)actually bring new yet-to-be-used lies in front of 45, all in squeal time.

Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliette, Othello, Julius Caesar, King Lear, and Henry VIII were plays by William Shakespeare, written long ago before today’s age of (supposed) reason. In 45’s world of measure for (un)measured, “If you come for me, I come for you.” He seeks to position himself as an all-omnipotent King of war rhetoric. 45’s “much ado about nothing,” “no-fire-here,” insistence, as he burns down the house, is his endless “All’s well, that ends well,” act of arson.

45’s Tour De Force Comedy of Errors, crossed with his Arizona version of Falstaff Stories, are now not just for Arizona Republicans “marching into the sea” orders. The nation, Sir, is not your personal Taming of the Shrew or your life story, to be used, road hard, and put up wet, As You Like It.

conspiracy-theories and baseless (fact-less) claims you want about anyone and anything you seem to want, folks. However, when you cross that FACT-LINE into your own world of wishful thinking, “people are saying,” “I’m hearing,” “I believe ...” You can rot in the jail cells next to 45. Don’t worry, we’ll build millions of cells for all ya’ll who wantonly still drink from the 45 “Firehose of Falsehoods.”

The question is not, “Can 45 get a fair set of four trials?” The question is, “How do we move past his self-destructive tendencies unleashed on the nation, to move on and heal the colossal damage inflicted by his ego and baby-handed ID?”

only leads to endless fires for as far as the eye can see. When they seek to “burnit-all-down,” it’s only a matter of time before they get to your neighborhood, and you become the NEXT sacrificial offer on their alter/ arson/ auction block of what’s left of our American morality.

45, your final “goingout-of-business” will not be a fire-sale. It will be a bar-b-que roast. With all ya’ll on the Right getting smoked, poked, and joked by the rest of us, who knew better than to ever believe a word from the orange imbecile from hell?

from Harvard in 1930. From 1910 to 1951 he served as the Director of physical training and Chairman of the Department of Physical Education and was the Director of Athletics at Hampton Institute. Mr. Williams was one of the founding Fathers of The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the C.I.A.A. And was also the Father of Modern Dance at Hampton Institute.

Mr. Williams served on the board of Hampton University and The People’s Building and Loan Association trustees from 1954 to 1969. A Real Estate developer and guiding force responsible for the resurrection, expansion and success of BayShore, “Our Black Disneyland.”

“The C.H.W. award of leadership will be presented proudly to The Newsome House Museum and Cultural Center, and will be presented by Charles H. Jones M.S.E.D., the nephew of Charles H. Williams. Past recipients of the C.H.W. award is a Who’s Who from the Hampton Roads/Tidewater region: Laura Sanford, Dr. Mary T. Christian, Dr. Colita N. Fairfax, Dr. Christine Darden, Roger

Saunders, and last year’s recipient, The BarrettPeake Heritage Foundation. Congratulation to the 2023 C.H.W. award recipients.

“Our guest speaker for the evening will be Mr. Leonard Powell from Hyattsville MD. Mr. Powell will share with the audience his memories of his time spent at BayShore, ‘Our Black Disneyland,’ and will answer any questions from the audience.

“So friends, there you have the “nitty gritty” of it and what a night it will be when you attend the 9th Annual BayShore Beach Experience. Presented at the Hampton History Museum on Baytember that’s September 16, 2023 from 6 to 8 p.m. Admission is free and seating limited. For more information call the Hampton History Museum at (757) 7271102. The BayShore Beach Experience, if you haven’t experienced it. You have no idea of what you been missing!”

The Hampton History Museum is located at 120 Old Hampton Lane in Downtown Hampton. There is free parking in the garage across the street from the museum. For more information call (757) 727-1102.

Like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, 45 now finds himself the lead-defendant around whom all breathing of free-air is about to be permanently restricted. 45’s multiple-act Greek tragedy is now playing out in front of the world in court rooms on television all across the land. The disinfectant of sunlight through public review and consumption is exactly what will eventually break the 45-Fever those on the Right contracted, having over-medicated themselves with Fox News these last seven years of TRUMP-DUMB! (You can have all the crazy

In their deepest hearts, the Right knows he is wrong. 45 is the Right’s emotional wrecking ball to all the foundational structures they can no longer win by votes through the front (legal) door. He now represents the former “law and order” party as the party of law-lessness and nonorderliness.

45 is not-even-close to being the best candidate or person the Right could choose to run with a realistic tangible platform to improve America’s future. Instead, they knowingly choose to turn back time to 45’s churnand-burn, chuck-and-duck style of government that

Sean C. Bowers has written the last 25 years, as a WhiteQuaker Southern man, for the nation’s third oldest Black Newspaper, The New Journal and Guide, of Norfolk, Virginia, about overcoming racism, sexism, classism, and religious persecution. Some of his latest NJ&G articles detailing the issues can found by searching “Sean C. Bowers” on the NJ&G website. Contact him directly on social media at Linkedin.com or by email V1ZUAL1ZE@ aol.com NNPA 2019 Publisher of the Year, Brenda H. Andrews (NJ&G 35 years) has always been his publisher.

Sean C. Bowers

Like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, 45 now finds himself the lead-defendant around whom all breathing of free-air is about to be permanently restricted.

Dr. Angela Reddix Dr. Audrey Douglas-Cooke

His first football season, Isaiah told us, ‘Wear a jersey with my name on it. I want everyone to know you’re here for me.’

MOMENTS of MEDITATION

By Rev. Dr. Archie L. Edwards, Sr. LIFE ... AS GOD INTENDED IT

SELECTED SCRIPTURES

Have you heard of the Anchorites? Renegades of the third century, they sold all their possessions, fled to the deserts of Egypt, and lived as destitute hermits. Were they political revolutionaries? Fugitive from justice? Actually, they were the first monks.

The fi rst Anchorite, Saint Anthony, remains the most famous of these ascetics. In his efforts to defeat the temptations of Satan and live a pure life for Christ, Anthony went to extremes. He kept a vigil to such an extent that he often continued the whole night without sleep; and this not once but often, to the marvel of others. He ate once a day, after sunset, sometimes once in two days, and often even in four. His food was bread and salt, his drink, water only ... A rush mat served him to sleep upon, but for the most part he lay upon bare ground. At one point, Anthony “went to live in a tomb in

an abandoned cemetery.”

Some Anchorites even made themselves “eunuchs for the kingdom.” Ouch!

Is this the way God wants us to live – isolating and inflicting pain on ourselves to make sure we don’t become too enamored with earthly life? Is this what Jesus taught? What did He have to say about life, anyway?

The Apostle John tells us what He said: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). Life as God intended it – abundant. But what exactly does this mean? Let’s gather some clues from John’s Gospel, where we’ll see that abundant life is inextricably tied to the abundant love of God’s son.

A Clue to Life in John’s Gospel. When John wrote about life, he linked it seventeen times with the word eternal – a word that undoubtedly refers “more to the kind of life than its duration. It is the life of God shared with His people, therefore both imperishable and blessed.”

Eternal life, then, is our future hope as well as our present reality; because when we put our faith in Christ, eternal life begins for us (John 5:24). We won’t know its full glory until Heaven, where we’ll be with the Lord and delivered completely from sin at last. But we surely have a taste of it now, and that sweet savor keeps us hungering for more.

Jesus the Giver of Life

“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.” (5:21). Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” (6:35). Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I Am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” (8:12). Jesus said to him, “I Am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” (14: 6). “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name (20:31).

What the Abundant Life Is ... and Isn’t. When we have abundant life, we live in the light of the eternal life that has already begun in us through faith in Christ. We live out and live by heaven’s values – the values of a world restored to perfection. In this world God “will wipe away every

tear from their eyes; there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). What do these values look like? Paul listed some in Galatians 5:22-23. Peter adds more in 1 Peter 1:5-7.

To live abundantly is to be ever saved of the grace God has lavished on us (Ephesians 1:3-8a). It is to be rooted and grounded in the certain hope of Christ’s coming again and His consummation of all His plans (Romans 15:13). To live abundantly is to make choices that reflect the reality of Christ and His Kingdom – to shape our present in the light of our future. It’s not an easy life, but it’s the real life ... and it’s the best life there could be.

God never wanted us to run away from the world, to try to escape it like some of the Anchorites sought to do. Instead, He wants us to engage our world – to be in it but not of it. And the only way we can fulfill His desire is to enter into the abundant life he offers.

Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? If you haven’t, that’s the first place to begin. Pray now, won’t you? God has loved you from the beginning of time and eagerly waits to call you His child and lavish His love on you.

Rev. Dr. Archie L. Edwards, Sr., is an Associate Minister at Second Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk.

KIM D. SAUNDERS, Former President & CEO of Consolidated Bank, Dies

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Funeral services were held Aug. 25, at Bethlehem Church of God in Washington, D.C., for Kim D. Saunders, who served as president of Richmond’s Consolidated Bank, which was launched by Maggie L. Walker in 1903, as St. Luke Penny Savings Bank.

Saunders, 61, died on July 29, in Durham, according to her obituary. She served as the president of Consolidated from 2003-2007. She guided its 2005 sale to Abigail Adams National Bancorp Inc., in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, Adams Bank experienced financial problems not much later and was absorbed by Premier Bank based in West Virginia. Premier quickly absorbed Adams and Consolidated Bank.

Saunders also served on the boards of the Virginia Port Authority and the Virginia Housing Authority while president of Consolidated.

For more than three

CHURCH ADs & DIRECTORY

decades, Saunders, a Wharton School of Business graduate, served in the banking industry. She headed Mechanics & Farmers Bank from 2007 to 2014. She also served as the president and CEO of the National Bankers Association, the leading trade association for the nation’s minority banks from 2018 through May 2021.

She is survived by her husband, Barry Saunders, two stepchildren, two brothers, and her mother, whom she cared for, Alice Saunders of Glenarden, Md.

Kim Saunders

BOOKWORM REVIEW

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

HOLLER, CHILD: STORIES

So why didn’t you ...? Your life wasn’t random, there was a plan of some kind somewhere. Why didn’t you pick this path instead of that other, make this choice a priority, decide in favor of something else? Surely, you didn’t simply fall headlong into every opportunity. Now, as in “Holler, Child” by LaToya Watkins, a collection of short stories, you’ll always wonder what if ...

Ever since her son, Hawk, died, news reporters have been sniffing around Mrs. Hawkins’ house, asking questions. She wants to explain why she gave her son away, why he told people he was God’s son before he ended up in Abilene, and why he hurt that little girl. But in “The Mother,” lies come easier than the truth.

After Lettie found her husband, Chuck, dead on the floor, her Momma moved in, though Lettie didn’t want her there. Momma was never loving, like kids need their Mommas to be. She liked to remind Lettie that Chuck was no good. In “Tipping,” Momma’d hurt too many people for too long, but what could Lettie do?

Opal never wanted that dog, but they got the ugly cur for Nate, who’d always wanted an Old English

Bulldog. After he had his stroke, though, it seemed like that dog was all he cared for and Opal despised it. In “Moving the Animal,” that dog stood for everything wrong. Clayton had done nothing but cheat on Lotrece for years and she retaliated in so many petty ways that even she began to think it was silly. One day, she might forgive him but until then, it was more fun to poke him in a dozen little ways, to make him mad and make him feel some sort of way –like wearing lingerie, when he knew darn well that their love life was over. But when

BUSINESS LEADER, MENTOR AND MUSIC BUSINESS LEGEND CLARENCE AVANT DIES 92

she reached for her thong, Lotrece felt the gun in her dresser drawer, the one Clayton said never worked. In the high-tension story, “Sweat,” Clayton lied.

Does it seem like you don’t have enough time to read a book, with all you’ve got going on this time of year? Then you want “Holler, Child,” because none of these eleven short stories will take long to read, but they’re long on enjoyment.

Using tiny slices of life and cool-as-ice prose, author LaToya Watkins brings readers a series of snap decisions and bad ideas in tales that will keep you guessing. But these are not mystery-like whodunits; instead, they’re everyday tales, brilliantly set in a single afternoon or overnight or two, but with enough back-story inside the set-ups to make you care about each character and to make you have an opinion on what those characters should do. It’s like having a ringside seat up next to the people you know and love to gossip about.

This is a book for anyone who likes surprises in their stories, for short-story fans, or for people who are timecrunched now and always. Find “Holler, Child” and enjoy, or you’ll always wonder why didn’t you ...?

FUN PUZZLE FOR YOUR LEISURE

By Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Clarence Avant, a music business icon and mentor to many, has died at 92 years old. Avant was called “The Godfather” by many because of his long reach in the business community and his ability to bring all sides together in negotiations. “The Godfather” has left us. This man was singularly responsible for helping so many Black artists get paid their worth. Also was a wonderful supporter & former board member of @NAACP_ LDF. Rest in Peace & Power #ClarenceAvant,” wrote attorney Sherrilyn Ifill on social media.

Avant was born in North Carolina in 1931. He went on in the business to promote and manage Sarah Vaughan and discovered Bill Withers. Avant also promoted Michael Jackson as he laughed on his first tour as a solo artist. Avant, along with his wife, Jacquline, were the subjects of the Netflix feature, The Black Godfather.

Tragically, Jacquline Avant, at 81, Clarence Avant’s wife of

54 years, was murdered during a burglary in the early morning hours of December 1, 2021, in the couple’s home in Beverly Hills. The murder was a home invasion in the wealthy Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills. Clarence and Jacqueline Avant married in 1967

“He’s a deal maker, he’s the best in the business,” said Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., in the documentary of Clarence. Several participants in the documentary referred to Jacqueline as a key to Clarence’s success. The Avant’s children, Nicole and Alexander were also featured in the Netflix documentary. Nicole Avant is married to Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

A statement was released by the family:

“It is with a heavy heart that the Avant/ Sarandos family announce the passing of Clarence Alexander Avant,” the statement from his children, Nicole and Alexander and son-in-law Ted Sarandos. “Through his revolutionary business leadership, Clarence became affectionately known as ‘the Black Godfather’ in the worlds of music, entertainment, politics, and sports. Clarence leaves behind a loving family and a sea of friends and associates that have changed the world and will continue to change the world for generations to come. The joy of his legacy eases the sorrow of our loss. Clarence passed away gently at home in Los Angeles on Sunday, August 13, 2023.”

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the publisher of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail. com and on twitter at @ LVBurke

Clarence Avant

“Holler, Child: Stories”

by LaToya Watkins ©2023, Tiny Reparations Books $28, 224 pages