NJG | Vol. 124, No. 25 - June 20, 2024

Serving Norfolk, Portsmouth,

PART ONE

40 ACRES AND A LIE

By Alexia Fernanandez Campbell, April Simpson and Pratheek Rebala

Mother Jones Magazine

July+August 2024

Special to the New Journal and Guide

Pompey Jackson was born in the heart of Georgia’s rice empire – the human property of one of the state’s wealthiest and most powerful families.

He and his sisters were among hundreds enslaved on a sprawling marshland estate called Grove Hill, where life was brutal. People died every month, mostly young children. Those who reached adulthood often suffered spinal injuries, lung disease, and foot rot from sloshing through flooded rice fields. Jackson survived smallpox. He was a teenager in late 1864 when Union General William T. Sherman and his soldiers advanced through the Ogeechee River low country on their way to capture Savannah. Sherman freed thousands during his march through the South, later writing that

Sherman’s pledge of land for the formerly enslaved, known as “40 Acres and a Mule,” remains the nation’s most famous attempt to provide some form of reparations for American slavery.

“freedmen, in droves, old and young, followed [our troops] to reach a place of safety.” On January 16, 1865, at the urging of Savannah’s Black ministers, Sherman issued an edict called Special Field Orders, No. 15, which reserved large swaths of coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and northeastern Florida for the formerly enslaved to live and work on and govern themselves. see 40 Acres, page 2A

INTRODUCTION:

“40 Acres and a Mule” remains the nation’s most famous attempt to provide some form of reparations for American slavery. Today, it is largely remembered as a broken promise and an abandoned step toward multiracial democracy.

Less known is that the federal government actually did issue hundreds, perhaps thousands, of titles to specific plots of land between 4 and 40 acres. Freedmen and women built homes, established local governments, and farmed the land. But their utopia didn’t last long.

Over the course of two and a half years, a team of

Juneteenth Grows In Substance; Chance For Greater Activism

By Hamil R.Harris

(TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Even though President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he was forced to send federal troops down to Galveston, Texas, to read and post General Order Number 3 on June 19, 1865. That was because some enslaved people had not been freed.

Therefore, under the command of Major General Gordan Granger, the soldiers marched through the streets of Galveston from the courthouse to the “Negro church” and posted the following order:

Congressman Al Green (D-Texas)

Even though President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he was forced to send federal troops down to Galveston, Texas, to read and post General Order Number 3 on June 19, 1865.

Public Integrity reporters, editors, and researchers identified 1,250 Black men and women who had earned land as reparations after the Civil War. From there, the team conducted genealogical research to locate living descendants of many of those who had received and then lost the land. This project is an unprecedented and innovative use of Freedmen’s Bureau records – an impossible task for most of American history, until recent advances in genealogical research and the digitization of thousands of pages of Reconstruction-era documents made it feasible.

TRUXTUN CELEBRATES 105 YEARS OF BLACK HISTORY

By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter Emeritus New Journal and Guide

From June 21-23, Portsmouth’s Truxtun neighborhood will stage various programs to observe the 105th anniversary of the historic Black community.

Due to this extraordinary moment in Galveston, June 19, 2021 officially became a national holiday in the U. S., signed into law by President Joseph Biden. But, civil rights activists and leaders from coast to coast say more must be done to explain the vital order that gave all enslaved people their full rights to freedom and self-determination. Then, communities can decide the most powerful way to commemorate it.

“This should not be just a day to eat barbeque and drink some spirits. We need to be more intentional in terms of substance to Juneteenth,” said Rev. Amos Brown,

“The people of Texas are informed that, by a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former enslavers and enslaved people, and the connection between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere. By order of Major General Granger.”

New Hunton “Y” On The Way!

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor

After years of operating on Charlotte

Street and at several other Norfolk locations, Hunton YMCA recently announced plans to build a new 44,000 square feet facility in the old Tidewater Park Elementary School building, which will be demolished. Scheduled for completion in 2026, the new William A. Hunton building will include a new 22-acre resilience park called the Blue Greenway,

custom-designed upper and lower schools to separate children by ages and a large gymnasium with a mezzanine. Hunton’s new site will also include a library, recording studio and pool that will offer swim lessons. The new site

will have enough space to enroll over 250 children. The current YMCA is licensed for 166 daycare children.

YMCA Advisor Ulysses Turner recently told WAVY-TV, “Those kids needed services that were not provided elsewhere.” The City of Norfolk agreed to purchase Hunton’s old facility and in return sold Hunton the vacant Tidewater Park Elementary School building located at the corner of Tidewater Drive and Brambleton Avenue, in downtown Norfolk. see Hunton, page 3A

Bands, car clubs, bike clubs, and civic groups will be among the 50 to 100 units participating in the parade.

At the end of the parade on the grounds of the Truxtun School and Mount Carmel Church, food, games, a concert, and an awards program will be held.

The event is part celebration, observance and reunion of the legacy Truxtun wrote in the past and the living history of Black America.

Truxtun’s origins had a unique twist that helped ensure the Black community endure to reach 105 years.

During World War I, with European immigration limited, there was a need for a workforce at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

There was ample manpower but no viable housing near the facilities.

Truxtun was built at the direction of the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, who historians today cast as a racist.

Upon taking office, he reversed years progressive

Truxtun’s origins had a unique twist that helped ensure the Black community endure to reach 105 years.

policies of prior presidents, including resegregating federal personnel.

According to the Digital Archives of the New Journal and Guide and Public Records, between 1918 and 1920, directed by the U.S. Housing Corporation, Truxtun was the first wartime federal housing development for African-American families in the United States.

To help develop the project, Wilson created the Department of Negro Economics headed by Dr. George Edmund Haynes. see Truxton, page 6A

Chester Benton

Photo: RandySingleton

Juneteenth

Continued from page 1A

“Our ancestors got the word late that this nation had stopped their brutal treatment of Black folks. In Luke 4, Jesus was a liberator. Juneteenth was about liberation, and today, it ought to be about political engagement.”

On June 23, 2023, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) sought to deepen understanding of the historical significance of Juneteenth as he delivered an impactful speech on the House floor centering on the importance of Juneteenth, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act, and his Conscience Agenda. Green also sought to underscore the urgent need for racially equitable policies and the importance of remembering the atrocities of slavery.

“President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but before signing the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Act on April 16, 1862 ... this is an important piece of legislation ... the Emancipation Act would accord compensation [to slaveholders] for slaves that were freed,” Congressman Green said. “We need a Slavery Remembrance Day ... we also need to accord dignity and respect to the enslaved people ... with a Congressional gold medal.”

Dr. Frank Smith, founder of the AfricanAmerican Civil War Memorial and Museum in Washington D.C., said there even needs to be more than Juneteenth.

“We can’t have too many holidays to celebrate the freedom of African-Americans ... I think it is important to call attention to the fact that it is a long struggle, and people are still fighting to retain the right to vote because state after state is trying to make it more difficult for people to have the right to vote,” Smith said. In 1960, Smith was one of the leaders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party which took part in one of the bloodiest chapters of the Civil Rights movement. In terms of hard-fought gains of the past, he said, “I am a little concerned that we are going to let this thing slip through our fingers.”

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end to slavery in the

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end to slavery in the United States. From Houston to Atlanta and from Miami to Washington D.C., Juneteenth is broadly a festive holiday.

United States. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official on January 1, 1863. It had little impact on Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops present to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in the Civil War in April of 1865, General Granger’s regiment squashed Confederate resistance and sent the final order to Texas.

From Houston to Atlanta and from Miami to Washington D.C., Juneteenth is broadly a festive holiday. This year included a Juneteenth celebration at the White House. President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden hosted a Juneteenth Concert at the White House on Monday, June 10th. It kicked off a week of activities taking place across the country, leading to Wednesday,

June 18, 1949 Edition of the Guide Race Firm Gets Plumbing Work On Project

NORFOLK

The most significant construction contract to a Negro contracting firm has been awarded to the D.W. Andrews Plumbing and Heating Company of Winston-Salem, N.C.

It is currently engaged in installing plumbing equipment in a housing project under construction in that city at an estimated cost of $500,000. D.W. Andrews, founder and president of the firm who was in Norfolk last week attending the annual conference of Eastern Seaboard Plumbing and Heating Association, said the installation work is progressing in keeping with the overall construction program which is about onethird completed. The project will consist of about 500 duplex apartments built for Negro occupancy and financed by private capital provided by white investors.

The founder received his education at Tuskegee Institute and is a member of the Tuskegee board of directors. Andrews, a plumber by trade, a contractor by business, is a churchman with a deep religious conviction.

Colored Population At 14 Million

WASHINGTON, D.C.

June 19, the actual federal holiday.

It was President Biden who signed bipartisan legislation in 2021 establishing Juneteenth as the nation’s newest Federal holiday, “so that all Americans can feel the power of this day, learn from our history, celebrate our progress, and recognize and engage in the work that continues,” President Biden wrote.

Melanie Campbell, president/CEO of the National Coalition of Black Voter Participation, said among the greatest tributes to Juneteenth will be learning from its history.

“We celebrate. But we [must] learn from history,” Cambell said. “We need to take this moment right now to learn because we all don’t have our right to vote, right to learn and women don’t have right to choose.”

40 Acres

Continued from page 1A

Sherman’s pledge of land for the formerly enslaved – which would become known as “40 Acres and a Mule” –remains the nation’s most famous attempt to provide some form of reparations for American slavery. Today, it is largely remembered as a broken promise and an abandoned step toward multiracial democracy.

Less known is that the federal government actually did issue hundreds, perhaps thousands, of titles to specific plots of land between 4 and 40 acres –before ultimately changing course and returning the land to the plantation owners. (The freedmen were not, in fact, promised a mule, though some did receive them.)

Jackson was among the first freedmen in Georgia to get one of these land titles, choosing to begin his life after the war on a plot carved out of the very rice fields where he’d spent his years enslaved.

All of the records were created by the now-defunct U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

On April 20, 1865, a federal agent issued Jackson a land title for 4 acres at Grove Hill. We came across that title as part of the Center for Public Integrity’s years-long effort to search through nearly 1.8 million records, which allowed us to identify 1,250 formerly enslaved men and women, including Jackson, who received land titles in Georgia and South Carolina in the months that followed Sherman’s field orders. All of the records were created by the nowdefunct U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, and were only digitized in the last 10 years. We first discovered some of the land titles in 2021, within a recently digitized roll of microfilm labeled “Unbound Miscellaneous

From The Guide’s Archives

Records.” To aid in our search, we developed an image recognition algorithm that helped us surface land titles that covered more than 24,000 acres on 34 plantations that were seized by the Union Army from Confederate landowners. While the titles we have represent just a fraction of those distributed under Sherman’s orders, we were able to identify at least 34 former plantations where specific land was granted to Black families and then taken back.

In 2000, when Congress passed the Freedmen’s Bureau Preservation Act, it financed a five-year effort to index and microfilm the records – mostly handwritten, and often in elaborate penmanship –from the Reconstructionera agency charged with aiding millions of emancipated slaves. In the years that followed, the Mormon Church began digitizing images from the microfilm through its genealogy platform FamilySearch, making 1.5 million records available online in partnership with the National Archives. see 40 Acres, page 3A

Archives taken from the pages of the (New) Journal and Guide

27th and 28th Streets has taken on a new look as a result of the completion of about $72,000 in new dwelling units. It is part of a $160,0000 project planned by Negro businessman George E. Tillerson and Son contractors.

Six homes with five to seven rooms have already been completed on the south side of 27th Street, two more are nearing completion, and one is in the initial stages of development.

There is space on the north side of 27th Street for four or five dwellings. Foundations have already been made for two of these.

The north and south sides of 28th Street will provide space for more than 15 additional homes, all of which will be built by Tillerson, a Newport News resident for six years.

Tillerson has been in the contracting business for the past 32 years, and says he had no opportunity to attend a trade school but worked as an apprentice and through diligence has been able to realize a degree of success in a highly competitive field.

He further states that there are opportunities in the contracting business he has gathered from his years of experiences and from the six years in Newport News.

He related that his coming to this Peninsula city was during a time when the demand for builders was small and the supply was small.

presented to 50 graduates by Superintendent Frank W. Cox. Awards were made to students by Mrs. B. Forbes Williams, County Supervisor. State scholarships were awarded to Alice J. Walke and Hortense C. Russell. A scholarship to the Norfolk Division of Virginia State College was awarded to Cecelia Kimble.

Attorney Victor J. Ashe presented George Smith with a $50 scholarship from the Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

June 17, 1961

Edition of the Guide School Head Drops Dead At Finals

HOFFMAN, N.C. (UPI)

Dr. Paul R. Brown, superintendent of the State Morrison Training School, died when stricken with a heart attack while introducing the speaker for the commencement sermon. Brown served as superintendent of the school since 1944 and guided its growth from a few students to about 400.

During the introduction, Brown’s voice faltered, and he swayed. He was caught by someone on the platform and rushed to the St. Joseph of the Pines Hospital, where he was pronounced dead within 45 minutes.

ASSISTANT

Desmond Perkins

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Rosaland Tyler

CHIEF REPORTER

The Negro population in the United States has increased by 1,594,000 since April 1940, according to the Census Bureau. There were 12 million Negroes in the United States in 1940. The number had risen to about 14,460,000 in July 1947. The Census Bureau recently revealed its estimates of non-white populations in the United States by race from 1940 to 1947.

The 12.4 percent increase in the Negro population over the seven-and-a-quarter year period was at an average annual rate of 1.6 percent a year, while the average annual rate of growth for the white population was about .2 percent a year.

New Homes

Tillerson is a firm believer in the continued success of the business started by his father 32 years ago as evidenced by the fact that he is now a student of Architectural Engineering at Howard University, and upon completion of his work will be officially identified with the firm Tillerson and Son Contractors.

P.A. County Graduation

PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY Commencement exercises at Princess Anne County Training School were held June 9 in the school auditorium. Dr. A. G. Macklin, the state high school counselor, delivered the commencement speech.

The Rev. J.M. Jones, pastor of the St. Mark’s AME Church and St. John AME Church, Princess Anne County, offered an invocation and pronounced benediction. Diplomas were

W. H. Parker, assistant superintendent, assumed charge of the institution pending the appointment of Brown’s successor.

The deceased graduated from Palmer Memorial Institution and received his Bachelor’s degree at A and T College in 1928.

Rev. Johnson Was Selected For The School Board

PORTSMOUTH

The selection of Dr. Harvey N. Johnson, Sr., as a member of the Portsmouth school board was “only half” of what the Portsmouth City Council had intended to do in its historic meeting Tuesday night. But there were “complications,” and the planned election of David L. Muckle to the city Planning Commission was tabled.

In becoming the first Negro in modern history to be elected to any Portsmouth municipal board, Dr. Johnson, veteran pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church,

stated: “I’m happy about the opportunity to serve on the school board, and I will enter upon my duties with dedication. I hope that I will be able to contribute something to the important field of public education.”

Mayor Irvine R. Smith, who nominated Johnson for the post, told the GUIDE this week that he is confident the veteran clergyman has the background and experience to make valuable contributions to the city in his new post. Originally, there were plans to elect Mr. Muckle to one of two vacant seats on the Planning Commission during the meeting, but “opposition” forced this matter to remain on the table. This does not mean that Muckle will not be selected. It does mean, however, that there are new difficulties, and Muckle’s supporters have a battle on their hands.

Redevelopment

Overtakes St. Joseph’s NORFOLK

The doors of St. Joseph’s Catholic School, originally opened under the sponsorship of the Franciscan Sisters in 1889, were closed permanently last Friday. This week, St. Joseph’s Parish will be absorbed into St. Mary’s Parish by order of the Rev. John J. Russell, Bishop of Richmond. Pupils who formerly attended St. Joseph’s School will attend St. Mary’s Academy on Holt Street in September. The school is run by the Daughters of Wisdom. The eight sisters who constitute the faculty at St. Joseph’s will be assigned to other sections of the country. The sisters were given a farewell party at the auditorium of Norfolk Catholic High School. Former students returned to present musical numbers and sketches. When St. Joseph’s was closed, the enrollment was about 500. At one time, there were 800 enrolled, many of them Negroes and non-Catholics. The Franciscan Sisters came to Norfolk nine years after their order received papal approval in England in 1880. They established the school in 1893. Also, parishioners from St. Joseph’s will now attend services at St. Mary’s, the second oldest Catholic Church in Virginia.

A. Jordan, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Jordan of this city, is

Acres

Continued from page 2A

Eric Foner, a leading historian who has written extensively about the Civil War, said this digitization was vital because there are no other sources outside of the Freedmen’s Bureau records that illustrate this aspect of Reconstruction so clearly.

While historians had long known that at least some of these titles still existed – one has been featured on the National Archives website since at least 2007 – such a large collection has never been published and analyzed in one place.

“These records contain an enormous amount of genealogical information that has not been readily available to many African Americans,” said historian Karen Cook Bell, who said she first encountered some land titles back in 1991 while searching through National Archives paper records by hand to research her dissertation.

“Having this kind of evidence – of actual families who received land and had that land taken away – certainly can address, in some measure, the issue of reparations,” said Cook Bell, whose 2018 book, Claiming Freedom: Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth-Century Georgia, documents life on low country plantations such as Grove Hill.

In her book, she identified nearly 400 formerly enslaved men and women in Georgia who had received land titles. “When you talk about the economic inequalities in American society, they all center around who has access to property, and who has access to land.”

After surfacing the digitized land titles and logs entries, we conducted genealogical research to trace what happened to the descendants of these 1,250 men and women in the century and a half since

... we conducted genealogical research to trace what happened to the descendants of these 1,250 men and women in the century and a half since Sherman’s promise was broken ...

Sherman’s promise was broken – reviewing thousands of Freedmen’s Bureau bank records, marriage certificates, and census documents.

Many names didn’t appear on any other public records; other names were too common to research with confidence. Ultimately, we created family trees for about 100 of the freedmen and women and identified 41 of their living descendants.

“I had no idea,” said Mila Rios, after being shown a Freedmen’s Bureau log that included the name of her great-great-grandfather, Pompey Jackson. “That’s

infringement. It was given to him and taken back.”

Sherman’s special Field Orders, No. 15 set aside the islands and coastline of Georgia, South Carolina, and northeastern Florida exclusively “for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war.” The orders granted the head of each family up to 40 acres of land on seized or abandoned plantations, and afforded them military protection “until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title.”

The orders further noted that “in the settlements hereafter to be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and

General Rufus Saxton

soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive

Hunton

Continued from page 1A

“We want to thank Congressman Bobby Scott, [Norfolk] Mayor Kenny Alexander and Norfolk City Council for helping us with our new location,” Turner said.

Hunton Y will move into an interim facility located near its proposed new site. The city is currently hiring contractors to demolish the existing Tidewater Park Elementary School. During the interim, William A. Hunton YMCA will operate

management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves.” In his memoirs, Sherman explained that he had not necessarily intended to ensure the freedmen the right to the land indefinitely, but at least through the end of the war and until federal officials took more permanent measures.

In the meantime, the task of explaining and administering the orders fell to Rufus Saxton, a decorated Union general, who traveled to the Second African Baptist Church in Savannah on a February afternoon in 1865. After an organist played a celebratory

out of a temporary site at 5520 Tidewater Drive.

Work Program

Architects, a Norfolk-based firm, will design the new Hunton YMCA campus. Work Program Architects CEO and principal, Mel Price said, “I think it’s important to understand that the Tidewater Gardens area and Greater St. Paul’s has not always felt safe to everyone who called it home. And so, goal number one was to make sure we had a campus that felt safe and felt connected to nature. We started by cataloging the trees, and we designed a building that wrapped around the trees that are there on the site.

hymn and the Reverend Ulysses L. Houston, who’d helped persuade Sherman to redistribute land, offered a prayer, Saxton addressed those who had crowded into the church that day.

“The soil is the source of all true prosperity and wealth,” Saxton reportedly told those who had gathered in the pews.

“No people can be great unless they own soil. You know that; General Sherman knows it; our Father in heaven knows it. And now I want to tell you, you may own the soil.” Saxton’s declaration created a stir, but his words would come back to haunt him.

And that way, the kids feel connected to nature. They feel protected by nature.” Since 1875, the William A. Hunton YMCA has offered programs and services to low-income residents in South Hampton Roads. The facility is named after William A. Hunton, a Black SpanishAmerican War veteran, who not only helped develop student YMCAs at HBCUs in the South but also helped communities obtain Julius Rosenwald challenge grants to build YMCAs in Black neighborhoods.

Hunton is now one of only four remaining heritage YMCAs in the country.

Former Ports. City Manager Is Named Roanoke’s Interim CM

ROANOKE, VA

Former Portsmouth City Manager

Dr. Lydia Pettis Patton will serve as Roanoke’s interim city manager Councilwoman Trish White-Boyd, who is the city council’s personnel chair, said none of Roanoke’s assistant city managers were selected for the interim job because they were all appointed relatively recently, according to news reports.

“The council wanted someone with a tremendous amount of experience,” White-Boyd said. “As you can see, Dr. Patton has a lot of experience.”

On June 11, Roanoke City Council passed a resolution to appoint Patton, effective immediately This announcement was made after former Roanoke City Manager Bob Cowell stepped down after seven years. Patton served as Portsmouth’s first female city manager from 2015-2020 and now heads the Berkley Group, a Hampton Roads-based consulting firm that works with public agencies like local governments, in seeking a replacement for former City Manager Bob Cowell.

Source:FortyAcresandAMulebyClaudeF.Oubre

Photo:LibraryofCongress

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIOLOGY

VIRGINIA TECH

WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL – THE ABL

By Wornie Reed, Ph.D.

Planning to create a professional women’s basketball league began in 1994. The leaders of this effort were fighting an uphill battle, as several attempts had been made to start such a league in the preceding two to three decades.

But the time seemed to be ripe. There was substantial publicity about the U.S. national team, which would play over 20 games against collegiate teams around the country to prepare for the Olympics.

Significantly, this new effort was mission-driven.

They thought women should have a league in the United States – a place to play after college without going overseas.

By 1995, the planners for this American Basketball League (ABL) included a couple of businessmen and former women Olympians.

Veteran players who were playing overseas were invited to participate in discussions about the new league. They succeeded in getting one businessman to invest $3 million in the project to get started.

In 1996, while the ABL executives were scurrying around establishing the eight-team league that would begin play in the fall of 1996, the NBA held a press conference announcing that they would start a league, the WNBA, that would begin play in the summer of 1997.

Most of the WNBA’s teams would be associated with NBA franchises, be in the same city, and use the same arenas. The NBA’s move appeared to be a response to the ABL, and playing in the summer seems to suggest a primary reason for the WNBA – to play in the summer and not compete with the NBA for fans.

The ABL completed its first season in 1997 with the Columbus Quest, led by the 35-year-old veteran Valerie Still.

CARRTOON By Walt Carr

Using its clout, the NBA secured television contracts for the WNBA and prevented the ABL from ever getting a television contract. The ABL got very little national publicity, and they needed exposure. The ABL executives and one of their investors went around to major networks, offering to pay millions for airtime, but none of the networks would do it because they were afraid to offend the NBA. Only CBS agreed to the deal but to air just a few games in the playoffs. Without a major contract, the ABL folded after two seasons, thus clearing the field for wintertime fans. However, before it did, it played two seasons–in the fall and winter–and it was widely considered to be the superior league as it had the greater share of the top players. Each year, it challenged the WNBA to a playoff of their individual champions, like the old AFL v. NFL football game, which came to be known as the Super Bowl. But the WNBA refused each time.

The ABL completed its first season in 1997 with the Columbus Quest, led by the

The ABL and the WNBA were rival leagues – in their existence and their regard for each other. Fans of the ABL chided the WNBA for playing “when the boys weren’t using the gym.” They pointed to salaries the WNBA was paying ($15,000 to $50,000), compared to the ABL’s ($40,000 to $100,000 with year-round benefits). Online, ABL fans nicknamed the competing league the wNBA; to them, the Association loomed large, and the women were incidental.

35-year-old veteran Valerie Still. The Columbus Quest won the championship against the Richmond team, led by point guard Dawn Staley. Valerie Still was the Most Valuable Player that year and again the next year when the Columbus team won again.

Valerie Still had played a full career in Europe, where there was professional women’s basketball. So, along with several other Americans, she came back home to play professional basketball.

Valerie Still is a fascinating person with a variety of accomplishments. As a pre-med undergraduate at Kentucky, she scored more points and gathered more rebounds than any collegiate man or woman. Her marks still stand above that of any other University of Kentucky female or male. Still was a nine-time allstar in the Italian women’s professional league, leading the league in scoring for several years and winning a championship. While in Italy, she hosted her own television show and was a television commentator for men’s basketball.

After basketball, Still is an author, writing several books and co-owning STILL Publications. She was a recipient of the Jefferson Award, regarded as America’s most prestigious celebration of public service. She is president of the Dr. Clarence G. Jones Institute for Social Advocacy. Further, she has been a cast member of a reality television show.

But Valerie Still is hardly known as a Hall of Fame basketball star.

On Juneteenth Let Us Remember, Racial Terror Did Not End with Slavery

By Ben Jealous (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

When Terence Crutcher, a father of four who sang in his church choir, was shot and killed by the police in 2016 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his twin sister Dr. Tiffany Crutcher saw history repeating itself.

Terence, who had his hands up, needed help but instead received a bullet. It was fired by the same police department that 95 years earlier had deputized members of the lynch mob that started the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. It reminded Dr. Crutcher of perhaps the most prominent victim of that Massacre, the renowned surgeon Dr. A.C. Jackson. Dr. Jackson was shot leaving his house, also with his hands in the air.

The Crutchers are direct descendants of a survivor of the 1921 Massacre, which destroyed Tulsa’s historic Greenwood District. Dr. Crutcher is also a leader of the movement to get official recognition of and restitution for that destruction. I was honored to stand with members of that movement in Tulsa this past week to commemorate the Juneteenth holiday. The Tulsa Race Massacre was probably the single worst incident of racial violence in American history postslavery. Over an 18-hour period, as many as 300 Black residents were murdered. More than 10,000 others were

displaced as refugees in their own country. Over 1,250 Black homes and hundreds of Black businesses and gathering places were burned. Last week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit seeking reparations for the last known living survivors of the Tulsa Massacre (ages 110 and 109). But another important fight continues. That is the fight to create a national monument where the Greenwood District once thrived. A bipartisan bill to do that has been introduced in Congress by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.). President Biden could also establish the monument with executive authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act. A similar movement is underway to establish a national monument to the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois. That riot, in the hometown of Abraham Lincoln, shocked the nation

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

I listened to all the honors given in recent ceremonies at Normandy and surrounding events where many died serving in the military, risking their lives to save democracy. Maybe someone mentioned her, but I didn’t hear a single mention about Josephine Baker and the heroic and dangerous role she played, risking her life to protect others against the Nazis. I, therefore, have chosen to write about this amazing woman. In this article I could never tell you all the things she did, but I’ve chosen to briefly let you know some. She may be best known as a dancer – but there’s another story that those who spoke on June 6, 2024 never mentioned.

First, it was Josephine who said “I did take the blows of life, but I took them with my chin up, in dignity, because I so profoundly love and respect humanity.”

Josephine was born June 3, 1906 and grew up in the slums of St. Louis, Missouri. Early in her life, she began to search for a way out. She married Willie Wells at the age of 13, but the marriage didn’t work out. In 1921 she married Willie Baker. That marriage also didn’t work out. After traveling until she arrived in Harlem, NY, she moved on to Paris at the age of 19. She became one of France’s most

famous women. She was beautiful, talented, fascinating, and concerned about humanity. She invented many dance acts, and it’s said she used her limbs in a way that made them look like they were made of rubber. She became so entrenched in French life that when she died in 1975, people lined the street to say goodbye and thank her for her accomplishments. She even received a 21-gun salute.

After being in France for many years, the war started. Using her fame and glamour as her cover, she was able to spy for the French Resistance against the Nazis.

As the war drums sounded across Europe in 1939, for France’s military intelligence service, she became an unlikely spy.

During WWII, she performed for both French and American troops. She served as a member of the French Resistance and

Using her fame and glamour as her cover, she was able to spy for the French Resistance against the Nazis.

represented much of what Hitler and the Nazis despised as she risked her life. When the Nazis threatened the Jews across Europe, she rose to the occasion to help the Jews. Her work makes me wonder if those of our Jewish friends who continue to be so unkind to so many AfricanAmericans who speak out against bad U.S. policies –especially political leaders who work so hard for civil and human rights for all of us in America – yet risk defeat without recognition of all the issues on which we have historically worked together. It’s painful to see people like Congresspersons Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar and AOC, as well as many other good people who support as much as 90 percent of our mutual issues, be treated so unfairly because of their different views on a few things!

see Baker, page 5A

This month, as we celebrate Juneteenth, which marks the end of chattel slavery in the U.S., Dr. Crutcher reminds us that “we celebrate an idea that has yet to become a reality.”

and was a major catalyst for the creation of the NAACP six months later.

Just one generation removed from slavery, Tulsa’s Greenwood District was a 35-square-block bastion of Black prosperity. It was nicknamed “Negro Wall Street” by Booker T. Washington. An especially prosperous section of a thriving boomtown, it was seen as a Promise Land for the Black people who flocked there. In the age of lynchings and race riots, it seemed like an exception to the rule. During Red Summer in 1919, when at least 26 cities across the country experienced intense racial violence, Tulsa remained peaceful. see Juneteenth, page 8A

By Julianne Malveaux (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Now that the former President, and candidate for future President, has been convicted of 34 felonies, he joins nineteen million other Americans who have such convictions. Those felons face major restrictions in employment, finance and housing. For example, federal, state, and local government jobs sometimes require a security clearance, which felons often cannot qualify for. In some areas, felons are disqualified from teaching jobs. It is challenging for felons to be admitted to the bar, which they must do to practice law. They can’t work in jails. Felons often do not qualify for professional licenses, from real estate licenses to barber certification. They are often excluded from providing either childcare or elder care. In the healthcare arena, felony convictions may disqualify people from working as a physician, nurse, or pharmacist. In some instances, felons can’t get a pilot’s license, or a commercial driver’s license. Felony convictions can

sometime prevent people from getting loans, or even rental housing. There are enormous biases against those who have been convicted of felonies, but that bias is not likely to affect Donald Trump, and even if it did, it wouldn’t matter. He is shielded by his wealth and his status, and his behavior during his trial indicates that he respects neither the rule of law nor those who work in law enforcement. In other words, absent a large fine or incarceration, the former President experiences no consequences for his illegal actions. Meanwhile, according to the Sentencing Project report “The Color of Justice,” as many as a third of African-American men have felony convictions. They are barred from employment and prevented from fully participating in

There are enormous biases against those who have been convicted of felonies, but that bias is not likely to affect Donald Trump.

society. Despite laws that “ban the box” by preventing employers from asking about criminal records early in the application process, the intersection between criminal bias and racial bias often leaves African-American men (and women) at the periphery of society. Trump’s supporters suggest his conviction is “political,” but one might say the same thing about Black convicted felons, many who, like the Central Park Five, were set up by so-called law enforcement. Or, there’s the case of Darien Harris, the Illinois Black man who spent 12 years in jail because of the false testimony of a blind eyewitness. see Felon, page 5A

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. (Ret.)

Julianne Malveaux

Ben Jealous

CORPORATE AMERICA MUST STAND BY DEI AND CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICERS

By Earl G. Graves, Jr. and ‘Michael C. Hyter

This week in New York City, BLACK ENTERPRISE hosted its second annual Chief Diversity Officer Summit and Honors, presented in partnership with Fidelity Investments, Merck, and The Executive Leadership Council, the preeminent organization representing senior Black executives in corporate America and corporations throughout the globe.

The event’s purpose is to highlight the contributions of great champions of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including impactful industry

leaders such as trailblazer James Lowry, former Dell EMC; CDO Jacqueline Glenn; and the dynamic duo that designed and drove the inclusive culture at PepsiCo, Ronald Parker, and Maurice Cox. Perhaps more critically, the summit serves as a

TO BE EQUAL

platform for conversation about the status and future of DEI as it faces withering attacks on all fronts. Indeed, DEI needs its champions now more than ever.

It was just four years ago when the murder of George Floyd and the galvanizing global protests that

Why Every American Should Celebrate Juneteenth

By Marc H. Morial CEO, National Urban League

“Juneteenth means so much to me. It represents the freedom that my ancestors fought so tirelessly for. But rather than focusing on the brutalization of my people then and now. I choose to focus on hope. June 19th reminds me that I am the force of power to change this world and to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors to work towards liberation.”

— Mariah Cooley

Juneteenth originated in the June 19, 1865, federal proclamation that Major General Gordon Granger brought with him when he arrived Galveston to take command of federal troops deployed to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved population and oversee Reconstruction. But it is a narrow view that recognizes Juneteenth simply as a commemoration of the end of legal slavery in the United States. After all, slavery did not end in Kentucky and Delaware until December 1865, when the 13th Amendment was rati fi ed. We could view Juneteenth, instead of an end, as a beginning, the birth of possibility and freedom for Black Americans to advance and live as full citizens of the U.S. But the end of Reconstruction and the dawn of Jim Crow crushed that possibly for nearly a century, until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. What, then, does

Juneteenth represent at this moment in history, when we are in the midst of the most vicious backlash against racial justice in generations?

Since 2023, at least 85 anti-DEI bills have been introduced in 28 states and the U.S. Congress, with 14 being signed into law. The “Dismantle DEI Act,” a bill introduced by Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, would disband DEI programs and sever funding for any related initiatives at the federal level. Teachers are afraid to teach American history or even acknowledge systemic and historic racism. Well-funded antiracial justice activists are fl ooding the courts with lawsuits intended to keep the gates of authority and in fl uence locked tight against Black women and other marginalized people.

To me, Juneteenth represents hope. It represents persistence. It represents the ongoing journey of a fl awed nation fi tfully striving to live up to the promise of its founding premise: a more perfect Union.

In 2021, for the fi rst

What, then, does Juneteenth represent at this moment in history, when we are in the midst of the most vicious backlash against racial justice in generations?

time in history, a U.S. President launched his term in of fi ce with an acknowledgment of “the unbearable human costs of systemic racism” and pledged “a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.”

Juneteenth is an opportunity to honor ourselves and our progress as a nation, allowing our optimism to fl ourish for the future of civil and human rights we are building every day.

While Juneteenth is a celebration, it is also still a fi ght. It will always be a reminder and example of what has been done, and can be done for equality, pushing us harder and further in our advocacy.

We will continue, staying vigilant and empowering one another, to ensure our future.

Corporate America cannot – must not – sacrifice progress to shortsighted political pressures. It’s simply a bad business strategy.

followed seemed to inspire a racial reckoning focused on the systemic discrimination of African-Americans, and corporate America was very much a part of it.

Corporations across industries declared their renewed commitment to DEI goals with grand pledges of support for equity and fairness. We seemed to be on the precipice of great change.

We were, but it was not the change we’d hoped for or anticipated.

The landscape has shifted dramatically in recent months. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions has opened the floodgates for legal challenges to DEI policies in the workplace. A federal appeals court’s recent ruling to end Fearless Fund’s grant program for Black women entrepreneurs could potentially set a chilling precedent that undermines measured and effective efforts to level the economic playing field.

And in March, another federal ruling similarly gutted the Minority Business Development Agency, a potentially devastating blow to minority businesses that have long struggled to overcome systemic barriers to advancement.

As political pressure on companies to abandon DEI has intensified, the chief diversity officer role in the corporate hierarchy is being increasingly marginalized or eliminated altogether. And those lofty statements of commitment to DEI that beamed so proudly from company websites in the wake of the Floyd protests have quietly vanished.

Is this how DEI ends?

Are we about to lose the chief diversity officer permanently? Or will corporate America come to its senses and acknowledge the value of equity and inclusion in its growth and profitability?

To answer that question, it’s important to remember that the business case for DEI has been made and reaffirmed in study after

Baker

Continued from page 4A

Upon further visits to the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, Baker willfully and publicly advocated for civil and human rights for all. We

Continued from page 4A

Black men experience miscarriages of justice every single day.

Donald Trump did not experience a miscarriage of justice. Instead, District Attorney Alvin Bragg meticulously showed the former president’s pattern of fiscal malfeasance. He used people still loyal to the felon to make the case against him. The former president somehow thinks his criminal case will buy him sympathy, or affinity, with Black people. This is, at best, amusing. It is also warped and cynical.

substantively, not in name only. If not properly championed and supported by leadership from the top down, DEI will continue to prove vulnerable to the kind of coordinated, negative attacks we’re witnessing.

study, contrary to the hyperbole of its critics.

Chief diversity officers have redefined how companies recruit and develop talent. They have elevated the profile of HBCUs as a rich, viable, and long-underutilized recruitment resource and demonstrated the importance of mentorship in opening the leadership pipeline beyond the traditional white male boy’s club.

Most significantly, the rise of the CDO (Chief Diversity Officer) helped countless corporations establish profitable relationships with diverse suppliers, identifying growth opportunities that allow companies to capitalize on emerging trends. This kind of collaboration leads to new and wider access to unexplored markets and untapped talent. On another front, the CDO role provides governance and practices that underscore the necessity of DEI in the workplace. Studies show that 41% of Black employees say they have experienced discrimination at work, from the hiring process to being passed over for promotions to disproportionate compensation.

For CEOs, these numbers represent a genuine threat to a company’s health and stability, leaving the firm open to damaging and expensive lawsuits. The CDO’s role ensures compliance and mitigates risk.

Bottom line: CDOs make companies more agile and responsive to marketplace trends and, yes, better places to work.

Corporate America cannot – must not – sacrifice progress to short-sighted political pressures. It’s simply a bad business strategy.

Rather than running from controversy, our leading corporations should proudly own DEI’s successes within their organizations and the contributions of their CDOs.

Moving forward, it’s essential for corporate leaders to recommit to DEI and the CDO role

should take a lesson from her as she said, “The Parisians gave me their hearts, and I’m ready to give them my life.”

BLACK ENTERPRISE was launched 55 years ago to ensure that AfricanAmericans become full participants within the economic mainstream and gain unfettered access to equal opportunity in corporate America with the ability to rise as high as their talents can take them –including the C-suite, boardroom, and the CEO’s chair.

The Executive Leadership Council was founded 38 years ago to develop Black executives for the highest business echelons and simultaneously eliminate institutional barriers or excuses that denied them power positions as corporate decision-makers. So, it falls upon Black senior executives and corporate directors to use their positions to be proactive and ferocious voices in protecting and advancing CDOs, DEI policies and practices, and the elevation of current and future generations of Black professionals. BE Founder and Publisher Earl G. Graves, Sr. continuously asserted that we can ill afford high-ranking Black executives willing to accept the role of “window dressing” for their respective companies but need Black men and women of position and influence to “stand in harm’s way” to ensure that all Black professionals gain opportunities across the board in corporate America. Black C-suite executives must stand firm and uphold DEI, challenging corporate leadership to be accountable to their diversity statements and create a more equitable organization where all employees can thrive. When C-suite executives champion the CDO role, they encourage other leaders to do the same, fostering a culture of inclusion and respect. The benefits are on the balance sheet. Earl G. Graves, Jr. is Black Enterprise president/ CEO, and Michael C. Hyter is Executive Leadership Council, president/CEO.

What drove her to take these risks was her hatred of discrimination against anyone. What a lesson we could take from Josephine’s life as a singer, dancer, actress, spy, civil rights shero and mother to a rainbow tribe of 12 children! Let’s vote in our nation to save our democracy by working together to make things right that now seem to be encouraging hate and destruction for which so many like Josephine Baker have worked to change and make all of our lives better. Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of The Dick Gregory Society.

not even be a member of the Secret Service. It is also ironic that two Trump employees were incarcerated for following the ex-president’s orders, but ringleader Trump may be able to avoid incarceration because of his former status. Michael Cohen served three years for tax fraud and was disbarred. Alan Weisselberg is incarcerated now, spending five months for tax fraud and five months for perjury.

It is, at best, unseemly for the President of the United States to be a convicted felon. Indeed, 38 countries (including the United States) deny entry to felons. Those countries include G-7 countries Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom. Mexico, Israel, India, New Zealand and Australia also bar felons from entry.

President would not likely want to go to countries that he vulgarly disparaged. If the felon wanted to go to these countries, leaders would probably make an exception for him, but that just points out the privilege Trump has that millions of other felons don’t. Many felons have been disenfranchised, but Trump won’t be. Although Florida makes it difficult for felons to vote, Governor Ron DeSantis has already said he will exempt Trump from voting restrictions. Imagine that there was a one-vote difference in the Florida popular vote between Biden and Trump in the 2024 election. The felon could be a decider in his own victory, hardly fair. Those who believe in justice must work to ensure that we don’t have a Felon-inChief in the White House. Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author. juliannemalveaux.com Felon

If incarcerated, the former President will have Secret Service protection wherever he serves. Ironically, with his felony conviction, he could

So do many African countries, including Kenya and Tanzania, but the former

Marc H. Morial

Earl G. Graves, Jr. Michael C. Hyter

CHESAPEAKE JUNETEENTH FOUNDATION HOSTS HOLIDAY LUNCHEON

By Randy Singleton

Community Affairs

Correspondent

New Journal and Guide

CHESAPEAKE

New Journal and Guide

Publisher Brenda H. Andrews gave an insightful historical overview of the significance of the Juneteenth holiday during her keynote address at the Fourth Annual Chesapeake Juneteenth Foundation Luncheon on Saturday (June 15) at the Greenbrier Country Club.

Andrews’ speech, entitled: “Festival, Family and Freedom” centered around the luncheon’s theme of “Where History Reveals Truth.” She used poignant, concrete examples of America’s historical unequal and unjust treatment of minorities and women, and she challenged the nation to improve both morally and legislatively as she called for more inclusivity for marginalized groups and communities of color.

The event’s host Chesapeake Juneteenth Foundation Chairman Ernest Lowery received a declaration of commendation from the 91st district and its elected representative Delegate Cliff Hayes. Lowery also received a letter of recognition from Chesapeake Mayor Rick West read by Councilwoman Debbie Ritter.

Making an appearance

Truxtun

Continued from page 1A

He studied Black labor migration during the time.

Activist W.E.B. Dubois and the NAACP closely watched the project’s development.

At one point, the Wilson administration sought to short-change the development. A corporation, South of Truxtun, was also building a housing development for whites called Cradock.

Cradock was designed with better housing stock and other infrastructural amenities, which were left out of Truxtun’s plans.

DuBois and other activists noted this slight and wrote to Wilson, protesting this disparity.

According to the GUIDE and the National Archives, Wilson initially balked.

However, the Black leaders persisted and reminded him that if he were seeking reelection in 1916, Black votes could help him.

Wilson conceded and approved plans equal to the Cradock project for Truxtun.

After the 1916 election, Wilson reverted to his old racist ways, but the agreement for Truxtun was underway.

Chester Benton, a son of Truxtun, has researched all of this history.

Benton, now 73, is noted for his career and knowledge of the history of local Black radio broadcasting also. It was named for Thomas Truxtun, an early Naval hero.

When finally completed by 1918, the new neighborhood covered 43 acres with 200 singlefamily dwellings and 20 duplexes. Norfolk

architect Rossell Edward Mitchell of Norfolk designed it.

There was a variety of housing designs and indoor plumbing and electricity. There were wide sidewalks

for the program was world renowned opera singer Amber Garett, whose rendition of “My Soul’s Been Anchored in The Lord” brought the attendees to their feet.

Also Miss Juneteenth VA, Legacy Pageant, Miss Sunshine Huggins, USA 2023-2024, brought greetings.

During the luncheon, scholarships for seven local students were announced from several groups, to include The Chesapeake Juneteenth Foundation (1); the Virginia AfricanAmerican Cultural Center, founded by Dr. Amelia Ross-Hammond (2); the Kings Point Enterrprises, represented by Dr. Deloatch (3); and a memorial scholarship by Mrs. Ravette Blackstock (1) , honoring the memory of her late husband Mr. Dexter Blackstock, a past Vice President of the Chesapeake Juneteenth Foundation.

Others on the program were Board officers Dr. George Reed, Mrs. Mary Combs, Minister Keith Crowe, and Mr. Rashad Lowery. Rev. Dr. Glenda Murray Kelly served as the Mistress of Ceremonies.

The New Journal and Guide was one of the principal sponsors of the Chesapeake Juneteenth Foundation Luncheon, along with Studios & Suites/4 For Less, Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, King’s Point Enterprises, VAACC, and BlackWallStreet.net.

In 1921, the U.S. Housing Corporation sold the Truxtun development to a group of African-American investors, the first transaction of its kind.

and paved streets to include Key Road, later named Portsmouth, Boulevard, Manly, Hobson, Dewey, Dahlia, and Bagley Streets. By 1921, Truxtun boasted its first church, Mt. Carmel Baptist, which still stands as a school, community center, movie theater, small railroad station, and land for 35 shops/stores.

Benton said Black families initially rented their homes at a reasonable price.

He said developers designed a plan under the Jim Crow Codes. When Black workers commuted to work, they took a road that would deter them from entering or even “being seen” by their Cradock neighbors.

World War I ended in 1918, but Truxtun’s stability continued due to the availability of work at the shipyard.

It was a township until it was annexed by Portsmouth in 1923, which revealed another piece of unique history.

According to a June 25, 1921 edition of the GUIDE, Fred D. McCracken resigned as City Manager. McCraken, a native of Columbus, Ohio, was hired as America’s first Black City Manager, two years before, to oversee Truxtun’s development.

When he left Truxtun, the school was named for him for his brilliant administrative skills.

In 1921, the U.S. Housing Corporation sold the Truxtun development to a group of AfricanAmerican investors, the first transaction of its kind.

Instead of paying rent, many families were provided with low-interest mortgages to buy their homes.

Benton, in conjunction with the city, residents,

and the African-American Historical Society of Portsmouth, has been busy planning for the June 2123 events.

At the same time, he has been working on a book on Truxtun’s history and legacy.

He relied on public documents and stories from longtime residents, family, friends, and Norfolk Journal and Guide archives.

For years after 1919, the GUIDE ran a weekly column featuring news on church, club, and school activities, births, career achievements, and deaths.

One interesting funeral notice was for P.B. Young Sr.’s father, Winfield Scott Young, a Truxtun resident who died in 1922.

Benton was born in 1951, and he said thanks to WWII and the shipyard, Truxtun’s economic and civic fortunes were still vibrant.

“We did not have to go anywhere to get anything,” Benton recalled. “We had our own business district. There was a pharmacy, open-air market, restaurants, and many social and clubs promoting various interests.”

“My parents lived across each other on Hobson Street…that is how they met. My dad carried her books to school,” he said. “After they married, Daddy bought a house on Portsmouth Blvd.”

“With my friends, we played sports and collected baseball cards and comic books until we discovered girls. “I remember going to the library and reading all day, gaining interest in history and current events.”

Truxtun’s library predates the historic public “Community Library” for African-Americans which opened in 1945.

Benton recalls role models such as principal John Cary and civic and political activist Lucy Overton, who were involved in political and civic interests.

Benton said A.C. Johnson, a civic leader, waged a campaign to build a hospital in the community. A lack of funding short-circuited the effort.

The development of Cavalier Manor, a new development for middle-income Blacks in Portsmouth in the mid-60s, took a toll on Truxtun’s residency.

Benton said even his father, Harrison B. Benton, a Master Pipefitter at the Navy yard, built a home from the ground up in Cavalier Manor.

With the exodus of the middle class, so did business activity. Many homeowners who left rented their old homes, and the upkeep and property value went down.

Crime and other urban negatives rose.

In 1983, Truxtun was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Portsmouth historic district.

Lobbying by Benton and others and the community’s historic status helped the city secure grant funding to build new homes and upgrade old ones.

Benton said that over 75 percent of the original homes still exist, with new and older generations occupying them.

Benton said he, too, briefly left Truxtun. His father left him the house he grew up in.

But after surveying the erosion of his old neighborhood, Benton began to rally his friends and the community to save Truxtun.

“I think my daddy was sending me a message when he willed me the old house to me,” said Benton. “It inspired me to help keep and maintain a vital part of my family’s, the community’s, and the nation’s legacy.”

Members of the Chesapeake Juneteenth Foundation accept the city’s proclamation. (L-R) Keith Crowe, Rashad Lowery, Dr. George Reed, Mary Combs, Councilwoman Dr. Ella Ward, Ernest Lowery, Councilwoman Debbie Ritter.

Photo: RandySingleton

NJG Publisher delivers keynote address.

Photo: RandySingleton Del. Cliff Hayes makes presentation to Ernest Lowery.

Photo: RandySingleton

10 LOCAL BLACK CHURCHES & SENTARA PARTNER TO FIGHT HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Sentara Healthcare and 10 Black churches in Hampton Roads recently formed a partnership that aims to reduce high blood pressure, a silent killer that sits in many church pews every Sunday.

While more than 40 percent of all Blacks suffer from hypertension nationwide, according to the American Heart Association, the numbers are a bit higher (50 percent) at 2nd Calvary Baptist Church, one of the 10 Hampton Roads churches participating in the 18-month study funded by a $3.4 million, five-year NIH grant awarded to Sentara last year. Study participants will receive at-home blood pressure monitors, journals, as well as weekly reminders from a healthcare professional, who will review weekly data, phone calls, and make medication and nutrition adjustments.

“Nearly 50 percent of my congregation has hypertension,” the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Guns told WTKRTV in a recent interview.

Guns’ church, 2nd Calvary Baptist in Norfolk, is one of 10 Black congregations participating in the federally funded program, in Hampton Roads.

“When when you look across the city of Norfolk, Norfolk has a high preponderance of individuals with hypertension, and so if there’s a study that’s going to help you to one, understand the disease, two, give you strategies for controlling it and three, helping you live a healthier life, then it just makes sense that we would be a part of this study.”

Guns said he discovered heart disease was prevalent among his congregants when he stood in the pulpit

Study participants will receive at-home blood pressure monitors, journals, as well as weekly reminders from a healthcare professional.

one Sunday and asked, “How many of you have hypertension?”

Multiple hands shot up in the air. “After worship we are going to be signing up people for the hypertension study that we’re doing in conjunction with Sentara Healthcare,” Guns said.

2nd Calvary Baptist is one of 10 churches in Hampton Roads working with the new, federally funded Sentara Healthcare study that is managed by Iris Lundy, lead author of the study and vice president of Health Equity, at Sentara.

“We have people that are dying every day from high blood pressure or it’s leading to some other chronic disease,” Lundy said, in a recent statement on Sentara’s website.

“We certainly see there is a disparity or a difference between blood pressure being controlled and uncontrolled,” Lundy said. “Compare Black populations to White populations, and you have

to ask, “What should we be doing differently?”

John Brush, M.D., Sentara’s chief research officer, said church members have been very welcoming, speaking in a statement on Sentara’s website.

“Part of the receptiveness of these communities is because they know they’ve got an unmet need here,” Brush explained.

“I wish I had done this project 31 years ago when I came to this community because I would have been a better doctor all along,” Brush added. “I would have known much more about the patients and their neighborhoods and their community.”

In Hampton Roads, Sentara’s researchers plan to recruit a total of 360 participants, or 36 from each church. Participants will be divided into three tracks.

In the first, they will monitor their blood pressure at home and meet with a primary care physician while receiving frequent text reminders.

In the second, they will also have their blood pressure monitored remotely. A dedicated nurse practitioner will meet with them over six months to review, adjust medications, and make diet suggestions.

In the third, in addition to meeting with a physician and having their blood pressure monitored remotely, they will meet with a community health worker to address social and environmental issues that could be impacting blood pressure.

The study will compare the effectiveness of these three approaches while helping participants manage their own blood pressure.

“We’re excited about the hypertension study and all of the things that Sentara is doing to address health disparities, especially in the AfricanAmerican community,” said the Rev. Dwight Riddick Sr. of Gethsemane Baptist Church in Newport News, which is one of the study partners.

“We’ve seen so many people who have had strokes and who are dealing with other health concerns,” Riddick said. “You can’t live your very best life if you’re not healthy.”

The Rev. Jerry Holmes of Norfolk’s historic First Baptist Church on Bute Street said members of his congregation are excited to participate. He said hypertension is “something that they struggle with and want to see a remedy for.”

“We’re thankful for the opportunity. And we do look forward to continuing to partner to make healthier communities.”

Last year the Sentara Health Research Center was awarded a $3.4 million, five-year grant to study high blood pressure in underserved communities across Hampton Roads, the Center’s largest grant to date, according to a statement on its website.

As part of the study, Sentara is collaborating with Yale University,

Massachusetts General Hospital, and Houston Methodist Hospital. Each health system is partnering with 10 communitybased organizations or businesses in underserved communities, including churches, barbershops, and beauty salons. Sentara, Yale, Mass General, and Houston Methodist will then pool their data for analysis.

The 10 Black churches in Hampton Roads that are participating in the study are 2nd Calvary Baptist Church, Norfolk; New Hope Church of God in Christ, Norfolk; Mount Global Fellowship of Churches, Virginia Beach; Rehoboth Baptist Church, Virginia Beach; Faith Deliverance Christian Center, Norfolk; Historic First Baptist Church, Norfolk; Ebenezer Baptist Church, Virginia Beach; Gethsemane Baptist Church, Hampton; Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Temple, Hampton; and New Beech Grove Baptist Church, Newport News.

Church Pastors and Representatives and Sentara Officials Announce partnership.

Photo: Courtesy

VIAHA’S HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2024 FEATURES FIVE INDUCTEES

By New Journal and Guide Staff

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

New Journal and Guide

Publisher Brenda H. Andrews is among five new inductees into the 2024 Virginia Interscholastic Association Heritage Association (VIAHA) Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame Banquet and induction ceremony take place Friday evening June 21 in Charlottesville at the DoubleTree by Hilton.

Keynoting the program as speaker will be Judge Roger L. Gregory, the first African-American Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a member of the American Bar Association, National Bar Association and the Old Dominion Bar Association of which he is a past president.

The VIAHA which is headquartered in Charlottesville, is preserving the heritage and legacy of African-American high school students, sports and activities under segregation. It is dedicated to recognizing the rich heritage and legacy of African-American students and adults who participated in the Virginia Interscholastic Association from 1954-70 and its predecessor organization, the Virginia Interscholastic Athletic League (VIAL). Therefore, promoting greater appreciation and understanding of the contributions of Blacks to the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia is a primary objective.

The 2024 VIAHA Hall of Fame Class features one Athlete – James Halcot Mitchell, John Mercer Langston High School in Danville, Virginia, and four Contributors: Leo Austin Brooks, Sr., Parker Gray High School in Alexandria, Virginia; Michael L. Morse, Peabody High School in Petersburg, Virginia; Dr. Ronald L. Carey, Sr., Jackson P. Burley High School in Charlottesville, Virginia; and Brenda Hughes Andrews, Dunbar High School & E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, Virginia. Inductees were

Juneteenth

Continued from page 4A

But the peace did not last. Resentment of the famed “Black Wall Street” and its residents’ success simmered among white Tulsans. As Dr. Crutcher notes, “in an era when white supremacy ran rampant, Black people were not supposed to thrive ... if you tried to live free, tried to vote, or even looked at someone the wrong way, it was an excuse to destroy and lynch Black people.”

The spark that lit the powder keg in Tulsa was the same that ignited so many other examples of racial violence in America. A Black boy was accused of assaulting a white girl. A lynch mob formed. And when the mob was rebuffed, all hell broke loose.

This month, as we celebrate Juneteenth, which marks the end of chattel slavery in the U.S., Dr. Crutcher reminds us that “we celebrate an idea that has yet to become a reality.” That is because when it comes to reckoning with and healing the wounds of our nation’s history with race, we still have a long way to go. For many decades following the Massacre, the history of that terrible event was buried in what Dr. Crutcher calls a “conspiracy of silence.”

Dr. Crutcher grew up in Tulsa just a few blocks from historic Greenwood and even attended school in Greenwood. Yet she was never taught this

The Hall of Fame Banquet and induction ceremony take place Friday evening June 21 in Charlottesville at the DoubleTree by Hilton.

selected earlier this year for the prestigious induction by the VIAHA and bring total membership in the VIAHA Hall of Fame closer to 100 inductees over the past several years. Prior to public school desegregation, one of the most influential organizations in Virginia was the Virginia Interscholastic Association (VIA), which served young African-American students who attended segregated high schools in the state. The impact this association had on shaping the lives of these students went far beyond governing athletic events. The VIA brought together students, parents and mentors to develop a strong foundation of character and ethical responsibility in the students. The notable careers of many VIA graduates are testaments to the successful efforts of their teachers, principals and counselors. Athletes and coaches considered for nomination to the VIAHA Hall of Fame are those who excelled on VIA athletic teams. Contributors are professionals who may have excelled in VIA non-athletic activities or in such areas as school administration, media, officiating, medical services and other professions. A fourth group is best described as the Legacy category. This includes

history that so impacted her community – and her own family. She first heard mention of the Massacre and Black Wall Street when she went away to college and would tell people she was from Tulsa. Home from college one weekend, she asked her dad about it. Dr. Crutcher learned not only about the Massacre but that her greatgrandmother, Rebecca Brown Crutcher, had barely escaped it. She found out her father had only learned about it himself when, amidst the assassination of Dr. King and the riots that followed in the late 1960s, “Mama Brown,” as the family called her, whispered to him, “Something like that happened here.”

She whispered because all those years later she was still afraid. Survivors were told if they talked about the events, they would be lynched or bring on another massacre. So for decades, the history was not only scrubbed from textbooks and schools, but even from families’ oral traditions.

One reason a national monument is so important is the need to protect and learn from our history. As we commemorate Juneteenth, we must not just remember the history and end of slavery. We must remember the long shadow cast by the dehumanization of Black people in this country. And we must recognize that we still have not fully stepped out of that shadow and into the light. Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

CONTRIBUTOR

Leo Austin Brooks, Sr.

Parker Gray High School

Alexandria, Virginia

Leo Austin Brooks, Sr., excelled at Parker-Gray in the band and choir, in student government leadership, and in oratorical competitions. At Virginia State College, he excelled as a student, class president, and a distinguished ROTC participant. Commissioned into the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant, he rose through the ranks to retire as highly decorated General.

CONTRIBUTOR

Michael L. Morse Peabody High School Petersburg, Virginia

such potential nominees as VIA athletic teams that gained extraordinary distinction or coaches, athletes, contributors and/ or teams from VIAL or post-VIA era history.

The VIAL/VIA’s original home was at Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) from 1954–1970. After merging with the Virginia High School League (VHSL), all VIA records are now stored at Virginia State University.

2024

INDUCTEES

ATHLETE

James Halcot Mitchell

John Mercer Langston High School

Danville, Virginia

James “Big Jim” Halcot Mitchell was a standout athlete in high school football and track and field. At Virginia State College he was a four year starter on the football team and was named a Small College AllAmerican. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions, becoming the highest pick in the history of Virginia State College.

Michael L. Morse began training in Karate at the

age of 13 and received

his Shadam rank of First Degree Black Belt Karate as a student at Virginia State. He is sanctioned and recognized as a Tenth Degree Black Belt and has self-published the book titled, Karate Empty Hands – Holy Hand.

CONTRIBUTOR

Dr. Ronald L. Carey, Sr. Jackson P. Burley High School Charlottesville, Virginia

Ronald L. Carey, Sr. played high school football and attended Saint Paul’s College on scholarship where he played football and was also a member of the Track and Field Team. He made education his trademark, serving as a dedicated teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant

superintendent, and finally Chief of Staff.

CONTRIBUTOR

Brenda Hughes Andrews Dunbar High School & E.C. Glass High School Lynchburg, Virginia

At Dunbar, Brenda participated in many of the extracurricular and co-curricular activities offered. She and three other students integrated E. C. Glass High School in Lynchburg under court order and in 1965 became the city’s first AfricanAmericans to graduate from the desegregated Lynchburg Public School System. She is Publisher and Owner of the legacy New Journal and Guide, the historic Black weekly in Norfolk, VA that began in 1900.

Judge Roger L. Gregory

Brenda H. Andrews

SECTION B

PRINCE HALL MASONS CELEBRATE THEIR 149TH FOUNDERS DAY

By L. J. McCoy, Jr.

Special to the Guide

PETERSBURG

On Saturday June 8, 2024, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Virginia Free & Accepted Masons, Inc. gathered at First Baptist Church Harrison Street in Petersburg to celebrate 149 years of the union of the two AfricanAmerican Grand Lodges in Virginia.

Most Worshipful Grand Master Beverly W. Morgan, Jr. was pleased to receive over 400 Prince Hall members and guests who were also welcomed to the city by Mayor Samuel Parham of Petersburg. After an inspiring gospel message by St. John Baptist Church Rev. Herbert Holley, Grand Master Morgan led a procession outside for a Masonic wreath lying at the Masonic monument on the church grounds.

HOSTING YOUTH SPORTS CAMPS

NORFOLK

The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office and the Sheriff Joe Baron Foundation are teaming up with Old Dominion University and

an area high school to host sports camps for youth in Norfolk.

Two camps are being held this week; a soccer camp and a football camp. Both camps are free for Norfolk youth between the ages of 8-12 years old.

On Monday, June 17, 2024, in partnership with Old Dominion University Soccer coaches and players, the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office and the Sheriff Joe Baron Foundation hosted the soccer camp at the ODU Soccer Complex. Then, on Friday, June 21, 2024, they will team up with Old Dominion

University Football coaches and players and coaches from Maury High School for a youth football camp. The football camp will be held at S.B. Ballard Stadium located at 5115 Hampton Blvd. Norfolk, VA 23529 During both camps, youth players will have the opportunity to train alongside coaches and players to enhance their skills in the sport. Norfolk Sheriff’s Office employees will be on-hand to serve as volunteers and provide breakfast, lunch, and drink to attendees. The camps are sponsored by the Sheriff Joe Baron Foundation.

SMALL BUSINESS DIRECTORY

(L-R) Grand Lodge Officers Curtis James, Sr., Rendell Briggs, Stevie Gray, Alton Miles, MWGM Beverly Morgan, Jr., Edward Lattimore, III, George Cutler, Antonio Pride and Past MWGM Billie Thompson, Sr.

Photo: Courtesy

Summer Grandparenting: A LITTLE HUMOR

By Shedrick Byrd

It’s that time again!

It’s the end of the school year and a number of parents take a break by sending their children to grandparents for the summer. We are one set of those grandparents excited and looking forward to having our grands. We are making plans for their visit. It’s fun making plans but implementing them once the children get here is another story.

Grandma is researching and planning trips to children museums as well as other educational activities. Grandpa is planning other kinds of fun thing to do. He plans to renew his unused membership at the gym. He is also planning some other activities for their visit.

Not like last year, when we had three of them; only two are coming this year. Our grandson is 11 years old and our granddaughter is 8 years old. In addition to visiting his grandparents, the 11-year old has another purpose. He has been selected to play AAU football in Virginia Beach on Memorial Day weekend. We call the 11 and 8-year old “baby grands” because we have two adult grands that we are depending on to help us entertain the young ones while they are here. We are excited about

Shedrick

Byrd

their coming and can hardly wait for them to get here. The good thing is they are excited to be coming. We get all worked-up and excited about their visit but after their fi rst day or two here we are so over worked we are ready to send them home! Not really. I imagine that other grandparents are going to have some of the same experiences. We are fortunate to have well behaved grandchildren. Thank the Lord for that! Our granddaughter, like I assume many 8-year-olds are, is bossy and feisty. She usually stays busy correcting her brother’s behavior – especially behaviors for which his grandparents have reprimanded him. One of my favorites is while having breakfast my grandson was eating with his elbows on the table. I told him it was not proper etiquette to eat with his

Grandma and I hope that other grandparents enjoy having their grandchildren for the summer as much as we do.

elbows on the table. Soon after that at another meal he was eating with his elbows on the table. She looked at him and said, “Jayden didn’t Papa tell you not to eat with your elbows on the table?”

He insisted that he didn’t have his elbows on the table. She insisted that he did and debate went on until he admitted that he did have his elbows on the table. Those situations were few but went on most of the summer and she always seemed to win the debate!

Grandma and I hope that other grandparents enjoy having their grandchildren for the summer as much as we do. We see giving the parents a break and the children a vacation as a healthy situation for both the parents and the children. Do enjoy your summer too!

Shedrick Byrd is a contributor to the New Journal and Guide.

NONPROFIT BOARDS: TIME TO MOVE FROM HIERARCHY TO PARTNERSHIP

Are your board members engaged, active, and working in committees to advance the organization? Does the board chair check in with the president or CEO every week, and vice versa? Does the board make all the decisions and then tell the executive director what the staff should do? Or maybe your board focuses on reviewing reports prepared by staff, working from an agenda prepared by staff? Does your board and executive team work together, or does one or the other have the “upper hand?”

The relationship between board members and non-profit leadership can represent the best of what nonprofit staff and community/ business volunteers can accomplish together. Or it can be a lopsided relationship. We are long-term advocates of a partnership model where the board and staff work closely together. Yes, each has specific roles and responsibilities, but they can be carried out in a spirit of collaboration where all parties are focused on the best outcomes – both shortterm and long-term. We recommend taking time to evaluate what is working well for your board and how things could be improved. While we don’t believe in any

one model for working together, we resonate with the partnership model suggested by Donna Murray-Brown, Vice President of Strategy and Development at the National Council of Nonprofits. In her column for Candid, “Embracing partnership: A promising paradigm for nonprofit governance,” MurrayBrown makes the case that “the best work gets done when the board and staff collaborate closely.”

We agree, 100 percent.

We need real and active partnerships between nonprofit staff and boards, and this takes some worthwhile effort.

First, you need to talk together about the current status of the board and staff relationship. What’s working? What isn’t? What could be different? Are there suggestions that board members –or staff – have based on their work with other nonprofit organizations? Consider using a short anonymous survey to surface different opinions that may not be put on the table through open conversation. The results can provide a neutral starting point for conversation. When reviewing these together the board can learn what their peers are experiencing, what they would like to see, and what patterns emerge, especially around how

(A Belated Father’s Day Poem) Dad, I Know I’ve Disappointed You

By Sean C. Bowers

I know Dad I’ve let you down, I know I’ve not been the best son

I know when I graduated my 4th High School with 4D’s and a C, You were too through with me,

But look, I ended up a 3-time state champion and at the nation’s #1 J.C.

Full scholarship because of you and the drive you instilled, The blood we spilled, the game that thrilled, because me, you willed

I know I didn’t go pro, but I did make the honor roll two years and graduate

If ever I wasn’t what you wanted or not enough, I just was trying to be like you, tough

Of our life’s lessons, You are truly one of my greatest blessings

Play on my brother, show me that wrong-footed one-hander, Remember you gave me my left, you old left-hander

DAD

Dedicatedly Always Deliberate, Dastardly Antics Depriving, Dominant At Divorce, Demonstrated A Deliverance Demonic As Driven Did Alright, Dad

For all my shortcomings and any failures on my part to deliver dad, Just know I’ve got a satisfied mind cause you’re the dad I had 2/28/05

Sean C. Bowers writes for The New Journal and Guide, CHAMPIONING overcoming racism, sexism, classism, and religious persecution. More of his work can found by searching “Sean C. Bowers” on the NJ&G website, on social media at Linkedin.com or by email at V1ZUAL1ZE@aol.com NNPA 2019 Publisher of the Year, Brenda H. Andrews (NJ&G 37 years) has always been his publisher.

board members would like to interact with each other in meetings of the board and in subcommittees. When individuals – and the positions they represent – move away from hierarchal systems and increase their collaboration you can find there is more shared responsibility, creativity, and more resources available to all.

Ideally, you want to create a partnership where individuals fulfill their responsibilities and are comfortable suggesting improvements. You want an environment where people ask questions, plan for the future, and –in the case of fundraising – work together to secure funds that will bring the organization’s mission and vision to life! Let’s move beyond reading and approving reports into collaborative, expansive action.

Part two: Board members: it’s time for collaborative fundraising Comprehensive Fund Development Services. Video and phone conferencing services are always available. Let us help you grow your fundraising. Call us at (901) 522-8727 or visit www.saadandshaw.com.

Copyright 2024 –Mel and Pearl Shaw of Saad&Shaw

Dear TBC Members, Family, Friends and Partners:

As President of the Tidewater Bridge Club, I want to thank all of you for all you have done to make the first six months of our 2024 programs a wonderful success. Thank you! In January 2024, The Tidewater Bridge Club launched “The Tidewater Bridge Club 2024 and Beyond.” This is our blueprint to Reinvent ourselves, Explain and Foster the exciting game of bridge and Partner with community organizations to be a Positive Force in the communities we serve. We are growing our weekly games. We are supporting the local chapter of the University Women’s Club. We have established by unanimous vote, a partnership with the FoodBank of Southeastern Virginia. We are recognizing our Nonagenarians (our precious

90+ year-old members) with an article & picture in The New Journal & Guide and a Grand Celebrity Birthday Party in December (date TBA). We recently initiated our Quarterly Appreciation Luncheon. This is a recognition luncheon to honor our members for their outstanding service before, during and post pandemic. Our Honorees were Wilma Horne, Aldis Raymond, and Betty Warren. Our second Quarterly Appreciation Luncheon is scheduled for August (date TBA) and our Honorees are Olethia Everett, Lillye Holley, and Leon Ragland. There is more to come! We are pleased to announce that the Tidewater Bridge Club will move our activities to a new location effective June 28, 2024. Our game will start at 10:00 am. We will start playing at the following location:

Richard A. Tucker Memorial Library 2350 Berkley Avenue, Ext. Norfolk, Virginia 23523

You can contact us at the email address below for more specific information. For the next couple of months, we will have varying play dates and times. Please refer to this column for dates and times. We want to thank Ms. Brenda H. Andrews, Publisher and EditorIn-Chief of The New Journal & Guide, for providing support to the bridge citizenry and a platform, by way of The Bridge Corner, to share basic bridge lessons and bridge activities with the community. You have an open invitation to join us on any of our game days.

Sincerely, Lawrence Owes President Tidewater Bridge Club

Tidewater Bridge Club members and friends support the local chapter of the University Women’s Scholarship Dinner.

Photo: Courtesy

HRCAP HONORS COLLEGE PRESIDENTS AT COMMUNITY BUILDERS AWARDS

NEWPORT NEWS

The Hampton Roads Community Action Program (HRCAP) held the 2024 Community Builders Awards (CBA) on June 6, 2024, at the Newport News Marriott City Center with special keynote speaker, award-winning actor and stage director Phylicia Rashad. With over 650 guests in attendance, the Community Builders Awards is HRCAP’s annual fundraiser designed to recognize individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to service and transforming lives within their communities through education, volunteerism, business, and outreach. Rashad, who also serves as Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University, complemented the celebratory event. This year’s awards ceremony placed a spotlight on contributions in education and recognized 10 community college and university presidents across the Hampton Roads region. The 2024 honorees, and presidents of their respective institutions were Dr. Brian O. Hemphill, Old Dominion

University; Dr. Corey L. McCray, Paul D. Camp Community College; Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, Norfolk State University; Dr. Joel English, Centura College; Dr. Marcia Conston, Tidewater Community College; Dr. Scott D. Miller, Virginia Wesleyan University; Dr. Towuanna Porter Brannon, Virginia Peninsula Community College; Gordon Robertson, Chancellor, Regent University; Jeff Thorud, J.D. - Director of Hampton Roads Campuses, Bryant

& Stratton College; and Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams, Hampton University “HRCAP was pleased to honor the region’s esteemed college and university presidents as part of the 2024 Community Builders Awards, and Phylicia Rashad offered a wonderful addition based on her contributions to higher education,” said Edith G. White, CEO, HRCAP. “This year’s event uniquely underscored our continued commitment to strengthening the college and technical training

pipeline through our early childhood education programs and offered an opportunity to recognize the contributions of leaders who share our vision for a stronger, self-sufficient community.”

The Community Builders Awards provide funding that supports more than 20 programs across Hampton Roads, serving over 10,000 students, parents, and clients. Guests enjoyed a seated dinner, live entertainment, networking opportunities, a silent auction, and more.

Pastors’ Group Donates $50,000 To Heritage High’s Marching Band To Perform In Rome

NEWPORT NEWS

The Coalition of Concerned Clergy (COCC), in a remarkable act of generosity, is helping students in the Marching Band at Heritage High School embark on a trip of a lifetime.

During the Tuesday June 18th meeting of the Newport News Public School Board, the COCC, a group of Pastors on the Peninsula, presented a check for $50,000 to the Newport News high school’s marching band.

The band was invited to participate in the prestigious Rome New Year’s Day Parade and Festival on January 1, 2025. The event is an important part of the City of Rome’s celebration of the New Year, according to organizers. It will be livestreamed worldwide.

The Rome Parade typically features thousands of performers from all corners of the globe entertaining a street audience of around 250,000, according to organizers. It is the only such event officially recognized by

and partnered with the City of Rome, and given permission to incorporate the most treasured areas of the ancient city. The Coalition of Concerned Clergy heard about the student’s excitement about the trip but was made aware that funds were short and time was of the essence. Together with partnering Churches, Pastors, and organizations, the COCC was able to raise $50,000. According to Rev. Dr. Tremayne M. Johnson, President of COCC and Pastor of Zion Baptist Church, the group’s mission is to offer faithbased leadership and empowerment among Pastors; and to improve the social, economic and spiritual needs of the community, through collaboration, education, and mentoring. Also, COCC works to develop innovative and effective strategies with churches, and qualified nonprofit organizations that are interested in like-minded objectives.

Six of the 10 college presidents in Hampton Roads pose.

Photo: Courtesy

HRCAP CEO Edith White at right with keynote speaker Phylicia Rashad and TV personality Jessica Larche.

Photo: Courtesy

By Rev. Dr. Archie L. Edwards, Sr.

LIVING BY THE SPIRIT MOMENTS of MEDITATION

Galatians 5:16-26 “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” Galatians 5:25 Believers have been freed from slavery to the law. This is at the heart of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. But what does this mean as far as daily life is concerned? His opponents believed that the preaching of freedom through faith in Christ would lead to a life of controlled license. The law was necessary, they thought, in order to keep the lower impulse of human nature in check. It was either submit to the law or give way to licentiousness. Paul was not unaware of the realities of human nature. He experienced the struggle between good and evil in his own personality (Romans 7). But he had found the answer, not through slavery to the law, but by submission to Christ’s indwelling Spirit, through whom he found victory.

THE INNER

WARFARE: FLESH vs. SPIRIT. As we saw recently, Paul had repeated his call to freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:13-14; see v. 1), but at the same time he had limited that freedom by law of neighborlove. For the legalists, this provided an opportunity to quibble about an apparent contradiction in his teasing

– he was claiming freedom from law, but at the same time he was demanding obedience to the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul’s answer was twofold. First, he did not claim that obeying the law of neighborlove was the means of salvation; rather, it was the product of salvation. Second – and this is what he develops in this passage – loving your neighbor as your self does not come from the old nature, which always seeks to please itself. Rather, it is the work of the indwelling Spirit of God (v. 16). There is in every Christian a hidden, inner warfare between the natural self and the Holy Spirit, who has taken up residence in the body of the believer.

Paul urges the Galatians to be led by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:18). This will result in the practice of neighbor-love without putting them back under bondage to legalism.

WHAT THE FLESH DOES. Next, Paul identifies 15 “acts of sinful nature.”

This is a representative list rather than an exhaustive one, probably formulated in terms of things that the Galatians would understood from their own cultural background and experience.

The first category is that of sexual sins (v. 19). In this area, the old, sinful nature produces sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery. The latter denotes an absence of restraint. The picture is clearly that of a permissive society – much like ours today – in which any form of sexual behavior is not only tolerated but condoned.

We today can also relate to idolatry and witchcraft (v. 20a) in the second category, religion. Though most of us do not bow down before images, we have our own ways of putting other things ahead of God in our priorities, which is idolatry. We have seen, despite our vaunted scientific sophistication, an amazing resurgence of interesting the occult, as well as an epidemic of dependence on drugs.

The third category is human relations. In this area, Paul mentions eight ways in which the sinful nature manifests itself (vv. 20b-20e) – a whole spectrum of selfcentered attitudes which, as basic characteristics of human nature, will poison human relations if allowed to operate uncurbed.

The final category of “works of the flesh” is that of self-control, or rather its absence (v. 21). Paul mentions drunkenness and orgies. All of these things are “the acts of the sinful nature” (v. 19a).

The Apostle warns his readers that those who habitually behave in such ways “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (v. 21c). He is not talking about sins committed before one is saved, or even about an occasional lapse into old habits after one has been saved (though that certainly is to be avoided). see Spirit, page 6B

WASHINGTON D.C.

Following the announcement of the passing of civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson, People For the American Way President Svante Myrick and Board Chair Rev. Tim McDonald issued their statements.

“We are saddened by the passing of Rev. James Lawson, and deeply grateful for the life he lived,” said People For the American Way President Svante Myrick. “Rev. Lawson worked closely with Dr. King to advance the cause of nonviolent protest and end state-sanctioned segregation in the South. He believed in rights and freedom for all people: people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, workers. He was for peace and firmly opposed to war. He made our country a better place, we’re forever in his debt, and we will miss him deeply.”

Rev. James Morris Lawson Jr., was born in Uniontown, Pa., in 1928 and was a noted Methodist minister, following the footsteps of his father and grandfather who were both Methodist ministers. Lawson became was a key architect of the Civil Rights Movement, working closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. He died Sunday June 9, 2024 in Southern California at age 95, according to his son J. Morris Lawson III. He Lawson was the tactician behind key desegregation campaigns in the South, including the Nashville sitins, the Freedom Rides, and

the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Dr. King called him the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence.

According to National Public Radio (NPR), Lawson traveled around the South, in coordination with King, to prepare activists for nonviolent action, giving them the tools and tactics needed to face violent pushback from white supremacists.

The list of Lawson’s students included John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel, Bernard Lafayette, and the Little Rock Nine, the Black students who integrated Central High School.

Lawson was instrumental in the forming of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which was led by the late John Lewis as a young adult.

In a 1998 interview with NPR, Lewis, a Georgia Congressman at the time, recalled his early embrace of the movement as a student in

CHURCH ADs & DIRECTORY

Nashville.

“When I first heard of Jim Lawson, this young Black Methodist minister, preaching and teaching the philosophy of love and action, nonviolence, passive resistance, soul force – I knew this was for me,” Lewis said. “I knew this was the way out.”

In 2020, Lawson spoke at Lewis’ funeral. NPR recounts Lawson saying, “I maintain that many of us had no choice to do what we tried to do, primarily because at an early age we recognized the wrong under which we were forced to live. And we swore to God that by God’s grace, we would do whatever God called us to do in order to put on the table of the nation’s agenda. This must end! Black Lives Matter!”

People For the American Way Board Chair Rev. Tim McDonald called Lawson “an inspiration and a guiding light for all of us.”

“He leaves an incredible legacy,” McDonald said. “His leadership at the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s transformed our country and established nonviolent, peaceful protest as a model for achieving social change. We honor his memory every day by never giving up on the fight for equity and dignity for all people.”

People For the American Way, a national progressive advocacy organization, inspires and mobilizes community and cultural leaders to advance Truth, Justice and the American Way.

Rev. James Lawson

Photo: Permissionuse grantedbyJoonPowell

FIRST BLACK RACER IN PORSCHE CARRERA CUP COMPETES AT FORMULA ONE MIAMI GRAND PRIX

By Blair S. Walker Miami Gardens, Florida

When Jordan Wallace was a 5-year-old, his grandmother bought him a little, battery-powered Mercedes car. She may have regretted that move, because Wallace immediately hopped into his miniature whip and practically drove the wheels off it.

Convinced that Upper Marlboro, Maryland, had never produced a racer with his combination of awe-inspiring speed and daring, Wallace began looking for pre-pubescent butts to kick.

“I tried to race the girl down the street in her Barbie Corvette and she whupped me,” Wallace said, still incredulous 31 years later. “And after that, I was like – I gotta get this figured out. Ever since then, I’ve been on a charge.”

One that had Wallace swaddled in a helmet and Nomex driving suit as he blasted a 510-horsepower Porsche 911 GT3 Cup around the 3.36-mile, 19turn Miami International Autodrome road circuit, sounding like a bellowing, deep-voiced hound from hell.

Welcome to the Porsche Carrera Cup North America racing series, Jordan Wallace’s world. He found himself onstage with the globe-

Photo:CourtesyofBlairS.Walker

Raising Successful Kids: Picking The Right School Starts Earlier Than Parents Think

By Dr. Calvin Moore, Jr. CEO, Council for Professional Recognition

Comedians love to make jokes about how things are different from when they were growing up. Many start with something like this: “In my day we had to actually pick up the phone and ask who it was to know who was calling us.” While we laugh about how technology has rapidly changed our lives from one generation to the next, more parents need to embrace this reality as it relates to education.

trotting Formula One circus, which was in town for the Miami Grand Prix.

Formula One promoters like to have other kinds of racing cars circulating tracks while F-1 cars are being tweaked in their garages.

Wallace is an admirer of Formula One, but at 36 is too old to be dreaming about an F-1 seat. Instead, Wallace wants to move up to the Batmobile-like, fiendishly quick sports cars that compete in famous endurance races.

“The ultimate goal is to win the Daytona 24 Hours, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Sebring 12 Hours, and to be the first African American to win all of those,” Wallace said. “I’ve got a ton of work ethic, a ton of desire

and I think I’m showing that I’m pretty quick.”

That last statement is all fact and no brag, because Wallace came within one-hundredth of second of being the fastest qualifier for his Miami International Autodrome race. To put that in perspective, it takes the average person between one-tenth to four-tenths of a second to blink their eyes.

A resident of Austin, Texas, these days, Wallace keeps a roof over his head with his racing activities, and by working as a driving instructor at a nearby race track. When it comes to the Kellymoss/ Vision Motorsports Racing Porsche he’s piloting in eight races this year, his sponsor is Davis

FUN PUZZLE FOR YOUR LEISURE

Infrastructure, a Northern Virginia business that builds data centers.

“I grew up thinking race drivers were aliens, because no one in my family, or in my culture, was in this sport,” Wallace said. “Now I’m part-owner in the team that I’m driving for. Not only a Black driver, but a Black owner. We’re really trying to grow that side of the sport, as well.”

Blair S. Walker formerly wrote for USA Today’s ‘Money’ section, has penned seven books and was also a professional race car driver. For the past three years, Blair has been a guest contributor for BlackPressUSA at the Formula One Miami Grand Prix held annually in Miami Gardens.

The place to start is when parents make that first critical decision about where to send their child for early childhood education. Too often we see parents picking a program based on their memories of what daycare was like for them. They did not like the preschool at the church decades ago, so they will never enroll their little one in a program based in a religious setting. The memory of preschool was unenjoyable, so they would never consider it for their three-year-old today. How accurate can memories really be from so long ago? Or they make choices about the quality of a program from what a neighbor or friend told them or an online review. An all-day program was right for one child but not for another – there is no universal “right” answer.

My experience began as a Head Start student and years later, I served as a Head Start teacher. One of the things I learned as a teacher was the importance of supporting the social and emotional development of all my students and providing positive guidance. These are competencies stressed for educators like me

Continued from page 4B

He is saying that one cannot be a believer and continue in these things a lifestyle. Those who claim to have faith but keep on in these old ways show that they are not really sons and daughters of God and heirs of His Kingdom. But God’s grace a different way of life is possible, and that is what Paul now describes as “the fruit of the Spirit.” WHAT THE SPIRIT PRODUCES. Every believer has the Holy Spirit living in him or her (see Romans 8:9). Sadly, however, many Christians, both then and now, refuse to let Him govern their lives.

A life guided by the Spirit is totally different from one over which He does not have control.

Paul speaks of the qualifiers of this transformed life as being “the fruit of the Spirit”

who’ve earned a Child Development Associate® Credential™. I join my fellow educators in believing it is critical to develop a warm, positive, supportive, and responsive relationship with each child, and to help each child learn about and take pride in his or her individual and cultural identity. These are wise words that parents should also take to heart when looking for a program that will spur their child to the success, we all want.

Choosing the right program that meets the unique needs of a child also has benefits beyond the immediate ones. We have all seen parents who push their children in high school or college to pursue a field of study, sport, or other extracurricular activity to make mom and dad “happy,” neglecting the needs of the child. The best way to create a successful ecosystem is to start at the earliest age. Parents should choose an early childhood education environment that matches their child’s needs, not one based on faded memories of youth.

Dr. Moore leads the Council for Professional Recognition, a nonprofit that supports early childhood education professionals and administers the Child Development Associate® Credential™.

(Galatians 5:22-23a) – i. e., these qualities are the result of the Spirit’s work, not human effort. Nine qualifiers are mentioned, but they are all part of the “fruit” (singular) that the Spirit produces in a believer’s life when He is given control. In contrast to the “works of the flesh,” these nine qualities of life cannot be generated by human effort. To be sure, making these qualities operative in our lives is neither automatic nor simple. But neither is it impossible. It comes from so identifying ourselves in His crucifixion, putting t death our old, sinful nature (see Romans 8:1-17). Our new life, which we live “”by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), is characterized by the qualities Paul has just listed. In this new lifestyle, we will have a loving concern for one another, rather than being preoccupied with the kinds of selfcentered activities that were characteristic of our old nature (see v. 26).

Jordan Wallace, from Austin, Texas, drove a Porsche during one of the Miami Grand Prix’s support races.

Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr.