NJG | Vol. 124, No. 39 - October 3, 2024 by NJG WebTech

TEAM HARRIS-WALTZ’S HBCU TOUR HITS FIVE KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES

WASHINGTON, D.C.

With less than 40 days until election day – the Harris-Walz campaign says it is continuing its consistent commitment to meeting voters where they are, this time in the form of an HBCU Homecoming Tour across battleground states. HBCU homecoming season remains one of the most signiﬁcant celebrations of HBCU culture that takes

Throughout HBCU Homecoming season, the HarrisWalz campaign is deploying trusted surrogates to HBCU schools, including Virginia State University.

place annually across the country. Throughout Homecoming and Classics season, the Harris-Walz campaign will deploy trusted surrogates including local Black

elected ofﬁcials, national Black leaders, notable HBCU alumni, and inﬂuential Black hip-hop and culture celebrities to critical battleground states in which the featured HBCUs

are housed: North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The tour kicked off on September 28 in North Carolina. see HBCU, page 5A

She Makes History Again!

PORTSMOUTH HONORS SEN. LUCAS BY RENAMING A STREET SIGN

By Randy Singleton

PORTSMOUTH

The city of Portsmouth honored its longtime hometown legislator State Senator L. Louise Lucas on Saturday (September 28) by renaming a street near the casino, whose construction she championed, L. Louise Lucas Drive. The former street, TCC Drive, was the site of the ceremony which featured Portsmouth high school bands and a host of local and state politicians, community activists, and faith leaders. Senator Lucas is the ﬁrst woman and

African-American to serve as President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate. Sitting next to Lucas during the ceremony were her friend and General Assembly colleague State Senator Mamie Locke, former Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe, and Congressman Bobby Scott. The effort to rename the street in Lucas’ honor was spearheaded by Portsmouth community activist Barry Randall. Portsmouth Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas Burke, the daughter of Sen. Lucas, read a proclamation from the city council acknowledging the street renaming honor. Congratulatory remarks were rendered by Tidewater Community College president Dr. Marcia Conston,

State Senator Mamie Locke, former Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe, Rev. Milton Blount, and Congressman Bobby Scott. At the end of the program, Sen. Lucas and her daughter, Lisa Lucas Burke, pulled back a Black cloth to reveal a new street sign that bore her name and cemented her legacy in the city.

Senator Lucas thanked the large group of citizens who came to the ceremony and she reiterated that her ﬁght in the General Assembly continues for toll relief and reproductive rights.

Senator Lucas took pictures for the media and with her supporters after the ceremony.

see more photos on page 3B

VIRGINIA PARENTS LOSE SUPPORT AS STATE FUNDING DRIES UP

By Rosaland Tyler

Associate Editor

HAMPTON ROADS

Retired U.S.

Ambassador Bismarck Myrick Sr., a proud native of Portsmouth, Virginia, transitioned peacefully on Sunday, September 29, 2024, surrounded by his wife, Marie-Pierre Mbaye Myrick and three children, Bismarck Myrick, Jr., Wesley Todd Myrick, and Allison Elizabeth Sanders. Ambassador Myrick’s monumental career included service in the U.S. Army with stations in Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Germany and Ethiopia. Upon his honorable discharge from the Army, he joined the U.S. Foreign Service, where he was, nominated by U.S. Presidents, to serve as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho in 1995 and the Republic of Liberia in 1999. He also led the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Durban, South Africa. When he retired from the foreign service, Ambassador Myrick taught at Old Dominion University for over twentytwo years. Ambassador Myrick was an alumnus of I.C. Norcom, school of champions, class of 1959.

Ambassador Myrick loved people, inspiring us with his running, spending time with his friends and family, and hosting events such as his annual Thanksgiving celebrations in Portsmouth.

All people die, but not all people live. Bismarck Myrick truly lived! His joy,

His joy, generosity, curiosity, and love ripple across oceans, touching many across continents who knew and loved him.

generosity, curiosity, and love ripple across oceans, touching many across continents who knew and loved him. The Third Baptist Church, 461 Goodwin Street Portsmouth, Virginia 23704, will host the services on Saturday, October 12, 2024. The viewing will be at 10 a.m. with a funeral beginning at 11 a.m. Interment arrangements at Arlington National Cemetery will follow on a date to be determined.

A new report shows that child care now costs more than rent in 16 major U.S. cities.

Virginia’s $400 million statesupported child care fund recently ran out of funds, at a time when a new report shows that child care now costs more than rent in 16 major U.S. cities. This means a few months after Virginia legislators, in July, approved $400 million a year to expand childcare and pre-K education during the last legislative session, the funds ran out. Now, a new report shows child care is costing parents more than rent in 16 of the nation’s largest 100 cities including Syracuse, Spokane and Minneapolis. According to the recent Lending Tree report, in Syracuse, New York, child care costs $1,417 on average, compared to monthly rent for a twobedroom unit costing $1,126. In Spokane, child care averages $1,588 a month, compared to an average housing rental fee of $1,304. In Minneapolis, child care costs $1,767 on average. Rent costs $1,622. The average household that pays for child care spends $325 a week, or 18.6 percent of its weekly income, according to the recent LendingTree analysis. Cities in Virginia are not listed in the new Lending Tree report, which was published Sept. 16, and draws on child care ﬁgures from the nonproﬁt Child Care Aware of America and compares them with federal rent data.

But it is one of several surveys and studies that sound alarms on the rising costs of child care nationwide. In Virginia, $100 million more is now needed to clear the waitlist. According to a recent Radio IQ report, legislators could add additional funds as a budget amendment during the 2025 session.

Democratic Delegate Rodney Willet said there’s still about 10,000 more families in need. “You could say we’re victims of our own success,” the Henrico delegate recently told Radio IQ. “But I think really what it is, there’s just a lot of demand out there. We’re doing our best to meet it.” see Child, page 2A

By Stacy M. Brown

NNPA

Newswire

Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, faced off in the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election on Tuesday night, which began with a measured tone but eventually escalated into a

combative exchange. The debate, which CBS News hosted at their Broadcast Center in New York and Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan moderated, covered a range of important national issues, with Vance’s connections to former President Donald Trump and the January 6 uprising emerging as key flashpoints. see Debate, page 3A

Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz

Bismarck Myrick Sr., Retired U.S. Ambassador

Senator L. Louise Lucas (in white) and her daughter Portsmouth

Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas Burke as they unveil the new street sign.

Photo: RandySingleton

Black Men’s Health: Prevention Is Better Than Cure

By Keith Dobbins Special to the New Journal and Guide

Through the hustle of daily life comes the story of Brian R., who serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of proactive health awareness, especially within the Black community.

A close friend from Ohio, Brian has always been a picture of health, maintaining a slim physique well into his late 40s and early 50s. However, a gradual weight gain went unnoticed until he participated in the Black Men’s Wellness Day and 5K Race in Atlanta.

Encouraged to undergo a series of health screenings, Brian discovered alarming spikes in his wellness numbers, revealing the hidden fragility of his heart. The on-site doctors’ urgent advice led him to seek further medical evaluation, ultimately resulting in life-

Child

Continued from page 1A

In an effort to solve the problem, some Virginia lawmakers are asking more employers to get involved, whether it’s through providing their own childcare or helping cover the costs.

Although child care costs are the No. 1 expense for many families and exceed monthly rent, many childcare centers earn a thin margin after they pay staff about $16 an hour, jump through numerous regulatory hoops to comply with strict child to staff regulations, and sometimes pay high monthly rents in some areas.

“My husband and I spend 50 percent of our take-home pay on the mortgage and daycare for 1 child,” a parent wrote in a Reddit discussion on parenting. “We couldn’t possibly afford another kid in daycare.”

A Black parent in Ohio, Monica Ward, 32, brings the problem sharply into focus. Ward quit her job after her employer of two months denied her pay increase request. So, she was forced to resign and earn less money to again be eligible for childcare assistance.

Sending her daughter to daycare would’ve cost $700 a month out-of-pocket – or 60 percent of the rent she spends on her $1,150 twobedroom apartment.

“Absolutely, positively no way I can afford rent

saving heart bypass surgery. Brian’s journey underscores not only the critical need for regular health check-ups but also the vital role community events play in fostering awareness and preventive care among Black men. His transformation is a testament to the power of knowledge and the impact of prioritizing health, a message that resonates deeply in discussions about Black men’s health. In the realm of health

and the daycare and food,” she told WordinBlack.com in a June 2023 interview.

“When I started working, they also cut my food assistance off.” Ward said she works odd jobs to make ends meet. Other parents often face the same dilemma.

According to a recent Under 3 D.C. Coalition

October 5, 1946

Edition of the Guide

Gym for Training Boxers

NORFOLK

Complete gym facilities and equipment for boxers will soon be available at the Hunton Branch YMCA, on Brambleton Avenue, it was revealed here this week by Horace Christopher, YMCA Secretary.

Carpenters will ﬁnish the ﬂoors in the new facility by November 2. Tidewater Boxers who have no adequate place to train are urged to register at the “Y” now. Both amateur and professional boxers will be permitted to use the gym. Punching bags, mats, gloves, and other equipment necessary for a complete boxing gym will be installed.

Norcom Defeats Douglass Park 39-6

PORTSMOUTH

The Douglass Park High School football team came through their ﬁrst game of its history last Thursday night. They lost the contest to the Norcom Greyhounds, before 2,500 cheering spectators in the Big Portsmouth Stadium. The Norcomites were heavy favorites to win the game. But before the night was over everybody in the stadium knew that was a hot football contest on hand as the Greyhounds won 39-6.

(Editor’s Note: Douglass Park High School was located in Portsmouth.)

Bombers, Bookers, Norfolk State Plays On Three Successive Days

NORFOLK

A heavy schedule of football will descend on gridiron fans this weekend as three games come up on successive days at Tar Park.

The Virginia StateBrown Bombers (non academic) game set for Thursday night opens the weekend of intensive football.

This will be the second game this season for both teams and weaknesses shown in the initial fray will be ironed out.

For the second game

Coach Joe Rose of the

Together, we can create a future where Black men not only live longer but live healthier lives, free from the shackles of preventable diseases.

and wellness, the mantra “prevention is better than cure” resonates profoundly, especially when we examine the alarming health disparities faced by Black men in the United States.

The statistics are stark: approximately 70 percent of the diseases that lead to premature death among Black men are preventable. This reality not only underscores the urgent need for proactive health measures but also highlights the critical importance of education and community engagement in fostering a healthier future.

FIRSTLY

Black men face a signiﬁcant health crisis,

report, 52 percent of respondents had to reduce their regular work hours due to lack of child care for children under the age of three. Meanwhile, 46 percent had to turn down opportunities for education and training while 36 percent turned down a job promotion or desirable assignment.

living 12 to 20 years shorter than their White counterparts. The reasons behind this disparity are complex, involving a mix of socioeconomic factors, systemic inequities, and limited access to quality healthcare. Moreover, the statistics surrounding kidney health are particularly troubling. Black men are more than three times as likely to experience kidney failure compared to White Americans.

According to The JAMA Network, Black men in the U.S. have the highest lifetime risk of kidney failure, accounting for 16.6 percent of all kidney failure patients in 2018, despite representing only 6.4 percent of the overall U.S. population. These figures are not merely numbers; they represent lives lost and families devastated by preventable conditions.

As a healthcare advocate, it is my mission to provide access to health resources for Black men, a demographic that has historically been underserved and overlooked. Education is paramount in this mission. By equipping our communities with

knowledge about health risks, preventive measures, and available healthcare resources, we empower individuals to take control of their health.

Understanding the link between education and activation is crucial; informed individuals are more likely to engage in preventive health behaviors, seek regular check-ups, and adhere to treatment protocols.

SECONDLY

Preventive health measures can signiﬁcantly reduce the incidence of diseases that disproportionately affect Black men. Regular screenings for hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease can catch health issues early, when they are most manageable. Additionally, lifestyle changes such as improved diet, increased physical activity, and smoking cessation can dramatically lower the risk of chronic diseases. Yet, many Black men are unaware of these risks or lack the resources to make these changes.

To combat these disparities, we must foster a culture of health within our communities. This can be achieved through targeted health education programs that address the speciﬁc needs and concerns of Black men.

From The Guide’s

CONCLUSION

The health disparities faced by Black men are a pressing public health issue that demands our attention and action. Preventable diseases continue to claim lives, and the statistics are a call to arms for all of us. As we work towards a healthier future, let us remember that prevention is indeed better than cure. By prioritizing education, improving access to healthcare, and fostering a culture of health within our communities, we can make signiﬁcant strides in bridging the health gap. Together, we can create a future where Black men not only live longer but live healthier lives, free from the shackles of preventable diseases. The time for action is now! Let us rise to the challenge and ensure that health equity becomes a reality for all. Keith Dobbins is the Atlanta Coordinator for The African-American Male Wellness Agency.

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

Bombers expects to shake up his backﬁeld using Harry Waters, who showed well in the ﬁrst game against the past happy Virginia State Trojans.

On Friday night Norfolk’s Booker T. High School makes its ﬁrst start of the season against the Douglass Park High School of Portsmouth in a game at Tar Park. Students at the local high schools have already begun talk of recapturing state high school laurels from Newport News’ Huntington High School. This is Douglass Park’s ﬁrst football team under Coach Van Buren Luke.

The third fracas will be the opening game for the Norfolk Division of Virginia State College. Coach Leroy Porter of Norfolk State will present his charges for the ﬁrst time against Swift College of Rogersville, Tenn. at Tar Park Saturday night. Coach Porter has a wealth of former Booker T. material ﬁlling out his team this year. A few of them are former CIAA Players from the war.

(Editor’s Note: Tar Park which once existed along the 400 block to Norfolk’s 20th Street was the home of the white professional baseball team, The Tars. It was also used by the Black community for its professional, collegiate and school sporting events during Jim Crow.)

October 4, 1958

Edition of the Guide

Massive Resistance Cost Thus Far

RICHMOND

Nearly one million dollars has been spent by Virginia to ﬁght against school integration, according to an unofﬁcial estimate given earlier this week.

The ﬁgure includes expenses of desegregation suits for local school boards in which the state bore the greater portions of attorney’s fees and court costs. Also included are costs of committee studies, special session of the General Assembly, amendments of the state constitutions to permit use of public funds for private tuitions grants, operation of the Pupil Placement Board and other

costs.

The ﬁght against integration “has been a very costly procedure, ﬁnanced by the tax payers of Virginia against an overwhelming abundance of money, prejudice and consideration from the other side.” That is the statement attributed to Virginia Gov. Almond during a press conference.

The governor failed to disclose that there were devices the state brought to fore to bypass compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court desegregation edict.

The only thing the state has bought with its near million dollars is closed school doors for some 12,000 students, most observers said.

Who’s To Blame (An Editorial)

If a petition to open schools, closed by integration, is to be addressed to anybody, it should be addressed to the NAACP. It is responsible for those closed schools, so says Gov. Almond, quoted in the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch

It is a long-standing custom to place the blame for whatever ails the South on the Negroes.

The low intelligence rate in the South is accounted for by reason of the residence of half the Negroes in the country to whom southern states have denied adequate education.

The low (Income) average per capita is accounted for the same way. But Negroes are not allowed to hold many jobs that pay well.

The failure of southern draftees in WWI and II to measure up to the average of intelligence for the Army was blamed on Negroes. But the southern whites were way behind the northern whites when measured by the same standards.

The disinclination of white people to migrate South for permanent residence is also blamed on the presence of Negroes. Was lynching, peonage and poverty also?

No.

It seems the NAACP Legal Department disturbs the southern arrangements.

But the State Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Manufacturers, Labor

Unions ACLU and large corporations have large departments to represent their clients. Because of the historic tradition of inequality and oppression in Virginia and elsewhere, what we have recited above is a reason for the NAACP. It was not born yesterday. It has been ﬁghting repression and discrimination in many areas since it was charted in 1915. It has tried persuasion and negotiation, without result. It then decided for the behest of the colored people to ask the courts to redress these grievances.

Rev. King Anxious To Rejoin Quest For Rights

NEW YORK In a statement from his bed at New York’s Harlem Hospital, Rev., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rededicated himself to “that we all know must be done regardless of the cost,” and reafﬁrmed his faith in nonviolent efforts to securing human rights once again.

He said he harbors no ill-will toward the woman whose attack on him with a stiletto-like letter opener had him a sneeze away from death last week.

Now recovering from this wound inﬂicted by Izola Ware, 42, and a transplant from Georgia, he was autographing copies of his book at a Harlem department store Sept 20.

October 5, 1994

Edition of the Guide

Suffolk Expansion May Ruin Small Businesses

By Leonard E. Colvin

A spokesman for a group of Black business owners says Suffolk’s plans to build a new courthouse could mean the destruction of their shops.

The city of Suffolk is planning on building its new $12.5 million dollar courthouse and criminal justice complex along a stretch of the 100 block of Main Street.

But to make way for a new parking lot for the facility, the city is planning on condemning a portion of land adjacent to the

development site. On most of this parcel of land along West Washington Street are ﬁve AfricanAmerican owned businesses. The current courthouse is located along North Main Street.

“If we allow them to go through with their current plan, it could spell the end to the city’s only Black business district,” said Bill Beamer, the owner of the Hot Spot Records and Tapes and the Suffolk Men’s Clothing Store at 140-142 West Washington Street.

Home Savings Bank Gets New Owners

NORFOLK

One year, two months, and two weeks after the last minority -owned bank was closed in Norfolk, another reopened on Monday –Home Savings Bank (FSB) (at 700 Boush Street, and Brambleton) formerly Home Federal Savings Bank.

As of 5:01 p.m., September 30, the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) sold Home Federal Savings to a subsidiary of the minority owned Home Bancorp based in Pittsburgh, Penn. There are two other minority owned banks in the state: one in Richmond, Consolidated Bank and Trust; and in Danville, First State Bank. New Atlantic Bank, the Black-owned bank in Norfolk, was closed by the RTC August 31, 1993. It reopened the following day under the ownership of the Bank of Hampton Roads which is based in Hampton.

“This is a great opportunity for a strong institution to make inroads into the banking community of Hampton Roads,” said Charles Whitehurst, chairman of the new bank’s Board of Directors. Whitehurst is the past Portsmouth City Treasurer and a former Central Fidelity Bank Of ﬁ cial. “We hope to provide a strong group of products to new customers of the greater community of Hampton Roads, and to our current customers in the region,” Whitehurst said.

Keith Dobbins

PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICE HIKES HIT BLACK AMERICANS HARDEST

By Stacy M. Brown Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

NEWSWIRE

NNPA

The ﬁght to lower prescription drug prices is hitting African-Americans especially hard. A recent report by Patients for Affordable Drugs reveals that pharmaceutical companies have increased prices on more than 1,000 prescription drugs this year, nearly half of those price hikes exceeding the inﬂation rate. For many Black and Latino patients, especially those aged 65 and over, the rising costs are becoming unbearable.

Black Americans are more likely to suffer from conditions like diabetes, chronic pain, and high blood pressure, which means that these skyrocketing prices have a disproportionately negative impact on them. Enhertu, a drug used to treat HER2positive breast cancer, has seen its price rise eight times since 2019. This is especially alarming for Black women, who are more likely to die from HER2-positive tumors than white women. Meanwhile, the price of Revlimid, used to treat multiple myeloma, has jumped to over $89,000 per month. Black Americans are more likely to suffer from multiple myeloma and experience worse outcomes.

Price hikes force patients to make life-threatening decisions, ofﬁcials said. Carrol Olinger, a 54-year-old from North Carolina with Type 1 diabetes, described to NBC News a harrowing period when she couldn’t afford her medications. Without insurance for ﬁve months, she resorted to rationing her insulin and taking blood pressure pills every other day to cut costs. “I had a headache every day,” she said. “I just felt drained and tired – and then on top of all of that, I was just, like, emotional for no reason.”

The business practices of pharmacy beneﬁt managers (PBMs), who negotiate drug prices with manufacturers and insurance companies, exacerbate this ﬁnancial

Debate

Continued from page 1A

The debate’s early moments were largely civil, as both candidates laid out their platforms and shared their visions on topics such as foreign policy and the economy. However, tensions flared when Vance was asked about Trump’s recent comment that childcare was “not very expensive” compared to the money the country would gain from his policies.

Vance explained that Trump was referring to the nation’s ability to raise funds by “penalizing companies shipping jobs overseas” and those using “slave laborers.” But Vance sidestepped when pressed on whether Trump was committed to the child tax credit, redirecting the discussion to economic penalties for outsourcing, prompting frustration from Walz.

The debate took a sharper turn when Vance was questioned about the 2020 election and Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection. Rather than directly answering whether Trump lost the 2020 election, Vance defended the former president’s actions that day, stating, “Remember, [Trump] said that on January the 6th, the protesters ought to protest peacefully, and on January the 20th, what happened? Joe Biden became the president. Donald Trump left the White House.” Walz responded forcefully, calling Vance’s failure to answer directly “a damning non-answer.”

He continued, “To deny what happened on January 6, the first time

strain on patients. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ﬁled a lawsuit against Express Scripts, OptumRx, and Caremark, accusing these PBMs of inﬂating the cost of insulin and other drugs by prioritizing higher-priced options on insurance formularies while pocketing rebates from drug manufacturers. The FTC’s complaint suggests these practices unfairly raise patient costs and violate antitrust laws.

While lawsuits and regulatory actions move forward, advocates like Margarida Jorge, executive director of Health Care for America Now, point to the long-standing racial inequities in healthcare that contribute to the crisis. She cites the lack of affordable treatment for conditions like sickle cell anemia, which affects 1 in 13 Black babies born in the U.S., as a clear example of systemic racism. “There hasn’t been much attention to really getting down to the business of trying to cure sickle cell anemia with a drug that is affordable to regular people,” Jorge said in an NBC News interview.

The Biden administration has taken steps to address the issue through the Inﬂation Reduction Act, which aims to cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneﬁciaries

an American president or anyone tried to overturn an election, is unacceptable. This has got to stop. It’s tearing our country apart.”

Walz also drew attention to the broader implications of Vance’s remarks, reminding voters of the violence on January 6, including a march on the governor’s mansion in Minnesota. “What I’m concerned about is, where is the firewall with Donald Trump? Where is the firewall if he knows he could do anything, including taking an election, and his vice president’s not going to stand up to it? That’s what we’re asking you, America,” Walz said, clarifying that accountability for democracy was at stake in the 2024 election.

Vance avoided direct answers on election integrity and instead pivoted to discussions of censorship, blaming tech companies for “censoring their fellow citizens” and touting Trump’s endorsements by former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He continued to defend Trump’s policies, including tax cuts and immigration, while steering clear of addressing the core issue of Trump’s role in questioning the election results. The debate further escalated as the two candidates clashed over climate change, healthcare, and gun violence. On climate change, Walz highlighted the BidenHarris administration’s investments in clean energy and infrastructure, citing the Inflation Reduction Act as a crucial step in addressing the crisis. “We’ve made massive investments in electric vehicles, solar

at $2,000 annually by 2025. President Biden also announced that Medicare will begin negotiating lower prices for some of the most expensive and widely used drugs.

Starting in October, seniors and people with disabilities enrolled in Medicare will pay less for 54 Part B prescription drugs, Biden announced. “That means more money will go back into the pockets of people with Medicare – including some of the 822,000 seniors and people with disabilities who use these drugs annually to treat conditions like cancer, osteoporosis, and pneumonia, and some seniors will save more than $3,800 per day,” he stated. “These lower costs are only possible because of the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed with the leadership of Democrats in Congress, and with Vice President Harris casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate – without a single Republican voting for it,” Biden added. “While Republicans in Congress try to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act which would mean high drug costs for seniors, Vice President Harris and I will keep fighting to ensure all Americans can pay less for prescription drugs.”

technology, and job creation because we know climate change is real,” Walz said.

Vance countered by downplaying the urgency, arguing that Democrats were not serious about the issue. “If they really believed climate change was serious, they’d be doing more manufacturing and energy production here in America. That’s not what they’re doing,” he said, accusing Democrats of using climate change as a political slogan rather than implementing real solutions.

Gun violence also sparked a heated backand-forth. Vance proposed increased school security measures, suggesting, “We need to make sure the doors lock better, strengthen windows, and add school resource officers.” Walz quickly criticized the proposal, asking, “Do you want your schools hardened to look like a fort?” He pressed for more comprehensive gun control measures, emphasizing the need to address the root causes of violence.

Ultimately, Walz positioned himself as a champion of middleclass families, touting healthcare and affordable housing policies. At the same time, Vance remained firmly aligned with Trump, repeatedly defending the former president’s record and platform.

Walz appealed to voters to choose leaders who will protect democratic institutions, saying, “When Mike Pence made that decision to certify the election, that’s why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage.” Vance, meanwhile, reflected on his loyalty to Trump, asserting that “Donald Trump delivered for the American people.”

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIOLOGY VIRGINIA TECH

O’BANNON –THE FATHER OF NIL

By Wornie Reed, Ph.D.

Today, college athletes nationwide can earn money from NIL (name, likeness, image, and likeness) deals, like professional athletes. They have an AfricanAmerican former power, Edward Charles O’Bannon, to thank for it.

O’Bannon had a storied basketball career. A native of Los Angeles, he was a McDonald’s All-American high school basketball player, and he was named the 1990 National High School Player of the Year after leading his high school team to the California state championship.

Naturally, O’Bannon was recruited to UCLA, where he led the storied Bruins to the 1995 national championship, where he was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Valuable Player and National Player of the Year. He was a lottery pick in the 1995 draft and spent nine years in the NBA.

In 2009, O’Bannon saw his likeness from the 1995 championship team used in the EA Sports title NCAA Basketball 09 without his permission. The game featured an unnamed UCLA player who played O’Bannon’s power forward position while matching his height, weight, bald head, skin tone, No. 31 jersey, and left-handed shot.

Today, college athletes can earn money from endorsement deals, autograph signings, and other commercial ventures, and they all have a 6’8” power forward named Ed O’Bannon to thank for it.

CARRTOON By Walt Carr

The lawsuit challenged the NCAA’s rules restricting compensation for men’s football and basketball players’ images and likenesses. The suit alleged that the NCAA rules operated as a restraint of trade because they preclude FBS football players and Division I men’s basketball players from receiving any compensation – beyond the value of their athletic scholarships – for the use of their names, images, and likenesses in video games, live game telecasts, re-broadcasts, and archival game footage.

Two of the original defendants in the case, Electronic Arts and the Collegiate Licensing Company, reached a $40 million settlement before trial that netted as much as $4,000 each for 100,000 current and former athletes who had appeared in DA Sports’ NCAA Basketball and NCAA Football video game series since 2003.

The case was decided in 2014. Most importantly, the judge ruled that the NCAA’s long-held practice of barring payments to athletes violated antitrust laws. She ordered that schools should be allowed to offer full costof-attendance scholarships to athletes, covering costof-living expenses that were not then part of NCAA scholarships. She also ruled

O’Bannon ﬁled a lawsuit against the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company, alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act and actions that deprived him of his right to publicity. Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell, along with 20 other former college athletes, joined the class action antitrust lawsuit.

that a college could place as much as $5,000 into a trust for each athlete’s per-year eligibility. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld this ruling.

Finally, the courts pushed aside previous rulings that had largely shielded the NCAA from antitrust laws. This set the stage for further rulings against the NCAA under antitrust law, most notably the Alston case in 2021, which, like O’Bannon, prevented the NCAA from placing strict limitations on the ﬁnancial awards college athletes can receive. After the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Alston verdict in 2021, sweeping NIL legislation by the states followed almost immediately.

Today, college athletes can earn money from endorsement deals, autograph signings, and other commercial ventures, and they all have a 6’8” power forward named Ed O’Bannon to thank for it.

As a long-time advocate of paying the people who generate the money – the athletes – I was pleased with the outcome of the O’Bannon et al. lawsuit. However, these changes did not develop as some of us advocated. As a result, problems are already occurring in this new world of college sports administration. I will address those later.

Opening Doors of Opportunity Can Heal The Nation

By Ben Jealous

(TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

If you want to heal America you have to understand what is hurting America. January 1, 1994 is as good a date as any to recognize as the beginning of the end of the U.S. manufacturing sector as we knew it. That is the date the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect. Going back to the 1970s, foreign competition in manufacturing had already led to America’s Steel Belt being dubbed the Rust Belt, but NAFTA and other trade agreements like it greatly accelerated factory closures.

“The passage of NAFTA remains one of the most consequential events in recent American political and economic history,” reads a recent New York Times Magazine deep dive into the impacts of the trade agreement. “Between 1997 and 2020, more than 90,000 factories closed, partly as a result of NAFTA and similar agreements.”

These closures touched every corner of the country where most Americans live, including virtually every major and mid-size metropolitan area. As a result, today most Americans live at some version of the same address. It is the place where the factory shut down and in its place came downward economic mobility that has devastated many communities.

That downward mobility has led to social isolation and spikes in the diseases of despair – depression, drug addiction. And it has impacted working-class

America across demographic groups – Black, white, and every race; urban and rural; Republican and Democrat. Yet instead of unifying us across those lines, this shared experience has been used to divide us.

Demagogues and corporate propagandists are nothing if not seasoned at scapegoating and misdirecting people’s blame for their frustrations.

There is a clear through line from an example like Reagan-era “welfare queen” propaganda to the vicious attacks we are seeing against immigrant communities today. And division has increased exponentially over the last 30 years – along the same timeline as the decimation of US manufacturing. How divided we are as a nation is, perhaps ironically, one of the things Americans agree on most. A new Gallup poll released just this week shows a record-high 80 percent of Americans now say our country is deeply divided on core values.

When American manufacturing went away, it took away economic opportunity not just for the people who lost jobs in those

More than 334,000 new clean energy jobs have been created across the country in the two years since passage of the Inﬂation Reduction Act (IRA).

closed factories but for their children who would have gone on to work in those factories. It also goes for the many people working in construction, health care, education, and the other sectors that serviced the manufacturing sector and its workers in their communities. We are talking about tens of millions of Americans.

The best way to reverse these trends in downward mobility and division is with the rebirth of American manufacturing. And the best way to do that is by going all in on the next economy – the clean energy economy. That means massive investments in renewable energy and green manufacturing, and ensuring supply chains are integrated and housed within the United States. More than 334,000 new clean energy jobs have been created across the country in the two years since passage of the Inﬂation Reduction Act (IRA). And it is estimated that with domestic supply chains there are as many as four indirect or induced jobs in other sectors created for every clean energy job. see Nation, page 7A

By Dr. E. Faye Williams (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

I long for the days when we had hope that things were getting better in our country –especially on women’s rights, extinguishing racism against people of African descent, improving the Congress by electing an increasing number of non-white people (especially people of Hispanic, Asian and African descent, as well as a Native sister being in charge of the Department of Interior, with several other women being Secretaries of Agencies, and were we excited when Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson came along!

We cheered that Barack Obama could be elected by people of all races and backgrounds to become President of the United States of America. We were proud of the fact that Hillary Clinton (but for our crazy electoral college rule) would have been our ﬁrst female President!

We have wannabe President again Donald Trump and Vice-Presidential wannabe Vance to thank for the hate launched on the Haitian community of Springﬁeld, Ohio. Without reason, that story continues in spite of being told by leaders of the city that Haitians were invited and went to Springﬁeld legally and were

welcomed there! Of course, Vance thought it was okay to make up a story about the situation, causing people to believe residents were eating cats and dogs!

Now, despite the unlikely chance of the story being true, Trump brought it to the big stage during the debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris. He threw in the lie on the presidential debate stage and has never stopped bringing it up with people correcting him. He not only didn’t pay attention, but went on vowing to go to Springﬁeld, knowing that story would not be welcomed!

At the debate, moderators calmly tried to correct him. His and Vance’s lie about this story resulted in the unnecessary, racist lies they knew would hurt Springﬁeld’s Haitian community. Schools and businesses had to be closed. This frightened young

Vote for VP Kamala Harris and return our nation to one of hope and love –not hate.

children who wanted to be in school. That was brought on by hate of Haitian people and for no other reason than their being Black!

Let’s go to the Middle East. We’ve witnessed a situation where millions of innocent people, many of them babies, were killed for no reason because they were not the ones who went into Israel and caused havoc. Many are afraid to speak out because they are afraid to be called anti-Semitic but those thousands of Palestinians who’ve been killed by Israeli forces had nothing to do with the tragedy in Israel. Then even, as he came to the United Nations, Netanyahu had the gall to blame the whole United Nations as being anti-Semitic. It’s time for Netanyahu, friends of Netanyahu, and AIPAC to stop accusing everybody whose help they are only too happy to keep getting by frightening people who care about what is right, but afraid to speak out against wrong.

see Hate, page 7A

By Dr. Julianne Malveaux (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Unequal access to highquality health services is one of the most pervasive problems in America’s healthcare system. Far too often, communities of color face reduced access, higher costs, and less comprehensive care and support than their predominately white counterparts. While this has been a growing cause for concern for decades, several factors – including the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing supply chain issues, the increasing cost of providing medical care, high inﬂation, and a growing healthcare workforce shortage – have brought health equity issues to the fore. Add to that a broken Medicare physician payment system that is reducing access to care nationwide, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Throughout the Los Angeles region, there are a troubling number of federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas, with disproportionately lowincome, Black, and Latino neighborhoods seeing the greatest need. According to the California Health Care Foundation, low-income Californians are the least

likely to have access to a regular healthcare provider, and Black and Latino Californians are more likely than white Californians to report waiting longer than reasonable for a doctor’s appointment. California is not the only place that will experience improvements in health care access with the passage of HR 2474, but its diverse population give us an idea of which populations will gain most if it will successfully pass.

According to a study by the Commonwealth Foundation, Black Medicare beneﬁciaries are more likely than white ones to be hospitalized or seek care in an emergency department setting to treat health conditions that could be manageable if they had appropriate access to primary care. This dire lack of primary care is forcing many patients of color to seek out the care they need in higher-cost settings like

Physicians should be receiving the same inﬂationbased payment updates as all other Medicare provider types like hospitals and nursing homes.

hospitals and emergency rooms, further compounding the access and affordability issues with which these vulnerable patients must contend.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that more than six in 10 Black adults say less access to quality medical care in the communities is a “major reason” why Black Americans generally have worse healthcare outcomes than other adults. Smart public policy should help increase access to primary care to improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and prevent underserved communities from relying on hospitals and emergency departments to treat a range of health conditions that could be better and more affordably managed by physicians. see Doctors, page 7A

Dr. E. Faye Williams

Dr. Julianne Malveaux

Ben Jealous

Harris’ Appeal Serves As Bridge Between Generations

By David W. Marshall

TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

It is refreshing to see a leader like Vice President Kamala Harris who understands the wide generational gap we have in our nation. There will always be situations where older and younger people maintain different perspectives on life and the nation’s future based on their experiences, opinions, habits, and behavior.

Harris’ candidacy for president serves as a bridge between generations and has effectively found ways to close the gap in a relatively short time. Almost half of Gen Z (ages 16–27) respondents in a UCLA study said they were not motivated to vote at all in the 2024 presidential election prior to Kamala Harris’ nomination. In addition, 29 percent of Gen Z respondents who said they were not motivated to vote in the upcoming election before the change in the Democratic nominee say they are now motivated to vote for Harris.

The vice president’s campaign has a notable social media presence. It is through this presence she has successfully inspired undecided voters. “Young adults are increasingly getting news from TikTok, reporting social media as the most authentic form of media,” said Yalda Uhls, founder and CEO of the UCLA Center for Scholars & Storytellers.

“Our data shows that young people are very engaged with what’s happening in the political sphere around them, and keeping up with the news seems to be inﬂuencing their desire to vote for Kamala Harris.”

For young people interested in voting for Harris, her identity as a woman of color was not a large motivating factor.

Of Gen Z respondents, 82 percent cited reasons other than Harris’ racial or gender identity when explaining their support for her. Some respondents agreed with her stance on the issues; they see her as an exciting candidate that gives hope, and some liked what they learned about her on social media.

“Contrary to Republican messaging about Kamala Harris being a DEI hire, young people seem more excited about her candidacy because of the tone and substance of her campaign rather than because of her race, ethnicity or gender,” said Alisha Hines, the center’s director of research from its 2023 Teens and Screens Report, which showed

HBCU

Continued from page 1A

Team Harris-Walz hosted a tailgate for the Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) v. Bowie State University game in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Virginia State University is included in the tentative HBCU Tour schedule for the Weekend of Oct. 12. Other tentative HBCU locations are Lincoln University, Weekend of October 12th; Howard University, Weekend of October 19th; North Carolina A&T State University vs. Hampton University, Weekend of October 19th; Clark Atlanta University, Weekend of October 19th; Morehouse and Spelman College, Weekend of October 26th; Florida A&M University vs. Texas Southern University, Weekend of November 2nd; Shaw University, Fort Valley State University, and Savannah State University, Weekend of November 2nd.

that young people are overwhelming interested in stories of hope – a defining mood of the Harris campaign.”

Young people are distancing themselves from the political polarization we’ve become accustomed to seeing during previous election cycles. Harris has shown a unique ability to assess different demographics’ true needs and concerns and then meet them at their point of need. Like older generations before them, Gen Zers and millennials (ages 28-40) should be able to have hope in their futures while pursuing the “American dream,” allowing a new wave of younger leaders who understand the challenges of their peers to articulate to the American people.

Harris’ ability to be ﬂexible when dealing with various demographics while still being authentic is a character trait that draws the support of young people. President Biden had the right message but was not the most effective messenger. Harris is also unique because she is an HBCU graduate. Just as she has found ways of successfully motivating and inspiring Gen Zers through social media, she can also connect with young Black voters from HBCUs in ways other candidates cannot.

As a graduate of Howard University, she understands the cultural significance behind the HBCU homecoming.

Homecoming is a special time of the year for students and alums on HBCU campuses. If Harris becomes president of the United States, there will be a sense of special pride in having someone from Howard University hold the highest office in the nation. It is the type of pride shared with all HBCU students and alums, not just those from Howard. As a Norfolk State University graduate, I will also share in the proud moment of her election, as well as the journey of her historic campaign.

The Harris-Walz campaign will kick off an HBCU Homecoming Tour

Officials say the HBCU Homecoming Tour represents a deeper commitment by the Harris-Walz campaign to earn every single vote – reaching Black Americans where they are. To mark National Voter Registration Day, National HBCU Week, and National Black Voter Day last week, the Harris-Walz campaign held in-person and virtual canvassing events across 60 HBCU campuses in: Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. During a panel interview with the National Association of Black Journalists on National Voter Registration Day – in front of an audience of NABJ members and students from Lincoln University and Cheyney University – Vice President Harris spoke directly to Black voters about how her vision for an Opportunity Economy will benefit Black Americans, and will work to fulfill the promise of America for all. On that same day, Governor Walz met with Atlanta University Consortium (AUC) students, calling out the concerted efforts by

Harris’ ability to be ﬂexible when dealing with various demographics while still being authentic is a character trait that draws the support of young people, who seem more excited about her candidacy because of the tone and substance of her campaign.

across the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania to reach Black Gen Z voters. The tour will give special recognition to HBCUs. It starts at WinstonSalem State University during the weekend of Sept. 28. It continues on Oct. 12 with stops at Lincoln University and Virginia State University. On Oct. 19, the campaign will visit Howard University, North Carolina A&T, and Clark Atlanta University. Then, on Oct. 26, they will visit Morehouse and Spelman College. One of the keys to winning the election is gaining the support of Gen Zers and millennials.

“HBCUs are responsible for educating generations of leaders across all industries and remain some of the most distinguished institutions of higher learning in the United States – that is why as a proud Howard University graduate, Vice President Harris helped lead the Biden-Harris administration in investing $17 billion into HBCUs across the country,” said Harris-Walz 2024 Senior Advisor, Trey Baker. “… Engaging young Black voters and the broader HBCU alumni network across battleground states is a testament to the commitment of the Team Harris-Walz to truly meeting voters where they are at, to underscore the stakes of this election.” David W. Marshall founded the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and is the author of the book God Bless Our Divided America.

MAGA Republicans across the country, especially in Georgia to rip away their right to vote – the very right which inspired the Atlanta Student Movement three generations ago. To date, the BidenHarris administration has committed a record $17 billion in federal investments for HBCUs. At the beginning of the semester, Vice President Harris penned a letter to HBCU students, underscoring the stakes of this election and the importance of their vote this November.

Just last week, more than 50 HBCU football legends, including 10 Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductees, two Super Bowl MVPs, and a number of firsts to break the NFL’s color barrier – representing over 25 HBCUs – offered their endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz. As detailed in their letter of endorsement, “Given her integrity, values, and demonstrated commitment to justice and equality of opportunity, we are confident that as President she will serve the best interests of all Americans.”

David W. Marshall

INDICTED N.Y. MAYOR HOLDS FAST TO “NOT GUILTY” ON CHARGES

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

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been criminally indicted, becoming the ﬁrst sitting mayor in the city’s history to face such charges. Federal prosecutors announced the indictment late Wednesday, September 26. NBC News reported that the charges mark a pivotal moment in Adams’s tumultuous tenure, which high-level resignations and a series of federal investigations have plagued. Adams allegedly sought and accepted illegal “nominee” or “straw” contributions. By “smuggling their contributions” to Adams’ campaign through the straw donors and actors from overseas, Adams “defeated federal laws that serve to prevent foreign inﬂuence on U.S. elections,” according to the indictment.

In 2018, when Adams had announced his plans to run for New York City mayor, he allegedly accepted and sought illegal campaign contributions to his upcoming mayoral campaign, the indictment says.

Businesses also circumvented the city’s ban on corporate contributions “by funneling their donations through multiple employees,” according to the indictment.

In a video statement posted online, Adams ﬁercely denied the allegations, calling the charges “entirely false” and “based on lies.” He asserted that federal authorities had targeted him because of his commitment to standing up for New Yorkers. Adams

vowed to ﬁght the charges in court. He made it clear he had no plans to resign.

The indictment follows months of escalating federal scrutiny. Earlier this month, federal agents searched the homes of several of Adams’s top officials and seized phones, including that of Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned on September 12. Authorities also confiscated the phone of Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who now runs a nightclub security business.

Investigators reportedly are looking into whether bars and clubs in Manhattan and Queens paid James Caban to act as a police liaison and if those establishments received special treatment from local precincts. The indictment adds to a series of ongoing federal probes into Adams’s administration, which has already seen numerous highranking ofﬁcials come under investigation. These probes began last year when federal agents seized the mayor’s electronic devices after searching the home of his chief fundraiser. Calls for Adams to step down have intensiﬁed after

the charges. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who have launched campaigns for next year’s mayoral race, have publicly called for the mayor to resign. “The hardworking people of New York City deserve a government and leadership they can trust. Right now, they don’t have it,” Lander posted on X.

The New York Working Families Party, a major progressive group, also demanded Adams’s resignation, stating that “he has lost the trust of the everyday New Yorkers he was elected to serve.”

Adams, a former NYPD captain, was elected in 2021 on promises to restore public safety and reinvigorate the city post-COVID-19. His administration, however, has been criticized for handling issues like the migrant crisis and subway safety, as well as for his late-night socializing and disputes over city spending, particularly on education. Despite these challenges, Adams has maintained a deﬁant stance, denying all wrongdoing.

Several news outlets reported that Adams is expected to have several days to turn himself in, and is not expected to appear in court on Thursday. Prosecutors have informed his attorneys that he will be summoned to surrender later.

In his video statement, Adams remained resolute: “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers, I would be a target—and a target I became. If I am charged, I am innocent, and I will ﬁght this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”

Passes: John Amos, ‘Good Times’ Star and Emmy-Nominated Actor

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

John Amos, the Emmynominated actor and pioneering television star who brought to life some of the most beloved characters in entertainment history, has died. He was 84. His son, K.C. Amos, conﬁrmed in a statement that Amos passed away more than a month ago, on August 21, in Los Angeles of natural causes. The younger Amos didn’t say why he kept his father’s death under wraps for more than a month.

“It is with heartfelt sadness that I share with you that my father has transitioned,” K.C. said. “He was a man with the kindest heart and a heart of gold… and he was loved the world over. Many fans consider him their TV father. He lived a good life. His legacy will live on in his outstanding works in television and ﬁlm as an actor.”

Amos’ acting career spanned over ﬁve decades, with his most iconic role being that of James Evans Sr., the no-nonsense, hard-working father on the groundbreaking CBS sitcom Good Times (1974–1979). The show, which was the ﬁrst sitcom to center on an African American family, became a cultural touchstone, and Amos’ portrayal of James Evans Sr. made him a symbol of strength and dignity for countless viewers.

However, his time on the series was cut short after three seasons due to creative differences with the show’s producers. Amos famously clashed with the show’s direction, objecting to what he saw as the stereotypical

portrayal of his on-screen son, J.J., played by Jimmie Walker.

“We had a number of differences,” Amos recalled in later interviews, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “I felt too much emphasis was being put on J.J. in his chicken hat, saying ‘Dy-no-mite!’ every third page.” Amos’ insistence on portraying a more balanced, positive image of the Black family on television led to his departure from the show in 1976, when his character was written out in a dramatic two-part episode.

Born John Allen Amos Jr. on December 27, 1939, in Newark, New Jersey, Amos began his professional life with dreams of playing football. He played the sport at Colorado State University and had brief stints with teams like the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs. But after a series of injuries and cutbacks, Amos transitioned to entertainment, beginning his career as a writer and performer.

Amos got his ﬁrst major acting break as Gordy Howard, the good-natured weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, appearing on the iconic series from 1970 to 1973. He would go on to write and perform sketches on The Leslie Uggams Show

and later landed roles in various television series and ﬁlms.

In 1977, Amos received an Emmy nomination for his powerful portrayal of the adult Kunta Kinte in the landmark ABC miniseries Roots, a role that solidiﬁed his status as one of television’s most respected actors. Amos’ performance in Roots, one of the most watched and culturally signiﬁcant TV events of all time, remains one of his most enduring achievements.

In addition to his success on television, Amos made his mark in films. He appeared in Melvin Van Peebles’ groundbreaking blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and The World’s Greatest Athlete (1973). He was widely recognized for his role in Coming to America (1988), where he played Cleo McDowell, the owner of McDowell’s, a fastfood restaurant parody of McDonald’s. Amos reprised the role over three decades later in Coming to America 2 (2021).

Amos was also a familiar face on television throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, with recurring roles in shows like The West Wing as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Airas Will Smith’s stepfather. He appeared in The District, Men in Trees, All About the Andersons (as Anthony Anderson’s father), and the Netflix series The Ranch. Both K.C. and Shannon, children from his first marriage to artist Noel “Noni” Mickelson and his ex-wife, actress Lillian Lehman, survive Amos.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams

John Amos

Hate

Continued from page 4A

If you watched his speech, you saw that only a handful applauded during his long and hate-filled speech. I know people, even many in Israel, are tired of his spewing his hate toward everybody

who doesn’t agree with him. I’ve already been hurt over this issue so I am not afraid. I applaud those who are willing to point out wrong from right no matter who is doing it. Trump, Vance nor Netanyahu should be leading any nation. We can’t do anything about Netanyahu since we don’t vote in Israel, but we do have the right and obligation to vote

in the United States. On November 5, 2024 we can lessen the hatred by making sure Trump is never again allowed to lead our nation.

So, please listen to the candidate who is leading us in the right direction. Vote for VP Kamala Harris and return our nation to one of hope and love – not hate.

Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of The Dick Gregory Society where peace and love reign!

Sybil Haydel Morial Was A Mother, Matriarch, & Steel In Spine of Civil Rights Movement

By Marc H. Morial To Be Equal (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

“Though not tall in stature, Sybil Haydel Morial was a tower of grace, kindness, dignity and strength who inspired generations of servant leaders. For the past three decades, she was the matriarch of New Orleans politics ... Sybil was just as tenacious and just as fearless, but in a quiet yet iron-willed way – the epitome of a Steel Magnolia.”

– Clancy DuBos

New Orleans has lost its matriarch.

America has lost one of the last soldiers in that battle of the 1950s and 1960s that opened doors so we could walk through them.

My family has lost its mother and grandmother, Sybil Haydel Morial. But our grief is tempered by our gratitude, and the knowledge that her wisdom, passions, tenacity and love will live on for generations.

My father, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, was a trailblazer: the first Black graduate of Louisiana State University School of Law, the first in Louisiana to be elected or appointed to his many public offices, including Mayor of New Orleans, and a major force in the Civil Rights Movement.

But he’d have been nothing without Sybil.

America has lost one of the last soldiers in that battle of the 1950s and 1960s that opened doors so we could walk through them.

who urged my father to forge ahead. It was Sybil who made arrangements for us to ride a Trailways bus to a Greyhound bus to a train that would take us to Chicago.

When my father ran for mayor in 1977, his campaign was planning a huge fundraising concert at the Rivergate Convention Center. But as the date of the concert approached, he found that the people he had entrusted to organize it had sold no ticket, booked no musicians, and failed to lock down the venue. Once again, it was Sybil to the rescue. Headlined by the late jazz legend Lionel Hampton, the concert she organized raised the then-significant sum of $25,000, and saved my father’s campaign.

The House of Sybil was a no-nonsense place. In the House of Sybil, you were going to school. You were going to church. You did your chores. She was a diplomatic drill sergeant.

Doctors

Continued from page 4A

Unfortunately, however, current Medicare policy is doing just the opposite. Longstanding issues in Medicare’s physician payment system have put the program on an unstable, unsustainable path, threatening to further undermine access to primary care – particularly in underserved communities that are already reeling from a shortage of doctors.

You might think that the federal government would be doing everything it can to get more doctors into the ﬁeld, especially in Health Professional Shortage Areas – but in fact, Medicare reimbursement to doctors has declined by 29 percent since 2001, when adjusted for inﬂation in practice costs, according to the American Medical Association.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continues

Nation

Continued from page 4A

As a son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden got the need to reinvigorate manufacturing. Scranton is a city that was devastated by deindustrialization and trade agreements like NAFTA. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, manufacturing employment in the Scranton metropolitan area was reduced by half between 1990 and 2016. This is part of what has driven the BidenHarris administration’s “place-based” approach to reinvigorating the US manufacturing sector. The administration’s landmark initiatives like the IRA,

My parents had to decide whether we would continue our journey to the NAACP meeting in Chicago, where they would continue planning for the March on Washington. It was Sybil

One of the enduring memories from my early childhood was a serious car accident in one of the most stringently segregated areas of the Jim Crow South, Columbia, Mississippi. My parents, my sister Julie, and I escaped injury, but the brand-new Cadillac my parents had borrowed from Sybil’s father was totaled.

to chip away at the already low reimbursements physicians do receive. After imposing cuts on doctors ﬁve years in a row, CMS is again proposing to slash Medicare reimbursement by 2.8 percent in 2025.

By failing to properly reimburse physicians for the true cost of providing care, CMS is forcing many independent physician practices to stop seeing new Medicare patients, scale back stafﬁng or the services they provide, accept buyout offers from larger hospitals and health systems, or else close their doors. Any one of these scenarios is detrimental to patients, particularly in communities of color, where access is already scarce. Failure to ﬁx this problem will only make it harder for Black, Latino, and low-income seniors to get medical care.

There are many solutions that could help improve access to primary care for communities and patients of color, but one thing lawmakers could do immediately is work together to pass the Strengthening Medicare for

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act.

As Ben Beachy, special assistant to the President for Climate Policy, Industrial Sector, and Community Investment, notes, “The administration is committed to ensuring that hard-hit communities and workers reap the rewards of this boom, including deindustrialized communities.”

I see my mother’s many attributes in my siblings, our children, and our children’s children: her keen intelligence, her ease of making friends, and her drill-sergeant-like ability to take charge. What I think I inherited was her ability to multi-task. see Morial, page 8A

Patients and Providers Act. This bipartisan legislation, which has 164 cosponsors, would make critical updates to the Medicare physician payment system to help protect and improve access to primary care. In this toxic environment, Speaker Mike Johnson seems unlikely to schedule a vote on this critical legislation. But he could make the rare effort to exhibit rare bipartisanship, schedule a vote on this legislation, help pass legislation and pass schedule a vote for on 2474, something that millions of seniors would beneﬁt from. Physicians should be receiving the same inﬂationbased payment updates as all other Medicare provider types like hospitals and nursing homes. While there would still be much work to do to help improve health equity across in this nation, this legislation would go a long way in improving access to primary care for the patients and communities of color that need it most.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author.

Investments spurred by the IRA and other administration initiatives have ﬂowed heavily into impacted communities in the Midwest, to states like Michigan and Indiana. And Electric Vehicle and battery manufacturing are taking root in states like Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois. Michael Timberlake says, “I think electric vehicles could soon be the secondbiggest employer in the U.S. for clean energy jobs.” We know the climate crisis and the need to save our planet is driving an intense urgency for the shift to a clean energy future. But saving the planet is also the route to establishing US leadership in this next economy, as we race to overcome China’s head start in solar, wind, batteries, transmission cables, and the supply chains that support those and other products. And, maybe even more important, it is the way we bring back economic opportunity to millions of Americans and ease the pain that has helped lead to our division. This is one more way the movement to save the Earth can also heal our nation. Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sybil Haydel Morial

Marc H. Morial

Biden’s Executive Order

Targets Firearm Threats, Enhances School Safety

By Stacy M. Brown

Senior National Correspondent

@StacyBrownMedia

NEWSWIRE

NNPA

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris recently announced sweeping new measures to combat gun violence in America, marking a significant escalation in the administration’s ongoing efforts to reduce firearm-related deaths.

Central to this initiative is a new Executive Order that directs federal agencies to address the rising threats posed by machine gun conversion devices and 3D-printed firearms and to improve the effectiveness of school-based active shooter drills.

Since taking office, the Biden-Harris administration said it has worked to address the alarming spike in violent crime left by the previous administration. The American Rescue Plan allocated over $15 billion to law enforcement and public safety strategies, focusing on community violence interventions.

In June 2022, Biden signed the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which the White House called the most significant gun violence prevention law passed in nearly three decades. A year later, the administration established the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a groundbreaking program under Vice President Harris’ direction.

As the administration celebrates the first anniversary of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, Biden and Harris – the Democratic presidential nominee, said they are once again raising the bar with additional actions designed to save lives.

◆◆◆

A central focus of the new Executive Order is the fight against emerging firearms technologies. Two specific threats are highlighted: machine gun conversion devices and 3D-printed, unserialized firearms – both of which are increasingly found at crime scenes across the country.

Machine gun conversion devices, which can turn a semi-automatic firearm into an illegal automatic weapon, have surged by 570 percent between 2017 and 2021, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). These devices, often 3D-printed for less than a dollar, can fire up to 20 bullets in a single second, posing an unprecedented threat.

Unserialized firearms, commonly known as “ghost guns,” also present an evolving danger. Produced through 3D printing and undetectable by standard security measures, these firearms are often used for gun trafficking and other illegal activities. Officials noted that law enforcement cannot trace them, making criminal investigations harder and communities less safe.

◆◆◆

In the wake of numerous school shootings, the administration announced further steps to protect America’s students.

The Executive Order directs the Secretary of Education and other top officials to improve active shooter drills in schools. While many schools have already conducted these drills, concerns about the psychological impact on students, teachers, and parents have emerged. Over the next 110

DONALD TRUMP PROJECTS HIS INSECURE THOUGHTS ABOUT HIMSELF TO OTHERS

President Joe Biden

The Executive Order directs the Secretary of Education and other top ofﬁcials to improve active shooter drills in schools effectiveness of school-based active shooter drills.

days, federal agencies will collaborate to create guidance for schools that will make drills safer and more developmentally appropriate while also accommodating people with disabilities and language needs.

By Shedrick Byrd

I’m not a psychotherapist, but I did take a course in psychology. I do know that Donald Trump is an insecure person who projects and unconsciously transfers his own provocative weaknesses, desires and emotions to others.

An example occurred at one of his recent rallies at which he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “crazy.” He said she was born crazy. He also said she was “dumb.” Those are unconscious feelings about himself (and are correct, I would add).

At the rally where Trump made these remarks, his Maga crowd cheered, applauded, and laughed, showing their craziness, dumbness and lack of understanding the psychology of unconscious transfer of one’s own desires to another person. When he made those remarks, he and the crowd must have forgotten that Harris had just made him exhibit the very traits he is accusing her of possessing. I don’t think any normal thinking person, including Trump’s Magas would accept and allow Trump to entertain them with such lies if they fully understood the meaning of his remarks. Since it seems to be so entertaining to his Magas, I think Harris should use some of his own tactics against him. If she called him crazy and tell him he needs help, it would drive him up the wall. An example is when her campaign

The audience determined the winner.

Let’s see how the Magas will react to that. Undecided voters are still saying they need to know more about Harris. She has laid out her plan for governing that would focus on strengthening the middle class, making life better for all people. We know what Trump, if elected, would to do. He told us that

I think Vice President Harris should give Trump some of the “dozens.” This was a verbal game we played as children where we tried to outdo our opponent with insults against them and their family.

used the word “weird” against him, it drove him up the wall!

As I wrote this article it reminded me of my childhood when we played a game called “The dozens.” The dozens was a verbal game we played as children where we tried to outdo our opponent with insults against them and their family. The game was played before an urging on, cheering and booing group of children. Some on your side and some on the opponent’s side. The game was played mostly in the South. It was said that the game was used to strengthen the players mentally so they would be able to better withstand insults without exploding.

Continued from page 7A

if he is elected he will become a dictator the ﬁrst day. He will give a tax break for the richest Americans and will weaponize the Department of Justice so that he can have his enemies jailed. He also said he will get rid of Civil Service, as it is today. As many Black people know, civil service has been a blessing for Black people. It was the ﬁrst organization to get rid of discrimination in hiring practice. Remember to vote on November 5 and insure that your family and friends vote, too. We must keep the mixed up projections out of the White House! She could cook dinner, talk on the phone, and help us with homework, all at the same time, without missing a beat, without a hair out of place. Now she has gone to join her husband, her parents, her siblings. But she also has gone to join her fellow “sheroes” of the Movement like Mary McLeod Bethune, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King and Fanny Lou Hamer. They’ve gathered beyond the Pearly Gates for a strategy session, and they’re going to send a message back down here to the men of the Movement. That message is this: “You all have been running things, and we’ve been standing by you. You did some great things, and you made some mistakes. Now it’s time for us to lead, and we expect you to stand by us as we stood by you.”

Shedrick Byrd

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

SECTION B

VOTER ALERTS

Important Dates For The November 5 Election Cycle:

• Sept. 20 – Early voting begins at all general registrar’s ofﬁces. Some cities and counties offer early voting satellite locations. Dates and times vary by jurisdiction.

• Oct. 15 – Deadline to register to vote and cast a regular ballot

• Oct. 16 – Same-day registration begins. Anyone registering and voting at the same time will have to cast a provisional ballot.

• Oct. 25 – Last day to request an absentee ballot by mail or online

• Nov. 2 – Last day of early voting

• Nov. 5 – ELECTION DAY

REMINDER: If you are already registered, be sure you update any personal information that may have changed since the last election cycle. Visit the Virginia Department of Elections website at www.elections.virginia.gov.

Chesapeake NAACP Branch Will Host Its Annual Luncheon; Award Two

CHESAPEAKE

Two community leaders will be awarded by The Chesapeake Branch NAACP during its 57th Annual Freedom Fund Celebration on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at 11 a.m. at New Galilee Missionary Baptist Church. The guest speaker is Congressman Bobby Scott.

The 2024 honorees are Dr. Antipas L. Harris, founding president-dean of the Urban Renewal Center in Norfolk, Va., and Chesapeake School Board Member Samuel L. Boone, Jr.

Harris is a theologian, author, and scholar, recognized for building coalitions with community partners, crossing racial/ ethnic, denominational and religious lines. He also is a part-time Professor of Religious Studies at Old Dominion University.

Boone, Jr. has served consecutively on the

Chesapeake School Board since 2012 and is seeking reelection in November. He was a member of the Virginia State Police for 25 years as a recruiter and Master Trooper before retiring. He continues to serve on a number of law enforcement boards. Freedom Fund tickets are $50 each which includes lunch to be provided by “James Enterprises, LLC (hot dogs, chicken barbecue, chips, soda combo)” and a second vendor. Each ticket is eligible for up to $20 with a lunch vendor, a practice that allows the Chesapeake NAACP to support small businesses.

On Sunday, October 6, the Chesapeake Branch will be participating in transporting voters to Sunday Early Voting from 2-4 p.m. at City Hall alongside the Chesapeake Coalition of Black Pastors and the Chesapeake Ministers Coalition.

SMALL BUSINESS DIRECTORY

Va. Opera’s 2024-25 Season Opens; Includes “Loving

HAMPTON ROADS

The Virginia Opera observes its 50th Anniversary as it opens its 2024-2025 season this month with the dramatic opera Don Giovanni. It concludes in April 2025 with the world premiere of Loving v. Virginia, based on the story of Richard and Mildred Loving of Virginia, whose U.S. Supreme Court case legalized interracial marriages.

In between these two features are two other noted operas that the Virginia Opera is promising will be pleasing to audiences of old and new opera lovers. Virginia Opera is the ofﬁcial opera company of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is recognized as one of the ﬁnest regional opera companies in the nation. It is the only company to perform regularly in three separate main stage venues: the Harrison Opera House

v. Virginia” Debut PORTSMOUTH

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

When Kim Anderson, of Portsmouth, was diagnosed with triplenegative breast cancer at age 32, she had no idea that it would motivate her to travel to Capitol Hill to work as an advocate for other cancer survivors.

Now, Anderson aims to help more lawmakers understand cancer’s impact by working as an advocate during the Leadership Summit and Lobby Day which was held in September. Anderson is among hundreds of people nationwide who recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Leadership Summit and Lobby Day. She and other volunteers urged Congress to make cancer a national priority and advance federal legislation that would reduce the burden of cancer for communities nationwide.

“Hope drives us. It really, truly drives us,”

The anniversary’s grand ﬁnale is the much anticipated world premiere of Loving v. Virginia, with music by Damien Geter and a libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo ...

in Norfolk, the Carpenter Theatre at the Dominion Energy Center in Richmond, and Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax.

Organized in 1974, Virginia Opera is respected nationwide for the identiﬁcation and presentation of the ﬁnest young artists, for the musical and dramatic integrity of its productions, and for the ingenuity and variety of its education and outreach programs. Don Giovanni will be performed at the Harrison Opera House October 4 and

5. It explores love, morality, and the consequences of people’s actions, as it revolves around the amorous escapades of Don Giovanni.

Following Don Giovanni, a new production of Carmen will grace the stage. It tells the story of a hopeless soldier, Don José, who is seduced by Carmen, a ﬁery gypsy woman with an appetite for smuggling. Its run dates are November 8 and 10.

The season picks up again February 21 and 23, 2025 with Così fan tutte, a comedic opera with themes

of love and relationships, set in 18th century Naples. The storyline is centered around two ofﬁcers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, who have long bragged about their own solid relationships with their ﬁancées.

The anniversary’s grand ﬁnale is the much anticipated world premiere of Loving v. Virginia, with music by Damien Geter and a libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo, co-commissioned with the Richmond Symphony. Directed by the internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, the cast includes Flora Hawk as Mildred Jeter Loving and Jonathan Michie as Richard Loving, both making their mainstage debuts.

For more information on the season and to purchase tickets, please visit www. vaopera.org or contact the Virginia Opera Box Ofﬁce at (866) 673-7282.

Anderson told WTKR in a recent interview. explaining how she hopes to improve funding, research and treatment options for cancer patients.

“It’s very important that we speak to our Congressional delegation,” Anderson explained.“We need those investments for future cancer investors to actually go ahead and quite possibly fund the next possible cancer treatment for our new cancer patients and also for the cancer patients who have ongoing cancer treatments,” Anderson said. “There quite possibly could be a cure somewhere

out there.”

The Leadership Summit & Lobby Day involved volunteers who traveled across the country to Washington, D.C., where they spoke to policymakers. Volunteers spoke to lawmakers in an effort to increase cancer screenings and preventive measures..

According to CNN, US cancer death rates continue to decline while incidence rates of certain forms of the disease increase, according to a recent American Cancer Society report.

From 1991 to 2021, cancer deaths in the US fell 33 percent, largely due to drops in tobacco use, earlier detection and major improvements in treatments. However, racial disparities persist, with people of color facing higher risks.

It is important to point out that celebrities such as Robin Roberts, age 63, received a 2007 breast cancer diagnosis but survived, while Wanda Sykes, age 60, survived a 2011 breast cancer diagnosis.

11 Inducted Into Old School Legends Hall of Fame

CHESAPEAKE

The Old School Legends Hall of Fame held its 6th Annual Hampton Roads Old School Legends Basketball Banquet on September 21 at the Chesapeake Conference Center. Dr. Tonita C. Phillips was the guest speaker.

Founder and organizer John Speller created the organization to recognize outstanding basketball players, coaches and contributors from Hampton Roads and Richmond. During this year’s awards ceremony, Speller, assisted by Dr. Phillips, inducted 11 persons into the Old School Legends

Hall of Fame: Coach Karen Barefoot, Adrena Livingston Foy, Coach Kenneth Brown, Norman Deloatch Jr., Desiree Finney, Munden Guy Morgan, Darnay Ward, Coach Lonnie Blow Jr., Larry Rubama, Ashley Mason Springer and the Late Patrick Fitzgerald Creecy (posthumously).

Inductees received a jacket bearing the Hall of Fame patch, symbolizing inspiration, tenacity and leadership, both on and off the court, noted Speller.

The organization is a supporter of the Shriners’ Hospital for Children’s Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky.

3rd Annual Evening of Hope Set For Oct. 10

NORFOLK

The 3rd Annual Evening of Hope to honor victims, their families, and survivors of various forms of violence, including gun and knife violence, will take place Thursday, October 10, at 7 p.m. at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk. The event is presented by the Urban Renewal Center and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (VSO).

Additionally, recognition will be given for the

crucial efforts of frontline professionals who tirelessly work to provide hope amid pervasive violence.

A Community Choir will perform that will be comprised of individuals, Frontline Workers, and church choirs from the local area, aiming to harmonize their voices in remembrance of those lost prematurely and in solidarity with their bereaved families and friends. This event is free.

again. Since opener’s hand is in the medium range (15 to 17 HCP), opener rebids 3 Hearts. Responder’s hand is minimum. Responder (West) wants to play in partscore in Hearts. Responder would pass the 3 Heart bid.

3) The contract is 3 Hearts and East is the declarer.

4) South makes the opening lead with the K Diamond

5) Declarer (East) needs nine tricks but only has eight sure tricks. The Club suit provides the opportunity to develop an additional trick if declarer plays the Clubs twice so that there are none in the dummy; the third round of Clubs can be ruffed in dummy.

1) East opens the bidding with 1 Heart. East is the describer and West is the responder and the captain.

2) West, the responder, can support opener’s suit and has 6 High Card Points (HCP) and 1 distributional point for the doubleton in Clubs (see NOTE below). Responder bids 2 Hearts. Responder’s bid is invitational, and opener doesn’t have to bid

6) Declarer has to leave a trump in the dummy to ruff the third Club.

7) Declarer should make his 3 Hearts contract.

Tidewater Bridge Club’s winning players in the September 25, 2024 game: Lawrence Owes - Rose Ward - Elizabeth Lyons

Sandra Starkey – Gillis Watson - Gene Payne –Elva Taylor

TIDEWATER

BRIDGE CLUB: Richard A. Tucker Memorial Library 2350 Berkley Ave., Extension –Norfolk, VA 23523.

The dates for the next four games are:

1) Wednesday, Oct. 9

10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

2) Wednesday, Oct. 16

10 a.m.

thru

Contact L. Owes at email below). Light snacks and water provided; bring your lunch. Contact Lawrence Owes at l.a.owes1@gmail.com for additional information.

Hello and welcome to The Bridge Corner. Getting Ready to Ruff in Dummy.

Wilma Horne - Aldis Raymond – Leon Ragland

(L-R) Coach Karen Barefoot, Adrena Livingston Foy, Coach Kenneth Brown, Norman Deloatch Jr., Desiree Finney, Munden Guy Morgan, Darnay Ward, Coach Lonnie Blow Jr., Larry Rubama, Ashley Mason Springer and the Late Patrick Fitzgerald Creecy (pic not shown)

Photo: Courtesy

Kim Anderson

PORTSMOUTHHONORS ITSOWN

PORTSMOUTH

Senator L. Louise Lucas has added more history to her legacy as she witnessed the unveiling of a street sign in her name on September 28 delivered by the city she has served for decades. Sen. Lucas began locally as a City Councilwoman, moving on to the state level as a Delegate and Senator, and now to the position as the first woman and African-American to serve as President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate. The new street sign bearing her name is in locale of the Rivers Casino Portsmouth for which she championed for years. The grand ceremony at the street site featured Portsmouth high school bands and a host of local and state politicians, community activists, and faith leaders.

DROP ME OFF IN

HARLEM FUNDRAISER:

An Evening With Becky Livas

HAMPTON

The Hampton History Museum, in partnership with the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH) and acclaimed local jazz and cabaret vocalist Becky Livas will present “Drop Me Off in Harlem,” a captivating musical fundraiser. The event takes place Saturday, October 19, 6:30-9 p.m. at the Hampton History Museum. Versatile cabaret-jazz vocalist Becky Livas has been a favorite of Virginia music audiences for 30 years; she is at home in front of big band audiences or in intimate cabaret settings. Her Great American Songbook covers periods from Tin Pan Alley to the late 20th century. This special event will

Becky Livas

transport guests back to the vibrant era of the Harlem Renaissance, celebrating the rich cultural legacy and musical brilliance of the time. Featuring an evening of live performances, the program will showcase classic pieces from legendary artists such as Duke Ellington,

Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong, capturing the essence of jazz, blues, and cabaret that deﬁned this golden age.

Attendees are encouraged to embrace the spirit of the evening by dressing in period-inspired attire. The event will be catered by Polly’s Restaurant. Beer and wine will be available for purchase. The Hampton History Museum is located at 120 Old Hampton Lane in Downtown Hampton. There is free parking in the garage across the street from the museum. Tickets are $40. For tickets and more information call (757) 727-1102 or visit www. hamptonhistorymuseum.org [hamptonhistorymuseum. org]

By Sean C. Bowers

United in purpose, we carry on, we move forwards, never backwards, we get up, we rise, we overcome, we win, and in the end, we are the mountain, we climb. We summit this mountain of us, built by us, for us, for our children, for our great-grandchildren’s children. We are, still, in that solemn moment, with the internal knowledge that We are, still, and always have been more than enough, just as we are.

Vice President Harris, as you step through the glass ceiling’s broken shards, broken promises, broken remnants of the age-old artiﬁcially created, unnecessarily implemented, predatory-designed broken systemic usta-bees – know that NOW when young girls everywhere in the world learn their ABC’s, they will know in their hearts that they, too, can indeed be anything they want to be and are willing to work for.

Now we look to the next tallest mountain to scale, never forgetting this mountain. We remember all those on whose shoulders we were swept up, held up to become our best selves, our destiny, our potential, our great-greatgrandparents’ vision’s realized and actualized.

We are most highly

favored, blessed and watched over. We speak it, so. We speak ourselves up to where we know we belong. We are all of us on this epic journey together on this exodus bus. We are here today, from whence we came, never to be the same, or to pull up lame. We are Jesse Owens facing down Hitler on his NAZI turf for 4 gold medals. We are Bullet Bob Hayes, still to this day, the only Olympic gold medalist and Super Bowl Champion. We are Muhammad Ali, the greatest of all time, formed from the rock bed of Jack Johnson and the Brown Bomber, who Maxxed out Schmeling, across the seas, on the radio. No matter how they covered the Olympics, sports, history, entertainment, music, and society, we came, we conquered, all while we rose to face down the elephant

We are still, here, America. We are the Black Press, the New Journal & Guide ... we represent you, our people.

in the room. We are sterling, pearls, gold, and diamonds made over time under extreme pressure, NOT to succeed. Yet in spite of all the spite, we are now the ones they come to sell their ﬁzzy bubbles on TV. We are the sprightly of spirit. We are more than they will ever know or can conceive of us. Our meek inherit the earth. We change the games we play, every time we drive, board, sit down on, ride, repair, buy, and lead the bus. We’ve been taught well by our ancestors’ countless generations to forever positively represent our Blackness.

We are, still able after all we have been through, to still see the best in others, ourselves and life. We are still able and willing to shoulder the load, to help our neighbors in need, carry on, carrying their causes kindly.

We are still continuing our climb together, in kind, we grow in numbers as a force for good.

We are America’s moral compass, North Star. We raise the bar because of who we are. Who we stand for, who we will become is now uncapped, our truest potential, still untapped. Unmapped, we chart new courses forward, continuing upward with what we started. Undaunted, no longer by our past haunted, we are more than on our way, today. We are here to stay. We are what we will ourselves to be. We are kind, understanding, empathic; we carry the weight of the world, like Atlas.

We lift up our hearts, minds and souls and ensure that none are left behind, struggling on alone, in their own (mental) fox holes.

We are still, here, America. We are the Black Press, the New Journal & Guide. We are loud and proud as James Brown sang. We represent you, our people. We follow no one; we lead from within and from the front lines. As we still climb all mountains near and far, we are our own North Star and we are still, summiting.

Sean C. Bowers has written 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 V1ZUAL1ZE@aol. com NNPA 2019 Publisher of

C. Bowers

Photo: LavorisPace

Photo: RandySingleton

(L-R) Sen. Louise Lucas, Sen. Mamie Locke, Fmr. Governor Terry McAuliffe, Congressman Bobby Scott

Photo: RandySingleton Portsmouth Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas Burke

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

RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST MOMENTS of MEDITATION

Ephesians 4:17-32

Many Christians today face a problem that is both old and new – how to live in a Christ like way in secular culture. In the past, even those who were not believers were not, for the most part, particularly hostile to Christian values and practices. But things are changing. Now there is a spreading trend to ignore or repudiate Christian values and substitute unrestrained self-indulgence. This results in a deepening depravity, which is increasingly accepted and promoted. This presents believers with the problem of maintaining a genuinely Christian value system and lifestyle in the midst of a culture that is becoming increasingly inhospitable to such things.

This public degradation of moral values is actually older than both Christianity

and Judaism. The church, after all, came into being in a pagan society where Greco-Roman values and practices were often contrary to those of Judaism as well as to the teachings of Christ and the apostles. This contrast is vividly put before us in the passage we are studying today.

Paul is writing to Christian Gentiles who grew up with thought patterns and ways of life that they must reject if they are to live for God. After laying down principles for change in the first part of chapter 4, the apostle becomes very specific about how to accomplish it. His exhortations to the Ephesians are not ancient, outmoded ideals, but are directly applicable to believers today.

TWO WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT LIFE. When Paul wrote his letters to the Christians

in Rome and Galatia, he insisted that they turn away from Judaistic legalism. In this letter of the Ephesians, he is equally insistent that they turn away from pagan permissiveness. Such a change requires a new kind of thinking (v. 17). Pagan thought patterns lead to self-indulgence and finally to self-destruction (Romans 1).

The only way to avoid enticement and entrapment by a pagan mind-set is consciously to adopt the mindset of Christ. When Paul’s readers came to know Christ, they were introduced to a totally different way of thinking (Ephesians 4:20-21). The word translated “come to know” does not refer to intellectual understanding, but the strong conviction that leads to discipleship. Escaping the old way of thinking and adopting a new one is like shedding an old garment and donning a new one. The “old self” must be “put off” (v. 22), and the “new self” must be “put on” (v. 24).

Verse 23 reads literally, ‘Be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (New American Standard Bible). The transformation of a mind-set requires the Holy Spirit’s supernatural power – not only to make a new spiritual creation in Christ, but also to refine the new image of those

“created to be like God” (v. 24). The spirit shapes a people characterized by “true righteousness and holiness.”

TWO LIFESTYLES –OFF WITH THE OLD! ON WITH THE NEW! Paul builds on the “Put off! Put on” metaphor by identifying a number of specific things that Christians should abandon or adopt. These behaviors fall into three categories: the words we speak; the thing we do; the attitudes we feel. The source of these behaviors is either the devil or the Holy Spirit. What are some of the “old” and “new” ways of life of which Paul writes? For one thing, there are old and new ways of talking. One of the old ways was to lie. A person who is “in Christ” must not defile that relationship by being untruthful.

“Unwholesome talk” (v. 29) is to be displaced by helpful conversation. The word “unwholesome” is used spiritually about bad fruit (Matthew 7:1718) and bad fish (13:48). Unwholesome talk fouls the Christian community and contaminating God’s work in the hearts of His people. What it needs is conversation that strengthens believers in their faith and new way of life. Paul will say more along this line in the next

chapter. The contrast between old and new is to be seen also in our deeds. Specifically, Paul contrasts stealing with honest work (Ephesians 4:28). In our society today, just as in pagan ones, many people have no compulsion about shoplifting or other forms of petty thievery. Even “decent” people –including some Christians! – may steal by cheating others or gaining personal advantage by unfair means. This sin may be easy to conceal from other people, but it cannot be hidden from God.

The third area in which the old is to be discarded in favor of the new is perhaps the most difficult. Words and deeds are relatively observable and therefore open to correction. But feeling can be hidden –even denied inwardly –which makes them difficult to deal with.

Paul singles out the feeling of anger by quoting Psalms 4:4, “in your anger do not sin,” and supplementing it with a command to get over any anger you may feel by the close of the day (Ephesians 4:26). This suggests that some anger may be justified. Paul’s point is that even if your anger is justified, you must not allow it to become characteristic of your personality, which would

give the devil a foothold in your life. Uncontrolled anger carries with it a host of negative feelings and attitudes, some of which are (v. 31): bitterness (resentment), rage and anger (outbursts of temper), brawling (shouting and violent actions), slander (abusive speech) and malice (ill will toward others). These rags of moral covering must be “put off’ and replaced by the garments of grace that God gives us. Believers are to become (a more accurate translation than “be”) in (v. 32): Kind (gentle and generous), compassionate (this word is literally translated “having good inward parts”), and forgiving (showing mercy and love to one another even when undeserved). We should willingly treat each other this way because of God’s forgiveness that has been extended to us freely in Christ. From positioning, believers are already righteous “in Christ” through trusting Him as Savior and Lord. Practically and experientially, we are to attain righteousness by constantly turning from our old mind-set and lifestyle and inviting the Holy Spirit to express His new thinking and patterns of behavior in us and through us.

CHURCH ADs & DIRECTORY

Welcoming all to join us in our Bible-based service!

Film Review: The Wild Robot

By Dwight Brown Film Critic

★ ★ ★ ★ (3 1/2 Stars)

All hail single moms raising kids they didn’t birth. Dedicated parents who shepherd children into adulthood. They’re saints. It’s almost as if this family film’s theme was ripped from the headlines in this twisted era of demeaning mothers who raise youngsters that didn’t come from their bodies. Or people who pour their love and nurturing into cats, dogs and other alternatives. Call novelist Peter Brown prescient for writing his bestseller The Wild Robot. Call writer/director Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) right on time for his very touching adaptation and eclectic casting that pulls the world together. Kudos to the diverse group of actors that help tell this story that preaches the gospel of love and community in the face of adversaries and naysayers. They should all take a bow.

Somewhere out there a spaceship crash lands on an uninhabited island, that’s if you don’t count animals. The lone survivor is a robot, Rozzum unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o). Roz is programmed to assists others – to a fault. As she tries to befriend the animals on the isle, they’re either afraid of her or pushing her around. Fate has it that she stumbles across a nest and an egg. Providence hatches the

egg and it’s a gosling. A baby goose. Slowly as Roz parents the bird it grows into a young goose named Brightbill (Kit Connor, Rocketman). She teaches him the importance of eating, swimming and flying. But is perplexed by her bond with the animal. Can’t put a name on it. But Pinktail the possum (Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek) clues her in: “As far as he’s concerned, you’re his mother!”

As time goes by the hodge podge of animals center their lives around Roz and Brightbill. They’re no longer afraid and forming a community. An extended family. Chief among the furry and featured creatures are Fink the fox (Pedro Pascal), who eyes the others as potential prey when his instincts get the better of him. Pinktail and her tiny brood. The big bear Thorn (Mark Hamill) and busy beaver Paddler (Matt Berry). The day comes when the boy goose must become a young adult goose, and his surrogate

mom must let go. The day comes when hostile forces will threaten the animals. They will be tested. Only the hardest heart couldn’t be touched by this story and its vulnerable characters all trying to survive, learn, grow and adapt as a family. The novel was written with middle grade children in mind, and that’s how the movie plays. Perfect for kids and tweens. The kind of film parents can take their kids to see and then teach them lessons about what family, parenting and children learning to be independent is all about.

From Roz’s first harrowing days on the strange island the script and Sander’s direction pulls you into her plight. She needs to be less subservient and more assertive. It’s a tricky balance, but it’s fun to watch her awkward giant steps forward. Also depicting the tech and AI age, with its advances but dehumanizing and menacing ways is also engaging.

FUN PUZZLE FOR YOUR LEISURE

Nyong’o brings a sweetness and naiveté to Roz that remains fresh throughout. All done with her voice. With inflection, phrasing, tone and a mix of joy and concern. As the robot becomes more empathetic and shows a wider range of emotions audiences feel the change. Pascal’s devilish turn as Fink is funny and biting. And the innocence and bravery displayed by Connor become more absorbing as he and his loved ones come under attack by the steely, cold hearted robot Vondra (Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once).

Kids won’t squirm through this fantasy because editor Mary Blee knows how to keep a beat. The scenery looks fresh and colors vibrant because production designer Raymond Zibach and art director Ritchie Sacilioc are on the job. Cinematographer Chris Stover’s sense of lighting and composition are right on the mark and Kris Bowers’ music intensifies the ups and downs that make this film a roller coaster.

Sanders masterfully turns a book into a compelling family film. A modern, animated parable audiences will relish from beginning to end.

All hail this single mom and bird lady movie that proves once and for all that families and parents come in all sizes, shapes, species and robots.

NBA HALL OF FAMER DIKEMBE MUTOMBO DIES OF BRAIN CANCER AT 58

By Stacy M. Brown Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

NNPA NEWSWIRE

Dikembe Mutombo, the towering 7-foot-2 center, one of the NBA’s greatest shot blockers, died of brain cancer, the league announced on Monday. He was 58.

Mutombo ﬁrst made his mark at Georgetown, where his shot-blocking abilities and imposing presence on the court quickly earned him national recognition.

He was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year four times, cementing his reputation as one of the league’s most feared defenders.

But Mutombo’s impact reached far beyond basketball.

After retiring from the game, he dedicated himself to humanitarian work, particularly in his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS PROPOSALS # CRHA 24-Q-005

The Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority is soliciting qualifications proposals from qualified and licensed firms to provide Professional Services for Mixed Finance Development Partner Services for the development of new affordable housing and the acquisition/rehabilitation of an existing multi-family housing property in the Campostella Square area of Chesapeake, Virginia. RFQ document download and submittal return: may be downloaded from the CRHA website under the Procurement Section at crhava.org, RFQ documents will be ready for download Monday, September 24, 2024, at 8 a.m. local prevailing time. The qualifications proposal submittal must be received in-hand and time-stamped in the CRHA Central Office, 1468 South Military Highway, Chesapeake, VA 23320. Solicitation no later than Friday October 25, 2024, by 2 p.m. prevailing local time. CRHA contact person: Art Harbin, Procurement Officer, (757) 233-6412 fax: (757) 523-1601, art_harbin@crhava.org. Minority and/ or women-owned businesses are encouraged to submit proposals.

2007, he founded the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital in Kinshasa, providing muchneeded medical care to thousands of people.

Dikembe Mutombo leaves behind a towering legacy as a basketball icon and a champion for healthcare and humanitarian efforts in developing countries. His determination to lift others off the court rivaled his shotblocking prowess.

Dikembe Mutombo