NJG | Vol. 124, No. 12 March 21, 2024

NEWEWJOURNAL OURNAL & GUIDE UIDE NEW EW JOURNAL OURNAL & GUIDE UIDE

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: KAINE LEADS CHARGE ON MAIL DELAYS, DISRUPTIONS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine led his colleagues, including Senator Mark R. Warner and Representatives Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-04), Bobby Scott (DVA-3), Rob Wittman (R-VA-01), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07), Bob Good (R-VA05), and Jen Kiggans (R-VA-02), in sending a letter to the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) Inspector General (IG) sharing stories of Postal Service disruptions and delays across Virginia.

The USPS OIG is currently auditing the Richmond Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RPDC) in Sandston because the center is one of the first processing centers in the country that was opened to centralize outgoing mail and package processing. The USPS OIG is expected to release their report and recommendations soon that will assess the efficacy and operational impacts of the changes.

“Since last summer, we have seen a significant uptick in mail disruptions and delays within the Richmond RPDC’s covered area. These developments are especially concerning as the Richmond RPDC was one of the first implemented consolidation projects as a part of USPS’s Delivering for America initiative. While we are always open to changes to longstanding practices to improve efficiency, the ongoing stream of

For example, since all mail from Norfolk goes first to Richmond and then comes back, it often creates delays in delivery of New Journal and Guide newspapers to local subscribers.

reports we get suggests that the opposite is happening,” wrote the lawmakers.

“In an effort to advocate for our constituents and help inform your investigation, we would like to highlight some examples that our offices have received of mail problems that have cost people significant time, money, and frustration,” the lawmakers continued.

In their letter, they highlighted recent examples of USPS delivery issues, For example, since all mail from Norfolk goes first to Richmond and then comes back, it often creates delays in delivery of New Journal and Guide newspapers to local subscribers. see Kaine, page 2A

OP-ED | Prostate Cancer: A Silent Killer No More

By Hamil R. Harris

NNPA Contributing Writer

Political provocateurs are determined to stir up controversy over Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s failure to tell President Biden about his treatment for prostate cancer. Yet, his desire to keep the matter private – and out of the public eye – is in line with what many men, particularly men of color, have done for decades.

The reticence to share details of a medical condition is understandable, but prostate cancer is a silent killer in the Black community and the time has come to give it a voice.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III conducts a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Feb. 1, 2024.

to send

message

prevalence of prostate

count on me to set a better

NORFOLK Norfolk State University President Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston (at right) celebrates with NSU Athletic Director Melody Webb after the Norfolk State Lady Spartans withstood a fierce rally last week by Howard to win the game, 51-46, and claim the 2024 MEAC championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament. Another NSU win this year was the awarding of HBCU National Coach of the Year to Head Coach Robert Jones. This was Jones’ second HBCU National Coach of the Year as he earned the honor during the 2021-22 season.

The MEAC Conference is headed by woman history-making Commissioner Sonja Stills, who is the first female commissioner for an HBCU Division I conference. She assumed the role when retiring Commissioner Dr. Dennis Thomas left the position at the end of 2021. see more MEAC, page 2B

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

MOTHER OF MARIAN ANDERSON WAS LYNCHBURG, VA. NATIVE

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor

New

Journal

Many famous Black artists have Virginia roots, including renowned opera singer Marian Anderson, whose mother Annie Rucker Anderson grew up in Lynchburg, studied at Virginia Theological Seminary and College, and taught school before migrating to Philadelphia in 1895.

Marian Anderson not only puts a human face on the 2024 Black History Month theme, “African-Americans and the Arts,” her lineage shows many Black artists grew up in households headed by Blacks who steadily migrated from the South to the North after slavery ended in 1865.

Marian Anderson was the daughter of Lynchburg native, Annie Rucker Anderson, and her husband, John Berkley Anderson, of Philadelphia. Their daughter, Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia on Feb. 27, 1897– about 30 years after slavery ended. One of the famous opera singer’s descendants, her mother’s father, Robert Rucker, owned a successful livery stable in downtown Lynchburg for 40 years.

the

daughter of Lynchburg native, Annie Rucker Anderson, and John Berkley Anderson of Philadelphia.

Several photos show Annie Rucker Anderson standing near her trailblazing daughter, who made history when she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939, before an audience of at least 75,000. The same year, the Lynchburg native’s famous daughter also

performed “Ave Maria” and other songs in June in Europe for Queen Elizabeth and King George IV. Her daughter continued to make history. In 1955, Anderson became the first Black to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. see WHM, page 8A

Photo: CourtesyoftheLibraryofCongress

Champs!

DoDPhoto:U.S.NavyPettyOfficer1stClassAlexanderKubitza

Former Baltimore Mayor Gets Early Prison Release

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is free and is no longer on federal probation after she was sentenced to a threeyear sentence for federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges in 2020.

On March 14, 2024, a federal judge terminated Pugh’s probation. Pugh was convicted of fraud for her “Healthy Holly” book scheme after she pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy

Prostate

Continued from page 1A

Keeping the surgery and treatment a secret would only have continued to add to the stigma surrounding prostate cancer. That would have been a disservice to the thousands of men of color diagnosed annually.

Indeed, data from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City shows that more than 13 percent of African-American men between the ages 45 and 79 will develop prostate cancer in their lifetimes. And Black men have a 70 percent higher rate of developing prostate cancer than White men. The American Cancer Society also shockingly predicts that Black men are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than their White counterparts.

These figures are appalling when considering that prostate cancer is one of the most treatable forms of the disease with the five-year survival rate for men diagnosed with it being greater than 99 percent if the cancer is detected during the early stage.

While there are numerous reasons for why this disparity between Black and white men exists – decades of structural racism, environmental issues, certain comorbidities, different molecular pathways in the body of Black men – a great deal of the reason comes down to the fact that Black men are disproportionately not being screened for prostate cancer as early or as regularly as White men.

A recent study published in JAMA Oncology by a team at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center found that Black men get fewer PSA (prostate specific antigen) screenings; they are more likely to be diagnosed with later stage cancer; they are less likely to have health insurance; and they have less access

and tax evasion charges stemming from her efforts to peddle and profit from the sale of her “Healthy Holly” children’s books. A judge in 2020 sentenced her to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Pugh served her sentence in a federal correctional facility in Alabama and was released to a reentry management office in Maryland. She was scheduled to be supervised through March 2025.

Federal probation officers Tracey Lewis and Marius Davis said

in a recent statement, “She is categorized as a person under supervision with a low propensity for reoffending and presents with no identified public safety risks. She demonstrates the ability to lawfully self-manage beyond supervision and receives adequate prosocial support to aid with this endeavor.”

Pugh began her period of supervision in April 2022, according to the memorandum. The conditions of her release included financial

Data from Mount Sinai Medical Center shows more than 13% of African-American men between ages 45-79 will develop prostate cancer in their lifetimes.

to high-quality care and other disparities that can be linked to a lower overall socioeconomic status.

Given his platform as Secretary of Defense, I am happy that Austin recognized his duty to be open and honest about his battle with this disease. And in doing so, he now joins groups and individuals who are already working on spreading awareness for prostate screenings who can act as guideposts.

For example, Mount Sinai Medical Center recently unveiled the Robert F. Smith Mobile

March 22, 1969

Edition of the Guide

Back-To-Africa-Bill

WASHINGTON A bill was introduced in Congress which would offer Black Americans an opportunity to settle permanently in Africa under a government financed plan. Persons taking advantage of the offer would have to give up their American citizenship. The Bill created a stir in some circles.

The Bill was introduced by Rep Robert Nix “on behalf of constituents” according to an aide of the congressman. “The congressman personally disagrees with the purpose of it,” the aide said.

The proposal is an old one which originated before the Civil War. Several Negro leaders including Bishop Henry McNeil Turner of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, John B. Russwurm, editor of the first Negro Newspaper, and Franklin Turner of Philadelphia favored colonization.

Marcus Garvey, who organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association, conducted a nationwide crusade for Negro Colonization in Africa. He sponsored a Black philosophy which included Americans Black Cross and the Black Star Line.

Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, was founded by America ex-slaves and freedmen during the administration of President James Monroe. Other colonies were also tried in the early 19th Century. Nix’s Bill would arrange for the United States to buy land for each immigrant provided for free transportation, a house health benefits and $7,000 a year until permanently settled.

( Editor’s Note: Congressman Robert Nix Sr, was the first African -American elected to the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. He served from 1958 to 1979)

disclosure, no new credit or debt, mental health treatment and medication, cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service and $411,948 in restitution, to be paid at $100 a month, according to the memorandum.

According to a statement from her probation officers, “She has maintained a stable residence in Baltimore City, and remained financially capable of adhering to the court stipulated requirements of her restitution payment schedule.”

scourge of prostate cancer by going directly into the communities most affected by the disease.

Kaine

Continued from page 1A

Examples across the state include a constituent in Mechanicsville, a medical supply business owner in Richmond, county officials in the Northern Neck and a student at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The members wrote:

Last year, Kaine wrote to USPS pressing them to address mail delivery issues in Virginia.

collections and operations.”

Prostate Cancer Screening Unit, which will visit New York City neighborhoods where men could be at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. The mobile home sized bus is named after the AfricanAmerican philanthropist and venture capitalist who donated almost $4 million to launch the program. Smith, who has led many philanthropic endeavors aimed at supporting the AfricanAmerican community, obviously realizes that it takes a preemptive approach to combat the

In announcing the prostate screening initiative, Smith tied it to larger inequities in our society that leave AfricanAmericans behind. “It’s unconscionable that in our great country and at this moment of technological breakthrough, Black Americans are still subject to staggeringly worse health outcomes,” he said. “We can fix this.”

Thankfully there are individuals like Smith and now Austin to use their platforms to spread awareness for this deadly – yet very treatable – form of cancer and ensure that more people don’t die needlessly. Hamil R. Harris is an award-winning journalist and contributing writer for the NNPA.

“Ron, a Vietnam veteran from Mechanicsville, Virginia, placed an order through the Department of Veterans Affairs for medication and was told to expect a 7–10-day delivery time. Over six weeks later, he had still not received his medications despite verification from the Department of Veterans Affairs that it was mailed on December 28, 2023.”

“Lys, who operates a medical supply business in Richmond, Virginia, notified us that over $1,000 of medical supplies were never delivered after having been traced to the Richmond RPDC on December 18, 2023. After multiple inquiries with the USPS, the constituent not only never recovered the supplies, but their business relationship with a key distributor ended as a result.”

“County officials in the Northern Neck region of Virginia reported receiving mail a month after it had been initially postmarked, and in some cases, mail was not delivered at all. These disruptions have had significant impacts on tax

“Micah, a PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University, counted on USPS to deliver his visa application to the Italian Consulate as is needed to acquire a student visa to Italy. However, the entire package, including his passport, was lost in transit having never left Richmond. The significant delays in delivery necessitates him to obtain a new passport and while his package including his old passport was eventually delivered to the Italian consulate, the resulting delays cost Micah hundreds of dollars and weeks of uncertainty about his academic future.”

In February, Kaine held a roundtable in Richmond to discuss USPS issues. In January, he led a bipartisan group of his colleagues in pressing USPS on mail delivery delays and disruptions impacting Virginians in the Richmond region and raised concerns about reports that the Richmond VA Medical Center received hundreds of colon cancer test samples that were unusable because of delivery delays. Last year, Kaine wrote to USPS pressing them to address mail delivery issues in Virginia.

Mrs. King At Historic St. Paul’s: A New Day

LONDON (UPI)

Standing at the back of the St. Paul’s Cathedral, a portly middle aged colored man wearing blue jeans, spit-polished shoes, tie and jacket craned his neck and wrung his hands.

Along the front pew two smartly dressed Negro women in fur coats sat on either side of two scrubbed children; their hands folded in their laps.

After the prayers for the Queen and Royal family were finished, and the Congregation began a hymn, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, dressed in a Black robe walked across the front of the Cathedral and up the red carpeted steps to the hand carved wooden pulpit.

She looked over the packed cathedral, brightly lit by TV arc lights installed for the historic service. Every pew was filled.

For Mrs. King, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was the first woman ever to preach at the official service from the pulpit. Her sermon was about the dawn of a new day for the poor, but the church also held the rich and the powerful and the curious.

East Ghent Community In Desperate Straits

NORFOLK

East Ghent is a community in desperate straits, according to a survey of housing,

education and occupant attitudes released Thursday morning by local VISTA volunteers and the Black Liberation Action Council (BLAC).

The survey was undertaken at the suggestion of VISTA field supervisor Milton R. Miller and Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) personnel.

The 24-page report shows what other reports on the area have done before, that the community, part of the Model Cities program, contains substandard housing and that there is a need to correct these problems.

When asked by a reporter what the report showed, a BLAC spokesman said it revealed “the people were catching pure hell.”

Miller said a copy of the report would be given to Mayor Roy B. Martin Jr., other city officials and members of the state government.

In another story (in the same issue): “Model City Program: Is It Suicide or Progress,” the theme was of opposing viewpoints during a Model City Program Planning Council, by representatives of four of the five target neighborhoods requesting City Council to approve a $500,000 citizens participation plan.

The funding would pay for administrative personnel in each of the targeted neighborhoods to operate the Model City development efforts.

Opponents of the plan called it “unrealistic” while its proponents declared that its acceptance would denote “progress” in a Model City program that stresses citizens participation as its major forte.

Horace C. Downing, a Berkley representative on the Planning Council, was not in agreement with the plan. He said, “It’s a suicide mission… that leaves no room for further negotiation.”

Mrs. John F. Rixey, the Planning Council’s representative from the Health-Welfare Recreation Planning Council, expressed the fear that the plan will “jeopardize the entire Model City effort.”

Lenious Bond, chairman of the Brambleton Neighborhood Assembly, viewed the plan as a progressive step forward. “It means that Negroes living in our ghettoes are now organized,” he said. “We have become involved and certain problems in these areas have been given attention that under normal circumstances would not have received any attention.”

Negro

Citizens Will Challenge Chesapeake School Bias

CHESAPEAKE

The city of Chesapeake’s 1969-70 pupil assignment plan, which has not been completed for HEW approval, will be challenged by Citizens of Chesapeake if it does not comply with the Department of Health Education and Welfare guidelines that require local school districts to integrate completely by September.

This was pointed out to the Chesapeake School Board this week by a committee representing the Concerned Citizens of Chesapeake. In their statement to the board the group told its members:

“We appear before you today with a sense of guilt and with a rather firm conviction that an apology might not be inappropriate.”

“Our sense arises from the fact that concerned citizens have not voiced our concern, that the conviction of apologizing would be apropos is predicated on the obvious position that this lack of expression has suggested that we of the Black community are satisfied with things as they are or have been.”

“We have been and still conceded we have observed and have been disturbed about our children’s education in our city: the lack of compliance, conditions

of the Black population’s schools, techniques for transferring Black teachers, years of crosstown bussing, gerrymandering of zones, maintenance school, the horrible tragedy that occurred a Crestwood Elementary school, and the total disregard for the Black community exhibited by the rehiring of the person involved and many more problems. Since 1954 the board has had the opportunity to proceed without community pressures to prepare for this day.

March 21, 1980

Edition of the Guide

Rosa Parks’ Focus On Black Rights Struggle

By Maravia Reid

NORFOLK Who would have ever thought that a woman would gain national fame by merely remaining seated? Perhaps no one. But in the United States of America, Rosa Parks became a celebrated heroine because of this act which took placed December 1, 1955. She was in Norfolk March 15 not to tell her story which has been told time and time again. But to issue a new charge and gain momentum for a rebirth of the civil rights movement – the movement she is said to have given birth to some 24 years ago. Parks was the main speaker at the 5th Annual African Feast sponsored by the Black Vanguard Center. The theme was “Black Women Focusing On The 80s: A New Decade of Struggle and Victory.” She said she thoroughly enjoyed the African dishes which she experienced for her first time in the NSU West Campus Dining Hall. A slow cautious speaker, Parks’ speech was short and to the point. Reminiscing of slavery’s days when Black women were often abused on behalf of the white masters, she explained how most Blacks could not boast of being purely Black.

Coretta Scott King

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIOLOGY VIRGINIA TECH

By Wornie Reed, Ph.D.

I

Thomas

of the “gospel hymn” and Dorsey the developer of the gospel song. Dorsey’s gospel songs had a different musical style as he based them on the blues.

Dorsey was the son of an Atlanta Baptist Collegetrained minister and a musician mother. But he chose another direction and played secular music as a youth, mainly on the rent-party circuit and Atlanta’s red-light district, learning from the blues musicians there. Seeking advancement in his musical career, Dorsey moved to Chicago and, in 1919, attended the School of Composition and Arranging.

In the 1920s, as “Georgia Tom,” he toured with Ma Rainey and his own bands. Before film or audio recordings, audiences across the South attended traveling tent shows for entertainment.

Under these tents, female performers like Gertrude “Ma” Rainey helped invent and popularize a new type of music: the blues. Ma Rainey admitted that she had heard a Black woman sing this new music and asked what it was. The answer

By David W. Marshall (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Realignment and transformation throughout our nation’s political landscape is not new. Our country will always be divided over who gets the political upper hand and the fight to keep it. With today’s polarization approaching Civil War levels, the division is no longer regional (North vs. South). It is more political (red vs. blue) but remains divided by culture, race, and class. At one time, the Democrats were the conservatives, and the Republicans were the liberals. It is unlikely we will ever see the two parties flip again in ideology, but the internal political transformation on the state level will always take place. Whenever I think of the Democratic Party, I see it as a big tent party of political inclusion. It generally welcomes a broad spectrum of views and beliefs, reflecting a nation of people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and cultures. Those making up the big tent may not always agree on every topic, but diverse ideas and backgrounds should always be welcomed.

The Democrats, with a broad coalition of movements, face a greater challenge than Republicans in keeping their big tent intact from one election

I call Tindley the orginator of the “gospel hymn” and Dorsey the developer of the gospel song.

was “blues.” Adopting this music, Ma Rainey became the first person to sing and record the blues in the North.

As Ma Rainey became more popular, so did Dorsey, who wrote and sang blues music. Over the next few years, Dorsey made a name for himself by writing two blues tunes, one of which reputedly sold over seven million copies.

Ma Rainey enjoyed enormous popularity touring with a hectic schedule, but beginning in 1926, Dorsey was plagued by two years of deep depression, even contemplating suicide. He experienced a spiritual re-invigoration of sorts in 1928. After that, he vowed to concentrate all his efforts on gospel music. After the death of a close friend, Dorsey was inspired to write his first religious song with a blues infl uence, “If You See My Savior, Tell Him That You Saw Me.”

Many churches spurned Dorsey’s gospel blues music as profane, but it eventually caught on as Dorsey was invited to form a gospel chorus at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Chicago.

Dorsey’s musical partners urged him to organize a convention where musicians could learn gospel blues. In 1932, however, just as Dorsey co-founded the Gospel Choral Union of Chicago – eventually renamed the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses –his wife Nettie died in childbirth, and 24 hours later, their son died. His

grief prompted him to write one of his most famous and enduring compositions, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.”

Now at the center of gospel music activity in Chicago, Dorsey countered his grief by immersing himself in marketing his songs. An unintended consequence of his sales strategy helped spread gospel blues, as he worked with numerous musicians who assisted in selling his sheet music, traveling to churches in and around Chicago and beyond the area.

To sell his sheet music, Dorsey used great soloists to demonstrate, starting in 1932 with Willie Mae Ford Smith from St. Louis, whom he made director of his soloist’s bureau, and continuing with Mahalia Jackson, whom Dorsey had begun teaching his songs to when she was 17.

Dorsey copyrighted and published over 400 songs, the most famous of which are “Precious Lord” and “Peace in the Valley.”

Country Music Hall of Fame star Red Foley’s version of Peace in the Valley in 1951 was among the first million-selling gospel records.

Other classic songs by Dorsey include “Old Ship of Zion,” “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow,” “It’s a Highway to Heaven,” “I Don’t Know Why,” “If You See My Savior,” and “Search Me Lord.”

Dorsey was the acknowledged leader of the gospel movement of the early 20th century; most protestant hymnals include some of his songs.

to another. Since people don’t like to be taken for granted, the Democratic Party must work hard and focus on expanding the big tent and keeping it unified.

Therefore, Democrats should have listened more to Tom Vilsack when he sounded the alarm as Agriculture Secretary in the Obama administration.

Vilsack grew frustrated with a culture in Washington that often ignored rural America’s struggles. “I just sometimes think rural America is a forgotten place,” he often said.

The fact that many white, working-class voters turned decisively to the former reality TV star after supporting Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 played a big part in electing Donald Trump as president. Before Trump’s surprising victory, Vilsack complained loud and often that the Democratic Party had given up competing in large areas of the country that were

As rural

voters

nationally felt

ignored

and

taken

for granted,

Walt Carr

Black Women Still Making History Against Great Odds!

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

(TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Listening to the news one would think Fani Willis is the criminal, but let’s get this straight. Donald Trump is the one with the 91 charges that he is on trial for in many states trying every conceivable trick to get out of the charges.

Atty. Nathan Wade did the honorable thing. To avoid further unfair challenges against him or D. A. Fani Willis, he stepped down. After all, he came to the job after D.A. Willis made an effort to hire someone else to handle the Trump case. That is a highly respected former Gov., Roy Barnes, who served as a GA State Senator and State Rep., as well as Governor who D.A. Willis invited to serve in a lead role on the Trump case. He understood what that would’ve been like and turned it down. It wasn’t like D.A. Willis was just determined to hire Atty. Nathan Wade. For those who were in such an uproar about his getting the job, just couldn’t bear a Black male and a Black woman handling such a case that was

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

so obviously a crime the entire world heard Donald Trump commit.

During Trump’s attempt to pressure Secretary of State, Bradford Raffensperger, into changing election results, Trump said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” That was the number needed for Trump to steal the election from Joe Biden who was fairly elected. That was the crime! Another obvious criminal act was the Stormy Daniels “Keep quiet” case. Michael Cohen told us about it years ago! Unfortunately, he served time for Trump’s un-lawful behavior! Why does Trump continue making others pay for his crimes? Look at what he did to Allen Weisselburg,

This case was all about Wade being a Black man and Fani being a Black woman who were capable of trying a case against Trump.

Michael Cohen, Peter Navarro and others who have paid for protecting Trump. When will he pay for all of his crimes?

I’m proud of New York Atty. General, Letitia James, for finally getting a conviction for which Trump has to pay; for Atty. Roberta Kaplan, E. Jean Carroll’s attorney for finally getting a conviction for Trump’s RAPE against E. Jean. Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, is working on another case against Trump. Judge Tanya Chutkan is on hold with an extremely unAmerican case against Trump for January 6th whereTrump calls a group of his friends “good” people! see Women, page 5A

By Ben Jealous (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

For years, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and other tribes of the Great Lakes region have been leading a true David vs. Goliath fight against the Canadian oil giant Enbridge Energy.

Black voters.

Hispanic voters in certain areas of the nation are feeling the same way. The Democrats cannot afford to make the same mistake with

necessary to win Senate seats, governor’s races, and state legislatures.

“Democrats need to talk to rural voters,” Vilsack once warned. “They can’t write them off. They can’t ignore them. They actually have to spend a little time talking to them.”

Before Vilsack became Agriculture Secretary, he served two terms as governor of Iowa, which is 95 percent white. His eight years as governor should have been the national blueprint for the Democratic Party to follow in addressing the isolation of white working-class voters in rural America – now, rural America has become the heart of Trump’s MAGA movement.

see Granted, page 5A

Enbridge’s 71-year-old Line 5 oil and gas pipeline, which trespasses through sovereign tribal lands, is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. And not just for the tribes.

Every day, the pipeline carries nearly 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas from Wisconsin to Ontario, Canada. It has already leaked 35 times over its lifespan and is only getting more dangerous. In addition to running through the reservation of the Bad River Band, it crosses the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron. With one-fifth of the entire world’s surface freshwater, more than 40 million people get their drinking water from the Great Lakes. That includes the residents of major US cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, and Cleveland. And of course, replacing our outdated fossil fuel infrastructure with renewable energy is essential to addressing the climate crisis and keeping

our air breathable.

Bad River Ojibwe Youth Leader Alexus Koski says, “it is sometimes difficult to remain hopeful about our future but it is far too important and far too dangerous to remain silent, to allow this pipeline to continue operating another day – my future is at stake, my culture is at stake, our climate is at stake.”

Alexus traveled to Washington, DC last week with the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance to drive home the urgency of shutting down Line 5. They delivered a petition with more than 9,000 signatures calling on Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a thorough review of, and ultimately reject, Enbridge’s proposal for a reroute of the pipeline.

Last year, a federal judge ruled that the 12-

Tribes have done a masterful job leading the organizing and building coalitions with environmental groups and clean water advocates. But it is also on the US government to do the right thing.

mile stretch of Line 5 is trespassing on the Bad River Band’s land in northern Wisconsin. Despite part of the pipeline being exposed above ground due to erosion and the risk that a major oil spill could happen at any time, Enbridge was given until 2026 to shut down or move the pipeline. Line 5 also continues to operate in defiance of an order by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to shut down the part of the pipeline running under the Straits of Mackinac. see Water, page 5A

Women

Continued from page 4A

We’re not sure about the woman judge in Florida who is handling the documents case that Trump claims are his –for no reason other than Trump saying he could do whatever he wanted to do with the documents! He also claims he will be a dictator once he is elected again! Well, I have no problem knowing Black women will be the biggest supporters to prevent his dream of becoming a dictator! I pray that women of all racial and ethnic groups will join us and prevent him from getting to be President again. Remember, he wants to continue urging people to prevent women from controlling our own bodies, and he says he is proud for making it

Water

Continued from page 4A

Now Enbridge is seeking permits from the Army Corps to reroute the pipeline away from the reservation – but still within their watershed –in an effort to keep Line 5 alive. Enbridge also wants to construct a tunnel in the bedrock under the Straits that poses a dangerous risk of explosions. Meanwhile, prolonging the lifespan of this pipeline continues to threaten the Great Lakes. And it continues to threaten the tribes’ way of life, which is largely based on the water and the beds of wild rice, or manoomin, those waters feed. We know where Enbridge’s priorities are. The company rakes in an estimated $1.8 million from the pipeline every day.

Enbridge has claimed to use the Seven Grandfather Teachings in Native American culture as a guide for their dealings with tribes. Those are love, respect, bravery, truth, honesty, humility, and wisdom. But Enbridge’s main case for keeping Line 5 open is anything but honest. The company says shutting down the pipeline would cause energy shortages and price increases. However, a study by the logistics and supply chain experts at PLG Consulting found there are a variety of replacements for Line 5 that would avoid both.

Granted

Continued from page 4A

When Vilsack won his long-shot race for governor in 1998, it was the first time Iowa had elected a Democrat in 32 years. In eight years, he transformed the state’s political landscape when he was followed by a Democrat governor who, for the first time in four decades, had a Democratic legislature.

“I personally took over managing legislative races,” Vilsack said. “We won the House and the Senate, and we had three of the five members of Congress.”

Vilsack’s success was a boon for Barack Obama, whose 2008 victory in Iowa proved that he could attract the support of white Midwestern voters. As the party of political inclusion, the Democrats were deaf to Vilsack’s warnings. All the political gains in Iowa made at the state and federal levels and in presidential elections are now erased. Today in Iowa, Republicans dominate every aspect of state government while controlling both U.S. Senate seats and three of

possible for his Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade!

Now, let’s go back to Georgia. Thanks to Georgia Judge, Honorable Scott McAfee. He obviously knew who we date had nothing to do with the relationship between our sister, D.A. Fani Willis, and Atty. Nathan Wade. She didn’t just say, “Let me give this job to Nathan.” She gave it to him after asking others and being turned down and because she found him to be a qualified attorney! He was not found to be guilty, nor was she. This case was all about Wade being a Black man and Fani being a Black woman who were capable of trying a case against Trump and more likely than not, to convict him and the other parties – some of whom have already pled guilty!

Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of The Dick Gregory Society.

Moreover, now is the time we should be replacing outdated fossil fuel energy infrastructure with more cost effective, resilient, and healthier clean energy.

The simple truth is we do not need Line 5.

This is a classic struggle of organized corporate money interests against organized people. Tribes have done a masterful job leading the organizing and building coalitions with environmental groups and clean water advocates. But it is also on the US government to do the right thing. And there are a few things it can do.

First, the Army Corps of Engineers can conduct a more thorough review of Enbridge’s plans than is currently underway and conduct an Environmental Impact Statement. If it is done correctly, we hope that would lead to the Army Corps rejecting Enbridge’s permit request.

Finally, because it is a cross-border pipeline, Line 5’s operation requires a presidential permit. President Biden should revoke that permit, which would shut down the entire 645-mile pipeline –something that is already long overdue.

We celebrate World Water Day this week. We should remember that access to clean, safe water is a UN-recognized human right. Line 5 threatens that right, along with our climate and our Indigenous communities.

Alexus Koski reminds us, “We owe that much to young people and to future generations. Shut down Line 5! Water is Life!”

the four U.S. House seats. After Obama left office, Trump also won the state in the last two presidential elections. Duplicate this in pockets throughout the nation, and the Democrats are hard-pressed to keep the Obama-winning coalition together. It shows how the Democrats are losing the culture wars. Surprisingly, the Democrat’s big tent does not accept the rural white workingclass voters in the same manner it accepts white working-class voters from urban areas who typically aligned themselves with unions. The political transformation saw Iowa change from red to blue and back to red.

Today, Florida is in the midst of its own political transformation by building on a trend over the last decade that has pushed the state further to the right. Miami-Dade County has long been a Democratic stronghold in Florida. If Republican success in expanding their support with Hispanic voters continues to gain momentum, it would likely take Florida out of play entirely for Democrats in future presidential elections.

Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster who worked on Obama’s

Racist Anti-Immigrant Hysteria Is

Aimed At Blinding Voters To Reality

By Marc H. Morial President and CEO National Urban League

“The bomb outrage in New York emphasizes the extent to which the alien scum from the cesspools of the Old World has polluted the clear spring of American democracy. While hundreds of detectives scour the haunts of the anarchist and the terrorist in the slums and outlandish foreign quarters of American Babels, the doors of Ellis Island stand open to fresh hordes of warped and half-crazed deserters from Europe.”

– The Washington Post editorial board, Sept. 20, 1920 ◆ ◆ ◆

Replace the bombing in New York with the death of Laken Riley … “cesspools of the Old World” with “sh**hole countries” … “polluted the clear spring” with “poisoning the blood” and Ellis Island with the southwest border, and a 1920 editorial could be a 2024 presidential campaign speech.

In 1920, the targets of anti-immigration hatred were European, not Central and South American, but were no less targets of the racial and religious bigotry of the era. The newcomers from Italy, Greece and Eastern Europe were considered inferior – dirtier, less intelligent, more criminally inclined –than Americans of northern European and Anglo-Saxon

descent. The current GOP presidential nominee’s own father, the son of a German immigrant, was arrested at an anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan march in 1927.

The racist stereotypes at the heart of anti-immigrant hatred are no more true today than they were a century ago, but bigots and extremists still cling to them just as tightly. The same baseless hysteria about violent crime that permeated the 2022 midterm elections is frontand-center in this year’s presidential race.

“You have these politicians who are strategically, intentionally, purposefully seeking to exploit people’s unconscious vulnerability by saying welfare queen, illegal alien, terrorist, gangbanger, terms that they know will trigger unconscious racist views,” U.C. Berkely law professor Ian Haney López, who specializes in race and racism, told PBS.

We do need immigration reform. But not because immigrants are fueling a violent crime wave. To the

The racist stereotypes at the heart of anti-immigrant hatred are no more true today than they were a century ago, but bigots and extremists still cling to them just as tightly.

contrary, violent crime rates have fallen sharply since President Biden took office, and communities with more immigration tend to have less crime, especially violent crimes. One study estimated that about 3 percent of undocumented immigrants had felony convictions, compared to 8 percent of the overall population.

As President Biden noted in his State of the Union Speech, the hypocrisy of right-wing extremists demanding policy changes based on one tragic killing is breathtaking when they continue to block commonsense gun safety measures in the face of tens of thousands of gun deaths every year.

Just as hypocritical was their deliberate sabotage of a bipartisan deal on border security for the contemptable purpose of denying President Biden a victory in an election year. A “popular commentator” told Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, chief negotiator of the compromise, he would “destroy” him if he tried to solve the border crisis “because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election.”

Meanwhile, the asylum seekers fleeing violence in their homelands are

subjected to the cruel whims of publicity-hungry southern governors, who use the chaos they inspire to misrepresent the migrants as disruptive and burdensome.

The bipartisan border agreement would have quadrupled the number of Asylum Officers to process the years-long backlog in asylum claims and added 100 more immigration judges to adjudicate those claims. It would have provided $1.4 billion to the cities and states struggling to provide the migrants with critical services, and expedited work permits so migrants are less reliant on those services.

But the extremists who tanked the bill would rather appeal to voters motivated by racial fear and resentment than the voters motivated by common sense and human decency.

“The tragedy is that Republican leadership and important media outlets have convinced a significant portion of Americans that their best future depends on rejecting and indeed actively fighting against a multiracial democracy,” López said. “But we’re already a multiracial society. What we stand to lose then is our democracy and a society that works for all of us.”

HAITI AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ABYSS, SOON TO BE LED BY OUTLAWS

By Joseph Guyler C. Delva PORT-AU-PRINCE,

HAITI (TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE)

Haiti has been struggling to exist since 1804, but historians say it had never reached such a low point during the past two centuries; and worse, the impoverished Caribbean country faces now a situation of general dispair, disabling it to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to seize its chance.

Since the brutal assassination, in July 2021 of President Jovenel

successful 2012 presidential campaign, said that instead of working to counter the GOP’s outreach efforts, Democrats, by and large, ceded ground to Republicans, especially in Miami-Dade County.

“The larger realignment has been accelerated by the lack of a comparable presence on the playing field by Democratic organizations and party efforts to try to maintain or regain the hold they had on Hispanic voters in 2016,” Amandi said. “They just left the playing field.”

As the Democrat’s political base shrinks in Florida with a growing number of Hispanic voters flipping to the Republicans, the Democratic Party’s dependence on the Black vote becomes even more critical with future elections. No one likes to be taken for granted.

As rural voters nationally felt ignored and taken for granted, Hispanic voters in certain areas of the nation are feeling the same way.

The Democrats cannot afford to make the same mistake with Black voters.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faithbased organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America.

Moise, the international community has been trying, in vain, to get Haitians to agree on a way out of the political crisis, but all the efforts and initiatives have failed because of the shocking unpatriotism of Haitian political actors, from all sides.

Now, the world’s first Black free and independent republic could, anytime now, be led by a gangpicked government, in the face of the intransigence of the so-called Haitian socioeconomic and political elites.

One of the gang leaders, Jimmy Cherisier, nicknamed Barbecue – in the role of a spokesman for the armed movement – said gunmen from the ghettos are determined to take over power, regardless of the stands taken by other national and international actors.

“We, armed men from the ghettos, are now taking over power and no one can prevent us from achieving our goal, in order to facilitate the change the population has always been demanding,” Barbecue told journalists with a smile on his face.

“The time has come. We have put an end to the evil reign of a criminal government and of corrupt oligarchs who have, for too long, held the population hostage,’” said Barbecue, warning the Haitian police and military not to try to stop them.

Barbecue said, “Until now we’ve been acting with moderation, but if there are people who try to stand in our way, they’ll be run over.”

The gangs have made several attempts to take over the presidential palace, but the well trained and equipped guards protecting the palace have resisted. However, the armed groups have promised to come back stronger.

Besides overthowing the Henry government,

We are not doing this because someone told us to, but we’re doing it because our conscience has demanded it from us.”

– Jeff “Gwolwa,” the gang leader reigning over the district of Canahan

one of the key objectives pursued by the armed gangs was to be amnestied for the crimes they have committed in recent years, including assassinations and numerous cases of kidnapping and rape.

Another leader of the upheaval is former rebel leader and expolice commissioner, Guy Philippe, who has announced that a process to grant amnesty to the gangs will be launched, once the new regime is inaugurated.

“First there would be the Truth Commission, because we have to know how we came to reach the stage where we are now. We need to know who have armed those young people, who gave them the weapons they use, who’s given them orders, and how they operate,” Philippe explained in a newly released video.

“After collecting the information, you’ll know the truth and then you’ll have to address the Justice issue, because a lot of people have fallen victim, a lot of people had been killed or forced to flee their homes,” Guy Philippe assured.

“And after justice has been made, the pardon issue should be addressed, provided that the individuals concerned continue to cooperate with State authorities so it becomes known how the whole problematic has been orchestrated,” explained Guy Philippe. Philippe said the approach would help authorities to get better informed about their mode of operation and how

those young people had been used, to prevent the situation from happening again.

Philippe said the most important thing now is to determine what measures should be taken to prevent future occurrences.

“Today you may kill all of those guys, and tomorrow the problem becomes worse. This won’t, in any way, help serve the interests of the republic,” according to the former rebel chief. In a voice note widely published on social media, gang leaders have, in turn, given the guarantee that people may go about their businesses without any fear.

They have also called on Haitians from the diaspora not to be afraid any longer to come back to the country.

“Nothing will happen to you.

“We are not doing this because someone told us to, but we’re doing it because our conscience has demanded it from us,” said Jeff “Gwolwa,” the gang leader reigning over the district of Canahan, in the West region that includes the capital Portau-Prince.

The U.S. and Canada, two of the most influential countries in Haiti, have ruled out any possibility to send troops to help stabilize the country, and defeat the armed bands.

However, national and international experts agree that a robust multinational force may help provide the needed security and stability for the country to move forward.

Marc H. Morial

Black Medical School-Led Team Wins Cancer Research Grand Award

$25M Grant Will Address Racial Inequities

ATLANTA

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) recently announced a $25 million award from the Cancer Grand Challenges Award will address cancer disparities in populations of African ancestry.

As such an award-winning research global team led by Melissa B. Davis, PhD of MSM becomes the only winning team in the U.S. led by an African-American woman and the first Cancer Grand Challenges award to focus on cancer inequities. Cancer Grand Challenges awards proposals that address some of cancer’s toughest challenges.

The grant to Team SAMBAI, led by Dr. Davis, director of the MSM Institute of Translational Genomic Medicine, is funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, through Cancer Grand Challenges.

Called Team SAMBAI (Societal, Ancestry, Molecular and Biological Analyses of Inequalities), Dr. Davis’ interdisciplinary research group comes from the United States, Ghana, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The award not only marks the first one to focus on health disparities and to be led by an AfricanAmerican woman, but it is also the first one awarded to a researcher at a Historically Black Medical School and is the first one given to a host

Dr. Melissa B. Davis

institution in MSM’s home state of Georgia. “We are so incredibly proud of Dr. Davis’ leadership in directing the effort to create a truly historic and precedent setting winning proposal to Cancer Grand Challenges that holds the potential to have a tremendous impact on how we treat cancer for people with African ancestry,” said MSM President and CEO Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.

“For nearly 50 years, the driving mission of Morehouse School of Medicine has been to address health inequities for communities of color, and we are honored to have the unique opportunity to carry that mission forward in partnership with Cancer Grand Challenges.”

“I want to extend my appreciation to Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Grand Challenges, my Team SAMBAI colleagues around

The award not only marks the first one to focus on health disparities and to be led by an African-American woman, but it is also the first one awarded to a researcher at a Historically Black Medical School.

the world, and my Morehouse School of Medicine family on being selected one of five world-class global research teams to win this award,” said Dr. Davis. “We are looking forward to engaging into what we hope will be groundbreaking research that will shift the paradigm for cancer inequity amongst people of African descent and hopefully helping to save lives in the future.”

SAMBAI Members are Melissa Davis, Team Lead, Morehouse School of Medicine, United States; Yaw Bediako, Yemaachi Biotech, Ghana; Tiffany Carson, Moffitt Cancer Center, United States; Isidro Cortes Ciriano, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, United Kingdom; Zodwa Dlamini, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Olivier Elemento, Cornell University, United States; Rick Fairley, TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, United States; Fieke Froeling, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom; Marcin Imielinski, New York University, United

BREAKING THE SILENCE AROUND BREAST CANCER IN THE AFRICAN COMMUNITY

From The Howard University News Service

WASHINGTON, D.C.

According to cancer specialists at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, D.C’s Ward 5 has the city’s highest breast cancer mortality rate in 2014. Black women also comprised 40 percent of patients with advanced-stage breast cancer. Nationally, Black women are 41 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than white women according to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

For immigrants, the devastation of the disease is often worsened by a lack of insurance that makes it almost impossible to receive treatment. In addition, rates that illustrate continental African women’s breast cancer are often collated with those of Black American women, which can make it difficult to find specific statistics.

Ify Nwabukwu remembers her mother, a Nigerian immigrant, learning she had breast cancer after going to the doctor for a routine check-up.

“She didn’t have insurance so there was no way for me to find coverage,” said Nwabukwu. “However, I had a best friend who was a trauma surgeon, so she came together with her peers and they did [my mother’s] mastectomy pro bono- with no charges.”

This is what inspired her to start the African Women’s Cancer Awareness Association (AWCAA) in 2004. The organization

Africans don’t talk about cancer. Period. They think it’s a stigma ... And a lot of them lose their lives because of it.”

provides facilitation services to African immigrant women and their families to reduce the burden cancer inevitably brings. In addition to scheduling doctor’s appointments, AWCAA also donates wigs and bras to breast cancer patients and provides translators to remove the language barrier faced by immigrants trying to receive treatment.

For Sade Macaulay, a breast cancer survivor who now works closely with AWCAA, language differences and lack of insurance present the “greatest challenge” for patients trying to receive health care. She said this also results in difficulty booking appointments and delayed waiting times at the doctor, adding on to an already strenuous journey with cancer.

Milly Terry, director for AWCAA’s Navigation and Survival Services Program, works to reverse those burdens for every woman who walks through their door.

“My main duties are to get my patients- like Sade- and navigate them, make sure they get their mammograms and sonograms,” said Terry. “We make all the appointments for them. Sometimes we

– Milly Terry

go with them to surgery or chemotherapy.” Terry acknowledges support is the determining factor in life or death for many of these women, adding that “most of them don’t have insurance or papers. If they don’t have support, some of them don’t go to the doctors. They’re scared, so the trust factor is very important for us.”

BREAKING THE BARRIERS OF SILENCE

A poster hanging from the waiting room wall in AWCAA’s second office in Maryland reads “Breaking the Barriers of Silence.” This silence and subsequent stigma around cancer are what Terry and Nwabukwu both identify as the main reason many African women lose their lives to cancer. “Africans don’t talk about cancer. Period,” Terry said. “They think it’s a stigma, that if you tell somebody, they’ll tell somebody and people will start to look at them so they keep it to themselves. And a lot of them lose their lives because of it.”

see Breast, page 7A

States; Sheeba Irshad, King’s College London, United Kingdom; Lauren McCullough, Emory University, United States; Gary Miller, Columbia University, United States; Nigel Mongan, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom; Nicolas Robine, New York Genome Center, United States; and , Clayton Yates, John Hopkins University, United States.

The Team SAMBAI proposal integrates social determinants of health, environmental exposures, genetic contributions, and tumor biology to understand the complex interactions between genetics, environment, and social factors in cancer outcomes. The proposal also highlights the importance of patient partnership, advocacy, and support in addressing cancer disparities.

The proposal also focuses on breast cancer, particularly among Black women. While Black women have a slightly lower incidence rate of breast cancer compared to White women, they are more frequently diagnosed with advanced disease and have a higher incidence of aggressive forms of breast cancer, such as estrogen receptor (ER) negative (TRIPLE NEGATIVE) disease. This contributes to racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes. see Award, page 7A

Ify Nwabukwu (L) with Milly Terry, middle, and Sade Macaulay around a picture of a woman who died of breast cancer.

Photo: KesiFelton

Award

Continued from page 6A

“Together with our network of visionary partners and research leaders, Cancer Grand Challenges unites the world’s brightest minds across boundaries and disciplines and aims to overcome cancer’s toughest problems,” said Dr. David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges.

“With this investment, our largest to date, we continue to grow our global research community, and fund new teams that have the potential to surface discoveries that

could positively impact cancer outcomes.” For more information on Team SAMBAI, its members and their approach to tackling the cancer inequities challenge, visit https:// cancergrandchallenges.org/.

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), founded in 1975, is an independent and private historically-Black medical school in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally a part of Morehouse College, it is among the nation’s leading educators of primary care physicians, biomedical scientists, and public health professionals. MSM was recognized by the Annals of Internal Medicine as the nation’s number one medical school in fulfilling a

social mission – leading the creation and advancement of health equity to achieve health justice.

To learn more about programs and donate today, please visit www.msm.edu or call (404) 752-1500.

ABOUT CANCER GRAND CHALLENGES

Co-founded in 2020 by two of the largest funders of cancer research in the world: Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US, Cancer Grand Challenges supports a global community of world-class, interdisciplinary teams to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges.

CHESAPEAKE REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY

Announces a Public Hearing

Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA) will hold a public hearing April 24, 2024, 5:00 p.m. at 1468 S. Military Hwy. Chesapeake, VA during the regular monthly board meeting. This date has been rescheduled from March 25 to allow ample time for public review following changes to the draft processed March 11, 2024.

The purpose of the hearing is to obtain input from city residents in reference to a significant amendment to the 2024 Annual Plan Submission to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Capital Fund Program. All residents are encouraged to attend this hearing. A copy of the draft Significant Amendment to the Annual Plan draft has been available from February 9, 2024 and will remain available through April 24, 2024 at the address below and at each of the public housing management offices, or it can be viewed 24 hours per day at the website, www.crhava.org. Persons can also submit written comments prior to the public hearing to:

Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority 1468 S. Military Highway

Chesapeake, VA 23320

Attn: Nancy Tarkenton

For further information please contact Nancy Tarkenton, Deputy Executive Director at (757) 233-6411 or email nancy_tarkenton@crhava.

org. Hearing Impaired please use Virginia Relay 7-1-1.

Teacher Wins NASA Grant

Norfolk

Students Are Growing

Food For Space Using Soil From Mars

By Melissa Spellman Staff Reporter New Journal and Guide

This third week of March we continue to recognize women who have made amazing strides for women in industry, politics, education and celebrate those who are continuing to push the marker to ensure future generations of women have a running start. A local STEM teacher is doing just that for middle school girls and boys through a NASA project.

Helen Ballard, a sixth grade Science Teacher at Southside STEM Academy at Campostella in Norfolk, Virginia, has received a “Plant the Moon Challenge” grant from NASA to grow plants with soil from Mars to create food sustainability in space.

Ballard and her students are engaging in what is known as astrobotany. STEM is an acronym for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. Ballard explains, “It is a higher level of academic performance for students with an interest in Engineering, Science, NASA, astronauts, all those things that come along with it, and mathematics. It has been something that has been introduced into the school systems in the last 10 years.”

soil from Mars is called regolith. It’s real fluffy and it looks like light sand. It feels weird because it’s so fluffy,” said Ballard.

The team of students were tasked with taking the regolith soil (which comes from solid moon rock and dust particles from outer space) and mixing it with regular potting soil from Earth.

“50/50 is how we had to mix it [regolith] with regular potting soil. We had to determine what we were going to grow. So, I talked it over with my sixth-grade team members,” said Ballard. Her team consisted of 10 students from her honors and general science classes. “We decided we wanted to grow herbs. We had a zoom session where we met one of the astronauts who was actually in outer space. She said she would really like to see more herbs,” said Ballard.

They sent us the actual soil from Mars. The soil from Mars is called regolith. It’s real fluffy and it looks like light sand. It feels weird because it’s so fluffy.”

– Dr. Helen Ballard

Ballard continued, “We decided to grow spinach, spearmint, and basil.”

Knowing what they wanted to plant now, the students had to build a greenhouse in the classroom.

“We have three or four tiers on a rack and enclose it with a clear plastic shower curtain. We put the plants in and waited for them to germinate.”

Ballard said the heating lamp on the plants is what helped the plants to fully germinate. Students must document everything they do. “If we take the planter out of the greenhouse, we have to document the time and how long we took it out.

So, the students are really engaged and they like it because it makes them feel like they’re scientists,” said Ballard.

Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority does business in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Act and will not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, or any other federal or Virginia recognized protected class.

Helen Ballard was born and raised in Washington D.C. She resided in Maryland before coming to Norfolk four years ago. She holds four degrees in education which include a bachelors in elementary education, a double master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and business leadership, and finally a Phd in leadership education administration.

Dr. Ballard has worked in the field of education for over 20 years. This is her first year at Southside STEM Academy and her first year participating in the Plant The Moon Challenge. There were grant recipients from Florida, Puerto Rico, California, and West Virginia to name a few. Ballard is the only representative from Norfolk, Virginia.

When she received the Plant The Moon grant from NASA, Ballard says she was awestruck. Unfamiliar with the gran,t she applied not expecting what would happen next.

“When they sent me the email, I gasped for a minute. I was like Oh, my God! They chose me! It was really exciting,” shared Ballard.

Dr. Ballard applied for the grant in November of 2023, was notified of the award around Christmas, and the students were planting by February 2024. Prior to planting there were several zoom meetings and instruction on the 8-week program which ends on April 14.

“They sent us the actual soil from Mars. The

Breast

Continued from page 6A

Bringing awareness to breast cancer motivated Terry to become heavily involved with AWCAA. She remembers her childhood best friend who was diagnosed with and ultimately died from the disease.

“I think if she had spoken and told somebody, she would be alive today.”

Terry also shares stories of two other women who also succumbed to breast cancer. One sat “in the hall

The students were excited and eager to jump on the herb suggestion.

see STEM, page 8A

with us,” at a local church AWCAA visited to give an informational session who passed two weeks after. “She never said one word to the community or the congregation… Another woman from Sierra Leone called me and said she was going to do holistic treatment. Her pastor says they’ll pray, and two weeks later she was dead.” Nwabukwu adds that “some groups of us are so embedded in religion that we think it’s not your portion for cancer to visit you. It looks like if you have cancer you must have done something wrong.”

These stigmas fuel AWCAA’s work, which

they say is “more needed” in the continent of Africa. They regularly hold mission trips- their next one scheduled to visit Nigeria, where women are often diagnosed 10 years younger on average than American women, during October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They plan to take medical professionals and educators to provide medical services at no cost.

As for what young Black women can do to prevent breast cancer, Ify encourages millennials to “make sure they learn their family history. Talk to your primary care physician to start screening early.”

Dr. Helen Ballard

Keeping the documents

Photo: Courtesy Plants being harvested

Photo: Courtesy

Continued from page 7A

Ballard shared that the student’s chose spinach, spearmint, and basil because of the health attributes. They are good for diabetes. The spearmint is good for your breath, and astronauts can pull it off and eat it raw.

The spinach is fastgrowing. They have free planted spinach three times and it has died three times. Ballard explained, “The first time we planted, it really prospered. We had a three-day weekend; when I came back my heart was broken. All of it was limped over brown. We had to evaluate what we needed to do. We determined that we have to moisture the soil every two days.” The basil is the only plant that has had no problems and is growing very well.

WHM

Continued from page 1A

“When I sing ... I want them to see my soul ... is colorless,” Anderson once said in a trademark quote, decades after her father, John Berkley Anderson, a coal and ice dealer, bought his daughter her first piano at age 8, two years after she’d debuted as a choir member at Philadelphia’s Union Baptist Church, where she earned the nickname “Baby Contralto.”

“Oh, you have no idea the joy,” Anderson said, recalling her family’s first piano. “I remember taking one finger of his hand to make it go up the scale. His fingers were so large that I could scarcely get them on one key at a time. He may even have tried to hit two notes to make me feel that he couldn’t do it as well as.”

Marian Anderson’s father died from a head wound at their home when she was 12, about a week after a heavy machinery accident occurred on the Philadelphia train line where he was wounded while working. Their church choir raised about $500, to pay for Anderson to train under Giuseppe Boghetti, a respected voice teacher, who was so impressed with her talent that he offered her free lessons for one year. About two years later, Boghetti’s tutelage earned her a spot at a singing contest in Lewisohn Stadium in New York organized by the New York Philharmonic Society. She beat out 300 rivals.

Anderson’s mother and two sisters often hovered behind the curtains while she performed. They also savored the applause when Anderson performed at Carnegie Hall for the first time in 1928. And they waved farewell when she embarked on a European tour, thanks to a Julius Rosenwald scholarship. Anderson’s trailblazing career also included performances for the monarchs of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and England.

Records show racial prejudice dogged Marian Anderson’s steps throughout her historic opera career but never dimmed her talent. For example, in 1935, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to let her sing in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

In response, Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for Anderson to give her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939 before a crowd of 75,000 people of all races. When she finally performed in Constitution Hall in 1943, about a decade after the 1935 DAR protest, Anderson said, “I felt no different than I had in other halls. There

was no sense of triumph. I felt that it was a beautiful concert hall, and I was happy to sing in it.”

Once, Anderson compared racism to “a hair across your cheek. You can’t see it,” she explained. “You can’t find it with your fingers but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating.”

In 1993, the trailblazing singer’s determination and velvety voice were silenced in Portland, Ore., when she died from congestive heart failure at age 96. She is buried in Philadelphia’s Eden cemetery.

Her mother’s family lived in Lynchburg and Boonsboro for several generations before Annie Rucker Anderson left to travel the globe with her trailblazing daughter.

She went on to explain that the goal is to have students figure out what plants can grow that astronauts can mimic in their spaceships. This will allow them to stay in space longer. It won’t require them to go back and forth.

“If the astronauts can figure out how they can have their own greenhouse growing they can do more research and stay in outer space longer,” said Ballard.

Since the beginning of the project the students have been required to submit videos, photos, and write-ups to document their progress. The students enjoy being scientists and gathering data on their plants. Ballard said it has created a bond among the students.

“What it did was it showed me that they can

communicate, they can make friendships, so it was a bigger thing than just the project of NASA. They were creating friendships and that was so cool for me to see,” said Ballard.

This NASA challenge opened the floodgates of the student’s curiosity, and they began growing other plants in the classroom. Outside of the NASA project, using regular potting soil the students have planted watermelon, tomatoes, and green onions. “They just got excited about being able to grow things. This opportunity is really opening their eyes in a different way,” said Ballard.

The 20-year educator shared that Black females hold only one to two percent in fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. She stated that with technology growing at such a rapid rate, it’s vital to start training our Black youth – girls and boys – to be able to think outside the box, to hone their critical thinking skills, to be able to produce, to understand a hypothesis, and an independent and dependent variable. How do you come up with a problem and find a solution? She says these are the tools she ingrains in her students at Southside Stem Academy.

Ballard’s passion for STEM runs deep. “We don’t just want to make sure we are putting students into careers that are already established. I want them to say, yes, I want to be an engineer. I want to be that first person to find a cure for cancer or sickle cell anemia or anything that is out there affecting the Black community.” She says her biggest goal is to encourage Black youth to get involved in STEM.

On Saturday, May 8, an award ceremony will be held to reveal the winner among the grantees working on this project across the nation.

Ballard’s only disappointment has been not having the financial ability to purchase lab jackets for her 10 students. She also hopes to garner the attention of Norfolk’s Mayor and other prominent figures to recognize the students as they undertake this important endeavor in NASA’s The Plant the Moon Challenge.

On Saturday, May 8, an award ceremony will be held to reveal the winner among the grantees working on this project across the nation. Ballard hopes her students take

the win. “I want to win because I really want it for them. If we are not chosen, I do want to make sure that I do this again for next year,” said Ballard. Science Teacher Dr. Helen Ballard leaves these final thoughts for anyone who is interested in STEM. She says STEM is not a field to be afraid of, being an engineer or scientist doesn’t mean you must be great at math. All you need to do is understand how you create data. It’s building critical thinking skills and you do not have to be an A plus student.

Marian Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939.

Photo: CourtesyoftheLibraryofCongress

Measuring is important!

Photo: Courtesy

SECTION B

HISTORIC 1920S MERRY-GO-ROUND CAROUSEL REOPENS IN HAMPTON

HAMPTON

The long-awaited reopening of Hampton’s historic carousel is set for Saturday, March 23.

A ceremony will mark the reopening of the carousel at 11 a.m. To celebrate, there will be free rides all day. Other activities from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. include face painting, make-and-take crafts, and a DJ and dance activities with K’bana Blaq. There will also be several food trucks for those who want to purchase food and drinks.

In case of rain, the carousel will still open; however, the outdoor activities may be postponed.

The carousel is a Hampton icon that has

undergone extensive repair in preparation for its return for enjoyment by area residentts. In its heyday it was the location of family outings, dates, marriage proposals and other cherished memories.

Built in 1920, the carousel was originally part of the Buckroe Beach Amusement Park. It was disassembled in 1985 when the Buckroe Beach Amusement Park closed and was restored to its original beauty between 1988 and 1991. It is housed in a pavilion on the city’s downtown waterfront. It is one of only 170 antique wooden merry-go-rounds still existing in the United States.

It was closed in the

The Hampton Carousel is one of only 170 antique wooden merry-gorounds still existing in the United States.

summer of 2022 when structural problems were discovered. Carousels and Carvings, an Ohio-based company, was contracted to do the repairs, which included disassembly, fabricating and rebuilding mechanical parts and systems, and reassembling the carousel.

The carousel contains 42 oil paintings, 30 mirrors, a 1914 Bruder band organ, 48 hand-carved wooden horses, and two upholstered, hand-

carved wooden chariots. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The historic carousel, located at 602 Settlers Landing Road, is operated by the Hampton History Museum. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, except closed on Mondays. Rides are regularly $1. The carousel is usually closed from Jan. 1-March 31 each year but is opening this year a little early.

ECSU Student Affairs Named ‘Most Promising Place To Work’

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C.

Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) is among 25 other colleges given the 2024 distinction of being named one of the most promising places to work in collegiate student affairs by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

The criteria focused on workplace diversity, staffing practices, and work environment. Examining issues like family friendliness, salary and benefits, and professional development opportunities, was also part of a webbased survey approach in naming universities. Other North Carolina institutions which made the list were

Elon University, WinstonSalem State University, and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

All the colleges named will be featured in the March 14, 40th-anniversary edition of the magazine, which bills itself as the nation’s only print and online daily newsmagazine dedicated exclusively to diversity issues in higher education.

ECSU’s Division of Student Affairs includes the offices of the Dean of Students, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Accessibility Services, The Career Development Center, The Counseling Center, Housing, Residence Life and Transportation,

Title IX, the Departments of Military and Veterans Services, and Student Engagement, as well as Student Health and Wellness, and Campus Recreation and Wellness.

The division’s programming is designed to promote social mobility, career readiness, responsibility, integrity, and opportunities for leadership for all students, said Nichole Lewis, ECSU interim associate vice chancellor of Student, Alumni, and Constituent Engagement.

“Our efforts with professional and student development were largely part of the process. We are intentional about making

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sure our employees have what they need to perform well within the university and for our students,” Lewis added. “Being among those institutions seen as a promising place to work is a salute to the work we do to that end.”

“This award not only honors our dedicated staff within Student Affairs and University Advancement, but also underscores our unwavering dedication to providing an exceptional environment where employees thrive, and it contributes to the success of our students,” said Shamica Lane, ECSU’s assistant vice chancellor and chief human resources officer.

NSU WOMEN WIN MEAC CHAMPIONSHIP AT SCOPE; Howard Men Defeat Delaware State For MEAC Title

By Randy Singleton Community

New

The

NSU made some clutch shots in the last few minutes of the game to secure their second consecutive MEAC title. Diamond Johnson was named the tournament’s MVP. Johnson scored 12 points. NSU was paced by Kierra Wheeler who had a game-high 20 points. NSU coach Larry Vickers was named the tournament’s Most-ValuableCoach.

“We pride ourselves on our defense and were able to make stops down the stretch,” noted

NSU HEAD COACH IS HBCU NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR

Vickers, the MEAC Coach of the Year and Tournament Outstanding Coach. This years championship game marked the fourth time that the two have met in the tournament finals, snd is a carbon copy of last year’s championship match-up.

Howard Men Get Second Consecutive Title

In the men’s championship game, Howard won their second

consecutive MEAC title with a 70-67 victory over a scrappy Delaware State. Howard ended Norfolk State’s tourney run with a 80-74 victory over the hometown Spartans on Friday night (March 15).

HU’s Jordan Hairston paced the Bison with 18 points and was named the championship game’s MVP. Seth Towns and Bryce Harris each chipped in 16 points in the title game. The Howard Bison punched their ticket to the

NCAA tournament with the win over Delaware State. Delaware Coach Stan Waterman praised his team’s effort and noted the experience of Howard, which he said was key in the outcome of the contest.

“A huge factor was the experience of Howard,” Waterman said. “They have been here before. My hats off to Coach Blakeney and his team and we wish them well in the NCAA playoffs.”

DON’T TAKE OUR ADVICE

We believe that we all need each other. We say it all the time. Related to this, we also caution against those who beat their chests and proclaim they did it all. When you peel back the layers you can quickly see all the people who have supported – and continue to support – each of our so-called “self-made” miracle workers. We truly believe in asking for assistance, otherwise known as help. When you’re not sure of the road ahead of you, ask those you trust for their opinion. Ask them to share their experience. Listen closely. Ask clarifying questions. Be sure you say, “thank you.” And then chart your own path.

At the end of the day you are the only person who can gauge what you believe will be right for the organization you lead. You know the complexity of the situations you are grappling with. You know the people and their personalities. You know the community you are working within. But you don’t know it all. That is why you ask others for help, guidance,

and suggestions. Their experience – and the questions they ask of you – can help illuminate the road in front of you. But they can’t tell you what to do. Even when they do, you can’t know whether or not their answer is right. You are the final decision maker. This may sound crazy given that we are always offering advice and suggestions as it relates to fundraising and fund development. We share our insights and experiences to help inform how you will make decisions. We don’t know the specifics of your situation, but we do know that others are constantly sharing their wisdom and learned experience with us. We listen hard, and then, at the end of the day we have to decide how we will chart our course. We expect no less from you.

When you reach out to others you may just learn that people have conflicting or divergent views on how you “should” proceed. Listen to their guidance and then sit with the information and determine for yourself what to do with

their suggestions. You may have a “eureka!” moment where you realize the person you were talking to has the answer! You feel good and you move forward. You may also feel like the person doesn’t understand the context you are working within. You may resonate with some of the suggestions made but feel that you can’t implement everything they are recommending. Another person you talk with may sound “off base” to you, confirming the value of your insights. You will need to create your own path forward for your nonprofit. We believe your way will be easier if you reach out for help and then evaluate the wisdom that is being shared with you. Remember, you can combine aspects of different suggestions. The more you make decisions the more confident you will become in your decision-making process. Don’t take our advice, try it yourself!

Copyright 2024 –Mel and Pearl Shaw of Saad&Shaw

Hello and welcome to The Bridge Corner. In our last session, there was a review of the previous seven sessions covering beginning bridge basics. Using this prior information, let’s bid a hand:

Dealer: North

QUESTIONS:

1) Which suit do North and South like best? Who would suggest this suit fi rst?

2) Why would it bene fi t them to fi nd they like this suit?

3) How many tricks can North estimate taking? How about South?

4) How many tricks can North and South take as a partnership?

5) Which suit do East and West like best? Who would suggest this suit fi rst?

6) How many tricks can East estimate taking? How about West?

7) How many tricks can East and West take as a partnership?

8) Which partnership

predicted the most tricks?

In which contract?

9) Who fi rst mentioned the suit that is trump? Who is the declarer?

10) Who makes the opening lead?

11) Which hand is dummy?

12) What is the declarer’s plan to make the contract?

ANSWERS:

1) North – South like the Spade suit best. South would suggest Spades fi rst.

2) Because between North and South hands combined, there are NINE Spades between them: the opponents have only four Spades.

3) North can estimate taking three tricks. South can estimate taking six or seven tricks.

4) As a partnership, North and South can predict taking 10 tricks.

5) East and West like the Diamond suit best. West would probably bid Diamonds fi rst.

6) East can take one or two tricks. West can take three or four tricks.

7) East and West can estimate taking six tricks.

8) North -South calculated the higher number of tricks in Spades.

9) South mentioned the trump suit (Spades) fi rst; therefore, South is declarer.

10) The player to the left of Declarer ALWAYS leads. Declarer is South, therefore West leads.

11) North’s hand is dummy and is placed face up on the table.

12) The fi rst time

South wins a trick after West makes the opening lead, South plays the trump suit (Spades) until the opponents run out of Spades. South then takes the winners in the combined North – South hands. South should win/ take 10 tricks.

TIDEWATER BRIDGE CLUB

The Banks at Berkley 701 South Main Street, Norfolk, VA 23523

WEDNESDAYS

10:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

This is a locked building. An assigned person will be at the door to let you in until 11 a.m. Take the elevator up to the second floor Community Room. The game fee is $4 for 2 ½ or more tables. Bring your lunch. Light packaged snacks/water will be provided.

Winning Pairs from the March 13, 2024, Bridge Game

Lillye Holley –Leon Ragland (1)

Sandra Starkey –Gillis Watson (3)

Elva Taylor –Jennifer Douglas (2)

Barbara Whitfield –Gloria Brown

Rose Ward – Wilma Horne

Any question, concerns, or comments, please feel free to contact Lawrence Owes, President, Tidewater Bridge Club at l.a.owes1@gmail. com.

MEAC Men’s Champion Howard University

Photo: RandySingleton

Coach Robert Jones

LOCAL VOICES

THERE’S GOLD IN THAT “NAME IMAGE AND LIKENESS”

By Sean C. Bowers

March Madness is upon us, blowing in like a first-NFLconference-championshipgame-in-70-years, -Detroit lion. Because of all the parity that exists multiple college basketball teams are dreaming of capturing that most elusive

NCAA Basketball National Championship. Because of the shifting landscape beneath us, the super conferences realignment, the mega-TV broadcast / streaming rights deals, Name Image and Likeness deals for players has been underreported thus far.

By Melissa Spellman Staff Reporter New

NAME IMAGE and LIKENESS deals are designed to give players a chance at some real money- income without a supposed ceiling, of uncapped potential, for all. In the business (real) world of dog-eat-dog American capitalism, when there is an offer of NO ceiling- uncapped

money, providing gold, diamonds, furs, yachts, pools, cars, there is also NO FLOOR of uncapped dangerous falls from the college scholarship athletic competition’s privilege. That falls past the next few season’s falls- past it all to the stars. When the music stops in the “Transfer Portal,”

MARCH 2024

We asked Assistant Director of C.L.E.A.N. Lisa Montgomery why she nominated Janet Montgomery as NJG Youth Citizen of the month?

Lisa Montgomery: Janet has demonstrated her sacrifice, commitment, affection, and respect for the C.L.E.A.N. youth organization and the community. Janet has continued to achieve in her academics as an honor student. She has valued her contributions to the community with having Faith in God. C.L.E.A.N. is honored by Janet’s faithfulness to community service projects, dedication to her academics, and her example as a leader and role model to other members. C.L.E.A.N. acknowledges Janet’s contributions to the organization and looks forward to seeing more great things in her future.

NAME: JANET MONTGOMERY

SCHOOL: MAURY HIGH SCHOOL

GRADE: 9 | AGE: 14

NJG: What are your goals and ambitions?

Janet: I want to go to college, find stable employment, and live in peace, not fear.

NJG: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Janet: I want to be a mortician. I want to help families find closure.

NJG: What makes you happy?

Janet: I enjoy listening to music, drawing, and appreciating literature.

NJG: Who inspires you?

Janet: My mother inspires me to do my best. Because she encourages and supports me.

NJG: What is your greatest accomplishment in life this far?

Janet: My greatest accomplishment at this moment has been my continued dedication to my education.

NJG: What is your favorite subject in school?

Janet: English is my favorite subject.

NJG: Who is your favorite Teacher?

Janet: My two favorite teachers are my concert chorus teacher, Joseph Brown, and my honors world history teacher Heather Ellsworth.

every year there will be many a former rider, transferredonce-too-many-times, neverto-be-heard-of or from ever again, or those picked-upagain EX-PLAYERS, all because YOUR name image and likeness are never bigger than the game itself, never bigger than the team, never bigger than the program a player commits to, and never bigger than that school’s loyal fan base, a group who will always remember.

Soon college coaches’ view will become, “Is that NIL player’s worth in the game, to the program’s winning culture, worth dealing with, or are we just better off recruiting players who play for the name on the front of their jersey first and foremost, and for the love of the game, second?

“Headcases” develop and destroy an athletic program’s collective winning culture settings like an insidious cancer. Disputes have often erupted in the past over shots, statistics, fights, scoring, publicity coverage, family, women, cars and money.

Those who foolishly think they are bigger than or above that what they positively produce are only deluding themselves and smoking their own supply of HOOPs (h) opium.

The money will come because you are a championship winning team player, can win, and add tangible quality to a program. Those who focus more on the “NIL” $$$ than the game they are supposedly there to play, will be discarded for less Prima donna types who are not always posting, commenting, chatting, live-feeding, tweeting/ twitting, Facebooking and Instagraming becoming constant TEAM distractions and detractors! Let’s recap. You’re there to make the game YOUR primary effort. Once you win playing time, become a starter, win games and championships, and hang banners, then the real “earned” NIL money and offers will come. Until then, the NIL distraction will KILL

Sean C. Bowers

your scholarship, especially if you don’t use your will to make the correct decision: placing the game before the MONEY $$$ cart. MARK THESE WORDS; More players will be left out in the cold than those selected few who will make any money through NIL, year-after-year. Because the opportunity of “NO ceilings,” always means it comes with the dangers of “NO floors!”

Choose wisely, or you won’t be the one chosen, or become the chosen one. Game respects game. Respect the game and the money will come. Respect NIL and you will eventually be treading transfer portal water indefinitely, looking for a place to play and a roster spot to fill. This “Speech,” of Arrested Development paraphrased rap-song lyric, speaks volumes directly about a basketball player’s super long odds to the pro basketball players’ (NEVER) promised land. “100,000 high schoolers play basketball every year. Dreaming of winning one of the 10,000 college scholarships that are available. They dream of the 400 NBA Roster spots offering jobfinancial-security-blanketmoney, while only 40 NEW players, on average, make it to the league every year, for an average NBA career life of 3.2 years.” Get that education that never leaves you, for the time comes for every player when the ball no longer bounces and you can no longer play. “NIL 2024 and beyond.” Bet on yourself first and foremost, never buy into the NIL’s FOOL’S GOLD!

Janet Montgomery

Photo: Courtesy

MOMENTS of MEDITATION

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

THE ISSUE OF GENTILE BELIEVERS

Galatians 2:1-10. “God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jew, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle for the Gentiles” Galatians 2:8.

As the disciples went out from Judea preaching the Gospel “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) as the Lord had commanded, uncircumcised Gentiles began to come to faith in Christ – and they received the same evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives as did the Jewish believers (Acts 10:44-46)!

This raised a troublesome question: Was it necessary for Gentile believers to be circumcised in order to be genuine Christians? The issue had been dealt with at the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), but the Galatians churches were once more being caught in the legalistic trap. So Paul, in the first half of Galatians 2, gives his recollections of that council and its outcome, combining that with what he has just written about the uniqueness of the Gospel and his own apostolic authority. These verses together with the rest of chapter 2, lay the groundwork for a thorough exploration of the underlying doctrinal issue of the relationship of faith and works.

The Issue Presented. It is probable that Acts 15 and Galatians 2:1-10 are parallel passages. Luke gives the historical narrative from the view point of a third party, and Paul gives his own personal recollection of the same events. Some legalists had come from Jerusalem to Antioch, teaching that circumcision was necessary for salvation. The church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to discuss this problem (Acts 15:1-3).

At the same time, the Lord instructed Paul to go (Galatians 2:2a). He took Titus along, perhaps as a living demonstration of God’s work in the heart of a Gentile. These delegates from the church at Antioch were formally received by the church at Jerusalem (Acts 15: 4a), and Paul related what had been happening in the Gentile world through preaching of the gospel (v. 4b). This initial communication was done privately (i.e., with the leaders only), in the hope that the issue could be resolved without public controversy (Galatians 2:2b). But the legalists would not be placated. In fact, the presence of Titus exacerbated the dispute, requiring Paul to take a firm stand.

The Issue Illustrated. Titus became a test case as to whether or not circumcision should be a prerequisite for becoming a Christian (Acts 15:5). Like Timothy, Titus was one of Paul’s young lieutenants, to whom he entrusted great responsibilities (i. e., 2 Corinthians 8:16-23). Unlike Timothy, whose father was a Greek, but whose mother was a Jewish believer (Acts 16:1), Titus was a Gentile on both sides of his family (Galatians 2:3).

In the case of Timothy, Paul had him circumcised before taking him along on his second missionary journey, in order to avoid unnecessarily offending Jewish believers, since his mother was Jewish (Acts 16:3). But in the case of Titus, who was a pure blooded Greek, allowing him to be circumcised in order to comply with the demands of the Judaizers would have been to abandon the very heart of the Gospel message of salvation by faith alone, apart from the works of the law.

Paul describes the legalists

as “false brothers” (Galatians 2:4), which seems to mean Jews who professed to be believers, but whose profession was belied by their attitude, for they were still slaves to the Mosaic Law rather than enjoying “the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.”

The Issue Discussed. All of this led to a discussion of his important issue by the entire group that had gathered at Jerusalem in the wake of the increasingly widespread Gentile response to the Gospel (Acts 15:67a). The general discussion was followed by Peter’s testimony, based on his earlier experience in dealing with gentiles (Acts 10; 15:7b11). This supported Paul’s position, even though Peter’s major ministry continued to be to Jewish people. Then came the testimony of Paul and Barnabas to the miraculous ways in which God had worked among the Gentiles of Galatia on their trip into that territory (Acts 15:12).

see Gentile, page 6B

HAMPTON ROADS

The Tidewater Area Musicians, Inc. (TAM) will be presenting its special program “Stars of Tomorrow” on April 27, at 3 p.m. at The Historic Queen Street Baptist Church, 413 E. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, VA 23510. This will be the first Stars of Tomorrow program since 2018 which was curtailed due to COVID-19.

The event is an educational project to showcase and celebrate talented students who sing, dance or play an instrument, who are in the first through the twelfth grade.

If you have a student who is interested in participating, please contact TAM’s chairperson, Ms. Amber Garrett @ APMusic757@ gmail.com, the deadline for applications is April 8, 2024. TAM is a 501 (C) (3)

BOYS CHOIR OF HAMPTON ROADS

HAMPTON ROADS

The Boys Choir of Hampton Roads is seeking new members. Membership is open to all young men ages 7 though college. Financial stipends are available for high school graduates and college students.

The Choir rehearses on Thursdays, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at New Horizons Presbyterian Church, 913 Covenant Street, Norfolk, VA 23504. Call for information: (757) 589-0586.

The Boys Choir is conducted by Julius E. McCullough, Artistic Director, and accompanied by Mrs. Geraldine T. Boone, Founder. It was organized in 1997 in the Park

Place area of Norfolk as a resource for boys to expand their positive image through singing. It became so popular and admired that requests to join came from across the city. Subsequently, the name was changed to The Boys Choir of Hampton Roads. Its first director was the late Mr. Carl Harrison. Mr. Alonza Lawrence was its second director. Over the years, The Boys Choir of Hampton Roads has had the opportunity to perform with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, as well as Af’ram Fest, Granby Street Meet and Greet, Norfolk’s PreIllumination Parade, M.L. King

public charity whose membership is made up of musicians and patrons of the arts. As a branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM), TAM provides a forum to assemble musicians to encourage and assist “the cultivation of musical gifts among talented, deserving youth and create wider opportunities for artist and musicians,” according to its Board of Directors.

If you have a student who is interested in participating, please contact our chairperson, Ms. Amber Garrett at APMusic757@ gmail.com, The deadline for applications is April 8, 2024.

The public is invited to the event on April 27 at 3 p.m. at Queen Street Baptist Church in Norfolk which is free and donations are accepted.

Memorial, and Nauticus, to name just a few.

The Choir is widely sought after and has traveled extensively throughout the United States to such places as Colorado, Philadelphia, PA, Dallas, TX, Nashville, TN, Washington, D.C., West Palm Beach, Florida, New Orleans, LA and Chicago, IL.

The Boys Choir is a member of NANM, Inc. and is a frequent feature at the Annual Convention of The National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM).

To make a donation of support to this group go to CashApp: $boyschoirhr or visit www.boyschoirhr.org

BOOKWORM REVIEW

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

EASTER BOOKS FOR KIDS

How do you know when it’s spring? The robins suddenly make an appearance in your back yard. The flowers begin to poke their heads from the ground and in the stores. Mom and Dad start making garden plans and Grandpa finds his garden shears. Trees begin thinking about sprouting leaves, the temperature rises, and the sun feels nice on your face. The calendar helps, too, because it tells you when it’s Easter. So why not get a hop on things and read these great Easter books?

Chances are, you know all about the Easter Bunny. You can guess what he looks like, what he wears, and what he eats. But what if you make a mistake? In “I am NOT the Easter Bunny!” by T.L. McBeth (Flamingo Books, $12.99), a “regular bunny” sure looks like the real thing. He acts like the Easter Bunny. He wears a plaid vest and bowtie, he hops along a trail, he carries a basket, he buys eggs at the grocery store and then he paints them! He swears he’s absolutely not the Easter Bunny, but who’s he kidding? Not your 3-to-5year-old! This is the kind of book that’s so much fun and

©2024, $12.99 - $18.99

various publishers, various page counts

so funny, you won’t mind reading it all year ‘round. Sometimes, there’s more to someone than meets the eye, especially when it comes to cute. In The Cutest Brave Little Bunny” by Joy Steuerwald (Nancy Paulsen Books, $18.99), a cute little “fluffle” of bunnies is born on the farm one day. They’re all

so cute and that littlest one is especially so – although he swears he’s not! He’s absolutely not cute. He’s brave, resourceful, smart, and well, he’s kind of mean. Is it possible to be brave and resourceful and smart and fun ... and nice, too? This story is adorable and a little bit sassy, and your 3-to-6year-old will love knowing

how it ends. And finally, what’s Easter without a new Easter outfit to wear to church? In “Elijah’s Easter Suit” by Brentom Jackson, illustrated by Emmanuel Boateng (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, $18.99), a young boy wants to get a shout-out from his pastor and the adults in his church for wearing the best outfit – but how? He starts at the department store uptown, but nothing looks “quite right.” He searches at the local thrift store, but he gets the same results. Even the oldest store in town disappoints him. Then Mama Green and Mr. Brown tell Elijah how they used to find their Easter outfits, and that gives him an idea. What makes an Easter outfit great? Kids ages 7 to 9 will love this sweet story and the great illustrations.

If these books aren’t enough – or if you’re looking for something for an older child, a teen, or for your own Easter basket, then hop on over to your favorite bookstore or library. You’ll find all kinds of helpers there, who can put the right book directly in your paws. They know the perfect book to make your little bunny the hoppiest this Easter.

FUN PUZZLE FOR YOUR LEISURE

Gentile

Continued from page 4B

Paul points out that God does not operate on the basis of external, temporal considerations. In making His judgements, He looks at spiritual, external criteria (Galatians 2:6b). So, though these other apostles should be recognized and respected for their ministry and calling, Paul is neither dependent on nor inferior to them: “those men added nothing to my message” (v. 6c). The underlying unity between Paul and the other apostles was made clear by the outcome of the Jerusalem conference and the way in which the

Gentile issue was settled. The Issue Resolved. Paul passes quickly to the conclusion reached by the Jerusalem council. The issue of what to do about uncircumcised Gentile believers was resolved in an open and amicable way (see Acts 15:12-20). Had the decision gone toward works (requiring circumcision) instead of faith, Christianity would have become just another sect within Judaism; few, if any, of us today would know anything about Jesus Christ or salvation by grace through faith. We may well be grateful to God that these early leaders of the church were open and sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their deliberations and decisions.

FILM REVIEW: RUSTIN

Colman Domingo Wins NAACP Image Award For His Performance As The Civil Rights Activist

By Dwight Brown Film Critic NNPA Newswire

★

★ ★ (2 1/2 Stars)

He was the man behind the man. Martin Luther King’s chief lieutenant. Why is he only getting attention now?

Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) was gay at a time in the ‘60s when he was shunned by MLK’s other associates. He regained his stature in the civil rights leader’s camp when he imagined, developed and completed a March on Washington. Rustin: “Do this Dr. King. Own your power.”

That assembly of like minds became the largest civil rights gathering ever. On August 28th, 1963, 250,000 people, who had a heightened sense of social consciousness, descended on D.C. and changed the course of history. Rustin: “A demonstration made up of angelic troublemakers.”

The script by Julian Breece (When They See Us) and Dustin Lance Black (Milk) gives and indepth portrait of the man who endured continuous hazing, yet prevailed. Lovers, adversaries, arrests, achievements. It’s all on screen, manifested in a stunning performance by Domingo. Meticulous research has been turned into an energizing screenplay. All the characters are in place. Yet, too often their dialogue seems more suited for a modern novel than the way everyday folks talked back then.

The most stirring drama is featured in scenes played by veteran actors who embody strong-willed civil rights icons in the heat of verbal battles: Glynn Turman (A. Phillip

Randolph), CCH Pounder (Dr. Anna Hedgeman), Maxwell WhittingtonCooper (John Lewis), Aml Ameen (MLK). Jeffrey Wright as the vindictive Adam Clayton Powell commands the screen and steers the proceedings to high-pitch levels. Chris Rock as the condescending NAACP leader Roy Wilkinson seems woefully miscast: “The hell with Bayard Rustin. His attention-grabbing antics make him an easy target. And let’s not mention the unmentionable.”

Director George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) gets many things right. The assemblage of historical figures is as magical as the one in One Night in Miami, when Sam Cooke, Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali and Malcom X gathered. He makes Rustin’s coalition building feat (black activists, college kids, union members) seem miraculous. And Wolfe builds the tension and preparation to an exhilarating peak, getting solid performances from the very talented cast. Yet nothing distinguishes Rustin from other bio/ history films, minus the milestone crowd shots at the Washington Monument. Some will wish the film had steered towards authenticity and wasn’t so polished. Tobias A. Schliessler’s cinematography glistens. Toni-Leslie James’ costumes look like they were just bought at SAKS. It’s hard to believe you’ve gone back in time when everything looks so neat and tidy. That’s the rub. Fortunately, the sheer gravitas of this historical accounting outweighs any imperfections.