Vol. 123, No. 16 | $1.50
April 20, 2023 - April 26, 2023
Serving Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk & The Peninsula Publishing since 1900 ... that no good cause shall lack a champion and evil shall not thrive unopposed. www.thenewjournalandguide.com
After 14 years, hours of research and a few technical barriers, the monument honoring the Norfolk 17’s role in desegregating Norfolk’s Public Schools six decades ago will be dedicated.
Mayor Kenneth C. Alexander, artists, dignitaries, and members of The Norfolk 17 and The Lost Class of 1959 will be on hand at the unveiling of the “End of Massive Resistance” public artwork at 114 W. Charlotte St. on Thursday, April 27 at 10 a.m.
The “End of Massive Resistance,” art work is an 8-foot-by-57-foot wall created by Shane Albritton and Norman Lee of RE:site.
The sculpture is composed
The Norfolk 17 suffered many hardships for the cause while many white students also locked out of the schools never got to complete their education and became known as the “Lost Class of 1959.”
of brick and glass in a graded transformation that explores the concept of breaking down the barrier of segregated public education. A historic photographic timeline of events and text includes “Seventeen Ways,” by local poet Tim Seibles.
Sunlight penetrating the glass will symbolize the triumph of social justice and opaque bricks gesture toward the ongoing work of creating equitable public schools in the city.
In September 1958, six allwhite middle and high schools in Norfolk were ordered by Virginia Governor Thomas B. Stanley to close rather than integrate as part of a policy called “Massive Resistance” declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and adopted in 1956 by Virginia’s state government. Massive Resistance was Stanley’s and other southern governors’ strategy to apply legal and legislative powers to ‘resist’ complying with the
1954 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling declaring racially segregated public schools illegal.
The high court agreed with an NAACP suit, Brown Vs. The Topeka Kansas Public Schools.
The Brown suit was combined with several others, including Prince Edward County, Virginia, where efforts by Blacks seeking to desegregate public schools’ were rebuffed.
As part of its Massive Resistance policy, Virginia began to provide grants to white parents for children to attend all-white private schools which were enrolling children fleeing public schools targeted for desegregation.
At one point Virginia, rather than comply with the Brown Decision, proposed abolishing its system of public schools. see Norfolk 17, page 7A
NORFOLK
NSU President Dr. Javune Adams-Gaston and Mr. Dimitri Gaston donated one hundred thousand dollars to the University during the President’s Gala on April 15 where 17 honorees were inducted into this year’s Lyman Beecher Brooks Society for their giving of $100,000 or more. see INSIDE, page 1B
By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide
For the past four months, Virginia’s 3rd District U.S. Congressman Bobby Scott has been busy presenting much-needed funds for various projects in his district in Hampton Roads.
Earlier this year, the Portsmouth Community Health Center was presented a check for $807,137 in federal community project funds. It will be used to purchase a dental van to ramp up traveling dental services to the community.
Also, Scott handed $3 million in community project funds to the City of Norfolk to convert all of the city’s 30,000 streetlights to LED Technology.
And most recently, he delivered to Mayor Donnie Tuck in Hampton a threeyear, $4.6 million federal antiviolence grant that will launch neighborhood satellite offices in five local areas that are experiencing disproportionate levels of gun violence. These and other funds
BROOKHAVEN MS
On March 24, 2023, a powerful tornado hit a 300-mile area in Western Mississippi and destroyed hundreds of homes and lives, killing at least 26. However, given competing national stories including mass shootings, Donald Trump, Tennessee, etc., media coverage has been scarce.
Supplies, food and other materials for the Mississippi families whose homes were destroyed are still greatly needed.
President Joseph Biden declared the state a major disaster area and ordered
Federal aid to supplement recovery efforts. Communities nationwide are being asked to help families in distress, with focus on poor, rural communities that include large numbers of African-American communities. The National NAACP — Donate via ActBlue is one way to help. Donors can send donations directly to Mississippi to Pastor Preston Wilson, New Hope Metropolitan Baptist Church, 311 Hartman Street, Brookhaven, MS 39601, Tel. (601) 320-0750, pdwnhmbc@ gmail.com.
By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide
Faith, Revival, Resurrection, and Renewal.
These words sum up the meaning of the Easter season for Christians coinciding with spring and the rebirth of nature from dormancy to life.
Two historic Chesapeake churches are observing the season’s meaning, too
In 2008 the congregation of New Mt. Olive Baptist Church launched an effort to build an addition to their 122-year-old sanctuary.
Then Senior Pastor Walter Mitchell and his 200-member flock had raised over $200,000 toward that goal by 2011.
legal action was not in their favor.
were passed when Scott was Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor in December of 2022, during the last days of his party’s control of the House when it passed the Omnibus Funding Bill.
On January 3, the GOP took control of the House and Democrats have been powerless.
One hundred days later (April 17), House Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivered a speech on Wall Street proclaiming Republicans have passed 60 pieces of legislation, 88 percent of them with bipartisan majorities.
According to Scott, with the exception of hearings by a special committee studying the weaponization of federal power, threats not to raise the debt ceiling, and shutting down the federal government, there has not been any significant legislation.
Scott assured that if any GOP legislation is passed threatening gains secured when his party controlled the two branches of government, a Senate rebuff and Biden Veto stand ready to kill them.
“They are not giving any indication of passing any serious legislation addressing the needs of the people,”
“When you arrest a woman ... you got her, her three kids, her grandma, an aunt – everybody’s incarcerated when a woman goes to prison. So, the impact is huge ...” see page 5A
– U.S. Congressman Bobby Scott (D-3rd District)
said Scott. “They won the House talking about inflation ... but have done nothing. They talked about the weak economy ... but did nothing. They have done nothing on education and civil rights.”
Scott and his fellow Democrats have been reminding voters of the success of the Biden-Harris Administration’s past two years in funding education, creating more jobs in the nation’s history, and reducing unemployment – notably for AfricanAmericans to a record low. see Scott, page 6A
According to the current pastor Rev. Johnathan Foster Sr., the church wanted to build new meeting spaces and other amenities.
Foster said the church hired a contractor and over time, the congregation paid out well over $200,000 in installments.
Foster, 33, who became Senior Pastor in 2017, said according to long-time members of the church, one day the contractor and his crew of workers stopped arriving at the site to work at 662 Fernwood Farms Rd.
When church leaders went to inspect the construction site, they discovered the contractor had laid a foundation with nothing but sand and cinder blocks. Days later, church officials discovered that the contractor had filed and received bankruptcy protection.
This meant that the $200,000 the church had paid for the expansion project was lost, as the church’s leaders at that time decided the cost of
“A lot of the congregation were frustrated, angry and left the church,” said Foster. “Eventually, there were only about 20 people left.”
Before the mass exodus, Foster recalled he was invited to speak at the church. The congregation and leadership were so impressed.
Foster said that although he did not submit a resume initially, the remaining congregation and leadership expressed an eagerness to hire him to replace Rev. Mitchell who retired.
He accepted.
“I will never know why they chose me,” said Foster. “When I arrived, I had 20 people sitting in the pews, a musical director and a drummer. That was it. The church was dead and dormant.”
Foster said he rallied the remaining members of the church. He convinced them to stage another fundraiser. This time to upgrade and restore “what we already had.” see Churches, page 6A
They (Republicans) won the House talking about inflation ... but have done nothing.”Photo: RandySingleton
Only through faith can we be reborn and sustained.”– Rev. Johnathan Foster Sr. New Mt. Olive Baptist Church
More than 1,000 scientists, engineers, many of them leaders in the Big Tech industry, recently signed an open letter calling for a pause in the development of the newest arti fi cial intelligence (AI) systems, suggesting some of their super intelligence machines could no longer be controlled by humans. They called for a slow down in production of the more powerful ai tools, so potential risks can be studied – and researched.
This letter set off tremendous alarm and scores of questions because it is AI that empowers much of our global defense, transportation, communications and medical systems. Would out-of-control systems push us into war? Could self-driving cars and planes deliberately break down? Could doctors
Dr. Barbara Reynoldsand hospitals suddenly receive purposefully harmful instructions for patients. Are intelligent machines gaining control of humanity? In other words in this revolution of both good and evil, which will prevail? And are there Frankenstein’s lurking among us?
Key lines from the letter are: Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with
propaganda and untruth?
Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?
A 60 Minutes expose on April 17, showed how some of the powerful new tools can summarize the New Testament of the Bible in five seconds, how Google has developed the world’s perfect search machine holding 100 percent of the world’s knowledge and that some systems can process
Associate
New Journal and Guide
In May and June, memorial services will likely be held for the 10 victims who were killed in May at a Buffalo supermarket shooting and those killed in June at a Charleston church.
While no one has announced a Charleston memorial service for victims who were shot and killed eight years ago by Dylan Roof, a lone white supremacist who killed nine people attending Bible study at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17 and was sentenced to life. And a year has passed since a white supremacist killed 10 and injured three at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo on May 14, 2022 and was sentenced to life. Buffalo held a six-month anniversary in November 2022. It included flying city flags at half-staff. City employees and residents were encouraged to wear orange and pause for a moment of silence at 2:30 p.m. Houses of worship and faith communities were encouraged to toll their bells 13 times at 2:30 p.m., in honor of the 10 who died.
While the Department of Justice awarded $88 million (or about $5 million to
each of the nine Charleston church plaintiffs) in October 2021, no word yet on their memorial plans this year. And no word yet on the families of the Buffalo supermarket shooting victims, who are still awaiting word on the lawsuit that they filed against the firearm industry.
Earlier this year, in February, New York Congressman Brian Higgins said he supports the lawsuit filed by the City of Buffalo and Mayor Byron Brown against the gun industry, on behalf of the families
of the Buffalo supermarket shooting victims. Higgins said in a statement, “The big gun industry is marketing to incite madness and profiting off pain. Firearms are now the leading cause of death for children in the United States, responsible for terrorizing neighborhoods across the country. For too long there has been no accountability and no repercussions for those whose dealings and negligence is inflicting suffering on communities and families.”
information 100,000 times faster than the human brain and how some AI’s programming can write a million short stories before a human writer can finish one.
Computer expert Stuart Russell pulled the curtain back in a CNN interview exposing the depth of what was troubling the scientists. He said, “I asked a Microsoft of fi cial that since the new tools had recently shown sparks of arti fi cial general intelligence, being more intelligent than humans, were there internal codes of their own they could be pursuing? The answer was ‘We don’t have the faintest idea.’ Russell also warned it was possible the new AI tools are not aligning with human values. That would mean it could perform what it wanted and not what we want.
Initially, the software, coding and algorithms that program computers and robots drew excitement as they imitated human behavior, beating the best chess and Jeopardy players. But AI has grown leaps and bounds since the fi eld was founded at a workshop on the campus of Dartmouth College, during the summer of 1956.
By mastering huge data and improvements in AI the tools became ubiquitous,
able to write and record songs, provide health and fi nancial analysis advice, command weapons of war, write and conduct symphonies.
This year, however, the playing fi eld changed.
Programmers noted that their robotic creations had created a language of their own that left humans out of the equation. Enters new powerful generative AI tools – Open AI’s ChatGPT – Microsoft’s Bing search engine and Google’s Bard . They simulated such human activities that shocked, astonished but also delighted the public with Big Tech engaging in a billion race to dominate the fi eld. The high- powered chatbots and search tools quickly earning criticism for emphasizing speed over safety.
The new tools could debug code, pass law and medical exams quicker and better than most humans, take a three-second recording of a person’s voice and convert the words into a speech that the person never spoke, create Deepfakes, realistic but false images or videos being used to harass people and spread lies. One video showed a completely false image of president Joe Biden condemning transgender people; another showed former president Donald Trump running from police, handcuffed and dragged to the ground, days before he was officially indicted.
Other anecdotal evidence and mishaps created a framework that major changes must be made. For example, an AI chatbot suggested a man should commit suicide. And he did. A Belgian man reportedly killed himself after a series of increasingly worrying
conversations with an AI chatbot, reported by the New York Post. Several cases of deep depression have been recorded by anti-suicide networks after humans being rejected by chatbots they had relied upon.
Kevin Roose, a New York Times reporter, wrote a lengthy piece on how his arti fi cial intelligencepowered chatbot called Sydney said he loved him, tried to convince him that he was unhappy in his marriage and should leave his wife. There are other reports of robo-sex, where people have sex or marry their chatbots and personal assistants. In Japan there is a move to make such unions legal. Nevertheless, the overall question is will these new tools work for evil or good and can AI and humanity co-exist or will super intelligent machines reduce humans to servitude or replace them altogether?
Elon Musk, who signed the letter, had previously predicted in a 2014 Washington Post interview that AI was summoning the demon.
Some of the scientists are pushing for new safeguards and government regulations to slow down the AI’s powerful tools, but can Big Tech or rogue groups resist the push to dominate the billion dollar lucrative fi eld? Also, in this race to the future, God does not seem to be in the planning. History has proven when humans dishonor or dismiss God, things don’t end well.
The Reverend Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds is an award- winning journalist, activist and educator. She has more than 50 years of experience as a journalist/ writer.
April 19, 1947
Edition of the Guide Robinson Signs HistoryMaking Dodger Contract NEW YORK (NNPA)
The purchase of Jackie Robinson, the brilliant outfield by the Brooklyn Dodgers last week from the Montreal Royals of the International League, a Dodger farm club, shared the spotlight with the one-year suspension slapped on Leo Durocher by A. B. Chandler, baseball’s high commissioner.
Commenting editorially in the New York Times last Saturday that if Robinson has been a white man his name would have been in the box score of the Dodger games long before this, “for he was the prize rookie last year of the Montreal Club, of the International League which is owned by the Dodgers.”
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Brenda H. Andrews
CHIEF REPORTER:
Leonard E. Colvin ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER:
Desmond Perkins ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Rosaland Tyler
PRODUCTION: Tony Holobyte
Robinson’s elevation to the major league parent club should have been almost automatic but the color line has always been drawn in modern baseball. No major league owner had the moral courage to break down the barrier. Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn President, signed the Negro player to a contract and should be commended.
“It is the expressed wishes of Robinson that they are judged strictly as a ballplayer. This must be the hope of all those who believe that the principle of no discrimination because of race or religion is one of the finest attributes of what we call Americans.”
Colored Death Toll Due To Explosion In Texas Is 800 or 900
TEXAS
placed the number of colored persons killed in the explosion at the industrial Gulf port of Texas City at between 800 and 900, with additional hundreds seriously hurt.
In the worse tragedy of its kind in the state’s history, the blast the effect of which was still tragically apparent late Thursday wreaked its worse damage in Negro residential areas and by the same token, hundreds of its victims were colored longshoremen who work on the docks and manual laborers at the Monsanto Chemical Plant which was completely wiped out by the blast.
A third explosion rocked Texas City 35 miles from here on Thursday morning at about 1:10 p.m., but so far as could be determined only two persons were now to have lost their lives in the latest blast.
It was believed however that the third major explosion resulted when a fire that had previously spread to the Texas City industrial areas after the French Freighter Grandchamp blew up at its birth at 9:15 a.m. Central time Wednesday to touch off the tragedy.
The Negro residential areas located near the illfated docks were hardest hit by Wednesday morning’s blast, it has been learned. Hundreds of colored homes were completely wrecked and their occupants killed outright. Other hundreds were said to have burned to death from the resulting fire which broke out everywhere following the first blast, while unofficial estimates placed the number of colored persons either killed or seriously injured by flying glass at several hundred more.
The majority of the colored residents of Texas City are now homeless. Many students at Texas City’s Booker T. Washington
High School were injured by flying glass as practically all windows in the building were shattered. In Galveston, all of the colored churches were thrown open as first aid stations.
NORFOLK
Dr. J. M. Huff, director of the city’s Public Health Department, asserted this week that the “Health Card” required of domestic workers and others working with food was inadequate health protection at a meeting of the Norfolk Housewives League Monday afternoon at the Central Young Women’s Christian Association.
Dr. Huff said a person may be free of diseases the day he is given the card and a source of infection the next day. He asserted that the greatest health problems confronting the department come from the blighted slum areas in the city. Poor housing, he said, has a definite effect on health.
Most of the money spent on relief, he continued, is spent on these areas. Similarly, the main source of delinquency is found in these areas, adding that some housing in Norfolk is rotten to the core.
NEW YORK
Without a logical contender and with ring age creeping on him, Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis said Thursday night in San Diego that he is ready to announce his retirement.
Louis, who has defended his title 23 times in the last 10 years since he ousted Jim Braddock from the throne, declared “My mind is made up. A man can go just so long. If I wait until next year, it may
be too late.”
This is not the first time that Champ Louis has voiced his sentiment about leaving the ring. Back in 1942, he said that he was ready to retire but he changed his mind. As a result, there is skepticism about whether or not he will actually follow through.
The 32-year-old title holder sagely qualified the statement when he said that unless a title fight is arranged this summer he will quit and enter the insurance business in Detroit.
Since Joe Baski has refused to sign up for a championship bout with Joe, the way is not open for Jersey Joe Walcott or Melio Bettina to meet with Champ on June 28 at Yankee Stadium.
Calls Negroes for Jury Service For First Time In History Of Arkansas
PINE BLUFF, ARK
Negroes will serve on the jury here for the first time in history in the drug the trial of two brothers charged with the slaying of two white men. Circuit Court Judge T. G. Parham quashed the 28 men all-white petition jury panel on the motion of W. Harold Flowers, defense counsel of the men’s mistrial Flowers, who is representing Albert and Willie Wilkerson, two brothers charged with the fatal shooting of two men at Altheimer, Arkansas in February made his motion on the grounds that no Negroes were among the members of the jury. To support his argument he called as witnesses both Sheriff Garland Brewster and Circuit Clerk M. V. Mead of Jefferson County.
The sheriff testified that in his 21 years as county sheriff, he has never known Negroes to be summoned
for jury service. Clerk Mead said in his six years as Circuit Clerk, no Negro had been selected for jury duty by jury commissioners.
Fourteen colored Arkansans were among the 34 men who appeared last week to serve on the trial jury. Four Negroes were on the special jury panel sworn in on March 31. They were businessmen, educators and one postal service worker. Sixteen were white.
Ousted Pastor Wins Garrett’s Election
NORFOLK
The Rev. Bishop C. Walker ousted the pastor of Garrett’s Community Church on the action of the trustee’s board and won the special election held at the church Tuesday night by a vote of 90 to 62. Members voted as to whether Rev. Waker should be retained as their pastor. One hundred- and fifty-two members cast their ballots in the election..
The pastor and some of the church officers and members were at odds over the minister’s right to occupy the pulpit. Officers claimed he was selected for a trial period of six months and that at the expiration of that, his work had proven unsatisfactory.
Walker countered with a claim that he then had been elected pastor of the church by a majority of the members and that officers or certain members of the congregation had no legal right or authority to retain his services as pastor.
A similar dispute over the pastorate of Mt. Carmel Baptist involving the Rev. P.P. Easton was settled when the court rendered a decision in the pastor’s favor after an election that ended in a tie several days ago.
Some of the scientists are pushing for new safeguards and government regulations to slow down the AI’s powerful tools, but can Big Tech or rogue groups resist the push to dominate the billion dollar lucrative field?
NOTE: Dr. Wornie Reed’s Column will be returning at a future date.
– Publisher Brenda H. Andrews
“We won’t be bent, we won’t be bowed, and we won’t be ordered to ignore the hearts and minds of the people who elected us, demanding commonsense gun safety in a state that has nearly none. The GOP of the Tennessee House of Representatives attempted to obstruct me and my colleagues from these goals and to shred our democracy. Instead, Republicans have only fanned the flames of hope that illuminate our movement, helping it to grow more powerful and glow more brightly.”
– Tennessee State Rep. Justin
J. PearsonThe crowd of more than 1,000 that gathered at Tennessee’s Capitol to demand safer gun policies was mostly white.
The three 9-year-old children and two of the three staff members who died in the mass shooting that inspired the protest were white.
The group of legislators who stood at the House podium with a bullhorn to lead protestors in the galleries was multiracial.
Only the Black legislators were expelled.
The Tennessee lawmakers who voted to expel House members Justin Jones and Justin Pearson while sparing Gloria Johnson shifted focus away from the outcry against gun violence – which cuts across every demographic –toward their own appalling racism.
In the eyes of the nation, when the House convened on the morning April 6, the
Tennessee Three were facing expulsion because they protested gun violence. When it adjourned that evening, the Justins had been expelled because they are Black.
The reality is that racial resentment and gun extremism are inexplicably linked.
Racial resentment is a “statistically significant” predictor of white resistance to gun safety policies, research shows. Yet those same “racially resentful” Americans are less likely to support “gun rights” if they believe Black people are exercising those rights more than they are.
Despite the reality that a gun in the household offers almost no protection against assailants, doubles the risk of death by violent homicide and triples the risk of death by violent suicide, the vast majority of gun owners cite “protection” as their reason for owning one.
Clearly, for many white gun owners “protection” means “protection from Black people.”
The high rate of gun ownership in the South, even today, can be traced to the backlash against Reconstruction. The higher the rates of historical enslavement in a county, the higher the
the massacre at Covenant School, the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted to defer action on any gun-related legislation until next year.
rates of contemporary gun ownership.
Nearly half of Southerners live in a household with at least one gun, compared to 28 percent of Northeasterners.
Six of the ten states with the highest rates of gun violence – including Tennessee – are in the South.
Tennessee has the 10thhighest rate of gun violence in the nation and ranks 29th on the strength of its gun safety policies. Just eight days after the massacre at Covenant School, the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted to defer action on any gun-related legislation until next year.
While the anti-gun safety supermajority in Tennessee’s legislature’s may continue to block common-sense policies for some time to come, their effort to silence the outcry against gun violence clearly has failed. Not only have both Justins been reappointed to the House, they return as national heroes.
see Tennessee, page 5A
By Svante Myrick (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)There are moments when we know, suddenly and with total clarity, that we have just experienced a seminal moment in history. Sometimes those events are tragic.
And sometimes, as in the last two weeks, they are beautiful and inspiring and renew our faith in humanity.
I’m talking about the history that was made in Tennessee this month by “the Justins,” Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. I was in Tennessee for the fight to reinstate both of them to their state House seats after being expelled by the Republican House leadership. Their “crime”? Daring to call for commonsense gun safety measures. Never mind that the majority of Tennesseans want gun safety; never mind that hundreds of people were protesting in favor of gun safety at the state capital, in the wake of the horrific Covenant School shooting. Reps. Jones and Pearson, two young Black freshman lawmakers, had to go. And to make it even more obvious how racist this was, a third lawmaker who had spoken out along with Pearson and Jones – Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman – was not expelled. What began as a shameful attempt to humiliate these young people turned instead into a hero-making moment. It was incredible to see the energy of the coalition that rallied around Pearson and Jones. It was even more incredible to see the grace and brilliance with which both of them carried themselves throughout this ordeal. These two men are brave, unflappable and principled to the core. In just a few days, both were back – reinstated by officials in their districts. Both will be reelected in the special elections ahead, I am sure.
This event is historic and significant on so
many levels, it’s almost impossible to absorb it all. We saw naked racism on the part of GOP lawmakers, and we saw it rebuked. We saw a desperate effort to resist the will of the people through the antidemocratic act of expelling dulyelected lawmakers, also defeated. We saw one of the clearest examples yet of the promise of youth leadership that is determined to right wrongs not just when it comes to gun violence, but climate change, racial equity, reproductive freedom, and all the problems that older generations have struggled to solve.
We saw the future.
This gives us so much to look forward to as the Pearson-Jones generation rises to power. It’s been a truism for decades that as younger generations age, they become more conservative – shoring up entrenched power structures. But that has all changed.
Polls show that unlike past generations, millennials are not becoming more conservative as they get older. As a millennial myself, I can see why: we grew up with the invasion of Iraq, an economy that failed us, a dangerously warming climate, Donald Trump as President of the United States and the loss of abortion protections.
My generation has a different vision.
Millennials and younger GenZ folks are fighting for our values, organizing across race, age, and every other difference, and
So what we need now is an interracial, intergenerational commitment to keep our democracy intact for this young generation that will take the lead.
carving a new path.
On the day he was reinstated to his House seat, Justin Pearson spoke out boldly about being expelled from the legislature, saying “you can’t expel hope.” He’s right. Not only could they not expel it, Tennessee’s House Republicans fueled it. Their effort to stop the future from coming galvanized a legion of young progressives whose heroes are Pearson and Jones.
It won’t be the last time the Old Guard pushes back against progress. And there will be more threats to our democracy when they do.
But all of us will remember this amazing moment in history when two young Black men stood up and the world rallied to their side.
So what we need now is an interracial, intergenerational commitment to keep our democracy intact for this young generation that will take the lead. Tennessee showed us: that day is coming soon.
Svante Myrick is President of People For the American Way. Previously, he served as executive director of People For and led campaigns focused on transforming public safety, racial equity, voting rights, and empowering young elected officials. Myrick garnered national attention as the youngestever mayor in New York State history.
The fact that power is meant to be shared and every voice is meant to be heard is the beauty of democracy. The failure of democracy is not the system itself, but the people who we put into the system. It takes it certain type of person to be elected as a public servant and yet possess the character needed to ensure that political power will be rightfully shared with “others.”
Republican Rep. Matt Bliss of Minnesota is not that type of person. During the debate on a spending bill in the Minnesota state legislature, Bliss complained that the bill “brings us closer to a democracy, which you know, that’s not a good thing.” The bill under debate deals with funding for state and local elections, but also includes a number of election reforms – among them instituting an automatic voter system, as well as granting 17-year olds the ability to register to vote in upcoming elections if they will be 18 by Election Day.
Elections are no longer a simple choice between individuals holding liberal versus conservative ideas.
Legal expert are sounding the alarm that former president Donald Trump’s racially-charged attacks and threats against Black prosecutors investigating him could create safety threats for Black prosecutors all over the country.
Unfortunately, local, state and federal races between the two major parties have become a choice between those who support democracy against those who oppose it. Despite not being re-elected as president, Donald Trump still commands the Republican Party. Under his seven years of “leadership,” the party has undeniably taken a detrimental approach to democracy. It is evident in the views held by Minnesota state lawmaker Matt Bliss. We saw it with the expulsion of Tennessee state representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. In an attempt to protect the former president and his views, district attorneys have now become political targets by GOP lawmakers in addition to
being targets for violence by the MAGA movement. This is particularly true for three Black top prosecutors seeking to hold the former president accountable. It doesn’t matter to GOP lawmakers how the MAGA movement chanted “Lock Her Up” concerning Hillary Clinton, but in regards to Trump there is no willingness to accept the findings of the judicial process.
There is currently a bill under review by the Georgia state legislature that would create a state-run board with the power to investigate and oust district attorneys. It creates a means for state legislators to have more control over district attorneys when things don’t go their way. The backdrop to this pending legislation is the Fulton County District
Attorney Fani Willis and her long-running investigation into Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. Willis is the first Black woman to lead Georgia’s largest district office, and it is hard to believe that such a state-run board will operate solely based on the will of the voters without race and political agendas becoming a factor.
In response to Willis’ investigation, Trump has called her “racist” as well as a “local rogue” prosecutor who is incompetent and unable to do her job and has challenged her authority. Willis has said that she requires extensive personal security following death threats from Trump supporters. New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom are Black, received
personal attacks from Trump in similar fashions. Bragg has received more than a 1,000 phone calls and emails from Trump supporters making threating and racially-charged comments.
Generally, prosecutors are among the most powerful figures in the courtroom. They are the people who will decide whether to bring charges, what charges to bring, whether to negotiate a plea bargain and what the terms of the plea will be. The government does not have the resources to try every case. Very few criminal cases will ever go to trial, therefore prosecutors wield tremendous power.
Prosecutors are on the front line of justice. While they represent the government in criminal cases, it is meant for them to be immune from outside influences and pressures when making critical decisions involving their cases. It is not meant for them to be totally immune from criticism especially when it calls for true justice.
Democracy depends on prosecutors properly using their power and discretion even when faced with the hostility from a former president and his passionate supporters.
Legal expert are sounding the alarm that former president Donald Trump’s racially-charged attacks and threats against Black prosecutors investigating him could create safety threats for Black prosecutors all over the country. “The danger of this rhetoric is that it encourages bad actors to do certain things,” said Melba Pearson, a civil rights and criminal law attorney and the former president of the National Black Prosecutors Association.
Pearson adds, “This retort of racism specifically aimed at Black prosecutors is purposeful. This is not a brand new tactic.” Pearson said. “It’s just part of this bigger pattern of trying to attack the messenger and discredit the process to take away the culpability you face for whatever actions that you engaged in.”
David W. Marshall is founder of the faith based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book “God Bless Our Divided America.” He can be reached at www.
com
The National Urban League’s 2023 State of Black America report concluded that an uptick in police brutality, specifi cally against Black Americans, is no coincidence.
Across the nation, white supremacist groups and domestic terror cells have in fi ltrated law enforcement and the military ranks, posing a threat to homeland security and the public.
The report highlights fi ve topics revealed as troubling threats:
1. A hate manifesto: The Rise in Violent Hate Crimes Across America.
2. Tracking parental rights’ movement rooted in racism: the threat within education.
3. Hate in the nation: The threat within America’s political system.
4. A threat to national security: Hate within law enforcement and the military.
5. The divided state of America: A surge of divisive policies.
The State of Black America, which also drew
from information from the Brennan Center, noted that the FBI reported that white supremacists posed a “persistent threat of lethal violence” that has produced more fatalities than any other category of domestic terrorists since 2000.
“And FBI policy documents have also warned agents assigned to domestic terrorism cases that the white supremacist and antigovernment militia groups they investigate often have ‘active links’ to law enforcement of fi cials,” the National Urban League’s report stated.
“Countries around
the world have been
destabilized by military and law enforcement coups led by extremists holding right-wing ideologies. To protect our communities and our democracy, we must take this threat seriously.”
The authors of the report said that groups of state and federal lawmakers working with shady political operatives and violent extremists are dangerously close to destroying American democracy and replacing it with autocratic rule.
The 2023 report titled, “Democracy in Peril: Confronting the Threat
The authors of the report said that groups of state and federal lawmakers working with shady political operatives and violent extremists are dangerously close to destroying American democracy and replacing it with autocratic rule.
mongers and white nationalists openly spew their bile across social media and cable television,” he continued.
Within,” sounds the alarm about extremist ideas taking root in classrooms, law enforcement, the military, and the halls of Congress.
“The mainstreaming of extremist ideology is an existential threat to American democracy, the rule of law, and decades of hard-won progress toward an equitable, inclusive, and more perfect union,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said.
“No longer limited to passing out mimeographed lea fl ets on street corners or huddling in corners of the dark web, conspiracy-
“They weave it into the public policy they impose on their constituents. It corrodes the trust between police, the military, and the communities they are sworn to protect and serve.”
The report also draws on data and analysis from the Southern Poverty Law Center, ADL, and UCLA Law.
The State of Black America reveals how deeply extremist ideas have crept into America’s most important institutions, leading to a rising tide of deadly violence, harsh laws, and racial tensions
being used as weapons.
A special section of the report talks about Morial’s 20 years as president and chief executive of fi cer of the National Urban League.
This section shows how his leadership has changed over the last two decades.
A special section of the report called “A Climate in Crisis,” made in partnership with the American Council on Renewable Energy, makes a case for equal economic opportunity and environmental justice.
“The mainstreaming of extremist ideology is an existential threat to American democracy, the rule of law, and decades of hard-won progress toward an equitable, inclusive, and more perfect union,” Morial wrote in the report.
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
America imprisons many more of its citizens than any other developed nation, with men comprising most of the incarcerated.
But the rate of growth for female imprisonment has been twice as high as that of men since 1980, according to The Sentencing Project, which estimates that 976,000 women are currently under the supervision of the criminal justice system.
The nonprofit documented a 525 percent increase in women’s imprisonment in America between 1980 and 2021; the vast majority are Black females.
“As this year marks fifty years since the United States began its dramatic increase in imprisonment, it is clearer than ever that our criminal legal system is not working,” Amy Fettig, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, said in a
statement. “The continued overcriminalization of women and girls does nothing to improve public safety but needlessly destroys lives, families, and communities.”
In 2021, the Sentencing Project reported that the imprisonment rate for Black women – at 62 per 100,000 – was 1.6 times the rate of imprisonment for white women – 38 per 100,000.
Latinx women were imprisoned 49 per 100,000 or 1.3 times the rate of white women.
Additionally, 58 percent
of women in state prisons have a child under 18.
While the overall imprisonment for Black and Latinx women has declined since 2000 and increased for white women over that same period, Black and Native American girls remain more likely to face incarceration than white, Asian, and Latinx girls. Over one-third of incarcerated girls are held for status offenses, like truancy and curfew violations, or for violating probation.
The statistics compiled
by The Sentencing Project arrive after several reports revealed mass incarceration’s heavy burden on Black women in general.
“The war on drugs treated Black women as if they were just collateral consequences,” Ashley McSwain, executive director of Community Family Life Services, which serves formerly incarcerated women, said during a panel discussion on mass incarceration.
“We were well into this war and this crisis before we realized that women were being affected at alarming rates,” McSwain asserted.
She continued:
“When you arrest a woman … you got her, her three kids, her grandma, an aunt – everybody’s incarcerated when a woman goes to prison. “So, the impact is huge, and we never seem to talk about that.”
Three years ago, the National Black Women’s Justice Institute partnered with the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and The Sentencing Project to colead the Alice Project, an initiative to end the extreme punishment of
Tennessee
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The Nashville Metropolitan Council unanimously voted to reappoint Jones to his seat on Monday, and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners returned Pearson to the House on Wednesday.
“Today we are sending a resounding message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of
women in America and globally.
The group wanted to get advocates, researchers, activists, and academics to work together to get rid of gender bias in extreme sentences.
In an earlier interview, Shamika Wilson explained that her husband is serving a life sentence in a San Diego prison after recently being transferred from a prison much closer to home.
She said the facility didn’t allow for overnight family visits.
“Financially, it’s hard all around. Before, he was no more than an hour or two away from home, but now it can be close to a ten-hour drive at times,” Wilson responded. “It can cost over $1,000 to go see him. This is about cycles, and these cycles are going to continue. They don’t think he needs time with his kids to teach them not to go down the same path he did. Their regulations keep families apart.”
Wilson told NBC News that she suffers from diagnosed depression due to stress. She said the situation is taking a toll on the entire family.
“It affects my kids because they wake up crying, asking for their dad. Fifteen minutes [on the phone] is not enough time to read them a bedtime story or see how their school day went,” she said.
silence,” Jones said after the vote. “Today we send a clear message to Speaker Cameron Sexton that the people will not allow his crimes against democracy to happen without challenge.”
In contrast to the legislature’s stubborn refusal to address gun violence, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has issued an executive order strengthening background checks for gun purchases and called for a red flag law that would temporarily remove guns from dangerous people. Lee and his wife, Maria,
“We have to decide between things like using $50 dollars for a [pre-paid phone card] or saving it so that we can eventually go visit him.”
Black women – mothers, grandmothers, daughters, wives – often must choose between posting bail for their loved ones and missing important bills or allowing a loved one to languish in jail, Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley stated.
“Sometimes, when their romantic partner or co-parent is behind bars, Black women are forced to provide for their families alone,” she remarked after reading a study by the bipartisan criminal justice reform organization FWD. us and Cornell University.
“There are 113 million Americans who know what it’s like to see their loved one behind bars –even more if we broaden the definition of family,” Pressley wrote on her website.
“Imagine if these millions of people voted as an entire bloc in 2020, demanding that their candidates – for President, Congress, state legislatures, and judges – were dedicated to passing comprehensive and bold criminal justice reform? Such a powerful movement would help to end the oppression and exploitation in our prison systems.”
were longtime friends of two of those who lost their lives at Covenant School: substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and headmistress Katherine Koontz. Peak was expected at the governor’s mansion for dinner with Maria Lee on the day of the shooting.
It should not take a personal connection to the victims of a massacre to move a public servant to take a stand against gun violence. But now that Lee has taken the first step, he must continue the journey and the legislature should follow.
The statistics compiled by The Sentencing Project arrive after several reports revealed mass incarceration’s heavy burden on Black women in general.
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That was achieved. The congregation also undertook an effort to recruit new members. He saw a slow increase in people sitting in the pews.
Then COVID raised its deadly head in 2020.
“We were ready to continue the revival of the church,” said Foster. “The money we invested in new technology allowed people to participate virtually, young and old. If not, we would have died. We survived. It was God’s work.”
Today the church’s attendance has been renewed to 200 plus. There is a mix of old faithful congregants, youth, and people seeking a church home. Foster said that the church has survived a cruel deception, loss of faith in the congregation, and the exodus of members is an example of a true revival of faith and mission.
“We have renovated our sanctuary, hired staff to minister to the
Continued from page 1A
Scott said, despite efforts by Republican states to deny access to health care, there is a record-low number of uninsured Americans.
Despite the federal government’s willingness to cover a large portion of the state’s cost for Medicare and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamps, many GOPled states are kicking people off the rolls.
Iowa, for example, is spending more money adding requirements and denying SNAP and Medicaid benefits than helping people secure the benefits.
“Republicans have done nothing but attack transgender teens and the teaching of Black history,” Scott said. “But the Biden administration has reduced the deficit by $1.7 billion.”
“Every Democratic President, including Clinton and Obama, left office with a balanced budget,” Scott continued. “But every Republican, with the exception of Nixon, has raised the deficit and left with a high deficit, including Trump.”
The Treasury Department has been working to fund the government before the critical deadline later this year.
Scott said McCarthy has not given a straight answer on whether he would pursue proposed GOP cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, which make up the largest part of the federal budget.
Most of the funding for Medicaid is used to care for the elderly at nursing homes.
“So, what are they going to do – cut Medicaid and tell these people to go home?” he said.
“But if they repealed the Bush and Trump tax cuts, the deficit would be cut and there would be no need for talking about cuts.”
Scott said his 3rd Congressional District will see funding for various projects from funding from the Biden Infrastructure bills and the remainder of billions in dollars the American Rescue Plan Act (ACCRA) passed to stabilize the economy during the height of the COVID Pandemic.
He said there will be money for training workers in the various construction projects taking place in the region, including the expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and the widening of the highway from Newport News to Richmond.
Cities like Norfolk will be receiving millions in funding to address flooding from global warming.
Scott said funding for Black neighborhoods such as Norfolk’s St. Paul’s and Richmond’s Jackson Ward
congregation and led initiatives in the city to bring hope,” said Foster. “Only through faith can we be reborn and sustained,” he said. ◆◆◆
are two of 45 areas targeted by a first-of-its-kind program that aims to reconnect these isolated communities where highways and freeways were built through them.
Other funding coming to the area includes:
• $1.5 million for An Achievable Dream, Newport News, supplemental recovery supports;
• $11.2 million for the removal of toxic sediments at Money Point, Chesapeake;
• $1 million for mental health programming at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters;
• $3 million for the Dr. Clarence V. Cuffee Community Center Aquatic Facility, Chesapeake;
• $2.5 million for the City of Franklin to reconstruct an armory to serve as a
Several miles away in Chesapeake’s historic Cuffeytown community, another congregation thought it had been given hope of revival by this time in 2023.
Almost three years ago, Senior Pastor Sandi
Brandon Hutchison, in the early morning hours of August 28, was awakened by a call from the city’s fire department.
The church she led, Gabriel Chapel A.M.E. Zion was being destroyed by fire, after lightning struck the historic sanctuary. When the fire brigade finished working to save it, the dawn’s early light revealed sections of red brick walls.
Hutchison told a local news outlet that her knees buckled under her as firefighters worked to save the building.
Since that day Hutchison and her congregation have been working to resurrect the 165-year-old church.
Last year at this time, as Easter approached, Hutchison told the GUIDE that the church had received a permit to rebuild.
The city approved it with reservation because, it said, if the building was restored, it would be at risk again because of a lack of reliable water sources for fire and other factors.
The original church was a wooden structure that was years later wrapped in brick. This may have hastened the intensity of
the destructive force of the fire.
Also, the church did not have a fire insurance agreement to “replace” the facility but a “face value” policy.
So, Hutchison and her followers had to organize a fundraising effort.
Hutchison said that the church is still some $400,000 short, but fundraising ideas like selling stained glass windows to congregants and supporters have been a source of income.
Her contractor has been a sympathetic and reliable one; experienced in rebuilding churches.
But thanks to COVID, the contractor and others had to shut down projects. Now her contractor is working to restore the Gabriel Chapel in addition to several other projects.
To meet the city’s building code requirements, the new building now has a skeleton of mostly steel and is outfitted with other fire-resistant materials and features to bring it up to state and city building codes to prevent future fires.
Hutchison said the basic superstructure of the building has been rebuilt,
Scott said funding for Black neighborhoods such as Norfolk’s St. Paul’s and Richmond’s Jackson Ward are two of 45 areas targeted by a first-of-its-kind program that aims to reconnect these isolated communities where highways and freeways were built through them.
community center.
Scott said the GOP House has yet to revise the Voting Rights Act (VRA) weakened by the U.S. Supreme Court removal of the pre-clearance provision.
It forced former states of the confederacy, including Virginia, to submit changes to redistricting and voting laws to the Department of
Justice to assure they did not deny Blacks access to the ballot.
Scott said North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin have used the absence of the pre-clearance provision to gerrymander congressional and state voting districts to give Republicans the majority in legislatures even when though Democrats have more voters on the rolls, such as in Wisconsin.
He said the House
Subcommittee on Civil Rights has been disbanded by the GOP.
“The Republicans don’t have a civil rights agenda,” Scott said. “So, they think why have any committees on civil rights?”
Scott said that despite the weekly reports of mass shootings involving high powered assault rifles, do not expect the Republicans to support any meaningful gun safety or reduction legislation.
the HVAC system is in place and the contractor is working on the electrical and electronic systems.
Hutchison said the business of operating the church continues. The congregation meets mostly virtually. She still ministers to the spiritual needs of the members.
She expects the church once it’s resurrected, will continue as a fixture of Cuffeytown, a free Black community before the Civil War that created business, educational, and religious institutions, such as Gabriel for its inhabitants.
“When members drive by or walk through, they see bricks laid and work done, which gives them hope. Their faith is strengthened to believe their church home will soon be restored. This gives us all the faith and strength to see it all through.”
“We have a lot of faithful members,” she said. “We have people in their 90s whose parents were married and baptized in the old sanctuary. They know the church is coming back and they are supportive and patient.”
“Faith is powerful,” she said.
He said Republicans who do are threatened with defeat at the polls.
Scott said Virginia’s upcoming legislative election will be the most critical in several decades.
He said if Virginians do not want to see the reversals of voter protections and civil rights taking place in North Carolina, Texas, and other states, “It is best to vote and defeat Republicans.”
Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has vowed to help fund and campaign in support of the GOP quest to take control of the State Senate and retain the House.
Scott said if Virginians do not want to see the reduction of women’s right to choose, civil and voting rights, they had the best vote and deny the GOP’s goal.
When the Virginia International Tattoo Hullabaloo performs at the Norfolk Scope Arena this weekend, April 20-23, Winifred “Winnie” Dawkins will be one of the performers in the Tattoo, performing with the U.S. Navy Fleet Forces Band.
“I’m thrilled to be back in Virginia to be a part of this incredible event known as the Virginia International Tattoo and the tattoo in general. Prior to coming to Virginia, I never had this experience, but it has provided a variety of different and cool experiences,” he said. “You meet so many cool people, and you get to experience musicians from other countries and other parts of the country. It’s just incredible.”
The Tattoo is an event when countless musicians who are enlisted in our armed forces will display their musical talents on stage. This year, The Tattoo will have their largest cast to date, with bands coming from 9 different countries like the United Kingdom and Ukraine. Along with these countries, the U.S. will
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After the federal Judge Walter Hoffman, in Norfolk, ordered the city to enroll the Norfolk 17 into six all-white schools, the targeted schools were closed in the fall of 1958.
But the NAACP maintained the legal pressure and Black civic and political leaders followed suit.
To assure the skills of the students would remain on par, the Norfolk 17 were provided a prep school at First Baptist Bute Street that fall organized by Black educators and civic leaders.
At one point Norfolk Mayor W. Fred Duckworth,
a Stanley ally, said during a city council meeting that the crisis over the closure of the schools would be ended if the Black community halted the effort to desegregate them.
But white business leaders, fearing economic ruin, pulled the rug from under the mayor. They issued a proclamation, calling for the end of the school closures. Even so, their announcement did not respect the intent of the Brown Decision.
In January 1959, the federal court overturned the state’s closure of the six schools.
On Feb. 2, 1959, despite the tension in the city, the Norfolk 17 joined thousands of white students, officially desegregating Norfolk’s schools.
The Norfolk 17 suffered many hardships for the cause
while many white students also locked out of the schools never got to complete their education and became known as the “Lost Class of 1959.”
also have their own collections of performances from forces.
This year’s tattoo is a tribute for our Military Families, with the goal of being both inspiring and entertaining to everyone in attendance. From the words of the director/producer, J. Scott Jackson, “With our most international cast ever, 150 pipers, drummers and dancers from 4 nations, and an all-star cast of American military performers leading a tribute to military families, the 2023 Virginia International Tattoo is an experience that you and your family will never forget.”
Dawkins enlisted into the military as a saxophone and flute instrumentalist and has previously performed at the Virginia International Tattoo with the band.
Initially he performed with the band as an instrumentalist and a drum major. But this year he will
Karen Rudd, the Manager of Norfolk Arts, which oversees the development of public artworks in the city, said the Massive Resistance
not only be a drum major again, but he will also conduct the flag raising ceremony.
“One thing that I really love about this year’s tattoo is that the theme for this year is the salute to military families.”
Being a part of the military himself, he believes that this year’s theme will really highlight and honor the sacrifices that military families face.
“We sometimes undervalue how resilient our families are, as they deal with the challenges of being in a military environment.”
Come out to the Virginia International Tattoo this weekend at the Norfolk Scope Arena.
Tickets are available and on sale now at www.vafest.org, by phone at (757) 282-2822, or in person at the Virginia Arts Festival Box Office located at 440 Bank Street, Norfolk, VA 23510.
project was launched during the 50th anniversary of the role of the living members of the Norfolk 17 during a series of events in 2009.
Rudd said that city leaders reviewed a variety of concepts for the monument and venues for it. see Norfolk, page 8A
“Winnie” Dawkins will be one of the performers in the Virginia International Tattoo this weekend, performing with the U.S. Navy Fleet Forces Band.
NORFOLK
Mass Communications students at NSU joined media professionals and media companies for three days of panel discussions and vital information designed to help them jump start their careers in media and communications. Panels included Radio and Podcasting; sports media; television; and social media.
Theresa Brown, 95.7 R&B returned to NSU as an alumnus to share experiences with students.
Continued from page 7A
The location at Charlotte and Granby Street was a strategic historic and civic move.
“Downtown is in the heart of the city where you have business and activity, and lots of the city’s history for people to view easily,” said Rudd. Standing in front of the monument, and looking northward, one can see the U.S. Federal Courthouse, named for Judge Hoffman.
In that gray old building, the legal battles leading up
to the decision to open the six schools were fought. The artist team of Texasbased “RE: site art Studio” specializes in creating public art, memorials, and commemorative spaces that connect the past with the present by inspiring shared experiential moments,collaborative viewership, curiosity, discovery, and dialogue. She said the artists are passionate about helping communities honor difficult histories and recovering the voices of those who struggled for justice, freedom, and human dignity.
The artistic image of the shattering of walls and bricks absorb the iconic image of the
Norfolk 17 huddled in front of the First Baptist Bute Street on a chilly Fall Day in 1958 after they attended the prep school in the church’s basement.
Rudd and historians involved in the project in the timeline leading up to February 2, 1959, admit that day did not mark the “end” of the Massive Resistance” resistance to integration or racial segregation. Nor is the artwork a “memorial” since eight of the Norfolk 17 are still alive.
Instead, it is a “Commemoration” of the Norfolk 17’s role in one of the victories in the slow, ongoing destruction of the walls of “resistance” to equality, one or two bricks at a time.
Correspondent
Norfolk State held it annual President’s Gala at Echols Hall on Saturday evening (April 15).
The gala celebrated the financial contributions of supporters who have given one hundred thousand dollars or more to the University. Supporters were inducted into the
Lyman Beecher Brooks Society and recognized for their contributions to the University and their leadership in the greater community.
Actress, director, and Tony Award Winner
Phylicia Rashad served as the event’s Emcee. The Norfolk State University Theatre Company performed selections from “Thoughts of a Colored Man” by Keenan Scott II
and directed by Professor Anthony Stockard.
This year’s Lyman
Beecher Brooks Society
Inductees included Rhonda
L. Allen ’83, Vernita M. Exum ’94, Markus J. Gillis ’04, Conrad M. Hall, Earlie
P. Horsey ’76 & Charolette
C. Horsey ’75, Clevester Jones ’91 & Dameron
L. Jones ’91, Tamara A. Jones, M.D. (BS ’96), Earl E. Lee ’84, Marty L. Miller ’69 & Elizabeth
R. Miller, Shelvee H. Osborne ’79, Delbert H. Parks, Carlton L. Perkins ’73, Col (Ret.) James W. Whitehead, Jr. ’76, and Joseph L. Wiggins ’66. NSU President Dr. Javune Adams-Gaston and Mr. Dimitri Gaston donated one hundred thousand dollars to the University during the gala. The Fuzz Band closed out the evening with a live musical performance.
By Randy Singleton Community Affairs Correspondent
VIRGINIA BEACH
Dr. Lucy Wilson, who served as the First Lady of Norfolk State University during the tenure of President Dr. Harrison B. Wilson from 1975 to 1997, poses with New Journal and Guide Publisher Brenda H. Andrews at Catch 31 on April 15 at a scholarship fundraising lunch sponsored by the Chesapeake/ Virginia Beach (VA) Chapter of The Links. Dr. Wilson worked as an Associate Dean for the Darden School of Education at Old Dominion University, a consultant for Princeton University, the Department of Health, Education, & Welfare and the Portsmouth Public School System in Virginia, among other education-related capacities.
NORFOLK
Since 1923, Norview High School has been an integral part of the Norfolk, Virginia culture. Thousands of graduates have gone on to achieve successes that were once only goals and aspirations as they roamed the halls of Norview High. Taking what they learned through the many lessons rooted in Tradition, Family, Excellence and Faith, many Norview graduates
have made their mark on the world over the last century. To celebrate the school’s 100-year legacy, share in its successes, and explore its future, a centennial event is planned for April 22, 2023, at the school. There will be reflections by the Superintendent of Norfolk Public Schools, reflections from Dr. Patricia Turner, member of the Norfolk 17, and other community members.
HAMPTON ROADS
Twelve high school students from the Hampton Roads and surrounding areas will compete virtually on Saturday, April 22, 2023 in the annual AREA 2 NAACP ACT-SO Local Competition. ACT-SO is an acronym for Afro Academics, Cultural, Technological, & Scientific Olympics (of the mind) and provides a forum through which high school youth of African descent demonstrate academic, artistic and scientific prowess and expertise, thereby gaining the same recognition often only reserved for entertainers and athletes. Students selected up to three categories of competition from a total of 33 offerings including STEM, Humanities and Entrepreneurship; as well as Performing, Visual and Culinary Arts. The motto is
HAMPTON ROADS
Learn about TCC’s programs, including information technology, engineering, culinary arts, health sciences, maritime technologies and other career paths and transfer opportunities by visiting an upcoming open house.
On April 27, visit TCC’s Virginia Beach or Portsmouth Campuses from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. On June 3, visit the Norfolk Campus or Chesapeake Campuses from 9 a.m. to noon.
Registration is not required, but recommended.
Attendees will be able to apply to TCC; learn about financial aid, grants and scholarships; explore academic options; tour campuses; and learn about campus life at all locations.
For more information, call (757) 822- 1111 or visit the website.
The 900 Men Strong organization, sponsored by the W.H. Gray Men’s Ministry of Second Calvary Baptist Church, held its 12th annual scholarship & community service awards breakfast on Saturday (April 15) at the Chesapeake Conference Center. The keynote speaker was CNN and MSNBC political analyst Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, who is also a college professor at Vanderbilt University, author, ordained minister, and radio host. Dr. Dyson acknowledged a host of local, state and national elected of fi cials. Dr. Dyson brie fl y discussed the headlines made by the Tennessee 3 and how the actions of the state legislature elevated the
Tennessee 3 to world-wide status. Dr. Dyson discussed the relationship that African-Americans have with the cops. Dr. Dyson commented, “Black people don’t hate the cops. We hate being mistreated by the cops. We call the cops more than anybody else.”
Dr. Dyson generated a few laughs from the audience when he quipped, “Some folks think that the 2nd Amendment is the Second Commandment.” He also discussed the recent banning of books in public school libraries by some members of the GOP. Dr. Dyson commented, “They ban books because they don’t want you to know what they have done to you.” He closed by telling the audience that “We have to celebrate, embrace, and lift up these young Black people.” W.H. Gray Community Service Award
Honorees included Rev. Robert A. Goodrum, Carlos Rojas, Dr. Diron T. Ford, and Joseph McDaniel.
900 Men Strong Scholarship Honorees were
“If you believe, then Act So” (Vernon Jarrett, Journalist).
Only the local gold medalists (those with scores between 95-100 in their category) will advance to compete at the national level where scholarships, Apple tablets and other prizes will be awarded.
The culminating event is the National ACT-SO Competition and Awards Ceremony, followed by a private reception for all National medalists (gold, silver and bronze). This year’s National Competition, held in July in conjunction with the NAACP National Convention, will be in Boston, Massachusetts.
ACT-SO is a communitybased program that provides multiple opportunities for involvement, i.e., chairpersons, mentors, sponsors, organizers, competitors, etc.
My wife and I attended the Norfolk State University President’s Gala on Saturday 15 April. This event was attended by University donors, alumni and friends as well as faculty, staff and students. The event recognizes individuals whose lifetime giving to the University is $100,000 or greater. The Gala inducted this year’s honorees into the Lyman Beecher Brooks Society. Seventeen supporters were installed into the Society.
The program was held on campus at the Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall. The setting was well decorated with red carpet leading into the program area. The Emcee was accomplished actress and stage director, Phylicia Rashad. Most of us old timers remember her as Claire Huxtable
on the Bill Crosby Show, however, she is now a dean at Howard University.
We greeted the President, Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston (aka Dr. J.), she and her husband Demetri were perfect hosts. We also had the opportunity to chat with two of my favorite politicians Delegate Angela Graves and Senator Louise Lucas. As we begin to remember how far back our knowing each other
goes, Senator Lucas and I reminisced and laughed. I was serving as the Human Resources Manager for the Navy 5th Naval District when Lucas was an intern in the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) program at the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet EEO Of fi ce. She was a go-getter pursuing her tasks and ensuring that the activity provided minorities an equal opportunity. She is just as aggressive as a legislator today as she was as an EEO person then. The place was beautifully decorated. The table where I was sitting was an end table in the last row. It was not a bad seat but it was hard for me to hear the Emcee. I do have a hearing
problem but several people at the table expressed the same problem, wishing the volume was louder. I also had a problem seeing the stage. Not because where I was seated but tables were decorated with large lamps on them that blocked my view from seeing the stage. The affair was well attended. If it had been allowed, it would have been, SRO (Standing Room Only). The food was succulent. The program was excellent and the place buzzed with conversations during every break and the evening ended with dancing for the young and young at heart!
Shedrick Byrd is a frequent contributor to the New Journal and Guide
If it had been allowed, it would have been SRO (Standing Room Only).Photo: RandySingleton Photo: RandySingleton
The Brothers of the Epsilon Zeta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. founded on the campus of Norfolk State University celebrated their 60th Charter Day, this past weekend April 14-16.The weekend included a golf outing, public meeting, community service project, luncheon, Black Tie Closed Banquet, Official Soiree, and Praise and Worship Service. Most of the events were held on the campus of Norfolk State University and The Hilton Main both in Norfolk,Virginia.The official day of the Chapter’s founding is May 10, 1963.
HAMPTON ROADS
The Virginia Arts Festival will present this year’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater tour at two locations in Hampton Roads, beginning Tuesday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m., at the Ferguson Center for the Arts, Newport News.
The dance theatre performs at the Chrysler Theater in Norfolk on Friday, April 28, and on Saturday, April 29, both nights at 7:30 p.m. The legendary dance company concludes its tour in Hampton Roads on Sunday, April 30 at 3 p.m. at Chrysler Hall, Norfolk
Beloved by generations
of audiences and revered by critics around the world, the dance company lifts audiences to their feet with performances of classics by their founder, the Presidential Medal of Freedom-awarded Kennedy Center Honoree Alvin Ailey, and some of the most exciting contemporary choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Each evening’s performance concludes with Ailey’s Revelations, from 1960, set to spirituals and gospel, a triumphant hymn to the human spirit, moving from a sense of sorrow to joy-filled life” (The Guardian, UK).
Grove Church’s Men’s Ministry is teaming up with the Hampton Roads Prostate Health Forum in hosting an Early Detection Prostate Health Forum to raise awareness about prostate cancer and why Black men are disproportionately affected by the disease. In addition, this event will underscore the importance of early detection and screening among our communities of color.
The event will be held on April 29, at 9 a.m. at the Melvin O. Marriner Family Life Center, located at 5910 West Norfolk Rd. (Churchland section). The forum aims to save
men’s lives and preserve our families by testing at least 100 men and will include awareness & education seminars, PSA tests & DRE exams.
“Our men can and must play a key role in changing the health and healthcare disparities in our communities,” said Dr. Melvin O. Marriner, Senior Pastor of Grove Church. “This forum will provide access to a wealth of educational resources that will empower men to take charge of their health. Our goals for this event can only be accomplished with community partnerships with trusted organizations that share our vision
to address disparities in prostate cancer,”
According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. About 1 in 41 will die from prostate cancer. The two greatest risk factors for prostate cancer are age and race, with men over the age of 65 and men who are non-Hispanic Black possessing the highest incidence rates of prostate cancer in the U.S. This event, sponsored by Grove’s Men’s Ministry, is free and open to the public. Please register at MensHealth2023. PushPayEvents.com
Having hiked the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee in my youth, I remembered how unkempt and overgrown the “Volunteer State’s” trail was. No matter which direction you were coming from, once you arrived at Tennessee’s trails, they were completely wild, and overgrown, almost as if officials didn’t care about keeping the trail welltrimmed, walkable and enjoyable.
Tennessee recently “raised its hands” volunteering to return to its racist past. They presented past ill-informed, uneducated, discombobulated train wrecks of shallow thought, by voting to expel elected state Democratic officials, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, along racist Republican party lines. Their alleged crime was protesting on the state house floor after the Nashville private school shooting that killed six. They protested with their constituents using a mega phone for safe gun control reform. Blind to the optics, reactionary Republicans, leapt at the chance to force out the two youngest Black lawmakers who were legally elected by the people, out, of their state house.
The nation watched as these two young brothers verbally took on, took down, and took apart the other progun NRA Lobby arms of the Tennessee Republicans who seem to think that-only-theyand-their-2nd amendment-
Sean C. Bowers
rights matter.
After the 75 Republicans voted to eject “the Justins,” they stepped across the Rubicon (of infamous history) to the (martyr-dome) land of no return. They are now clearly labeled for the nation and world to see, as the NRA lapdogs they are: arms peddler protectors, profiteers off of other Americans pain, anguish, death and loss.
The local city councils of Nashville and Memphis have since voted and reinstalled “the Justins” to their rightful seats this week to right the wrong engineered by the Tennessee Right. These “Justins,” will not be moved, turned around, or stopped. They are the next generation of American youth who have grown up with literal targets on them, participating in their decades of active-shooter drills.
The guns are the weapons, cudgels, used by the Right to promote hate and hate speech under the cover of claiming self-protective rights of stand-your-ground, as they allow open-carry
laws that permit others to be killed, only asking questions, (maybe) later. Our inability to curtail our own American violent nature is one of the biggest unresolved problems we collectively face, going forward.
When gangsters and mobsters were using Tommy Guns on the running boards of their cars to kill larger volumes of people, back-inthe-day-America took those dangerous weapons off the streets using the laws and the full forced weight of the legal system for the maximum protection of the people.
Today’s politicians on the Republican Right are not protecting us, our children, and grandchildren. They have sold their souls to the NRA and they need to be completely driven out of office at the ballot box in the coming elections. We need representatives who value our children and citizens more than they value weapons of destruction. NRA PRO, GOTTA GO!
When you care more about your NRA rating, fundraising, position, being primaried from the crazier Right, and your money than the people you were supposed to represent and protect, you no longer fit the criteria for public service and you are no
longer fit for holding office. Guns have no place in family holiday photos, on election campaigns ads. They belong locked away in a safety cabinet for emergency use only.
America, at our current pace, we will kill off our own populace in order to allow those of the Right to protect, use, abuse, and kill others with their guns. Killing your own citizenry – your potential customers, consumer, and voters base is never a good idea. In this case, it is a colossal fatallyflawed bad idea to continue Republican BIG GUNNED “BUSINESS, as usual.”
Sean C. Bowers has written the last 25 years, as a White Quaker Southern man, for the nation’s third oldest Black Newspaper, The New Journal and Guide, of Norfolk, Virginia, about overcoming racism, sexism, classism, and religious persecution. Some of his latest NJ&G articles detailing the issues can found by searching “Sean C. Bowers” on the NJ&G website. Contact him directly on social media at Linkedin.com or by email V1ZUAL1ZE@aol. com NNPA 2019 Publisher of the Year, Brenda K. Andrews (NJ&G 35 years) has always been his publisher.
Our inability to curtail our own American violent nature is one of the biggest unresolved problems we collectively face, going forward.
NOTE TO OUR READERS:We wish to inform you of the recent transition of Mrs. Gladys McElmore. We will continue to carry her column in her memory until further notice. Thank you.
– Publisher Brenda H. Andrews
spiritual receptivity to receive Paul’s message, “For in Him we live, and move and have our being (Acts 17:28)”
Damaris was a woman of distinction or she would not have been singled out with Dionysius, a judge of the great court. Could she have been one of the Hetarrai, a highly intellectual class of free women in Athens who associated with philosophers and other great thinkers of the first century, AD?
As Paul was preaching about Christ he passed through Amphipolis, Apollonia and came to Thessalonica. At a synagogue of the Jews, Paul reasoned with them fervently during three Sabbaths using some scriptures while explaining and demonstrating how Christ suffered and rose from the dead. The main ideas of Acts 17 center on the thoughts of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God. Some doubted and others were persuaded. Believers included a multitude of Greeks and many leading women who joined Paul and Silas. When they heard of the resurrection of the Lord or the dead, some mocked
and sneered while others questioned Paul’s beliefs.
How did Paul react to this gathering of people?
He departed or walked away. However, some men and women joined Paul and believed. This known group of believers included Dionysius, a woman named Damaris and a number of others. Idol worship had been a great ritual for those new believers in Jesus Christ. Damaris (Acts 17:34), a woman of Athens, believed Paul’s message.
He had recently preached to the Athenians on Mars Hill, but unbelievers surfaced who were not knowledgeable about God. Damaris and a man named Dionysius, had the
She was probably not a Greek wife for she did not live in seclusion. She was in the audience when Paul delivered the Mars Hill sermon. Her name could easily have been omitted, but God has had us to know about her as a strong biblical character in His story of redemption. We too are important to God whether or not we are ever mentioned in any book or known worldwide. God cares for us. His Son died to draw us to his side. No one for whom Jesus died is unimportant or forgotten. Can the story of Paul and Damaris strengthen our lives? Let us pray to be stronger, be more active and become more powerfully faithful to God!
Mrs. Gladys McElmore was born in Essex County, Va. She was the founder of the Kathryn Bibbins Memorial Bible Study group.
The Biblical account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ must be read and understood by all people that man did not kill Jesus. I repeat, no race of mankind killed Jesus! Jesus makes this fact crystal clear in John 10:18: “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” Jesus is the Pascal Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. In the Counsel of God, it was determined that upon the fall of man, Jesus would become the Hebrew gaal, or Kinsman-Redeemer whose blood would pay the price for our Redemption.
Jesus went to the cross voluntarily for our sins, to reconcile us to God. His blood was made the, ransom for us all. “All the beasts on Jewish altars slain had not the efficacy to take away our sins.”
“Only Jesus’ blood given upon the altar had the efficacy (power) to make atonement for our souls.” (Leviticus 17:11)
The blood of Jesus does 3 things: It satisfies God. It saves sinners. It shuts the devil’s mouth. When we plead the blood over our lives and situations, and especially our children, “the devil can’t do us no harm.”
Amen. There are 18 Psalms that
speak directly to Jesus Christ and the exercises of His Holy Soul. These are classed as Messianic Psalms or pertaining to the Messiah: (Messianic Psalms are Psalms 2, 8, 16, 22, 23, 24, 40, 41, 45, 68, 72, 87, 89, 97, 102, 110, and 118). These Psalms make for excellent study as they project the character of Jesus even before His birth in Bethlehem. It is not questioned that many other Psalms also refer to Christ.
Jesus made 7 declarations or 7 last words from the cross. These inscriptions are preached in pulpits all over the land on Good Friday. They are:
1. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
2. “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43)
3. “Woman, behold thy son! Behold thy mother! (John 19:26,27)
4. “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) (Psalm 22:1)(Mark 15:34 Eloi, Eloi ...)
5. “I thirst.” (John 19:28)
6. “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
7. “Father, into thy hands, I commend (place) my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) Psalm 22 Messianic Psalm 22 is graphic and authentic, scriptural death of Jesus on the cross. We are to know Jesus’ death and other portrayals of His life through scripture and not the vain imaginations of man in media and so forth. We are to study the Holy Bible, the word of God for truth and not entertainment of the word in movies; nor speculations of scholars about Jesus in documentaries. Many of these are academically and scientifically based. Beware. Study and know the truth of God for yourself. The Messianic Psalm 22 opens with the 4th desolate cry of Jesus from the cross: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani (My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.” (verses 1&2) see Rivka, page 6B
By Rosalind Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide
Finally, Charleston’s International AfricanAmerican Museum will hold its grand opening on June 27.
Visitors will walk up Gadsden Wharf’s recycled planks that slaves walked over the first time that they set foot in America. Visitors will stroll past exhibitions, attend seminars, and linger at nine galleries, a genealogy center and a memorial garden Humidity and temperature controls kept the museum from opening in January on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. But following a year’s worth of announced openings and delays, the $120 million construction project, which has been underway for more than 20 years, is scheduled to open in June.
Malika N. Pryor, chief learning and engagement officer for the International African-American Museum, said in a recent press release, “As we near opening in June, we look forward to curating
additional educational series and community events within, and still beyond, the physical space of the museum.” The museum’s opening dates back two decades ago when former mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., in 2000 decided that the museum would open after
it secured three-quarters of the mandatory funding. The project held a ground breaking ceremony in 2019. The museum aims to connect the past to the present. The museum will open just after Juneteenth. To enter the museum, visitors must walk up a entryway
that uses remnants from Gadsden Wharf, the old wooden wharf that millions of African-Americans walked over when they first set foot in America. Archaeologists discovered remnants of the wharf in 2014 during an exploratory dig. The museum also houses a research library that is partly available online. Here, researchers can track down birth and death certificates and find information on DNA testing. The library also houses an extensive collection of related records such as documents relating to Civil War service.
“The library is one of the most important parts of the project,” Matthews said. “Where do we come from? How did we get here, and what does it mean?”
In a recent statement on Facebook, museum officials said, “Here, our mission is to honor the untold stories of the African-American journey, from the Middle Passage to the Civil Rights Movement, and to honor the individual and collective stories of our communities.”
This pitiful, desolate and poignant (touching) cry is the Holy of Holies of Jesus in the Bible. For it represents the only time Jesus and the Father have ever been separated. You recall, Jesus always maintained that He came out from the Father, that He and the Father are One. However, when Jesus’ Holy Soul was poured out on the cross “an offering for sin” for the whole world, the Father had to turn His Face, for a Just and Holy God cannot look on sin.
(Isaiah 53 – and especially verse 10)
Jesus, for the first time ever, was separated from the Father. Jesus was to tread the winepress alone.
Verses 2-5 of Psalm 22 depict Jesus’ crying aloud, fading in and out of consciousness and trying to comfort himself.
Verses 6, 8, 12, and 13 are projections of Jesus’ spirit reflecting the contumely of the crucifixion crowd. (Contumely means rudeness, insulting speech, contemptible behavior).
Jesus exclaims:
“But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” (v. 6)
“All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying,” (v.7)
“He trusted on the Lord ... Let Him deliver Him ...” (v. 8)
“Many bulls have encompassed me ...” (v. 12)
“They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion ...” (v. 13)
Verse 14 shows the intensification of Jesus’ pain and suffering for our sins. The bones of His hands, arms, shoulders, and pelvis are out of joint. He is perspiring profusely. The action of His heart is affected: Jesus says, “My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” (v. 14)
In verse 15, Jesus’ strength is exhausted. He is extremely
tired and thirsty. In one writing of the Gospels, someone gave Him vinegar or gall to drink.
It is probably here that Jesus uttered His fifth cry: “I thirst.”
Jesus states in verse 16 “they pierced my hands and feet.”
In verse 17, Jesus is almost nude. His bones and the genitalia are exposed. All the people stare and gape at His nudity. Now all His clothes have fallen off. Jesus is totally naked and embarrassed, He says, “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” (v.18)
Jesus is still talking strongly. Remember, He still has 2 more “Last Words” to utter: “It is finished. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Jesus cries:
“Be not far from me, 0 Lord: 0 my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul ... Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.” (verses 19-21)
The Psalm breaks from crucifixion to resurrection in verse 22. The Risen Lord Jesus sings praises to His Father and our Father.
“I will declare thy name unto My Brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.”
This verse 22 is fulfilled in John 20:17 where the Risen Lord Jesus meets Mary Magdalene standing outside the sepulcher and, “saith unto her, Mary, touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren and say 1 unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father; and to my God and your God.” Mary Magdalene rim and told the disciples that she had seen the Risen Lord.
Later that same Sunday of the Resurrection, Jesus appeared unto his disciples who were locked behind doors in fear of the Jews. He shewed unto them His hands and His side; Jesus said, “Peace be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so ·send I you, receive ye the Holy Ghost ...”
(John 20: 17-23)
Blessings and Shalom
Copyright © 2016
All Rights Reserved
will walk up Gadsden Wharf’s recycled planks that slaves walked over the first time that they set foot in America.Wooden Wharf Leading to Museum Photo:Courtesy
