NJG | Vol. 123, No. 05 - Feb. 2 - 8, 2023

NEWJOURNAL & GUIDE NEW JOURNAL & GUIDE

Vol. 123, No. 5 | $1.50

February 2, 2023 - February 8, 2023

TYRE NICHOLS: ’71 COMMANDS IN 13 MINUTES’

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

Thirty-two years after the videotape of the vicious beating of Rodney King by nightstick wielding police officers in Los Angeles, the incident involving Tyre Nichols has reignited the issue of police brutality against Black people.

Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died after Memphis police officers punched, kicked and pepper sprayed him following a traffic stop on January 7.

He was unarmed and was not resisting the five

African-American officers he encountered.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith have all been fired and charged with murder, as of last week.

Three EMTs who responded to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols were fired Monday (Jan. 30) after an internal investigation, the Memphis Fire Department said. Robert Long, JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were found to have violated multiple department policies and protocols in their patient response to Nichols on Jan. 7, the fire department said in a statement. see Memphis, page 6A Video of beating captured from street pole.

Devastating Tyre Nichols Video Leaves Nation

Debating Police Reforms

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

The devastating video of Memphis police officers rehearsing their excuse for their deadly use of force even as Tyre Nichols’ lifeless body lay just steps away painted a horrifying, if not entirely clear, portrait of five cops who murdered a man for no apparent reason and then conspired to destroy his reputation.

The actions of Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith have left many convinced that policing in America cannot be reformed.

“One of the most devastating things to occur in this earthly existence is for one’s life to end in such a brutal and helpless way and to have the world watch, share, and analyze the video of you taking your last breath,” officials at the non-profit The Black Girl’s Guide To Healing Emotional Wounds wrote in a statement.

They pleaded, “please, my friends, don’t share it or watch it. Let’s keep the family in our prayers and work to identify solutions to this nonsense.”

On Friday, January 27, over an hour of footage was extracted from the officers’ body cameras and an overhead surveillance video that the men in blue were apparently unaware existed.

Each officer was arrested and terminated. They have been charged with seconddegree murder, kidnapping,

The release of the video sparked protests across the country, including in the District of Columbia, New York, Los Angeles, and Memphis.

and other crimes in connection with Nichols’ death.

Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said in a statement that two additional Shelby County sheriff’s deputies were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

The release of the video sparked protests across the country, including in the District of Columbia, New York, Los Angeles, and Memphis, where the crime took place.

In addition to civil rights organizations, federal lawmakers flooded journalists’ email inboxes with statements condemning the officers.

As is their custom, lawmakers promised legislation to reform American policing. Similar promises were made after the murders of Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Tamir Rice in Ohio, and Eric Garner in New York, among numerous others.

see Video, page 10A

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2023

2023 BHM THEME TACKLES “BLACK RESISTANCE”

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Sheer necessity pushed AfricanAmericans to organize the 1917 NAACP Silent Protest Parade in New York City, due to the absence of laws that protected Blacks from lynchings and violence.

According to The Equal Justice Initiative, “More than 4,000 racial terror lynchings (occurred) in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950.” This is why an estimated 10,000 AfricanAmericans in 1917 silently marched down Fifth Avenue carrying banners in an effort to condemn widespread racist violence and racial discrimination.

To resist racial violence, more than six million African-Americans also migrated from the South to the North and West “in fear for their lives,” the Equal Justice Initiative website noted.

“Many African-Americans who were never accused of any crime

To resist racial violence, more than six million African-Americans migrated from the South to the North and West.

were tortured and murdered in front of picnicking spectators (including elected officials and prominent citizens) for bumping into a white person, or wearing their military uniforms after World War I, or not using the appropriate title when addressing a white person,” the Equal Justice Initiative website noted. “People who participated in lynchings were celebrated and acted with impunity.”

Black Resistance – an organized pushback against racially-motivated hardships – is the 2023 theme for Black History Month. The prosthetic device that a Virginia Black inventor created for World War II amputees in the 1950’s illustrates the theme.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2023

Specifically, a prosthetic is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part. Aiming to help World War II amputees feed themselves, Bessie Virginia Blount Griffin, who was born in 1914 in the Hickory community of Princess Anne County (now a part of the city of Chesapeake), invented a patented electrical motor that pushed food through a tube into an amputee’s mouth. Griffin’s device delivered one bite of food at a time through a tube.

The catch was a World War II amputee with a missing arm or leg, had to intentionally bite down, in order to eat independently. This means each bite was released after the patient deliberately bit down on the tube. see History, page 7A

RESISTING SLAVERY AND EFFORTS TO SUSTAIN IT

By Leonard E. Colvin

Chief Reporter

New Journal and Guide

On December 1, 1955, Rosa

Parks resisted a bus driver’s order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white patron on a Montgomery Street bus.

Ten months later, in the same city, so did Claudette Colvin; as had Irene Morgan done years earlier on a Greyhound bus in Virginia in 1944.

These individual acts coupled with resistance to economic, political, and social

marginalization are common features of the 400 years of Black History in America.

Acts of “resistance” to slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and other forms of oppression are to be highlighted during the 2023 edition of AfricanAmerican History Month in February centered around the one word theme: “Resistance.”

The theme is devised annually by the Association for the Study of AfricanAmerican Life and History (ASALH), founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson and headquartered in Washington, D.C. “These efforts have been

to advocate for a dignified self-determined life in a just democratic society in the United States and beyond the U.S. political jurisdiction,” a statement explaining this year’s theme said on the ASALH website.

It reads, “The 1950s and 1970s in the United States were defined by actions such

as sit-ins, boycotts, walkouts, strikes by Black people, and white allies in the fight for justice against discrimination in all sectors of society from employment to education to housing.

“Black people have had to consistently push the United States to live up to its ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice

for all,” it continued.

“Systematic oppression has sought to negate much of the dreams of our griots, like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and our freedom fighters, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Septima Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer fought to realize. Black people have sought ways to nurture and protect Black lives, and for the autonomy of their physical and intellectual bodies through armed resistance, voluntary emigration, nonviolence, education, literature, sports, media, and legislation/ politics. Black-led institutions

and affiliations have lobbied, litigated, legislated, protested, and achieved success.”

The transatlantic slave trade exported Africans from Senegambia, Upper Guinea, Windward Coast, Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, West Central Africa, and Southeastern Africa. Human cargo was shipped to Portugal, England, Spain, France, the Americas, and the Caribbean, where millions in profits were generated from the labor of enslaved Africans.

see Yesterday, page 5A

Black people have had to consistently push the United States to live up to its ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.”

– ASALH

The 1917 NAACP Silent Protest Parade in New York City brought attention to lynchings of Blacks.

Photo: PublicDomain

Photo: Courtesy

I don’t have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again.”

–

Tyre Nichols’ mother

Wason Center Survey Shows Partisan Splits On State’s Direction

NEWPORT NEWS

The Wason Center for Civic Leadership at Christopher Newport University recently released the results of the Center’s latest survey of the Commonwealth. Those surveyed generally were positive about the state and less so about the nation and the president.

The split verdict continues in education, with Virginians surveyed feeling much better about their own schools as compared to the current state of public education nationally. Perhaps not surprisingly with those findings in mind, respondents to the latest survey also indicated they’d prefer the governor stay right here in Virginia with them.

The survey also found Virginians with a range of interesting takes on current issues facing the Commonwealth including recreational marijuana sales, abortion, student gender identity, energy and the environment, tax cuts and casinos.

Among the highlights of the survey are:

• A plurality of Virginians think the Commonwealth is headed in the right direction (45 percent to 37 percent), while 50 percent approve of the job Governor Youngkin is doing. Still, Virginians prefer that the Governor not run for president (59 percent to 29 percent).

• Virginians are pessimistic about the direction of the country (19 percent right direction to 73 percent wrong direction); dissatisfaction is reflected in Biden’s approval rating (38 percent approve to 57 percent disapprove)

• Virginia voters support recreational marijuana sales (60 percent) and allowing any interested localities to host casinos should their residents approve one in a referendum (55 percent).

Differences are largely along partisan lines, with 67 percent of Republican voters saying Virginia is heading in the right direction, compared to 23 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of Independents. On Governor Youngkin’s job performance, 83 percent of Republicans approve, while 74 percent of Democrats disapprove; 54 percent of Independents signal their approval.

Also, Virginians now indicate they support allowing any interested localities to

ATTY. BEN CRUMP THREATENS TO SUE FLA.’S GOV. DESANTIS

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Crump recently told a gathering of more than 100 people at the state capitol that it’s not up to the governor to decide what is taught in Florida classrooms.

host casinos as well if their voters were to approve of one in a referendum (55 percent support to 38 percent oppose). Currently, five Virginia localities have been given the opportunity to hold a referendum to allow for hosting a casino in their locality, and Virginia’s first temporary casino opened in Bristol last year, with the first permanent casino opening in Portsmouth this year. Support is largely bipartisan with Independents indicating the highest levels of support at 59 percent, followed by 58 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans.

Attorney Ben Crump recently led a rally inside the Florida Capitol alongside Black Democratic state lawmakers to underscore his intent to file a lawsuit if Florida students are banned from taking an Advanced Placement AfricanAmerican history course.

Crump appeared at the recent Jan. 25 protest in Florida after the Department of Education issued a letter that said the course will not be taught.

Crump, a life-time member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, announced his intentions on behalf of three Leon County students who would be unable to take the African-American studies course. He was joined by Democratic lawmakers and supporters wearing “Stop the Black Attack” tee shirts and carrying signs.

“Everybody who is here in America, you have a right to have your culture, your history respected and taught to the children,” Crump told WCJB-TV. “The question really is this, brothers and sisters. Are we going to let Gov. DeSantis, or anybody, exterminate Black history from the classrooms in Florida?”

Crump warned, “Gov. DeSantis is going to get a lesson of his own today,” according to The Orlando Sentinel. Crump said he was in Florida to “give notice to Gov. DeSantis” that if he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow the course to be taught across the state he would take legal action.

Meanwhile, DeSantis claimed the courses promote “woke” ideology and critical race theory. The College Board

lessons, according to DeSantis, are on the “wrong side of the line for Florida standards.”

But Crump recently told reporters at the Capitol protest, “If the governor allows the College Board to present AP African-American studies in classrooms across the state of Florida, then we will feel no need to file this historic lawsuit. However, if he rejects the free flow of ideas and suppresses African-American studies, then we’re prepared to take this controversy all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”

Several Florida legislators attended the recent rally including House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa). Dianne Hart and Michele Rayner. “Ron DeSantis clearly wants to dictate whose story does and doesn’t belong,” Driskell said. “What we don’t need is a governor who is so obsessed with ‘woke’ that he is asleep at the wheel.”

From The Guide’s Archives

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

colored youths had been assigned.

Schools Reopen With No Trouble

First Day: Quiet Prevails at Norfolk and Arlington

By Jack V. Fox/UPI

NORFOLK Virginia admitted 21 colored pupils to public schools heretofore used exclusively by white students on Monday in a peaceful change from a policy of massive resistance to integration.

Seventeen colored students were admitted to schools in Norfolk and four in Arlington in the Washington suburbs. There were not the slightest incidents despite a few pre-opening rumblings that there would be picketing and strife.

Other schools that were closed under the law are Charlottesville–permitted under an eleventhhour court reprieve that postposed integration until next September – and Front Royal in Warren County where the affected schools did not open.

Virginia accepted the fact of integration only after federal courts had knocked down every state barrier and after the legislature had passed fresh laws to chip the impact of the historic transition.

“I said all along there would not be any trouble and there was none, “said Principal Charles W. Purdue, a former Duke University football star and now Principal of Norfolk’s big Norview High.

In Arlington, school Superintendent Ray E. Reid said “I am happy to least there were no incidents and that everything is quiet. A boycott had been threatened by white pupils at Arlington but it failed to develop.

Under new state law, however, the state would provide up to $250 annually in tuition grants for any pupils who do not want to attend integrated schools.

Lone Girls “Desegregate

Two of Norfolk’s Schools

By P.B. Young Jr.

NORFOLK

Two brave and dignified girl pioneers Geraldine Virginia Talley 13, and Betty Jean Reed, 15, Monday morning became the first and lone Negroes ever to attend respectively Northside Junior and Granby High Schools.

They are two of the Norfolk 17 assigned in varying numbers to six all-white secondary Norfolk schools.

Theirs was the experience of being racially alone in student bodies of 1,330 at Northside and 2,004 at Granby.

At some of the other schools, as many as seven

Geraldine rated a top student at the special tutoring classes sponsored by the Norfolk NAACP during the five months closure of some schools locally is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Talley of Titustown. Mr. Talley is a leading merchant and outstanding civic leader.

Betty Jean is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Reed of Carney Titustown. Mr. Reed is a car rider with the Virginia Railway in Norfolk. Mrs. Reed is a housewife. The colored students and the schools where they are enrolled:

• Norview Junior High: Edward Jordan, Lavera Forbes, James Turner, Claudia Wellington, and Patricia Turner.

• Blair Junior High: Lolita Portis and Reginald Young

• Northside Junior High School: Geraldine Talley.

• Norview High: Andrew Heidelberg, Olivia Driver, Johnnie Rouse, Carol Wellington, Frederick Gonsouland, and Delores Johnson

• Maury High: Lewis Cousins

• Granby High: Betty Reed

Man’s Skeleton Found In Bed

By John “Rover” Jordan SUFFOLK

The dry bones of a skeleton found tucked away in a neatly kept bed apparently have held the mystery in the disappearance two years ago of William Gray, 73, a man well known in former years for playing the “devil” in religious pageants.

Nansemond County Police are still somewhat puzzled as to their next step in the weird story of a man who lay dead for many months in the front bedroom of his modest fourroom house on the bank of Smith Creek in the Boston section of Nansemond County, northwest of Suffolk.

County Investigator Ray

B. Early assisted by Deputy Charles “Skinny” Jones, a colored officer, made the grisly discovery on Thursday, climaxing a search of many weeks. The missing man’s wife was immediately taken into custody and was being held in Nansemond County jail pending an investigation of the strange case.

The skeleton was found clothed in shirt and trousers and covered, except for the head with blankets. It was as if the man had laid down for a nap month and months ago, never to awaken. The room was clean and free of dust and the furnishings were neatly in place.

Mr. Gray, a very popular man in the area, was missed by his friends and neighbors over two years ago. Church groups offering him food on occasion began to ask

5 Months Later – She’s In School

NORFOLK

Five months passed between the time 17-year-old Patricia Godbolt heard Norfolk school officials admit she was being denied entry to a school close to her home simply because of race and the day she entered that school.

That day of entry was Monday,

February 2. Miss Godbolt, (left) and Miss Delores Johnson are shown here entering Norfolk’s Norview High School in Monday morning’s opening of the first desegregated schools in Virginia History. They are two of five colored pupils at Norview High; one of six schools that realized a peaceful transition from segregated to integrated schools

NORFOLK

History Made

History was made in Virginia on Feb.

2 when 21 colored pupils entered seven public schools which only served white students. Six of the schools opened on a desegregated basis in Norfolk, one at Arlington. No racial incidents arose

questions. There were conflicting stories about his disappearance and police were notified. His wife Emaline Gray, 54, gave unsatisfactory answers.

Deputy Early told reports that Mrs. Gray gave him the “runaround” first telling him that her husband was

to make the transitions. Above three of seven pupils admitted to Norfolk’s Norview High School make their way into the building. They are Andrew Irvin Heidelberg, Miss Oliver Driver and Alverez F. Gonsaland. Ten colored students were admitted to five other Norfolk schools and four were enrolled at Arlington Stratford Junior High.

living in another section of town and later that he was living in Newport News. She refused to allow the officer to search the house and he finally obtained a warrant.

The officer quoted the woman as then saying that her husband died in July 1956. She denied any

knowledge of foul play. Later she told investigators that her husband was not really dead but an evil spirit had taken possession of him. If the spirit can be exorcised, she assured them, he would be well again.

The investigation is ongoing and the man’s skeleton has been buried.

By Walt Carr

What’s An Eruv – and What Can It Teach Us?

By Svante Myrick (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

If you’ve been watching news or social media recently, it’s hard to miss a disturbing trend in American culture. It seems like antisemitism is back in a very public way – and not just in the white supremacist circles where it’s been all along. It’s heartbreaking. And it got me thinking about an experience I had fifteen years ago in my hometown of Ithaca, New York.

OVERTURNING ROE: LEGALITY ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

By Marc H. Morial (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

“Overturning Roe and outlawing abortions will never make them go away. It only makes them more dangerous, especially for the poor and marginalized. People will die because of this decision. And we will never stop until abortion rights are restored in the United States of America.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Fifty years ago, women across the country celebrated the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right for people to have an abortion. Now, after decades of scheming, right-wing politicians finally have forced their unpopular agenda on the rest of America. They have decided that the government – not pregnant people and their doctors –should make a private health care decision and deny women the right to control their own bodies and futures.

Since the Supreme Court made its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last June, nearly half the states in the country have either outlawed abortion services or placed heavy restrictions around abortion access. This decision put important health care decisions out of the reach of millions of women and violated their right to decide what happens to their own bodies. Access to safe abortion services have proven over time to discourage women from

exploring unsafe methods to end their pregnancies, a reality that has mostly impacted Black women and women in underserved communities.

Black women are four times more likely to die as a result of childbirth than white women, according to American Medical Association. Meanwhile, due to racialized income and wealth disparities, inequitable access to medical care, and the other insidious ways manifestations of structural racism, people of color are more likely to require abortion care and but are less likely to be able to afford outof-state travel to obtain care if it is outlawed in their state.

Forcing women to carry pregnancies against their will can have devastating and lasting consequences for them and their family and push women and families deeper into poverty. Our health care system already fails Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, and barriers to abortion care make that worse.

As we continue to navigate this crisis, we must not settle for legality. Legality alone will

not ensure everyone can get the abortion care they need. We must aim for abortion justice and fight for that justice in our communities, city halls, state legislatures, in Congress, and the White House. We need bold solutions like the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify the right to an abortion into federal law and ensure all pregnant persons can make personal health decisions without government interference.

So, this weekend, the 50th anniversary of the landmark decision, we stand with all women in solidarity in the fight to protect women’s rights. The devastating decision to overturn Roe will reverberate for future generations of women and girls who would need access to such an essential service. Abortion access is an economic and racial justice issue, and I am proud to say that the National Urban League will continue to fight for the reproductive rights of women and the civil rights of all of us.

I was on the city council, and a local rabbi came to me with a concern. He explained that in traditional Jewish communities, many activities that are considered work are not allowed on the Sabbath. These include carrying objects from place to place outside the home. So tradition accommodates this restriction by creating a larger area called an eruv: a space that defines home as several houses and streets within a community. The boundaries of the eruv are designated by markers around the neighborhood, often attached to utility poles and wires.

The eruv symbolically enlarges the home – so the necessities of faith and of daily life can coexist.

For years, the rabbi said, the Jewish community had been asking to put up eruv markers in parts of Ithaca, but the city council hadn’t responded: could I help? I’m happy to say that we got it done. But not without some resistance – including pushback from people who called themselves progressives, who opposed what they called “catering” to a religious community.

That disappointed me then, and it bothers me even more today. Here’s why.

The alarm bells that are ringing about the rise of

agenda.

antisemitism are on both the Right and the Left. On the Right, we know that white supremacists, militant Christian nationalists and other bigots pose a deadly threat. And the way to combat this is with a strong, progressive, multiracial coalition. This is what happened in the civil rights era, when a BlackJewish alliance played a major role in the fight for desegregation and voting rights.

see Eruv, page 6A

The Party of Lincoln???

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

There are many memories of my first years in school which remain etched in my mind. I remember learning the “Pledge of Allegiance” and the national anthem. Since I have always liked history, there are numerous persons and events that are in my memory cells.

Like most students of that period, the first two presidents I learned about were George Washington and Abraham Lincoln – the first and the sixteenth presidents, respectively.

George Washington ‘chopped down a cherry tree,’ led the Continental Army against the British, and became the new nation’s first, but the reluctant president. For me, Lincoln was a little more interesting. He was a country kid, born into what can only be called poverty, reportedly was a hard worker, held a variety of – both laborious and sedentary – jobs, became a country lawyer, honed his debating skills, became the first candidate elected to be president as a Republican, ‘freed the slaves,’ and was shot dead at the Ford’s Theater.

Chief among his

accomplishments is that he remains known as “Honest Abe” and his legacy is circumscribed by his veracity in addition to having his name ascribed to the Republican Party as its founder. Among African-Americans, his party, the party of the Great Emancipator, was the only political party worthy of their votes (those who could vote). Although there are fewer African-Americans who retain this loyalty, many still vote without question for The Party of Lincoln. Unfortunately, if he were alive today, I am sure that he would attempt to reform them or completely disavow the deviants and devilments of “his” party.

The biography and resume of George Santos, the newly elected Republican

Congressman from New York, belies the ethic of truthfulness. He is the antithesis of Honest Abe! Santos has admitted to embellishing his biography with stories that are more akin to myths and fables than simple embellishments. His lies wind through a trail of life events that serve to endear him with the voters but have no remote connection to his personal experiences. He has fabricated so much of his resume that there is some speculation that his real name may not really be George Santos. He has used at least one other name. see Lincoln, page 6A

WHAT MILESTONES CAN SHOW US

By Ben Jealous (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Two things happened last week – one public, the other personal – that made me reflect on how far we’ve come as a nation, how we got here, and what it will take to keep that journey moving forward.

Maryland, my home state, inaugurated its first Black governor, Wes Moore. It’s a description I thought might go to me four years ago when I became only the third person and the first African-American to win 1 million votes in statewide race. Unfortunately my incumbent opponent was one of the other two.

Attending the inauguration made me think about how we’ve gotten here – more slowly than anyone who truly believes in our American ideals would consider right, but making steady progress all along the way. My vote total helped Wes, just as President Obama’s victory in 2012 eased my way. I think back

to being a youth leader in my California county for Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential bid.

While we can bemoan the pace for good reason, we shouldn’t overlook that change has come. That long arc of the moral universe remains. Even when we fall short of something like an electoral victory, we make progress.

The question remains the eternal one when we see injustice, inequity and threats like climate change that are unquestionably existential. How do we pick

up the pace?

On the same day, I celebrated my 50th birthday. That means I’ve been organizing and advocating for change for more than half my life. I’m lucky in many respects. Thirty years ago, celebrating someone else’s 21st birthday, I remember standing with other young Black men somberly pouring out our drinks in memory of our friends who had been killed or imprisoned before we got to college.

I’m luckier still that I’ve had people throughout my life – starting with my parents – who have helped me find my commitment

and learn ways to put it into effective practice.

People like Alvin Chambliss, the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services lawyer, who asked me to lead protests against closing two historically Black universities to turn them into prisons. People like Norman Hill, a protege of A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, and union leaders Richard Womack and Bill Lucy who trained me (along with Stacey Abrams and Derrick Johnson) at an AFL-CIO summer institute for Black student organizers. People like Bishop Desmond Tutu

and Colin Powell.

I remain deeply committed to passing forward all that knowledge and insight, so hard won by folks who preceded me in ways that paved my road. For me that starts with listening to young leaders and organizers both to understand their perspectives as well as to give them space to air what they are compelled to get out. For me, change starts with listening. What I hope to impart are the big ideas that were passed along to me, like Gen. Powell’s lesson that finding the one common cause we can share can be much more powerful than a hundred things that we may disagree about. Finally, I want to charge them to use their own gifts, talents, and knowledge to make the progress we still need. They will know how best to reach their peers and those who come after them. A quinquagenarian like me will never be able to use the tools of their generation to their fullest effect. What I hope to do is inspire and

applaud.

That’s an optimistic view, I know. One that I get genetically perhaps. Just before my grandmother died, she took a call from Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who had been a graduate student in social work decades before when my grandmother was creating Child Protective Services in Baltimore. It was that long arc in view. It was my grandmother who gave me the perspective that still guides me. ““Baby, it’s true. Pessimists are right more often, but optimists win more often,” she told me once. “In this life, you have to decide what’s more important to you. As for me, I’ll take winning.”

Ben Jealous is incoming executive director of the Sierra Club, America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization; former national president of the NAACP; and professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania. His new book “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” was just published.

... I want to charge them (young leaders) to use their own gifts, talents, and knowledge to make the progress we still need. They will know how best to reach their peers and those who come after them.

– Congresswoman

Marc H. Morial

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Ben Jealous

CARR

This is a time when the Black community and Jewish community need to come together, and not be driven apart by forces with a divideand-conquer

Svante Myrick

Our health care system already fails Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, and barriers to abortion care make that worse.

… if he (Lincoln) were alive today, I am sure that he would attempt to reform them (Republicans) or completely disavow the deviants and devilments of “his” party.

WHY WE ARE ENDORSING DEL. WILLIAMS GRAVES FOR SENATE

DIRECTOR,

CENTER AND PROFESSOR, VIRGINIA TECH MEMPHIS AND RACISM IN POLICING

By Wornie Reed, Ph.D

Memphis reminds me of a sad part of my youth. As a teenager in Alabama, I studiously avoided police officers, because I had this morbid mindset concerning them.

I was resolved with every fiber of my being that if an officer hit me, he had effectively killed two people – him and me. I would kill him, and I would be executed. I was a good boy, a Sunday School kid. But no matter how hard I tried I could not rid myself of that attitude. This orientation was not the result of something any police officer had done to me. It was my knowledge of how policemen regularly beat up African-Americans.

I worked hard psychologically to rid myself of this morbid orientation, saying to myself that I should not willingly die over that issue, but feeling that way was a long time coming. I was around 30 years of age before I successfully eliminated that frame of mind about police officers.

Until that time, I could not bring myself to socialize with any policeman, not even a Black one. In fact, I had little if any respect for Black policemen. In many places in the 1940s and 1950s, and into the 1960s, even in northern cities, Black officers could

arrest Black people, but not Whites. I had contempt for anyone who would accept such a job, thinking that I would rather starve to death. And to make matters worse, whether they could arrest White people or not, many Black officers took their role of policing the Black Community to the extreme. Please note that traditionally police protect White communities and police Black communities. Policing Black communities means managing them and keeping them in line. This is not a friendly relationship. Rather, it is often antagonistic. It seemed that a perceived necessary situation is to have Black community members afraid of the police. When Blacks became members of police forces, they were often assigned to Black communities to do the “policing.” Of course, the practice of policing Black communities is racist. And it is still racist when Black officers are used to carry out these activities. In the past, many of them have gone wild. In many American cities Black officers beat up Black men so often that some of them acquired wellknown nicknames in Black communities. Memphis was one such city.

Police departments have always had hostile relationships with Black communities, having grown out of the slave patrols which among other things captured

LETTER TO EDITOR

and punished runaway slaves. So, they started with a harsh approach to Black folks, something that has continued through time.

The policies and practices of police departments have always tended to be racist, with a few in recent years becoming exceptions. Long ago, a policing culture developed around the policies and practices of this institution, and officers are part of that culture. If these polices and practices are oriented in a negative way towards AfricanAmericans, it is racist. Thus, it is systemic racism.

Black police officers operate in this policing culture of systemic racism. And sometimes they carry out acts against AfricanAmericans, like the old days of the 1940s and 1950s.

If you think this is a new and much better era, please realize that there has never been any real reform of policing, especially as it pertains to African-Americans. Also, things may be worse than back in the 1950s because of the beginning of the militarization of the police in the late 1960s.

And Memphis’s will continue to occur with Black as well as White police officers until structural changes are made, changes like demilitarizing police forces and changing laws and regulations that shield police officers from prosecution.

America Must Lower The Bar In Civil Rights Prosecutions

Editor, New Journal and Guide

The American people must be reminded the foundation of police killings, the denial of equal protection under the law to persons of African ancestry and citizenship in the United States, rests upon the Supreme Court’s final decision, on March 6, 1857, in Scott v. Sandford, written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, a white supremacist. It was that current or former slaves and their descendants had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect,” as Taney wrote in the majority Dred Scott decision.

As Attorney General, Eric Holder cited that the high standard of proof in federal civil rights cases prevents federal prosecution where local authorities are unable or unwilling to get a conviction.

“There is a better way in which we could have federal involvement in these kinds of matters to allow the federal government to be a better backstop in examining these cases,” Holder said in an NBC News interview.

The Justice Department later announced that it found insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges in the 2012

shooting death of a Black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in Florida.

And also in the shooting of an unarmed Black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Officials familiar with the case have said they expect that no federal charges would even be filed.

In a written statement, government lawyers said their decision in the case was “limited strictly to the department’s inability to meet the high legal standard” in the civil rights statutes.

Former Attorney General Holder had repeatedly warned “We do need to change the law. I do think the standard is too high.”

“There needs to be a change with regard to the standard of proof.”

To bring a federal case, federal prosecutors must prove that a person used excessive force, willfully – meaning on purpose –with the knowledge that it was wrong. William Yeomans, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said proving intent is the biggest challenge in bringing a successful prosecution in such cases.

“It’s extremely difficult to establish beyond a reasonable doubt what was in the defendant’s

By Pastor Geoffrey V. Guns

The cornerstone of the Black community is the Church. It’s a place of community, family, and fellowship that goes beyond our shared collective faith. It acts as a support system for those in need and offers bonds and relationships that are lifelong. One of the servants that we’ve seen grow up in the church is Delegate Angelia Williams Graves. Her father, Pastor I. Joseph Williams, was a servant in his own right – mentoring many of us in our relationship with God but also always there to support his church family and the surrounding communities. As Angelia readies herself to take the next step in her service to the people of Virginia and our region, we cannot help but think of her late father as we write to proudly vocalize our enthusiastic support of her campaign for State Senate.

As pastors, we have been around to see all types of elected officials. Those who show up when convenient or when it’s close to Election time and those who never fade from serving their constituents, many of which are our parishioners in our

Yesterday

Continued from page 1A

But many of the captives resisted being transported to bondage as the ships sailed to their destinations. They jumped from the filthy and overcrowded ships along the Middle Passage to a watery death.

According to historic records, over 20 percent of slave ships failed to reach their destination due to such resistance. The United States banned the importing of African slaves in 1808, but importation still occurred secretly.

According to the November 12, 2018 edition of the online edition of Urban Woman, the height of the shipboard resistance took place from the 1730s to 1841.

The cornerstone of the Black community is the Church. It’s a place of community, family, and fellowship that goes beyond our shared collective faith.

churches.

Angelia embodies that year-round service that we hope all elected officials strive to do. She shows up. She listens. And she has always carried the voices and lived experiences of those around her, whether it be into the City Council chambers in Norfolk, now into the halls of the People’s House in Richmond, or soon to be in the Senate Chamber.

She uniquely is suited to represent us in the Senate because she understands the plight of so many in the communities we serve. Born and raised in Norfolk, Angelia didn’t come from privilege. Her background and upbringing is a familiar one held by many Norfolk residents. Educated in public schools, a student of Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion Universe, a former city employee, and self-made

small business owner, Angelia very easily could have not chosen a path of elected service, but the fact that she did speaks to the heart of who she is as a person and we are all lucky to have her. Representation matters. It matters that the children of Norfolk can see one of their own rise through the ranks of State Government and be in some of the most important rooms in the Commonwealth. It matters that Angelia shares a story similar to theirs. And it matters that they see themselves in Angelia. We have had the unique opportunity to be small parts of her life, and we can think of nobody better to be our next State Senator than Angelia Williams Graves. Pastor Geoffrey V. Guns is submitting this op-ed upon the endorsement of more than thirty Hampton Roadsarea Black ministers and pastors.

mind when he committed the act.”

Federal prosecutors brought just such a charge in 1991 against Los Angeles police officers for beating a Black driver, Rodney King (now deceased), after a high-speed chase. But the government had video tape to help prove that case.

The high bar in the law often prevents the federal government from prosecuting.

Examples include the New York police shooting deaths of Amadou Diallo, unarmed when he was killed outside his own apartment in 1999; and Sean Bell, who died after officers fired 50 shots into his car. No federal charges were filed in either case.

Also, the police fatal shooting of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and the April 2015 shooting of Walter Scott, a 50-year-old unarmed motorist who was shot in the back while running away after a traffic stop.

In Scott’s case, the former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager was indicted on federal civil rights violation, after he finally entered a guilty plea.

Mr. Roy L. Perry-Bey Director Civil Rights Coalition For Equal Justice Hampton, Virginia

In June 1730, Captain George Scott sailed from the Guinea coast with 96 slaves aboard the ship, “Little George.” Six days into the journey, the slaves revolted and imprisoned the captain and some of the crew; after which, they steered the ship back to the coast of Africa and escaped.

One of the most intriguing revolts occurred in July 1839 aboard the Armistead. Slaves who spoke Mende revolted and piloted the ship to Long Island, New York.

There, a trial was held for them, to determine what their fate should be since the external slave trade had been brought to an end in 1808.

Former President John Quincy Adams defended them, and the Supreme Court ruled that they should be set free and allowed to return to Africa.

On land through two centuries of chattel slavery in Haiti, Mexico, and the North American continent, the myth of the contented slave was dismantled due to the ones resisting their bondage.

Before the American Civil War started in 1861, more than 250 uprisings or attempted uprisings involving 10 or more slaves were recorded.

There were debates on whether the slaves committed conspiracies, murderous insurrections,

Courtesy

[Iron mask, collar, leg shackles and spurs used to restrict slaves] Repository: Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

On land through two centuries of chattel slavery in Haiti, Mexico, and the North American continent, the myth of the contented slave was dismantled due to the ones resisting their bondage.

or revolts as they resisted slavery to secure their freedom.

Called a “conspiracy,” the first domestic slave revolt was conceived by Gabriel, an enslaved man in Virginia, in the summer of 1800.

On August 30 more than 1,000 armed slaves massed for action near Richmond but their plans were disrupted by a rainstorm.

The slaves were forced to disband, and 35 were hanged, including Gabriel.

The only free person to lead a rebellion was Denmark Vesey, of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822. According to some accounts, as many as 9,000 people were involved.

The revolt was betrayed in June before it got underway. As a result, some 130 Blacks were arrested; 35, including Vesey, were hanged and 32 were exiled before the end of the summer.

The most notable and deadly act of slave resistance was led by Preacher Nat Turner, in Southampton County, Virginia, in the summer of 1831.

On the evening of August 21, Turner and a small band of slaves killed 60 whites and attracted up to 75 fellow slaves over several days.

On August 24, a militia stopped the rebels near Jerusalem, killing at least 40 and probably nearer 100.

Turner escaped to the

Dismal Swamp before he was captured and hanged on November 11.

Before Turner’s action, Blacks, resisting bondage escaped and secured refuge in the Dismal Swamp. They built camps as individuals and whole families, lived unmolested by white slave owners. Turner’s rebellion caused Virginia to impose harsher restrictions on enslaved Blacks and free Blacks were ordered to leave the state.

Many Blacks escaped to live among the Native Americans and were integrated into their communities.

To deter revolts, it was illegal to teach Blacks to read. Though Turner was a preacher, the Blacks could not congregate to worship.

Also, news of the Black rebellions in Haiti, and the influx of runaways helped to arouse wider sympathy for the plight of the slave and support for the abolition movement.

Slavery was concentrated in the South as many northern states outlawed slavery after the American Revolution. This led the enslaved Blacks in the South to seek to escape northward so frequently, that in 1793, the federal Fugitive Slave Act was imposed, using slave patrols and bounty hunters to stop it. see Yesterday, page 9A

And Memphis’s will continue to occur with Black as well as White police officers until structural changes are made, changes like demilitarizing police forces and changing laws and regulations that shield police officers from prosecution

RACE AND SOCIAL POLICY RESEARCH

Photo:

This Is A Corrected Reprint From

The January 26, 2023-February 1, 2023 Edition

EMERY FEARS: REMEMBERED FOR DEDICATION TO BAND EXCELLENCE

By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide

Emery Lewis Fear, Jr., 97, who was an inspirational marching band director at I.C. Norcom, Manor High School, and Norfolk State University passed January 12, 2023.

His death created a huge outpouring of sadness and reflections on his career and legacy for the man known affectionately as “Chief” by family, friends, and former students.

Fears was born in 1925 on the campus of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama. He was the son of Evadne Inez Angers Fears and Emery Lewis Fears Sr.

He graduated from Tuskegee High School and then joined the United States Navy as a musician during World War II (1944-1946).

After he left the Navy, he enrolled at Howard University and earned a degree in music. He later earned a Master’s Degree in Music at Michigan University.

According to his obituary, he is “noted for his phenomenal ability to implement musical excellence, selfdiscipline, and ‘Esprit de Corps’ into the hearts of many students fortunate enough to be under his tutelage.”

“He consistently developed leaders who have proven themselves in many professions,” his obituary continued.

Lavoris Pace, Norfolk’s Deputy City Manager, oversees a portfolio that includes youth initiatives, arts, culture, and community partnerships.

He is a 1987 graduate of NSU with a degree in Graphic Design.

For two years, he was a member of the Spartan Legion percussion section known as the “Million Dollar Funk Squad.”

“Even though he (Mr. Fears) was about music and musicality, he was a change agent,” said Pace.

“He recruited and worked with those marginalized students in high school who did not know if they would graduate. At NSU, he recruited students who had few options for enrolling in college. Once on campus, he taught students, in the thousands, not only about music but life.” Fears’ concert bands at I.C. Norcom and Manor High schools in Portsmouth earned 18 consecutive Division (Superior) ratings in Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association Festivals. His high school bands were recognized as being “of a particularly high

Eruv

Continued from page 4A

But alarm bells are also ringing on the Left, because today there are fractures in that old alliance. A mix of cultural and political influences has left some in the Black community feeling like we’re not all on the same team. And what happens when good people are not aligned is that evil gets the upper hand.

There are plenty of examples of this throughout history. And I don’t use the word “evil” lightly. Think of Nick Fuentes, the farright activist who grabbed headlines for his dinner

Memphis

Continued from page 1A

Further, along with the five officers charged with the brutal beating of Nichols, Memphis Police Department (MPD) announced on Monday that Officer Preston Hemphill, who is white, had been relieved of his duties shortly after Nichols’ January 7 arrest. A seventh officer has also been relieved – but that officer was not named and the role played in the incident was not specified.

Peaceful protests around the country have taken place, including Hampton Roads in response to the video of Nichols’ encounter with the police.

Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN on Friday before the videos were released: “I’m still trying to understand all of this and trying to wrap my head around all of this,” Wells said. “I don’t have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again.”

Former Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone, the Law Enforcement Analyst for News Channel 3, said along with those currently identified, up to 12 “officers may be terminated.”

Behold, the Green and Gold” originated with the Spartan Legion under Professor Fears’ directing and is heralded to this day at the university’s athletic events and other gatherings.”

standard of excellence at the national level from 1960 to 1972 by the John Phillip Sousa Foundation.

Sousa Foundation elected the I.C. Norcom School band to the Historic Roll of Honor of High School Concert Bands.”

He was also a member of the Prestigious American Bandmasters Association and was actively committed to the improvement of bands throughout the United States and Canada and served as an adjudicator, clinician consultant, and conductor.

uuu

After many successful years as a music educator at the high school level.

Fears accepted the position as Director of Bands at Norfolk State University in 1974. He earned the respect and admiration of his peers in the world of collegiate and military bands as they created the “Spartan Legion” Band which was instrumental in catapulting NSU to national recognition.

“Behold, the Green and Gold” originated with the Spartan Legion under Professor Fears’ directing and is heralded to this day at the university’s athletic events and other gatherings.

Fears married Jannette Johnson (deceased) in 1951 with whom he had a daughter Cheryl Denise Fears Hutchinson

with Donald Trump and Ye. Fuentes has openly praised Adolf Hitler. It doesn’t get much worse than that.

This is the kind of viciousness that we are facing today, with a Far Right that became louder, bolder and more aggressive under Donald Trump – and hasn’t gone away. This is a time when the Black community and Jewish community need to come together, and not be driven apart by forces with a divide-and-conquer agenda.

We can acknowledge that there are differences between us, things we can talk about, while still having each other’s backs. In other words, we can symbolically enlarge our home.

Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday just passed,

(Harvey). Later in 1981 he married Cheryl Lorraine Perry and had two children, Jason Michael Fears, and Ashlyn Elizabeth Fears. He is a grandfather to Damien Jerrod Huff, Athea Jeanette Hutchison, Olivia Marie William, Rhea Lee Fears, and one great-greatgranddaughter. Katrina Huff and the Fears tribe are carrying on his legacy.

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Phillip Hawkins is now the assistant Principal at Young Terrace Elementary School in downtown Norfolk.

He recalls, “During my childhood, I always knew about the greatness of Norfolk State University.”

“As a child, I lived in Liberty Park on Pioneer Avenue and Majestic Avenue across the street from the Norfolk Community Hospital,” he said. “I would always hear the musical sounds of the Spartan Legion while outside playing, or when I and my friends would venture over to the campus to ride our bikes and skateboards and listen to the band.”

“I first became aware of Chief Fears through my older siblings who also marched in the Spartan Legion while attending NSU,” he continued.

“Upon being accepted to attend NSU in 1987, I first met ‘Chief’ at a Band Camp in August 1987. I was amazed that on the

famously reminded us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Those of us who want equity and justice need to want it for all people. Our real and symbolic home should be with each other, where we are united by our shared humanity and where hate by any name is excluded. Let’s make that space, and welcome each other in.

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 youngest-ever mayor in New York State history.

first day when he entered the band room, he knew every student by name and school and something special about everyone without using a written roster!

“As I began my journey with the Spartan Legion, I knew I was embarking on something great, but I didn’t know how great the impression would be for my future.

“As a bandleader, Mr. Fears demanded excellence without excuse as he encouraged his students to work hard and do their best!” Hawkins said.

“We would practice every day and our theme my first year was ‘Quality in Performance and Take No Prisoners!!!’”

Hawkins said that during the 1980s and 90s, as Director of the Marching Spartan Legion, the band “was the most popular and visible organization on campus that represented the excellence of NSU.”

Hawkins called “The Legion” the greatest recruitment resource that NSU had as the university experienced exponential growth in student enrollment in the late 1980s as the fifth largest HBCU in the country.

He said he earned the title of “Captain Soul” along with Mr. Kevin Deas as “Mr. Spartan,” as they were Mr. Fears’ final Spartan Legion Drum Majors in 1990-1991 before he retired.

“Mr. Fears was like a father to all his students as he would always impart life lessons that still apply today. I am still active as a life member of the Norfolk State University Alumni Association and Drum Major of the Alumni Band Chapter. His legacy in music education will always live on as the founder of the Spartan Legion and his lessons will be researched and taught for generations to come!”

Lincoln

Continued from page 4A

What is worse, he poses a threat to the good order of the House of Representatives and, through exposure to classified materials, our national security. In their attempt to retain power and maintain their slim margin of control, Speaker McCarthy and his conference have chosen to overlook this potential threat. What is more, they have chosen to overlook the standards of integrity presumed for all House members. As an entity, Republican members have shown total disregard for the expectation of honorable

the officers were an example of a long-standing problem of officers physically punishing civilians for perceived disrespect or disobedience called “contempt of cop.”

The available footage does not show any sign that any of the officers at the final scene – which numbered 10 or more – intervened to stop the aggressive use of force.

If anything, it shows the contrary.

At one point, footage captured an officer saying “I hope they stomp his ass.,”

The images, captured on the evening of January 7, just blocks from his mother’s home, include the initial traffic stop.

Police officers come up to Nichols’s car yelling with their guns raised, open his car door, and pull him out.

Nichols says that he “didn’t do anything.”

“De-escalation was not part of the narrative” from what he saw in the video released to the public, he said.

Boone said “to his credit Nichols tried to de-escalate the situation ... asking them what did he do. At one point you can see fear in his face and then he takes off.”

The inability of any of the officers to stop or lend assistance to Nichols was “highly unprofessional ... they come off as thugs,” Boone said.

Created in 2021, some of the officers were part of the SCORPION unit – “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods.”

It was formed to respond to the rising property and violent crime in the city and now has been disbanded.

The New York Times and other news agencies analyzed the video based on footage from police body cams and street cameras mounted on a pole where the beating took place.

The video reveals the officers directed a barrage of commands at Nichols that were confusing, conflicting, sometimes simultaneous, and impossible to obey. When Nichols could not comply – and even when he managed to – the officers responded with escalating force.

The Times’ analysis of the available footage found that officers shouted at least 71 commands during the approximately 13-minute period before they reported over the radio that Nichols was officially in custody.

The commands were issued at two locations, one near Nichols’s vehicle and the other in the area he had fled to and was severely beaten.

Officers commanded Nichols to show his hands even as they were holding them.

They told him to get on the ground even when he was.

They ordered him to reposition himself even when they had control of his body.

Experts say the actions of

service among their ranks.

However one wishes to analyze him, overwhelming evidence confirms that the preservation of the Union, and its traditions and democratic principles were primary concerns of Lincoln. Fueled by a malignant fear of ‘Replacement,’ Lincoln’s modern counterparts have shown themselves willing to accept any equally malignant distortion of government that allows them to subvert the will of the majority and impose their will upon the same. Gerrymandering and voter suppression, including draconian laws, which frighten and discourage lawful voters from exercising their rights have become the tools of choice for the ‘new’ Republicans. Like the petulant kid who

Nichols drops to the ground, and officers surround him. Initially, he offers no resistance, is pepper sprayed, and an officer fires a Taser at him as he gets up and runs.

Eight minutes later, he has been pursued into a neighborhood, close to his home where officers begin to beat him in the head when he is on the ground, and pull him back up as another officer uses an extendable baton to hit him.

Nichols does not appear to fight back which ends with him falling to the ground. More officers arrive but he is not seen receiving medical attention for several minutes.

Not only were the police officers fired, a sixth suspended, EMT personnel who treated him were suspended as the investigation into their actions is undertaken.

Ten minutes into the polecamera video – a few minutes after officers disengaged – a person who appears to be a paramedic engages Nichols for the first time, around 8:41 p.m. But responders would repeatedly walk away from Nichols before an ambulance arrives.

Two minutes after paramedics started attending to Nichols, he is seen falling over to the side and seeming to hit his head hard. No one appears to help Nichols as he tries to sit up, only to fall over again.

Officers are seen crowding around Nichols, only to step away as he again falls onto his side.

First responders then spend nearly five minutes standing over Nichols, and occasionally shining a light toward his face, before walking away. Nichols twists on the ground, “unassisted.” Medical equipment is finally brought back to Nichols’ side about three minutes later, the polecamera video shows.

Footage shows that 21 minutes pass from when paramedics first appeared to arrive to when an ambulance finally pulls into view of the camera at 9:02 p.m. see Memphis, page 10A

owns the football, these ‘new’ Republicans are threatening to blow up our national and international economies if the game is not played by their rules. Their enmity against all except the wealthy and wellconnected illuminates their goal of institutionalizing their permanent power and creating a permanent underclass that they can manipulate and control.

Whatever faults Lincoln may have had, this is not the party of Lincoln. We will treat them with logic and measured reason at our future peril!

Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of The Dick Gregory Society (thedickgregorysociety. org; drefayewilliams@gmail. com) and President Emerita of the National Congress of Black Women

Director Ernie L. Fears, Jr.

Photo: Courtesy

The video footage doesn’t show any sign that officers intervened to stop the aggressive use of force. If anything, it shows the contrary.

“I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.”

– Claudette Colvin, a pioneer of the 1950s Civil Rights Movement

NRHA Annual Plan Public Hearing

The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) Board of Commissioners will hold an in-person and virtual public hearing on Thursday, March 16, in conjunction with the NRHA Board of Commissioners meeting. The purpose of this hearing is to hear comments on NRHA’s fi scal year (FY) 2024 Annual and 5-Year Plan for its assisted-rental properties and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.

The meeting will be held at 555 E. Main Street in the 16th fl oor board room. Members of the public can attend the hearing in person or participate virtually by registering at https://bit.ly/ NRHAAnnualPlanPublicHearing

The Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 requires housing authorities to complete a fi ve-year plan and an annual plan for assisted-rental properties and HCV programs. NRHA’s FY 2024 Annual Plan will cover the period from July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024.

The plan includes information on NRHA’s major goals, strategies and objectives for its assisted-rental properties and HCV program, requirements/mandates from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and NRHA’s strategies and objectives for achieving its mission of “providing quality housing opportunities that foster sustainable mixed-income communities.” NRHA’s Resident Advisory Board will provide input during meetings that will be held during April and May.

The draft plan is available for a 45-day public review and comment period from February 1-March 30. It can be viewed at www.nrha. us Copies of the Annual Plan are also available in NRHA’s main of fi ce lobby at 555 E. Main Street in Norfolk. Comments can be submitted by calling NRHA’s Public Hearing Comment Hotline at (757) 314-1320.

Public Hearing Schedule for March 16, 2023

Board of Commissioners Meeting Annual Plan Public Hearing

Upon request, this notice and other materials may be made available in alternative formats (i.e., large print, braille, assisted listening devices or audio tape) from the ADA/504 Program Coordinator Kimberly Thomas at kthomas@nrha.us or by calling (757) 623-1111.

NRHA provides equal housing and employment opportunities for all persons. NRHA does not discriminate against any applicant, resident, or employee on the basis race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status, disability, source of funds, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status in the admission, access or operations of programs, services or activities. If you feel you have been discriminated against, you have the right to fi le a complaint of discrimination with the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity by calling toll free (800) 669-9777.

History

Continued from page 1A

“You’re not crippled, only crippled in your mind,” Griffin often told amputees, who could not walk to the bathroom, pull a tee-shirt over their head, or raise a fork to their lips.

The way Griffin’s 1951-patented device compensated for an amputee’s lack of limbs and allowed him to use his last remaining bodily functions (his lips and teeth) to secure food, in other words – Blacks began to deliberately respond to harsh Jim Crow laws.

For example, four years after Griffin’s prosthetic device was patented –Rosa Parks deliberately bit down. This means Parks’ intentionally responded to the sense of helplessness that the Jim Crow system bred. Parks deliberately remained in her seat on a Jim Crow bus in Montgomery in 1955. Rosa Parks’ resistance launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott and fueled the Civil Rights Movement, which led to Barack Obama becoming president.

Years later, Park’s explained why she bit down. Elaborating on her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger, Parks commented years later in a trademark quote. “I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move,” Parks explained. “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”

Recently, Black Resistance resurfaced and is now moving at slow-motion speed in Springfield, Ga.

Specifically, a group of Black high school students recently dropped an armload of books,

made some protest signs, and even filed a 14-page lawsuit after a string of racist incidents occurred at Effingham County High School and Effingham College and Career Academy which are located in Springfield, Ga., about 45 minutes from Savannah.

“It’s just incident, after incident, after incident, after incident,” said Lakeisha Hamilton, one of the parents who recently filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Effingham County School District for prohibiting Black students from wearing clothes with Black Lives Matter logos.

“In one instance, a Black student was refused entry to a football game because she was wearing a ‘Black Lives Matter’ shirt; and was advised that she could not enter with it on,” the lawsuit states. “However, a white student was allowed entry at the very same event with a shirt that read, ‘Stomp on My Flag; I’ll Stomp Your A**’. There were no repercussions for that white student.”

“There’s still confederate flags in the school from my understanding in the trophy case,” Hamilton said, in recent news reports. “There’s a confederate flag etched in a stone on the marble that bears the name of the school. Kids still wear confederate attire.”

◆◆◆

History shows conditions changed after an AfricanAmerican refused to grin and bear a racist handicap.

For example, in 1756, slaves not only launched First Baptist Church, the nation’s oldest Black church which is located up the road in Petersburg. The church launched Peabody High School in the church in 1870, (about five years after Black anti-literacy laws officially ended after the Civil War).

The point is this historic Petersburg church provides a rare glimpse into this year’s Black History Month theme: “Black Resistance.” This church began as First African Baptist Church, when it was founded in 1774 near Lunenburg, Va., on the William Byrd III plantation. Free members of the congregation later moved to Petersburg and changed the name to First Baptist Church when the Black church on the Byrd plantation burned to the ground.

But the historic Petersburg church burned to the ground in 1866 “during a wave of arson targeting Petersburg’s Black churches,” according to the Historical Marker Database website, “ After the building burned the present sanctuary was built in the Romanesque style and dedicated in 1872.”

Petersburg’s historic Black church illustrates the twists and turns that Black Resistance has taken.

“Before there was a George Washington president, there was a First Baptist,” Julian Greene, the church’s historian, told WRIC-TV in a 2018 interview. “We’ve had over 14 pastors in our 244-year history and that is remarkable in its own right and its own accord,” Greene said.

Peabody High School, which was launched inside of the church and became a public high school in 1920, speaks volumes about Black Resistance. This means First Baptist founded one of the first public schools for AfricanAmericans in Virginia. During its more than 150year lifespan, Peabody High moved around Petersburg several times, eventually becoming a middle school in the 1970s. Peabody’s last commencement ceremony was held for its June 1970 graduates. It operated more than 40 years as a middle school, but operations ended abruptly in 2017, according to news reports.

Today, First Baptist is still one of the state’s largest churches and offers an array of services including a prayer ministry, quarterly family night fellowship, marriage enrichment retreats, leadership prayer breakfasts, and multiple youth programs including a scouting program, an afterschool tutorial program, a computer lab, and a spring break camp.

“We generally have afternoon and after-school programs for the children,” Greene, the church’s historian said. “We are obligated and required to maintain and ensure that we carry that lifeline out for the future.”

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks intentionally responded to the sense of helplessness that the Jim Crow system bred.

“RESISTANCE”: THE BLACK PRESS Ida B.Wells-Barnett, Journalist, Publisher and Activist

By Jaylen Scott Winter Intern New Journal and Guide

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

was a prominent AfricanAmerican journalist and activist. She played a big part in the anti-lynching campaign in America, with a goal to fi nd the real reason behind the lynchings of African-Americans in the Jim Crow South. Despite her life being in danger numerous times, Wells stepped up to the plate and showed true bravery as a Black journalist, speaking out about the injustices that Black People were going through during this time, so that everyone could be informed about the true nature of lynchings.

Wells was born on July 16, 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, into slavery in the midst of the Civil War. She didn’t remember being enslaved due to being so young by the time the Civil war ended and slavery was abolished, but she has her parents’ stories and the marks on her mother’s back that allowed her to see the suffering that her parents and those like her experienced. She was the eldest of 8 children and was born to James and Elizabeth Wells, who, after slavery was abolished, learned how to read and became politically active during the Reconstruction period, which took place during most of Ida’s childhood. Her parents made sure to instill the importance of education to all of their kids, and she even attended Rust college before she moved on to become a teacher at the age of 14. Two years later, she would unfortunately learn that her

parents and her youngest brother both died of yellow fever. With the remaining siblings left orphaned, she and her siblings moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she would take up a teaching job to help care for her family, as well as continue her own studies at Fisk University in Nashville.

During this time, Wells, at age 22, would start to experience the beginnings of the Jim Crow Era of the South. In 1884, Wells fi led a lawsuit against the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad company due to being kicked out of the fi rst class train despite having bought a ticket. While winning her case, it was later revered in federal court, and 2 years later she would lose her teaching job after her contract wasn’t removed.

It was here that she would have her footing in journalism, writing a few newspapers artifices under the pen name “Iola” and going into journalism full time. This would be the start of her beginning of making Black History, becoming the fi rst female co-owner and editor of a Black Newspaper in the U.S. after she bought a share in the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight and was appointed as the editor.

In 1892, Well’s friend Thomas Moss, who was

a Memphis letter carrier and grocer, was lynched by a white mob. The event caused Wells to urge Black people to leave Memphis for their own safety. It also caused Wells to focus her attention on the causes and reasons given for the lynchings in her area, leading her to investigate the true reasons for these lynchings.

She started to report her fi ndings in the newspaper, and because of this, the residents of Memphis were enraged. A white mob ended up burning the press down, causing Wells and James Flemming, the coowner of the newspaper, to fl ee Memphis. But this would not be the ending of her journalism career and activism – it was only the beginning of her antilynching campaign.

She would continue the anti-lynching campaign in New York taking a job with the New York Age as a staff writer and changing her pen name to “Exiled.” Wells would go on to document about 728 lynching cases in America that occurred between 1884 and 1892, going on to publish a pamphlet known as “Southern Horrors,” that 3 years later would be published as “The Red Record.”

Wells’ 100-page pamphlet contained a more detailed description of

Yesterday

Continued from page 5A

In the decades before the American Civil War, however, increasing numbers of slaves resisted bondage and managed to escape to the North or to Canada via the Underground Railroad network of antislavery advocates.

Virginia had among the greatest number of fugitives, by sea, to North Canada.

the lynchings happening in America, as well as a closer look at the struggles Black people had to go through after the civil war. She also would take her activism all across America, as well as outside of America, traveling around the country to speak about these cases, and even traveling to Great Britain to express these findings.

During this time, Wells also married Ferdinand Lee Barnett on June 27, 1895, and had two children with him. Wells would go on to accomplish more in her life as an activist, making history again when she became a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP. A year later, she founded and became the fi rst president of the Negro Fellowship League and in 1913 she would go on to form what was possibly the first Black women’s suffrage group, Chicago’s Alpha Suffrage Club.

On March 25, 1931, Wells passed away to kidney disease in Chicago, Illinois. In 2020, she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrifi c and vicious violence against African-Americans during the era of lynching.”

A posting in the Norfolk Southern Argus on April 22, 1854, complained about the “outrageous thefts that are daily being committed upon us, in the running off of our slaves.” The paper assumed “that secret agencies are at work in our midst, for the purpose of offering inducements to our slaves to make their escape to the North,” and estimated that in the last year, slaveholders there had lost $75,000 in the form of runaway slaves. “A man may be wealthy today,” the editors wrote, “but tomorrow his property may have vanished into empty space.”

Several factors made Virginia a place where the Underground Railroad flourished. It had the largest enslaved population of any state and a large free Black population. It also bordered the free states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. And from Wellsville, Ohio, it was only 90 miles to Lake Erie, across which lay Canada.

Virginia also boasted a number of sizable port cities, in Portsmouth, Newport News, and Hampton.

Slaves were hired out to work in the maritime industry as unsupervised pilots and in other jobs, supported the escapees.

Also, Black churches and free Black neighborhoods hosted escapees and helped them board ships to freedom.

The congregation of Portsmouth’s 250-year-old Emanuel AME Church was one of the sites in the city

Harriet Tubman “Black Moses”

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c.March 1822[1] – March 10, 1913), also known as “Black Moses,” was a freedom fighter who resisted slavery and helped deliver a number of Blacks (some estimates as high as 300) to freedom in the North, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years.Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage.

Source: Wikipedia

In 1892, Well’s friend Thomas Moss, who was a Memphis letter carrier and grocer, was lynched by a white mob. The event caused Wells ... to focus her attention on the causes and reasons given for the lynchings in her area, leading her to investigate the true reasons for these lynchings.

designated by the National Park Service as a stop along the Underground Railroad trail.

Several factors made Virginia a place where the Underground Railroad flourished. It had the largest enslaved population of any state ...

Virginia 3rd District

Congressman Robert Scott said in a statement, “As people across the country protest the violent arrest of Nichols, demonstrators are also calling on lawmakers to do more to reform policing.

Scott said he is asking Congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to pass “critical” police reform legislation.

“This is the latest in a lengthy and disturbing list of incidents of police brutality and we cannot let this kind of behavior continue to go unanswered,” Scott said.

Scott said he voted twice for the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and is asking Congressional Republicans to “stop blocking” the legislation.

“There is a continuing drumbeat of these kinds of cases and everybody says: ‘Well, something has to be done!’ Well, we need to just do something,” Scott said. “We need to make sure that bill gets revived so these incidences don’t happen again.”

“There are a lot of things it does,” Scott said. “First of all, making sure they get the appropriate training, and funding for training –particularly on implicit bias, and profiling.”

Scott said the legislation would lead to “real police accountability” and safer communities.

Former Policeman Rick James, who was in law enforcement for 27 years, lectures Norfolk Police trainees on the conditional rights of citizens and how they should be addressed when they are encountered.

“If there is one word to describe this situation it is ‘disappointment,’” James said. “This has set community-police relations

Continued from page 1A

In contrast, the Memphis officers were immediately fired and arrested, and the police unions did not offer them any support.

“What I witnessed in that video was horrific. It was a barbaric assault on another human being and is sickening,” Maryland State Fraternal Order of Police President Clyde Boatwright said.

“This does not represent policing or the men and women who wear a badge and dutifully protect their communities. I hesitate to even call these men police

back 10 years. I am glad that the police chief’s response to fire the officers was swift and she released the video ... which would have taken a year before.”

“They have all of the evidence before them,” he said. “As a Black police officer, it is hard ... hard because we should have a better cultural understanding and empathy.”

He noted that there the officers in Memphis should have been better supervised by someone on the scene who could have told their colleagues “To stop.”

“It was far more rampant in the ’80s when I started doing police work than it was in the ’90s or 2000s,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina.

To mitigate the potential for escalation and confusion during police encounters, today’s police training typically calls for a single officer at the scene to issue clear and specific commands.

“They don’t even have to go back decades,” said state Delegate Angelia Williams Graves. “Just go back a few years to see what has happened to Black folks at the hands of law enforcement in the last few years.”

Graves said fellow Democrats in the state House and Senate have called for better training, support, and stiffer penalties for law enforcement officers.

Before the GOP took over the House of Delegates, legislation was passed that ended “pretextual traffic stops” for violations such as no light illuminating a license plate, defective and unsafe equipment, no brake lights or a high mount stop light, or objects hanging from the rearview mirror.

Now that the GOP controls the House, she said they are working on abolishing that law. But she said it “will die in the State Senate.”

officers, because what I saw on that video is not policing. They deserve the strongest punishment allowed by Tennessee law.”

Boatwright added that in his state, “we have had historic police reform in our state over the last 5 years to ensure these types of actions don’t occur in Maryland. We will continue to be a partner with our communities as we work to protect those we serve.”

Patrick Gaspard, the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, called driving while Black “one of the most dangerous acts in America.”

“As we all just witnessed in the searing video of the brutal slaughter of Tyre Nichols at the hands of police who are paid by us

NSU PARTNERSHIP WITH EVMS COULD INCREASE BLACK MEDICAL DOCTORS

By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide

The percentage of practicing African-American physicians, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), is about 6 percent.

Data from the American Association of Medical Colleges shows only 6 percent of practicing American doctors are Black or multiracial. Less than 6 percent of physicians are Hispanic.

The same rate of AfricanAmericans’ participation in medical careers exists in Hampton Roads.

But recently steps were made that could lead to an increased number of African-American physicians in Hampton Roads and nationally.

Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and Norfolk State University (NSU) are creating a new partnership aimed at reducing racial health disparities in Hampton Roads.

The initiative will fund joint research projects on health equity issues featuring faculty and students from both schools. It will be known as “ENRICHe” – short for the “EVMS-NSU Research and Training Incubator for Collaboration and Health Equity.”

Research has shown that health outcomes are sometimes wildly different between Americans based on their race.

For instance, Black Americans are more likely than white Americans to suffer from diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, asthma, and a host of other ailments. Black Americans

to protect all of us. The evidence here is startling and indisputable. These officers need to be tried, convicted, and imprisoned to satisfy justice and to send a message to police in all of our cities that this culture of violence in their ranks will no longer be sanctioned,” Gaspard stated.

President Joe Biden said he spoke with Nichols’ family and expressed his outrage.

“Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death,” the president stated.

“It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”

also have lower life expectancies than white Americans.

Norfolk State President Javaune Adams-Gaston said those inequities have persisted because of a lack of focus on removing them. She said that there are some 100 students currently enrolled in the NSU’s Dozoretz National Institute for Mathematics and Applied Sciences (DNIMAS) rigorous honors program for students who major in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, or physics who could be directed into the program.

“We intend to make the differences that create lives

medical practitioners.

that are not lost far too early, that we do not have a loss of our babies because we have not been able to get people the resources they need,” Adams-Gaston said at the announcement of the collaboration Tuesday morning (Jan. 24). The schools will contribute $250,000 each into a grant fund to support the research efforts. AdamsGaston said this initial halfmillion is meant to be seed funding and they are hoping for additional contributions in the future to underwrite further research.

Scholars note that some health disparity issues are born from a lack of minority representation among

EVMS President Alfred Abuhamad noted that only 8 percent of Virginia’s 22,000 active physicians identify as African-American.

In contrast, about 31 percent of the greater Hampton Roads population is Black.

“We know that to improve health outcomes, our healthcare workforce needs to mirror the diversity of our communities,” Abuhamad said Tuesday.

The collaborative research efforts are meant to give the students from Norfolk State – a historically Black university – exposure to medical careers and show them different pathways into health and medicine.

NEW BARBARA L. WILLIS WELLNESS CENTER OPENS, EXPANDS ACCESSIBLE HEALTH CARE

By Jaylen Scott Winter Intern

New Journal and Guide

PORTSMOUTH

The Hampton Roads Community Health Center held a grand opening of their new building, the Barbara L Willis Wellness Center, on January 27. The building is named after their CEO, Barbara L Willis, and is located at 1541 High Street in Portsmouth, Virginia.

The Hampton Roads Community Health Center, or the HRCHC, has been stationed in the Hampton Roads area for 27 years, forming on

May 14, 1995, formally known as the Portsmouth Community Health Center. The center was formed after a study was conducted by the Mayor of the City of Portsmouth in 1992, where they discovered that there was a shortage and misdistribution of primary care physicians to an estimated 37,000 Portsmouth residents. According to the HRCHC, because a majority of residents were uninsured, or if they were insured, they were unable to find a doctor. This left them open to the inappropriate use of the city’s health department and hospital emergency rooms.

BHM PROGRAM:

“A Tribute To Frederick Douglass,” February 21

PORTSMOUTH On Tuesday, February 21 at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. a program paying tribute to Frederick Douglass will take place at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, 637 North Street in Portsmouth VA 23704.

“Pride in Black Voices:

A Tribute to Frederick Douglass” is a riveting collaboration performance between the Virginia Opera and Spiritual Concepts Publishing.

The power of Frederick Douglass is brought to life for the audience by author, performer, poet, historian, and Suffolk, VA native, Nathan M. Richardson. Virginia Opera artists will raise their voices in song, echoing the determination, spirit, and pride that only Douglass’ words could convey. This program is free and open to the public, inperson, and available to stream online.

From that point on, the HRCHC kept expanding and expanding, in the Hampton Roads region, and as of 2023, they now have seven locations. They have the Portsmouth Community Health Center, the Park Place Family Medical Center, the Communicare Family Health Center, the Oceanview Medical and Dental Center, and the Little Creek Family Medical Center, which is temporarily closed due to COVID. HRCHC handles a variety of medical treatments including, but not limited to: Pediatrics, Dental, OB/ GYN, Behavioral Health, Internal Medicine, and more.

Tidewater Cultural Alliance Presents African Comics Creator At TCC, February 11

HAMPTON ROADS

Tidewater Community College celebrates Black History Month 2023 with a keynote event featuring Tidewater African Cultural Alliance presenting Afro Mania with the spotlight on Ethiopia. The event will be held on Feb. 11 from 2-4:30 p.m. at the JointUse Library on the Virginia Beach Campus. The event will include an address by Beserat Debebe, a graphic novelist and

founder of Etan Comics, which features epic stories, African creators and “comics for every fan.”

Debebe’s comics offer a world of African fantasy and superhero stories. It’s been something he’s wanted to do since coming to the United States in 2004. He spent his early days in libraries and bookstores reading comics and graphic novels. This event is open to the public.

IN MEMORIAM IRIS CHERRY

JANUARY 1940 - APRIL 2003

AN ITALIAN SONNET COMMISSIONED BY LINDSAY CHERRY AND WRITTEN BY JOHN STARKS. FOR HIS LOVELY SISTER ON HER 83RD BIRTHDAY.

In Honor of Her Brilliance

He bade me sing his sister’s unsung praise, and, doing so, to hit some lofty note; E’en one, though lofty, counted not remote, as it would simply celebrate her ways. Ah, prudence, (what she seemingly betrays) is such that few, in noting it, would gloat; Yet, wordsmiths would not say, “She missed the boat,” though she, from seems proper, nearly strays. He can but say, “She stretches patience out: She moves me, at length, accommodate what heretofore would make me turn to doubt.” He could but say, “She suffers that of fate which moves her closer yet to use her clout, or stifle what she’s so inclined to state.”

THE DEATH OF TYRE NICHOLS

BY DELORES DUDLEY HAMPTON ROADS ʼ POET, Stunned, Shocked,Gut-wrenching

in pain,questioning, “WHY” this scenario again ? “

A young, Black man, unarmed and afraid, running away from policemen who in fairness and in safety for all are supposed to be trained:

And though there are millions of police officers who are models of decency and have done and will do acts of bravery, sometimes giving their own lives to their citizenry,

There are many like these five that encountered Tyre who are the opposite of what good policemen should be, for it has been said that these five were in a police unit that thrived on the culture of violent force to control, but in Tyre ʼ s Case, they were policing a gentle lamb,and they were the wandering wolf pack who were hateful and heinously bold.

After all, it has been said that there is A POLICE CULTURE in AMERICA that does exist, and the code reads paraphrased a little like this:

We are the police,and we will stop whomever we see,and our goal is to terrorize and bring FEAR into the citizen ʼ s eyes, and then we will shoot to kill or we will horribly beat that citizen at will for:

IT IS OUR ORDER to INSANELY SLAUGHTER!

BLACK HISTORY AT MARINERS’ MUSEUM AND PARK HIGHLIGHTS SLAVE RESISTANCE

NEWPORT NEWS

An influential underwater archaeologist kicks off Black History Month at The Mariners’ Museum and Park this week when Kamau Sadiki of Diving

With A Purpose appears as the guest speaker in the first Evening Lecture of 2023 on Thursday, February 2 at 7 p.m. Sadiki is a lead instructor and board member of DWP, a non-profit organization whose mission is to document and preserve the stories of Transatlantic Slave Trade ships. Sakiki was among the first to identify and explore the wreck of Clotilda – the last known slave ship to the United States and central to Netflix’s documentary Descendant. On February 2, Sadiki will share stories of ancestral memory, connectivity, resistance,

and the resilience of the human spirit through the wrecks of the slave ships, São José Paquete de Africa and Clotilda, of the 18th and 19th centuries.

On Feb. 10 and Feb. 24, the Mariners will present renowned historian, author, and director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center John V. Quarstein. On Friday, Feb. 10, Quarstein will give a Civil War talk about the Creole Rebellion, the most successful slave revolt in U.S. history. The revolt occurred on November 7, 1841, when enslaved persons took over the ship Creole that sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia, en route to New Orleans. Madison Washington led other enslaved people aboard in a successful rebellion. Once they reached Nassau, Bahamas, they were automatically

And unfortunately, Tyre Nichols met a fate that no human should ever meet, For after having been beaten almost unrecognizably, he was left lying in a street, beneath several, policemen ʼ s feet!

His head was swollen,his eyes beaten shut too and his upper body bones broken,so there was then nothing that he could do, as waves of blood ran down from his neck, a hellish beaten that he would never forget!

free since Great Britain outlawed slavery in 1834. Despite numerous American diplomatic and court actions, 128 people gained their freedom in the Creole Rebellion.

On Feb. 24, he will give a Hampton Roads History presentation about four freedom fighters from Southampton County, VA. Both lectures are in person and online at noon.

The lectures are free to Mariners’ Museum Members and included in $1 admission. These lectures are also available virtually and are free to watch. Advance registration is required.

For more information, visit MarinersMuseum. org/Events & Exhibits. The Mariners’ Museum and Park is located at 100 Museum Drive, Newport News, VA 23606.

Richmond’s Elegba Folklore Society Presenting Black Book Expo, Festival

RICHMOND

The Elegba Folklore Society celebrates African and African-American culture and heritage throughout the year. Every month affords a time to expose Black history. During February, the Elegba Folklore Society will present the 2023 Black Book Expo – A Conscious Literary Festival as a hybrid event. The public is invited to choose informing sneak previews personified in Author Chats with celebrity writers streaming on Elegba Folklore Society’s Facebook page on selected Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m ET.

The public is then invited to come in person on Saturday, February 25 and

Sunday, February 26, 3-7 p.m. ET. The in-person aspect of the festival invites the public to browse and buy books, experience live entertainment and meet independent authors who will make presentations and sign their books. The 2023 Festival will showcase a vast display of literature featuring topics including Black history, social justice, science, health, African Diasporic culture, African spirituality, personal development, novels and children’s books.

Live streaming will occur from the in-person event as well via the Society’s Facebook page. Books will also be available on the Society’s website.

He was left there probably to die for someone said, “His death, humanity did defy.”

And yet, Tyre ʼ s mother said for those five men and their families she would pray.

And let us also pray that GOD will have mercy on them and that each man will believe and accept CHRIST and repent in his way before GOD ʼ S GREAT, and to sinners, MOST TERRIBLE GREAT JUDGMENT DAY!

For by then,like each of us, if those five are still spiritually lost, they will pay a price a billion times worst than what Tyre ʼ s situation unjustly cost.

And if one can bear to see the video, all that you will do is to CRY, CRY, and CRY!

But let all AMERICANS of GOOD FAITH try and get legislation passed quickly by, so that we will then no longer unduly be suspected, but all AMERICANS will be fairly protected!

Black ,white,yellowish,tan, or brown,let us now in loving unity be bound,and let us all unite and fight for the GOD

GIVING cause of what is right,

The 2023 Black Book Expo – A Conscious Literary Festival is made possible, in part, by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) initiative and the Arts & Cultural Funding Consortium, Richmond, Hanover, Henrico. Masks will be available. Hand sanitizer will be available and usage encouraged.

Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center is located in the center of the city at 101 E. Broad Street in the Richmond Arts District.

The cultural center is open Tuesday-Friday, 1-7 p.m., Saturday, 1-5 p.m. and by appointment.

Then, there will never, never ever, BE another, HORRIBLE DEATH like that of our, young TYRE ... and we must let any inward rage cease ,as our brother,TYRE rests forever now in PEACE.

Delores Dudley

BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENTS

Area Clergy Announce Support For Williams Graves’ Candidacy

NORFOLK

A group of more than 30 Hampton Roads-area pastors and ministers recently announced their support for the candidacy of Delegate Angelia Williams Graves in her race for the State Senate. Graves is running in the newly created District 21 that covers Norfolk.

Speaking on her behalf, former Norfolk School Board Chairman Rev. Kirk Houston, one of the endorsers, said, “Delegate Williams Graves has been on the forefront of so many fi ghts, advocating for voters within the city and across the Commonwealth.”

He continued, “Angelia’s values are based in her upbringing, her faith, her family and her partnership with the greater Norfolk church community. The faith community in Norfolk can always count on Angelia to support our efforts, and the work we do in city neighborhoods.

I’m honored to endorse Delegate Angelia Williams Graves for the Virginia Senate.”

Williams Graves has been

elected into public service in Norfolk in various capacities since 2001. Most notably she was a Norfolk City Councilwoman for 10 years, serving as ViceMayor from 2014-2016, going on to be elected to the House of Delegates in 2021, where she currently serves. The Norfolk native is a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, Tidewater Community College, and Old Dominion University.

Williams Graves, daughter of the late Dr. I. Joseph Williams, welcomed the support of the faith community. “Having my father serve as a pastor and seeing fi rsthand the sel fl ess service that he gave to his community, I am beyond grateful and humbled to have these individuals stand with me in my race for State Senate.

“This campaign embodies so much of what these men and women stand for: service to others, helping our neighbors and those in need, and ensuring that we help every Virginian live up to their God-given potential.”

The list of pastors endorsing Delegate Williams Graves’ campaign for State Senate include:

Pastor Melvin O. Marriner, Bishop Kim Brown, Pastor Kirk T. Houston, Sr., Pastor Geoffrey V. Guns, Presiding Elder Kenneth Crowder, Father Harold Cobb, Pastor Glenn Porter, Pastor Hagins Conyers, Pastor William Marcus Small, Pastor Sheridan Nelson, Pastor Rosalind Hairston, Pastor Anthony Paige, Pastor Bobby Bowser, Pastor Calvin Durham, Pastor Joseph Lee, Pastor Steven Lewis, Pastor Sharon S. Riley, Pastor Sharon Hall, Pastor Veronica Thomas, Pastor Melvin Cotton, Pastor Pamela W. Castellanos, Pastor Cleveland Bates, Pastor Darwin Little, Pastor Brandon Praileau, Pastor William Davis, Pastor David McBride, Pastor Moses Asamoah, Jr., Pastor Keith Ivan Jones, Pastor William D. Tyree III, Pastor Edward Sivells, Rev. Timothy Giddens, Rev. Antipas Harris, Rev. Anthony Williams, and Rev. Linwood Sumler.

Hampton Offering Matching Funds For Events Proposals

HAMPTON

If you want to sponsor a family-friendly event in Hampton this year, Feb. 14 is the deadline to apply for matching funds from the city.

The City of Hampton is seeking proposals for new or expanded special events, and is offering up to $30,000 in matching funds to help fund one or more events, according to a recent press release on the city’s website. Proposals must rely on Hampton’s “abundant natural resources, unique cultural opportunities, and extensive rich history.” Events must “positively impact the quality of life, improve family resiliency, and generate economic impact.”

But your organization

cannot use volunteer hours to qualify. “To be eligible for funding, at least a portion of the event or festival must be free and open to the public. Events or festivals may charge admission to certain aspects or portions of the event/festival but should also provide a free component to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to participate,” the City of Hampton noted on its website.

Your application must list admission prices. “The City reserves the right to limit the amount of the funds, when necessary, for budgeted items of food, beverages, and any other individual activities. There are other restrictions

I Am What I Am (NOT)! George (POPEYE) Santos 2023

By Sean C. Bowers

Interview: Deciphering devoid of decency deolving de-Volgering:

Hi, my name is not what I say it is or what I’ve written down. I don’t respect you and I now commence alternative fact fabrication, or as I call it, breathing.

I am here by hook and by crook. The truth, that establishes a person’s integrity and the value of their word, is all for suckers. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (not the ANSWER! Allen Iverson SHOUT OUT NEWPORT NEWS) invents my new lies of the moment, day or second at warp speed, while I sleep upside down in my Antarctic Vampire lair underground island floating volcano yacht. It’s white like me, to blend in.

My college test scores and grades were taken by one of my many failed aliases. I change names like underwear, and I will repeatedly kill off all my family members, as needed, or just for decor.

I don’t have a price. But I do love Go-Fund-Me wounded warrior service dog surgery projects. No one suspects that anyone would try to ripoff and out-run homeless vets. That’s my soft spot. Helping myself while hurting others needlessly, with malice towards all.

I am actively lying about my weight and wait for my next big super-steal nonreveal.

on use of the city’s funds.”

The City of Hampton Parks, Recreation & Leisure Services Department will evaluate proposals. All events must meet city requirements and obtain special events permits. Depending on the size and scale of the event, events may need insurance, security plans, parking, and additional requirements for vendors, food, and amusements/inflatables.

Please go to hampton. gov to submit an application Applicants should read the full document to ensure they meet all requirements.

(The application begins on page 8.) The deadline for submissions is 4 p.m. Feb. 14, 2023.

2 NRHA COMMUNITIES TO GET NEW YOUTH SERVICES

NORFOLK Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) and The Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Virginia are teaming up to provide services in Grandy Village and Young Terrace in Norfolk.

“We look forward to bringing our education, social, health and life skills programs to these communities,” said Kevin Will, President and CEO of The Boys and Girls Clubs. “Recreation will also be a part of these services.”

“We couldn’t be more pleased to work with the Boys and Girls Clubs in our communities. They have an impeccable

reputation for providing these comprehensive services,” according to Ron Jackson, the Executive Director of NRHA.

The timeline for initiating the program is targeted for the Spring Break of this school year.

“We will be announcing a series of grand opening celebrations as we get closer to the beginning of this partnership.

We look forward to fully engaging with the communities to welcome The Boys and Girls Clubs,” said Kimberly Thomas, Chief Community Engagement Officer at NRHA.

As the first to summit the dark side of Jupiter’s moon with Pink Floyd, I knew instinctively I wasn’t enough. I wasn’t believable or memorable. Therefore, I made 1,000, no 10,000, no 100 million clones of myself, all lying simultaneously rowing in one direction stereo (11.1.) There was no chance of detection what with all my white noise I (WE) emit. I never met a lie I couldn’t tell, or bluff my way over, around, or through. There is a corner room in hell waiting for me, once it or I cool down, whichever comes first.

When I gave up truth, (the real truth not the c(r) ock-amamie TRUTH SOCIAL FARCE HOT MESS, I’ve never looked back since birth. Did you know I was the biggest baby ever born anywhere, at 24lbs? My digital trail of bread crumbs home just leads in circles, jerked like particles of cosmic-angled angel dust rust. When I boil it all down, I just get off on fooling people, fooling around, fool’ fledged (name-of-the-day) Foolery. Taking myself seriously is something I don’t do. Life’s too short to try and remember facts or truths. (Plus, in court, it’s proof.) There’s nothing I haven’t done, said, thought, or would do to get over or ahead. I’m not for sale.

I’m like crypto currency. You can’t put your finger on it, but some things just never add up correctly. I call it inventive (never carry the {any}one) math. Details are for dummies with memories.

When I was born in a galaxy far, far away, a long time ago, I knew it was my destiny to come to America and lie my way to the top, just like my daddy, 45. (He told my mom his name was James, James T. Kirk.)

He is so cool, and my brothers, Ichabod Eric and Downer Donnie are super chill to hang upside down with.

We can always find new ways to dupe unsuspecting poor folks, it’s just what we do, like shooting fish in a barrel with sticks of dynamite. It comes naturally. When you begin to understand I come by this talent (DIS) honestly, and I’m the exact role model type young people and kids chewing cud should inspect thoroughly before taking the tide challenge, eating paint, ingesting flammable materials or paying one second of attention to me, remember that I warned you.

Everything I say has been slow cooked and cured. I know you will enjoy. So what’s next? What’s left for me to do- to others? Where to go and who to lie to next are some of my bucket(headed) list items. I want to leave no lie untold. No truth sacred. No line un-criscossed or doubled-dutched. I can be anything I want to say

I am. I know I am special. I love myself and frankly I’m damn charming. I’m all I need to keep perpetuating myself onto America and the world.

I’m the ultimate projector, photo-Dragon-list. They say, one photo is priceless, well, by my math, every little fib adds up and starts a crap ripple in the toilet of our nation’s minds and psyche. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled pencil erasers, and I’ll give you a master class in selfmanifestation infestation via major media manip-YOUlation.

Lie to you(r face) soon, New York Republican 2023 Class (of Ass)

(BY)George (DELEGIT) Santos

The real father of our nation, 45, told me, “Axes don’t cut down trees, people cut down cherry trees” George Washington and “there is not a mountain at Mt. Vernon.”

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 H. Andrews (NJ&G 35 years) has always been his publisher.

Sean C. Bowers

No one suspects that anyone would try to rip-off and out-run homeless vets. That’s my soft spot. Helping myself while hurting others needlessly, with malice towards all.”

– George (POPEYE) Santos 2023”

Jesus used parables to teach the word. When He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything. Mark and Matthew differ in their reports of stilling the storm. Mark said Jesus left a crowd behind as they took Him along in the boat. Matthew said that Jesus got Him into the boat and His disciples followed Him. The disciples described a sudden furious storm that was calmed by Jesus.

Do we, with all of our modern technology, face uncontrollable storms?

What is the source of our help? God, through Jesus, calms all storms according to His will. With the various problems that we face, including faithbased challenges, only God through Jesus can create miracles we need. We cannot rely on our strength.

Jesus can only calm any storm with His love

and patience. In a storm we may work by faith when problems confront us as we struggle to live by God’s commands. We must continue to pray that God through Jesus Christ, will grant us understanding to believe His word with strength and wisdom to move accordingly; and because He is greater than all worldly events, we can continue our faith based activities.

The endless storms, in our lives, make us witnesses concerning the power of God. Our problems can be like the furious waves that spread over the boat that carried Jesus! We must not forget the source of our help nor the risks involved to witness as we render service for God through His son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Jesus knew the unfailing power of God during that raging

storm. With His command of authority, everything subsided immediately.

He asked His disciples, “Where is your faith?”

Where is our faith? All storms can be devastating without faith in the enduring love of Jesus Christ. Changes can occur as we choose to surrender to Him anything that the Holy Spirit points out as not being in harmony with His will. Unless the right choices are made by us, then sometimes painful results may occur. His word convinces us that the right choices can keep Jesus in our boat; and with God’s grace, we can overcome our problems no matter how difficult the struggles!

When feeling like we are not independent boatriders, think of promises Jesus has made to convince us not to give up. Trusting in our own strength can cause us to drift from the Lord. We can sometimes become overwhelmed with earthly cares and a spiritual awakening can transform us totally. Growth and change are part of our Christian experiences as we keep Jesus in our rough-riding boat. We can presently continue to pray with confidence in anxious times.

When troubles come, we can cry out to God through Jesus Christ immediately because God wants us to depend on Him which can be accomplished through prayer. It is this enduring love when storms of life occur that Jesus is present when we pray with faith for others and ourselves according to His will. As

Christian believers, we know that Jesus love is needed and that we cannot exist without it! As we sum up many of our stormy experiences, we need to have strong faith at

all times in His goodness and power. Because He is our strength, think of the miracles that can occur when our Lord speaks to any circumstance and say “PEACE BE STILL!”

REBECCA’S WELL BY REV. DR. REBECCA R. RIVKA

I AM HIS

The Song of Solomon 2:16

•My Beloved is Mine and I AM His: He feedeth among the lilies.” (Song of Solomon 2:16)

•“I AM my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine. He feedeth among the lilies.” (Song of Solomon 6:3)

•“I AM My Beloved’s and His desire is toward me.” (Song of Songs 7:10)

•When we reach the I AM center, we meet Jesus. The center of our being is love. Jesus is the lover of our souls, the God nature in us.

•Jesus is the manifestation of the scripture: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son ... ” (John 3: 16)

•Jesus is the Father’s love gift to us. We are Jesus’ love gift to the Father. This is our divine agape nature in Christ Jesus.

•We are now climbing companions, evolving spirit beings. Moving away from the crowded sphere of mortal life, yet all the while remaining the authentic true servantself; a vessel of holiness for the indwelling spirit

and a sacrificial love vessel for the Lord. We are making melody in our hearts to the Lord in Psalms, Hymns, spiritual songs, etc.” (Ephesians 5:19)

•How does one achieve the Divine Nature of Jesus and dwell therein? One way is to “add to faith, virtue and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience Godliness, and to Godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity, which is love.” The Bible says if we are fruitful and abound in these things we will

CHURCH ADs & DIRECTORY

never be barren in the knowledge and nature of Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1: 1-10)

•Jesus is the sacrificial love nature in us. His love causes us to sacrificial living. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

•When we live Jesus words sacrificial love will be our status symbol and all form, fashion, and business as usual will cease in the church and elsewhere.

•Then the true Church of Jesus Christ will rise to become his Living Body and the world will know we are Christians by our love one to another.

Note: “Things” are translated as “words” in Hebrew. On a deeper level, Jesus says His words are Spirit and they are Life. (John 6:63). So keep your eyes on the words of the Bible, for these words are more than ink on paper. “They are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:20-23) Blessings and Shalom

Rev. Dr. Rebecca R. Rivka

Mrs. Gladys McElmore is a native of Essex County, Va., and lives today in Norfolk. She is the founder of the Kathryn Bibbins Memorial Bible Study group.

MOMENTS of MEDITATION

By Rev. Dr. Archie L. Edwards, Sr. HYMNS OF PRAISE

READ PSALM 149:1-9

Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in congregation of saints.” – Psalm 149:1

Music is one of those good things in life we take for granted. Yet, as is so often the case, sinful man has taken this good gift from God and used it to serve evil purposes. In our day we’re especially aware of its misuse, and the shameful behavior associated with it. But good music is a blessing from the Lord. It’s a soothing tonic for troubled hearts. It motivates us to live for Christ. And through it we lift our

hearts in praise to the Lord. Without music, we would be greatly deprived.

An old Jewish legend says that after God had created the world He called the angels to Himself and asked them what they thought of it. One of them said, “The only thing lacking is the sound of the Creator.” So God created music, and it was heard in the whisper of the wind and in the song of the birds. He also gave man the gift of song. And throughout all the ages, music has blessed multitudes of people, yes we should be grateful for the

gift of music. With a new appreciation for the expression music gives to our souls, let us join voices with fellow believers and lift our hearts in hymns of praise whenever we have the privilege. It’s honoring the Lord. It’s edifying to our brothers and sisters in Christ. And it brings us joy.

As you join with other Christians in singing today, do so with a renewed appreciation of music. Sing to the Lord a new song!

Bless the Lord and sing His praises

Bless the Lord now, O my soul; Join the song all heaven raises Let the anthem loudly roll! – Peterson

THOUGHT: No music so pleases God as the heartfelt singing of His Saints.

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

Black History of Fort Norfolk Is Topic For Norfolk Historical Society February Series

NORFOLK

The Norfolk Historical Society will host its February Louis Guy Lecture Series with a focus on Black History of Fort Norfolk.

Steven Forrest will present information that he has found based on over 25 years of research into the history of Fort Norfolk.

This event will take place on Feb. 8 at the MacArthur Memorial Theater in downtown Norfolk at 7 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Fort Norfolk was built in 1794, and throughout its history, Blacks have been a

$16M Awarded To Examine Richmond’s Black History

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

RICHMOND

At a time when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is sparking controversy by opposing African-American historyhigh-school courses that show how racism developed and is perpetuated, the Mellon Foundation recently awarded funds to a city that serves a type of template on racism.

The city of Richmond recently received a $16 million grant from Mellon, a 54-year-old New Yorkheadquartered foundation, to rewrite narratives about people of color.

According to a press release from Mellon, six Richmondbased organizations will examine, preserve and reimagine Richmond’s “rich historical narratives.”

Specifically, the grant will fund research efforts that will analyze and illustrate the complex role that Richmond played in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the slave trade, Jim Crow laws, and developing Confederate monuments.

part of the history. Some of the history is not pleasant; some of it is groundbreaking; and some of it was previously unknown.

Forrest will present what his research has discovered to include material on the United States Colored Troops (USCT), Company B, 1st Regiment who were stationed at the fort for a short time. Steven Forrest worked for the Department of Navy for 36 years. He has his own website and YouTube channel called Historic Forrest.

This program is free and open to the public.

MS. ELISHA MARIE SHARP PERFORMS IN PORTSMOUTH

PORTSMOUTH

The Singletary Piano and Violin Studio presented a Sunday afternoon Recital on January 29 at the Church of the Resurrection on Cedar Lane in Portsmouth, featuring Ms. Elisha Marie Sharp on piano and violin.

Ms. Sharp, 12, has been a student of Dr. Richard Singletary since the age of five when she began her music lessons. Violin was the first instrument Dr. Singletary introduced to her; however, said her mother, Mrs. Rosemarie Sharp, Elisha also wanted to learn how to play the piano to which Dr. Singletary agreed.

About 50 guests were on hand to enjoy the varied selections of classical music performed by the recitalist who was accompanied on piano by Mr. Nick Nespoli. She is the daughter of Attorney and Mrs. Elijah Sharp.

“Richmond has been the site of many stories that have shaped our understanding of who we are as Americans, but public commemoration in Richmond historically has been limited to only a few,” Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation, said in the press release.

“Today, the people of this city are lifting up the collective memory of its historic Black communities, unflinchingly addressing the city’s past as

the capital of the state with the most enslaved people prior to the Civil War, and participating in the reimagining of the city’s public spaces to better reflect the fullness of its history. We are proud to support the remarkable grantees across the city leading this work,” Alexander said.

Richmond will receive $11 million to launch multiple projects including the Shockhoe Bottom train shed. This new building will memorialize and commemorate the history of the slave trade in Richmond. Shockhoe Bottom was once an early slave-trading depot where slaves landed in America, were sold in Virginia and transported to plantations in the Deep South.

The Skipwith-Roper Homecoming and JXN Haus will receive $1.5 million to illustrate the pivotal role that Richmond’s Jackson Ward, (the nation’s first historically registered Black urban neighborhood) played in changing the national Black American experience.

The Valentine Museum will receive $1.2 million to reimagine the studio of Edward Valentine, sculptor of Lost Cause memorabilia, and also reinterpret the plantation called the Wickham House.

New research will encourage a broader and more honest interpretation of the history of both the Richmond region and the Valentine Museum.

Cary Forward will receive $1 million, (via fiscal sponsor Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle). This project will support a multidisciplinary arts space, interpretive center, artist/scholar residency, and archival library in Richmond to address false narratives and preserve and promote omitted history. Untold RVA will receive $850K (via fiscal sponsor Non-Profit Connection) to underwrite research on the enslavement-era history of Richmond. This project will launch walkable urban exploration routes with mobile phone-activated street art monuments that will provide genealogical information to visitors.

Reclaiming the Monument will receive $670K (via fiscal sponsor the Valentine Museum) to support its “Recontextualizing Richmond” public art project. This non-profit project is a series of temporary lightbased artworks that will address historical, racial, and social justice in the city of Richmond and surrounding region.

Va. State U. Initiative Aids Employees Buying Homes

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Virginia State University

recently launched a program that will give an employee up to $10,000 in matching funds for down-payment assistance and closing costs on a newly purchased home.

It is called VSU “Home Assistance Payment Initiative,” or VSU-HAPI, a “first-of-its-kind and privately-funded program” that aims “to attract and retain highly qualified employees and improve the economies of local communities,” according to Virginia State’s website. Employees must buy a home within the city limits of Petersburg, Ettrick, and Chesterfield County. Eligible properties include a single-family home, townhouse, or condominium home.

“VSU is one of the largest employers in Chesterfield’s Ettrick community, and we are located within mere steps of Petersburg,” VSU

President Dr. Makola M. Abdullah said in a recent press release. “Our HAPI program will have an economic and demographic impact on those communities we are part of. We expect the program to further assist with retaining and attracting qualified employees. If those employees live, shop, and educate their children in the community where they work, it will benefit our employees and the community tremendously. That makes this initiative a win-win.”

To obtain VSU-HAPI funds, a Virginia State employee must use the property as a primary residence. It cannot be subleased or rented out. In addition, the homebuyer must use a HUD-approved lender.

Funds “will be paid directly to the Escrow/Closing Agent. The VSU-HAPI is funded using private monies. Neither state nor student scholarship funds is used to finance the initiative, “Virginia State noted on its website.. To obtain more information, including FAQs and application forms, visit the VSU Human Resources website. Meanwhile, the U.S. Economic Development Agency provided more than $141 million to five HBCUs in Virginia in 2022, according to the President’s American Rescue Plan. The schools and the funds they received are: Norfolk State University: $52,248,428; Virginia State University: $39,482,142; Hampton University: $31,205,244; Virginia Union University: $11,866,504; and Virginia University of Lynchburg: $6,322,150.

Today, the people of this city are ... unflinchingly addressing the city’s past ... and participating in the reimagining of the city’s public spaces to better reflect the fullness of its history.”

– Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation

2022 Recital featuring Elisha Marie Sharp, accompanied by Nick Nespoli.

Photo: Courtesy

Members of the Singletary Piano and Violin Studio.

Photo: Courtesy

BOOKWORM REVIEWS

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

THE FRESH PRINCE PROJECT: HOW THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR REMIXED AMERICA

You turned the TV on and look ...

Nine hundred 48 channels and there’s still nothing you want to watch. Seen that, seen that, watched that twice, but it wasn’t always the case. Once, your Monday nights were spent with a show you never missed, featuring a young guy who made you laugh. And in the new book

“The Fresh Prince Project” by Chris Palmer, he made America laugh, too.

Born to solidly middleclass parents in West Philadelphia, young Will Smith gained a reputation early for being something of a class clown. Though he tried, he was not athletic; instead, his talents lay in helping people have fun.

When he met Jeff Townes it was a perfect match: DJ Jazzy Jeff spun the tunes, “Fresh Prince” Smith made the raps. Everybody wanted to be at their party. They made records and went on tour. Weeks before high school graduation, months before he turned 18, Smith was a rich kid with a nice car and lots of friends. But “bubblegum” hip hop was on its way out, “hard-

driving” rap was in, and Smith’s money dried up as fast as it had arrived. Seeking Fame and Fortune Part II, Smith headed for California. Writer Andy Borowitz was already there, cutting his teeth on Normal Lear projects and other television productions in Hollywood. When Brandon Tartikoff, who seemed to have a golden touch when it came to TV,

asked Borowitz to work for him, the answer was yes and Borowitz’s wife even joined the team. Tartikoff knew a lot of industry people, including Quincy Jones and music mogul Benny Medina, who was considering a step into the TV industry. At this same time, Will Smith was hanging around The Arsenio Hall Show backstage, hoping that fame might rub off on him. On the afternoon that Smith met Medina, the young rapper had no idea who the elder man was. Medina, conversely, was well aware of Smith’s early career. And when he asked Smith if he could act, Smith

FUN PUZZLE FOR YOUR LEISURE

bluffed his answer, as he had so many times before ...

From the outset, “The Fresh Prince Project” tries too hard. Its earliest chapters are filled with 30 year old language that feels forced, and allusions to some issues with Smith’s father that are never completely, satisfyingly explained. This unevenness doesn’t ever get much better as the book progresses: there’s a lot of backtracking, and the words fish out of water” show up a ridiculous number of times.

And yet, if you can separate style from substance, author Chris Palmer does the job: his book shows how one TV comedy and the people who made it, shaped Monday nights and everyday viewpoints. It’s also a great profile of a star with one foot in a job he loved, and the other foot firmly on film.

Overall, fans who can withstand the up-and-downs of this book and don’t mind a little whiplash sometimes will want to hop on “The Fresh Prince Project.” If you like things freshlypolished, though, this book might turn you off.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

PUBLIC NOTICE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The Hampton Roads Workforce Council (HRWC) is a special purpose unit of local government that oversees workforce development programs and initiatives for the Cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and the Counties of Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Southampton, and York.

On 2/1/23, HRWC is issuing RFP# EBS-1 to solicit proposals from qualified vendors for a web-based Enterprise Business System (EBS) that fully integrates workflow for Finance/Accounting, Human Resources, Budgeting, Procurement and Reporting administrative functions, in order to eliminate manual processes. The full RFP is posted on the HRWC official website at www. theworkforcecouncil.org and a detailed list of the functional requirements for the EBS software product is shown on Attachment A to the RFP. Proposals in accordance with the RFP requirements are due to HRWC by 4:00 PM Eastern Time on 3/6/23. Proposals received after this time and date will not be considered.

Equal Opportunity Employer/ Program

CLASSIFIED ADS

SAFETY SYSTEMS

ELECTRICAL ENGINEER II

Jefferson Science Associates, LLC has an opening for a Safety Systems Electrical Engineer II in Newport News, Virginia. Requires a masterʼs degree in electrical engineering or related field. Must also possess coursework or experience background with Instrumentation and Controls system including PLC and DCS; Programming languages including C, Embedded C and Microsoft Visual Basic; Programming and debugging of FPGA based systems; Programming, testing and debugging of Microcontroller; and PCB design, prototyping, debugging and simulation including OrCAD, PCAD, and SynaptiCAD. If interested, please send resume to ewing@jlab.org.

BUSINESS SYSTEMS ANALYST

Configure, maintain, and monitor Linux-based transportation logistics computer programs and systems, including installation, backups, account management, performance management and capacity planning. Diagnose and resolve program and system malfunctions. Analyze and evaluate current program and system and provide recommendations to management for future improvements and automations. Work with team members to perform regular system and program audits and security reviews, including evaluation, implementation, and management of best practices. Provide technical support and training to team members on how to use computer systems and programs. Develop and maintain documentation related to system design procedures, test procedures, quality standards and owned services and computer infrastructure. Bachelorʼs in computer science, cloud computing or related required. Send resume to jd@bluedolphintransport.com or Blue Dolphin Transport, 801 Broad St., Ste. 204, Portsmouth, VA 23707.

The Fresh Prince Project: How the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Remixed America by Chris Palmer ©2022, Atria $28.99, 320 pages

Chris Palmer