NJG | Vol. 123, No. 12, March 23, 2023

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

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

“Meeting” Va.’s 1st Black Woman State Legislator

By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide

Campaigning Through “Meets and Greets”

SUFFOLK Newcomer

Karen Jenkins (right) is among the Democratic candidates in Hampton Roads who hope voters will turn out for them in the June 20 Primary as a precursor to the November 8th General Election.

PART ONE

VIRGINIA’S UPCOMING PRIMARY HAS CANDIDATES BUSY

By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide

The state primary races to determine the Democratic and Republican candidates for the November General Election will be held on June 20.

The winners of their respective House or Senate District Primaries on that day will face a candidate from the opposing party come November 8’s General Election.

All of the lawmakers will be running in newly drawn House and Senate districts.

Once the primary dust settles, expect, notably in Norfolk, a historic first.

All of the House and Senate seats for the Democratic party representing Norfolk will be held by women.

There is one new Senate seat, District 21. The other seats to be decided are in the House.

In District 21, either House Delegate Angelia Williams Graves of Norfolk, an AfricanAmerican, or Councilperson Andria McClellan, who is white, will represent the Democratic party in the General Election.

There is the new 93rd District. Jackie Glass, who currently represents the outgoing 90th District and is African-American, is expected to retain the seat for Democrats.

And then there is the new 92nd District where two political newcomers, Bonita Anthony and Kim Sudderth, who are both Black women, are vying for that seat.

But 40 years – two

generations ago, Dr. Yvonne Miller made the historic political mark for Black women.

In 1983, she was the first African-American woman to be elected to the State House of Delegates from Norfolk and the region.

Four years later she was the first African-American woman to be elected to the State Senate.

Miller paved the way for the Black women Senators and State Delegates who are currently in these two bodies.

Virginia State Senator and Senate Chair Mamie Locke migrated to Virginia as an educator and landed on the Hampton City Council. She was elected mayor and then in 2004 was elected to the Senate. see Primary, page 7A

BLACK PRESS APP BUNDLES U.S. & GLOBAL BLACK NEWS

By Stacy M. Brown

NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

@StacyBrownMedia

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) has released a global news application that includes news and feature articles that reflect the global reach of the Black Press of America.

NNPA President and CEO

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. announced the launch of the app during the State of the Black Press Address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

“This is the first Blackowned, global international app that aggregates not only the Black news in America but the Black news in the Caribbean, the Black news in Brazil, the Black news in Africa, and Black news in Asia. All over the world,” Dr. Chavis proclaimed.

“I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the 196th anniversary of the Black Press than to launch this app.”

International developer Carol Davis, who helped to create the app for the NNPA, said her vision was clear.

“I saw a need for an international platform that emphasizes the needs and requirements of the AfricanAmerican and other Black populations worldwide,” Davis stated.

“It could be a voice for a lot of people. There are

When the life of Yvonne Miller slows down, somehow, somewhere, someone will record her life as anything but lost over the past five decades.

Undoubtedly, a volume will outline her lists of firsts, including that as Virginia’s first Black woman to sit in both houses of the state legislature.

Until the time comes, one has to be content with watching her add pages of triumphs, people and opportunities she grants and receives.

Presently, Dr. Yvonne Miller of Norfolk busily exercised the responsibilities of various hats – the four most prominent being State Senator; college educator; outspoken leader of her community on child care and politics; and membership on various boards and in various organizations. She is a person of intellect, strength, independence,

The late Sen. Yvonne Miller

Publisher’s Note: This one-on-one candid interview with Dr. Miller appeared in the May 1, 1991 of the Guide.

ambition, compassion and intensity in pursuing her career and returning to the community that was given to her.

As she marches towards

the future, she reaches back and nurtures the roots which bore the fruits that make her an African-American woman of the 90s.

Miller says her roots lie in common soil strong enough to foster her character and work today. Born in Edenton, North Carolina, she was the first and oldest of 13 children.

In the early 40s, the family settled in the heart of the Black community in Norfolk. John and Pency Bond were her parents: she, a deeply proud and religious housewife; he, a deeply religious and proud laborer at the city’s naval yard.

Being the oldest child, Miller found herself assigned as “aide de camp” to her mother in rearing her young siblings, helping with the shopping, writing letters, reading mail and deciphering documents for her mother who possessed a third grade education.

“I was very close to her,” said Miller, recalling her mothers who died in 1983. see Miller, page 8A

TOWN HALLS BEING HELD ON BEACH’S VOTING SYSTEM

By Leonard E. Colvin Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide

After last November’s Councilmanic Election, for the first time in the city’s history, four African-Americans sat on the Virginia Beach City Council.

Jennifer Rouse, Chris Taylor, and Dr. Amelia Ross-Hammond, a former member, joined Sabrina Wooten, who’s serving a term through 2024. She was the first African-American member of the panel to win a re-election.

“I did not believe I would live to see this,” said Louisa Strayhorn, 74, the first Black woman elected to the City Council, about the increased presence of AfricanAmericans. She served from 1994-98.

Two years ago, a Federal District Court in Norfolk, based on claims by the

Virginia Beach now has a system of 10 single-member voting districts. The mayor is elected at-large.

lawsuit Holloway vs. the City of Virginia Beach, abolished a system of electing council adopted when the city was first formed in the mid-1960s.

The city was forced to form a system of 10 singlemember voting districts to elect the council. The mayor would be elected at-large.

It replaced the old system where a candidate could win a majority of votes in, for example, the Kempsville district, but residents outside it could cast votes for candidates in it as well.

This would nullify the

choices of the residents of Kempsville, for example. This deterred Black incumbents from being reelected and reduced the number of minorities on the city council.

But, according to leaders of the Virginia Beach NAACP, the Virginia Beach Interdenominational Ministers Conference, and social activist groups, what is happening now in the city is an effort to go back to that old system or a modified version of it. see NAACP, page 7A

many more news feeds from Europe, the Middle East, and all over the world, and this will be representative of a global app.”

Chavis credited NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards and the trade association’s executive board with pushing him to make the app a reality.

“I’ve been tasked to not just reflect on the past,” Chavis stated, “but to make sure that we technologically equip ourselves.”

see App, page 2A

Ben Crump Is Attorney In Mental Hospital Death

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Attorney Ben Crump will represent the family of Irvo Ortino, a 28-year-old Black man who died allegedly after deputies and hospital workers smothered him to death at Central State Hospital in Petersburg on March 6. A 12-minute video, recently released, shows

10 sheriff’s deputies and medical employees at Central State Hospital in Virginia holding face down an unarmed, handcuffed and shirtless man on the floor and laying on top of him during the intake process as he was being transferred from a Henrico County jail.

According to news reports at press time, the seven deputies and three now former Central State employees have been

charged with second-degree murder.

“They smothered him to death,” Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said, in recent news reports. “He died of asphyxia due to being smothered.”

Crump said, “This was a mental health crisis. He wasn’t committing a crime.”

see Crump, page 5A

NNPA has released a global news app that includes articles that reflect the global reach of the Black Press.

Photo: ErnestLowery

FBI: 2021 U.S. HATE CRIMES ROSE TO HIGHEST LEVEL

By Rosaland Tyler

Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

While a new FBI report shows hate crimes and targeted attacks against Blacks and other marginalized groups increased from 2020 to 2021, recent news reports show that six Black Charlotte sanitation workers who experienced hate crimes in 2021 have filed a lawsuit. At the same time, a Black man who was brutally beaten with an ax handle and insulted by two white men in 2021 inside a Florida store saw his white attacker(s) receive prison terms this past January.

This means that while a new FBI report shows there were 9,065 biasmotivated crimes across the United States in 20202021, the second-most in

App

Continued from page 1A

Available for free, the app has sections that include Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, The U.K., Culture, Politics, Women, and Opinion.

The NNPA represents over 247 Blackowned newspapers and multimedia businesses in the United States of America through a strategic alliance and outreach to hundreds of thousands of digital and social media platforms, channels, and international news aggregation and distribution businesses.

Launched globally on the 196th anniversary of the Black Press of America, the NNPA World

three decades, some 2021 hate crime victims have filed lawsuits. Other have watched their attackers go to jail. “We will not stop here,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a recent Justice Department statement.

“We are continuing to work with state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to increase the reporting of hate crime statistics to the FBI. Hate crimes and the devastation they cause communities have no place in this country. The Justice Department is committed to every tool and resource at our disposal to combat bias-motivated violence in all its forms.”

Records show police officers killed a total of 1051 people, in 2021, according to Mapping

Police Violence (MPV), a nonprofit organization that tracks fatal encounters with police- – 27 percent of the police shooting victims were Black. “Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police, yet 1.3 times more likely to be unarmed compared to white people, according to MPV.

“Most police killings began with traffic stops, mental health checks, disturbances, non-violent offenses and instances where no crime was alleged.”

Here are the exact numbers from the new FBI hate-crime report. In 2021, attacks targeting Black victims were again the most prevalent with 3,277, up from 2,871 in 2020, followed by crimes targeting White victims rose from 869 to 1,107. Hate crimes against gay men rose from 673 to 948;

and Texas Metro News

News app is the portal of the world’s largest expanding Black-owned news media network.

The NNPA Board of Directors are Chair and Houston Forward Times

Publisher Karen Carter Richards; First Vice President and Atlanta Voice

Publisher Janis Ware; Second Vice Chair and The County News of Charlotte

Publisher Fran Farrer; Secretary and Mississippi

Link Publisher Jackie Hampton; and Treasurer

Publisher Cheryl Smith.

Dr. Chavis concluded, “NNPA World News app also represents, documents, aggregates, and distributes news and truthful information about the challenges, the traumas, the struggles, the opportunities, the culture, the triumphs, and the resilient excellence and progress accomplished by over 1.2 billion people of African descent and others internationally.”

Hate crimes against Jewish people rose from 683 to 817 – and people of Asian descent rose from 746 attacks in 2021, compared to 249 a year earlier – -the most ever recorded in a single year.

Attacks involving juvenile victims rose in 2021, numbering 1,289 cases, the FBI said. In 2021, 14,859 agencies participated in the FBI’s crime data reporting program, officials said.

“This is a horrifying record that is greater than what we saw in 2001,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino, who tracks hate-crime data.

But the sharp increase in hate crimes did not stop Black CERT employees in Charlotte from filing their lawsuit against a white supervisor who headed Carolina Environmental Response Team, (or CERT). Texts show the white CERT supervisor sent Blacks a June 20, 2021 text that said, “Happy Father’s Day,” it began, noting the holiday being celebrated that day. Then, it said this: “and happy Juneteenth n-----,” with the racial epithet spelled out. (The lawsuit also says the white supervisor would routinely refer to Black employees as ‘good ol’ boys and make racist comments about the food they ate, according to WSOC-TV reports).

“The Black workers – James Baker, Marcus Nesbit and Robert Ashcraft, all of Mecklenburg County, Joshua White of Gaston County, Frank Streater of Union County, and Ameal Graham of Guilford County – say the Juneteenth text was not the fi rst racist remark or joke they’d heard from their white co-workers, and that their complaints about the text were ‘brushed off’ at the time by Shank, who was included on the original message thread,” Charlotte Observer.com noted.

“They also claim that the company’s discrimination went deeper than online messaging – that they were paid less than white employees and were routinely passed over for promotions,” according to the Charlotte newspaper.

“Five of the six say they were ‘constructively discharged,’ meaning that they left the company in response to intolerable or hostile working conditions. The sixth, James Baker, was fired. He claims in his lawsuit that he was the victim of retaliation.”

It’s important to point out that the new FBI report that showed an increase in 2020-2021 hate crimes has not only launched lawsuits but has also resulted in prison terms.

Some prison terms for 2020-21 hate crimes are listed on The Department of Justice website. For example, the DOJ website

From The Guide’s Archives

March 21, 1964

Edition of the Guide Lynchburg Planning Desegregated Schools By 1966

LYNCHBURG, VA

The Lynchburg School Board last week adopted a new plan designed to desegregate the school’s system by September 1966. The board’s plan is a decided improvement over plans adopted in some Virginia localities calling for desegregating one grade a year. The revised plan provides for desegregating grades one through six and kindergarten by September, for desegregation of the seventh eight and ninth grades by September 1965, and all grades by September 1966.

Grades one, two, and three are already integrated. It was also disclosed last week that further integration of the teachers is being studied by the school administration. In a related move the board unanimously approved solutions asking the City Council to withdraw the city from the State Pupil Placement Board. Copies of the board’s actions were sent to members of the city council.

The board plans to present its resolution to the City Council for approval at its meeting on March 24.

If the City council approves the resolutions, they will then be submitted to the U. S. Judge Thomas J. Michie in the Federal District Court here on March 25.

shows two white men in Citrus County, Fla. recently received hate-crime prison sentences ranging from three to five years after they followed a Black man into a convenience store in November 2021. After the two white men harassed and even beat the Black man with an ax handle inside the store, both men were sentenced this past January.

Specifically, Roy Lashley, 56, was sentenced to 60 months in prison, and his brother, Robert Lashley, 52, was sentenced to 36 months in prison.

“Both Roy and Robert Lashley directed racial slurs towards the victim before, during, and after the attack,” according to a Jan. 25, 2023 statement on The Department of Justice’s website. “The victim sustained painful injuries to his face and legs, including a laceration to the inside of his mouth. Both Roy and Robert Lashley admitted that they willfully caused bodily injury to the victim and acted because of the victim’s actual or perceived race or color.”

The Department of Justice’s website noted, “Driven by bigotry and hate, the defendants brutally assaulted a Black man for no other reason than his race, said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Raciallymotivated violence is abhorrent, unlawful and has no place in America today. Aggressive prosecution of hate crimes is a top priority for the Civil Rights Division, and these sentences should send a message to others who would carry out similar acts of violence that they will be brought to justice.”

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

will have the prompt attention of Portsmouth’s Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC).

In fact, a special committee, The Committee on Minority Housing headed by David Muckle was appointed to begin work immediately on such problems. The committee’s actions could strike at the heart of an ancient and troublesome issue which for years perplexed homeowners forced to relocate to make room for redevelopment and highway construction.

The disturbing fact that the “Fair market” rate be given to the (Negro) owner for his home is seldom if ever enough to buy or build a comparable home in another location.

To put it another way, the “Fair Market” payment received for an older home does not come near to paying the homeowners’ cost of relocation. Because of this, the affected homeowners often feel they are the “special victims” in such programs.

Another vital problem is the lack of homes sites available to Negroes who find themselves forced to move out of an area.” The problem of minority housing came up in the organizational meeting of CAC last week.

Shortly after committee assignments had been announced, Muckle expressed the “hope that the committee will begin working immediately” on the Problem of minority Housing.

“Some of us,” Mr. Muckle said, “have been under a lot of pressure in connection with the improvement of Long and Glasgow Streets.

The people who will be displaced by the new highway there “don’t want to rent, they want to build,” Muckle explained.

Then there is Rev. Harvey N. Johnson Sr., who has been named Chairman of the

Minority Housing Problems Committee, who suggested that CAC Chairman Saunders Early switch Muckle to his assignment.

NAACP Float Pelted with Eggs Garbage

BOSTON (UPI)

A float entered by the NAACP in the St. Patrick’s Day parade here Tuesday was pelted with eggs, tomatoes, beer cans, and other debris.

Thomas Atkins, executive director of the local NAACP ,compared the attack to the “viciousness you might expect to see in New Orleans or the back woods of Mississippi.”

“But it happened in Boston, and this is where it must be dealt with,” he continued. “There have to be a lot of changes here and right away.”

Tensions have risen since Negroes demonstrated against the Boston School system because of de facto segregation. They also protested segregation in housing.

Georgia Senator Urges Relocation of Negroes

WASHINGTON Senator Richard B. Russell (Democrat-Georgia) on Monday proposed a “racial relocation” program as an amendment to the pending civil rights bill. He contended it would help the administration’s anti-poverty plan.

Russell, Leader of the Southern bloc opposing the House-passed civil rights bill, estimated his proposal for voluntary relocation of Negroes and Whites (out of the South) would cost about $1.5 billion over a three-year period.

“Then you are through with it,” he said. “The cost would be about half the present annual outlay for foreign aid,”

he said.

Russell told newsmen just before the Senate convened that each section of the country “ought to be willing to bear part” of the (relocation) of the Negro population. We are spending millions already to move people around the urban renewal and other things,” Russell said. He said a person who relocated willingly under his plan would have to end up with a “better home and a better job.”

“There won’t be any trouble getting people to move (out of the South),” he added. He said that when he made mention of this idea several weeks ago, he received letters from Westerners who wanted to move into the South.

Russell’s amendment cannot be offered formally if the civil rights bill is taken up before the Senate expected late this week. But he outlined it in advance, complete with charts which he placed in the Senate Chamber.

1,000 Students joining Mississippi Peace Corps

MISSISSIPPI

Negro leaders announced Sunday night they will put up two congressional candidates in Mississippi this year and that they will bring in 1,000 northern college students to work in a “Peace Corps” for voter registration this summer.

The announcements were made at Jackson by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFCO), a group of various major civil rights organizations.

COFCO said Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville plans to run for Congress in the Second District and John Cameron of Hattiesburg in the Fifth District. The Spokesman said the two would see to getting their names on the June Democratic primary ballot.

Aaron Henry, Mississippi

President of the NAACP, said if Hamer and Cameron lost, they would go to Washington anyway and try to unseat the winning white candidate.

Malcolm X’s Rantings Shock And Dismay Leaders

By David M. Alpern

NEW YORK

National civil rights leaders were shocked almost to disbelief by the advice of the militant deposed Muslim leader Malcolm X that Negroes should form “ri fl e clubs.”

Most said they agreed that the breakaway leader of the Black Muslim movement could endanger civil rights progress and domestic peace with the urging that Negroes begin to ... fi ght back in selfdefense.”

”I can’t believe he is serious,” said James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

He said that unleashing such violence could “Ultimately be suicidal.”

Malcolm formally opened his announced campaign on March 12 to organize a politically oriented Black nationalist movement.

“There will be more violence than ever before this year,” he said at a news conference in a hotel here.

“White People will be shocked when they discover that the ‘passive little Negro’ they had known turns out to be a roaring lion.

“The whites had better understand this while there is still time,” he said.

The national of fi ce of the NAACP announced there is no of fi cial comment on Malcolm’s remarks.

Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.”

–KatherineJohnson

It’s important to point out that the new FBI report that showed an increase in 2020-2021 hate crimes has not only launched lawsuits but has also resulted in prison terms.

The new NNPA Black Press app is the first Black-owned, global international app that aggregates not only the Black news in America but also the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world.

DOMINION ENERGY DONATES $1M FOR NATION’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY

WILLIAMSBURG

The Virginia 250 Commission recently announced a $1 Million donation from the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation in support of statewide programs commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence and Virginia’s key role in achieving it. Dominion Energy’s donation is the first corporate gift toward the commemoration.

“Dominion Energy has been part of past commemorations and we have seen firsthand the impact they can have on Virginia’s economy, citizens, teachers and students,” said Edward

H. Baine, President of Dominion Energy Virginia, during the program in Colonial Williamsburg for nationwide planners of 250th events from 34 states and 50 localities across Virginia. Baine is a member of the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation Board which granted the donation.

Dominion Energy’s investment will also help support efforts in all 134 localities across Virginia as they plan their own events related to the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The nation will mark its semiquincentennial in 2026.

However, programs and events in Virginia are well underway and will last through 2031.

Senator Mamie Locke, who is serving as Vice Chair of the VA250 Commission, said, “With strong state support and the commitment of corporate and philanthropic partners, Virginia will be prepared to show her history through all lenses, telling the stories of all communities and making it possible for every locality and every Virginian to shine and feel proud of our Commonwealth.”

To learn more and get involved, visit www.va250.org.

STILL IN HOSPICE, CARTER ASKS BIDEN TO GIVE EULOGY

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

President Jimmy Carter served in the Navy during World War II, and his administration created the U.S. Department of Energy and Education.

During his one term, Carter conducted the 1978 Camp David Peace Talks that led to a historic agreement between Israel and its Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat.

The 98-year-old is the longest-lived President and the one with the longest post-presidency.

On Tuesday, March 14, nearly a month after entering hospice care, it’s been revealed that Carter had asked President Joe Biden to deliver his eulogy.

Biden told donors at

a fundraiser about his “recent” visit to see the 39th president, whom he has known since he was a young Delaware senator supporting Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign.

“He asked me to do his eulogy,” Biden said before stopping himself from saying more. “Excuse me; I shouldn’t say that.”

Even though the Carter Center in Atlanta and the former President’s family haven’t said much about his health, Biden mentioned that Carter was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and then got better.

“I spent time with Jimmy Carter, and it’s finally caught up with him, but they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough,” Biden said.

Carter’s family reportedly has confirmed that a state funeral for the former President will occur in Washington after he dies.

“If people had listened to Jimmy Carter, there wouldn’t be an oil crisis right now,” Twitter user @ mikesouthbch wrote.

“He ruled America with kindness and compassion. Nothing you ever see from any Republican.”

Despite a tumultuous presidency from 1976 to 1980 that concluded after the Iranian government released the 55 remaining American hostages there as Carter was exiting the White House following his losing his re-election bid in a landslide to Ronald Reagan.

Carter would become one of the most beloved ex-Presidents in American history, certainly more popular than when he traversed the oval office.

The one-time Georgia peanut farmer and his wife, Rosalyn, have spent their lives helping those in need.

For more than 30 years, Habitat for Humanity officials said the Carters had worked alongside nearly 103,000 volunteers

in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,331 homes.

“They’ve inspired millions across the globe with their dedication and rallied thousands of volunteers and even celebrities to take part in our mission, helping Habitat for Humanity become internationally recognized for our work to build decent and affordable housing,” the organization wrote on its website.

The Associated Press noted that Biden’s presidency represented a turnabout for Carter’s political standing.

He served just one term and lost in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, prompting top Democrats to keep their distance, at least publicly, for decades after he left the White House, the outlet reported.

Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did not have close relationships with Carter. And the longshot presidential candidates who sometimes ventured to see Carter over the years typically did so privately.

“But as the Carters’ global humanitarian work and advocacy of democracy via The Carter Center garnered new respect, Democratic politicians began publicly circulating back to south Georgia ahead of the 2020

election cycle. And with Biden’s election, Carter again found a genuine friend and ally in the Oval Office,” the AP wrote.

“I remember President Carter’s many talks with ordinary people during that trip, and how he tried to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS and help people from all walks of life feel that their lives had value,” Dr. Helene Gayle, the President of Spelman College and a board member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, wrote in a statement posted to the Gates Foundation website.

“We spoke with commercial sex workers in Kenya and Nigeria about HIV/AIDS prevention and condom use. While President Carter came from a very traditional, religious Christian background, he was entirely nonjudgmental and really wanted to communicate to these women that their lives were worth protecting from HIV/AIDS,” Gayle continued.

“He even gave a sermon at the church of the thenpresident of Nigeria, and from the pulpit, he talked openly and honestly about condoms and safe sex without judgment or recrimination.”

Gayle added that from world leaders to migrant farmers, Carter’s ability to connect with people remains remarkable.

She called him down-toearth and approachable.

“And because of his global stature as a former president, he can meet with people at the highest levels of government, capture their attention, and make the case for investing in local, regional, and global health,” Gayle exclaimed.

“He has elevated the significance of global health around the world. And he has been incredibly persistent and diligent around the issue of Guinea worm eradication, helping to lead that campaign to the threshold of success.”

Carter would become one of the most beloved ex-Presidents in American history, certainly more popular than when he traversed the oval office.

Former President Jimmy Carter

Photo: Courtesy

‘WOKE’ GOT TO DO WITH IT The SVB Bank Failure

By Julianne Malveaux (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

NOTE: Dr. Wornie Reed’s Column will be returning at a future date.

– Publisher Brenda H. Andrews

A Historic Vote & The Tools It Gave Us

By Ben Jealous (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

Vice President Kamala Harris is sure to be remembered every March in Women’s History Month as the first woman and the first person of color to serve our nation in that position.

As notable as those two facts are, she may grow to be known just as much for a single vote in the Senate that helped save the planet. Last August, she broke the 50-50 deadlock between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. That historic package, along with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Harris had crisscrossed the country in 2021 to build support for, give us a oncein-a-generation chance to protect the climate and build a cleaner, fairer economy. Both laws bear Harris’ mark. For example, the two packages provide billions to replace diesel school buses with electric ones and an additional tax credit for purchases that counties and cities make on their own. As a senator, Harris repeatedly sponsored bills to electrify the nation’s school buses. Similarly, she championed proposals to help recovery in low-income communities that bear a disproportionate burden of pollution and climate; the IRA includes $60 billion directed to help those places. Harris’ role inside and outside Washington on environmental issues isn’t surprising. When she was elected San Francisco’s district attorney 20 years ago, she started one of the first environmental justice units in a prosecutor’s office. When she moved on to be California’s

attorney general, she fought to protect the state from fossil fuel interests, winning tens of millions in civil settlements and a criminal indictment against the pipeline company responsible for an oil spill off Santa Barbara, as well as suing the federal government to block fracking off the coast. It’s a path others have been able to follow in the years since (Columbia University keeps a database of attorneys general’s environmental actions now).

It’s a concern that runs deep. Like I did, Harris grew up in environmentally conscious northern California in a household deeply involved in the civil rights movement. She learned early that conservation was a good thing, so much so that she has joked she couldn’t understand as a youngster why people she knew said conservatives were bad.

The Biden-Harris administration has provided leadership. With Congress, they’ve given us the tools to clean up pollution, to boost communities’ resilience to climate related natural disasters like wildfires, and to create good jobs in clean manufacturing across the country in unprecedented ways.

Through the infrastructure and inflation reduction packages, the United States can spend more than double protecting Earth than we spent putting astronauts on the moon.

“I think we all understand we have to be solutions driven. And the solutions are at hand,” Harris said at a climate summit earlier this month. “We need to make up for some lost time, no doubt. This is going to have an exponential impact on where we need to go.”

It’s time for the rest of us to pick up those tools and build. There are powerful interests that would be more than happy to let the inertia that allows people and places to be treated as disposable continue indefinitely. Our planet can’t afford that, and we have to marshal a movement to prevent it.

Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club. He is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free,” published in January.

The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 16th largest bank in the United States, failed because its leaders used poor judgment in making ill-advised investments. They invested heavily in long-term Treasury bonds that had low-interest rate returns. As interest rates rose (which meant SVB was losing money), they didn’t have the required reserves to cover their outstanding loans. Instability in the tech industries, where they were heavily invested, contributed to the bank’s denouement. While the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation usually insures deposits up to $250,000, President Biden agreed that the federal government would cover deposits “at no cost to taxpayers.” Because SVB primarily served startups and heavy hitters, about 85 percent of its deposits were uninsured. Ordinary Americans don’t get the bailout that SVB depositors got, but Biden and others justified it by saying they wanted to avoid further instability in the banking industry. While the president says that taxpayer dollars won’t be used in the SVB bailout, that remains to be seen. Financial experts will examine the reasons for the SVB failure for months, if not years. Daft Republican legislators, with absolutely no facts, have concluded that the failure of the bank is a result of “woke” business policies. They’ve not defined what they mean by such policies, but some see their vacuous rhetoric as a swipe at diversity practices to which most banks adhere. The intellectually challenged Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) wrote, “the fools running the bank were woke and almost because broke.” Donald Trump, Jr., the business icon whose daddy’s companies have regularly declared bankruptcy, also weighed in on this matter. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is pinning his

presidential hopes on making anti-wokeness a national mantra, said the bank was “so concerned with DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) that they got diverted from their core mission.”

Wall Street Journal writer Andy Kessler suggested that the SVB board, primarily white male, may have failed because its 12-person board – 45 percent women, with one African-American and one LGBLTQ+ member – was diverse.

Florida’s DeSantis is a leader among those who decry consciousness. His 2022 “Stop Woke Act” prohibits instruction on race or diversity that makes white folks feel “remorse or guilt .”The law prevents employers with more than 15 employees from mandating diversity training. DeSantis has rejected the Advanced Placement Black Studies curriculum for Florida public schools. These aren’t dog whistles but outright shouts of racism and antiBlackness. These rabid Republicans will blame anything – bank failures, derailed trains, and more – on so-called “wokeness,” and non-critical thinkers are perfectly willing to go along with those distortions. Would a bank with all white male directors have acted differently than the current directors of SVB did? One might argue that an allwhite male board might have performed even worse. The financial press offers many reasons why SVB failed, and throwing “wokeness” into the equation is a distraction.

Though I get the concept, I’ve never been fond of “woke” rhetoric.

A dear friend and diversity consultant, Howard Ross, says, “It doesn’t matter whether you are woke or not; it’s what you do when you get out of bed.”

It’s been used as shorthand to describe conscious, racially and politically aware people, who are often progressive. A dear friend and diversity consultant, Howard Ross, says, “It doesn’t matter whether you are woke or not; it’s what you do when you get out of bed.” In other words, anyone can mouth the rhetoric, but actions speak louder than words. It is unfathomable that a profit-making, predatory-capitalist bank led by white men can be described as mistakenly “woke” after its failure. Marjorie Taylor Green and her ilk are looking for excuses in the face of their stumbles, which include the loosening of DoddFrank regulation that might have prevented the SVB bank failure.

“Woke” has nothing to do with recent bank failures (New York’s Signature Bank also failed at the same time as SVB did). Still, racist Republicans have carefully honed their rhetoric that even common decency is described as “woke.” Don’t believe the hype, folks. While our nation remains majority white, it is rapidly diversifying, and denial will not stop demographic change. DeSantis and his anti-Black cronies would like to turn the clock back to the “good old days” and erase history by denying it. Despite DeSantis’ efforts, neither the past nor diversity will be erased.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author. She is also Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at Cal State LA.

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE CALLED FOX NEWS

By David W. Marshall (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM)

In 2021, the bill to award gold medals to the U. S. Capitol Police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 insurrection passed, despite 21 GOP lawmakers voting against it. The Congressional Gold Medal is Congress’s highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished contributions made by individuals. Surprisingly, party members that pride themselves as supporters of law and order opposed honoring the officers who upheld law and order on that tragic day. It is both shameful and insulting that the lawmakers who benefitted from the officers’ bravery and sacrifice found reasons to ignore the fact that five officers died carrying out their sworn duty to serve and protect. No officers were killed on the day of the riot, four died by suicide and the fifth died of natural causes triggered by the events of the riot]. The men and women of the U.S. Capitol Police are worthy of the nation’s recognition. Rep. Andrew Clyde argued a month before the vote that the riot at the Capitol was nothing more than a “normal tourist visit,”

regardless of the multiple photos of Clyde helping barricade the doors of the House chamber after rioters breached the Capitol building.

With the help of Fox News, Clyde’s assessment would later prove to be part of the GOP’s ongoing narrative in recreating the events of Jan. 6. Fox News, like its competitors CNN and MSNBC, are cable opinion outlets rather than pure news outlets.

Unlike the news received from traditional TV networks, cable “news” channels cater to the political interests of their viewers. For entertainment purposes, each cable network presents stories with opinions, facts, and a degree of conservative or liberal spin. But the manner of omissions, outright lies, and the sacrificing of facts for extreme political spins (and ratings) separates Fox News into its own special category. Fox News viewers are more likely to accept and believe misinformation than viewers of other opinion outlets. Fox News may have once been an outlet for “enjoyment and entertainment, but it has now evolved into a propaganda machine disguised as an entertainment outlet. We see how Donald Trump uses the network to disseminate information – facts,

Fox News may have once been an outlet for enjoyment and entertainment, but it has now evolved into a propaganda machine disguised as an entertainment outlet.

change the narrative of the event as peaceful. In doing so, Fox News has become a state-sponsored propaganda machine typical of nondemocratic nations.

arguments, rumors, namecalling, half-truths, and lies – to influence conservative viewers’ and voters’ opinions and beliefs. Now, Kevin McCarthy, as House Speaker, is using his position to do the same. Speaker McCarthy gave Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to over 40,000 hours of sensitive Capitol security camera footage from Jan. 6. As a result, Fox News was given the freedom to spin, edit, and spin again as they saw fit. Carlson took advantage of a unique opportunity to pick up the talking points of lawmakers such as Rep. Clyde and others who downplayed and attempted to normalize the insurrection. He released to Fox News viewers a manipulated and bogus version of Jan. 6, seeking to

Approximately 140 police officers were injured during the insurrection. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was sprayed by chemicals and collapsed, according to witnesses, and died the following day. The family of Sicknick joined Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manager in condemning Tucker Carlson for airing “cherry-picked” video from the calmer moments of the riot rather than the “chaos and violence” that occurred on a day that officers described as medieval warfare with officers slipping on their own blood and vomit. Manager called Carlson’s accusation about Sicknick the most disturbing of the program.

“The Department maintains, as anyone with common sense would, that had Officer Sicknick not

fought valiantly for hours on the day he was violently assaulted, Officer Sicknick would not have died the next day,” Manager said. Sicknick’s family issued a statement to CBS News that said they were “outraged at the ongoing attack on our family by the unscrupulous and outright sleazy so-called news network of Fox News.”

Kevin McCarthy, who seeks to maintain the power of House Speaker, gave Fox News viewers exactly what they wanted. The same is true for Tucker Carlson and Rupert Murdoch, who aims to increase ratings and revenue. Therefore, the propaganda and misinformation continue, as does the viewership. But the right-wing media giant may have met their match.

Fox News is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, a Denver-based manufacturer of voting machines, over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election and Donald Trump’s bogus claims

that the election was “rigged.” “Yet despite knowing the truth – or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth – Fox spread and endorsed these ‘outlandish voter fraud claims’ about Dominion even as it internally recognized the lies as “crazy,” “absurd,” and “shockingly reckless” the filing claimed. Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in lost profits and reputational harm. With the lawsuit, Fox News is now trapped in a spiral of lies and conspiracy theories of its own making. Should Dominion succeed in winning its case, it could have a devastating financial impact that would threaten the media giant’s ability to survive. Fox News has no shame and should be held accountable for its misinformation. The network will also have a loyal following. I am sure there are U.S. Capitol Police officers and officers elsewhere who will also continue to be Fox News viewers. The events from the last two years should be eye-openers to the fact that the network and many of its viewers are not true supporters of law enforcement as they claim but followers of a political and cultural cult.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body.

David W. Marshall

Ben Jealous

Julianne Malveaux

There are powerful interests that would be more than happy to let the inertia that allows people and places to be treated as disposable continue indefinitely.

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIOLOGY VIRGINIA TECH

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH HAZEL W. JOHNSON: 1ST BLACK WOMAN PROMOTED TO GENERAL RANKS

By Jaelyn Scott Spring Intern New Journal and Guide

Hazel Winifred Johnson was born on October 10, 1927, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She was born to Clarence L. Johnson Sr. And Garnett Henley Johnson, who were farmers that made a living from livestock and selling their crops. She had four brothers and two sisters, and she spent most of her childhood nearby in the rural Quaker town on Malvern. From an early age, Johnson knew she wanted to be a nurse and excelled in school until she graduated high school in the 1940s. After she graduated, she applied to the West Chester school of Nursing, but she was unfortunately rejected due to her race.

Despite this, she did not give up on her goals, and decided instead to travel to New York and attend the

Continued from page 1A

Otieno died while deputies physically restrained him during the intake process. Officers claim he became combative. He spent three days in a local jail in Henrico County, south of Richmond, where his family’s lawyer says he was “brutalized” by officers” – including being pepper sprayed, stripped naked and deprived of his medications — before being transferred to Central State Hospital, a state-run mental facility in Dinwiddie County. He was charged with three counts of assault and battery of

Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in New York, a school that was specifically for Black women, and graduated in 1950. From there, she trained in the Harlem Hospital Emergency Ward for three years before she decided to move back to Pennsylvania. From here, she found a job

a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct on hospital grounds and destruction of property.

“The family is grief stricken after learning of the brutal nature of Ivor’s death and his inhumane treatment in the hours preceding his death,”

Otieno’s mother, Caroline Ouko, said in recent news reports.

Mark Krudys, an attorney who is working with Crump for the family, said in a recent statement, “The public, and experienced mental health professionals alike, will be appalled when the facts of this case are fully disclosed.”

His mother said, “Something went wrong while he was in the government’s custody.”

During the recent court hearing for the seven

at the Philadelphia Veterans Association, and started working here while also working on her baccalaureate degree in Nursing at the Villanova University. Within three months of working there, she became the head nurse and was familiar with the Army Nurse Corps at the Hospital. She became

interested in the opportunities and travels that were offered, and in 1955, decided to enlist in the Army. On her first tour she served on the female medical surgical ward at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and worked at the 8169th Hosptial in camp Zama, Japan. After her tour, she left the army in 1957 to continue her parttime study at Villanova. However, a year later she committed to the Army Nurse Corps’ registered nurse student program, which offered financial assistance for those with a nursing diploma who were pursuing a baccalaureate. After graduating in 1959, she decided to return to the Amy. During her time in the army, she served on active duty at Madigan General Hospital, before being transferred to the Walter Reed Hospital from 1960 to 1962. She served several leadership

roles in this position and found her love for teaching. This inspired her to earn her master’s degree in science in Nursing at the Columbia University’s Teachers college in 1963. She would later be sponsored by the army to receive her Doctor of Philosophy in Education Administration degree from Catholic University in 1973, becoming the director of the Walter Reed institute of Nursing in the process.

1979 was the year she made history. After serving at the chief nurse in a tour in Seoul, South Korea, Hazel Johnson became the first Black woman to be promoted to brigadier general. She was the third woman and first Black woman to ever be promoted to this position.

Upon receiving this position, Johnson did all that she could to encourage more diversity in the army, developing scholarships for the ROTC nurses and

Attorney Crump attended a Feb. 1 funeral in Memphis for 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed by police officers in Memphis on Jan. 10.

offering nursing clinical camps for ROTC cadets to increase diversified enrollment. Even after retiring in 1983, she taught at the nursing schools of Georgetown University and George Mason University. While teaching at George Mason, she helped found the Center for Health Policy, Research, and Ethics, which was an institution that continues to promote independent research while at George Mason. Johnson’s career was decorated, receiving awards like the distinguished Service Medal and Army Commendation Medal. She also earned the title of “Army Nurse of the Year” twice during her career. She spent the remaining years of her life staying with her sister in Delaware before she unfortunately passed away in 2011, and is buried in the Arlington National Cemetery.

deputies, Dinwiddie County Commonwealth Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said, Otieno was restrained with handcuffs and leg shackles throughout the hospital intake process. He was unarmed when he died.

The seven deputies who were charged are Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50; Brandon Edwards

Rodgers, 48; and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30. They were placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the case. Henrico County Sheriff Alisa A. Gregoy said, They were arrested – each facing one felony charge of second-degree murder – and turned themselves into state police that same day.

Ortino’s troubling death in Petersburg at a staterun-mental-health facility occurred a few weeks after

At Nichols’ funeral, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Vice President Kamala Harris both delivered impassioned speeches calling on lawmakers to approve the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a broad array of legislative reforms that include a national registry for police of fi cers disciplined for misconduct, a ban on no-knock warrants and other measures.

About a month after Nichols was buried in Memphis, Florida’s St. Thomas University renamed its law school in honor of Crump during a dedication ceremony in

Miami. The school is now named the Benjamin L. Crump College of Law at St. Thomas University – making it the first law school on a predominantly white college campus to be named after a practicing Black attorney. St. Thomas University is a Catholic school located in Miami that was founded by Catholic friars, in Miami Gardens, Fla., in 1961 as Biscayne College by the order of the Augustinian Friars, according to its website. The only other law school in the country that’s named for a Black person is the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, named for the United States Supreme Court’s first Black Justice and Crump’s personal hero.

Secretary of the Army Clifford L. Alexander, Jr., announces the selection on June 5, 1979 of Col. Hazel Johnson for promotion as the Army’s third woman and first Black woman to ever be promoted to this position.

Photo: NJGFiles

Crump

A video of the 28-year-old deceased man shows him being held down by 10 deputies and workers for about 12 minutes before he stopped moving.

CDC Recommends Hepatitis B Testing

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

The U.S. Centers for Control and Prevention have issued a new recommendation urging all adults to receive screening for hepatitis B at least once in their lifetime.

The agency describes hepatitis B (HBV) as a liver infection caused by the HBV virus. It can progress to liver cancer and other serious illnesses.

CDC officials said as many as 2.4 million people live with HBV, and most might not know they have it.

A severe infection could lead to chronic HBV, which could increase a person’s risk of getting cancer or cirrhosis.

Further, the CDC said those diagnosed with chronic or long-term HBV are up to 85 percent more likely to succumb to an early death.

“Chronic HBV infection can lead to substantial morbidity and mortality but is detectable before the development of severe liver disease using reliable and inexpensive screening tests,” CDC officials stated.

Even though the number of people with HBV has decreased significantly in

agency says that all adults over 18 must be tested at least once.

the last 30 years, the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is still a problem for African-Americans.

That office reported that, in 2020, non-Hispanic Blacks would be 1.4 times more likely to die from viral hepatitis than nonHispanic whites.

Also, non-Hispanic Blacks were almost twice as likely to die from hepatitis C as white individuals.

Further, while having comparable case rates for HBV in 2020, nonHispanic Blacks were 2.5 times more likely to die from HBV than nonHispanic whites. Medical officials noted that HBV spreads through contact with infected blood or bodily fluids, which can occur through sex, injecting drugs, or during pregnancy or delivery.

The CDC previously issued a recommendation in 2008, when it urged

REBIRTH OF GOLF AT EWU, FLORIDA’S OLDEST HBCU

By Helen Ross PGA Tour Special to NNPA Newswire

The uniforms were the start. Black skorts and orange, purple, red and white polos with a glow-inthe-dark logo. The young women on the Edward Waters University (EWU) golf team really, really liked that one-of-a-kind logo. The six asked their coach, Kelly Allen, if they could leave practice early. They wanted to wear their new uniforms back to campus “because the students didn’t really know that we had a golf program,” freshman Leiahnni Smith explains. They took pictures of each other in their new gear. They shared TikTok videos, too.

“We really made that just a day about us because we were so excited,” Smith says “ … Like everything was just, we loved it. Like we were just taking it all in and I felt like the program was starting. Like, I think that was what we knew. Like, okay, it’s starting.”

And with that simple sartorial surprise, Smith and the other members of the Edward Waters women’s golf program, resurrected this season after a seven-year absence, fi nally felt like a team.

The groundwork for the rebirth of the program at Florida’s oldest HBCU actually was laid in May of 2021 when of fi cials from THE PLAYERS Championship went to EWU’s Jacksonville campus to announce a $50,000 donation from the tournament.

The grant from the PGA TOUR’s signature event was earmarked to fund scholarships, cover operational expenses and secure a head coach, among other necessities. In addition, past PLAYERS tournament chairmen, who are members of the Red Coats, also delivered more than $10,000 in golf supplies like push carts and backpacks for the team.

Allen wasn’t hired until December of last year, but he knows how important the support of THE PLAYERS has been – and will be

testing for high-risk individuals.

In its most recent recommendation, the agency said that adults over 18 must be tested at least once.

The agency declared that pregnant individuals should also undergo screening during each pregnancy, regardless of whether they’ve received a vaccine or have been previously tested.

Additionally, incarcerated individuals, those with multiple sex partners, or people with a history of hepatitis C should test periodically, the CDC said.

The agency warned that symptoms of acute HBV could include fever, fatigue, abdominal pain, dark urine, and jaundice.

Symptoms could take several months or longer to present and last for months.

The CDC’s latest report further notes the following:

• It’s estimated more than half of people who have the hepatitis B virus (HBV) don’t know

they’re infected. Without treatment and monitoring, HBV infection can lead to deadly health outcomes, including liver damage and liver cancer.

• The report updates and expands previous guidelines for HBV screening and testing by recommending screening for all U.S. adults and expanding continual periodic risk-based testing to include more groups, activities, exposures, and conditions.

• Providers should implement the new CDC hepatitis B screening and testing recommendations to ensure all adults are screened for HBV infection with the triple-panel at least once in their lifetimes and that people who are not vaccinated for hepatitis B – but are at increased risk of HBV infection – receive periodic testing.

“Although a curative treatment is not yet available, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic HBV infections reduce the risk for cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death,” CDC of fi cials noted in the report. “Along with vaccination strategies, universal screening of adults and appropriate testing of persons at increased risk for HBV infection will improve health outcomes, reduce the prevalence of HBV infection in the United States, and advance viral hepatitis elimination goals.”

– to his program. The tournament also invited the team to TPC Sawgrass on Thursday where many will see the TOUR’s top pros play for the fi rst time.

“We’re super grateful for that because without that (donation) we wouldn’t be able to basically make history and be the second women’s golf team for an HBCU in the state of Florida,” Allen says.

The women’s golf team at EWU basically wasn’t a team during the fi rst semester last fall. A new athletic director was in the process of being hired, there was no golf coach and the girls basically practiced on their own, if at all. The general manager at Brentwood, Monty Duncan knew the situation, and he told Allen there was an opening.

Smith and her teammates had already gone home for Christmas break when they found out Allen had been hired. He immediately put together a Zoom call to introduce himself and he told them he expected a lot of them, as well as himself. He said was going to push them.

“For me, that’s something that I want because I’m used to a winning team,” Smith said.

Smith has been playing golf since she was 7, also started in the game by her father. She soon went from wanting to drive the cart to try to outdrive her father. Her mother and two sisters are learning to play now, and her uncles have a “Brother-in-Law Cup, so golf really kind of just brings a lot of people together in my family,” Smith says.

Smith has embraced the game for its core values of honesty and integrity, as well as the patience golf requires. She didn’t have a First Tee chapter to guide her, but she did have the Mulligans Golf Association at her local club that put together summer programs to teach kids the fundamentals, etiquette and terminology of the game.

Smith, who played on the boy’s team in middle school, will be the head instructor at this summer’s MGA camp.

The CDC previously issued a recommendation in 2008, when it urged testing for high-risk individuals. Now, the

NAACP

Continued from page 1A

What is happening now in the city is an effort to go back to that old system or a modified version of it.

These two organizations and others are issuing a call to action to deter the dismantling of the new system which they believe is happening by an alliance of city officials and business interests.

On March 21, 2023, the NAACP and the Ministers Conference held the first of a series of Town Hall Meetings to educate the public on efforts to change the current 10-district voting system in Virginia Beach.

“We are concerned that efforts by the City of Virginia Beach would take us back to the system that would disenfranchise African-American citizens and other marginalized communities within the city,” said Rev. Eric Majette in a press release issued early last week. He is the recently elected President of the Virginia Beach branch of the NAACP.

“We would not have those four Black members on city council if it were not for the new 10-1 election system,” said Rev. Gary McCollum, a leader in the NAACP and Minister’s Conference.

“There are people in this city who saw the results of the election last November and did not like it. It created too much diversity on the council for them.”

“Why should monied, and influential developers, who live in mostly white neighborhoods, determine the political future of people who live in mostly Black or highly diverse communities of this city,” said McCollum.

“They are trying to turn back the clock, and we must educate our people to stop them.”

McCollum said the NAACP and Minister’s Conference’s Town Hall meetings are designed not only to educate voters on the city’s aims but also to counter a series of “Informational Town Halls” being scheduled by the city of Virginia.

He said the city wants to use its forums to influence residents to reject the new 10-1 system. He said Black council members and civic and faith leaders are concerned the

city will be devising some scheme to return to the old hybrid district/at-large system.

McCollum said the town halls being sponsored by the NAACP and the Minister’s Conference will be used to inspire people to attend the city events to voice their opposition to its efforts.

Civil rights activist Roy Perry-Bey helped recruit Latasha Holloway, a Black resident of Virginia Beach, as the lawsuit’s main plaintiff and the legal team which fought the old system in the federal court. He said there is another critical component of the city’s plan that activists should be concerned about.

Shortly after the federal court struck down the city’s old system, State Delegate Kelly Fowler spearheaded the passage of the bill striking it down as well.

But Perry-Bey said that the city has yet to request a State House or Senate member representing Virginia Beach to sponsor a bill to change the city’s

charter to codify the change of the city’s system of electing city council.

Perry-Bey said that city officials are using their “Informational town hall meetings” to misdirect and confuse residents. He said the city of Virginia Beach is hoping at some point to modify the old system to make it appear less biased toward minorities.

“They want to change the residency requirements that would assure that only residents who live in a respective vetoing district can vote in that district,” said Perry-Bey. “But the federal court bars at-large voting in Virginia Beach, even though there is still the at-large election of the mayor.”

Perry-Bey said that the city of Virginia Beach is still under the thumb of the 2020 federal ruling.

“Our goal on Tuesday is to inform the public about the benefits of the current election system and the importance of voting rights in general,” President Eric Majette said. He added, “While there are several actions the city should take to make voting easier and more efficient – such as budgeting additional money for more election officials, expanding early voting sites, adding voting machines, and accommodating Sunday voting – taking us back to a system that the courts deemed discriminatory is not one of them.”

Primary

Continued from page 1A

She joined Senators Miller and L. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, who is currently President pro tempore of the Virginia Senate.

In 2021 former House Delegate Winsome Sears was elected the state’s first African-American woman Lt. Governor. Sears, a Republican, was a member of the House of Delegates for one term after beating veteran Democratic legislator Billy Robinson.

“She (Senator Miller) was a formidable force to be reckoned with,” said Locke. “She gave me a word of advice that we were elected to represent the interests of the people who sent us here. That has been the words and the Mission that have stuck with me ever since.”

All of the 140 seats in the Virginia Legislature will be on the upcoming primary ballot on June 20 and the General Election on November 8.

At stake is control of the State House and Senate. Both parties are seeking to increase or retain their respective advantages.

Right now, the Republicans have a 52-48 seat majority in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Senate Democrats have a 22-17 majority.

With Republican Glenn Youngkin, sitting in the Governor’s mansion, if the Republicans claim control of both of the legislative bodies, his party would be positioned to push through a conservative legislative agenda.

For the past two legislative sessions, Democrats erected a firewall in the Senate to halt right-wing money and policy bills passed by the GOP-leaning House. Due to the 2021 redistricting based on the 2020 census, all of the state House and Senate voting districts have been redrawn.

Before the 2021 redistricting the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC) had 22 members – 17 House and 5 Senate members.

At one point after the new redistricting lines were revealed, VLBC leaders feared the number of caucus members would

be halved in the House and Senate. Their fears were realized as many incumbent majority Democrats and Black Districts saw their districts redrawn.

Many long-time incumbents were drawn into districts with party allies.

But it is possible the Black Caucus may be able to stay close to their preredistricting numbers. In fact, instead of five Black senators, Democrats may elect six Black senators.

Four of those majority Black Senate districts may sit in Hampton Roads for the first time in history.

Also, for the first time, Norfolk’s House and Senate representatives are projected to be mostly female and AfricanAmerican, another first.

But before the November General Election, both parties must undergo the rigors of the June 20, 2023, Primary Election for the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates.

The deadline for candidates to file for the June 20 primary is April 6 at 5 p.m.

After the primary, according to various political analyses of the new districts, Democrats have a stronger chance to hold the Senate and must depend on a heavy turnout and good candidates to reclaim the House.

Some of the incumbents who saw their old districts drawn out of existence have launched bids for new districts where they reside or nearby. Others have retired.

But none of the AfricanAmerican incumbents in the House or Senate have announced plans to retire.

Those with challengers are busy raising money for the June 20 primary to win their party’s nomination.

Next Week: Races To Watch Under Redistricting

Due to the 2021 redistricting based on the 2020 census, all of the state House and Senate voting districts have been redrawn.

On March 21, the NAACP and the Ministers Conference held the first of a series of Town Hall Meetings to educate the public on efforts to change the current 10-district voting system in Virginia Beach.

“The Noun Project” On Display At COIL

Black Women’s Travel Group Stays On The Go

By Rosaland Tyler

Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Spring is here and this is a great time to join the travel group that Tashieka Brewer launched in 2016 while organizing a trip to Dubai for a group of Black women.

But Brewer said she was actually following in her grandmother’s footsteps when she organized a travel group called Pink Girls Run the World. The group has been featured in several publications including USA Today and The New York Times. It has about 50 members, ages 30 to 52. They have travelled to Europe, Morocco, South Africa and, soon, Zanzibar. About 25 go on each trip, which occur twice a year and span six to 10 days.

“There was a lack of diversity in travel at the time,” said Brewer, a freelance publicist from New Jersey, describing Club Femme, the travel group that was organized by her grandmother, Corinne Brewer. She said her grandmother was a New Jersey housewife who booked dinner shows, tours, flights and accommodations for a group of neighborhood women traveling across the United States and through the Caribbean.

“She decided she wanted to travel,”

Brewer said in a recent USA Today interview. “She noticed a lot of women were professionals and housewives who wanted to travel as well.”

Brewer said, “I started this movement because I wanted to create a more inclusive narrative around travel by connecting real-life stories to travel that every woman can really relate to.”

She said she tries to keep an open mind while traveling. “When she was in Italy with the Pink Girls, she said people were pointing at them, commenting on their skin color. She didn’t react but took it in stride. While on a trip to a village in Greece with the women of her family, like her mom and grandmother, people approached them asking how they were related. Rather than get upset, she was happy to answer any questions they had.”

She added, “Mostly, I find people welcoming. I think it’s a curiosity that we are different.”

As her grandmother urged Black women to explore the world, Brewer does likewise. “Many Black Americans may feel intimidated to travel to some places when they don’t see other people that look like them traveling there,” she recently told The New York Times.

For more information, visit https:// www.pinkgirlsruntheworld.com/

Miller remembers her mother as an advocate for poor and uneducated people long before it became notable among social and civil rights activists in America.

Church was an integral part of the household. “I always remember being in church, she recalled. My family gained so much from it ... it made us stronger.”

People outside in the circle of the family and church were important, too.

“I do not know how to define it, but I’ve always been treated special.” Miller said. “People were always giving me something, taking me somewhere ... doing or giving me something.”

Looking back, she remarked about the bridges erected by her family, friends and caring outsiders which allowed her to make a smooth passage towards adulthood.

Miller’s talents were awarded with a scholarship from the Zeta Phi Beta sorority – the group to which she currently belongs. After two years of working for an education degree at Norfolk State College, she transferred to Virginia State College to complete it.

College brought

new freedom and responsibilities, both personal and academic. And not only did she attend school, but she also worked various jobs to supplement school and personal needs.

Come 1956 and upon graduation, she got her first job teaching in her own neighborhood at Young’s Park Elementary, and opportunity about which she was excited. It provided her first chance to give back to a community which had given so much to her.

“I wanted to be, and I was, a good teacher, because the children learned,” recalled Miller. She did marry, in 1957, to an Air Force man, whom she describes, as “the most perfect man I’ve ever known.” Nevertheless, irresistible differences led to a divorce in 1968, and Miller forged on to become an instructor at Norfolk State University. Graduate and doctoral degrees helped round out her life as an educator. Her involvement in community activities subsequentially led her into politics. Miller said her political role models were people like Dr. William Robinson, Sr., Judge Joe Jordan, and Mrs. Evelyn Butts. Unknown to her, community forces recognized her political abilities and were grooming her for the political arena not as a functionary,

but as a candidate. In 1984, Miller became the first African-American woman to take a seat in the 100-member Virginia House of Delegates.

And in 1988, she became the first African-American woman to take a seat in the 40-member Virginia Senate.

During the previous legislation session, Miller designed legislation on foster care, studies on campus rape and other related corporations and state employees and unions. But her biggest fight was over the Senate’s redistricting plan. The issue has yet to be resolved.

Miller believes a public official should be a vent – a source for information for voters about the work and goals of their elected officials.

What’s next for Yvonne Miller?

Perhaps even she doesn’t know. She is too busy wearing her present hats of responsibility which can range from politicking in Richmond to reading stories to children in area classrooms. But rest assured, she would be giving back, educating and making that difference in the life as many people as she can.

Publisher’s Note: State Senator Dr. Yvonne B. Miller continued to serve honorably in the Virginia General Assembly until her death on July 3, 2012, one day short of her 78th birthday (born July 4, 1934).

Coming: Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival In Newport News

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Grammy Award winning jazz singer Samara Joy may remind you of the great Ella Fitzgerald when she walks on stage and belts out a string of jazz classics at the 25th annual Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival in Newport News.

The upcoming three-day festival will be held April 20-22, at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center, located at 2410 Wickham Ave. in Newport News.

It honors Ella Fitzgerald, a native of Newport News, who grew up

in a troubled home but went on to debut at the Apollo Theater in 1934, won 13 Grammys, and sold more than 40 million albums before she died at age 79 from a stroke in her Beverly Hills home on June 15, 1996.

Although Fitzgerald underwent heart surgery in 1986 and survived a diabetes diagnosis – which resulted in the amputation of both her legs below the knees – Fitzgerald continued to perform. She placed her fingers on the piano keys and plucked out nostalgic tunes and scatted – “A-tisket, a-tasket. A brown and yellow basket. I send

a letter to my mommy. On the way I dropped it, “ Fitzgerald sang, when she received the 1984 NAACP’s Image Award. She was wheeled on stage at her last performance in 1991, at the George Wein’s JVC Jazz Festival, which was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1991, five years before her death.

On April 21, expect to hear Joy perform fresh and exciting jazz renditions since the 23-yearold singer comes from a musical family that performed at churches and drove a rented van that they called “The God Mobile.” Joy

studied at New York’s Fordham School for the Arts and will effortlessly performs hits by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald at Newport News’ upcoming music festival. Don’t act surprised when Joy performs a medley of her own Grammy-award-winning tunes including her renditions of “Everything Happens to Me” and “The Trouble With Me is You.”

After she performed last month at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., she told NPR she started singing jazz at age 18. When she decides to perform a jazz hit, she told NPR, “I’ve listened to

them already and I already have a version in my head that I love.” Joy’s upcoming April 21 performance in Newport News will begin on Day 2 of the 2023 Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival, after a reception is held starting at 6:30 p.m., and after an 8 p.m. performance by regional performer Good Shot Judy, who specializes in delivering topnotch classic vocal jazz.

Tickets to the April 21 reception and Joy’s April 21 concert are available online. For more information, visit www.downinggross.org or call (757) 247-8950.

Virginia State legislators Dr. Yvonne Miller of Norfolk and Rev. Henry Maxwell of Newport News both served as House Delegates and Senators.

Photo: NJGFiles

CHESAPEAKE

A new photo exhibition by visual artist Ernest Lowery is on display at the Dr. Clarence V. Cuffee Outreach and Innovation Library (COIL). On Saturday, March 18, 2023, the COIL staff and guests attended Lowery’s opening reception where he spoke about the inspiration behind his works. The exhibition displays photos on canvas.

Photo: Shown with Ernest Lowery are Library Manager Mattie M. Davis, and COIL staff members Marilyn Lindsey, Cheewanda McMahanon, and Sharon Wilson.The library is at 2726 Border Road in Chesapeake.

Photo: BrendaH.Andrews

SECTION B B

C O M M U N I T Y COMMUNITY & M O R E . . . MORE ...

HAMPTON ROADS COMMUNITY REMEMBERS VIRGINIA BEACH PASTOR E. RAY COX SR., 83

VIRGINIA BEACH

One of Virginia Beach’s longest serving pastors and a highly regarded civic leader, Dr. E. Ray Cox, Sr. has passed at age 83.

Dr. Cox was the founder and Senior Pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church which began with only 35 faithful members and continues to grow today with a congregation of more than 500.

State Sen. Aaron Rouse wrote on Facebook about the late minister, “Dr. Cox served the Virginia Beach community for more than 50 years as the founder and Pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church. A man of integrity, compassion, and kindness, his impact on our community was immeasurable. I’ll always cherish his encouragement and heart of service. My prayers are with First Lady Maxine Cox and the entire Cox family.”

Pastor Gary McCollum, a community activist, said, “Dr. E. Ray Cox was a giant in our community. His courage and commitment to Christ was without peer. Whether it was politics, civil rights, economic equality or whatever the issue, Pastor Cox always had a Christ centered answer to the

problems we face in our daily lives. He was a true soldier in God’s army and will be sorely missed.”

Dr. Cox was a native of Greenville, North Carolina, and was a longtime resident of the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia. He and his wife of more than 40 years Maxine Cox, parented two sons Ervin Cox Jr. of Virginia Beach and Ryan Cox (deceased), and six grandchildren, Jamaris, Maxi, Phillip, Mason, Codi, and Logan. He earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Virginia University, Lynchburg, Virginia, a Master of Divinity from the Samuel D Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, a master’s degree in

Christian Education from the Presbyterian Graduate School of Christian Education Richmond, Virginia.

According to the church’s website, on Saturday, August 22, 1970, the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church was duly organized with Dr. Cox as its founder. The organizational meeting was held at Saint Mark A.M.E. Church. Lee A Williams was the moderator of that meeting.

“We had no building of our own for worship and we moved from building to building for our accommodations,” said Pastor Cox in his Biography. “We were blessed to have our groundbreaking on October 29, 1972.”

Dr. Cox continued, “In memory and celebration of our long journey of mission to our own building with

Godly pride, humility, and acknowledgment of spiritual dedication we met at our first place of worship the Saint Mark AME Church and walked to our new church at 395 Old Great Neck Rd in Virginia Beach.”

According to his Bio, Dr. Cox was often found conversing in supermarkets, restaurants, and even banks, about the love of Jesus Christ and his saving grace. Pastor Cox was a visionary and was constantly thinking and working on ways to improve his service to God, not only to our congregation but also to the greater community.

In 2019, Dr. Cox’s son Ryan Cox, was killed heroically seeking to shed co-workers during a mass shooting at a Virginia Beach City Building. A post office building was named in of his honor.

A man of integrity, compassion, and kindness, his impact on our community was immeasurable. I’ll always cherish his encouragement and heart of service.”

–StateSenatorAaronRouse

Dr. E. Ray Cox, Sr. ... passed at age 83

The Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center Unveils I AM A MAN:

Photographs of Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1970

PORTSMOUTH

The 1960-1970 decade was a momentous time for the civil rights movement in the American South. It was a historic decade that unleashed both hopes for the future and profound change as public spaces were desegregated and as African-Americans secured their right to vote.

PARTNERSHIP TO EMPOWER WOMEN GETS $250K BOOST

Special to the Guide

A new partnership to empower working women was launched March 9 between Black BRAND, Norfolk State University and Truist Bank. The bank contributed $250,000 to support the program titled “Women Who Lead.”

The partners say the new program is designed to match professional and career women with women who are capable but are often left behind when it comes to advancement because they can’t get their foot in the door, or they come up against a ceiling that keeps them from achieving. It is the visionary idea of Blair Durham, co-founder of Black BRAND, a nonprofit that serves as the Black

Chamber of Commerce for the Hampton Roads and Dan River areas.

“Women Who Lead is a pipeline for women with underdeveloped talent, they’re not talentless,” said Norfolk State University President Javaune AdamsGaston, Ph.D. “And what happens to you when your voice is silenced you begin to think it’s me,” she continued.

“Our job is to say it’s not you.

It’s the system and we’re going help you get yours. We’re going to help you find your voice. We’re going to help you find your way forward.”

Women Who Lead will serve low- to moderateincome minority women workers managing multiple jobs to make ends meet and considering leaving the area

in search of opportunity. A goal in helping the women who come to the program is to reduce the area’s loss of talent and fill hundreds of open higher wage positions.

Said Michelle Ellis Young, CEO of the YWCA South Hampton Roads, “We can’t talk about supporting women’s empowerment and economic advancement without really thinking about transformational change and what that really means to community.”

She said that transformation starts with women. “When we invest in women, not just some women, but all women, we can speed the change we want to see. We can transform the family. The family can transform the community and then the community can transform the world.

From April 8, 2023 to May 27, 2023, the Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center will display I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1970 with a wide range of photographs taken by amateurs, local photojournalists, and internationally known photographers. Together they provide a vivid visual story of the evolution of civil rights and shed light on the movement’s integration into daily living in the American South.

Southern folklorist, author, and curator William Ferris and his research team sought out photos taken in the heat of the civil rights movement, by activists or local news photographers, who documented history taking

place before their eyes.

Viewers of the exhibition will recognize the photographs of protestors who carried signs with messages like “I AM A MAN” or sat at segregated lunch counters as iconic images associated with the movement, while numerous other photographs presented in the exhibition have rarely been seen until now.

Key events include James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi, Ku Klux Klan gatherings, the Selma Montgomery March in Alabama, the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, Martin Luther King’s funeral, the Poor People’s Campaign, and the Mule Train. The decade was a pivotal moment that both marks change, and also reminds us how far we have to go.

The photographs in I

AM A Man: Civil Rights Photographs in the American South, 19601970 remind us of their enduring resonance today and beyond as future generations continue to fi ght for justice for all humankind.

This exhibition has been adapted from an exhibition, originally produced for the Pavilion in Montpellier France, by the Center for Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The French exhibition was funded by the City of Montpellier and administered by Gilles Mora, director of the Pavilion Populaire.

Additional Programming will include a presentation entitled Civil Rights In Hampton Roads, Va., presented by Dr. Charles Ford, Professor of History and Interim Dean at Norfolk State University, on Saturday, April 15, at 1:30 p.m., It is free and open to the public with a reception following. The target audience is all ages The Center is open Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and is located at 400 High Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704-3622. Admission is $3 for ages adults, $2 for ages 2-17, seniors, AAA, and military with I.D. Contact: (757) 393-8543, www. portsmouthartcenter.com

Gov. Youngkin Appoints

African-American As Vice Chair of State Board of Elections

RICHMOND

Former state Sen. Rosalyn Dance has been appointed by Gov. Glen Youngkin to serve as vice chair of the state Board of Elections.

Dance, a Petersburg Democrat and former city mayor, learned of the appointment in an email that she received from the governor’s office, according to news reports.

Dance “is a dedicated and accomplished leader in the Petersburg community,” Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said,

adding that Youngkin is “grateful” for her commitment to serve on the electoral board. Dance, 75, is the highest-ranking Democrat on the board. Under the state code, three of the five members are members are Republicans, the same party as the governor. The three Republicans on the board are former Henrico County Del. John O’Bannon as chair, Augusta County Supervisor Georgia Alvis-Long as secretary, and former Pittsylvania County Del. Donald Merricks.

(L-R) NSU Assistant Vice President for Development Shana James; Angelia Williams Graves,Virginia State Delegate; Ellen Fitzsimmons, Chief Legal Officer & Head of Public Affairs, Truist; Thomas Ransom, Regional President, Virginia, Truist; Blair Durham, Co-Founder, Black BRAND; Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, President, Norfolk State University.

Photo: Courtesy

Virginia State Park Campgrounds Open Now Through December

RICHMOND Virginia State Parks

campgrounds opened on March 3, 2023. Fullservice campgrounds with bathhouses are open through the first Monday in December, with the exception of Douthat, Hungry Mother, Pocahontas and Shenandoah River state parks, which have full-service campgrounds open year-round. Due to a campground renovation project, camping at Claytor Lake State Park will not open until April 1.

Whether you are looking for a week long retreat or a

restful weekend getaway, Virginia State Parks offer camping options that vary from cabins and bunkhouses to yurts and primitive camping. Each park offers different scenic camping options, so be sure to do your research before booking your stay. Visit the camping web page for more details about reservations, cancellations and severe weather procedures. If you are traveling with horses, be sure to visit the equestrian camping page for all the policies dealing with horses

while camping. Reservations can be made online or by calling 1-800933-PARK (7275) and choosing option 5. You can make lodging reservations up to 11 months in advance or, for camping, up to 2 p.m. on the day of arrival, so start planning your next adventure today.

All parks with campgrounds now offer site-specific reservations for campsites. This new reservation system allows a camper to view an interactive map and choose an available site to reserve.

LOCAL VOICES

THE ART OF CHANGE

By Sean C. Bowers

Like the season’s reasons, our earth is changing beneath us, around us and above us.

Some leaves must fall in the autumn for the beautiful budding spring brings. Summer is Winter’s hibernation liberation and revolution. The standing dead in the forest becomes fertilizer for future floral foundations.

The recent toxic Norfolk Southern train accident in Ohio reminds us clearly that we have to be ready and willing to make change a priority.

Those changes we experience should be a shared out-in-the-open transparent process. Focusing on the environment’s longevity and protection has to become a bigger percentage of our calculations. When we elevate quality of future life vs. profits in the shortterm at the expense of all, we are choosing to protect and extend our defenseless planet. Our natural resources are not unlimited or without consequences. We are living witnesses to Mother Earth’s uncontrollable fury at our insatiable greed. We are reaping the whirlwind. As the song “Change, Change, Change,” comes to mind. As we face global warming’s chilling potential disastrous outcomes, our changes must be of substance and significance. Simultaneously, we must sacrifice our wish to “control” the sustainable success and safety of our planet.

Drinking un-clean water and breathing hazy, smogfilled air, barely being able to see clearly in a fog-filled future is not a fairy tale. It is a tale of warning to conserve and protect the world’s resources. If we are not wise enough or forward thinking enough, to conserve, if we

continue our selfish greedy needy ways and if we eschew environmentally conservative actions and refuse to be downright protective of our earth, we will pay the consequences.

Granted, we may not make as much money and profits. We won’t log as many logs. But neither will as many streams, rivers and creeks be further polluted, their quality diluted. We won’t have gaspowered technology forever. So starting is the first step required to nudge the boulder forward.

Our planet is flashing red with all the alert warning signals clanging. Our current use-it-all-up-until-it’s-gone mentality will cause us to pay a major price for the tomorrows we have left to come.

What is required now is leadership fortitude. We have to rearrange our priorities for lasting change. When our leadership shows the wisdom and courage to make these planet-saving choices, the rest of the world will be inspired to follow our example.

The next industrial revolution evolution should be that of: wind, sea, solar, and electric re-chargeable capture usage. We have a say in the direction of the future. Let us lead the way and demonstrate safe and healthy practices. We can then lead the way beginning our dominance in those renewables (carbonfree) sectors worldwide.

Without our commitment

to change, we continue to (lobster-crab-pot-style) globally “cook” ourselves out of control. While we are still conscious, before it is too late, we have to wake up and make the choice to be a part of the change we know needs to be made. Our future depends on our ability to see imminent danger and to take meaningful action that insures future generations a viable livable above-ground planet. We can choose to live a minimally polluted lifestyle in the bosom of Mother Nature or we can choose to continue on the destructive course we have charted. We have to be the change.

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.

When our leadership shows the wisdom and courage to make these planetsaving choices, the rest of the world will be inspired to follow our example.

Sean C. Bowers

NOTE TO OUR READERS:We wish to inform you of the recent transition of Mrs. Gladys McElmore. We will continue to carry her column in her memory until further notice. Thank you.

– Publisher Brenda H. Andrews

gives us peace beyond our greatest needs.

As it was with Mary and Martha, an attitude of gratitude will help us to remember our abundant blessings every day. God’s presence and love are our constant companions.

MARY’SCHOICETO SITATHISFEET

Luke 10:38-42

Jesus and His disciples came to a village where Martha and her sister Mary opened their home to them. Here we learn about genuine hospitality. The questions that could make any of us ask for emergency responses are as follows: a. should distractions or preparations mean more than listening to the teachings of Jesus? and b. does Jesus care about our physical labor for Him more than He does about our spiritual growth?

Jesus said that Mary had chosen what was better and it would not be taken from her! Sometimes good works can take us away from better tasks that God has for us. Being a good host, Martha prepared the meal for her guests which

took prime time she might have used to listen to the teachings of Jesus. Did the Lord credit Mary for being more spiritual than Martha? On this occasion, Martha seemed to have shown a great deal of trust in Jesus because she honored Him with her resources. Mary and Martha became an “Emergency Response Team” to serve the Lord. Although Jesus did not criticize Martha for her time spent looking after the physical needs, rather the Lord warned Martha that even our service takes time, but listening to Him is the most important event. We should spend more time listening to God, through His Son, and hearing what He has to say. Jesus brings justice, restores hop and

JESUS’ CLIMBING COMPANIONS

Bible)

Without Jesus Christ as the master of our live, we cannot make our homes inviting to Him who is able to give us everlasting joy and peace. Trust Him and believe that He is greater than our problems, for He knows how and when to help us.

Mary and Martha faced emotional and physical challenges, but, like the sisters, we face our challenges with confidence and on God’s strength. We also know that God gives us special abilities to give back to Him as much as He allows.

Mary and Marth trusted the Master enough to do challenging activities. Jesus commands us to do things that may be difficult, but will advance His Kingdom. Showing hospitality demands a generous heart and willing spirit to accomplish great things as we continue to focus on Christ. Though we may celebrate the Lord in different ways, we remain in control of choosing the measure of service we give Him. Service to the Lord is always important, but it can never replace our fellowship with Him. While desiring more time with Him, He will always defend our choice to sit at His feet!

“When Jesus saw His ministry drawing huge crowds, He climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to Him, the committed, climbed with Him. Arriving at a quiet place, He sat down and taught His Climbing Companions. This is what He said:

You are blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule.

You are blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You are blessed when you’re content with just who you are no more, no less. That’s the moment you fi nd yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

You’re blessed when you care.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world your mind and heart put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. You are blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fi ght. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s Kingdom.

Not only that count yourself blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit Me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens give a cheer, even! For though they don’t like it, I do! And all Heaven applauds. And know that you are in good climbing company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.” (The Beatitudes Mt. 5:1-12, The Message

CHURCH ADs & DIRECTORY

P.S. Consider this:

“Matthew was slain with a sword. Mark was dragged through the streets. Luke was hung upon an olive tree. John was banished to Patmos. Peter was hung upside down on a cross. Thomas was stabbed with a lance. Bartholomew was fl ayed alive. John the Baptist, Matthias, and Paul were all beheaded” (The Christian Recorder of the AME Church).

What is happening in the Middle East, the Ukraine, Syria and other terrorized parts of the world, including mass murders in the U.S., is a threat to the Great Commission. It commands every Christian to have a global perspective when thinking of the true church of Jesus Chris- the body of Christ. We must pray for people everywhere in love as Jesus loves, even us, in America. For we are all God’s people, Climbing Companions of Jesus, climbing Jacob’s Ladder together on our way back home to the Father and Jesus’ Glory. Remember, (put your name here) you are Jesus’ Climbing Companion.

Amen (Oh, Yes!)

Blessings and Shalom

Rev. Dr. Rebecca R. Rivka

BOOKWORM REVIEWS

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

BLACK FOUNDER: THE HIDDEN POWER OF BEING AN OUTSIDER

Agood building starts with a substantial foundation.

No matter where you go from there, that base is an opening action, an announcement, a public sign of things to come. Whether it’s a new home for human, hoopty, or heirlooms, or the future site of industry or ideas, the foundation is the start of something exciting. In a new business and as in the new book “Black Founder” by Stacy Spikes, it needs to be solid. With high school graduation on the horizon, Stacy Spikes was itching to move. His hometown of Houston, Texas, had become “too small” to hold his dreams. Education was important in his family, but college held no interest to him, either. Instead, he was going to Los Angeles to chase a career in music and movies. He broke the news to his parents and, with $300 in his pocket, he drove northwest.

Once in California, Spikes quickly understood that he didn’t need a job, he needed several of them. Before he could get settled, though, he fell in with a bad crowd and

was hospitalized to help him kick drugs and alcohol abuse forever.

He returned to a job he had working with a two-in-one company in Encino, making and packaging videos. The men he worked with mentored him; it was there that he learned the need to “go to extra lengths to meet [someone] in their field.”

Spikes took acting classes and absorbed as much as he could about old-time Black comedians. He built a recording studio in his home and learned to make album covers, which led him to a job at Motown, where he went into sales and learned how to make an impression. The “Black Godfather” taught him that it was possible to talk with anyone, Black or white, with honesty. And before he founded Urbanworld Film Festival and MoviePass, Motown helped him see that to succeed, “You didn’t need an army, just a small group of like-minded souls set on making a difference.”

Readers looking for a good business biography are in for a nice surprise when they read “Black Founder.” They’ll also get some entrepreneurial advice. It’s not bold-face or

bulleted; you’ll have to look for it, but it’s in there.

“Transparency” is what author Stacy Spikes learned early, and it’s what he applies inside this book, which is refreshing. This isn’t a book about a meteoric rise; Spikes instead writes about setbacks, both personal and professional, and times of struggle. Readers can imagine a Parkour-like hustle that Spikes describes

FUN PUZZLE FOR YOUR LEISURE

as he overcame seeminglycatastrophic events and still landed with both feet; such tales serve to instruct as much as does the actual instruction. Though it may seem to lag a bit – especially for older readers, or those who are unfamiliar with the businesses Spikes founded “Black Founder” is entertaining enough to read for fun, with a side dish of instruction. Whether you’re ready to act now or you’re just finding your inner entrepreneur, to launch your idea, it’s a good base.

Here’s a rags-to-riches story for you: “Never Far From Home” by Bruce Jackson (Atria, $28) is the story of Jackson’s life. He was born in Brooklyn and lived his early life in public housing. At age 10, he was arrested for robbery (which he didn’t do) and he caught the attention of drug dealers. Knowing then that wasn’t the kind of life he wanted, Jackson worked hard to overcome his background. His story is inspiring and awestriking.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Chesapeake Public Schools

RFP: #39-2223

Title: Mold, Indoor Environmental Assessment and Remediation Services

Closing Date/Time: April 7, 2023 @ 4 PM

More Info: https://cpschools.com/purchasing/current-bids/

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Chesapeake Public Schools

RFP: #44-2223

Title: Orton-Gillingham Training

Closing Date/Time: April 13, 2023 @ 4 PM

More Info: https://cpschools.com/purchasing/current-bids/

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Chesapeake Public Schools

RFP: #47-2223

Title: Legal Services

Closing Date/Time: April 18, 2023 @ 4:00 PM

More Info: https://cpschools.com/purchasing/current-bids/

INVITATION FOR BID

INVITATION FOR BIDS PR1986-986-23

The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority will receive bids for the “RE-BID NRHA YOUNG TERRACE UNIT RENOVATIONS PROJECT”

The scope of work includes all supervision, labor, material, and equipment necessary for Unit Renovations at Young Terrace, 816 Whitaker Lane, Norfolk VA 23510. The work for this project includes but not limited to complete kitchen area renovation, bathroom renovation, replacement of existing unit sanitary piping, demolition, new flooring, bathroom exhaust fan system, finish work and the full scope of work is described in the Contract Documents.

A pre-bid meeting will be conducted on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 1 PM outside of 816 Whitaker Lane, Norfolk VA 23510 (Young Terrace Rental Office). All prospective bidders are strongly encouraged to attend.

Please contact Randy Hill – Senior Construction Project Manager (rhill@nrha.us) for any related questions. All questions must be received by 1 PM Friday, March 30, 2023.

Sealed Bids will be received, publicly opened and read aloud on Friday, April 7, 2023 at 1 PM local prevailing time at the office of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, 910 Ballentine Boulevard, Norfolk, Virginia.

Contract documents will be available for review by appointment only at the NRHA Office of Economic Opportunities, Calvert Square Envision Center, 975 Bagnall Road, Norfolk, VA (please call (757) 314-2026 to schedule); Builders and Contractors Exchange, Norfolk, VA; and on the Virginia Procurement Website (www.eva.virginia.gov). A thumb drive will be available from NRHA, 910 Ballentine Blvd., Norfolk, VA for the non-refundable price of 12 dollars (Company Check Only).

NRHA does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status, disability, source of funds, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status in the admission, access to or operations of programs, services or activities. Small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities and Section 3 certified businesses are encouraged to respond.

Black Founder: The Hidden Power of Being An Outsider” by Stacy Spikes © 2023, Dafina $28, 256 pages