The Bulletin

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AND THE INGLEWOOD TRIBUNE, CARSON BULLETIN, WILMINGTON  BEACON, THE CALIFORNIAN, THE WEEKENDER & EL MONTE BULLETIN WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018

AN AMERICAN PRINT MEDIA PUBLICATION

LASED

Los Angeles

Commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King, Assassinated 50 Years Ago Today Fifty years ago today, The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated on the balcony of a Memphis, TN motel where he had gone in support of city sanitation workers who were on strike for living wages and a safe workplace.

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HIS past Saturday, led by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark RidleyThomas, a former longtime director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization whose first President was Dr. King, the County dedicated the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Tree Grove at the highest point of the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.

The 15,000-sq. ft. tree grove features an obelisk that evokes memories of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and that is inscribed with some of the civil rights leaders’ most inspiring words. With sweeping vistas of downtown Los Angeles, the hilltop location will be an ideal space for peaceful reflection, a highlight of the 13-mile Park to Playa trail currently under construction, slated to connect

the beach to the Baldwin Hills by 2020. The Supervisor, who is in Memphis participating in ceremonies commemorating the assassination, also worked with the Board to coordinate MLK 50 Bell Toll events throughout Los Angeles County today. Led by the National Civil Rights Museum, the MLK 50 Bell Toll asks places of worship, college campuses and institutions around the world to have their bells toll 39 times to mark the number of years that the civil rights leader lived, and to pay homage to his legacy. Locally, the solemn ringing will begin at 4:01 p.m., the moment of Dr. King’s death.

Among those confirmed to participate in the MLK 50 Bell Toll in the County’s Supervisorial districts are: First District: The San Gabriel Valley NAACP in West Covina, the NAACP in Pomona Valley, and the African American Museum of Beginnings in Pomona. Second District: Transfiguration Church in Leimert Park. Third District: Hollywood United Methodist Church in Hollywood. Fourth District: The Korean Bell of Friendship in San Pedro. Fifth District: Holy Assembly Church of God and All Saints Church in Pasadena.

‘Hope and Dignity:’ Pope Calls for Peace in Easter Message VATICAN CITY—On Christianity's most joyful day, Pope Francis in his Easter Sunday message called for peace in a world marked by war and conflict, “beginning with the beloved and long-suffering land of Syria,” and extending to the entire Middle East, the Korean peninsula and parts of Africa affected by “hunger, endemic conflicts and terrorism.” Francis reflected on the power of Christianity's core belief—that Jesus rose from the dead following crucifixion—in his formal “Urbi et Orbi” Easter message delivered from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to a packed square below. The pontiff said the message of the resurrection offers hope in a world “marked by so many acts of injustice and violence.” “It bears fruits of hope and dignity where there are deprivation and exclusion, hunger and unemployment; where there are migrants and refugees, so often rejected by today's culture of waste, and victims of the drug trade, human trafficking and

Our Lady of Victory Church, Compton

Photo by Melina Cervantes for The Bulletin

May there be no lack of solidarity with all those forced to leave their native lands and lacking the bare essentials for living. Pope Francis

contemporary forms of slavery,” the pope said. He called for a “swift end” to carnage in Syria, demanding that aid be delivered to the needy there and calling for “fitting

conditions for the returned and the displaced.” The pope also urged reconciliation in Israel and hoped that mutual respect would “prevail over divisions” in Yemen and the entire Middle East.

Turning to Asia, Francis hoped that talks underway could bring peace to the Korean peninsula, urging “those who are directly responsible act with wisdom and discernment to promote the good of the Korean people.” For Ukraine, the pope urged more steps to bring harmony to that divided nation. He also called n Pope, see page 9

Inglewood Stadium Project Potential Boon to Minority Contractors By Jim Forbes for The Bulletin It has been thirty-eight years since Melvin Whittington left the world he knew in rural Arkansas, for the promise of Southern California. And along that road, this career trucker has experienced pretty much every metaphor a teamster faces; from potholes to sharp turns of fortune. Today, thanks to construction of the new LA Stadium in Inglewood the path is smooth and wide open. “This stadium project has really opened up for me avenues, a lot of doors for me. A lot of contractors are contacting me. On that project they’re probably going to have at least 100 different contractors out there. And everybody that needs some trucking done on that project, they are all contacting me to do the work for them.” Nestled in the lowlands beside the Mississippi River, West Helena, Arkansas, with a current population of fewer than nine thousand residents is a world removed from the competitive bustle of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. And when he arrived in 1980, Mr. Whittington was prepared to start on the bottom rung of the ladder. But he had a boost, brothers and a cousin who helped him learn to drive a big rig and then they put him to work doing so. For the next thirteen years he hauled dirt and demolition debris in one of their dump trucks. And then in 1993, with his savings, he bought his furst truck and went out on his own. Over the next decade and a half Mr. Whittington thrived, quadrupling his fleet to four trucks. But then the combination of a divorce and the great recession drove Mr. Whittington into a sinkhole. His business was dissolved and he found himself back on the ladder’s first rung. In 2010, he managed to buy a single truck once again, creating Hammer Down Transportation, but it was a slog. “Business was slow, very slow, I was barely making it. I was working here and there. Work a few days and be off a week or two. I’d get another 2-3 days and be off two to three weeks. I really had to hustle to get through the recession” And as a union trucker he was often undercut by lowball bids. But then in 2012, both the economy and Mr. Whittington’s fortunes began to change for the better as he signed the first of two contracts with the Port of Long Beach, including hauling dirt associated with n Project, see page 9


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