The New Tri-State Defender - July 27-August 2, 2023

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July 27 - August 2, 2023

VOL. 72, No. 30

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Lasell University’s 10th president – Eric Turner – has deep Memphis roots

By Jerome Wright jwright@tsdmemphis.com

New Lasell University President Eric Turner Eric Turner’s is the son of the late Jesse H. Turner Sr., the first African-American CPA in Tennessee, a former Shelby County Commissioner and the longtime president of the National NAACP. Jesse H. Turner Jr. succeeded his father as bank Tri-State Bank president in 1990 and served in that position until 2016. (Courtesy photo)

For years, former Memphian Eric Turner excelled in the world of finance, following a career choice that made his father, Jesse H. Turner Sr., and older brother, Jesse H. Turner Jr., household names among a host of Memphians.

Now, Eric Turner finds himself on another career path – in academia. On April 10, he as elected as the 10th president of Lasell University in Newton, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb.

He took office July 1.

During a recent telephone interview while things still were being delivered to his new

office, Turner said he “was stepping into the shoes of 35 years of history,” a reference to the university’s previous two presidents: Thomas de Witt, who transformed Lasell from a two-year women’s institution with 200 to 300 students, which was close to closing, into a co-ed four-year university with 1,200 undergraduate students and 700 graduate students.

And, Michael Alexander, who kept Lasell on the institution’s growth surge over his 16-year leadership tenure.

Eric Turner’s father is the late Jesse H. Turner Sr., the first African-American CPA in Tennessee. The elder Turner, who died in 1989, was a long-time Shelby County Commissioner, and also served as the commission’s first Black

chairman.

Turner Sr. served as treasurer of the National NAACP for years and was the long serving president of the historic Tri-State Bank, which provided crucial financial resources to help African-American churches, organizations and HBCU’s.

Jesse H. Turner Jr. succeeded his father as bank president in 1990 and served in that position until 2016.

Eric Turner graduated from Christian Brothers High School, which Jesse Jr. integrated in 1963 when the high school still was part of the then-Christian Brothers College campus.

SEE TURNER ON PAGE 2

City Council’s infrastructure spending brings scrutiny in the latest storm’s aftermath

by James Coleman

Special to The New Tri-State Defender

On Monday the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center was named the Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers Jr. VA Medical Center in honor of Tuskegee Airman Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers Jr. (Photos: Gary W. Whitlow/ GSW Enterprises/The New Tri-State Defender)

A son remembers his father’s Tuskegee Airmen legacy

by Karanja A. Ajanaku The New Tri-State Defender

Luke J. Weathers III is – for the record – the son of Lt. Col. Luke J. Weathers Jr., one of the famed Tuskegee Airman KP. He’s long been proud of his father and an event held in Downtown Memphis on Monday “means a lot to the family and to the community itself,” said Weathers.

Last year, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) introduced a bill to name the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center for Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers Jr. “I think it’s something, looking back, if Dad were here, he would be very humble and probably overwhelmed that all this recognition’s being given to him and placed on him at this time,” said Weathers

Luke J. Weathers III of his late father “You got to remember when he was a Tuskegee Airman and the other airman that fought in World War II, they just wanted to serve the country. They want felt that they

were men just like the Caucasian soldiers were, and they had more to give than just cleaning little trains and being cooks and polishing boots.”

Luke Joseph Weathers Jr. was born December 16, 1922, in Grenada, Miss.. At age five, he moved to Memphis, where he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and later became an alumnus of Xavier University in New Orleans, La. Upon graduating, Weathers enlisted in one of the first training programs for African-American pilots, beginning his journey as a Tuskegee Airman. He flew the plane with the celebrated “Red Tails.”

During World War II, Weathers Jr. was credited with shooting down German

SEE TUSKEGEE ON PAGE 2

With recent severe storms and long-term power outages as a backdrop, Memphis Memphis City Council members Tuesday (July 25) approved spending $22.6 million to fund numerous repairs and improvements to the city’s sewer and water drainage infrastructure.

“Purely from a master planning perspective, these projects are coming to us to address mostly repetitive flooding issues, or just failing infrastructure. We have a large number of projects we need to move forward with, in regard to flooding,” said Robert Knecht, city of Memphis public works director.

The repairs and upgrades include $8.7 million to refurbish failing sewer lines. Another $2.7 million will pay for the relocation of an existing drainage line under the Memphis Fire Department firehouse at Washington Avenue and Danny Thomas Boulevard.

However, most of the investments will go towards easing flooding along roadways, which was a common complaint among council members.

The expenses include citywide drainage repairs and for a new Bartlett Road bridge over Fletcher Creek, which both received $2 million.

Memphis Area Transit Authority’s Innovation Corridor netted a $1.7 million investment for stormwater infrastructure. While another $1.45 million will fund pipe installation along flood-prone South Germantown Road.

Other flood prone areas, such as those near railroad easements, are more challenging, Knecht said.

Public works’ scope of improvement also is limited by the standard set by the drainage handled during “average storm.”

The investments are mainly to allay longstanding problems.

Yet, with the specter of climate change hovering over a spate of inclement weather – such as the July 19 storm that left

SEE COUNCIL ON PAGE 2

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The New Tri-State Defender

July 27 - August 2, 2023

Page 2

NEWS

TUSKEGEE

CONTINUED FROM FRONT planes in the protection of United States Army Air Corps bombers and bringing down two Messerschmitt 109s in Italy while escorting a damaged B–24 Liberator bomber.

During his military career, Weathers rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He also received numerous honors and awards. Among them were the Distinguished Flying Cross, The Air Medal with seven clusters, and an American Theater Ribbon Victory Medal.

Following the war, Weathers returned to Memphis, receiving a hero’s welcome. On June 25, 1945, he became the first African American to receive the key to the City of Memphis, which declared the day “Luke Weathers Jr. Day.” In 1965, after transferring from his Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) position in Anchorage, Alaska, Weathers became the first African American Air Traffic Controller in Memphis. He later held positions with the FAA in Atlanta, Georgia, and in the District of Columbia, where he eventually retired in 1985 after serving as a reservist in the military for 23 years.

“So, the opportunity came that Tuskegee was started, and I call it the Tuskegee Project because in actuality some people try to say it’s a Tuskegee experiment. That’s a different thing, but that’s a different discussion altogether,” said Weathers, who shared a story detailing that his father once faced having “washed out “According to Weathers, his father was told before his last training with an instructor that he was one pink slip away from being kicked out.

“So they took off and the instructor yelled out, maneuvered for forced landing. (His father) picked out the field and he was going to land in. He started his maneuver and the instructor told him that “you can’t make it.”

Weathers said his father knew that he had two other pink slips….

TURNER

CONTINUED FROM FRONT He earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

He worked as an investment banker for seven years in New York City.

“I left that to work for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as deputy treasurer from 1991 to 1992. I didn’t stay long because my boss asked me to run the state lottery. I did that from 1992 to 1996.

“It was a fun job, but it was tough. We had 400 to 500 employees across the state and about 10,000 retailers.”

His introduction to Lasell

COUNCIL

CONTINUED FROM FRONT more than 80,000 MLGW customers without power – little investment is being made as MLGW continues to play catchup with inherited problems.

In addition to flooding, downed trees and limbs accompanied most of the storms, and as transformers exploded and power lines fell, entire streets went dark for days.

Last year, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) introduced a bill to name the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center for Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers Jr. He spoke at the naming ceremony on Monday. (Photos: Gary S. Whitlow/GSW Enterprises/The New Tri-State Defender.)

“So they (Weathers and his instructor) were fighting over the stick. Dad felt like he could make it …. if he was going to wash out, he was going to wash out on his terms.

… The instructor finally yelled out, ‘you can make it. You can make it.’ And then they took on off. So that got him into the program.”

Weathers said growing up

as a young man and learning history, “we don’t find this in the history books in the United States. You got to remember that the country denied that the Tuskegee Airman even ex-

isted.

“It wasn’t until the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the government before the program was set up. Now, once the Tuskegee Airman program was successful, you have to remember this too, World War II lasted from 1941 to 1945. The Tuskegee Airman didn’t become involved in World War II until 1944, which means the first three years the United States actually was losing the war because they had no successful bombing missions over Germany.

Weathers said the war turned around after the Tuskegee Airmen began escorting bombers.

“And, in actuality, they have amassed a military record that has not been mastered or surpassed to this day because of their involvement in World War II, Weathers said.

“The military looked at this and said, ‘we can’t have two services. So, they integrated

came in 1991 when a friend, who was on the university’s board of trustees, asked Turner to have lunch with the then-president Thomas de Witt.

“He (de Witt) was high energy … I was sold. He transformed the college…,” Turner said.

And, sold he was.

He chaired the board for five years, including chairing the board committee that hired Alexander. Alexander, he said, approached him in 2017 to be vice president of graduate and professional studies.

Since then, Eric has served as Lasell’s chief academic officer. He was appointed provost in 2020, a position he held until being elected president.

Turner said Lasell, which is eight miles from downtown Boston, is best known for its fashion design, fashion media and fashion merchandising programs. It offers graduate programs in communications, management, MBA, and business.

Although he was not involved in the search that eventually led to Turner’s election as president, Alexander said that once the board search committee decided to open the president search to internal candidates, it took about three days to convince the board Turner was the best candidate.

“He (Turner) is highly respected and revered …He is cool, calm and collected. He’s the most diplomatic person

I have ever met,” Alexander said.

Alexander said faculty and staff wrote a letter, “asking why we needed a national search when we have the perfect person right here? At that point, the board and search committee listened. The other two internal candidates also supported him,” Alexander said.

Board chair Gerry DeRoche said about Turner: “I have a lot of respect for him; for his

business background … It was impressive that so many faculty endorsed him even though he did not have an academic background. He was the right person for the situation. We are thrilled to have him as president.”

Turner wants the university to continue to grow its graduate program, while adjusting for a demographic reality: The country’s declining birthrate, which means a shrinking number of potential college

A plaque unveiled this week at the newly-named Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers Jr. VA Medical Center detailed the story of the Tuskegee Airman.

The problem was exacerbated by the utility’s years-long backlog on its tree-trimming schedule.

“Climate is a big question for us. We are seeing some interesting changes, especially with our frequency of storms, severity of storms,” said Knecht. “There’s only so much we can do with our existing infrastructure. What we are doing is to try to mitigate the problems of flooding now.”

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the military. To me, the Tuskegee Airmen were the forefathers of the Civil Rights movement because they did this first before Rosa Parks. They did this first before Martin Luther King.

In 2007, Weathers and the Tuskegee Airmen were honored with the highest civilian recognition awarded by the U.S. Congress, the Congressional Gold Medal. The medal recognized their unique military record that inspired revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces.

On October 15, 2011, Weathers died in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 90, leaving behind his wife, two sons and daughters, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren, as well as a legacy of countless lives he touched.

On January 20, 2012, he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. entrants.

Turner said the birthrate issue, along with other factors, is “the enrollment challenge that small independent colleges have to face… (that is why) we have to grow the graduate programs and put more focus on workforce development.”

Turner is married to Wanda Whitmore, a writer and producer for a small video production company. They have four grown children, Weslie, Candice, Jared, and Allegra.

The New Tri-State Defender

July 27 - August 2, 2023

Page 3

NEWS

For Emmett Till’s family, national monument proclamation cements his inclusion in the American story

by Aaron Morrison and Emily Wagster Pettus

When President Joe Biden signed a proclamation Tuesday establishing a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, it marked the fulfillment of a promise Till’s relatives made after his death 68 years ago.

The Black teenager from Chicago, whose abduction, torture and killing in Mississippi in 1955 helped propel the Civil Rights Movement, is now an American story, not just a civil rights story, said Till’s cousin the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. “It has been quite a journey for me from the darkness to the light,” Parker said during a proclamation signing ceremony at the White House attended by dozens, including other family members, members of Congress and civil rights leaders.

“Back then in the darkness, I could never imagine the moment like this, standing in the light of wisdom, grace and deliverance,” he said.

With the stroke of Biden’s pen, the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, located across three sites in two states, became federally-protected places. Before signing the proclamation, the president said he marvels at the courage of the Till family to “find faith and purpose in pain.”

“Today, on what would have been Emmett’s 82nd birthday, we add another chapter in the story of remembrance and healing,” Biden said.

It’s the fourth such designation by the Democratic president’s administration, reflecting its broader civil rights agenda, the White House said.

The move comes as conservative leaders, mostly at the state and local levels, push legislation that limits the teaching of slavery and Black history in public schools.

“At a time when there are those who seek to ban books (and) bury history, we’re making clear, crystal clear,” Biden said. “We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know.

We should know everything — the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation.

That’s what great nations do.”

On Tuesday, reaction poured in from other elected officials and from the civil rights organizing community.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said the Till national monument designation tells him “that out of pain comes power.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jefferies said the monument “places the life and legacy of Emmett Till among our nation’s most treasured memorials.”

“Black history is American history,” he said in a written statement.

Till’s family members, along with a national organization seeking to preserve Black cultural heritage sites, say their work protecting the Till legacy continues. They hope to raise money to restore the sites and develop educational programming to support their inclusion in the National Park System.

Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said the federal designation is a milestone in a yearslong effort to preserve and protect places tied

“At a time when there are those who seek to ban books (and) bury history, we’re making clear, crystal clear. We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know.”

— President Joe Biden to events that have shaped the nation and that symbolize national wounds.

“We believe that not until Black history matters will Black lives and Black bodies matter,” he said. “Through reckoning with America’s racist past, we have the opportunity to heal.”

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has provided $750,000 in grant funding since 2017 to help rescue sites important to the Till legacy. A number of other philanthropic organizations have contributed several million dollars towards preservation of the Till sites.

Biden’s proclamation protects places that are central to the story of Emmett Till’s life and death at age 14, the acquittal of his white killers by an all-white jury and his late mother’s activism.

In the summer of 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley put her son Emmett on a train to her native Mississippi, where he was to spend time with his uncle and his cousins. In the overnight hours of Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett was taken from his uncle’s home at gunpoint by two vengeful white men.

Emmett’s alleged crime?

Flirting with the wife of one of his kidnappers.

Three days later, a fisherman on the Tallahatchie River discovered the teenager’s bloated corpse – one of his eyes was detached, an ear was missing, his head was shot and bashed in.

Till-Mobley demanded that Emmett’s mutilated remains be taken back to Chicago for a public, open casket funeral that was attended by tens of thousands of people. Graphic images taken of Emmett’s remains, sanctioned by his mother, were published by Jet magazine and fueled the Civil Rights Movement.

At the trial of his killers in Mississippi, Till-Mobley bravely took the witness stand to counter the perverse image of her son that defense attorneys had painted for jurors and trial watchers.

Altogether, the Till national monument will include 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares) of land and two historic buildings. The Mississippi sites are Graball Landing, the spot where Emmett’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River just outside of Glendora, Mississippi, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Emmett’s killers were tried.

At Graball Landing, a memorial sign installed in 2008 had been repeatedly stolen and was riddled with bullets.

An inch-thick bulletproof sign was erected at the site in October 2019.

The Illinois site is Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Emmett’s funeral was held in September 1955.

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who originally intro-

duced the bipartisan legislation to federally recognize and protect Roberts Temple, noted the church’s importance to the history of Chicago and the nation.

“It’s past time we recognize how national monuments can not only teach us about our history — but provoke us to build a more just future,” the Democratic senator said in a statement.

Mississippi state Sen. David Jordan, 90, was a freshman at Mississippi Valley State College in 1955 when he attended part of the trial of the two men charged with killing Emmett. As a state senator for the past 30 years, Jordan, who is Black, spearheaded fundraising for a statue of Emmett Till that was dedicated last year in Greenwood, Mississippi, a few miles from where the teenager was abducted.

On Tuesday, Jordan praised Biden for creating the Till national monument.

“It’s one of the greatest honors that a president could pay to a person, 14, who lost his life in Mississippi that’s created a movement that changed America,” Jordan told the AP. Daphne Chamberlain, a history professor at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, said Emmett’s brutal killing continues to resonate in racial justice issues of today.

Flanked by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., a cousin of Emmett Till, spoke during a proclamation signing ceremony at the White House on Tuesday. (Screen capture) “Over the past decade or so, we have seen as a nation the murder of young Black men like Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Tyre Nichols in Memphis, (and) Ahmaud Arbery,” she said. “In each of these instances, what we have also seen is the bravery of the mothers in coming to the forefront and speaking out against what happened to their sons, but also making sure that they stayed the course in pursuing justice.”

The Till national monument joins dozens of federally recognized landmarks, buildings and other places in the Deep South, in the north and out west that represent historical events and tragedies from the Civil Rights Movement. For example, in Atlanta, sites representing the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including his birth home

and Ebenezer Baptist Church, are all part of the National Park Service.

The designation often requires public and private entities to work together on developing interpretation centers at each of the sites, so that anyone who visits can understand the site’s significance. The hiring of park rangers is supported through partnerships with the National Park Foundation, the park service’s official nonprofit, and the National Parks Conservation Association.

Increasingly, the park service includes sites “that are part of the arc of justice in this country, both telling where we’ve come from, how far we’ve come, and frankly, how far we have to still go,” said Will Shafroth, the president and CEO of the National Park Foundation.

For Parker, who was 16 years old when he witnessed Emmett’s abduction, the Till monument proclamation begins to lift the weight of trauma that he has carried for most of his life. In an interview with the AP ahead of Tuesday’s White House event, Parker reflected on the decades-long fight to portray Emmett and his story in a proper light.

“I’ve been suffering for all these years of how they’ve portrayed him — I still deal with that,” Parker, 84, said of his cousin Emmett.

“The truth should carry itself, but it doesn’t have wings.

You have to put some wings on it.”

(Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.)

PERSPECTIVE The New Tri-State Defender, July 27 - August 2, 2023, Page 4

Harvard’s legacy admissions prompt Education Department investigation

by Michael Casey

Why this matters:

Associated Press

BOSTON – Opening a new front in legal battles over college admissions, the U.S. Department of Education has launched a civil rights investigation into Harvard University’s policies on legacy admissions.

Top colleges’ preferential treatment of children of alumni, who are often white, has faced mounting scrutiny since the Supreme Court last month struck down the use of affirmative action as a tool to boost the presence of students of color.

The department notified Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit based in Boston, on Monday that it was investigating the group’s claim that the university “discriminates on the basis of race by using donor and legacy preferences in its undergraduate admissions process.”

An Education Department spokesperson confirmed its Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation at Harvard. The agency declined further comment.

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden has “made clear that legacy admissions hold back our ability to build diverse student bodies.”

The complaint was filed earlier this month on behalf of Black and Latino community groups in New England. The group argued that students with legacy ties are up to seven times more likely to be admitted to Harvard, can make up nearly a third of a class and that about 70 percent are white.

For the Class of 2019, about 28 percent of the class were legacies with a parent or other relative who went to Harvard.

“We are gratified that the Department of Education has acted swiftly to open this investigation,” the group said in an email statement. “Harvard should follow the lead of a growing number of colleges and universities — including Amherst, MIT, Johns Hopkins, the University of California, and most recently Wesleyan – and voluntarily abandon these unfair and undeserved preferences.”

A spokesperson for Harvard on Tuesday said the university has been reviewing its admissions policies to ensure compliance with the law since the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.

“As this work continues, and moving forward, Harvard remains dedicated to opening doors to opportunity and to redoubling our efforts to encourage students from many different backgrounds to apply for admission,” the spokesperson said.

Ending legacy preferences is “one of many steps that Harvard and other universities can take to increase access, diversity, and equity in admissions,” said Jane Sujen Bock, a board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, which includes alumni, student and staff.

Last week, Wesleyan University in Connecticut announced that it would end its policy of giving preferential treatment in admissions to those whose families have historical ties to the school. Wesleyan President Michael Roth said a student’s “legacy status” has played a negligible role in admissions, but would now be eliminated entirely.

A protester demonstrates her view of the U.S. Supreme court in the wake of recent decisions, including last month’s ruling that struck down the use of affirmative action at the college level. Screen capture, Associated Press)

Top colleges’ preferential treatment of children of alumni, who are often white, has faced mounting scrutiny since the Supreme Court last month struck down the use of affirmative action as a tool to boost the presence of students of color. Members of the Supreme Court in the Justices’ Conference Room prior to an investiture ceremony. From left: Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Associate Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Elena Kagan, and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

(Photo: Collection of the U.S. Supreme Court)

Pictured is the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. A recent study led by researchers at Harvard and Brown found that wealthy students were twice as likely to be admitted to elite schools compared to their loweror middle-income counterparts who have similar standardized test scores.

(Screen capture, Associated Press) In recent years, other schools – including Amherst College in Massachusetts, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland – also have eliminated legacy admissions.

Legacy policies have been called into question after last month’s Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action and any consideration of race in college admissions. The court’s conservative majority

• A complaint was filed earlier this month on behalf of Black and Latino community groups in New England by Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit based in Boston. The group argued that students with legacy ties are up to seven times more likely to be admitted to Harvard, can make up nearly a third of a class and that about 70 percent are white. For the Class of 2019, about 28 percent of the class were legacies with a parent or other relative who went to Harvard.

• Ending legacy preferences is “one of many steps that Harvard and other universities can take to increase access, diversity, and equity in admissions,” said Jane Sujen Bock, a board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, which includes alumni, student and staff. effectively overturned cases reaching back 45 years, forcing institutions of higher education to seek new ways to achieve student diversity.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said he commended the Education Department for taking steps to ensure the higher education system “works for every American, not just a privileged few.”

“Every talented and qualified student deserves an opportunity to attend the college of their choice. Affirmative Action existed to support that notion. Legacy admissions exists to undermine it,” he said.

Sarah Hinger, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, said she did not know the specifics of the Harvard program but “as a general matter, legacy admissions tend to benefit disproportionately, white people and wealthy people.”

“Systemic racism and inequality has allowed some people to build legacies across generations of their family in the same way that systemic racism has left many families of color out of opportunities in the educational hierarchy. In a way they’re two sides of the same coin,” she added.

A study led by Harvard and Brown researchers, published Monday, found that wealthy students were twice as likely to be admitted to elite schools compared to their lower- or middle-income counterparts who have similar standardized test scores.

The study looked at family income and admissions data at Ivy League schools as well as Stanford, MIT, Duke and the University of Chicago. It found that legacy admissions policies were a contributing factor to the advantage high-income students have at these schools. Athletic recruitment and extracurricular credentials, which are stronger when students attend affluent private high schools, were the other two factors.

(Associated Press reporters Annie Ma and Gary Fields contributed from Washington, D.C.)

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The New Tri-State Defender

July 27 - August 2, 2023

RELIGION

Progressive draws upon Proverbs for Men’s Day focus…

In God Men Trust was the theme for the most recent Men’s Day Program held at Progressive M.B.C., 394 Vance Avenue (O.C. Collins Sr. Avenue.) The theme was chosen from Proverbs 3:5-6. (Photo: Tyrone P. Easley/The New Tri-State Defender)

Mid-summer revival…

Mt. Moriah-East Baptist Church, 1248 Haynes St., held its Mid-Summer Gospel Nights revival on July 24-26. The host pastor was the Rev. Dr. Melvin C. Smith. The Rev Dr. George L. Parks was the guest evangelist. (Photos: Tyrone P. Easley/The New Tri-State Defender)

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The New Tri-State Defender, July 27 - August 2, 2023, Page 6

Ice Cube – as he and many other prominent Black folks have often stated – has every right to tell his story to whomever he pleases.

Ice Cube took Tucker Carlson for a ride through the hood and we’re just as shocked as you are

by Shanelle Genai theroot.com

Picture it: South Central Los Angeles, 2023. Rapper Ice Cube and conservative talking head Tucker Carlson taking a midday drive through the hood as they wax poetic about their ideologies and opinions—chief among them Cube’s antiCOVID-19 vaccine stance.

If it sounds too bad to be true, and too WTF to be believed, then I regret to inform you that that’s exactly what went down in the latest episode of Carlson’s Twitter show “Stay In Your Lane,” released Tuesday. The former (read: fired) Fox News host was joined by the “Straight Outta Compton” rapper, and they discussed hot-button issues as Ice Cube highlighted different areas in the neighborhood that were pivotal in his career.

We’ll pause here to note that Cube – as he and many other prominent Black folks have often stated – has every right to tell his story to whomever he pleases. He’s more than earned it as a pioneer in music and film. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with talking to someone who shares a different political ideology than most of your fans.

Rapper Ice Cube and conservative talking head Tucker Carlson take a midday drive through the hood as they discuss various topics, including Cube’s anti-COVID 19 vaccine stance. (Screen capture) But...this guy? For fans who remember “Straight Outta Compton Cube,” “No Vaseline Cube,” the guy whose gangsta-turned-militant-Black-nationalist raps scared the s--- out of a generation of cops and suburban white parents, it might just be understandable if serving as a ghetto tour guide for the literal face of white supremacy in modern media is a bridge too

far. Carlson spent the last decade as Fox News’ most arguably most right-wing and racist host, a guy who so routinely trafficked in anti-Black content that the New York Times did an entire project on it.

It’s literally called, “How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable.”

One of the ways he did it is by routinely holding up Black men like Ice Cube as

threats to respectable white folk.

Speaking to his refusal over getting the vaccine – which, as previously reported

by The Root, resulted in him losing out on a $9 million film role opportunity as shots were mandated at the time – the “Friday” actor explained that he didn’t feel safe taking it because he felt that it was a “sixmonth kind of rush job.”

After Carlson retorted that he was told the vaccine was safe, Ice said: “I know what they said (laughs). I know what they said, and I heard them. I heard them loud and clear, but it’s not their decision. There’s no repercussions if they’re wrong, but I can get all the repercussions if they’re wrong.”

When asked if making the decision was a “tough call,” the “Ride Along” star said: “No, it wasn’t a tough call. I wanted to be an example for my kids, really make sure they wouldn’t take it either, show them that I want to stand on my convictions and that I was willing to lose $9 million and more because we’ve probably lost more since then.”

Well, I certainly didn’t have Ice Cube and Tucker Carlson taking a cruise through the hood on my 2023 BINGO card but you know what? To hell with the card, I want out of this game entirely.

“I wanted to make a change in my community and offer more options.” – Lyana Blount of Black Rican Vegan

Meet Lyana Blount, founder/CEO/Chef of Black Rican Vegan

by Jasmine Hardy Thegrio

Bronx native Lyana Blount is the CEO, Founder and Chef of Black Rican Vegan.

The company produces comfort food that takes its inspiration from Blount’s African American and Puerto Rican roots.

Jasmine “Black Rican Vegan Hardy was actually a thought in 2016,” Blount tells theGrio. “I just never acted on it because I was working my full-time job and also doing my other business: Prepped To Go, which was like a meal prep business.”

During the pandemic, Blount shared her meals on her Instagram feed and began to notice that people were showing interest in her dishes.

“The reason why it became so popular during the pandemic is because I had more time to be home and to showcase these dishes on my Instagram feed and people took a liking to it,” explains Blount.

“We started to gain a lot of followers over the time and people were home bored as well just watching me make these recipes and post these photos,” Blount con-

tinues. “And April 6, 2021, they wanted a menu, I created a menu for them and I was cooking all the food, making the deliveries the same day. And from there we haven’t stopped.”

Blount went from cooking in her home to currently cooking at a commercial space in Harlem because of the high demand. She provides catering options and does pop-up shops throughout New York City!

Black Rican Vegan has received praise from stars like Grammy Award-winning artist Lizzo. On Tik-Tok, Lizzo uploaded a video of her trying several Black Rican Vegan meals. One was the Chopped Cheese Eggroll. After taking a bite, Lizzo exclaims, “I’m honestly speechless. This was the most delicious thing I ever had.”

Blount has a very small but mighty team and eventually hopes to open up a brickand-mortar store in New York City.

“I’m just a person who just grew up cooking, doing what I love,” Blounts says.

“You meet other passionate chefs who’ve been in culinary schools and have these big businesses doing what they have to do, too.

And you’re almost sometimes compared. I think I just feel like I’m in my own lane and they know that they’re in their own lane.”

(Source: Made…”)

“theGrio

Presents

CEO, Founder and Chef of Black Rican Vegan Lyana Blount strikes the X pose, which is the symbol for The Bronx. (Screen captures/ Black Rican Vegan)

Black Chef Lyana Blount dishes with jackfruit, vernil, white rice and pink beans.

The New Tri-State Defender

July 27 - August 2, 2023

Page 7

NEWS

Coalition of civil rights groups to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington Special to The New Tri-State Defender WASHINGTON – In wake of what is described as the Supreme Court’s continued campaign against democracy and civil rights, Black leaders will bring together a large coalition for the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington this August.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and Arndrea Waters King will lead a coalition of 60 national organizations across racial, cultural, and generational lines to commemorate the historic march at the Lincoln Memorial on August 26th.

The demonstration will come two months after the Supreme Court gutted affirmative action in higher education and chipped away at LGBTQ+ rights and one year after the bench rolled back longstanding abortion protections under Roe v. Wade.

A coalition of right-leaning attorneys general immediately seized on the affirmative action ruling – warning Corporate America that any personnel decisions based on race or related factors would qualify as discrimination.

Black civil rights leaders have been steadfast in their fight to protect decades worth of rights won through organizing, marching, and voting.

The nation’s legacy civil rights organizations have signed on as co-chairs of the March. That includes the ADL, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, Human Rights Commission, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Legal Defense Fund, NAACP, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Council of Negro Women, National Urban League and UNIDOS. Criminal justice reform and the impact it can have on Black communities has been a core pillar of the National Action Network’s work since the Rev. Sharpton founded the organization in 1991 with the support of the King family. Over the last decade, Rev. Sharpton has delivered the eulogy for several dozen Black men and

A coalition of civil rights groups will observe the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. Some organizers are calling it a “continuation” rather than a commemoration. (Photo: Library of Congress.) women unjustly killed by law enforcement.

He delivered a clarion call for real, systemic change during the 2020 funeral of George Floyd, which was attended by the King family, and which set the tone for the 2020 March on Washington later that summer. The Kings have also been on the forefront of protecting the right to vote, including leading the effort to pass the federal John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act in August 2021. They also led No Celebration Without Legislation in January 2022, with activations in almost every state.

While the March on Washington was centered around jobs and economic opportunities, recent data from the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA) shows Black and Brown Americans face

multiple barriers. The median wealth gap between Black and white households has widened by $40,000 over the last 60 years, from $121,000 in 1963 to $161,000 today.

Student debt, which overwhelmingly hits Black Americans harder, is a driving factor for this yawning gap – with limited relief in sight after the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s plan to wipe as much as $20,000 per borrower.

A combination of bad policies, underinvestment, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act have also driven poverty among Black and Brown Americans. Unemployment among Black Americans remains twice as high when compared to white Americans, according to FPWA, and 1 in 3 Black chil-

dren live in poverty as a result. Black and Brown women especially face the greatest economic hardships as they earn $.64 and $.55, respectively, for every $1 a white man earns.

The coalition will gather for a large-scale event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on Saturday, August 26, 2023.

The pre-program for the event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC will begin at 7 a.m. (CT) with the main program beginning at 10 a.m. (ET).

Following the program, a march will begin through the streets of the Nation’s Capital, culminating at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

Additional details will be released prior to the event.

COMMUNITY The New Tri-State Defender, July 27 - August 2, 2023, Page 8

City Council edges forward on two 2024 ballot questions

“We are working to figure out how to partner with Section 8 to help make our $500 a month 280-square foot homes even more affordable.”

— Tina Montgomery

by James Coleman

Special to The New Tri-State Defender

Memphis City Council members Tuesday (July 25) took the first step towards approving referenda questions for this October’s city elections after unanimously approving a pair of resolutions, including whether to re-establish the City Court Clerk position as an elected position.

It was the first of three required readings.

The other referendum asks voters if employees of the City of Memphis should be required to live within Shelby County limits.

The Court Clerk referendum seeks to reverse a June vote, when the council also unanimously approved an ordinance that gave power of appointment to the three City Court judges. The appointee would then seek council approval.

As a result of the vote, the clerk’s position will not be on this year’s ballot on Oct. 5.

Current City Court Clerk Myron Lowery’s term ends on Dec. 31. Afterwards, the Traffic Violations Bureau will move to the city administration’s division of finance and administration.

Council members moved to nix the office as an elected position after an ongoing review of the City Charter, where council attorney Allan Wade and city Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink discovered a problem.

In 1975, a referendum was passed during a city election to make the clerk’s office an elected position.

However, the ballot question was supposed to take place alongside the Shelby County general election during an even-numbered year.

Regarding the residency referendum, the city’s Department of Human Resources website residency requirement page states: “Effective January 3, 2011, all City of Memphis Government employees must be residents of Shelby County, Tennessee … Employees hired on or before January 3, 2005, may continue residing outside the boundaries of Shelby County, Tennessee, and shall not be required to move into the County.

The requirement makes exceptions for police officers.

Council chair Martavius Jones sponsored both referenda.

MLGW board reappointment on hold

by James Coleman

Special to The New Tri-State Defender

What normally would have been a routine re-appointment to the Memphis Light Gas and Water Division board of directors took an expected turn Tuesday (July 25).

During a meeting of the council’s Personnel and Government Affairs Committee, Michael Pohlman was up for a reappointment vote.

Councilmember Cheyenne Johnson, however, proposed a delay, while she seeks the input of “top candidates” for mayor in the upcoming election.

Pohlman was nominated by Mayor Jim Strickland, who is in his second and final term. Johnson has announced she is not seeking re-election to her council seat.

So far, there are 19 mayoral declared candidates. The winner will assume office on Jan. 1, 2024. Thursday (July 27) is the last day candidates can redraw from the Oct. 5 city elections.

“I want the new mayor, whoever he or she may be, to have an opportunity to appoint someone. It’s not a reflection of Mr. Pohlman whatsoever. It’s just a different way of thinking,” said Johnson.

Johnson’s proposal did not gain traction and committee members voted to recommend Pohlman’s reappointment to the full council at the first council session in August.

The Benevout Community Service Corporation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, held its Ground Breaking Ceremony recently at 1400 Wells Station Road. The organization’s mission is to help end homelessness and hunger in Memphis-Shelby County. According to Tina Montgomery, the Founder of Benevout and its Efficiency (Tiny) Homes Project, the goal is to open ground to build something that the working homeless can afford. (Photo: Gary S. Whitlow/GSW Enterprises/The New Tri-State Defender)

Benevout takes next step to help homeless with Efficiency (Tiny) Homes Project

TSD Newsroom The Benevout Community Service Corporation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, held its Ground Breaking Ceremony recently at 1400 Wells Station Road.

The organization’s mission is to help end homelessness and hunger in Memphis-Shelby County. Programs include a mobile restaurant to feed the homeless where they are and assess their need from a truck, without ever having to exit the vehicle, which is crucial to keeping the volunteers safe.

According to Tina Montgomery, the Founder of Benevout and its Efficiency (Tiny) Homes Project, the goal is to open ground to build something that the working homeless can afford. Montgomery said Memphis rent in some places is up 30 percent since COVID-19, and she said, with inflation so high, it’s no wonder homelessness is on the rise.

“We want to help. “We are offering a hand, not a hand out.”The homes we are building will first accommodate the working homeless, those threatening homelessness, and then the lower income citizens of our community who can see themselves living tiny until they can come up from their current situation,” she said.

“We are working to figure out how to

partner with Section 8 to help make our $500 a month 280-square foot homes even more affordable. The homes will be built by Dewayne Jones, who is known around Memphis and the state of Tennessee for his buildings.

Tina The cost to build each Montgomery home is $50,000.

“We obtained a loan for our pilot homes, but are looking for funding to repay that loan and continue building our communities around the city to help get the homeless off the streets and into a place they can call home, Montgomery said.

“No longer will they have to carry their belongings just to use the restroom. They can lock and open their own doors. They can feel safe from attack while they sleep or theft of their property. We can make the difference, but we need help from the community to make this happen.

At the ground breaking were partners Rob Herd with Allen and Hoshall Engineers, a global company that has been in business over 100 years. Montgomery said, “Rob was there from the beginning helping us get

through those parts of this project that we did not understand. He promised to be with us until the end and he is still here after two years of efforts.

Charles Graves of Hero Homes for veterans attended, promising to be there for Benevout. James Harvey, a City of Memphis Mayoral Candidate, also attended the ground breaking.

“As a businessman in the great city of Memphis, I fully support the organization, because you have discovered a humanitarian need within our community, and that is addressing homelessness among our working population. Thank you for the dedication and your sincerity in addressing Homelessness.”

Montgomery said volunteers are needed.

“We are still building our Board, looking for professional fund raisers and grant writers. We are still asking for the corporate, government, and community financial support. Our website is under construction.

Donations can be sent to Benevout Community Service Corporation, 3755 Sweet Tree Drive, Memphis, TN 38128. Make checks payable to: Benevout Community Service Corp.

For those who prefer cashapp, donations can be sent to: $bettertina; make the memo: Outreach

D.A. Mulroy to host public safety summit TSD Newsroom Shelby County District Atty. Gen. Steve Mulroy will host a public safety summit designed to bring law enforcement and local leaders together to tackle the issue of violent crime in Shelby County.

The Summit – to be held on August 31 – will be a collaborative, strategic planning session to determine key objectives

that can be shared among the DA’S Office, law enforcement, and other city officials in Shelby County.

“We’re in a crime crisis,” Mulroy said.

“And the only way to reduce crime is for everyone to work together. The summit’s goal is to create a space for law enforcement, city, and county leaders, and the DA’s Office to brainstorm and leave with three to five objectives to which we can all commit.”

Confirmed attendees include: Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee Kevin Ritz, Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon, state Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), state Rep. John Gillespie (R-Memphis), United States Marshal for the Western District of Tennessee Tyreece Miller, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr., and leaders from MPD.

Steve Mulroy

The New Tri-State Defender

NEWS

July 27 - August 2, 2023

Teachers sue over Tennessee law restricting what they can teach about race, gender, and bias

by Marta W. Aldrich Chalkbeat Tennessee

Tennessee’s largest teacher organization has joined with five public school educators to legally challenge a 2-year-old state law restricting what they can teach about race, gender, and bias in their classrooms.

Their lawsuit, which was filed late Tuesday in a federal court in Nashville by lawyers for the Tennessee Education Association, maintains the language in the 2021 law is unconstitutionally vague and that the state’s enforcement plan is subjective.

The complaint also charges that Tennessee’s so-called “prohibited concepts” law interferes with instruction on difficult but important topics included in the state’s academic standards. Those standards outline state-approved learning goals, which dictate other decisions around curriculum and testing.

The lawsuit is the first legal challenge to the controversial state law that was among the first of its kind in the nation.

The law passed amid a conservative backlash to America’s reckoning over racism after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis and subsequent anti-racist protests.

Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge, one of the Republican sponsors of the legislation, argued the law was needed to protect K-12 students from being “indoctrinated” with social concepts that he and other lawmakers considered misguided and divisive such as critical race theory. That academic framework, which surveys of teachers suggest are not being taught in K-12 schools, is more commonly found in higher education to examine how policies and the law perpetuate systemic racism.

Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature overwhelmingly passed the legislation in the final days of their 2021 session, just days after the bill’s introduction. Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed it into law, and later that year, the state education department set rules for enforcement. If found in violation, teachers can be stripped of their licenses and school districts can lose state funding.

Only a small number of complaints have been filed and no penalties levied during the law’s first two years on the books. But Ragan has introduced new legislation that would widen eligibility for who can file a complaint.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the law and asks for a court order against its enforcement.

The complaint claims the statute fails to give Tennessee educators a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct and teachings are prohibited.

“Teachers are in this gray area where we don’t know what we can and can’t do or say in our classrooms,” said Kathryn Vaughn, a veteran teacher in Tipton County, near Memphis, and one of five educators who are plaintiffs in the case.

“The rollout of the law – from guidance to training –

“Teachers are in this gray area where we don’t know what we can and can’t do or say in our classrooms. The rollout of the law – from guidance to training – has been almost nonexistent. That’s put educators in an impossible position.”

— Kathryn Vaughn

Tanya T. Coats is the president of the Tennessee Education Association “Laws need to be clear,” said Coats, who added that educators have spent “countless hours” trying to understand the law and the 14 concepts banned from the classroom – including that the United States is “fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.” (Photo: TNEA. org.) has been almost nonexistent,” Vaughn added. “That’s put educators in an impossible position.”

The lawsuit also charges the law encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement and violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids any state from “depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

“Laws need to be clear,” said Tanya Coats, president of the teachers group known as TEA, which is leading the litigation.

She said educators have spent “countless hours” trying to understand the law and the 14 concepts banned from the classroom – including that the United States is “fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist;” or that an individual, by virtue of their race or sex, “bears responsibility” for past actions committed by other members of the same race or sex.

TEA says the ambiguity of those concepts has had a chilling effect in schools – from how teachers answer a student’s question to what materials they read in class. To avoid the risk of time-consuming complaints and potential penalties from the state, school leaders have made changes to instruction and school activities. But ultimately, it’s students who suffer, Coats said.

“This law interferes with Tennessee teachers’ job to provide a fact-based, well-rounded education to their students,” Coats said in a news release.

The 52-page lawsuit gives specific examples of how the ban is affecting what nearly a million public school students are learning – and not learning – daily across Tennessee.

“In Tipton County, for example, one school has replaced an annual field trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis with a trip to a baseball game. In Shelby County, a choir director fears that his decades-long practice of teaching his students to

Rep. John Ragan of (R-Oak Ridge) is one of the sponsors of the legislation that became law two years ago. He argued the law was needed to protect K-12 students from being “indoctrinated” with social concepts that he and other lawmakers considered misguided and divisive such as critical race theory. (Photo: capitol.tn.gov) sing and understand the history behind spirituals sung by enslaved people will be perceived as ‘divisive’ or otherwise violative of the Ban,” the suit says. Other districts have removed books from their curriculum as a result of the law.

The governor’s office typically does not comment on pending litigation, but Lee’s press secretary, Jade Byers, provided this statement on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit: “The governor signed the legislation because every parent deserves transparency into their child’s education, and Tennessee students should be taught history and civics with facts, not divisive political commentary.”

Tennessee was among the first states to pass a law limiting the depth of classroom discussions about inequality and concepts such as white privilege.

In March, Tennessee’s education department reported that few complaints had been filed with local school districts based on the law. And the department had received only a few appeals of local decisions.

One was from the parent of a student enrolled in a private school in Davidson County.

Because the law does not apply to private schools, the department found that the parent did not have standing to file an appeal under the law.

Another complaint was filed by a Blount County parent over the book “Dragonwings,” a novel told from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant boy in the early 20th century.

The state denied the appeal based on the results of its investigation.

However, Blount County Schools still removed the book from its sixth grade curriculum. And the lawsuit described the emotional toll of the proceedings on a 45year teaching veteran who was “entangled in months of administrative proceedings, with her job on the line, because of a single parent’s complaint about an award-winning work of young adult literature that the Tennessee Department of Education approved and the

local elected school board adopted as part of the district’s curriculum.”

The department also declined to investigate a complaint from Williamson County, south of Nashville, filed soon after the law was enacted. Robin Steenman, chair of the local Moms for Liberty chapter, alleged the literacy curriculum “Wit and Wisdom,” used by Williamson County Schools in 2020-21, has a “heavily biased agenda” that makes children “hate their country, each other and/ or themselves.”

A spokesman said the department was only authorized to investigate claims beginning with the 2021-22 school year and encouraged Steenman to work with Williamson County Schools to resolve her concerns.

Department officials did not immediately respond Wednesday when asked whether the state has received more appeals in recent months.

Meanwhile, critics of the law worry about new legislative efforts to broaden its application.

Under the state’s current rules, only students, parents, or employees within a district or charter school can file complaints involving their school.

Ragan’s bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, would allow any resident within a public school zone to file a complaint.

But critics argue such a change would open the door to conservative groups, like Moms for Liberty, to flood their local school boards with complaints about instruction, books, or materials they believe violate the law, even if they do not have direct contact with the teacher or school in question.

The prohibited concepts law is separate from 2022 Tennessee law that, based on appeals of local school board decisions, empowers a state panel to ban school library books statewide if deemed “inappropriate for the age or maturity levels” of students.

(Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.)

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NOTICE OF PROPOSED SALE OF REAL PROPERTY

BY SHELBY COUNTY GOVERNMENT Notice is hereby given, pursuant to T.C.A. §67-5-2507, that Shelby County Government has received an Offer to Purchase for the following property: Andrew Bash Jr Tax Parcel #: 07802800000160 Tax Sale #: 1704 Price Offered: $61,700.00 Terms: Cash Additional Offers to Purchase, of at least ten percent (10%) higher, may be submitted within Ten (10) working days of this notice. If additional offers are received during this ten (10) day period, all prospective Purchasers must attend a Public “Bid Off” at 11:00 a.m. on August 25, 2023, to be held in the Shelby County Land Bank Office, to determine the highest and best offer. The property shall thereafter be sold to the prospective Purchaser making the highest and best offer without warranties of any sort.

Shelby County Land Bank 1075 MULLINS STATION, BLDG. E-1 MEMPHIS, TN 38134 (901) 222-1150 NOTICE OF PROPOSED SALE OF REAL PROPERTY

BY SHELBY COUNTY GOVERNMENT Notice is hereby given, pursuant to T.C.A. §67-5-2507, that Shelby County Government has received an Offer to Purchase for the following property: David Kinkade Tax Parcel #: 05901000000180 Tax Sale #: 1703 Price Offered: $4,000.00 Terms: Cash Additional Offers to Purchase, of at least ten percent (10%) higher, may be submitted within Ten (10) working days of this notice. If additional offers are received during this ten (10) day period, all prospective Purchasers must attend a Public “Bid Off” at 10:30 a.m. on August 25, 2023, to be held in the Shelby County Land Bank Office, to determine the highest and best offer. The property shall thereafter be sold to the prospective Purchaser making the highest and best offer without warranties of any sort.

Shelby County Land Bank 1075 MULLINS STATION, BLDG. E-1 MEMPHIS, TN 38134 (901) 222-1150 NOTICE OF PROPOSED SALE OF REAL PROPERTY

BY SHELBY COUNTY GOVERNMENT Notice is hereby given, pursuant to T.C.A. §67-5-2507, that Shelby County Government has received an Offer to Purchase for the following property: David Kinkade Tax Parcel #: 04706500000100 Tax Sale #: 1803 Price Offered: $4,000.00 Terms: Cash Additional Offers to Purchase, of at least ten percent (10%) higher, may be submitted within Ten (10)

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working days of this notice. If additional offers are received during this ten (10) day period, all prospective Purchasers must attend a Public “Bid Off” at 10:00 a.m. on August 25, 2023, to be held in the Shelby County Land Bank Office, to determine the highest and best offer. The property shall thereafter be sold to the prospective Purchaser making the highest and best offer without warranties of any sort.

Shelby County Land Bank 1075 MULLINS STATION, BLDG. E-1 MEMPHIS, TN 38134 (901) 222-1150 NOTICE OF PROPOSED SALE OF REAL PROPERTY

BY SHELBY COUNTY GOVERNMENT Notice is hereby given, pursuant to T.C.A. §67-5-2507, that Shelby County Government has received an Offer to Purchase for the following property: ELVA GARZA Tax Parcel #: 07005300000690 Tax Sale #: 1801 Price Offered: $15,300.00 Terms: Cash Additional Offers to Purchase, of at least ten percent (10%) higher, may be submitted within Ten (10) working days of this notice. If additional offers are received during this ten (10) day period, all prospective Purchasers must attend a Public “Bid Off” at 9:30 a.m. on August 25, 2023, to be held in the Shelby County Land Bank Office, to determine the highest and best offer. The property shall thereafter be sold to the prospective Purchaser making the highest and best offer without warranties of any sort.

Shelby County Land Bank 1075 MULLINS STATION, BLDG. E-1 MEMPHIS, TN 38134 (901) 222-1150 NOTICE OF PROPOSED SALE OF REAL PROPERTY

BY SHELBY COUNTY GOVERNMENT Notice is hereby given, pursuant to T.C.A. §67-5-2507, that Shelby County Government has received an Offer to Purchase for the following property: Jeremy Alliot Tax Parcel #: 07521900000150 Tax Sale #: 1802 Price Offered: $14,600.00 Terms: Cash Additional Offers to Purchase, of at least ten percent (10%) higher, may be submitted within Ten (10) working days of this notice. If additional offers are received during this ten (10) day period, all prospective Purchasers must attend a Public “Bid Off” at 9:00 a.m. on August 25, 2023, to be held in the Shelby County Land Bank Office, to determine the highest and best offer. The property shall thereafter be sold to the prospective Purchaser making the highest and best offer without warranties of any sort.

Shelby County Land Bank 1075 MULLINS STATION, BLDG. E-1 MEMPHIS, TN 38134 (901) 222-1150

The New Tri-State Defender

July 27 - August 2, 2023

Page 10

NEWS

TSU’s Men’s Initiative Program fosters bonds, personal growth

by TSU News Service NASHVILLE – Within the Men’s Initiative Graduation Acceleration Program (G.A.P.), a bond was forged between Tennessee State University students and their dedicated advisors.

These advisors are more than mentors; they became father figures to students such as Dwight DeBerry II, a TSU junior hailing from Memphis and who holds the title of Mister Junior for the upcoming school year. Reflecting on his journey, DeBerry revealed that he had participated in the program last year and experienced firsthand how it guided students through the maze of life’s challenges.

Now DeBerry has stepped into a leadership role as one of five lead student mentors in the program.

“It’s more than a blessing to have three father figures (the advisors) at all times to guide you through whatever you’re going through at school,” he said. “I appreciate the men’s initiative program because I came from humble beginnings. I never envisioned the man that I am becoming today.”

The 5-week summer program welcomed a cohort of 22 young male students this summer. The participants engage in profound conversations about personal growth, responsibility, integrity, and learning how to navigate life while honing in on their conflict resolution abilities.

Heading the Men’s Initiative are program coordinators Martez Safold, Walter Dirl, and Dr. Andre Bean, accompanied by their newest advisor, DeSean Keys. Bean, who is the director of the Men’s Initiative, said the program offers a curriculum de-

TSU junior Emmanuel Strickland of Memphis is a current first-time member of the Men’s Initiative Graduation Acceleration Program. Strickland said the program has instilled the importance of budgeting, saving and setting a strong foundation for their financial future.

The 5-week Men’s Initiative Graduation Acceleration Program welcomed a cohort of 22 young male students this summer. (Photos: Tennessee State University.)

“With each passing year, the program continues to empower and inspire the next generation of leaders.”

— Dr. Andre Bean signed to challenge and inspire its participants.

“The program also emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary learning, encouraging participants to make connections across different fields of study,” Bean said. “Through a comprehensive curriculum, community engagement, and mentorship opportunities, the program aims to empower young men to reach their full

potential.

“With each passing year, the program continues to empower and inspire the next generation of leaders.”

Understanding the significance of financial well-being, the G.A.P. program also emphasized financial Dr. Andre Bean literacy. The participants were equipped with practical skills during week one to manage their finances effectively.

TSU junior Emmanuel Strickland, who is a current first-time member, said so far

the program has instilled the importance of budgeting, saving and setting a strong foundation for their financial future.

Strickland, also known as “Mille Manny” said he appreciates how knowledgeable the first week has been related to his endeavors. Strickland, also of Memphis, is studying business information systems and is pursuing a career as a singer and songwriter.

“The first week has already shown me how to have long term success,” Strickland said. “As young Black men, we need this.

It’s important for TSU to have a program like this,” he continued. “This is a small step into creating generational wealth.”

Strickland also noted that he looks forward to being a program mentor next year.

“I’d love to keep adding value to this program.”

The Men’s Initiative Graduation Acceleration Program launched in 2019 and since then has shaped many alumnus throughout their college years. The program has also set alums on a path towards success, with support of their advisors, mentors, and cherished memories.

(To learn more about the Men’s Initiative programs, visit www.tnstate.edu/men/.)

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