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Memphis Urban League Young Professionals (MULYP) will partner with the Memphis Urban League and the US Census Bureau to host a Voter
Registration/Census Caravan and Neighborhood Clean Up on Saturday (Sept. 19).
The event, which begins at noon, will feature a caravan through one of the lowest Census count areas of Memphis (South of the Medical District). Drivers will decorate their vehicles with the support of other community partners to encourage residents to complete the Census and register to vote.
The caravan route will begin at L.E. Brown Park and travel throughout the South Memphis neighborhoods near the Medical District. The clean up will be in the area surrounding L.E. Brown Park, 617 Orleans.
Sept. 30th is deadline to complete the 2020 Census.
“With the September 30th Census deadline and the October 5th deadline for new voter registrations quickly approaching, we are putting a lot of eff ort into increasing community awareness, concern and action through our
“We are more confi dent than ever that we are assembling the right team at the right time to help build a more prosperous economy for the Greater
Memphis region.” — Willie Gregory ECONOMY
CONTINUED FROM FRONT nies with University resources, Townsend also worked to create more internship and employment opportunities for students.
Willie Gregory, the chamber’s board chairman and director of Global Impact for Nike, said, “We are more confi dent than ever that we are assembling the right team at the right time to help build a more prosperous economy for the Greater Memphis region.”
Townsend will lead an integrated chamber and university team that will strategically recruit businesses within targeted industry sectors. The team will promote Memphis’ expansive assets, including the highly-trained workforce prepared by both the University of Memphis and the broader set of regional education and training partners.
“An area of need for the Greater Memphis region has been strategic coordination of our eff orts with the Tennessee legislature, along with recruitment and retention of business,” said U of M President M. David Rudd.
“This new collaborative fi lls that gap. There’s no one more qualifi ed and capable to lead this eff ort than Ted Townsend. His local knowledge is unparalleled and coupled with deep connections across Tennessee. We’re confi dent this eff ort will help the positive trajectory of both the U of M and the region.”
Townsend is a graduate of the U of M with a degree in organizational leadership. His work with the chamber will begin immediately and he will transition to full-time employment with the Greater Memphis Chamber by 2022. caravan and cleanup events,” said MULYP President Ashlee Haff ord.
“We have data that shows the areas with the lowest census turnout and voter participation are the areas and neighborhoods in Memphis that need the funding, resources and representation the most. ...
“We want community members to be armed with the right information and we are doing all we can amidst this pandemic to ensure Memphians are taking the necessary steps to make sure they are counted in the census and heard (via)
(For more information on the Memphis Urban League Young Professionals, visit www.memphisulyp. org.)
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Louisville to pay $12M to Breonna Taylor’s mom, reform police
by Dylan Lovan
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The city of Louisville will pay $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor and reform police practices as part of a lawsuit settlement months after Taylor’s slaying by police thrust the Black woman’s name to the forefront of a national reckoning on race, Mayor Greg Fischer announced Tuesday.
Taylor’s death sparked months of protests in Louisville and calls nationwide for the offi cers to be criminally charged. The state’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron, is investigating police actions in the March 13 fatal shooting.
“I cannot begin to imagine Ms. Palmer’s pain, and I am deeply, deeply sorry for Breonna’s death,” Fischer said, referring to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer.
At Tuesday’s news conference, an emotional Palmer pushed for charges against the offi cers involved in the shooting.
“We must not lose focus on what the real job is, and with
RIO RANCHO, N.M. – A growing number of states are facing pressure to ban racebased discrimination against hair texture and hairstyles in schools and the workplace.
Advocates this week presented a draft proposal to New Mexico state lawmakers that would outlaw employers and schools from discriminating against Black and Native American women’s hairstyles. It’s the latest state targeted by a national campaign.
Devont’e Kurt Watson, a member of Black Lives Matter in Albuquerque, told New Mexico lawmakers on Monday that the state should that being said, it’s time to move forward with the criminal charges, because she deserves that and much more,” Palmer said.
The lawsuit, fi led in April by Palmer, alleged the police used fl awed information when they obtained a “no-knock” warrant to enter the 26-year-old woman’s apartment in March. Taylor and her boyfriend were roused from bed by police, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, has said he fi red once at the offi cers thinking it was an intruder. Investigators say police were returning fi re when they shot Taylor several times. No drugs were found at her home.
“We won’t let Breonna Taylor’s life be swept under the rug,” said Ben Crump, an attorney for Taylor’s family.
Crump said the $12 million settlement is the largest such settlement given out for a Black woman killed by police. He also called for charges against the offi cers and urged people to “say her name,” a phrase that has become a refrain for those outraged by the shooting.
Fischer said the civil settle
A ground mural depicting a portrait of Breonna Taylor is seen at Chambers Park in Annapolis, Md. this past July (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
criminal investigation. three Louisville police offi cers away from Taylor’s apartment Gentry, a former deputy chief,
The news conference was of blindly fi ring into Taylor’s on the same evening. as the new interim police broadcast over a loudspeaker apartment the night of the The settlement includes rechief. Gentry would be the in downtown Louisville and March raid, striking Taylor forms on how warrants are fi rst Black woman to lead the protesters listened as they sat several times. One of the offi - handled by police, Mayor force of about 1,200 sworn around a memorial to Taylor. cers, Jonathan Mattingly, went Fischer said. offi cers. The department has
In the time since Taylor’s into the home after the door The city has already taken also fi red Brett Hankison, one shooting, her death — along was broken down and was some reform measures, inof the three offi cers who fi red with George Floyd and othstruck in the leg by the guncluding passing a law named shots at Taylor’s apartment ers — has become a rallying shot from Walker. for Taylor that bans the use of that night. Hankison is appealcry for protesters seeking a The warrant was one of fi ve the no-knock warrants. Police ing the dismissal. reckoning on racial justice and issued in a wide-ranging intypically use them in drug casThe largest settlement previpolice reform. High-profi le vestigation of a drug traffi ckes over concern that evidence ously paid in a Louisville pocelebrities like Oprah Winfrey ing suspect who was a former could be destroyed if they anlice misconduct case was $8.5 and LeBron James have called boyfriend of Taylor’s. That nounce their arrival. million in 2012, to a man who for the offi cers to be charged in man, Jamarcus Glover, was Fischer fi red former police spent nine years in prison for a Taylor’s death. arrested at a diff erent location chief Steve Conrad in June crime he did not commit, ac
Palmer’s lawsuit accused about 10 miles (16 kilometers) and last week named Yvette cording to news reports.
States face pressure to ban race-based hairstyle prejudice
by Russell Contreras
The Associated Press
ment has nothing do with the amend its Human Rights law to protect people with Afros, cornrows, dreadlocks and headwraps. The state should also provide protections for Native Americans who face hair discrimination, he said.
“Passing the (the proposal) in New Mexico will have far-reaching implications to protect our diverse community from egregious acts of hatred,” Watson said. “Hair discrimination is racial discrimination.”
New Mexico Black Lawyers Association President Aja Brooks said job off ers have been rescinded to Black women in other states because of hairstyles and that students in New Mexico and in other states have been told in class by teachers their hair was a distraction.
The draft was the fi rst step for a bill that is expected to be introduced in January.
Earlier this year, Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill that made Washington the latest state to pass a version of the CROWN Act.
It stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair” and is part of a national campaign promoted by Dove, the National Urban League, Color Of Change and Western Center on Law and Poverty.
California, Colorado, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia have already passed similar laws, according to people involved in the campaign. Other states, such as Connecticut, have considered similar proposals but they have not passed.
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The New Tri-State Defender, September 17 - 23, 2020, Page 4
The redlining of Black communities, racial covenants, real estate steering and restrictive zoning laws that together perpetuated segregated housing were never acknowledged. (Photo: iStockphoto/NNPA)
Police violence linked to segregated housing
by Charlene Crowell
NNPA Newswire
The August 23 police shooting of an unarmed Black man in Kenosha, WI, triggered yet another round of community protests and national news coverage of a Black man. A series of multiple gunshots fi red by a local police offi cer, were not fatal for 29-year old Jacob Blake; but may have permanently paralyzed him from the waist down.
Days later on August 28, the National Action Network served as a major organizer for a Commitment March, rededicating the yet unaddressed dreams of the historic 1963 March on Washington. Assembled again at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial, the day’s speakers spanned nationally-known leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and Attorney Ben Crump to the family members of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and others.
The irony is that despite the passage of nearly 60 years between the original march and its 2020 recommitment, many of the issues that have plagued Black America remain the same. Black America and other people of color still cry for justice, equality, and freedom. Yet noticeably, what formerly focused national attention on events in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham have now emanated from Ferguson, to Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland and other locales.
Why measurable forward strides in policing, or economic progress have remained elusive after decades of calls for reforms may partly be explained by the fi ndings of a new policy analysis by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Ana Hernandez Kent, a policy analyst with the St. Louis Fed, found that America’s racial poverty gap continues to suppress social and economic justice. Moreover, Wisconsin, not a southern state, claims the dubious distinction of having the largest poverty gap in the nation.
Nationally the St. Louis Fed found that in 2018, Black households earned 61 cents for every $1 of White household median income. Further, the Black/White median household income gaps ranged from 87 cents per dollar in Maine and Hawaii, down to 32 cents per dollar in the District of Columbia. The disparity in median translates into 22 percent of all Black Americans living in poverty, a gap of 13 percent compared to Whites who are poor. Wisconsin’s gap is 23 percent.
“In noting the socioeconomic indicators of median income, poverty rates and health insurance rates, I found that White people had more favorable outcomes than Black people in every state,” wrote Hernandez Kent.
Poverty’s racial disparity extends to other key measures such as median incomes, homeownership and retirement.
Even with the enactment of the Fair Housing Act more than 50 years ago, today’s Black homeownership rate is dwindling. According to Ohio State University professor, Trevon Logan, “The homeownership gap between Blacks and whites is higher today in percentage terms than it was in 1900.”
Prof. Logan’s position is bolstered by fi ndings from a 2020 report by the National Association of Realtors, “A Snapshot of Race and Homebuying in America” that found: * 62 percent of Black mortgage applicants were rejected because of their debt to income ratio, compared to only 5 percent of Whites; and * 51 percent of Blacks are fi rst-time homeowners, compared to only 30 percent of Whites.
Moreover, since the Great Recession that heavily hit Black homeowners a decade ago, today’s Black homeownership rate has yet to return to pre-recession levels.
With lower and life-long disparities in median income earnings, the ability to prepare for retirement is hindered as well. Social Security fi gures each worker’s retirement benefi t on the basis of a taxpayer’s 35 highest-earning years. With lower incomes and a corresponding lack of monies available for savings or retirement,
Charlene Crowell Black Americans rely on Social Security more than other races and/or ethnicities. Now, for much of Black America, Social Security is a fi nancial lifeline and often the major retirement benefi t.
In sum, it seems that in 2020, historic ills remain virtually unchanged. A key component of what continues is police violence against Black America.
In 1963, escalating racial tensions that worsened with growing numbers of peaceful protests that became violent by counter-protesters and led to multiple arrests, prompted President John F. Kennedy to deliver a nationally televised address on America’s racial reckoning.
“One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free”, he continued. “They are not free from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”
Fast forward and it is nearly inconceivable that the current president would deliver such an address. In fact, President Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson co-authored a recent op ed in the Wall Street Journal that portrayed mixed income neighborhoods as “social engineering.” The redlining of Black communities, racial covenants, real estate steering and restrictive zoning laws that together perpetuated segregated housing were never acknowledged in the guest column.
In response, Nikitra Bailey of the Center for Responsible Lending recently spoke with ABC News saying that the suburbs “intentionally created opportunities for White families while holding back opportunities for families of color…What we are really talking about is opportunity in our nation.”
With escalated violence in a growing number of cities occurring just months before an election, everyday citizens and scholars are echoing community and national leaders on the connection between key policies like housing segregation to violent eruptions.
Last December, the Journal of the National Medical Association, the professional organization of Black physicians, published an article titled, “ The Relationship between Racial Residential Segregation and Black-White Disparities in Fatal Police Shootings at the City Level, 2013–2017.”
The authors concluded that “Racial residential segregation is a signifi cant predictor of the magnitude of the BlackWhite disparity in fatal police shootings at the city level. Eff orts to ameliorate the problem of fatal police violence must move beyond the individual level and consider the interaction between law enforcement offi cers and the neighborhoods that they police.”
Before the thousands gathered this August, Rev. Sharpton also spoke to this same concern.
“It’s time we have a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry our lives. We need a new conversation…You act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back. You act like it’s no trouble to put a choke hold on us while we scream, ‘I can’t breathe,’ 11 times. You act like it’s no trouble to hold a man down on the ground until you squeeze the life out of him.”
“Our vote is dipped in blood,” he continued. “Our vote is dipped in those that went to their grave. We don’t care how long the line, we don’t care what you do, we’re going to vote, not for one candidate or the other, but we going to vote for a nation that’ll stop the George Floyds, that’ll stop the Breonna Taylors.”
Let the church say Amen.
(Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at charlene.crowell@ responsiblelending.org.)
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Calvin Anderson
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Family matters...
Services for Boston Baptist Church’s pastor, the Rev. Ydell Ishmon Sr., were held last Saturday. Pictured: Mr. Ishmon’s son, Ydell Ishmon Jr. and his wife. (Photo: Tyrone P. Easley)
Rev. Dr. James Allen Adams
Legacy and tradition...
The Rev. Dr. James Allen Adams, pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church, died on May 9. By custom, the pastor’s chair and the pulpit are draped for a period of time afterwards. This past Sunday (Sept. 13), an unveiling service was held.
What’s in a name? At the Vatican, a debate on inclusiveness
by Nicole Winfi eld
Associated Press
ROME – The Vatican responded Wednesday to criticism that the title of Pope Francis’ upcoming encyclical on the post-COVID world is sexist, saying the document, “Fratelli Tutti,” (“Brothers All”) in no way excludes women.
In Italian, “fratelli” means brothers but it is also used as the inclusive, brothers and sisters. Since Francis takes pains to always address crowds as “fratelli e sorelle” (“brothers and sisters”) the absence of an explicit reference to sisters in the title was seen by some as another expression of exclusion in an institution long criticized for treating women as second-class citizens.
On Wednesday, the Vatican’s editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, stressed that the title was taken from the words of St. Francis of Assisi, the pope’s namesake, and therefore couldn’t be translated differently.
Writing in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, he said an encyclical by its very nature is addressed to the whole world and that the title in no way excludes half the human race.
“On the contrary, Francis chose the words of the Saint of Assisi to initiate a refl ection on something he cares about very deeply: namely, fraternity and social friendship,” Tornielli wrote. “He therefore addresses all his sisters and brothers, all men and women who populate the earth: everyone, inclusively, and in no way exclusively.”
The Vatican is expected to release the encyclical on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis, a day after the pope travels to the Umbrian hilltop town of Assisi to pray at the tomb of the saint and sign the document.
It is expected to articulate much of his preaching on the need for human solidarity and fraternity to both care for the
Pope Francis greets Sister Rita Mboshu Kongo, a theologian and member of the Daughters of Mary Most Holy, during a Mass for the Congolese Catholic community in Rome in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 1, 2019. The Mass included elements of Congolese culture. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
planet and the population in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and the social inequalities it has exacerbated.
Vatican encyclicals are the most authoritative form of papal teaching and they traditionally take their titles from the fi rst two words of the document. In this case, “Fratelli Tutti” is a quote from the “Admonitions,” the compendium of guidelines penned by St. Francis in the 12th century.
Writing last week in Religion News Service, the Rev. Thomas Reese, a church commentator, said the title was unfortunate and said he hoped the Vatican would at least translate it in English as
“Brothers and sisters all.” “It is sad to see the church continue to suff er from self-infl icted wounds,” Reese wrote. “The concern about language in the title will increase the focus on the language of the entire encyclical.”
Reese, an American Jesuit, dismissed the argument that “fratelli” in Italian was inclusive, even though many Romance languages use the male plural in such comprehensive ways. “Couldn’t the church get ahead of the curve for once?” he asked.
Tina Beattie, a British theologian and Catholic women’s rights campaigner, also dismissed the Vatican’s explanation as disingenuous.
“Sorry. When they say ‘gender ideology’ is destroying society, and given the Vatican’s gender politics, I’m not willing to become a brother when it suits them to call me one,” she tweeted Wednesday. “I’ll engage with what I know will be a brilliant vision, but I’ll name this misnomer every time I do.”
Tornielli, the Vatican editorial chief, said the themes of the encyclical, fraternity and social friendship, are precisely the themes that unite men and women. “For this reason, all readers should be able to understand the title ‘Fratelli Tutti’ with the absolutely inclusive connotation that is intended,” he said.
Tennessee school district will stop promoting Christianity
NASHVILLE (AP) –
A Tennessee school district that was sued last year by two atheist families for promoting Christianity has agreed to stop the practice, according to a consent decree fi led in federal court in Nashville on Monday.
In the consent decree, the Smith County School District admitted that Christian prayers were delivered over the school address system, Bibles were distributed to fi fth graders, and Bible verses and other religion messages were posted in school hallways, among other things.
Promoting religion and coercing religious exercise is a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, the decre e states.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the families by the American Civil Liberties Union.
In a news release about the decree, plaintiff Kelly Butler said, “I’m relieved the school district recognized that its widespread promotion of religion was unconstitutional. My children, and all children, deserve an education that is free from the type of religious coercion that our family has suff ered.”
