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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 32 No. 4
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Yasmin Acree is still missing, but not forgotten,
January 24, 2018
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austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Willi Wil Willie Wilson gives i $3K to church, PAGE 4
Ford launches voter outreach to ex-offenders Illinois allows felons to vote after release, but many don’t know it, advocates say By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
The message of the Jan. 18 press conference held by state Rep. La Shawn Ford (8th) and community organizations that work with ex-offenders was curt and uncompromising. Under Illinois law, once voters served their prison time, they are eligible to vote. However, many of them don’t realize it and, as the speakers noted, political candidates on both sides of the aisle don’t usually try to reach out to them, let alone find out what they want. And what they want is a change in laws that would make it easier for them to reintegrate back into society and rebuild their lives. The organizations will try to reach out to as many of ex-offenders as possible and try to get them to register to vote. If current political candidates aren’t interested in addressing the needs of exoffenders, then advocates will throw their support behind candidates that do. While many people assume that serving prison time automatically makes a person ineligible for voting, that is only true in some states. Maine and Vermont have no restrictions whatsoever. Fourteen states, including Illinois, don’t allow felons to vote while they serve their time, but they do allow them to vote once they’ve completed their sentences. As Ford noted in the press release issued ahead of the conference, if people served their times and are determined to stay on the straight and narrow, they face a number of obstacles. “A criminal background in America is a disability that prevents citizens from living a productive life in America,” he stated. “Even those who were wrongfully convicted have to carry the burden of a negative image on their shoulders. This is causing See FORD OUTREACH on page 4
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
She’s still here
Le’Etter Bryant, left, of Chicago, claps to music on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018, during her 105th birthday party at the Heritage Woods of Chicago.
CPS leader: How ‘Brown’ case shaped him Randel Josserand has unique proximity to landmark Supreme Court decision By SUZANNE McBRIDE AustinTalks
Years ago when Randel Josserand was a new teacher in Topeka, Kansas, a woman showed up at his door with a Bundt cake and some encouragement. “She talked a lot about the students I should make a difference with,” Josserand said. But he didn’t think that as a white
man it was his place or that he would be accepted in an African-American school. Her response: “I want to see you going into urban settings and work with children of color . . . You lead with your heart. The color of your skin doesn’t matter.” That woman, Linda Brown, helped motivate Josserand, now a top Chicago Public Schools official overseeing West Side schools, to devote his career to
working with African-American and Latino students. “Miss Brown has been an incredible inspiration.” Brown became a part of civil rights history as a third-grader in the Topeka public schools. When she was denied admission into a white elementary school, her father, Oliver L. Brown, challenged Kansas’s school segregation laws. That
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See JOSSERAND on page 7