The Westside Gazette

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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33310

PERMIT NO. 1179

NAACP Florida State Conference Demands BC-U Deny Betsy DeVos Accolades

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Flat Funding Fort Lauderdale Area Walmart For HBCU's Store #1387 Is A Win Unstoppable

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Westside Gazette Broward County's Oldest and Largest African American Owned and Operated Newspaper VOL. 46 NO. 13

50¢

A Pr oud PPaper aper ffor or a Pr oud PPeople...Sinc eople...Sinc Proud Proud eople...Sincee 1971

THURSDA Y, MA Y 4 - WEDNESDA Y, MA Y 10, 2017 THURSDAY MAY WEDNESDAY MAY

Have you seen Mikayla Wilson?

If you want to get to a better day, you got to make it through the dark of the night

Dear Levi Henry of the Westside Gazette My name is Earnestine W. McGowan, and I’m writing you because I don’t know what else I can do. My granddaughter, Mikayla Wilson, has been missing since October 7-8, (last year) this year. She ran away before, but she always came back home. Lauderhill police brought her home at least twice. I’m really worried about her. I want my granddaughter to be home with her family where she belongs. I don’t know if you do missing children in your paper. But please let me know. My number is (954) 607-8754, and I live at St. Joseph residence, 3475 N.W. 30 St., Apt 318. My daughter does not know I’m writing this, but what else can I do? I’m really worried about my granddaughter. I pray every day that she will come home. I’m so sick with worry about her, and she has not called anyone to say that she is ok.

Mikayla By Nichole Richards Black youth waywardness typically conjures images of young Black males, ages 14 to 17, seduced by the streets’ empty promises of power and respect, yielding guns like swords, and trading stocks and bonds in the form of pills and powder. This image dominates American fears and singlehandedly structures policies and laws, from education to criminal justice. In response,

conversations and programs persist to understand why Black male youth are drawn to chaotic street culture, aiming to transform the inner dialogue, convincing them authority and acceptance can be found there. Despite good intentions, these conversations follow the same historic pattern of positioning the Black male in the center of Black issues, ignoring the unique experiences of Black female juvenile delinquency and rebellion. If March’s #MissingDCGirls campaign taught us anything it was that there are also ebony girls lured by the uncertainty of the streets disguised as freedom and love, who leave their homes in search of something more only to be victimized in soul shattering ways men will never understand. What about their inner dialogue? What persuades a young girl to willingly place herself in such a terrifying state of vulnerability? Everyday Black girls are making the same decisions as their male counterparts to leave

their homes, for whatever reason, and seek what they think will be freedom of choice and self. The response by the media and the police remain the same: silence and inactivity. And in the meantime, our girls are floating further away, some disappearing into drugs or sex trafficking, never to be seen again, and others feeling too battered by the streets, too ashamed to return home, although they are sorely missed. Earnestine McGowan’s letter to The Westside Gazette is one of many examples of the gaping hole left in families when teens leave. Mikayla Wilson, 17, has been missing since October 2016, appearing every now and then, only to go further underground when spotted. Her third time running away, Mikayla had only been home for a couple months before leaving again. A former Piper High School student, she has a history of delinquency and low academic performance. “It started when she as in ninth grade,” said Mikayla’s mother, Kimberly Wilson, “She started skipping school. I put her in an alternative school, then

New Orleans begins removing racist confederate monuments By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor) Against a backdrop of death threats and under the cover of night, officials in New Orleans have begun to dismantle Confederate monuments honoring racists of the Civil War and Jim Crow eras of United States history. Workers removing the first of four monuments wore bulletproof vests, helmets and hid their faces. By 5:45 a.m. on April 24, the monument was gone. Three more monuments are set to disappear, but the city is not announcing publicly which statues will be next and what date the removals will take place. “The removal of these statues sends a clear and unequivocal message to the people of New Orleans and the nation: New Orleans celebrates our diver-sity, inclusion and tolerance,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch

Inscription on “Battle of Liberty Place” monument, 1936, as photographed by Dorothea Lange. (Farm Security Administration/Wikimedia Commons) Landrieu in a statement on April 24. At a press conference the morning after the first monument, the Battle of Liberty Place Memorial, was removed, the Mayor stated that the other monuments would be removed, “sooner rather than later.” The two cases, Wells Fargo & Co. v. City of Miami and Bank of America Corp v. City of Miami, both involve allegations that the banks targeted commu-

Pleading Our Own Cause

nities of color within the City with predatory subprime loans during the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis and that the concentrated foreclosure activity that resulted diminished the City’s tax base and increased demand on public services such as code enforcement and police and fire services. The Court consolidated the two cases for brief-ing and argument. (Cont'd on Page 3)

WWW.

“And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:5 KJV By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.

Mikayla she started to show up only twice a week.” Mikayla would sneak out at night while her family slept to hang out with boys and smoke marijuana. Once, she was caught driving on the wrong side of the road and brought home by the police.

Why is it that bad things are associated with the darkness and nighttime? Crime, ugliness and filth seem to breed in the dark of the night. The movements of creepy, crawly things are amplified in the darkness; things really do go “bump in the night.” What makes pain and sorrow during the night so enlarged? No matter the level of discomfort, the agonies (of evil spirits) seem to be greater when they torment you in the still of the night. Cold and its intensity cling to you better than icicles on a polar bear chasing seals in Antarctica in the darkness. (Cont'd on Page 5)

(Cont'd on Page 9)

NNPANewswire Exclusive: Bill Cosby finally breaks his silence By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor) Bill Cosby is blind. It’s been more than two years since the embattled, television and film legend, who was once known as “America’s Dad,” has spoken out publicly. During a recent interview with the NNPA Newswire, Cosby revealed that he’s lost his sight. Waking one morning about two years ago, he nervously called out to Camille, his wife. “I can’t see,” he said. Doctors later confirmed the worst: that there was nothing that could be done to repair his vision. “When he would perform, we’d draw a wide straight yellow line from backstage to the chair on the stage and he’d rehearse the walk, hours before the show,” said Andrew Wyatt

of the Purpose PR firm, a public relations agency in Birmingham, Ala. Wyatt has worked with Cosby for years. Wyatt said that his star client has decided that it’s time to talk. Together, Wyatt and Cosby said they grew comfortable that the NNPA Newswire would be more interested in “facts over sensationalism.” Cosby has shunned most media inquiries, since allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced in late 2014; some of those accusations dated back almost 50 years. In 2015, According to CNN, Cosby was charged with three counts of felony aggravated assault in a case involving Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee. (Cont'd on Page 3)

U.S. Supreme Court reaffirms standing of cities to sue under the Fair Housing Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Recently (May 1, 2017), the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision recognizing that the City of Miami, Florida may sue major banks for violating the Fair Housing Act through discriminatory mortgage lending practices that caused significant economic harm to the City. The court’s decision, authored by Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, stated that such jurisdictions must allege that the banks’ practices were the proximate cause of its injuries. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

(Lawyers’ Committee) applauds the decision which was consistent with and reinforced more than four decades of precedent recognizing that Congress intended for a broad array of plaintiffs, including cities, states, fair housing and civil rights organizations, and affordable housing developers to sue under the Fair Housing Act. “Our nation is still wrestling with the collateral consequences of the foreclosure crisis. Today’s Supreme Court decision reinforces the critical role that states and cities must play in holding banks and other actors accountable for actions that continue to harm communities, particularly minority communities that have borne the brunt of the crisis,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee. “The Court’s decision wisely ensures

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Cosby said that he hopes to perform again. The legendary comedian, who is facing criminal sexual assault charges in Montgomery County, Pa., will turn 80 in July. (Courtesy Photo/Bill Cosby)

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that a broad range of stakeholders that are harmed by housing discrimination will continue to have access to the courts.” While the ruling is to be applauded, the Court’s imposition of a new requirement that Fair Housing Act plaintiffs allege that defendants proximately caused their injuries is a small step backward. Going forward, the Lawyers’ Committee and other groups committed to enforcement of the Fair Housing Act will work to ensure that this proximate causation requirement does not impair or restrict access to the courts for victims of housing discrimination. (Cont'd on Page 3) MEMBER: National Newspaper Publishers Association ( NNPA), and Southeastern African-American Publishers Association (SAAPA) Florida Association of Black Owned Media (FABOM)


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