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THURSDA THURSDAYY, AUGUST 11 -WEDNESDA -WEDNESDAYY, AUGUST 17 17,, 2016
Broward County makes history with official renaming ceremony of the Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park By Charles Moseley A new chapter in Florida’s history was written on Aug. 6, 2016 during a special ceremony honoring two of Broward County’s very own civil rights icons with the renaming of John U. Lloyd Beach State Park to the Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park. Hundreds of well-wishers, including members from the Mizell and Johnson families, attended an afternoon filled with nostalgic memories by those who once shared fun in the sun albeit during the days of segregation. During those days Dania’s “Colored Beach” was the only place where Blacks could enjoy some leisure time with their families on the eastern shores of Broward County. Lorraine Mizell, the niece of the late Dr. Von D. Mizell, had a particular connection with the day’s festivities as being one of the original groups of residents to join Dr. Mizell and Eula Johnson in the first “wade-in” by Blacks in 1961, in an attempt to desegregate Fort Lauderdale Beach, which had been designated for “whites only.” Mizell, 75, recalled the incident
describing the chain of events, as if it were just yesterday. “My sister Myrtis and me, along with two other college students participated in the first “Wade-In” in 1961. My uncle, Dr. Mizell and Mrs. Eula Johnson drove a group of us college students to Fort Lauderdale Beach. We all got out and Dr. Mizell told us to get in the water while he and Mrs. Johnson stood near on the beach. As we got in the water, whites nearby started staring at us. The whites that were in
The headlines blared almost non-stop. “Rev. William Barber Rattles the Windows, Shakes the DNC Walls,” NBC News said.
Community responds after boy offers to mow lawns to pay for school supplies Tyran Bell reached out on his mother’s Facebook page to look for mowing jobs to pay for school supplies.
WECT/Facebook WILMINGTON, N.C. — A 10-year-old turned to Facebook friends to help raise money, not for a charity, new toys or to go on a trip, but to pay for the most basic supplies to head back to school. His community has responded overwhelmingly. Tyran Bell used his mother’s Facebook account to ask her friends if he could mow lawns to earn money to buy his school supplies, WECT reported. Tyran got what he needed and then some. He has enough supplies for himself and is giving the surplus to the community. “I’m going to put them in bags and go around the community and pass them out
to whoever needs school supplies,” Tyran told WECT. The drive for Tyran has turned into a project to help other schools in the area. A1 Security Services, the business that started the supply drive for Tyran, is looking at donating the surplus of supplies that came in, contacting social workers to see what area schools need them. “You’ve got these kids going to school and they are going with other kids who have all their nice new school supplies to school and they show up with nothing,” A1 President Theresa Babb said. “They are starting the year badly there, plus you don’t want them to feel bad. Plus it’s like sending a carpenter out to work without a hammer.”
Pleading Our Own Cause
“May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” Ruth 2:12 By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Wade-In reenactment (Fourth of July, 1961) (Photo by Norman Edwards) the water got out. After about uncle told us to come out of the 10 minutes a police officer water.” showed up and briefly spoke (Cont'd on Page 11) with Dr. Mizell. Afterwards my
William Barber’s prophetic voice demands voting rights and justice for all By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA News Wire Contributor)
“The one being carried does not realize how far away the town is.” — Nigerian Proverb
“The Rev. William Barber dropped the mic,” The Washington Post marveled. And, “Americans who’d never heard of Rev. William Barber II won’t be able to forget him after last night,” said Ari Berman of the political website “The Nation.” Even celebrities were awed. “I’m an atheist and I’d go to Rev. William Barber’s church in a second,” King of Queens actor Patton Oswalt said. “Just to get levitated by his voice.” Barber hasn’t always held the national spotlight, but he’s never sought it out, either. As the president of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, Barber has worked in the trenches to deliver strong messages that oppose hate, violence and oppression. “We have always insisted that some issues are not left versus right, but right versus wrong. Racism is not a liberal or conservative issue,” Barber said. “Subverting democracy is not partisan. It is immoral. It’s just plain wrong.” According to Barber, N.C.’s voter suppression law that passed in the wake of the infamous 2013 Supreme Court Shelby County v. Holder decision, was a major culprit in subverting democracy in poor and Black communities. Earlier this summer, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Barber and the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and other groups that had filed suit on the day Governor Pat McCrory signed the law. “The decision exposed the racist intent of the extremist element of our government in North Carolina,” Barber said. “Just think of what that meant. It would have an effect on all the southern states and it would tip the scales in the election.” Based on the ruling, North Carolina voters will not have to show a voter ID in the state in November or in any future
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This past weekend here in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., history was revisited, celebrated and sealed with the stamp of love. As beachgoers walked through the sands of times remembering how it was and how, like the current of the sea, we were carried across oceans of waters to a harsh and barren land and yet with the comfort of God, “Our rough places were made smooth” and now a part of this place was named after some of us. I saw the eternal flames that burned and seared our place in history in the eyes of those family members whose names now are forever etched in time. Mizell, Johnson, Allen, Burrows Giles and Shirley. As their stories were told the essence of their struggles dance on the hot summer breeze like ‘no seeums’ biting you and making you pay close attention to the stories that were told; you couldn’t see them but you sure could feel them and the marks left by their bites were evidence of them being there. So too are our stories to some. (Cont'd on Page 7)
HIV rapidly becoming a disease of young people
Reverend William Barber, the president of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pa. (Shevry Lassiter/The Washington Informer) election, Barber said. “North Carolinians will enjoy the full scope of early voting opportunities previously available, and will not be denied needed safeguards to protect the ability to exercise the right to vote including the option of same day registration,” he said. Barber continued: “We know that this decision is a step closer to a freer, fairer electoral system in our state and in the nation. It is our duty to continue this fight until barriers based on race are swept away as ancient history. This is not a photo ID bill, this court ruled on the most sweeping, retrogressive voter suppression bill that we have seen since the 19th century and since Jim Crow and the worst in the nation since the Shelby decision.” Going forward, the fight must continue, he said. And, that’s just one reason why he accepted an invitation to speak at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in July. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
Tacoma Action Collective leaders Jamika Scott, Jaleesa Trapp, Cana Caldwell, and Christopher Jordan discuss social protest and the erasure of Black people in the history of AIDS activism in the Global Village at the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Freddie Allen) While all other demographics are in decline, more and more young people are being diagnosed with the disease. Globally, 11.8 million people ages 15-24 are currently living with HIV/AIDS, with this demographic also accounting for more than half of new infections. In the U.S., young Black, gay and bisexual men make up the largest population of people who are infected, and young women of color bear the largest burden of the disease among women in the U.S. Globally, adolescent and young women are fast becoming the most at risk: in Sub Saharan Africa, women ages 15 to 19 make up two-thirds of the population of infected adolescents. Despite these alarming numbers, we do a poor job reaching young people, preventing the disease in our population.
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Worse, we are an activist generation, who care deeply about social justice and human rights. Yet few of us have become energized or involved in the fight against AIDS. As a millennial, I have not seen a world without HIV/ AIDS, and yet it seems like a disease of the past—something terrible that happened to my parents and their friends in the '80s, not an issue that affects me. And for those of us active in other movements like feminism, LGBT and Black Lives Matter and interested in issues of all kinds—from poverty and hunger, to police brutality, trafficking, and mass incarceration—HIV/ AIDS is rarely on our radar, though it lies at the intersection of other issues. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com) MEMBER: National Newspaper Publishers Association ( NNPA), and Southeastern African-American Publishers Association (SAAPA) Florida Association of Black Owned Media (FABOM)