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Rep. Frederica Wilson’s Grand Opening Of Island Living Apartments, ‘5000 Role Models’ Overtown’s First Newly Project Focuses Constructed Affordable On Young Black Housing Development
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VOL. 45 NO. 17 50¢
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The Poison Of Nostagia
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THURSDA Y, JUNE 2 - WEDNESDA Y, JUNE 88,, 2016 THURSDAY WEDNESDAY
The essence of the new Black History Museum is the true American story By Freddie Allen (NNPA News Wire National News Editor) When the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) opens in September, Lonnie Bunch, the museum’s founding director, said that it will not only tell us a great deal of information about Black folks, but “it will tell us even more about what America is and what it can become.” Bunch, who previously served as the associate director for curatorial affairs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and as a curator of history for the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, Calif.,
said that, in some ways, the African American community has led the charge in forcing America to be America and broadening discussions around freedom and citizenship. “When you look at any president, from George Washington on, the number one issue they had to deal with at some point was African Americans,” said Bunch. “I really wanted people to recognize that this is all of our stories not just one community’s story.” The decade-long search for artifacts that will live in the museum has been arduous, joyfully surprising and completely necessary for Bunch and his team of curators. “Even if we took everything from the Smithsonian, it would only give us 20 percent of what
we needed anyway,” said Bunch. “The Smithsonian is a place where so much of your credibility is based on the material that you have.” Although Bunch and his team were dedicated to the search, he confessed that he wasn’t sure what he’d find. “I was always struck by my own work early in my career and how I would go into a home and I would talk to an elderly woman or a young man and they would open a door and suddenly there would be wonders in front of me,” said Bunch. “So, I had to believe that there were wonders out there that I couldn’t even imagine that were sitting in people’s homes.”
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is scheduled to open Sept. 24, 2016. (Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA)
Atlanta ranks number one nationwide with HIV By Cherese Jackson
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Miami actor Aygemang Clay invokes Jack Johnson on stage and racism would insert obstacles into both his personal and professional life. For years, then-heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries outright refused to box any Black athlete. (Cont'd on Page 3)
Image Courtesy of The Factionist.
(Flickr License)
Recent studies confirm that Atlanta is known for more than its musical heritage, Southern hospitality, sports teams and good food. It has also hit the map as the number one city for HIV. According to a recent report, when it comes to the rate of new HIV cases diagnosed, the capital of the New South is ranked number one among U.S. cities. Moreover, by the time patients are diagnosed in Atlanta, nearly one-third have already advanced to clinical AIDS, which greatly decreases the chances of survival from the disease. (Cont'd on Page 5)
Taking our national parks to the White House and the people By Audrey Peterman
“I see portraying such a legendary figure such as Jack Johnson as an honor and a tremendous opportunity,” said Clay. Veiled as the story of fictional boxing champion Jack Jackson, The Royale portrays the hurdles real-life Johnson had to clear to become the first African-American heavyweight champion of the world. The Royale has been presented in New York and Chicago, and is now in Miami, Fla. with local actor Aygemang Clay commandeering the lead role. Johnson was born and
raised in Galveston, Tex. Ironically, the man who years later would become emblematic of segregation in sports actually grew up in a poor Texas neighborhood largely unexposed to segregation. Although he grew up with a lot of white friends, they were all similarly poor and he was rarely reminded of his skin color. However, as he grew up and rose to greatness, segregation
Pleading Our Own Cause
Approaching the 100 Anniversary of the National Park Service, (the agency Congress created in 1916 to manage our National Park System,) a coalition of Americans of African, Asian, Hispanic and Native descent have come together to ask President Obama to issue a Presidential Proclamation calling for the parks to reflect our increasingly diverse country. When the Centennial is celebrated August 25, we ask the President to put forth a vision for the next 100 years in which visitors and workers in the parks look more like today’s America than that of 1916. We are also asking for more historical sites to be included in the parks system that represent the contributions of non-white Americans. President Obama has been out front on this issue, adding units such as the Harriet Tubman Birthplace/Underground Railroad National Monument in Maryland; the Charles Young/Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio and the Cesar Chavez National Monument in California. Still, we are asking for more, including Freedom Riders National Historical Park in Alabama. May 16 the Coalition met at the White House Eisenhower Building with the President’s
WWW.
The Centennial Initiative Coalition met with the Manager of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Christy Goldfuss (c) to convey our vision for the next 100 years of national parks. chief environmental advisor Christy Goldfuss and her team, who expressed delight with our focus and the breadth of our vision. Riding a wave of elation, I was hurled brutally onshore last week when I learned of a development that could cut the heart and soul out of the system we’re trying to protect: The National Park Service is
proposing to let corporations have the right to put their names on some of the buildings and public spaces in our national parks. For 100 years there has been tacit and explicit agreement that our national parks should remain free from commercialism, as the places where we go to get away from the bombardment of commercials in our daily life.
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But a new order from the director of the park service proposes to authorize “the temporary naming of rooms and interior spaces in NPS facilities…to recognize donations for the renovation of an existing facility or construction of a new facility.” (Cont'd on Page 5) MEMBER: National Newspaper Publishers Association ( NNPA), and Southeastern African-American Publishers Association (SAAPA) Florida Association of Black Owned Media (FABOM)