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Black Mothers Trapped in Unsafe Neighborhoods Signal the Stressful Health Toll of Gun Violence in the U.S.

Maria

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Jun 22, 2023

Black Mothers Trapped in Unsafe Neighborhoods Signal the Stressful Health Toll of Gun Violence in the U.S.

By Loren Henderson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Ruby Mendenhall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Black mothers are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to the mental and physical harms of stress from living with gun violence in America.

In the U.S., Black people are likelier than white people to reside in impoverished, racially segregated communities with high levels of gun violence. Research has suggested that living in violent and unsafe environments can result in continuous traumatic stress, a constant form of PTSD. Researchers have also linked experiences of violence and poverty to an increased risk of chronic disease such as cancer and cardiovascular, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases.

We are Black women and public policy and sociology professors who study health inequities and sustainable policy solutions. Our research has found that Black mothers who feel trapped in neighborhoods they perceived as unsafe because of high levels of community violence are more likely to report elevated PTSD and depression symptoms, as well as elevated stress hormone levels.

The trauma of gun violence and systemic racism isn’t simply a Black mother’s story – it’s an American story.

Health effects of feeling trapped

Our research team sought to understand how stress from structural violence affects the body, specifically the immune system. We talked to 68 low-income single Black mothers living on the South Side of Chicago about how they deal with gun violence in their communities and how it affects their health.

We asked these Black mothers to complete surveys that measured depression and PTSD symptoms. We also asked them to provide blood samples to examine the effects of stress at the cellular level, measuring the activity of genes that code for the receptors for the stress hormone cortisol. Looking at cortisol receptors offers a more cumulative measure of cortisol levels over time.

We found that about 65% of the mothers wanted to move out of their neighborhoods but could not afford to do so. These mothers felt trapped in areas with high levels of gun violence that fostered a sense of not feeling safe for adults and children. One mother in our study, whom we will call Ellan, described her neighborhood as dangerous and wanted to leave as soon as she could. “I’m very terrified of my kids going out to the park, playing in front of the house,” she said. “And I’m afraid that a car might come past shootin’ and one of my kids get hurt.

Another mother in our study, whom we will call Skylar, felt she couldn’t escape to a safer community. “I don’t really want to raise my kids there, but I don’t have a choice. You know, cause it’s what I can afford. But it’s real violent.”

Mothers who felt trapped reported more symptoms of PTSD, like disturbing memories and dreams and reliving stressful experiences, than mothers who did not feel trapped. They also reported more depressive symptoms, such as feeling down and hopeless, taking little pleasure in doing things and having trouble sleeping.

Mothers unable to afford the move to safer neighborhoods had lower levels of glucocorticoid receptors. Having fewer glucocorticoid receptors helped protect their bodies from being overwhelmed by high cortisol levels caused by stress. Nevertheless, high cortisol levels from chronic stress are linked to a number of negative mental and physical health outcomes.

Environment determines health

Where someone lives, learns, works, plays and worships can determine their health and has the power to make them sick and cause premature death.

Researchers have estimated that around 83,570 Black people die prematurely each year in the U.S. because of health disparities, using 2002 data. Some scholars have previously described this as equivalent to a plane full of Black passengers falling out the sky every day every year.

It is important to note that it is not the racial makeup of where a person lives that shapes the significant disparities they face, but exposure to violence, poverty and lack of resources as a result of structural racism. Redlining, environmental contamination, food deserts and gun violence are a part of the racial capitalism, or exploitation of marginalized communities, that affect the health of Black women.

What we are learning about the constant threats to the safety of Black mothers and their families also applies to the general American public.

The rate of mass shootings is increasing. Firearm fatalities are a leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 19 in the U.S. Gun violence has harmed people while they are watching a parade, shopping at a store, worshipping, attending school and other ordinary events.

Increasing access to wellness

Understanding the complexity of the exposome – the word researchers use for environmental factors like gun violence that affect an individual’s health and well-being – can help extend the years of healthy life of groups who typically experience premature death. Building this knowledge requires input from people of color and others who have traditionally been pushed to the margins of society.

We are currently creating a “wellness store” that places wellness tools and health knowledge at the fingertips of individuals, especially for those experiencing interlocking traumas such as racism, sexism, classism, incarceration, racial segregation and rural geographic isolation. These tools, co-created with community health workers and citizen scientists, range from phone apps to public policy designed to get stress “out from under the skin.” Our goal is to work with clinics, hospitals and community organizations to provide accessible tools to prevent illness.

Black communities are filled with resilient and vulnerable individuals who deserve urgent policy solutions that lead to societal change. We believe that more investment in disease prevention and health equity can help the U.S. use the knowledge, technology and finances that it already has to help people access its most precious resource: a healthy life and the ability to pursue wellness.

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Loren Henderson, Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Ruby Mendenhall, Associate Professor in Sociology, African American Studies, Urban and Regional Planning and Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Juneteenth, Jim Crow and how the Fight of one Black Texas Family to make Freedom Real Offers Lessons for Texas Lawmakers Trying to Erase History from the Classroom

Maria

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Jun 22, 2023

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Juneteenth, Jim Crow and how the Fight of one Black Texas Family to make Freedom Real Offers Lessons for Texas Lawmakers Trying to Erase History from the Classroom

By Jeffrey L. Littlejohn, Sam Houston State University and Zachary Montz, Sam Houston State University

The news was startling.

On June 19, 1865, two months after the U.S. Civil War ended, Union Gen. Gordon Granger walked onto the balcony at Ashton Villa in Galveston, Texas, and announced to the people of the state that “all slaves are free.”

As local plantation owners lamented the loss of their most valuable property, Black Texans celebrated Granger’s Juneteenth announcement with singing, dancing and feasting. The 182,566 enslaved African Americans in Texas had finally won their freedom.

One of them was Joshua Houston.

He had long served as the enslaved servant of Gen. Sam Houston, the most well-known military and political leader in Texas.

Joshua Houston lived about 120 miles north of Galveston when he learned of Granger’s proclamation.

It was read aloud at the local Methodist Church in Huntsville, Texas, by Union Gen. Edgar M. Gregory, the assistant commissioner for the Freedmen’s Bureau in Texas.

If Juneteenth meant anything, it meant at least that Joshua Houston and his family were free.

A gray haired black man in the center wearing glasses is sitting down and surrounded by members of his family. — Joshua Houston and his family in October 1898. Courtesy of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library, Huntsville, Texas

But there was more too.

The promise of freedom meant that more work needed to be done. Families needed to be reunited. Land needed to be secured. Children needed to be educated.

Indeed, the radical promise of Juneteenth is embodied in the community activism of Joshua Houston and the educational career of his son Samuel Walker Houston.

The violent white reaction to Black political power

Within a year of Granger’s proclamation, Houston had established a blacksmith shop near the Huntsville town square and moved his family into a two-story house on the adjoining lot.

He helped found the Union Church, the first Black-owned institution in the city, as well as a freedmen’s school to begin educating African American children.

In 1878 and 1882, a Republican coalition of Black and white voters opposed to conservative Democratic rule elected Houston as the county’s first Black county commissioner, a powerful position in local governance.

Despite this dramatic turn of events, Houston’s political story was hardly unique.

In the two decades following emancipation, 52 Black men served in the state Legislature or the state’s constitutional conventions.

But that number had fallen to two by 1882.

Opposition to Black freedom had been a powerful force in the state’s political culture since emancipation.

Armstead Barrett, a former slave in Huntsville, recalled in 1937 that an enraged white man had reacted to Granger’s Juneteenth order by riding past a celebrating Black woman and murdering her with his sword.

In 1871, the violence continued when the white citizens of Huntsville stormed the county courthouse and aided the escape of three men who had lynched freedman Sam Jenkins.

Later, in the 1880s, attacks on Black elected officials, their white political allies and Black voters escalated dramatically.

In the early 1900s, changes in state election laws, including the introduction of the poll tax, effectively disenfranchised most Black voters and many poor whites as well. Voter participation dropped from roughly 85% at the high tide of Texas populism in 1896 to roughly 35% when the poll tax became effective in 1904.

As a result, Robert Lloyd Smith was the last Black legislator for nearly 70 years when he finished his term in 1897.

That wall of white supremacy at the state Capitol would not crack again until 1966, when federal voting rights legislation and Supreme Court rulings nullified schemes to deny African Americans the ballot.

These changes enabled the election of Black officials such as Barbara Jordan, the first African American woman to serve in the Texas Senate.

Like father, like son

On an unknown date, a few years after Juneteenth, Joshua Houston’s son Samuel Walker Houston was born free in the bright light of Reconstruction.

Although he spent his adulthood in some of the darkest years of Jim Crow, he continued his father’s work as an educator and community leader. Following a short stint at Atlanta University in Georgia and Howard University in Washington, D.C., Samuel Walker Houston returned to Huntsville and founded a school in the nearby Galilee community.

Houston’s school was named for him and served as one of the first county training schools for African Americans in Texas. It enrolled students at every level, from first grade through high school, and provided a curriculum based on Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee model of vocational training.

Young women at Houston’s school received training in homemaking, sewing and cooking, while young men learned carpentry, woodworking and mathematics.

By 1922, enrollment at the school had grown to 400 students, and it was recognized by contemporaries as the leading school of East Texas. In the 1930s, Houston’s school was absorbed into Huntsville’s school district, and he became the director of Black education in the county.

Houston encouraged a practical education for Black Texans, but he also believed that young Texans of all races needed to learn an account of history that differed from the white supremacist narrative that dominated Southern history.

Toward this end, he joined with Joseph Clark and Ramsey Woods, two white professors who pioneered race relations courses at Sam Houston State Teachers College. Together, the group led the Texas Commission on Interracial Cooperation’s effort to evaluate Texas public school textbooks during the 1930s.

In an analysis of racial attitudes in state-endorsed textbooks, they found that 74% of books presented a racist view of the past and of Black Americans. Most excluded the scientific, literary and civic contributions of Black people, while mentioning their economic contributions only in the period of slavery before the Civil War.

Instead, the group argued, books designed for both Black and white Texans needed to take the “opportunity … to do simple justice” by including Black history and the “struggle for the exercise” of equal civil, political and legal rights.

White Texans refused to adopt a textbook in the 1930s that taught the fundamental equality of the races, or portrayed Reconstruction, as it is now widely understood, as a missed opportunity to establish a more just and egalitarian Texas.

But Houston and his white counterparts were motivated by the conviction that progress, both for African Americans and for Texas, required a more honest and progressive account of the state and its history.

An ongoing battle for equality

Today’s legislative efforts in Texas and elsewhere to restrict the teaching of systemic racism in public schools ignore the lessons and realities represented by Joshua and Samuel Walker Houston’s lives.

The argument used for supporting such restrictions is that “divisive concepts” like the history of racism may make some students feel uncomfortable or guilty.

That sort of thinking echoes the same justification provided by Texas lawmakers in 1873, when many argued that the state’s schools must be segregated to ensure “the peace, harmony and success of the schools and the good of the whole.”

But the opposite is true.

In reality, the prohibition on teaching the darker chapters of our past creates a segregated history.

Instead, as Samuel Walker Houston recognized, young Texans must have a more honest account of the past and of one another to progress into a unified and egalitarian society.

Texas history is both the story of people who dedicated their lives to the work of advancing freedom and the story of powerful people and forces that stood against it.

One cannot be understood without the other.

Americans cannot appreciate the accomplishments of Joshua and Samuel Walker Houston without examining the vicious realities of Jim Crow society.

The lesson of their lives, and of the Juneteenth holiday, is that freedom is a precious thing that requires constant work to make real.

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Jeffrey L. Littlejohn, Professor of History, Sam Houston State University and Zachary Montz, Lecturer, History Department, Sam Houston State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Grassroots Groups Push “Motor Voter” Bill Aimed at 100% Registration of California’s Electorate

Maria

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Jun 22, 2023

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Grassroots Groups Push “Motor Voter” Bill Aimed at 100% Registration of California’s Electorate

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

Last week, hundreds of community leaders, advocates, and organizers representing labor, faith-based, Black, AAPI, Latinos, women and youth rally and march were held at the State Capitol. They were supporting Senate Bill (SB) 846, which aims to increase election turnout and remove barriers to voter registration for millions of Californians.

The California Grassroots Democracy Coalition, which is the largest voting rights coalition in California, has launched a campaign to enfranchise 4.7 million unregistered voters through SB 846. This bill, also known as the Motor Voter bill, was authored by state Senators Caroline Menjivar (D-Chino) and Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara).

The coalition, which represents millions of Californians, has embarked on a multi-year campaign to expand the electorate to better reflect the state’s diversity. SB 846 is co-sponsored by three members of the California Black Legislative Caucus (CLBC) — Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), and Mike Gipson (D-Carson).

“For decades, grassroots organizations like ours have worked year-round, mobilizing voters, organizing immigrant communities, providing legal services, running advocacy campaigns, and building multi-racial, multi-issue coalitions,” said Stanette Dixon, volunteer coordinator from Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement. “We are coming together to advance a new vision for California’s democracy and dismantle racist barriers to civic participation that marginalize BIPOC, naturalized citizens, young, low-income, and low English proficiency voters.”

SB 846 is being reviewed in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to transmit specified information to Secretary of State Shirley Weber for each person submitting a driver’s license application. To be eligible for voter registration or preregistration, these individuals must be United States citizens and of an eligible age.

Several states, including Alaska, Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Delaware and the District of Columbia, have already passed similar legislation with overwhelmingly positive results. Members of the coalition and other supporters marched from the state capitol and circled the Secretary of State building twice at 10th and O streets in downtown Sacramento to rally support for the legislation.

SB 846 provides a path to 100% voter registration, supporters say.

“California is no stranger to making election improvements, from creating the first version of automatic voter registration, to making it possible for all registered voters to vote by mail. Now, we have the opportunity to take the next step in modernizing California’s elections,” Limón said in a statement. “SB 846 will broaden access to the ballot box for all eligible voters.”

Data shows that due to a lack of voter registration among traditionally hard-to-reach communities, California’s current voter population is unrepresentative of its demographic, Limón and Menjivar explain.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), 82% of California’s adults are eligible to vote, but only 64% are registered. As a result, younger, lower income, less educated and state residents who are renters are underrepresented during elections.

Leveraging its voter engagement expertise with communities traditionally ignored by mainstream political campaigns, the California Grassroots Democracy Coalition (CGDC) says it promotes legislation that expands the electorate, builds up civic education, voter registration, and turnout in underrepresented communities, according to the group’s website.

CGDC comprises 140-plus grassroots organizations that are committed to helping California’s most vulnerable communities become empowered through pro-democracy reforms. Organizations in the network have a range of priorities, including, criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, language access, low-income communities, environmental justice, religious rights, labor unions, etc.

The California Grassroots Democracy Coalition held the “Day of Democracy In Support of Secure Automatic Voter Registration” rally and march on June 14, 2023. The participants marched around the California Secretary of State building (in the background) in Sacramento. CBM photo Antonio Ray Harvey.

Julius Thibodeaux, Executive Director for Movement 4 Life, spoke about his experience as a person who was formerly incarcerated and how it affected his access to voting. He also discussed the importance of investing in the development, health and wellbeing of youth in cities.

“In 2020, California voters restored voting rights for more than 50,000 people who are no longer incarcerated. But that’s only the first step,” Thibodeaux told California Black Media at the march and rally. “Now, the work begins to get folks informed, registered, and returning to the ballot box every fall and spring election.”

Kay Francis Morris

Digital Editor

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Jun 22, 2023

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Kay Francis Morris was born to Francis and Will Tom Morris on July 17, 1954, in Amarillo, Texas. Kay relocated to California in the late 1950s where she would go on to lay her roots and enjoy life.

She was preceded in death by her parents Francis and Will Tom Morris; her sister Cecelia Jean Oliver; and her brothers Charles Howard and Tommy Earl Morris. She passed away on May 24, 2023.

Left to cherish her loving memories are, her only child Nicole Williams of San Diego, CA; three grandsons: Eliot Williams, Jayvon Baily, and Timothy Coaxum, all of San Diego, CA; four great-grandchildren; three nieces: LaShanda Jones of Dallas, TX, Mia Morris of San Diego, CA, and Pamela Morris of San Diego, CA; her nephew Anthony Wines of San Diego, CA; a special great-nephew Douglass Crenshaw Jr. of Bennettsville, SC; a lifelong friend Ronald King; a best friend Pauline Cochran; along with a host of great-nieces, great-nephews, other relatives, and friends.

Daryle Wayne Grigsby

Digital Editor

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Jun 22, 2023

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Daryle Wayne Grigsby was born on March 13, 1960 to Lena Mae Grigsby and Osie Lee Grigsby Sr. in Oakland, CA. Daryle’s momma called him “Daryle Wayne,” but his family cut it short and called him “Wayne.”

Raised in a military family, he was taught that family was most important and it was all they had. The second of five children, Wayne was a faithful companion to his oldest sibling, but his bodyguard was his younger sister, Jackie.

The family settled in San Diego for good during the summer of 1969.

Daryle was not always motivated in life until he had a reason to be, and that reason was his daughter, D’Shanae Elonte Caprece Vann-Grigsby. His love for her was like none other. There was truly no mountain high enough that he wouldn’t climb for her. She was the beginning of a divine evolution.

He surmounted all the odds and moved with that motivation to become a teacher of arithmetic and mathematics to middle school kids who had learning challenges. This was his mission and act of service for 23 years at Bell Middle School here in San Diego. Personal education was a pursuit that he had committed himself to until the very end.

On April 21, 2023, our beloved Daryle Wayne Grigsby took his final breath here on this earth and ascended into the afterlife. He is survived by his family and friends who will miss him dearly.

Post Juneteenth Action Required

Digital Editor

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Jun 22, 2023

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By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher, San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

It was great to celebrate Juneteenth as the first National Black Holiday, other than Dr. King’s birthday. It was also great to have the rest of the country catch up with the celebration so many of us have honored and acknowledged for so many years. But there are some very important lessons to go with the acknowledgment of the Emancipation Declaration signed by President Lincoln.

First, the Emancipation Declaration was not to free all slaves, only those in the Confederate States at war with the Union. Second, when the document was signed by Lincoln on January 1, 1863, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was signed by President Lincoln on January 31, 1863, 30 days after the Emancipation Proclamation. We know this took two and a half years to reach the people of Galveston, Texas. The 13th Amendment was signed, as ratified by the states, on December 6, 1865. This document included all enslaved people in the United States while making permanent law the language of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Now that we have been armed with the details, and we have had the celebrations commemorating these two great events, what do we, as individual beneficiaries of these great achievements, what do we do to safeguard these rights?

It is suggested that each of us find a way to get involved. We can do this by talking with our neighbors about the importance of all of us realizing that we are in this together. We can do this by registering to vote, not with a commitment to any party or individual, but to our own interest as we determine what that interest is on each issue before us. If it’s homelessness and the unsheltered, then who can we help and how?

Simply think of what we would want if we were in their place. If it’s an opportunity to replace a right-wing radical seeking to suppress our right to vote by removing boxes for ballot pickups, or advocating for voter identification cards for the elderly or banning books from public libraries, then we should be involved. If money was being given out for voter participation, we would find a way to get it.

How about using that same initiative to safeguard our collective rights and not just the things we care about collectively as individuals? Those persons whose shoulders we stand on, all were concerned about “us” as the Black collective. Can we afford to do any less over 150 years into the freedom so many made possible with such great sacrifices? We say “No”.

Get involved beyond the celebration of Juneteenth. That was yesterday. What will you do for today and tomorrow?

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US Has 2 Men’s Tennis Players in Top 10 After Tiafoe Beats Struff for 1st Grass Title

Maria

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Jun 21, 2023

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US Has 2 Men’s Tennis Players in Top 10 After Tiafoe Beats Struff for 1st Grass Title

By Associated Press

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — There will be two American men’s tennis players ranked in the top 10 for the first time in more than a decade after Frances Tiafoe beat Jan-Lennard Struff on Sunday to win the Stuttgart Open for his first grass-court title.

Tiafoe won 4-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (8) after saving a match point in the deciding tiebreaker and will move up to a career-high ranking of 10th on Monday, up from 12th.

Along with Taylor Fritz in eighth, the U.S. has two men in the top 10 for the first time since Mardy Fish and John Isner were ninth and 10th in May 2012, the ATP tour said.

Tiafoe failed to convert his first match point at 6-5 in the decisive tiebreaker when he hit into the net after the longest rally of the match. Struff then had a match point of his own at 7-6, which Tiafoe saved with a backhand.

A miscued return cost Tiafoe his second match point before a hectic finish on his third when he hit a smash only for Struff to somehow return it, before Tiafoe finished off the win with an instinctive volley at the net.

“I got super lucky there on match point. I still don’t know how I hauled it over the net but I’ll take it,” Tiafoe said.

Tiafoe won the final despite not having a single break of serve against Struff, who hit 28 aces.

Tiafoe’s tournament has been packed with tiebreakers — six of the 10 sets he played in Stuttgart finished that way — and he saved six set points in another tiebreaker in his semifinal win over Marton Fucsovics.

Tiafoe moves to 3-4 in career finals with his second tournament win of the year after beating Tomás Martín Etcheverry for the Houston title on clay in April.

Gannett Sues Google, Alleging Advertising Monopoly

Digital Editor

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Jun 21, 2023

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Gannett Sues Google, Alleging Advertising Monopoly

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Gannett, the leading newspaper publisher in the United States, has taken legal action against Google, accusing the tech giant of monopolizing the digital advertising market.
The USA Today publisher and more than 200 local publications filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in a federal court in New York.

The company is seeking unspecified damages, claiming that Google and its parent company, Alphabet, exert control over publishers’ buying and selling of online ads.
In court documents, Gannett asserts that this control has significantly reduced revenue for publishers and Google’s ad-tech competitors while allowing Google to enjoy excessive monopoly profits.
According to eMarketer, Google holds about 25% of the digital advertising market in the United States, while Meta, Amazon, and TikTok account for another third.

News publishers and other websites make up the remaining 40%. Although Big Tech’s market share is gradually declining, Google remains the dominant player by a wide margin.
Consequently, publishers often depend on Google’s advertising technology to sustain their operations, with Gannett claiming that Google controls 90% of the ad market for publishers.

Michael Reed, Chairman and CEO of Gannett, expressed his concern over Google’s dominant position in the online advertising industry, stating that it has come “at the expense of publishers, readers, and everyone else.”
Reed emphasized the significance of digital advertising for the online economy, highlighting that publishers can invest in their newsrooms with fair competition for digital ad space.
In response to the lawsuit, Dan Taylor, Google’s Vice President of Global Ads, disputed the claims made by Gannett, asserting that they were unfounded.

Taylor pointed out that publishers have multiple options for using advertising technology to monetize their content, including Google Ad Manager, which Gannett utilizes along with numerous other competing ad services.

Taylor argued that publishers retain the majority of revenue when they use Google tools and stated that Google would demonstrate to the court how their advertising products benefit publishers and contribute to funding their online content.
Gannett’s legal action against Google comes amidst an increasing number of antitrust complaints faced by Google in the United States and the European Union concerning its advertising business, which remains its primary source of income.

European Union officials recently called for the breakup of Google’s advertising business, citing “inherent conflicts of interest” resulting from the company’s involvement in various aspects of the digital advertising supply chain, which pose a threat to competition.

Similarly, earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice and eight states sued Google, alleging that the company’s dominance in the online advertising market harms competition and advocating for its separation.

Man with Hit-and-Run History Jailed after High-Speed Crash Kills Five Young Women in Minneapolis

Digital Editor

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Jun 21, 2023

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Man with Hit-and-Run History Jailed after High-Speed Crash Kills Five Young Women in Minneapolis

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and TRISHA AHMED, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man who served a hit-and-run sentence in a California prison until his release earlier this year remained jailed Tuesday, awaiting charges after a crash killed five young women in Minneapolis when a speeding driver blew past a state trooper, ran a red light and slammed into their car.

Derrick John Thompson, 27, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was evaluated at a hospital and then booked into the Hennepin County Jail on Monday in the aftermath of Friday’s crash. The victims — Salma Abdikadir, Siham Adam, Sabiriin Ali, Sahra Gesaade and Sagal Hersi — were all between 17 and 20 years old.

Thousands of mourners from the area’s large Somali American community attended the young women’s funeral Monday at the Dar Al-Farooq mosque in Bloomington, where the five had been active members. They were returning home from a Somali mall where they had henna applied in preparation for a friend’s wedding scheduled for the next day when their car was struck.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office was reviewing the case and would make a charging decision soon. Prosecutors have until noon Wednesday due to the holiday weekend.

“Our community is grieving the loss of the five bright young people whose lives were cut short in a senseless, selfish act of reckless driving,” Moriarity said in a statement. “Instead of celebrating a joyous wedding, these families were forced to plan funerals and deal with the devastation of this tragedy.”

California court records show that Thompson was released from a prison there earlier this year after serving part of an eight-year sentence for his conviction in a 2018 hit-and-run that severely injured a woman in Montecito, California. Minnesota court records also show he was convicted twice of fleeing police in his own state. Jail records don’t show whether he currently has an attorney.

In Friday’s crash, a state trooper first spotted a speeding driver on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis around 10 p.m., police said in a statement. The driver exited the highway before the trooper could attempt a traffic stop and crashed into another vehicle with four women and a girl inside. All five died at the scene.

Police said the driver ran from the scene. Officers searched the area before taking Thompson into custody. He was evaluated at a hospital and then booked into the jail Monday.

Minnesota court records show that Thompson is the son of former state Rep. John Thompson, of St. Paul, who was a sharp critic of police during his one term in office. The elder Thompson became a Black Lives Matter activist following the police killing of his friend, Philando Castile, in suburban St. Paul in 2016. Minnesota House Democrats expelled him from their caucus in 2021 after old allegations of domestic abuse resurfaced, following an acrimonous traffic stop in St. Paul in which he claimed he was racially profiled, and he lost his primary election last year. A working number for the father could not immediately be found.

A Celebration for Dr. William Tayari Howard

Maria

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Jun 21, 2023

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A Celebration for Dr. William Tayari Howard

By Darrell Wheeler, Contributing Writer

Tayari Howard, the award-winning broadcasting legend, was celebrated and honored for his excellence in broadcast journalism and community leadership.

Last Saturday on the patio of Bowlegged BBQ’s tasty establishment, family and friends of the famous smooth jazz DJ host, educator and entrepreneur let the compliments fly as they took turns on the microphone sharing their admiration and appreciation in song and speech for Dr. Tayari Howard.

“My family and I grew up listening to Tayari. [He] is a very important part of this community, he is the definition of iconic,” Bowlegged’s co-owner Carlos Stans shared. “We gladly open our door to him anytime he wants to celebrate here. He is the man.”

Others also shared similar compliments about the man of the hour and his 50 plus years of outstanding accomplishments.

“I have to thank my daughter, Summer. Brian Goodin and his significant work as an archivist and Black historian. You, Darrel, for the work that you do. Mr. Parisi, Carlos and his family, and everybody that helped put this together,” Dr. Howard shared on the microphone. “We still have a lot of work to do as a community. We keep getting pushed around, but we are going to keep pushing back.”

Juneteenth Day Ordinance Signed at George Stevens Senior Center

Digital Editor

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Jun 21, 2023

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Juneteenth Day Ordinance Signed at George Stevens Senior Center

By Amara N. Beaty, Voice and Viewpoint Staff Writer

It was a historic day at the George L Stevens Senior Resource Center this Monday where community members joined together to witness the signing of the official ordinance proclaiming June 19th “Juneteenth Day” in the City of San Diego. Well over 100 members of the 4th District community gathered in the Charles L. Lewis III Assembly Room in celebration of the Black national day of Freedom and Independence — Juneteenth.

The day’s events began with a presentation of colors from the Buffalo Soldiers covered by an invocation and the words of the Black National Anthem. The day’s highlight was the historic signing of the official Juneteenth Day proclamation ordinance. Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe along with five other members of the City Council offered their signature on center stage, making the ordinance official.

While Juneteenth has become a national holiday, it still takes legislative action to make it a paid holiday in the City of San Diego. The six council members present and signing the document with the Mayor included the City Council President and Vice President Pro Tem of the City Council legislators.

The celebratory event, sponsored by the Old Globe Theatre, AARP, and The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint included a concert, health demonstrations, traditional soul food, and fellowship.

A spine-chilling performance by the illustrious Carmelia “Toot” Bell and encouraging words from community matriarch and ancestral storyteller Alyce Smith Cooper also adorned the Senior Center stage along with other performances throughout the day’s events.

(left to right) Joe LaCava, Stephen Whitburn, Jennifer Campbell, Monica Montgomery Steppe, Todd Gloria, Sean Elo-Rivera, and Raul Campillo posing with the Juneteenth Day ordinance” // Photo: Amara N. Beaty

Juneteenth Offers New Ways to Teach about Slavery, Black Perseverance and American History

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Jun 21, 2023

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Juneteenth Offers New Ways to Teach about Slavery, Black Perseverance and American History

By Raphael E. Rogers, Clark University

Whenever I tell high school students in classes I visit that I appreciated learning about slavery as a child growing up in the Caribbean, they often look confused.

Why, they ask, did I like learning about slavery given that it was so horrible and harsh? How could I value being taught about something that caused so much hurt and harm?

That’s when I tell them that my teachers in St. Thomas – and my fourth grade history textbook – didn’t focus just on the harsh conditions of slavery. Rather, they also focused on Black freedom fighters, such as Moses Gottlieb, perhaps better known as General Buddhoe, who is credited with leading a nonviolent revolt that led to the abolishment of slavery in the Danish-ruled West Indies on July 3, 1848. The historic date is now observed and celebrated in the United States Virgin Islands as Emancipation Day.

The holiday – and the lessons I learned about it – instilled in me a sense of cultural pride and gave me a better appreciation for the sacrifices that Black people made for freedom. It also encouraged me to always push on when faced with challenges.

The reason I bring this up is because I believe Juneteenth – which commemorates the date in 1865 when Union troops notified the last remaining slaves in Texas that they were free – holds similar promise for Black students throughout the United States.

Students often tell me that they’re not learning much about slavery beyond the suffering and harsh conditions that it involved. As a historian who specializes in how slavery is taught in K-12 classrooms, I believe there are several ways educators can incorporate Juneteenth into their instruction that will give students a broader understanding of how Black people resisted slavery and persevered in spite of it. Below are just a few.

Start early, but keep it positive

As early childhood experts assembled by the National Museum of African American History point out in a guide they created to help develop lessons about Juneteenth, children in the U.S. will probably hear about slavery by age 5. But lessons about slavery at that age should avoid the pain and trauma of slavery. Instead, the lessons should celebrate and teach stories of Black culture, leadership, inventions, beauty and accomplishments. This, the authors of the guide say, will better equip children to later hear about, understand and emotionally process the terrible truths about slavery.

“Juneteenth events can be wonderful opportunities to introduce the concepts of slavery with a focus on resilience and within an environment of love, trust, and joy,” the guide states.

Focus on Black resistance

Many Juneteeth celebrations not only commemorate the end of slavery, but they also honor the generations of Black men and women who have fought to end slavery and for racial justice. As Black history education professor LaGarett King puts it, Black people have always “acted, made their own decisions based on their interests, and fought back against oppressive structures.” Stressing this can help students to see that although Black people were victimized by slavery, they were not just helpless victims.

Juneteenth provides opportunities to acknowledge and examine the legacies of Black freedom fighters during the time of slavery. These freedom fighters include – but are not necessarily limited to – Frederick Douglass, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner and Sojourner Truth.

Connect Juneteenth to current events

Juneteenth can also be a way for educators to help students better understand contemporary demands for racial justice. That’s what George Patterson, a former Brooklyn middle school principal, did a few years back at the height of protests that took place under the mantra of Black Lives Matter.

Patterson has said he believes that when students study Juneteenth, they are “better equipped to understand the historical underpinnings of what’s going on in the streets and to put the demands being made in context.”

Teachers need not wait for Juneteenth to be included in textbooks in order to draw lessons from the holiday.

“If it’s not in the textbook, then we need to introduce it, we need to teach it,” Odessa Pickett, a teacher at the Barack Obama Learning Academy in Markham, Illinois, stated during an interview about teachers infusing Juneteenth into their lessons. “We need to bring it to the forefront.”

Educators can make Juneteenth about so much more than the end of slavery. Teaching lessons about the holiday offers an abundance of opportunities about what it means to fight for freedom and maintain a sense of self-determination in the face of oppression.

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Raphael E. Rogers, Professor of Practice in Education, Clark University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.