By JAMES POLLARD and JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press/Report for America
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Federal judges ordered South Carolina lawmakers to draw new congressional maps, ruling Friday that the U.S. House district lines of a seat flipped by Democrats four years ago were intentionally redrawn to split Black neighborhoods to dilute their voting power.
The state used the maps in this past November’s midterm elections after the Republican-dominated state Legislature redrew the lines earlier this year following the 2020 U.S. Census.
With Republicans holding a thin margin in the U.S. House, any change to competitive districts has a chance to alter the balance of power after the 2024 elections.
Friday’s ruling said the coastal 1st District running from Charleston to Hilton Head Island was drawn to remove Black voters and make it a safer seat for Republicans.
The judges requested state lawmakers pass new U.S. House maps by the end of March. They said no elections can take place in the 1st District until it is redrawn.
South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith said he anticipated the decision would be appealed. “I maintain that the House drew maps without racial bias and in the best interest of all the people of this state,” the Republican said in a statement.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace currently represents the 1st District. She beat Joe Cunningham in 2020 after Cunningham became the first Democrat to flip a U.S. House seat in South Carolina in 30 years.
Mace won by just over 1 percentage point in 2020. But after the district was redrawn, she won by 14 percentage points in November.
After the new congressional maps were approved, civil rights groups swiftly filed a lawsuit charging the state Legislature with choosing “perhaps the worst option of the available maps” for Black voters.
The judges requested state lawmakers pass new U.S. House maps by the end of March. They said no elections can take place in the 1st District until it is redrawn.
The judges ruled that to make the 1st District safer for Republicans, GOP legislative leaders who drew the new maps pulled Black voters out of the 1st District and placed them into the 6th District, which is the only one represented by a Democrat and was redrawn three decades ago to have a majority of minority voters.
The 6th District stretches through a large swath of rural South Carolina into Columbia, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Charleston.
The judges wrote in their ruling that Will Roberts, who drew the maps, used race to achieve the partisan goal of making the 1st District safer for Republicans, which is not allowed under federal law.
“When asked what community of interest the residents of North Charleston would have with the residents of Congressional District No. 6 in Columbia, Roberts could only think of their common proximity to Interstate I-26, albeit over 100 miles apart,” the judges wrote.
The panel’s decision delivered a victory for civil rights groups after the Supreme Court in 2013 tossed a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act. The trial marked the first time South Carolina maps had been scrutinized since the justices removed part of the 1965 law that required the state get federal approval to protect against discriminatory redistricting proposals.
The judges did OK the split of some African American voters in the 2nd District around Columbia to include U.S. Army training base Fort Jackson in the district represented by Joe Wilson. He is expected to be chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and the district boundaries had been in place for 30 years.
South Carolina’s 5th District also was approved by the judges.
Attorneys for state lawmakers said their changes were not driven by race, but by South Carolina’s population boom. Much of the state’s 10% population growth from 2010 to 2020 occurred along the coast.
The General Assembly also argued that the maps were driven not by race but by legitimate political interests like preserving the state’s 6-1 ratio of Republicans to Democrats representing South Carolina in the House of Representatives.
The decision adds another urgent matter to the General Assembly’s session that begins Tuesday.
“We’ve got a lot of other things that we need to be focusing on,” Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said at a Friday news conference where he was releasing his budget plan.
For most Americans, Jan. 6 was once an ordinary, ho-hum day.
That changed in 2021 when millions of television viewers watched thousands of Trump supporters assault the U.S. Capitol in their violent attempt to stop Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Legislators fled for their lives as the mob shattered windows and vandalized congressional offices.
While those images and subsequent congressional investigation and report are part of the collective memory, a debate still rages over what exactly to call what happened that day.
Was it a rally comprising American patriots, or, as many Republicans refer to the day’s events, “legitimate political discourse”?
Or was it an insurrection, as most observers have called the Jan. 6 attack?
Words matter
As a professor who teaches rhetoric of social movements, I am well versed in concepts of protests, rebellions and insurrections.
In fact, my research on police brutality is heavily influenced by Black Lives Matter and other movements focused on Black liberation and safety.
In an article published in the academic journal American Behavioral Scientist, my colleague Sharifa-Simon Roberts and I argue that any discussion about American insurrections must include the experiences of Black rebellions.
For centuries, insurrections were among the only tools enslaved people had for social change and, ultimately, freedom.
From Nat Turner’s insurrection in 1831, the story of which was developed into a movie, to the squelched insurrection in 1687 of a Black man named Sam who was owned by Richard Metcalfe, insurrections and rebellions have always been used by Black people who were enslaved in the U.S.
In my view, what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, was a co-option of a Black liberation tactic that was used to remedy an injustice enshrined in the law.
But unlike Trump’s false claims of voter fraud, which were legally challenged and proved untrue, insurrections by enslaved people were based on a legitimate flaw in the U.S. Constitution – the denial of full citizenship based on skin color and race.
Insurrections by enslaved people
According to federal law, an insurrectionist is “whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto.”
If found guilty, an insurrectionist could be fined or imprisoned for no more than 10 years and “shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
In my view, rebellions of the enslaved can aptly be classified as insurrections.
From the early 1600s, historians estimate that there were around 250 insurrections in America that involved 10 or more enslaved people using violence to fight for equal rights.
In his work published in 1937, historian Herbert Aptheker writes, “Nothing has been more neglected, nor, more distorted than the story of slave revolts.”
A few of them are summarized below.
September 1739: 13 original colonies
The Stono Rebellion was the largest and deadliest insurrection by enslaved people in the 18th century.
In a bloody fight for freedom, dozens of enslaved men raided a firearms store and attempted to journey to freedom. The group grew to about 60 people and continued to fight, but white people quickly stopped the progress.
By dusk, the insurrection had ended. Half the men were killed and the other half captured, left to an uncertain fate.
January 1811: New Orleans
Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, when people of color overthrew their French colonizers at the turn of the 19th century, Charles Deslondes led one of the largest insurrections in American history.
Armed with muskets and ammunition stolen from the plantation’s basement, formerly enslaved people mobilized and killed their owner Manuel Andry and his son, Gilbert.
Donning the military uniforms once proudly worn by their oppressors, the group continued throughout New Orleans, wreaking havoc on plantations along the way. It is estimated that between 200-500 people participated in the insurrection before a white militia defeated them.
August 1831: Southampton County, Virginia
One of the most well-documented and well-known slave insurrections in history was led by Nat Turner. As a preacher, Turner used his belief in God to unite the enslaved and lead the largest insurrection in American history.
Known as the Southampton Insurrection, Turner’s rebellion started where he was enslaved, the Travis plantation near Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in what’s now the United States. After he and around 70 rebels killed the plantation’s owner, they marched throughout the county, resulting in the death of nearly 60.
Thirty years later, in 1861, The Atlantic published a recounting of the insurrection by white abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
“The black men passed from house to house, not pausing, not hesitating, as their terrible work went on,” Higginson wrote. “From every house they took arms and ammunition, and from a few, money; on every plantation they found recruits.”
Unequal insurrections?
In their article “From Protest to Riot to Insurrection,” National Public Radio journalists detailed the importance of using specific language to cover Jan. 6.
Merriam-Webster observed a 34,000% increase in individuals looking up the definition of “insurrection” in the days following Jan. 6, 2021.
The word was also listed as runner-up for 2021 word of the year, losing to “vaccine.”
Despite the interest in the word and the ongoing debate over the events of Jan. 6, 2021, in my view some insurrections are more equal than others as the legitimate plight of enslaved people continues to be be ignored, overlooked and all but forgotten.
With the recent death of retired Pope Benedict XVI, some little-known history of Black occupants of the papacy comes to mind.
That history tells us there were three Black popes in Catholic Church history: Pope Victor I who headed the church from 189 A.D. to 199 A.D., Pope Miltiades (311 A.D. – 314 A.D.) and Pope Gelasius who served between 492 and 496 A.D.
Incidentally, all three popes have been declared saints (the prohibition based on race seems to be only against African Americans from the United States). Their reins were briefer than contemporary popes, perhaps because life expectancy was shorter then.
The three Black Popes were all profound individuals.
Pope Victor I, for example, declared that Easter must only be celebrated on a Sunday and dictated that anyone who disagreed or disobeyed would be accountable to him and would be ex-communicated. In Asia, in particular, with no fixed date for Easter, especially in the East –it was celebrated in those days on the 14th day after the full moon– but on different days in various countries. Pope Victor asserted his papal authority ending the confusion and controversy over when to celebrate Easter with his decisiveness. Also, it was he who directed that Mass be said in Latin by all in the church henceforth, as opposed to the vernacular of the time, Greek.
Annually, Pope Victor I is celebrated by Catholics on July 28.
Portait of en:Pope Miltiades in the en:Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Rome Photo credits: WikiCommons
Pope Miltiades has a reputation in history as an excellent leader and pope. During that time, Christians were being persecuted. He got the Roman Emperor Galerius, who ruled from 305 to 311 A.D., to sign an edict of toleration ending the persecutions and allowing Christians to believe and act publicly in their faith. He was the last pontiff to be buried in a catacomb –an ancient Roman underground cemetery and hiding place– where spaces are set back for individual tombs. Pope Miltiades is remembered and celebrated by Catholics every year on Dec. 10.
The last Black pope, Gelasius, was born in Rome to African parents. Gelasius was widely known as a prolific writer and a very strong advocate for charity and justice for the poor. He required that all bishops donate 25 percent of their revenue to charity. He said, “nothing is more becoming to the priestly office than the protection of the poor and weak.” The feast day of Pope Gelasius is usually held on Nov. 21.
“More should be known about these three African Popes,” said Bishop John Ricard, SSJ, a Josephite priest, retired bishop and currently the Superior General of the Josephite order. “They were all consequential. They were very important to the life of the church and yet more work remains to be done about getting the word out about them.”
There are currently 14 retired African popes, all were potentially able to elect or be chosen to be pope.
Pope Francis elevated two Africans as cardinals in 2022, Bishop Peter Okpaleke of Nigeria and Bishop Richard Kuula of Ghana. Yet over the years, there was one African cardinal whose name turned up most frequently as a possible candidate to be elected pope.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, of Nigeria, for years, was eligible to be pope. He is very highly respected, but the question remains, “Would he be accepted in the United States and other parts of the world with a history of White supremacy– even in these modern times?”
“It is with great sadness that the Society of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart (The Josephites) have received the news of the death of Pope Benedict XVI,” said Bishop John Ricard, SSJ, first Black Catholic Bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the current Superior General of the Josephites. “We join the rest of the Catholic world in commending his soul to God, who he served so well as the head of the universal church. May he rest in peace.”
Long live Pope Francis and may he be followed one day by the fourth Black Pope in Catholic Church history, whomever that may be.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — It was uplifting enough for the Buffalo Bills staff and players to see Damar Hamlin appear on the video screen in the team’s meeting room Friday — “larger than life,” as coach Sean McDermott put it — for the first time since the safety collapsed and had to be resuscitated on the field.
What sent everyone’s emotions over the top was hearing Hamlin, his mouth and throat still raw shortly after having a breathing tube removed, softly say: “ Love you, boys.”
“Amazing. Touching. To see Damar, number one, through my own eyes, I know it’s something I’ve been looking forward to, kind of needing to see,” McDermott said. “And to see the players’ reaction. They stood up right away and clapped for him and yelled some things at him. It was a pretty cool exchange.”
Four days since his heart stopped after making what appeared to be a routine tackle in a game, the 24-year-old Hamlin from his hospital room in Cincinnati and the Bills enjoyed a moment of jubilation in celebrating the next step in what his doctors have termed a remarkable recovery.
“We got our boy, man. It’s all that matters,” left tackle Dion Dawkins said.
“To see the boy’s face, to see him smile and to see him go like this in the camera,” Dawkins said, flexing his muscles to mimic Hamlin, “it was everything. And then to hear him talk, it was literally everything. That’s what we needed.”
Hamlin is now breathing and walking on his own, and traded in the writing pad he had been using to communicate. Though there is no timetable for his release, Hamlin’s doctors said Thursday that both breathing on his own and showing continued signs of improvement are the final steps for him to be discharged from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
Hamlin spent his first two days in the hospital under sedation. Upon being awakened on Wednesday evening, Hamlin was able to follow commands and grip people’s hands. The breathing tube was removed, the team said Friday, and Hamlin’s “neurologic function remains intact.”
The team did not say whether Hamlin’s status remains critical or whether he’s been moved from intensive care.
In what was an expected formality, the Bills placed Hamlin on the season-ending injured reserve list and activated rookie cornerback Christian Benford from IR. Benford has been sidelined since sustaining an oblique injury on Thanksgiving Day.
“The hair on the back of my neck stood up when he said, ‘I love you boys,’” said general manager Brandon Beane, who returned to Buffalo on Thursday after spending the three days at Hamlin’s bedside along with the player’s family.
The turning point in Hamlin’s recovery, for Beane, anyway, came Thursday morning when the two exchanged hugs.
“Just to be able to hug him and the grip strength that he had,” Beane said, before recalling what he told Hamlin’s father, Mario. “I told him, I’m not a crier, but man it was emotional and a lot of grown men in there crying yesterday. Something I’ll never forget.”
The reaction from around the NFL on Friday was just as heart-warming.
“Awesome. It’s probably uplifting for the entire league,” said New York Giants coach Brian Daboll, who spent the previous four seasons as the Bills offensive coordinator. “It gives you a boost because you’re praying so hard for the young man.”
The NFL announced plans to show support for Hamlin during all Week 18 games, including a pregame moment of support, painting Hamlin’s No. 3 on the 30-yard line and pregame shirts with “Love for Damar 3.” The Bills will also wear “3” jersey patches.
New York Jets rookie cornerback Sauce Gardner was already planning to wear Hamlin’s No. 3 jersey during warmups before the team’s game at Miami on Sunday.
“What a warrior. He’s so strong, a fighter for sure,” Gardner said. “I was just so happy he was able to come back to the world.”
Interacting with Hamlin gave the Bills (12-3) some encouragement and allowed them to turn their attention to the season-ending home game against the New England Patriots (8-8) on Sunday.
“It’s going to be a celebration of life and an ongoing life,” Beane said, looking ahead.
“It’s not only going to be a celebration of Buffalo, but the whole country, and I’m sure people internationally that have watched this situation,” he added. “It’s going to be a cool deal, and the only thing better is if Damar was out there by then. I don’t know if that would happen, but anyway, we’re excited for Sunday.”
The sight of Hamlin collapsing, which was broadcast to a North American TV audience on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” has led to an outpouring of support from fans and players from across the league. Fans, team owners and players — including Tom Brady and Russell Wilson — have made donations to Hamlin’s Chasing M’s Foundation, which had raised just short of $8 million by Friday afternoon.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A journalists’ union in South Sudan asserted Friday that six staffers with the national broadcaster are detained in connection with footage apparently showing the country’s president urinating on himself during an event.
The South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation footage aired in December and was widely shared online. It showed 71-year-old President Salva Kiir standing during the national anthem and then looking down at what appeared to be a spreading stain before the camera turned away.
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan in a statement called for a speedy conclusion to the investigation into the staffers it said are in the custody of the National Security Service. The statement said the staffers are suspected of having knowledge of the public release of “a certain footage.”
“If there is a prima facie case of professional misconduct or offense then let authorities expedite an administrative or legal process to address the issue in a fair, transparent and in accordance with the law,” union chair Oyet Patrick Charles said.
Calls to the NSS rang unanswered. Officials with the president’s office, and the national broadcaster refused to comment.
Kiir has been South Sudan’s only president since the country won independence from Sudan in 2011. The presidential election was recently postponed again, this time to late 2024, amid the slow implementation of a 2018 peace deal ending a five-year civil war.
The NFL’s decision to cancel the Bills-Bengals game has major playoff implications for several teams.
The league is changing the rules for the postseason to accommodate the cancellation and will hold a special meeting Friday to ask teams to vote on a resolution recommended by Commissioner Roger Goodell and approved by the competition committee Thursday night.
Goodell said in a statement that the hope is to “limit disruption across the league and minimize competitive inequities,” adding later: “The proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances.”
The Bills-Bengals game was suspended Monday night after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin collapsed and went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field. The 24-year-old was breathing on his own and able to talk Friday morning after having his breathing tube removed, and physicians said Thursday he was making “remarkable improvement.”
Buffalo (12-3) entered Monday night needing a win to maintain the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The Kansas City Chiefs (13-3) now hold that spot. Cincinnati (11-4) had a chance to earn the top seed with two more wins and a loss by the Chiefs.
WHY DID THE NFL CANCEL THE BILLS-BENGALS GAME?
Not playing the game to its conclusion will have no effect on which teams qualify for the postseason. No team would qualify for the postseason or be eliminated based on the outcome of the game.
Resuming the game would impact the 12 other teams in the postseason field because it would force the league to push the start of the playoffs back one week. The decision to cancel one game has the least effect on the majority of the league.
WHAT ARE THE RULES CHANGES?
Instead of canceling the game and awarding playoff seeding by winning percentage, the NFL and its competition committee approved several changes that will be presented to club owners for a vote Friday.
The AFC Championship Game will be played at a neutral site if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the No. 1 seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season.
Those circumstances involve Buffalo or Cincinnati qualifying for the game as a road team. If Buffalo and Kansas City both win or tie this weekend, a Bills-Chiefs AFC title game would be at a neutral site.
If Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Baltimore wins or ties, a Bills-Chiefs AFC title game would be at a neutral site.
If Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Cincinnati wins, Bills or Bengals against Kansas City in the AFC title game would be at a neutral site.
Also, if Baltimore defeats Cincinnati in Week 18, the Ravens would have two wins over the divisional opponent Bengals but would not be able to host a playoff game because Cincinnati will have a higher winning percentage for a 16-game schedule than Baltimore with a 17-game schedule.
Therefore, if Baltimore defeats Cincinnati and if those two clubs are scheduled to play a wild-card game against each another, the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss.
But if the Bengals win this weekend or if Baltimore and Cincinnati are not scheduled to play each other in the wild-card round, the game sites would be determined by the regular scheduling procedures.
WHICH TEAMS ARE IMPACTED MOST BY THE CANCELLATION?
The Bills, Bengals, Chiefs and Ravens, because of three neutral-site possibilities for the AFC championship game and the coin-flip option for home-field advantage for a potential Ravens-Bengals wild-card matchup.
WHAT WAS THE NFL’S ALTERNATIVE?
It’s the first time since 1935 that every team will not play an equal number of games. The NFL’s 2022 policy manual for game operations states “a team’s standing in its division or in its conference” will be determined by winning percentage if a game is canceled. Due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the canceled game, the league proposed new rules.
WHICH NEUTRAL SITE WOULD HOST THE AFC TITLE GAME?
The league is exploring several options, including indoor and outdoor stadiums. Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, has a potential conflict because of a volleyball tournament.
Living In Victory Recovery Sober Living [LIV] is helping those impacted by substance use fight against drug and alcohol addiction at its new rehabilitation facility in the Old North neighborhood.
Owners Derrick and Cameo Jones opened the center in August and say they come from families of addiction. Based on their experiences, they realize many Black families don’t have the resources to help loved one’s fight addiction.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2020, overdose deaths increased by 44% for Black people. Also, the overdose death rate among Black men 65 years and older was nearly seven times that of White males 65 years and older. Black people ages 15 to 24 years old experienced the largest rate increase of 86% compared with changes seen in other age or race groups during 2019–2020.
It is so unfortunate that addicts are treated like criminals instead of sick patients. Especially in the Black community compared to how Black addicts are treated in the judicial system compared to white addicts.
CAMEO JONES, CO-OWNER OF LIV CENTER
The report also pointed out that in counties with a higher income wage gap there were greater disparities in overdose deaths, especially among Black people. The rate is more than two times as high in areas with more income inequality versus those with less income inequality.
“Our Black men are literally an endangered species,” said Cameo Jones. Derrick follows up saying their facility in Old North is needed to help more young men, especially young Black men.
The Jones’ first facility opened in St. Charles in 2018. They learned that many Black people didn’t have transportation to reach them, and many people did not want to be served in a predominantly white area.
“Our goal became to work our way back down to the city to provide the same resources as they receive at our St. Charles location,” said Derrick.
According to Cameo, when it comes to people of color who face substance use, there are so many hurdles to receiving proper treatment. Cultural hurdles, mental health hurdles, awareness, and transportation. She said, “Our people didn’t even know we [LIV] existed.”
The 35-bed, three-story rehab center offers room and board, food, a 12-step program, onsite therapy, and a new approach to treating substance use. It is currently full of clients.
They change the way people discuss addiction, using the term substance abuse in conversations.
Instead of using the more common term substance abuse, the Joneses use substance use. The goal is taking prolonged shame out of being an addict.
“It is so unfortunate that addicts are treated like criminals instead of sick patients. Especially in the Black community compared to how Black addicts are treated in the judicial system compared to white addicts,” Cameo said.
The Drug Policy Alliance report shows Black people use drugs at similar rates to people of other races. But Black people comprise 30% of those arrested for drug law violations and nearly 40% of those incarcerated in state or federal prison for drug law violations. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws contributed greatly to the number of people of color behind bars.
LIV doesn’t just talk about the addiction, but we cover the mind, the trauma where the addiction came from. We have to get to the exact nature of what’s going on.
CAMEO JONES, CO-OWNER OF LIV CENTER
LIV has a pilot program called Respite, which is designed for addicts known as ‘tweeners.’ They have gone through recovery programs, are ready to re-enter society, but still need some type of structure of a rehab center.
During the 90-day program, they must find employment, get a sponsor, and they also have a support group onsite at LIV. Monthly community service is mandatory, and LIV supports their room and board and aids them with their meals.
“They are doing the work to re-integrate themselves in the community, with our support and guidance,” said Cameo. “Respite is the bridge to everything, be it the treatment, recovery housing, outpatient services, or permanent housing. LIV doesn’t just talk about the addiction, but we cover the mind, the trauma where the addiction came from. We have to get to the exact nature of what’s going on.”
Jack Douglas, a returning patient of LIV, says he doesn’t know where he would be without it.
“They saved my life,” said Douglas.
Elizabeth Kowalik, LIV’s onsite therapist, says many clients suffer from “not truly knowing who they are as an individual.”
“I feel Black men are plighted by that more so than other populations because they are prone to systemic stuck points,” she said.
LIV provides room and board, meals, 24-hour services, treatment, transportation, therapy, and medication treatment. The owners hope to start a Respite program for women at their new location too.
The largest investigation in the Justice Department’s history keeps growing two years after a violent mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol and challenged the foundations of American democracy.
More than 930 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the siege on Jan. 6, 2021, and the tally increases by the week. Hundreds more people remain at large on the second anniversary of the unprecedented assault that was fueled by lies that the 2020 election was stolen.
A surplus of self-incriminating videos and social media posts has made it difficult for riot suspects to present viable defenses. Federal prosecutors have a near-perfect trial record, securing a conviction in all but one case.
The cases have clogged Washington’s federal court, a building less than a mile from the Capitol. Virtually every weekday, judges are sentencing rioters or accepting their guilty pleas while carving out room on their dockets for trials. Already scheduled for this year are trials for about 140 riot defendants.
At least 538 cases, more than half of those brought so far, have been resolved through guilty pleas, trials, dismissals or the defendant’s death, according to an Associated Press review of court records. That leaves approximately 400 unresolved cases at the outset of 2023.
While a House committee has wrapped up its investigation of the riot, the Justice Department’s work appears to be far from done. A special counsel is overseeing two federal investigations involving Trump: one into the retention of classified documents at the former president’s Florida estate and a second into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Jan. 6 attack as an “assault on our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
“And we remain committed to doing everything in our power to prevent this from ever happening again,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
A look at where the prosecutions stand:
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HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CHARGED?
The number of defendants charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes is approaching 1,000. They range from misdemeanor charges against people who entered the Capitol but did not engage in any violence to seditious conspiracy charges against members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups accused of violently plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power.
More than 100 police officers were injured at the Capitol. More than 280 defendants have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers on Jan. 6, according to the Justice Department. The FBI is posting videos and photos of violent, destructive rioters in seeking the public’s help in identifying other culprits.
Investigators have used facial recognition software, license plate readers and other high-tech tools to track down some suspects. Networks of online sleuths have helped the FBI identify rioters based on digital clues.
Among those still on the lam: the person who put two explosives outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees before the riot. The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Metropolitan Police Department are offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Authorities have shared a staggering amount of evidence with defense lawyers — more than nine terabytes of information that would take over 100 days to view. The shared files include thousands of hours of surveillance footage from the Capitol and hundreds of hours of bodycam videos from police officers who tried to hold off the mob.
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HOW MANY HAVE PLEADED GUILTY?
Nearly 500 people have pleaded guilty to riot-related charges, typically hoping that cooperating could lead to a lighter punishment.
About three-quarters of them pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in which the maximum sentence was either six months or one year behind bars. More than 100 of them have pleaded guilty to felony charges punishable by longer prison terms.
The first person to plead guilty to a Jan. 6-related crime was Jon Ryan Schaffer, an Indiana musician who joined the Oath Keepers. Schaffer was one of at least eight Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty before the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, and other members went to trial on seditious conspiracy charges.
The Justice Department also cut plea deals with several Proud Boys members, securing their cooperation to build a case against former national leader Enrique Tarrio and other top members of the group. A New York man, Matthew Greene, was the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiring with others to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.
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HOW MANY HAVE GONE TO TRIAL?
Dozens of riot defendants have elected to let juries or judges decide their fates. For the most part, they haven’t fared well at trial.
The Justice Department notched a high-stakes victory in November when a jury convicted Rhodes, the Oath Keepers’ founder, and a Florida chapter leader of seditious conspiracy. It was the first seditious conspiracy conviction at trial in decades. Jurors acquitted three other Oath Keepers associates of the Civil War-era charge, but convicted them of other felony offenses.
The next major milestone is the sedition trial of Tarrio and four other members of the Proud Boys. Jury selection in the trial of the far-right extremist group started last month.
In other cases, an Ohio man who stole a coat rack from the Capitol testified that he was acting on orders from Trump when he stormed the Capitol. A New Jersey man described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer claimed he didn’t know that Congress met at the Capitol. A retired New York Police Department officer testified that he was defending himself when he tackled a police officer and grabbed his gas mask outside the Capitol.
Those defenses fell flat. Jurors unanimously convicted all three men of every charge in their respective indictments.
Federal juries have convicted at least 22 people of Jan. 6 charges. Judges have convicted an additional 24 riot defendants after hearing and deciding cases without a jury.
Only one person, New Mexico resident Matthew Martin, has been acquitted of all charges after a trial. After hearing testimony without a jury, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden concluded that it was reasonable for Martin to believe that outnumbered police officers allowed him and others to enter the Capitol through the Rotunda doors on Jan. 6.
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HOW MANY HAVE BEEN SENTENCED?
At least 362 riot defendants were sentenced by the end of 2022. Roughly 200 of them have received terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years. Prosecutors had recommended a jail or prison sentence in approximately 300 of those 362 cases.
Retired New York Police Department Officer Thomas Webster has received the longest prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who sentenced Webster to a decade in prison, also presided over the first Oath Keepers sedition trial and will sentence Rhodes and Rhodes’ convicted associates.
Webster is one of 34 riot defendants who has received a prison sentence of at least three years. More than half of them, including Webster, assaulted police officers at the Capitol.
The riot resulted in more than $2.7 million in damage. So far, judges have ordered roughly 350 convicted rioters to collectively pay nearly $280,00 in restitution. More than 100 rioters have been ordered to pay over $241,000 in total fines.
Judges also have ordered dozens of rioters to serve terms of home detention ranging from two weeks to one year — usually instead of jail time — and to collectively perform more than 14,000 hours of community service.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rapper Theophilus London has been found safe after disappearing for months, a relative announced Wednesday night.
“We have found Theo. He is safe and well,” the rapper’s cousin, Mikhail Noel, posted on Instagram. “At this time the family would love prayers and privacy. Thank you all!!!”
The post didn’t provide details of where London had been found, where he had been or why he hadn’t contacted his family, which filed a missing persons report with Los Angeles police last week and asked for the public’s help in finding him.
London’s family and friends had said they believed someone last spoke to the musician in July in Los Angeles.
London, 35, posted prolifically on Instagram, but his last posts also came in July.
An LAPD news release on Dec. 28 said London was last seen in the Skid Row area in October and his family had completely lost contact with him.
The rapper was born in Trinidad and Tobago and later raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York. He was nominated for a 2016 Grammy for best rap performance for a featured spot alongside Paul McCartney on Kanye West’s “All Day.”
London has frequently collaborated with the artist now known as Ye, who produced and guested on 2014′s “Vibes.” London would often post updates on Ye’s “Donda” and “Donda 2” on Instagram, even saying he was “promoted to tackle media duties” on Ye’s behalf for the month of February.
London has released three studio albums: 2011′s “Timez Are Weird These Days,” “Vibes” and 2020′s “Bebey.” He recently was a featured artist on Young Franco’s “Get Your Money,” released in September, the month before he was last seen.
Rep. Billy Mitchell, from Georgia’s 88th District, will soon leave his role as president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
Rep. Billy Mitchell, from Georgia’s 88th District, will soon leave his role as president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.Rep. Billy Mitchell from the state of Georgia’s 88th District, is the outgoing president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL). He has served as its 14th president. Rep. Laura Hall will assume his post at the end of this month as the 15th president of NBCSL.
In a question-and-answer session President Mitchell reflected on his visit to Maryland, his accomplishments, and the future of Democrats in America.
AFRO: You visited Maryland during the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus Foundation Gala– give us your thoughts?
First, let me say that Maryland is probably the envy of the nation, at least among communities of color.
Your leadership in Maryland reflects more of where the country is going in terms of population and race. I had a great time at the Maryland Black Caucus event. I got to meet your new Gov. Wes Moore, who is the only Black governor in our country. I met your Attorney General Anthony Brown, who is also among the few Black state Attorneys General in the country. I also met and chatted with your Speaker of the House, Adrienne Jones. I must also add you have, I believe the largest population of Black state legislators in the country at 60 plus–I think it is 66. I must tell you, that they are already talking about your governor as a candidate for president, I would think in 2028. We wish we could get half the things done in our state of Georgia that your legislature gets done in Maryland.
AFRO: As president of the NBCSL, what do you consider your major accomplishments?
Under my administration we began to look at these bias and racist election laws being proposed in states throughout this country. What we found was that we did not have the support system that is provided to conservative state legislators by organizations such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Heritage Foundation. I was able to do a comparison of the biased election laws they were trying to pass in Georgia, Texas and 40 other states. I can tell you that the language was the same, the talking points were the same, and the messaging was the same–they peddled their points of view across the country.
My response, as president, was to create our own Public Policy Institute so Black legislators and those committed to diversity and equality in this country can come to us and we will provide them support through research, talking points, legislation and messaging to combat these attacks on our constitution.
The other accomplishment I want to mention is reactivating our International committee, which honored the president of Uganda in 2021 and the president of Jamaica this past December. Both countries want to encourage Black people to do business in their countries and are looking for corporate companies to consider locating in their country. Through our corporate roundtable efforts, the president of Uganda is talking with Amazon about locating a distribution center there.
AFRO: How do you think President Biden is doing?
I think he is doing an incredible job. Let me say for full disclosure, I received a phone call from then-Congressman Cedric Richmond, a former state legislator who asked me to endorse Biden as I was the incoming president of NBCSL. I told Cedrick to have then-candidate Biden to call me. He said he would do better than that. They both came to Atlanta two weeks later and I listened to Biden, and was impressed.
I endorsed him then and would endorse him again. Forty other state legislators also endorsed him. He has appointed more Black federal judges than all the presidents put together. There would not be a Ketanji Brown on the Supreme Court if not for him. The Rescue Bill, the bi-partisan infrastructure legislation, the inflation R\reduction Act and the science and technology legislation all are among President Biden’s accomplishments.
AFRO: What does Biden need to focus on prior to the election of 2024?
He needs to aggressively promote what he has done. Almost every state has drawn down money from the bi-partisan infrastructure bill– including Maryland and Georgia. This is money not coming from state coffers but from the federal government.
In Republican states controlled by Republican governors you will see the monies going towards roads and bridges. There is so much more being done that we are not hearing about.
Further he needs to get the tuition reimbursement bill across the finish line. That will impact a lot of families across the nation. He has some appointments including ambassadors that he needs to complete. He wins on the environment. What we did at NBCSL at our conference this year, I believe, will help–that is pass a resolution asking state legislators to create oversight structures and executive orders to assure that federal dollars being made available are going to their communities and to assure that the intent of Biden’s Justice 40 is met. Climate change is real and we must focus if we want a better environment for future generations.
AFRO: What do you think of what is going on with leadership in Washington, D.C.?
It is historical in every way. Never in the history of the Republican Party, that now is supposed to control the House by a small majority, has there been this much chaos. Today they are up to five votes and McCarthy can’t get the votes he needs to be speaker. Even if he does eventually win, he won’t be able to– in my opinion– maintain control.
In contrast, the minority leader Congressman Hakeem Jefferies of New York, has achieved something that has never happened before in the Democratic Party Leadership and that is to come into leadership with a unanimous vote. Jefferies superseded Nancy Pelosi, considered one of the greatest house leaders of all time in capturing votes. The joke among Republicans is perhaps they should vote for him as majority leader. Of course, we know that won’t happen. Many of them couldn’t go back home and get elected if such a vote was cast (he laughs).
AFRO: What are your thoughts on Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries?
He was a state legislator from 2006 to 2012 before going to congress. I’ve talked with him during this term as NBCSL president. He is very thoughtful and methodical. His goal will be to return the house back to Democratic Leadership in 2024 and I think he is up for that challenge. I believe he too will be a presidential candidate in 2028.
AFRO: I must ask you this since you are from Georgia, will Stacy Abrams run again for governor of your state?
I believe she would be the front runner if she does try a third time. There is a stigma when you have lost two times for the same office, however I think she could do it. It is hard to unseat an incumbent governor. In 2028, she would not be running against an incumbent. She only lost by five percent of the vote and 15 percent of Democrats in Georgia stayed home. I would endorse her!
Internationally, some nations with substantial racial or ethnic variation among their populations have acknowledged that addressing issues of racism, institutional or interpersonal, should be a priority.
Seeking to continue the Biden Administration’s efforts to confront global systemic racism and injustice, in June 2022, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken appointed Desirée Cormier Smith as the first Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice (SRREJ) in U.S. history.
Smith discussed her first six months in office in a one-on-one interview with the AFRO.
“Special Representative Cormier Smith will lead our efforts to protect and advance the human rights of people belonging to marginalized racial and ethnic communities and combat systemic racism, discrimination, and xenophobia around the world” and “also ensure that our own policies are protecting and advancing the rights of people belonging to marginalized racial and ethnic communities,” Blinken said.
“I was relieved to see an office created to look at the situation of marginalized racial and ethnic communities around the world. We didn’t have that, and I felt like it was a blind spot in our foreign policy. I never expected to be asked to serve in this capacity and I am honored to be the first one.” Smith said.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) praised the Biden Administration’s creation of the new position in a joint statement saying the “appointment will play a critical role in streamlining our efforts to secure human rights and fight inequality around the world.”
Despite the obvious existence of racism, and the relevance and significance of her role, some policy experts consider racism as a theoretical claim and have criticized the Administration’s decision citing cost issues, resentment within State’s existing bureaucracy, and misunderstanding among foreign governments concerning who really creates policy.
The United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recently acknowledged that lived experiences are key to achieving racial justice and equality, with Acting High Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif presenting a UN human rights report on racial justice and equality for Africans and people of African descent.
“This appointment was really humbling but I carry my responsibilities with great joy and humility. I find comfort knowing that I’m not the only one doing this work” Smith said. “There are countless activists in civil society, and inside and outside of government. They might not have the same title, but we’re working towards the same things” she continued.
Smith’s background as a Los Angeles native, member of marginalized communities, professional experience as well as her passion and commitment to improving social and economic conditions for marginalized populations, make her appointment as America’s first SRREJ more ideal, timely, poignant and critical.
Smith is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, with public and private sector experience working in the U.S. Foreign Service in Mexico, South Africa, and Washington, D.C., in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs and at the Open Society Foundations.
Since her June appointment, Smith has been extremely busy working to advance equity in the frontiers of diplomacy, foreign policy and international public policy, including working with racial and ethnic communities around the world and with the UN on the newly established Permanent Forum for People of African Descent (PFPAD).
The inaugural Permanent Forum for People of African Descent (PFPAD) session was held in Geneva, Switzerland.
Over the last six months, Smith has worked across continents to advance and protect the human rights of racial and ethnic marginalized communities. She was a member of the U.S. Presidential Delegation to the inauguration of Francia Marquez, Colombia’s first Black vice president; worked to support marginalized ethnic populations around the world including people of African descent and Indigenous communities; and worked with members of civil society at international forums and conferences such as the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.
“Even though my mandate does not include a domestic policy focus, my credibility to do this work globally depends on how we’re doing here in the U.S. In order for us to credibly talk about how racial equity is needed overseas in other countries, we have to also practice that here at home.” Smith said.
Smith has also been heavily involved UN human rights initiatives focused on racial equity, and co-led the U.S. delegation at the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination meetings at the OHCHR in Geneva; participated in the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination in Mexico, and supported the inaugural sessions of the PFPAD in Geneva.
“I have built a small but mighty team, and I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. We’re in the process of evaluating as we head into the new year,” Smith said, reflecting on her first six months as the first SRREJ in U.S. history.
Considering lessons learned through her career and upcoming work in 2023, Smith said “It’s important that we bring our lived experiences to work. I have been able to relate with people from around the world, because I can see myself in them and they see themselves in me.”
“I lead with humility and explain that I cannot admonish other governments because that shuts down the conversation. This work cannot be about us trying to dictate what’s best for communities. We must start by engaging with and listening to communities.” Smith said.
Undeniably influenced by her grandfather, Smith mentioned that his passion, candor and pursuit of justice currently help her fulfill her international duties. “My grandpa was not a shy man and he always had the right things to say. I’m motivated doing this work because I know he would fearlessly and unapologetically work towards justice, and not hold any parts of himself back to make other people uncomfortable,” Smith said.
For most people, when they think of what “homelessness” looks like — an image of a disheveled, mentally-ill person living on the sidewalk in a tent is the stereotype that comes to mind.
But there is no one way to be homeless.
In fact, most families, individuals, and youth are one crisis away from experiencing homelessness. And living in a country as economically and racially unequal as the United States puts Black folks at increased risk for housing insecurity.
Black folks are not the poster child for housing insecurity, despite accounting for 39% of people experiencing homelessness and more than 50% of homeless families with children. However, structural racism, COVID-19 excessively impacting Black folks, and an inequitable housing system that too often rejects, dismisses or exploits Black renters have left millions of folks housing insecure.
It’s easy to get distracted by the idea that sleeping inside of a building or car is the opposite of housing insecurity or even the solution — but that shows the true invisibility of this issue.
With home ownership and rent costs spiraling higher and higher, what if being unhoused looks like the minimum wage-earning barista who makes your coffee every day living out of a car, or the politician running for Congress couch surfing, or the medical assistant at your doctor’s office?
On top of that, being LGBTQ, experiencing domestic violence, aging out of foster care, or being immunocompromised all affect the ability to find stable housing.
The Intersection of Domestic Violence
As a former foster youth and a juvenile delinquent, with no immediate family, Allison Pratt did not know what a stable home even looked like — let alone where to find one. After aging out of foster care, in her early 20’s she married a man in the military who quickly became abusive.
“We are so excited to embark on this journey of being ourselves that we are mimicking the things around us,” Pratt says.
The cycle of experiencing abuse started when Pratt was molested as a child. As a foster youth, bouncing from home to home — and never being taught saying no is an option — made it difficult for her to leave her domestically abusive husband.
“It’s like we see what we’re supposed to do but because no one is properly explaining the foundation of it we’re just kind of going with the flow,” she says. “I thought I was supposed to stay.”
But, the decision to leave or stay became clearer when her husband began sexually abusing her.
“My second child was conceived of marital rape,” she says. “I had the right to say no and getting pregnant made me sick.”
During this time, Pratt was adamant about getting an abortion — but after visiting five clinics over the course of a couple of weeks there was always some reason she couldn’t get the procedure. Initially, she was turned away for not having a driver to take her home after the procedure, then she was repeatedly given an inaccurate date of gestation. During one of her final visits, the clinic did not give her a blood test.
After giving birth to her son at 22, she became more protective of her body and Pratt says her husband became more financially abusive. But, she worked hard to get a job, rebuilt her life, and moved from Texas to Los Angeles, leaving her abuser behind.
Courtesy of Allison Pratt.
At that time, she was still young enough to receive foster care services and got counseling with other mothers who had children through rape. With support around her, she was able to create a somewhat stable life for her children, but things started to change again when she got a new partner.
At first, she says her partner wasn’t violent towards her, but she started to notice similar patterns of emotional and psychological abuse. Now, at 32, Pratt has had a restraining order against her ex-partner for three years — she says he continues to break the order. In October, she took her children and left their home to protect her family.
“That’s why I like to say ‘housing insecure’ because we do have a home, we just choose not to live in that,” she says. “We need a safe space.”
Since she left, Pratt and her children have been living in between places. They lived in an Airbnb for a few weeks, stayed with friends, and in mid-December, she was on week one of a 14-day hotel voucher.
After calling 213 shelters throughout Los Angeles County, San Diego County, and other counties in California she says no one has room for a family of five, or they won’t accept them as most of her children are unvaccinated.
“I noticed it’s been very hard in getting assistance because, like I said, the adult pool is so crowded and people are almost less empathetic,” she says.
According to the Family and Youth Services Bureau, on one single day in 2015, more than 31,000 adults and children who left homes with domestic violence found help in a domestic violence emergency shelter. But, that same day, more than 12,000 requests for services were left unmet due to a lack of funding or staffing issues.
“Why do you assume that all the homeless people gotta look like people at the gas station,” she says of a common perspective people have. “Why do you say all the homeless people have to look like people on Skid Row.”
ALLISON PRATT SAYS.
Pratt says people are quick to point the finger at her — like she should have known her ex-partner was going to be abusive, or they downplay the severity of her abuse. But what people often forget is she has no family to turn to for help — something she says folks who didn’t grow up in foster care seem unable to understand.
On top of that, because she doesn’t fit the stereotype of what being “homeless” looks like, those at the shelter have questioned if she really needs help.
“This perspective of us being like thieves or crackheads, or druggies, it’s not all true. I understand that some homelessness is due to mental health, but they should definitely broaden that scope,” she says. “There is this stigma that if you’re homeless, you got to look homeless. I don’t think me, and my children have ever looked homeless.”
Regardless of how someone looks, Pratt says whether they fit that stereotype or not, everyone should be able to receive help and services.
“Why do you assume that all the homeless people gotta look like people at the gas station,” she says of a common perspective people have. “Why do you say all the homeless people have to look like people on Skid Row.”
With bouts of homelessness throughout the past nine years, she decided to run for Congress this year — Pratt lost to Democrat Maxine Waters, but she realized many politicians do not have a lived experience of domestic violence, foster care, or housing insecurity, something she centered her campaign around. With this lack of experience, she says politicians who end up in positions of power do not always have the level of awareness it takes to help folks experiencing homelessness.
Although she is unsure if she plans to run for office again, Pratt makes it clear that although traumatic experiences lead many people into housing instability, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“Even in homelessness, you are not broken.”
The Intersection of Youth
In a 2016-17 national survey, roughly 700,000 minors, or 1 in 30 between the ages of 13-17 experienced some form of homelessness, whether that be living on the street, in a shelter, or couch surfing.
These youth may experience housing insecurity due to family conflicts, the juvenile justice system, the educational system, toxic stressors, gun violence, or trafficking violence.
But Black youth are arguably the most vulnerable to facing housing insecurity when so many young ones are already growing up in a system that was not built for them.
That’s why Los Angeles-based Sanctuary of Hope focuses on stabilizing young people who are in some form of crisis.
Founder and executive director Janet Kelly says they primarily serve Black youth between the ages of 16-25 who are housing or economically insecure and help young people who are being trafficked, are domestic violence survivors, and are expectant parents.
“I saw everything from young people engaging in survival marriages where they would marry someone just because they needed to be fed, or they needed to have a relationship to be prostituted, pimped out on the streets months later. Or enter into abusive relationships or get involved in violent situations that really didn’t help them in the long run,” she says.
As a Black-led organization, Hope’s priority is to have a welcoming and culturally affirming environment specifically for Black young people. For Black youth, there is often a different environmental scrutiny that is experienced — an added layer of “anti-Blackness” — Kelly says. Non-Black youth are afforded additional support and services, while the system is not always so quick to help young Black people who are struggling with housing.
“If you look at it at how even Black youth are viewed, most Black youths are adulted. There is this expectation that they should know and be able to get on their feet and pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” she says.
Kelly says Black youth are often invisible in plain sight — it’s not just the young ones who are living in an encampment, it’s the young people whose parents have died or those who were raised by grandparents who now have a health crisis.
The Intersection of Being LGBTQ
The “majority of people in this country are one crisis away from experiencing homelessness,” Kahlib Barton says. The 31-year-old, who is Black, gay, and nonbinary, is the co-director of technical assistance at True Colors United, an organization focusing on the experiences of LGBTQ youth.
Courtesy of Khalib Barton.
Barton has faced his fair share of struggles — experiencing homelessness was one of them. Barton, who uses he and they pronouns says while attending Prairie View A&M University in Texas between 2009-2012, at 19 he was diagnosed with HIV.
At the time, he lived in a rural town outside of Houston, with no access to a car. It made things difficult for Barton to receive care — which was more than an hour away.
“Honestly, I’m thinking about my morbidity and it’s like OK, I’m just going to end up dying because I was never going to get care,” he says.
Eventually, he dropped out of university and moved to Denver because there were better opportunities to get HIV healthcare. Shortly after, he found a job and was able to receive support and housing services for people living with HIV and AIDS. But when Barton lost his job, he lost his housing too.
That’s when Barton experienced homelessness for the first time.
“Homelessness can look like a Moncler jacket or Nikes on your feet,” he says. “I consistently kept up — you know what I mean? My appearances were always something that I kept up throughout my whole time experiencing homelessness.”
KHALIB BARTON, CO-DIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AT TRUE COLORS UNITED SAYS.
He had the option to move back to Texas, but it was either no housing with HIV care or no HIV care with housing. According to the Trevor Project, about 26% of Black LGBTQ youth experienced homelessness or housing instability in 2021, with an average of 28% among all youth surveyed.
In his early 20s and living in Denver, Barton got introduced to advocacy and activism for public health and housing.
“I’ve always had this lens of this intersectional approach of public health issues will not be addressed without us addressing housing and that we should view housing as a public health crisis,” he says.
Barton’s bouts of experiencing homelessness did not end there. He moved to Washington, D.C. after a friend said they would help him get back on his feet, but he was not able to receive the support initially offered. Additionally, trying to navigate the healthcare services in D.C. proved to be more difficult.
“I ended up experiencing street homelessness for like a little while in D.C.,” he says.
But one thing Barton makes very clear is, whether he lived on the street or was couch surfing, he remained regularly employed. But like many others experiencing homelessness, being employed did not keep him housed. Barton says oftentimes people have this image of what homelessness looks like and that people are supposed to present themselves in a specific way, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Homelessness can look like a Moncler jacket or Nikes on your feet,” he says. “I consistently kept up — you know what I mean? My appearances were always something that I kept up throughout my whole time experiencing homelessness.”
Maintaining a social media presence never gave people a reason to doubt Barton was struggling, let alone sleeping in bathhouses and between homes. To this day, family members and friends are shocked when Barton shares that he was experiencing homelessness — which speaks to the true invisibility of what being unhoused looks like.
In order to achieve a more righteous and equitable and hopefully liberated world, we really need to focus on identity and understand how these issues impact the intersections of individuals,” he says. “The identities that we have create unique experiences of privilege and oppression and my identities absolutely created unique experiences of privilege and oppression at times.”
The Intersection of Being Immunocompromised
K.A. Lalsingh, a 68-year-old Black and South Asian woman living in Los Angeles has a unique experience with housing insecurity. She struggles with multiple health conditions, including a mobility issue and a compromised immune system — in November of 2016 she was forced to give up her home because she could no longer afford it.
Courtesy of K.A. Lalsingh.
With her compromised immune system, it was important for Lalsingh to stay in a home that could adequately fit her needs. But that wasn’t always possible. From 2016-2021, she says she couch-surfed with friends and family, with some of the homes leaving her feeling “miserable and unwelcome.”
“I don’t like to put myself out with people who don’t want me, but I had nowhere to go,” she says. “It was that or go in the street, and with all my health conditions, I was terrified.”
During the five years, Lalsingh was in unstable and inconsistent housing, she sought out support services to help her find a place — she made calls to local libraries to ask for resources and reached out to organizations that help medically disabled seniors.
But, navigating a housing system with so many holes and cracks in it left her with no other choice but to live in a shelter beginning in September 2021. Lalsingh says she constantly had to battle to receive her Social Security benefits, with case managers and social workers often giving her misinformation.
Life in the shelter was anything but glamorous.
“So, people come in with trauma, get new trauma, and exit with trauma — and they end up on the street.”
K.A. LALSINGH SAYS.
She says she started to notice a pattern of cultural preference and favoritism when it came to helping women get resources in the shelter. Lalsingh says she questioned: “Why did it work for her? Is it because she’s Asian? Is it because she’s white? Is it because I’m Black? What is it that I’m not getting?”
“The overtones of racism come into play,” she says.
Throughout Lalsingh’s interview with Word In Black, she was outspoken about the inadequacies of the government systems in place — systems that are failing to help women get adequate housing.
One example is the California Department of Housing and Community Development mismanaging COVID-19 relief funds for people experiencing homelessness — with the state receiving $316 million under the federal CARES Act, the department did not properly distribute the funds.
“At the shelter level, the broken system is they don’t do what they’re designed to do. They don’t use the money they are budgeted to have, money that is being set back or used for other things,” Lalsingh says. “They get donations and don’t make it available to the residents, all the good stuff they keep. And they carry it to the corporate office.”
With shelters being underfunded, or improperly funded, and many of the folks Lalsingh encountered experiencing mental health issues, it became clear to her how few services were available to those inside. She says some residents were forcibly exited from the shelter she was living in because they had violent outbursts or were unable to control their emotions — something she says indicated how little relief residents got.
“So, people come in with trauma, get new trauma, and exit with trauma — and they end up on the street,” she says.
For the last couple of years, like many people experiencing housing and economic insecurity, Lalsingh has been waiting to receive a housing voucher. Once, she was denied for making $250 more a month than the low-income threshold requirement. Now, after approval, she’s been up against a new challenge: finding a landlord that will accept the voucher.
“I had a landlord who owns 50 or 60 properties say … ‘we can’t accept a voucher, we can’t deal with that element, it downgrades the value of our property’,” she says.
California implemented a new law in 2020 that forbids property owners from rejecting applicants based on their Section 8 housing vouchers, but landlords still refuse to rent to people who have them.
In early December, after more than a year of living in the shelter, Lalsingh was told she would be transferred to a shelter on Skid Row.
“I am immunocompromised, and I have very poor vision, and I use a cane, and I see nine specialists — and you want me to be on Skid Row?” she says of the shelter that planned on transferring her, despite her being weeks away from getting her own place.
On Dec. 10, she self-exited from the shelter. And, after six years of being housing insecure, she says she should be getting keys to her new place soon.
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