By Stephanie Fox, Navy Office of Community Outreach
NEWPORT, R.I. – Lt. Ruben Gutierrez, a native of San Bernardino, California, joined the Navy as a way to gain valuable life experiences around the world and continue the family tradition of military service.
“I come from a family of veterans,” said Gutierrez. “A Navy recruiter had come to my school and asked if I’d thought about joining the Navy. He told me they had a really cool rate that were like military police officers who could drive small, fast boats and shoot guns.”
Now, 18 years later, Gutierrez serves as the security officer for Naval Station (NAVSTA) Newport, located in Newport, Rhode Island.
“I’m in charge of force protection and protecting the installation,” Gutierrez said. “I make sure we are properly manned, trained and equipped to defend the installation.”
Growing up in San Bernardino, Gutierrez attended San Gorgonio High School and graduated in 2003. Today, heuses the same skills and values learned in San Bernardino to succeed in the military.
“Growing up, I learned to appreciate loyalty and resiliency and that’s what got me through my younger years,” Gutierrez said.
Those lessons have helped Gutierrez while serving at NAVSTA Newport.
Home to 50 Navy, Marine Corps Coast Guard and U.S. Army Reserve commands and activities, NAVSTA Newport’s mission is to fulfill the diverse requirements of its tenant commands by providing the facilities and infrastructure that are essential to their optimum performance.
Thousands of students pass through NAVSTA Newport’s on-base schools from all parts of the United States and many free nations around the world. These schools include the Navy Supply Corps School, the Center for Service Support, the U.S. Marine Corps Aviation Logistics School and the prestigious Naval War College. For this reason, the base is the Navy’s premier site for training officers, officer candidates, senior enlisted personnel and midshipman candidates, as well as testing and evaluating advanced undersea warfare and development systems.
With more than 90 percent of all trade traveling by sea, and 95 percent of the world’s international phone and internet traffic carried through fiber optic cables lying on the ocean floor, Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity and security of the United States is directly linked to a strong and ready Navy.
According to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, four priorities will focus efforts on sailors, readiness, capabilities and capacity.
“For 245 years, in both calm and rough waters, our Navy has stood the watch to protect the homeland, preserve freedom of the seas, and defend our way of life,” said Gilday. “The decisions and investments we make this decade will set the maritime balance of power for the rest of this century. We can accept nothing less than success.”
Serving as a sailor and contributing to the Navy the Nation needs requires a combination of dedication and sacrifice, but Gutierrez believes the accomplishments achieved along the way make the hard work worth it.
“It makes me proud every time I’m able to re-enlist one of our outstanding sailors,” said Gutierrez. “It’s a highlight of my career every time.”
As Gutierrez and his fellow sailors continue to train and carry out their assigned duties, they take pride in serving their country in the United States Navy.
“It’s an opportunity to do my part to make a better future for both my family and my country,” added Gutierrez.
Watching your tax dollars, elected officials and legislation that affects you.
June is Pride Month and lawmakers in California are advancing a number of bills to make life safer and less difficult for people who are LGBTQ+.
Some of the proposed laws aim to address challenges that impact various segments of the African American LGBTQ+ community — either directly or circumstantially.
The first is Senate Bill (SB) 357. If the Legislature approves it, the law will repeal California Penal Code Section 653.22, which penalizes loitering with the intent to engage in sex work. This particular bill, if approved, supporters say will significantly reduce the risks and dangers many LGBTQ+ people at the lowest ends of the socioeconomic ladder face. Many of them are young people who turn to sex work because of a number of reasons, including being unsupported by their families or the social structure because of their sexuality; trauma brought about by sexual or physical abuse; drug addiction; unemployment, among other factors.
Based on English Elizabethan “poor laws,” loitering laws in America were developed as a part of the Black Codes in the late 1800s as a means to arrest Black people in order to sell their labor in a practice called convict leasing.
“These laws were created to eradicate us,” said Dr. Jon Paul Higgins, a California-based social justice advocate and writer who is African American.
“So, when you talk about the importance of repealing these laws, it’s not even just about the law, it’s about getting to the root of what’s creating these laws,” Higgins explained.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “many persons who exchange sex may have a history of homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, mental health issues, violence, emotional/physical/sexual abuse, and drug use.”
In California – and across the United States — a disproportionate number of African Americans are impacted by those challenges — all of them considered social determinants of good health by Public Health professionals.
Because of the vagueness of these loitering laws, many critics have noted that they gave police a wide range of arresting powers to target “undesirables” like Black people and people in the LGBTQ+ community,” Higgins explained.
California State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), author of this bill, says it would help make the streets safer for sex workers who are a part of a marginalized community.
“Sex workers are workers, and they deserve respect and safety,” Wiener said. “We must work toward a future where people — especially the most marginalized — aren’t criminalized because of who they are and what they look like. Anti-sex workers loitering laws are deeply pernicious, and they need to be repealed.”
SB 357 also allows those convicted of California Penal Code Section 653.22 to seal their records.
SB 357 was passed by the Senate Public Safety Committee 4-1 and has now been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Another bill concerned with safety is Assembly Bill (AB) 1094 which would require the State Department of Public Health to establish a 3-year pilot program in up to 6 participating counties to collect gender identity and sexual orientation data in violent death cases in order to get more accurate data about hate crimes.
According to the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations 2019 Hate Crime Report, Black people accounted for 9% of the county’s population but 47% of the total racial hate crimes.
The report also stated that 2019 saw a 64% increase in hate crimes targeting trans people, many of which were Black or Brown, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
“Yet another year with alarming levels of bias-motivated crimes underscores just how urgent it is to address this hate crimes epidemic,” said Alphonso David, Human Rights Campaign President. David is the first African American to lead the organization, the largest advocacy body for LGBTQ+ people and issues in the United States.
“This year, we saw a tragic new record of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people in this country, particularly against Black and Brown transgender women,” he said.
Following the Stonewall riots in New York, Black trans women like Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy became influential figures in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights at the time when discrimination and hate crimes against people like them were much more commonplace.
Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), author of AB 1094, explained why he feels the bill is crucial.
“I deeply appreciate the overwhelming support that my Assembly colleagues gave today to AB 1094,” Arambula said in a statement. “This legislation may be centered on data, but its purpose encompasses compassion and empathy to better understand what is happening in our LGTBQ+ community — particularly among the youth — when it comes to violent deaths, including homicide and suicide. AB 1094 is an important and humane step in ultimately preventing these deaths.”
AB 1094 has passed in the Assembly and is now on its way to the State Senate for consideration.
Senate Bill (SB) 379, which has now been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee, would ensure the University of California Health System [UC Health] only contracts with healthcare facilities that provide LGBTQ-inclusive healthcare services, such as gender-affirming and reproductive care.
According to Blue Cross Blue Shield, Black mothers have a 3 times higher maternal mortality rate and a 2 times higher morbidity rate than white mothers while Black men are 70% more likely to die from a stroke as compared to non-Hispanic White men.
People in the LGBTQ+ community are less likely to have access to competent healthcare, largely due to issues with discrimination, according to Cigna.
Higgins spoke from personal experience about the intersectional nature of being both Black and in the LGBTQ+ community.
“For me, being a Black nonbinary person and meeting a provider who has all of these bias ideologies or stereotypes about Black people… there are all of these preconceived notions about who I am as a Black person and then you add on the nonbinary-slash-trans part of it, there’s just a lot of underlying stereotypes and bias,” Higgins said.
Jasmyne Cannick, founder and CEO of Empowerment Justice Strategies, praised this bill for moving with the tides of progress.
“In 2021, it makes absolute sense for UC Health to contract with healthcare facilities that provide LGBTQ-inclusive healthcare services given the population that it serves,” Cannick said.
“We are moving towards a more inclusive society and these are the types of bills that will ensure that members of the LGBTQ+ community can receive healthcare they need,” she continued.
Higgins, Cannick and other advocates say it means a great deal that California lawmakers are making an effort to ensure that these “warriors” can continue to do so safely, and that those who just wish to live their lives without fear for being who they are may do so more boldly.
CRAFTON HILLS, CA—- Recent Crafton Hills College (CHC) grad Alexander Manjarrez has been awarded a $5,000 scholarship from Southern California Gas Company.
Manjarrez is one of the 2021 scholarship recipients of Southern California Gas Company, which selects high achieving graduating high school seniors and transferring community college students with scholarships from $1,000 to $5,000. To qualify, students must live within the SoCalGas service area, maintain a GPA of at least a 3.0 and demonstrate strong community involvement, among other criteria.
“SoCalGas believes that a well-educated workforce makes good business sense and is essential for a vital and economically healthy Southern California,” said Regional Affairs Manager Robert Visconti, who also serves on the College’s Foundation Board of Directors.
In his scholarship application, Manjarrez outlined his future educational and career plans and the need for the scholarship to continue his education. He said the pandemic had significantly impacted his family, slashing their collective income by 25 percent. Manjarrez put his studies first, although doing so interfered with his ability to continue helping his father manage Rainbow Board and Care, an assisted living facility that was also impacted by COVID-19.
“I stopped working with him so I could focus more on my studies,” Manjarrez said. “It will be tough for me to go back and help him run his business since I will be focusing on my upper division course work at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in Fall 2021.”
Manjarrez is goal-oriented when it comes to mapping out a plan for his studies. His long-term goal is to earn a Master’s degree in computer science at UCR and work as a software developer while continuing to do research on tech-related topics. He also wants to work in a field where he can construct large software systems, something that drew him to his major.
“Research is something that has resonated with me ever since I enrolled at CHC,” Manjarrez said. “I conducted research on image blurs for DEKA, company that specializes in complex problem-solving, and I learned how to run algorithms on MATLAB and met the company’s expectations.”
“Research has taught me that being an effective researcher means being passionate, knowledgeable and prepared,” he said.
Southern California Gas Company is focused on promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Energy Education to improve and support educational opportunities and workforce development in their communities.
When LeBron James won his first NBA championship with the Miami Heat in 2012, a reporter asked, “How do you feel?” James answered, “It’s about damn time.”
Those same words could well have been uttered more recently by Bob “The Greyhound” Dandridge. The former Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Bullets [now Wizards] great had to wait three decades before finally being elected last month to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. His resume was sterling: He won NBA titles in Milwaukee and Washington, and he played with four previous greats whom he helped earn their first or only championships.
“It’s a shame that it took 30 years for Bob Dandridge to be voted into the hall of fame,” said Charlie Neal, the longtime signature voice of Historically Black Colleges and Universities sports for Black Entertainment Television (BET) and ESPN. “I’m glad the veterans committee made up for the sportswriters’ mistakes.”
Dandridge’s omission from the sportswriters’ ballots remains a mystery — why they consistently overlooked the 13-year veteran who was a two-time world champion and an HBCU legend. His distinguished resume also includes four All-Star Game appearances, 15,530 points, 5,715 rebounds, and 2,846 assists.
“For me, it’s more about enjoyment,” said Dandridge, 73, as he counts down to the induction ceremony on Sept. 11, when he will be enshrined along with 15 others. “There has been no point during these 30 years I haven’t felt anything less than being a champion or hall of famer. I have never felt like I didn’t deserve to be in the hall of fame.”
Dandridge was one of the most versatile performers in the history of the game. He averaged 18.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists while playing alongside transcendent performers throughout his career. His teammates in his first seven years in Milwaukee were legends Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He capped his career in Washington playing alongside Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes. All preceded him into the hall of fame.
“Some [basketball experts] have compared him to [Los Angeles Clippers forward] Kawhi Leonard because he was only 6-foot-6-inches and played a mid-range game that was off the charts,” said Carl “Lut” Williams, an HBCU sports historian and publisher of the Black College Sports Page.
If he had been on lesser teams, Dandridge would probably have been a prolific scorer and more of an icon or celebrity. However, he may not have been a two-time champion. That was the motivation from the lessons he learned starting in high school and through his time playing at Norfolk State University.
“I learned to be a champion while playing at Norfolk State from coach Ernie Fears,” said Dandridge, who played for the school from 1965-69. “Championship character was built from running four miles a day for two months and still going into the gym and practicing for two-and-a-half hours every day. That’s where champions are made. They aren’t made through the sport itself but through intangibles such as work ethic, integrity and self-confidence.”
The legend of Bob Dandridge still resonates at the university and throughout the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Before integration allowed the best black athletes to compete at majority colleges, the CIAA was arguably the most talented conference in America. Many great players from cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C., migrated south to play college basketball in this segregated intercollegiate crucible of the game because they were denied access from 1940 to 1970.
That conference also produced hall of fame coaches such as John McClendon. Known as the father of fastbreak basketball, and Clarence “Big House” Gaines, who at one time was the winningest coach in the game’s history.
There were hall of fame players such as Sam Jones of the Boston Celtics who was a part of their early NBA dynasty under venerable coach Red Auerbach. Al Attles, coach of the first Golden State Warriors championship team in 1974, played at North Carolina A&T. Harlem Globetrotters clown prince and dribbling wizard Curly Neal from Johnson C. Smith University They are also members of the distinguished basketball alumni from the CIAA.
Dandridge earned his place among the conference of HBCU basketball legends from that league for his performance in the 1968 CIAA Championship Game. NSU defeated North Carolina A&T 134-132 in three overtimes, with Dandridge scoring 50 points, making 20 of his 26 shots and going 10-of-11 from the free-throw line in an era where there was no three-point shot.
“During that time, the competition was great,” Dandridge said. “The CIAA got the best of the best from the high schools up and down the East Coast. It may not have been the best conference in America, but it was certainly in the top 10.”
The CIAA has produced contemporary legends such as Hampton’s Rick Mahorn, who was a part of the Detroit Pistons’ first edition of the “Bad Boys” championship teams in 1989. Then there’s Charles Oakley, who had a storied career with the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks. Dandridge will be joined by Ben Wallace — who also won an NBA Championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 — and played college basketball at Virginia Union of the CIAA as a member of the 2021 hall of fame class.
“The style of basketball that was played in the CIAA back in the day is the style of play in the NBA today,” said Black College Sports Page’s Williams. “Watching the Duke and North Carolina teams on TV in the ’60s, there was no comparison to me.”
Dandridge was initially drafted by teams from both pro basketball leagues at the time. The battles for prime talent between the fledgling American Basketball Association (ABA) and the NBA were heated, and he was right in the middle of it. However, it was always his dream to play in the NBA and the Bucks made it come true.
“Milwaukee gave me the opportunity and I embraced it — and the city embraced me too,” Dandridge said.
The Black experience in America has always been a story of struggle. From the plantation to the project block, from Emmett Till to Ahmaud Arbery, and from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Minneapolis, Minnesota, we have constantly fought for equality and fair treatment under the law, only to have those same laws be used against us.
The past year has been particularly challenging — with the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others becoming indelibly etched into our collective memory and millions of people taking to the streets to protest these crimes against the Black community. As we prepare to celebrate Juneteenth, we must look back on all the events of the past year with clear eyes to examine both the tragedies and triumphs our community has witnessed.
There have been moments of hope that the system is finally edging toward equality, like the recent conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd by knelling on his neck for nine minutes while Floyd called out “I can’t breathe.” Chauvin’s conviction and sentencing marks one of the few times in the painful history of Black people in American when law enforcement was held accountable for the wanton acts of violence they perpetrate against our community.
But for every conviction like Chauvin’s, there is a long, tragic history of innocent Black men and women being murdered – their deaths generating little more than a passing mention on the local news and their killers going unpunished. From Medgar Evers to Breonna Taylor, our country’s history is filled with these injustices that the powers-at-be try to sweep under the rug.
Floyd’s death, which was captured in brutal clarity on a bystander’s cellphone, along with those of Arbery, Taylor and so many more challenged the status quo of racial injustice like never before. Millions of Americans of every race, color and creed stood up, spoke out and made Black Lives Matter the largest social movement in country’s history.
Starting last summer, “Say Their Names” became a rallying cry for millions of Americans across the country tired of police brutality and racial injustice. From Minneapolis to Manhattan, Atlanta to Los Angeles, we took to the streets of America’s biggest cities and smallest towns under a blazing summer sun to voice our anger. All races, colors, and creeds marched on Washington D.C. to let leaders know that it was time to stop fanning the flames of racism and to declare that we would remember who was guilty.
We will continue to organize. We will continue to march. We will continue to “say their names” until their justice – not just for Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, but for every Black and Brown person in America who has experienced systemic racism, police brutality and political indifference to these injustices.
While our voices were seen on television sets and computer screens across the world, and we applaud the tireless work on the ground of leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton and National Action Network, our voices were also heard through our online activism – which for many was the only way to speak out during the COVID-19 pandemic – as we demanded politicians take notice and take action at both the state and local level.
A new report released earlier this year by The 400 Foundation, The BLK+Cross and Marathon Strategies reveals how our new era of digital demonstrations and online organization is driving real change on social justice issues. The analysis found that states with the most online conversations about social justice in 2020 also saw the most legislative action on police reform. In fact, the four states most mentioned in social justice conversations — Minnesota, Georgia, New York, and Washington, D.C. — saw 110 police reform measures introduced.
Overall, our report found that the names Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were shared online nearly 50 million times from last June to September — making it clear that saying the names of the victims of racial injustice was essential for political action.
In the coming weeks and months, we must say their names again as we remember their lives and the injustices they suffered. We must say their names during public demonstrations in city streets. We must say them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and throughout the digital universe. And we must keep saying them until we achieve justice for them, their families, and the countless Black lives lost to racial violence.
Rev. Reginald Bachus is a former pastor at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and the president of the 400 Foundation.
INLAND EMPIRE, CA—- – Every year, millions of Americans from all racial and ethnic backgrounds struggle with mental health illnesses. While African Americans experience mental health illnesses at about the same rate as White Americans, they are far less likely to receive mental health care services and disproportionately endure a higher burden of disability from mental health disorders according to the American Psychiatric Association. In fact, only one in three African Americans who need mental health services receive it.
Phyllis Clark, Executive Director and Founder of the Healthy Heritage Movement, is working to address the mental health disparities within the African American community in the Inland Empire. The organization has partnered with five predominately black churches in honor of African American Mental Health Awareness Month in June to launch Mental Health Resource Stations at each church to provide easier access to mental health information and services.
The installation of the Resource Stations will be completed by the end of June and participating churches include Castle Rock Christian Fellowship, Living Way Christian Fellowship, Cathedral of Praise International Ministries, Ecclesia Christian Fellowship, and Rubidoux Missionary Baptist Church. Phyllis commends and honors the five churches for leading the way to reduce the stigma in the African American community and welcomes other churches to join the effort.
There are many reasons why African Americans face barriers when it comes to accessing and receiving treatment including poor physician-patient communication resulting in misdiagnosis, discrimination resulting in services not being offered and/or inadequate information provided, mistrust for the healthcare system, a lack of diverse providers, a lack of inclusion in mental health research, underinsurance, and cultural stigmas.
Healthy Heritage Movement is committed to launching several initiatives over the next few months to reduce the barriers preventing African Americans from accessing mental health services, and to help the community heal from what has been a most traumatic year. Key initiatives include a Summer Series of Healing, these events will feature black psychologists and wellness coaches discussing mental wellness, healing and self-care. The second initiative is to produce a detailed African American Mental Health Resource Guide which will be available in the fall.
Another key initiative underway is the organization’s most recognized program, Broken Crayons Still Color Project, which has served 240 African American women in the I.E., since its inception in 2018. The 8-week program written by Dr. Gloria Morrow and currently taught by Dr. Candance Elaine, a Certified Clinical Therapist and Personal Transformation Coach, teaches women effective strategies to cope with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and substance use disorder. In addition, participants learn about prevention, early detection, and intervention. The program is being hosted virtually due to COVID-19 and is currently being offered now through July 10, 2021. Visit www.BrokenCrayonsProject.com to sign-up for future classes!
Healthy Heritage Movement is sponsored by the California Reducing Disparities Project, Inland SoCal United Way, Nurturing You Women’s Health & Wellness, J.W. Vines Medical Foundation, and the City of Riverside.
If you need mental health referrals or for more information about Healthy Heritage Movement, please contact (951)293-4240 or (951)682-1717 or visit them on the web www.healthyheritage.org.
WASHINGTON — When Georgia surprised many by choosing both Democratic Party candidates in the dual run-off elections for its two Senate seats on Jan. 5, many of the 500 pastors of the state’s African Methodist Episcopal Church thought their years of organizing had paid off.
Coming two months after Georgia was carried by now-President Joseph R. Biden Jr in the presidential election — making then-President Donald J. Trump the first Republican to lose the state since the country’s last one-term president, George H.W. Bush, in 1992 — it seemed to many that a new golden era of Democratic ascendency in Washington, D.C., was beckoning.
With black voters playing such a pivotal role in the Democrats taking back control of the White House, Senate and House, a long laundry list of legislative change now seemed feasible.
Six months on, though, a new reality has set in, as Biden and congressional Democrats have struggled to make much headway on any of those goals — or even articulate a plan of action.
For many who worked so hard for the 2020 victories, it’s been a disheartening start.
“My hope has always been that we would put all of our best efforts forward in the elections process — by registering people to vote, by turning out the vote — and our hope is for some justice and fairness to be achieved [through that process],” Rev. Gerald Durley, interim Pastor of the historic West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, told Zenger News.
“My hope was by this time, with a 50-50 [split] in the Senate with [Vice President] Kamala Harris breaking the tie, that some form of equity would be done. That was just my hope.”
With staunch Republican opposition to the Democrats’ legislative agenda, and Democratic Party moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) and Sen. Kyrsten L. Sinema (D-Ariz.) standing in the way of colleagues altering the GOP’s filibuster powers in the Senate, the Democrats have appeared hamstrung, unable so far to convert slim majorities into legislative change.
Rev. William Lamar, who for years preached in Georgia but is now at the Metropolitan AME church in Washington, D.C., told Zenger he had hosted a group of pastors from Georgia who made the trip to the capital last week hoping to see some major legislative bills make headway.
The group, Rev. Lamar said, were hopeful a bill such as S-1, a voting rights protection act opposed by the Republican Party but put forward by the Democrats as their main legislative priority, might nevertheless make some movement through the Senate. With Republicans threatening the filibuster — which presently requires 10 GOP senators to join with the slim Democratic majority to pass anything — the act stalled; instead, the Republicans joined the Democrats to unanimously pass a bill making June 19’s “Juneteenth” celebrations a federal holiday.
Amid the GOP’s opposition to any of the Democrats’ substantive legislative proposals — and the Democrats’ so far ineffective response — it was hard to interpret the unanimous support of the Republicans in the Senate as anything other than a cop-out, the reverend said.
“If anyone has any allusion about the American imperial project after yesterday in the Senate, they have taken leave of sanity,” he said after the Senate declined to consider the S-1 bill but passed the Juneteenth holiday. “They believe that giving us political and economic trinkets will keep us quiet, but we must ask the questions of who we are and what we want to be.”
“It is time for us to be the church of Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman,” he added, referring to abolitionists who eschewed “moderation” for subversion and rebellion in fighting for freedom.
Yet for others, the recent Senate roadblocks are just the latest in a long line of hurdles that can ultimately be overcome.
Speaking at the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Juneteenth, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) noted that achieving change has always been hard — but ultimately worth it.
“President Abraham Lincoln knew that the Emancipation Proclamation would not be enough — that is why he had to get the 13th Amendment passed,” Rep. Green said, noting that Lincoln had, in the end, even been assassinated before the passage of the slavery-abolishing amendment.
Even that was not the end of the story, he added.
“The 13th wasn’t enough: We had to pass the 14th Amendment to acquire citizenship and equality under the law. But the 14th Amendment was not enough: We had to pass the 15th Amendment,” he said, pointing out how hard-won change can be. “The 13th Amendment freed the slaves, the 14th Amendment gave us citizenship, and the 15th Amendment gave us the right to vote.”
Other leaders see enduring lessons in different periods of black struggle.
Bishop Reginald Jackson, the prelate for the 6th Episcopal District of Georgia in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said that in the absence of effective political power, he is turning to the strategies of Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders from last century.
Though political change may not always be immediately possible, keeping up the fight to ensure things do not go backward, and that change may be possible tomorrow, is just as important.
“The Black Church again has to provide leadership, because voter suppression not only affects people of color,” Jackson said, arguing that today’s fight was something much bigger. “It affects democracy, especially when you look at what they are trying to do in Georgia.”
Yet that means some important fights will — not for the first time — be postponed.
On June 22, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser argue for a bill to make her city the 51st state — a move opposed by the GOP, which fears giving their opponents two more senators in perpetuity.
“There is no legal or constitutional barrier to DC statehood; the prevailing constitutional issue is the civil rights violation of 700,000 DC residents who fulfill all obligations of U.S. citizenship, but are denied any representation in this body,” Bowser said. She noted that the states of Wyoming and Vermont have smaller populations than the District and each get two senators.
“I can say unequivocally that the bill before you today, S-51, the Washington D.C. Admission Act, is constitutional,” the mayor argued before the Senate, largely in vain. “Dozens of America’s most recognized constitutional experts had testified before Congress and penned letters to that effect.”
Wielding the Senate filibuster — and with Sens. Manchin and Sinema holding steadfast in their refusal to amend it — Senate Republicans, comfortable in their minority position in Congress, still barely need to bother to muster an argument against the long-sought Democratic goal.
“Any individual that moves to Washington, D.C., understands that Washington, D.C. is unique,” Sen. James Lankford (D-Okla.) said, denying that any District residents were disenfranchised.
Yet until such a time as the Democrats can win enough votes to break the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate, the reality of the situation is unlikely to change.
For Rev. Durley of the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, that’s the challenge at hand.
“Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I frustrated? Yes!” he said.
Public health experts are warning vaccinated people to not post photos of their vaccine cards on social media or anywhere else online.
“Don’t share it on social media because there is protected health information on it,” said Dr. Jerry Abraham, a physician who works at the Kedran Community Health Center in Los Angeles.
He warned people who get vaccinated to keep the information on the front of the card away from the view of scammers or other bad actors who could compromise their security.
Abraham says, for now, the white CDC vaccine cards are the only proof that an individual has been inoculated against COVID-19.
“Really the only piece of evidence you have right now, that is absolutely your confident verification is that CDC vaccination card for COVID-19 vaccines that lists your first and second dose from Moderna or Pfizer or just that one shot from Johnson & Johnson.”
Usually on the back the series is completed after that. That data is entered and pushed to the California immunization registry, he said.
Abraham made the comment during a news briefing organized by California Black Media in partnership with The Center at the Sierra Health Foundation and the State of California titled “Get Smart on COVID-19.”
Organizers say the “series is designed to equip Black journalists with the information they need to write authoritatively about COVID-19 vaccinations and harm reduction measures.
Some public safety experts have also shared their concerns about people posting their vaccine cards online. They say sometimes criminals work for a long time piecing personal information together about possible victims, including birth dates, when they target them for identity theft.
Popular radio and television personality, whose career first began to skyrocket in the 1990s on Black Entertainment Television and proved its staying power until about four years ago in 2017 — is aiming to once again become a familiar face and name in American media.
This past weekend, Smiley reentered the game on Juneteenth. But, this time, not only as a talk radio host but also as an owner, putting his mark on a format that is both “unapologetically” progressive and African American.
Smiley owns the majority share in KBLA 1580 Los Angeles. Smiley along with a group of investors dropped $7.5 million to purchase the radio station with a reach of about 12 million people in Southern California.
The station is expected to be on air 24 hours a day seven days a week.
“We just want to be a voice for those who have been voiceless for too long in this city, speak a truth that is otherwise not being considered,” Smiley said of the station.
In 2017, Smiley, who was born in Mississippi and raised in Indiana, was fired from National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service for having romantic affairs with people on his staff.
For now, Smiley says he’s focused on the launch of the station, its potential impact and the adventure ahead.
“The opportunity to have a Black-owned and Black-operated talk radio station in this city, where talk radio for too long has been all day, all night, all White, is an opportunity that is begging for someone to take advantage of it. So. I’m dumb enough to try,” Smiley said.
BALTIC SEA—- Logistics Specialist 1st Class Joseph White, from San Bernardino, Calif., takes inventory in supply support aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) during BALTOPS 50, June 15, 2021. The 50th BALTOPS represents a continuous, steady commitment to reinforcing interoperability in the Alliance and providing collective maritime security in the Baltic Sea.