Bonnie Sheree Johnson was born on Christmas day 1934 in Kansas City, Missouri to Oscar and Mary (Celestine) Buckles. Her family moved to San Bernardino when she was 10 years old and attended Mills Elementary School, Sturgis Jr. High School and San Bernardino High School. Bonnie enrolled in San Bernardino Valley College and received a Certificate in Stenography. She also received her AA degree from a state college in San Francisco. 

Bonnie married Arthur R.D. Johnson and raised three children, Larry, Deborah, and Kae Johnson. Art was the breadwinner and Bonnie was content as a wife, mother and homemaker. 

From the time of Bonnie’s birth into her early adult years the civil rights movement was nonexistent. Even though the Founding Fathers had labored years before to devise a document that would be humane and just for all, it didn’t apply to all. During her childhood Bonnie saw the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier, and a Great Society; however, for blacks, there was no deal at all. This situation became apparent to Bonnie when her children entered the public school system. As a ‘stay at home mom’ Bonnie was enthusiastically engaged in the P.T.A and other activities involving her children. That’s when she noted the disparity in segregated schools. Bonnie adamantly refused to deny her children the “American Dream”. 

By this time, the Civil Rights movement had begun. Led by Martin Luther King Jr.’s example, Bonnie was inspired. Before Dr. King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech, Bonnie had a dream. Her dream was to educate her children and to reach that goal, Bonnie challenged the school system. Working side-by-side Bonnie, along with Francis Grice and Valerie Pope formed the Community League of Mothers, where she was elected President. They led an anti-segregation boycott of the San Bernardino School District. The Dynamic Trio instituted “Freedom Schools” and took their children along with other students out of the public school system. 

Newspapers ran articles regarding the Community League of Mothers’ claims that “Black Schools” were inferior to “White Schools” and were not giving their children a chance at the “American Dream”. The White Schools had better books, better teachers, and a wealth of resources. The School Board and Local Politicians kept saying ‘Everything is okay… or will be  tomorrow’. While at the same time policies were perpetuated that denied Blacks the rightful chance to the “American Dream”. 

This became a dangerous fight of personal sacrifice to the members of the Community League of Mothers, with threats of hanging, cross burning, KKK activities and shootings as the protests heated up. With the aid of the NAACP, many court battles ensued, ending with the California Supreme Court’s ruling that San Bernardino was guilty of segregation and discrimination and mandated an end to segregation in the San Bernardino public school system. 

In the 1970’s, Bonnie became the owner of Greenwood Bail Bonds. A business that she had ran successfully for over 40 years. Often, she has looked outside her office window and remarked how she remembers when Waterman Avenue was just a dirt road. She keeps those thoughts in her memory as she often states, “I can only move forward if I remember where I came from”. That attitude has made Bonnie a torchbearer and catalyst in the City of San Bernardino. Her compassion and generosity motivated her to personally give away millions of dollars which has been recognized and honored by many Civic and Community leaders and politicians. 

On January 15, 1999, Bonnie was recognized by the San Bernardino Unified School District for her fervent devotion to students in bringing about desegregation/integration and fostering a sense of equality in San Bernardino City schools. She has also received certificates of recognition from past Mayors of San Bernardino, Senators Joe Baca and Reuben Ayala, Congressman George Brown, and numerous organizations throughout the Inland Empire. All those recognitions documented her tireless efforts and dedication as a role model for youth. Also noted is the legacy she created through the Community League of Mothers in her struggle for Freedom, Equality, and Justice. 

Bonnie’s life has been a tough journey; from dirt streets to paved roads, dreams to reality and struggles to freedom. Her accomplishments have been a source of pride for her children, who have benefited from her tireless efforts and determination. She truly demonstrated that nobility is not a birth right, it must be earned. 

Those who have preceded Bonnie in passing are; Father, Oscar Buckles; Mother, Mary Celestine E. Washington; Stepfather, Robert Washington; Sisters, Mary Belle McGinnis and Jacqueline Grace Beavers; Brother, Samuel Fellows and Son, Larry Johnson. 

Bonnie has left to cherish her memory her Sister; Sheree Louise Yarbrough; Daughters, Kae Johnson and Deborah Johnson; Granddaughters, Kelle Sheree Johnson and Heather Sheree Johnson; Great Grandson, Arthur R.D. Johnson II (A.J.) and a host of nieces, nephew and friends. 

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- On Tuesday, December 10, Gwen Rodgers was elected to serve as the President of the San Bernardino City Unified School District Board of Education. It is an honor that is well deserved. 

By Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media

About two years ago, Calvin Dubois, Executive Director of First Step Group Homes (FSGH) in San Bernardino County, says he made the right call when he subdued and held down an enraged child in his care.

The 17-year-old boy was armed with  a six-inch knife outside of the home, according to Dubois.

Video of the June 5, 2017 incident details how Dubois, who is African American, overpowered and held the child down in the front yard of the Rialto home that houses high risk, hard-to-place boys.

Dubois, 33, says his move “saved the child’s life.”

“Calm down, calm down,” Dubois repeated to the boy, who is also Black, in a measured voice after pinning the teen’s wrists to the ground as he held him down, the video footage shows.

But the state of California sees it differently.

The Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) of the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) argues that  Dubois “verbally taunted” and  engaged in  behavior that “violated the personal rights of the child.” Last month, CDSS revoked FSGH’s license and dismantled the group home, leading to the displacement of 12 foster children in Dubois’ care.

“The state doesn’t understand the importance of intervening in these situations with Black and Brown kids before the police get involved,” Dubois said. “As if Black kids aren’t being killed everyday.”

Dubois was referencing the scores of recent shootings of Black boys and men by police officers around the country and in California. In many of those cases, the officers suspected the victims were armed and dangerous, as in the case of Joseph Mann, a 51-year-old Black Sacramento man who two police officers shot more than a dozen times and killed. Mann was wielding a 4-inch knife.

Now, the African American-owned-and-operated FSGH has filed a discrimination lawsuit against CDSS.

“I was told that I should have closed the door and left him outside, but if he kills himself or gets killed by police, that’s on me,” Dubois said, noting his disagreement with the action the CDSS told him he should have taken.

Neither Dubois nor the child suffered any serious injury during the confrontation.

George Jones, the attorney representing Dubois, said his client’s case reflects a broader pattern of discrimination against Black men working with the state social services system. He also praised FSGH and Dubois’ relationship with the foster youth.

“He’s like their big brother. They think he walks on water,” Jones said.

On Dec. 2, community members and activists assembled at the San Bernardino County Counsel building to support Dubois and FSGH, holding up signs that read “Protect Foster Care Youth” and “Keep People in Power Accountable.”

The Rev. Shane Harris, a social justice activist, spoke in strong support of Dubois at the event, saying, “African Americans have to go through harsher processes with licenses for childcare services. This is where California has failed.”

“The bottom line is that Calvin was trying to protect that child and he’s being punished for it,” Harris said. “He saved this boy’s life and that is exactly the kind of leadership we need.”

Dubois’ main focus is bringing the displaced boys back home, as many of them had become settled into the San Bernardino County neighborhood, he says.

“They tried to hurt me, and they did. But they also hurt 12 boys who weren’t at fault. Boys who had girlfriends, jobs and lives here who now have no choice where they’re moved to,” Dubois said. “How inhumane is that?”

In an email to California Black Media, Scott Murray, Deputy Director of Public Affairs and Outreach Programs at the CDSS, said “the department cannot comment on litigation.”

However, Murray shared the court order and decision which states, “Constraint is only to be used as a last resort,” according to the “Program Plan.”

“Manual restraints are never approved for use for the purpose of punishment or discipline; harassment or humiliation, or to prevent an individual from leaving the facility, except when the individual is running away and this poses an immediate danger to the individual, among other things,” the document reads.

Since the incident, Dubois’ has been engaged in a battle with the CDSS. According to his timeline of events, his removal came after the CCLD cleared him of his “deficiency” in August of 2018.

But CDSS is defending its right to revoke Dubois’ license.

“The fact that a deficiency has been cleared, however, does not eliminate the authority of the department to seek revocation or suspension of a license, or to seek exclusion of a person, under applicable law,” CDSS states.

Jones expressed dissatisfaction with the process CDSS used to shut down FSGH and revoke Dubois’ license, referring to the agency’s administrative hearings as “kangaroo courts.”

“There were two days of testimonies but [CDSS] won’t give us the transcripts, which means we can’t appeal their decision,” said Jones.

In October, Gov. Newsom signed AB 175, also known as the Foster Care Rights Act, into law. The bill introduced by California Legislative Black Caucus member Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), revises the rights of children in the care of the state. It makes provisions for foster kids to receive culturally competent care and takes other measures to reduce police intervention, which have led to high rates of kids in foster care crossing over into the juvenile delinquency system.

In an open letter to members of the San Bernardino County community, Dubois claimed that CDSS did not take issue with the way FSGH operates but instead with him being at the helm.

“Seeing that the issue was with me, I even offered to step down as executive director so that the boys wouldn’t be disrupted. CCLD denied my offer,” Dubois said.

At the rally, Harris called on Assemblymember Eloise Reyes (D-San Bernardino) and Gov. Gavin Newsom to investigate the state’s handling of FSGH and Dubois.

As for Dubois, he remains committed to seeing the case through and changing the way, he says, the system operates, especially when it comes to African-American caregivers.

“My team and I will continue to fight until things are turned around, First Step Group Homes’ name is cleared, and all 12 of our boys are back home,” Dubois said. “We are demanding that the State of California look at the systemic way people are being destroyed without due process.”

Celebrities arrive at The 88^th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade on December 1 in Hollywood, California. The parade will premiere as a two-hour special on The CW Network on Friday, December 13 at 8:00 p.m. ET / PT, featuring Marine Toys for Tots program, which is essential in providing gifts to less fortunate children everywhere. The parade will also air on the Hallmark Channel on Wednesday, December 25 and on American Forces Network, to more than one million American servicemen and women worldwide. The event will be presented and produced by Associated Television International, in association with The City of Los Angeles. See the parade highlights below.

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Write Up By Naomi K. Bonman

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- It is always critical that we acknowledge and honor community legends while they are here. Dr. Margaret Hill has been an instrumental key to the community at large and to the San Bernardino Unified School District. She serves on the Board of Education where she was first elected in 2011 and since then she has made tremendous strides. Dr. Hill was honored for her work and dedication to excellence in education and the community on Tuesday, December 10 with a dedication and ribbon cutting of a community room in her honor.

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By Lou Yeboah

God is sounding the alarm for His people: ‘Wake up, Wake up! Look what’s happening! Look what’s going on in the nation! Look what’s happening in families – look what’s happening to the next generation. Wake up church! I’ve called you to do something! I’ve called you to make a difference. Wake up out of this slumber and get back into a life flow of God. The church is in pitiful shape. Leaders are not leading, servants aren’t serving, worshippers aren’t worshipping. Some aren’t giving, others aren’t attending, many aren’t growing, and the majority aren’t evangelizing. Wake up! Wake up from your slumber!

The Christian life is an active life, it is a life of service…it is a life that requires attentiveness, alertness and labor! But some of you have gone to sleep! Your work for the Lord is idle, your support for the church is waning, your love for others has grown cold, your heart has grown hard, your Christian progress is stagnant, and your adversary is planning an attack. And you are sleeping through it all! Your home is being destroyed, your children are rebellious, your family is falling apart, and you are asleep! Communities are crumbling, neighbors are hurting, friends are suffering, and the church is asleep! Society is in a deplorable condition and getting worse. Wickedness abounds, sin is accepted, Jesus is rejected, evil is celebrated, and God is blasphemed. All because the church has been asleep for too long. Wake up! Wake up from your slumber!

We can’t blame these problems on the world, we can’t blame the government, we can’t even blame the devil! The problem is that too many Christians are asleep. And God is calling us to wake from our slumber! Wake up!  The hour is late the night is far spent, and the day is at hand. Therefore. I tell you, it’s imperative that we awake from our slumber.

For life is short, eternity is too long, souls are too precious, and proclaiming the Gospel is too important for us to sleep through it all. Jesus is coming soon. What we are going to do for Him we better do quickly. Paul said in Romans 13:11 ‘And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now, is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” …Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is…Ephesians 4:14-18. Wake up! Wake up!

By California Black Media Staff

On January 1, 2020, California will enact a new law, the CROWN Act or Senate Bill 188, that protects Black women and men from discrimination in the workplace for wearing natural hairstyles.

 Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law, the first of its kind in the nation, in July. 

Authored by state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), who is African American, the bill expands the definition of racial discrimination to include hair. 

“We believe this is just the beginning of the end to hair discrimination. It’s another chink in the armor of racial discrimination in this country and I’m just proud to be part of the movement,” Mitchell said when the governor signed her bill. 

Just weeks before the law takes effect, news broke that SAG-AFTRA, the Los Angeles-based labor union representing more than 160,000 television and film industry professionals, is investigating the circumstances of popular actress Gabrielle Union’s dismissal from her job as a judge on the NBC television series “America’s Got Talent,” partly because of her rotating natural hairstyles. 

Four sources who claim to have insider information about the way decision makers at the television competition series treated Union say the actress received more than six notes describing her hairstyles as “too black.”  

Union, known for her roles in more than 25 films and as the star of the long-running BET series “Being Mary Jane,” has not made public comment about the incident. But her husband, NBA star Dwayne Wade, has tweeted about her firing. 

If Union decides to sue NBC or the show’s producers for hair discrimination, she will not be able to stand on the CROWN act, which stands for Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair, because of the timing of her case. 

But the show producers have confirmed that they are speaking with Union’s representatives to resolve their differences. 

Some Twitter users are calling for a boycott of the show. 

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- Showcasing its commitment to the local community, Hilton Garden Inn San Bernardino announced today it will be hosting a food drive with Feeding America Riverside/San Bernardino. The food drive will take place in the lobby of the hotel property, located at 1755 S. Waterman Avenue.

“Our signature hospitality and dedication to service extends beyond our hotel and into the surrounding community, so we are very excited to join together with Feeding America Riverside/San Bernardino on such a wonderful cause,” said Shari Hurley, general manager, Hilton Garden Inn San Bernardino. “Donating food is one of the best things that you can do to help others; there are millions of people that go without food daily. Donate today and help alleviate hunger.”

Feeding America Riverside/San Bernardino is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which began in 1980 as Survive Food Bank in response to the increasing concern about the dual problems of hunger and food waste in the Inland Empire. Today, Feeding America Riverside/San Bernardino is the primary source of food for over 470 nonprofits, distributing over 2.5 million pounds of food monthly to emergency food pantries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, high-need elementary schools, halfway houses, senior centers, residential treatment centers, shelters for the abused, after school programs and group homes. More than 425,000 men, women, and children each month rely on the food bank’s distribution center to make ends meet.

For more information, please visit Hilton Garden Inn San Bernardino or call (909) 806-4040.

Read more about Hilton Garden Inn at www.hgi.com.

By California Black Media

Keeping up with the high cost of pensions in California is hurting public sector employers, city budgets and leading to the firing of some minority money managers at CalPERS, the California Public Employee Retirement System, which is valued at $387 billion, according to Bloomberg News. 

In its annual report, released in November, CalPERS confirmed that it risks falling into “low funding levels.” If this happens, the agency responsible for managing the health and pension benefits of more than a million public employees in California may not able to pay its bills or pay out its commitments. 

The League of California Cities, which represents more than 400 municipalities across the state, is alarmed by the growing mandatory payments they have to cough up to CalPERS for employee pensions and benefits, too, according to CalMatters. Between fiscal years 2016 and 2017, that number skyrocketed by more 8 billion. 

In an effort to streamline its own costs, CalPERS announced last week that it is scaling back on its “Emerging” equity fund program. Launched in 1991 to increase diversity among its portfolio managers, the program contracts external money mangers, mostly women and minority-owned firms managing assets worth less than $2 billion who are charged with investing on behalf of the largest public pension system in the United States. 

The returns those “emerging” managers were bringing in fell below the agency’s targets by 126 “basis points,” according to an agency spokesperson. 

The Rev. Al Sharpton, President and Founder of the National Action Network, said CalPERS’ decision to cut the minority money mangers is “unacceptable” and comes as a surprise to him. 

“Last year, the National Action Network and I met with Marci Frost and Ted Eliopoulis from CalPERS in Sacramento, both of whom committed to increasing the utilization of diverse asset managers across all asset classes by creating a level playing field,” Sharpton told California Black Media. “It is clear that Ted is gone and the board has inoculated the new CIO, Ben Meng, from finding and utilizing high performing talented diverse managers that reflect the diversity of the pensioners.

In an October memo, CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost said the agency is “restructuring” its emerging manager program, “reducing” the number of managers, and cutting the assets those investors manage from $3.6 billion to $500 million. 

REDLANDS, CA—- Members of the Redlands Community Center Youth volunteers, known as “Teens Inspiring Others,” conducted their second tobacco litter cleanup on Monday, November 25.

As part of the #freeourbackyard campaign, the volunteers, partnering with the CommonVision Coalition and the Institute for Public Strategies, collected cigarette butts and tobacco litter around Sylvan Park’s picnic area and skate park. Within 40 minutes, the youth volunteers picked up more than 2,167 cigarette butts, tobacco-related litter and marijuana paraphernalia. 

Cigarette butts are a toxic, non-biodegradable substance that is left behind to pollute the environment and is the most commonly littered item in the United States. These items are especially problematic when they are found in areas that are frequented by children and pets. They pose an additional risk if they are ingested.

When smoking occurs in public areas, like parks, it also places the public at the risk of third-hand smoke, a toxic residue that is left on surfaces long after the smoke from devices such as cigarettes and electronic cigarettes has gone. According to the California Department of Public Health, third-hand smoke contains high levels of nicotine and cancer-causing chemicals. Some of the chemicals in third-hand smoke are different from those found in fresh smoke because it changes over time and becomes more toxic.

This cleanup was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Common Vision Coalition, Teens Inspiring Others and the Institute for Public Strategies to promote wellness in the community.

“I am excited to have my youth volunteers collaborate in a project that allows them to get out into their community, learn the importance of civic engagement, and advocate for themselves,” said Jennifer Michaels, Teens Inspiring Others Youth Volunteer Coordinator.

“It is great to see the teens in our community taking a passion in beautifying our public parks,” said Seth Henry, Community Gardens Coordinator. “They did an amazing job, and I was happy to see them working together as a team to serve their community.”