(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— U.S. Navy Sailors sing during a Black History Month celebration aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88) in the South China Sea, Feb. 26, 2019. The Preble is deployed to the U.S 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Bryan Niegel)
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK–ENN)— The month of February serves as Black History Month; it’s a point in the year where we observe the difficult circumstances that Black people have faced throughout history as well as celebrate all their accomplishments. But why exactly is Black History Month in February? Many people have recognized the lack of representation Black people have within textbooks and school curriculum across America. Below, we outline the interesting and important story of why Black History Month is in February.
In the early 20th century, historian Carter G. Woodson saw first-hand the underrepresentation of Black people in the various books and conversations that shaped the study of American history. To try and fix this, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
ASALH was and still is an organization that promotes the continuous study of Black history. Dr. Woodson believed this was essential because “if a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” Due to his determination to emphasize the importance of celebrating Black accomplishments, Dr. Woodson pioneered the field of African-American studies and set the foundation for Black History Month.
In 1926, Dr. Woodson and the ASALH brought about “Negro History Week”—the purpose being to further their mission of getting Black history into more schooling systems. They chose the second week of February to honor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln since their birthdays are within that week. This initiative spread quickly, and soon people everywhere were celebrating this week.
As the years went on, even after Dr. Woodson passed, people continued to celebrate this week. It wasn’t until the 1960s that people started to expand the week to a month-long celebration. Part of the reason for this expansion was the fact that “by the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for eighth-grade U.S. history classes mentioned only two black people in the entire century of history that had transpired since the Civil War.” People knew there was so much more than that; therefore, colleges and universities across the country transformed to celebrate Black History Month instead of Negro History Week.
As the Civil Rights Movement spread across the country, it helped to snowball the initiative even further. By 1976, President Gerald Ford decreed Black History Month a national observance: “In celebrating Black History Month,” Ford said in his message, “we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Although the 20th century was a tumultuous time, it resulted in massive steps forward for the Black community.
Black History Month is a celebration of an underrepresented and abused people and their accomplishments. However, in 1976, the ASALH designated a theme to each year’s Black History Month. Every year since, there has been a theme. This year’s theme is Black Migrations, which emphasizes the movement of African people to new destinations and new social realities.
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— Yes, we have been endowed with a rare privilege to take their legacy further. Their mantle has been laid upon us as a symbolic action, therefore, it is time to stop talking about it and being about it. Like Elisha [2 Kings 2:13], we must make a conscious decision to pick up the mantle as a symbol of responsibility, service, and sacrifice. Realizing that when we pick up the mantle, that not only do we honor the spirit of our ancestors, but it becomes the symbol of God’s power in our hands as it was for our ancestors. That when we pick up the mantle, we will not just be a passive observer to inequity and injustice. That when we pick up the mantle, we say that we are willing to pay the price and sacrifice…. for the future is in our hands. The future belongs to us. Therefore, we must commit to the calling of something bigger than just a feel-good. We must commit ourselves to doing this, and doing it together. Greatness is still standing among us. And now we must pass that legacy on . It is my obligation. It is your obligation. It is our obligation. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders… and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…. [Hebrews 12:1]
Now shall we ….
“Lift every voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring. Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won…““ [Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon]
Akoma Unity Center has partnered with Empowered Mindz Stem Academy to bring a free, rigorous, robotics classes to Young Engineers. Students from all over the Inland Empire and Orange County attended this program.
According to Jennifer Xicara, the center’s operations manager, “Akoma is excited to inspire the next generation of Engineers with 5 more sessions to go”.
Akoma Unity Center is located on the West Side of San Bernardino at 1367 N. California Street. The phone number is 909-217-7956.
Date of event: Saturday, March 2, 2019
Purpose: Recognizing mental health and substance use challenges can be difficult, which is why it’s so important for everyone to understand the warning signs and risk factors.
Mental Health First Aid USA is an 8-hour training to teach participants how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The evidence behind the program demonstrates that it helps trainees identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.
| Continental breakfast provided by Building Resilient Communities Students responsible for lunch |
| Register quickly! This class will fill fast. |
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— SACRAMENTO,CA – On Friday, Feb. 22, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered new DNA tests in a 35-year-old quadruple murder case involving African-American death row inmate Kevin Cooper.
Newsom’s decision could lead to the overturning of Cooper’s 1985 conviction in the killing of a rural Chino Hills family and their 11-year-old house guest. The case has the potential, some political watchers say, to divide Californians.
Both the California and United States supreme courts and more than a dozen lower courts have rejected Cooper’s past appeals.
“I take no position regarding Mr. Cooper’s guilt or innocence at this time,” Newsom said in his executive order about the high-profile case that has drawn international interest. New York Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristof, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and reality TV star Kim Kardashian have all called for re-testing using current, more sensitive forensic technology.
The ACLU and other human rights and social justice groups have also urged California state officials to launch a deeper investigation into Cooper’s conviction.
Gov. Newsom’s order Friday expands previous direction issued by former Gov. Jerry Brown in December to test four pieces of crime scene evidence. Brown’s order allowed analysts to perform DNA re-testing on a tan T-shirt; an orange towel; and the handle and sheath of a hatchet prosecutors say Cooper used in the murders.
In this new investigation, analysts will look at strands of hair from the victims’ hands, blood samples and a green button Cooper’s attorney Norman Hile maintains investigators planted at the scene of the crime. A retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge will oversee the investigation.
Cooper, 61, has maintained his innocence over the years. His lawyers hope the results of the re-testing ordered by Gov. Newsom, which could take several months, will help prove their client’s innocence and finally exonerate him.
In 1985, a San Diego County jury convicted Cooper on four counts of murder. At the time of his arrest, he was 26 and an escaped prison inmate. His lengthy criminal record – including several burglaries and the rape of a minor in Pennsylvania – did not help his case.
Cooper, formerly named Richard Goodman, was born in 1958 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When he was six months old, he was adopted and renamed Kevin Cooper. During his childhood, his parents physically abused him and he spent a good part of adolescence living in several juvenile detention centers. In 1982, Cooper escaped from a mental health facility in Pennsylvania before moving to California.
During his murder trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Cooper killed husband and wife Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and an 11-year-old neighbor Christopher Hughes. Police found the bloodied bodies in the Ryen’s home with a total of 143 stab wounds. Joshua Ryen, the victims’ 8-year-old son, suffered a slash wound on his throat. He was the only survivor of the attack.
After Coopers’s jail break, investigators found, he illegally stayed in a house next door to the victims. They also say they found evidence in the Ryen’s home and in the family’s station wagon that tied Cooper to the murders.
For some, Gov. Newsom’s order to broaden DNA testing in the case is being met with dismay. The lone survivor of the murders Joshua Ryen and family, friends and supporters of the Ryens and Hughes all across the state say they are disappointed with the governor’s decision.
“Unfortunately, over time it seems the victims’ desire for justice in this case matters less and less,” San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a statement. “Prior DNA testing that Mr. Cooper sought, agreed to and claimed would exonerate him have all confirmed Mr. Cooper’s guilt.”
Yet persuasive arguments based on conflicting testimonies and allegations of evidence tampering, keep raising reasonable questions about the methods and stories investigators used to nail Cooper. Three weapons were used in the attack, and in sworn testimony, Joshua Ryen said he saw three attackers who were White. He later testified that they could have been Hispanic.
Further complicating the prosecutions’ claims, a woman named Diana Roper came forward with bloody clothing belonging to her former boyfriend who was a violent criminal. She turned the evidence over to the police, but they destroyed it.
African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities living in the San Bernardino County are not surprised about the allegations Cooper’s attorneys are making about their D.A.’s office. Many of them frequently complain about racial biases and discrimination in the way their cases or complaints are handled. Just last month, a San Bernardino gang prosecutor Michael Selyem, who is White, resigned under pressure for making crude and racist and comments on social media. His insults targeted former First Lady Michelle Obama, U,S. Rep. Maxine Waters and an unnamed Black shooting victim.
Thomas R. Parker, a former deputy head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, believes Cooper.
This guy is innocent,” he told the New York Times. “The evidence was planted, he was framed, the cops lied on the stand.”
What has kept the case going – and Cooper alive – is a federal appellate court’s decision in 2004 to stay his execution and review the case with more scientific evidence.
Gov. Newsom’s decision to allow another round of DNA testing comes early in the term of the progressive California Governor whose supporters on the political Left have high expectations.
“DNA testing should immediately take place to resolve the Ryen case and finally ensure justice is served,” Chiang said during the campaign. “Not only is it proven that DNA evidence can help law enforcement solve crimes, but testing in this case would come at no cost to the state.”
Even though Newsom’s decision in the Cooper case is bold, he is treading carefully on a potentially polarizing issue that California voters across the political spectrum are watching. He is keeping his focus on fairness and justice with the realization that the convictions of thousands of felons – particularly African-American men – have been overturned after DNA testing proved their innocence.
“Especially in cases where the government seeks to impose the ultimate punishment of death,” he said. “I need to be satisfied that all relevant evidence is carefully and fairly examined.”
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— U.S. Sailors perform a dance during a Black History Month celebration on the mess decks aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) in the Pacific Ocean, February 20, 2019. The John C. Stennis is deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Skyler Okerman)
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Participants of the Social Lites, Inc. Beautillion Program attended both 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Church services at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, February 24, 2019. It was a wonderful experience to celebrate the end of Black History Month at one of the historic African American Churches in the Inland Empire. New Hope Missionary Baptist Church located at 1575 W. 17th Street, San Bernardino has been in the community for over 106 years. One of the most wonderful experiences for all to take part in was a Black History exhibit set up in the fellowship hall that included samples of southern cooking all to enjoy.
Morning worship also included a guest speaker from Live Stream in partnership with the Blood of the Martyrs Blood Drive Committee in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to inform congregation of the upcoming Blood Drive at New Hope Missionary Baptist church from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 31, 2019.
The Beautillion program will commence on Saturday, March 30, 2019 at the National Orange Show of San Bernardino. For more information, please contact: knight.beautillion@gmail.com
The San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation, Inc., met on Friday, February 1 to celebrate the recipients of the SBBCF 2019 Scholarship Awards and to announce the appointment of the 2019 SBBCF Honorary Senior Queen and King.
The SBBCF has shown appreciation and given recognition to individuals and couples whose personal lives both demonstrate and contribute to the quality of life in San Bernardino and surrounding communities, and have expressed this annually since 1985. They do this through the SBBCF (Honorary) “Black San Bernardino, Senior King & Queen” designation.
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)—CORPSU CHRISTI, Texas (Feb. 14, 2019) — NHC Corpus Christi Sailors of the Quarter for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2019. From left, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (FMF) David B. Butler, of Munford, Tennessee, Sailor of the Quarter; Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (FMF) Raul M. Cervantes, of Yoakum, Texas, Senior Sailor of the Quarter; and Hospitalman Dominic Briones, of Apple Valley, California, Blue Jacket of the Quarter. Not pictured: Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Alec Bushong, of San Antonio Detachment, Junior Sailor of the Quarter. (U.S. Navy photo/Bill W. Love)
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