D2
The Afro-American, April 1, 2017 - April 7, 2017
Mount Auburn Continued from D1
Juanita married Clarence Mitchell Jr. in 1938, another civil rights activist who started his work with the NAACP in 1946, and became director of the Washington Bureau in 1951. He helped get the civil rights and voting rights acts, along with the Fair Housing Act, passed in the 1960s in Congress, earning him the nickname of “101st U.S. Senator.” Former President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980. Clarence’s younger brother, Perren Mitchell, in 1952, became the first African American to graduate from thensegregated University of Maryland’s graduate school after suing for admission, earning a sociology degree, and, in 1971, was the first African American elected to represent Maryland in Congress where he was a vocal member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Perren Mitchell was an advocate for affirmative action legislation while in Congress, and, in 2015, University of Maryland dedicated its art-sociology building in his name. Clarence and Juanita Mitchell had four sons: Clarence Mitchell III and Michael B. Mitchell—both former state
senators who were convicted and jailed for their involvement in the Wedtech Scandal in 1987—George Davis Mitchell and Keiffer Jackson Mitchell Sr., a physician. Clarence Mitchell IV served as a state delegate from 1995– 1999 and a state senator from 1999–2003. He currently hosts “The C4 Show” on WBAL radio. Keiffer Jackson Mitchell Jr. has also had a career in public service, a Baltimore City Council member from 1995–2007, and after an unsuccessful mayoral bid, he served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2011–2015 where he co-sponsored a bill that helped construct new city schools. He is now a special advisor on Gov. Larry Hogan’s staff. While many knew the Mitchell family for their work in the fight for civil rights, Keiffer Jr. knew them simply as Uncle Perren, Grandpop and Grandma. He said that growing up, there was a lot of laughter and love in the family, especially during the holidays. Still, the older generations made sure the children were aware of the work they were doing, and why it was
important. “There’s never any pressure to follow in anyone’s footsteps,” Mitchell told the AFRO. “They just said, ‘We want you to be happy but always try to give back in whatever you do.’ My grandmother had a saying, which was, ‘service to your people is the rent you pay for your space on this earth.’ So, that’s sort of our mantra.” Mitchell said he has many vivid memories at Mount Auburn Cemetery, including the burial of his great grandmother Lillie Mae in 1975, and his grandparents taking him and his sisters to visit the gravesites there. He took his own children there last year, he said, while teaching them more about their own history and lineage. “Mount Auburn has a tremendous amount of history on that land there and, as I remind folks, that was the only place blacks could get buried,” Mitchell said. “There’s so many folks there that you see buried there that contributed to not just our city and state, but to the nation.”
Race and Politics Continued from D1
Banneker-Blake, Edwin Johnson, who proudly gave me a tour of the school, darting me from room to room where each time I entered a classroom, I was eagerly greeted by a dignified young man donned in coat and tie. I later found out those young men act as the classroom, “diplomats,” whose responsibility is to make visitors to that classroom feel welcome and to explain what’s going on without disrupting the lesson and the rest of the class. “There is a low expectation of Black kids, particularly Black males and it’s done systematically,” Edwin Johnson said. “A lot of our teachers in this system have low expectations,” he added. However, this charter school is setting the bar high for Black boys (despite the fact many of them come from some of the more impoverished neighborhoods of the city),
offering “a rigorous science, technology, engineering and math curriculum.” Banneker-Blake’s school day is extended and they go to school year round, with three to four weeks of instruction during the summer. “For every decision, there is a decision... what you do in middle school, effects what you do in high school, which effects if you want to go to college,” said Thereas Farr, secretary of the school’s board members. “It’s not just what they’re learning, but how they apply what they learn...what they are teaching in the class and how it makes them understand that they have a say in society,” Farr said. Vaughn DeVaughn, who teaches social studies and geography at Banneker-Blake says the young men are making the transition from school being simply a place of social interaction, versus a thoughtful place with a
Memoir
scores of many Black boys in the BCPS. “When I got here my mantra, my motto has always been, failure is not an option, mediocrity is not a choice. So, when I got... to be a part of this (Banneker-Blake) mission, this vision I felt like, this is it, this is what your uncle had been telling you. And I said to myself, this is the beginning of your purpose,” Sanchez added. And the goal of Banneker-Blake is to imbue all of their young men with a sense of purpose. “We’re trying to teach them that every last one of them has a purpose and has a value to society,” Farr said. “That you can be whatever you want to be.” Sean Yoes is a senior contributor for the AFRO and host and executive producer of, AFRO First Edition, which airs Monday through Friday, 5 p.m.-7 p.m. on WEAA, 88.9.
Killer
Continued from D1 with the hero, who was usually White… My mother was quick to point out that everyone was not as embracing of our community as I imagined it was in the movies.” April Ryan depicts a conversation that she had with Barack Obama about Blacks living in a post-racial America. She asks him, “Is this postracial, or would you say post Obama?” She stumped the former president on the question, but you will have to read the book to see how the rest of the conversation plays out. But one thing I will say, is that I strongly agree with Ryan’s belief that “racism persists at its worst level, even today,” no matter who says otherwise. The most intriguing segment of At Mama’s Knee is when Ryan, who is a graduate of Morgan State University and worked for years as a news reporter in the Baltimore market, discusses
higher purpose. “They are starting to make the connection that what I do here, will impact my life later on,” DeVaughn said. “It is a challenge…they are at that age where they just want to play and learning isn’t that important, they don’t see the bigger picture. So, for us as professors trying to instill in them that they are going to be something great...us trying to pull them in the right direction is a challenge, but they’re getting there,” he added. Akilah Sanchez, a language arts teacher from Harlem, New York, says her uncle helped prepare her for the reality of teaching Black boys in Baltimore, within a public school system many argue is not crafted for their success. “‘You don’t understand the impact of what you are about to do,’” her uncle warned, later telling his niece about the abysmal reading
Continued from D1 the power of invisibleness that comes with Black skin, while using Michelle Obama as a tour guide. She describes how “[Michelle] would walk the streets of Washington, D.C., around the White House, unannounced and in most cases unnoticed.” She explains that Michelle had several such walks and was rarely recognized by tourists, workers, and residents, and it’s because she is invisible, I mean Black. We live in a country that nourishes us to see color, so race is the first thing that many of us notice. Despite Michelle’s face gracing many magazine covers, television screens, as well as her many accomplishments, Ivy League schools she has attended, and her being the First Lady of The United States, she was still invisible. This should be living proof to every Black person in America: accomplishments can not erode
racism. Therefore, your work should never be done with hopes to seek validation from the people who oppress you. At Mama’s Knee by April Ryan is a must read for everyone, most importantly those parents who seek guidance in how to transfer wisdom about race to their children, how Ryan’s mother did for her, and how she currently does for her daughters. Kondwani Fidel is a writer, speaker, and spoken word poet. Fidel is the author of Raw Wounds and is a member of Ivy Bookshop. He is from, and currently lives in Baltimore, Md. All book reviewed in this column can be purchased at The Ivy Bookshop, located at 6080 Falls Rd, near Lake Ave in Mt Washington. For more information about book club discounts or upcoming author events please go to theivybookshop.com or call us at 410-377-2966.
Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP
Hampden man James Harris Jackson left Baltimore to travel to New York in order to kill a Black man, according to police. with murder as an act of terrorism in addition to the murder as a hate crime charge he’d already been facing. Jackson did not speak, and his attorney had no comment. Childhood friends of Caughman, who grew up in Queens, attended the hearing and said he was a kind man who didn’t deserve the brutality. “Tim Caughman did not deserve to die like that,” said Portia Clark. “Nobody does. I mean, come on, we’re Black, White, Yellow, Brown — that’s ridiculous. We’re trying to get along.” Carl Nimmons wept outside court after seeing Jackson. “It really hurt me to see that man, because I can’t do nothing about it. I don’t have the power to do anything about it,” he said. In the interview, Jackson said in retrospect, he would rather have killed “a young thug” or “a successful older Black man with blondes ... people you see in Midtown. These younger guys that put White girls on the wrong path.” He complained that on television, “it’s like every other commercial in the past few years has a mixed-race couple in it.” “The White race is being eroded. ... No one cares about you. The Chinese don’t care about you, the Blacks don’t care about you,” he said. Jackson, who was raised in what was described as a churchgoing, liberal family in a – Portia Clark Baltimore suburb, said his ideal society is “1950s America.” Jackson was in the Army from 2009 to 2012 and worked as an intelligence analyst, the Army said. Deployed in Afghanistan in 2010-11, he earned several medals and attained the rank of specialist. The military training, Jackson said, helped him plan the bloodshed. “I had been thinking about it for a long time, for the past couple of years,” he said. “I figured I would end up getting shot by police, kill myself, or end up in jail.” He is charged with murder as a hate crime. His attorney, Sam Talkin, has said if the allegations are anywhere close to being true, “then we’re going to address the obvious psychological issues that are present in this case.”
“I mean, come on, we’re Black, White, Yellow, Brown — that’s ridiculous. We’re trying to get along.”