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The Afro-American, September 21, 2013 - September 27, 2013
NATION & WORLD
‘Four Little Girls’ Awarded Congressional Gold Medals
According to the former school board policy, “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.” The second grader’s family spoke out, stating Tiana has had locs for a few years and this was her second year attending the school. Natural hair advocates across the nation also took a stand against the school’s policy and supported Tiana. Nikki Walton, natural hair blogger and best-selling author, posted several stories about the situation on her blog. MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris-Perry dedicated a segment on her show to Tiana called “To A Girl Whose Hair Was Deemed ‘Unacceptable.’” “We Love Tiana & Her Hair,” said a Facebook page started by Lana Boone, 26, a Silver Spring, Md.- based natural hair advocate and founder of Kurly Klips. The page drew more than 1,500 fans in just a few days.
On the heels of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, a darker moment of that year was recognized Sept. 10. The four little girls who died in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. were posthumously awarded one of the nation’s highest civilian awards—the Congressional Gold Medal. The medals go to the families of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, four young girls aged 11 to 14, who were preparing for Sunday school Sept. 15, 1963 when a bomb planted by some members of the
Parent Wants KKK Founder’s Name Removed from Fla. Black High School
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The four girls killed in the bombing (Clockwise from top left, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair) Ku Klux Klan exploded, killing them and injuring 22 other people in the building. “As a direct beneficiary of their sacrifice, I was honored that my first piece of legislation honored the four little girls with the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow upon any individual,” Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) said in a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall. “I not only question where I would be today without the influence of the four little girls but more importantly, I question where America would be. The premature and senseless deaths of these girls awakened the slumbering conscience of America and galvanized the Civil Rights Movement,” Sewell said at the ceremony. Sewell, in whose district the church is located, is part of a congressional delegation to the medal presentation ceremony in Birmingham Sept. 13 at the church. Sewell is also to conduct a discussion panel featuring members of the Congressional Black Caucus including Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), an icon of the civil rights era, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), chairwoman of the Black Caucus, and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the longest serving Black member of Congress. In all, 14 members of the CBC were scheduled to appear at the event.
Okla. School Board Alters Dress Code to Allow Dreadlocks
A Tulsa, Okla. charter school has reversed a dress code under which it dismissed a 7-year-old for wearing dreadlocks. The independent governing board for the Deborah Brown Community School voted 4-0 Sept. 9 to rescind a policy that banning dreadlocks, afros and other “faddish styles” of hair. The action came after Tiana Parker, 7, was told her hairstyle was not allowed at the mostly Black charter school that is associated with Langston University. The dismissal drew national attention. Last month, Tiana’s parents told Tulsa’s FOX 23 that they had been summoned into the administrator’s office at the charter school and told that their daughter’s locs violated the school’s dress code against “faddish” hairstyles.
A Jacksonville, Fla. father is waging a campaign to change the name of a school that was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader and the first “grand wizard” of the Klu Klux Klan. Omotoya Richmond is the originator of the fast-growing petition on Change.org that has amassed more than 77,000 signatures at last count on Sept. 12. The Long Island, N.Y. transplant told the AFRO he did not want his 7-year-old daughter—or any other child—who may eventually matriculate at a high school in Duval County, to have to attend a school named after someone whose legacy is that of hate. “Now is the time to right a historical wrong. African American Jacksonville students shouldn’t have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year,” Richmond wrote in his petition. “In the end, I want my child to be able to go anywhere Nathan Bedford Forrest in Jacksonville and be proud of where she is. That can’t happen with Nathan Bedford Forrest High School.” Forrest High got its name in 1959, when it was founded with White-only students. In the decades since then, the school has been integrated, and its student body is majority AfricanAmerican. Forrest, a Confederate general during the Civil War, was one of the most polarizing figures of that era. He is most remembered for slaughtering Black soldiers of the U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery at Fort Pillow, near Memphis, after they had already surrendered. After the gruesome execution, “Remember Fort Pillow” became a rallying-cry for African-American soldiers throughout the Union Army, according to a Civil War website. Richmond has to amass at least 10,000 signatures from local residents for the school board to consider changing the name. Five years ago, the School Advisory Council requested that the school be renamed, but the school board voted 5-2 against it. The board’s membership has since changed. Signatures on the petition are delivered via e-mail to Duval County School District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who said in a recent interview with NPR that he “would support a name change recommendation if brought organically to the [school] board by the community.” Wikimedia Commons
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