September 28, 2013 - September 28, 2013, www.afro.com
Volume 122 No. 8
The Afro-American A1 $1.00
SEPTEMBER 28, 2013 - OCTOBER 4, 2013
Black Media Slighted as Spending Power Exceeds $1Trillion By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Food Stamp Cuts Balto Poor Bleed By Blair Adams AFRO Staff Writer
Although annual Black spending is projected to rise from its current $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion by 2017, advertisers allot only 3 percent of their $2.2 billion yearly budget to media aimed at Black audiences, a new Nielsen report has found.
“…advertisers allot only 3 percent of their $2.2 billion yearly budget to media aimed at Black audiences…” The study, “Resilient, Receptive and Relevant: The African-American Consumer 2013 Report,” was released at a news conference Sept. 19 at the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend by Nielsen and the National Newspaper Continued on A4
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A vote to cut funding for federal food stamps by almost $40 billion a year has triggered concern among food stamp users and lowincome advocates.
Deciding whether to purchase food or pay bills is something one Maryland mother of two wasn’t that concerned about--with the help of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). But, if cuts initiated by the House go into effect, she would have to make some tough decisions. On Sept 19, during a congressional budget battle, the House approved a proposal to slash $39 billion from food stamp funding. The measure would have to clear the Senate, where only light cuts are contemplated, and gain approval from President Obama. But the Senate action on the House scale is not likely and the Obama White House has said the president would veto deep food stamp cuts. Even so, several states are moving toward food stamp benefit reductions. Maryland isn’t one of them but if the state joins the others that want to trim benefits, the results could
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Rare African-American Artifacts to be Showcased at Lewis Museum By Ansar Abdullah Special to the AFRO Imagine gazing at verses of poetry written in the 18th century by African American poet Phyllis Wheatley. Or browsing through an 1832 account of how runaway Harriet Jacobs hid in an attic –for seven years—from vicious slaveholders. Or looking at a letter from Malcolm X to biographer Alex Haley two years before the Black Muslim leader was gunned down. Such artifacts are to be on display at the Reginald F. Lewis
Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture from Nov. 1 through March 4, 2014, thanks to Wells Fargo and the family of Bernard Kinsey, a retired Xerox executive who, along with his wife, has amassed a collection of African American artifacts. The Kinsey collection includes: an early draft of the Emancipation Proclamation; original works by Frederick Douglass; a book about Africa – by an African – that dates back to the 17th century; and documentation of how the estimated 38,000 cowboys that helped shape the Old West, included about 10,000
Blacks. “The Kinsey Collection strives to give our ancestors a voice, name and personality, enabling the viewer to understand the challenges, obstacles, triumphs and extraordinary sacrifice of African Americans who’ve greatly contributed to the success of this country,” said Bernard Kinsey. “We are excited to collaborate with Wells Fargo in developing this special program honoring the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.” The exhibit began as just a
Courtesy photo
Continued on A4 Samuel L. Dunson, Jr.’s The Cultivators
Shutdown Devastation Major African-American Capitol Hill Concern Power Couple at By Zenitha Prince AFRO Contributing Writer
The extreme partisanship that has plagued Washington, D.C., for the past four years is dragging America to the brink of disaster—again. Republicans and Democrats currently are engaged in high-stakes negotiations over the 2014 budget, and if they don’t agree on how the U.S. will pay its bills over the next week, the federal government will shut down come Dec. 16. With the U.S. economy taking its first tentative steps toward recovery, a shutdown could be devastating. According to the Congressional Research Service, the last two shutdowns, in late 1995 and early 1996, cost about $1.4 billion. “This is no way to run a government,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). “When you think about the main role the federal government plays in this country— paying for air traffic controllers, water
security, overseeing national parks and more—everyone in America will feel it if the government goes into shutdown.” At issue in this year’s budget talks is the Affordable Care Act, the premier legacy of President Obama’s administration. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, but a short-term continuing resolution was passed to maintain funding until Dec. 15. However, House Republicans inserted a provision to defund the health care law and Democrats and the President say that’s just not going to happen. “In the 113th Congress, Republicans choose continuously to ignore the challenges the House should be addressing, instead voting over 40 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now, their insistence on dogmatic relitigation of the ACA is taking our country to the brink of a government shutdown,” said Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) in an
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Photo by Vinoth Chandar/Wikimedia Commons
Republicans and Democrats currently are engaged in high-stakes negotiations over the 2014 budget.
Baltimore’s Vanguard
“At a very young age, I always said I wanted to be a public servant in Baltimore City.” Overlooking a clear skyline from Mosby said his dreams to be a their Reservoir Hill home in West public servant were forged while Baltimore, a young black professional in the third grade at Yorkwood couple finds themselves squarely in Elementary School when then Mayor the public eye. They never thought Kurt Schmoke was elected as the first they would have made it this far. African American mayor of Baltimore. Baltimore native and City “I was excited. My mother Councilman Nick Mosby, 34, and his was excited. My grandmother was wife Marilyn, 33, a Boston native and excited,” he said. State’s Attorney candidate, aspire to With an absent father, Mosby was make a difference in Baltimore—a inspired and driven by the women in city they both have high hopes for. his life. “I grew up in northeast “I was the first person in my family Baltimore—in the Yorkwood to go to college and graduate,” Mosby neighborhood with six women in my said. household,” Mosby told the AFRO. He told the AFRO his grandmother and mother taught him the value of dreaming and of knowing that “I could be successful.” “They always pushed me.” But they were taken away from him. First, at14, he lost his grandmother; recently, at age 31, he lost his mother. Mosby left Baltimore when he enrolled into Tuskegee University, a historically Black university in Alabama, where he met the woman who would become his wife. Six hours north of The Mosby with their daughters, Nylyn, 5 Baltimore in Boston the thenand Aniyah, 3 at Druid Hill Park Marilyn Jones, the oldest of By Blair Adams AFRO Staff Writer
Copyright © 2013 by the Afro-American Company
Photo by Carde Cornish
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