Volume Volume 124 123 No. No. 3 20–22
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August 22, 2015 - August 22, 2015, The Afro-American A1 $1.00
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AUGUST 22, 2015 - AUGUST 28, 2015
Inside
Passing of Two Giants
Washington
• D.C. Mayor Plans to Invest in Solar Energy B1
Commentary: Black, Female and Afraid
Baltimore
A5
Julian Bond and Louis Stokes, two champions of the civil rights movement, have died. For more on Stokes, see below. For more on Julian Bond, turn to A3. AP Photos
Corey Hawkins on Making “Straight Outta Compton”
AFRO Exclusive
Brown Campaigns On Public Service Platform
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By James Wright Special to the AFRO jwright@afro.com Former Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown is running for the House seat that is being vacated by U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), who is a 2016 candidate for the U.S. Senate. Brown, who lost the race to become the state’s first Black governor in the November 2014 general election, said he is running for the U.S. Congress because of his desire to continue public service. “Public service defines me,” Brown said in an interview with the AFRO on Aug. 17. “I have served in the military, the Maryland House of Delegates, as lieutenant governor and as a practicing attorney involved in pro bono work. My father, who was a doctor, told me
when I was young that ‘Anthony, you have to serve other people.’” The Fourth Congressional District comprises a large portion of Prince George’s County and part of Anne Arundel County. The 2010 census reported that the district is 58 percent Black. The district has consistently voted Democratic in recent presidential elections and is considered a Democratic stronghold in statewide general elections. In the 2014 general election, Brown said that he carried the Fourth Congressional District by a 65-70 percent margin. “I won 89 percent of the Democrats who voted in that race,” he said. Brown said that he talked with Edwards about the race in mid-March before she announced her candidacy
Emma Didlake Dies at 110
Your History • Your Community • Your News
Nation’s Oldest Vet
afro.com
By The Associated Press A Michigan woman who was believed to be the nation’s oldest veteran at 110 has died, about a month after meeting President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. Emma Didlake died on Aug. 16 in West Bloomfield, northwest of Detroit, according to the Oakland County medical examiner’s office. Didlake was a 38-year-old wife and mother of five when she signed up in 1943 for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. She served about seven months stateside during the war, as a private and driver. She spent time with the president in July during a trip to Washington that was arranged by Talons Out Honor Flight, a southwest Michigan chapter of a national nonprofit that provides free, one-day trips for veterans to Continued on A4
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AP Photo
President Barack Obama meets with Emma Didlake, 110, of Detroit, the oldest known World War II veteran, in the Oval Office of the White House on July 17.
Continued on A4
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Courtesy Photo
Anthony Brown is a former lieutenant governor of Maryland.
300 Men March From Baltimore to D.C. Stop the Violence By Lisa Snowden-McCray Special to the AFRO The weather was a steamy 82 degrees on August 16 around 5 p.m. when men in black t-shirts began gathering in Carroll Park in South West Baltimore. While families hung out at the park’s picnic tables, or strolled along in the grass, the men were getting set to walk 35 miles from Baltimore to the White House in Washington, D.C. They were walking, they said, to raise awareness about Baltimore City’s ever-growing violence problem. Some of the roughly 40 men, members
of the group 300 Men March, rested. Others stretched. A group of women in white t-shirts were also gathered. It would be their role to support the men by seeing them off, bringing them supplies and driving them back to Baltimore when the journey was complete. Why were they walking? “We have to,” said Munir Bahar, who co-founded the group three years ago with Baltimore City Council Member Brandon Scott. “The current reality and what’s happening implies that much, much more has to be done to stop the murders. We Continued on A4
Longtime Ohio Congressman, and CBC Warrior, Louis Stokes Dies at 90 By The Associated Press
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for the U.S. Senate. “We had breakfast at the National Harbor,” he said. “I was interested in her vision of the Fourth Congressional District and wanted to hear, from her, the district’s aspirations and its needs.” Edwards hasn’t endorsed any candidate running for her house seat at this point. Brown was elected to the House of Delegates in 1998 and in his second term was picked by the leadership to be the vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 2006, then Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley picked Brown to be his running mate for the governorship. They won the general election that year and were re-elected in 2010 to a second four-year term. Brown said that as lieutenant governor, he spearheaded cleaning up
• Balto. Grief Camp
Former U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes, a 15-term congressman from Ohio who took on tough assignments looking into assassinations and scandals, has died at the age of 90, his family said on Aug. 19. He died peacefully at home Tuesday with his wife, Jay, at his side, a month after he announced he had brain and lung cancer. “During his
illness, he confronted it as he did life — with bravery and strength,” his family said in a statement. Stokes was elected to the House in 1968, becoming Ohio’s first Black member of Congress and one of its most respected and influential representatives. Just a year earlier, his brother, Carl, had been elected mayor of Cleveland — the first Black elected mayor of a major U.S. city.
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The White House issued a statement from President Barack Obama that noted how Stokes overcame hardships while growing up in Cleveland and praised him for his belief that everyone should have a chance to succeed. “Lou leaves behind an indelible legacy in the countless generations of young leaders that he inspired, and he will be sorely missed,” Obama said.