Florida Courier, April 12, 2019

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APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

VOLUME 27 NO. 15

WELLS FARGO TO THE RESCUE

Florida Courier Publisher Charles W. Cherry II believes that the embattled bank is the key to Bethune-Cookman University’s survival.

According to a recent financial audit of Bethune-Cookman University, the school is a dead man (woman) walking. From the Moore Stephens Lovelace CPA accounting firm in their financial statements dated January 16, 2019: “…the University has suffered recurring, significant operational losses, is operating under a probationary accreditation status, and its borrowing arrangements are subject to acceleration by the creditors due to a technical default. These matters, among other things, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”

But “substantial doubt” doesn’t mean mathematical certain-

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

ty. Here’s my humble opinion on the only way forward for B-CU, in the general order of which events must occur: • The current members of BCU’s Board of Trustees have a few remaining responsibilities.

When completed, they should all walk away and focus on fundraising and recruitment. First,

they must unanimously elect a new president. This would send a message to stakeholders that they are fully supportive of him or her from the outset. Second, they must change their bylaws to reduce the board to five members, the minimum number permitted by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (“SACS”), the university’s accrediting agency. Then, all trustees other than the remaining five should walk out the door, with Interim President Hubert Grimes and his current leadership team at the front of the line.

My suggestion? Of the five, one current faculty member; one See B-CU, Page A2

CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune’s final resting place is within walking distance from anywhere on the Bethune-Cookman University campus.

NBA MILESTONES IN FLORIDA

Wade retires, Magic in playoffs

Johnson Publishing is no more Iconic pictures and Fashion Fair will be sold

BY CORILYN SHROPSHIRE CHICAGO TRIBUNE/ TNS

CHICAGO – Johnson Publishing, whose iconic Ebony and Jet magazines chronicled Black life in America for decades, has filed for bankruptcy and plans a court-supervised sale of its assets.

The 77-year-old company, which sold Ebony and Jet almost three years ago, on Tuesday filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after it was unable to restructure its operations or arrange financing or a sale.

‘A proud place’

CHARLES TRAINOR JR. / MIAMI HERALD / TNS

The Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade hugs his mom Jolinda before his last professional game Tuesday night. The Heat went on to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 122-99 in Miami. Meanwhile, the Orlando Magic clinched a playoff spot for the first time in seven seasons with a win on the road over the Boston Celtics.

“While the process is now in the hands of a Chapter 7 Trustee, Johnson Publishing Company is grateful for its 77 years of existence, and the unwavering loyalty, dedication and commitment of its employees, vendors and customers,” the company said in a news release.

“The incredible legacy and impact of Johnson Publishing Company will always be honored and hold a proud place in the African-American experience.”

The company has between $10 million and $50 million in assets as well as liabilities, according to the bankruptcy filing made in Chicago. Creditors listed in the filing include retailers HudsonBay and Macy’s, and former Johnson Publishing CEO Desiree Rogers.

Johnson Publishing was founded in Chicago in 1942 by John H. Johnson. In 1945, he launched Ebony, a monthly lifestyle magazine. Six years See JOHNSON, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

BY THE FLORIDA COURIER STAFF

Groups want more ballots in Spanish

Brown cites justice in appeals case

ALSO INSIDE

Black Dem’s courageous vote upsets allies

BOOKS | A6

Review of Henry Gates’ new book

TALLAHASSEE – Senate Minority Leader Audrey Gibson’s courageous “no” vote against a Republican effort to once again demonstrate unconditional support for Israel ahead of the 2020 election has set Florida Democrats in a tizzy and left her standing alone.

The bill (SB 1272) would require schools and colleges to treat allegations of anti-Semitism the same as they would allegations of racial discrimination.

It also defines anti-Semitism, in-

cluding “demonizing” Jewish people or “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interest of their own State Sen. nations.”

Audrey At a Senate JudiGibson ciary Committee meeting, Gibson cast the lone vote against the measure. “I just feel like this is an intentional piece of legislation to divide,” she said.

Violation by Trump?

The controversy comes a few days after President Donald Trump spoke to a predominately Jewish audience using words that could violate the proposed bill.

While addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on April 6, Trump implied that the audience was not loyal solely to the United States by referring to Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, as “your prime minister.”

Later in his speech, Trump referred a second time to American

COMMENTARY: REV. JESSE JACKSON: TRUMP’S BIG LIE ABOUT HEALTH CARE | A4 GUEST COMMENTARY: BRYAN K. BULLOCK: A DEFENSE OF SMILEY AND WEST VS. OBAMA | A5

See VOTE, Page A2

FOCUS

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APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

Beware of political neocolonialism Neocolonialism, neo-colonialism, or neo-imperialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization and cultural imperialism to influence a developing community. It’s different from the previous colonial methods of direct military or police control.

It was first used by Kwame Nkrumah in the context of African countries undergoing decolonization in the 1960s.

The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital (from outside your community) is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the lessdeveloped parts of the community. Investment, under neo-colonialism, increases, rather than decreases, the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world.

Historically, the struggle against neo-colonialism is not aimed at excluding the capital of

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

the developed world from operating in less developed countries.

Today, it is aimed at enhancing the financial power of the developed neighborhoods in such a way as to impoverish the less developed.

Accept the status quo The place where we live, or frequent, is not totally controlled by our friends and neighbors. We have been advised by fake Black leaders that are apparently nothing but modern-day neocolonialist puppets to beg our oppressors, bow down to our exploiters and to accept our situa-

tions as the way it is!

Instead of learning from the writings of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Marcus Garvey, Martin, Malcolm and others we prefer the lies of President Donald Trump mixed in with the fables of Aesop, Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Joel Chandler Harris!

I say we are in an era of political neocolonialism because when we go to the polls, we think we’re voting for somebody. But oftentimes, we’re actually voting for nobody!

Vanilla or chocolate The only difference between candidates on the ballots is some candidates are pale and some others are just dipped in chocolate! They have the same political proposals, the same failed solutions, and they hire the same losing political consultants with the same losing strategies.

African-American politics of today are not much different than they were back in the day!

The so-called “Dependency Theory” is the theoretical de-

JOHNSON

scription of economic and political neocolonialism. It proposes that the economic system comprises wealthy communities at the center, and poor communities at the periphery. Both economic and political neocolonialism extract the economic, political, human and natural resources of a poor neighborhood to flow to the economies of the wealthy suburbs and gentrified inner-city areas.

We won’t take control No, you won’t admit why we suffer politically. We suffer because we refuse to control the politics in our community. We defame and disrespect the Black men and women that stand up and speak out against the political beasts around the world.

We have political knowledge and wisdom in our community.

We know how to generate votes.

We know how to influence votes.

We know how to get political messages out. But we seldom get a chance to utilize our political talent and skill.

We show up. But we can’t show

magazine for the AfricanAmerican market.

Assets for sale

from A1

In early 2015, Johnson Publishing put its entire photo archive – a collection that spanned seven decades of African-American history and included images of people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sammy Davis Jr. – up for sale with the hopes of getting $40 million for it. And in June 2016, Ebony and Jet were sold to a Texas-based private equity firm for an undisclosed price.

Fashion Fair and the photo archive will be among the assets to be sold through the bankruptcy process.

In its news release Tuesday, Johnson Publishing said a “confluence of events” outside its control led the company to the bankruptcy filing. Company executives were not available for comment Tuesday.

later, Jet, a digest-style publication that initially was billed as “The Weekly Negro News Magazine” began publication.

Fashion Fair cosmetics made its debut as one of the first cosmetics lines for women of color in 1973.

‘Past, present, future’ The company’s mission was to be the “curator of the African-American experience, past, present and future,” Johnson’s daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, who succeeded her father as CEO in 2003, told the Tribune in 2014. John Johnson died of heart failure at age 87 in 2005.

For years, the magazines captured the essence of Black life in America with human interest, celebrity and lifestyle photography and stories in Ebony. News of Black America dominated Jet. And for 50 years, the company sponsored the Ebony Fashion Fair, a traveling runway show led by Johnson’s wife, Eunice Johnson, with designs by Christian Dior, Karl Lagerfeld and others, modeled by African-American women and men. For decades, Fashion Fair was the preeminent makeup brand for women of color.

STOJ

COURTESY OF JPC

Johnson Publishing Company published more than 3,000 weekly issues during more than 63 years Jet was in print.

Shift and sales Yet in the past few years, Johnson Publishing has struggled as advertisers have shifted to the digital platforms, management has changed and assets were put up for sale

B-CU from A1 alumni member (not necessarily the National Alumni Association president); one student member (not necessarily the Student Government Association president); and two others.

This would go a long way toward satisfying two of SACS’s five deficiencies: integrity and governing board characteristics. The rest of my proposed “roadmap” can address the other three deficiencies (financial resources, financial responsibility, control of finances) that led to B-CU’s accreditation probation.

• The new president, with his NEW leadership team and a smaller and more agile Board of Trustees, must commit to settling the Wells Fargo lawsuit on terms that include complete forgiveness of the debt. A review of the audit and the lawsuit documents indicates that B-CU owes Wells Fargo $88,151,398.56 as of March 4. If the Wells Fargo loan was immediately reinstated, BCU would be paying a minimum of $600,000 per month for the next 30 years, totaling more than $300 million. IMPOSSIBLE. Wells Fargo is treating B-CU as it would any other “distressed” debtor that couldn’t pay a mortgage. It asked the presiding judge to put the school in the hands of a court-appointed receiver who could run the school under court supervision (including hiring and firing, and selling assets as he or she saw fit).

or sold.

The company sold its 11-story office building at 820 S. Michigan Ave. for $8 million to Columbia College in 2010. (A developer bought the building from Columbia in

2017, with plans to turn it into apartments.)

Jet became a digital-only publication in 2014. At the time, it had a circulation of more than 700,000 and was the third-largest circulation

Both the bank and the university’s leadership know that receivership would have been a death blow to accreditation, and thus to the institution. So instead, Wells Fargo temporarily allows B-CU to pay approximately $100,000 per month against the debt.

• Reason No. 1. Wells Fargo should walk away from $88 million because it must make some good news that’s sorely needed for its own corporate survival.

Search online for “Wells Fargo scandals.” What pops up? “Wells Fargo can’t outrun its scandals” in The Week magazine. Or “Wells Fargo’s 20-month nightmare” on CNN.com. Or “Scandal-plagued Wells Fargo faces cap on growth: regulators” in the New York Post.

Want to know what the scandals are all about? Read “Every Wells Fargo consumer scandal since 2015: A timeline” on Yahoo.com.

How about another headline to be printed first in 200 Black newspapers around the country? “Wells Fargo decides B-CU is ‘too important to fail.’ ” Would that assist the bank in rebranding itself and rehabilitating its reputation?

Would a press conference in front of the Bethune statue (or gravesite) of bank, university and local and Black Press officials burning the mortgage and lawsuit papers get the positive attention of Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee (which regulates banks) and her eight Congressional Black Caucus members who also sit on the committee? I think so.

If that means Wells Fargo gets

out, because the candidates we love can’t use us unless they get permission from the political colonialists. They can’t hire or pay us until after they’ve hired and paid the political colonialists.

Russia interfered in recent U.S. elections. Part of the plan was to divide and control Black political thought and activity. If Blacks can’t or don’t vote, the enemies of people of African descent around the globe will always win; it doesn’t matter who the opponent is.

Don’t be fooled Don’t let people that look like you represent you in public office if they have little desire to work for you and vote for legislation that will benefit you! Political neocolonialism is real!

Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.

“Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants. net.

VOTE from A1 Jews as if they were Israelis by saying that a Democrat victory in 2020 “would cripple our country and very well could leave Israel out there all by yourselves.”

Accusing Jews of having a “dual loyalty” is considered to be an anti-Semitic tactic. However, no prominent Republican, including the sponsors of the Florida bill, have criticized Trump.

Dems upset Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, members of Gibson’s Democratic caucus – including a handful of Jewish senators – met behind closed doors, where they fumed.

“I’m very disappointed in my leader. Extremely disappointed,” Sen. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach, whose wife is a rabbi, told The News Service of Florida.

“If…there was a bill on racism and I have a number of caucus members who are African-American, I think I would be voting against racism, in all forms. Unfortunately, we’re at the point that she didn’t do that.”

‘So everywhere’

Gibson has support

The company and its rich history in Chicago as a publishing powerhouse was the subject of an exhibition last summer at the Stony Island Arts Bank.

“Ebony and Jet was ubiquity,” Theaster Gates, who curated the exhibit, told the Chicago Tribune last summer.

“You know, you had TV Guide, the (Chicago) Tribune, the (Chicago) Defender and Ebony and Jet. I always thought that Ebony and Jet were done by a White company that was intentionally making a Black publication. Because it was so everywhere.”

“We see this (bill) as very troublesome because it hinders our First Amendment rights and also... it’s an inequitable bill that caters only to one of the multiple religious minorities that face discrimination on a regular basis in Florida,” said Wilfredo Ruiz, communications director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It’s the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the state.

“Criticizing Israel for inter-religious tensions or political tensions is criminalized in this bill. Ordering an investigation of the state of Israel for human rights violation could be seen as a crime as well,” he said.

“So to criminalize those First Amendment protected expressions is a problem that this bill brings, convoluted with the legitimate purpose of protecting the Jewish community from anti-Semitism.”

to appoint a substantial (but not controlling) number of trustees appointed to B-CU for a term of years, or other conditions in exchange for full loan forgiveness, that’s a small price to pay.

• Reason No. 2. The bank should forgive the loan – because it can. Wells Fargo is filthy stinking rich. It had net income (after all expenses) of almost $23 billion last year.

According to Page 93 of Wells Fargo’s 2018 Annual Report, the bank had an allowance for credit losses of $1.7 billion as of Dec. 31, 2018. (That’s how much it was ready to “eat’’ in bad loans.) It actually wrote off $429 million in commercial loans in 2018.

Any way you look at it, forgiving B-CU’s debt is insignificant to Wells Fargo’s financial performance. B-CU’s debt would have been a one-time hit of five percent of last year’s allowance for credit losses. It would have been a one-time reduction of the bank’s net income by about fourtenths of one percent. That’s less than a rounding error for a company with $1.9 TRILLION in assets.

• B-CU must continue to pay its bond payments while restructuring a reinstatement of the repayment agreement.

Right now, bondholders have not sued. If they do, the $18 million owed to them will be due immediately.

• ALL other active lawsuits must be settled. It’s time to clean the legal slate. The university is fighting a number of parties in court, including former President Edison Jackson and former Vice President of Institutional

Development Hakeem Lucas, the dormitory construction project development firm, and an offsite building developer. And those are just the most-costly lawsuits among others that have been filed.

• The university must establish a completely separate and fully transparent fundraising foundation complete with audited financials. A future president or Board of Trustees should not be able to dip into the school’s endowment at whim. Without a separate organization to receive donations, big money donors, especially those living in B-CU’s home Volusia County, will continue to sit on the sidelines.

Many donors and supporters, big and small, believe that Edison Jackson and his administration used and abused their trust and their money. The days of BCU’s leadership hiding behind the “private institution” curtain are over, if the school is to survive.

This goes for the current wellintentioned effort by B-CU alumni faculty and staff requesting donations for the school’s current operations. Right now, BCU’s operations are a black hole sucking energy and resources from wherever it can. There’s no way we can support the alumni effort without full transparency, including disclosure of budget and actual operational financial statements and sources and uses of funds posted at regular intervals to the university website.

Assuming B-CU survives, here’s a partial list of what must happen next: • B-CU must begin a serious

and authentic outreach to Volusia County residents, especially in Black Daytona. Since the end of the Richard V. Moore administration, B-CU has slowly but surely walked away from the average people in Daytona Beach, particularly from the Black community in which it is located.

Most people no longer believe the college is relevant to or connected with their everyday lives in Daytona Beach.

• Alumni must refocus on fundraising, raising the percentage of alumni giving, and recruitment. Many B-CU alums seem to think that traveling with the football team or cheering them and “The Pride” on at the Florida Classic is the best way to support the institution. According to U.S. News and World Report, only FIVE PERCENT of BCU alums gave ANYTHING to the institution in 2017. That’s disgraceful.

In case you don’t know, it’s the percentage of alumni giving that attracts outside donors, NOT the size of their donations. Corporate, institutional and wealthy donors favor 20 alums giving $5 each per year rather than one alum giving $100. Why? They rightly believe that if alums, who are the school’s “finished products,” are not its greatest and most numerous financial supporters, why should they bother?

There’s more, but I’ve run out of room. I believe B-CU can and should survive, and that its greatest days are still ahead. Watch this space…

APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

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FLORIDA

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Spanish-language ballots sought for 32 counties NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

A coalition of groups has asked a federal judge to require 32 Florida counties to offer Spanish-language ballots and other election materials, the latest move in a legal battle that started last year.

The request, filed on April 5 in federal court in Gainesville, seeks a preliminary injunction requiring Spanish-language ballots and materials for elections starting Aug. 1 in the targeted counties.

In September, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker required those counties to provide Spanish-language sample ballots but did not require Spanish-language ballots and other assistance, saying there wasn’t enough time before the November elections.

About the motion The motion for a preliminary injunction filed on April 5 seeks to require Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee to direct elections supervisors to take the additional steps.

“In summary, plaintiffs seek an order preliminarily enjoining defendant Secretary Lee to issue directives and take all other measures necessary to ensure that all election materials in the counties – including but not limited to paper ballots, voting machine ballots, sample ballots, absentee ballots and envelopes, voting guides, voting instructions, polling place signage, election-related websites, and registration materials – are provided in Spanish as well as English and to ensure that bilingual workers provide

CARL JUSTE/MIAMI HERALD/TNS

Voters cast their ballots at a Miami neighborhood on Nov. 6, 2018. Spanish-language ballots and materials are being sought in other counties in the state. oral assistance with voter registration, absentee voting, and voting at early voting sites and polling places for all upcoming elections on and after August 1, 2019 until this case is finally resolved,” the motion said.

Counties targeted The case has focused on Puerto Rican voters and part of the federal Voting Rights Act aimed at people who were educated in schools where the predomi-

nant language was not English. It seeks to ensure they are not denied the right to vote in Florida.

The counties targeted in the suit are Alachua, Bay, Brevard, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Escambia, Flagler,

Hernando, Highlands, Indian River, Jackson, Lake, Leon, Levy, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Monroe, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Pasco, Putnam, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Sumter, Taylor and Wakulla counties.

While he acknowledged that there is no evidence Zhang was involved in espionage, or was working as a spy for the Chinese government, he said the investigation is ongoing.

to a federal agent and entering a restricted building. She faces a maximum five-year prison term.

Instead of explaining it to agents, she lied, Garcia said. Further, he said, she lied to Matthewman during her first appearance last week when she said the only money she had in the United States was roughly $5,000 in a Wells Fargo bank account.

When agents searched her room at the Colony Hotel, they discovered she had $7,620 in U.S. currency and Chinese money worth about $663 in the United States. Agents also found another cellphone, nine USB drives, five SIM cards and a radio frequency device that can be used to spot hidden cameras.

March 30 arrest President Trump and his family were visiting Mar-a-Lago the weekend Zhang was arrested.

“She lies to everyone she encounters,” Garcia told Matthewman. He said the government would object to allowing her to post bail to leave the Palm Beach County jail, where she has been incarcerated since her arrest on March 30.

Gala canceled

CHARLES TRAINOR JR./MIAMI HERALD/TNS

President Trump and his family were visiting Mar-a-Lago (above) the weekend Yujing Zhang of China was arrested.

Chinese woman paid $20K for Mar-a-Lago event

BY JANE MUSGRAVE PALM BEACH POST/TNS

WEST PALM BEACH – A 32-year-old Chinese woman who was arrested last month at Mara-Lago paid $20,000 to a Chinese businessman believing it would allow her to attend an event featuring President Donald Trump’s sister, her attorney told a U.S. magistrate on Monday.

While the receipt Yujing Zhang received for the payment could

ultimately help her win her freedom, she now faces additional legal woes. The U.S. government revoked her visa.

Even if Zhang were given the chance to post a bond, she would immediately be turned over to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, federal prosecutors told U.S. Magistrate William Matthewman.

The magistrate delayed a decision on whether Zhang will be granted bail until next Monday.

Corrine Brown cites Kavanaugh in her appeals case NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

An attorney for former Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown is citing an opinion by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in trying to get her conviction overturned on felony charges in a charity scam.

Brown, whose case is pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, contends that a juror was improperly dis-

More charges possible Matthewman said he would consider evidence Assistant U.S. Public Defender Robert Adler said he uncovered about money Zhang paid to a company owned

by Chinese businessman Charles Li. But, he said, he didn’t know how much weight he would give to it.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rolando Garcia portrayed Zhang as a pathological liar who would be indicted, possibly on additional charges, this week.

missed from her trial after he made statements such as the “Holy Ghost” told him Brown was not guilty.

In a March 29 filing at the appeals court, Brown’s attorney cited a recent opinion by Kavanaugh in a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution because a Buddhist inmate was not allowed to have a spiritual adviser present in the execution room.

Justice’s opinion Kavanaugh, appointed to the Supreme Court last year by President Donald Trump, wrote a concurring opinion that said, in part, “governmental discrimination against religion – in particular, discrimination against religious persons, religious organizations, and religious speech

Adler, meanwhile, painted Zhang as an innocent woman who believed the $20,000 would allow her to attend “Safari Night,” sponsored by the Palm Beach Gardens-based children’s charity Young Adventurers.

Trump’s sister, Elizabeth Trump-Grau, was to be the honored guest.

Organizers canceled the gala after realizing it had been hijacked by Cindy Yang, the former owner of a Jupiter day spa where New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is accused of soliciting prostitution, said Terry Bomar, head of the charity.

Agents suspicious Yang, who lives in Wellington, promoted the event on her website to Chinese business people. Li also “piggybacked” on the Young Adventurers event as part of his business, Adler said.

“For a fee, people were told they could come to the U.S. to attend events at Mar-a-Lago,” he said.

But, Garcia countered, Zhang didn’t explain that to Secret Service agents who became suspicious after she first said she wanted to use the pool at Mar-aLago and then said she was there to attend what turned out to be a nonexistent event.

Faces five years They charged her with lying

– violates the Constitution. The government may not discriminate against religion generally or against particular religious denominations.”

In the March 29 filing, Brown’s attorney, William Mallory Kent, cited Kavanaugh’s opinion to try to bolster arguments that the dismissed juror’s First Amendment rights were violated because of his religious views.

“The defendant (Brown) was entitled to a jury empaneled without such constitutionally invidious discrimination,” the filing said.

Five-year sentence But prosecutors responded with a filing that said the U.S. Supreme Court case “does not help Brown because neither the

Malware seized Those are in addition to the four cellphones, a laptop computer, and a thumb drive containing malware that agents seized when they arrested her.

An examination of the malware on the thumb drive showed it was unusual and potentially damaging, Secret Service agent Samuel Ivanovich testified.

When another agent attempted to decode it, the malware began installing a file on the agent’s computer. The agent immediately shutdown his computer to avoid further “corruption” of it, Ivanovich said.

Adler pointed out that Zhang tried to show agents an invitation she received to the event. The invitation was on her cellphone and was written in Chinese. Although an interpreter was available, Ivanovich testified that the invitation wasn’t translated.

Shanghai to U.S. Zhang, who said she worked as a consultant to a Shanghai investment business and is trying to start her own investment firm, arrived in the United States on March 28.

She flew into the airport in Newark, N.J., airport on a direct flight from Shanghai. It was her fifth visit to the United States following one trip here in July 2016, twice in 2017 and once in September 2018.

stay order nor the concurrence directly resolves, or even addresses, the issue before this (appeals) court.”

Brown appealed to the Atlanta-based court after she was convicted in 2017 on 18 felony counts and sentenced to five years in Corrine prison.

Brown A former 12-term congresswoman from Jacksonville, Brown was convicted on fraud and tax charges related to her role in using contributions to the One Door for Education charity for personal expenses and events.

The appeals court heard arguments Feb. 1 but has not ruled. The March 29 filing is what is known as “supplemental authority.”

EDITORIAL

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APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

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Donald Trump’s big lie about health care Donald Trump’s madcap presidency is now seeking to strip 20 million Americans of their health care coverage. He has instructed the Justice Department to join the lawsuit seeking to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. He then proclaimed that Republicans would offer a far better alternative, tweeting they’ll become the “Party of Great Health Care.”

Only there is no plan. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, wants nothing to do with trying to develop one. Confusion reigns.

Obama fixation This grotesque misrule might be funny were it not putting millions of people at risk. Trump has taken his animus against all things Obama to new heights in his obsessive drive to repeal or disembowel the Affordable Care Act. After the Republican Senate rejected repeal – feeding Trump’s disdain for Sen. John McCain, who cast the determining vote – Trump’s administration has sought to undermine the act administratively. Seven million fewer people now have health care coverage since Trump was elected.

Now he hopes to have the courts repeal the Act. That would end the expansion of Medicaid, which covers more than 10 million low-wage workers and their families. It would repeal the requirement that insurance companies cover those with pre-ex-

REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR. TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

isting conditions – putting anyone who is ill now covered under the act at risk. It would repeal the provision allowing the young to be covered under their parents plan to age 26.

Once more, insurance companies would be free to enforce lifetime limits on coverage, putting the most vulnerable at risk. Trump adds insult to this injury by proclaiming the big lie: that Republicans have or will have a plan that will cover more and be less expensive.

There is no plan Trump aides say it will be developed in the Senate. McConnell, who rules Senate Republicans with a tight fist, says, “I look forward to seeing what the president is proposing and what he can work out with the speaker.”

When asked if the two committees tasked with overseeing health care would come up with a plan, Sen. Charles Grassley responded tersely with a “no.” Scrambling to put a cover on his barefaced lie, Trump announced that Sen. Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, would join with a couple of other senators to come up with a “spectacular” plan. This is like naming Al Capone to design the tax code.

Remembering MLK and April 4 On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous sermon, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence.” In doing so, King made a very public break with President Lyndon Johnson.

Johnson was seen as an ally, and it was feared that the civil rights movement would fail without his support. King’s new stance was a declaration that he would depend on the determination of the people and cease being a pawn to the White House, Congress or any other authority.

MLK criticized King’s decision was condemned by the political establishment. He was vilified by the New York Times, the Washington Post and the rest of the corporate media. His own father and others in leadership positions in civil rights organizations criticized him, too.

But he rejected the idea that he had to compromise his principals. On the contrary, King understood that drawing a line in the sand against imperialism was necessary to bring about the radical changes he wanted to see in

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

the United States.

While there were always threats to his life, King’s political realignment was most probably the cause of his assassination one year later on April 4, 1968. It is fitting that this date is remembered and that on this occasion people of conscience assess the meaning of the last year of his life.

Non-partisan killings The United States finally left Vietnam in 1975. That defeat made clear that invasions may fail in the face of resistance and that over time, they may lose political and public support. As a result, the U.S. didn’t send a large-scale military force anywhere else until the 1990 Gulf War against Iraq. But since then, this country has been on a killing spree that doesn’t stop – regard-

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 331 Johnson Publications Company – I’ve hated to see this Black iconic media empire dismantled piece by piece over the years.

The impact of the JPC’s brilliant husband and wife team of John H. Johnson and Eunice Johnson had on Black America is incalculable. Their fingers were on the pulse of our people in a way that nobody had before or since.

From the late 1950s through

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

the 1990s, there wasn’t a coffee table in a Black home in America that didn’t have a copy of JET or Ebony magazines. Mr. John-

In the 1990s, Scott was the CEO of Columbia/HCA. He resigned in 1997, the same year the FBI announced an investigation of the company for massive Medicare fraud.

In the end, Columbia/HCA pled guilty to systematic fraud – featuring false billing of Medicare on a breathtaking scale. The company pled guilty to 14 corporate felonies and paid out some $1.7 billion in criminal fines and penalties in what the Justice Department called the “largest health care fraud case in U.S. history.”

No doubt, if Scott were to come with a plan, it would be “spectacular” for the money guys, and savage for those in need of care.

Dangerous lies On health care, Trump’s lies are dangerous to life.

The U.S. is the only advanced industrial country that does not provide universal health care as a right. We are paying almost twice per capita as other countries – with worse health care results.

U.S. life expectancy has declined for three years – in part because of the opioid crisis, in part because of the absence of adequate health care. Meanwhile, the insurance companies and the drug companies and the private hospital complexes rake in fortunes.

What should be done is clear.

The U.S. government should negotiate with drug companies to force lower prices for prescription drugs. Medicare should be strengthened and then extended

less of which party is in the White House.

The international neo-liberal regime now rules over this country and the world. Inequality continues at a rapid pace, as does the ecocide caused by the same forces. The country continues its rightward shift and there are fewer and fewer policy differences between Democrats and Republicans. Black political leadership are a shell of their former selves and they are complicit in maintaining the worsening conditions that Black people are subjected to.

On April 4, 2019, we committed to acting as King did 51 years ago. We are still being sold the siren song of that era which says that we must be satisfied with whatever domestic policy changes we can get. We are advised to let Bernie Sanders or any other old-school Democrat slide if they promise to give the people some of what they need. Mealymouthed protestations about a coup attempt against Venezuela are to be accepted, just as Johnson was to be given a pass about Vietnam.

Justice everywhere If we are going to remember King, we must be like him and put international issues at the forefront. There is no line of demarcation. It is impossible to

son pioneered the “digital” style of content publishing (sharp, punchy headlines, short stories, lots of pictures) 50 years before the Internet – that was to ironically kill Ebony and JET – was born. Our own “Florida’s Finest” is a homage to JET’s “Beauty of the Week.”

Mrs. Johnson’s Ebony Fashion Fair raised millions of dollars for Black community-based organizations all over America, while promoting JPC productions (including Fashion Fair Cosmetics). A ticket got you a six-month subscription to Ebony or Jet, with half the proceeds going to the local sponsoring organization. Folks bought special outfits for that one time a year when

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY RESIGNS

STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE, MN

to cover more people in stages.

Cover those up to 30 and those 55 and over in the first stage. And then over years, perfect and extend the program to cover all. Pay for it by requiring the rich and the corporations pay their fair share of taxes. We’d end up paying less and getting better coverage.

That rational solution runs into the strongest of entrenched interests –the drug companies and the insurance companies and their legions of lobbyists. They are prepared to spend billions to protect their profits. They buy ads to scare the hell out of people, pay for politicians, and blanket Congress with lobbyists. Now they have Trump fronting for them. It will take an aroused public to overcome that resistance.

again, pretty soon people will begin to believe. His political debut was the big lie about Obama’s birth certificate. He’s done the same with his racist rants on immigrants and the border wall.

Now he plans the same big lie technique on health care: slandering what is, claiming to have a better plan when there is no plan, posturing as a champion of the people when he’s defending big money interests.

The real deal is clear: the rich get a tax cut; the poor get a health care cut. The rich are living longer in splendor. The poor are dying earlier in distress.

The only thing “spectacular” about the Trump health care lie is his audacity to believe that he can sell it.

Trump’s strategy

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is president and CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

Trump believes that if you tell a big lie over and over and over

have justice at home and injustice abroad.

The existence of some 1,000 foreign military facilities inevitably leads to a 1033 program that gives surplus military equipment to local police departments. When the military accounts for 60 percent of discretionary spending, the people’s needs cannot be met. A U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, becomes inevitable as the fight for domination leaves no region of the world untouched.

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) second anniversary celebration on April 4, 2019 provided a road map of how to move forward. Black Agenda Report joined this event in Washington along with other commentators and activists affirming the need to act as King did.

Ironically, NATO held a meeting that same day in celebration of its 70th anniversary. The NATO celebration taking place at the same time is an insult, yet it is also fortuitous. Their presence proves the need to protest against the hegemon and will be is a reminder of how April 4 should be commemorated.

International coalitions Making common cause with people around the world is a revolutionary act and that is precisely what is needed at this juncture.

commentator Shayla Simpson, the models, and a live band stopped in your town.

I was a Fashion Fair groupie.

I’d get press credentials to cover Fashion Fair at every Florida stop just to meet the models. I drove to Florence, S.C. to visit one, and ended up dating her sister (who was finer) instead…

I think about JET’s pictures.

I saw Emmett Till’s unrecognizably mangled face, published at the request of his grieving mother. She wanted the world to see what her 14-yearold son looked like after two White men nearly beat him to death, gouged out one eye, shot him in the head, then tied him to a 75-pound fan blade and

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Sales Manager

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Let NATO inspire a mass movement that seeks to end its power and to free millions of people from being subjected to the whims of the United States and its vassals.

The Black Alliance for Peace demands that the Congressional Black Caucus and the Progressive Caucus end AFRICOM and close foreign military bases. It opposes interventions, sanctions and all means of warfare. BAP also announced its domestic campaign and in so doing, makes good on King’s real dream of creating a “radical revolution of values.”

The liberation movement of King’s era should not be seen as a miraculous occurrence that cannot be repeated again. It succeeded through political demands which always worked in tandem with mass action. The need to free ourselves from an imploding system makes the rebirth of such a movement an imperative.

The way to remember departed leaders and the millions who followed them is to act as they did. April 4 gives us this opportunity.

Margaret Kimberley is a cofounder of BlackAgendaReport.com, and writes a weekly column there. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com. threw his body in the river after he allegedly whistled at a White woman in Mississippi.

I saw the picture of soul singer Otis Redding’s dead body, with Otis still strapped in his seat after he was killed in a 1967 plane crash.

Then there was Jet’s Beauty of the Week. At Morehouse College, guys had entire rooms plastered ceiling to floor with Beautys. No Black barbershop ever threw away a copy of JET because Black beauty never gets dated.

Just the memories remain.

SAD!

I’m at ccherry2@gmail.com.

Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC, P.O. Box 48857 Tampa, FL 33646, publishes the Florida Courier on Fridays. Phone: 877-352-4455, toll-free. For all sales inquiries, call 877-352-4455; e-mail sales@flcourier.com.

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APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

STOJ

A Defense of Smiley and West vs. Obama Tavis Smiley and Cornel West faced tremendous criticism from large sectors of the AfricanAmerican population for daring to stick to their own political principles and attempting to hold Barack Obama, the U.S. empire’s first Black head of state to account to said principles, in the grand tradition of Black activists, intellectuals and media.

By attempting to remain true to their own political positions, and to positions most of their critics themselves held prior to the election of Obama, the two men – one a media personality, the other an academic and activist – fell from grace in elite Black circles and in the popular opinion of the Black masses.

Protected Obama This fall was the result of the Black electorate who felt some need to protect Obama – and who largely were unaware of the role and purpose of the U.S. president – combined with the Black “mis-leadership class” who took on the duty of providing cover for the president, thereby exposing their own lack of political principles.

Compounding the dilemma for these two men was the corporate media, which fawned over Obama as the man who could save the nation – whatever that is supposed to mean.

Every president is billed as the “leader of the free world” and must be presented as greater than those of us of the unwashed masses. Presidents are particularly glorious and unquestioned when they are attacking other countries.

Further still, Black radio – traditionally a forum to air Black grievances about public policy – exposed its subservience to the White House as well, making Smiley and West lone voices among those Black critics who have access to mainstream press.

Numerous other Black thinkers held on to their political principles in the age of Obama, but they were not, and are not, invited into corporate media spaces, even in Black corporate media spaces. Therefore, Smiley and West were largely alone among mainstream commentators in maintaining the Black radical tradition of speaking for the Black voiceless, and staying committed to principled criticism of public policy for the good of the Black masses.

Long debate history

BRYAN K. BULLOCK, ESQ. GUEST COMMENTARY

ness of or advocating on behalf of Black people and Black issues.

They’ve done so irrespective of political pressure and they have been consistent.

All forgotten Yet, in the blink of a campaign, all of their prior work was forgotten. They were marginalized as if they were two Black Judases who had no track record of advocacy in the Black community.

A towering media figure and a decades-long public intellectual were cast away for essentially doing what they had always done.

The message was clear for many of the rest of us who dared criticize the Head Negro in Charge.

If they can kick West and Smiley to the curb, no one else of lesser public stature is safe.

All of Smiley’s “State of Black America” specials were forgotten. His BET news programs and interviews. The PBS and NPR shows highlighting Black issues, irrelevant. West’s books, public intellectual pontificating and community activism, all suddenly garbage. The cult of Obama would brook no dissenters.

Even more strange and nonsensical was the contrast between Smiley/West and Obama.

Two men with track records of advocacy and activism were kicked to the curb in favor of a man with practically no such history of Black advocacy, or activism, or even argument, in his entire political or personal life.

‘No Black America’ Two unabashed supporters of the Black community were pushed aside in the minds of millions of Black people in said communities, for a man who said there was no “Black America, no White America, only the United States of America.” Really?

Black media has always played a significant role in the political life of Black America. Shows like the Tom Joyner Morning Show were outlets for at least marginal political discussion on issues that affected the non-existent (in Obama’s words) “Black America.”

Smiley was the first to feel the wrath of Black media’s support for Obama. He was quickly scolded, repudiated and replaced Joyner for his criticisms of then-candidate Obama.

On one Black radio station in Chicago, the Black female host suggested that Smiley was jealous of Obama because he had assumed the mantle of the president of Black America (even though Obama said it didn’t exist), and that he secretly wanted to be president of America. Total hogwash, since Smiley has always said his interest was media, not direct political office. Callers chimed claiming Smiley was jealous of Obama.

There is a long tradition of debate, disagreement and argument in Black political history.

People argued, disagreed and debated at the Black Political Convention in 1972 in Gary, Indiana. Black leaders like DuBois and Garvey disagreed vociferously, often getting personal in their assaults on each other. So it was odd to see the Black political chattering class and the Black masses expect everyone to fall in line behind a politician and to view disagreement and criticism, even personal criticism, as treasonous.

What was immediately odd about the criticism of West and Smiley was twofold. One, these Obama unknown are two men who have devotThis episode was particulared their entire public lives to ei- ly curious in a city like Chicago, ther talking about, raising aware- where the average Black resident

EDITORIAL

TOJ

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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: REPUBLICANS AND HEALTH CARE

didn’t know Obama before his campaign against Bobby Rush.

Even then, he was not a household name despite the fact that he was a state senator. In fact, his only really connection to Black Chicago was his attendance in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church.

One would have expected a different, more nuanced assessment of a presidential candidate coming from Black Chicago, but the well-financed public relations juggernaut of the Obama machine crushed common sense throughout America.

Smiley’s PBS show continued and for much of the Obama presidency, his radio show went on as well. The cruelest darts, arrows and condemnation really have been leveled at West, howAs reported in The Nation: ever. In hindsight, it should have “The tour, despite its lofty goals, been obvious. has been dogged by a raging debate, largely in the Black community, over scathing criticisms ‘Shady Sharpton’ Smiley and West have levied onboard against President Barack Obama When Rev. Al Sharpton bein the past. In addition to dericame Obama’s “point man” on sion by bloggers and media figrace, it should have been obvious ures, the tour encountered backto everyone that anyone who had lash amongst some of the very any real commitment to civil and groups of people it purported to human rights was not welcome. champion.

And it should have been equal“Crowds in Detroit disruptly obvious that Obama himself ed the tour’s town hall meeting lacked commitment to those iswith a pro-Obama protest, while sues when he chose the alwaysmany other citizens denounced shady Sharpton as his foot solthe tour via Twitter. And even dier. though West has been a vocal Additionally, given Obama’s critic of Donald Trump, it is still ostracism of Rev. Jessie Jackcommon to see Blacks on social son when Jackson criticized media inquire why he hasn’t said him for being absent on the Jeanything about Trump.” na 6 controversy, it should have been clear that Obama would brook no dissent from the Ne- The real issue Black people’s criticism of gros. So when West even mildly critiqued Obama’s policies, it West and Smiley for doing what was met with a swift rebuke by social critics and activists should the Obama team, Obama himself do – hold politicians accountable and “Obama America” (not to be – is less about them and more about Black people ourselves. mistaken for “Black America”).

The average person, Black or What is forgotten (or is perhaps unknown) by the large swaths of White, has little knowledge of Blacks who still feel somehow foreign policy, the status of the betrayed by West, is that West did U.S. as an empire and how that over 65 campaign events for can- effects domestic policy, economdidate Obama when he still be- ics or other critical issues effecting American life. lieved that in the candidate.

Our people were too impressed Then West determined that Obama was “a Black mascot of with a man singing Al Green to Wall Street oligarchs and a Black them at the Apollo Theater while puppet of corporate plutocrats. their overall condition deterioAnd now he has become head rated under his watch. As I once of the American killing machine noted on Facebook, Black peoand is proud of it.” He was quick- ple did not want an end to a racly sidelined by the Obama “folks” ist, oppressive system. They onand ostracized by the Black deni- ly wanted a Black person to lead zens of the United States (most of the racist, oppressive system.

But having said that, it is also a whom still find themselves mired tale of the power of public relain “Black America”).

Despite West’s track record of tions. To paraphrase Malcolm X, activism and scholarship and “the media will have you thinkhis public intellectual status, he ing the bad guy is the hero.” It was disinvited to the Black fam- matters not whether one thinks ily picnic immediately. As Glen Obama is the bad guy. The point Ford and others have rightly not- is that all presidents can shape ed, Blacks placed the interest of their own narratives and create President Obama above their their villains through the power own interests. And when people of the media and the bully pulpit. like West tried to speak to those interests, their voices were not A case in point heard, as they were drowned out Sharpton, despite his history, by the propaganda machine that was refashioned into true Black is at the disposal of every occu- civil rights leader due to his allepant of the White House. giance to Obama. West and Smiley, despite their histories as meCriticized on the road dia and intellectual figures, were Even when Smiley and West recast in the role shady politiwent on their poverty tour to cal operatives. Despite Obama’s highlight the issue of extreme brief stint as a “community orpoverty (particularly in Black ganizer,” he was refashioned as America), it wasn’t enough to a community activist on par with bring him back into Obama Chicago’s murdered Black Pancountry (where there is no Black ther activist Fred Hampton.

America).

History will prove that there is

RJ MATSON, CQ ROLL CALL

a Black America; there will continue to be a Black America; and people like West and Smiley will be citizens of it, critics of it and advocates for it.

Obama, by contrast, will prove to be a citizen of Imperial/Corporate America. This is the real America where the sovereignty of nations is subject to the whims of Manifest Destiny and where everything is for sale, including our data, our “likes” and the hopes and aspirations of Black America.

Obama’s hero? Reagan The president who championed the discredited idea that “a rising tide lifts all boats” and who credited Ronald Reagan as a political hero – a loud, ominous warning sign for sure – still enjoys widespread love and admiration from Black people. Periodicals like The Jacobin that published the essay “How Obama Destroyed Black Wealth” received little to no attention.

In the era of Trump, it is all too common to see Black people on social media pining for a return of a “real president.” In one sense, they are right.

Obama was a “real” president.

He maintained and expanded the empire, even destroying an African nation in the form of Libya; consolidated the power of the powerful, particularly the financial industry; managed the social status quo; quickened the privatization of public schools; and showed that blind ambition has no permanent interests and no permanent enemies.

Yet Cornel West, to this day, is not given credit for staying the course, sounding the alarm and maintaining a principled position. Instead, to date, he is still seen by many as a traitor to Black America because he dared criticize the Black president – the same Black president who said there was no Black America to begin with.

History may show that West was right – again – when he wrote, “The reign of Obama did not produce the nightmare of Donald Trump – but it did contribute to it. And those Obama cheerleaders who refused to make him accountable bear some responsibility.”

Yes, there IS a Black America.

Anyone who ever said there isn’t one needs critics.

Attorney Bryan K. Bullock practices law in Merrillville, Indiana. Click on this commentary at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Remembering MLK and Adam Clayton Powell A few accomplishments

legislation in six years of his chairmanship.

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tenn. On April 4, 1972, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of New York died of cancer in a Miami hospital.

Fifty-one years later, we have a generation that knew not Dr. King nor Congressman Powell. And what is even more tragic is that this generation is so social mediaaddicted that they don’t want to read or hear about anything that is not about them.

More than one speech We must remember Dr. King beyond “I Have a Dream.” We must remember that he died because of his commitment to our future and life as we now know it. He was in Memphis because of the garbage workers and how two had died because of discrimination and the denial of shelter dur-

DR. JOHN E. WARREN GUEST COMMENTARY

ing an electrical storm.

We must remember that he gave away the money from the Nobel Peace Prize and moved into public housing with his family in Chicago at one time, to demonstrate his commitment to equal housing.

We must also remember Powell, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City. He fought for civil rights before there was a Congressional Black Caucus. Under his leadership, the House Committee on Education and Labor passed and the Congress enacted 60 major pieces of

These laws are in place today: higher education laws, school lunch program, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Fair Labor Standards Act amendments, student loans, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (now the Every Student Success Act), the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, arts and humanities (the National Endowment of the Arts), the Economic Opportunity Act which many remember as Model Cities, the Older Americans or Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and most of all Title 6 of the Civil Rights dealing with public accommodations.

This amendment to the Civil Rights Act made it a matter of law that there could be no discrimination in the use of anything public where federal dollars are involved. This meant that schools could not segregate students in a building or recreation center.

The South could no longer deny Blacks the use of a public pool because Whites used it.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell It was Adam Clayton Powell that made “The Great Society” of President Lyndon B. Johnson a reality. It was Powell who acknowledged the anniversary of the independence of each African nation in the Congressional Record on the date of their establishment as a nation.

the occasion of their deaths. This should also be another opportunity to remember how they lived and the sacrifices they made for the quality of life we enjoy today.

Dr. John E. Warren is publisher of The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint (www.sdvoice.inRemember them both fo). Click on this commentary Dr. King and Rev. Powell must at www.flcourier.com to write not only be remembered on this your own response.

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APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

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STOJ

HEALTH | FOOD | TRAVEL | SCIENCE | BOOKS | MOVIES | TV | AUTOS COURIER Where to see

IFE/FAITH

Temptations this month in Florida See page B2

APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

Ideas for easy Easter menu See page B4

SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY WORLD

The Disney Dreamers Academy class of 2019 includes 12 Florida high school students selected among 100 nationwide. The program was held March 21-24 at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista.

MOVERS, SHAKERS, DREAMERS

Florida Dreamer Bransyl Boston from Middleburg (far right) enjoys a day with her peers at Toy Story Land (Hollywood Studios).

These Florida high school students are representing their generation at its best.

table nonprofit organization – A Birthday Party Wish.

“Imagine if you were 8 years old, homeless, and never had a birthday party,” posed Wright.

“I started my nonprofit with my brother Johnny to change that.”

According to the organization’s website, “a Birthday Party wish allows a child to pick a party location, cake theme and flavor, choose their birthday gifts, and invite friends and family.”

“My passion in life is to bring happiness to others,” said Wright.

BY PENNY DICKERSON SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

M

eet Generation Z, the newest installment of innovative young adults to populate the earth. They were born in 1995 and onward, and unlike their Gen X and Y predecessors, who were reputed to be narcissistic and less concerned about civic engagement, Gen Z’ers are characterized as technology savants who insatiate online research.

They are dynamic entrepreneurs labeled culture creators and they are high achievers who dream. The latter is personified by 12 Florida students who attended the Disney Dreamers Academy with Steve Harvey and Essence held March 21-24 in Lake Buena Vista.

The program focuses on career immersion and inspired 100 students nationwide to discover new opportunities.

Here are some Floridian stories that demonstrate how Generation Z is changing the world.

Lupus Outloud Julia Shepherd has never earned a grade of B. The 16-yearold is a straight A, Apopka High School student who takes advanced placement (AP) courses at Valencia Community College.

Boasting a 5.4 grade point average, she is on target to graduate as valedictorian of her class.

Admittedly ambitious, Shepherd aspires to earn the Gold Award in Girl Scouts, an organization she’s been actively involved since age 10 and sees Eagle Scout within reach now that girls too can be scouts. But most impressive is her selfless contributions to the Lupus Foundation of America.

“My aunt Laura passed away from lupus when I was 5,” shared Shepherd. “I was too young to understand everything but committed myself to being involved when I got older.”

Shepherd founded Lupus Outloud, a nonprofit organization that has raised $1,000 annually for the past six years to benefit “Walk to End Lupus Now” held in Tampa. She also is writing a children’s book about lupus.

“I have a passion to help peo-

School, work, travel

The cast from ABC’s “grown’ish” inspire Disney Dreamers during a session titled “Be 100 Conversations With.” ple and want a career where I can do that,’’ Shepherd said.

Vast leadership experience Anthony Taylor is a Miamibased servant leader who volunteers for area homeless events and foster care.

The latter can be deemed lightweight for a young man whose leadership spectrum further includes being senior class president, teen president of the Miami chapter of Jack and Jill of America, National Honor Society, Key Club, debate team and a pre-college STEAM program.

Impressed yet?

“Leadership is not always about giving direction,” Taylor said. “You have to be able to understand, listen, and give objective advice so that everyone accomplishes goals.”

Taylor is a 17-year-old, dualenrolled student at Young Men’s Preparatory Academy and Miami-Dade Community College (Wolfson campus).

Angela Taylor attributes the following to her only child’s success: “Being consistent and parentally involved has made a difference,” she said. “I followed through when required and exposed him to the world including a trip to Spain. He also at-

Florida Dreamer Julia Shepherd of Apopka (left) engages in an Imagineering/engineering career immersion session. tended private school grades 6 through 9 at Miami Country Day.’’ A student athlete who plays on the varsity basketball team, the teen said he’s glad his mother both believes in and encourages him.

“I know that I will attend an HBCU, major in engineering and fulfill my dreams,” said Taylor. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Actress, entrepreneur Gabrielle Wright is AfricanAmerican. She’s also Native American, White, Greek and claims a hint of German. With a 4.5 GPA, her dream to attend New York University and become an actress will likely come true.

A freshman at Circle Christian in Orlando, Wright enjoys pageantry, dance, acting, singing and karate. She’s an ordinary girl who just happens to be executive director of her own chari-

With ease and a smile, Jalen Sanders wakes up thankful every morning and ventures to Madison High School and North Florida Community College where the 17-year-old senior is dualenrolled. When classes end, Sanders’ day doesn’t. He heads to either Taco Bell where he works part time or a community center to mentor elementary students. Sanders is no stranger to hard work.

“My mom died when I was 4 years old and me and my twin sister were raised with love by our father and relatives,” explained Sanders, who said his father and grandfather are loggers who deliver pine trees to the local mill.

Sanders experienced Disney World for the first time this year at the Disney Dreamers Academy and previously enjoyed his first plane ride as a select student attendee to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in Washington, D.C. More travel is on Sanders’ radar along with attending Florida A&M University in the fall where he will major in education.

“I strive to do my best every day so that my future will be bright,” Sanders noted.

Captain now, doctor later One day she hopes to be called Dr. Grace Allen, but for now, the 17-year-old high school See DREAMERS, Page B2

EVENTS , BOOKS & FINEST

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APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

Gates examines period after Reconstruction in new book

BY DR. GLENN C. ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

At the end of the Civil War, Sidney George Fisher, a White gentleman from Philadelphia, declared, “It seems our fate never to get rid of the Negro question.” Although slavery had been abolished, “the problem – what shall we do with the Negro – seems as far from being settled as ever. In fact it is incapable of any solution that will satisfy both North and South.”

Between 1865 and 1877, the federal government sought to institutionalize for Blacks “a new birth of freedom,” through military occupation of the South, civil rights legislation, and amendments to the United States Constitution.

Resisted in the North as well as the South, the “experiment” was ultimately abandoned. In the “Redeemed” states of the former Confederacy, sharecropping replaced slavery, Blacks were prevented from voting, and subjected to pervasive, demeaning, violent forms of Jim Crow segregation.

THE TEMPTATIONS

THE TEMPTATIONS THE FOUR TOPS

Tickets are on sale for April shows in Florida featuring the legendary groups.

BUSTA RHYMES THE FOUR TOPS

The Kaya Fest is April 20 at the Bayfront Park Amphitheater in Miami featuring the Marley Brothers, Busta Rhymes and Sean Paul.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR

tions and the Four Tops on April 27 at Ruth Eckerd Hall or April 28 at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville.

Miami Gardens: The Ninth Annual Easter Family Fun Day and Sky Egg Drop is April 20 at Rolling Oaks Park.

Orlando: “The Groveland Four: Where Do We Go from Here?’’ will be discussed at 6 p.m.

April 16 at St. Mark A.M.E. Church, 1968 Bruton Blvd.

Speakers will include retired Justice James Perry, author Gilbert King and Dr. Randolph Bracy Jr.

Boca Raton: Saxophonist Eric Darius performs April 20 at The Funky Biscuit.

Orlando: The Temptations will perform April 30 at the Dr. Phillips Center.

Clearwater: Patti LaBelle is scheduled April 25 at Ruth Eckerd Hall for an 8 p.m. show.

Orlando: Maze featuring Frankie Beverly will be at Hard Rock Live Orlando on April 20.

Clearwater: Catch the Tempta-

Orlando: On Wednesdays in April, the Florida Department of Health or Orange County will conduct free STD testing from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. The clinic is at 832 W. Central Blvd. More info: 407-858-1445 St. Petersburg: Santana performs April 18, April 19 in Hollywood and April 20 in St. Augustine.

Jacksonville: Catch India.

Arie on April 30 at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville.

DREAMERS from B1 senior remains busy as director of photography for Orlando’s Lake Highland Preparatory School where she is also captain of the nationally ranked varsity volleyball team.

Allen has been accepted to Harvard University and will also play on the Ivy League’s division I team.

“I hope to pursue a career in neurology and help facilitate the introduction of technology into modern medicine,” said Allen, who plans to work at both Barnes and Noble Bookstore and Starbucks this summer to earn extra cash.

“I believe success comes to those who chase it, and I am not one to shy away from challenges,” Allen shared.

International dreams One Disney Dreamer was gifted a unique name by her native West Africa, Sierra Leone parents. Her mother is Mina Sylvia and Brian is her father. The merging of the names belongs to Bransyl Boston, a 17-year-old senior attending Middleburg High School. She’s a math fanatic who has been accepted to the University of South Florida.

“I chose USF because they have a great med school and offered me an excellent financial aide package,” said Boston, who added that she loves math because it is easy to comprehend and has one final answer.”

Boston is immersed in extracurricular activities, including Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), Spanish club, and her senior class committee. Despite an aptitude for math, her dream is to become a physical therapist.

“I want to help people who’ve had surgery on the road to recovery,” said Boston.

She added, “I’d like to become an international travel physical therapist, so I can help people around the world.”

Jacksonville: Catch Kem on May 4 at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.

Fort Lauderdale: Macy Gray performs May 5 at the Parker Playhouse.

Tampa: Bishop T.D. Jakes’ International Pastors and Leadership Conference is April 25-27 at the Tampa Convention Center. Details: Pastorsandleaders.org

Reconstruction and redemption In “Stony the Road,’’ Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a university professor at Harvard, prolific author and documentary filmmaker, tells the story of Reconstruction and redemption.

A synthesis of scholarly work on race between 1865 and the 1920s, with a focus on literature and visual culture, his book provides a powerful and timely reminder that African Americans have never stopped resisting White supremacy, despite the “unbearably hostile climate it has created.”

Gates documents the myriad ways in which racist ideology infiltrated every aspect of American life.

Well-credentialed scientists “proved” that Blacks were and would remain inferior to Whites, helping justify laws against miscegenation and intermarriage. Proponents of the Civil War as a noble “Lost Cause” insisted that plantation slaves were well-treated and content; during Reconstruction, they maintained, outside agitators unleashed the beasts previously dormant in them.

Intentional images Images of ignorant, subhuman Sambos, Gates reveals, were ubiq-

FLORIDA’S

finest

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BOOK REVIEW “Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow’’ by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Penguin Press. 320 pages. $30.

uitous in advertisements, consumer products, Uncle Remus stories, children’s games, greeting cards and sheet music. Postcards with photographs of the bodies of Blacks hanging from trees and Whites attending the lynchings were popular as well.

These images, and, of course, scenes from the box-office blockbuster “Birth of a Nation,’’ Gates writes, meant that when a White person encountered a real-live Black, the latter was “an already read text.”

As pseudo-scientists, historians, Supreme Court justices, and Ku Klux Klan vigilantes marched in lockstep to keep Blacks in their place, African Americans fought back to reclaim their rights and their image in what Gates calls “another kind of civil war, a war that was cultural as well as political, a war that featured the concept of “the New Negro.”

Among the disparate individuals and groups creating a counter-narrative to the claims that all Blacks were created unequal were W.E.B. Du Bois and his “Talented Tenth”; writers and poets of the Harlem Renaissance; jazz pioneers; the anti-lynching activists; members of the Niagara Movement and the NAACP.

Still work to do Eventually, politics took precedence, Gates points out, because many Blacks concluded that cultural constructions without political agency were likely to be “empty signifiers.”

Equally important, Gates seems to endorse the view, held, ironically by both advocates of racial equality and unreconstructed Southerners, that “there never was an Old Negro or a New Negro; there were only Negroes.”

As the poet Sterling Brown proudly proclaimed, African Americans are the legatees of a great people. Not only did they “survive the storm of anti-black racism,” they somehow managed to thrive, create vital and vibrant cultures, “despite the obstacles placed upon them on that stoniest of roads.”

A century later, Professor Gates adds, amidst “ugly language spewed and ugly images strewn, daily across our ever-present screens,” it seems clear that racial justice is incomplete, “frighteningly vulnerable to reversal,” and there is a lot of work to do.

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He wrote this review for the Florida Courier.

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier.com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

Thousands of Caribbean culture lovers converge on South Florida every year before and during the Columbus Day weekend to attend the annual Miami Broward Carnival, a series of concerts, pageants, parades, and competitions. On Carnival Day, “mas” (masquerade) bands of thousands of revelers dance and march behind 18-wheel tractor-trailer trucks with booming sound systems from morning until nightfall while competing for honors.

Here are some of the “Finest” we’ve seen over the years. Click on www.flcourier to see hundreds of pictures from previous Carnivals.

Go to www. miamibrowardcarnival. com for more information on Carnival events in South Florida.

CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

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HEALTH

Estrogen-based birth control Estrogen-based contraceptives can increase the risks for a life-threatening blood clot. Risks are present whether the estrogen is delivered into the blood stream with pills, a patch, an injection or a vaginal ring contraceptive.

The risk is highest when first starting these prescriptions as the hormonal changes can cause blood cells to bind together more readily. Taking estrogen contraceptives can increase risks if you have factors such as inherited blood-clotting disorders, a family history of blood clots, surgery, obesity or plans for prolonged travel.

Recent hospital stays Roughly 50 percent of life-threatening blood clots happen within three months of a hospitalization, surgery or traumatic injury, though only one in four adults knows that hospitalization is a risk factor for VTE. Hospital patients at the greatest risk are those with limited ability to move, people with previous history of blood clots, patients age 60 and older, people who have abnormal blood-clotting conditions and patients who have spent time in an intensive care or coronary care unit.

COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES

Consult with your physician to better understand your risk of blood clots.

5 factors that can contribute to blood clots Thrombosis is the third leading vascular diagnosis after heart attack and stroke.

sis.” In fact, thrombosis is the third leading vascular diagnosis after heart attack and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

There are two types of life-threatening blood clots, also called venous thromboembolism (VTE). Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a clot in a deep vein in the leg, arm or other large veins. A pulmonary embolism, or PE, occurs when a clot breaks free and travels to the lungs, blocking some or all of the blood supply.

Although VTE can be fatal, many, if not most, cases are preventable. Talk with a health care provider to understand your risk and use this information from the American Heart Association to understand the circumstances that may lead to higher risk.

Extended travel FAMILY FEATURES

Blood clots can affect anyone and may lead to significant health problems, but some people are at higher risk for lifethreatening blood clots.

One in four people worldwide die of conditions caused by blood clots, also known by the medical term “thrombo-

Traveling longer than eight hours, whether by plane, car, bus or train, can increase risks for life-threatening blood clots. Being seated for long periods can slow blood flow, and high altitudes can activate the body’s blood-clotting system.

Consider wearing compression socks or finding time to stretch or walk around when traveling to aid in proper blood flow.

Pregnancy and childbirth Pregnant women are at four times greater risk of a life-threatening blood clot than non-pregnant women. The risk increases after delivery. Blood clots cause approximately 10 percent of all maternal deaths in the United States, with pulmonary embolism being the leading cause. The bloodclotting system is activated during pregnancy to protect the woman from fatal bleeding during labor and delivery.

In addition, the growing baby presses on the veins of the pelvis, slowing blood flow.

Other risk factors for a blood clot during pregnancy and childbirth include inherited blood-clotting disorders, a history of blood clots, older age at the time of pregnancy, obesity, cesarean delivery and major bleeding after delivery.

Cancer diagnosis Cancer patients typically spend significant time in the hospital which often means they are lying still for long periods and are more likely to have surgery or receive chemotherapy, which also increases risks. Cancers in bones, ovaries, the brain or pancreas and lymph nodes are associated with the highest incidence of a life-threatening blood clot.

If you have concerns about your risk for blood clots, especially if you have multiple risk factors, consult with your health care provider about how to lower the risk.

Learn more at heart.org/bloodclotrisk.

TOJ

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SeaWorld Orlando becoming more autism-friendly, company says

BY GABRIELLE RUSSON ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

Joining its sister parks, SeaWorld Orlando is now a certified autism center, a move that’s meant to make the theme park more accessible to people with disabilities, the company said last week.

SeaWorld’s new certification follows behind Aquatica Orlando and Discovery Cove, the company’s other two parks in Orlando that also recently said they were more autismfriendly.

“We are incredibly proud to be the first family of Orlando theme parks to achieve these certifications,” said Mark Pauls, SeaWorld Orlando park president, in a news release.

Quiet rooms Now, the park will share information on its website and in a special guide that breaks down the rides, rating them by the five senses, to give parents a heads-up.

SeaWorld Orlando will offer two quiet rooms for families who need a break from what can be a loud and chaotic park. One quiet room is at the front of the park near Guest Services and the other is in Sesame Street land.

Employees will also be undergoing training to help connect better with visitors who have autism.

More resources, tools “As families start planning their summer travel, the resources and tools that our parks now offer can provide peace of mind for families with members that have autism and other special needs,” Pauls said.

“Our parks and staff are now equipped to offer families inclusive activities, helping to ensure meaningful experiences for everyone.”

The park’s certification is through the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards, which works with organizations in the tourism, hospitality and other industries to become certified in autism and special needs.

Easy grocery delivery. publix.com/shop

Item prices vary from in-store prices. Service fees may apply. Available in select zip codes.

B4

FOOD

APRIL 12 – APRIL 18, 2019

STOJ

Simple holiday hams Ideas for an easy Easter menu

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Whether you’re new to hosting or simply looking for ideas to make Easter entertaining easier than ever, there are plenty of ways to save time and stress in the kitchen.

Go with what you know. Trying out new recipes is fun, but it can also add stress when they don’t turn out like you expected. Stick to tried and true dishes you can prepare and serve with confidence and save the experimenting for another time.

Take shortcuts. At the center of many Easter feasts is a ham that has been expertly cured and cooked to perfection. Even so, starting with a full-cooked ham is a shortcut that no one is likely to notice, especially if you

heat it properly. For exceptional quality and a variety of flavor profile options to choose from, turn to America’s Original Butcher, Omaha Steaks.

The meats are fully cooked then frozen before being delivered to your door for maximum convenience.

Work ahead. Plan your menu to incorporate items you can make ahead of time so you’re under less pressure the day of your dinner. Even handling the prep work like slicing veggies the night before can buy back precious minutes, that way when guests begin arriving, you can step out of the kitchen and enjoy the day right along with them.

Find more ideas to make hosting this year’s Easter meal easy at OmahaSteaks.com/buy/meals/easter.

HOW TO HEAT A FROZEN HAM Many frozen hams are fully cooked and can be served as soon as they’re properly thawed, which is an ideal solution for a casual brunch with mini sandwiches on the menu. However, if you’re serving an elegant holiday dinner, you’re more likely to prefer a warm centerpiece dish. A fully cooked ham is still a time-saving option; you’ll just need to allot time to heat it in the oven once it’s thawed.

Start by thawing a fully cooked ham in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours.

To keep your ham extra moist, always put the cut-side down. You might also consider placing a baking rack in the pan and adding a quarter-inch of water

before placing the ham on the rack.

For a spiral-cut, bone-in ham, heat the oven to 325 F. Remove ham from film and foil. Place ham cut-side down on a raised edge baking pan lined with foil. Heat uncovered 60-75 minutes for the entire ham or 10 minutes per pound for smaller portions.

For a boneless ham, heat the oven to 350 F. Place the ham, cut-side down, on a raised edge baking pan lined with foil.

Cover the ham tightly with foil and heat 35-40 minutes.

Another option for adding extra juicy flavor is a glaze, which can be as simple as dissolving three parts brown sugar into one part honey in a small saucepan. Or for a more elegant affair, consider a fruit-infused glaze to complement the savory pork.

A HOST OF HAMS If you always thought a ham is a ham is a ham, it’s time to think again. From the type of meat to the smoking preparation to specialized slicing that makes serving easy, there are plenty of options to consider from a supplier like Omaha Steaks when choosing the right ham.

Savory

Smoky

Sweet

For an elegant gathering that demands premium ingredients, an all-natural Duroc Boneless Country Ham may be the answer.

These hams tend to feature more marbling for an exceptionally rich flavor and texture, making for a tender, savory and juicy main course with no basting or injection needed.

Put a little flair in your Easter meal with a uniquely flavored ham like the Pecanwood Smoked Flank Ham, smoked with real pecan wood for 8 hours to add a rich yet mellow smoky flavor. This tender, juicy uncured whole-muscle ham earns its place of distinction on your holiday table. Complementary sides with subtle nutty notes, such as a sweet potato casserole, can enhance the menu even more.

Each Spiral-Sliced Ham is slowly smoked with real wood up to 24 hours to infuse flavor and maximize juiciness then generously brushed with a sweet and sticky brown-sugar crust that is torch-glazed to create a flavorful, crunchy crust. It’s spiral-sliced before delivery, so once it’s thawed and heated, it’s ready for quick service to your guests.

EASY FRUIT-INFUSED GLAZES Apricot Glaze 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon cornstarch 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1 cup apricot nectar, canned In saucepan, mix brown sugar, cornstarch and ginger.

Stir in apricot nectar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.

Cranberry Orange Glaze 1 can (16 ounces) cranberry sauce 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup orange juice 1/2 teaspoon cloves, ground 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ground 1/4 teaspoon allspice In small saucepan over low heat, combine cranberry sauce, brown sugar, orange juice, cloves, cinnamon and allspice; simmer 5 minutes, before serving.