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Challenger Community News • February 25, 2015
Brenda McDuffie to Keynote Black History Month Celebration Brenda McDuffie, Buffalo Urban League President & CEO, will be the keynote speaker at 4 p.m. at The Amherst Central School District’s 2015 Black History Month Celebration on Thursday, February 26, at the school, located at 4301 Main Street. The event is free and open to the public. There will also be participation by Celes Tisdale, Miche Fambro, and Le Ballet Touba.
Brenda McDuffie
BLACK HISTORY MONTH AT EL BUEN AMIGO! 114 Elmwood Avenue, Call 716-563-0529. Friday February 27-El Buen Amigo - Black History Month 6:00pm - Charma Warmly - Motown Review” 7:00 -9:00pm - YoussouLo, Anthony Gaines, Marvin Harris, Adama Seydi - West African Djembe Drumming Saturday February 28- El Buen Amigo - Black History Month 6:00-9:00pm - Dynamic Drum Arts of WNY
Michigan Street Meets Canalside
An evening of storytelling, jazz music and networking! Thursday, February 26, 5:30 PM, Michigan Street Baptist Church, 511 Michigan Avenue and the Colored Musicians Club, 145 Broadway Avenue.
Actress Aunjanue Ellis will Keynote Canisius Black History Program Canisius College will present “Moving Forward and Setting the World on Fire,” an education, health and economic empowerment summit on Thursday, February 26 from 9:00 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Zion Dominion Global Ministries, located at 895 North Forest Road in Williamsville. Award-winning actress Aunjanue Ellis will serve as the keynote speaker for the event.
Free Day at the Nash House FREE Day at Nash House Museum, Sat. Feb. 28, 36 Nash Street 11:30 - 4 pm. Historical Storytelling by Carmen Swan at 12:30 and 2 pm. (For more info call Sharon Holley 886-1399.)
Pilgrim Baptist to Host Black History Program
Pilgrim Baptist Missionary Church, located at 665 Michigan Avenue, will host its annual Black History Program on Saturday, February 28 at the church at 4 p.m. Free and open to the public.
Black History Month at Niagara Power Vista
The Niagara Power Vista at 5777 Lewiston Road in Lewiston, will host a special Black History Month event on Saturday, Feb. 28 from 10 am to 4 pm featuring a performance by the African American Cultural Center dancers and drummers and local authors on display. For more info call (716) 286-6661 . *The Hamlin Park School #74 Black History Progrm will be presented in the school auditorium on Northland Avenue and Donaldson Rd. on Thursday, February 26 from 6-7:30 p.m. A free familyfriendly community event.
“OUR HISTORY DID NOT BEGIN IN CHAINS” continued their fields and certainly worthy of our admiration, but they are not the whole of Black History. Black History Month is about Mansa Musa, the King of Mali who extended the empire's reach into one of the largest on the planet and imposed the system of provinces and territorial mayors and governors we still use in the United States today. It's about Lewis Latimer, the man who invented the filament that took Thomas Edison's light bulb into the next century. It's about Robert Abbott, the United States' first Black newspaper publisher and one of the nation's first ever Black millionaires. Black History Month is about Kwame Nkrumah, Bill Pickett, Imhotep I, Samori Toure, Belva Davis, Crispus Attucks, Dr. Ivan van Sertima, Fritz Pollard, Stokely Carmichael, Aaron Douglas, Denmark Vesey, Tousaint L'Ouverture, Nat Turner, Shirley Chisholm, Mae Jemison, Fred Hampton, Scott Joplin, Ramses II, Zumbi dos Palmares and hundreds of other men and women that you have probably never heard about. The march from slavery and the Civil Rights Movement clearly demonstrated the struggle and the power that Black people are capable of, but it's not all we have contributed to the world. It's time we used the month of February to extend the dialogue beyond that banal and onto the tremendous accomplishments of Africans throughout history who have advanced math, music, language, the sciences and so much more for thousands of years. Then and only then will we truly be celebrating Black History Month. Follow Dion Rabouin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DionRabouin This article was originally posted by author Rabouin in 2013 under the title “Black History Month Has Been an Epic Failure” on Huff Post’s The Blog
“We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” - John Russwurm, Freedom’s Journal. 1827 America’s 1st Black Newspaper
Buffalo Schools at the Crossroads: When is enough, enough?! A
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week has passed since the “historic” February 13th meeting of the Buffalo Board of Education. I realize some will find the use of the term “historic” as questionable but I am using it somewhat in a “tongue in cheek” gesture. And this meeting was, unfortunately, marred by the unseemly behavior that has come to characterize board meetings, including an unprecedented verbal attack on an African American female staff member by Board member Paladino. Yet, the insistence of a vocal community and the persistence of the Board’s minority led to dialogue and compromise resulting in a rare unanimous agreement on a course of action presented by Interim Superintendent Donald Ogilvie. The outcome impacts the future direction of several schools; pushed back on the proposed takeover of cherished Buffalo icons, Bennett High School, East High and the Dr. MLK Multicultural Institute by charter schools; supported the recommendation of the Interim Superintendent of a longer-range proposal for a sustainable turn-around plan that even the State Education Department will have trouble faulting and acknowledged that the District has an obligation to meet the terms of an agreement it entered into with the Federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR). This agreement requires the District to develop a corrective action plan to address issues of inequity in admissions to the criterion schools. All in all, the Board agreed, for the first time, to seriously consider adopting plans that put the interests of our students in the forefront. But even as I look optimistically toward the foreseeable future of working with Mr. Ogilvie on this plan, I am troubled by signs that actions are being taken to unravel the settlement that was reached on Friday, the 13th of February. Almost immediately, indeed during the course of the meeting, Board President
Sampson and Board member Paladino sought advice from the Board’s outside counsel. Their goal -- to over-turn the ruling of the Board’s attorney regarding Mr. Sampson’s handling of a parliamentary process aimed to limit debate. The Board att o r n e y ’s position was upheld, but Barbara Seals Mr. Pala- NEVERGOLD dino is not a man to take no for an answer, especially when he wants to hear yes. In fact, on the Sunday following the meeting Mr. Paladino signaled his intent to undermine the accomplishments from the meeting. He gave a radio interview during which he continued to denigrate the Board’s attorney and personally attack her competence and credibility (sound familiar?). It is a tactic; intimidation, bullying and name-calling that he has continued to use and to get away with, until recently. Dr. Gary Orfield, the consultant who was hired as part of the agreement with OCR, refused to be silent when Mr. Paladino wrote to warn him that the Board’s majority would not tolerate any interference or wait for the Doctor’s report before putting their plan into action. To emphasize his message, Paladino sent a second email to Dr. Orfield and ended by admonishing him to “Stay out of our way, Dr.” Orfield wrote the OCR requesting that they intervene with specific directives to the District. Following the Board meeting Paladino continued the threats in the radio interview and made other statements regarding Dr. Orfield’s credentials, motives and integrity. Furthermore, he has pledged to bring a motion to the upcoming Board meeting to terminate Dr. Orfield’s contract. Should this motion pass, the District would be
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subject to mandated enforcement of the agreement. The Office of Civil Rights has tremendous latitude to withhold federal funds, for example, to force compliance. Termination of Dr. Orfield’s contract would be a problem for the District and create a ripple effect with serious consequences. It remains to be seen if the five votes are there to approve the motion or whether any attempts will be made to chip away at the agreement reached last week. In any event I’ve asked the question before, but let me put it another way, when is enough, enough! When do the so-called pillars of the community, who claim to be concerned about the “state” of the Buffalo Schools, stop looking the other way as one man causes such havoc? When is enough, enough?! When do we stop allowing Black women to be disrespected and vilified? When is enough, enough?! When do we stop being silent; as our students are characterized as “poor, suffering children trapped in failing schools”; as systematic actions by Board members to “dismantle” our school district are touted as “bold and innovative”; as orchestrated and sustained assaults designed to create a narrative of the District as the “poster child” for failing schools in the State, are routinely published in the media, even though there are other cities with worse records. When is enough, enough?! When is enough, enough?!
Tao Te Ching -43The gentlest thing in the world Overcomes the hardest thing in the world. That which has no substance Enters where there is no space. This shows the value of nonaction Teaching without words, Performing without actions: That is the Master’s way.
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