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Too close to call
DELIVERING NEWS YOU NEED
• Vol-9 • 5 Nov. to 11 Nov. 2020
My Truth
By Cheryl Smith Publisher
Spread LOVE Speak the truth. Share your feelings. Show love. I have known Curtistene McCowan for over 30 years. Reflecting on many of our conversations, I realized we always expressed our feelings for and about each other. For that I am grateful because she is no longer here to hear me say how much love and respect I had for her. Which brings me to my truth. Last weekend citizens, friends
Mayor Curtistene McCowan
and loved ones participated in a service honoring DeSoto first female Mayor Curtistene Smith McCowan, who died Wednesday, October 28. In early October she announced her lung cancer diagnosis during a City Council meeting on Zoom, she said. “Those of you who know me are also aware that I have an unusual amount of energy,” she said at the time. “So when I get tired or don’t put in the time and energy that I normally do on an issue, something’s up.” Her death came as a shock to many. “We’ve lost a great committed leader,” said U.S. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (DTX), whose district includes DeSoto. The two were the only living African American females in the district to have schools named in See MY TRUTH, page 9
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ELECTION 2020
Democrats came close, but were unable to break the GOP’s lock on power in the state.
Judge Monica Purdy
State Rep. Rhetta Bowers
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price
Congressman Colin Allred
Congresswoman Eddie Dallas County Commissioner Bernice Johnson Theresa Daniel
Dallas Sheriff Marian Brown
State Rep. Yvonne Davis
Frisco ISD Trustee Dynette A. Davis
State Rep. Toni Rose
State Rep. Carl Sherman, Sr.
Sen. John Cornyn
EDITOR’S NOTE - This article appears as part of a collaborative partnership between Texas Metro News and The Dallas Morning News, that seeks to boost coverage of communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
By Gromer Jeffers Jr. Special to the Texas Metro News Republicans on Tuesday sent Democrats a resounding message: Texas is still red and Democrats would still have to get stronger to wrestle control from the GOP. Republicans staved off
Democratic attempts to seize the Texas House, returned John Cornyn to the U.S. Senate and appeared to boost President Donald Trump to a Lone Star victory over former Vice President Joe Biden. The results were a setback for Democrats who had hoped antiTrump sentiment and a strong
grassroots organization would give them victories across the board, including controlling the House for the first time since 2001. “We had great candidates and a good message and they worked hard as a team,” said Dave Carney, Gov. Greg Abbott’s chief consultant.
“They talked and talked about winning. We just made sure our candidates won.” Democratic candidates up and down the ballot were wellfunded even outspending many of their GOP counterparts. But the GOP appeared to learn a lesson from the close races of See ELECTION, page 11
School desegregation, busing left their good and bad marks I WAS JUST THINKING By Norma Adams-Wade I ran across a 1976 news articles that described how Dallas prepared for one of the early chapters of school busing during the 1970s. 1976 was a pivotal year because of court orders that Dallas
get really serious – this true mandated order. time – about desegreFrom 1954 into gating its school systhe 1970s, cities and tem. school districts across Remember, the fedthe land pretty much eral Supreme Court made their own decisome 22 years earlier sions about whether in 1954 had ordered to desegregate. Disthat all U. S. schools Linda Brown of the tricts dragged their end the sham “sepa- Brown v. Board of feet, putting up creEducation case. rate but equal” methative road blocks or od of educating Black and White just out-and-out ignoring the students. The 1970s, this time, Supreme Court order. Then were to make racial integration a slowly, school authorities began
to comply because of the power and might of federal government oversight and intervention. I was just thinking about the human toll of that desegregation fight and the life-changing impact – good and bad – on young people who went through those struggles. I was just thinking of Linda Brown. In 1954, she was the 11-year-old youth at the center of the landmark case, Brown v. See THINKING, page 6