ELECTION WATCH 2015: THE SPRING ELECTION RESULTS
Bond, Harris, Moore win; Bradley retains high court seat; state votes “Yes” on Court voting for its leader
Michael Bonds One incumbent and one challenger won their seats on the Milwaukee Public School Board of Directors,
Wendell Harris and the son of U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore one a seat on the Milwaukee County Board in Tuesday
COMMUNITY
compiled by MCJ Staff
VOL. XXXIX Number 36 April 8, 2015
The Milwaukee
Supreme Moore Omokunde
Ann Walsh Bradley three seat, defeating challenger Stephany Pruitt handily. Bonds received 2,770 votes (72%) to Pruitt’s www.communityjournal.net 25 Cents
Spring elections. MPS Board President Michael Bonds won reelection to the district
1,065 votes (28%). NAACP state Vice President and activist Wendell Harris defeated incumbent Jeff Spence for the board’s district two seat. Harris, a long time proponent of public education as a member of the civil rights organization received 3,453 votes (63%) to Spence’s 2,045 votes (37%). Supreme Moore Omokunde, the son of Cong. Moore, defeated Solana Patterson-Ramos for the Milwaukee County Supervisor 10th district seat vacated by now state Legislator David Bowen. Moore collected (continued on page 6)
JOURNAL BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN PERMIT NO. 4668
W I S C O N S I N ’ S L A R G E S T A F R I C A N A M E R I C A N N E W S PA P E R
A parade of Easter services at community churches
Worshippers after services leaving New Creatures in Christ Church
A family attending Easter Services at New Birth Church First family at St. Matthew CME Church after its Easter service
(Pictured above): Easter service at Holy Redeemer COGIC
Photos by Yvonne Kemp
Funeral services held for boxing champ, alderman and public servant Orville Pitts
(Pictured at right): Easter service at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: PULSE OF THE “Has the Easter holiday become a victim COMMUNITY (like Christmas) of commercialism overshadowing the true Photos and question by Yvonne Kemp
meaning of the season: The death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ?”
DR. BOBBIE LATHAN: “I think it has. Our younger generation doesn’t now the true meaning of Easter. They think Easter is a way of getting new clothes and eat a big dinner at a relative’s house, instead of celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
RHONDA GATLINHAYES: “Easter is for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians have fallen into commercialism. We, as a people, must educate our children and the next generation so that we can be healed.”
By Dr. Ramel Smith, “The Blaquesmith”
overt to covert oppression. We have moved from individual to systematic racism. We have used arbitrary residential boundary lines, socioeconomic status and educational degrees as gate keepers to continue to discreetly discriminate and maintain the status quo. We live in a society that disproportionately misplaces young Black males in special education and prison at alarming numbers. In 2015 “post-racial” America, we still have to educate the masses that Black lives matter. The centuries of oppression and pain we have experienced significantly contribute to the dysfunctional and self-destructive behav-
Orville Pitts
WALLACE HAYES: “Easter is based upon a pagan holiday held in the honor of the goddess Eastre. The current direction of Easter does not dishonor Jesus because it has nothing to do with Him. Read the Bible and read your history books to find the truth.”
PASTOR DONNIE SIMS: “I think so. We, the people, have become too humanistic. People have changed their attitudes; we have lost our family values. We need to repent and go back to God. We are not spiriturally minded as we used to be. The Church needs to get itself in order.”
Funeral services were held Saturday, April 4 for former Milwaukee Alderman and Milwaukee County Court Commissioneer Orville Pitts, who passed away at the age of 81 as a result of illness. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to space limitations in our April 1, 2015 edition, the MCJ could not include an article on his passing.) During his life, but not always at the same time, Pitts was a boxing champion, a public servant, a Democrat, a Republican, and a father. Tall for his age, Pitts began boxing as a teenager. Then, he wasn’t known as a Wisconsin phenomenon in the sport. As he continued to
ior seen within our culture. While still accepting accountability and responsibility for our actions; we must not underestimate the psychotic brilliance that helped to create the situation. The harsh honest truth is that our country is in the business of criminalizing and penalizing poverty. The draconian laws created to protect society are really another way to revictimize the victim. Family, when social scientists want to investigate a theory on the prediction of future human behavior, they conduct a study on lesser species in the animal kingdom to test their hypothesis. In 1963, John B. Calhoun completed a study with mice on crowding
and density. He created a mouse utopian society that housed 8 mice with an abundance of space and all their needed necessities. As expected, the mice were happy and healthy. They began to procreate and the society continued to grow and flourish until the space allocated for the 8 mice was now holding over 600. However, with this large number they begin to witness aberrant behavior such as; but not limited to, aggression and violence, deviant sexualized behavior, failure to care for their young, and depression. Calhoun would coin this phenomenon as The Behavioral Sink. This utopian society
slowly turned into a living hell for all the mice. Interestingly, as the numbers began to decline and more space was available, the mice never returned to their original normal behavior. The conditions created were not reversible. It was stated, the mice died twice: the sink condition was the initial death- the emotional death. If we are playing checkers and not chess, then we must understand the game is played several moves in advance. Michelle Alexander wonderfully illustrates this in her book The New Jim Crow. She states there is a cyclical racial caste that is determined to keep the Black population a permanent underclass. It was not feasible to send all de-
MEN MEN Killing Mockingbirds EMPOWERING MEN MEN and Pimpin’ Butterflies
Hurt people exhibit three different behaviors: 1) they go on to hurt other people; 2) they allow themselves to be repeatedly victimized; and/or 3) they go on to help other hurt people. Some Americans have fraudulently claimed that this country is in a post-racial era. Who will argue that significant changes have been made in the American mainstream culture as it relates to race relations; yet, sadly, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We have gone from
If there is one thing we’ve noticed about Easter Sunday, it’s the traditional bright colors and hats often associated with the “Day of Resurrection” are not as visible as it once was “back in the day.” We don’t know why. Maybe worshipper attending services at various community churches are focused on the true meaning of the season. Or maybe the cost of expensive suits, dresses, and the ubiquitous Easter hat (not to mention childrens’ Easter baskets is too much for the pocket book. We’d like to think its the aforementioned, the focus on Christ Jesus and His gift of everlasting life.
pursue fights, he became a prominent name among boxers in his home state. According to a July report by Boxing.com, the mid-weight athlete won the Wisconsin Golden Gloves Championship in 1950 and was named Outstanding Open Division boxer. He would then move on to the semi-finals in Chicago, then the Pan-American Games in Mexico City. In that 1955 tournament, he took the gold medal the middleweight event. The United States took second of seven places that year in the tournament, bested only by Argentina. In 1955, he began a college career at the University of Wisconsin that wouldn’t deter him from boxing, but bring him closer to it on a collegiate level. He boxed for the UW team and won every match. Pitts faced racial prejudice when the team took on Louisiana State University when his white opponent forfeited. In 1962, Pitts graduated from UW and moved on to law school.
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Dr. Ramel Smith
scendants of the abducted Africans back to Africa, then or now. It was not possible to kill us all off in a holocaust fashion-- or it
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