District Chronicles V15 Issue 21 by District Chronicles

FRIDAY

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L: 29

SNOW

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Jan 23

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SNOW

MONDAY

Jan 24

Jan 25

H: 40 PARTLY

H: 42 MOSTLY

L: 19

CLOUDY

L: 31

SUNNY

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H: 32

SATURDAY

ELEANOR HOLMES-NORTON TO RE-LAUNCH BID FOR CONGRESS 4

Area volunteers get to work on MLK Day of Service at Ballou, other schools Page 12 January 21 - January 27, 2016

Md. Blacks stuck in foreclosure crisis Page 3 www.districtchronicles.com

Volume 15 Issue 21

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Editorial

Republicans miss opportunity to honor Martin Luther King By Raynard Jackson Columnist

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In many ways, like Job in the Bible, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me” (Job 3:25 King James Version). I was hoping against all hope that the Republican Party would do something to really pay homage to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday on Monday. But, like Job, I have been forced to conclude “that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” Republicans are a national party, controlling 31 out of 50 governors, the U.S House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate; but the party as a whole, did nothing to celebrate the contribution King made to Blacks, America, and the world. I am sure a Republican somewhere issued the annual perfunctory press release; but why the party doesn’t take this occasion to sit at the feet of Black Republican luminaries who worked with King is baffling to me. King frequently stayed in the home of Bob Brown in Hickory, North Carolina. There, are personal photos and letters from King to Brown, handwritten notes to Brown from former South African president Nelson Mandela when he was in prison, and volumes of letters and photos from world leaders to Brown. There is also Bill Coleman, a Republican who was the first Black to serve as a cabinet secretary in the history of America. He was law partners with former U.S. Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and they both argued the famous Brown vs. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court. There are Black Republicans all over the country who worked deeply in the Civil Rights movement, but the party has no idea who they are. The few Black staffers who work within various Republican entities have no idea who these people are, nor do they have any curiosity to discover who these people are that paved the way for them.

At best, a Republican leader might attend an MLK event being sponsored by a liberal Black Democratic organization, their local NAACP. But why should that be the case when Republicans are very capable of doing both local and national pro-life events all over the country? They don’t simply issue perfunctory press releases. Why? The party obviously puts a certain value on the pro-life issue and its supporters. As for the issue relative to MLK’s holiday, I will leave you to make your own conclusions. In politics, optics matter and my party is tone deaf when it comes to optics within the Black community. Spouses tend not to forget their significant other’s birthday because they know it is important to them; the same goes for our valued holidays. A memo to Republicans: MLK’s birthday is very important to Blacks, and more broadly, to America. The party, at every level, should have organized Black businessmen all across the country to have a discussion of a 21st century

version of civil rights to address issues like: entrepreneurship, access to capital, education, crime & justice. What policy solutions are Republicans in Congress willing to offer to address these issues? Republicans also must sit at the feet of people like Bob Brown and Bill Colman. These are the people the party must consult with relative to the voting rights case the Supreme Court ruled on a few years ago. Republicans have the right message for the Black community, but they must engage with Black Republicans who have institutional memory and relationships with the Browns and the Colemans of the past, and those of this day and age. The window is closing fast on the Republican Party for this year’s presidential election and beyond. If the party doesn’t start engaging with the Black community in a meaningful way, Democrats will again win the election and forever change the fabric of our country. Raynard Jackson is a radio talk show host and TV commentator.

Foreclosure crisis hammers Black Americans

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Affluence is no antidote to foreclosure. In Prince George’s County, Maryland – one of the United States’ wealthiest majority-Black jurisdictions – the foreclosure crisis has hammered several solidly middle-class communities. These include Perrywood, a neighborhood of two-story homes near the county seat in Upper Marlboro; Marleigh in Bowie, where the local homeowners’ association mows the lawns of foreclosed residences that the banks don’t maintain; and Fairwood, where the median income is $170,000, according to the U.S. Census. “They didn’t understand what it meant to take out a second mortgage, to refinance or to receive a subprime loan, they just made purchases,” said Bob Ross, president of the NAACP chapter in Prince George’s County. “So when the bubble burst, they were stuck.” NAACP New York State Conference economic development chair Garry Anthony Johnson calls foreclosures “an epidemic” for people of color. “It’s a troubling reality that African Americans and other minorities continue to experience disproportionately high levels of unemployment, poverty and foreclosures,” said Johnson. Housing counselors and other experts told Urban News Service they blame unscrupulous lenders for the crisis. At a time when many prospective buyers were eager to purchase and as home prices skyrocketed, some lenders took advantage by offering Black buyers discriminatory loans, said observers. “They were products that were predatory in nature where the interest rates were inflated, there were prepayment penalties if you tried to pay the loan off or refinance and balloon payments,” said Charles R. Lowery Jr., the NAACP’s director of Fair Lending and Inclusion. “You wouldn’t get a loan that was suited to you, but the broker and the lender would make money because they sold it to you.

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Minorities experience foreclosures disproportionately due to unfair practices.

That was their only concern.” In 2007, the NAACP filed suit against Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, alleging that these financial institutions had committed unfair lending practices. The NAACP dropped the suit against Wells Fargo after the bank agreed to invest in a “financial freedom center” to assist home buyers of color. The lawsuit was settled in 2010 after the banks funded programs to help home buyers, said Lowery. NAACP chapters across the United States are working to support people of color who are ensnared in foreclosure, said Lowery. Last Nov. 14, more than 300 people attended a Prince George’s County NAACP “Help and Hope for Homeowners” workshop at Largo High School. The event was the NAACP’s fourth this year, following similar gatherings in Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Long Island, New York. One woman who attended the NAACP meeting in Maryland said she was there because she and her husband’s 3,800-square-foot home in the Woodmore South community was foreclosed after they failed to pay their mortgage for more than six months. She was laid off from her paralegal job more than a year ago. She said she and her husband bought their home for about $700,000 in 2008. It now is worth less than $500,000.

“My husband is in the luxury entertainment business, and when people started cutting back on luxuries, we had less money coming in,” said the woman. “Then I lost my job.” Phyllis Ellis, vice president of home ownership preservation for HomeFree-USA, based in Prince George’s County, said it is a misconception that most people of color who lost their homes in the foreclosure crisis intentionally signed mortgages that they knew were unaffordable. “There were lenders who targeted minority communities,” said Ellis. “People were manipulated, so they took the product they were offered when they may have qualified for a more traditional home loan. A lot of the problems originated from the types of mortgages that were marketed to our communities.” The news going forward for Blacks is bleak, according to Algernon Austin, senior research fellow at the Center for Global Policy Solutions in Washington, D.C. Wages are still down and joblessness is still up. “Data from the Urban Institute out to 2030 do not show a recovery,” said Austin. “[They show] a continued slide in terms of home ownership for Blacks. That’s pretty distressing. It doesn’t show any strong upward movement for Whites, either.”

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ongresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will kick-off her candidacy for a new term in the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday at noon, at the Wharf, 680 Water Street, SW, across from Arena Stage.

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4 | Jan. 21 - Jan. 27, 2016 | District Chronicles

The Montgomery County Board of Elections “Future Vote” Program seeks high school juniors and seniors to serve as paid election judges at polling places for the Presidential Primary Election to be held on Tuesday, April 26. In accordance with the Maryland Election Code, individuals serving as election judges must be

(Waterfront Metro Station, or 70-74 Metro bus lines). Norton chose the Wharf for her kick-off because it is one of the largest projects being developed from a Norton bill. A huge mixed-use development with features from housing to entertainment is being built, providing revenue for a major boost to the D.C. economy and thousands of jobs for D.C. residents. The kick-off will feature live entertainment, fun and games and refreshments. Petitions to put Norton’s name on the ballot for the June

14th Primary will be available. “Our kick-off is always a lot more like a party than a campaign event,” said Norton. “There’s a lot still to be done for D.C. and I want to have fun doing may part. The place to begin is having fun at our campaign kick-off with supporters and friends.” Norton says she will run for Congress on her record and will do her part to elect a Democratic President. She has already gotten Hillary Clinton to endorse D.C. Statehood, she said.

registered to vote in the State of Maryland. Students who will be 18 years old by or on November 8, 2016, are eligible to register and vote. The Maryland Election law also allows minors who are 17 years old to register and be appointed to serve as an election judge if the minor demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the State Board, that he or she meets all qualifications for registration in the state. Because of the population diversity within Montgomery County, students with bilingual language skills, particularly in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Amharic and French, are

encouraged to participate. The application process requires both an online quiz and completion of hands-on training. All applicants who are selected for these positions will be compensated at rates that vary based on the position, as advertised at www.777vote.org. Individuals may earn 25 Student Service Learning (SSL) credits in lieu of a stipend, if preferred. For more information visit www.777vote.org, and select Election Judges to complete an on-line application or contact Gilberto Zelaya at gilberto.zelaya@montgomerycountymd.gov, or 240.777.8532.

Divine Intervention

Episcopal Church suspended from Anglican Communion By Kimberly Winston Religion News Service

Home. Cooked.

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The Anglican Communion voted to censure its American branch, the Episcopal Church, during a meeting in Canterbury, England, that was called to reflect on the future of the communion. The vote earlier this month to suspend the Episcopal Church from voting and decision-making for a period of three years was leaked a day ahead of a press conference. Details of the suspension were first reported by Anglican Ink, which said they came from a leaked communique. The vote passed by a two-thirds margin, according to the publication, which is based in Milford, Connecticut, and included prominent voices among African bishops who have loudly condemned the American church for its liberal stance on gays. The dramatic demotion follows a string of Episcopal Church decisions stretching back to 2003, when it elected Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as a bishop of New Hampshire. That decision led dozens of U.S. churches to break away from the Episcopal Church and declare their allegiance to a series of rival groups, including the Anglican Church in North America. In July, the Episcopal Church voted to allow its clergy to perform same-sex marriages, a move not taken by the majority of churches in the Anglican Communion. “Given the seriousness of these matters, we formally acknowledge this distance by requiring that for a period of three years the Episcopal Church no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies,” reads a statement issued by the Anglican Communion. “They will not take part in decision-making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity.” “The traditional doctrine of the church in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union,” the statement also notes. “The majority of those gathered reaffirm this teaching.”

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U.S. Episcopal Church suspended three years for stance on gay marriages.

The suspension comes after four days of discussions among church leaders – “primates,” in church parlance – over the Episcopal Church’s position on gay marriage in relation to the position of the broader Anglican Communion. The meetings apparently got testy as British Christian media reported that the archbishop of Uganda, among the most conservative of Anglican branches, walked out amid disagreements. Jeffrey Walton, the Anglican program director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C., said the suspension of the Episcopal Church is significant but does not, at this point, represent a schism, or irreparable rupture, within the Anglican Communion. “This is not kicking the Episcopal Church out of the Anglican Communion, but it is saying is that by making these decisions for the past 12 or so years the Episcopal Church has created this distance and there will be consequences to those decisions.” Kevin Eckstrom, director of communications for Washington National Cathedral, the seat of newly installed Presiding Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry, said that while this suspension will be greeted by sadness in the Episco-

pal Church, it has been on a parallel track with the Anglican Communion for a while. “It is not unlike a couple who are having marital problems and are sleeping in separate bedrooms,” said Eckstrom. “Maybe now they are going to formalize the separation.” Curry told Episcopal News Service the sanction would be painful for many in the Episcopal Church to receive. “Many of us have committed ourselves and our church to being ‘a house of prayer for all people,’ as the Bible says, when all are truly welcome,” said Curry. Communion leaders also reportedly wanted to censure the Anglican Church of Canada, but because it has not yet adopted same-sex marriage rites, no action was taken. The Lambeth Palace press office, home of the archbishop of Canterbury, did not respond to requests for comment about the vote, which was leaked to the media. Kimberly Winston is a national correspondent for Religion News Service. Senior National Correspondent Cathy Grossman contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. and reporter Trevor Grundy contributed to this report from Canterbury, England.

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Cover

King’s principles continue to guide America, the world

By Hazel Trice Edney

those who marched with King recall what they believe has actually defined King’s legacy – especially his final years. The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. recalled King’s last birthday, Jan. 15, 1968. He was with King that day as they convened a group of African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans to plan the Poor People’s Campaign, King’s movement for economic justice that was never completed due to the assassination. “He felt that money that was being spent on the military should have been spent for our cities. We had the best military in the world, but the most decayed cities,” said Jackson. “‘I Have a Dream’ was poetry without the budget obligation. But, the Poor People’s Campaign involved what we needed – a White House conference on violence and urban reconstruction. That requires a budget and legislation. That was the real fight. That was the fight he was engaged in. That was the substance of the dream.” Lonnie King, an Atlanta-based professor who was a co-founder of the historic Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, recalls he first met Dr. King in 1945 when he joined the Ebenezer Baptist Church at only 8 years old. As a child, he was amazed by Dr. King’s ability to orate, a power that continues to

grip America when recordings of his voice are heard. “Dr. King was a 17 year old going to Morehouse at the time. He was always a gifted speaker, having been raised up in a family of preachers. I remember that he used to practice his preaching in church on Thursday nights as my mother attended choir rehearsals in the basement. He was very good also because he continuously practiced his craft,” said Lonnie King, now 79. “His gifted oratory and ability to quote Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Aristotle, and the Old Negro Spirituals with equal aplomb. Time magazine once stated that King was so gifted as an orator that he could make maids shout to a quote from Shakespeare. In addition, I thoroughly enjoyed his use of metaphors and similes to make his points. He was

especially adept at ‘making it plain’ to the average person.” But, their relationship didn’t just stay in the church. Lonnie King grew up and became a young activist as well. “My most memorable moment was when I convinced him to go to jail with me at a sit-in at Rich’s Department Store on October 19, 1960. This was the first time that Dr. King had voluntarily gone to jail, and was the first time he had spent the night in jail. We shared the same cell for a number of days until the Mayor of Atlanta arranged the release of the students,” he recalled. Like Vivian, Lonnie King also believes “Dr. King’s oratory was so strong that it will be re-played for centuries to come. His message is just as relevant today as it was in the 1960s.

zens for Constitutional Freedom. Their standoff entered its second week at Final Call press time as the mother of the group’s leader asked supporters to send supplies, from a list of more than 80 items, including sleeping bags, wool socks, cigarettes, toiletries, food, coffee and “French Vanilla Creamer,” the Associated Press reported. But law enforcement officials said the men are free to resupply on their own. “Right now, they are allowed to come and go as they want,” Bill Fugate, a spokesman for the Oregon State police told TPM, an online news service. “We are not monitoring their movements,” said Mr. Fugate. The “kid gloves” treatment of these armed White men, is in stark contrast to the non-judicial punishment delivered by police to 12year-old Tamir Rice, playing with a toy gun in Cleveland; to Walter

Scott, who was shot eight times in the back as he ran away from South Carolina police officer Michael Slager; or to Laquan McDonald who was shot 16 times in Chicago as he ran from police with a legal pocket knife in his hand. The leaders of the occupation, Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan, have repeatedly rejected calls to leave buildings at the refuge, vowing death rather than surrendering to face imprisonment, despite pleas from the county sheriff, from many local residents and from Oregon’s governor, among others. Ammon Bundy has said the group will leave when there is a plan to transfer control of federal land to locals. So far, the authorities have not moved in to remove Mr. Bundy’s group. Ammon Bundy is the son of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 armed stand-

off with the federal government in Nevada over his refusal to pay decades’ worth of fees for grazing his cattle on public land. Mr. Bundy and his allies in the so-called militia movement declared victory when federal authorities capitulated in the face of his armed standoff. Many observers suggest that the government’s fecklessness in the face of the Nevada armed standoff emboldened these criminals to again attempt to intimidate the government with another act of armed terror. The contradiction in the level of force used against unarmed Black men versus that accorded to armed White militias, and in the uneven news media portrayal has not gone unnoticed. “Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement, activists protesting the deaths of an unarmed 18-year-old on a city street or the tragic death

of a 25-year-old in the back of a police van, have been referred to variously as ‘thugs,’ ‘criminals,’ and ‘drug users,’” said Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), a U.S. Senate candidate. “To the contrary, most of these protests and protesters have been peaceful, and organizers have sought and obtained permission to peaceably assemble in exercise of their Constitutional rights. But in Oregon, a group of armed men illegally occupying a federal building have been referred to as an ‘armed militia,’ or simply ‘occupiers,’ as though that behavior is acceptable in a nation of laws. What is happening in Oregon is not protest sanctioned by the Constitution, it is lawbreaking. These moments cry out for leadership - by political leaders, the media, and the public. It is time for those of us who value our Constitution to end that silence.

Archives Foundation/Creative Commons

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – On March 25, 1968, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, among the leading theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century, spoke what many historians believe to have been prophetic words about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Only 10 days before he was assassinated, Dr. King was keynote speaker at a birthday celebration honoring Heschel when the Rabbi introduced him to an audience of at least 500 other Rabbis with the following words: “Where in America today do we hear a voice like the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America. God has sent him to us. His presence is the hope of America. His mission is sacred, his leadership is sacred. And his leadership is of supreme importance to every one of us. Martin Luther King Jr. is a voice, a vision and a way. The whole future of America will depend upon the impact and influence of Dr. King.” The Rev. Dr. C. T. Vivian, one of the foot soldiers who marched with Dr. King, referred to this historic moment when describing how Dr. King’s voice will continue to impact America years beyond the annual national holiday memo-

rializing him this year on Monday, Jan. 18. “Of all the presidents they could have found space for on the National Mall,” Dr. King is the only human being memorialized there who is not a president, says Vivian, speaking of the Stone of Hope statue of King. The only other memorials on the Mall honor Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Vivian believes Heschel’s words, spoken almost 48 years ago, are just as applicable today as they were then. His dream of racial justice and equality are crucial and yet unmet, said Vivian. But he concludes that Dr. King’s greatest legacy is his stance for non-violence in his demonstrated “non-violent direct action” and his vehement advocacy again war. “Martin King was the first minister in the Western World to get the Nobel Peace Prize,” Vivian pointed out. “I think in terms of Martin as the continuation of the great need we have to go beyond violence. And so, that will not end and that will continue to be greater and greater and greater … In the East, there’s [Indian leader Mahatma] Gandhi, who really created it. It was Martin who continued it.” Among millions this week and throughout the holiday celebration,

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. revered as one of the greatest men in American history.

Unarmed Black dissent, well-armed White men treated differently

By Askia Muhammad The Final Call, News Analysis

t may be the most egregious insult to the dozens of unarmed Black people murdered by police, in a year when 1,134 young Black men were killed by authorities. Dozens of heavily armed White vigilantes have illegally occupied a federal wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon; have promised to stay there indefinitely; and the response from the local sheriff and the FBI has been to do nothing to end the lawlessness, and to even inform the criminal gang members that they are free to come and go from the compound to get snacks. The occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon’s high desert country outside the town of Burns, Oregon, about 300 miles southeast of Portland was done by a group calling itself Citi-

6 | Jan. 21 - Jan. 27, 2016 | District Chronicles

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Flint, Michigan residents demand resignation of governor, mayor over failure to protect them from lead poisoning.

By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Flint, Michigan, is impoverished. The auto plants have closed. Forty percent of the city’s 100,000 residents live below the poverty level. It is majority minority. It’s been in fiscal crisis since 2011, with the state taking over budgetary control and a state-appointed “emergency manager” driving policy focused on cutting spending. Flint residents are Americans, but like many impoverished Americans, they are forgotten. And state officials led by Gov. Rick Snyder have shown that they consider the residents disposable. In Flint, the water supply has been poisoned by lead. Police are now delivering bottled water from door to door. But it may be too late for hundreds of kids who are already suffering from elevated levels of lead in their blood. The damage done is irreversible with lifelong consequences, including lowered intelligence and longterm mental and emotional damage. How did this happen? The emergency manager – accountable only to the governor and state officials – decided to save money by switching Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to a cheaper source, the Flint River. Only the river had been poisoned by waste from nearby factories for genera-

tions. The toxic wastes not only turned the water brown, it corroded the aged pipes of Flint’s water system, unleashing lead into the water. Federal law required that the water be treated, but that would have cost $100 a day, so it was not done. Parents began to complain of rashes and hair loss. The state’s environmental quality agency denied there was a problem. Highlevel state officials knew that the water supply was lead poisoned for six months before declaring an emergency. Finally, a Flint pediatrician tested the blood of children and discovered lead levels double and even triple the prior amounts. State officials denounced her work before realizing the truth could no longer be hidden. Finally, Gov. Snyder ended the denial. He declared an official emergency, and four days later called for delivering bottled water. The head of his environmental agency resigned. Snyder apologized for the catastrophe, but calls for him to resign continue to build. Flint is not alone. Across America, in ghettos and barrios, reservations and rural valleys, the poor are isolated and too often forgotten. Systems basic to civilization – plumbing, water systems, school houses, garbage collection and treatment, roads and public transport – are in squalor, lacking

even the investment to keep them up to minimum standards. Impoverished neighborhoods often lack hospitals, grocery stores, and decent public spaces. The poor are left to fend for themselves, rising to attention only when violence breaks out, when innocents are shot, when tragedies like Flint become public. The cost of this callousness – in lives lost, disease, mental damage, crime, drugs, hopelessness – are immense. This isn’t about money. We pay more on the back end – in prisons and emergency rooms, cops and guards, prisons and addiction centers – than we would have to spend on the front-end investments that would give every child a chance. Conservatives continue to call for dismantling environmental regulations. They slash budgets for policing violations by corporations or cities. They want to slash support for poverty programs and block-grant them to the states and localities. The next time you hear that rap, think of Flint, its poorest children betrayed by state officials. Think of Flint deprived even of safe water in order to save a few bucks. Think of Flint and investigate your own community – the horrors of Flint are not exclusive to that city. Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. is president/CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

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District Chronicles | Jan. 21 - Jan. 27, 2016 | 7

Student Life

Trimming away at illiteracy one haircut at a time By Della Hasselle Special to the Trice Edney News Wire

The Louisiana Weekly

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(Louisiana Weekly) - When it comes to reading, experts say Louisiana has a problem. With a 20 percent illiteracy rate amongst adults, the state is faring worse than the rest of the nation, according the organization proliteracy.org. And in the Greater New Orleans area, nearly 40 percent of the population aged 16 and older have a literacy rate below that of a 5th-grader, according to The Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy. The problem begins in childhood, statistics show. Nationally, one in four children grows up illiterate, often because their parents can’t read. And at least one expert theorizes that kids – especially African-American boys – don’t have Louisianian barber O’Neill Curtis gives a free haircut to child as he reads a book in an effort to reduce illiteracy rate. healthy associations with reading. “A lot of the kids around here According to BeginToRead.com, 85 But what if there was a way to change the association? Perhaps need someone they can look up to,” percent of all juveniles who intereven while getting a haircut in a said O’Neill Curtis, the barber who face with the juvenile court system owns the salon. “They need some- are functionally illiterate, and over barbershop? That’s exactly what some bar- one to motivate them to read. They 70 percent of inmates in America’s bers in Louisiana are hoping to do, need someone to stay on them prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level. thanks to the increasing popularity about it.” “The link between academic Curtis and other barbers who of programs that bring children’s books into barbershops and even work with him donate their time failure and delinquency, violence, exchange free haircuts for a kid’s once a month, giving free haircuts and crime is welded to reading at the shop and even sounding out failure,” said the Department of reading session. Although the program hasn’t the words to kids when they have Justice. If brought officially made to New Orits way to New leans, a simiOrleans, yet, lar program to one barbershop Line for Line in Baton Rouge could make is hopping on significant the bandwagon – O’Neill Curtis, Barber from Baton Rouge, Louisiana aimpact, since – thanks to a almost 29 perprogram called cent of families in the metro area Line for Line – which works in part- trouble reading. Thanks to the local St. Aloysius live in poverty, according to The nership with the Louisiana State University Museum of Art to en- School, the children have more Data Center. At the next program in Januthan 3,000 selections to choose courage younger children to read. The program takes place the first from, according to Lucy Perera, the ary, O’Neil will have more barbers Monday of each month at O’Neil’s LSU Museum of Art Coordinator on hand, and new books celebratBarber & Beauty Salon, located at of School & Community Programs ing African-American authors, said Perera. In the future, she even 449 North Acadian St. In addition and founder of the program. “As the barbers clipped away, wants to have a regular book club, to free haircuts and snacks, the LSU Museum of Art holds hands-on stopping every once in a while to tutoring and a program that makes book-making activities and even lean in and assist kids with words, books available for adults, too. “The thing is, any kind of sucoffers select titles for kids to take the boys in the chairs were 100 perhome, courtesy of a Free Little Li- cent focused on reading,” said Pere- cess has to come from within,” brary for kids, assembled and reg- ra about the first literacy program said Perera. “I planted the seed, istered by the Mid-City Redevelop- at the barbershop, which took place but want the seed to grow with the Dec. 4. “It was a magical evening. guys at the barbershop.” ment Alliance.

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They need someone to motivate them to read.

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Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington District of Columbia DC business owners get amnesty from non-compliance fines through Feb. 29

Prince George’s Pet vaccination temporarily suspended in February The Low-Cost Wellness Vaccination Clinic at the Prince George’s County Animal Services Facility is taking a break during the cold weather and temporarily suspending vaccination services in

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he Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) has created the Business License Amnesty Program, which will allow businesses to become compliant with District regulations by obtaining business licenses, corporate registrations, and weights and measures device registrations without penalties, late fees, or delinquent filing fees. “We understand that, sometimes, not being current with licensing requirements has more to do with economic hardship than indifference to the law. This Amnesty Program offers businesses who may have suffered a financial setback a fresh start for the new year to do business in the District,” said DCRA Director Melinda Bolling of the program which started at the start of the year. The Amnesty Program continues through February 29. All businesses within the District of Columbia, operating with an expired license or without a license qualify to participate in the program, as do customers with revoked corporate statuses, missing or expired business licenses, and unregistered weights and measures devices. Late fees will not be imposed upon individuals or entities who take advantage of the program. “With licensing and corporate

DCRA’s Melinda Bolling says the amnesty gives businesses a fresh start for the year.

registration, compliance is our priority. The Amnesty Program provides an opportunity for businesses across the District to come into full compliance with business license and corporation laws without financial penalty,” said Bolling. Below is a list of customers eligible to participate in the program:

Business operating without registration of commercial weights and scales, UPC scanners, etc.

Businesses operating under an expired license. Business operating without a license, or corporate registration in revoked status.

Individuals filing in person can visit DCRA at 1100 4th St., SW, Washington, DC 20024 Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. The agency is also extending hours on Thursdays until 6:30 pm to accommodate customers’ schedules. For more information about DCRA’s Amnesty Program, visit www.dcra.dc.gov.

February. Walk-in services will resume Thursday, March 3, from 12-2 p.m. No appointment is necessary. “The Low-Cost Wellness Vaccination Clinic provides an invaluable service to our pet community and their owners,” said Chief Rodney Taylor, Associate Director of the Animal Services Facility. “Unfortunately, the extremely cold temperatures may adversely impact animals and owners that wait to receive vaccination servic-

es. To ensure their safety, the clinic will suspend vaccination services during the month of February. We look forward to resuming normal services in March.” The Low-Cost Wellness Vaccination Clinic at the Prince George’s County Animal Services Facility is located at 3750 Brown Station Road in Upper Marlboro. For more information, contact CountyClick at 3-1-1 or the Animal Services Facility at (301) 7807201.

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In the Neighborhood

Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington Prince George’s

Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis moving to Suitland

rince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III released the following statement following the United States Department of Commerce’s Economics & Statistics Administration (ESA) announcement this week that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will be moving to the Suitland Federal Center in Maryland in June 2016.

“I am very excited to learn that the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will be moving their ‘Data Campus’ to the Suitland Federal Center located in Prince George’s County this June. The move of BEA to Prince George’s County will mean hundreds of high quality jobs in Prince George’s County, potentially resulting in a measurable surge in economic activity in Suitland – one of our high priority Transit Oriented Development (TOD) target areas as well as one of our six Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative communities. “I am very thankful and ap-

preciative to the Obama Administration, the General Services Administration (GSA), and our incredible Congressional delegation for advocating for the Suitland Federal Center as the new home to this critical bureau for the Department of Commerce. I am committed to continuing our work toward Suitland’s renaissance and transforming this community into one of our County’s key growth areas to live, work, and play. “A recent retail study shows that the Federal Center is right in the midst of one of the strongest areas in the County, due to a high walk score and public transpor-

tation within a mile of Metrorail and bus. These conditions make for not only an attractive employment center, but a blossoming retail and housing hub. Among projects underway or planned in the vicinity of the Suitland Federal Center are the Apollo Aspire luxury apartment complex at Branch Avenue Metro, the Suitland Town Center, other housing projects, and the potential for the Citizens and Immigration Services relocation under a pending GSA site procurement. “Today’s announcement continues several years of economic expansion and development and job growth in Prince George’s

County, resulting in over $7 billion dollars of pipeline economic investment and the highest job and employment rates in the [c] ounty in the last eight years. This is great news to start off a new year and I am confident that this is just the beginning of a very productive and prosperous 2016 in Prince George’s County. “On behalf of the 900,000 residents of Prince George’s County, I am proud to say ‘Welcome to Suitland and Prince George’s County!’ to the employees and contractors of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics & Statistics Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

Volunteers capture the spirit of MLK Service Day at Ballou, Hart and Simon schools in the District

Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles

Robert Eubanks/DistrictChronicles

Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles

Robert Eubanks/DistrictChronicles

Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles

12 | Jan. 21 - Jan. 27, 2016 | District Chronicles