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June 5 - June 11, 2014
Black men push to include women in MBK initiative Page 2 www.districtchronicles.com
Volume 13 Issue 42
6
Editorial
We need to be our brother’s and sister’s keeper By Luke Charles Harris Special to the NNPA News Service
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’ve been told I should be the first among many to celebrate President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative. After all, I came from a “broken family.” In fact, I am a Black man who was functionally fatherless twice over, and earlier in my life I wrapped my vision of racial uplift around the ways that men like my fathers were damaged by a system that both feared and fetishized them. My brother and I were abandoned in a welfare shelter by our mother, Gertrude, who had lost her own mother when she was a young girl. As a consequence of suffering that, she was institutionalized at a mental facility when she was just 13. At 16, she left the state, beginning a life-long struggle with heroin and alcohol addiction. Ultimately, she bore at least seven children, and either formally or informally traded her beauty for money and temporary security she could garner from the men willing to pay. My brother and I were rescued by Eva, our great aunt, who raised us on welfare in Camden, N.J., while working side jobs as a domestic to keep food on the table. Charlie, her husband, lost his handle on life. After attempting to murder my brother and me and commit suicide, he, too was committed to an asylum. And, the clearest memory that I have of Luke – the man I knew as my “biological” father – was the summer day he took me at the age of five, and my 4-year-old brother Larry to a bar, and forced us to drink straight scotch for his amusement. It’s reasonable to assume that I would understand and actually encourage My Brother’s Keeper’s male focus. But my vision of racial justice changed the day I realized that, notwithstanding my politics of racial solidarity, I failed to include, much less center, the very women who bore and nurtured me, the women who struggled against, and sometimes failed in the face of stifling conditions that threatened their very existence. How can any of us in good faith think that beginning and ending
Harris was among 200 men that signed a letter to President Obama urging that My Brother’s Keeper initiative put just as much focus on women of color.
the quest for racial justice by bettering the lives of males even remotely justifies the deafening silence that obscures the lives of women like my two mothers – lives that were traumatized and devastated because they were poor, Black and female? These were the women who tried to care for me despite the barriers they faced – one sacrificed what little she had to provide a home for me, while the other lost a battle with the demons that ushered her to an early grave. I want to think that had I been at Obama’s press conference as a young man, I would have thanked Eva for her support throughout my life, and that I would have also been able to passionately call for public policies and private initiatives to support her as well as to remove the obstacles that confronted my absent mom, dad and stepfather. But as much as I’d like to think this, I know that as a young man growing up in a community that embraces the idea that Black men are worse off than Black women, it is nearly impossible to forward such a position. Unfortunately, President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, like the Million Man March in 1995, is really a rebranded strug-
gle by and for Black male leadership, empowerment and responsibility that ignores the harm that results from this truncated vision of racial justice. To the president’s credit, the initiative symbolizes a much-needed acknowledgment that racial disparity is still alive and growing in the U.S. Moreover, it represents an utterly unprecedented collaboration between the public, private, and philanthropic sectors designed to help lift up boys and men of color out of poverty and to cut off the school to prison pipeline. But the underlying message here is rooted in the idea that if we help the boys and men, then the situation of girls and women will inevitably get better. At its core, this vision is animated by patriarchal sensibilities – sensibilities that take as normative and unremarkable all of the ways that Black women are disadvantaged as women, while, at the same time, deeming all of the ways in which Black men are disadvantaged as men as uniquely problematic. Luke Charles Harris is co-founder of the African American Policy Forum and assistant professor of political science at Vassar College in New York.
Finance
Housing recovery bypasses Blacks, Latinos By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist
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cholars from several of the nation’s most-esteemed colleges and universities jointly concluded that the nation’s so-called housing “recovery” is bypassing communities of color and workingclass neighborhoods. Underwater America, their new report, analyzed negative equity and foreclosure data using zip codes in metropolitan areas. According to the report, nearly one in 10 Americans or 28.7 million people, live in the 100 hardest hit cities from the housing crisis. Among the 395 hardest-hit zip codes across the country, Blacks and Latinos represent at least half of that population. And in 57 cities, at least 30 percent of all mortgaged homes are still underwater, defined as owing more on their loans than their homes are now worth. Published by the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, the report’s authors come from Occidental College, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The New School and George Washington University. Commenting on Underwater America, john a. powell [Yes, that’s how he writes it], Haas Institute Director and Professor of Law, Ethnic and African-American Studies at UC-Berkeley, said, “The Underwater America report is important because it reveals that a large part of the country is not only not recovering, it is largely being ignored. These are disproportionately Black and Latino communities.” Today, homeownership represents 92 percent of the net worth for Blacks and 67 percent for Latinos. Whites, by comparison, only have 58 percent of their wealth in their homes. And despite rising home prices in many areas of the country, owner-occupied housing still remains $3.2 trillion below 2006 levels. By examining trends by zip codes, the new report determined which states had the highest housing hardships. In order of severity they are: Georgia (61), Florida (55), Illinois (47), Michigan (38), Ohio (33), New Jersey (32), Maryland (24), Missouri (21), California (17),
Many in the Black community still remain in underwater mortgages.
Nevada (10) and North Carolina (10). The zip code analysis also revealed negative housing patterns in specific city neighborhoods. Again, ranked by the rate of severity, the following cities had serious and multiple neighborhood problems: Las Vegas, Atlanta, Jacksonville (Fla), Orlando, Chicago, Tampa, Detroit, Miami, Memphis, Virginia Beach, Riverside (Calif.), Kansas City (Mo.), St. Louis, Cleveland and Milwaukee. For example, in Atlanta, more than 400,000 consumers remain underwater on their mortgages. Another 5,400 homeowners in 2013 went into either default or foreclosure. Additionally, the market’s home prices are still 27 percent below their peak levels. “These challenges faced by cities represent opportunities for communities to empower themselves to save their homes, their neighborhoods and restore their community’s wealth,” added powell. The irony to this still-unfolding saga is that over succeeding generations, buying a home was a reliable gateway to building wealth and financial security. Owning a home “free and clear” was a cause for celebration attested to family financial security. But as earlier research by the Center for Responsible Lending, which was cited in the Haas report, revealed, the years leading up to the housing crisis found communities of
color – Black and Latino – targeted for high-cost, risky loans even when borrowers qualified for lower-cost and more sustainable mortgages. Instead of earning home equity, many borrowers of color lost thousands of dollars in what is often the single largest investment of a lifetime. Underwater America states, “For African-American and Latinos specifically between 2005 and 2009, they experienced a decline in household wealth of 52 percent and 66 percent, respectively, compared to 16 percent for Whites. This reflects, in large part, disparities in foreclosure rates among these groups, since for most Americans, and particularly for people of color, their homes are their largest source of wealth.” The report recommends remedies that include a defined role for nonprofit organizations in addition to efforts by governments and banks. The three stakeholder groups working together could and should reverse the losses of recent years. According to Saqib Bhatti, one of the report’s authors and a fellow with the Nathan Cummings Foundation, “We believe that if banks are unwilling or unable to write down underwater mortgages to the current market value of the homes, then local officials should take the decision out of their hands.” Charlene Crowell is a communications manager with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org
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Neighborhood By Tanaysha Smith HU News Service
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long Georgia Avenue Northwest, near Missouri Avenue, are local District of Columbia stores such as Dollar and Beyond, Brightwood Liquors, No. 1 Beauty Supply and D.C. Medical Supply, Inc., small businesses frequented by residents in the Brightwood community. The store names are not lit up like the big-box Wal-Mart Supercenter adjacent to them. Although many sell the same products and services, this new competitor brings in more problems than business competition. According to a representative from the Georgia Avenue Business Alliance, “businesses, located across from the Wal-Mart where the parking lane was removed to accommodate access to Wal-Mart’s parking lot, are concerned about the impact on their business.” Before the WalMart was built this metered parking lane allowed customers of the local businesses quick access to their stores. Now, the customers are no longer allowed to park in the lane in front of the stores. The 106,000 square-foot store located near Georgia and Missouri
avenues has a full grocery selection, fresh produce, a bakery, deli, pharmacy, garden center, photo center and general merchandise. The store employs over 300 associates and offers benefit packages for full-time employees. The store also has underground parking for customers and employees. Still, some residents and community leaders are raising their voices in opposition to the new store. Ward 4 Thrives has opposed the opening of Wal-Mart stores across the District for several years and led the way for protests of the Georgia Avenue Wal-Mart. Ward 4 Thrives is an organization comprised of residents and business owners of the ward. Their mission is to strengthen community-based governance and community-led development. Since the Wal-Mart Supercenter store located at 5929 Georgia Ave. NW opened its doors on Dec. 4, 2013, activists have voiced their concerns regarding the negative effects that the business brings to other businesses in the Brightwood neighborhood. At the opening, Ward 4 Thrives organized a protest to raise public awareness of the dangers Wal-Mart poses to their neighborhood. Ward 4 Thrives spokesperson Willie Baker says, “We have handed
Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles
Georgia Avenue Businesses adjusting to Walmart
Protesters were present during the opening of the Georgia Avenue Walmart last December.
out literature there because the first thing they did was bring in a lot of low wage jobs…right now there is a city minimum wage of $8.25 an hour and soon it will be raised, so that will bring up people’s salaries which will help.” Baker also said that with every new Wal-Mart the city has to pick up a lot of expenses because the workers are entitled to welfare. An expense that the city has to account for is uncompensated health care. If an employee does not have
health insurance and they go to the hospital for services that a family physician would typically treat, the money to cover costs would come from the city. Baker further subscribes to the notion that traffic is an issue. “If you come down this way between 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock, you notice the traffic on Military Road will bebacked up all the way to 16th Street under that under pass,” he said. Store owners have been affected by the Wal-Mart in a business and
personal sense. No. 1 Beauty Supply owner declined to speak about the toll Wal-Mart has had on his business and only said, “No it’s okay, I just don’t want to talk about it.” Dollar and Beyond store manager Kamran Qureshi says, “As Wal-Mart came we actually gained some new customers. With old ones, we lost some. Parking became quite an issue when Wal-Mart came, they took the parking away so that became an inconvenience to our customers.”
Divine Intervention Gay marriage gains momentum By Kevin Eckstrom Religion News Service 10 years can make a world of difference. In May 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Today, 19 states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage, and federal courts have removed bans in 11 more states. 44 percent of Americans now live in states that allow same-sex marriage. Despite these gain in favor of gay marriage, the debate on samesex marriage is far from over - some conservatives insist that it will never be. However, it seems that pro-gay groups have gained more momentum. Gays and lesbians have become more visible, and Americans are growing increasingly comfortable with it. The culture changed faster than conservatives thought possible, as popular gay characters on “Will & Grace” and “Glee” became
viewer favorites. Coupled with an aggressive campaign targeted at gays and lesbians to come out to their families and colleagues, Americans now have innumerable loved ones that are the new faces of the gay movement. That, says Evan Wolfson of New York-based Freedom to Marry, carries more weight than any court ruling or legislative vote. “There’s no question that popular celebrities and religious figures who speak out create the air cover for the ground game of personal conversations,” says Wolfson. President Obama’s White House shaped the cultural narrative around gay rights by ending the 17-year Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military. Like Obama, millions of Americans reached the same conclusion: If gay men and women can die for their country, why shouldn’t they be allowed to marry? Perhaps most significantly,
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Obama’s Justice Department dropped its defense of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, concluding that the federal ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. Conservative activists concluded that the only solution to stopping gay marriage was a nationwide ban, and they started with the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. A federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage has languished in Congress for years — and now Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, calls such a strategy “a politically ridiculous thing” to talk about. “If we would have known 10 years ago that the rule of law would no longer be in play, maybe we would have had a different strategy,” added Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who accused Obama of “unleashing lawlessness on the country.” “They set an impossible goal for themselves by saying from day
one that the goal would be not one gay marriage on one square inch of American soil, and that was never going to happen,” says Jonathon Rauch, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Perhaps the biggest obstacle facing supporters of traditional marriage is the negative image that they have had difficulty overcoming. While chafing at comparisons to racism and Jim Crow laws, Maggie Gallagher, the matriarch of the traditional marriage movement, concedes that her side has been labeled as “hateful and bigoted.” It’s no accident that opponents of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California, adopted the logo of “No H8.” “There was the evangelical belligerence in the last generation that spoke about the gay agenda, in which there was this picture, almost as though there is a group of super villains in a lair, plotting the
downfall of the family,” Moore told a gathering of journalists in March. Conservatives also weathered a host of guilty-by-association accusations, which were hard to get away from. In Arizona, a bill that supporters said would protect religious freedom was conveyed as license to turn gays away from public businesses. Evangelical opposition to homosexuality was exported to Africa, which took the form of harsh laws that sent known homosexuals to jail, or even sentenced them to death. It was no longer popular, or politically correct, to stand against popular culture and a swiftly changing popular opinion. “They showed no compassion for gay people, and they didn’t offer any substitutes like protecting gay families or gay kids,” Rauch said. “That lack of compassion came through. It took a little while to register, but the American public does not like lack of compassion.”
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Cover
New report: Blacks are ‘beyond broke’
By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent
School in New York City said that baby bonds could help close the wealth gap. “The idea is that as an adult you can engage in wealth building you can purchase an asset so that you have the opportunity to build economic security over a lifetime,” said Hamilton. He explained: “If the average account is $20,000 at birth and we have about 4 million babies born per year, that would make the cost of around $80 billion a year for the program.” Hamilton said that would be about 2.2 percent of the federal budget and rival what gets spent at the Department of Education. He said: “If you could design another program like the Department of Education that would help close the racial wealth gap and provide economic security for all Americans I ask, would you do it?” Maya Rockeymoore, president of the think tank that produced the report, said that the African-American community should know that it’s not about them, it’s about the system and how it is structured with policies that deny their opportunity to have equitable chances for growing wealth in this nation. “We’ve been told that all of
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WASHINGTON – The growing racial wealth gap – $200 in median wealth for Blacks in 2011 and $23,000 for Whites – threatens national economic security in the United States, according to a recent report by the Center for Global Policy Solutions. “When it comes to the racial gap in liquid wealth, African Americans and Latinos are nearly penniless,” stated the report. “The median liquid wealth of Whites is over 100 times that of Blacks.” The report said that when retirement savings are taken out of the analysis, the disparities in liquid wealth are even more disturbing. “Blacks are found to hold a mere $25 and Latinos just $100 in liquid wealth, compared to $3,000 held by the typical White household,” the report said. During a press conference on the report on Capitol Hill, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said that the racial gap is not some product of changes in the economy. “It’s our tax policy, designed to help the rich, It’s also our trade policy, off-shoring our jobs and it’s
also the attack on unions,” said Ellison. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) said that families are living paycheck to paycheck and are drowning in debt from predatory loans and mortgages and decreased home values following the housing crisis. This great divide in wealth has contributed to many of the problems that are facing communities of color, including lower educational achievement and family insecurity, according to Horsford. He said that minorities were institutionally restricted from having access to wealth-building tools largely until the Civil Rights Movement and, though explicit institutional racism has somewhat subsided, the wide gap in wealth between families of color and White families is still a reflection of more discreet systematic and social barriers that have limited economic mobility. The report outlined a number of policy recommendations, including a universal “baby bond” trust program. Darrick Hamilton, associate professor of Economics and Urban Policy Milano Graduate School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) discusses wealth gap as Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) looks on.
the households have recovered from the recession, that’s what the Federal Reserve data shows,” said Rockeymoore, president and CEO for the Center for Global Policy Solutions. “What our study shows is that for every dollar in wealth held by typical White family, AfricanAmerican and Latino families only have six and seven cents.” There are elements of personal responsibility connected to how we build and grow wealth, but the structural elements outweigh the personal considerations, said Rockeymoore. “In order to make policy change you have to be politically involved,” said Rockeymoore. “In order to
make sure your bank account looks different, there are certain things that you can do as well.” Whatever it takes, the country can’t continue to go down this road, said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), noting that in less than 30 years, the majority of people living in the United States will be people of color. Cummings said: “If you have the majority in this country who are not earning enough money to take care of their families, who are not earning enough to create a savings account and don’t have pensions, who’s going to buy the refrigerators, who’s going to buy the curtains who’s going to buy the cars?”
Extending school day eyed as achievement gap solution By Jazelle Hunt NNPA Washington Correspondent Six decades after Brown v. Board of Education, an old idea is being resurrected in hopes of narrowing the education gap between Blacks and Whites – expanding the school day. “By sixth grade, low-income students have a 6,000 hour learning gap over the course of their lifetime, accounting for these field trips, and summer learning opportunities. That’s an incredible deficit that our low-income students are trying to go through school with,” said Christopher Caruso, senior vice president of ExpandED Schools at The After-School Corporation (TASC), a non-profit policy and advocacy organization. “If your day is limited to St. Nicholas Avenue and Lennox Avenue in Harlem [New York], or a six-block radius for 15 years, you don’t have that experience, that vocabulary. So the amount of work
that you have to do to show competency in testing, is tremendous.” The theory is that if there was more time in the school day, underresourced schools could provide the same rich experiences, in-depth lessons, and extra tutoring that middle- and upper-class students receive. Allowing more time for these perks during school hours ensures that all students receive them. “It’s not that schools haven’t worked with students in the past to help them catch up, but … usually you would tackle that in an after-school venue,” said Barbara Pulliam Davis, superintendent of the Greene County School District in Greensboro, Ga. “With extended learning time, because it’s part of the school day, every student gets to participate. There’s no ‘I can’t stay late because my mom wants me home.’” ELT schools and districts devise a daily schedule or calendar year that adds hours or days to the tradi-
6 | Jun. 5 - Jun. 11, 2014 | District Chronicles
tional one. School years are usually elongated by shortening summer vacation, or adding Saturday instruction. School days are extended by combining a variety of tactics, such as: beginning the school day earlier; adding extra blocks of time throughout the day for non-traditional learning; minimizing transitions and other non-instructional moments, and more. Schools generally use this additional time in four ways: remediation for students who need it; offering advanced lessons and projects for above-average students; conducting peer-development and creative lesson-planning time for teachers; and/or leading enrichment activities for students. For example, students at Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School in New York City create their own public art exhibits and visit cultural gems such as the Museum of Modern Art, thanks to a partnership with arts education organiza-
tion, Doing Art Together. ELT is also used as a “turnaround” method for schools that are doing poorly academically, as measured by state and federal exams. Greene County High School in Georgia, for example, has seen improvement among its students since the district adopted an “increased learning time” schedule. After using extended time to prepare for the Georgia High School Writing Test, 94 percent of students met or exceeded expectations on the first try. There are more than 1,000 schools across the country that have voluntarily switched to ELT schedules, most of which are public schools. In the case of Greene County (and many others), schools construct an ELT program to comply with Department of Education grants they receive. Aligning with federal policy in this way mitigates one of the criticisms of extended learning — its high cost.
Extending the school year (as opposed to the length of a school day) means added costs to run the building longer. Enriching activities such as dance and robotics are also costly (without a generous community partner). Then, there is the tricky task of paying teachers for the additional time, while honoring contractual caps on the number of hours worked. “It’s not just packing an extra hour or two in the school day when what you do with the extra time supports the vision of the school overall,” said Jessica Cardichon, director of federal advocacy for the Alliance of Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy organization for effective high school reform. “It’s not more time to do more of the same things. It’s time to expose students to different experiences and opportunities, and to enhance different skills that they might not have otherwise been exposed to before.”
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f you let the Republicans tell it, President Obama is directly responsible for the fiasco at the Veterans Administration. But they don’t tell you that fresh off of Memorial Day parade appearances, they are responsible for scuttling legislation that would have expanded benefits for the nation’s 22 million veterans and their families. A measure backed by Obama would have lengthened the period veterans are eligible to receive health care from the VA from five years to 10 years after deployment. The bill also would have allowed the VA to open 27 new health facilities, expand medical and dental care, make more veterans eligible for in-state tuition at public universities, repeal the recent cut in cost-of-living adjustments for new enlistees and extend a program that provides care for veterans with mild to severe brain injuries. More than 20 military organizations – including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Wounded Warriors Project and Disabled American Veterans – supported the bill. William A. Thien, commanderin-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, submitted a letter saying, “This legislation is the most comprehensive veterans’ legislation to be introduced in decades. It contains many of the VFW’s priority goals, which will implement, expand and improve both health care and benefit services to all generations of veterans and their families.” Senate Bill S.1982, known as the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014, was favored on Feb. 27 in the Senate 56-41. But the measure fell four votes shy of the number needed to overcome a threatened GOP filibuster. Every Democrat voted for the bill and only two Republican senators – Jerry Moran of Kansas and Dean Heller of Nevada – voted for the measure. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the committee, said: “We have
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McConnell and Senate GOP’s shutdown of a comprehensive VA bill earlier this year is a major contributor to the problem.
veterans dying from long waits for basic, necessary tests like colonoscopies. Veterans waiting for their disability claims to be processed know all about frustrations and delays at the VA, and adding more individuals to an already broken system doesn’t seem wise.” Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader from Kentucky, accused Democrats of engaging in election-year politics, a charge Senate Veterans’ Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), denied. He told reporters after the vote: “The point of the matter is if we had won today … both parties could have gone out and said we finally overcame all of the partisanship we see here in Washington. This could have been a political winner, if you like, and certainly a public policy winner for both Democrats and Republicans.” More than two dozen veterans groups had supported the measure. According to the Washington Post, Daniel M. Dellinger, national commander of the American Legion, said, “I don’t know how anyone who voted ‘no’ today can look a veteran in the eye and justify that vote. Our veterans deserve more than what they got today.” According to MediaMatters, the watchdog group, the media failed miserably in letting the public know Republicans were blocking the legislation. “While mainstream media coverage of the serious allegations of improper practices at certain De-
partment of Veterans Affairs (VA) health clinics has been extensive in recent weeks, a bill to expand health care for veterans that was blocked by Senate Republicans in February received little attention,” it noted. “…Based on a LexisNexis search television transcripts from February 26 to 28, the veterans health bill was not covered by ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, or CBS Evening News,” the media monitoring group said. “Based on a LexisNexis search of news articles from February 26 to 28, neither the New York Times nor the Wall Street Journal reported on Senate Republicans’ obstruction of the legislation that would have allowed the VA to open 27 new health facilities.” The media has also done a poor job describing how proposed budget cuts will impact veterans. For example, the Republicanled cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, will hurt veterans as well other low-income families, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a Washingtonbased think tank. Republicans need to do more than simply wave the American flag. George E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA) He can be reached on www.georgecurry. com. Follow him on Twitter at @currygeorge.
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Messiah and Friends at G2 Lounge 10-21-11. See more photos at flickr.com/amgunited.
The AJADD device monitors a swimmer’s vitals in real time and sends alerts if the swimmer is in danger.
By Pastor George A. McKinney Special to the NNPA from the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint SAN DIEGO — Four years ago Pastor George A. McKinney and his family hosted one of his annual pool parties. Nothing was out of the ordinary for this event, which McKinney had been hosting for more than a decade without incident. This year was the exception. In the pool, the kids were playing dead man’s float when sevenyear-old Albert went under. No one immediately noticed and before anyone was aware, he was at the bottom of the pool. Once he was discovered, a few people immediately dove to the bottom, brought Albert to the pool’s edge and began to perform CPR as one of the parents called 911. The paramedics rushed him to the hospital, but he could not be saved. Pastor McKinney, his family and all families involved were deeply impacted by the tragedy. McKinney wrestled with Albert’s death. “I asked the Lord, ‘what is to be learned from this?’ To me it was a senseless tragedy. It was at that time, I initially started seeing some visions of a device. I
had a dream, and in the dream I saw schematics [of] what it would look like. The Lord started showing me these things. So I started committing my thoughts to paper, and that was the birth of AJADD.” AJADD, partly named after Albert, is an underwater distress signal device in the form of a watch or hand instrument that would be worn on the body. The device uses GPS technology, vitality monitoring, and swimmer identification
accidental drowning has had on the African-American community. “I started inquiring into the lives of African-American families within my church and in the community, and I found that many of them have had a cousin, sister, or close friend who has drowned – but yet, nobody ever reports that this is a problem.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 80 percent of people who drown are male. Children ages 1- 4 have the highest drowning rates, and most of those drownings occur in – Pastor George McKinney homes or swimming pools. The fatal drowning technologies to alert of a swim- rate of African- American children mer’s imminent danger. It sends in this age group is almost three and receives signals in real time to times that of White children. a lifeguard or caretaker, on land or McKinney said that factors on ship. such as access to pools, the desire “The problem with most or lack thereof to learn to swim drownings is that you can’t even and choosing water recreational tell. [The swimmer] looks like activities contributes to these stathey’re just playing in water. Be- tistics. fore you know it, it’s too late,” said “In the poorer communities, we McKinney. “There’s like a 2 to 3 don’t choose water-related activiminute window that you have to ties, so we’re not accustomed. We get to them. A device that creates get out there and we’re not used to early detection is so important.” it, and we get in trouble. Choosing It was during the patent pro- water-related activities contributes cess that Pastor McKinney began to to the racial differences in drownunderstand the devastating effects ing rates.”
Most drownings ... there is like a 2 to 3 minute window
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In the Neighborhood
Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington District of Columbia Howard Board of Trustees elects alumnae as chairman
T
he Howard University Board of Trustees elected alumnus Stacey J. Mobley, as chairman, effective July 1, during its April meeting. He succeeds Addison Barry Rand. “It is an honor to be elected by my colleagues to serve as chair of the board of trustees of my alma mater,” said Mobley. “The board’s charge is a sacred trust as we position Howard for the next 150 years.” Robert L. Lumpkins, chair of the finance committee, and Howard University alumna Benaree Pratt Wiley, chair of the academic excellence and transition committees, were elected vice chairs of the board. They succeed Renee HigginbothamBrooks. The board elects leadership annually. During the meeting, the board commended and thanked Rand and Higginbotham-Brooks for their service. “Howard is one of the most important institutions in American higher education,” said Rand. “I have had the privilege of serving alongside a dedicated, talented and spirited group of men and women who work tirelessly to advance the university. We made significant progress and laid the foundation for future growth. I am excited and confident about this newly elected board leadership team and the enhanced board governance structure.”
Montgomery County Montgomery County voters have option to vote by mail Montgomery County voters now have the option to request an application online to vote in the Gubernatorial Primary Election via mail. If you request a vote by mail ballot, it will be your official ballot and you will not be able to vote on the touch screen voting machine at
New elected Howard Board members Mobley is senior counsel of Dickstein Shapiro, LLP, having retired as senior vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of DuPont, the global science-based products and services company, in Wilmington, DE. He was the 2003 corporate campaign chairman for the NAACP, and was named one of America’s top Black lawyers by Black Enterprise. A member of the Pennsylvania, District of Columbia and U.S. Supreme Court bars, Mobley earned both his pharmacy and law degrees from Howard University. Lumpkins is chairman of the board of The Mosaic Company in Minneapolis, MN, and a retired vice chairman of Cargill Incorporated. He began his career with Cargill in 1968, and served in a succession of line and financial management positions until his retirement in 2006. He was Cargill’s chief financial officer from 1989 to 2005, was elected to the Cargill board of directors in 1991, and elected vice chairman in 1995. He received a B.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Pratt Wiley is principal of The Wiley Group, a firm specializing in strategy, talent management and leadership development. For 15 years, she served as the president and chief executive officer of The Partnership, Inc., a talent management organization for multicultural professionals in the greater Boston, MA, region. Under her leadership, The Partnership, Inc., strengthened the capacity of greater Boston to attract, retain and develop talented professionals of color and helped more than 1,300 African Americans integrate into the corporate community. She was featured on the cover of Boston magazine as one of Boston’s most powerful women.
the polls on Election Day, June 24, or during Early Voting, June 12-19. To apply for a vote by mail ballot, those interested can visit www.777vote.org and select Vote by Mail. Completed applications may be mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to the Board of Electionsby June 17, by 8 p.m. via mail or in person, and 11:59 p.m. by fax or e-mail. For the first time in this election, most voters also have the option to request a blank ballot that they must print themselves and mail back in their own envelope.
Online applications may be received at any time before June 20 at 8 p.m. After the aforementioned dates, vote by mail ballot applications may be requested in person at the Montgomery County Board of Elections office, located at 18753 N. Frederick Avenue, Suite 210, in Gaithersburg. The office is open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. During Early Voting, June 12-19, the office is open from 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m., and on Saturdays, May 31 and June 21, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
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District Chronicles | Jun. 5 - Jun. 11, 2014 | 11
In the Neighborhood
Howard students pay college bill playing at metro station
By Chelsea Floyd Contributing writer
Joe Wilson
T
he sun is barely peaking out over the horizon. But Joe Wilson is already setting up his last instrument in front of Gallery Place Metro Station. A sign “Tuition” announces what this gig is all about. An audience is beginning to mill around, anticipating Wilson’s first note. On their part, D.C. police officers are in action, keeping the station entrance and exit open. It was the beginning of just another normal morning for Joe Wilson, a junior music technology and jazz studies double major at Howard University. At 20, Wilson is as close to being an accomplished musician as any student can be. He is in six local bands and plays five different instruments while balancing school work and his new position as 2014- 2015 president of the Zeta Iota Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, an organization of men with special gifts in music. Wilson was born in Glenridge, NJ, but grew up in Mitchellville, MD. He first became interested in playing music at four years old when he saw an old favorite cartoon, Bugs Bunny, playing on Looney Tunes. “I can do that, too,” he told himself. He began taking piano lessons in preschool, learned the trombone in middle school and taught himself to play the bass and guitar in high school. “I didn’t get fully involved in music until 2011, my senior year of high school,” Wilson said. “I got rejected from University of Maryland as a computer science major. I didn’t know what direction to take until a teacher of mine suggested I apply to Howard as a music major.” Bands director John Newson, and associate director Kelvin Washington taught Joe to play his latest instrument, the baritone, in the Howard University Showtime Marching Band. Joe’s parents were both singers around the house, he says, though not professionally. “They’re actually tax consultants,” he said. But it was great singer Marvin Gaye and other professional entertainers who inspired Joe’s interest in music. “I love Marvin Gaye’s
Wilson (second from left) and his Zeta Iota Chapter brothers gather to play at Gallery Place Metro to raise money for college tuition.
music very much. Oh and Bill Evans and Herby Hancock,” Wilson said. Asked what his favorite song on his iPod playlist was, Wilson reached into his back pocket, pulled out his iPod and excitedly played aloud Shadows by Childish Gambino - an upbeat rap song. Wilson and four other fraternity brothers, Anthony Daniel Jr., Jarvis Hooper, Keith George Jr., David Bamber and Stanley Banks Jr., gather each morning upon availability at 5:30 a.m, most mornings
12 | Jun. 5 - Jun. 11, 2014 | District Chronicles
at Gallery Place Metro Station to play music and collect money for their $15,000 per semester, college tuition. “We have to ask the crowd to back up to allow people in and out of the Metro,” said Wilson. “The police are supportive; I think the crowd just likes us.” Wilson recollects one morning performance in the snow. “It was a blizzard, our fingers were freezing so we had to wear gloves but we had to keep going,” Wilson said. “We need money that’s the whole reason we started. Everyone in our
band has a don’t quit attitude.” And it’s paying off. Asked if the tuition sign actually brings in a lot of money, Wilson chuckled. “Just know it’s a lot,” he said. “All members get a cut of money each time we play, the extra money is put toward travel or house keep for the band.” Wilson’s passion toward his band and bond with fraternity brothers compelled him to run for President of the Zeta Iota Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America Inc. He was elected
President in an election in which he ran unopposed. “I had a feeling I would win and it felt unreal when it was finally official,” said Wilson. As exciting as it is, it can also be overwhelming. “It’s like when you’re playing music all your life in front of a large audience you go through all the motions, you remove yourself but put all yourself in it,” Joe said. “I plan to apply the same tactic to being president of my fraternity. I’m excited to take my fraternity and keep it going strong.”