NAACP Montgomery County Branch Newsletter June 2018

Spring 2018 - Edition

Volume II, Issue 4

Quarterly News & Insights into Civil Rights & Social Justice Issues

on

Bethesda North Marriott Center 5701 Marinelli Rd, Rockville, MD 20852 Starts 5pm

MONTGOMERY COUNTY MARYLAND BRANCH P.O. BOX 2165 Rockville, MD 20847-2165

Non - Profit U.S. Postage PAID Suburban, MD Permit #1791

April 22, 2018 — Voter Registration is scheduled at many of the churches that are part of the Montgomery County Black Ministers Conference.

Call your church for exact locations and dates.

April 23, 2018—BOE Candidates Forum @6:30pm at Gaithersburg High School– hosted

by Parents Council April 24, 2018 - General Body -7pm - 8pm @ Carver Education Center 850 Hungerford Dr., Rockville, MD

The Branch hosted a voter registration training provided by the NAACP Nationals Headquarters!

A large number of people attended the In anticipation of the highly contested local elections for federal seats and training, and orientation for VAN (Voter state governor races in the fall, the Action Network), a digital based-register of NAACP Montgomery County Branch all residents in the county. Registration with the help of the NAACP National accuracy is so important because the

May 8, 2018—Youth Council Meeting— Every second Sunday of every month—at Rockville Library, 2nd floor @ 2:00 pm.

May 10, 2018 @ 6:30pm –8:30pm—Parents Council Meeting @ Carver Ed. Center 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD.

FREEDOM FUND DINNER - “Steadfast and Immovable”, the theme of this year’s 43rd Annual Freedom Fund Dinner is scheduled

for Sunday, May 6th at the Bethesda North Marriott Center. Joy Degruy, Ph.D., author and speaker is set to keynote the Dinner with DiRionne Pollard, Ph.D., presiding. 17 scholarships will be awarded; legislative scholarships are $4,000 each. Reception starts at 6 pm, dinner at 7 pm. Tickets are being distributed now. For more information, call Cmt Chair., Yasmina Leggett-Wells at 301-6572062. Adult tickets, $125. Youth: $55., which includes a one-year membership. Close to 40 tables have been sold, so far. To purchase tickets, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com.

Policy-Change: At the February general membership meeting, the body approved a change in policy. The change applies to approved-delegates who did not submit required, written reports of their activity/attendance at conferences/conventions for which the Branch paid registration fees. Registration fees, for future attendance at conferences for these specific delegates, will no longer be provided. This condition is applicable for a two-year period from the date of non-compliance. Records are held by the Secretary and 2nd VP.

Linda Plummer, President of the Branch has been awarded the Roscoe R. Nix Distinguished Community Leadership Awards, honoring community leaders, change agents, and role models who have made extraordinary contributions to Montgomery County. The award will be given April 23, 2018 @6pm at the Imagine Stage 4908 Auburn Ave, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Headquarters held a voter registration 2016 election proved that voter supprestraining and drive on March 27, 2017. sion is still alive and well in America.

With learning lessons from the 2016 Trained and authorized users by National Elections, the branch held a evening can research and identify residents for meeting to train members in regard to voter registration purposes and membernew registrations requirements, regis- ship drives. Subsets of residents can be researched for non-registered voters by tration tools and new equipment.

zip code, age, race and gender.

Competition Day

Saturday, April 28, 2018 9am—3pm Theatre Arts Bld, Montgomery County College In 2016 NAACP National Convention delegates passed, and the National Board affirmed, a resolution calling for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools.

The board subsequently convened a Task Force for Quality Education, which embarked on a national series of hearings to gather data and diverse perspectives on the state of charter schools and their traditional public school counterparts. Read more.

51 Mannakee St, Rockville, MD 20850

Volunteers needed. Call Pat Price at 301-657-2062.

To view the NAACP full report go to:

The NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) is a yearlong achievement program designed to recruit, stimulate, and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African-American high school students. Attend Competition Day!

www/naacp/campaign/naacpplan-action-charter

The YOUTH COUNCIL members attended the Minority Scholars Retreat at Watkins High School in early March. A free ACT/SAT test training was provided. Youth Council elections are scheduled for April; and attendees are planning a meet & greet with the student member of the Board of Education, Matthew Post, a senior at Sherwood High School. Matthew is the 40th student member who sits on the Board’s Fiscal Management Committee and the Policy Management Committee. Matthew was a speaker at the March for Our Lives gathering of 800,000 on 3/24 in Washington, DC. Youth

The National Board convened a Task Force to host a series around the country to investigate the extent of the problem..

1st Vice-President Jeremiah Floyd, Ph.D., represented the Branch joining County Executive Ike Leggett, community leaders & residents at Veterans Plaza in Silver Spring Civic Center to honor Buffalo Soldiers. The Center’s Great Hall was renamed to “The Buffalo Soldiers Great Hall” to pay tribute to their contributions to the nation. The Buffalo Soldiers were formed after Congress passed legislation in the 1860s in which African Americans could enlist in the United States military.

On June 10—12, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the “Fair Housing Act” (passed just after the assassination of MLK) during its annual conference at the Grand Hyatt at 1000 H. Street NW, DC 20001. In its “Fair Housing Trends Report, the NFHA reported that in 2016 there were over 28,181 complaints of housing discrimination. On March 27, 2018, NFHA sued Facebook for online housing advertisement discrimination. Go to: www.nationalfairhousing.org to register and to watch documentary on the Act.

Anisa Thomas President

council members joined their local school groups in participating at the March as well.

The Council will meet with the Frazier Family Christian Circle Unit to view a documentary about Josiah Henson, to be shown at the county Fire & Rescue Training Center arranged by Cpt. Tom’s Cabin”. A park named for him is located in North Bethesda, 11420 Old Georgetown Rd, Rockville, MD 20852.

The Branch congratulates the Youth Council officers who are graduating this year. President Anisa Thomas and Vice President Roderick The LEGAL REDRESS/CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE conducted its third Hart, III are graduating seniors who recently received scholarships from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Xi Sigma Omega Chapter. quarterly Expungement Clinic at the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in February 27, 2018, featuring attorneys from Legal Aid, Maryland Public Defenders Office, and the J. Franklin Bourne Bar Assoc.

The Maryland, ACLU Community Volunteers were huge supporters with monetary sponsorship and marketing along with die hard branch members, depicted in the photo above, who supported the lawyers with their administrative support. To date: Approximately 150 Maryland residents have been served. During the clinic, participants heard from our featured guest Dr. Stanley Andrisse, Asst. ProfesIn celebration of Black History month and the 50th Anniversary of MLK’s Assassination, the Legal Redress/Criminal Justice sor of Medicine at Howard University and author of the book “From Prison Cells to Committee hosted a listening program at the Clarksburg jail where over 100 inmates listened for the first time to a full PHD”. Dr. Andrisse shared his transformation as a former incarcerated to a PHD to inspire those impacted by the criminal justice system. Our next clinic is listed below. speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. titled “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution”. On Dr. Kings Birthday, January

FREE EXPUNGEMENT CLINIC Thursday, May 31, 2018—5pm—9pm

1 Veterans Pl, Silver Spring, MD 20910

19, 2018, during a King celebration community event in the Clarksburg jail, President Plummer learned that many of the inmates had never heard a complete speech of Dr. King. Disturbed by the fact and recognizing that the “Dream” can’t live on if this current generation has no idea what the dream was about - President Plummer commissioned the Legal Redress Committee to address the need. The event was such a success that Judge Carol Scott Berry in the Phoenix Municipal Court in Arizona learned about the program and is going to implement the King Listening program in Arizona. Legal Redress Chair, Jo Saint-George will continue the program on a quarterly basis.

On March 28, 2018, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) nationals, together with Prince George’s County, Maryland, the NAACP Prince George’s County Branch and two county residents, sued the federal government today to combat the imminent threat that the 2020 Census will substantially undercount African Americans and other people of color in communities throughout the United States causing inequalities in political representation and deficiencies in federal funding of those communities. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, seeks to compel the Bureau of the Census, an agency within the Department of Commerce, to prepare for and conduct a full and fair Census in 2020, as the U.S. Constitution expressly requires. “The NAACP is committed to ensuring that the 2020 Census does not systematically undercount communities having large African-American populations, such as inner-city neighborhoods, while substantially overcounting communities that are less racially diverse,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO. “The Census must not serve as a mechanism for diluting the political power of African-American communities and depriving them of their fair share of federal resources for an entire decade,” he added. “We are prepared to fight against any plan that effectively turns the census into another form of voter suppression and economic disempowerment in our communities.” The 2020 Census, however, remains inadequately funded. The Census Bureau is understaffed, and is emphasizing processes that will only serve to increase undercounts in communities of color. The Bureau has no permanent leadership in place to direct the count, and to make matters worse, the Bureau has cancelled crucial pre-Census field tests and is rushing to digitize the Census without adequate cybersecurity protections. The issues facing the 2020 Census have already caused the Government Accountability Office to label it a “high risk program.” “The priorities embraced by the Bureau for the 2020 Census threaten to worsen substantially the undercount of communities of color that occurred in the 2000 and 2010 censuses.

Members must continue to watch the progress of this case.

This 2018 Legislative session at the Maryland State Assembly has been marked with great anxiety over a new Crime Bill SB 122.

The proposed bill places mandatory minimum sentences of up to 40 years for any person convicted of a crime while in possession of a gun. While the national debate regarding the Parkland shooting rages, Maryland’s Senate seeks to lock forever anyone who commits even a misdemeanor with a gun. For example, if you cause a car accident that kills someone, and you have a “registered” and “licensed gun in the car, a person could be sentenced up to 40 years for the in-voluntary manslaughter, and illegal possession of a fire arm in a car. It is illegal for anyone to carry a concealed weapon outside their home.

Dem. Senator Zirkin has assured the House Judiciary Committee that the law would not be used in such an arbitrary way. However, the NAACP Legislative Affairs Director, Kobi Little opposes the bill as a license to lock-up black and brown folks to further the mass incarceration The Bill is still pending a vote—so call your delegate and tell him/or the NAACP opposes SB 122.

Finally, The Baltimore Sun reports that during the Nov. 6 election, Maryland voters will be able to decide whether to approve a new measure allowing people to register to vote on Election Day. The General Assembly approved the measure Monday night, 3/26/18. As a constitutional amendment, it would not need the governor’s signature.

In 2013, the Maryland Assembly enacted Grace’s Law—Code Section 3-805 to address the death of a teenager Grace McComas who committed suicide after she was sexually assaulted by one of her high School schools mates who then sent threatening “tweets” and electronic messages telling her to kill herself. Gracey Law makes it a crime to send an electronic message that “alarms, annoys or harasses anyone for which a max sentence of 1 yr in jail is given.

The Senate seeks to enhance Grace’s Law through the passage of SB 725 and SB 726, which would increase the sentences for violation of the law from 1 year to 3 years with a $10K fine and up to 10 years if the “Cyber Bullying” results in the death of a child. The bills allow parents to seek injunctions against a potential “Cyber Bully” without any evidence and it makes it mandatory for a school principal to report to the police any child the principals has a “good faith” belief is violating the law. The accused child is immediately prosecuted based on a “belief”. The Branch and NAACP State opposes these bills as feeding the school to prison pipeline based on possible unsubstantiated claims by principals. In 2016, pro bono Legal Redress Chair Jo Saint-George fought to prevent the wrongful prosecution and 40 day suspension of a Branch members 13 –year old son who was wrongly accused violating the law. The juvenile court acquitted the kid but the school still suspended him for 40 days despite the fact that Attorney Saint-George provided to the board that there was no evidence of a violation and that the assist principal made false claims against this kid. Attorney Jo Saint-George is requesting that the two bills be amended to protect innocent black and brown kids from wrongful accusations. Contact Jo Saint-George at jo@MinorityCounselor.com to learn the details.

Parent Council Meets School Board In late January the Parents’ Council conducted it annual meet and greet with members of the Board of Education. A lively exchange was held in four discussion circles with parents, students, faculty and BOE members to discuss reform of policy re boundaries; countering implicit bias; improving parent-outreach and input; implementation of equity, future challenges, disparity in discipline, closing the gap and budget priorities.

The Council has also appeared at budget hearings by the Superintendent, the BOE and proposed budget by County Executive Leggett. In Leggett’s budget to the County Council, he included the amount requested by the BOE. Council hearings will be conducted in April. See their Website for dates/times.

with the Parents Council; a program was also held for middle-school students/ families. 300 applicants were accepted into schools, with $1.4 million in scholarships awarded.

In early January, the 16th Annual (Alexandria) Alfred Street Baptist Church HBCU College Fair was held at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor with 10,000 students attending; and more than 80 participating HBCU’s. These are major scholarship opportunities for your children.

The Parents’ Council held an open meeting with Superintendent Jack Smith. He explained his educational philosophy, the impact of his family on educational curricula and took questions from the floor.

In early March, the Parents Council attended a presentation on Community Investment in Early Childcare & Education in Bethesda by the non-profit organizaIn early February, MCPS sponsored its Annual tion, Moving Montgomery Forward, repreHBCU College Fair at Albert Einstein High senting 41 major non-profit organizations School in cooperation with & companies.

On May 18th, the NAACP Education Committee - Parents’ Council hosted its “Best & Brightest” awards meeting where they recognized 27 MCPS staff who did an extraordinary job in serving the student community. The Parents’ Council meets on the 2nd Thursday of every month.

Committee Chair—Byron Johns Contact: bajusa@yahoo.com

During the “Community Investment in Early Childcare and Education” program, handouts noted the status of childcare in the county; and long-term impact of significant benefits of early childhood education, The data provided in the materials noted that there are 67,000 children under the age of 5 in the county. Universal pre-K is a distinguishing issue for candidates for public office in the 6/26 primary election. Check their position papers on their respective Web sites.

At its monthly meeting on 3/13, the Council heard from speakers on “Mentoring Matters”; and distributed a compilation of mentoring programs in all the schools. For next month’s presentation, call Chair. Byron Johns at 301-657-2062; or see the website.

Students can apply now thru June 30th to obtain college scholarships through the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Visit TMCF @:

Jill Ortman-Fouse, At Large Member MCPS

Jeanette E. Dixon, At Large Member MCPS

https://www.tmcf.org/ourscholarships