The Challenge News Magazine. November/December 2021 Holiday Edition.

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Chicago, IL: To many people, Mayor Harold Washington was the greatest mayor Chicago ever had. Chicagoans, Americans and even our global neighbors were thrilled and delighted when he was elected. The benefits Chicagoans reaped from his administration caused his reelection to be a literal piece of cake. Unfortunately, Mayor Washington passed away just months after his reelection, and the world joined Chicago in mourning the passing of this great man.

Now, the Mayor Harold Washington Legacy Committee is inviting the city and nation and the world to help us celebrate Mayor Harold Washington’s 100th Birthday. We’ll be counting down the days and weeks and months leading up to that date by celebrating Mayor Harold Washington everywhere and in every way beginning right now, in the month of May and every

month thereafter until the big day-April, 2022!

The City of Chicago’s Special Events, the Harold Washington Library and the Administration of the Harold Washington City College have already accepted our invitation to be involved. Now we’re inviting Churches, Organizations, Temples, Mosques, Schools, Sororities, and Fraternities, Radio Stations, TV Networks to start now to get your members, students, friend and associated individuals in planning an event-an essay contest, special church concert or service, a “ Happy 100th Harold “ concert, or dance or play or movie showing, or any other creative way we can fill up this year’s calendar with celebration after celebration after celebration.

•To get involved contact Ms. Josie Childs, President, Mayor Harold Washington Legacy Committee at the following email: doublej24@att.net

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with these pagan feasts. At some point, touches of all to Christmas celebration a Christian bishop may have adopted the when they began to sing Christmas carDecember 25th 2021, is now considered day to keep his people from indulging in ols.

Christmas day (Christ's mass). But for the old pagan festival.

No one is sure just when the Christmas the first 300 years of Christianity, it wastree came into the picture. It originated n't so. When was Christmas first celein Germany. The 8th century English brated? In an old list of Roman bishops, missionary, St. Boniface, Apostle to Gercompiled in A. D. 354 these words apmany, is supposed to have held up the pear for A.D. 336: "25 Dec.: natus evergreen as a symbol of the everlasting Christus in Bethlehem Judea." DecemChrist. By the end of the sixteenth centuber 25th, Christ born in Bethlehem, Jury, Christmas trees were common in dea. This day, December 25, 336, is the Germany. Some say Luther cut the first, first recorded celebration of Christmas. took it home, and decked it with candles For the first three hundred years of the to represent the stars. When the German church's existence, birthdays were not court came to England, the Christmas given much emphasis--not even the birth tree came with them. of Christ. The day on which a saint died Puritans forbade Christmas, considering was considered more significant than it too pagan. Governor Bradford actually his or her birth, as it ushered him or her threatened New Englanders with work, into the kingdom of heaven. Christ's jail or fines if they were caught observbaptism received more attention than his ing Christmas. birthday in the January 6th feast of Historian William J. Tighe offers a differEpiphany. ent view, however. When a consensus In 1843, in Victorian England, Charles arose in the church to celebrate Christ's Dickens published his novelette "A Was Jesus Born on December 25th? conception on March 25th, it was reaChristmas Carol." It became one of the No one knows for sure on what day sonable to celebrate his birth nine most popular short works of fiction ever Christ was born. Dionysus Exiguus, a months later. penned. Although the book is more a sixth-century monk, who was the first to work of sentiment than of Christianity, it Origin of Christmas Traditions date all of history from December 25th, captures something of the Christmas the year of our Lord 1. Other traditions Many of the pagan customs became as- spirit. The tightfisted gave dates as early as mid-November or sociated with Christmas. Christian stogrump, Ebenezer Scrooge, who exas late as March. How did Christmas claimed "humbug!" at the mention of ries replaced the heathen tales, but the come to be celebrated on December practices hung on. Candles continued to Christmas, is contrasted with generous 25th? Cultures around the Mediterrane- be lit. Kissing under the mistletoe remerry-makers such as his nephew, Fred an and across Europe observed feasts mained common in Scandinavian coun- and with the struggling poor, symbolized on or around December 25th, marking tries. But over the years, gift exchanges by Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim. The the winter solstice. The Jews had a festi- became connected with the name of St. book's appeal to good works and charival of lights. Germans had a yule festitable contributions virtually defines Nicholas, a real but legendary figure of val. Celtic legends connected the sol4th century Lycia (a province of Asia). A Christmas in English-speaking lands. stice with Balder, the Scandinavian sun charitable man, he threw gifts into Whatever the ins and outs of Christmas, we god who was struck down by a mistletoe homes. are still unwrapping the gift of God's Son-arrow. At the pagan festival of Saturnaand what an incentive to generosity and joy lia, Romans feasted and gave gifts to the Around the thirteenth century, Christhat gift is! tians added one of the most pleasant poor. Drinking was closely connected

Dan Graves, MSL

The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati (“day of the birth of the unconquered sun”), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer.

Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the

Son. One of the difficulties with this view is that it suggests a nonchalant willingness on the part of the Christian church to appropriate a pagan festival when the early church was so intent on distinguishing itself categorically from pagan beliefs and practices.

A second view suggests that December 25 became the date of Jesus’ birth by a priori reasoning that identified the spring equinox as the date of the creation of the world and the fourth day of creation, when the light was created, as the day of Jesus’ conception (i.e., March 25). December 25, nine months later, then became the date of Jesus’ birth.

For a long time the celebration of Jesus’ birth was observed in conjunction with his baptism, celebrated January 6.

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Staccato Powell touted himself as an innovator who would bring a “new paradigm” after his 2016 election as an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishop, assigned to oversee the western U.S. congregations in the predominantly Black denomination.

He was the first to set up a bishop’s residence in the Western Episcopal District, seeking to supervise church affairs and enhance church growth while living in the district, instead of traveling in and out of the six-state region.

But AME Zion bishops say Powell violated that AME Zion rule book by altering church deeds and conveying them to the entity he incorporated to handle district business.

There are two moments in recent history to which calls Black Christians’ attention. —————-

In Beyoncé’s July 2020 movie “Black Is King,” she continued a theme she began with her 2016 landmark visual album “Lemonade”: her association with, and possible initiation into, the West African religion of Ifa. Some Christians responded by calling “Black Is King” “blasphemy, satanic, unbiblical” because of the supposed representations of “false gods” and “pagan religions.”

But was he a pioneer or a swindler? Was he an entrepreneur who, as he said, used “sophisticated financing of church property” to enhance congregations and support their pastors? Or, as the remaining AME Zion bishops said, did he inappropri- Beyoncé’s supposedly “satanic” images actually ately use churches’ mortgages in a manner that led some of them to receive foreclosure notices?

A month after he was “disrobed” in a church trial as a bishop of the denomination that dates to 1796, the answers depend on whom you ask and whose perspectives you believe.

In an interview after the trial, in which Powell was found guilty of 20 counts against him, the former bishop told Religion News Service he intends to continue to use the title of “bishop” though he no longer holds that rank in the denomination of his birth.

Under his leadership, he said, the number of churches in the Western Episcopal District grew from 35 to about 50 and he encouraged those congregations to turn over a tenth, or tithe, of their collections to support the denomination’s connectional structure. This was a departure from the traditional assessment method.

“We ushered in a new paradigm of growth and expansion, which as a bishop we are mandated to do by the Book of Discipline,” he said.

honor African deities such as Het Heru, a Khemetic goddess associated with the moon, women’s menstrual cycles and, by extension, fertility, but the references to African deities have particularly riled Black Christians, who take them as confirmation that the star, popular among their youth, is practicing witchcraft.

A few months later, as Americans waited for the results of the 2020 election, noted televangelist and presidential adviser Paula White, in a spiritfilled preaching style appropriated from Black church traditions, called upon “angels from Africa

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and South America” to help her claim victory for President Donald Trump. All out in front of Jesus and everybody, she preached down heaven, speaking in tongues and extending her hand to Ethiopia for salvation, in a display of ignorance.

In the first case, Black Christians, is it not curious that when met with Beyoncé’s imagery and spiritual narratives of your own African traditions, your response is that it must be evil? Does it not seem troubling that the cultures from which you come are portrayed as demonic while the history and culture of Western civilization are exalted over us all?

In the second: What manner of mental slavery and colonization does a Eurocentric form of Christianity have over Black evangelicals today that they would credit white ministers who would tell you that African spirituality is ungodly and even demonic — and then look for urgent help when the rubber meets the road?

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Chicago, IL: Once Upon a Star Time, a taped enthusiastic reading performance, is sure to be a smashing success for children, youth, and adults.

Minister Cynthia Brim, the energetic voice behind the animated animals, lends an excitement to the performance.

“Minister Brim of the Fireball Faith Church in Christ Jesus, though she has never ventured into such a challenging feat, rendered an incredible voice presentation. After the acclamations, future shows may be in the future.

Brim believes that laughter with youth and adults is a needed refresher during the nation’s period of turbulence.

Rev. Harold Bailey, president of The Brim book reading made an exhilaProbation Challenge said, “After viewing rating debut in November, at the Chicago the presentation, the PCC Network has Cable Access Television. requested to air segments.”

One viewer suggested that the half-hour presentation become a series, and said,

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Performance Rated: *****

As bigots suggest that African Americans revert to the yesterdays’ mythology of servitude, I suggest that any racist scheme to bring about such matters, is antiquated and will not evolve in this the 21st Century.

Shall Not Kill commandment; however, murderous acts overtly continues. This disrespectful disregard for the commands of God-is heinous. This is a proven moment in time that Generational DNA yet exist!

Race haters ought to be apprised: In the The generational curse began with the infinite wisdom of God, a specific people first murder ever committed in the Garwas sanctified with a DNA, that, in spite of human hostility, the chosen ones would be preserved throughout generations. The persecutors saw that these peculiar people were survivors and that they would continue to multiply as a consecrated people of God. Minorities, were then as now, hated and enslaved without a cause… as liken unto Christ the Savior of the world, who was crucified without a cause, while no guilt was found in Him. Today, disciples of Christ suffer unjust consequences for the sake of righteousness. Not all, but many righteous followers are persecuted, found guilty and sentenced to the perils of the Pharaohs Justice Arena. Blacks and Hispanics are acquainted with system that has longed walked in the shadows of corruption rather than corrections.

Currently, minorities around the world are oppressed and slain without the assailant knowing why such a deed ever occurred. Could the assailant be an inheritor of a DNA trait to murder? Scripture said that in the latter days, that believers will be slaughtered while the assailant believes he does God a service.

The United States Christian communities are said to be apprised as to the Thou

gians continue to query who Cain’s mate was, because in that era historically not a human exist. It is critical to acknowledge that the only spirits inhabiting the spacein-time were Cain, Lucifer, and the fallen Angels who God cast from Heaven. This merger was with Cain and the angels who kept not their first estate. Cain and his and newly found mate had children, and their children had children. That merger of evil DNA traveled through generations to the present.

This present 21st Century generation has yielded the DNA children of hatred, detestation, disgust, loathing, and other acts that leads to destruction are as today! How can Christ followers decide the evil spirit, when humans fuss and fight, but are from but one blood!

When killing one another as did Cain who slew Able, we say that Christ be dammed in decisions for life and life more abundantly. When Cain slew Able he took a life, a life that God gave… and that all humans would live throughout Eternity den of Eden. Persons ask if the murder with Him. Satan however delights in: DNA reverted to Adam and Eve when Homicides, Man slaughters and MassaCain slew his brother Able, who was descres, which allows his destructive DNA to pised because of his relationship with regenerate among humans – humans God. Cain the assassinator, was seen in who God so loves. the very act of murder by the all-seeing eyes of God and was thusly cursed! This "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is was the first-ever act of a violent murder. of the devil, for the evil spirit has been When God curses an individual, that tor- sinning from the beginning. The reason ment cannot cease without the act of re- the Son of God appeared was to destroy pentance with approval of God. the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8.

As a result of the Able slaughtering, Cain was banished from the Garden of Eden and sentenced to the land of Nod… the region where he found his mate. Theolo-

The Bible teaches that the wicked walk in the way of Cain. Murderers, liars, and other evil doers will be punished. Filthy dreamers defile their flesh by doing evil, they despise God's rules, and they speak evil of the things that are good and right. They somehow let themselves believe that they will get away with doing evil, this is not true. People who believe this are only dreaming--dreams are not real. God is just and sin will be punished.

God assures the Christ follower that “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Matthew 7:16.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Bible teaches that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (a change of mind deciding to follow God's holy ways).

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9.

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Stop Lying: Jail, Prison is Not a Piece of Cake… but it is a Horror House!

How to Survive in Prison: 8 Etiquette Rules

and someone cuts in front of you, you are expected to “check” that inmate (tell him he needs to get in the back of the line), and fight him if necessary. Otherwise, others will

Are you or anyone you know facing prison time for some sort of criminal conviction?

Or, do you have a close friend or family member who has recently been incarcerated and does not know what to expect in prison?

The following eight most important rules for surviving in prison should be a big help.

Some of them were told to me by a career criminal at the onset of a nine-year prison sentence that I completed. Others I learned from experience during my incarceration. In other words, I am not only passing on theoretical information I received from someone else; I am also speaking from experience.

These rules will help you or someone you know survive in prison. They might just save someone's life!

Not to mention, after joining a gang, it is very difficult to get out. Once, a shot caller (leader) for the Norteños tried stepping down in Lompoc Federal Prison, where I did most of my time. A couple of guys from his gang beat him up with padlocks inside socks. He did not even see it coming. He was sitting at a table in the courtyard when they came from behind him and attacked him with swift brutality. He received many severe blows to the head. He didn't stand a chance.

Rule 1: Respect Other Inmates

Afterward, the scene of the crime looked like someone had been murdered. There was a pool of blood on the ground with blood spatter in various directions. Last I heard, the shot caller was in the hospital with a coma because his brain was swollen.

To respect others basically means not to say or do anything to them that you would not want them to say or do to you. This should go without saying, but you would be surprised at how many inmates do not follow this rule and end up getting in trouble, hurt, or killed in prison. One of the worst forms of disrespect I am aware of is stealing from another prisoner. Stealing is not tolerated in prison. Your own friends will beat you up for stealing.

You also do not want to call someone a “punk.” This is just inviting trouble. Inmates take that seriously. A punk is someone who won’t stand up for himself. Therefore, when you call someone a punk, you are basically insulting his manhood and challenging him to a fight.

Cutting in line is another violation. Prison has lines for everything: the chow hall, work, the clinic, etc. At times, prisoners must wait half an hour or more in several lines a day.

When you cut in front of them, they see that as you thinking you are better than them, and they do not like that at all. Moreover, not only will the prisoner you cut in front of be angry at you, but everyone behind him will be upset with you as well.

In some prisons, it is basically part of the prisoners’ code to discipline those who cut in line. If you are a prisoner standing in line

bers! The same ones that were supposed to have all of the protection! That is because gangs are always fighting each other for control. I remember when a fight broke out between the Norteños and the Sureños, and a bunch of them got beat up. This was in Lompoc federal prison in California. Across the street, at a higher security prison, Norteños and Sureños even sliced each other with tin from soda cans.

Therefore, unless you absolutely, positively have to join a gang for survival because you are in some kind of hard-core, do-or-die prison, stay as far away from gangs as possible.

Rule 3: Do Not Do Drugs

think you are a punk and beat you up.

Rule 2: Do Not Get Involved With a Gang Forget what prison movies depict about the necessity of joining a prison gang for survival. In most prisons, you do not need to join a gang for protection. I was never part of a prison gang, and I never got beat up, stabbed, raped, or anything like that. As a matter of fact, I never even got into one fight during my entire incarceration; although, I got close a couple of times. There were some arguments. However, I was in a lowsecurity prison for most of my sentence.

Nonetheless, the people that were getting beat up and stabbed were the gang mem-

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The first time I saw someone die of a drug overdose was in prison. My neighbor overdosed on heroin and died right in front of me. Not to mention, prisons perform random drug tests on inmates. I was tested about twice a year. Sometimes, they would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. to test me.

If your drug test comes up dirty, then you are taken to solitary confinement for something like a month. In addition, you could lose a few weeks of good time, which means you will have to do a few more weeks in prison. I know a few people this happened to.

Solitary confinement is basically prison inside of prison. There, you are confined to

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MONROE, La. (AP) — The most violent videos languished for years, lost or ignored in a digital vault. Louisiana State Police troopers and top brass alike would often look the other way, even as officers took to official messaging channels to banter about their brutality.

arrest of Ronald Greene — a case blown open this year by long-withheld video of troopers stunning, punching and dragging the Black motorist — an Associated Press investigation has revealed it is part of a pattern of violence kept shrouded in secrecy.

An AP review of internal investigative records and newly obtained videos identified at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which Louisiana State PoIn another, a white trooper pummels a lice troopers or their bosses ignored Black man at a traffic stop 18 times or concealed evidence of beatings, with a flashlight, leaving him with a deflected blame and impeded efforts broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to to root out misconduct. his head. That footage was mislabeled and it took 536 days and a AP’s review — coming amid lawsuit for police to look into it. a widening federal investigation into state police misconduct — found And yet another video shows a white troopers have made a habit of turning trooper coldcocking a Hispanic drug off or muting body cameras during trafficking suspect as he stood calmly pursuits. When footage is recorded, by a highway, an unprovoked attack the agency routinely refuses to renever mentioned in any report and lease it. And a recently retired superonly investigated when the footage visor who oversaw a particularly viowas discovered by an outraged federlent clique of troopers told internal al judge. investigators this year that it was his “common practice” to rubber-stamp As the Louisiana State Police reel officers’ use-of-force reports without from the fallout of the deadly 2019 In one video, white troopers can be seen slamming a Black man against a police cruiser after finding marijuana in his car, throwing him to the ground and repeatedly punching him — all while he is handcuffed.

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reviewing body-camera video.

misconduct.

In some cases, troopers omitted uses of force such as blows to the head from official reports, and in others troopers sought to justify their actions by claiming suspects were violent, resisting or escaping, all of which were contradicted by video footage.

The revelations come as civil rights and Black leaders urge the U.S. Justice Department to launch a broader, “pattern and practice” investigation into potential systemic racial profiling by the overwhelmingly white state police, similar to other probes opened in recent months in Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix.

“Hyperaggressiveness is winked upon and nodded and allowed to go on,” said Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief and use-of -force expert who reviewed videos obtained by AP. “It’s very clear that the agency accepts that type of behavior.”

“These things are racially motivated,” said Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “It doesn’t seem you could have this level of criminality going on without it being something much more sinister.”

Most of those beaten in the cases AP found were Black, in keeping with the agency’s own tally that 67% of its uses of force in recent years have targeted Black people — double the percentage of the state’s Black population. AP reporting revealed that a secret panel the state police set up this year to determine whether troopers systematically abused Black motorists was just as secretly shut down, leaving the agency blind to potential

It’s not clear how the Louisiana State Police rate of force against Black people compares to that of other states because there is no national benchmark and definitions of uses of force differ between jurisdictions.

Activists, however, say it points to a clear problem, that “Driving while Black is still a crime in Louisiana,” said Eugene W. Collins, president of the Baton Rouge branch of the NAACP.

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• Commentary • A substantial number of Republicans will have to suffer through a political revolt, all because of certain party-members who have proven a contempt for minorities. Certain Republicans have unquestionably caused a racial divide in the nation. People like Ted Cruz, and other hate contributors, have instigated insurmountable conflicts among U. S. citizens!

spiritual disrespect has embarrassed Republicans and the Evangelical community. Shameful behaviors stands to tarnish potential politi-

Is Cruz not aware that Covid-19 has rearranged the face of America? Is he not aware that securing a job especially for minorities has never been easy and especially now?

Where is his sense of integrity?

Honorable law-abiding citizens ought to be aware that: As of 2019, the base salary for all rank-and-file members of the U. S. House and Senate was $174,000 per year, plus benefits.

These individuals who so despise minorities will feel the anger of White, Asian, African Americans and Hispanics at the polls!

Based on the assets and liabilities that Cruz did show (in addition to his salary as a senator, which is public knowledge, concluded that Cruz's net worth could be anywhere between $1.1 million and $5.7 million.

America has suffered the stench of racism, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance, which now rest at the feet of Republicans who will not for the sake of citizens, get along!

How can Republicans leaders, who once declared that they represented America, but now prompt other Republicans to go against party values...even to select an outsider to be chief blasphemer.

In making of a party transition, what happened in the U. S. Southern Bible Belt, where ministerial leaders endorse a presidential candidate who mocked biblical beliefs. After selecting a ruler to sit in high places—who would in closed quarters ridiculed Black and White ministerial leaders, those who endorsed him?

Even biblical scholars’ ask why evangelicals would sign on to such a character but, there are no sound reasons. What happens when a prominent evangelical leader who once professing biblical truth and endorsed the president... he, wife, and others were viewed on video in the act of adultery. Frequent acts of

lieve in equality: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in regard to millions of Americans losing their unemployment benefits said, "Um, get a job?

There are millions of vacancies, and small businesses across the Nation are desperate for workers.” said Cruz.

As he has little concern about others, surely Cruz is aware that the people (taxpayers) pays an annual salary - that he and his coconspirators have not with civility earned.

cal candidates.

A Ministerial source said that lending credibility to God for acts of Satan is blaspheming, and holding up a Bible upside-down in front of a church is mockery and sinful! Also that lending false belief by saying “2 Corinthians” was in pretense or ignorance… either shows just who the leader was! Respectable individuals held these performances as intentional blaspheming against the spirit of God! America was said to be built on integrity with liberty for all! But on the way toward the 21st Century, select Republicans altered principles that were engraved: That all persons are created equal with justice for all. Some don’t be-

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apper and entrepreneur Jay-Z has reportedly made a $3 million investment in Promise, a startup company that helps state and local governments track parolees with GPS technology - and a lot of people, even some of his fans, are not happy about it.

The Promise is a start-up company that aims to help demarcate the incarcerated - mostly for non-violent or misdemeanor offenses - who can't afford bail. Earlier this year, the company raised about $3 million with the help of Jay-Z's Roc Nation, 8VC, and Kapoor Capital.

Jay-Z, who has been open about his stand in criminal justice reform, said the injustices in the system is increasingly alarming. "Money, time and lives are wasted with the current policies," he wrote in a statement. "It's time for an innovative and progressive technology that offers sustainable solutions to tough problems. Promise's team, led by co-founder and CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkin's, is building an app that can help provide 'liberty and justice for all' to millions."

However, Sandra Rose reveals that Promise doesn't actually use their funds to bail detainees out of jail. Instead, Promise sells smartphone apps to government agencies that they could use in replacement of ankle monitoring devices to track parolees who are discharged from jail under the First Step Act. The report described it an "incarceration alternative" that ensures parolees appear in court or take a urine drug test.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkin's, co-founder of the company, recently replied to someone on Twitter who accused the company of producing ankle monitoring bracelets and profiting from it. She claimed that they "do not make, provide or sell electronic monitoring."

But she did state that the government is paying their company to track parolees who wear ankle monitoring devices and provide progress reports. This, she says, is a better alternative than having the county spend money to incarcerate parolees that can't afford bail.

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partment listings.

Think about it! Before you watch a movie on Netflix or Hulu, you want to first see the reviews. Before you make a purchase on Amazon, you also want to first see the reviews. Shouldn't it also be that way when searching for a rental property?

During an interview with TheGrio.com, Foo comments, "Our goal at Whose Your Landlord is to inform renters on better practices when it comes to finding their housing. We are creating a platform that through transparency, access to information, through reviews based on commission of property, safety, respect we are able to gauge who are doing a good job in the market and who is doing a poor job. You name and shame those folks and highlight who they are too."

Common issues that renters face with their landlords include discrimination, theft, unaddressed plumbing issues, sewage problems, bed bugs, rodents, illegal evictions, and more.

So how does it make money?

As mentioned earlier, the service is free. But it will still be a major revenue generator through paid partnerships. For example, companies like Allstate, Roadway Moving, DOZE Beds, etc. want to advertise to their audience.

Also, landlords and property managers will eventually have to pay market rate subscription rates to list their properties on the web site.

Another source of revenue will be through their revenue share partnership with TransUnion that allows renters can request their credit report, background check, and eviction history.

The innovative company is already proving itself to be a success. They already have thousands of reviews on their web site, more than 500,000 listings, and the service has already been featured on BET, ABC News, CBS News, and in Newsweek.

BlackNews.com

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Marshall Thompson and Chi-Lites Honored at The Hollywood Walk of Fame.

star you are all the way at the top.” He now strives for the superstar status.

Millions consider the Chi-lites as super-

of giving love to the world. The last singing group to receive the acclaimed honor was Earth, Wind and Fire.

Extending a word for the New Year, Marshall said, “Let’s have the hope of God in these challenged times.” He said the Chilites will continue to combine work with love, for love is God, he said.

Marshall Thompson is an American soul/R&B singer and musician. Thompson is best known as an original member of the Chicago-based vocal group The Chi-Lites, who had countless hits in the 1970s. Their songs included Pop and R&B hits" Oh Girl", "Have You Seen Her", "The Coldest Days and countless others.

The Chi-lites have for decades recorded hits where the messages were ahead of the times.

One hit came forth called:

Marshall, considered The Godfather of Vocal Groups and The Last Man Standing, was saluted as the Famous Chi-Lites received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The message resonates in the hearts of countless persons as to present world’s conditions.

Marshall said, this event was a “blessing from the Lord. God has been gracious to me through the years, and I don’t take it for granted.” He said there are no plans for the new year but will take day each day as it comes.

stars, but Marshall said, “but not as Sammy Davis and Frank Sinatra.” The Chilites’ star is next to Jackie Wilson and Sam Cook.

Marshall said, “Receiving the star is a dream come true, and once you get a

The crowd cheered as Marshall for the Chi-lites, received acclimates for years

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Superstar Mick Jaggar has recorded the Chi-lites Troubles Are Coming, and was recently released.

Marshall, lives in Las Vegas and there wish to live the rest of the days that God affords him.

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Former "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" star NeNe Leakes' husband, Gregg Leakes, died of colon cancer.

laughter from your belly, and your very presence."

Tyson died on January 28, the cause of death was not announced.

Leakes became a cast member on the popular Bravo reality show 11 years after the two became married and the show documented the couple's divorce in 2011.

They couldn't stay away from each other for long.

By 2013, they were married again and their second wedding was filmed for a special limited series called "I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding."

Michael K. Williams of ‘The Wire: Responsible for crafting one of the most memorable TV characters of all time playing Baltimore gangster Omar Little in HBO's "The Wire," Williams went on to forge a respected career playing complex roles.

Williams followed up "The Wire" with delivering another memorable performance playing racketeer Chalky White in another acclaimed HBO series, "Boardwalk Empire."

"Today, the Leakes’ family is in deep pain with a broken heart. After a long battle with cancer, Gregg Leakes has passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by all of his children, very close loved ones and wife NeNe Leakes," a representative for the couple told Insider.

That then followed with Emmy nominations for his roles in the 2015 movie "Bessie," the 2016 limited series "The Night Of," and the 2019 limited series "When They See Us."

He was first diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and then said in 2019 that he was, at the time, cancer-free.

More recently he was nominated in the upcoming Emmys for the 2020 HBO series "Lovecraft Country."

Leakes revealed in June that her husband's cancer had returned.

Williams began his career as a backup dancer for artists like George Michael and Madonna. He even choreographed the dancing for the hit 1994 music video "Pure Love" by Crystal Waters.

Dennis Thomas, founded Kool & the Gang in 1964 alongside several teenage friends, including brothers Robert "Kool" and Ronald "Khalis" Bell, Robert "Spike" Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown, and Ricky West.

Williams' acting was always a standout regardless the size of the role thanks to his deep voice and scar that went across his face.

The group's mix of funk and jazz arrangements has become one of the popular, influential, and heavily sampled sounds in contemporary music and has been featured in several film soundtracks, including "Saturday Night Fever," "Rocky," and Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction.

Williams was reportedly found dead in his Brooklyn, New York City apartment on September 6.

DE Parys Haralson: Former San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints linebacker Parys Haralson died at the age of 37. No cause of death was disclosed.

"An original member of Kool & the Gang, Dennis was known as the quintessential cool cat in the group, loved for his hip clothes and hats, and his laid-back demeanor," read the statement of his passing on the band's official Facebook page. "A huge personality while also an extremely private person, Dennis was the alto saxophone player, flutist, percussionist, as well as master of ceremonies at the band's shows."

"The 49ers are heartbroken and shocked by the news of Parys' tragic passing," the 49ers said in a statement.

"Parys was a beloved member of our organization that lived life with an extraordinary amount of passion and joy, while leaving an indelible mark on everyone he came across. We extend our condolences to Parys' family and loved ones."

Robert “Bob” Moses, a lifelong educator and civil rights leader who inspired generations of organizers, engaging with them around the importance of collective action and respecting local knowledge, died on Sunday (July 25). He was 86 years old.

Thomas died on August 7 in New Jersey "peacefully in his sleep," according to the statement by the band.

Cicely Tyson: In a career that spanned more than 70 years, Cicely Tyson made her mark in every form of entertainment medium having won three Emmy awards, a Tony, honorary Oscar, and Peabody Award.

From the stories and anecdotes shared on social media after his death, one can glimpse the impact Moses had on the lives of countless organizers and educators alike. A young math teacher from Harlem, Moses would travel to Mississippi in the summer of 1960 and change the course of history.

She's most known for her Oscar-nominated performance in the 1972 drama "Sounder," her Emmywinning role as Ophelia Harkness in "How to Get Away with Murder," and her countless stage performances.

"My heart breaks in one beat, while celebrating her life in the next," Tyler Perry wrote in a statement on the loss of Tyson on his Instagram. Tyson starred in several of his movies.

"To think that she lived for 96 years and I got to be a part of the last 16 brings me great joy," he continued. "She called me son. Well, today your son grieves your loss and will miss our long talks, your

Moses was an organizer with the Southern Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) under the guidance of Ella Baker.

Moses worked alongside communities in rural Mississippi. Moses famously said. “You don’t have to worry about where your leaders are. . . If work with your people, then the leadership will emerge.”

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And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, This is Blasphemy!

Washington Post political reporter Eugene Scott was the first to draw attention to the advertisement on social media, posting an image of the distinctive display panel to Twitter alongside a caption that simply read: "Wow!"

Twitter back in August after claiming that the during his time in office, the former presivaccines designed to combat COVID-19 dent drew derision after appearing to sugwere "failing." gest Joseph, rather than God, was Jesus' father.

Earlier this month, she also spoke out in opposition to President Joe Biden's vaccine Blasphemy in the Bible. mandate plans, claiming, incorrectly, that it In all cases, blasphemy in the Old Testament violated the Nuremberg Code established means to insult the honor of God, either by attacking him directly or mocking him indirectly.

The penalty for blasphemy in the Old Testament was death by stoning.

The billboard features a picture of Trump looking stoically into the middle distance alongside what is purported to be a Bible quote from Romans 8:17, which reads: "Unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders."

Blasphemy gains a wider meaning In the New Testament to include the slander of humans, angels, demonic powers, as well as God. Thus, any kind of slander or mocking of anyone is wholly condemned in the New Testament.

This is, in fact, a misquote. In reality, that particular chapter and verse of the Bible reads: "Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

As we just read, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin. For this reason, many believe it simply means a continual, stubborn rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we don't accept God's free gift of salvation, we cannot be forgiven. If we deny the Holy Spirit's entrance into our lives, we cannot be cleansed from unrighteousness.

The billboard quote appears to have been paraphrased from Isaiah 9:6, which reads: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

after the Second World War to prevent a repeat of the atrocities carried out by Nazi Germany.

This is not the first time Trump has drawn comparison with Jesus Christ.

Christian preacher Shane Vaughn, a conA billboard comparing former President Don- servative and keen Trump supportald Trump to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, has appeared in Georgia.

According to Dan Landrum, another Twitter user, the billboard has been put up near the city of Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia.

Newsweek has reached out to the company that appears to own the billboard space, Reagan Outdoor Advertising, for confirmation of the sign's existence.

Fort Oglethorpe is part of both Catoosa County and Walker County. Both counties are part of Georgia's 14th congressional district which is represented by Marjorie Taylor Greene.

A Republican and staunch Trump supporter, Greene has previously courted controversy after appearing to champion a series of baseless conspiracy theories on social media. More recently, she was suspended from

er, previously compared Facebook's decision to suspend the ex-commander in chief to Satan's decision to kill Jesus.

"They made the same mistake that Satan made when he killed Jesus Christ," he said on a video posted to YouTube. "By killing one man, and killing his voice, he created a world full of little Christians that echo the message of Christ," Vaughn continued.

"See, stupid on the Devil's part."

Trump's own religious beliefs remain a source of much debate. In one instance,

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Others say blasphemy against the Holy Ghost refers to attributing Christ's miracles, wrought by the Holy Spirit, to the power of Satan. Still, others believe it means to accuse Jesus Christ of being demonpossessed.

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PORT OF SPAIN, - Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh criticized as "false" the claim by American rapper Nicki Minaj that a person on the Caribbean island suffered swollen testicles after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

vester Kelly - on all counts, they found prosecutors did not prove two of 14 alleged acts housed under a racketeering charge. In her statement, Sonya thanked members of the jury for considering her testimony, even though her allegation was included in one of those two.

Trinidad-born Minaj sparked an international furor when she alleged on Twitter that her cousin in Trinidad refuses to get a vaccine because his friend became impotent after being vaccinated.

"I've been hiding from Robert Kelly due to fear and threats made against me, and I'm ready to start living my life free from fear and start the healing process," Sonya's statement said.

Deyalsingh also denounced the statement by the Grammynominated artist as a waste of time.

In her statement, Sonya urged other people who thought they'd been victims of a crime to come forward.

"One of the reasons why we could not respond in real-time to Miss Minaj is that we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false. Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim," Deyalsingh said.

"Thank you for shining a light and helping me get out from under that rock that I stayed under for far too long," she said. "If you've been in a similar situation, I urge you to come forward. It will be like a weight lifted off of your shoulders."

Sonya told jurors she went to Kelly's home in 2003 to secure an "His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from interview with him as a radio intern. She testified that Kelly instead getting married, now the girl called off the wedding," Minaj, who has trapped her in a room and left her without food and water for more 22.6 million Twitter followers, said. than two days. She told the jury she believed Kelly drugged and sexually assaulted her in the room.

The comments triggered an international backlash, with senior U.S. and British coronavirus officials condemning the claims.

"I thought it would really just kick-start my career," she testified.

When asked about Minaj's tweets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said there was a lot of misinformation on social media.

"I'm not blaming her for anything - but she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis as except a one-off anecdote, and that's not what science is all about."

Minaj said in a separate tweet that she had not been able to complete enough research of her own on the COVID-19 vaccines to get one in time for the Met Gala, a star-studded fundraiser for New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Later, Minaj added that she will get vaccinated to be able to tour.

“This guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used

fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless,” Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District, said.

A woman who testified against R. Kelly in his federal sex-trafficking trial said she could "live free from fear" after a jury on Monday convicted Kelly on all counts.

The women's-rights attorney Gloria Allred read a written statement from the woman, who testified under the pseudonym "Sonya," to reporters in which she expressed relief that the trial reached a resolution.

Though the jury convicted Kelly - whose real name is Robert Syl-

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demic and, over time, he came to recognize that other decisions in landmark civil-rights cases were The town of Harmony, Mississippi, which owes its of limited practical impact. He drew an unsettling origins to a small number of formerly enslaved conclusion: racism is so deeply rooted in the Black people who bought land from former slavemakeup of American society that it has been able to holders after the Civil War, is nestled in Leake reassert itself after each successive wave of reform County, a perfectly square allotment in the center of aimed at eliminating it. Racism, he began to argue, the state. According to local lore, Harmony, which is permanent. His ideas proved foundational to a was previously called Galilee, was renamed in the body of thought that, in the nineteen-eighties, came early nineteen-twenties, after a Black resident who to be known as critical race theory. After more than had contributed money to help build the town’s school said, upon its completion, “Now let us live and work in harmony.” This story perhaps explains why, nearly four decades later, when a white school board closed the school, it was interpreted as an attack on the heart of the Black community. The school was one of ϐive thousand public schools for Black children in the South that the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald funded, beginning in 1912. Rosenwald’s foundation provided the seed money, and community members constructed the building themselves by hand. By the sixties, many of the structures were decrepit, a reϐlection of the South’s ongoing disregard for Black education. Nonetheless, the Harmony school provided its students a good education and was a point of pride in the community, which wanted it to remain open. In 1961, the battle sparked the founding of the local chapter of the N.A.A.C.P.

•By Jelani Cobb

That year, Winson Hudson, the chapter’s vicepresident, working with local Black families, contacted various people in the civil-rights movement, and eventually spoke to Derrick Bell, a young attorney with the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in New York City. Bell later wrote, in the foreword to Hudson’s memoir, “Mississippi Harmony,” that his colleagues had been astonished to learn that her purpose was to reopen the Rosenwald school. He said he told her, “Our crusade was not to save segregated schools, but to eliminate them.” He added that, if people in Harmony were interested in enforcing integration, the L.D.F., as it is known, could help.

Hudson eventually accepted Bell’s offer, and in 1964 the L.D.F. won Hudson v. Leake County School Board ሺWinson Hudson’s school-age niece Diane was the plaintiffሻ, which mandated that the board comply with desegregation. Harmony’s students were enrolled in a white school in the county. Afterward, though, Bell began to question the efϐicacy of both the case and the drive for integration.

Throughout the South, such rulings sparked white ϐlight from the public schools and the creation of private “segregation academies,” which meant that Black students still attended institutions that were effectively separate. Years later, after Hudson’s victory had become part of civil-rights history, she and Bell met at a conference and he told her, “I wonder whether I gave you the right advice.” Hudson replied that she did, too.

Bell spent the second half of his career as an aca-

a quarter of a century, there is an extensive academic ϐield of literature cataloguing C.R.T.’s insights into the contradictions of antidiscrimination law and the complexities of legal advocacy for social justice.

Vinay Harpalani, a law professor at the University of New Mexico, who took a constitutional-law class that Bell taught at New York University in 2008, remembers his creating a climate of intellectual tolerance. “There were conservative white male students who got along very well with Professor Bell, because he respected their opinion,” Harpalani told me. “The irony of the conservative attack is that he was more respectful of conservative students and giving conservatives a voice than anyone.”

Sarah Lustbader, a public defender based in New York City who was a teaching assistant for Bell’s constitutional-law class in 2010, has a similar recollection. “When people fear critical race theory, it stems from this idea that their children will be indoctrinated somehow. Republican lawmakers, however, have been swift to take advantage of the controversy. In June, Governor Greg Abbott, of Texas, signed a bill that restricts teaching about race in the state’s public schools. Oklahoma, Tennessee, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Arizona have introduced similar legislation. But in all the outrage and reaction is an unwitting validation of the very arguments that Bell made. Last year, after the murder of George Floyd, Americans started confronting the genealogy of racism in this country in such large numbers that the moment was referred to as a reckoning. Bell, who died in 2011, at the age of eighty, would have been less focused on the fact that white politicians responded to that reckoning by curtailing discussions of race in public schools than that they did so in conjunction with a larger effort to shore up the political structures that disadvantage African Americans. Another irony is that C.R.T. has become a ϐixation of conservatives despite the fact that some of its sharpest critiques were directed at the ultimate failings of liberalism, beginning with Bell’s own early involvement with one of its most heralded achievements.

In May, 1954, when the Supreme Court struck down legally mandated racial segregation in public schools, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the decision was instantly recognized as a waterFor the past several months, however, conservashed in the nation’s history. A legal team from the tives have been waging war on a wide-ranging set N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, led of claims that they wrongly ascribe to critical race

by Thurgood Marshall, argued that segregation theory, while barely mentioning the body of scholviolated the equal-protection clause of the Fourarship behind it or even Bell’s name. As Christoteenth Amendment, by inϐlicting psychological pher F. Rufo, an activist who launched the recent harm on Black children. Chief Justice Earl Warren crusade, said on Twitter, the goal from the start was took the unusual step of persuading the other Justo distort the idea into an absurdist touchstone. tices to reach a consensus, so that their ruling “We have successfully frozen their brand—‘critical would carry the weight of unanimity. In time, many race theory’—into the public conversation and are came to see the decision as an opening salvo of the steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will modern civil-rights movement, and it made Mareventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various shall one of the most recognizable lawyers in the cultural insanities under that brand category,” he country. His stewardship of the case was particularwrote. Accordingly, C.R.T. has been deϐined as Black ly inspiring to Derrick Bell, who was then a twenty-supremacist racism, false history, and the terrible four-year-old Air Force ofϐicer and who had develapotheosis of wokeness. Patricia Williams, one of oped a keen interest in matters of equality. the key scholars of the C.R.T. canon, refers to the ongoing mischaracterization as “deϐinitional theft.” Bell was born in 1930 in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the community immortalized in August Wilson’s

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plays, and he attended Duquesne University before enlisting. After serving two years, he entered the University of Pittsburgh’s law school and, in 1957, was the only Black graduate in his class. He landed a job in the newly formed civil-rights division of the Department of Justice, but when his superiors became aware that he was a member of the N.A.A.C.P. they told him that the membership constituted a conϐlict of interest, and that he had to resign from the organization. In a move that would become a theme in his career, Bell quit his job rather than compromise a principle. He began working, instead, at the Pittsburgh N.A.A.C.P., where he met Marshall, who hired him in 1960 as a staff attorney at the Legal Defense Fund. The L.D.F. was the legal arm of the N.A.A.C.P. until 1957, when it spun off as a separate organization.

dangers, however, were very real. In June of 1963, a white supremacist shot and killed Evers in his driveway, in Jackson; he was thirty-seven years old.

In subsequent years, there was an attempted ϐirebombing of Hudson’s home and two bombings at the home of her sister, Dovie, who was Diane Hudson’s mother and was involved in the movement. That suffering and loss could not have eased Bell’s growing sense that his efforts had only helped create a more durable system of segregation.

Bell’s skepticism was deepened by the Supreme Court’s 1978 decision in Bakke v.

University of California, which challenged afϐirmative action in higher education. Allan Bakke, a white prospective medical student, was twice rejected by U.C. Davis. He sued the regents of the University of California, arguing that he had been denied admission because of the school’s minority set-aside admissions, or quotas—and that afϐirmative action amounted to “reverse discrimination.” The Supreme Court ruled that race could be considered, among other factors, for admission, and that diversifying admissions was both a compelling interest and permissible under the Constitution, but that the University of California’s explicit quota system was not.

Bakke was admitted to the school.

dational text. Yet during his absence from Harvard no one was assigned to teach his key class, which was based on the book. Some students interpreted this omission as disregard for issues of race, and it gave rise to the ϐirst of two events that, in particular, led to the creation of C.R.T. The legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, who was a student at the law school at the time, told me, “We initially coalesced as students and young law professors around this course that the law school refused to teach.” In 1982, the group organized a series of guest speakers and conducted a version of the class themselves.

The 2008 election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, which inherently represented a validation of the civilBell arrived at a crucial moment in the rights movement, L.D.F.’s history. In 1956, two years seemed like a refutation after Brown, it successfully litigated of Bell’s arguments. I Browder v. Gayle, the case that struck knew Bell casually by down segregation on city buses in that point—in 2001, I Alabama—and handed Martin Luther had interviewed him for King, Jr., and the Montgomery Iman article on the L.D.F.’s provement Association a victory in the legacy, and we had kept yearlong boycott they had organized. in touch. In August of The L.D.F. launched desegregation 2008, during an e-mail lawsuits across the South, and Bell exchange about James supervised or handled many of them.

Baldwin’s birthday, our But, when Winson Hudson contacted discussion turned to him, she opened a window onto the Obama’s campaign. He distance between the agenda of the suggested that Baldwin national civil-rights organizations and might have found the the priorities of the local communities Senator too reticent and they were charged with serving. In her too moderate on matters memoir, she recalled a contentious of race. Bell himself was exchange she had, before she contactnot much more encoured Bell, with a white representative of aged. He wrote, “We can the school board. She told him, “If you recognize this campaign don’t bring the school back to Harmoas a signiϐicant moment ny, we will be going to your school.” like the civil rights proThe Harmony school had already betests, the 1963 March for Jobs and come a ϐlashpoint. Medgar Evers, the Justice in D.C., the Brown decision, so Mississippi ϐield secretary for the many more great moments that in N.A.A.C.P., visited the town and assistIn 1980, Bell left Harvard to become retrospect promised much and, in the ed in organizing the local chapter. He the dean of the University of Oregon end, signiϐied nothing except that the told members that the work they were law school, but he resigned ϐive years embarking on could get them killed. hostility and alienation toward black later, after a search committee deBell, during his trips to the state, made people continues in forms that frusclined to extend the offer of a faculty a point of not driving himself; he knew trate thoughtful blacks and place the position to an Asian woman when its that a wrong turn on unfamiliar roads country ever closer to its premature ϐirst two choices, who were both white could have fatal consequences. He was demise.” men, turned it down. Harvard Law arrested for using a whites-only phone rehired Bell as a professor. His inϐluI was struck by his ominous outlook, booth in Jackson, and, upon his safe ence had grown measurably since he especially since someone Bell knew return to New York, Marshall morbegan teaching; “Race, Racism and personally, and who had taught his dantly joked that, if he got himself American Law,” which was largely work at the University of Chicago, killed in Mississippi, the L.D.F. would overlooked at the time of its publicastood to become the ϐirst Black Presiuse his funeral as a fund-raiser. The tion, had come to be viewed as a foun- dent. I thought that his skepticism had

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turned into fatalism. But, a decade later, during the most reactionary moments of the Trump era, Bell’s words seemed clarifying. On January 6th of this year, as a mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn a Presidential election, the words seemed nearly prophetic. It would not have surprised Bell that Obama’s election and the strength of the Black electorate that helped him win are central factors in the current tide of white nationalism and voter suppression.

Bell did not live to see the election of Donald Trump, but, as his mention of the nation’s “premature demise” suggests, he clearly understood that someone like him could come to power. Still, the current attacks on critical race theory have arrived decades too late to prevent its core tenets from entering the legal canon.

People who looked at the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and others and concluded that they were not anomalies but evidence that the system was functioning as it was designed to, were articulating the conclusion that Bell had drawn decades earlier. “The gap between words and reality in the American project—that is what critical race theory is, where it lies,” Perry told me. The gap persists and, consequently, Bell’s perspective retains its relevance. Even after his death, it has been far easier to disagree with him than to prove him wrong.

Vinay Harpalani told me, “Someone asked him once, ‘What do you say about critical race theory?’ ” Bell ϐirst replied, “I don’t know what that is,” but then offered, “To me, it means telling the truth, even in the face of criticism.”

,,,

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How many Blacks are daily murdered by Black gang bangers? Are they competing with the Ku Klux Klan who overtly killed Blacks and Jews without shame?

Let travel down memory lane: How many people were killed by the Ku Klux Klan?

1981 Lynching Michael Donald Klan member electrocuted Total 1937.

Note these are only those killed. Hundreds of thousands of people were injured or intim-

The editorial staff of the Metro Star felt its content and availability should be shared with our readers.

Reconstruction 1st Klan (1865-1877) 1500 estimated by the Tuskegee Institute

“The Ku Klux Klan would like to take this time to salute and congratulate all Gang Bangers for the slaughter of over 4,000 Black people since 1975.

1200 blacks 300 whites 100-200 killed in South Carolina 150 Florida The rest mostly killed during black voting in Louisiana in the 1868 US Presidential Election. The Klan was also partially involved in the Colfax Massacre.

Nadir 2nd Klan ( 1915 – 1944) – 416 Klan was frequently involved in lynching's, killed mostly blacks in this era Murdered Blacks returning from WW1 Killed Leo Frank (Jewish White) Killed 6 blacks attempting to vote in Orange County Florida Civil Rights 3rd Klan (1954-1968) 15 people (13 black) These murders are well known and include, but are not limited to 1963 murder Medgar Evers 1963 16th street Baptist church bombing 1964 Mississippi Burning 1965 Viola Luizo Shooting 1966 Vernon Dahmer Killing Many of these murders were prosecuted … in the 90s and 2000s.

Note: The following is an editorial reprint of a letter whose author is unknown. This letter has been circulating in the states of Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas for several months.

idated by the Klan… Although the Klan hadn’t been formed, Nathan Bedford Forrest, leader of the first Klan committed this atrocity, Fort Pillow Massacre 1864 277 blacks.

You are doing a marvelous job! Keep killing each other for nothing. The streets are still not yours, Niggers. Its ours. You are killing each other for our property.

You are killing what could be future Black doctors, lawyers, and businessmen that we won’t have to compete with; and the good thing about it is that you BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. was a young Ku Klux Klansman are killing the youth. So now we won’t have to worry about you Niggers in genwith a reputation for hating blacks in 1963, erations to come. We would further like when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four black to thank all the judges who have ever sentenced those Niggers to prison. girls during the civil rights movement.

Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blanton on the state charge, said Blanton shouldn't be released since he has never accepted responsibility for the bombing or expressed any remorse for a crime that was aimed at maintaining racial separation at a time Birmingham's public schools were facing a court order to desegregate.

We are winning again. Pretty soon we will be able to go back to raping your woman because all the men would be gone.

So you Gang Bangers….Keep up the good work. We love to read about the drive-by shootings. We love to hear how many Niggers get killed over the weekends. We can tolerate the Niggers with Jungle Fever (for now)….because that further breaks down your race.

"I'll be there. I'm not saying what I will say until then," said Rudolph.

To all Gang Bangers across the world.

We don’t love you Niggers but we can Long a suspect in the case, Blanton was the appreciate your Gang Bangers. You are doing a wonderful job in eliminating the second of three people convicted in the Black race. bombing. Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, and Bobby Frank Cherry, who was Without the men, your woman cannot convicted in the bombing in 2002, both died reproduce…unless of course, we do it for in prison. them. Then we will have successfully Blanton and Cherry were indicted in 2000 after the FBI reopened an investigation of the bombing. Evidence against Blanton included secret recordings that were made using FBI bugs at his home and in the car of a fellow Klansman turned informant.

David Duke 4th Klan (NOTE: David Duke was affiliated with the Democrats in 1979 – ie reference) 1979 Greensboro Massacre 5 killed 5th Klan

Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Last Surviving Birmingham Bomber, Denied Parole The parole board's decision was applauded by the busload of NAACP members who attended the hearing.

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eliminated a race thanks to your help and commitment to killing each other.

If most of you Nigger Gang Bangers cannot read this letter, it is OK. Go pull a trigger and kill a Nigger!!! Thank you.

Reprint: Story by WAYNE DUPREE

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