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michiganchronicle.com
Volume 78 – Number 40
WHAT’S INSIDE Praise for Michelle Obama (Page A-3) Jesse Jackson was lavish in his praise of First Lady Michelle Obama. The civil rights leader said, “Her grace, intelligence and discipline have served her family, her husband and the nation well.”
June 17-23, 2015
Black identity or color consciousness?
By Bankole Thompson CHRONICLE SENIOR EDITOR
I've beeen watching the drama that has unfolded since the outing of the Spokane NAACP president in Washington, Rachel Dolezal, who was passing for Black. Dolezal has been the target of racial animosity since her parents decided to uncover her true racial identity, part some say of a legal strategy involving her adopted brother in a long custody
battle with her mom and dad. As the story got deeper, we found out that Dolezal once sued Howard University, the Historic Black College in Bankole Washington, DC Thompson over discrimination because she was White. Clearly, Dolezal has some
issues in her past but those troubles should not automatically dismiss her work with the Spokane NAACP as a social justice advocate and working in depressed and poverty-stricken communities. But the saga surrounding Dolezal brings to the fore the vexing question of Black identity and color consciousness in the age of Barack Obama.
See IDENTITY page A-4
Rachel Dolezal
National Baptist Convention comes to Detroit
Big fun on the riverfront (Page B-1)
By Bankole Thompson CHRONICLE SENIOR EDITOR
For the past eight years, perhaps no festival has symbolized the beginning of summer in Detroit as much as River Days, which promises to be bigger and better than ever this weekend.
The National Baptist Convention (NBC) U.S.A is bringing the 110th Congress of Christian Education Session to Cobo Hall June 22-26. The gathering of Baptist ministers and lay leaders from the across the country is expected to draw 30,000 delegates to the Motor City convention center.
Meijer opens second store (Page C-1)
Detroit's Rev. Tellis Chapman of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, director of the pastors and ministers division of the NBC, is the official host of the gathering. He noted that the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education Annual Session is the education arm of the NBC, USA, Inc., and is responsible for teaching and Rev. Tellis Chapman training classes in every aspect of Christian education.
On June 11, Meijer continued its investment in Detroit with the grand opening of a new store on the city’s northwest side. The 200,000-square-foot supercenter was built on the site of the former Redford High School.
Dr. Chad Audi and a jubilant Simone Hearn in front of the house donated by DRMM.
POWER OF GIVING: Cancer survivor gets free home
By Bankole Thompson
backyard and garage located in the northwestern part of Detroit.
CHRONICLE SENIOR EDITOR
Simone Hearn, a 24-year-old mother of three who has been battling cancer, happily joined the ranks of debt-free homeowners on Monday June 15, thanks to the nonprofit Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (DRMM) which donates homes to working but homeless metro Detroit families. DRMM, the largest of its kind in the nation, furnished a three-bedroom home with fenced
Spotlight on Anthony Anderson (Page D-1) Thanks to the success of the new TV series “Blackish,” comedian-actor Anthony Anderson’s already impressive career took several leaps forward.
“Unsung” musicians recognized (Page D-2) The Educational Arts Society will present a documentary titled “The Unsung Musicians of the Motown Empire” on Saturday, July 11, 2 pm, at the Main Branch Detroit Public Library. Free but donations accepted. For more information, call 248.599.2827.
$1.00
Hearn, who was surrounded by friends and family, expressed gratitude to DRMM for giving her the debt-free home, and presented its president and CEO, Dr. Chad Audi, with a thank you card. “We are happy we could assist Simone and her three children with the furnished home and food items that could last them weeks. When we saw Amy Lange’s story on Fox 2,
See FREE
HOME page A-4
City Council passes watered down curfew By Roz Edward The Detroit City Council on Tuesday, after a fiery hearing with public comments from the ACLU, community leaders including Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of Detroit Branch NAACP, voted to limit the curfew in Detroit during the Ford Fireworks and Detroit River Days festival. The council voted against the Detroit police proposed curfew for River Days in a 4-3 vote. The council in a 5-2 vote approved a less invasive curfew for minors for the Ford Fireworks which is against what the Detroit Police Department initially wanted. Prior to the vote, council
members expressed deep-rooted concern regarding the proposed expansion of the City of Detroit curfew which would prohibit Detroit youth under the age of 18 from being out after 8 p.m. without an adult during a four-day span, June 19-22, when the Detroit Fireworks and Detroit River Days occur. The audience, comprised of city activists, law officials, young people and concerned citizens, listened to City of Detroit corporate counsel, Melvin “Butch” Hollowell present Detroit police chief James Craig’s plan to expand on the current citywide curfew for minors, and impose more stringent restrictions to keep young
people off the streets of downtown Detroit from 8 p.m. on Friday, June 19, to 6 a.m. on Monday, June 22. Following Hollowell’s presentation Detroit Council members unleashed a barrage of questions regarding specifics of the proposed expanded curfew and requested additional information regarding possible exceptions or exemptions for specific and extending circumstances. “I don’t want to put any young person’s career put at risk if this was to pass. What if you have a good kid, a Cass Tech student with a promising career, who gets caught up and
See CURFEW page A-4
"I offer my sincere gratitude to those who have served as instructors and program participants for many years. This communication serves as your notice regarding all immediate changes to seminars and lectures," Chapman said in a letter to delegates. "And while our efforts signify change, by no means does this mean abandonment of the foundation that you have helped to build. We will be welcoming new voices and a variety of preaching and lecturing styles and will eventually reach back out to those of you who have served as lecturers in the past. We will revisit and revise some of the previous seminars with the objective of reintroducing them in the very near future." Selecting Detroit as the venue for the annual gathering gives the city a national outlook because delegates to the convention have been meeting in different cities across the country. The convention attracts Black luminaries to its meetings. Benjamin Crump, Trayvon Martin's lawyer is among those attending the convention in Detroit. Convention officials indicated that more than 300 classes are held during the conference to equip Christian education leaders with the necessary information and teaching techniques to fulfill their respective roles in their local ministries.
Firebrand Congressman Ellison to keynote Chronicle Men of Excellence gala By Donald James
troit. He grew up in the W. Seven Mile Road-Livernois Avenue area of the city, where he and his four brothers were raised Catholic by their father, a psychiatrist, and mother, a Wayne County social worker.
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Congressman Keith Ellison, who has represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007, is looking forward to returning to his native Detroit where he will deliver the keynote address at the Michigan Chronicle’s Men of Excellence Awards gala. The event will be held on Friday, July 10, at the MGM Grand Detroit. “I’m honored that the Michigan Chronicle has invited me to come home to keynote its Men of Excellence wards event,” said Ellison. “If you look at back issues of the Chronicle, between 1981 and 1985, you’ll see some articles that I wrote. So my history with the Chronicle, just like
Keith Ellison it is with the city of Detroit, is very special and I’m so honored to be coming home.” While the 51-year-old Ellison, the nation’s first Muslim to serve in Congress, has lived in Minnesota since 1987, the first 23 years of his life were spent in De-
While life was good for the Ellisons, young Keith, through the teaching of his parents and grandparents, learned about the inequalities and injustices that Black people faced across America, especially in the South. Young Ellison became a prolific reader on topics about the history and struggles of Black people in America and beyond. “When I was around 15, I read 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X,'” said Ellison. “I understood his philosophy and was so proud that he had a connection to Detroit. I began to read more
and more about the Civil Rights Movement and its many other leaders, and the need to correct a broken world. That’s why, other than Muhammed Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, I never looked at athletes as my heroes. My heroes were civil rights leaders.” After graduating from University of Detroit Jesuit High School, Ellison attended Wayne State University. It was at Wayne State that he ecame active in finding ways and platforms to address racism and seeking empowerment for the oppressed in America and South Africa. One of the ways that Ellison expressed his views was writing for Wayne State’s South End newspaper, as well as the Chronicle. In both newspapers, he wrote on issues of racism and
See ELLISON page A-4