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Vol. 39 • No. 24 • Thurs., June 18, 2020 - Wed., June 24, 2020 • An NCON Publication Serving The Milwaukee Area • 75¢
Milwaukee County declares Juneteenth Day an official holiday
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson announced on Monday, June 15, 2020, Executive Order #20-15, which makes Juneteenth Day an official holiday in Milwaukee County. "Beginning this year, Milwaukee County will officially recognize this important day in American history," said Crowley, the first African American elected to the office, in a statement. "Juneteenth is a day to celebrate the rich history and culture of the African American community. It is that Black people in America will be able to take June 19 also a day to appreciate the have faced for centuries. I am as a day 'on' not a day off in long struggle for civil rights hopeful that our employees order to fully support Black
lives, liberation and the vision of Milwaukee County to achieve racial equity and become the healthiest county in Wisconsin." The holiday was declared via an Administration Order, Monday's statement said, "to ensure employees can utilize the floating holiday in 2020." To ensure that the holiday will become a permanent floating holiday, a resolution will be introduced to the Board of Supervisors this summer. "As America begins, again, to open our hearts and minds to fully accept and seek to redress centuries of oppression and systemic racism, Milwaukee County is taking
a step forward to formally acknowledge and celebrate Black Independence Day and all that it symbolizes," Nicholson said in the statement. "One day, perhaps all Americans will sing the Black National Anthem together at the start of sporting events and other gatherings, and celebrate freedom and equity for ALL Americans, the true promise of these United States." Milwaukee's Juneteenth Day celebration, which began in 1971, is one of the longest-running in the U.S. This year's event, however, has been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
AABN hosts first annual 'Well Mommy & Baby Care Package Drive-Up'
Photos by Yvonne Kemp
On Saturday, June 13, 2020, The African American Breastfeeding Network (AABN) and the Office of Early Childhood Initiatives (OECI) hosted the first annual Well Mommy & Baby Care Package Initiative Drive-Up at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 2207 N. 2nd Street. More than 250 families received packages of essential goods and educational supplies. Items were purchased by AABN through funding from Bader Philanthropies, Inc., and donated by local partners. “Our communities are all being impacted by COVID-19, and we wanted to let families who recently welcomed a baby, or who are preparing for their baby to arrive, to know we are thinking of them,” said African American Breastfeeding Network Inc. Executive Director Dalvery Blackwell.
Trump signs police reform executive order that focuses on training, falls short of protesters’ demands President Trump on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 addressed the issue of police brutality by taking executive action that would provide incentives for police departments to increase training about the use of force and to strengthen a national database to track misconduct. The president’s approach, which he announced at a Rose Garden event, seeks to leverage federal grant money to encourage local departments to take action around The executive order falls called for following the death a set of national “best pracshort of the more sweeping of a black man, George tices.” policy changes activists have Floyd, in police custody in An NCON Communications Publication
Minneapolis last month. “Reducing crime and raising standards are not opposite goals,” Trump said in the Rose Garden. “They are not mutually exclusive. They work together. That is why today I’m signing an executive order encouraging police departments nationwide to adopt the highest professional standards to serve their communities. These standards will be as high and as strong as there is on Earth.” The executive order states that the U.S. attorney general shall allocate discretionary grants “only to those state
and local law enforcement agencies that have sought or are in the process of seeking appropriate credentials” from a federally certified body. It also directs the attorney general to create a national database “concerning instances of excessive use of force related to law enforcement matters, accounting for applicable privacy and due process rights.” And it calls for the federal government to support efforts to train police officers in handling encounters with (Continued on pg. 2) www.milwaukeetimesnews.com