85Anniversary th
THE VOICE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY SINCE 1934
1934 - 20 19
North Mpls history told by residents who lived it
People listen to the “Northside Oral History Project,” to the voices of Black people who have lived in North Minneapolis over the last 50 years about the community’s history, at the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum By Sam Jones Contributing Writer
P
lymouth and Penn Avenue in North Minneapolis has a tall new building across the street from the Urban League. Inside the new building, the Regional Acceleration Center, is a well of local Black history on the fourth floor that houses the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery, which opened in 2018. Starting on the left side
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of the museum is an exhibit called “History Harvest,” which tells the history of the African American community in North Minneapolis. In the back left corner of the museum is an exhibit called “Unbreakable,” its chronological panels spanning most of the room, that details early Black settlers in Minnesota from the 1800s to present-day. Tucked away on the left side of the room in between the “History Harvest” and “Unbreakable” displays lies anoth-
er North Minneapolis display — this one, though, has the direct voices of the Black people who have lived in North Minneapolis. The “Northside Oral History Project” was put together by ReCAST Minneapolis, a City initiative, which stands for Resilience in Communities After Stress & Trauma, aimed at promoting equity through community youth engagement programs and behavioral health services. The “Northside Oral History Project” exhibit is a series
of interviews with Blacks who lived on the Northside of Minneapolis over the past 50 years, telling their stories of how the community has changed throughout the years. “So our project was really conceived as a way of community members being empowered to tell their own stories,” said ReCAST Minneapolis program manager Ebony Adedayo. Sitting down in the chair, putting on the headphones and listening to various community members talk about how their community has changed is a visceral approach to engaging with history. The participants and their stories paint memories of community warmth. “People choose to live here for a reason,” Adedayo said, It’s not a dangerous place, it is all of these other things at the same time.” Right from the community’s mouth Community members touch on various topics ranging from gentrification to discrimination and hope for the future. Adedayo stressed that ReCAST did not come up with the topics for the community members. “We didn’t want to be leading in the way that people told these stories,” Adedayo ■ See History on page 8
Project advances Power
PRST STD U.S.POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES MN PERMIT NO. 6391
August 15–21, 2019 Vol. 86 No. 2 www.spokesman-recorder.com
of everyday PeoPle against environmental racism By Lucy Vilankulu Contributing Writer In 2003, James Trice found himself out of a job. After Trice worked for years at Children’s Home Society and Family Services (Now Children’s Home Society & Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota), the organization eliminated Trice’s position as well as a program he had innovated that showed clients how to engage directly with city and state government to get their needs met and their voices heard on policies that affect them.
James Trice
Submitted photo
That program was the Public Policy Project, and in 2003 Trice turned it into an independent, nonpartisan ■ See trice on page 8
BLACK BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:
NATHANIEL STEWART, JR.
PSYCHOLOGY AND REHABILITATION
St. Paul psychologist maximizes mental improvement By Julia Johnson Contributing Writer Dr. Nathaniel Stewart Jr. has been a psychologist for over 35 years. Stewart, a New Jersey native and son to a minister, knew early on that he wanted to be a psychologist. He left New Jersey after high school to attend Central State University, a public, historically Black Stewart
■ See BBs on page 8
Celebrating 85 years of MSR’s archives
th
Anniversary 1934 - 20 19
THIS MONTH 35 YEARS AGO ... Throughout its 85th year, the MSR is taking a look back through its archives. This week the paper takes a 35-year leap into Aug. 1984.
By Solomon Gustavo Editor-in-chief
BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT SPIKES As the summer Prince released Purple Rain wound down, the national Black unemployment rate was on the rise. Black unemployment is typically about double that of White unemployment according to figures kept by the United States Department of Labor. The highest the rate has been for Blacks since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping track in 1972 was 21 percent in 1983, but Black joblessness was spiking again, clearing 16 percent in July and Aug. 1984 as people shimmied to “Let’s Go Crazy.” I Would Die 4 a job was very much the vibe as the unemployment rate rose for Americans as a whole, reported the MSR in its Aug. 16 issue, averaging about 7.5 percent in July. Black unemployment didn’t hit 16 percent again till 2010. It’s been declining, alongside the rest of the country, since 2011, but plateaued in 2016 and sat at 6 percent in July 2019.
Purlie, Purlie at Penumbra
Cast of the Penumbra Theater’s 1984 production of “Purlie, Purlie.”
MSR file photo
Penumbra Theater was founded in 1976 as a place for Black plays by Lou Bellamy, the stage director, actor and producer. Just shy of their first decade in business, the theater opened its production of the 1961 play Purlie Victorious — which they titled Purlie, Purlie — Aug. 2, 1984. The play was about a preacher returning to a small, Jim-Crow-era Georgia town and attempting to buy his beloved church in order to make it a Black bastion, and scheme to free his people from the societal shackles of Jim Crow laws.
Mpls woman a force in metro racquetball tourneys The Twin Cities’ racquetball scene had a miniSerena Williams on its enclosed courts. In the early 1980s, Minneapolitan mother-of-three Martha Arradondo won a string of trophies in and around the metro, writes the MSR. In 1984 alone, the bank teller, grocery store cashier, and downtown YWCA racquetball instructor, won the B class Medalist Pro-Am Tourney, the Southview Racquet Club Tourney C class, the Invitational Pro-Am B class, the Duff’s Celebrity Tourney C class, second place at something called the Pumpkin Classic Eagan Club, the Normandale Grand Prix Summer Tourney first place, the Brook Park Open B class Arradondo surrounded by her Black excellence title, and the Plymouth MSR file photo Racquet Club B class second place. Arradondo, the paper pointed out, was an avid roller skater. Solomon Gustavo welcomes reader responses to sgustavo@spokesman-recorder.com. These 85th Anniversary historical stories are brought to you by sponsorship support from The Minneapolis Foundation and Seward Co-op.