Celebrate Minnesota Black History
February 14-20, 2019 Vol. 85 No. 28 www.spokesman-recorder.com
PRST STD U.S.POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES MN PERMIT NO. 6391
THE VOICE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY SINCE 1934
See local BHM calendar on pg. 7
Council member on increasing diversity in Brooklyn Center
Black History salute
MINNESOTA’S FIRST BLACK POLICEWOMAN
ETHEL RAY NANCE Photo by Chris Juhn
April Graves By Dwight Hobbes Contributing Writer
B
rooklyn Center City Council Member April Graves is looking to change the face and landscape of the city’s political system by working within it. Now into her second term, she has learned to appreciate the virtues of deliberation and consensusbuilding in governing. According to RoadSnack, Brooklyn Center has the largest Black population in the state. Nearly 30 percent of the city’s residents are African American or are of African de-
scent. Yet, Graves noted, until recently the council did not look like its residents. “When I first ran [in 2014], there was no one of color on the council or running. No women — especially single mothers like myself, which make up a fair amount of the population. It didn’t make sense in a city this diverse.” That diversity is something she feels well qualified to appreciate and served as her impetus to run. “I’m used to being a bridge builder between different views or perspectives. I come from a very mixed family. My mom’s White, my dad’s Black. I also have
cousins and niece and nephews who are Native and Asian American,” she said. “The council should be representative of the city in which we live. I thought I could bring a voice to the conversation that hadn’t been there in its history.” Growing up in St. Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood, she was a teen mother of four who persevered, obtaining a bachelor of the arts degree in social science and creative writing from Metropolitan State University. In 2013, she served a term of service through AmeriCorps at Brooklyn Center High School.
YWCA forum calls for more ‘White humility’ By Solomon Gustavo Contributing Writer
has real consequences, causing Blacks to tie themselves in Dr. Robin DiAngelo, author knots to maintain White comof the bestseller White Fragility, fort, said DiAngelo from the has built a career around mak- lectern at Western Presbyteriing White people uncomfort- an Church in Minneapolis last able. Her work concentrates on Thursday. tearing down the social protections that allow Whites to cry their way out of talking about race. Those tears may soften some hearts, but that fragility
DiAngelo spoke as part of the Minneapolis YWCA’s “It’s Time to Act” four-part forum series, designed to get people past discussing race — which, given White fragility, is hard enough — and taking what
“The right question to ask, instead of ‘is something racist?’ is to ask how racism manifests...”
Robin DiAngelo
Photo courtesy YWCA Minneapolis
■ See Graves on page 8 they learn out into the world, influencing their actions. The series is designed to help go beyond conversations around race, faith and social justice issues. These forums, even one as seemingly straightforward as one on fragility (and filled with White progressives all too eager to be “less White) has to begin with an in-depth argument that there is a problem. “I’m done having conversations about race,” Rubén Vázquez, YWCA vice president of racial justice and public policy, told the MSR. “I want us to start taking action.” The only way to have beneficial race talks — or action — said DiAngelo is through Whites getting over themselves and toughening up. According to her, the first challenge of unflinching race conversations is White humility. Racism is not individual; it is systemic, “embedded in all institutions and also in cultural definitions of who’s normal, whose stories are told, whose stories are not told, who tells the story…who behaves professionally, who is intelligent, etcetera.” This messaging is perpetuated through everyday socialization. While growing up, if Whites were involved in
In honor of Black History Month, we’re sharing short clips highlighting the legacy and history of Blacks in Minnesota. This week, we salute Ethel Ray Nance, Minnesota’s first African American policewoman and first African American to work in the state legislature. While the job of stenographer may not seem groundbreaking, Ethel Ray Nance made headlines for it. She was the first African American to be hired for the position in the Minnesota State Legislature in 1923 — just one of many firsts in her career. Nance was born in 1899 to a Black father and Swedish mother in Duluth, where Blacks were few (only 400 in 1900) and racial unrest was rampant. After a lynching of three young Black men, her father William Ray organized the Duluth NAACP in 1921, where he served as president and Nance got her start as an activist and writer. After a year at the legislature, she went on to work for the Kansas City Urban League and eventually moved to New York to work as secretary for the New York Urban League director of research and contribute to Opportunity magazine during the Harlem Renaissance. She soon returned to Minneapolis where she served as associate head resident for the historic Phyllis Wheatley House. Two years later, the Minneapolis Police Department formed its first women’s bureau, and Nance was hired as its first African American policewoman.
Ethel Ray Nance outside Phyllis Wheatley House at Easter, 1927 Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society She quit in 1931 due to arthritis and went on to hold secretarial jobs with the State, the Minneapolis Urban League, and the Minnesota Department of Education. By 1945, she had landed work as secretary for W.E.B. DuBois. Nance then returned to work for the NAACP’s West Coast Regional Office in San Francisco and helped found the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society, where she worked for 10 years. Nance worked a series of other jobs in the Twin Cities and San Francisco before retiring in 1978 from African-American Historical and Cultural Society. In 1978, at the age of 79, she became the oldest person to receive a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco and in May 1979 worked on the Minnesota Historical Society’s public forum “Black Women in Minnesota, 1920–1940.” Nance received numerous awards during her career, including honors from the African-American Historical and Cultural Society and the Negro Historical Society. She remained active until her passing on July 11, 1992 in San Francisco. Nance photo courtesy Duluth Public Library
■ See YWCa on page 8
SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: YUMYUM BROWNIE SHOP
Built on grandma’s inspiration By Dwight Hobbes Contributing Writer Jerilyn Sheppheard, 18-year-old owner-proprietor of The Yumyum Brownie Shop, has never been at a loss for initiative. As a youngster in the Frogtown area of St. Paul, industry pretty much came naturally to her — organizing a neighborhood bike parade, devising an extra-curricular program at school with her kid sister, creating a community garden — and led to her career as a fledgling entrepreneur. Since 15, Sheppheard spent summers in her yard, operating a variation on the tried-and-true concept of lemonade stands — except, she sold brownies. Three years later, she’s now running Jerilyn Sheppheard
her own shop offering such goodies as brownies, cake jars, homemade ice cream and other deserts that have customers marveling at both her entrepreneurial and baking skills. “Ever since I was little I always liked doing stuff. I was always into it. I just wanted to start a business. I didn’t know what kind, but something I’d never seen before,” Sheppheard said. “I had ideas, but didn’t write a formal business plan.” It was a matter of starting small and taking one step at a time. She didn’t go about it conventionally, with such preparation as a blueprint and investors. She didn’t even take out a loan. “We saved up from the first time and Yumyum Brownie Shop’s Cookie Crunch Shake ■ See sBs on page 8
Submitted photos