July 7 2022 - MN Spokesman-Recorder

Read more about Flame Mobile Kitchen on page 4.

THE VOICE OF BLACK MINNESOTA SINCE 1934

July 7 - 13, 2022

Vol. 88

PRST STD U.S.POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES MN PERMIT NO. 6391

Inside this Edition...

www.spokesman-recorder.com

No. 49

Photo by Charles Hallman

Hiawatha Golf Course still in limbo

Hiawatha Clubhouse renamed for Black golfer once denied entry

By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer

T Solomon Hughes, Sr. Courtesy of Solomon Hughes, Sr. Golf Academy

he Hiawatha Golf Course clubhouse at one time, decades ago, did not allow Solomon Hughes Sr. to enter because of his race. Now it’s officially named the Solomon Hughes, Sr. Clubhouse.

Solomon Hughes, Sr. (1908-1987) was born in Alabama and learned how to play golf as a youngster by caddying for White players at a

local country club. As an adult, he played professionally during the 1920s and 1930s in tournaments sponsored by the United Golf Association (UGA), founded for Black golfers because its White counterpart, the Professional Golf Association (PGA), had a “Caucasians only” policy.

Hughes won his first tournament at age 25 and eventually moved himself and his family to Minneapolis.

“My dad [wanted] a place ■ See HUGHES on page 5

By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer

D

espite recently renaming its clubhouse after legendary Black golfer Solomon Hughes, Sr., the ultimate fate of the storied Hiawatha Golf Course in South Minneapolis remains in doubt. So far there has been no decision, and park officials say no action is planned—at least for now.

Community residents, course regulars and others have voiced

opposition to the Hiawatha Golf Course Area Master Plan, introduced in 2018 by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB). The plan presently calls for “an inclusive and accessible Par 36, 9-hole course…designed to be more flood-resilient, elevating all golf play spaces above the normal water levels on Lake Hiawatha.”

Opponents argue that Hiawatha should remain an 18-hole course and MPRB should find another way to solve ■ See HIAWATHA on page 5

Darwin Dean Photo by Jeff Fabre

Divisiveness in the interest of democracy Don Samuels on his effort to unseat Ilhan Omar

By Abdi Mohamed Contributing Writer Former Minneapolis City Councilmember Don Samuels has his sights set on Congress after gaining national recognition for his stance on public safety. The longtime North Minneapolis resident spoke to the Minnesota SpokesmanRecorder (MSR) about his bid for Congress and why he believes that the current incumbent is no longer qualified to represent the 5th Congressional District.

Samuels, 73, served on the Minneapolis City Council from 2003 to 2014 representing the city’s 5th Ward. The Jamaican-born businessmanturned-politician also made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2013 and served one at-large term on the city’s school board.

Through relationships, experience and innovation, Samuels says he hopes to bring change to CD 5 and address the inequities faced by the district’s diverse communities. He currently serves as the CEO of MicroGrants, a nonprofit that awards grants to Minneapolis entrepreneurs. He also initiated the “Lights On!” program after the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, which allows police to give free car-lightbulb repair vouchers at traffic stops.

Here he speaks on his time as a council member, his views on where police belong in society, and the criticism folks have for him in entering this race.

MSR: How did your immigrant upbringing inform your experience in the United States?

DS: I was born in Jamaica and my dad was a Pentecostal preacher and my mom was a seamstress. We lived in a low-income community, and I attended school in an upperincome community. So the trip

years. That had a big impact on DS: I made a commitment me in terms of relationships in to always live in a low-income the neighborhood and relation- community. I’m going to still live ships in the school. in the neighborhood while I’m in Congress, and I’m going to be driven by the concerns and MSR: What of your experience sensibilities, the priorities and and knowledge from being on needs here that are considered to be part and parcel of just life in the big city in America.

I feel that they’re totally changeable and fixable. The disparities in our city and our country around class and race can be solved.

I discovered that in order to get people to change you have to have been in a relationship with them. It makes a big difference. I’ve seen council memDon Samuels Submitted photo bers who had good ideas isolate themselves by being vitriolic and mean. back and forth to school from the Minneapolis City Council Having good relationships 10 to 18 was always a class jour- would you bring to Congress if with your peers is primary and ney, every day, for all of those elected?

essential. You need concessions from people and work to change their minds.

When I was on the council, I held vigils every time someone was killed, from morning till night, even if it was zero degrees outside. But then I also had people fill out a book with their feelings on how this murder impacted them. I’d take it back to the office and I’d have my aide type it up and send them in a document to every city council member, the mayor, the police chief, and many times the governor. What I discovered was that there was a distance that was created looking the other way.

MSR What is your stance on gun laws in light of the recent shootings in Uvalde, TX, and ■ See SAMUELS on page 5

Proposed aquatic center could reduce drowning deaths

By Nikhil Kumaran Contributing Writer

community, to learn to swim, end a long-held generational fear of water, and reduce racial drowning disparities.

V3 Sports is the nonprofit organization North Minneapolis community members met last Tuesday, June 28 to discuss the future behind the idea that was founded by Erika Binof a year-round swimming and youth develop- ger, an athlete who worked as the first female ment center. Parents, children, and familiar athletic director at the Jack Cornelius Boys & faces of the city gathered for a special informa- Girls Club in Minneapolis. Binger said that the tion session about the development of the V3 name V3 comes from the term “victor in 3,” which is a mantra that she has carried from her Center.

The new initiative is devoted to providing time running in and coaching young athletes for an accessible place for youth, and the entire triathlons.

A rendering of the planned V3 Center

Courtesy of LSE Architects

In 2019, V3 secured and purchased an Olympic-sized, 50-meter pool that was used for the 2021 U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. The 50-meter pool “is stored in the warehouse and will be installed during the second phase,” said Binger. Along with that pool, the organization also purchased a 25-yard training pool for the center.

The center will also feature multi-purpose courts, a running/biking track, a fitness and community gathering space, business storefronts, drop-in child care, and educational rooms. V3 organizers expect the center will bring positive attention to the area, attracting many spectators, visitors and families annually.

It will offer employment opportunities, generating a projected $5.2 million annual impact for the local economy and 60 year-round fulltime and part-time jobs, according to V3 Sports.

Fees to use the center will be based on a sliding scale. When asked about funding for the center, Binger said that V3 was listed in the State’s bonding bill that is currently stalled in Congress. Right now, V3 is “actively fundraising from foundations, donors, corporations,” said Binger.

“This is 120,000 square feet that will be built by the community and run by the community,” said Doris Baylor, a strong supporter of V3.

“This is a huge opportunity for our city.”

Phyllis Goff, a recent volunteer with V3, said that her experience with the stereotype that “Black people can’t swim” drove her to strive for change alongside the organization. “I didn’t learn how to swim when I was younger,” Goff said. “What I thought was normal was not normal. Children of color have a disparate number of drownings in America.”

According to the YMCA, 64% of Black children can’t swim, and the fatal drowning rate of Black/African American children is three times higher than White children.

“I hate to tell you that it’s not just a stereotype... Some of it is true,” said Baylor. She said that she didn’t learn how to swim until she was in college, as it was a requirement for graduation at the HBCU she attended.

Baylor said that it’s just as important for adults to learn how to swim for the sake of their children. “I remember some of those horror stories of adults on the shore trying to save their children in the water and they can’t.”

She added, “If people are going to be jumping in, they need to know what they are doing.”

In September 2017, V3 Sports purchased its future site, currently a warehouse at 701 Plymouth Avenue North in Minneapolis. A year later, staff members began to work within the space, among them Malik Rucker, V3’s director of ■ See V3 CENTER on page 5

2 July 7 - July 13, 2022

Metro

Crutchfield Dermatology Foundation awards first Mel Reeves Memorial Scholarship “We lost a champion for all that’s right this year,” said Charles E. Crutchfield III, MD, on the Jan. 6, 2022 passing of longtime journalist-activist and MSR community editor Mel Reeves. “I would typically tell a family member, ‘I am sorry for your loss,’ but in Mel’s case, I would honestly say I am sorry for our loss.”

Reeves succumbed to complications of COVID-19 and pneumonia after nearly a month-long battle. He hadn’t gotten vaccinated, but Crutchfield noted, “One of the last things he told me was that he wanted me to publish an article on COVID and the importance of getting vaccinated.

“It was typical Mel,” continued Crutchfield, “always looking out for others and anyone who might need help. That is why we developed the Mel Reeves Memorial Scholarship for students at the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul to continue to follow the path that Mel had blazed.”

With the belief that education is a proven pathway to success in America, the Crutchfield Dermatology Foundation partnered with the High School for Recording Arts for the $1,000 scholarship. The school works with at-

Walter Cortina Martinez

Submitted photo

risk youth both in and out of school and guides them on a pathway to high school graduation.

David Ellis, chancellor and co-founder of the High School for Recording Arts, commented, “We have had an excellent relationship with the Crutchfield Dermatology Foundation for many years. They have supported the school in many ways, including scholarships for the kids.”

Ellis continued, “When Tony Simmons, the executive director of the High School for Recording Arts, informed me that Dr. Crutchfield and the Crutchfield Dermatology Foundation were developing a Mel Reeves Memorial Scholarship, I immediately thought of the se-

Mayor Carter expands guaranteed income program Hundreds of low-income St. Paul families to benefit Mayor Melvin Carter City of St. Paul MSR News Service

Mel Reeves

Photo by Travis Lee

nior student Walter Cortina Martinez.

“Mel Reeves was a friend of mine,” Ellis added. “We go way back. I could see a bit of Mel’s spirit in the young Walter Cortina Martinez. As an outstanding High School for Recording Arts student, Walter also interned at The Minneapolis Foundation. He advocated and spoke to Minnesota state legislators and influenced legislative change that provided jobs for teens during the pandemic.

“Walter also founded Bridgemakers, a mentorship-based leadership program for Twin Cities youth seeking to break poverty, violence, and miseducation cycles.”

Said Walter Cortina Martinez, “When I was told I had been nominated for Mel Reeves Memorial Scholarship, I started learning about Mr. Mel Reeves. What an inspiration and loss for our community. He was a tireless fighter for all that was right. Mr. Reeves always fought hardest for those in our community who needed his help the most.

“I am sorry I never met him, but his story will be with me and inspire me for life. I am the first member of my family to graduate from high school. My brother is flying from Mexico to attend my graduation.

“As I graduate from the High School for Recording Arts this year,” he added, “I will do my best to carry a portion of the torch he bore for so many years. I am humbled and honored to receive the Mel Reeves Memorial Scholarship.”

“After meeting Walter, I am confident he is the right person for the scholarship,” said Crutchfied. “I have discussed with Tracey Williams-Dillard, the CEO/publisher of the MSR newspaper, and David Ellis, the program founder of the High School for Recording Arts, the real possibility of making this an annual event.

“With the Mel Reeves Memorial Scholarship, we will honor, respect, and keep his fighting spirit alive in our community for many years to come,” concluded Crutchfield.

porting families in building for their future.”

“Residents use direct paySt. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter announced on Thursday the ments for groceries, medicaexpansion of the City’s guar- tions, birthday gifts, and more anteed income and college everyday necessities that colsavings programs.

With the launch of the “Direct cash CollegeBound Boost propayments are gram, Carter announced that 333 low-income families ena simple, rolled in the CollegeBound effective way program will receive $500 a month in guaranteed income to help St. Paul payments for two years and residents achieve deposits of $1,000 each for economic security.” their child’s CollegeBound savings account starting this lectively make all the differsummer.

“Direct cash payments are a ence,” said Muneer Karchersimple, effective way to help Ramos, director of the Office St. Paul residents achieve eco- of Financial Empowerment. nomic security,” said Mayor “Now, we want to expand on Carter in a released state- this incredible lifeline with ment. “CollegeBound Boost is CollegeBound Boost.”

The People’s Prosperour bold approach to combine these payments with asset- ity Guaranteed Income Pilot building opportunities, sup- was implemented in No-

vember 2020. The project provided 150 St. Paul families with $500 per month in guaranteed income for a period of 18 months. The pilot program was offered to families participating in CollegeBound program, the City’s college savings initiative that provides every child born to a St. Paul resident on or after January 1, 2020 with a college savings account and a $50 seed deposit.

St. Paul’s Office of Financial Empowerment is partnering with researchers at the University of Michigan under Professor William Elliott, an expert on children’s college savings and asset building, to study the impacts of combining guaranteed income and asset building through CollegeBound Boost for St. Paul families.

Source: City of St. Paul

Photo of the Week

A family’s summer swim

The future you want for your business?

We’ll help you grow into it.

Ducklings follow their mother’s lead at Lake Nokomis in South Minneapolis.

Do you have a photo you’d like to share with other MSR readers? Send it to submissions@spokesman-recorder.com. Make sure to place “Photo of the week” in the email subject field. If your photo is selected, you will win a one-year subscription to the MSR newspaper.

Photo by Paige Elliott

At Bremer Bank, we know the true value of a banking relationship isn’t measured in dollars and cents. It’s measured in trust, earned by helping you anticipate, grow and thrive through changes. It’s not always possible to know what the future holds. But we’ll be ready to help you make the most of it. Because right now, relationships matter more than ever. Talk to a Bremer banker today.

bremer.com

Understanding is everything. © 2022 Bremer Financial Corporation. All rights reserved. Bremer and Bremer Bank are registered service marks of Bremer Financial Corporation.

July 7 - July 13, 2022

3

Health Minnesota delivers new help for pregnant people, babies

By Dr. Nathan T. Chomilo Guest Contributor Did you or a loved one recently give birth while getting your health care through Medicaid? If so, July delivered some welcome news: Pregnant Minnesotans eligible for Minnesota’s Medicaid program, called Medical Assistance, will now continue to receive Medicaid coverage for 12 months after giving birth instead of only 60 days.

This investment is one of several ways the State is working to make progress on serious disparities in birthing outcomes for Black Minnesotans and Native Americans by supporting pregnant people before and after they give birth, marking a big win for Minnesota families.

Healthy families need healthy parents. Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage will directly impact more than 7,000 new parents and ensure they have access to routine medical care after giving birth.

It will also help with chronic health conditions, mental health needs, family planning services, and access to counseling on nutrition, breastfeeding, and other preventive health issues that affect the longer-term health of the birthing person and their newborn child.

Medicaid covers about four out of 10 of births in the state, and approximately eight out of 10 among Black birthing persons and nine out of 10 Native birthing persons.

Yet before this policy change, those on Medicaid giving birth faced the reality that they could lose their health insurance just two months after this major life event.

These disruptions in health insurance coverage have been shown to disproportionately affect Black, American Indian and Hispanic persons.

This is all occurring in an environment where the nation’s mortality rate for birthing people has risen, and at least one-third of those deaths occur after a person has given birth. A growing body of evidence shows that many of these deaths, particularly from preventable causes such as overdose and suicide,

occur after pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage typically ends.

Mental health in particular is a major concern during and after pregnancy. Suicide among pregnant and postpartum people has risen in the past decade. At least one in 10 birthing people experience depression before, during or after giving birth. Some studies suggest higher rates but poorer access to treatments among Blacks and other communities of color and those with low incomes.

While postpartum care traditionally centered around one clinical visit six to eight weeks after delivery, a shift has occurred in how we view the importance of postpartum care. Supporting this “4th trimester” is an ongoing process, and evidence is showing that the best outcomes typically require multiple visits and follow-up care that may last a year or even longer.

In response to this growing body of evidence, and acknowledging the role Medicaid plays in access to care for our Black, American Indian and other communities of color, the American Rescue Plan Act gave states the option to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months.

A shift has occurred in how we view the importance of postpartum care.

Photo by William Fortunato on Pexels.com and Native American people compared to White people.

The Integrated Care for High-Risk Pregnancies (ICHRP) program identifies African American and Native American pregnant people who are dealing with homelessness, hunger, untreated mental illness, substance use disorder, and exposure to institutional racism. It then works to reduce these stressors by providing culturally specific services and resources such as housing referrals, behavioral health care, food, and community supports through specially trained community health workers and doulas.

ICHRP collaboratives are co-led by community members, serve both parents, support workforce and leadership development within our community, and engage in broader education and advocacy for the health of pregnant people, positive parenting, and early childhood brain development.

The program is available in regions with the highest concentrations of African American and American Indian births in Medical Assistance, including Ramsey and Hennepin counties and Bemidji.

Giving birth is one of the most significant medical events in a person’s life. Minnesota’s Medicaid postpartum policy now delivers for the pillars of our families and communities with the coverage they need and deserve to recover their health and well-being.

Last year the Walz-Flanagan administration included this policy change in their budget proposal, and the 2021 Minnesota Legislature passed a law adopting the option.

This June, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services formally accepted Minnesota’s application to make this change, allowing it to go into effect July 1.

In 2021, the governor and legislature also expanded a successful program that improves overall health, social and economic outcomes for African American and Native American pregnant people and their babies. Minnesota is among states with the lowest rates for prematurity, low birth weight, and infant mortality. However, Minnesota has some of the nation’s highLearn more at Integrated est disparities for these out- Care for High Risk Pregnancomes for African American cies (ICHIRP) / Minnesota De-

Follow Us!

partment of Human Services https://mn.gov/dhs/partnersand-providers/news-initiativesreports-workgroups/minnesota-health-care-programs/ integrated-care-high-risk-pregnancies/.

Dr. Nathan T. Chomilo is medical director for the State of Minnesota’s Medicaid/Medical Assistance & MinnesotaCare programs and practices as a general pediatrician in Brooklyn Center with Park Nicollet. He is a

board member of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and an adjunct assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and son.

To Protect Yourself and Others from Covid-19 If you feel sick...

CHECK YOUR SYMPTOMS

START WEARING A MASK

GET TESTED

STAY HOME IF YOU TEST POSITIVE

GET VACCINATED @MNSpokesmanRecorder

For more information, visit northpointhealth.org/ coronavirus-updates

Scan this QR code for more vaccine information

4 July 7 - July 13, 2022

Flame

Mobile Kitchen Black Business SPOTLIGHT

Business Backyard pandemic cookouts inspire successful catering business

By Angela Rose Myers Contributing Writer During the pandemic, while many restaurants were going out of business, a tight-knit band of Black men led by Tommy McNeal and certified chef Darren Hayes began to host backyard cookouts as a way to socially distance and still maintain relationships. These cookouts transformed into Flame Mobile Kitchen, a successful catering business that works out of a mobile trailer kitchen, bringing smoked and grilled favorites to events across the Twin Cities metro area.

McNeal and Hayes are furthering an innovative dining experience that centers around customer experience. They do this by prioritizing community through food—physically going to the customer and catering to their needs.

Tommy McNeal with daughter Camryn

Submitted photos

Flame Mobile Kitchen are the kitchen that’s primarily geared grilled salmon and the smoked around catering and personal chicken wings. When order- chef, as well as special events. ing catering, customers can “So we’re really exclusive, and that has been more of an attraction to the community because they are offered something that is not common that we provide that is unique to them—maybe the food selection that we provide and the customer experience that we provide. As a result of that, our business is starting to expand.”

Asked about some of the challenges in starting a business, McNeal detailed the lengthy yet intentional process that comes in building a business’s strong foundation.

“One of the things about our community that we are limited McNeal, founder and co- customize and work with Chef to…there’s not a lot of us that owner of Flame Mobile Kitch- Hayes to build a menu that will are exposed to the backend en, stated, “​​During the height best serve their guests. Re- process of registering—gathof the pandemic, we [found] cently, Flame Mobile Kitchen ering and getting inspected ourselves rotating each other’s was spotted catering for Hop- and bringing in those resourchouses on the back patio with kins School District’s Employ- es to stand up a small business. a social distancing environ- ee Appreciation Day. “So, I found myself doing ment, but breaking bread together, and having a sense of community.

“And so during that time, my business partner Darren Hayes, who’s our GM and executive chef, really started honing his craft… And we knew that if we were having this level of entertainment and fun building a community, others would also want to do it in a very safe and socially distanced environment.”

He continued, “So we established a mobile kitchen to meet customers, our people in our community, where they are, so that they don’t have to necessarily subject themselves to sitting in a confined diner or restaurant.

“We can meet them out in McNeal explained how ca- quite a bit of research,” he conpublic, in a socially distant en- tering is the lifeblood of the tinued, “communicating with vironment where they can en- business: “I like to always say like-minded individuals, those joy the unique kind of cuisine we’re not a typical food truck. that have had some experiand dining experience that You won’t find us on the main ences of starting their busiwe’re offering.” streets along with the other nesses in the past, researchSome fan favorites from food trucks. We are a mobile ing through the internet, as

well as through some business partners on how to proficiently start this business.”

That process took a bit of a toll, McNeal explained: “It was a six-month process to get to purchase all the necessary equipment, register with the state, get inspected to ensure that it’s up to code.

“Now,” he added, “we’re into our sophomore year for Flame Mobile Kitchen. And what we found is [that] with the growth of the business throughout the first year, we didn’t anticipate the interest that the community would have in what we provide.”

Yet, McNeal emphasized the strong foundation and community interest has been crucial for the growth of the business. “We, as a people, typically don’t look at size and

scale and scope, because a lot of us haven’t been in a position with experience in this area. “[It’s] really kind of hitting

“We didn’t anticipate the interest that the community would have in what we provide.”

“Sometimes, [new business owners] limit ourselves when we are moving faster than the resources are providing.”

The dedication and success of Flame Mobile Kitchen go to show that the passion for community-minded business is still alive and well in the Twin Cities.

Flame Mobile Kitchen has small pop-ups at the Lakeview Terrence Farmers market in Robbinsdale on Saturdays in the ground running 100 miles, the summer from 8 am to noon. but really for [Flame Mobile Learn more by following their Kitchen] it’s all about pace. It’s social media sites: @flame_moall about us really looking at bile_kitchen on Instagram and what our three-to-five-year Facebook or going to their webplan is versus living day to site: flamemobilekitchen.com. day. And so, we’re forecasting based on how we’re performAngela Rose welcomes reader ing today, and where the busi- responses to arose@spokesmanness and industry are going. recorder.com.

Success happens one step at a time.

Let’s talk about your next one.

In banking and business, relationships matter more than ever. Talk to a Bremer banker today.

Understanding is everything. © 2022 Bremer Financial Corporation. All rights reserved. Bremer and Bremer Bank are registered service marks of Bremer Financial Corporation.

bremer.com

July 7 - July 13, 2022

Hiawatha Continued from page 1

its water issues. The course is prone to flooding whenever a heavy rain occurs; heavy rains in 2014 flooded the course and forced its closure for months.

At an MPRB meeting in April, several in attendance testified in support of keeping Hiawatha as it is. “We presented an alternative plan, and we believe it is a good plan,” said Darwin Dean, president of the 10-member Bronze Foundation.

The local nonprofit group sponsors the annual Upper Midwest Bronze Amateur Memorial Tournament at Hiawatha for youth, adult men and women, and seniors.

The tourney is scheduled for later in July.

“It is a great plan,” continued Dean, “that you should accept and move forward. We want to solve the water [problem]. We want to save finances with our plan. We also want to serve the community that Hiawatha actually exists in and preserve the cultural history that exists.”

Hughes Continued from page 1 where his daughters can play in the park, walk down the street, get a good education,” said Solomon Hughes, Jr. during a June 27 morning ceremony to display the building’s new exterior and interior signage. The event was attended by family members, friends, local officials, and local media, including the MSR. “So, he comes up with three locations to pick on,” Hughes Jr. continued: “Chicago, Illinois, Baltimore, Maryland, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.” A friend of his had already moved here.

The senior Hughes chose Minneapolis and moved here in 1943.

Although his mother hated the cold weather, “My dad had career opportunities here,” continued the junior Hughes.

“He ended up supporting the family by working at Burlington Northern Railroad.”

His father also pursued his golf career, playing in as many UGA events as possible.

But locally, Hughes and other Black golfers had to endure de facto segregation at Twin Cities golf courses.

Hiawatha was one of two local courses where Blacks could play, but they couldn’t use the clubhouse. The South Minneapolis course hosted the UGA’s Central States Golf Tournament in 1938, however.

Hughes and fellow Black golfers fought against the clubhouse ban, which Hiawatha finally ended in 1952. It wasn’t until the 1960s that other courses did the same.

Hughes won many golf

Samuels Continued from page 1

Buffalo, NY? DS: You can imagine because I was holding vigils every time someone was killed. I was very concerned about the gun issue. I felt that Congress was kind of lazy on the issue and scared of the big monster, the NRA. People were dying in my neighborhood, and I realized they weren’t feeling our pain.

I think we have to ban assault weapons. I know we’re picking away at it and sometimes we compromise to make some progress, but I’m not going to be ashamed or careful to not say we need to ban assault weapons.

We need to make sensible gun laws.

I’m going to talk about our humanity in a big way and about our responsibility to the highest right of all rights, which is the right to life.

MSR: You’ve stated that you support a women’s right to choose when it comes to abortion. What do you hope to do in Congress to protect that right?

DS: As with gun laws where 90% of the people agree to sensible gun laws, while Congress is being held hostage in their election process by the funders—

V3 Center

The Bronze plan is called “a sympathetic restoration master plan,” which includes redesigning and restoring the Hiawatha course and new course maintenance standards, including course irrigation. Dean told the MSR last week, “We hope to have a new plan by this time next year,” adding that his organization’s plan will address the water issue as well as save the 18-hole course.

Veteran pro golfer Tom Lehman, who is working with Bronze Foundation and others in a course redesigning plan, also testified at the April MPRB board meeting. “All we are asking for is more time for this pushback to be developed, examined and looked at, “ said Lehman.

Stairstep Foundation’s Alfred Babington Johnson stressed the importance of Hiawatha Golf Course as “a historic gathering place for decades for Black people in South Minneapolis.”

Hiawatha became the fifth public golf course operated by the park board when it opened in 1934, then as a ninehole course; it expanded to 18 holes in 1935. It also became a regular place for Black folks to gather.

“We’ve been fighting this thing for seven years.”

“This was a community park,” said Dean, as he spoke to the MSR in the Hiawatha parking lot. “There are still picnic tables back over there. This was our park. This was our playground. This was our golf course. And now it’s being threatened…because it’s a land grab.”

The MPRB board has twice called for a vote on its Master Plan but has yet to decide to accept or reject it.

“At this time,” said a Park Board spokesperson, “there is no action directing a change to the Hiawatha Golf Course or the advancement of either the MPRB’s 2021 Master Plan or the Bronze Founda-

(l-r) Al Bangoura, LaTrisha Vetaw, Solomon Hughes, Jr., Shirley Hughes, Alicia D. Smith and Roxanne Allen Photos by Charles Hallman

events over the course of his decades-long career.

His last was in 1984, three years before his death. He is also credited with opening doors for later Black pros such as Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder, who both played on the PGA circuit.

“It was his He also second home. If he t u t o r e d wasn’t home, he was and taught many Black here on the golf youth, mostly at course.”

Hiawatha. “It was his

mainly the NRA—so they can’t do what most of the people want.

It’s the same thing with a woman’s right to choose. Over 70% of Americans support a woman’s right to choose, but somehow or the other it can’t become law. I think it should become law, and I’m going to Congress to make that work towards that goal.

MSR: You’ve gained a national profile due to your stance on public safety in the city of Minneapolis. Can you clarify your stance on where you see police in our society?

DS: On the issue of public safety, this is actually the straw that broke the back of my nonparticipation in government. When I saw how my opponent really dealt with this issue, I said, “Ok, Ilhan Omar does not understand the realities on the ground, and in fact was out of touch with 78% of African Americans who did not want to reduce the police. And of course, 56% of the city voted to not cut the police.

So it was clear that I was with the majority of the city in saying we don’t need less police.

Eight of us filed a lawsuit to bring the number up to the minimum, which was 740, not the norm that was 880.

Living where I live, you have to have police. You can’t not have that. People say don’t prevent crime but, well, you saw what happened recently when we lost 300 cops.

Tittle said. “I was lucky enough to be in a position where my family could swim. UnderContinued from page 1 standing just how many people couldn’t was crazy to me. It’s a very generational issue. If your community engagement, and grandparents don’t know, then Raven Tittle, the organization’s your parents don’t know, and now you probably don’t know.” administrative manager.

Rucker asserted that North “I grew up in the suburbs,”

tion’s alternative concept plan. In addition, for any plan to proceed, there would be years’ worth of steps that will need to be taken, including: additional community engagement; planning, design and engineering; extensive permitting, and substantial funding secured.”

Dean and others say they are not sure where the current board, with seven new members, stands on the Hiawatha issue. “We’re not winning at this point in time because the park board is holding the cards,” said Dean.

SaveHiawatha18 is a group of homeowners, neighbors and patrons of Hiawatha also in favor of keeping the course as it is. The group on its website produced a white paper that noted the course “is a victim of bad water strategy being implemented by a variety of municipalities and government agencies.”

“I don’t think they do recognize the history behind this course and what it means to African Americans,” said SaveHiawatha18 member Charles Rodgers. “We’ve been fighting this thing for seven years.”

He added, “They [the park board] are trying to blame the golf course for all the

second home. If he wasn’t home, he was here on the golf course,” Hughes Jr. told the MSR. “It is a tribute to his tenacity and his dedication, and constantly working hard here at the club fighting against the discrimination.”

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Superintendent Al Bangoura told the gathering that Hughes’ name on the Hiawatha clubhouse is important for many reasons. “We all know a lot of times without our history for Black people,

5

water coming from [Lake] Minnetonka.”

Hiawatha “is a staple to South Minneapolis,” said Ryan Edwards of Minneapolis.

“I believe that it should stay open, especially for the Black golfers here in Minneapolis,” noted Eric Smalley also of Minneapolis.

MPRB Superintendent Al Bangoura told the MSR last week that he believed, at least for now, Hiawatha is safe. “I don’t know as far as the board… There’s no action at this point. There has been no decision at this point.”

The Bronze Foundation with Hess, Roise and Company, a Minneapolisbased historical consulting firm, is preparing to apply for national historic status for Hiawatha by the National Register of Historic Places for its “historical value,” said Dean.

Asked why non-golfers should care about Hiawatha, he said, “If you tear down this golf course, and you destroy it, all that’s gone. All the history is gone and will never come back again.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesmanrecorder.com.

it gets buried, and we lose [it] sometimes. This is a way of actually showing it.”

Bangoura later told the MSR, “The naming of this space [will enable] young Black children to come here and see the space and know his name, understand his legacy, read about his history and what that means.”

Minneapolis City Councilmember LaTrisha Vetaw, during her time on the Park Board, fought for the clubhouse renaming. “This was a unanimous vote,” she recalled.

“I spent some time with [the Hughes family] to learn more.

What a remarkable story.

What a remarkable history your family has.

“I’m thankful that I’ve learned about his legacy,” continued the councilmember. “I also want to say we can’t stop…

There’s so much more that we’re going to have to continue to do not only to preserve the history of your father but the history of Black people in the state of Minnesota, in the city of Minneapolis,” Vetaw said at the event.

The elder Hughes daughter, Shirley, told the MSR after the event that her father often equated the game of golf with life. “I remember one of the things my dad told me is that people who cheat are cheating themselves. That was when he was teaching me how to score.”

Theodore Worth Golf Course on the city’s North Side could also rename its clubhouse after another local legendary Black golfer, Eddie Mandeville, who died in 2020. He was an icon on the golf course for over 60 years, and like Hughes was initially denied clubhouse access because he was Black.

“Hopefully it will be coming down the pipeline in 2023,” said Park Board Vice-President Alicia D. Smith on possibly getting Mandeville’s name on the Worth clubhouse. “There’s a legacy, there’s a history, and it’s a connection to those golf courses.

And we have to honor that.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

MSR: Recently you apologized for a tweet that referenced a tragedy in which a child lost their life while in your care. Do you have regrets about that tweet or any other that you feel detracts from your message?

DS: Well, let me first say that this instance was devastating. My wife and I took five kids on a bike ride along the river. They wanted to get their feet wet in this beach-like area, but we didn’t know there was a 25-foot drop-off.

Two of the kids went just about six feet out. Sondra [Don’s wife] was able to save one, and went after the other one. I couldn’t swim so I had to I believe we should hire more from herself on the other side of the Demo- stand there. She tried valiantly and the communities that are represented cratic Party on these key issues, and after a long struggle, she lost him. in the population. That we should not when that happens you have to say to She herself started to drown and stop until we have representational yourself, is she really a Democrat? I’m was rescued. going to Congress to work with the numbers.

That was the worst possible day of I believe we should then have peo- team. my life. Nothing comes close. I’m sure ple who are supervising on the streets it was worse for the family. One of the to be exemplary in those qualities, and MSR: What do you have to say to biggest aspects of our pain is that we that any time that leader or any cop is those who feel you are being divisive caused so much pain. We can’t undo it. going out of line, that any cop in their as a Democrat running against an We had to be in therapy for a year to presence has the ability to restrain incumbent Democrat? stay functional. We think about them DS: Well, the divisiveness that I all the time. them. And that person’s job won’t be defined to you is policy-making. The jeopardized by that. divisiveness of running against some- This interview has been edited for one in a campaign, that’s democracy.

MSR: What are your criticisms of brevity and clarity. For the full interview, If you are doing a lot, making chang- visit spokesman-recorder.com.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and es, and are popular, you don’t have to where would you improve?

DS: In Congress, she takes a stance worry about anything because 98% of Abdi Mohamed welcomes reader responses where she’s also in the minority. She incumbents are reelected. to amohamed@spokesman-recorder.com.

MSR: Although a majority of people voted “no” on Question 2, there is still significant support for police reform.

What types of police reforms would you favor for law enforcement?

DS: Sondra [Don’s wife] and I stated, “Both-and”—that came out of our living room. It wasn’t either-or, but both-and, and that was a simple encapsulation that we weren’t choosing a side.

was one of two Democrats to vote against the bill to shore up the security at the Capitol after January 6. She was one of six Democrats to vote against the infrastructure bill that was probably going to bring $8 billion dollars to the state of Minnesota.

She was one of four Democrats I think to vote against Russian oil sanctions and against the sanctions of Russian oligarchs. She constantly finds

“So it was clear that I was with the majority of the city in saying we don’t need less police.”

Minneapolis would gain much from this facility and that athletic values in children shape them in a positive way.

“There’s a lack of infrastructure for our community to be healthy,” Rucker said. “From growing up here, I’m just really excited to have health and wellness opportunities and for

our community to be healthy.

“It’s taught me a lot of life lessons that I still carry today.

Whether it’s how to fight through adversity, trust the process, and strategize… there are just so many lessons.”

The organization is excited about its next steps and how it can affect North Min-

neapolis for the better. The center plans to open its doors “likely December 2023/January 2024,” said Binger. “We have a great team in place. More people now have the vision but are also contributing and making it better and stronger.”

The V3 Center is currently

in its fundraising stage and is continually looking for partnerships in the community.

For more information about V3, visit their website at v3sports.org.

Nikhil Kumaran welcomes reader responses to nkumaran@spokesmanrecorder.com.

6 July 7 - July 13, 2022

Arts & Culture Sounds of Blackness cap a remarkable Black Music Month

By Tony Kiene Contributing Writer “We’re going to turn the Dakota into the Apollo Theater.

That’s the setting for ‘Soul of the Sixties’… In the middle of Harlem, New York. 1960s.

How can you experience that anywhere else?” –Gary Hines

“Juneteenth Celebration,” in honor of the nation’s newest federal holiday.

To close out Black Music Month 2022, they brought the house down with two sold-out shows at The Dakota Jazz Club on Nicollet Mall.

Billed as the “Soul of the Sixties,” on June 30, the Dakota was transformed into the Apollo Theater for a night, recreating elements of the legendary Motortown Revue and other live showcases that featured the top African American artists of the day.

Under the direction of Gary Hines and backed by a 10-piece ensemble (dubbed The Satellite Band for the evening), the Sounds of Blackness scored again and again with its musical selections, while seamlessly replicating the choreography and costuming of the very icons they were emulating.

After opening remarks from Sharon Smith-Akinsanya of the Rae Mackenzie Group (the event’s executive producer), and Tracey Gibson and Chris Galvin of show sponsor Andersen Windows and Doors, emcee “TJ the Dee Jay” (of WBLK) took

America’s 44th annual observance of Black Music Month proved to be particularly historic here in the Twin Cities. It kicked off with the culmination of the Crown our Prince project, a sevenyear journey that gifted us Hiero Veiga’s 100-foot mural of Minneapolis’ favorite son and the ceremonial renaming of a one-block stretch of First Avenue as Prince Rogers Nelson Way. That first weekend in June also witnessed the longawaited return of Celebration at Paisley Park, the first such gathering since April of 2019.

The Minnesota Black Music Awards, founded by Pete and Kimberly Rhodes, celebrated its 40th anniversary and honored a pair of Minneapolis Sound legends in Jellybean Johnson and St. Paul Peterson. Both Johnson “Billed as the and Peterson headlined their own shows this past month, and each released new music to boot. on June 30 the And finally, there may not have been a local act that was busier this June than the three-time Grammy Awardwinning Sounds of Blackness.

Now in its 51st year of dazzling audiences across the globe, the Sounds performed over.

The first act of the night, a number of gigs and debuted its new single and the “Martha and the Vandellas,” accompanying music video, raced through four of their

Sounds of Blackness members as Sly and the Family Stone biggest hits, including the top-five Billboard classics “Heat Wave” and “Dancing in the Street.”

“The Four Tops” and “the Marvelettes” then graced the stage next before Detroit gave way to Memphis, Stax Records, and the soul

THE

‘SOUL OF

SIXTIES,’

was transformed into the

APOLLO THEATER for a night.”

stylings of “Otis Redding” performing “Try a Little Tenderness” and his lone number-one single “(Sittin’ On)

The Dock of the Bay.” Motown then returned with the likes of “Mary Wells,” “Gladys Knight & The Pips,” and “Marvin Gaye”, who after three solo numbers was joined by “Tammi Terrell” for a trio of their most famous duets including “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

Both the “Queen” and the “Godfather of Soul” made appearances as “Aretha” ran through six of her standards while “James Brown” added four of his own, closing with “Please, Please, Please,” accentuated by his famous cape routine.

The performance did include a little bit of levity at the expense of “Ike Turner.”

While “Tina” and the “Ikettes” captivated the crowd with

a full rendition of “Proud Mary,” “Ike” was sort of relegated to the side in one of his trademark jumpsuits that was more 1970s Elvis than the man who penned and recorded “Rocket 88,” widely considered the first Rock and Roll song of all time.

Another shot of Memphis Soul literally brought the crowd to its feet as “Sam & Dave” ripped through four numbers, beginning with their first R&B number-one hit, “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” and ending with their second, “Soul Man.” To close out the night, “TJ the Dee Jay,” introduced “Sly and The Family Stone,” joking that they saved the Bay Area funk legends for last because “we’re not always sure they are going to show.”

But they did, opening their

Photo by Tony Kiene seven-song set with “I Want to Take You Higher” and the evening’s finale, “Dance to the Music.”

All told, 13 of the greatest acts from the era were represented. Moreover, Sounds of Blackness managed to work in perfectly paced and arranged medleys (as well as a few full-length versions) that showcased a total of 47 songs in just under 90 minutes—retaining all the flair and fashion, style and substance, and perhaps most importantly, meaning of the original performances.

It was a night to remember and a perfect way to wrap up a remarkable month in Minneapolis.

Tony Kiene welcomes reader responses to tkiene@spokesman-recorder.com.

Sister Spokesman returns with lessons on self-care

After a hiatus due to the pandemic, Sister Spokesman returned on July 2 at NorthPoint in North Mpls. for an afternoon centered on self-care and empowerment. (Panelists, l-r) Dr. Shirley McCorvey, Tracey Williams- For information on the next Sister Spokesman, visit @SisterSpokesman Dillard (host), DejaJoelle, and Deidra Isaac. on Facebook.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning drama

by LYNN NOTTAGE

directed by TAMILLA WOODARD

July 16 – Aug 21 612.377.2224 / guthrietheater.org

Photos by Steve Floyd

July 7 - July 13, 2022

LEGACY BOAT CRUISE IS BACK! SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022 5:00 - 9:00 PM (Boat boards promptly at 4:30)

CELEBRATE 88 YEARS OF BLACK JOURNALISTIC EXCELLENCE FEATURING:

Jazz By Wenso Ashby on Deck 1

Jamecia Bennett on Deck 3

Drawing * Prizes * Give Aways* Cash Bar

Early Bird Special Extended through July 15!

Purchase tickets for $75. For an additional $30, leave the driving to us and ride the luxury bus. Tickets available through the MSR website www.spokesman-recorder.com or by calling 612-827-4021 Vendor space still available

7

8 July 7 - July 13, 2022

Mayor’s ‘community work group’ releases public safety recommendations

MSR News Service

Last week Mayor Jacob Frey’s community safety work group outlined recommendations for improving public safety in Minneapolis.

The recommendations included strategies for strengthening oversight of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), bolstering officer recruitment efforts and accountability systems, and expanding violence prevention and behavioral crisis response programs.

The 22-member volunteer work group, formed

by Frey on Dec. 4, 2021, is co-chaired by Nekima Levy Armstrong, attorney and civil rights activist, and Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis, lead minister for Plymouth Congregational Church.

Highlights of the work group’s recommendations include: • Improve oversight and coordination within MPD, including creating a new leadership position focused on the coordination of community safety related functions within the City enterprise.

• Strengthen MPD’s recruitment and hiring process by

a stronger focus on violence intervention and prevention.

Mayor Jacob Frey has the opportunity to implement these recommendations to improve MPD and make our city more livable for all.”

Said work group co-chair Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis, “I believe that by implementing these recommendations, Mayor Frey has an opportunity to keep faith with the citizens of Minneapolis who are concerned and frustrated about community safety and lack of police accountability.

“But he also gets to take a good first step at demonstrating the City’s commitment to reforming a system long overdue for systemic change,” Rev. Davis continNekima Levy Armstrong (r) serves as co-chair of the public safety workgroup formed by Mayor Frey.

MGN ued. “I am hopeful about this opportunity before us, and “Minneapolis residents I pray the mayor will make implementing a first-in-class tion programs and the City’s mational recommendations police recruitment and training behavioral crisis response for a path forward. They did have made it clear that they every effort to see that the want to see a culture shift work gets done to make our just that. program focused on building a strategy.

“Minneapolis needs to be “Thank you to the co- happen within the Minneap- city safer.” pipeline of future candidates safe for its residents—that’s chairs, Ms. Levy Armstrong olis Police Department, along Mayor Frey will be considwho live in Minneapolis.

• Significantly improve the one thing we can all agree and Rev. Dr. Davis, for their with an increased focus on ering the implementation of quality of MPD training with on,” said Mayor Jacob Frey. “I leadership in guiding this transparency and account- these recommendations in the convened this group of com- work—and many thanks to ability,” said work group co- coming weeks as he prepares a series of action steps. to finalize and present his rec• Strengthen MPD’s dis- munity leaders to think criti- the entire work group for chair Levy Armstrong.

She added, “Residents also ommended 2023 City budget. ciplinary and accountability cally about the current and volunteering their skills and future safety needs of our experience for the better- want to see a significant resystems. duction in gun violence and Source: The City of Minneapolis • Expand violence preven- city and to provide transfor- ment of our city,” said Frey.

July 7 - July 13, 2022

Opinion

9

Choice without shackles We need a ‘living Constitution’ that’s not a prisoner to the past

By Robert C. Koehler “The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.”

What could be more convincing than that? The words are part of Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in the recent SCOTUS ruling overturning a woman’s right to an abortion. Apparently human evolution stopped in…1789.

We—in particular women, people of color—are prisoners of the past, when slavery was the law of the land, when women couldn’t vote.

America, America, land of White male dominance and ignorance. Thank God for the constitutional originalists, who do what they must to keep that ignorance viable, to keep us anchored to the certainties of the old days.

These are the certainties that shape the world, that keep militarism alive, that keep the prison system alive. Speaking of which, 11 states still allow the barbaric practice known as “shackling” within the system: handcuffing and chaining incarcerated pregnant women, including when they are, God help us, in labor.

The cruel absurdity of this practice is almost beyond comprehension. And it hasn’t been that long ago that it was situation normal throughout the country.

I first wrote about it in 2004, when Arkansas became the second state—following Illinois — to ban shackling, after an Amnesty International report came out that included stories like this, from a woman’s experience at Chicago’s Cook County Jail: “I was in labor for almost 12 hours. I asked the officer to disconnect the leg iron from the bed when I needed to use the bathroom, but the officer made me use the bedpan instead. I

was not permitted to move around to help the labor along…

When I felt the baby come, the doctor called for the officer, but the officer had gone down the hall. No one else could unlock the shackles and my baby was coming but I couldn’t open my legs.”

Recently, Tennessee banned such practices, thanks to the activism of women in the state, many of whom endured the horror of shackling personally. The reason given for this practice is that a woman in labor who is unrestrained during the birth process might try to escape.

She’s cuffed while in the ambulance to the hospital, cuffed and chained while on the hospital bed. After the birth, the baby is taken away. There’s a male domi-

“No one else could unlock the shackles and my baby was coming but I couldn’t open my legs.” nance going on here that’s stunningly clueless about the nature of life, from the point of view not only of women but of infants.

Free Hearts, one of the organizations that pushed Tennessee to ban shackling, is also pushing other related legislation, including, as Victoria Law writes: “A proposal to ban solitary confinement for all pregnant people, since Tennessee has no restrictions against subjecting pregnant people to this practice, which has been proven to negatively affect people’s physical and mental health. For pregnant people, isolation and the inability to walk or exercise also carry negative effects on the development of the fetus.”

As I read this, I couldn’t stop squirming with frustration and incredulity. This is bureaucratic discipline created in a man’s world, with zero sense of the complex vulnerability of a pregnant woman’s life—or of life itself.

Add to this a further bit of data: National Public Radio and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, some years back, gathered data from prisons around the country and learned that “women were disciplined two to three times more often than men for more minor violations of prison rules. Women were more likely to get punished for nonviolent and often subjective violations, like disobeying or talking back to a corrections officer.”

One woman, for instance, “says she once was placed in solitary confinement for three months after making an unauthorized phone call to her 10-year-old daughter.”

I speak as a dad, profoundly fortunate to have been part of the birth of my daughter, present as a Lamaze-trained helper during labor and delivery. The entirety of my focus was helping my wife through her 10-hour struggle to give birth, then dancing for five minutes as I held the newborn in my arms.

The state’s historical relationship to pregnancy and birth, and to the life of women, has been, to a large extent, authoritarian, controlling and ignorant, evincing neither understanding nor respect.

Thus digging though history for precedent—that is, for justification—in regard to abortion, as Alito and the SCOTUS five did, is basically an ideological cover.

What the State must do is learn and evolve, maintaining what Morgan Marietta called a “living Constitution,” continually expanding the extent to which it understands life and values all of its citizens—by honoring who they are and what they need, by sustaining a tradition of unshackled choice.

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@ gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of “Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.”

‘Media fasts’ are a necessity for Black mental health

By Nsenga K. Burton Ph.D.

Gendron, an 18-year-old selfdescribed White Supremacist, Anti-Black racism appears to was taken into custody without be at an all-time high. Many are incident after driving 3.5 hours still traumatized by the targeted to “take out all Blacks.”

The man obsessed with “Remass shooting of African American shoppers at Tops grocery placement Theory,” which has store in Buffalo, New York, that been debunked and cited as left 10 people dead and three a conspiracy theory based on injured. Eleven of the 13 victims paranoia and fear and not fact, planned for five months how to were African American.

The alleged suspect, Payton kill Blacks, sharing this informa-

submissions@spokesman-recorder.com

submissions@spokesman-recorder.com

submissions@spokesman-recorder.com.

tion online.

He live-streamed the killings on Twitch, which authorities have called a hate crime. Gendron pled not guilty at his arraignment.

Gendron’s violent act brought back memories of other antiBlack mass shootings like the 2015 White Supremacist murders of nine church members at Emanuel African Episcopal Church, affectionately referred to as Mother Emanuel in Charleston, South Carolina.

Add to this the continued police shootings of unarmed Black people, many of whom are in the midst of a mental health crisis; violent attacks on African Americans by non-Blacks captured and circulated on mobile phones; the televised failure of the justice system to convict or punish those who commit crimes against unarmed African Americans; and the school shootings like the most recent mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas, which left 19 people dead.

The constant exposure to this type of senseless violence, usually through social media platforms, causes mental and emotional stress to many, especially African Americans living in the United States who have lived with centuries of domestic terrorism and anti-Black racism.

The verbal and physical harassment of Black Americans by White women is so prevalent that the name “Karen” has been used to describe irrational encounters in which some women violently attack the Black victim

Clarence Thomas joins fellow conservative justices to fan flames of racism

By Stacy M. Brown The Supreme Court not only abolished abortion rights in America with its June 24, 2022, decision but also ended any semblance of racial tolerance in the United States.

Former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again cry proved a moniker easy to read between the lines, but even that was seen as nothing more than the typical dog whistle— until now.

After the high court’s ruling, the MAGA crowd has become more emboldened.

“President Trump, on behalf of all the Maga patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court [June 24],” Illinois Republican Mary Miller told a cheering crowd during a rally as she stood next to the former president.

Running for reelection in the 15th congressional district, Miller received an invite from Trump to speak. Her camp attempted to deflect from her racist comment, stating that she misspoke and intended to say, “right to life.”

Responding to a tweet by the nation’s first African American president, Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn compared the decision to reverse Roe v. Wade to segregation.

“Now do Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education,” Cornyn tweeted at Obama following the 44th president writing that the court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, “it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to verbally or physically or weaponize the police against them.

Thus, it is often necessary to take a “break” from the media and to engage in what media scholars call a “media fast.” A media fast is when you thoughtfully and intentionally disengage from forms of media for a fixed amount of time in order to give your psyche a break.

“The constant exposure to this type of senseless violence, usually through social media platforms, causes mental and emotional stress to many, especially African Americans.”

According to media scholar Dr. Racquel Gates, media fasts serve a purpose because of the volume of images African Americans are exposed to in a given day. “It’s not just the violent antiBlack content of the media; it’s the omnipresence of it on every platform, coupled with a society where every interaction is increasingly happening in mediated spaces,” said the associate professor at Columbia University.

“You watch the news and have to hear about police bru-

the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”

Cornyn thundered what many in the GOP and the high court’s conservative majority have always whispered: a desire to overturn Brown v. Board of Education and resurrect the 1800s doctrine of “separate but equal” to re-establish racial segregation laws that inherently imply that Black people are inferior.

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a day before abolishing Roe.

After the high court’s ruling, the MAGA crowd has become more emboldened.

as out in a nationally televised interview. He noted that Thomas specifically named same-sex and contraceptive rights in his opinion, omitting interracial marriage.

If the court overturned that law, Thomas’ marriage to Ginni, who is White, would face peril.

“He omitted Loving v. Virginia because it affects him personally,” Obergefell stated.

Striking a severe nerve, Thomas went a step further when voting to strike down New York’s gun law, even after more than 277 mass shootings have occurred in 2022. The Black justice invoked the disgusting Dred Scott decision, where then-chief justice Roger Taney cautioned that African Americans would have the right to carry firearms in public if the court recognized them as U.S. citizens.

“Even Chief Justice Taney recognized that public carry was a component of the right to keep and bear arms—a right free Blacks were often denied in antebellum America,” Thomas dared to assert.

Attorney Daniel Goldman, the former lead counsel for the House Impeachment Committee who is running for Congress in New York’s 10th district, blasted Thomas. “When you read Clarence Thomas’s concurrence, where he calls into question many other rights based on the fundamental right to privacy, remember that he testified unequivocally in his confirmation hearings that there is a right to privacy in the Constitution,” Goldman tweeted.

Thomas and fellow conservatives had struck down a New York law that restricted gun ownership. “Because any substantive due process decision is demonstrably erroneous…we have a duty to correct the error established in those precedents,” said Thomas.

In the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case, the court voted 7-2 to strike down a law restricting married couples’ access to birth control. The majority stated that such statutes are impermissible because they violate the right to privacy for citizens. The cases of Lawrence and Obergefell respectively made same-sex activity and marriages legal.

Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in Stacy M. Brown is the NNPA that landmark case, called Thom- Newswire senior correspondent. tality. You go online to look at social media and an associate shares a disturbing video. You pull up a funny clip from YouTube but the ads traffic in subtle or not-so-subtle problematic messages. Sometimes the only way to avoid the constant onslaught is just to remove yourself altogether,” says the author of “Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture.”

Media fasts give African Americans a break from the stress of being Black in America and the constant mediation of Black trauma.

According to a 2021 study entitled “Highly Public Anti-Black Violence is Associated with Poor Mental Health Days for Black Americans” (David S. Curtis, Tessa Washburn, Hedwig Lee, and David H. Chae), Blacks reported poorer mental health in weeks when two incidents of anti-Black violence occurred when national interest was higher.

This study identified 49 incidents of racial violence in the U.S. occurring between 2013 and 2017 and received widely varying levels of search interest (Google Trends and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System [BRFSS]).

Don’t feel compelled to give up everything all at once and for long periods of time, which can

also cause stress. Start out slow and choose one media platform to give up for a few days and see how you feel. Then continue or add another or do what feels best for you.

Once you break your media fast, don’t jump back in and pick up the same media habits. Maybe you learned to live without a social media platform during your fast that previously caused you great stress. Say goodbye to that platform permanently.

Instead of watching news shows that are opinion heavy, focus on traditional news programs that offer information with no editorializing. If watching the news causes you to lose sleep at night, then try reading it instead.

If you read online news, go to sites that offer “trigger warnings” to help you decide whether or not to watch that video or listen to that audio file.

Whatever you do, make sure you take an occasional time-out from media in order to support your mental health, because being Black in America is more than a notion.

Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., is a film and media scholar who codirects the film and media management concentration at Emory University.

10 July 7 - July 13, 2022

No bags please!

Empty recycling from all bags into your recycling cart Plastic recycling is often challenging, but City officials are reminding community members of the challenges found in bagged recycling. Recycling in plastic bags is often pulled as trash at the sorting facility. This happens for a couple of reasons: • Possible staff injuries from repetition of opening bags • Opening a bag and finding it’s full of trash Recycling put in carts in paper bags can also complicate the sorting process. Because the collection vehicles compact, recycling can get squished together inside of a paper bag resulting in a plastic, metal, paper blob that can’t easily be separated (shown right).

These mixed material blobs may be pulled off as trash or may be allowed to go through the facility where only one of the material types will be properly sorted. The rest will be discarded at the secondary recycler.

To help the recycling sorting facility

work as efficiently as possible, City officials state that it’s best to put recycling in your cart loose.

• Dump recycling from paper bags, flatten paper bag and put it in the recycling cart.

• Dump recycling out of plastic bags and put any plastic bags in the trash.

Find more info at bit.ly/Mplsrecyclingbags Source: City of Minenapolis

Photos ourtesy of the City of Minneapolis

Community input sought for new rapid transit line design BRT aims to bring better amenities, The METRO B Line is a planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line that will provide faster service and a more comfortable faster and more reliable transit service ride through: • Faster, frequent service in the Route 21 corridor along Lake • Pay before boarding for faster service Street and Marshall and Selby avenues.

• Neighborhood-scale stations with An online open house regarding the METRO B Line Preliminary Design is now amenities • Enhanced security open for comments until July 29 at blin• Larger and specialized vehicles estamap.wpengine.com. Also, a virtual open house and Q&A with project staff Learn more at metrotransit.org/brt will take place on July 12 from 6-7:30 pm.

Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church

Worship

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER 3744 4th Ave. South • Minneapolis, MN 55409 Phone: 612-827-4021 • Fax: 612-827-0577

TRACEY WILLIAMS-DILLARD

CECIL E. NEWMAN

Mount Olivet Missionary Baptist Church

Founder-Publisher 1934-1976

WALLACE (JACK) JACKMAN

Bethesda Baptist Church

Co-Publisher Emeritus

Senior Editor Jerry Freeman

Rev. Dr. Billy G. Russell, Sr. Pastor

Rev. Arthur Agnew, Pastor

At the Old Landmark Rev. James C. Thomas, Pastor

451 West Central

St. Paul, MN 55103 651-227-4444

Church School 9:30 am Morning Worship 8:00 & 10:45 am Prayer Service:

Wednesday 7 pm "Welcome to

Mt. Olivet Baptist Church"

Publisher/CEO

1118 So. 8th Street Mpls., MN 55404 612-332-5904

www.bethesdamnonline.com bethesdamn@prodigy.net Sunday Service Times: Early Morning Service 9 am Sunday School 10 am Sunday Worship 11:30 am Wednesday Prayer Meeting, 6 pm Adult Bible Class 7 pm

Children's Bible Class 7 pm

2600 E. 38th Street Minneapolis, MN 55408 www.greatfriend.org Phone: 612.827.7928 Fax: 612.827.3587 info@greatfriend.org Sundays 8:00am Sunday School 9:30am Worship Service The Friendly Church Where Everybody Is Somebody

Pilgrim Baptist Church Rev. Doctor Charles Gill 732 W. Central Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 Sunday Worship Service: 9:45 AM Sunday School: 8:45 AM

Contributing Writers

L AUNA Q. NEWMAN CEO/Publisher 1976-2000

NORMA JEAN WILLIAMS Vice President Emeritus

Tony Kiene Ashley Lauren

IN PRINT & ONLINE! CALL

Dr. Deidre Golden

Nikki Love

Charles Hallman

Nadine Matthews

Stephenetta “isis” Harmon

Mary F. Moriarty

Dr. Clarence Hightower

Juliet Mitchell

Desktop Publisher Kobie Conrath Jim Handrigan

Robin James

Addi Mohamed

Jon Jeter

Niara Savage

Account Representatives Cecilia Viel

Sports Writers

Contributing Photographers

Charles Hallman

Onika Nicole Craven

Dr. Mitchell P. McDonald

Steve Floyd

• Rentals

Chris Juhn

• For Sale

Travis Lee

• Divorce

Digital Editor Paige Elliott

Marquis Taylor

Administrative Assistant Anne Jones

MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS

Minnesota Newspaper Association • National Newspaper Publishers Association The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials.

612-827-4021 • Employment

• Adoption • Bid • Public Notices

Publications are published every Thursday by the Spokesman-Recorder Publishing Co., Inc. Editorial/Business o ce is at 3744 Fourth Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55409 POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Minnesota SpokesmanRecorder, P.O. Box 8558, Minneapolis, MN 55408

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:In-state $35 yearly • Outside Minnesota $40 yearly

Follow Us!

All subscriptions payable in advance.

@MNSpokesmanRecorder

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER

P.O. Box 8558 • Minneapolis, MN 55408

Employment & Legals Sr. Sales RepresentativeCardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) at Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN: Req. Bachelor’s degree or foreign equv. in Electrical, Electronics, or Biomedical Engineering, Nursing, or closely related field; and 5 yrs. of progressive post-baccalaureate sales exp. within cardiac rhythm management medical devices. Must possess a minimum of 5 yrs. of exp. with each of the following: Operating Room procedures, protocols and the function of devices and device algorithms; Teaching and educating medical personnel, peers and technical support personnel; Selling and servicing products to include Pacemakers, Implantable Defibrillators, Cardiac Resynchronization Pacemakers, Cardiac Resynchronization Defibrillators and Insertable Loop Recorders; Clinical study discussion, reviewing published data and supporting the implant/follow up of research; and Account, inventory, expense, and budget coordination. Ability to work in operation room and answer call 24/7; Must work remotely from home office within Visalia, CA servicing the Central Valley, California region including Visalia, Hanford, Merced, and Fresno territory. Must be insurable (car insurance) and have a valid driver’s license. Must be able to travel regionally 50% in Central Valley, California region including Visalia, Hanford, Merced, and Fresno territory to provide sales and services to various hospitals and clinics.

Apply at https://jobs.medtronic.com/, Req. #22000BYG. No agencies or phone calls. Medtronic is an equal opportunity employer committed to cultural diversity in the workplace.

All individuals are encouraged to apply.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder July 7, 2022

Sr. Quality Applications Specialist: Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN. Req. Masters’ Degree in Information Technology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics or Data Science & 2 yrs exp. in data analytics. Req. min. 2 yrs exp. w/ each: data analysis; Business Intelligences, Data Sciences, Data Analytics, Process Automation & Visualization experiences in Oracle, SAP, Microsoft 365 or Google Analytics; SDLC & Project Management utilizing Waterfall & Agile Methodologies; KAIZEN & Process Improvement & Process Automation; SpotFire, Utilizes Power BI, Power Apps, SharePoint, Cognition Cockpit, Tableau SAP BI Reports, Power BI Dashboards, Google Analytics & Web Intelligence Report; SQL, Python and R data analytics & reporting; & Business & Techniques to include Data & Business Analysis, SAP Data Warehouse, SAP ERP system, BI Reporting, Relational Database, Data Mapping & Modeling.

May work remotely from anywhere in the USA. To apply, visit https://jobs.medtronic.com/, select Req. #22000BXX. No agencies or phone calls please. Medtronic is an equal opportunity employer committed to cultural diversity in the workplace. All individuals are encouraged to apply.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder July 7, 2022

State of Minnesota Ramsey County

PHONE: 612-827-4021

To Respondent named above:

From Display FOR Ad BILLING Department/MN INQUIRIES Spokesman-Recorder & TEARSHEETS PLEASE CONTACT PHONE: 612-827-4021 ACCOUNTING DEPT Court Administrator @BILLING@SPOKE Ramsey County District Court FOR BILLINGMAN-RECORDER.COM Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder July 7, 2022 INQUIRIES & TEARSHEETS EMPLOYMENT DISPLAY PLEASE CONTACT SIZE: 2 COL 1 INCHES = 2 State of Minnesota District X Court Ramsey County ACCOUNTING DEPT Second Judicial District RATE $42.08 PER COL. INCH Court File Number: 62-DA-FA-22-574 @BI LL I NG@SPOK ESM A N - R ECOR TOTAL: $84.16 DARRYL ANTONIO DAWSON COM Notice of Issuance of Emergency An order has been issued directing you to appear at the Ramsey County Juvenile and Family Justice Center, 25 W 7th St, St. Paul MN 55102 on July 27, 2022 at 8:15am and explain why the relief sought in the Petition for the Order for Protection should not be granted. You may obtain a copy of the Petition and any order issued from the court from the Ramsey County Court Administrator's Office. If you do not appear at the scheduled hearing, the Petitioner's request may be granted as a default matter. Failure to appear will not be a defense to prosecution for violation of the Court's Order.

Chemical Engineer II:

It’s ridiculous how expensive Central the sport is.

“Second is geographic location,” noted Scurry. “It is a predominantly suburban sport.

“The third is the gatekeepers. I think it’s the gatekeepers that are the problem. That can be fixed right now.”

The gatekeepers Scurry refers to include youth soc-

Department/MN The MSR handles billing digital Spokesman-Recorder Please Note: New email address for all This means you will get future e-tearsa

Failure to request a hearing or to obtain a copy of the Ex Parte Order will not be a defense to prosecution for violation of the Court's order.

Medtronic, Fridley, MN. Req. Master’s degree or From Inc., Display Ad foreign equ. in Chemical Engineering or closely related Department/MN engineering field & 1 yr. exp. with Chemical Engineering Spokesman-Recorder for Medical Device applications or Bachelor’s degree or foreign equ in Chemical Engineering or closely related PHONE: 612-827-4021 engineering field and 2 yrs. exp. with Chemical Engineering for Medical Device applications. Must possess a min. of 1 FOR BILLING yr. exp. with each of the following: Polymers processing, drugINQUIRIES delivery and characterization methods; Elution studies & TEARSHEETS for drugs and delivery systems; Nuclear Magnetic ResoPLEASE CONTACT nance and Fourier Transform Infrared; Polymer manufacACCOUNTING turing process and productDEPT engineering; ISO13485, ISO 14971 and cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) @BILLING@SPOKESMAN-RECORDER.COM for combination product manufacturing cells; DOE, VOC, FMEA, and IQ/OQ/PQ; Polymer rheological characterEMPLOYMENT DISPLAY ization and mechanical property SIZE: 2 COL X 4 INCHES testing = 8 of polymer; and Production issues, non-conforming products, root cause RATE $42.08 PER COL. INCH analysis and product disposition.

Apply at https://jobs.

TOTAL: $336.64 medtronic.com/, Req. #22000BYH.No agencies or phone calls. Medtronic is an equal opportunity employer committed to cultural diversity in the workplace. All individuals are encouraged to apply.

Please proof, respond with email confirmation to ads@spokesman-recorder.com.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder July 7, 2022

View

Dated: June 28, 2022

Donald W. Harper

Court andAdministrator e-mailed invoices unless you ads@spokesman-recorder.com PHONE: 612-827-4021 specifically request a hard copy.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder July 7, 2022 The MSR handles billing digitally.

FOR BILLING This means you will get e-tears and e-mailed inv State of Minnesota District Court INQUIRIES unless you specifically request a hard copy.

Ramsey County Second Judicial District

Julian Shockley

Court File Number: 62-DA-FA-22-575 & TEARSHEETS PLEASE CONTACT ACCOUNTING DEPT Notice of Issuance of Emergency (Ex Parte) Order for @BILLING@SPOKESMAN-RECORDER Protection by Publication (Minn. Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 8)

EMPLOYMENT DISPLAY To Respondent: SIZE: 2 COL X 4.25 INCHES = 8.5 RATE INCH YOU ARE NOTIFIED that$42.08 an Ex PartePER Order COL. for Protection has been issued in this case. You may request a hearing if you contact the court administrator's office within 12 days of the date TOTAL: $357.68 of publication of this notice. You may obtain a copy of the Ex Parte Order for Protection and In the Matter of Danielle Stevenson vs Julian Shockley

the form to request a hearing from the court administrator's office at the following address: Ramsey County District Court 25 West Seventh Street St Paul MN 55102

Please proof, respond with email confirmation to ads@spokesman-recorder.com.

Failure to request a hearing or to obtain a copy of the Ex Parte Order will not be a defense to prosecution for violation of the Court's order.

Dated: June 29, 2022

Donald W. Harper Court Administrator

Please Note: New email address for all future ad Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder July 7, 2022 ads@spokesman-recorder.com

The MSR handles billing digitally.

Thisand means you will get e-tearsofand e-mailed foundations Title IX andinvo free for four years be able unless you specifically request a hard copy. to compete at the Division I the emphasis on gender equality, Black women seem level.”

Clearly, a half-century to be overshadowed contrilater Title IX is still a work butions to me in the Title IX in progress. Last month the era. We can’t just talk about U.S. Department of Educa- gender, because our experition invited public comment ences as Black women look on proposed changes that differently.

“I will hope that the future “will restore crucial protections for students who are of Title IX will be more of a victims of sexual harassment, pipeline…for those who have assault, and sex-based dis- interests to be able to coach, crimination,” said a release to be able to train, and to be able to lead,” concluded statement.

As she pursues her Ph.D. Bynes. hoping to one day become Charles Hallman welcomes a history professor, Bynes said, “I realized that even reader responses to challman@ when you think about the spokesman-recorder.com.

cer coaches, administrators, and others encountered as players move up the ranks.

Having more Blacks in decision-making roles would help as well, she believes.

“It takes time,” said Scurry.

“The people who are making those decisions need to look at the young African American player who may not have

a lot of funding with family or may live in an urban area, and expose them [to soccer]. Then maybe you can get some more traction.

“But that’s going to take some time to see that.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

MDAN ads to run ONE TIME, the week beginning 7/3/2022

Case: ConcordUSA - Principal Consultant male athletes, and women in Size: 3.4167 x 5.17 general to be whatever they girls to aspire to whatever Run Date: 6/30/22 want toyou be.”can get online they want to be. not just $300.00 Ad Options: ForIt’s an additional about basketball, but life. advertising as well.

Charles Hallman welcomes “I want people to be intentional on what they do and reader responses to challman@ the choices they make, and spokesman-recorder.com.

WE’RE HIRING!

Citizens Alliance Bank seeks applicants for the following positions: Loan Officer - Clara City Credit Analyst Supervisor - Clara City, Howard Lake Insurance Agent - Montevideo Customer Service Representative - Montevideo Loan Admin Clerk - Clara City, Granite Falls Controller - Howard Lake Executive Admin Assistant - Clara City Teller/Personal Banker - Watertown Teller - Clara City, Watertown Credit Analyst - Clara City, Howard Lake Loan Servicing Specialist - Clara City, Howard Lake Credit Control Supervisor - Clara City, Howard Lake Card Services Specialist - Clara City

To view our job postings or Apply Online please visit: citizensalliancebank.com/careers

@MNSpokesmanRecorder

PHONE: 612-827-4021

device fld. of image-guided surgery & robotics; dsgn., dev., EMPLOYMENT DISPLAYof complex user-interface soft. testing, & documentation SIZE: 2 COL Xsoft.

5 INCHES = 10 components, algorithms & apps.; Scrum, SAFe, Test RATE $42.08 COL. INCHAnalysis, Object-Oriented DeDriven Dev.;PER Object-Oriented sign & dsgn. patterns; C, C++, Boost, STL, Qt, QML, XML, TOTAL: $420.80 & JSON in Linux & Windows envs.; building C++ apps. of more than 1 million lines of code & libraries; & developing (Ex Parte) Order for Protection by Publication 500K to 1M lines of code for GUI apps. in img. processing.

Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 8) EMPLOYMENT(Minn.

DISPLAY Applyproof, at https://jobs.medtronic.com/, Req. # 22000BY8.

No Please respond with email confirmation to In the Matter of CHANYAHL DIOR CONLEY vs DARRYL ANTONIO DAWSON SIZE: 2 COL X 3.5 INCHES = 7respond agencies or phone calls. Medtronic is an equal opportunity Please proof, with emai ads@spokesman-recorder.com. employer committed to cultural diversity in the workplace.

To Respondent: RATE $42.08 PER COL. INCH confirmation to All individuals are encouraged to apply.

TOTAL: $294.56 YOU ARE NOTIFIED that an Ex Parte Orderads@spokesman-recorder.com. for Protection has been issued in this case.

Please Note: New email address for all future ads is ads@spokesYou may request a hearing if you contact the court administrator's office within 12 days of the date of publication of this man-recorder.com Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder July 7, 2022 notice. You may obtain a copy of the Ex Parte Order for Protection and the form to request PLEASE All future ad r a hearing from the court administrator's office at the followingNOTE: address: The MSR handles billing digitally. quests should be directed to ad Ramsey County District Court This means you will get e-tears and e-mailed invoices unless you West Seventh Street with email confirmation to Please 25 proof, respond spokesman-recorder. com St Paul MN 55102 From Display Ad specifically request a hard copy. ads@spokesman-recorder.com.

Scurry

Follow Us!

In The Matter Of Kathryn Dropik And Obo Minor Child Vs Jeewan Samogan Notice of Hearing by Publication (Minn. Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 8)

Principal Software Project Engineer FOR BILLING INQUIRIES Medtronic, Inc., Louisville, CO. Req. Bachelor’s deg. or for& TEARSHEETS eign equiv. in Soft. Engr., Electronics Engr., Comp. Sci., or PLEASE CONTACT closely rel. engr. fld. & 5 yrs. progressive, post-bacc. exp. in ACCOUNTING DEPT software dev. & testing.

Must poss. a min. of 5 yrs. of exp. @w/each BILLING@SPOKESMAN-RECORDER.COM of the following: Soft. dev. & testing in the medical

Principal Consultant, Concord USA, Hopkins, MN. Req. Bachelors in project mgmt, communications, business admin., or related discipline, & 5 yrs exp. in software dev or Master’s in project mgmt, communications, business admin., or related discipline & 2 yrs. exp in software dev. Also req. 2 yrs. exp in at least 3 of the following: project mgmt to communicate and deliver enterprise-level projects; developing structure in ambiguous environments & managing conflict with documented success; Designing & developing highly scalable, cloud ready web applications using various web frameworks like .Net Core, Angular, HTML5, c#, css, js; guiding technical & functional resources to deliver projects; developing effective relationships with business, technical staff, & executive mgmt.; Developing efficient data processing API services that are cloud compatible by design; integration platforms as well as related architecture and implementation solutions including API-driven design, messaging patterns, and application development best practices; developing front end user interfaces using Angular; managing stakeholders, negotiating scope and clarifying priorities; software development lifecycle, messaging patterns, endpoint s ecurity, interfaces with internal and external applications, and database knowledge; driving the full cycle of project development, from requirements to delivery and support; exp w/ various data formats & protocols – REST, SOAP, JSON, XML, HTTP, FTP, AS2, EDI; connecting w/ cloud & on-premise applications & data sources; communicating w/ IT & business people about technology. Position ads ONE TIME, theMN, week 7/3/2022 basedto out ofrun & reports to Concord’s HQ in Hopkins, but may beginning Contunued from page 12 be required to travel to & work from unanticipated client sites throughout US. Travel est 10%-50% depending on work req. a little girl back in the 70s, New hires to undergo background checks. Submit résumé to there’s no way my mom and jennifer.jamison@concordusa.com No agencies or phone calls. dad would have contributed thousands of dollars for me to play soccer when they needed to pay the mortgage, car note and electricunderstanding how they ity, which is a ton of money.

Contunued from page 12 can empower women, fe-

SOE

11

From Display District Court Ad Second Judicial District Department/MN Court File Number: 62-DA-FA-22-601 Case Type: Domestic Abuse Spokesman-Recorder

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER, From Display Ad Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid. For details, go to Department/MN https://mylegalaid.org/employment.

Spokesman-Recorder

Please Note: New email address for all future ads is ads@spokesman-recorder.com “Because Title IX manThe MSR digitally. that higher education, Contunued fromhandles page 12billing dated This means you will get e-tears and and e-mailed invoices colleges universities unless you specifically request a hard copy. which mainly is about gender have equality in money, I had a lot of opportunity to play equity, not racial equity.

“I think when you really my sport in college and also look at it,” continued Roach, to go to college. My parents “I would say Title IX has not didn’t have a lot of money to been necessarily beneficial pay for me to go, so I had to get an [athletic] scholarship.” to women of color.”

Kiamshia Bynes is a doctor“Title IX allowed me an opportunity to trailblaze in al student at Rutgers, focusa sport that wasn’t normally ing on 19th and 20th Century seen as an option” for Black Black history and women’s girls, said Briana Scurry. An history. “It’s easy to say Title Anoka High School grad, IX has benefited me because Scurry is a Minnesota Sports it gave me the opportunity to Hall of Fame inductee and attend higher education [that] two-time Olympic soccer offered scholarships, which allowed me to go to school for gold medalist.

Principal Consultant

July 7 - July 13, 2022

Central

12 July 7 - July 13, 2022

Sports Moore gets ‘chance of a lifetime’

amara Tee Moore, recognized as one of the best women’s basketball players in Minnesota history, will serve as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics Summer League team in Las Vegas. The former Minneapolis North, University of Wisconsin, and WNBA standout recently announced the offer on her Facebook page.

“I am so proud to announce I have been offered the chance of a lifetime. I have officially been offered the chance to join the Boston Celtics as an assistant coach for the Summer League Team in Las Vegas this season.”

Moore, who coaches men’s basketball and softball at Mesabi Range Community College, also thanked those who believed in her. “This journey has been a blessing, and thank you to everyone who supported me. It’s just the first step, and I will soak it all in and learn as much as I can.”

Moore has taken plenty of first steps during her storied career in athletics. As a 5’10” guard she led Minneapolis North to its first Class AAA state championship game, finishing runner up to Alexandria.

The following year she led Minneapolis North to its first Class AAA state girls basketball title while becoming the first African American to be named Ms. Basketball outright. (Mya Whitmore of Hill Murray was the first to win it in 1987 when it was awarded separately at the Class AA and Class A level.)

The third member of the famed Minnesota Lynx “Core four,” Rebekkah Brunson, now has her jersey retired during a postgame on-court ceremony Sunday, July 3. The current Lynx assistant coach and a leaguerecord five-time WNBA champion watched as her No. 32 jersey was immortalized next to the four world championship banners she helped win in the downtown Minneapolis basketball arena.

“It’s not just about basketball, but life.”

Brunson joined Minnesota via the 2009 dispersal draft after Sacramento folded. It was with the Monarchs, the team that originally drafted her, where she earned her first of five W rings in 2005.

She retired after a 14-year pro career (2004-2018) as Minnesota’s all-time offensive (688), defensive (1,470) and total rebounds (2,158) record holder. Brunson got nearly ev-

Title IX still a work in progress, especially for Black women

Third in a series ccording to the National Federation of State High School Associations, girls’ participation in high school sports from 1974, when Title IX was enacted, grew from under 300,000 to nearly 3.5 million in 201819, almost 43% of high school athletes. Volleyball ranks as the most popular sport for girls in Minnesota and 11-man football for boys.

A recent Aspen/Utah State survey found that Black females in this country after age eight start playing sports a year later than Whites and play any sport three years less than Whites. Also, sport often serves as “an enticing carrot for many low-income families” Tamara Moore Courtesy Black Enterprises hoping for a college athletic scholarship or Tamara Moore Courtesy Black Enterprises someday even playing pro sports. against her former school district for inequities Moore was inducted into the University of in facilities—the boys’ baseball team had an Wisconsin Hall of Fame in 2017. She became on-campus field for practices and games, but the first Minnesotan to be drafted into the the girls’ softball team had to play on a makeWNBA as the 15th overall pick by the Miami shift field at a nearby city park.

Sol in 2002.

Has the law really helped Blacks and other When Moore was hired to coach at females of color? Some say this has been a Mesabi Range in 2020, she became the first Black woman to lead a men’s college Yet, 50 years later more people must be mixed blessing over the years. An AP-NORC program. She is currently the only woman educated about Title IX: “I first learned about National Women’s History Museum poll in head coach of a collegiate men’s basket- Title IX probably my freshman year of high May found that only 36% of women of color, ball team. school. That was 2017,” admitted Madyson 33% of LGBTQ women, and 25% of low-inRoach, a former high school softball player in come women say that there has been a great deal of progress during 50 years of Title IX, Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes Portland, Oregon. reader responses to mcdeezy05@gmail.com.

Roach was part of a Title IX class action suit ■ See View on page 11

ery tough-girl rebound needed for her team as perhaps the greatest rebounder in Minnesota pro hoops history.

According to a 2021 ESPN. com ranking of every WNBA championship club, Brunson was a member of the third (2013 Lynx), sixth (2017 Lynx), 10th (2011 Lynx), 14th (2005 Sacramento) and 20th (2015 Lynx) teams. During a local media scrum Sunday, the MSR asked Brunson to speak on her place in W history.

“I had the opportunity to play with some very special players,” she stressed. “Starting in Sacramento, playing with Yolanda Griffith, Ticha Penicheiro and all those guys.

Then coming to Minnesota and playing with Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, JMac (Janel McCarville) and Maya Moore.

“I’ve been blessed with teammates who had amazing energy and do whatever it takes to compete. You don’t win by yourself, and you don’t get on good teams by yourself.

All those teams were special.”

“Black women seem to be overshadowed contributions to me in the Title IX era.”

Rebekkah Brunson thanks teammates as jersey retired

Photo (inset) by Dr. Mitchell McDonald

Rebekkah Brunson during her jersey retirement ceremony and (inset) subsequent press conference Too often overshadowed by the star power of Augustus, Whalen and Moore, Brunson nonetheless had just as much or more for Minnesota to be the winningest local pro franchise, especially pro basketball.

“All of us had the limelight,” but it was Brunson’s actions that taught her teammates just exactly what was needed to win a championship.

“It’s hard to put into words what she’s done for the franchise,” Whalen told the MSR about her former teammate.

“She was a champion” prior to her Lynx days, the Gopher head coach admitted. “I don’t think we would have won in 2011 without that charisma and character it takes to be a champion.

“We never took her for granted. We always appreciated everything that she’d done,” said Whalen.

Jim Petersen was a Lynx assistant coach for three of the four Minnesota championships.

“It took a while for her to warm up when she first came here

from Sacramento,” he said of Brunson. “Rebekkah Brunson is my heart – she is like a daughter to me. I can’t think of somebody better that I coached in my coaching career.”

Brunson on Sunday told the press that she wanted to be “very intentional and thank everybody” as she gave her remarks standing at midcourt after watching a video montage of her playing career and heard both in-person and pretaped testimonials.

When a reporter later

Courtesy MN Lynx

asked her thoughts about Minnesota’s dominating 10271 win Sunday over Las Vegas, Brunson observed, “They played so well and so hard. I was happy for them.”

As she headed out of the media room, Brunson gave the MSR some parting thoughts on her special day.

“When you have your banner out there,” she said, “it’s about inspiring.

“We are at a place right now when we need to allow young

■ See SOE on page11

Champion soccer goalkeeper wants better soccer gatekeepers

By Charles Hallman Sports Columnist

Second of two parts

Courtesy of Live Wire Sports and Entertainment

ecognized as one of the greatest goalkeepers in women’s soccer history, Briana Scurry also is an extraordinary advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. “I am as intersectional [as one gets],” said Scurry last month in a MSR phone interview.

“I am a mother. I am in a gay relationship. I’m Black. And I am a female—the minority of the minority of a minority.”

The current divisive climate that exists in this country greatly troubles Scurry, now age 50 and a first-time book author.

Her new memoir, “My Greatest Save,” was released in June.

“What bothers me is the lack of empathy,” she continued. “I struggle with understanding how anyone who has ever been discriminated against can discriminate. I don’t get it.”

The transgender issue is both polarizing and politized.

Nearly 20 states now have laws or policies that either ban or limit participation in sports by transgender athletes. Other states are allowing transgender females to compete in girls’ sports, however.

“It bothers me that there are literally laws being made to discriminate against transgender athletes,” said Scurry.

“I don’t understand that. Why?” Scurry is in the permanent Title IX exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of Af-

rican American History & Culture in Washington, D.C. Last month she was one of seven Black females in the Star Tribune’s “The 50” to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. These are just two of many milestones she has achieved in her life.

Nine,” said Scurry, “when I read about that. I was astonished.

We’re talking about a 30-year odyssey battle between the [U.S.] women’s national team that wins a tournament in every cycle. We have won in the Olympics [and] expanded the game in this country.”

Despite her successes and being one of the highest profile Black women to play soccer, Scurry remains determined to see more girls and She also has been an in- women who look like her play strumental voice in promoting the sport. She cites three “eleequal pay. Scurry took part ments” that are in play. in the White House Equal “The first one is economPay Summit in May. She also ics,” explained Scurry. “If your couldn’t hide her excitement child is brilliant, very athletic, when the breakthrough equal it’s gonna cost us thousands pay decision in women’s soc- of dollars. If my mom and cer was finalized in the spring. dad were here now and I was “I was absolutely on Cloud ■ See Scurry on page 11

“It’s ridiculous how expensive the sport is.”