Brooklyn Park elected its first Black mayor on Tuesday, handing over the reins of Minnesota’s sixth largest city to a businessman who shared a vision of unity, civic engagement and who pledged to support law enforcement to make the city safer and more attractive.
Hollies Winston won the Brooklyn Park mayor’s race Tuesday, defeating Councilmember Wynfred Russell in a contest matching two Black men, an historic matchup in itself.
After polls closed at 8pm and all of the city’s 25 precincts reported, Winston led by 4,485 votes winning 59% to Russell’s 40 %. A total of 23,875 voted for mayor.
Officially and in theory, the mayoral race is non-partisan, but Winston ran as the endorsed DFL candidate and his win breaks a decades’ old stranglehold by the GOP on the seat. The last three mayors have been selfidentified Republicans in manner of campaigning and policy positions.
Talking to supporters at Oro Lounge as results gave him a commanding victory, Winston said it’s important to maintain the momentum of the campaign’s issues going forward
“because we know we are going to get to that city council and there are going to be some people who are going to fight us against making those changes.”
“We are going to need everyone here to continue to support us as we make those changes,” Winston said. “I am excited for the work that is
going to get done but going forward it is going to be less about speeches but the work on the ground.”
Winston, 43, will succeed Lisa Jacobson, who was sworn into office in August 2021 to finish the remainder of former Mayor Jeff Lunde’s term. Jacobson beat Winston by two votes
in the special election and announced in May that she will not be seeking reelection for a full term. She threw her support behind Mr. Russell.
The history-making moment on
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Earlier this year, members of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools team and other colleagues had opportunity to attend a training session near the plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore where Harriet Tubman was enslaved and where she returned again and again after her own escape to lead others to freedom.
The retreat’s theme was “Give Light and People Will Find the Way,” the title indomitable civil rights movement justice warrior Ella Baker used for one of her training workshops at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
This message is relevant to the CDF Freedom Schools program’s work today teaching young people they can make a difference in themselves, their families, their communities, their country, and their world with hope, education, and action, and the same message could also describe some of the inspiration the team drew from Harriet Tubman’s legacy.
During the retreat, they visited the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Church Creek, Maryland and sites important in her life, including the plantation where her family was enslaved and the dry goods store where she was assaulted and suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child.
She was standing inside that store when an enslaved boy ran in being chased by an overseer who ordered Harriet to help grab the boy.
When she stood between the boy and the white man and did not move, the overseer hurled a lead weight at her head, leaving her bloody and unconscious. She suffered seizures, sleeping spells, and debilitating headaches the rest of her life, but also began experiencing vivid dreams about God and visions and premonitions about escaping slavery.
Seeing these places and the land where she had to travel and hide reinforced how difficult her mission was and how much courage and determination she needed to possess in order to survive.
Now, through the National Historical Park, a state park and visitor center, the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway, a 125-mile trail that includes waterways and safe houses she and others used as they fled towards freedom, these sites are preserved as a piece of American history that can teach and inspire young people today.
The importance and inspiration of teaching history was also central in the message the CDF Freedom Schools team heard when acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford joined the retreat for a conversation. Her books for children and young adults often revisit key moments and people in African American history, and one of her most loved is the lyrical, beautiful Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning book “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom,” illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
During the meeting, she asked her listeners to consider how Black history is often taught through a lens of enslavement and oppression. She then challenged them to consider this question: “Who taught us to be free?”
She continued, “You can’t teach what you don’t know, and you don’t know what you weren’t taught.” She said as she wrote “Moses,” she was inspired by the parallels between Harriet Tubman and the biblical Moses, who both took it upon themselves to free themselves and their people, and she challenged CDF Freedom Schools leaders with a charge to take up that call — teaching the next generation how to be free.
These are crucial lessons. Teaching all children about our shared history by exposing them to books by excellent authors like Carole Boston Weatherford and others who are part of the CDF Freedom Schools curriculum, and by taking them to visit important historical and cultural sites like the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, are ways of giving children the light they will need to be prepared to plot their own futures.
But this midterm election season reminds us yet again that many adults are fighting this idea today, and many are on ballots right now from school boards to statewide offices across the country.
Educate yourself about the candidates seeking to represent you and make sure you are prepared with a plan to vote. Once again, we can never take any office or any election for granted. Children cannot vote, but they desperately need parents, teachers, and leaders who will be lanterns, not adults who seek to dim the light.
Edelman is founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund. She wrote this for the Washington Informer where it first appeared.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Democrats defied expectations in a midterm election that had been expected to go well for Republicans, winning the governor’s race and completing a trifecta Wednesday by winning both houses of the Legislature to take full control of state government for the first time in eight years.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller conceded Wednesday morning that his party had lost its majority to Senate Democrats. That followed a concession earlier Wednesday from GOP House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt and the re-election of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday night.
“A Minnesota Senate miracle,” outgoing Democratic Minority Leader Melisa Lopez Franzen proclaimed at a news conference. She acknowledged later: “We didn’t think this would happen, and it happened.”
While some legislative races were yet to be called as of Wednesday, Democrats exceeded the 68 seats they needed to preserve their majority in the House. And they appeared to have the 34 seats they need to control the Senate.
The only other time that Minnesota saw single-party control in the past
30 years was when Democrats held full power in 2013-14, and the last time any Minnesota Republican won statewide office was in 2006, when Gov. Tim Pawlenty was reelected.
Democrats were short on specifics
Wednesday on what they might do on policy changes they could not get through the Senate under Republican control. They said they’ll start working on that at an organizational meeting Thursday.
But they mentioned codifying abortion rights, which are currently protected by a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling, to protect them from future legal challenges. Other possibilities include paid family leave, legalizing recreational marijuana, more education funding and even a full exemption of Social Security from income taxes, a top GOP priority embraced by
Walz was still digesting the Democratic triumph, too. He acknowledged at a news conference that he expected to win his race but thought there was only an “outside chance” of hitting the trifecta.
The governor was also short on details for his own agenda for the 2023 session but said it could look a lot like the budget plan he offered at start of this year’s session. And he said he’ll push to revive his proposal for tax rebate checks of $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for joint filers.
The state’s budget surplus was projected at $9.25 billion as of the last detailed forecast in February. Lawmakers were unable to agree on how to spend or return about $7 billion of that, so it’s still sitting in the bank, and revenues have been running nearly $300 million ahead of projections.
“Minnesota state finances are in as solid a position as maybe they’ve ever been, and we are sitting on one of the largest surpluses per capita of anyplace in the country,” Walz said. “That gives us an opportunity to do those things — make communities safe, invest in people to make sure reduce the pains of inflation, invest in education.”
Republicans, meanwhile, were
coming to terms with their losses.
“Tim Walz is the governor for four more years,” GOP challenger Scott Jensen told supporters in a concession speech. “Republicans, quite frankly, we didn’t have a red wave. It was a blue wave. And we need to stop, we need to recalibrate, we need to ask ourselves: ‘OK, what can we learn from this? What can we do better? How do we go forward?’ ”
Democrats also kept Minnesota’s three other constitutional offices. Secretary of State Steve Simon defeated Republican election skeptic Kim Crockett, winning more votes than any other Democratic statewide candidate including Walz.
Attorney General Keith Ellison defeated Republican Jim Schultz and Ryan Wilson conceded to Democratic State Auditor Julie Blaha in the closest statewide race.
Amy Koch, a former Republican Senate majority leader turned political strategist, said weakness at the top of the GOP ticket and and the party’s alienation of women were major factors in the Democratic sweep.
“We should have wiped the floor with the DFL. We didn’t. We lost,” Koch said in an interview.
She said a stronger showing by Jensen could have lifted other statewide Republicans. And she said she heard from many women, and many Republicans, angry over comments by Jensen running mate Matt Birk against abortion rights and women having careers, including accusing abortion rights supporters of playing the “rape card” by demanding exceptions to abortion bans for rape and incest.
Many women responded by quietly going to the polls and voting for Democrats, she said, and “that’s why everybody is in shock this morning.”
By Panashe Matemba-Mutasa Mshale
Two women in their 20s with recent ties to Africa jointly made history on Nov. 8 by becoming the first Black women ever elected to Minnesota’s state senate, breaching a fortress that has been in place since the midwestern state joined the United States.
As flag bearers for the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), as the Democratic Party is known in Minnesota, the victories of Zaynab Mohamed and Clare Oumou Verbeten were all but assured because District 63 and District 66, which they respectively represent in the Senate, are historically liberal. Tuesday election only officially confirmed them.
“It’s humbling, exciting, and long overdue,” a beaming Mohamed said during her victory party. “Young people make magic happen.”
The state of Minnesota joined the union on May 11, 1858. But it wasn’t until more than a century later, in 1972, when Dr. Robert Lewis, who owned a veterinary clinic in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, became the first Black person to be elected to the upper chamber of the Minnesota legislature. The triumphs of Verbeten and Mohamed are indicative of the state’s changing demographics, especially in the Twin Cities metro area, which includes
Medications,
Visit
to about 100,000 people, according to a 2022 study by Pew Research Center.
Verbeten, who did not have a challenger in the DFL primaries, won with 78 percent of the vote, defeating Mikki Murray, her Republican opponent, who only managed to garner 18% of the vote. She did not have victory party but was clearly elated to be part of history.
“What an honor to be elected to represent my home,” Verbeten said. “[The people of] District 66 have shown that they share my vision of racial justice and [creating] a community that is safe for all. I’m ready to get to work.”
Verbeten is the daughter of a Senegalese immigrant a secondgeneration Dutch American. She grew up in Roseville and attended public schools in the area. When she decided to run for office, she was the equity and inclusion program manager for the City of St. Paul, where she began working in 2019. Her experience includes working in 2017 as deputy political director for the campaign of Tim Walz, the current governor of Minnesota, who was re-elected on Nov. 8. She ran a campaign pledging to address persisting racial disparities in her neighborhood.
“The Twin Cities are home to some of the worst racial inequities in the country,” she said. “Racism and white supremacy are built into our systems, so we need to address them as the structural issues that they are.”
In addition to jointly making history as the first Black woman to join the state’s senate, at 25, Mohamed is
the youngest person ever elected to Minnesota’s state. She grew up in the working-class immigrant family in South Minneapolis. Her family moved to Minnesota from Somalia when she was 9 years old. She attended St. Louis Park High School. Mohamed and her
siblings worked to help their parents pay rent. Still, she was able work hard in school and eventually gain admission to the University of Minnesota, where she graduated from in 2019. She went on to work as a community advocacy manager at the Council on American-
Islamic Relations in Minneapolis.
Mohamed, who launched her campaign in December 2021, ran on the platform of affordable housing,
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education, criminal justice reform, healthcare, labor rights, economic justice, and environmental justice.
On election night, Mohamed and her supporters crammed into the lobby of an apartment, indulging in tacos and refreshments as they waited for the official election results. When the television finally displayed that Mohamed had won by getting 72% of the vote, the room exploded in cheers.
“We might be in a tight room, but it was not a tight race,” Mohamed said, followed by roars from her supporters.
She attributed her decision to run for office to the unwavering support of parents.
“Many immigrant parents question their child’s dreams” she said. Mine never did. They supported me every step of the way.”
But Mohamed admitted that she doubted herself and thanked those closest to her for recognizing her undying commitment to public service and activism and egging her on as she embarked on the journey to the senate.
“This campaign started a year ago with a piece of paper and $3,000 in debt,” Mohamed said. “Everyone in this room has been a part of this campaign in one way or another.”
Mohamed acknowledged and embraced her predecessor, Patricia Torres Ray, an immigrant from Colombia, who herself made history in 2006 as the first Latina to be elected to the
Minnesota state senate. Torres Ray, who decided to retire and endorsed Mohamed to succeed her, teared up as she compared her own experience to the senator-elect’s. She said Mohamed’s election was a much-needed continuation of the work she and other women of color have performed in Minnesota.
“As a fellow woman of color, her campaign really resonates with me, and as you can see from this crowd, she inspires a diverse group of people to
support her as well,” Torres Ray said.
Mohamed’s sister, Asma Mohamed, posed next to a poster of her sister. Asma Mohamed said she is emotional to see her sister make history. She expressed pride in watching her sister persist in her campaigning over the past year.
“All of us here have seen her dedication to this work, and I believe she will help people of color particular
thrive,” Asma Mohamed said.
Liam Davis Temple, a 24-year-old supporter of the senator-elect said he was inspired to see someone close to his age elected to represent in the Minnesota senate.
“You never really see people in our generation in these high offices,” Temple said, “and the fact that she is Black makes this historic feat even much greater.”
Tuesday — anticipated for months because only two Black men made it to the November ballot — came to fruition as Winston’s supporters gathered at Oro, hoping to celebrate a man they said will bring the city together to usher in a new era of leaders that care.
A party-like atmosphere developed slowly at Winston’s gathering after polls closed and numbers started trickling in with people refreshing their screens for updates. Those in attendance included dedicated supporters and a few members from
This time, unlike that night in August of last year when their candidate came up two votes short, they were expecting something different, a win for Winston who will take over come January.
Winston ran on a platform of public safety and expanding the tax base of the city to lessen the burden on home owners in the city.
In his victory speech, Winston told supporters that residents from all walks of life will need to be brought together to usher in a new era of accountability in the city, including “those who do not agree with us.”
Winston was up against firstterm Councilmember Russell who warned voters against electing a mayor who had no elective office experience. Russell had the backing of the Republican establishment in the city including, outgoing mayor Lisa Jacobson and Jeff Lunde, who Jacobson succeeded last year.
Like the three preceding mayors, Winston brings a background in business to the mayor’s office. He is founder and CEO of Guaranteed America which lobbies for businesses of color at the state Capitol. He has an MBA from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. It was at the University of Minnesota that he met his wife Latrice 20 years ago.
founder of Village BP, an organization that addresses housing disparities at Huntington Apartments. Cochran applauded Winston’s message of community engagement and empathy for all residents of the city.
“He is a true public servant and not just a politician and its going to be great to have someone like that as mayor,” Cochran said. “Unlike our council representatives (he) really listened to the problems we have at Huntington, and it will be refreshing to have someone like that as our mayor.”
Watching the proceedings from the bar counter was Rashaud Imaun, owner of Brooklyn Park based Men in Black Security which provides security to businesses and events.
the northwest suburbs’ Democratic establishment, and Councilman Boyd Morson. Morson endorsed Winston in the runup to the election.
Winston is the son of a retired corporate lawyer father and corporate executive mother that moved the family from Chicago to the Twin Cities when he was 10.
Hanging out with other supporters at the watch party was Tekoa Cochran,
Peggy Larkin, a criminal attorney and longtime supporter, said Winston is a “service-oriented leader” that was able to get the city to unite behind him because of demonstrable leadership skills. Winston’s win is a “success for small business” for a city that has a lot of them, Larkin said.
“What really spoke to my heart was after Daunte Wright was killed
“I am expecting consistency for our city as he puts into action what he promised us during the campaign,” Imaun said. “I have known him for 15 years and when he says he will do something, he does it, otherwise he won’t say it.”
“This is not about me neither is it about those of you in this room – but it is about the whole city moving in the right direction,” Winston told supporters Tuesday.
A new Amazon sorting facility in Woodbury, Minnesota, is taking its employees’ religious needs seriously, adding new “ablution stations” for ritual hand and foot washing and three rooms that people of any faith may use for prayer or meditation.
The 550,000-square-foot facility, which opened this month, employs about 300 Somalis and Somali Americans, many of them refugees from the generation-long civil war in the east African nation. Minnesota is home to as many as 80,000 Somali immigrants, more than half of those living in the United States. More than 99% of Somalians are Muslim.
A stop for packages moving between Amazon warehouses and their shipping destinations, the Woodbury center includes signs in Somali as well as translation services. Other accommodations for all employees include lactation rooms for nursing mothers and soundproof booths for phone calls.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director for CAIR-MN, the local chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Reli-
gion News Service that while CAIR-MN celebrates the move, in many ways, it’s the bare minimum.
“In Minnesota, for the companies that we work with, it’s pretty standard,” he said about the prayer and ablution stations. “Some have been doing this since the ’90s, and others have gone beyond by making sure that even bathrooms are inclusive for people who prefer bidets.”
He added that other companies offer holiday pay for Muslim holidays, something he said Amazon locations in Minnesota have yet to commit to.
“Amazon does pride itself in its ability to listen to the employees to make sure that they have that direct conduit to leaders of our facilities (and) to make sure that they have the safest and most inclusive workplaces possible,” Scott Seroka, an Amazon public relations manager, told local news channel KSTP-TV. Amazon did not directly respond to request for comment for this story.
Hussein said the prayer rooms and washing stations represent progress for Amazon employees, saying that when Amazon first opened facilities in Minnesota, “They really did not have a plan at all for operating with a diverse workforce.”
He recalls touring an Amazon facility and seeing Muslim workers praying in a space between the warehouse and lunchroom doors. “What if somebody swings the door and hits somebody? We’re talking about thousands of employees who are Muslim.”
Just 40 minutes away in Shakopee, nearly 100 workers walked off the job in May when the local Amazon warehouse
refused to give them time off to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of fasting during Ramadan and, with Eid al-Adha, one of the two holiest days in the Islamic calendar. At a separate protest in June, workers at the Shakopee site rallied for better wages, safer working conditions and holiday pay for both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
Hussein said Amazon has not yet met protesters’ demands.
By BizCommunity News
Senegal will be hosting the eighth annual All Africa Music Awards (Afrima).
The awards ceremony will now be held from 12-15 January 2023, in Dakar, Senegal; shifting the previous date up by four weeks as jointly announced by The International Committee of Afrima, The African union commission and The Republic of Senegal.
This also means that the voting deadline for the nominees will now be shifted to 13 January 2023. This will be the first time the main awards ceremony will be held in a francophone country after past editions.
In his acceptance speech, Senegal’s Minister of Tourism and Air Transport, Mr. Alioune Sarr, represented by Phillipe Ba, said, “Personally and on behalf of the Senegalese government, welcome to Sénégal, the home of the champions of football. Now Sénégal is also positioning herself to become the champions of music because we are hosting the eighth Afrima. We are happy knowing that Sénégal becomes the third country and the first Francophone country to host this great event.”
“I can tell you that our ministry (Tourism) and the Senegalese government will partner and collaborate
with [Afrima] for a great success of Afrima in Senegal because our President, H.E. Macky Sall is not only the president of the African Union but also wishes to position himself as the President of all African lovers of culture which Afrima exudes,” he concluded.
“The eighth Afrima in Senegal is officially tagged the Teranga edition which encompasses the good hospitality, warmth, generosity and sharing that is the core to Senegalese life. In addition to celebrating Africa in a magical way and promoting the values of Senegalese people globally through the Afrima platform, the youths, who
are the central focus of the 8th edition will be exposed to opportunities in the creative economy and new music business models, monetisation in music, intellectual property rights and licensing as well as collaborations with other global African music superstars that will be participating in eighth Afrima in Dakar,’’ explained Afrima’s president and executive producer, Mike Dada.
As the whole world gears towards Afrima, African music lovers are encouraged to keep voting intensively for their desired winners, using the voting portal and take part in the events on social media platforms.
The event is scheduled to commence on January 12 with a courtesy visit to the President of the host country, while a host city tour, school visit and gift presentation (as part of AFRIMA’s CSR), as well as a welcome soiree, will be held on the same day.
The four-day event continues 13 January 2023 with the African Music Business Summit and the Afrima Urban Music Fest; the main rehearsals and nominees exclusive party will be held on 14 January. The event will climax on 15 January, with the live awards ceremony broadcast by 104 TV stations to over 84 countries around the world.
We live in a world where divisions and poverty affect everyone but when we unite as changemakers we can create a community where all people thrive.
