NJG | Vol. 123, No. 41 - Oct 12, 2023

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Vol. 123, No. 41 | $1.50

October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

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BLACK PRESS CONDEMNS TERRORIST ATTACKS ON ISRAEL

By Stacy M. Brown

Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia NNPA NEWSWIRE Today, in a display of unity, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the Black Press of America, issued a resolute statement of support for Israel amidst the recent escalation of conflict in the Middle East.

In a joint statement released on Saturday, October 7, NNPA Chair Bobby Henry and NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. unequivocally condemned

the devastating acts of violence perpetrated against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel by Hamas.

The militant group’s firing of a deadly barrage of rockets and infiltration of Israeli territory marked a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict between the two sides.

“The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the Black Press of America, forthrightly condemns the brutal, fatal terrorist attacks today on the Jewish people and the nation of Israel by Hamas,” read the statement. “Terrorism against innocent civilians in Israel and in any

MORE STORIES INSIDE: Black Americans Divided Over Hamas’ Attack On Israel, Raises Questions On Solidarity

...see page 3A

other place in the world can never be justified, tolerated, or sanctioned.

We stand firmly in solidarity with Israel.”

The statement underscores the unity and solidarity between the African-American and Jewish communities in the face of adversity.

While their shared history is complex and nuanced, the NNPA’s declaration underscores their shared common ground by condemning violence and terrorism against innocent civilians, regardless of where it occurs.

The NNPA, founded in 1940, is

PART TWO:

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS HIGHLIGHTS TECHNOLOGY ABUSE

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

If there is a thin line between love and hate, as The Persuaders said in their 1971 hit, then the line that distinguishes domestic violence from tech-assisted violence is nearly invisible.

The two are similar, due to the fact that abusers use aggressive and violent language behind closed doors and in public on social media.

According to a 2014 report, Misogyny on Twitter, released by the research and policy organization Demos, more than 6 million instances of the word “slut” or “whore” were used in English on Twitter between Dec. 26, 2013, and Feb. 9, 2014. “(The words “bitch” and “cunt” were not measured.) An estimated 20 percent of the misogyny

study Tweets appeared, to researchers, to be threatening. An example: “@ XXX @XXX You stupid ugly f**king slut I’ll go to your flat and cut your f**king head off you inbred whore.”

Black females experience domestic

violence at a 35 percent higher rate than White females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races, according to the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence, More than half of all Black female adult murder victims are killed by an intimate partner.

This is the point. It is not shocking that Black females are more likely to experience technology-facilitated abuse. In fact, Black women are 84 percent more likely to be abused on social media than White women, according to a 2018 Amnesty International study.

Black women must find ways “to stay safe in the club, on public transport and now online,” said Seyi Akiwowo, 31, author of the 2022 book, How To Stay Safe Online. ...see Violence, page 7A

the trade association for AfricanAmerican-owned newspapers and media companies throughout the United States. Its mission is to advocate for the African-American press and promote the importance of Black-owned media in shaping public opinion and preserving the African-American cultural experience.

The support for Israel comes at a critical juncture, and it emphasizes the importance of solidarity with nations and communities facing acts of violence and terrorism, transcending historical differences to unite in a common cause.

Early Voting, Candidates Revved Up For State’s 140 Legislative Seats

By Leonard E. Colvin

Chief Reporter New Journal and Guide The 2023 General Election Campaign is well underway, and the two major parties are bidding for control of the State House of Delegates and Senate.

All 40 seats in the State Senate and 100 seats in the State House of Delegates are on the ballot on November 7.

Republicans have a narrow 3-seat majority in the House; five seats are currently vacant, and the parties are battling for those.

The Democrats have a five-seat majority in the Senate and hope to retain or expand on those numbers.

With Conservative Republican Glenn Youngkin sitting in the Governor’s Mansion for the next two years, if Republicans should capture both chambers come November 7, that would give the GOP control of the reins of power of state government in the Commonwealth.

The outcome will determine the future of Virginia’s political control and whether the state will lean toward conservative policies of the Republicans or the more moderate to progressive stances of state Democrats.

Both parties are

All 40 seats in the State Senate and 100 seats in the State House of Delegates are on the ballot on November 7. campaigning on the issue of abortion, the debate over transgender students’ and parents’ rights, education, and how the state spends the receipts in the state coffers.

Governor Youngkin has been touted and is being recruited to jump into the Republican primary race for President.

There are at least 9 candidates seeking the primary at this time.

Former President Donald J. Trump has a 40-point lead on average over his nearest opponent in the polls Governor Ron Desantis of Florida. But Desantis, like the other rivals, has failed to make inroads on GOP primary voters who support Trump If Youngkin leads the Republican legislative candidates to victory in November, his political stock will rise. National GOP leaders fear Trump’s many legal woes may drag him down if he should win the nomination and face President Biden again. ...see Voting, page 8A

University of Virginia Honors Former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder Photo: David Hungate, Courtesy of The Roanoke Times

ROANOKE UNVEILS HENRIETTA LACKS STATUE ROANOKE, VA. A 400-pound bronze statue memorializing Henrietta Lacks was unveiled in Roanoke on October 4, designated as Henrietta Lacks Day in Virginia. On that same day, a miniature Lacks statue was unveiled in her honor at Virginia Tech.

The Lacks statue depicts her standing with arms folded in a blazer, long skirt, and heels. The bronze monument located downtown

Roanoke stands six feet high and is six inches taller than Lacks actual height.

Roanoke artist Bryce Cobbs created the drawing that Blacksburg sculptor Larry Bechtel used to build the statue.

Cobbs said he wanted to portray Lacks as a powerful and dignified figure.

Lacks’ well-known HeLa cells paved the way for advancements in HIV, Polio, in-vitro fertilization, gene mapping, and cancer treatments.

Those same cells are still being used today.

“She literally changed the world, and it is somewhat biblical when you think about it,” said Attorney Ben Crump, the lawyer for the Lacks family, speaking at the downtown unveiling ceremony.

“She is the history lesson for all medical institutions, research centers, physicians, and scientists,” said Crump. ...see Read Full Story, page 3A

NSU Spartans Take Flight Globally New Journal and Guide’s Fall Intern Melissa Spellman reports on Norfolk State’ University’s Global Study Abroad program. She was one of 15 NSU students who traveled to London in May as part of the program. ......see see page 5A

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics recently presented its annual Defender of Democracy Award to former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

Wilder, the first African-American to serve as governor and lieutenant governor of Virginia, received the 2023 award. Last year, at its inaugural event, the center presented the award to nine U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I am pleased to be here. I’m pleased to be anywhere, at my age,” Wilder, 92, joked, after receiving the award. “I am pleased to be anywhere and to have the opportunity to still engage and be a part of whatever is going on.”

Wilder, who attended the event with families and friends said, “My slogan,

Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder

‘You can make democracy work,’ couldn’t be any more apropos today. You can make democracy work. You can demand what’s right, but you have to criticize what’s wrong.

You can’t be afraid to do that and there will be those who will tell you that you will get in trouble.”

Wilder added, “Well, if that’s the case, I’ve been in trouble my whole life.”

New Journal and Guide

2A | October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

America’s Continued Love Affair With Mass Incarceration

By Stacy M. Brown

The demographic distribution remained consistent over the two years, with 32 percent being Black, 31 percent white, 23 percent Hispanic, 10 percent multiracial or of another race, 2 percent American Indian or Alaska Native, and 1 percent Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander.

stakeholders with timely already incarcerates more families but also for the individuals per capita than broader economic stability Senior National Correspondent data as quickly as possible.”

In response to the report, Canada, France, the U.K., of the nation. @StacyBrownMedia the Jobs Opportunity Task and China. They cautioned “Maryland must Force (JOTF), a nonprofi t that should Maryland continue to dismantle NNPA NEWSWIRE continue this trajectory, barriers to employment Preliminary data released advocating for improved it could face economic by increasing access to by the Bureau of Justice skills, jobs, and incomes, repercussions, including high expungement, limiting the Statistics (BJS) revealed drew attention to the unemployment rates among use or consideration of a notable increase in the wide-reaching effects of incarceration.

They revealed returning citizens, potentially prior criminal history when number of individuals held leading to increased reliance considering an application in local jails nationwide. that approximately 113 on government assistance, for an occupational license, As of midyear 2022, the million adults in the U.S., or roughly 45 percent, have diminished tax revenues, and and reducing or eliminating incarcerated population elevated recidivism rates. the fines and fees that stood at 663,100, marking a a family member with a JOTF officials concluded contribute to keeping 4 percent surge compared to history of imprisonment, by stressing the urgency justice-involved individuals the previous year’s 636,100. and 79 million individuals incarceration rates, changes. of addressing mass in poverty even if they This surge is part of a more possess a criminal record. in attributing the prior decline Highlighting concerns JOTF offi cials pointed out incarceration, not only for are able to secure entrysignificant trend that has to Maryland, the well-being of affected level employment,” JOTF seen jail admissions rise by that the post-pandemic era to COVID-19 responses specific than systemic JOTF warned that the state individuals and their officials wrote.

6.6 percent from July 2021 has witnessed a resurgence rather to June 2022, totaling 7.3 million entries. However, the figure is still 37 percent lower than ten years prior, when admissions peaked at 11.6 million.

According to the new sustained injuries that are reported to be non- other notifications.

By Stacy M. Brown data, of the incarcerated life-threatening.

At approximately 11:45 p.m., city police Senior National Correspondent population in mid-2022, “The entire city of Baltimore’s heart aches for announced via Twitter that the incident was no @StacyBrownMedia 14 percent were female, the Morgan community, for the victims and their longer an “active shooter situation.” University representing an increase families, and for our city as a whole,” Baltimore officials announced via social media that the NNPA NEWSWIRE over the previous year. shelter-in-place order had been lifted, and shuttle Baltimore police are searching for multiple Mayor Brandon Scott stated.

The female population Multiple windows were shattered during services resumed at around 12:30 a.m. Worley suspects involved in a shooting incident that experienced a growth of 9 occurred on the campus of Morgan State the incident, and school officials said they emphasized that SWAT officers meticulously percent, surpassing the 3 University, leaving five individuals injured. immediately began active shooter response combed through every floor of the buildings percent growth seen in the Among the victims, four are students of the protocols. Worley said police systematically they searched, conducting two sweeps, before male population during the cleared buildings in pursuit of those responsible. lifting the shelter-in-place order. historically Black institution. same period.

While there are indications that it could have UPDATE: By the end of the week, police Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Among those in custody, Worley and Morgan State University Police been more than one shooter, authorities could had confirmed two shooters and persons of approximately 30 percent Chief Lance Hatcher told reporters that the not confirm whether multiple assailants were interest in connection to the shooting that (197,000) were convicted happened during the university’s Homecoming incident happened around 9:25 p.m. (Tuesday, involved. or awaiting sentencing, Hatcher said university police received Weekend. Homecoming activities were October 3) when university police officers, on while the remaining 70 their regular patrol, detected gunfire from the notification of the shooting at approximately cancelled as a result of the shootings. A $9,000 percent (466,100) were not campus. The victims, aged between 18 and 9:27 p.m. and sent the first public safety alert to reward is being offered for information leading convicted, pending court 22, which include four men and a woman, the community at 9:30 p.m., followed by four to an arrest. action, or held for other reasons. This distribution mirrors the proportions observed in 2021.

The numbers saw a 2 percent increase for state and federal prisons from yearend 2021 to yearend 2022, with the population rising from 1,205,100 to 1,230,100.

Notably, 35 states and the federal prison system saw an uptick in the number of individuals sentenced to more than one year.

October 12, 1979 racism was like because according to the workshop in society for Negroes. whom were arrested.

Most prisoners, Edition of the Guide However, They made it so they could she was raised in the city participants.

A police desk sergeant approximately 96 percent but bused to Norfolk’s they would like to see not help themselves by reported that integration in 2021 and 2022, had Klan Recruitment Booker T. Washington the bank renovated as a voting – by not permitting workers from throughout sentences of over a year. The Effort Fails High School as a teen; historical site. them to vote. the nation are “coming in demographic distribution During Monday’s Diana Chapell, Anthony They kept the quality and droves and trying to stir up remained consistent over the report of quantity of their education our Negroes.”

Lewis and Carolyn John summary two years, with 32 percent By Charles Church Street low. They isolated them of the Black Vanguard the He said groups of being Black, 31 percent E. Lewis, Jr. & Maravia Reid neighborhood’s “take Resource Center; And Phil in housing, good and bad.

Negroes gathered in the white, 23 percent Hispanic, Wilayto of the Workers part” in the community Seventy-five years after streets Friday night and 10 percent multiracial or design workshop, the that was done, they said “there seems to be lots Party. of another race, 2 percent VIRGINIA BEACH The overly dramatized neighborhood’s residents’ Negroes were incapable of of unrest caused by the American Indian or Alaska businesspeople, and city learning or holding a job.

Church Street outside agitators.”

Native, and 1 percent Asian, demonstration of resurging leaders came together to Development Project Then came the able Native Hawaiian, or Other Ku Klux Klan strength all but fizzled out last Friday discuss and analyze their lawyers trained despite Nears Finish Pacific Islander. concerns for the present the segregationists and BJS Principal Deputy night in the face of what could be called “reverse and future needs of the thoughtful members of By Bettina Director Kevin M. Scott, Church Street area.

Cromwell the race who had gotten Ph.D., emphasized the intimidation.”

Spurred by rumors Many of the businessmen some education despite significance of releasing there however were the segregationists who preliminary data, stating in that the Klan would be NORFOLK in Virginia about the decided that they were A development concept concerned a news release that, “BJS gathering is publishing advanced Beach and attempting for the Church Street possible decline of their being slowly strangled project business once they were to death by these racial estimates of key statistics to recruit new members, Redevelopment discrimination instruments, on this topic to provide our several anti-Klan groups reached one of its final moved out of the area. issued a warning that any planning One of the main concerns and they decided to test stages on such a rally would meet Monday. of the residents centered these subversive state laws resistance.

For the last two years, the around an anticipated in the United States Courts.

And perhaps as a result Norfolk Redevelopment Cultural Center for the Naturally, they had of this warning, the Klan and Housing Authority Church Street area. What to employ well-trained opted not to publicly (NRHA) along with the would be in the cultural lawyers of the race to announce the time of their Community Development center, however, is in the carry their cases to courts. scheduled demonstration, Corporation (CDC) has planning.

Marshall was one of the consequently drawing only been outlining the details first. He won thirty of a handful of supporters. for the redevelopment of thirty-five cases. That October 14, 1961 NEW JOURNAL On the other side of the Church Street. was just too much for Edition of the Guide Harvey S. Hicks II AND GUIDE fence, however, there were On April 5, more segregationists. So, they P.O. Box 209, demonstrations awaiting than 80 people labeled Marshall and all A J&G Editorial Norfolk,VA 23501 the Klan. One group, comprising residents Former Norfolk Man Is of his associates and their Which Came First; Phone: (757) 543-6531 the Committee Against and businesspeople Named As Fire Captain clients with the epithet “Segregationist” or Fax: (757) 543-7620 Racism (CAR) of ODU, from Church Street “integrationists.”

In Richmond “Integrationist?”

PUBLISHER AND openly attacked with their joined NRHA and CDC The point of this piece is EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: speech’s members of the representatives during a Former Norfolkian, “Which came first the to show that segregationists Brenda H. Andrews Klan on Lower Atlantic workshop at the Greater chick or the egg?” the age- were here first. If it had not Harvey S. Hicks II entered Avenue.

AME Zion Church to old riddle has never been been for their regressive that exclusive fraternity of CHIEF REPORTER: The 40 or so members establish a groundwork for satisfactorily solved. But and oppressive laws aimed Colored fire department Leonard E. Colvin of CAR arrived in Virginia the urban redevelopment there is another problem at keeping Negroes in captains in the South. He Beach after holding a rally process. that is not so difficult to “their place” they had fixed was appointed last week as ASSISTANT TO at ODU on October 4.

The results of that solve. It is: Which came for him, the integrationists commander of Richmond’s THE PUBLISHER: A larger demonstration day-long workshop were first the “segregationist” or would not be here.

Engine Company No. 9, an Desmond Perkins which grew from 100 revealed on October 8 with the “integrationist?” outfit rated by Fire Chief ASSOCIATE EDITOR: participants at 6 p.m. grew developers stressing that Mississippi City Arrest E. A. Sherry as “excellent.”

When some of the Rosaland Tyler to 200, 90 minutes later. their findings were not the newspapers 118; FBI Checks Captain Hicks succeeds a came out This group fell under final drafting of the project, with the announcement On Terror white commander of the PRODUCTION: the umbrella of the but a developmental of Thurgood Marshall’s company which is located Tony Holobyte organization People concept for the area. in old Jackson Ward. appointment as a judge MCCOMB, MISS United for Human An overall view of the of the U.S. 2nd Circuit of Colored firemen are Two adult desegregation New Journal and Guide Justice, members of the Church Street area as seen rarities in the South, except leaders were arrested Appeals, he was designated (USPS 0277560/ISSN Workers World Party, by the people who work and in volunteer companies in here Friday as FBI agents “the chief Integrationist.”

8096) is published weekly Black Vanguard Resource live there was discovered.

Both segregationists and continued to investigate a North Carolina. Durham on Thursday for $50 per Center, People United for The participants at the integrationists, as the words tense racial situation in the and Winston-Salem have year, $30 per year for six Human Rights, Socialists workshop considered the are now used, are epithets South Mississippi town. official fire companies and months by New Journal Party, Gay Rights group, area’s importance as a that nice people do not use.

The FBI agents were Greensboro is organizing a and Guide Publishing, and others from the region. major transportation hub But the segregationists sent here to investigate unit.

Incorporated,5127 East Starting at 5:30 p.m. and a center of Black or their hirelings are charges made to the Justice Captain Hicks is a Va. Beach Blvd., Suite with a rally across from community life. very fond of calling all Department that a “reign of Booker T. Washington 100, Norfolk, VA 23510. the Virginia Beach Dome, They wanted to retain people who are opposed to terror” against Negroes had High School graduate who Periodicals Postage Paid the group decided to march the existing scale and not racial discrimination and resulted from a campaign also attended Virginia at Norfolk, VA 23501. to the site of the Klan’s make Church Street a four- injustices “integrationists.” to register Negroes to vote. State and West Virginia Postmaster: Send address attempted rally, drawing lane highway.

Local police officers said State Colleges. He did When they don’t use changes to New Journal others as they went along.

The participants also the term integrationist, no help is needed from the a two-year stint during and Guide, P.O. Box 209, During the rally, there felt a need for sign they use “race mixers.” federal government.

WWII as an Army supply were several speakers, regulation, Norfolk, VA 23501. The landscaping, Both terms have become and became There have been sergeant among them Rev. L.P. and off-street parking in very popular as part of several racial incidents one of Richmond’s first New Journal and Guide Watson and George Banks the area. A renovation of double-column newspaper since the voter campaign colored firemen in 1950. is not responsible for any of the Norfolk NAACP; Goldberg’s Hardware and positions in the economic began including an anti(Editor’s Note: Norfolk’s unsolicited manuscripts, Isabel Zabriskie, a retired Metropolitain Bank (at order of Negroes. segregationist march to first Black fireman Lyman photographs or related Virginia Beach teacher, Church and Brambleton They passed all kinds of the City Hall by116 Negro Snead, Jr., 25 was hired in materials. who said she knew what Ave.) would be welcomed, laws to fix up inferior places high school students all of March of 1967.)

MULTIPLE SUSPECTS SOUGHT AFTER SHOOTING INCIDENT AT MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

From The Guide’s Archives

Archives taken from the pages of the (New) Journal and Guide

New Journal and Guide

October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023 | 3A

CITY OF ROANOKE AND VIRGINIA TECH UNVEIL STATUES OF HENRIETTA LACKS

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

A bronze miniature statue of Henrietta Lacks was unveiled on the campus of Virginia Tech on Oct. 4, the same day that the City of Roanoke unveiled Lack’s bronze fullsized statue in a morning ceremony at Henrietta Lacks Plaza in downtown Roanoke on Henrietta Lacks Day in Virginia.

According to news reports, about 100 people stood downtown cheering at the unveiling event that was held in the morning, on Oct. 4, a few days after Lacks would have celebrated her 103rd birthday on Oct. 1. Lacks died of cervical cancer in Baltimore on Oct. 4, 1951.

On the surface, it seems as if the downtown unveiling ceremony dates back to 2021, when Roanoke City Council voted to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from ‘Lee Plaza’ and replace it with Lack’s statue, which was funded with private donations totaling nearly $184,000.

But the ceremonies that were held downtown and on the campus of Virginia Tech

actually date back to the time that Lacks moved from Virginia to Baltimore around 1941, received a cervical cancer diagnosis at Johns Hopkins Hospital around 1951, and died the same year.

Her cervical cancer cells launched the HeLa cell line, which contributed to major scientific advances.

“She literally changed the world, and it is somewhat biblical when you think about it,” said Attorney Ben Crump, the lawyer for the Lacks family, speaking at the downtown unveiling ceremony.

“She is the history lesson for all medical institutions, research centers, physicians, and scientists,” said Crump.

Lacks’ statue depicts her standing with arms folded in a blazer, long skirt, and heels. The bronze monument located downtown weighs about 400 pounds, stands six feet high and is six inches taller than Lacks actual height.

Roanoke artist Bryce Cobbs created the drawing that Blacksburg sculptor Larry Bechtel used to build the statue. Cobbs said he wanted to portray Lacks as a powerful and dignified figure.

Her well-known HeLa cells paved the way for advancements in HIV, Polio, in-vitro fertilization, gene mapping, and cancer treatments. Those same cells are still being used today.

When Lacks received a cancer diagnosis in 1951, federal laws did not regulate or restrict the use of patients’ cells in research.

“We understand Henrietta Lacks’ place in Roanoke’s complicated history that regrettably included a time of segregated health care,” Nancy Howell Agee, the Chief Executive Officer of the Carilion Clinic, said at the unveiling ceremony on Virginia Tech’s campus.

“Today, we affirm our determined commitment to identify and close gaps in health inequities. We’re humbled standing beside Mrs. Lacks’ likeness. We honor her for her cells’ role in medicine that has saved lives time and time again. And we celebrate her because her story has helped the health care community change the ethics guiding how we care for our patients,” she said.

“The life of Roanoke’s Henrietta Lacks has left an enduring legacy on medical

advancements, health care ethics, and patients’ rights,” Lee Learman, the dean of the Virginia Tech School of Medicine, said at the statue unveiling ceremony held on Oct. 4 at The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech.

According to news reports, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and the Carilion Clinic each unveiled statues of Henrietta Lacks in their facilities.

“Our students will look upon her statue each day as a reminder of the trust patients invest in their physicians and the origins of distrust felt by members of historically underserved communities,” Learman said.

“With this recognition, our hope is for future generations of physicians to continue shaping more inclusive and caring health care institutions for everyone.”

Lacks, the married mother of five, grew up on a tobacco farm in Clover, a part of Halifax County. She is honored with signs, markers, statues and exhibits in various places of the United States and world.

Black Americans Express Range of Emotions Over Attack On Israel

By Stacy M. Brown

criticized the Black Lives Senior National Correspondent Matter movement, asserting they were not contributing @StacyBrownMedia positively. He stated, “For all y’all Black Lives Matter NNPA NEWSWIRE Black Americans have who ain’t saying nothing or expressed a range of emotions ‘let me figure out exactly regarding Hamas’ recent and what happened before I say deadly attack on Israel, with anything,’ F. you. Figure out many taking to social media to what? It ain’t never been cool highlight what they perceive to kidnap kids.”

In a joint statement released as a lack of support from Israel and some members on Saturday, October 7, of the Jewish community NNPA Chair Bobby Henry for the Black Lives Matter and NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Movement.

The sentiment was Jr. unequivocally condemned especially pronounced after the acts of violence committed George Floyd’s assassination against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel by Hamas. in Minnesota in 2020.

Numerous posts on social The statement emphasized media platforms feature that Hamas’ actions, including hashtags like #BLM and firing rockets and infiltrating #PLM, underscoring the Israeli territory, significantly perceived parallels between escalated the ongoing conflict the struggles of Palestinians between the two parties.

“The National Newspaper and African-Americans in Association their fight against systemic Publishers racism. One widely circulated (NNPA), representing the message emphasized the Black Press of America, cross-border nature of forthrightly condemns the these movements, stating, brutal, fatal terrorist attacks “Palestinians & African- today on the Jewish people Americans have been and the nation of Israel by [creating] a social movement, Hamas,” read the statement. without borders, to fight “Terrorism against innocent systemic racism. As part civilians in Israel and in any of international protests, in other place in the world can Palestine/Israel signs read never be justified, tolerated, or ‘Justice for Eyad. Justice sanctioned. We stand firmly in for George,’ ‘Black lives solidarity with Israel.”

Experts said the diverse MATTER, Palestinian lives range of opinions within the MATTER.’” Another post drew attention Black American community to what the author viewed as underscores the complexities a lack of awareness about the and multifaceted nature of the treatment of Black people in ongoing debate surrounding Israel, saying, “If African- the conflict in the Middle East Americans Knew How Israel and its implications for various Treats Black People, Black social justice movements.

Further, many observed Lives Don’t Matter in Israel.” as the situation Former NBA star Amari that, Stoudemire, who previously continues to evolve, how announced his conversion these perspectives will shape to Judaism, took a contrary the discourse within the stance, denouncing African- Black community and on the Americans who do not support broader global stage remains Israel. Stoudemire openly to be seen.

New Journal and Guide

4A | October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

THE CONSEQUENCE OF CHILD TRAUMA

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIOLOGY VIRGINIA TECH

“DID YOU REALIZE YOU’RE IN A CULT?”

By Wornie Reed, Ph.D.

How could she feel so loyal to him, The young star witness knowing his limitations and after in the Congressional seeing all the coup activities led by January 6th Hearing, Cassidy Hutchinson, Donald Trump up close? significantly impressed me. And that admiration continued as I saw her making rounds on television shows publicizing her recent book, Enough.

But my respect for her was substantially tempered when I learned that she had tried to follow Trump to Mara-Lago as he exited the White House in January of 2021.

Among a myriad of other issues, this man lacks the attention span needed for an average meeting, according to Hutchinson herself.

How could she feel so loyal to him, knowing his limitations and after seeing all the coup activities led by Donald Trump up close? And she should have known that he is loyal to no one.

Whoopi Goldberg provided my answer on The View. Host Sonny Hostin was trying to get an explanation for Hutchinson’s report in her book recounting how she told her mother that she was hoping to move to Mar-a-Lago with Trump, even after the events of January 6.

Hostin asked, “What would make you still go to Mar-a-Lago?” Whoopi Goldberg answered by interjecting, “Did you not realize you were in a cult?”

Trump’s “Art of the Steal,” as New York Attorney General Letitia James calls Trump’s business dealings,

reminds me of how discussions of Trump kept appearing in my classes years ago.

For about 20 years, Donald Trump was a punchline in some of the undergraduate classes I taught. In teaching social class, I would introduce the classifications sociologist W. Lloyd Warner developed in the 1930s and 1940s – upper, middle, and lower classes, each divided into upper and lower.

In distinguishing the upper-upper class from the lower-upper class, I would include such stereotypes as follows.

The upper-upper class was “old money,” inherited wealth. These people do not work; their money works for them, and they live privately, usually out of the public spotlight.

On the other hand, the lower upper were the “new rich.” They worked; they did things to make their money, and they lived very much in the public spotlight. While we seldom see the houses of the old rich, the new rich build their homes so they can be seen. In other words, some of the new rich are ostentatious.

They want everyone to know they are rich.

After laying out these social class stereotypes, I would ask the students who in America best personified the new rich.

Without fail, from the

mid-1980s to the 2000s, the overwhelming answer was almost always the same: “Donald Trump.”

Please note that I never mentioned the name Donald Trump before the students mentioned him.

The Trump example enabled students to get into the preliminary class analysis. Students learned that typically, the upperupper class does not socialize with the lowerupper class. In the 1980s, one student from Miami Beach mentioned that they had seen examples of that phenomenon as the old rich in that area tended not to associate with the new rich.

Although my students’ regard for Trump was not based on any seriously problematic issues about him revealed over the past six years, they would not have regarded this stereotypical lowerupper class person as presidential timber. The students knew of Trump’s ostentatiousness and his poor business aptitude, as in the mid-1980s, when I started that exercise, he bought Eastern Airlines and ran it into bankruptcy.

They may not have been surprised at some of Trump’s words and actions over the past six years, but they probably were astonished that he won the presidency.

And few, if any, of them would have followed Trump to Mar-a-Lago at the time.

THE TEACHING OF BLACK HISTORY MOVIN’ ON UP

By A. Peter Bailey (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM) As I have noted before, Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis’ fear about the teaching of Black History in his state’s public schools probably resulted from his having read or heard about a February 1982 Ebony Magazine article “Why Black History Is Important To You.” Written by the great journalist/historian/author/ master teacher, Lerone Bennett, Jr., the article includes the following: “People are always telling me that they are too busy making the future to bother with the past. But people who say this give up both the future and the past. The past is not back there; it is happening now. It is the bet your fathers (and your mothers) placed which you must now cover ... History is everything; it is everywhere ... History is to us what water is to fish. We are immersed in it up to our necks, and we cannot get out of it, no matter what we say or do. And what that means on the level of specifics is that history is knowledge, identity and power.”

DeSantis and millions of other Whites like him in this country don’t want Black folks to know about and understand anything that brings about knowledge, identity and power. Which is exactly what Black Floridians including Rev. Gaston Smith, Rev. Rhonda Thomas, Loren Lyons and Mark Riley have developed programs designed to teach

DeSantis and millions of other Whites like him in this country don’t want Black folks to know about and understand A. Peter Bailey anything that Black History to children in brings about their state. knowledge, According to a Washington Post article, Churches step identity and up to teach Black History power. in Florida, by Brittany Shammas, they have put together an “Elevenpage tool kit to guide the churches and suggest books, articles, documentaries and reports covering the Black experience ... The chapters, featuring content for all ages, cover a lot of ground. ‘From Africa to America’ one is titled. Another highlights ‘Race, Racism & Whiteness.’

Some 200 faith leaders quickly signed up to use it ...”

The Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH) has also expanded its agenda to combat the threats from DeSantis and others throughout the country.

According to its president W. Marvin Dulaney, “After ASALH heard about the success of the three pilot Freedom Schools in Florida, we passed a resolution to sponsor Freedom Schools with our branches

throughout the country.

ASALH will join the churches in providing the teaching of Black History independent of the public schools in cities and states where ASALH has branches.

Those branches will sponsor classes where teachers will be allowed to take a class in order to provide them with the pedagogy, materials and strategies on how to teach African-American history.”

Great Black historical leaders in the hereafter including Nat Turner, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Brother Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Mary McLeod Bethune and C. Delores Tucker probably fist bumped as they witnessed what Faith in Florida and ASALH are doing.

Each day, when a child enters a (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM) school building, While the first week of October represents Morgan teachers and State University’s week staff must have of homecoming events, many of those activities the trauma were either postponed or awareness canceled, along with the cancellation of classes. of knowing Five people, aged 18 David W. Marshall to 22, including four that many of students, suffered non-lifethose students threatening injuries after gunfire erupted on Morgan universality of trauma often bring worldwide and to seek to be State’s campus.

For Morgan State, this is responsive to it. their adverse Every major city the third consecutive year a shooting occurred during struggles, to some degree, childhood the annual homecoming with teenagers as young experiences celebration. Last year, a as 14 and 15 years old 20-year-old man was the committing violent crimes (ACEs) to school victim of gun violence such as armed robbery, at a homecoming party armed carjacking, and with them.

By David W. Marshall

on campus. An 18-yearold student was shot in 2021 after the end of the homecoming football game.

“This is not just a Baltimore thing,” Mayor Brandon Scott told reporters. “Any mayor in any city will tell you that we have a national problem with guns in the hands of people that should not have them, and we have to handle it in a national way.” While true, there is more to it than access to guns.

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight the racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by Black people and promote anti-racism. Its primary concerns are police brutality and racially motivated violence against Black people. While this definition centers on opposing racism, the fight for all Black lives will ultimately force us as a community to become trauma-informed, which is to acknowledge the

first-degree murder. It has become a circumstance of life that reminds us of the African proverb, “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

Therefore, every inner city, suburban, and rural high school must become trauma-informed.

Ballou Senior High School in Washington, D.C., is a trauma-informed school where adults recognize and respond to those impacted by traumatic stress. This includes administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and school resource officers who are professionally trained and understand that the traumatic experiences of a child must be considered as part of the educational approach. The school’s culture is guided by the type of language that builds empathy to reduce the impact of trauma on the classroom. Ballou High School has moved in the direction of asking, “What happened to you?” instead

of “What’s wrong with you?”

Each day, when a child enters a school building, teachers and staff must have the trauma awareness of knowing that many of those students often bring their adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to school with them. Since the schools have already identified those students considered to be at-risk, they will always be on the front line of defense because, in many cases, in the case of Ballou High School, at-risk students are students who are identified as homeless during the academic year, under the care of Child and Family Services Agency, qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP), qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and those students who are at least one year older than the expected age for their grade. ...see Trauma, page 6A

Public Education Is Vital To A Democracy

By Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM) America owes much of its prominence and prosperity to the fact that it has led the world in popular education. Even without a public school system, we had the highest literacy in the world in the 19th century. We were among the first to provide public school to the young through the 12th grade.

We were the first to open the doors of colleges and universities – significantly through the GI Bill after World War II – to children from all levels of income.

Today, however, public education in the United States is under siege.

Public school teachers and librarians have become punching bags in the political wars.

Teachers are underpaid and overstressed. College is priced out of reach for more and more children, with administrators and facilities consuming ever more of the resources, while professors and graduate assistants fall behind.

Schools are now battlefields in our partisan political wars.

Job satisfaction for public school teachers is at a 50year low. Thousands are leaving the profession and fewer and fewer college students are taking it up.

Florida offers a good example. Its governor, Ron DeSantis, has made the “war on wokeism” a centerpiece of his presidential political campaign. He has signed into law multiple “educational gag orders” – criminalizing classroom discussions on race, gender, and history that might make white students “feel guilt,

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. anguish or any other form of psychological distress.”

School libraries are purged of books, with librarians at risk if they don’t fall in line. Even the teaching of Shakespeare has been censored in some districts as too racy for children to hear (the same children who too often share far more shocking material on social media).

Florida teacher salaries are ranked 48th in the country. Now teachers are not only unpaid but they are assailed, vilified and threatened – not only with the loss of a job but with potential criminal charges.

The result – not surprisingly – is that the brightest and best teachers are headed north. When DeSantis became governor in 2019, the Nation Magazine reports, Florida already had a teacher shortage in grades K through 12 of 2,217. When he began his second term four years later, that number had more than doubled.

This August, the Florida Education Association reported the number of unfilled positions at an unimaginable 7,000.

The destructiveness of DeSantis’ war on wokeism is likely to be felt for a generation.

... public education in the United States is under siege. Public school teachers and librarians have become punching bags in the political wars.

As public institutions engaged with children, schools have always been centers of controversy.

In the South, segregation enforced separate but unequal schools, dividing children by race. In the North, as Jonathan Kozol detailed, public schools reflected the “savage inequality” of neighborhood disparities in wealth and race. Busing is routine across America, but it became a lightning rod when courts ordered busing to try to integrate schools in metropolitan areas.

In the countries that rank the highest in educational proficiency, teachers are treated with respect and paid well. In Finland, which ranks highest in international testing, gaining admission to a teacher’s college is fiercely competitive.

Teachers are supplied with the resources, the teaching aides, the classroom sizes vital to doing their job well. In the U.S., teachers spend an average of about $700 out of their own pockets on school supplies, with those in the poorest neighborhoods spending the most. ...see Education, page 6A

New Journal and Guide

October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023 | 5A

NEWS

NORFOLK STATE SPARTANS ARE TAKING FLIGHT WITH GROWING STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM

By Melissa Spellman Fall Intern New Journal and Guide

Norfolk State University’s Office of Global Learning and International Programs recently signed a partnership agreement with London Metropolitan University in England and the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, now offering study abroad programs in forty countries.

Director of Global Learning, Dr. Torian Lee says 80 Spartans have traveled abroad in the last two academic semesters.

His office aspires to triple that number and with the influx of 1500 freshman this fall it is achievable. Student ambassadors share what it’s like to study aboard and help prepare students for their own study abroad experiences.

Dr. Lee is a 3-time Fulbright Scholarship recipient, with awards to Germany (2005), United Kingdom (2013), and India (2015). He understands the impact and transformation studying abroad offers students. As for the Spartans of Norfolk State, the time is now and the study abroad opportunities are growing.

My study abroad journey began with applying to the NSU Faculty-Led London Study Abroad Program in Creative Writing and Literature. I was accepted into the program alongside 14 other student applicants.

This experience was meant to expose students to different cultures, urge students to think about the world from a global perspective, and build personal and professional international connections. It was the dedication of Dr. Lee

Photo: Courtesy

NSU students enjoying the sights and sound of London. that laid the groundwork that could potentially change the lives of 15 literary students.

Through Dr. Lee’s grant writing efforts, strategic planning, and partnership with London Met the study abroad program was launched.

London Met’s liaison Ella Deadman and Dr. Lee were tasked with ensuring that students were knowledgeable of the cultural sensitivities and responsibilities of becoming study abroad Student Ambassadors. Students were required to attend several meetings to prepare them for the cultural adjustment to London.

In preparation for the journey, students were encouraged to conduct research about England such as the country’s cultural norms, currency, current events, social issues, and latest in British politics. And,

on Friday, May 5, 2023 15 Spartans left Norfolk, VA landing 9 hours later on Saturday, May 6, 2023 in London, England.

Dr. Jennifer Malia, a member of the NSU English Department Faculty, led the London trip. Each of the study abroad students completed a Spring course with Dr. Malia in Young Adult Literature or Romantic Writers. As a means of capturing the students’ candid thoughts for each excursion, Dr. Malia prompted students to document their experience through journals, poetry, and photography. Time was designated each day during the trip for this purpose, which proved to be invaluable, according to student participants.

London’s energy was electric as the citizens and visitors flocked to the streets

in celebration of King Charles III’s Coronation!

Jet lagged and in dire need of sleep several students ventured out to Hyde Park and Covent Garden to watch the Coronation on the massive screen from the street. Others went to a local pub near the hotel and watched the Coronation on TV. The first days consisted of exploring the London Markets, touring the Natural History Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and Science Museum.

London Met provided a student orientation, a tour of the university, and a welcome lunch. Students visited London Met’s Aldgate Campus where they met professor, author, and activist Sunni Singh. She discussed the history of printing, writing for the masses, and what it means to disrupt. Professor Singh’s overall message to

students was that people will resist physically, culturally, and socially and to use writing as a form of activism.

One of the most fascinating experiences was the Black history walking tour with author and educator Tony Warner. This outing proved to be the biggest highlight of the students’ study abroad experience. Students learned about the racism and police violence experienced by British Black citizens. Like Black American History, British Black history is a history that is also hidden and whitewashed. Students were shocked to learn about the “sus laws” where a citizen could be detained and jailed on the suspicion that they might commit a crime.

Mr. Warner guided students around important Black historical landmarks and explained their significance in fighting for equality both in the UK and America.

Students also enjoyed a night at the theater to see a live performance of Wicked. The trip concluded with an UberBoat ride and a hop on hop off bus tour where students saw Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, Big Ben, The Royal Observatory, and many other attractions.

In the last days students gathered at London Met to share their writings written during their trip. Each student shared either a journal entry, poem, or personal statement.

This moment was emotional and brought the students closer together. One of the most moving shares was by Claudia Williams. Overwhelmed by the group’s powerful words and with tears in her eyes

Williams recalled how she felt when she received the news that she was accepted into the London study abroad program, “I feel blessed to be chosen as one of the fifteen.

I couldn’t have hoped for a better group of people to share this experience with.”

Whether it was navigating the Tube or the long walks to each destination. London kept the students on their toes.

There were so many cultures in one city, in one block, in one marketplace. You could find Greek, Malaysian, Indian, or Thai cuisine just a food stand apart.

I asked NSU junior Alicia Ross what advice she would give the next group of study abroad students? She said, “Always stay prepared because you never know what will happen and have fun.”

Students learned about additional opportunities to study abroad at London Met. A life in London is now a real possibility for many of the students. This exposure showed us that the world is so much bigger than we imagined and that we too can become citizens of the world.

Mother’s Day Sunday, May 14, 2023, at 6 a.m. was the end of the line. Students took the 15-minute walk to the tube and the 45-minute ride to Heathrow Airport. After an 8-hour flight, a 5-hour layover in Philadelphia, and 1 hour flight to Norfolk at 7:36 p.m. we arrived home.

These 15 NSU Study Abroad Ambassadors leave these words for future study abroad students, “Take advantage of every opportunity to broaden your world view. Don’t block the door and mind the gap.”

UNLOCK FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR FARMERS, RANCHERS, AND FOREST LANDOWNERS USDA EXTENDS DEADLINE FOR DFAP TO JANUARY 13, 2024 Are you a farmer, rancher, or forest landowner who has faced discrimination in USDA farm lending prior to January 2021? You may be eligible for financial assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP).

WHAT IS DFAP?

assumed USDA farm loan debt that was the subject of USDA discrimination that occurred prior to $2.2 Billion in Financial Assistance: Thanks January 1, 2021, are eligible for this program. to Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act, USDA is allocating $2.2 billion in financial HOW DOES IT WORK? assistance to eligible farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in Multiple Ways to Apply: Producers have the option to apply via the e-filing portal at 22007apply.

USDA farm lending programs.

Eligibility: Farmers, ranchers, and forest gov or by submitting paper-based forms via mail or landowners who experienced discrimination by in-person delivery to the program’s local offices.

USDA in its farm loan programs prior to January 1, Free Technical Assistance: Technical assistance 2021, and/or are currently debtors with assigned or is available for potential applicants through four regional hubs working closely with communitybased organizations.

Local Resources: Local brick-and-mortar offices are being opened across the country to ensure easy access and personalized assistance. In-person and virtual events are also being held weekly, with state-by-state information on the website.

Important Deadline: Don’t miss out! The deadline for eligible farmers, ranchers, or forest landowners to complete their application is January 13, 2024.

LEARN MORE: Website: For detailed information about DFAP, please visit our official website at 22007apply.gov.

Our website provides comprehensive information on obtaining in-person or virtual technical assistance, supplementary program resources, and detailed program guidelines.

Call Center: Our call center, available at 1-800721-0970, operates from 8 a.m. ET to 8 p.m. PT, seven days a week, except for Federal holidays.

English and Spanish-speaking agents are available, ensuring you get the assistance you need, when you need it.

Newsletter: Information about the program, resources, recent office openings, and local events across the country is also available through a weekly e-newsletter, which you can sign up for on the program site.

DFAP is all about giving you the support you deserve. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by!

Apply now to secure this financial assistance.

New Journal and Guide

6A | October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

COVID’s Devastation Leads Black MDs To Align HBCU & Community Health Resources On Racial Health Disparities

By Hazel Trice Edney (TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM) Thousands of Black people had protested and many had died at the hands of police, White supremacists and racists as they engaged in nonviolent campaigns to win the right to vote.

Still, America did not fully sit up and hear their cries until “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965.

On that day TV cameras showed protestors being brutally attacked and beaten by the Alabama State Police as they marched peacefully from Selma to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

It was only then that the United States government took decisive action.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, a week after “Bloody Sunday,” adopted the words of the civil rights leaders and declared before the nation in a televised speech to Congress, “We shall overcome.”

Within a few months, the United States Congress adopted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 and it was signed into law by President Johnson on August 6 that year.

In a nutshell, the VRA prohibited any activities by anyone to abridge the

Trauma Continued from page 4A While the school’s enrollment of 636 students is 98 percent Black, 85 percent of those students are at-risk. When asked, “What happened to you?” The answer may involve some form of ACE extending from household dysfunction.

ACE for school students can be the burden of a family’s economic hardship, incarcerated household member(s), the absence of adequate adult support, household substance abuse, and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Expanded ACEs can include high rates of witnessing community violence and extended exposure to racial discrimination.

Because of the situation in the home, many kids are never given a fair shot of making it in life from the beginning.

Ultimately, the community pays the price. Today’s kids may not be burning the village down, but they are undoubtedly shooting it up.

The shootings from the two previous Morgan State homecomings

Education Continued from page 4A Passionate debates about what is taught, what books are read, what history is imparted are inevitable. We want children to learn about America’s triumphs, but we also can’t whitewash our history and present it as a fairy tale. Children need to learn about our victories and our failures, our horrors, our shameful chapters, as well.

We can’t learn from our mistakes if we don’t admit them.

In these partisan times, when social issues – abortion, race, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, immigration – are at the center of our political turmoil, it is inevitable that schools will be engaged in those debates.

Teachers inevitably will be at the center of such debates, not merely witnesses to them but active participants in them. Those with experience

Dr.Yolanda Lawson MD

Dr. Randall Morgan MD

Dr. Louis Sullivan MD

Yolanda Lawson, MD, an obstetrician and gynecologist, who serves as president of the National Medical Association, says support to undergird the programs of HBCUs could be one of the key answers to the problem of health disparities among African-Americans. With an increase in Black doctors, more hospitals in Black neighborhoods and more medical programs at HBCUs, health disparities could begin to close, she said. right to vote.

More than 58 years later, Black doctors on the front lines against racism in medicine across the U. S. had hoped that the revelation of racially disparate suffering and death amidst the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) would become the “Bloody Sunday” for revealing the truth about health involved community members bringing the violence on campus.

The same is likely to be true for this year’s shooting. Morgan State is the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland. Like all HBCUs, the annual homecoming celebration is a tradition special to students, alumni, and local businesses. While homecoming has become a money maker not only for the schools but also for the community, it has always been a means of exhibiting school pride and unity. Any financial loss that may occur doesn’t compare to the long-term trauma suffered by any number of the 9,100 Morgan State students.

The Morgan State shooting illustrates the need for the village to develop trauma awareness concerning its youth. At-risk high school youth live in a different world that society can no longer afford to ignore because Black Lives Matter for different reasons.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faithbased organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of “God Bless Our Divided America.” He can be reached at www. davidwmarshallauthor. com.

in the classroom are likely to have the best insights on what works and what doesn’t.

We surely don’t want partisan politicians using schools as a political football. We want teachers to be respected, free to express their views and share their expertise. We want parents to be involved, able to express their values, their hopes and their fears. Somehow these common sense ideas, which the vast majority would agree upon, too often get lost in the battles.

Even in the midst of the ongoing argument, we should not forget to honor and respect those who choose to teach our children.

We should not forget that one teacher who can unleash a child’s imagination or feed his or her curiosity can transform a life. Thomas Jefferson believed that public education is vital to a democracy, that a welleducated citizenry would be happier, and better able to build a vibrant community.

Surely that’s a lesson we should all remember.

disparities in America and escalate the long struggle to end them. But that has apparently not happened.

“I compare this now to the civil rights movement.

We were really burdened with discrimination and brutality etcetera for many years,” says Dr. Louis Sullivan, founder of the Morehouse School of Medicine, and pioneer of the 15-year-old government agency now known as the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.

“But, the incidents such as the Birmingham police treatment of Blacks on the Edmund Pettus Bridge revealed to the nation those things that had existed for a long time. So, in a way, I see that the Coronavirus has had the same impact.

Health disparities has been an issue for years.

But people have not been aware or haven’t really understood or taken it as seriously as many of us who were working with disparities have taken it.

“But now we are confronting this. And I am hoping that this really results much more in resources and attention and research and care to be devoted to the elimination of these disparities.” ◆◆◆ Dr. Sullivan is among leading Black physicians and HBCU administrators who agree that health disparities in the Black community – and the racism at the root of it – has been revealed to be far worse than anyone thinks. They say the disparities still must be dealt with through racial and cultural coalitions, increase in Black medical professionals and strengthening of public policies.

“COVID-19 has really pulled the scab off the sore of the underbelly of our mistreatment as Black Americans,” says Dr. Rahn Bailey, chief of the Psychiatry Department at Louisiana State University.

“It’s a long story, but a pertinent and a salient one.

So when an additional stresser like the COVID-19 or the Coronavirus presents itself, we already have a subscript in American life where whatever is bad happens worse to AfricanAmericans. We have less health care access; we have fewer hospitals in our communities; we have less access to providers or specialists; very often we get less optimal medication or management. We have data to support that.”

The data indicates racial disparities across the board: • Exact numbers on COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths are fuzzy, largely because states initially did not track the pandemic by race.

But, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported last year that though racial

disparities narrowed as the pandemic subsided, during the surge associated with the Omicron variant in winter last year, disparities in cases once again widened with people of color, including African-Americans at 2,937 per 100,000 people, compared to cases among White people at 2,693 per 100,000. This number is astronomical given that America is approximately 12 percent African-American and 59 percent White. The New York Times reported that “during the height of the Omicron variant, Covid killed Black people in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people.”

The broad disparities continue among other diseases: • According to the National Cancer Institute, Black men die of prostate cancer at twice the rate of White men.

• Although Black women have a 4 percent lower rate of breast cancer diagnosis, the death rate for Black women is 40 percent higher than White women, according to the American Cancer Association.

• America’s leading cause of death, heart disease, causes one of every three deaths in the U. S. But AfricanAmericans and Latinos experience “double the rate of premature deaths” from heart disease compared to their White counterparts, according to the National Institute of Health.

• According to the CDC, “Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women.

Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias.”

• Black children have a “500 percent higher death rate from asthma compared with White children,” according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

• The disparities even persist in treatments and care. For example, of amputations, Black patients lose limbs at three times the rate of White patients, despite progress in diabetic research, according to the NIH. ◆◆◆

Dr. Louis Sulivan, founder of the Morehouse School of Medicine, and pioneer of the 15-year-old government agency now known as the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, is among leading Black physicians and HBCU administrators who agree that health disparities in the Black community – and the racism at the root of it – has been revealed to be far worse than anyone thinks. They say the disparities still must be dealt with through racial and cultural coalitions, increase in Black medical professionals and strengthening of public policies. said in an interview. “But, I thought with awareness we would see a turn around.

We would see changes.”

She pointed out that after the videotaped killing of George Floyd by now imprisoned Derek Chauvin, “everybody got onto the equity bandwagon. Yet, here we are still talking and we know that there’s still this wide gap.”

In addition to racism, pure and simple, researchers have often laid health disparities at the feet of what is called “social determinants;” which, in a nutshell, means common lifestyles of particular groups of people that often stem from systemic racism.

For example, at least one report written jointly by researchers at KFF and the Epic Research Network, said Blacks and Hispanics suffered more infections and deaths during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic because they were at greater risk of exposure to the virus “due to their work, living, and transportation situations.

They are more likely to be working in low-income jobs that cannot be done from home, to be living in larger households in densely populated areas, and to utilize public or shared modes of transportation.”

Likewise, economic and social circumstances such as poverty and food deserts often lead to illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

“And even when there are solutions such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which assured that approximately 2035 million adults, who previously had been uninsured, received coverage by Medicaid, there would still be cracks in the system,” says, Dr. Randall Morgan, an orthopedic surgeon who is president/CEO of the Cobb Health Institute, the research arm of the National Medical Association.

“So, it’s a tough problem. Oh, it’s huge.

It’s horrible. In some cases it’s inhumane,” Morgan said. “But, people have to accept what’s available for them. And so much of that depends on where you live and what your income is and what your level of education is – the social determinants of health.” ◆◆◆

Despite the COVID-19 disparities that drew a new focus to the issue of racial health disparities, ending the racial gaps in deaths is still a struggle, says Yolanda Lawson, MD; an obstetrician and gynecologist, who serves as president of the National Medical Association, which has a membership of more than 50,000 Black physicians.

“It’s not that as a Black OB/GYN I didn’t know this. I’ve always known” of the disparities, Lawson

Despite the glaring disparities, advocates on the front lines have often run into brick walls when trying to call attention to them and trying to raise funds to end them.

For example, Bill Thomas Jr., an advocate for proton therapy treatment at the Hampton University Proton Therapy Cancer Institute, has been leading a near-futile battle for more money to end cancer disparities as the HBCU’s associate vice president for

governmental relations.

“We are just trying to figure out how to communicate this particular matter to the General Assembly so they support it financially to save lives,” Thomas told WAVY TV in Virginia during a rally. “We are not building roads, we are not building casinos,” Thomas said. “We are trying to ease human suffering and save lives.”

In an interview, Thomas pointed to observations made by former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, concerning the Commonwealth’s underfunding of HBCUs – both public and private.

In a recent op-editorial, Wilder quoted a Goldman Sachs report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch titled, “Historically Black, Historically Underfunded.”

Wilder’s op-ed stated that “public HBCUs have 54 percent less in assets per student” than public predominately White universities while “private HBCUs have 79 percent less than private” predominately White universities.

Like Wilder, Thomas asks the question, “‘why the legislature and the current administration cannot redress the wrongs of legal discrimination?’”

Support to undergird the programs of HBCUs could indeed be one of the key answers to the problem of health disparities, Lawson says.

With an increase in Black doctors, more hospitals in Black neighborhoods and more medical programs at HBCUs, health disparities could begin to close, she said.

An NMA program called Project Impact 2.0 has two goals, Lawson says – first, to increase the number of African-American researchers and to increase the numbers of Blacks included in research studies.

But, just like with the civil rights successes, Lawson adds, the battle will take people of all races and walks of life working together.

“We at NMA hope to become a unifying voice. I think one of my strengths is building alliances with others. I think by building alliances, you create louder voices. And I want to call people to task so that it’s not just words and great manuscript. I want to see impact at my community level. I think NMA lends to that. We have over 130 state and local societies; we’re divided into six geographic regions and we have 26 different medical specialties that are represented within the organization,” Lawson says, “We have the infrastructure to do this – to not only bring a voice to the national level in the way of policy and advocacy, but again, make a community level impact.”

New Journal and Guide

October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023 | 7A

Violence

NORFOLK RESIDENTS

Continued from page 1A She said she wrote it after she received a flood of abuse when a video of her speech at the European Parliament went viral in 2017.

“I basically see this book as a helpful guide for anyone looking to support themselves online or support somebody else,” Akiwowo said. Her book focuses on Black women “because that’s the perspective I write from and I focus on because we are under-researched and we are under-resourced,” she said. Black, visible women need to be resilient and unbothered. Do not be afraid to “block, mute and filter,” she advised.

Danielle Keats Citron, law professor at the University of Maryland and author of the recently released book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace, also told The Atlantic, “Time and time again, these women have no idea often who it is attacking them. A cybermob jumps on board, and one can imagine that the only thing the attackers know about the victim is that she’s female.”

Looking at 1,606 cases of “revenge porn,” where explicit photographs are distributed without consent, Citron found that 90 percent of targets were women. Another study she cited found that 70 percent of female gamers chose to play as male characters rather than contend with sexual harassment.

The problem is cyberviolence/ cyberbullying has led some young females to commit suicide. Nearly half of U.S. teens, or 46 percent, have been bullied

Increased HRUBS Bills:

Norfolk Utilities Offering Interest-free Payments & Additional Assistance Photo: Courtesy

Tory Lanez (Left) is serving 10 years in prison with no bond for the July 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion (Right).

Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment.”

– Megan Thee Stallion

or harassed online at some point, according to a 2022 report by the Pew Research Center. A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year found that young people who experienced cyberbullying were more than four times as likely to report suicidal thoughts and attempts as those who did not.

Whether an abuser uses a fist, gun, keyboard or a smartphone, the goal in either a domestic-violence or a technology-facilitated abuse situation is to silence and control the female. Abusers typically use sexual slurs or outright threats during domestic or tech abuse beatdowns.

Still, to understand the strides that have been made reflect on what happened after Megan Thee Stallion said Tory Lanez, a rapper and intimate partner pulled out a gun as they argued while leaving a Hollywood Hills party. He shot her in the foot. Then, Lanez shouted, “Dance bitch, dance!” while firing gunshots at

the ground. He shot five rounds at her on July 12, 2020 shortly before 4:30 a.m. Lanez was arrested and arraigned on felony charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

When Lanez went to trial in December 2022, Los Angeles Police Department Detective Ryan Stogner testified that no one other than Megan Thee Stallion heard the alleged remark, “Dance, bitch.”

“Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment,” she wrote later in an op-ed published in The New York Times.

“The way people have publicly questioned and debated whether I played a role in my own violent assault proves that my fears about discussing what happened were, unfortunately, warranted.”

Currently, Lanez, 31, is serving a 10-year sentence for the shooting at North Kern State Prison in Delano, Calif.

NORFOLK In response to the increased HRUBS bills impacting consumers, Norfolk Utilities is offering interest-free payment arrangements, in addition to state and regional bill assistance through Low Income Housing Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) and Share H20.

Regular bill payments will still be due, but payment arrangements can help break apart larger bills over a three-month period.

Customers can contact Utilities’ customer service at (757) 664-6700 for more information or visit www.norfolk. gov/5191/Question-About-My-Bill.

Customers who meet income eligibility requirements, may also be able to get assistance from LIHWAP or the Share H20 Program. Information can be found online at www.norfolk.gov/ helpwithmybill.

In the City of Norfolk, the average 30day water consumption is roughly six CCF (hundred cubic feet) per household.

This equates to $160.75 per month. All services on the combined utility bill (water, wastewater collection, refuse, and stormwater) went through a regular annual increase in July (www.norfolk. gov/utrates). These changes to the average monthly bill amounted to an increase of $8.22 more than last year.

Norfolk Utilities experienced inclement

In the City of Norfolk, the average 30-day water consumption is roughly six CCF (hundred cubic feet) per household.

This equates to $160.75 per month. For more information, visit www. norfolk.gov/helpwithmybill. weather events along with meter reading staff shortages from the contracted vendor, both resulting in longer billing periods (some as long as 48-day cycles).

This staffing shortage has also impacted several neighboring cities that utilize the same vendor. Norfolk Utilities’ customer service team has reviewed resident inquiries and most did not reveal billing irregularities, only changes tied to the rate increase and extended billing periods.

The utilities meter reading contractor is working to stabilize its work force and get back to the normal billing schedule.

Utilities staff is in communication with the contractor daily on its progress.

Photo: Courtesy

The Biden administration has bypassed 26 federal public health, environmental, and cultural preservation laws to fast-track border wall and road construction in Starr County, Texas. The decision marks a significant departure from President Biden’s earlier stance to halt border wall development in favor of comprehensive reforms.

Border Wall Resurgence: Biden’s Controversial Move Sparks Debate

By Stacy M. Brown

trail, President Biden put it Senior National Correspondent best when he said that the border wall is not a serious @StacyBrownMedia policy solution, and we couldn’t agree more,” NNPA NEWSWIRE The Biden Blazer continued. “Instead administration has of upholding this promise, bypassed 26 federal public the Biden administration health, environmental, is doubling down on the and cultural preservation failed policies of the past laws to fast-track border that have proven wasteful ineffective.

This wall and road construction and in Starr County, Texas. politically motivated action The decision marks a will only harm border significant departure from communities. It’s time for President Biden’s earlier the Biden administration to stance to halt border wall choose humanity and real development in favor of solutions over politics.”

During his 2016 comprehensive reforms. campaign, “The Biden presidential administration’s decision Donald Trump famously to rush into border wall vowed to construct a construction marks a wall along the southern profound failure,” said U.S. border to curb Jonathan Blazer, director unauthorized immigration, of border strategies at the promising that Mexico American Civil Liberties would foot the bill. That Union. “On the campaign never materialized. While

most perceived the Biden administration as more immigrant-friendly, the new border announcement has puzzled many.

Trump’s recent admission that his insistence on Mexico financing the wall was merely rhetoric further confounded many opponents of such construction.

“When you hear these lunatics back there say, ‘Trump didn’t get anything from Mexico,’ well, you know, there was no legal mechanism,” the twiceimpeached and four-time indicted former president railed at a recent campaign rally. “I said they’re going to help fund this wall, but there was no legal mechanism.

How do you go to a country, you say, ‘By the way, I’m building a wall; hand us a lot of money.’”

According to a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Oct. 5, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called it imperative, within the bounds of the law, to waive specific statutes, regulations, and legal requisites to ensure the swift construction of barriers and roads near the international land border in Starr County, Texas.

Reportedly, in the 2023 fiscal year ending on Sept.

30, the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley encountered over 245,000 migrants who had entered the country between ports of entry or unlawfully.

“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States,” Mayorkas stated.

New Journal and Guide

8A | October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

Voting Continued from page 1A Political experts say megadonors may divert millions of dollars from Trump and support the Virginia Governor.

Over the past two election cycles, national and state Republican leaders have denounced early voting.

Former President Trump has claimed Democrats used it to commit fraud and win elections including the one he lost in 2020.

There has been no evidence of it. Trump and a number of his supporters have been indicted for seeking to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, especially, and promoting an attack on the U.S. Capitol on the day the election was certified on January 6.

The early voting period in Virginia is the longest in the country, beginning on September 22 and will run 45 days prior to the November 7 General Election.

But instead of attacking the early mail and walk-in voting which ends November 4, Gov. Youngkin and other party leaders have been urging Republican voters to embrace the option.

Political analysts say that the easy and long early voting period, the longest of any southern state, has aided Democrats in sustaining their voter clout, especially among African-Americans and younger voters.

According to the Virginia Public Access (VPAP) website site, Youngkin’s plea may be working.

For instance, for the first time in Republican-leaning House District 71 which includes James City County and Williamsburg, 2,000-plus early voting ballots have been cast.

Early voting trends are up in other GOP-leaning and competitive districts, where both parties have an even chance of snatching it.

The results in a handful of races may determine which party will come out on top in both houses of the legislature.

But as the parties are seeking to compete with their

respective messages on the key issues, that will determine the outcome of this election, Democrats are working to drive up their early voting too.

State Democratic leaders report that the national party has injected more than $3 million into close legislative races and voter turnout efforts.

Campaign ads are showing on YouTube and local TV stations, with images of Democrats in them. By the last week of the campaign, voters will see even more.

Governor Youngkin, leveraging his popularity among mega-Republican donors has been able to attract large chunks of cash he has been funneling into key races.

The first day of in-person early voting at your local registrar’s office was Friday, September 22, 2023.

Deadline to register to vote or update an existing registration is October 16, 2023. Voters may register after this date, through Election Day, and vote using a provisional ballot.

The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 27. Your request

must be received by your local voter registration office by 5 p.m.

Voter registration offices open for early voting: on Saturday, October 28.

The last day of in-person early voting at your local voter registration office is Saturday, November 4. at 5 p.m.

You have until 7 p.m. election night to turn in an early ballot at your registrar’s office to be counted.

EARLY VOTING IS UNDERWAY Most cities in Hampton Roads have some form of early voting.

CHESAPEAKE In Chesapeake, early voting sites are at the city’s Central, Indian River, Major Hilliard, and Russell Memorial Libraries.

All of those sites will be open Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On October 28 and November 4, both Saturdays, they will be open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

HAMPTON & NEWPORT NEWS

October 29 from Noon-4 p.m.; November 1-3 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and November 4 The Registrar’s office at 101 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

King’s Way is the only early voting site in Hampton. They PORTSMOUTH will operate from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. On Portsmouth has early walkOctober 22 (Sunday) it will in voting only at the Main be open from 1-5 p.m. and on Registrar’s office at City Hall October 28 and November 4 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. starting from 1-5 p.m.

October 23 on MondayIn Newport News, there is Friday. only one site at the City Center On Sunday, October 22, Fountain Plaza. It will be open from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday, 8 October 28 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. a.m.- 5 p.m., and October 23, On Saturday, October 28, and 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

November 4 from 8-5 p.m.

NORFOLK

VIRGINIA BEACH

In Norfolk, one can vote early at the central office Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at City Hall.

The walk-in early voting Satellite will be at the Berkley and Lambert’s Point Recreation Centers, and Jordan-Newby and Pretlaw Libraries.

All of them will be open during the same hours: October 24 and 26 from 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; October 25, 27, and 28 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.;

In Virginia Beach, there are early voting sites at Bayside, Great Neck, and Seatack Recreation Centers, and the Central Kempsville Branch Libraries from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

There will be Saturday voting at these same sites from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. October 28 and November 4.

Residents of each city may call the Registrar’s Office or go to their respective websites for additional information including new voting sites and to register online.

Biden Announces $127B In Student Debt Relief For 3.6 Million Americans

By Stacy M. Brown

Pres. Biden’s push that college “should be a pathway to the middle class rather NNPA NEWSWIRE than a financial burden on families” President Joe Biden’s long-standing push that took a step forward this week.

Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

Photo: Courtesy

The Biden Administration approved an additional 125,000 Americans for $9 billion in debt relief.

These measures, achieved through enhancements to income-driven repayment (IDR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, along with debt cancellations for those with permanent disabilities, bring the total approved debt relief during the Biden-Harris Administration to $127 billion for nearly 3.6 million Americans.

college “should be a pathway to the middle class rather than a financial burden on families” took a significant step forward this week.

The Biden Administration approved an additional 125,000 Americans for $9 billion in debt relief. These measures, achieved through enhancements to incomedriven repayment (IDR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, along with debt cancellations for those with permanent disabilities, bring

the total approved debt relief during the Biden-Harris Administration to $127 billion for nearly 3.6 million Americans.

The approved relief includes: • $5.2 billion in additional debt relief for 53,000 borrowers under Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs.

• Nearly $2.8 billion in new debt relief for nearly

51,000 borrowers through fixes to income-driven repayment. These borrowers made 20 years or more of payments but have yet to receive the relief they were entitled to.

• $1.2 billion for nearly 22,000 borrowers with a total or permanent disability, identified and approved for discharge through a data match with the Social Security Administration.

New Journal and Guide

October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023 | Section B

SECTION B

COMMUNITY & MORE ...

I.C. NORCOM ALUMNI CONCLUDES REUNION WEEKEND ...see page 3B

Hampton’s Former Black-Owned Hotel Is Commemorated By State Marker HAMPTON The first of several Virginia sites featured in the Green Book guide used

by Black travelers before the desegregation of public accommodations is being unveiled this week (Oct. 12) with a history land marker at the James T. Wilson Bridge.

This Green Book Historic Signage marker commemorates the Bay Shore Hotel which was one of the sites featured in Virginia’s Green Book an invaluable resource for Black travelers in the mid-

1900s.

Delegate Mike Mullin introduced the Green Book legislation, that was signed

by Gov. Youngkin into law.

Historical markers will now commemorate places in Virginia that were listed in The Green Book.

Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Office of Delegate Mike Mullin (D-93), Office of Delegate Jeion Ward (D-92), the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and the Hampton Convention &

Visitor Bureau collaborated on the signage.

In the mid-twentieth century, African-American travelers required the same types of services as their white counterparts. The Negro Motorist Green Book’s listings were varied enough to enable young people coming to a strange city to arrive at the local YMCAs and YWCAs after finding a friendly taxicab driver at the train station while also helping families find their way to a tourist home or musicians to a suitable hotel.

For African-Americans traveling between the relative freedom of a hometown to less familiar places, the listings for gas stations, motels, and pharmacies ensured safe passage in distant towns. For guests traveling to large cities for social events, the publication helped travelers find dance halls and restaurants in a timely manner.

As time passed, The Green Book grew to include a very wide range of establishment types that answered every possible traveling need.

New Journal and Guide

2B | October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

COMMUNITY NEWS

Hampton Roads Transit Continues To Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity To Host Recruit Bus Operators & Mechanics Meeting To Attract New Members PORTSMOUTH The Beta Sigma Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. recently announced an upcoming interest meeting, inviting young men from the Portsmouth community to learn more about its esteemed fraternity and explore the possibilities of becoming a member.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. is a renowned international organization that has been dedicated to serving communities, promoting brotherhood, scholarship, and service, and upholding the principles of culture for over a century.

The Beta Sigma Chapter, located in the Norfolk/ Portsmouth area of VA, has been a pillar of strength in the local community for over 100 years and is eager

to welcome new members who share the fraternity’s commitment to these values.

The meeting will take place November 1, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at 4410 W. Norfolk Rd. Unit A, Portsmouth, VA 23703 The interest meeting will begin the process of joining the fraternity, for persons who decide to pursue membership.

Attendees will learn about the history, mission, and values of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and gain insight into the activities and initiatives of the Beta Sigma Chapter.

They will also discover the benefits of fraternity membership, including leadership development, academic support, and networking opportunities.

“We are excited to invite

like-minded men in the Hampton Roads area to explore the possibilities of joining our distinguished fraternity,” said Steven Couther, President of the Beta Sigma Chapter. “Phi Beta Sigma has a rich history of making a positive impact in our community, and we look forward to sharing our mission with those who share our passion for service, scholarship, and brotherhood.”

Attendees are asked to arrive promptly and wear professional attire.

For more information about the Beta Sigma Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. or the interest meeting, please contact Richard Davis, First Vice President, at membership@ betasigma1914.com.

NORFOLK Hampton Roads Transit is continuing its efforts to recruit and hire bus operators and mechanics as it prepares to expand its regional transit service.

In fiscal year 2023, HRT added 156 full-time bus operators and hiring continues to be a priority.

The agency is hosting a series of career fairs over the next four months to help bolster its workforce.

“As a public transit agency, bus operators and mechanics are the backbone of what we do,” said William Harrell, President and CEO of

Roland Martin highlighting a number of Democratic candidates for the Virginia General Assembly.

The Virginia Beach forum was live taped and featured a number of

Democratic candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates – including Phil Hernandez, Michael Feggans, and Fmr. Delegate Alex Askew.

Others invited included Don Scott, Democratic Leader, Virginia House of Delegates, and Delegate Kelly Convirs-Fowler.

The remaining events are on Monday, Oct. 16 , Zion Church of Fredericksburg, 2222 Jefferson Davis Hwy Fredericksburg, VA 22401 and Monday Oct.23 at the Petersburg Public Library, 201 W. Washington St., Petersburg, VA 23803.

Events are open to the public on a first come, first served basis.

PORTSMOUTH COMMUNITY CONCERT PERFORMS AT I. C. NORCOM, OCT. 27 PORTSMOUTH Accomplished trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden will be performing alongside the Chrysalis Chamber Players in a special concert at I. C. Norcom High School Auditorium, 1801 London Blvd., Portsmouth, VA 23704 on Friday, October 27, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

The Chrysalis Chamber Players is a non-profit chamber music ensemble, committed to performing a kaleidoscope of high-caliber programs. The ensemble focuses on collaboration between musicians to bring innovative and exciting programs across the country. Launching the CCP’s 12th season, founder Mary Elizabeth Bowden will be performing and touring with the women of the Chrysalis

Oscar F. Smith High School’s 5th Annual Tiger Trot 5K

By Melissa Spellman

Fall Intern 2023 New Journal and Guide Oscar F. Smith High School will hold their 5th Annual Tiger Trot 5K on Saturday, October 21, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. located at Bells Mills Park in Chesapeake, Virginia. The Tiger Trot 5K raises funds for families in need to assist with basic needs such as clothes, family meals, gift cards for groceries and gasoline, cap and gowns, school supplies, bus passes, and various emergency family necessities.

The race cost $30.

Participants will receive a T-shirt, snacks, a Chick Fil-A biscuit, and door prizes.

Awards are given to the top 3 males and females with the fastest time. Participate by registering, volunteering, or donating at tigertrot.enmotive. com.

Through generous donations, OSHS can provide support for students to help improve their academic success and personal wellbeing. Arrive at 7 a.m. to pick up your T-shirt and breakfast. The race begins at 8:30 a.m. You can walk, trot, or run! Just come join the fun and support an amazing cause!

Chamber Players, presenting a recital of works for solo trumpet and string quartet.

The program includes a mix of new commissions, arrangements, and reimagined classics, including music by Beach, Debussy, De Falla, Haydn, and Stephenson. Past programs include a chamber version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. Single adult tickets for the concert are $25 each; free for students when accompanied by an adult.

Tickets may be ordered at www. portsmouthcommunityconcerts.com or by calling (757) 686-5447. Tickets also will be available at the door and are payable by cash, check or credit card.

MORGAN STATE ALUMNI ASSN. TO HOST FALL SCHOLARSHIP FUNDRAISER HAMPTON ROADS The South Hampton Roads Alumni Chapter of Morgan State University will host its 2023 Fall Scholarship Fundraiser Concert on Sunday, October 22, 2023, at 3:30 p.m., at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 900 Middlesex Street, Norfolk. The concert will feature the NSU Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Eric

Taylor, Gospel Violinist.

Ticket/donations are $20.

The Mistress of Ceremonies is Mrs. Bonita Billingsley Harris, Regional Policy Director, Dominion Energy. Her father, Dr. Andrew Billingsley, now 97 years old, was the eighth president of Morgan State University.

He and his wife will attend.

attend one of our upcoming career fairs: • Friday, Oct. 27 • Tuesday, Nov. 14 • Friday, Dec. 8 Career fair participants will be able to fill out an application, undergo a brief screening, and have an on-the-spot interview.

All career fairs will be held in the Boardroom at HRT’s Norfolk Headquarters at 509 E. 18th Street, Building 4, Norfolk, VA 23504 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For a complete list of job openings visit https:// h a m p t o n ro a d s t r a n s i t . ourcareerpages.com/.

THE DANGER OF DOING DRUGS

BY DELORES DUDLEY HAMPTON ROADSʼ POET,

VIRGINIA DEMS SPONSOR GOTV SERIES HOSTED BY ROLAND MARTIN RICHMOND A Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Speakers Series in Virginia began this week in Virginia Beach and Suffolk with additional events scheduled for Fredericksburg and Petersburg.

The series is being hosted by Roland Martin, journalist and host of #RolandMartinUnfiltered.

The first “Our Voices, Our Vote” candidates forum was held on Monday (Oct. 9) at New Hope Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. The second forum was held in Suffolk on Tuesday at The Balm Church, East Campus.

GOTV speaker series is

Hampton Roads Transit.

“HRT is poised to expand service throughout the region, but these plans are contingent upon hiring new talent.”

Starting pay for bus operator trainees is $20.01/hour, while mechanics start at $24.62/ hour. Bus operators and mechanics enjoy paid training, benefits, and an opportunity to save for retirement. Plus, all newly hired full-time bus operator trainees and mechanics are eligible for a $5,000 service bonus.

Anyone interested in applying is invited to

Listen: “Legal drugs cause side effects like headaches,nausea, and sweats, muscle weakness, pains and aches, and legal drugs can cause the “shakes,” Delores Dudley

Now think,if drugs prescribed for you can have side effects that can hurt you too,

Then think how much worse you may feel if you take illegal drugs that may kill!

Now, a fellow, a youthful, a regular John Doe the above information just did not know, And he, because he did not believe it all to be real, he went out and did his own drug deal! “Oh”! “Oh” ! Oh”! what an awful blow!

Now, today Johnʼs drawer at home is filled with long dollar bills,hundreds and thousands of fresh,crisp, new green, but the drawer is untouched at his grandmaʼs today, for John faces a far more, sad sinister scene where he is asked questions that he feels are too tough, and his sharp and smart, true answers are just not good enough.

Two of his buddies shoot John in the head, and they are yet alive now,while John is lying dead.

Then, tomorrow perhaps one of them will be lying low, For with drugs, itʻs a daily youth “shoot-them-down show,” Say, Where is Harry and Larry, and where is GOOD,OLD P.J.?

Come with me for a minute, following on the way ...

Last week all these three were in jail, being brave, but this week, John is the last in his, own, private grave.

Just know that drugs take you to a place where you donʼt want to go: Positively to jail, an early grave,and may be HELL! EPILOGUE Some take drugs, and they become high.

Then, they may float around like they can fly.

And, They feel out of the mind!

And they live faster than time!

For a day,a month or year, they donʼt have a care or fear, And they think that life is great in their popping, sniffing state, And for years, some do get by, but one day they quickly die, For illegal drugs always play dirty, killing youth before they are thirty!

SO, with DRUGS, donʼt let them do you in!

And with DRUGS, make sure that they will not be your end!

New Journal and Guide

October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023 | 3B

I.C. Norcom Alumni Conclude Reunion Weekend

LOCAL VOICES

The Self-Sacrifice of Love

By Sean C. Bowers

Photo: Courtesy

PORTSMOUTH The I.C. Norcom Alumni Choir helped alumni to wrap up an eventful Grand Reunion weekend on October 1 at Zion Baptist Church. The choir is shown here with Rev. Dr. Peggy Britt and Senator Louise Lucas, Mayor Shannon Glover, and Leah Stith. The 8th Grand Reunion celebrated 145 years of Academic, Athletic, and Musical excellence of the I.C. Norcom High School beginning September 29 at the Renaissance Hotel. The school was originally the Chestnut Academy Street School founded in 1878.

When he was first thrust into the national spotlight in 2016, Gold Star father, Khizr Kahn, delivered by speaking of his and his fallen son’s love for America. Kahn did so after 45’s verbal rotisserie unwarranted attacks on Senator John McCain.

Recently on an MSNBC, interview Mr. Kahn encapsulated once again exactly what it means to an American. Over the last eight years we have witnessed, “An individual who has never sacrificed, is incapable of love, love of country, love of purpose, love of their fellow human beings,” proving we were right about 45 back then.

Sean C. Bowers 45 hasn’t shared anything since his toddler crib days.

There can be little doubt that 45’s first words (and probably his last) will be, MINE! It is never how great, smart, or rich a person declares themself; true greatness and wealth of worth is what others think and say of you and the example you set. That is your historical legacywhat you did and what you stood for.

In some cases, Americans lived and died for the continued promotion, and protection of all future posterity. This is in a word, priceless, hero citizenship, in the pantheon of the Gold-Starred, the few, the proudest families of our American Armed Forces’ fallen.

Selflessness comes with the ability to have simultaneous two-way empathic processing.

Giving one’s life willingly for love of family, God and country has never been anything but crèmede-la-crème, crème of the crop, America’s BEST exceptionalism!

Hiding under his daddy’s desk while he procured you five phony bonespur Vietnam deferments underscored 45’s lifelong lack of internal integrity.

Forget honor, truth, and trust. This total characterless individual is falsely posturing with his debunked rebuked 45-isms. Now running from the law on all sides, running low on excuses, facts, KFC’s buckets and McDonald’s Big Mac’s45’s climatic conclusion is about to conclude. You must finally pay the piper.

45‘s Democratic dog ate his homework, fear mongering that liberal libraries are teaching math and reading, and that the United States military is for suckers who got captured or killed. He says trust in more than the facts and the lefty media can’t be trusted more than me.

Coming from the guy who has never met a polygraph, he could pass. He’d rather just ignore legal government subpoenas, plead the fifth, and then appeal when found guilty, into infinitum.

True heroes volunteer, serve, protect, uplift, unite, galvanize and produce positive world altering results. They don’t blame everyone else.

They man up and taking personal responsibility and accountability.

45’s life-long track record has been laid bare, after all these years of obfuscating and obstructing, deflecting and projecting, suing and counter-suing, welching on debts, stiffing lawyers and creditors, and untold bankruptcies, -one thing becomes perfectly clear.

“The Big Lie,” (of the stolen 2020 election) wasn’t even 45’s biggest lie. His biggest lie, of all his many tens of thousands of lies, always will be that “the Donald,” had any positive net worth or ever built anything that his daddy didn’t hand

An evil genius?

No, definitely not a genius. A worldchanger, yes, but people can change the world, but not for the better, or ever for the best. him. He was than just another heavy-handed, Ponzi branded, clustered dumpster “fired” loser, again and again.

The difference is that 45 won’t take a loss, or any loss for that matter.

As the walls close in and 45 drifts off into his matching orange (hair and skin) jump-suited nightynight, may his dreams be filled with the faces of the multitudes he has knowingly wronged on an endless video loop.

May the accompanying matching audio loop be his disastrous lifelong offensive quotes, attacking anyone and everyone since he first uttered his wrecktacular branded divisive stupidity inanities.

An evil genius? No, definitely not a genius.

A world-changer, yes, but people can change the world, but not for the better, or ever for the best.

Sometimes people show you exactly what they are, right in front of you, in everything they do and in every aspect of what they exude.

Cowardly, criminally, conducting his Whitegrievance branded politics to an art-form, 45 is the T-REX of ego’s limitless appetite (so far) left unchecked.

In reality, 45 is afraid of Nancy Pelosi’s shadow.

Now DA, Letitia James, has him in a choke hold up in New York, and she “won’t be bullied.” The Trailor Parked TRUMP SHOW COURTHOUSE HALLWAY EDITION 2023 is about to conclude its final episode.

45 didn’t EVER love America. He never gave her anything but grief and heartache. Oh, he would date rape her, but in the end, it has always been about what America could do, should do, and would do for him. Selfish, to his little-handed core, repeatedly proven incapable of self-sacrifice.

Contrast that to this: America has been built on the backs of all those brave Americans who came before us. Those brave ones who gave of themselves, the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, in all those wars so that we can continue to prosper today.

They “got it,” and we are all so much richer for their selfless sacrifice.

Sean C. Bowers has written the last 25 years, as a White Quaker Southern man, for the nation’s third oldest Black Newspaper, The New Journal and Guide, of Norfolk, Virginia, about overcoming racism, sexism, classism, and religious persecution.

Some of his latest NJ&G articles detailing the issues can found by searching “Sean C. Bowers” on the NJ&G website. Contact him directly on social media at Linkedin.com or by email V1ZUAL1ZE@ aol.com NNPA 2019 Publisher of the Year, Brenda H. Andrews (NJ&G 35 years) has always been his publisher.

GET NOTICED! SEND CLASSIFIED ADS TO NJGUIDE@GMAIL.COM

New Journal and Guide

4B | October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

MOMENTS of MEDITATION

By Rev. Dr. Archie L. Edwards, Sr.

3 JOHN: THREE MEN IN A CHURCH A Survey of 3 John In many respects, 3 John bears a striking resemblance to 2 John. They are about the same length, were written about the same time, address the issue of the Church’s attitude toward traveling teachers, and are anchored to the themes of truth and love.

However, as commentator David Jackman observes, the epistles are alike but opposite ... as opposite as your right hand from your left hand.

Whereas 2 John is primarily a warning against welcoming “deceivers,” 3 John is a warning against rejecting those who are true follow Christians and ambassadors of the gospel.

It is the positive complement of the negative prohibitions of 2 John, reminding Gaius and his congregation that the possible abuse of hospitality by the heretics is not to become an excuse for failing to show hospitality to true and faithful Christian preachers.

The contrast between the two letters are just as striking as the resemblances. In 2 John a lady was receiving the wrong kind of travelers; in 3 John, a man was shunning the right kind of travelers.

In 2 John, it was a matter

of misplaced hospitality; in 3 John, it was a matter of missing hospitality. In 2 John, truth was needed to balance love; in 3 John, love was needed to balance truth.

Three Different Men. John’s third letter focuses on three men. The first is Gaius, the recipient of the letter and a close friend of John’s. He was gracious, generous, and kind, always willing to open his arms to outsider in need.

The second is Diotrephes, the lay leader causing problems. According to the commentator, John Stott, his name ‘means ‘Zeus-reared, nursling of Zeus’ and only to be found ‘in noble and ancient families.’” Despite Diotrephes’ apparently noble blooding, he possessed a rather ignoble temperament.

He was domineering, inhospitable, exclusive, and proud. The third man is Demetrius, who was possible the messenger who delivered the letter and might have had the important job of representing john before Gaius and Diotrephes.

Three Different Needs.

These three names form a natural outline for 3 John: Gaius is the recipient of encouragement (vv. 1-8), Diotrephes is the object of

confrontation (vv. 9-11), and Demetrius is the subject of affirmation (v. 12).

Encouragement of Gaius (vv. 1-8). John’s first concern is to bolster the confidence of his friend Gaius (vv. 1-2).

Four times John calls Gaius “beloved” – twice here and twice in verses 5 and 11.

John’s friendship with Gaius is based “in truth,” that is, the truth of the Gospel which unites all believers in Christ.

John prays that Gaius will prosper physically just as he is prospering spiritually.

Perhaps his prayer is a response to reports that Gaius is sick. It is a testament to Gaius’ spiritual growth, however, that John would want his body to be as well as his soul. And John can’t conceal his parental pride in Gaius’ progress in faith (vv. 3-4). Gaius is the kind of person who weighs each word, each decision, and each action on the scale of Christ’s higher standards. He also is the faithful in love: (vv. 5-8).

With his grid of truth, Gaius is able to discern the genuineness of these traveling preachers. Then, with arms of love, he helps them “in a manner worthy of God” (v. 6). Unlike Gaius, however, Diotrephes “is more interested in furthering his own position than in furthering the work of God.” Confrontation of Diotrephes (vv. 9-11). Just as John revealed the light in Gaius, he turns to expose the darkness in Diotrephes: (vv. 9-10). Whatever letter John had written to the Church no longer exists, probably because Diotrephes destroyed it. He views the Church as “his turf,” and he is determined to keep it that way. Instead of truth,

Diotrephes spreads lies; instead of, he spreads fear.

Concerning Diotrephes and all the leaders like him throughout Church history, David Jackman writes: Destroying unity, flaunting authority, making up his own rules to safeguard his position, spreading lies about those whom he had designate his enemies, cutting off other Christian’s on suspicion of guilt by association – the catalogue is appalling.

This is what appears when someone who loves to be first decides to use the Church to satisfy his inner longing for a position of preeminence and for his own personal aggrandizement.

The Holy Spirit has long ago been drummed out of office in a Church like that, where “Diotrephes” rules. What a travesty of the Christian faith and family! It isn’t long before an outbreak of “Diotrephes’ disease” breeds a whole congregation of self-willed, prideful followers. The doors of ministry close, and the body dies. It’s a sad fate for any church. That’s why John pleads with Gaius to guard himself against the evil disease and continue doing good: (v. 11) John gives Gaius an opportunity to do what is right by deceiving Demetrius, a good man, who deserves a good welcome.

Affirmation of Demetrius (v. 12). Perhaps Demetrius is one of the “brethren” whom Diotrephes has coldshouldered (see v. 10). John, however, gives him the warmest endorsement: It is critical for John to keep the lines of communication open between himself and this troubled church. So he sends his best man, Demetrius, with three impressive

references. First, everyone Demetrius knows vouches for him; second, his life lines up with the truth, which testifies on his behalf; and third, John gives him his personal stamp of approval.

Words of Farewell (vv.

13-14).

If nothing else, John’s brief letter shows us that the early church had the same kinds of problems our churches have today. Yet, in spite of their conflicts, the ministries went on. God uses cracked, failure-prone vessels to feed a spiritually starving world (see 2 Corinthians 4:7).

Every church has at least one Diotrephes, who will try to cast a gray shadow across the ministry – unjustly accusing leaders, shutting out people in need, intimidating church members. Emerging from the cloud is a Gaius or Demetrius, who displays a rainbow of virtues – hospitality, generosity, integrity, and purity. Follow these examples, because they bear the marks those who walk in truth.

Rev. Dr. Archie L. Edwards, Sr., is an Associate Minister at Second Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk.

GROVE CHURCH EVENT TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PORTSMOUTH In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Grove Church will present its 2nd Annual “A Fashion Show with A Purpose” from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, October 14, 2023. Hosted by the Church’s We Are Our Sisters’ Keeper (WAOSK) Women’s Ministry, the event will feature a dazzling fashion show, remarks by former NBA player, author, and cultural activist Shan Foster, and educational resources provided by the YWCA-SHR. Tickets are available for a $10 donation and event proceeds will support survivors of domestic violence.

The fashion show – coordinated by

Neisha Jones, CEO, NJ Productions, Inc – will feature female and male volunteer models from Grove Church’s own congregation.

Shan Foster will bring keynote remarks midway through the Fashion Show, and the event will conclude with additional fashions and recognition of partner organizations that serve domestic violence survivors.

Tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available at 2023afswap. pushpayevents.com and donations are also accepted.

For more information, email waosk@ grovechurchva.com.

The WAOSK ministry presents events regularly that empower women to thrive holistically.

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October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023 | 5B

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BOOKWORM REVIEW

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

THE NEW BROWNIES’ BOOK

T

he kids are back in school now and already, your family’s going in six different directions.

You’re busy, between sports, extracurricular activities, work commitments, family gatherings, and community activity. If there was a meaningful way to get everybody together at once, you’d be all over that so grab “The New Brownies’ Book”

by Dr. Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer and take a hint from Grandma’s time.

Ten years after the launching of the “infamous The Crisis magazine,” W.E.B. Du Bois, Augustus Granville Dill and Jessie Redmon Fauset had another idea: they called it The Brownies’ Book, though it was really a magazine that sold for less than two dollars for six issues, or fifteen cents for a single issue. It was 1920, Jim Crow laws were in effect, and their intention was that the publication would “serve as a much-needed medium for Black and brown children,” by showing them what people of color had contributed to the world. It was also something white families could use and learn from, too. .”.. it was,” say Brown and Palmer, “a crown jewel of African-American children’s literature.”

This book, meant to “evoke the spirit of ... [the]

“The New Brownies’ Book”

By Dr. Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer ©2023, Chronicle Books $40, 208 pages original Brownies’ Book,” pulls together dozens of original stories, poems, plays, essays, lessons, and artwork that mirrors what Du Bois had initially intended more than a century ago.

Here, you’ll find tales of ancestors and why it’s important to know yours.

You’ll find games for the whole family to play, including even the littlest kids. You’ll find photos and reproductions of Brownies’ Book pages from the 1920s and new artwork from a variety of Black artists.

There’s humor in some of these stories, and one is a fun challenge for pre-teens.

There are tales for older kids here, pages that help teach

morality and empathy, stories to read aloud to a grade-schooler, stories that seem to end abruptly but that beg for meaningful discussion, and biographies of “she-roes” and other giants in Black history ...

Absolutely, “The New Brownies’ Book” lives up to its subtitle: it is, indeed, “a love letter to Black families.” It’s also pretty sweet on art and poetry, too.

Many of the essays and stories, though, may confound readers who are not prepared for their abrupt endings. It’s as if the pages have run out and that’s that – but look again. Those ends-tooquickly tales invite a child to imagine what happened

FUN PUZZLE FOR YOUR LEISURE

Jamie Foxx Stars As Attorney William E. Gary In New Movie

By Rosaland Tyler Associate Editor New Journal and Guide

Don’t think that Jamie Foxx portrays Attorney William Gary this book is in “The Burial,” which opened in select theatres only for small Oct. 6 and began streaming children, though. globally on Prime Video Oct. 13.

This is the kind of Gary, a Shaw University graduate earned his reading that you law degree at North William E. Gary Carolina Central, in can leave around 1974, in Durham. When discovered White law the World War II veteran/ for a teenager to he firms would not hire him, funeral home operator, opened his own law but the case was later find and browse, he firm in Florida, won a settled for much less, $250,000 settlement in his $175 million, and Loewen to provoke first case and continued to eventually resigned from thoughts and experience a string of wins, his firm.

According to Roger including the 1995 case spark ideas. portrayed in “The Burial.” Ebert.com, The movie next or to think of a better storyline. They are readymade to teach a child to be a storyteller, and for families to discuss.

Don’t think that this book is only for small children, though. This is the kind of reading that you can leave around for a teenager to find and browse, to provoke thoughts and spark ideas.

There are inspirations inside here, as well as subtle lessons.

You can feel comfortable giving this to a family, new, old, or blended. It would be a great gift for your favorite babysitter or a grandparent, too. For your household, “The New Brownies’ Book” is a great direction.

The movie is about the 1995 lawsuit that Gary filed on behalf of Jeremiah Joseph O’Keefe, a funeral home owner played by Academy Award Actor Tommy Lee Jones, who said businessman Raymond Loewen (played

by Bill Camp) had offered to buy his funeral home but reneged on the contract.

O’Keefe said they struck a deal on Lowen’s yacht.

After a four-month delay, O’Keefe files a lawsuit a lawsuit, fearful that the signed-contract delay is deliberate and will allow Lowen’s multi-million dollar company to buy his funeral home for pennies on the dollar. The trial takes place in Mississippi, in a poor, largely Black area.

Ultimately, Gary won a $500 million settlement for

“isn’t really about race, but race is certainly all around it, and it takes place in the shadow of the O.J. Simpson trial (Willie often dreams of facing Johnnie Cochran).”

Gary and his wife, Gloria established The Gary Foundation in 1994. It, provides scholarships and guidance to students whose backgrounds are similar to Gary’s. His parents had 11 children and were migrant workers.

Gary’s sons Kenneth and Ali serve as president and vice president of the foundation. Kenneth is also the CEO. In 1991, Willie donated more than $10 million to Shaw University, his alma mater. Gary has also donated millions to numerous Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

... answers to this week’s puzzle.

New Journal and Guide

October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023 | 7B

8B | October 12, 2023 - October 18, 2023

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