75 CENTS
Omaha Star
The
Proudly Serving Our Community for Over 80 Years
Dedicated to the Service of the People that NO Good Cause Shall Lack a Champion and that Evil Shall Not Go Unopposed
Nebraska’s Only Black Owned Newspaper Vol. 83 - No. 9 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, April 30, 2021
75 cents
Family of the Week: The Moore Family
First Black Ball-Chatham School Board Member
Dr. Tiffani Saunders
top left: John Barnes (Omaha), Arletta Brown (New Hebron, MS), Carey Brown (New Hebron, MS), 2nd top row: Phyllis Moore (Dallas, TX), Laverne Barnes (Omaha), Johnnie Moore Jr. (New Mexico), 3rd row: Dominique Brown (Dallas, Tx), Josiah Moore (Omaha), Zyaire Heath & Jabin Moore (Omaha), bottom row: JaNae Moore (Omaha), Keziah Moore (Omaha), Kessa Moore (Omaha), Johnnie Moore Sr. (Omaha), Velma Magee (New Hebron, MS) On Sunday, April 25, 2021, Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church officially installed Pastor Johnnie P. Moore Sr. as presiding pastor over the 58 year old congregation. The installation service comes a year after accepting the role as pastor right before the covid-19 pandemic hit. Pastor Moore says, “pastoring through a pandemic is something even seasoned pastors have never done before. It has required the church to evolve our methods while maintaining the integrity of the message. As we begin our ascent from the depths of the pandemic, our mission is to connect with the community we occupy. We are charged by our savior Jesus Crist to go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost. This has to be our primary mission but we can’t do one without the other.” Moore, who is from New Hebron, Mississippi, is married to native Omahan Mrs. Kessa Moore, owner of More Hair by Kessa Salon. They have been married for 25 years and have raised their family in Omaha for the past 22 years. Johnnie and Kessa have four children, a grandson, and grandson number two on the way. Johnnie Moore Jr., 23, is enlisted as a spec
in the U.S. Airforce, working on RPA’s. Johnnie and his fiancé JaNae Marion are expecting their first born son, Jasiri Zaiem Moore, who is due at the end of the month. Jabin Moore, 22, is a Senior at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) studying Business Administration with concentrations in Real Estate & Land Use Economics and Entrepreneurship. Jabin is UNOs outgoing Student Body President and Student Regent. He also serves as an Associate Minister at RSMBC. He will be interning at Carson Group this summer. Keziah Moore, 20, is a Sophomore at UNO studying Pre-Nursing. She will be transferring to Methodist College in the Fall to pursue her Nursing degree. She is also the proud mother to son Zyaire Heath, who just turned 1. Josiah Moore, 15, is a Freshman at Omaha North High Magnet School. As an excelling student in the Computer Aided Engineering(CAD) class, he is excited to be participating in the step up program this summer. The Moore family is joined by Pastor Moore’s mother Velma Mcghee, from New Hebron Mississippi, as well as other family members from Dallas Texas, and New Hebron Mississippi.
By Terri D. Sanders Have you been vaccinated? I have and I feel so FREE. Follow the CDC guidelines. Through this we have developed an awareness of washing our hands thoroughly, not hugging everybody, and elbow bumps vs. handshakes. David Turnbo Photography Historically I have been employed in my community for more than 40 years. I am a serial entrepreneur. As the Executive Director of the Great Plains Black History Museum I promoted “the building is closed, but the museum is open,“ and awakened the knowledge of our contributions as a people in and on the great plains. I was the initial Site Manager of the Fair Deal Village MarketPlace and saw this project arising from the dirt to a brick and mortar for entrepreneurs and
Next Issue: May 14, 2021 Information due by May 7, 2021
Dr. Tiffani Saunders is a Sociology, and African American studies Lecturer at the University of Illinois at Springfield. As a tenured faculty member, this position allows Dr. Saunders to focus on teaching. She entered her first political race and was elected with the second highest votes of the six contestants. The Ball-Chatham school board in Chatham, Illinois, elected four new members. Chatham is a suburb of Springfield, Illinois. Dr. Saunders has been vocal about adding diversity to the district’s educators. Not only did she win her first political campaign, but she is also the first Black person ever elected to the district’s board
of education. She will be officially installed and serving her first term as a newly elected Ball Chatham school board member after April 28th. Saunders, 42, is a sociology and African American studies lecturer at UIS who has been vocal about adding diversity to the district’s educators. She is the first Black person ever elected to the district’s board of education. This history maker is a native Omahan and daughter of Tillman and Patricia Johnson, Wheaton (MD), and Pauline Saunders, Omaha.
Meet our new Executive Director! The Women’s Fund of Omaha Board of Directors is pleased to announce Jo Giles as the next executive director. Jo is an experienced policy advocate, nonprofit veteran and strategic communicator. She will join the staff on May 3. We are extremely excited to have Jo accept the role of executive director. She brings a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience that will help take the Women’s Fund into the next phase of growth and to continue to advance our vision of a community where all women and girls have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Jo Giles “I’m thrilled to join the dynamic, talented Women’s Fund team at a monumental point in its organizational story,” said Jo. “Even as our community recovers from the pandemic, economists refer to this time as a ‘shecession’ instead of a “recession” because of the tremendous impact on the lives of women. The Women’s Fund is well-positioned to lead our community—from a position of awareness, equity and action—to support the lives of women and girls.” In this position, Jo will lead the organization’s work to address genderbased inequities in our community through collaboration that identifies, researches and creates solutions to advance, educate and fund lasting impact. These efforts will align with the Women’s Fund values—equity, bold impact, collaboration, community voice, intersectionality, bodily autonomy—and be executed in coordination with 13 full-time staff members. As Board President, I also wanted to extend my gratitude to Erin McArthur who served as acting executive director during the interim process. The Women’s Fund continues to work on the most critical challenges facing women and girls and with your support, we will continue to make a big impact in our community.
Publisher’s Pen
economic development. Today I serve a dual role as the iconic role of publisher of this historic newspaper (established in 1938) and I am also the Executive Director of the Mildred D Brown Memorial Study Center, the 501(c)(3) organization that owns the Omaha Star Newspaper as a program in addition to the programs of Junior Journalism and Omaha Star Archiving project and sponsor of several higher education scholarships. Did you know that the Omaha Star building, located at 2216 N 24th Street, is on the National Historic Register? The building was constructed in 1923 as a mortuary (A. Jones) and purchased by Mildred D. Brown in 1942. Our building can boast that it has 1782 square feet of living space. The Omaha Star also has a second building 2218 N 24th Street that was used as the paper’s distribution center “back in the day”. That building is approximately 1226 square feet. That is a total of 3008 square feet of real estate on North 24th Street. We have plans to develop our space and we will be solic-
iting the help of our community of readers. That means YOU. What does help mean? We have an opportunity for you to support our programs through donations that can be systematic by making a monthly donation, a onetime donation and you can even give a legacy donation by bequeathing or naming our organization in your Last Will and Testament. If you have questions on these opportunities, please call our offices (402-346-4041) As you plan your finances, keep us in mind. We need volunteers. We are always looking for writers, photographers, graphic artists, and cartoonists. If you are interested: publisher@omahastarinc.com. Follow the Omaha Star on Social media: Facebook: Omaha Star Newspaper; The Omaha Star; The Mildred D Brown Study Center; Twitter: @omaha_star; Instagram: omahastarnewspaper. On Facebook check out our live videos—Omaha Star 3.0 keeping you up to date on our community before the next paper publishes. See you in two weeks.
Are you a writer? Come Home for contact: Native Omaha Days July 26 - August 2, 2021
publisher@omahastarinc.com with your author information