75 CENTS
OMAHA STAR
THE
Celebrating 80 Years
Congratulations Cathy Hughes
1938 2018
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. 80 - No. 10 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, May 18, 2018
Omaha Star Receives Civics Recognition Award By Walter V. Brooks On May 10, Nebraska Secretary of State John A. Gale personally traveled to Omaha to present the Civics Recognition Award to The Omaha Star newspaper. Phyllis Hicks, publisher and managing editor of the Omaha Star, accepted the award at the Omaha Star headquarters building at 2216 N. 24th St. Secretary Gale had intended for the award to be presented in 2017, but multiple staffing changes in his office delayed compiling all the information required to certify the award last year. In presenting the award, Secretary Gale said, “An analysis of articles published by The Omaha Star in 2016, indicated that readers were provided with information on a number of significant election issues including: candidate and voter deadlines, early voting, online voter registration, voter turnout, Election Day reminders, voter guides, changes in polling places and information as to how people could obtain rides to their polling place, if needed. “In addition to issues that were of particular importance to my office, The Omaha Star also provided continual updates on the death penalty petitions. I was Preston Love Jr. and Phyllis Hicks receiving particularly impressed with the award from Sec. Gale columns written by Preston Love, as he always stressed the importance of voting and would often outline particular reasons about why voting makes a difference to a community. “Without the assistance of our media partners, the effort to educate voters would See Star Award continued on page 3
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Exclusive Election Report By Preston Love Jr. The 2018 mid-term Primary Election has come and gone. Politically, north Omaha has made history this election period. A new loosely organized collaboration was formed to increase voter registration, education and mobilization. In April, the coalition of over 20 north Omaha organizations held their first ever and very successful political convention. Additionally, 14 African-Americans ran for office. With that backdrop, and the mantra “Vote like Crazy,” the community now has the longawaited results of the efforts of so many to get the north Omaha vote out. The preliminary results are in. The Douglas County turnout was a dismal 19%, with North Omaha trailing behind. However, north Omaha still has a chance to show our strength in the General Election. This is a refresher on how the Primary Election works: • For the Partisan elections: The winners of each party (Democrat and Republican) advance to the General Election in November. • For non-Partisan races: The top two vote getters advance to the General Election in November. • Uncontested candidates: Partisan and non-Partisan candidates are on
the Primary Ballot. In both cases, they advance to the General Election in November The community can be proud of our history making candidates of color. Of the 14 people of color who ran for office, 10 will be on the General Election ballot in November. Below are the results. • Governor: Vanessa Ward did not win in the primary, but ran an excellent race. She received over 25,000 votes statewide and garnered 28% of the vote. • Secretary of State: Spencer Danner ran uncontested and advances to the General Election in November • Douglas County Sheriff: Michael Hughes ran uncontested and advances to the General Election in November • Douglas County Treasurer: John Ewing ran uncontested and advances to the General Election in November • NRD: Fred Conley ran uncontested and advances to the General Election in November • OPS Board: Marque Snow won his race against Marlon Brewer. • OPS Board: Kimara Snipes ran uncontested and advances to the General Election in November • OPS Board: Shavonna Holman ran uncontested and advances to the
North Omaha Rupture at Center of PlayFest Drama ©by Leo Adam Biga Appearing in the May 2018 issue of The Reader
In her original one-act “More Than Neighbors,” playwright Denise Chapman examines a four-decades old rupture to Omaha’s African-American community still felt today. North Freeway construction gouged Omaha’s Near North Side in the 1970s-1980s. Residents got displaced, homes and businesses razed, tight-knit neighborhoods separated. The concrete swath further depopulated and drained the life of a district already reeling from riots and the loss of meatpacking-railroading jobs. The disruptive freeway has remained both a tangible and figurative barrier to community continuity ever since. Chapman’s socially-tinged piece about the changed nature of community makes its world premiere May 31 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Great Plains Theatre Conference’s PlayFest. The site of the performance, The Venue at The Highlander, 2112 N. 30th St., carries symbolic weight. The organization behind the purpose-built Highlander Village is 75 North. The nonprofit is named for U.S. Highway 75, whose North Freeway portion severed the area. The nonprofit’s mixed-use development overlooks it and is meant to restore the sense of community lost when the freeway went in. The North Freeway and other Urban Renewal projects forced upon American inner cities only further isolated already marginalized communities. “Historically, in city after city, you see the trend of civil unrest, red lining, white flight, ghettoizing of areas and freeway projects cutting right through the heart of these communities,” Chapman said. Such transportation projects, she said, rammed through “disenfranchised neighborhoods lacking the political power and dollars” to halt or reroute roads in the face of federal-state power land grabs that effectively said, “We’re just going to move you out of the way.” By designating the target areas “blighted” and promoting public good and economic development, eminent domain was used to clear the way. “You had to get out,” said Chapman, adding, “I talked to some people who weren’t given adequate time to pack all their belongings. They had to leave behind a lot of things.” In at least one case, she was told an excavation crew ripped out an interior staircase of a home still occupied to force removal-compliance. With each succeeding hit taken by North O, things were never the same again “There was a shift of how we understand community as each of
Scholarship Deadline – May 25 See article on youth page
those things happened,” she said. “With the North Freeway, there was a physical separation. What happens when someone literally tears down your house and puts a freeway in the middle of a neighborhood and people who once had a physical connection no longer do? What does that do to the definition of community? It feels like it tears it apart. “That’s really what the play explores.” Dramatizing this where it all went down only adds to the intense feelings around it. “As I learned about what 75 North was doing at the Highlander it just made perfect sense to do the play there. To share a story in a place working to revitalize and redefine community is really special. It’s the only way this work really works.” Neighbors features an Omaha cast of veterans and newcomers directed by Chicagoan Carla Stillwell. The African-American diaspora drama resonates with Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and August Wilson’s Jitney with its themes of family and community assailed by outside forces but resiliently holding on. Three generations of family are at the heart of Chapman’s play, whose characters’ experiences are informed by stories she heard from individuals personally impacted by the freeway’s violent imposition. Faithful Miss Essie keeps family and community together with love and food. Her bitter middle-class daughter Thelma, who left The Hood, now opposes her own daughter Alexandra, who’s eager to assert her blackness, moving there. David, raised by Essie as “claimed family,” and his buddy Teddy are conflicted about toiling on the freeway. David’s aspirational wife, Mae, is expecting. Through it all – love, loss, hope, opportunity, despair, dislocation and reunion – family and home endure. “I think it really goes back to black people in America coming out of slavery, which should have destroyed them, but it didn’t,” Chapman said. “Through our taking care of each other and understanding of community and coming together we continue to survive. We just keep on living. There are ups and downs in our community but at the end of the day we keep redefining community hopefully in positive ways.” “What makes Denise’s story so warm and beautiful is that it does end with hope,” director Carla Stillwell said. See PlayFest continued on page 3
First time voters Aujanae McCoy and Anthony Brown know Black Votes Matter.
General Election in November • MCC Board: Angela Monegain won the primary and advances to the General Election in November • State Legislature: Mina Davis came in second and advances to the General Election in November • Learning Community: Tonya Ward won the primary and advances to the General Election in November • Note: In the all-important Congressional race, Kara Eastman won a narrow victory over Brad Ashford.
Dow and Runnels among Omaha Press Club Hall of Fame Inductees
One of the Omaha Press Club’s (OPC) most glorious celebrations, a night to honor journalists past and present, is coming June 2. The 10th Annual OPC Journalists of Excellence Hall of Fame will induct six industry professionals recognized for their extraordinary contributions to the media industry. Among those being honored are Harold Dow (posthumous) and Bob Runnels. Past Hall of Fame recipient, John Prescott, will emcee the evening, which begins at 5:30 p.m. with cocktails and dinner to follow. The event, sponsored by Firespring, is open to OPC members and non-members, but reservations are required. Harold Dow (posthumous) – Dow was the first African-American television reporter in Omaha, serving as co-anchor and talk show host for KETV. From there he moved on to a distinguished career at CBS News that lasted from 1972 to 2010, when he died of an apparent asthma attack. Over the course of his career, Dow received five Emmy Awards plus a Peabody Award for his “48 Hours” report on runaways and a Robert F. Kennedy Award for a report on public housing. Before joining CBS, he worked in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, Calif., and Paterson, N.J. A native of Hackensack, N.J., Dow attended the University of Nebraska at Harold Dow Omaha. Bob Runnels – Runnels was a 20-year journalist in the U.S. Navy before arriving in Omaha in 1971 to work at KMTV (Ch. 3), where he was a reporter-photographer for 12 years. He also hosted a weekly community affairs show entitled “Expressions.” While in Omaha, he was a board member of the Greater Omaha Girl Scout Council. Runnels moved to Washington State in 1984 and taught journalism for 10 years at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. He returned to his Illinois roots in 2002 and currently is a threeterm alderman in North Chicago. Other 2017 inductees include: Jim Fogarty, Legacy Preservation, KETV, Omaha World-Herald; Cate Folsom, Omaha World-Herald; Ron Hull, NET, Bob Runnels University of Nebraska-Lincoln and R.W. (Jeff) Jordan, KMTV, Union Pacific, Omaha World-Herald
Salute to Graduates Issue – June 29 Send Photos to Phyllis Hicks by June 12 phyllis@omahastarinc.com
Nebraska’s Death Penalty – May 27 See In the Village for details