★
75 CENTS
OMAHA STAR
THE
Celebrating 80 Years
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. 7 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, April 6, 2018
75 cents
Remembering Patricia ‘Big Mama’ Barron (1942-2018) By Joanna Leflore On Feb. 18, 2018, a group of friends and I decided to pop up on Patricia “Big Mama” Barron for brunch. Her eldest daughter, who manages the restaurant,
Big Mama
told us Big Mama would be around that day. Big Mama had been fighting off throat cancer for the past six months and was finally able to move around again. When she was wheeled in by one of the staff, Big Mama saw us sitting on the left side of the dining room and said, “I’m still here, I got too much work to do,” as she rolled past. She wasn’t speaking of working in the kitchen, but of the work on this earth she still had to do. She called for us to come down to her table and catch up. “You know I had to fight this cancer before, breast cancer. But I’ve been feeling much better. So how are you doing?” Always caring about others. She knew that it was my cousin on the news, who had recently been killed. Big Mama wanted
Big Mama’s Kitchen Staff and family
to make sure I was alright. I told her, “One day at a time.” That’s all I could think to say. In the middle of fighting off her second challenge from cancer, Big Mama knew that’s all I had to say. She told me, “Taking life one day at a time has always worked for me, too.” An hour later, two more friends came. We sat and talked with Big Mama about what was going on in the community. On 24th street and on 30th Street. Big Mama was excited about moving into the new Highlander complex real soon. She said, “I gotta figure out how to get some of my pictures up there. They said I could project them onto the wall somehow.” She pointed up to the wall where so many framed photos of her family and friends cascaded from the ceiling to the floor; she wondered if she’d be able to recreate her “Big Mama walls” in the new restaurant space. Sitting in Big Mama’s felt like I was sitting in my late Granny’s living room. Granny used to have dozens of pictures hanging from her walls, too, just everywhere. Big Mama loved to share her memories of family almost as much as she loved sharing her delicious food. She told us
The Barron Family
how her daddy, Basie, used to let traveling musicians sleep on their living room floor, when she was a young girl; Omaha was a primary tour stop on the jazz circuit and famous among jazz band leaders as a great place to recruit outstanding musicians of the Midwest. Big Mama told us about how she was born in her house because back then the old St. Joseph’s Hospital on 10th and Dorcas Streets made Black women give birth in the basement. Her parents felt it was better to have Big Mama born right in the house, than in some old basement. Then, she talked some more about the many folks in the
Bernice King: It’s ‘Critical’ To Heed Martin Luther King’s Lessons Today By Taryn Finley “I think we need to heed some of the things that he was trying to instruct us on while he was with us,” Bernice King says of her father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bernice King had just turned five when she learned of her father’s assassination. It was 7:01 p.m. in Memphis when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, close to her bedtime, so she didn’t know about the tragedy until the next day. Her mother, Coretta Scott King, headed to the airport the next day. When Coretta returned to Atlanta on April 5, 1968, Bernice and her siblings were taken to the airport to meet her and board a plane. There would be no more dinners with Daddy. No more showering him with kisses when he came back from a trip. This was her introduction to death. “My mother realized at that point she hadn’t prepared me,” Bernice told HuffPost during a recent phone interview. “And so, she had to explain to me that, ‘Your daddy’s dead, when you see him, he’s going to be laying in a casket. He won’t be able to speak to you, and his spirit has gone to live with God.” On April 9, the day of the funeral, Coretta played a portion of the sermon her husband had delivered just two months prior at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in which he prophetically gave his own eulogy. “And again, remember, she told me he couldn’t talk to me, but a child knows their dad’s voice,” Bernice said, recalling her mother’s lesson about what spirits were through a simple hug and “Mommy loves you.” “So I started looking around for him.” Even days after his death, the civil rights leader managed to deliver a timely message at his own funeral. Previous assassination attempts, FBI surveillance and constant threats didn’t make it too impossible for King to foresee his own killing. But
Bernice King Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images
his teachings brought wisdom and foresight that carry on – even 50 years later. The question has been asked time and time again, quite possibly more recently than ever before: What would King say if he were alive to see the world today? According to his daughter, he’s already said it. “Dr. King, who fought against ... what he called the triple evils of poverty, racism and militarism, is very relevant to us now, and I think we need to heed some of the things that he was trying to instruct us on while he was with us,” Bernice said. The minister fought many battles during his lifetime. He helped challenge racism in the South with boycotts, sit-ins and marches in the spirit of what’s known today as Kingian Nonviolence. For over a decade, King put his life on the line during these demonstrations and was instrumental in bringing forth the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. King was more than a dreamer. He gave about 450 speeches a year and wrote five books. Through his extensive log of works, especially in his final three years of life, King expressed radical thoughts about
North Omaha Political Convention – April 14. See In the Village for Details.
See King continued on page 3
black and white photos on the walls and the ones that made her laugh. She told the story about how Urban League of Nebraska Executive Director Thomas Warren (Big Mama still called him “Tommy”) came in and saw she had a photo of Warren, with his siblings, on the wall and Warren was bare-chested. Warren asked Big Mama if she would please put up a photo of him wearing a suit and later brought one to her. Big Mama laughed as she pointed out his “fancy suit photo” and said, “He probably wore it for Easter Sunday, I’m sure.” Unfortunately for Warren, Big Mama put his suit photo right next to the one
he had hoped she would take down. No matter who you were or how high you got in life, if Big Mama knew you as a kid, you stayed one of her “kids” for life. Big Mama never lost her wit, charm and sharp mind. She enjoyed the conversation with all of us. I most loved seeing her light up when she said she had 28 great grandchildren. And she looked so alive and filled with youthful spirit on that day. She placed a food order for herself and checked on guests halfway across the room without ever leaving her See Big Mama continued on page 3
Johnny ‘The Jet’ Rodgers Exhibit Opens at Black History Museum The Great Plains Black History Museum invites the community to visit the new Johnny “The Jet” Rodgers exhibit that opened Thursday. Omaha’s own Nebraska Cornhusker Heisman Trophy winner’s exhibit highlights photos and artifacts. The Heisman Trophy is on display through April 19. The exhibit runs through June 30. The Great Plains Black History Museum, 2221 N. 24th St., is open to the public at no charge Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 1-5 p.m. For more information about the Great Plains Black History Museum, contact the office at 402-9327077 or follow them on Facebook @ Greatplainsblackhistorymuseum.
Sec. Gale Outlines Election Security Ahead of May Primary
LINCOLN – Secretary of State John Gale is assuring voters that election security remains his highest priority, as the first round of ballots are prepared to be sent for the May 15 primary election. Ballots had to be sent to overseas and military voters by March 30. In Nebraska, early voting by mail will begin on April 9. Addressing the issue of cybersecurity, Gale said his office has continued to build on defenses implemented prior to and during the 2016 presidential election. “This issue remains a top focus of my administration. Fortunately, in the period since the last election, more resources have been made available to all states to help assess potential threats.” Gale said his office has had ongoing contact with regional representatives from the Department of Homeland Security. “They have offered services designed to detect any hacking attempts made to our election management system as well as to the system that we utilize to publish race results on Election Day.” As it did in 2016, the state will partner with multiple vendors to conduct the upcoming election. Primary among them is Election Systems and Software (ES&S), the election system provider for Nebraska and multiple other states. “ES&S continues to conduct scans of its own systems, as do the other vendors that we enlist. Protections are in place to ensure that tampering is easily detected and that if something were to occur, backup data is accessible.” See Election Security continued on page 2
402-444-8601 Remember that number to: Request a ride to the polls, volunteer to drive others to the polls, or ask questions about voting.
Omaha NAACP Primary Election Candidate Forum – April 21. See In the Village for Details.