Vol. 60 No. 25, Thursday, June 18, 2020

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Thursday June Vol. Vol. 57 60No. No.35 25    | Thursday, August 18,31, 2020 2017

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COVID-19

UPDATES

– see page 7

Remember

Juneteenth

and Why We

Celebrate

Cannot be Heard”

Serving Serving San Diego SanCounty’s Diego County’s African & African AfricanAmerican & African Communities American57Communities Years 60 Years

CELEBRATING SOME OF OUR 2020 GRADS – see page 8

Three

HAPPY RETIREMENT DAVID MONROE! – see page 9

Grisly Hanging Deaths

Hark Back to Lynchings Past

By Ebone Monet and Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media

Author and investigative journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a staunch crusader against lynching at the turn of the last century, would likely have been included among the hundreds of thousands of people calling for a thorough investigation into recent hanging deaths of two Black men in California and another in New York. See HANGINGS page 2

CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY PASSES

BILL TO SET UP REPARATIONS TASK FORCE By Tanu Henry California Black Media

On June 12, the California Assembly voted 61-12 to approve AB 3121. The “reparations” bill calls for the creation of a task force to study and propose ideas for how African Americans in California can be compensated for slavery and its “after lives,” as the author of the legislation, Dr. Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), describes the Jim Crow laws and other forms of injustice and state-sanctioned discrimination that have existed in the United States from 1865 until now.

By Dr. John E. Warren Voice & Viewpoint Publisher

News of the Emancipation proclamation signed by President Lincoln, freeing the slaves, took two and a half years to reach Texas. History reflects that by the time General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas with the announcement on June 19, 1865, President Lincoln was dead, the Confederate Capitol at Richmond had fallen and the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery had passed the Congress. The announcement did not bring instant freedom to all slaves. It encouraged plantation owners to keep them on as paid employees and encouraged ex-slaves to remain in their locations as hired help. There were more than 250,000 slaves in Texas at the time. Some owners delayed the news until after harvest. Hardships of daily life continued for most ex-slaves. Freedom was just a word without support once the federal troops left the south.

See BILL page 2

STATE SCHOOL BUDGET CUTS REVERSED,

SDUSD TO REOPEN IN FALL

BLM FOUNDER FINDS

HOPE IN GLOBAL PROTESTS OVER FLOYD MURDER

Most ex-slaves didn’t know the exact date that General Granger brought the announcement to Galveston, Texas. They knew it was one of the “teenths, 16, 17, 18 19,” so they called it “Juneteenth” to be sure. The marking of this day of liberation, Juneteenth, spread as freedmen and women moved to other states taking the memory of the observance of this date with them. When the Poor People’s March on Washington, D.C. in 1968 fell short of its goal, organizers Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Mrs. Coretta Scott King decided to end it on June 19, 1968, which coincided with the first Juneteenth celebration in Texas. In 1979, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday. Since then, 41 other states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday or holiday observance. By 2008, 45 of the 50th U.S. states had recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday or ceremonial holiday, a day of observance. But the end of legal slavery in the United States and other countries around the world has not meant the end of slavery. It is estimated today that as many as 40.3 million people around the world are victims of modern slavery. Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. posted the following words on The Root in his observance of Juneteenth: “Of all Emancipation Day observances, Juneteenth falls closest to the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, when the sun, at its zenith, defies the darkness in every state, including those once shadowed by slavery. By choosing to celebrate the last place in the South that freedom touched, we remember the shining promise of emancipation, along with the bloody path America took by delaying it and deferring fulfillment of those simple, unanticipated words in Gen. Granger’s original order No. 3: “This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.” In the last three decades, more and more attention has been given to Juneteenth with a view toward getting Congressional approval for a national day of observance. Much of this work is being carried on by the National Junethneeth Observance Foundaton.

BLM Garza Alicia Photo by The Sun Reporter Photo Courtesy of Cal Matters

By Gail Berkley The Sun Reporter

Voice & Viewpoint Newswire California legislators passed a budget that reverses $15 billion in proposed cuts to education. San Diego Unified, the state’s second-largest district, said the move clears the way for a reopening of its physical facilities in the fall. However, district leaders said additional action by the federal government will be required in order for schools to operate for the full school year.

For Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, the widespread global protests and activism that followed the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minnesota police have been heartening — and they make her feel hopeful for the future. At the same time, she said, “It’s bittersweet that it takes someone being murdered on camera to get to the point of conversation that we’re in.”

See SDUSD page 2

See BLM page 2


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Vol. 60 No. 25, Thursday, June 18, 2020 by SD Voice & Viewpoint - Issuu