2 29 2012

VOL. 61, No. 9

One Section/Inserts

February 23 - 29, 2012

www.tristatedefender.com

75 Cents

Did the Tea Party help shut down Thaddeus Matthews?

Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Tony Jones

State Rep. Barbara Cooper has written a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting an investigation into why popular talk show host Thaddeus Matthews has been taken off the air

by Pollack Broadcasting, which owns the signal that Matthews’ station, WPLX, broadcasts on.

In her letter, Rep. Cooper asks the FCC to ascertain whether “FCC Rules and Regulations, First Amendment Laws and or Rev. Matthews’ Civil Rights have been violated.”

In addition, she writes, “it seems reason, the WPLX Radio Station should continue operating until the investigation is settled through the court system….The untimely interruption is unfortunate because the citizens and loyal listeners of the 9th Congressional District are being dealt a disservice.”

Copies have been provided to Congressman Steve Cohen, U.S. Atty. Gen. Thaddeus Eric Holder and Matthews U.S. Atty. for the Western District, Edward Stanton III. Matthews was first shut down on Feb. 2nd, instantly turning WPLX 1180 AM into dead air, but Matthews obtained a restraining order against Pollack Broadcasting Co. owner William Pollack and was back on the air at his usual 3 p.m., time.

Pollack returned the next week with his own order, shutting the station down. He says his action is final and permanent. At last check, the station was running a syndicated ESPN feed.

For now, Matthews is doing his show on the Internet every day (at his regular slot) via UStream.

J. Bailey, Matthews’ attorney, added more detail by mail “On February 15, 2012 the Chancery Court ruled that the actions taken by Pollack were not a restraint on speech, but purely a business decision. So the Chancellor lifted the re-

NAACP National President and CEO Benjamin Jealous displayed myriad expressions at a mentoring forum where he stressed that, “Mentoring isnʼt just about passing on lessons to children, itʼs about fulfilling your responsibility as an adult…to make sure that the country you leave them is better than the one that you inherited.” (Photos by Shirley Jackson)

African American Network at FedEx delivers with mentoring-power forum NAACP national president stresses need for adult action to help children Special to Tri-State Defender

by Tarrin McGhee The African American Network at FedEx is determined to give back to the community by impacting young lives through mentorship. That commitment was the underpinning for “The Power of Mentoring Forum” the group hosted at FedEx World Headquarters on Wednesday (Feb. 22).

The annual event is designed to increase cultural awareness, and to encourage FedEx employees and event attendees to learn more about the power of mentoring.

Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), keynoted the 2012 forum, which saluted four heavyweights for enriching the lives of area youth, and for notable public service achievements.

Posthumous salutes went to former University of Memphis basketball star player and coach, Larry Finch, and to Lt. Colonel Luke Weathers, a Memphis-born member of the Tuskegee Airmen whose exploits are detailed in the movie “Red Tails.”

Memphis civil rights activists and icons, Dr. Maxine Smith and the Rev. Samuel Kyles, were lauded for their consistent involvement and commitment to advance the civil rights movement and their local community.

Prior to accepting her award, Smith – the

former membership chair and executive secretary of the Memphis Chapter of the NAACP, a former educator and long-serving member of the Memphis City Schools board – referenced the video that highlighted her career.

“I guess they went to the Internet, I don’t know how they get in your business,” she joked. “But of all the things you saw about me, one of the most treasured moments is the mentoring team at my church. We tutored eight-year-old boys at schools around the city…don’t forget that kids still need this,” Smith said.

Following Smith, Cathy Ross, executive vice president and chief financial officer at SEE MENTORING ON PAGE 2

SEE MATTHEWS ON PAGE 2

Foreclosure need draws Rev. Jackson To Memphis

The “national foreclosure nightmare” – as the Rainbow PUSH Coalition calls it – brought the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the group, to Memphis this week.

Jackson was set to talk about the issue during a press conference early Thursday (Feb. 23) in the lobby of City Hall at 125 North Main Street.

Joseph B. Kyles, vice president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Memphis, said late Wednesday that Jackson is traveling the country drawing attention to the need for a more aggressive move to help families stay in their homes.

Connected issues include voter ID legislation and laws that amount to voter suppression (and not just for African Americans), and the need to draw attention to prison-labor contracts that are adversely the availability of jobs, said Kyles, who pitched the need for African-American firms in Memphis to land a bigger share of local contracts.

MEMPHIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

Memphis civil rights activists and icons, Dr. Maxine Smith (center) and the Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles (left), were lauded for their consistent involvement and commitment to advance the civil rights movement and the Memphis community.

A baseball park move to save the hood Council grants group South Memphis field, but no funds Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Tony Jones H- 5 5o - L - 3 5o P a r tl y C l oud y

H- 5 3o - L - 3 6o Mo st l y Sun ny

REGIONAL TEMPS LITTLE ROCK NASHVILLE JACKSON, MS

Friday H-60 L-37 H-51 L-31 H-57 L-38

H- 6 0o - L - 4 7o S unn y

Saturday H-60 L-38 H-50 L-29 H-58 L-38

Sunday H-63 L-43 H-58 L-42 H-64 L-49

The Tri-State Youth Baseball Academy has been awarded a 15year, cost-free lease by the Memphis City Council to refurbish and manage Jesse Turner Park at Elvis Presley and South Parkway.

The deal calls for the lease to be split into three, five-year increments, but does not include any financial support from the city, which perplexes Tri-State Chairman Tony James, who says the group is going straight ahead into the fundraising stage, determined to make the park a success again.

For James, it’s very simple. Getting kids into the allure of the crack of the bat will help steer them from the allure of crack on the street, and other ills that plague the immediate area surrounding the park. It may sound cliché to some, but James’s own life experience and the park’s history certainly lend credence to his theory.

“Kids in the inner city have had nowhere to play baseball for a long time and our goal is to restore this facility as our home park. Our goal is to raise the money to restore the park and also to build a smaller field to give small kids somewhere to play,” said James.

“It is imperative that we do this because the months between May and August are the most vulnerable time for kids in the inner city. We don’t have the money to send them

to camp. Revamping the park creates more opportunities to build more teams and create the personal goal building, respect and positive outlook playing on a team builds.”

Grown in four years to over 30 teams grouping more than 300 kids, the civic league’s new coup comes with its own history. Called Bellevue Park until renamed for local civil rights activist Jesse Turner, president of TriState Bank for decades, the diamond was just that to the adjacent neighborhood and many more far away.

A difference James insists his group brings to the table is real family involvement.

“This is not just a babysitting service where you drop off the kid and then go off and do your thing. We are SEE PARK ON PAGE 2

- INSIDE -

• Early childhood trauma linked to adult disease. See Opinion, page 4.

• Bobby Brown explains exit from Whitney’s funeral. See Nation, page 5.

• Photo Voter ID Law to get forum airing. See Community, page 6.

• Pulitzer winner Wilkerson to speak at U of M. See Entertainment, page 10.

• Tradition takes root with 2012 Memphis Black Expo.

See Business, page 13.

VOL. 61, No. 9

One Section/Inserts

February 23 - 29, 2012

www.tristatedefender.com

75 Cents

Did the Tea Party help shut down Thaddeus Matthews?

Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Tony Jones

State Rep. Barbara Cooper has written a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting an investigation into why popular talk show host Thaddeus Matthews has been taken off the air

by Pollack Broadcasting, which owns the signal that Matthews’ station, WPLX, broadcasts on.

In her letter, Rep. Cooper asks the FCC to ascertain whether “FCC Rules and Regulations, First Amendment Laws and or Rev. Matthews’ Civil Rights have been violated.”

In addition, she writes, “it seems reasonable the WPLX Radio Station should continue operating until the investigation is settled through the court system….The untimely interruption is unfortunate because the citizens and loyal listeners of the 9th Congressional District are being dealt a disservice.”

Copies have been provided to Congressman Steve Cohen, U.S. Atty. Gen. Thaddeus Eric Holder and Matthews U.S. Atty. for the Western District, Edward Stanton III. Matthews was first shut down on Feb. 2nd, instantly turning WPLX 1180 AM into dead air, but Matthews obtained a restraining order against Pollack Broadcasting Co. owner William Pollack and was back on the air at his usual 3 p.m. time.

Pollack returned the next week with his own order, shutting the station down. He says his action is final and permanent. At last check, the station was running a syndicated ESPN feed.

For now, Matthews is doing his show on the Internet every day (at his regular slot) via UStream.

J. Bailey, Matthews’ attorney, added more detail by email “On February 15, 2012 the Chancery Court ruled that the actions taken by Pollack were not a restraint on speech, but purely a business decision. So the Chancellor lifted the re-

NAACP National President and CEO Benjamin Jealous displayed myriad expressions at a mentoring forum where he stressed that, “Mentoring isnʼt just about passing on lessons to children, itʼs about fulfilling your responsibility as an adult…to make sure that the country you leave them is better than the one that you inherited.” (Photos by Shirley Jackson)

African American Network at FedEx delivers with mentoring-power forum NAACP national president stresses need for adult action to help children Special to Tri-State Defender

by Tarrin McGhee The African American Network at FedEx is determined to give back to the community by impacting young lives through mentorship. That commitment was the underpinning for “The Power of Mentoring Forum” the group hosted at FedEx World Headquarters on Wednesday (Feb. 22).

The annual event is designed to increase cultural awareness, and to encourage FedEx employees and event attendees to learn more about the power of mentoring.

Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), keynoted the 2012 forum, which saluted four heavyweights for enriching the lives of area youth, and for notable public service achievements.

Posthumous salutes went to former University of Memphis basketball star player and coach, Larry Finch, and to Lt. Colonel Luke Weathers, a Memphis-born member of the Tuskegee Airmen whose exploits are detailed in the movie “Red Tails.”

Memphis civil rights activists and icons, Dr. Maxine Smith and the Rev. Samuel Kyles, were lauded for their consistent involvement and commitment to advance the civil rights movement and their local community.

Prior to accepting her award, Smith – the

former membership chair and executive secretary of the Memphis Chapter of the NAACP, a former educator and long-serving member of the Memphis City Schools board – referenced the video that highlighted her career.

“I guess they went to the Internet, I don’t know how they get in your business,” she joked. “But of all the things you saw about me, one of the most treasured moments is the mentoring team at my church. We tutored eight-year-old boys at schools around the city…don’t forget that kids still need this,” Smith said.

Following Smith, Cathy Ross, executive vice president and chief financial officer at SEE MENTORING ON PAGE 2

SEE MATTHEWS ON PAGE 2

Foreclosure need draws Rev. Jackson To Memphis

The “national foreclosure nightmare” – as the Rainbow PUSH Coalition calls it – brought the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the group, to Memphis this week.

Jackson was set to talk about the issue during a press conference early Thursday (Feb. 23) in the lobby of City Hall at 125 North Main Street.

Joseph B. Kyles, vice president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Memphis, said late Wednesday that Jackson is traveling the country drawing attention to the need for a more aggressive move to help families stay in their homes.

Connected issues include voter ID legislation and laws that amount to voter suppression (and not just for African Americans), and the need to draw attention to prison-labor contracts that are adversely the availability of jobs, said Kyles, who pitched the need for African-American firms in Memphis to land a bigger share of local contracts.

MEMPHIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

Memphis civil rights activists and icons, Dr. Maxine Smith (center) and the Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles (left), were lauded for their consistent involvement and commitment to advance the civil rights movement and the Memphis community.

A baseball park move to save the hood Council grants group South Memphis field, but no funds Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Tony Jones H- 5 5o - L - 3 5o P a r tl y C l oud y

H- 5 3o - L - 3 6o Mo st l y Sun ny

REGIONAL TEMPS LITTLE ROCK NASHVILLE JACKSON, MS

Friday H-60 L-37 H-51 L-31 H-57 L-38

H- 6 0o - L - 4 7o S unn y

Saturday H-60 L-38 H-50 L-29 H-58 L-38

Sunday H-63 L-43 H-58 L-42 H-64 L-49

The Tri-State Youth Baseball Academy has been awarded a 15year, cost-free lease by the Memphis City Council to refurbish and manage Jesse Turner Park at Elvis Presley and South Parkway.

The deal calls for the lease to be split into three, five-year increments, but does not include any financial support from the city, which perplexes Tri-State Chairman Tony James, who says the group is going straight ahead into the fundraising stage, determined to make the park a success again.

For James, it’s very simple. Getting kids into the allure of the crack of the bat will help steer them from the allure of crack on the street, and other ills that plague the immediate area surrounding the park. It may sound cliché to some, but James’s own life experience and the park’s history certainly lend credence to his theory.

“Kids in the inner city have had nowhere to play baseball for a long time and our goal is to restore this facility as our home park. Our goal is to raise the money to restore the park and also to build a smaller field to give small kids somewhere to play,” said James.

“It is imperative that we do this because the months between May and August are the most vulnerable time for kids in the inner city. We don’t have the money to send them

to camp. Revamping the park creates more opportunities to build more teams and create the personal goal building, respect and positive outlook playing on a team builds.”

Grown in four years to over 30 teams grouping more than 300 kids, the civic league’s new coup comes with its own history. Called Bellevue Park until renamed for local civil rights activist Jesse Turner, president of TriState Bank for decades, the diamond was just that to the adjacent neighborhood and many more far away.

A difference James insists his group brings to the table is real family involvement.

“This is not just a babysitting service where you drop off the kid and then go off and do your thing. We are SEE PARK ON PAGE 2

- INSIDE -

• Early childhood trauma linked to adult disease. See Opinion, page 4.

• Bobby Brown explains exit from Whitney’s funeral. See Nation, page 5.

• Photo Voter ID Law to get forum airing. See Community, page 6.

• Pulitzer winner Wilkerson to speak at U of M. See Entertainment, page 10.

• Tradition takes root with 2012 Memphis Black Expo.

See Business, page 13.

NEWS

Page 2

Tri-State Defender

February 23 - 29, 2012

MENTORING

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

FedEx, shared her perspective on the value of mentoring before introducing Jealous.

“We all have experiences, skills and talents that make us special,” said Ross. “Mentoring is a way to share those attributes. Ben Jealous benefited from a number of mentors, and his life and leadership are examples of the power of mentoring.”

The NAACP’s 17th president and chief executive officer, Jealous is the youngest person to hold the position in the organization’s100-plus year history.

He reminded forum guests of the long and hard road traveled by those before him to ensure that African Americans of his generation and future generations would have opportunities to succeed. He also discussed what it would take for children in the U.S. to prosper in the 21st century.

“It’s possible to get what you’re fighting for and lose what you have all at the same time,” Jealous began. “When I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, my generation was treated like a bit of an exception. We were told that fighting was optional…your job is simply to reap what we have sown.”

“That worked pretty well for many of us, it’s worked pretty well for me, but I dare say it didn’t work well for most of us,” he said.

Jealous described the important roles that all adults and mentors can play in helping to confront the challenges of war, crime, poverty, incarceration rates and, most importantly, the condition of the nation’s economy and education system.

“The state of affairs (in the U.S.) has real bearing on our role as parents, as adults, community leaders and as mentors,” Jealous said.

“Mentoring isn’t just about passing on lessons to children, it’s about fulfilling your responsibility as an adult in this country to make sure that the country you leave them is better than the one that you inherited. We have done that for generations in this country, in some ways it defines what it

PARK

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

built to operate on the dynamic of child-parent-coach-team to help build every child.”

Trucker Delancey McNeil, who grew up on Pillow Street and went to Hamilton elementary, junior and high schools, remembers when his dad, Otis McNeil, would take him, brother Patrick and usually a couple of the neighborhood kids and a certain adopted cousin to the games two or three nights a week sometimes.

“Man, it was right up the street, but it was an adventure just the same. The night games were the best. A hot dog, and a coke and then save some of the coke for some popcorn.And when you get a good game going, a stolen base is a stolen base. That’s when we had neighborhoods, not just ’hoods,” he said.

And that’s James’ goal. But now, in addition to no funding allocation from the city, the project’s initial Council sponsor, Wanda Halbert, has developed reservations.

“I was all for it at first, but I’m not comfortable with the proposal,” said Halbert. “It’s not specific enough for me in identifying fees. If it comes together, as I hope it will, I would like to see the fee structure managed so teams from everywhere can afford to play. It would be wrong to build it and shut kids out because their teams can’t afford the fees, and I don’t want to see them go up three and four times over what they should be. I wanted to see specific goals so we could have measurable commitments that can be assessed.”

Despite the presence of African-American leadership position on elected boards, too often it’s still too obvious that poor kids are a back-channel priority, said Halbert.

James said he is please to have the park, but finds it ironic that, “They gave millions to the Pink Palace, a management group in Overton Park, and even the Brooks Art Gallery, but here we are in the black neighborhood where kids are really desperate for help and they gave us the park with no money. But we’re going to raise it and be successful.”

Halbert said she was a baseball mom, with one of her sons a home run champ.

“But why is it that we al-

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous (left) and African American Network at FedEx Chairman Willie Brooks at “The Power of Mentoring Forum.”

Forum extra:

The Soulsville Charter School Orchestra kicked off the forum with an uplifting rendition of “Celebrate” that had guests dancing in their seats and Flo Roach performed an arousing dramatic presentation on what it means to be black. (Photos by Shirley Jackson)

The New Tri-State Defender is celebrating its 61st year and this exhibit at the mentoring forum was designed to create a sense of an early newsroom. means to be a citizen of this United States.”

Jealous expressed concern about what awaits children if adults don’t take action to get involved now to protect the interests of all children.

ways have to beg and beg and beg to provide support for inner city kids. We don’t spend a dime on parks, except for a very few, and that needs to be brought out. I think it’s a ratio of about 3 out of 100 that are being taken care of, but none that I know of that give inner city kids any real access to recreation to keep them off the streets,” she said.

“We can spend money on a skate park, a dog park (the animal shelter), and everywhere it seems but something nice to keep inner city kids off the streets, and it’s a challenge for me. We need to be spending money in all areas.”

James is putting out a call for adults to squeeze a little casino, happy hour and movie time to devote some time as coaches.

“The biggest problem we have is finding coaches. So many people want to talk about social problems we have but don’t want to do anything about it. The speaker at our annual banquet, Vince Coleman from the St. Louis Cardinals, told the kids how you can play longer and the salaries are greater in baseball, if that’s your leaning.”

James was drafted into the major leagues and played with several teams, including the Washington Senators and the New York Yankees.

Those experiences are part of what is driving him toward fulfilling the dream of revamping Jesse Turner Park.

“It’s in shambles and it’s a shame,” James said.

“The next step is to begin our fundraising drive. Please direct your readers to www.tristatebaseball.org.”

“Our young people may be the first to be born more in debt than our parents were. They may be the first to be born with less net worth than their parents had, may be first to be born more likely to go to

MATTHEWS

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

straining order and sent the matter to arbitration. Without the restraining order (injunction) Matthews has no protection from those persons who want to shut him up,” Bailey offered.

“They might not like how he engages in interviews or his use of tough language, however any attack on free speech should be viewed with suspicion.”

No official court date has been set, but interviews The New Tri-State Defender conducted with both Matthews and Pollack men indicate that a highly emotional courtroom battle may be looming. Both are claiming breach of contract, with Matthews staking claim to the constitutional right to free speech, while Pollack emphasizes that the situation is a matter of showing him the money. They both cite a figure of $87,000 owed by Matthews to Pollack, and that a payment system had been worked out.

“I had just paid him $3,000 the very same day he cut me off,” Matthews said. “So what right does he have to cut me off when I am steadily making my payments on time and according to our written agreement?

“He testified in open court that he pulled me off because my show was ‘the vilest’ show on the airwaves and he took objection to it, saying that I cursed and used the N word.

But I did nothing differently on the day I threw Charlotte Bergman out than any other

prison than their parents were, and less likely to go to college,” he said.

“Our responsibility right now is greater because the challenges are higher too.”

According to Jealous, outside

“He (William Pollack) testified in open court that he pulled me off because my show was ‘the vilest’ show on the airwaves and he took objection to it, saying that I cursed and used the N word. ...”

Thaddeus Matthews

day. I’ve thrown many of these so-called politicians off my show. I get so tired of them coming to me and they have no ideas and no plans of how to help the black community and I tell them point blank what I think about them.”

Bergman, a Republican, challenged U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen in the last Ninth District election and is at it again.

“She sat here with me for 30 minutes and could not answer one question of why people should vote for her except she had some stupid billboard on the highway saying Dr. King was a Republican and she was too. Yeah, I threw her out and I would do it all over again.”

“And that’s when the Tea Party people got involved,” Matthews said. “I mean the video jumped off and I was getting calls from all over the country, and I was interviewed by shows in other cities. There were Tea Party people calling me from all over the country saying they were going to file a complaint with the FCC. I’ve been doing this 26 years and I have never been sanctioned by the FCC. There are several words I cannot say on the air, but the First Amendment gives me the right to say what I please on the air.”

Mentor Lloyd Stovall on how mentoring has impacted the life of his mentee, Stevie Bailey Jr. (a second grader at Georgia Avenue Elementary), and his life as well.

“Mentoring is a twoway relationship. Because of Stevie, I have become more patient and attentive to my children’s needs, and because of Stevie and organizations like Streets Ministries, I have hope for our city…

“I’m excited about what the future has in store for Stevie…but there are others like him that need you.” of mentoring there are additional opportunities to address the challenges that children in America are confronting, opportunities to prevent roadblocks to children’s success, and ultimately the country’s success. To start, he believes that adults should be willing to talk about things that they don’t want to talk about, such as decreasing incarceration rates and the need to improve the country’s education system.

“We as a society have to make a choice to invest more in our aspirations for our children than our fears of other people’s children,” said Jealous.

Matthews provided a copy of an FCC response to a listener who had written to complain about Matthews’ treatment of Bergman. Mark Berlin, from the FCC Policy Division Media Office wrote that,“…we have virtually no control over the content of what is aired. That is because stations enjoy freedom of speech under the First Amendment. Further, a section of the Communications Act (which established the FCC in 1934) specifically prohibits the FCC from censoring or dictating program content.”

The result, Berlin added, is that broadcast stations can air pretty much whatever they want (short of obscenity or indecency) – even if the material is false, slanted or misleading.

“Further, the courts have defined obscenity or indecency only in terms of sexual or excretory matters – not hateful programming,” Berlin further explained. “That does not mean that a station can put vicious and slanderous programming on the air and not suffer the consequences, but the FCC cannot be involved.

Rather, a person slandered can file suit against a station in the courts.”

Berlin counseled the complainer that the listening public is not without recourse.

“Stations are sensitive to public opinion, and you should express your concerns to them, because this could influence future programming,” he added.

Matthews feels the real smoking gun is a letter Pollack wrote to Bergman.

“I may assure you we will

“People ask how do we catch up, how do we bridge the (education) difference with us (the United States) and Japan?

It’s simple. Just stop acting like we can afford to be so different,” he said. “Japan educates their children 230 days a year.

In this country we’re lucky if it’s 180.”

Asked how to get adults to recognize the importance of doing what is right for all children and looking beyond what they need to do for their own, Jealous said that a big part of it is changing how we talk about education.

“The reality is that the biggest struggle in our country right now isn’t to make sure that black children can compete with white children, but that American children of all colors can compete with children of all colors from all countries on the planet. That’s what we have to get focused on,” he said.

Jealous concluded his keynote by sharing the NAACP’s plans to introduce an agenda this year that will focus on putting America back on track to being first in the world on issues of education, job creation and innovation.

The agenda includes four main pillars that the organization will advocate for starting this spring: more time in the classroom, high quality teachers in every classroom, universal Pre-K and improving public health conditions for children across America.

do all we can to assist your campaign. I personally supported you in the last election and am enthusiastically doing so today.”

Pollack said, yes, he wrote the letter, but said, “That’s the best thing about America.

Whatever my political affiliation is, I am free to follow my own opinion, so I don’t have to answer any question about my political beliefs, but I will say that, no, I am not a member of the Tea Party, and if I was it would have no bearing on the lease agreement.”

Again, it’s simply a zero sum decision, he said. The two had been working on a payment plan “for many, many months,” Pollack said, “The approximate figure that is owed is approximately $87,000 and I just don’t see how he can catch it up. He defaulted on the lease, it’s that simple.”

Pollack said the Bergman incident was the tipping point of a long held frustration with Matthews.

“In our contract is an agreement for ethical conduct under the standards of the National Association of Broadcasters.

The Charlotte Bergman interview was completely unacceptable and we won’t allow that as broadcasters. That was the last straw. I don’t think we’re interested in broadcasting with him in the future.”

But had he not been aware of Matthews’ style? And why so suddenly after two years of real growth and success?

“We knew he was controversial,” said Pollack. “It even said in the lease agreement exactly what would be unacceptable.”

NEWS

Page 2

Tri-State Defender

February 23 - 29, 2012

MENTORING

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

FedEx, shared her perspective on the value of mentoring before introducing Jealous.

“We all have experiences, skills and talents that make us special,” said Ross. “Mentoring is a way to share those attributes. Ben Jealous benefited from a number of mentors, and his life and leadership are examples of the power of mentoring.”

The NAACP’s 17th president and chief executive officer, Jealous is the youngest person to hold the position in the organization’s100-plus year history.

He reminded forum guests of the long and hard road traveled by those before him to ensure that African Americans of his generation and future generations would have opportunities to succeed. He also discussed what it would take for children in the U.S. to prosper in the 21st century.

“It’s possible to get what you’re fighting for and lose what you have all at the same time,” Jealous began. “When I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, my generation was treated like a bit of an exception. We were told that fighting was optional…your job is simply to reap what we have sown.”

“That worked pretty well for many of us, it’s worked pretty well for me, but I dare say it didn’t work well for most of us,” he said.

Jealous described the important roles that all adults and mentors can play in helping to confront the challenges of war, crime, poverty, incarceration rates and, most importantly, the condition of the nation’s economy and education system.

“The state of affairs (in the U.S.) has real bearing on our role as parents, as adults, community leaders and as mentors,” Jealous said.

“Mentoring isn’t just about passing on lessons to children, it’s about fulfilling your responsibility as an adult in this country to make sure that the country you leave them is better than the one that you inherited. We have done that for generations in this country, in some ways it defines what it

PARK

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

built to operate on the dynamic of child-parent-coach-team to help build every child.”

Trucker Delancey McNeil, who grew up on Pillow Street and went to Hamilton elementary, junior and high schools, remembers when his dad, Otis McNeil, would take him, brother Patrick and usually a couple of the neighborhood kids and a certain adopted cousin to the games two or three nights a week sometimes.

“Man, it was right up the street, but it was an adventure just the same. The night games were the best. A hot dog, and a coke and then save some of the coke for some popcorn.And when you get a good game going, a stolen base is a stolen base. That’s when we had neighborhoods, not just ’hoods,” he said.

And that’s James’ goal. But now, in addition to no funding allocation from the city, the project’s initial Council sponsor, Wanda Halbert, has developed reservations.

“I was all for it at first, but I’m not comfortable with the proposal,” said Halbert. “It’s not specific enough for me in identifying fees. If it comes together, as I hope it will, I would like to see the fee structure managed so teams from everywhere can afford to play. It would be wrong to build it and shut kids out because their teams can’t afford the fees, and I don’t want to see them go up three and four times over what they should be. I wanted to see specific goals so we could have measurable commitments that can be assessed.”

Despite the presence of African-American leadership position on elected boards, too often it’s still too obvious that poor kids are a back-channel priority, said Halbert.

James said he is please to have the park, but finds it ironic that, “They gave millions to the Pink Palace, a management group in Overton Park, and even the Brooks Art Gallery, but here we are in the black neighborhood where kids are really desperate for help and they gave us the park with no money. But we’re going to raise it and be successful.”

Halbert said she was a baseball mom, with one of her sons a home run champ.

“But why is it that we al-

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous (left) and African American Network at FedEx Chairman Willie Brooks at “The Power of Mentoring Forum.”

Forum extra:

The Soulsville Charter School Orchestra kicked off the forum with an uplifting rendition of “Celebrate” that had guests dancing in their seats and Flo Roach performed an arousing dramatic presentation on what it means to be black. (Photos by Shirley Jackson)

The New Tri-State Defender is celebrating its 61st year and this exhibit at the mentoring forum was designed to create a sense of an early newsroom. means to be a citizen of this United States.”

Jealous expressed concern about what awaits children if adults don’t take action to get involved now to protect the interests of all children.

ways have to beg and beg and beg to provide support for inner city kids. We don’t spend a dime on parks, except for a very few, and that needs to be brought out. I think it’s a ratio of about 3 out of 100 that are being taken care of, but none that I know of that give inner city kids any real access to recreation to keep them off the streets,” she said.

“We can spend money on a skate park, a dog park (the animal shelter), and everywhere it seems but something nice to keep inner city kids off the streets, and it’s a challenge for me. We need to be spending money in all areas.”

James is putting out a call for adults to squeeze a little casino, happy hour and movie time to devote some time as coaches.

“The biggest problem we have is finding coaches. So many people want to talk about social problems we have but don’t want to do anything about it. The speaker at our annual banquet, Vince Coleman from the St. Louis Cardinals, told the kids how you can play longer and the salaries are greater in baseball, if that’s your leaning.”

James was drafted into the major leagues and played with several teams, including the Washington Senators and the New York Yankees.

Those experiences are part of what is driving him toward fulfilling the dream of revamping Jesse Turner Park.

“It’s in shambles and it’s a shame,” James said.

“The next step is to begin our fundraising drive. Please direct your readers to www.tristatebaseball.org.”

“Our young people may be the first to be born more in debt than our parents were. They may be the first to be born with less net worth than their parents had, may be first to be born more likely to go to

MATTHEWS

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

straining order and sent the matter to arbitration. Without the restraining order (injunction) Matthews has no protection from those persons who want to shut him up,” Bailey offered.

“They might not like how he engages in interviews or his use of tough language, however any attack on free speech should be viewed with suspicion.”

No official court date has been set, but interviews The New Tri-State Defender conducted with both Matthews and Pollack indicate that a highly emotional courtroom battle may be looming. Both are claiming breach of contract, with Matthews staking claim to the constitutional right to free speech, while Pollack emphasizes that the situation is a matter of showing him the money. They both cite a figure of $87,000 owed by Matthews to Pollack, and that a payment system had been worked out.

“I had just paid him $3,000 the very same day he cut me off,” Matthews said. “So what right does he have to cut me off when I am steadily making my payments on time and according to our written agreement?

“He testified in open court that he pulled me off because my show was ‘the vilest’ show on the airwaves and he took objection to it, saying that I cursed and used the N word.

But I did nothing differently on the day I threw Charlotte Bergman out than any other

prison than their parents were, and less likely to go to college,” he said.

“Our responsibility right now is greater because the challenges are higher too.”

According to Jealous, outside

“He (William Pollack) testified in open court that he pulled me off because my show was ‘the vilest’ show on the airwaves and he took objection to it, saying that I cursed and used the N word. ...”

Thaddeus Matthews

day. I’ve thrown many of these so-called politicians off my show. I get so tired of them coming to me and they have no ideas and no plans of how to help the black community and I tell them point blank what I think about them.”

Bergman, a Republican, challenged U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen in the last Ninth District election and is at it again.

“She sat here with me for 30 minutes and could not answer one question of why people should vote for her except she had some stupid billboard on the highway saying Dr. King was a Republican and she was too. Yeah, I threw her out and I would do it all over again.”

“And that’s when the Tea Party people got involved,” Matthews said. “I mean the video jumped off and I was getting calls from all over the country, and I was interviewed by shows in other cities. There were Tea Party people calling me from all over the country saying they were going to file a complaint with the FCC. I’ve been doing this 26 years and I have never been sanctioned by the FCC. The First Amendment gives me the right to say what I please on the air.”

Matthews provided a copy

Mentor Lloyd Stovall on how mentoring has impacted the life of his mentee, Stevie Bailey Jr. (a second grader at Georgia Avenue Elementary), and his life as well.

“Mentoring is a twoway relationship. Because of Stevie, I have become more patient and attentive to my children’s needs, and because of Stevie and organizations like Streets Ministries, I have hope for our city…

“I’m excited about what the future has in store for Stevie…but there are others like him that need you.” of mentoring there are additional opportunities to address the challenges that children in America are confronting, opportunities to prevent roadblocks to children’s success, and ultimately the country’s success. To start, he believes that adults should be willing to talk about things that they don’t want to talk about, such as decreasing incarceration rates and the need to improve the country’s education system.

“We as a society have to make a choice to invest more in our aspirations for our children than our fears of other people’s children,” said Jealous.

of an FCC response to a listener who had written to complain about Matthews’ treatment of Bergman. Mark Berlin, from the FCC Policy Division Media Office wrote that,“…we have virtually no control over the content of what is aired. That is because stations enjoy freedom of speech under the First Amendment. Further, a section of the Communications Act (which established the FCC in 1934) specifically prohibits the FCC from censoring or dictating program content.”

The result, Berlin added, is that broadcast stations can air pretty much whatever they want (short of obscenity or indecency) – even if the material is false, slanted or misleading.

“Further, the courts have defined obscenity or indecency only in terms of sexual or excretory matters – not hateful programming,” Berlin further explained. “That does not mean that a station can put vicious and slanderous programming on the air and not suffer the consequences, but the FCC cannot be involved.

Rather, a person slandered can file suit against a station in the courts.”

Berlin counseled the complainer that the listening public is not without recourse.

“Stations are sensitive to public opinion, and you should express your concerns to them, because this could influence future programming,” he added.

Matthews feels the real smoking gun is a letter Pollack wrote to Bergman.

“I may assure you we will do all we can to assist your

“People ask how do we catch up, how do we bridge the (education) difference with us (the United States) and Japan?

It’s simple. Just stop acting like we can afford to be so different,” he said. “Japan educates their children 230 days a year.

In this country we’re lucky if it’s 180.”

Asked how to get adults to recognize the importance of doing what is right for all children and looking beyond what they need to do for their own, Jealous said that a big part of it is changing how we talk about education.

“The reality is that the biggest struggle in our country right now isn’t to make sure that black children can compete with white children, but that American children of all colors can compete with children of all colors from all countries on the planet. That’s what we have to get focused on,” he said.

Jealous concluded his keynote by sharing the NAACP’s plans to introduce an agenda this year that will focus on putting America back on track to being first in the world on issues of education, job creation and innovation.

The agenda includes four main pillars that the organization will advocate for starting this spring: more time in the classroom, high quality teachers in every classroom, universal Pre-K and improving public health conditions for children across America.

campaign. I personally supported you in the last election and am enthusiastically doing so today.”

Pollack said, yes, he wrote the letter, but said, “That’s the best thing about America.

Whatever my political affiliation is, I am free to follow my own opinion, so I don’t have to answer any question about my political beliefs, but I will say that, no, I am not a member of the Tea Party, and if I was it would have no bearing on the lease agreement.”

Again, it’s simply a zero sum decision, he said. The two had been working on a payment plan “for many, many months,” Pollack said, “The approximate figure that is owed is approximately $87,000 and I just don’t see how he can catch it up. He defaulted on the lease, it’s that simple.”

Pollack said the Bergman incident was the tipping point of a long held frustration with Matthews.

“In our contract is an agreement for ethical conduct under the standards of the National Association of Broadcasters.

The Charlotte Bergman interview was completely unacceptable and we won’t allow that as broadcasters. That was the last straw. I don’t think we’re interested in broadcasting with him in the future.”

But had he not been aware of Matthews’ style? And why so suddenly after two years of real growth and success?

“We knew he was controversial,” said Pollack. “It even said in the lease agreement exactly what would be unacceptable.”

Tri-State Defender

AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH February 23 - 29, 2012

CALENDAR

“Welcome to Soulsville” is sponsored by ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Wilson Family Foundation, and The Commercial Appeal. For reservations, contact Leona Johnson at Leona.johnson@staxmusicac ademy.org.

The LeMoyneOwen College

Feb. 25 – 2nd Annual Community Harambee Festival, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Bruce Hall gymnasium, 807 Walker Ave. Registration begins at 9 a.m. The LeMoyne-Owen College Concert Choir will sing, LOC director of Student Services Ethan Zagore will perform spoken word, and Dr. Katherine Causey, chair of the College’s Business and Economic Development Division, will present a financial literacy seminar that focuses on how to identify and avoid predatory lenders.

The festival also will feature dance performances, a marketplace of hand-crafted items and displays on science and health and international issues.

African American art & projects will be displayed by Cummings Elementary School.

Dr. Femi Ajanaku, director of LOC’s Center for African and African American Studies, says the event is designed with families in mind.

“Harambee” means pulling together in Kiswahili and has become a word that connects African and African American history, culture, and hope for a productive future,” Dr. Ajanaku said. “This festival is not only a celebration of African and African American culture, but also a forum for dialogue on current issues and other activities that will become the history of the future.” she added.

The Harambee Festival is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Dr.Ajanaku at 901-435-1427 or Dr. Bobbie Shaw-Hunter at 901-435-1282.

Schedule: 9 a.m., registration; 10 a.m., greetings – Dr. Ajanaku; 10:15 a.m., “Someday We Will Be Free,” Dr. Ralph Calhoun; 10:30 a.m., Spoken Word – Ethan Zagore; 10:45 a.m., Spoken Word and Praise Dance – Pastor Nehemiah Kennedy & Praise Dance Team-Cathedral of Hope; 11 a.m., LOC Concert Choir; 11:15 a.m., Booker T. Washington High School Band; 11:30 a.m., Performance: Michael Warren – LOC student (senior, Special Education major); noon, Praise Team; 12:15 p.m., Brown Baptist Church Youth Choir; 12:30 p.m., Financial Literacy Seminar: Dr. Katherine Causey; 1 p.m., LOC Gold Dance Troop; 1:30 p.m., Interpretation (“The Creation”): Earnest Breedlove – LOC student, education major.

Feb. 26 – LOC President Johnnie B. Watson’s African American History Month Keynote Address, “From LeMoyne Garden Housing Project to LeMoyne-Owen College: The Johnnie B. Watson Journey,” 9:30 a.m., Mt. Moriah-East Baptist Church, 1248 Haynes Ave. Contact: Anita Davis, Mt. Moriah-East Baptist Church, 901-7435600.

National Civil Rights Museum

Through August 20 – “For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights” Exhibit; Museum Gallery, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

First Thursday Film Series: February-August, Museum Auditorium, 6 p.m. To complement the, “For All the World to See Exhibit”, the museum will host films that reflect the various themes of the exhibit.

February 29 – Children’s Story Hour, Peach Room, 10 a.m., designed for children 8 and under to have an opportunity to learn about history and provide cultural enrichment during African-American History Month. Does not include museum tour.

Rhodes College

Feb. 28 – “State of the Black Community” sponsored

by Rhodes’ Black Student Association, 6 p.m., Orgill Room, Clough Hall.

(Co-sponsored by Rhodes’ Mike Curb Institute, African American Studies Department, Kinney Program, Black Student Association, Film Studies & Multicultural Affairs. For more information: contact Sabrina Brown, Rhodes’ Office of the Multicultural Affairs, at browns@ rhodes.edu or 901-843-3529.)

University of Memphis

Feb. 23 – “An Evening with Debbie Allen,” 7 p.m., Rose

Achievement on parade…

Annesdale Cherokee Missionary Baptist Church hosted a celebration of African American History that spotlighted leaders, heroes and inventors last Sunday (Feb. 19). The Rev. Dr. Dwight Montgomery is the host pastor.

Reading is fundamental...

Circuit Court Judge Gina Higgins was among those who read to students last week during an African American History Month observance at Charjean Elementary School. (Photos by Tyrone P. Easley) Theatre.

Feb. 24 – SAC Movie Night, The Help, 7 p.m., University Center Theatre Feb. 26 – Black Women Who Write: Playwrights and Publishers Extraordinaire, 4 p.m., University Center Theatre.

Feb. 29 – Closing Ceremony, 1 p.m., University Center Bluff Room.

(More information, is available online at www.memphis.edu/multicultu ralaffairs/events.htm or from the U of M Office of Multicultural Affairs at 901-6782054.)

‘Art & Beauty of Black History’

Twenty-seven Memphisarea residents will be honored and never-before-seen images of renowned photographer Ernest C. Withers will be on display during the Golden Historic Art Exhibit & Gala.

The three-day, African American History Month event will run Feb. 23-25 at the Southbrook Mall in Whitehaven.

The gala is set for Feb. 25 and will celebrate “Memphis black achievement.” Those set to be honored include Al Bell, Yvonne Acey, Elaine Turner,

Milton Bolton, Thomas Burrell, Judge Bernice Donald, Roquita Coleman, Sharon Coleman, George Tillman, Kurl Mckinney, Levi Frasier and many more.

The art exhibit will include photographs of Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Issac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, President Obama, and the growth of civil rights era of Memphis. Works by Andrew Rome Withers and Larry Walker will be featured. The hours and times are: Feb. 2324 – 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Feb. 25 – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the gala from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Exhibit admission is $4 and gala tickets $25. Booth space is available. For more information, call Kendra Calico at 901-643-9905.

Stax Music Academy

As its way to celebrate Black History Month this year, the Stax Music Academy (SMA) is presenting an original, Broadway-style musical production, “Welcome to Soulsville,” on Feb. 28 at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.

There will be three performances: 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. All performances are free and open to the public. The daytime per-

formances are geared toward Memphis City Schools students and other young people

Page 3

and advance reservations are required. The evening performance is geared toward the general public. Seating is on a first come first served basis and reservations are required for groups of 50 or more.

The musical, written by SMA vocal director/operations director Just Merrick, is based on the history of the community surrounding the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Stax Music Academy known as Soulsville, USA. It is the story of a group of young people and their journey through Soulsville, USA seeking to find out the real meaning of “soul.” Told through music, dance, drama, and fashion, the production includes new, original music as well as numbers

by Isaac Hayes, Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Tina Turner, and many others.

Bar-Kays lead singer Larry Dodson will appear as a special guest as will Soulsville Foundation CEO and Grammy-winning musician Kirk Whalum.

BRIEFLY: On Saturday (Feb. 25), Slave Haven at 826 North Second Street will present Artists Market – Vendors, crafts, visual artist, doll makers. For more information, call 527-3427 or 901-527-7711, or email heritagetours@bellsouth.net.

Visit http://www.slavehavenunderg roundrailroadmuseum.org/ slavehaven.html.

BRIEFLY: The Memphis Chapter of the African American Historical and Genealogical Society has a new connection with The Alex Haley Museum in Henning, Tenn.

AAGHS Memphis will conduct a genealogy workshops at a meeting at the Alex Haley Museum on Feb. 25 at 10 a.m.

BRIEFLY: The DeSoto County African American History Symposium Celebration (DCAAHSC) will honor 25 leading African American women trailblazers from DeSoto Count on Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Whispering Woods Hotel & Conference Center in Olive Branch. The Honorable Bernice Donald, United States 6th Circuit Court Judge, will be the keynote speaker. Tickets are $40 per person and $380 for a reserved table of ten. For more information, contact Michael Smith at 901481-3968 or email: smithm410@yahoo.com.

BRIEFLY: Former NBA player and University of Memphis standout Elliott Perry will join Darrell Walker, another former NBA player, on Feb. 26 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. for a presentation titled The Collecting of African American Art VIII: Elliot Perry and Darrell Walker in conversation with Michael D. Harris. Harris is associate professor of art history and African American studies, Emory University. The presentation will be at 2 p.m.

Page 4

John H. Sengstacke Publisher (1951 - 1997)

The Mid-Southʼs Best Alternative Newspaper

A Real Times Newspaper

OPINION

Tri-State Defender

February 23 - 29, 2012

• Bernal E. Smith II President / Publisher • Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku Executive Editor

Display of amazing grace at Whitney Houston farewell

Early childhood trauma linked to adult disease Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Tarrin McGhee

Have you or any of your family members, friends or colleagues ever had a heart attack or been diagnosed with heart disease, hypertension or diabetes?

Do you or do you know someone that suffers from high blood pressure, obesity, depression or addiction?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, there is a possibility that you or someone you know endured traumatic experiences as a child that may have predetermined or caused these unfortunate circumstances to occur.

According to early childhood expert, therapist and author Robin Karr-Morse, childhood trauma triggers toxic stress responses that can pave the way to chronic illnesses that affect and claim the lives of millions of adults across the United States each year.

In her latest book – “Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease” – Karr-Morse presents research that provides a framework for understanding how a child’s mental, emotional, social and physical well-being is directly linked to their adult health.

In an eye-opening luncheon hosted

by The Urban Child Institute last week to increase community knowledge on the topic, Karr-Morse facilitated an insightful and interactive book discussion on childhood trauma and its impacts on children, adults, families and communities.

In “Scared Sick,” it is reported that an estimated 26 percent of all children in the United States will experience or witness a traumatic event prior to age four.

And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 60 percent of American adults say that they endured abuse or other severe difficulties.

Research is still limited, but medical studies and expert opinions increasingly cite early experiences as a reason for chronic illnesses that are generally diagnosed later in life. But childhood trauma remains an often over-looked cause for adult disease.

At the luncheon, Karr-Morse offered her perspective on why this is the case.

“We are a nation of idiots about infancy,” she said.

“We don’t get how the central nervous system affects everything that we become…we don’t get how vulnerable we are when we enter the world (as an adult) without preparation.”

It has long been proven by physicians, therapists and researchers alike that without intervention or treatment, childhood trauma can have devastating effects throughout adulthood.

Traumatic experiences for a child may include emotional, physical or sexual abuse, death of a loved one or violence in the home or community.

Examples of early childhood trauma may include premature birth, complications during pregnancy or birth, and maternal depression.

“These conditions have an impact on baby brains no less harmful than abuse or neglect,” Karr-Morse said.

But for decades, adult diseases that attack the central nervous system, immune system, or other physical mechanisms in the body have often been attributed to one’s genetic makeup, Other suspects have been

poor dieting habits, lifestyle choices, or aging.

In recent years, medical professionals, scientists and sociologists have concluded that childhood trauma should now also be considered as a possible contributor.

In “Scared Sick,” Karr-Marse and co-author Meredith Wiley explore in depth how poor adult health outcomes can be traced to an individual’s upbringing. They also reveal how chronic fear and toxic stress in children cause negative emotional and behavioral patterns in adults.

“What happens to us emotionally happens to us physically,” KarrMorse explained to guests at the luncheon. “Trauma is fear frozen in the body…adult systems are well insulated (for recovery) but for babies and kids, little traumas can accumulate and overwhelm the child.”

Research on how early emotions and experiences help to shape the central nervous, endocrine and immune systems – systems that protect our health and prevent chronic illnesses – is also presented in “Scared Sick” that helps to define the critical role that childhood trauma plays in the onset of many health challenges that adults experience.

Karr-Morse believes that early detection and intervention of childhood trauma is the key to reversing poor health trends and to improving local and national health statistics.

“Memphis has made great investments (in early care) but it’s not enough. If we recognize the elephant in the room, we can begin to do something about it,” she continued.

“We need trauma informed intervention measures.

During her presentation, KarrMorse described how early intervention measures such as positive parenting, high quality care and positive human relationships can help to reduce toxic stress responses in children and counteract their effects.

She also discussed how childhood trauma not only impacts the individual, but also has a significant bearing on societal concerns such as poverty, crime and education – issues that are all too familiar in the Greater Memphis area.

Through data-driven research, The Urban Child Institute has discovered that much of our city’s challenges can be addressed and confronted if we focus on implementing initiatives that promote optimal brain development, and work to protect the health and well-being of children during the critical ages of zero to three.

By initiating prevention-based strategies, and launching intervention programs that focus on local children, The Urban Child Institute serves as a vital resource to shed light on the importance of reducing childhood trauma in Memphis and Shelby County in order to help our children and our communities succeed and thrive.

At the close of the luncheon, Eugene K. Cashman, Jr., president and chief executive officer of The Urban Child Institute encouraged guests to use their influence to increase understanding of the role that childhood trauma plays in adult disease and also the future of our city by spreading the information that they received.

“Science is fundamental to understanding that if you’re not laying the foundation in the first three years, the results that we have now will continue,” he said. “Accept knowledge as a moral responsibility to do something about it.”

FACEBOOK FAN OF THE WEEK

Dwayne Hampton

Dwayne Hampton is a graduate of Southside High School (1979) and attended the University of Memphis. Some of his favorite television shows are “Martin,” “The Game,” and “Unsung.” He enjoys playing chess and playing and watch-

ing tennis.

His favorite quotes are: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one” and “Give a man a fish and heʼll eat one day. Teach a man to fish and heʼll eat a lifetime.”

Thanks Dwayne for a being a part of the TSD Facebook family!

Getting smart on surety bonds Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Rhonda Taylor

There is nothing wrong with being dumb. That’s how all smart people start out.

In my case, I was dumb enough to quit a lifetime-guaranteed job with the government to start my own business.

I was dumb enough to think, as an African-American woman, I could compete with huge corporations for government contracts. And I was dumb enough to think that once I got the job, I could do it well.

Like a lot of smaller contractors, I smartened up. Fast. Turns out I was smart enough after all.

But one thing that lots of business people never really smarten up about is getting a surety bond. To do a government job – my first – I needed a bond. Who knew?

Not the insurance companies. They told me I could not get a bond because my company did not have a good credit score. Turns out that surety bonds and completion bonds and other bonds are not really insurance.

They are more like lines of credit.

Here’s why: If a contractor does not finish a job, the bonding company has to step in and make it right.

Then the bonding company can turn around and pursue the original contractor for reimbursement.

If bonding companies think your credit is such that they cannot recover their losses, they will not issue a bond.

That is what happened to me – 11 times. There was nothing wrong with my credit: My books were in order.

Taxes paid. Vendors happy. Clients too.

I just did not have enough of it to get a bond for a three-year contract I had already won.

When I talked to other business people about bonding and working capital, they all said the same thing: Nothing we can do about it. That is just the way it is.

“But wait a minute,” I asked: “All that government stimulus money is supposed to help small businesses.

And now you are telling me that most small businesses cannot do government work? That can’t be true.”

Most did not answer. They just shrugged their shoulders and walked away.

The agency with the work gave me an extension but it was not looking good. With two days to go, my agent, Chondra Martin, told me she had a lead: A bonding company that looked past credit scores and looked at your ability to do the work you were contracted to do. That seemed kind of smart.

Soon we were talking with Andrew Wohl at Ox Bonding. He wanted to know about my company and its balance sheet and whether I had any tax

liens or other problems. That was all good.

Then we started talking about the job and how I bid on it; why I bid the way I did (I went to the agency and got a copy of the contract from the last Rhonda time it was up. So Taylor I knew what the number was and I told Andrew how I could do the job better, faster, cheaper.)

He got into my grill. And soon I got a bond.

Next think you know the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is doing a story about how this small business owner overcame obstacles to win a job. That of course got me even more clients.

I didn’t know about that either.

Later I had a chance to talk to Robert Berman, co-founder of Ox Bonding and another smart guy. He told me that he started Ox Bonding because when he was a teenager, his father could not get a bond for a bigger government job.

They ignored all his great work.

All his references.

“There are so many good companies out there that do great work but who cannot get a bond,” Berman told me. “So we help them with a bond and with working capital. Because on government jobs, sometimes a lot of money goes out before any comes in.”

Berman is not a member of the Little Sisters of the Poor: He is not running a charity.

Ox Bonding manages risk by having the agency issue our checks to them. They pay the workers and the vendors.

“We can even negotiate better deals,” Berman told me. “We will call a vendor and say we can pay you in 30 days, as stated in the contract.

Or we can pay you today if we get a discount. Most vendors are happy to negotiate.”

That is pretty smart.

Being the smart person that I am, I detected a flaw in Berman’s grand plan for dominating the world of bonding and working capital.

“Once your clients get a bond and do the work, won’t that help them get the credit they need to get a bond from one of the big boys, like Zurich?”

“Smart question,” he said. I knew that.

“We do help our clients get better credit. But we also help them with working capital, payroll, and other services. So what we have found so far is that once contractors have been with us for a while, they want to do even more with us.”

Even I’m smart enough to know that.

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Tri-State Defender Platform

1. Racial prejudice worldwide must be destroyed.

2. Racially unrestricted membership in all jobs, public and private.

3. Equal employment opportunities on all jobs, public and private.

4. True representation in all U.S. police forces.

5. Complete cessation of all school segregation.

6. Federal intervention to protect civil rights in all instances where civil rights compliance at the state level breaks down

DISTRIBUTION: Tri-State Defender is available at newsstands, street sales, store vendors, mail subscription and honor boxes throughout the Greater Memphis area. No person may, without prior written permission of the Tri-State Defender, reprint any part of or duplicate by electronic device any portion without written permission. Copyright 2012 by Tri-State Defender Publishing, Inc. Permission to Publisher, Tri-State Defender, 203 Beale Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN. 38103. Back copies can be obtained by calling the Tri-State Defender at (901) 523-1818, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

America is blessed by the presence of the effective and diverse ministries of the AfricanA m e r i c a n church. On Feb. 18, millions of Americans, as well as millions of others Dr. Benjamin throughout the Chavis world, were transfixed and glued to their television sets and laptops as they watched the dramatic yet graceful, transformative dignity of the African-American church during the four hour live broadcast from the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J. of the funeral celebration of the life and legacy of Whitney Elizabeth Houston.

For many this was their first indepth witnessing of how the AfricanAmerican church functions in the social and religious setting of American society. We all are very grateful to the Houston family for sharing that uplifting and inspirational experience with the rest of the world. In short, that was a global “teachable moment.”

Pastor Joe A. Carter of the 103year-old New Hope Baptist Church and all of the participants in the service of worship are to be saluted for “having church” in the best and exquisite tradition of the AfricanAmerican church during the funeral ceremony. The prayers, the choir, the solos, the numerous testimonials and the eulogy by Pastor Marvin Winans were all full of the spirit, substance, and power of the tradition of invoking the redemptive service and gift of the unique ecclesiology of the African-American church.

The African-American church has not only been the historic backbone of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, this institution continues today to be the mainstay where the spirit and soul of Black America reverberates with the essence of what it means to overcome the snares, pains and difficult realities of AfricanAmerican life. But the African-American church is also that place where the joys and passions of our long struggle for freedom, justice and equality are eloquently expressed and strategically organized. That is why today, many clergy leaders are joining together to help build Occupy the Dream as an interdenominational organizing and mobilization effort to address and respond to the issues of income inequality and economic injustice with particular respect to the African-American community.

During the past few days, I have had to opportunity to further witness the diversity of the efficacy of the contemporary African-American church. In Rahway, N.J. at the Agape Family Worship Center, I heard the eloquent and dynamic sermon of Pastor Lawrence R. Powell and saw the enthusiastic response from the inspired congregation that goes out to make a positive difference across the state and nation. Later in Cleveland, Ohio, I viewed the young visionary leadership of Pastor Shane K. Floyd at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church lead his church members with community leaders on the issues of options for improvement of the education of our children in the public school system. Then on Sunday morning, I went home to the church of my ordination, Oak Level United Church of Christ, in Warren County, N.C. under the charismatic and activist leadership of the Pastor Leon White for over 50 years. That evening I went to St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, N.C. ,where African-American Episcopalian Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry, preached a soaring sermon on the Christian legacy of Absolom Jones and how the post-modern liberation agenda of the church needs to be fulfilled today.

But this is just a small partial list of pastors and churches that represent the best of the living core of the proclamation of Gospel and innovative ministries of the African-American church community across the nation. Pastor Jamal Bryant of the 10,000-member Empowerment Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore is the National Spokesperson for Occupy the Dream and is emerging as a major force for the revitalization of African-American church in America. Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago under the leadership of Pastor Otis Moss III continues to provide a board range of engaging ministries that serve to empower people and communities throughout the city and state.

The amazing grace of the AfricanAmerican church in America transforms, sustains, motivates and empowers African Americans and many others who affirm the power of the Christian faith at a time of great change and challenge. Let’s keep the faith and show support for these institutions that are so vital for the redemption and progress of families and communities.

Tri-State Defender

NATION

February 23 - 29, 2012

Bobby Brown explains exit from Whitney’s funeral (NNPA) Singer Bobby Brown is speaking out about the brief dramatic moment that led to him and his children leaving the funeral of his ex-wife, Whitney Houston, Saturday (Feb. 18) morning.

He released an official statement where he offers an explanation to the turn of events that were captured by cameras covering the beloved singer’s final services. Excerpts from the statement are as follows: “My children and I were invited to the funeral of my exwife Whitney Houston. We were seated by security and then subsequently asked to move on three separate occasions. I fail to understand why security treated my family this way and continued to ask us and no one else to move. Security then prevented me from attempting to see my daughter Bobbi Kristina.”

“In light of the events, I gave a kiss to the casket of my ex-wife and departed as I refused to create a scene….I will continue to pay my respects to my ex-wife the best way I know how.”

Describing what happened

Bobby Brown at the funeral of his ex-wife, Whitney Houston. (Photo courtesy of NNPA/St. Louis American) at the service, the Rev. Al Sharpton posted on his Twitter account: “I am at Whitney’s funeral. I spoke with Bobby Brown trying to calm him down and not distract from the services. Today is about Whitney.”

In an interview with CNN’s Don Lemons following the service, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said that Bobby Brown did his

best not to cause a scene. He also quickly diverted attention from the incident while implying that it was beside the point and returned to the topic of Houston’s services and how loved she was by the world.

(Special to the NNPA from the St. Louis American; Information from CNN contributed to this report.)

Ceremony marks groundbreaking for National Museum of African American History and Culture The Smithsonian broke ground for its 19th museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, on Wednesday, Feb. 22, at an invitation-only ceremony on the National Mall.

President Barack Obama spoke at the ceremony. Other guests included First Lady Michelle Obama, former First Lady Laura Bush, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Gov. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

The ceremony took place on

the museum’s five-acre site adjacent to the Washington Monument.

“With this groundbreaking we move closer toward creating a museum to make manifest the dreams of many generations,” said Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the museum. “The structure about to rise on the National Mall will be a signature building, and the museum it houses will give us a way to ensure that America understands the

African American experience as a history that has shaped us all.”

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was created in 2003 by an Act of Congress, establishing it as part of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum will be the nation’s largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to showcasing African American life, art, history and culture.

Page 5

Page 6

BRIEFS & THINGS

COMMUNITY

Tri-State Defender

February 23 - 29, 2012

Textbook Adoption Fair

Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools will host a textbook adoption fair on Friday (Feb. 24) from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. The goal is to give teachers, administrators and the general public an opportunity to examine the textbooks being considered for adoption for the 2012-213 school year.

The textbooks on display for consideration include Literature (6-12), Music, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, Dance, Spelling, Driver Education, Computer Science, Health Sciences Education, Business Technology, Marketing Education, Technology Engineering Education, and Trade & Industrial Education.

Textbooks will be on display at the MCS Board Auditorium, located at 2597 Avery Avenue. Representatives from the various publishers will be available to answer questions.

For more information, contact Meryl Isabel, MCS Coordinator of Instructional Materials & Resources, at 901-416-5870.

Methodist South to host Day to Dance for Health

Methodist South Hospital is hosting a Day to Dance for Health, a community-based event that welcomes the entire community to dance, celebrate their health and learn about cardiovascular disease on Saturday (Feb. 25) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Southland Mall.

The event will include dance demonstrations, health screenings, a fashion show, heart health activities, and give-a-ways.

There will be a special appearance by the Memphis Grizzlies Grannies & Grandpas and other dance demonstrations, including African-American ballet, native East Indian dance, Zumba and others.

No advance registration is required. For more information, visit www.mlh.org.

Teens, Technology & Trafficking

Walking Into A New Life presents “Teens, Technology & Trafficking,” an educational event designed to acquaint and educate the community on the dangers teens and young adults face with Internet predators and provide a deeper look into human trafficking.

The event will be held March 3 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at The Church Health Center, 1115 Union Avenue. Admission is free.

The program includes the “Computer Cop” presentation by Lt. Cleveland, supervisor of the Sex Crimes Bureau of the Memphis Police Department. Also featured will be Kimberly Benson, founder of A Bridge of Hope, who will give a view of human trafficking. Participants will have the opportunity for Q & A, and will receive a free DVD and other informative items.

Space is limited space. RSVP by contacting Joyce Parkinson at 901-466-6182 or email, info@wianl.org. For more information, visit www.wianl.org or check out twitter @wianladvocate or Facebook.

Walking Into A New Life is dedicated to stopoing domestic violence and helping to stabilize victims through education and microenterprise development.

Lee Harris named a top black lawyer

On Being a Black Lawyer (OBABL) has named Lee Harris, professor of law at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and a Memphis City Councilman, as one of the 100 most influential black lawyers in the United States.

Harris and the other honorees will be recognized at a cocktail reception at The RitzCarlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on February 29.

OBABL has also published The Power 100 Special Edition. The publication, available online at www.obabl.com/special-editions/, feature profiles of the nation’s most influential black lawyers working in government, academics, and the public and private sectors.

An associate professor, Harris has been a member of the U of M faculty since 2005, teaching contracts, corporations, and mergers & acquisitions. He also writes about the various ways investors influence a firm. His work has been presented at the Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum and featured in prominent media such as The Economist.

On Being a Black Lawyer was founded in 2008 as a news and resource center. The company has since grown into a social media firm providing research, career development, and brand marketing opportunities to clients.

BRIEFLY: A self-publishing workshop will be held at Southwest Tennessee Community College on Macon in ML122 from 10 a.m. to noon on Monday (Feb. 27). 12noon. It is free and open to the public and will be conducted by Dr. David Rogers, head of Humanities at Kingston University in London.

BRIEFLY: The City of Memphis’Ambassadors Program is taking applications. Interested parties must be entering the 10th, 11th or 12th grade in the upcoming 2012-2013 school year. Applications can be completed at www.cityofmemphis.org until March 16th. Applicants will be ranked March 22nd, and interviews will occur in April.

BRIEFLY: The Heal the Hood Foundation of Memphis (HTH) will host the HTH “Game Changer” Advocate & Humanitarian Award during the 4th Annual “Living the Dream Telethon” on April 14 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hickory Ridge Mall. To find out about the award categories and/or nominate a “Game Changer,” contact Roshunda Buchanan, Team Coordinator at 901-489-2386 or email Roshunda.Buchanan@yahoo.com to receive a 2011-12 nomination form.

In ʻDeadline,ʼ an African-American teenager in Amos, Ala. is shot with a deer rifle and left dead on the street.

Memphis attorney DʼArmy Bailey plays the judge in the trial that unfolds 20 years later in the movie that is based on real events. (Courtesy photo)

‘Deadline’ Memphis – Monday, February 27 Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell Civil rights activist attorneys Larry Woods and D’Army Bailey will unite once again in Memphis, a hotbed of drama during the turbulent ’60s. Only this time, it won’t be a protest march in the street or a legal dogfight in a courtroom.

The two will take to the big screen in “Deadline,” a movie based on real events about the murder of an African-American teenage boy in Amos, Ala., by an angry Klansman. Woods is a native of Nashville. Attorney and former judge Bailey is Memphis’ own.

Hundreds are expected to attend a redcarpet premiere of the feature film at the Wolfchase 8 Galleria on Monday (Feb. 27). Bailey will take a stroll down the crimson walkway, along with Hollywood’s Steve Talley and Academy-Award nominated Eric Roberts, who star in the docu-drama.

“I have acted in a number of movies,” said Bailey. “But this experience – being a part of creating this film – felt so authentic. All the characters brought a richness and sense of humanity in telling this story of young Wallace Sampson, who was killed by a Ku Klux Klansman simply because he was black. All the actors made rich, personal contributions to the set.”

Bailey plays the presiding judge in the trial of Sampson’s alleged murderer who has eluded prosecution for two decades.

The actual court scenes were shot in the antiquated courthouse of Pulaski, Tenn., founding city of the Ku Klux Klan.

DʼArmy “As I waited for my Bailey scenes, I sat next door in a small courtroom. I quietly reflected on what must have gone on here. All the crimes against blacks that went unanswered; all the people so long ago who had no legal protection against lynching and other racial cruelty.

“Amos, Alabama was pretty much like that for young Wallace, too. He was shot with a deer rifle and left dead on the street. The murder went uninvestigated, unsolved, and unpunished until justice spoke 20 years later. This role was so close to home, so real and authentic to me.

It is a project in which I am extremely proud. Not just an acting job – ‘Deadlines’ was life-changing for me.”

The film’s director, Curt Hahn, called the 95-minute saga “a Christian film about truth and redemption.”

“Our film has been compared to the

great classic, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’” said Hahn. “To even be named in the same breath as this landmark film is an extreme honor. I am just so humbled and grateful to have been a part of this.”

“Deadline” is being released in a 42city tour across the country.

“A portion of the proceeds from the film will be given to charity,” said Hahn.

“Already, more than $30,000 has been raised for non-profits. The Memphis premiere will benefit Stax Music Academy.”

For more information and tickets, call the Wolfchase 8 Galleria at 901-6812020. The red carpet event will begin at 6 p.m.

Unity 100

Melvin Jones of the Black Business Directory explains the idea and the benefits of his new Unity 100 initiative during last weekʼs Black Business Association of Memphis meeting.

The effort involves enhanced networking and a capital pool.

(Photo by Tyrone P. Easley)

Photo Voter ID Law to get forum airing

Shelby County Commissioner Henri E. Brooks will be the featured speaker for a Voter Education Forum set for Sunday (Feb. 26) at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church at 491 East McLemore Ave. The one-hour session has a 9:30 a.m. start time. Brooks will provide essential information about the new Photo Voter ID Law and the need for federal or state-issued photo ID cards to cast a ballot in upcoming elections, beginning with the March 6 Primary in Shelby County.

In addition, Brooks will share details about her partnership with local churches to provide round-trip transportation to the Drivers License Centers for persons needing to get state-issued photo ID cards on Saturday, March 3 from 8:30

a.m. to 5 p.m.

Following the discussion, Brooks will field questions from the audience while targeting some of the most asked Voting Law questions such as: • How do persons in a hospital, or a nursing home vote?

• Will new voters receive a voter photo I.D. when they register if they desire one?

• Is there a deadline for receiving a photo I.D. in order to vote in the November General Election?

• Is there a problem if a person’s driver’s license is from another state, and he or she has never voted in Tennessee?

• If a person does not have a passport or a birth certificate, and does not have his tele-

phone or utilities in his or her name, and has no bank account, how can he or she receive a photo I. D.?

• Is the Photo I.D. Law an amendment to the Constitution concerning the right to vote?

• Are voters required to vote in the Primary Election in March in order to vote in the November General Election?

• Why do some states require the photo I. D. and other states do not?

• What is the rationale for the photo I.D. requirement?

• Is this requirement mandatory in all elections local, state, and national from now on?

For more information please call or 901-8576443.

Tri-State Defender

SPORTS

Page 7

February 23 - 29, 2012

GRIZZ TRACK

TIGER TALES

Grizz in good standing at the half-season break Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Kelley Evans

Thirty-four – that’s how many games remain for the Memphis Grizzlies after Tuesday’s 89-76 victory over the Philadelphia at FedExForum.

The first half of the NBA season is over and the Grizz have good playoff standing, holding the seventh spot in the Western Conference.

Many wondered whether the NBA would ever get to this point amid a lockout that delayed the season’s start to December, lopping off 16 games.

The Grizzlies are 19-15 and many players are headed to the NBA All-Star Game or they’ve made plans for rest and relaxation.

Coming off of last year’s 46-36 regular season finish and historic playoff run and under Head Coach Lionel Hollins, Memphis has become a team that generally knows how to get things done.

“Any team is only as good as its weakest parts and you need everybody,” Hollins said. “It may not be every night, but there’s a lot of nights you need everybody, and the guys who don’t play as many minutes, and don’t have the status, have to play well. And it’s not about scoring, but going about and doing their jobs, so that the other guys can perform to the level that they need to perform at and win the game.

On Feb. 20, Hollins marked his 300th game as head coach.

At the break, the Grizzlies lead the NBA in steals (10.0).

They are undefeated when scoring 100 points in a game (8-0). Memphis also earned consecutive one-point home victories with tip-ins in the closing seconds on Feb. 1516, becoming the first and on-

ly team in NBA history to record one-point home victories on consecutive nights.

Grizz Guard Mike Conley said the first half was “very good.”

“I think a lot of us don’t understand how well we’ve done for ourselves without having Zach (Randolph) there,” Conley said. “He’s a big part of our team going forward and last season in the playoffs.

With his absence, still being in the hunt and in the playoffs like we are is amazing.”

Conly said the Grizz learned last season how important the second half of the season is for a lot of teams.

“That’s why I’m happy with the momentum we have going into the All-Star break. If we continue to have that momentum and come out early in the first five or six games and really start a good streak, we’ll be putting ourselves in a good position for the rest of the season.”

Memphis is above .500 since Randolph was sidelined with a torn right MCL. Randolph, who sustained the injury on Jan. 1 at Chicago, was expected to miss six to eight seeks and will return to contact practice after the All-Star break.

“At the end of the day, we’re all pros,” said Grizz guard Tony Allen. “Losing Zach was big, we all know.

We turned into a makeshift team again. We lost Rudy (Gay) last year. There’s going to be five guys on the court and no one is going to feel sorry for us. All we can do is try to hold down the fort until he gets back. From what I hear, he’s having a great recovery.

We just have to be ready at all times.”

Allen, who is known for hard work and defense, plans to spend his break working

The Tigersʼ Antonio Barton is fouled as he drives by Corvonn Gaines of East Carolina. The Tigers downed the Pirates 70 to 47. (Photo by Warren Roseborough)

Marc Gasol of the Grizzlies earned his first All-Star nod when he was named to the 2012 Western Conference All-Star Team as a reserve on Feb. 9. “Iʼm going to take a charge or two,” said Gasol, who was dominant in the Grizz win over Philadelphia at the FedExForum last Tuesday (Feb. 14). (Photo by Warren Roseborough) and preparing for the second half of the season.

“I am going to be here shooting a lot of jump shots, a lot of layups and doing a lot of conditioning. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here in Memphis. I probably won’t go as hard, but I’ll definitely be in the gym.”

Grizz guard O.J. Mayo has sparked flames coming off the bench, scoring in double figures 23 times the first half of the season.

“Six games in nine days is tough,” Mayo said of the last few games. “We really gutted it out. We really played well down the stretch of the first

half of this season. Hopefully, when we come back from the break, we’ll have guys healthy and finish it out the right way.”

When the Grizz return it will pretty much be full throttle, said Mayo.

“I hope he (Grizz All-Star Marc Gasol) enjoys his time and that everyone else enjoys it because when we come back it’s time to rev it up another notch focus-wise with our play and carry over into the postseason.”

The Grizzlies will face the NBA champions, Dallas Mavericks, on Feb. 29 at FedExForum.

New ‘big’ Speights helps Grizz fill Zbo gap Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Kelley Evans

It was tip-off time at FedExForum on Tuesday (Feb. 21) and the Memphis Grizzlies’ starting lineup included forward Marreese Speights.

There the 6’ 10” big man stood face-toface with the team that originally chose him at No. 16 in the 2008 NBA draft. The Philadelphia 76ers (20-13) sent Speights packing to the Grizzlies on Jan. 4 in a three-way trade involving the New Orleans Hornets. The Grizzlies sent Xavier Henry to New Orleans and a 2012 second-round pick to Philadelphia in the deal.

The Grizzlies defeated the 76ers 89 to 76 with Speights as a key player. He finished with 12 points and two rebounds.

Speights, who averaged eight points and four rebounds in Philadelphia, made the first shot and grabbed the first rebound of the game. He went on to score six points in just eight minutes.

And that’s what the Grizzlies needed to get a good foundation and establish a lead. His former coach, the 76ers Doug Collins, said, “Marreese Speights scored three baskets to start the game and maybe jumped an inch of the floor each time.”

Making an adjustment after losing Zach Randolph and Darrell Arthur, the task for the Griz was to gather some big guys to compensate. Size is one trait that attracted the Grizzlies to third-year NBA grinder.

Grizz forward Rudy Gay knew exactly what was in store.

“I’ve known Mo for about four or five years now,” Gay said. “I think out of everybody I knew what to expect. You know what you get when you have him out there. He’s aggressive offensively.

Every night he’s going to rebound. That’s something we needed. They went and got him. He’s helped us out tremendously. I just knew he was going to blend in perfectly.”

Quickly adjusting to the Grizz grit and grind culture, Speights has been averaging 12.5 points and 10.4 rebounds on .542 shooting in 31.3 minutes in the last eight games. He posted a season-high 20 points and career-high 18 rebounds (a Grizzlies season high) on Feb. 15 at New Jersey.

He has recorded the three highest single-

Grizz “big” man Marreese Speights is making his presence known during the absence of Memphis star forward Zach Randolph. (Photo by Warren Roseborough)

game rebounding totals of his career this season. In the last four games he averaged 15 points and 10.8 rebounds on .636 shooting.

Teams usually have to prepare to battle Marc Gasol and Randolph. But now they are faced with a new big guy in Speights.

In Randolph’s absence Speights said he received sage advice.

“Zach said to make sure you play off Marc,” said Speights, who was a member of the Florida Gators’ 2007 National Championship team as a freshman, backing up current NBA stars Joakim Noah and Al Horford.

“I just go out there and just play hard to start off the games and with an edge on my shoulder. I go out, get a good warm up and I’m ready to go. With rebounding you have to go hard. Good things happen when you go out there with a lot of effort on the defensive glass and offensive glass.”

“Mo (Marreese) has gotten off to good

starts,” said Grizz Head Coach Lionel Hollins. “To his credit, he’s come out ready to play. We wouldn’t be where we are without him and his contribution throughout the course of the game…”

Gasol said Speights’ presence in the paint compensates for missing one Randolph and Arthur.

“He and Dante (Cunningham) have done a great job,” Gasol said. “They have the talent to do it and they are definitely giving the effort.”

“He’s really picked us up,” O.J. Mayo said. “My big brother Zbo went down and for him to step in and really pick it up down the stretch made him into a doubledouble machine. Feeding off Marc (Gasol) and feeding off the rest of the guys has helped us out.”

Grizz guard Mike Conley said, “We play in a system where we are going inside out and try to play through our big men. When Mo (Marreese) Speights is playing well, we play well.”

Cloudy future for Tigers but they control the weather Special to the Tri-State Defender

by J.R. Moorhead

Many Memphis fans are trying to deal with the harsh reality that this season has not stacked up to lofty expectations.

After their latest loss to UTEP, The Memphis Tigers’ chances of winning the regular season title for Conference USA are slim to none.

And the Tigers are going to need to win the conference tournament to earn a bid to the big dance.

Memphis faced the Miners of UTEP last Saturday (Feb. 18) at the FedExForum. The Tigers entered the game on a four-game win streak and playing as well as they have all year. Unfortunately, as the Tigers often do, they played to the competition.

The Miners were 12-13 and 5-6 in conference.

The Tigers took a ninepoint lead into the half.

UTEP only shot 32 percent in the first half, but the Miners came out hot in the second half, shooting a remarkable 61 percent and also reaping 19 free throws.

Memphis was down a couple of possessions late in the second half, but the Tigers managed to rally as they have become accustomed to doing at home as of late. Will Barton received the ball down by two points and held it for a last second three. The shot by Barton left many scratching their heads. He seemed to have plenty of time to drive to the basket or work it to Tarik Black, which seemed to be a better play.

Although they didn’t go quietly, the Tigers were handed their third conference loss this year. And the outlook for a conference title is now very grim.

Memphis rebounded by beating the ECU Pirates Wednesday night (Feb. 22)

in an impressive showing.

The Tigers’ 70-47 victory over the Pirates showcased how they are capable of playing if they are firing on all cylinders.

Yet, trying to figure out which Tiger team is going to take the floor each night would drive one mad. Is it going to be the team that gets upset at home by a C-USA opponent with a record under .500, or is the going to be the team that comes out and drums someone by double digits?

That is why Memphis is starting to look like a firstfour-out candidate, and without a conference tournament title the Tigers could very likely be headed to the NIT. The conference tournament is in Memphis and the Tigers are sure to have a favorable crowd rooting them on every game. Memphis has only lost two home games this season. The most recent to UTEP and the other to Murray State, which was the last undefeated team in the country.

So the odds are in the Tigers’ favor, but as they proved so recently, the odds don’t always pan out.

This isn’t to say the Tigers don’t have a shot to make the NCAA tourney and make some noise, because they do control their own destiny.

The future will show us what Memphis is ultimately capable of doing; however, if the Tigers do end up in the NIT and don’t have a favorable showing (also known as winning) don’t be surprised if some questions start getting asked.

Questions such as: How did the Tigers go from top ten to NIT runner up? Is it the players or the coach?

How are the Tigers going to compete in the Big East if they can’t win C-USA? Questions someone will have to answer.

Respect for a Tiger…

Eric Harris, a Hamilton High School graduate and Memphis State University star cornerback, died at age 57 in Little Rock on Sunday.

Harris who played professionally in Canada and later in the NFL, died of a heart attack. (U of M courtesy photo)

RELIGION

Page 8

Tri-State Defender

February 23 - 29, 2012

LIVING THE LIFE I LOVE

That rattling sound is love being chosen over hate

Dear Lucy: I have read your “love” articles. My question is about hate. It seems to me that hate is the real problem today. There is hate at a national level. People seem to think its OK to hate the President openly and forcefully. When I open up my email every day, there is nothing but news where people are hating on each other. Then at the local level it’s the same thing. People still have wars because of hatred. All of the hate can make you “hate” to get up every day!

– MP

Dear MP: I chose to write about love this month because it’s the month of Valentines Day and because, like you, I am aware of what seems like a rampant focus on hatred. However, I still genuinely LOVE getting up every day and have no intention of choosing to allow external circumstances to steal my joy, ever!

In my book, “Be Not Anxious,” I

give hate a whole chapter. Why? Because it is the opposite of love and we live on a planet where opposites serve a purpose.

We would not know cold if there was no hot. We would not know success Lucy without some Shaw failure or appreciate the light without the dark. The opposites often are needed to force mankind to move from a place of mediocrity or plain dullness and complacency into the territory of excellence. The most honest of recovered drug addicts will tell you that without the profound pain of lost self-love, confidence and respect, he would never have longed so deeply to regain it that he would do the hard work required to find

happiness again.

Hatred has been the awful means of bringing about the failure of decadent empires, governments and destructive powers in high places.

Apartheid, slavery, anti-Semitism, segregation and the list goes on. History seems to repeat itself as the instrument of hatred opposing love causes man to evolve into something better. This month we also commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In retrospect, would he say that we have grown by yards or by inches since his death?

Love is first expressed at the individual level. Most of us know that this question about love and hate is at least 2000 years old. Jesus’ reply to the question was that we should “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And then he went on to say that we should “love your neighbor as yourself.”

At the root of all hatred is fear.

This fear begins with the child who is not shown how to love himself. This child is mercilessly criticized and so he grows up to be mercilessly critical of himself and of others. And somewhere he gets told that he can never be loved by God because he is nothing. So then he cannot love an unloving God and, bingo!, he has been unable to fulfill any of the law that we find repeated in every religious scripture...Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself. Maybe I made that too simple.

But, here is the thing. We are once again seeing an earthshaking change take place in the world. It is a call to love so great that hatred seems to be on top. As individuals, we are being called to get so fed up with expressions of hatred that we will choose to set our minds on higher thoughts; thoughts of love, peace, fairness, joy and whatever is good and become those thoughts in action! This is an individual call and it is coming with

‘But-if-not’ faith inspires Healing Center worshippers Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell

“…But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up…”

– Daniel 3:18

Bishop Henry W. Hearns Sr. returned to his family’s home place down in Byhalia, Miss., last week.

From the plantation where his parents worked as sharecroppers to Lancaster, Calif, City Hall as mayor, his 79-year journey has been impressive and eventful.

The prolific preacher and Bible teacher touted “But-if-not” faith in a Sunday (Feb. 19 morning message at The Healing Center.

“The three Hebrew boys refused to bow down to the idol god set up by the king,” said Bishop Hearns. “They understood that the God they served was well able to deliver them from

the fiery furnace. And that if He did not deliver them, it was because He chose not to do so. ‘But-if-not’ faith can get you through any trial, regardless of whether God chooses to deliver you or not.”

Bishop Hearns last week was guest lecturer at the University of Memphis, where he shared life experiences – from the cotton fields of Mississippi to Lancaster City Hall and the pulpit. He remains the city’s only African-American elected as mayor, having served two terms and several terms on the Lancaster City Council.

Bishop Hearns is pastor of Living Stone Cathedral of Worship, a 3,000member congregation. Healing Center’s Bishop William M. Young Sr. was in the U of M audience when Bishop Hearns spoke.

“I was just so inspired by this great man of God,” said Dr. Young. “What Bishop Hearns had to say was so impactful and significant, I asked if he might be free to come and speak in our 11 o’clock service on Sunday.

50-plus…

At Mt. Vernon Baptist Church-Westwood last Saturday (Feb. 18) there was a celebration of 50-plus years of pastoral service each for (l-r) Dr. Samuel “Billy” Kyles of Monumental Baptist, Dr. H.O. Kneeland Jr. of Union Valley Baptist and Dr. James L. Netters of Mt. Vernon. (Photo by Tyrone P. Easley)

Bishop Henry W. Hearns Sr. was featured guest last Sunday at The Healing Center. Hosts, Bishop William M. Young Sr. and Pastor Dianne P. Young, are also pictured. (Photo by Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell) “I don’t just let anybody preach in that pulpit. A pastor has to be careful about who ministers to his people. But I had no qualms about inviting Bishop Hearns to our church. It’s quite apparent that the Lord is still using him, even at nearly 80 years of age.”

Bishop Hearns earned a bachelors

degree in both Agriculture and Civil Engineering from Tennessee State University in 1955. He later earned a masters in Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern California. Bishop Hearns has pastored the Antelope Valley church for more than four decades.

Men in service…

The Annesdale Cherokee MBC Male Chorus graced the African American History Month program that. (Photo by Tyrone P. Easley)

-A WEEKLY DIRECTORY OF MINISTERS & CHURCHES-

3311 Kimball Ave. Memphis, TN 38111 (901) 744-7531 (901) 744-7664

Clarence Kelby Heath Wednesday Pastor

Noon - 1 p.m.

6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

9 a.m.

10:30 a.m.

901-946-4095 fax 948-8311

Bible Study For Youth and Adults Tuesday - 7:00 PM “Spirit, Soul, and Body!”

AM 1070 WDIA Sundays, 10:00-10:30 AM

SUNDAY Sunday School .....................8:30 am Morning Worship Service ....10:00am

TV Cable Access Broadcast Tuesdays, 7:30 PM, Channel 17 Website:www.saintandrewamec.org

Dr. & Rev. Mrs. Reginald Porter

TEMPLE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST

672 So. Lauderdale 38126 P.O. Box 314 Memphis, Tn 38101 Phone (General) 774-1572 Pastor: 775-0740 Secretary: 775-1909 WEEKLY SERVICES

Sunday Sunday School 9:00 a.m.

Morning Worship 10:30 a.m.

Night YPWW 5:00 p.m.

Night Service 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday Night Prayer 6:00 p.m.

Bible Study 7:15 p.m.

Wednesday Choir Rehearsal 7:00 p.m.

Friday Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m.

Night Service 7:30 p.m.

BROADCASTS 9:30 a.m. Sunday WDIA - 1070 AM

No Telecast Service

ST. ANDREW A.M.E. CHURCH (901) 948-3441

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES

FRIDAY Cable Channel 17 ............... 8:00pm

Unity Christian Church will host a series of events to celebrate and support young mothers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 25) and from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at the church at 3345 McCorkle Rd. The event will focus on helping young mothers to realize, “It’s not too late to dream.”

Topics will include health and nutrition, education, jobs and service, and support and mentorship.

The Rev. Tommie NovakLunsford of Indianola, Miss., who is a Mothers and Children Program Specialist, will be a featured speaker. Also present will be Methodist Hospital’s Congregational Health Network and TENNder Care Outreach program, which specialize in infant and children’s health care matters. TENNder care will have small gift incentives such as hand sanitizers, baby bath products, and pencils as well as educational information.

Scheduled events include a seminar, discussion panel, community resources and a special christening/dedication service for young mothers and their children.

Free and open to the pubic, the event is designed to provide support to the entire community, especially young mothers who need assistance to finish high school or college and who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and/or have one or more medical conditions. It will also assist those who are young divorcees, young couples with small children, those who are seeking employment and/or dealing with incarceration issues.

Unity Christian Church, founded in 1952, is led by the Rev. Eric Ovid Donaldson. For more information, visit unitychristianchurch.us or call 901-4613403

Early Morning..........7:45 AM Church School..........9:45 AM Morning Worship......11:00 AM

Rev. Davena Young Porter Rev. Linda A Paige Rev. Luecretia Matthews

WEDNESDAY Bible Study .........................10:30 am Mid-Day Prayer Meeting .....12 noon Evening Prayer Meeting........7:00pm

(Check out Lucy Shaw’s website at http://www.heartworks4u.com. You may send your questions to her by U.S. mail to: Heartworks4U, LLC; 4646 Poplar Ave. Ste 201, Memphis, TN 38117 or by e-mail to lucy@heartworks4u.com.)

(For help with the feelings that get in the way of prayer and peace of mind, get Lucy’s new book, “BE NOT ANXIOUS.” Order it directly from her at 901-907-0260 or go to her web site www.heartworks4u.com.)

867 SOUTH PARKWAY EAST Memphis, TN 38106

Dr. Reginald L. Porter Sr., Pastor

ASSOCIATE MINISTERS

Worship Services

Sunday Sunday School Worship Service

METROPOLITAN BAPTIST CHURCH

767 Walker Avenue Memphis, TN 38126

Lucy

Young mothers draw Unity Christian Church support

PRAISE CONNECT

Greenwood Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

force around the globe, not just in America. One by one we must make the decision to choose to serve love or a lesser emotion. A lesser emotion can only bring a lesser, mediocre result. I don’t know about you, but I am ready for the excellence found in the Love that knows “no shadow of turning” and is the same forevermore.

Peace, be still,

Dr. David Allen Hall Pastor

“The Founder’s Church”

First Pastor: Senior Bishop C.H. Mason

THE BLVD Ea s t 6745 Wol f Ri v e r B oule v a r d @ Ki r by Pa r k wa y ( i n t he Cl a rk Ope r a Me mphi s Ce nte r ) Me mp h i s T N 3 8 1 2 0

Dr. Frank A. Thomas Senior Servant

Child Care Center (901) 948-6441 Monday-Friday 6 AM- 5:30 PM Emergency Food Pantry Rev. Kenneth S. Robinson, Pastor & Clothes Closet Rev. Marilynn S. Robinson, Co-Pastor Wednesday 6 PM-8 PM

“Ministering to Memphis-Spirit, Soul and Body”

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

— Proverbs 1:7

NEWS

Tri-State Defender

LEGACY: Howard R. Richardson Sr. Howard R. Richardson Sr. – who worked for 44 years for the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union – was one of Memphis’ leading figures when it came to union and labor relations.

Mr. Richardson died Sunday (Feb. 19) at his home after a short and valiant battle with lung cancer. He was 81.

Mr. Richardson retired as Senior Vice President of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union on Dec. 31, 2003.

In 1959, Mr. Richardson became a bellman and soon thereafter attended his first union meeting. Outraged by restrictions on the working class, he stood up and argued his point. By the end of the meeting he had been appointed secretary-treasurer and later became field representative.

Mr. Richardson was one of the first African American union organizers in the south during the 1960’s. He attempted to unionize workers at hotels where – because of segregation – he was not even allowed to enter through the back door. He was appointed Administrative Assistant to the General President in 1975.

As International Vice President, the office he won election to in January 1983, Mr. Richardson traveled throughout the United States and several countries representing his union. He negotiated agreements with national and international companies, and taught classes on collective bargaining techniques, disputes resolutions, grievance procedures and union administration.

Mr. Richardson was born

Page 9

February 23 - 29, 2012

Feb. 13, 1931 in Senatobia/Desoto County, Miss., to the Rev. Rich Richardson, a tenant farmer, and Lillian Metcalf Richardson. The Richardson family moved to Shelby County in 1935. He attended Shelby County grade schools and dropped out of Geeter High School after completing the tenth grade to help support his family. He decided to serve his country and enlisted in the United States Marine Corp.

Mr. Richardson dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but he didn’t have the time or the education. Through his endless giving spirit and love for his family he helped his brothers, F.C. and Raymond, obtain their doctorate degrees.

Mr. Richardson was baptized at Hickory Hill Baptist Church (Shelby County and joined Mt. Olive C.M.E. Church in 1959, where he remained active through the years, teaching Men’s Bible Class and serving on the Stewart Board and as a member of the Trustee Board.

Throughout his life, Mr.

Richardson was active with numerous organizations, including the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Congressional Black Caucus, NAACP, Democratic Party, AFL-CIO Labor Council.

Mr. Richardson was married to Mildred (Nickey) Burgess Richardson, who preceded him in death in December 1966. His sisters, Bernice Hodges and Lenora Tinner, and his brother, Herbert Richardson, also preceded him in death. He leaves three daughters, Elois J. Frazier of Memphis, Karen Swan of Saginaw, Mich., and Maryam (Mary Elizabeth) Husain of Chicago; a son, Howard R. Richardson Jr. (Loraine) of Memphis; a sister, Mamie Eldridge (Charles) of Anaheim, Calif.; three brothers, Curtis Richardson (Juanita) of Detroit, F.C. Richardson (Bernice) of Merrisville, Ind., and Raymond Richardson (Lillie) of Nashville; a brother-in-law, Bobby Burgess (Elizabeth) of Memphis; and two granddaughters, two grandsons, three great grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, godchildren and a special son, Michael A. Darling II. Visitation: Thursday, Feb. 23, 10 a.m.-11:55 a.m. at Mt. Olive Cathedral C.M.E. at 538 Linden Ave. and funeral services at noon, with burial in New Park Cemetery on Horn Lake Road.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, Tenn., 38148-0142.

J.O. Patterson Mortuary has charge.

OBITUARIES

BERTHA SAINE, 88 – DOD: 2/18/12 Funeral Services Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. – Mt. Olive Temple Church of the Living God Pentecostal, 4445 Tchulahoma, Memphis

BETTYE J. HUNTER MIMMS, 75 – DOD: 2/16/12 Funeral Services Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. – Mt. Nebo Baptist Church, 555 Vance Avenue, Memphis HENRIETTA SMITH TURNER, 80 – DOD: 2/16/2012 Funeral Services Satur-

day, February 25, 2012 at noon – Tried Stone M.B. Church, 1144 E. McLemore, Memphis EARLINE STANBACK, 91 – DOD: 2/20/12 Funeral Services Saturday, February 25, 2012 at noon – St. Stephen MBC, 4245 Singleton Parkway, Memphis

Information provided by:

R. S. Lewis & Sons Funeral Home 374 Vance Avenue Memphis, TN 38126 901-526-3264

Lesson & blessing…

Former UT Vols football player Inky Johnson (left), author of “Inky: An Amazing Story of Faith and Perseverance,” talks with University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) students about his injury and faith as part of UTHSCʼs Black History Month program. Johnsonʼs dreams of an NFL career were cut short when he suffered a paralyzing injury to his right arm. He now works for a nonprofit ministry for youth in inner-city Knoxville. (Courtesy photo)

ENTERTAINMENT Tri-State Defender, Thursday, February 23 - 29, 2012, Page 10

WHAT’S HAPPENING MYRON?

Wilkerson aces literary debut

More channels, more choices ...for us!

Remember when there were only three networks on television? Remember when TV used to go off at night?

Not the case anymore. Ever try to explain that to a youngster these days? They can’t Myron imagine it. I alMays most can’t imagine it anymore.

There seem to be more choices than there have ever been before. And they keep on adding them. With the new digital age there is actually room for more TV channels. Which means that African Americans will have many more choices when it comes to programs that feature “us”.

I remember watching BET in its early stages. At one point, MTV would not show any videos by African-American artists. BET was the only place we could see videos from such artists as Stephanie Mills or even Luther Vandross. It was only after Michael Jackson released “Thriller” and his record label applied pressure that MTV began to open the doors to other urban artists as well. (NOTE: MTV insists it made the move without such pressure.)

Today, BET has grown into a fullfledged network, which founder Bob Johnson sold a few years ago for over $3 billion dollars. It now produces its own original programming and continues to increase its viewership.

TV One has recently grown into a power player in urban programming as well. Its popular show “Unsung” has been setting records for the network since its debut nearly 4 years ago. TV One was started by Cathy Hughes, who is also the founder and chairman of Radio One, a broadcast company that owns 69 radio stations in 22 cities. Its other shows, such as “Life After” and “Love That Girl” are amongst its most popular.

Basketball great Magic Johnson is about to launch a 24-hour channel, with a focus on positive, uplifting images of African Americans. Aspire Magic is set to debut in Johnson June. Along side BET and TV One, the basic cable outlet will offer opportunities for African Americans who have struggled to find work in mainstream Hollywood.

Meanwhile, rapper and entrepreneur Diddy is creating a music Diddy channel called Revolt, which is scheduled to launch later this year with a mixture of music and news content and will air in a 24/7 daily format. If you’re wondering if you will be able to catch it in Memphis, Comcast will more than likely carry it here. That’s gauging by talks Comcast already is engaged in to carry the channel in various other markets.

Magic’s channel and Diddy’s channel are set for launch in the wake of the debut of Oprah’s channel, OWN. However, Oprah has struggled over the past year to develop shows that have attracted a large audience.

Hopefully Magic and Diddy will take note of Oprah’s challenge and produce some quality programming that will not only give African Americans more of a choice, but will also shine light on the spending power of the African-American consumer.

Happy Birthday Ruby!

Ruby Wilson – the “queen of Beale St.” – will have a birthday celebration at B.B. King’s on February 29.

The party kicks off at 7 p.m.

Throw Down Thursdays

What’s Happening Wednesdays have been changed to Throw-Down Thursdays. Everything remains the same – great food, lots of bowling, $5 drink specials and all! The only thing that changes is the night! Make plans to come out to What’s Happening Thursdays with me, Myron Mays.

(Is there an event you would like for me to cover or attend? Send me an email at Myron@whatshappening myron.com.)

Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Pearl Washington

Nicole Gates said amazing opportunities emerged after she made up her mind that she deserved more than her status as a single mom living paycheck to paycheck. (Courtesy photo)

‘I am not a statistic’ For social entrepreneur, declaration leads to success Special to the Tri-State Defender

Nicole Gates is a proud author of two books and her own life – a powerful story of a modern-day Cinderella who becomes her own fairy godmother and dramatically changes her life.

In this urban version, however, Cinderella, aka Nicole, lives in the city and is mother of four remarkable daughters – Yolanda, Savanna, and twins Brooklyn and Bheanna.

Shortly after the twins were born, Nicole and her husband divorce. Gates finds that she has become “an American statistic” – another single mom. The adjustment was difficult, she was living paycheck to paycheck for a while.

One day, it occurs to her that she does not have to live a life of poverty: She had the power to choose success and declare, “I am not a statistic.” Once she made up her mind that she deserved more, amazing opportunities emerged.

Gates’ journey from statistic to success is recounted and shared in her latest book, “Success Over Statistics: I Choose!” It’s widely available in bookstores, on the Internet and on AuthorHouse website.

“Shackled to my circumstances, I was the perfect storm plagued by crisis...Divorcee, Single Mother, Living Paycheck to Paycheck, No Support System, Unfamiliar Territory!,” Gates writes.

“I made a choice! I am not a statistic! I found my purpose, my gift, my walk in life and set out to build a legacy that would leave my mark on this world. Poised for greatness, I defeated the odds by understanding that I CHOOSE... Success over Statistics! This is my legacy in the making!”

Today, Gates is an author, an activist, a networker and a social entrepreneur, who embraces the good and the bad, the challenges and the opportunity.

She traveled two roads, simultaneously, to reach her current station in life. Gates took a social issue she deeply cared about and, with the right connections, turned into it a career path. As a mother, the high rate of infant mortality in Memphis was particularly distressing for her. The rate rivals those in some third-world counties.

Gates, drawing heavily upon her skills as a party-giver and event planner, founded the Infant Mortality Force of Memphis, a grassroots education and awareness organization.

“It is totally unacceptable! Our goal was to be out in the community talking to people on

the grassroots level.” That led to a career that has won a house full of national awards.

Gates serves currently as the Shelby County Office of Early Children & Youth Campaign Coordinator for “All Babies Count” and “Ask First” campaigns and emerging coordinator of Project Single Moms in Memphis.

The second path she took was a road well traveled by African Americans, especially those who find themselves jobless, newly single, or newly unemployed. Gates opted to build a more financially secure future by creating and owning a business. While thumbing through Grace Magazine, she saw an advertisement for a Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association-led training program promoting small business development. In the 12-week course designed for low-income individuals, she learned principles of planning, design, management, operations and finance. After she completed the program, she got her certification as a meeting planning and started her own firm, More than A Memory Events.

“I was cheating myself, my children and my community,” Gates says. “I knew I had untapped talents, values and desires that could take me to new levels and would allow me to make a difference along the way,” she writes in her book. “I exercised the 7 Pillars of Success as a road map to the path that now lies before me.”

In a span of two years, Gates went from a life of worrying about how to pay the bills to a life where she can save comfortably for life emergencies and future career goals.

Gates journey and subsequent achievements – as a business woman and a community health organizer – has netted a roomful of awards, including MPACT Memphis’ Community Involvement Soul of the City; Tri-State Defender Woman of Excellence; Ordinary People Magazine’s Servant Award Honoree: and 2010 BET Black Girls Rock!

Her new book is designed to remind individuals viewed by society as statistics – the unemployed, the uninsured and the underemployed – that they still have the power of choice. This week, Gates leaves for Denver to kick off her “I Choose” Tour. (“Success Over Statistics: I Choose!” is published by AuthorHouse and is available online. The price is $30, hard cover; $20, soft cover; and $12.39 for electronic editions. You can also email Gates directly at sosichoose@gmail.com or visit www.wix.com/sosichoose/sosoichoose.)

Isabel Wilkerson should be writing history textbooks. Not with the dry boring tone of such tomes, but with the sharp, personable turn of her pen that produced “The Warmth of Other Suns.”

The Great Migration, which Wilkerson brilliantly documents and chronicles, took place from 1915 to 1970 when millions of African Americans boarded trains and cars to leave the brutal racism that characterized the South. They left seeking the economic prosperity and peace that was the siren call of the northern and western states, where they met a different type of challenge. Undoubtedly, anything was better than the South, where whites were not even punished for killing blacks.

Perhaps it is the way that Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, approaches her topic, setting the stage with the introduction of three people whom we come to know and care deeply about, as we are pulled along on these intimate journeys that begin with their births.

As an instructor, my first love has long been teaching students how to master the English language. But my heart can always be stolen by history. This book not only stole my heart, but also answered questions about my own family – family lore aside – that have always been just beyond answering: So that’s why all my maternal great aunts and their families lived “up North!”

But as with Ida Mae Gladney (left Mississippi for Chicago in 1937), George Starling (left Florida for New York in 1945), and Robert Foster (left Louisiana for California in 1953), there is so much more to the story. Wilkerson recreates the routes of these three and we are there during the joys and the sorrows of their upbringing, their loves, their losses, all of their lives, literally from the beginning to the end. We are there as they escape and as they arrive.

We are there because of Wilkerson’s writing. It is haunting, exact, explicit and revealing.

Hard to believe this is her first book. It is so well written that I immediately took to social networking media to spread the word. And once I was done, I couldn’t wait to find someone with whom to share this book.

Even though I received “The Warmth of Other Suns” as a Christmas gift, it had to wait its turn; I was already involved with a novel. But once I got around to it, there was no turning back.

Knowing about great events is often not enough; you had to have been there. If that is not possible, read Isabel Wilkerson’s account.

Pulitzer winner Wilkerson to speak March 1 at U of M Author of ʻThe Warmth of Other Sunsʼ

Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Warmth of Other Suns,” and the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, will speak at the University of Memphis’ Fogelman Executive Conference Center, 330 Innovation Drive, at 7 p.m. on March 1.

The event, presented by Facing History and Ourselves and The Allstate Foundation, is free and part of the organization’s national series of Community Conversations.

Seating is limited. RSVP at www.facing history.org/communityconversations or by calling 901-425-1776, ext. 223.

Community Conversations are designed to bring prominent authors, scholars, filmmakers and policy leaders to audiences across the nation to discuss topics of civic participation, individual and collective responsibility and diversity.

Wilkerson’s work tells of a time in the history of the United States when some six million African Americans fled the American South for Isabel an uncertain existence Wilkerson in the urban North and West. Their leaving became known as the Great Migration. Inspired by her own parents’ migration, “The Warmth of Other Suns” is the story of three who made the journey, of the forces that compelled them to leave and of the many others – famous and not so famous – who went as far as they could to realize the American Dream.

An award-winning journalist, Wilkerson spent a large portion of her career as a national correspondent and bureau chief at The New York Times. In addition to being the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, she is also the first African American to win for individual reporting.

She devoted 15 years to the research and writing of her book and interviewed more than 1,200 people, unearthed archival works, and gathered the voices of the famous and the unknown to tell the story of the relocation of an entire people.

(For more information, visit facinghistory.org/about/who/ profiles/pulitzer-prizewinning-author-j.)

ENTERTAINMENT

Tri-State Defender

Page 11

February 23 - 29, 2012

HOROSCOPES

OPENING THIS WEEK

February 23-29, 2012

Kam’s Kapsules:

Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun

Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Kam Williams

For movies opening Feb. 24, 2012

BIG BUDGET FILMS

“Act of Valor” (R for torture, profanity and graphic violence) Action adventure about an elite team of Navy SEALS who embark on a top secret mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA Agent only to uncover an imminent terrorist plot against America. Starring Nestor Serrano, Roselyn Sanchez, Jason Cottle and Emilio Rivera.

“Gone” (PG-13 for violence, sexuality, drug references and brief profanity) Harrowing whodunit revolving around a terrified young woman (Amanda Seyfried) who becomes convinced that the same serial killer whose clutches she escaped a year ago has just abducted her suddenly-missing sister (Emily Wickersham). With Daniel Sunjata, Sebastian Stan and Wes Bentley.

“Good Deeds” (PG-13 for sexuality, violence, profanity and mature themes) Tyler Perry wrote, directed and stars in this modern morality play as an unfulfilled, corporate CEO who has second thoughts about marrying his shallow fiancée (Gabrielle Union) after befriending a struggling, single-mom (Thandie Newton) who works as a janitor in his company’s office building. With Phylicia Rashad, Rebecca Romijn, Brian White, Beverly Johnson and Jamie Kennedy.

Tyler Perry and Gabrielle Union in “Good Deeds.” (Photo by Quantrell Colbert/Lionsgate)

“Wanderlust” (R for profanity, sexuality, drug use and graphic nudity) Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd co-star in this midlife crisis comedy about a married couple who move from Manhattan to a free love, hippie commune in the country after the husband loses his high-paying job. Cast includes Malin Akerman, Justin Theroux, Kathryn Hahn, Kerri Kenney, Linda Lavin and Alan Alda.

INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS

“The Fairy” (Unrated) Romantic fantasy about a hotel’s night watchman (Dominique Abel) who falls in love with the magical fairy (Fiona Gordon) who vanishes into thin air after granting him two of his three wishers. Supporting cast includes Philippe Martz, Bruno Romy and Vladimir Zongo. (In French with subtitles) “The Forgiveness of Blood” (Unrated) Coming-of-age drama about a couple of carefree, teenaged siblings (Tristan Halilaj and Sindi Lacej) forced to mature and drop out of high school when a long-running blood feud with a neighboring clan is reignited over real estate rights. With Refet Abazi, Cun Lajci and Veton Osmani. (In Albanian with subtitles)

Thandie Newton (left) and Jordenn Thompson in the Tyler Perry directed “Good Deeds.” (Photo by Quantrell Colbert/Lionsgate)

“Neon Flesh” (Unrated) “It’s hard out here for a pimp” comedy, set in Buenos Aires, about a 22 year-old ne’er-do-well (Mario Casas) who hopes to earn his prostitute mother’s (Macarena Gomez) respect by opening up a whorehouse with the help of a couple of streetwise buddies (Vincente Romero and Luciano Caceres). With Dario Grandinetti, Damaso Conde and Vanessa Oliveira. (In Spanish with subtitles)

“Tomorrow, When the War Began” (R for violence) Screen adaptation of John Marsden’s novel of the same name about seven Australian teenagers who band together to survive when they return from a weeklong camping trip in the bush to find the country invaded by a hostile nation. Starring Caitlin Stasey, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lincoln Lewis, Deniz Akdeniz, Phoebe Tonkin, Chris Pang and Ashleigh Cummings.

ARIES Put one of your new ideas into action this week and see how it feels as you work through your routine. You are in command of how you think this week, so use this beneficial energy to accomplish some of the things you’ve been wanting to do.

TAURUS Every positive idea you have is likely to be challenged this week, so you may want to keep your brilliance under wraps until at least tomorrow. Your ideas are sound and good; don’t take others’ rude behavior personally.

GEMINI This week’s the week to communicate those ideas. People will seem to be much more receptive and less grouchy. Make sure that your ideas have some practical actions that can be taken, so that people will know how to respond to you.

CANCER You are the messenger of freedom this week, and if you are not careful with your words, you’ll find that some people don’t want to be liberated. Not to worry, just go your merry way and enjoy yourself. Others will learn from what you are doing.

LEO Your creativity is pulling you in a wonderful direction. Act on your impulse to create beauty in your life. Pay attention when your nearest, dearest friend is trying to tell you something. Your impatience to get to the next project could cause you to miss a valuable signal.

VIRGO Keep a low profile at a family get-together.

Someone wants to scuffle, but won’t be able to if you don’t present yourself as a target. Your checkbook needs looking into; you’ll feel better if it’s balanced.

LIBRA Your home life is important to you this week.

Get the family together to take care of some fall clean-up chores and make it a party that everyone will remember with joy. Take the lead on bringing happiness to the occasion.

SCORPIO Daydreaming will work wonders for your spirit this week. Let your imagination fly freely and follow up on ideas in a leisurely way. You are able to accomplish some very rewarding and life-affirming tasks.

SAGITTARIUS Congratulations on your positive attitude this week! While others may be dragging, your spirit is full of energy. Enjoy the power-surge of good feelings, and you’ll be lifting others’ spirits just by being you.

CAPRICORN You’ll enjoy a special rapport with a loved one this week, so use the vibe to deepen the level of intimacy. Your creativity allows you to say exactly the right thing at the right moment.

AQUARIUS This is a wonderful week to give up a negative routine, guy! If you’ve been biting your nails or sneaking a cigarette, this week your emotions are centered on life-affirming habits.

Let your natural inclination toward perfect health lead you on your way.

PISCES You are very popular at work this week. Part of your rise in the employee polls is due to your can-do attitude. Another part is the smile on your face as you consider your wonderful life.

Believing it is being it!

Source: NNPA News Service

Who will win? Who deserves to win? Who was snubbed?

Special to the Tri-State Defender

by Kam Williams

On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were staged in Hollywood at the Hotel Roosevelt. “Wings,” a silent film, won the Oscar for Best Picture that night, a feat that would never be repeated, given the impending innovations in sound technology that ushered in the age of the talkies.

But, as they say, wait long enough, and everything comes back into style, and such is the case with “The Artist,” a nostalgic throwback that’s the prohibitive favorite to prevail at this year’s ceremony. Who’d a thunk that a black & white, silent flick from France would eclipse powerhouse productions by the likes of Spielberg and Scorcese.

However, the movie will meet some tough competition in the Best Actor category, where I’m picking popular George Clooney to eke out a victory over virtual unknown Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist’s” pantomiming protagonist. I also see perennial-nominee Meryl Streep (17 times) squeaking by “The Help’s” equallydeserving Viola Davis for Best Actress, more for her 29-year drought than for her spot-on impersonation of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.”

Best Supporting Actor is difficult to handicap, too, since four of the entrants, Nick Nolte, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow and Kenneth Branagh, have each enjoyed multiple Oscar nominations, but never won. My gut tells me that Plummer gets the proverbial “body of work” vote. As far as Best Supporting Actress, Octavia Spencer will triumph, since nonpareil comic performances like Melissa McCarthy’s in “Bridesmaids” continue to be underappreciated by the Academy.

Besides peering into my crystal ball to forecast the winners, I have also indicated below which nominees in the major categories are actually the most deserving.

And because so many great performances are invariably snubbed by the Academy, I

also point out who has been overlooked entirely.

Overall, look for “The Artist” to garner five or six Oscars which, while not exactly a sweep, will still be better than next-best “Hugo’s” trio of statuettes in technical categories. The 84th Academy Awards will air live on ABC on Sunday (February 26) at 7 p.m., and will be hosted by Billy Crystal.

Best Picture

Will Win: “The Artist” Deserves to Win: “The Artist” Overlooked: “Bridesmaids”

Best Director

Will Win: Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) Deserves to Win: Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) Overlooked: David Fincher (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”)

Best Actor

Will Win: George Clooney (“The Descendants”) Deserves to Win: Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) Overlooked: Ryan Gosling (“Drive”)

Best Actress

Will Win: Meryl Streep (“The Iron Lady”) Deserves to Win: Viola Davis (“The Help”)

Overlooked: Kristen (“Bridesmaids”)

Wiig

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Christopher Plummer (“Beginners”) Deserves to Win: Max von Sydow (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) Overlooked: Albert Brooks (“Drive”)

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Octavia Spencer (“The Help”) Deserves to Win: Melissa McCarthy (“Bridesmaids”) Overlooked: Carey Mulligan (“Drive”)

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win: Woody Allen (“Midnight in Paris”) Deserves to Win: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (“Bridesmaids”) Overlooked: Lars von Trier (“Melancholia”)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (“The Descendants”) Deserves to Win: Steve Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin (“Moneyball”) Overlooked: Tate Tatlor and Kathryn Stock-

ett (“The Help”)

Predictions for Secondary Categories

Animated Feature: “Rango” Art Direction: “Hugo” Foreign Language Film: “A Separation” Cinematography: “The Tree of Life” Costume Design: “The Artist” Documentary Feature: “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” Film Editing: “The Artist” Makeup: “The Iron Lady” Original Score: “The Artist” Original Song: “Man or Muppet” (The Muppets) Sound Editing: “Hugo” Sound Mixing: “Hugo” Visual Effects: “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”

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ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrities on canvas 2012: Brooks Gala set for March 3

At 7 p.m. on March 3, the Brooks Museum League, support group of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, will present its second Celebrities on Canvas gala event.

The party will feature both silent and live auctions of paintings created by 30 plus noted Memphians – and first-time artists – from a variety of professions: music, government, business, sports, education, law, health sciences, and more. Their acrylic-on-canvas portraits, still lifes, and abstract artworks, produced via a mentoring process facilitated by esteemed local artists including George Hunt and Brenda Joysmith, will be on view at the Brooks, with the live auction beginning at 8:30 p.m. in the museum’s rotunda.

“I want to conceptualize that life is a blending of relationships and

events that flow together, unfolding throughout our lives,” Dr. Mary McDonald, Superintendent of Catholic Schools, West Tennessee Diocese, said of her painting, which will be auctioned off at the event.

Other noted Memphians painting works for Celebrities on Canvas include Dr. Shirley Raines of the University of Memphis; Memphis City Councilman Shea Flinn; Valerie Calhoun of Fox 13 and Ursula Madden of WMCTV Channel 5; Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich and criminal lawyer Leslie Ballin; wrestler Jerry Lawler and golfer Loren Roberts; and Cory Trotz of Nahon, Sharovich and Trotz, PLC and George Nassar of Glankler Brown, PLLC. Featuring live music by Joyce

HEALTH

Cobb, the event includes hors d’oeuvres from the Brushmark Restaurant and wines at a cost of $75 per person. Funds from the auction and all Brooks Museum League sponsored events assist in the development and implementation of art education programs and exhibits at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. The 2012 Celebrities on Canvas gala event is coordinated by Melyne Strickland and Yvonne Jones. For more information, contact Strickland at 901-581-4122, melstri@aol.com or Jones at 901-292-5935, yjones53@comcast.net.

To purchase tickets, send a check for $75 (payable to Brooks Museum League) to Jodie Varner, 8793 Somerset Lane, Germantown, 38138. Or purchase tickets online: www.brooksmuseumleague.

CHEF TIMOTHY

African Americans on dialysis: numbers reflect society on medical meltdown fringe

by Chef Timothy Moore Ph.D, N.M.D, C.N. Special to the Tri-State Defender

The statistics are startling. African Americans suffer from End Stage Retinal Disease disproportionately more than any other race of people.

The incidence of kidney failure per million-population is 998 in African Americans, compared with 273 in white Americans, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

African Americans account for more than 29 percent of all patients treated for kidney failure in the United States, but only about 14 percent of the overall U.S. population.

There is something amiss about the number of African Americans suffering from kidney failure. But the statistics are indicative of a society on the fringes of a medical meltdown. Kidney failure in African Americans generally starts around age 56, the NKF has reported, compared to age 66 for white Americans.

Without dialysis, death is inevitable.

Dialysis is the process of removing waste and excess water from the blood. It is used primarily to provide an artificial replacement for the lost of one’s kidney function. It is also an imperfect treatment, because it does not correct the problem. When the body is healthy, the kidneys maintain the body’s internal equilibrium.

Have you experienced kidney failure? Are you currently on dialysis?

Do you wonder why more African Americans are undergoing treatment than any other ethnic group and why so many of them are young? Here’s the answer: Diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes of kidney failure in the African-American community.

The death rates per 100,000-population from high blood pressure is 15.6 for white males, 51.1 for black males, 14.3 for white females and 37.7 for black females, according to the NKF. America, we have a prob-

Dr. Timothy Moore

I visited a dialysis center recently and was shocked that the majority of patients looked like me.

Dr. Timothy Moore

lem. There is lack of education in the African-American community when it comes to understanding diabetes and high blood pressure. Many of these debilitating diseases are taken for granted.

I visited a dialysis center recently and was shocked that the majority of patients looked like me. The statistics bear this out. At last count, there were over 50 such centers in Memphis, and I’m sure new ones are on the drawing board because of supply and demand. This seems unreal to me, but the numbers are stacking up against African Americans.

If African Americans are going to reverse this trend, dietary changes have to be made. I’ve underscored the importance of eating a daily portion of fruit and vegetables to keep the body healthy and fit. But you would think someone would come up with a plan to provide more education to make people aware of the gravity of the problem and stave off

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February 23 - 29, 2012

the inevitable.

Not likely to happen. Too much profit involved. Dialysis centers are popping up in the African-American community and I’m sure they’re very profitable. Don’t blame the doctor. I’m sure they provide an avalanche of information that some people just don’t heed because of fear, ignorance, or maybe they’re just unconcerned.

Don’t treat dialysis as a joke. If you’re on the machine, most likely your blood is cleansed 2 to 3 times per week. And afterward, you’re likely to feel weak, disoriented, irritable, frustrated and totally unhappy.

Chances are your kidneys were damaged because of an unhealthy diet.

Dorry L. Segev, M.D. Ph.D., an associate professor of surgery at St. Hopkins University School of Medicine and the leader of a new study, was quoted as saying, “As a medical community, we have been advising young black patients of treatment options for kidney failure based on the notion that they do better on dialysis than their white counterparts.”

The study shows that young African Americans have a substantially higher risk of dying on dialysis. The study also reveals that African-Americans between the ages 18 and 30 are twice as likely to die on dialysis as their white counterparts; and those ages 31 to 40 are 1.5 times as likely not to survive.

If African Americans are to survive, proper nutrition must be introduced at a young age. So don’t be a candidate for renal failure. Take care of your body or face the inevitable.

(Dr. Timothy Moore teaches nutrition, heart disease and diabetes reversal through a plant-based lifestyle.

He is a professional speaker, wellness coach and personal plant-based chef.

He can be reached by email at cheftimothy@cheftimothymoore.com or visit him on the Web sites at www.cheftimothymoore.com or www.twitter.com/cheftimmoore.)

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Employment

Check Into Cash, Inc. Manager Position available in Memphis, TN Check Into Cash, Inc. is your one-stop money shop financial services organization with 1150 plus locations. We recognize our success is due to our people and have a fabulous package including a super training program, competitive pay, excellent benefits & A TERRIFIC BONUS PROGRAM! To join our team, you must possess excellent communications and people skills. Collection background a plus. please mail, Email or fax resume to: Check Into Cash, Inc. 1213 Getwell Rd Memphis, TN 38111 Email: gpace@checkintocash.com Fax: 888-272-1810

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February 23 - 29, 2012

MONEY MATTERS

Insurance for two could benefit your heirs

A representative (right) from Tri-State Bank, a sponsor and exhibitor, gives direction to a Memphis Black Expo attendee. The inaugural event drew 2,000-plus people. (Photos by Andrew “Rome” Withers)

Tradition takes root with 2012 Memphis Black Expo

The 2012 Memphis Black Expo sponsored by The New TriState Defender and Comcast was a fantastic celebration and recognition of Memphis’ African-American music, culture and history. With events throughout the weekend (Feb. 1719), the first annual MBX was a hit with vendors, participants and attendees.

In an environment of true connectivity and positivity, the MBX meshed celebration and entertainment with the opportunity to patronize small- and black-owned businesses, register to vote, and learn about job and educational opportunities.

The 2012 MBX was also a dynamic platform for this community’s youth! They participated and competed in dancing,

singing, reciting, speaking and rejoicing as parents, loved ones and friends provided support and encouragement. A burgeoning sense of pride and accomplishment was clearly evident.

African American History Month puts special emphasis on the wide contributions of African Americans to this country while promoting the need for ongoing progress 365 days a year. The MBX captured the essence of the “season” and is sure to become a unique, highly anticipated annual tradition for Memphis and surrounding communities.

– Bernal E. Smith II President/ Publisher, The New Tri-State Defender

Kendra Calico addresses the early audience at the 2012 MBX. TSD President/ Publisher Bernal E. Smith II with young performers from the Marcus Mosiah Garvey Institute.

Marcus Garvey was given a special tribute by the group from the Marcus Mosiah Garvey Institute in honor of African American History Month.

ON OUR WAY TO WEALTHY

Quilting hooks dentist who won’t let go Native Memphian Dr. Denean Carr is doing her part to keep the art form of quilting alive and modern. Although she is a practicing dentist in Delaware, Ohio, quilting has proven to be both a passion and a creative outlet that has evolved into a rather nice business opportunity. While balancing the demands of her practice, Dr. Carr has found the time to nurture and develop Neanie’s Quilts.

Carlee McCullough: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dr. Denean Carr: I was born and raised in North Memphis. I was the 1991 Valedictorian of Northside High School. I did my undergraduate studies at Christian Brothers University and the University of Memphis. I received my doctorate in Dental Surgery from the University of Tennessee at Memphis in 2003. I am currently living in Delaware, Ohio.

I am left-handed, so I am highly in touch with the “right brain,” which houses creativity. I have always had a natural knack for visualizing things and connecting with all things artsy, abstract and creative.

CM: How and when did you become involved in quilt making?

DDC: In 2009, while living in northwest Tennessee, a huge ice storm hit that area, and everything was shut down for eight days. During that time, I had no

Carlee McCullough

Dr. Denean Carr

power at my office or my residence. A church mother was kind enough to invite me and my family to stay at her home until the weather-related situation improved.

While I was there, I would watch her sew beautiful quilts using a basic “brick design.” I told her that I had always wanted to know how to sew. She sat me down at the sewing machine and I learned how to sew in 10 minutes. From that moment on, I was HOOKED and knew that I had found a new hobby that I could definitely enjoy!

CM: How did it become a business opportunity?

DDC: I started making quilts for myself and posting pictures of them on my Facebook page, “Neanie’s Quilts”.

My Facebook friends thought they were great and that the quilts superseded hobby-level work. They encour-

aged me to try to pursue quilting as a business. I said, “Hey why not?” It was one of the best decisions I made!

CM: What has been your greatest challenge?

DDC: My greatest challenge has truly been trying to get fellow African Americans to see the importance and the value of a quilt. Most blacks don’t know that quilting is an integral part of our history. For example, during the days of the Underground Railroad, quilt makers would make quilts with secret messages and codes embedded in the designs. They would then wash the quilts and hang them on a clothesline to dry. “Conductors” on the Underground Railroad would see the quilts, get the messages, and subsequently know the next step to take with “passengers” to get them to freedom.

QUILTING IS A FORM OF ART. CM: What is the greatest reward in being an entrepreneur?

DDC: Having the flexibility of time.

There is no greater feeling than being able to have the choice of taking your time to work and indulge in something you are passionate about. Quilting is my passion – my calling. To be able to set my own hours and take my time to create quilts is rewarding and fulfilling on an extremely deep personal level.

No job – no matter how much it pays – has been able to make me feel the way

quilting does.

CM: What are some daily habits that made you successful?

DDC: I wake up positive. I start with the end in mind. I tell myself that I will be successful at what I do, and then I work to achieve whatever goal(s) I set for myself. I am mentally conditioned to achieve against all odds and surpass others by giving 110 percent to whatever tasks I undertake.

CM: What’s the next step for you?

DDC: My goal is to get more exposure for Neanie’s Quilts in order to do more custom work and also to see my unique creations sold in specialty shops worldwide.

CM: Any closing remarks?

DDC: Thank you for the opportunity to talk about my passion and my quilting business! You may contact me at www.neaniesquilts.com or call 901573-6839 and just ask for “Neanie.”

(Contact Carlee McCullough, Esq., at 5308 Cottonwood Road, Suite 1A, Memphis, TN 38118, or email her at jstce4all@aol.com.)

Since the federal estate tax was est a b lished in 1916, t h e amount exempted from Charles the tax Sims Jr h a s b e e n raised substantially over time. The $5 million exemption for 2011 and 2012 is the highest in history, and the 35 percent top estate tax rate is the lowest in 70 years.

However, these generous provisions may not last. After 2012, the federal estate tax is currently scheduled to revert to a $1 million exemption and a 55 percent top tax rate. Many families with a home and large retirement accounts could easily have estates worth $1 million or more. A survivorship life insurance policy is one way to help heirs pay estate taxes, probate costs, and other final expenses.

Preserving a legacy

Also called second-to-die insurance, a survivorship life insurance policy insures two people and pays a benefit after the death of the second person. The premiums are usually less expensive than premiums for a single life insurance policy, because they are based on the life expectancies of both insured individuals.

The unlimited marital deduction allows assets to pass to a surviving spouse free of federal estate taxes, so estate taxes typically do not become an issue until estate assets pass to nonspouse heirs. Thus, a survivorship life insurance policy could pay a benefit at the time it may be needed most.

Moreover, by purchasing the survivorship policy in an irrevocable life insurance trust, the proceeds may not be considered part of your taxable estate. The use of trusts involves a complex web of tax rules and regulations. You should consider the counsel of an experienced estate planning professional and your legal and tax advisors before implementing such strategies.

Even if you are not concerned about the estate tax, a survivorship life policy could be a relatively inexpensive way to leave a legacy, especially considering that an individual life insurance policy may be more expensive or difficult to obtain later in life. Survivorship life might also be used to insure business partners.

The cost and availability of life insurance depend on factors such as age, health, and the type and amount of insurance purchased. Before implementing a strategy involving life insurance, it would be prudent to make sure that you are insurable. As with most financial decisions, there are expenses associated with the purchase of life insurance. Policies commonly have mortality and expense charges. In addition, if a policy is surrendered prematurely, there may be surrender charges and income tax implications.

With the uncertain future of the estate tax, now may be a good time to consider a survivorship life insurance policy. Even if the estate tax doesn’t apply to your estate, the insurance proceeds could benefit your heirs or a favorite charity.

(Charles Sims Jr., CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, is President/ CEO of The Sims Financial Group. Contact him at 901682-2410 or visit www.Sims FinancialGroup.com. The information in this article is not intended to be tax or legal advice, and it may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties.)

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February 23 - 29, 2012

Tri-State Defender