THE WESTSIDE GAZETTE POST OFFICE 5304 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33310
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID FT. LAUDERDALE, FL 33310
PERMIT NO. 1179
Broward County's Oldest and Largest African American Owned and Operated Newspaper oud PPaper aper ffor or a Pr oud PPeople...Sinc eople...Sinc Proud Proud eople...Sincee 1971 VOL. 44 NO. 37 50¢ A Pr THURSDA THURSDAYY, OCTOBER 22 - WEDNESDA WEDNESDAYY, OCTOBER 28 28,, 2015
The Ali Building still resonating with soulful art, music and life By Nelson Underdew Photos by Ronald Lyons A prominent piece of Pompano Beach Black History was revisited on last Wednesday. The historic Ali Building, a fixture in the community of Pompano and a powerful symbol and reminder of the resonant African American history of South Florida, was reopened with new purpose after decades of vacancy. The Ali Building was built in 1933 and is located at 357 Hammondville Road (now also Martin Luther King Boulevard) in Pompano Beach. The house was built, owned, and occupied by Frank and Florence Major Ali, an affluent Black couple who had emigrated to Pompano Beach from Cuba and The Bahamas respectively. Frank Ali first used the two story property as a barbershop as well as a residence. Florence Ali was a skilled seamstress and fashion designer and also operated her business out of the home.
How can you speak truth to power without a voice? "But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge.” Acts 3:19 By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Florence, however, wanted to give Blacks in Broward much more than just hand crafted clothes and haircuts. During World War II she established the Negro Beauticians of Broward County and successfully lobbied to have county appointed Black inspectors of hair salons and barbershops. She also insisted upon using her own home, affectionately referred to as the Ali Building by neighborhood residents, as a boarding house for Black travelers who couldn’t find lodging in the then segregated state of Florida. The Ali Building housed famous performers such as dancer Bill Robinson, and trumpeter
Louis Armstrong during their visits in Jim Crow’s South Florida. The Ali couple divorced in 1953. Frank and Florence died in 1966 and 1982 at the ages of 59 and 84 respectively. The Ali Building has remained vacated since the late 70s. Fast forward to 2007, when a Ms. Hazel K. Armbrister refused to let the history of the Ali Building be destroyed by
corporate interests and government short sightedness. “Pompano Beach decided that it was going to do community redevelopment,” Armbrister recalls “one day I was across the street, [from The Ali Bulding] and I saw the orange netting they use when they’re about to tear something down, and I said Oh my God! They can’t tear it down! (Cont'd on Page 11)
You know, the more things are supposed to change the more they move in the opposite direction. After being engaged on WMBM’s Tuesday Talk Radio Show this week, I realized the need for our Black consumers to really understand the value of their Black spending power and the need for our preachers to carry the same message: That our Black dollars will be spent based upon advertising in our Black owned media! Just like Black Lives Matter so does where our Black dollars are spent. I’m not putting a price on Black lives but what I am putting a price on is the life on Black owned media. (Cont'd on Page 10)
HBCUs want to kick cigarettes and their butts off campus…
Prison phone rates generate billions for companies ess for B lack families – and cause str stress Black telecommunications companies started providing the service to prisons, and rates catapulted. “It’s the biggest rip-off in the country,” said Robert Woodson, who runs the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, a Washington, D.C. non-profit that works extensively with former inmates. “It’s an outrage. So
many low-income families are impacted by the prison system, and these companies know the only way the imprisoned stay sane is to talk to family. Outrageous. Can you imagine how many people $1.2 billion a year represents? It’s astonishing the number of people hurt by this rip-off.” (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com)
By Frederick H. Lowe Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNews.com
(TriceEdneyWire.com) Thirty-three of the nation’s 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) announced on Wednesday they have kicked off a Tobacco-Free HBCU Campus Initiative, led by former U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D. In addition to Dr. Benjamin, the program is led by Truth Initiative (www.truthinitiative.org), a Washington, D.C. –based
Fort Lauderdale’s Native Son Earl Thomas shares his life story By Charles Moseley By Curtis Bunn/Urban News Service Garry Lawrence’s family worried about paying his legal fees. But phoning him in prison nearly bankrupted them. When Garry was arrested almost seven years ago on a minor drug offense, his loved ones knew that paying a lawyer to argue his case would be a major expense. They were astounded and nearly financially crippled, however, by what it cost simply to speak with him by phone while he was locked up. “I thought it was an honest error when I first began accepting calls and received my bill,” said Rafael Lawrence, Garry’s brother, a San Jose, Calif. mental-health counselor. “But it wasn’t honest. And it wasn’t an error. The rates were out of this world. So, with the attorney fees and the phone calls … well, let’s just say we struggled as a family…. This whole thing is … a racket.” Two 10-minute calls a week
could add up to about $100 a month, Rafael said. In six years, he estimated that he spent more than $7,000 on phone calls. The Lawrences are one family among millions in the United States who are calling for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate a prison phone system that has become its own cottage industry. The country’s prison phone system generates $1.2 billion a year. “It’s bad enough to have someone you care about in prison,” Rafael Lawrence said. “You want to keep them connected to the outside world, and then you get your phone bill, and it’s like paying a car note. It’s crazy. “It’s something the families talk about while waiting to visit our loved ones,” he added. “People don’t realize the burden paying so much of a phone bill is.” Before 1996, costs for calls inside prison were comparable to regular phone rates on the outside. That year, two private
Pleading Our Own Cause
Things have changed considerably here in Fort Lauderdale since Earl Thomas was born back in 1936. Gone are the days when Blacks in Fort Lauderdale were confined to living in the Northwest section between the railroad tracks on the east and west and between Broward Boulevard to the South and Sunrise Boulevard to the North. So called “Colored Schools” designed strictly for Blacks are no longer only open for half- aday schedules which operated only six months a year; as compared to their white counterparts who attended school nine months out of the year, complete with full day schedules. Thomas vividly recalled the days of the “Jim Crow South” which existed during his youth and into adulthood, when Blacks were barred from equal access to public accommodations and denied many of the same opportunities as white Americans. Aside from the obvious changes brought about in race
WWW.
relations, Thomas can bear witness to major changes which have taken place locally, nationally, and on an international level throughout his lifetime. Not only has Thomas seen the transformation of the City of Fort Lauderdale whose residents, both Black and white, once relied primarily on the agricultural industry to make a living; he’s also lived to see this city become a progressive modern day metropolis, attracting international trade from across the globe. Most notably, Thomas has lived to see what many in his generation and beyond imagined to be impossible; that being the highly unlikely election of the nation’s first African American President, Barack Obama. Thomas delivered into this world at home located at 507 N.W. Third Ave. Just like most Colored babies in those days, a mid-wife performed the delivery. (Cont'd on Page 10)
Over the course of 79 years, Fort Lauderdale native Earl Thomas has served his family, his community, and his country.
The Westside Gazette Newspaper
@_Westsidegazett
thewestsidegazette.com
(954) 525-1489
Thewestsidegazettenewspaper
Regina Benjamin, M.D. organization funded and established through the 1998 Master Settlement-agreement between attorney generals from 46 states, the District of Columbia, five territories and the tobacco industry. The nation’s five largest tobacco companies agree to pay the groups $10 billion annually indefinitely. The Truth Initiative will provide grants schools to fund no-smoking and no-tobacco campaigns. The amount of each grant was not disclosed. “For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted minority communities, particularly African Americans, with intense advertising and promotional efforts,” said Dr. Benjamin, who was the nation’s 18th surgeon general, serving from Nov. 3, 2009 to July 16, 2013. (Read full story on www.thewestsidegazette.com) MEMBER: National Newspaper Publishers Association ( NNPA), and Southeastern African-American Publishers Association (SAAPA) Florida Association of Black Owned Media (FABOM)