VOL. 54, NO. 49 • SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2019
Statehood Week Highlights Efforts to Secure 51st Star for D.C.
From Town Halls to Tributes, Black Press Trumpets Caucus-led Initiatives
Challenges Confounding Black Men, Boys Confronted at Nat’l Town Hall
Thousands Attend Annual Legislative Conference, Seeking Strategies and Solutions
Rep. Frederica Wilson, Panel of Foremost Minds, Discuss Issues with Sense of Urgency
By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer @StacyBrownMedia
By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor @dkevinmcneir Roadblocks, hurdles, dead end streets – “man’s inhumanity to man” – have been purposely placed in the paths of African Americans, men and women alike, since the days of Jamestown in order to deny them the rights and opportunities afforded whites in the U.S. Even before Black Lives Matter gained prominence or white privilege exerted itself with the blatant murder of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, being a Black male has long equated to navigating the world with an invisible albatross around his neck – a bullseye on his back. The challenges confronting and confounding Black men and boys took center stage Sept. 12 as participants packed Ballroom A in the Walter Washington Convention Center in Northwest for the second of two Town Halls held during the Congressional Black Caucus 49th Annual Legislative Conference. The session, “Commission on the Social Status of Black Men
BLACK MEN Page 52
CBCF News of Notes Page 16
5 Mayor Muriel Bowser and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (center) along with DC veterans and public
officials boarded a DC statehood-themed bus on Monday, Sept. 16, and rode down Pennsylvania Avenue, lined with 51-star flags, to the Capitol to raise awareness to D.C. residents’ lack of voting representation in Congress. (Shevry Lassiter/The Washington Informer)
An estimated group of more than 10,000 people filled the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the nation's capital during the just completed five-day Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s [CBCF] 2019 Annual Legislative Conference [ALC]. This year’s ALC theme, “400
TOWN HALL Page 46
Biden’s Birmingham Missive: Americans Hunger for Healing
Democratic Front Runner Salutes Martyrs of 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor @dkevinmcneir Black Americans had ample reason to believe in a brighter future as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated their hopes and prayers during his stirring “I Have a Dream” speech which he shared with the world in the culmination of events taking place at the historic March on Washington in August 1963. But just a few weeks later, the murders of four Black girls, killed in a bombing orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, reminded the nation that many citizens re-
mained virulently opposed to racial equality and would not relinquish power before invoking more pain upon African Americans and their allies. On Sunday, Sept. 15, former Vice President Joe Biden stood in the pulpit of that church, 56 years later, to remember the sacrifices of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley and to applaud the dauntless spirit of a people who chose forgiveness over retribution as a means of bringing healing to their community and to all Americans. And while Biden continues to
BIDEN Page 38
5 The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on September 15, 1963 by four Ku Klux Klansmen. (Courtesy photo/Wikimedia Commons)
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