I N S I D E
Marion Barry: A Legacy Still Alive Page 5
Volunteers Help Others on Thanksgiving Day Page 12
Vol. 51, No. 8 Dec. 3 - Dec. 9 , 2015
Giving Ex-Offenders a Shot at Entrepreneurship - Page 27
World AIDS Day Brings out Activists
Remembering the Bravery of Rosa Parks
Charlie Sheen’s Announcement Coincides with District Decline in HIV
WI Staff Report On Tuesday, Dec. 1, President Obama paid tribute to the woman who started a revolution 60 years ago in 1955 – Montgomery, Alabama bus passenger Rosa Parks. “Rosa Parks held no elected office. She was not born into wealth or power. Yet 60 years ago today, Rosa Parks changed America,” Obama said in a printed statement. Parks’ arrest for refusing to give up her seat in a whites-only section inspired a civil rights
By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer
ROSA PARKS Page 11
Chicago Citizens Join ‘Black Lives Matter’ Movement Shooting Death of Teen Sparks Protest, Reform Demands
By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer Another Black teen lay cold, his body prone from 16 gunshots fired from the barrel of a single policeman’s gun while other officers stood by themselves either in disbelief or, because they didn’t squeeze one round off, knowing that this deadly action was far from necessary. Meanwhile, another Black mother mourns as another Black family is left asking the heart-wrenching but
Educator Promotes Positive Side New ‘Wiz’ Set for Televised of Black Community Page 23 Premier Page 33
proverbial question of ‘why.’ In Chicago, a city like Ferguson and Baltimore before it, residents are teeming on the brink. Protestors are again shouting a slogan that, while its fervor has grown, its words seemingly are losing meaning: “Black Lives Matter.” Like the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri and the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore – both police-involved incidents that led to the death of a
The announcement by actor Charlie Sheen that he’s HIV-positive has helped to highlight that the stigma surrounding the virus not only remains, but is worse than ever, according to a local HIV/ AIDS activist. “As someone who has had HIV for 35 years, I believe stigma is worse today than it has ever been,” said Sean Strub, the executive director of the Sero Project, a national network of individuals with HIV who fight for freedom from stigma and the injustice that sufferers of the illness regularly encounter. “Another [takeaway from the Sheen interview] is the bringing of attention to the treatment science and how a person with HIV takes their meds and reaches an ‘undetectable’ status, so they are non-infectious,” Strub said. On Nov. 17, Sheen appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to announce his diagnosis. The revelation by the actor came just ahead of the annual World AIDS Day, which took place on Dec. 1, and amid news earlier this year that the HIV rate in the District has decreased 40 percent since 2009. Also, reportedly no babies were born with HIV/AIDS in 2013. Despite aggressive treatments, the city’s 2.5 percent HIV infection rate remains too high, especially east of the Anacostia. “As long as we are still above 1 percent, this is still considered an epidemic in our community,” D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt told NBC News. “It is great that we have only 553 new infections,” District resident Walter Smith said. “It’s terrible that we still have 553 new
CHICAGO Page 11
Celebrating 51 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area
AIDS DAY Page 10
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