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U.S. Rep and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis Offers Essay Full of Encouragement and Wisdom on Day of His Funeral

U.S. Rep and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis Offers Essay Full of Encouragement and Wisdom on Day of His Funeral

By goodblacknews on July 30, 2020

Not even death can stop John Lewis from giving his heart and soul to the fight for equality and justice for all.

Civil Rights titan and Congressmember Lewis wrote an essay for the New York Times entitled “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” meant to be published today, the day of his funeral.

As Lewis’s body is being laid to rest at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, the spirited words in his essay urge us all to “answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.”

Lewis also writes about what and who ignited his journey into protest against injustice:

Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.

Lewis also shares the moment he first encountered the teachings and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how it affected him:

Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

To read Lewis’ essay in its entirety (or hear an audio reading of it), go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html

Billionaire Robert F. Smith Partners with Prostate Cancer Foundation to Address Racial Disparities and Reduce Deaths from Disease

Billionaire Robert F. Smith Partners with Prostate Cancer Foundation to Address Racial Disparities and Reduce Deaths from Disease

By goodblacknews on July 27, 2020

Robert F. Smith, founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners and The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) have announced a new effort to reduce deaths from prostate cancer, one of the largest health disparities facing African-American men today.

Prostate cancer affects more than three million men in the U.S., with one in nine men diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. African-American men are disproportionately impacted, 76 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer than Caucasian men.

African-American men additionally are more than twice as likely to die from the disease compared to men of other ethnicities. Earlier, strategic detection is a key step in finding a cure and ending the health disparity faced by men of African descent.

The research Smith is supporting is intended for development of the Smith Polygenic Risk Test for Prostate Cancer, a non-invasive, early detection test that will identify a man’s lifetime prostate cancer risk using a combination of more than 250 genetic variants obtained from a single sample of saliva or blood.

The Smith Test is expected to cost less than $90 USD and will be made available in PCF’s dedicated Veterans Affairs (VA) network of Centers of Excellence, including the Robert Frederick Smith Center of Precision Oncology Excellence at the VA Chicago.

The test is part of a larger PCF research initiative to improve the understanding of genetic risk in African-American men and transform early detection and imaging strategies, risk management, and clinical-decision making by men at highest lifetime risk of prostate cancer.

The research, led by Dr. Chris Haiman, ScD, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Southern California, and international colleagues is aimed at accelerating the reduction of prostate cancer disparities for African American men by 2030.

“As African-American men are at an increased risk for being diagnosed or dying from prostate cancer, understanding their risk profile and applying this knowledge earlier with strategic detection, care, and decisions about cancer risk management is of utmost importance to address health inequity in the U.S.,” said Smith.

“This is why I made a personal commitment to help accelerate research, encourage African American men to participate in the study and subsequent testing, and develop new detection strategies that have the power to transform how we diagnose and treat this disease and help save lives.”

Most genomic studies of prostate cancer have focused on men of European ancestry, and there is a vital need for additional resources to develop and optimize a polygenic risk score in those disproportionately affected.

This new Smith-PCF initiative will increase the representation of African American men in the study and vastly expand the research to allow Dr. Haiman to quadruple the size of his study cohort, a key step to providing worldwide access to the Smith Polygenic Risk Test as soon as possible.

About the Prostate Cancer Foundation
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world’s leading philanthropic organization dedicated to funding life-saving cancer research. Founded in 1993 by Mike Milken, PCF has raised more than $830 million in support of cutting-edge research by more than 2,200 research projects at 220 leading cancer centers in 22 countries around the world. Thanks in part to PCF’s commitment to ending death and suffering from prostate cancer, the death rate is down by 52% and countless more men are alive today as a result. The Prostate Cancer Foundation research now impacts more than 70 forms of human cancer by focusing on immunotherapy, the microbiome, and food as medicine. Learn more at www.pcf.org.

School Board in VA Votes to Rename Robert E. Lee High School after Late U.S. Rep. John R. Lewis

School Board in VA Votes to Rename Robert E. Lee High School after Late U.S. Rep. John R. Lewis

By goodblacknews on July 23, 2020

A county school board in Virginia voted Thursday to rename Springfield, VA’s Robert E. Lee High School after recently deceased Civil Rights activist and U.S. Congress Member John R. Lewis. The new name will be effective for the 2020-21 school year.

According to the Fairfax County Public Schools press release, the Fairfax County School Board voted to change the name of the school and then held a one-month period of public comment on possible new names. A virtual town hall meeting was held on July 15 and a public hearing was held on July 22.

Today’s vote happened during a virtual business meeting, which was broadcast on Zoom.

“The Board heard from students, teachers and staff members, families, and the community about the old name,” said School Board Chair Ricardy Anderson. “It was important for us to be mindful of these comments and to select a name that reflected the diversity and multiculturalism that currently exists at the school and in our community.

Rep. Lewis was a champion of the Civil Rights movement, and our Board strongly believes this is an appropriate tribute to an individual who is a true American hero. We will also honor his life’s work by continuing to promote equity, justice, tolerance and service in the work that we do.”

Lewis, a leading figure of the Civil Rights Movement and the Freedom Rides, represented Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives for 33 years. He was one of the original organizers of the 1963 March on Washington to draw attention to inequalities faced by African Americans.

He also led the Selma to Montgomery march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. Known as “Bloody Sunday,” the demonstrators were marching to the state capital to demand voting rights for African Americans when they were met by armed police who attacked them.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law later that year and is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. Congressman Lewis was the recipient of many awards throughout his lifetime, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. He passed away on July 17, 2020, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

[Photo via Fairfax County Public Schools leehs.fcps.edu]

Serena Williams Donates Proceeds from Unstoppable Jewelry Collection to Relief Fund for Black-Owned Small Businesses

Serena Williams Donates Proceeds from Unstoppable Jewelry Collection to Relief Fund for Black-Owned Small Businesses

By goodblacknews on July 20, 2020

Tennis legend Serena Williams is the latest celebrity and entrepreneur to help Black business owners in need of relief during the COVID-19 crisis.

Williams announced via Instagram that until August 5 proceeds from her Unstoppable capsule jewelry collection will go to the Opportunity Fund’s Small Business Relief Fund, according to a Black Enterprise report.

Williams, who has won a career-defining 23 Grand Slam titles, started the business in late 2019 and has been wearing pieces from her brand during her tennis matches.

“I wore a circular necklace the last time I won all four Grand Slams in a row,” Williams told People about her collection. “I had won four in a row wearing that necklace. I was just really unstoppable.”

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A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams)

The collection includes a sterling silver bracelet and necklace, and also features a simple polished circle with a glittering round diamond that represents serenity and unity. Check out Serena’s Unstoppable offerings here.

Unedited “Eyes on the Prize” Interviews with John Lewis and C.T. Vivian Available to Stream at American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WATCH)

Unedited “Eyes on the Prize” Interviews with John Lewis and C.T. Vivian Available to Stream at American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on July 18, 2020

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) has made John Lewis’ unedited interview for Eyes on the Prize (1987) and for Eyes on the Prize: They Loved You Madly (1979), available to stream on its website, along with Rev. C.T. Vivian’s unedited interview for Eyes on the Prize.

Lewis’ discussions center on the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, his friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the relationship between Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), his view on the philosophy of nonviolence and his involvement in the March on Washington.

Vivian and his interviewer discuss in detail over the course of an hour the Nashville sit-in campaign, the Freedom Rides, the Selma campaign and more.

Eyes on the Prize is the groundbreaking 1987 PBS documentary series that tells the definitive story of the civil rights movement.

These interviews are part of a collection of 127 raw interviews from Eyes on the Prize available to stream via AAPB due to a collaboration between Boston public media producer WGBH and the Library of Congress to preserve and make accessible culturally significant public media from across the country.

The AAPB also contains a two-part raw interview conducted with Vivian in 2011 from American Experience’s Freedom Riders. Part 1, Part 2.

“Amazing Grace”: Playlist in Honor of Civil Rights Heroes John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian (LISTEN)

“Amazing Grace”: Playlist in Honor of Civil Rights Heroes John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on July 18, 2020

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

With the passing of two Civil Rights Movement titans, the Reverend C.T. Vivian and Rep. John Lewis, I was inclined to honor them with a playlist.

After some poking around, I read that Rep. Lewis was a big fan of Aretha Franklin and saw her sing more times than he could count.

As a teenager, Franklin traveled the country on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson and Harry Belafonte. As she became a musical icon, lending her voice in support of equal rights, Franklin was present with Lewis and Vivian, in person or in song, for some of the Civil Rights Movement’s most pivotal moments.

John Lewis and C.T. Vivian (photo: Getty Images)

“If it hadn’t been for Aretha — and others, but particularly Aretha — the Civil Rights Movement would have been a bird without wings,” Lewis said. “She lifted us and she inspired us.”

Here is a playlist featuring her and other artists who lent their voices to the struggle.

As always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:35W6wbr2umUcRcaY1UdeC5″/]

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

Teens in Chicago Work to Turn Liquor Store Into a Pop-Up Fresh Food Market

Teens in Chicago Work to Turn Liquor Store Into a Pop-Up Fresh Food Market

By goodblacknews on July 15, 2020

A liquor store in Austin on the West Side of Chicago is being transformed into a pop-up food market after local teens were given the chance to come up with solutions to their neighborhood’s challenges.

According to Block Club Chicago, much of Austin is considered to be a food desert. The pop-up market will be opened on a street where there are 12 liquor stores nearby but only two markets where people can buy fresh food.

To quote blockclubchicago.org:

The youth-led project got its start when By the Hand Club for Kids held listening circles after the George Floyd protests against police violence. Young people got to voice their feelings around the inequity that led to the lack of resources in their neighborhoods. They said they were frustrated the few grocery stores in the area had to shut their doors temporarily after being looted.

“What I heard coming out of that was that students wanted to take all those raw and powerful emotions and turn them into something good and do something from a social justice standpoint,” said Donnita Travis, executive director of the group.

When presented with the chance to transform one of the looted stores into a resource for the community, “the kids took the idea and ran with it,” Travis said.

The project was also joined by local athletes, including the NFL’s Sam Acho, who wanted to help realize the young people’s vision for their neighborhood.

“People care. It’s a time for people to show up. I think our world has changed,” Acho said. “So for us to be able to come together and say we’re going to lead that change, it means something.”

Acho and the other athletes raised $500,000 to tear down the liquor store at 423 N. Laramie Ave. and turn the spot into a neighborhood food resource.

Some of the pro athletes contributing to the cause included Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky, White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito, Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

The partners on the project held a pilot pop-up market at the liquor store to give the kids a chance to show the community what their vision is.

The young people were joined by Chicago athletes, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, all of them armed with sledgehammers as they kicked off the process of tearing down the building.

The new fresh food market will begin running full-time in August.

Read more: blockclubchicago.org

Subscribe to Block Club Chicago. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.

TEDx Speaker Dena Crowder Offers 5-Minute Guide on Transforming the Internalized Face of Power (WATCH)

TEDx Speaker Dena Crowder Offers 5-Minute Guide on Transforming the Internalized Face of Power (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on July 14, 2020

When you envision a “boss,” who does that boss look like to you? Yourself? Your actual boss? Beyoncé? Deep down, who do you consider to be a successful “authority figure,” and why?

Is it possible who you say that figure is may not jibe with who you subconsciously have been conditioned to see in that role? If so, how does that effect how you navigate your life?

TEDx speaker, performance coach and GBN’s “This Way Forward” contributor Dena Crowder offers a five-minute “Power Shot” to aid and guide us on discovering the hidden views we may hold regardless of age, race or gender about who a “successful authority” looks like, and how to transform those views into ones that feed, not fetter, our inner power. Watch:

Dr. Berenecea Johnson Eanes and Dr. Anthony E. Monroe Appointed to Lead Colleges in City University of New York System

Dr. Berenecea Johnson Eanes and Dr. Anthony E. Monroe Appointed to Lead Colleges in City University of New York System

By goodblacknews on July 9, 2020

City University of New York‘s board of trustees recently voted to appoint two African American scholars to lead colleges in the university system, according to jbhe.com.

Berenecea Johnson Eanes was appointed president of York College of the City University of New York. She has worked as interim president there since last fall.

York College, located in Jamaica, Queens, enrolls nearly 8,500 undergraduate students, according to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 38 percent of the student body.

Dr. Eanes has previously served as vice president for the Division of Student Affairs at California State University, Fullerton and had been on the staff at Cal State Fullerton for seven years.

Dr. Eanes is a graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans. She earned a master’s degree at Boston University and a Ph.D. in social work at Clark Atlanta University.

Anthony E. Munroe will be president of Borough of Manhattan Community College, effective October 1.

Since 2017, Dr. Munroe has been president of Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey. He was previously president of Malcolm X College, part of the City Colleges of Chicago system.

Borough of Manhattan Community College is the largest in the CUNY system with more than 25,000 students, according to the latest U.S. Department of Education statistics. African Americans make up 27 percent of the student body.

Dr. Munroe is a graduate of Regents College of New York. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and earned an MA in public health and a Ph.D in health education from Columbia University in New York.

Oprah Winfrey and Lionsgate Join Forces With Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times to Adapt the 1619 Project Into Films, Television Programming & Other Content

By goodblacknews on July 8, 2020

Photo Credit: Oprah (Harpo Inc./Ruven Afanador) / Nikole (James Estrin/The New York Times )

Pulitzer Prize®-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times have chosen Lionsgate Studios to be the home for a wide-ranging partnership to develop Ms. Hannah-Jones’ landmark issue of The New York Times Magazine, The 1619 Project, and hit New York Times podcast, 1619, into an expansive portfolio of feature films, television series and other content for a global audience.

As part of the ground-breaking venture, Lionsgate has partnered with Oprah Winfrey as a producer who will provide stewardship and guidance to the development and production of The 1619 Project.

Lionsgate, The Times and Ms. Winfrey will join forces with Ms. Hannah-Jones, who will serve as the creative leader and producer in developing feature films, television series, documentaries, unscripted programming and other forms of entertainment enlisting world-class Black creative voices to help adapt her celebrated series chronicling the ways that the original sin of slavery in America still permeates all aspects of our society today.

Jones’ colleague at The Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper, an editor of The 1619 Project and head of scripted entertainment at The Times, will also produce.

One of the most impactful and thought-provoking works of journalism of the past decade, The Times Magazine’s 1619 Project was a landmark undertaking that connected the centrality of slavery in history with an unflinching account of the brutal racism that endures in so many aspects of American life today.

It was launched in August 2019 on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English colonies that would become the United States, and it examines the legacy of slavery in America and how it shaped all aspects of society, from music and law to education and the arts, including the principles of our democracy itself.

Ms. Hannah-Jones created and was the architect of the initiative at The Times Magazine with contributions from Black authors, essayists, poets, playwrights, and scholars comprising a special issue of the magazine and a special section in the print edition of The New York Times produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History & Culture, as well as a five-part podcast that topped the Apple Podcast charts.

One of The Times’ most widely read pieces of journalism last year, The 1619 Project has been discussed in the Senate, is being adapted into a series of books with One World, a division of Penguin Random House, and is already changing the way that American history is being taught in schools.

“We took very seriously our duty to find TV and film partners that would respect and honor the work and mission of The 1619 Project, that understood our vision and deep moral obligation to doing justice to these stories. Through every step of the process, Lionsgate and its leadership have shown themselves to be that partner and it is a dream to be able to produce this work with Ms. Oprah Winfrey, a trailblazer and beacon to so many Black journalists,” said Ms. Hannah-Jones. “I am excited for this opportunity to extend the breadth and reach of The 1619 Project and to introduce these stories of Black resistance and resilience to even more American households.”

“From the first moment I read The 1619 Project and immersed myself in Nikole Hannah-Jones’s transformative work, I was moved, deepened and strengthened by her empowering historical analysis,” said Oprah Winfrey. “I am honored to be a part of Nikole’s vision to bring this project to a global audience.”

Please see a link to The 1619 Project essays here and podcasts here.