Feb. 15, 2016

Hundreds Of Black Men Show Their Support For Students In Seattle  
By Chris B. Bennett

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from The Seattle Medium

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In one of the most dynamic displays of civic engagement seen in Seattle in some time, over 200 Black men gathered at South Shore Pre-K – 8 School to welcome students to school Monday morning as part of the school’s 8th Annual celebration of National African American Parent Involvement Day (NAAPID).

NAAPID was founded twenty years ago by Joe Dulin, a retired educator, in response to a call to action (from the million man march) by then 12-year-old Ayinde Jean-Baptiste. The day is centered on African American students, but is not exclusive to African-American families from multicultural school population. Parents, administrators and volunteers at South Shore PreK-8 have participated in the NAAPID since 2007.

This year’s event took an interesting twist as Anthony Shoecraft, a parent and one of the event organizers, had an idea that would change the course of this year’s celebration. That idea was to have 100 Black men show up at the school and engage with the kids. It was both a “what if” moment that took place in a planning meeting and a challenge to see if they could actually pull it off.

For Shoecraft, the vision was simple. It was an unapologetic promotion of positive Black male imagery: 100 men of African descent — who are in and from the community — representing a diversity of hues, professions and stories enthusiastically high fiving students as they enter the building to start their day.

“I just said, what if?” said Shoecraft. “What if 100 Black men were the ones that greeted children on this day?”

Shoecraft and the members of the planning committee took up the challenge and put out the call for 100 Black men to show up for the event. The response was overwhelming, to organizers and participants alike, as over 200 Black men showed up at the school (most of them wearing business attire), ready and willing to stand up and be counted.

“My unofficial count was 204,” said Shoecraft. “To those that think that Black men aren’t in this community, this is a rejection to that narrative. We can show up, and we’re in this community.”

The goal of the event was to: reframe the social and racial narrative concerning Black men by displaying and exposing students to the diversity of Black male excellence, affirm the importance of educational equity by celebrating children and families of African descent, and catalyzing the regional adoption of NAAPID at other schools and school districts and communities throughout the region. By most accounts, mission accomplished.

“This is the best day ever,” said Shawn Davis, whose husband and son both participated in the event. “This is so beautiful to see.”

The men began gathering inside the school at 7:00 a.m., then they formed two lines outside the building where buses and parents dropped students off for school that stretched inside to the building’s rotunda.

As the kids made their way between the lines they were greeted with high fives, words of encouragement and cheers to the sounds of an African drum line. The event became so emotional that parents and the participants got caught up in the moment as they saw faces of the children light up as they made their way into the school like “rock stars.”

“This is an amazing event,” said LaCretiah Claytor, the parent of a 7th grade student at the school. “To have a young student, especially young men come in here and be greeted with such smiles, high fives, words of encouragement to start their day off.. this could really change someone’s life right now.”

“I wish they could do this every day,” added Claytor. “I walked through the line myself and it gave me chills. It’s just a beautiful thing that these young men are doing and I really appreciate them for doing it.”

The event drew Black men from all walks of life including Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell, Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, police officers, fraternity members, former athletes, white collar workers, blue collar workers and even some people who work graveyard shifts who came to the event after they got off work.

“This is a great event with positive energy, where these kids know that the community is behind them in their pursuit for education excellence,” said  Harrell.

Chief Scoggins agreed.

“This morning was a great morning,” said Chief  Scoggins. “The kids are inspired to start their day off.. starting with a smile on their face, being encouraged by so many men in the community. It’s a good thing.”

While the “100 Black Men” gathering may have been the highlight of the day, it was just the beginning of a day-long NAAPID celebration. The program for the day included youth and community panel discussions, remarks from Seattle Public School Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland, guest speakers, food, song, dance and a chance for parents to caucus and fellowship.

In addition, HBCU banners were posted throughout the school along with red, black and green décor.

While the total impact that the day had on students may not be measured for years to come, the smiles of the kids’ faces to begin their school day on Monday is something that participants will cherish forever.

“You can never put a price and you can never know how much of an impact [an event like this] will have,” said Shoecraft. “Starting the kids day off with a high five, [telling them to] be a leader, have a good day.. it’s priceless, it really is.”

While the event was marketed as “100 Black Men,” it had no affiliation with the national organization of 100 Black men or its local affiliate. However, there is speculation that the event might be the catalyst to help revitalize the local affiliate.

Feb. 14, 2016

VUU’s History Grounded in Incubating the Oppressed for Success
Joey Matthews

Prior to delivering the keynote message at last Friday’s Founders Day Convocation at Virginia Union University, Bishop Rudolph W. McKissick Jr. of Bethel Baptist Institutional Church in Jacksonville, Fla., is flanked by VUU President Claude G. Perkins, left, and Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Audience members rose to their feet with impassioned shouts of “Hallelujah!” and “Amen!” at Virginia Union University’s Founders Day Convocation last Friday.

They stood to affirm keynote speaker Bishop Rudolph W. McKissick Jr.’s stirring remarks in which he praised the university for educating African-American students, including himself, against formidable obstacles since its founding 151 years ago at the site of the former slave-holding pen known as Lumpkin’s Jail in Shockoe Bottom.

Bishop McKissick earned a master’s of divinity degree from Virginia Union University’s School of Theology, now known as the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology. Today, he is senior pastor of the 14,000-member Bethel Baptist Institutional Church in Jacksonville, Fla.

He said the university has served as a “hiding place” for him and countless other students while they were educated and learned life skills that helped pave the way for their success.

“In 1865, in a place called Lumpkin’s Jail, Virginia Union began a hiding process in a culture that said we were nothing because of the color of our skin, in a culture that wanted to say we were second class citizens,” Bishop McKissick said, his voice rising.

“They began a hiding process, a process that refused to allow a society with its labels to limit the potential of young men and young women, a process that was determined to keep us until you could groom us, a process that said we will liberate your mind so that you can learn how to live a liberated life,” he added. 

“And I’m thankful today that, at age 50, I think like I think and I walk like I walk and I act like I act because I got to a place that hid me and nurtured me and tried to make me who God created me to be,” he continued.

Bishop McKissick called it “the honor of my life” to return to speak at VUU.

He drew his remarks from the biblical passage in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23 that reads: “By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”

He spoke of how Moses’ mother, Jochebed, hid her son from Pharaoh after he ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the enslaved Israelites.

And “why else did she hide him?” the bishop asked the audience.

“You hide what you value,” he said. “She hid him because she saw that he was someone beautiful who would be living in an oppressed condition.”
Because she hid him, Bishop McKissick added, “she was able to give birth to the one who would challenge and change the culture” of the “Egyptians’ oppressive system of slavery, which set (the Hebrews) up to be failures and second class citizens.”

He asserted that VUU has served the same role of incubating the oppressed out of harm’s way. He said the oppressors knew that “as the oppressed people increased in number, they would increase in strength” and would challenge the “cultural norms and low expectations” that society had set for them.

“Among all of us here,” he said, “somebody today ought to be glad that when you walked through these halls, that even though some might have tried to suck your life from you and society tried to hold you down, there was a Jochebed that hid you until you were ready to be released.”

With Mayor Dwight C. Jones, a VUU alumnus in the audience, Bishop McKissick said, “They were hiding us while we produced mayors and former governors. They were hiding us while we produced educators, doctors and musicians. And they were hiding us while we produced prophets.

“And the role of the prophet,” he added, “is to tell Pharaoh to let my people go free, whether Pharaoh is Obama, Clinton, Sanders, Cruz or anybody else.”

Bishop McKissick noted the highly publicized incidents of police brutality against African-Americans in the United States and labeled it “government-sanctioned murder, where sons (Trayvon Martin) could be murdered for carrying Skittles and the murderer gets off, government-sanctioned murder where police officers abuse their position and kill those who can’t breathe (Eric Garner) and shoot those whose hands are up (Michael Brown Jr.) and get off without even a slap on the wrist.

“And there’s government-sanctioned murder,” he continued, “where gun laws aren’t put in place to keep guns out of the hood for gangs to kill each other with, government sanctioned when an ex-offender can’t get a job after paying for the crimes of their past so we shoot their potential for their future.

“But I like this mother,” Bishop McKissick said of Jochebed, “because she refused to give in to the system of oppression that was set up to make her son fail. She made a choice to protect him from what was trying to kill him. She made a choice to protect him from what was trying to foreclose on his future. She made a choice to hide him from what was trying to define him as deficient. And she made the choice that his life was made for more than second class citizenship.”

He concluded by saying everyone should turn to Jesus because, “He’ll hide you from trouble, he’ll hide you from racism, he’ll hide you from sexism and he’ll hide you from oppression.

“He’ll set my foot on solid ground, and I shall not be moved,” he said.

In introductory remarks, Virginia Union President Claude G. Perkins noted that “miracles” such as Virginia Union are made possible “when people step off the banks of the water and into it.”

He said, “No one knew this place would survive these 151 years.”

“We’ve been challenged sometimes,” he added, and “we’re still standing and still getting stronger every day...We will continue to trouble the waters,” he promised. “I thank God for bringing us this far.”

Feb. 14, 2016

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Jordan Chapman said her jaw dropped in incredulous disbelief the day she learned in her Hermitage High School history class about the late Harry F. Byrd Sr., the former Virginia governor, U.S. senator and avowed White separatist for whom H.F. Byrd Middle School in Henrico County is named.

“I learned that a school right down the street from where I live was named after a man who tried to keep schools segregated by shutting them down across the state,” Jordan, a 17-year-old senior, said during an interview at her Western Henrico County home.

There, she and four adults gathered to discuss with the Richmond Free Press their campaign — started by Jordan last fall — to have Henrico Public Schools rename the middle school at 9400 Quioccasin Road to rid it of the racist legacy of Mr. Byrd.

As a U.S. senator, Byrd was one of the chief architects of “Massive Resistance,” the fiercely backed, state-sanctioned policy to ignore the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ordering the desegregation of public schools because of inequities. Byrd met with members of the General Assembly to design the strategy to enact laws and policies that led to the closure of many public schools in Virginia between 1958 and 1964 rather than integrate.

Thousands of African-American children were denied a public education during that time, while state money was funneled to all-White private schools to support the education of many White students in places where the schools were closed.

During the next few years, state and federal courts eventually overturned most of the laws that fueled Massive Resistance, but aspects of the campaign against integrated schools in Virginia continued for decades.

“Why would you name a school for somebody who tried to stop some people from being educated?” Jordan recalled thinking.

The more she learned about Byrd’s efforts to deny public education opportunities to black children, the more she recoiled at the middle school’s name.

“It’s a moral issue to me,” she said. “It’s hard for me to believe that a school would honor someone like him. I think it’s time to change the name.” 

As an alternative, she offered the name Oliver Hill Middle School to honor the late trailblazing Richmond civil rights attorney who won numerous legal battles at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He also was among the lawyers representing plaintiffs in the Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, the Virginia case that was heard with the Brown v. Board of Education case.

“It’s amazing to me,” Jordan added, “that a school would not want to be welcoming to all of its students” by having that name.

According to Henrico Public Schools spokesperson Andrew Jenks, 20.3 percent, or 203 of Byrd Middle School’s 999 students, are African-American.
Jordan, who lives about a 5-minute drive from Byrd, explained that she was zoned to attend Byrd, but instead attended the International Baccalaureate program at Moody Middle School.

The honor roll student now attends the Hermitage High School Center for Humanities and is undecided about where she will attend college.

In August, she emailed the five members of the Henrico School Board to inquire about renaming Byrd Middle School, “but I got no responses.” 

She then asked Hermitage High School Principal Andy Armstrong what he thought of her idea and he said “it was cool for me to take the initiative and here are the next steps you can take.”

Jordan said her AP government teacher Jeannine Chewning also has encouraged her. Her parents also are supportive. The response from her classmates at Hermitage is “mostly positive,” she said.

Her campaign is gaining national attention, with articles about her campaign appearing in The Washington Post and The Huffington Post, among others.
The thoughtful teen also said she has received numerous posts on social media from people across the country praising her efforts. 

Jordan has spoken at three School Board meetings urging members to change the middle school’s name. She was joined by a growing number of supporters at the board’s Jan. 28 meeting.

Henrico School Board members said they would learn and discuss the estimated cost for a name change at a Feb. 11 board work session. Henrico School Board chair Michelle F. “Micky” Ogburn of the Three Chopt District told the Free Press that the cost estimate would be discussed near the end of the meeting in order to allow parents and students to attend after school ends. Afterward, neither she nor Henrico Schools Superintendent Patrick Kinlaw, who declined to discuss the issue with the Free Press, would disclose the estimate to a reporter.

However, Robert Voorhis, who lives in the Byrd Middle School district and is active in the name-change campaign, said a source estimated the cost at more than $120,000.

By comparison, Tommy Kranz, an assistant superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, told the Free Press on Tuesday it cost the city school district “less than $10,000” to rename Thompson Middle School last summer to Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School. That amount included changing the school signs, letterhead and the basketball court logo, he said. 

Voorhis said he backs the name change because the school should not honor someone “who was not only a lead segregationist, but also kicked thousands of Black children out of schools.”

The Free Press reached out to Fairfield District representative Rev. Roscoe D. Cooper III, the lone African-American on the Henrico School Board and its newest member, to ask for his opinion.

“I will reserve speaking specifically about my opinion until after I have shared my position with my colleagues on the board,” he stated in an email response. “Once I share with them my position, I will gladly share it with you and explain why I feel the way I do.”

Ogburn provided no timetable for when the name-change decision would be made.

Feb. 14, 2016

Starving government creates a disaster like Flint
By Jesse Jackson