Links:The Black Star Project's website:
Black Star Journal:
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"The
unbelievable facts about what is happening to Black people in America
through the criminal justice system and the education system, as reveal
in The Chains of Black America, will first make you want to cry out with pain. Then those same facts will make you angry enough to do something!
Phillip Jackson, The Black Star Project
The Chains of Black America: The Hammer of the Police, The Anvil of the Schools
is a description of how two great institutions of American
government-the education and criminal justice systems-often hinder,
rather than enable, the achievement of equal opportunities for the
descendants of enslaved Africans.
The book is about the caste
status of African Americans, rather than about "people of color," or
impoverished Americans, because of the specific history of African
Americans and the way in which their oppression affects others. It is
perhaps not too much to say that until descent from enslaved Africans is
no longer a cause for lack of equality of opportunity, the United
States will never be a just society.
Each chapter, beginning
with the national survey in Chapter One, includes demographic, health,
income, wealth, and economic mobility data, followed by sections on the
criminal justice and education systems and concluding with attempts at
modeling a more equitable society.
This modeling is extended
nationally in a final chapter. There are chapters on eight cities:
Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York City,
Philadelphia, and Rochester, New York. Each of these has a significant,
highly segregated, African American population. In each, African
American incarceration rates are many times higher than those of White,
non-Hispanics, and educational outcomes are much less favorable for
African American than for White, non-Hispanic, students.
There
are many other cities where these conditions prevail, such as
Minneapolis, Buffalo, Montgomery and Miami, but eight examples should
suffice as examples of how caste is enforced in America.
Click Here to Purchase The Chains of Black America
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Celebrate Black History Month by
Building Intellectual Equity
Click Here to Join the African Revolution in Thinking: Building Intellectual Equity
with Dr. Larry Muhammad
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In Davenport, Iowa, St. Ambrose University hosts MLK mentoring day
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Jeff Cook, QUAD-CITY TIMES
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By Brian Wellner
January 29, 2015
La'Quan Williams has figured out how to be a mentor to youth, and he's only 13. The Smart Intermediate School eighth-grader assists Davenport Little League coaches. "I'm like a kid coach," La'Quan said. "I run them through the drills."
He
was among students who participated in Thursday's Martin Luther King
Jr. Mentor Day at St. Ambrose University's Rogalski Center in Davenport.
As other Davenport Community School District eighth-grade boys were
listening to speeches about confidence building and giving back, La'Quan
remembered when he was the new kid in school and needed an older
student to show him around.
"They help you out with stuff," he said. "They tell you where you can and can't go." Kendahl
Owoh, director of federal and state programs for Davenport schools,
said 200 African-American and multiracial male students participated in
the first-time event, which is based on boxing legend's Muhammad Ali's
six principles of confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect
and spirituality.
Between
speeches, students sat with mentors from the community for group
discussions. About 20 mentors participated from places including Deere,
the Rock Island Arsenal and the Davenport Police Department.
The
event was inspired by the efforts of the Black Star Project in Chicago,
which seeks to establish mentoring relationships specifically between
boys and men, Owoh said.
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100 Girls Between the Ages of
4 and 14 Years Old Will Attend the
Hottest Dance Party in the Country
(With Their Fathers):
The 2015 Chicago
Daddy Daughter Dance
For only $30.00 per couple, this Dance includes: An outstanding Midwestern "Boy Band", a nationally known Magician, Food, "Goody Bags", Music, Dancing, Photographs, and More.
Your daughter deserves to be treated like the princess she is! Join us on
Saturday, February 7, 2015 for
(Room for 10 couples left!!!)
*************************************
Please
call 773.285.9600 to register young women and their fathers,
grandfathers, foster fathers, uncles, big brothers, cousins, next door
neighbors, teachers, preachers or male caregivers.
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Africa Night Celebrates
Black History Month
Saturday, February 7, 2015
7:00 pm to 11:00 pm
The Kleo Center
119 East Garfield Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois
Music-Food-Speakers
$5.00 Donation
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T.J. Morris Reveals Her
Family's Secret Black History
with
A
historical fiction based in the 1920's. The protagonist named Eugene
"Jack" Brewer is a mulatto man who had an unfortunate mishap with a
white sheriff, during which a woman was killed in the crossfire. Jack
fled north to Chicago and was labeled a fugitive in Mississippi. Once in
Chicago, he was able to pass himself off as white, but he always had
the fear of being caught. Jack was also related to the Ex-Governor Earl
Leroy Brewer of Mississippi.
Hear
a lecture by TJ Morris on genealogy, her book and her family's history
on Saturday, February 21, 2015 at 1:30 pm at The Black Star Project.
Please call 773.285.9600 for more information.
Click Here to Purchase "Blood Is Thicker Than Color"
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D.C. schools to invest
$20 million in efforts to help
black and Latino male students
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Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson
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Michael Alison Chandler
January 21, 2015
D.C. Schools Chancellor
Kaya Henderson announced a plan Wednesday to invest $20 million in new
support programs for black and Latino male students in the District,
including opening an all-boys college preparatory high school east of
the Anacostia River.
Henderson said her decision
to invest heavily in the specific needs of boys of color has everything
to do with "mathematics." Black and Latino boys make up 43 percent of
the students enrolled in D.C. public schools. By almost any measure -
reading and math scores, attendance and graduation rates - their
performance is lagging.
"Far too many students are
not benefiting from the progress we are making," Henderson said at a
news conference at the remodeled Ballou High School in Ward 8. "It's a
very real, very urgent problem."
The push is part of a
citywide effort under Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who took office this
month, to improve equity and increase opportunities for young men of
color.
For
the next three years, Henderson also will focus funds from the Proving
What's Possible grant program on individual schools' efforts to enhance
the academic, social or emotional development of black and Latino male
students and to work to engage their families.
Progress
for these students will be tracked in a "score card," which will be
published for the District and each school over time.
The plan was spelled out by
Robert Simmons, an urban education professor whom Henderson hired last
year to become the school system's chief of innovation and research.
In
the District, 48 percent of black male students and 57 percent of
Hispanic male students graduate in four years, compared with 66 percent
of their classmates. Only about a third of black male students are
proficient in reading and math, according to the DC CAS scores, compared
with almost 60 percent of students who are not black or Latino males.
She said at the event Wednesday that mentoring programs were high on the boys' wish list.
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Illinois Fatherhood Initiative
Fatherhood Essay Contest
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"What My Father Means To Me"
2015 IFI Chicago White Sox
Fatherhood Essay Contest
Now in its 18th year this popular essay writing contest has attracted more than 400,000 entries and annually involves more than 700 volunteer readers encompasses three celebrations.
All
school-aged Illinois children are welcome and encouraged to participate
by writing an essay about their; father, stepfather, grandfather or
father-figure to the theme
All students receive a certificate of participation and gifts from IFI's sponsor partners.
12 of the 156 will also be invited to the June 10th IFI Fatherhood Dinner Celebration being held at the Union League Club of Chicago.
4
of the 12 will also be treated to a Chicago White Sox baseball game
where they will have a special on-field experience and throw out a
ceremonial first pitch to their dads.
12 students will receive BrightStart college scholarships
The top 100 participating schools will receive a
Starter Kit of Fathering Resources, and
The deadline for submission is March 6, 2015.
Please
forward this message to your local superintendents, principals, and
educators with an encouraging word to have their students participate.
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