Wellsprings of Faith: Ms. Alma Carroll

Alma Carroll was touched by African History when she was born in Asheville, N.C. “The Land Of The Sky” December 16, 1925. Asheville was the summer home of the Vanderbilt’s and Alma’s grand uncle raised chickens at “Biltmore House”. Paul Robeson’s brother lived at the end of Ridge Street. Rev. Dr. Thomas Kilgore and sister Melissa lived at “Mama’s house while they attended Stephens Lee High School. In Harlem, U.S.A., Alma met Blake & Sissle in grammar school PS157, lived around the corner from Charles Rangel, marched with Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and more.
Alma Carroll has lived in Bedford Stuyvesant for fifty seven years. You would think that she was a native, when she lists all the great community leaders of the sixties and the wonderful accomplishments of those years. How proud Ms. Carroll is to have worked with people like Herbert Von King who founded The Bedford Stuyvesant Interagency Council Of The Aging. Ms. Carroll is delighted to have served as president since 1991. Aunt Hattie Carthan was a senior when she organized the Bedford-Stuyvesant Beautification Association. Alma Carroll carried on Ms. Carthans, work as President of the Association and Board member of the Magnolia Tree Earth Center.
Alma carried on the work of Ms. Almira Coursey as president of the Tompkins Park Recreational and Cultural Association which houses the Eubie Blake Theater.
Ms. Carroll serves as President Emeritus of the Pulaski St.- Nostrand Ave Block Association that she started in 1967 and headed until three years ago. Over the years she has served as Founder and President of the “Friends of the Marcy branch Library” as well as the President of the “Sumner Armory Council” – the 2nd largest in New York State.
For years Ms. Carroll hosted tours of Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights prior to the convening of the “Annual Conference of Christians and Jews.” Over the years she also served for 16 years as the President of the “79th Precinct Community Council”.
She served on the “Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council” and ran the “79th Precinct Summer Feeding Program for Youth”. Along her way she, working with others and was able to save the opposite side of her block from imminent demolition by the city. She also worked with “Model Cities” and served on a planning committee that helped to bring “Woodhull hospital” to the area.
In 1999, Ms. Carroll founded the “Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium”, that among its many venues, provides thirty straight days of jazz venues each spring and in the past few years, has expanded coordinating events and a Festival with South Africa. She served as the organizations President until a few years ago.
For decades Ms. Carroll has spent countless hours traveling to Albany to defend the rights of seniors in the city and state, on critical issues such as healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, nutrition and crime and safety.
Among her most precious thoughts and memories, Alma Carroll loves having worked with and being mentored by GIANTS of Bed-Stuy.,such as Almira Coursey, Elsie Richardson and Herbert Von King among others.
Most importantly, Ms. Carroll and the world renowned Jazz singer, Joe Carroll founded the Jazzpazazz Preservation Society before his death. Today, Ms. Carroll had annually produced The Billie Holiday Jazz Festival (a series of Jazz venues around Brooklyn) honoring colleagues of the forties and fifties, that is, until it became part of the “Central.Brooklyn Jazz Consortium”. The Annual Sagittarius Ball celebrates the birthdays of Alma Carroll, Joe Carroll, Etta Jones and a host of other Sagittarians.
Alma Carroll is the mother of three children: Elliott (“Skipp”) – Loyce and Juanita, three grand Children, Loyce Melodee – Danier – Divin and two great grand children, Jazmin and Danier Jr.

Wellsprings of Faith: Mrs. Jane Lee Weatherspoon Green

1925 was a very good year for milestones in music, inventions and human rights activism. The Harlem Renaissance was in full swing; Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington made their first recordings; the first working television was produced; civil rights icons Malcolm X and Medgar Evers were born; the first potato chip factory opened thanks to the invention of African American, George Crum; A. Philip Randolph organized the Sleeping Car Porters;and the popular song “Sweet Georgia Brown” was written. December 16 of that year also enjoyed the births of Alma Carroll and Jane Lee Weatherspoon.

Janie’s Story is rooted in a rich past populated by iconoclasts, activists, farmers, strong village warriors, gardeners, athletes, craftspeople and nurturers.
She grew up in a six-room house with a porch swing at 611 Fourth Avenue, SW, Cairo, Ga. Family members and neighbors built it from hand-hewn oak and pinewoods. It sat amidst the tall pines, moss-hung live oaks and sky sweeping pecan trees of the southwest Georgia town, famed for its lush foliage and flowers, peanuts and Roddenbery syrup. Her relatives still reside there and “land is still in the family”.
Her father Arch Weatherspoon Sr. and mother Grace Anne Smith Weatherspoon, a housewife, seamstress and devout Christian, raised their 12 children plus Grace’s six brothers and sisters.
Among his other skills, Arch Sr. was a gardener for Wight Nurseries (founded in 1887), working in the Tung Oil Tree groves, supporting agriculturists and scientists in the growing of one of the largest trees from whose oil World War II ammunition was coated and battleships painted. He and his friends masterminded a bloodless ambush of the Ku Klux Klan when they threatened harm.
The family worshipped at Cairo’s Bethlehem AME Church, where Janie ushered as a young girl, and where the name of Arch Sr. who could not read nor write is still engraved after more than 70 years: the structure’s exterior stone wall bears the carved inscription by Janie’s brother Joseph of the church’s dedicated caretakers, a list which memorializes Arch’s name as a Trustee.
Janie traces her ancestral roots to the early 1800’s in the coastal plains of mainland Georgia, South Carolina and Florida and the Gullah Sea Islands.
Bloodline kinships reveal she earned her spitfire, “can do” hellraiser spirit honestly. Weatherspoon/Walker/Smith family ties connect to baseball great Jackie Robinson, Olympic basketball star Teresa Weatherspoon, actor Wesley Snipes and the late Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. (as reported by the late “Miss Alice,” Cairo’s village griot).
Janie’s maternal geechie-speaking grandfather, Joe Smith, just a hair over 5 feet tall, was religiously outspoken and never feared reprisal from racists or anyone else. At a very young age, he changed his name from Walker to Smith following banishment, reason undisclosed, from Ridgefield, South Carolina, at an early age. He also lived – or hid out — alone for an extended period in the peat-filled, alligator and snake-infested blackwaters of Okefenokee Swamp. Family lore says that at one point in his boyhood years he stowed on a ship heading for West Africa that returned months later with their feisty, courageous young charge in tow.

It is also reported by the elders that he escaped his situation by walking through South Carolina and Georgia, then meeting Susie King, Janie’s grandmother, a gardener, possibly in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia on his way to Thomas County.
From paternal grandparents Hannah and George Weatherspoon, and the Smiths, she picked up the special knowledge that only comes from West Africa and the South’s backwoods culture, learning to survive through good humor, mother wit, common sense and sharp thinking. At Washington High School, Janie excelled effortlessly in the academics and as a champion basketball athlete competing in nearby towns, including Thomasville and Quincy. She graduated in 1942, but not before being asked to leave school during her senior year for insulting the principal. She could only return and graduate if she apologized. Janie was out of school for five months before her May graduation. In later years, Janie enrolled in field sociology courses at Brooklyn’s NYC Community College.
In the 1940’s, she says she reluctantly boarded the Atlantic Coastal Line train heading North, leaving her beloved pines, oaks, pecan trees to seek opportunity in bigger places — New York’s Port Chester and White Plains joining her maternal aunts and uncles who her mother had raised.
Her skills at community organizing skills were first revealed in White Plains; she formed a Bicycle Club for sister domestic workers “to give us something to do on Thursdays off, and learn about where we worked (throughout Westchester County) on bikes we rented.” No wallflower, she cut loose at the Harlem Savoy Ballroom – home of the happy feet, Thursday evenings, dancing with her friends to the Tempeh-drum-sounding rhythms of Chick Webb’s swing band. “Those were the days,” she says.
Some years later, after settling in Bedford Stuyvesant on Halsey Street, then Marcy Avenue, Greene Avenue, and finally DeKalb Avenue, she was “discovered” by educator Almira Coursey, who was part of a community organizer team seeking “real voices” and eventual active participants for the community’s emerging anti-poverty programs, including Youth In Action, Inc.
Bedford Stuyvesant replaced Cairo, and for nearly 40 years afterward, she served her village through work in a number of organizations and affiliations. Her achievements include but are not limited to being a proactive and outspoken member of the Eleanor Roosevelt Advisory Council, Board member of Bedford Stuyvesant Youth In Action, PTA president of several public schools, including Boys & Girls H.S. and JHS 57, a member of the Marcy Pool Committee, Tompkins Park Beautification Committee, 79th Precinct Council and Women’s Unit of the Salvation Army. She was honorary Chair of the Brooklyn Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, led the Eleanor Roosevelt Tenants Association, representing some 3,000 families and was instrumental in changing the name of Tompkins Park to Herbert Von King Park in honor of the powerful community leader. Appointed by then Borough President Howard Golden to Community Board Member #3, she served as dedicated community advocate 18 years.
She was the architect of the Education Action Outreach program, housed at the 400 Hart Street Community Center for a number of years. A social workers social worker, she knew every one to call on every level of city and state government as she ran the Eleanor Roosevelt Housing Community Center, worked with all the PTA’s in the surrounding public schools, and linked teens, adolescents and adults to 100,000 jobs over a period of 12 years. Said one admirer: “She knew the hooks, and she could drop a jewel (giving advice) that would help to save people’s jobs, their apartments and homes; schoolchildren from being expelled; principals control their schools and young people to get into college. A letter from Janie Green was gold, a passport to the future.
She was at the forefront of voter registration, and has been credited by numerous political representatives, some still in office today, for helping them win elections. Many nights were interrupted by calls CouncilmanVictor Robles, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Sen. Thomas Bartosiewicz, then City Councilwoman Annette Robinson, Congressman Ed Towns and Assemblyman Al Vann, Community Board #3 Lew Watkins, Howard Golden, Rev. Al Sharpton, Sonny Carson and many others for advice and direction on how to move on campaign or community issues. Her family was an entire campaign mechanism for protests, fighting for more community policing and housing police. One instance of her successful leadership was her organization of the tenants of Roosevelt Houses to demand more police Roosevelt housing. She rallied the neighborhood to block the intersection of Lewis and DeKalb for three hours demanding police protection. It resulted in increased police presence and enhanced relationship with such popular law enforcers as Costello and the famous law team of “Batman and Robin.”
Her citations, honors, proclamations and certificates of appreciation, merit and leadership achievement reach into the hundreds. Among them are awards from nearly every public school in her North Brooklyn district; every major politician in Central Brooklyn, every major Brooklyn-based grassroots group, agency and local chapters of various national organizations.
She also was the subject of an award-winning documentary short, “…and Call Her Blessed: A Portrait of Janie,” which won several festival awards and special recognition by the American Women in Radio and Television and Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden.
While she raised a family which includes more than 60 grandchildren, great grands and great great grands (plus the neighborhood), she still found time for craftwork –sewing, crocheting, knitting, cooking, doll collecting and quiltmaking (she’s created a quilt heirloom for each of her children as a legacy gift). On occasion, she recalls entire selections of Langston Hughes poetry learned in her youth.
Now, her greatest concern is that the those in positions of power continue the work begun by her and her colleagues, including Elsie Richardson, Joanne Atiles, Earl Jones, Alma Carroll, Janice Johnson, Muriel Drakes, Dorothy Orr, Almira Coursey, Lucille Rose, Ruby Brent Ford, Narcissus Frett, Madge Ford, Robert Hunter, Richard Taylor, Tom Fortune, major Owens, Al Vann and so many, many others. Last year, she told us, “”Bedford Stuyvesant today would benefit from the wisdom of the people who fought the fight and worked for change. Always make demands and always keep going. Don’t give up! Stand up!”

Department of Education to shutter two Bed-Stuy schools Vann slams Bloomberg Administration for not keeping local community in the loop

City Councilman Al Vann this week slammed the Department of Education’s decision to shutter one Bedford-Stuyvesant school next year and phase out another over three years.
The Academy of Business and Community Development (ABCD), 141 Macon Street and Marcy Avenue will shut its door in June if the mayor’s Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) sign’s off on the recommendation at their a Feb. 9 meeting.
The DOE established the 154-student, all-male 6-12 grade school in 2005 as one of its “small school” experiments, after the building educated students in the community for years when it was previously known as the Nathaniel Macon Junior High School, I..S. 258. Ironically, this June is their first graduating class of students who started in the sixth grade.
“Without input from the Bedford-Stuyvesant community, the Bloomberg Administration’s education department established the ABCD in 2005 to primarily serve young black males in grades 6-12. Fast forwarding to the present day, the DOE’s proposal to take extreme intervention in this ‘failing’ school comes again without any significant inclusion of community input,” said City Councilman Al Vann.
“When will the Bloomberg-led Department of Education learn it is essential to involve communities and parents in their children’s schools and educational environments? Their continued agenda that ignores community and parent concerns and input is destructive to our city’s public school system,” he added.
In closing the school, DOE officials  noted its progress report grades have slid from a B in 2008-09 to D’s in bother 2009-10 and 2010-11.
“Proposing to phase out a school is the most difficult decision to make,” the DOE said in a statement. “We are proposing to close ABCD because it is the right action for current and future students in this community.”
Under the plan eighth graders and seniors will graduate this June. All the students still in school next year must transfer to another school.
The DOE also announced plans to phase out over three years the 274-student Satellite 3 MS 103, at 170 Gates Avenue. The school is for grades 6-8, and under the plan, the school won’t take any sith-graders next year, seventh-graders in 2012-13 and will close after the 2013-14 year.
Vann, who began his political career as an activist teacher, said the decision to close or phase out any school should only be made as a last resort after all options for improvement have been exhausted.
“I am unaware of any substantial efforts by the DOE to constructively intervene in the schools within my district that it now considers to be struggling and proposes to close,” said Vann. “If Chancellor Walcott and the DOE are truly committed to changing the way they engage communities and parents, they must take this opportunity to truly involve the Bedford-Stuyvesant community in developing any final decisions.”
The PEP vote on the proposal is slated for 6 pm, Feb. 9, at Brooklyn Tech High School, 29 Fort Greene Place.

Tens of Thousands March for Voting Rights

Marvin Bing, a member of the AFL-CIO Special Committee on Labor-Community Partnerships, sends us , the AFL-CIO blog), this report.
Tens of thousands of labor and civil rights activists on Saturday marched from the New York offices of Koch Industries, whose owners have supported restrictive voting legislation modeled by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing think tank funded by brothers David and Charles Koch.
The coalition of labor, civil rights and community organizations marked Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, with the Stand for Freedom march and rally where they voted to roll back new voting rules passed in several states.
Some of the laws passed in more than a dozen states around the country include requiring photo IDs at the ballot box and making it harder to vote absentee and vote early. The laws primarily affect low-income people, African Americans, Latinos, students and the elderly. Earlier this year, as anti-labor laws swept state legislatures dominated by Republicans backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, who together own most of Koch Industries, some of these same legislatures passed laws designed to suppress voter turnout, especially targeting African Americans and immigrants.
“Voting rights are being challenged all across the United States,” said George Gresham, president of 1199 SEIU Health Care Workers East.
People have died for the right to vote. We can’t just sit by and let our rights be taken from us. We will fight back.
Other big corporations also are funding passage of these restrictive voting measures, including Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and AT&T. Koch is one of the nation’s largest privately held companies with business interests that include refining, chemicals and commodities trading.
NAACP President Ben Jealous, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Gresham and NAACP New York President Hazel Dukes locked arms and led the march on Madison Avenue south to a plaza near the United Nations in honor of the UN’s Universal Declartion of Human Rights, passed on Dec. 10, 1948.
Voting is a human right, and human rights are sacred rights.

Rhonda Lewis on Leaving the Bridge Street Development Corp.: Message to the Community

After ten years as president & CEO of Bridge Street Development Corporation (BSDC), I find myself reflecting on the changes of the past decade and what they have meant to the great and historic community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, to BSDC, and to me. Leading BSDC for the past 10 years as its second president and CEO has been the most rewarding professional experience of my long career in community development. At the end of the day, my time with BSDC has truly changed my life. My ongoing relationships with life-long residents who openly share their rich and awesome stories of being raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant deepened my resolve to preserve this wonderful community. The mentoring and encouragement I received from committed residents, official and unofficial leaders, and business owners has contributed to my being a more effective leader, a stronger advocate for people in need, and a better team player. For your unwavering support, I thank you. I am proud to be a part of Bridge Street AWME Church. Sheltering freedom seekers as a stop on the Underground Railroad is only part of the 250 year tradition of this historic giant. Its history of community activism is very much alive and well in the mission of BSDC. The staff and I have made it a priority to continue the important work started so many years ago.
Today, at its core, BSDC still assists freedom seekers—families who seek the freedom of a safe, affordable home to call their own; entrepreneurs who seek the freedom that comes with owning a business; concerned citizens who seek freedom from crime and gang violence in their neighborhood; and senior citizens who seek the freedom to live the last chapter of their lives with dignity and hope. However, BSDC would not able to complete its vital work without the assistance and partnership of the community at large.
Since 2001 our community has faced significant challenges and experienced momentous successes. The housing boom and economic crisis hit Bedford-Stuyvesant especially hard, with predatory lenders swooping in during the boom and foreclosure rates soaring during the crisis. The continuing gentrification of the area, while positive in many regards, has been a factor in pricing out longtime residents. But crime rates have dropped significantly, new and unique businesses are thriving, and people throughout the city have come to recognize the unique historical, social, and recreational opportunities offered in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community.
Over the past decade, in response to growing and changing community needs, BSDC has expanded and diversified its offerings, creating an interlocking, synergistic web of programs and services which, together, offer Bedford-Stuyvesant more than the sum of their parts. Our anti-predatory lending and foreclosure prevention programs have made our vibrant community a destination point for many new businesses. Our economic development program created and sustained many of these diverse businesses and our sought after neighborhood has become a magnet for both renters and homebuyers. Through community organizing, our streets are safer – an essential quality for any neighborhood to grow and flourish and the Bedford-Stuyvesant community is clearly growing and flourishing.
I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to the following organizations and individuals, without whose support and assistance BSDC could not have been as successful; I know they will all be just as helpful to and supportive of my successor as they were with me—the dedicated staff and board of directors of BSDC; Pastor David B. Cousin, Senior Pastor of Bridge Street AMWE Church, Edward Odom, Chair of BSDC; Edison Jackson and John Flateau, former Chairs of BSDC; Colvin W. Grannum, founding President of BSDC; the many foundations, corporations and individuals who generously provide funding to support BSDC’s efforts; the 23 organizations that make up the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford-Stuyvesant; Community Board 3; Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation; Pratt Area Community Council; the men and women of the New York Police Department’s 79th and 81st precincts; Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation; Congressman Edolphus Towns; Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke; NYC Council Member Albert Vann; Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz; NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery; NYS Assembly Member Annette Robinson; NYC Council Member Leticia James; NYS Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries; NYC Council Member Darlene Mealy; District Leader Robert E. Cornegy, Jr.; and most importantly, the residents of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community.
I am very honored to have had the opportunity to work with you all.
Rhonda A. Lewis, outgoing President and CEO of Bridge Street Development Corporation, will become the executive director of the Greater Newark LISC program in January 2012.

View From Here: Nothing Post-Racial About the Times

It was disappointing but not surprising to read reports of the Facebook page where NYPD officers were found venting their hatred of the West Indian Day Parade and the participants in the 2-million-person event every September. With several members of the department in our own family and among our friends, we know those sentiments are not held by all NYPD personnel but it speaks to a racist culture in the department that needs to be addressed.
I think the problem these officers had, aside from their basic racist nature which itself should be enough for their dismissal from the force, was that they were terrified at the physical position they were in. After all, they did not choose this line of work to be surrounded and feel threatened by the people they hated. It isn’t as much fun as when it’s the other way around.
The psychological screening process for police officers should include a determination of level of racism present in order to prevent the most racist from joining the department and training the others in how to celebrate the diversity of New York, before they get their carry permit.
Occupy Wall Street: From Wall Street to East New York
When the Occupy Wall Streeters brought their message and direct action to East New York, they were marching on the ground zero of the human wreckage from the fees, bonuses and profit-taking of the financial industry whose recklessness we paid for. We see in the Times that the largest U.S. banks received over $7 trillion (yes, trillion) in taxpayer-backed bailout assistance to cover their bad bets and financially thuggish dealings. Now Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is going to Europe to give away more tax dollars to help keep European banks whole. And just like before, the hue and cry is about the Armageddon that comes for all the world if the banks don’t get their money. Once again they say they are only thinking of us.
The Occupy Movement knows that’s a lie and if the banks and the ruling elite anyplace in the world thinks this is a movement that is going away, they are very much mistaken. When I wanted to know about what was happening in the East New York demonstration, I went to www.occupywallst.org to see a live multicamera video stream with commentary, of the event. And this was from one of several live streaming teams at the demonstration.
The OWS Movement had set up a street kitchen, had a brass band and a symbolic tent saying, “You can’t evict an idea whose time has come.” The commentating-journalist- camerawoman told us that, “This is happening in 20 cities today and is only the beginning of these actions.”
I don’t think Mayor Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch or GE are ready for these kids. The Occupy Movement is going to radically change media habits and make Internet TV mainstream and the broadcast networks, seen as mouthpieces for the 1%, secondary players in political influence and the last to acknowledge it.
Every change in the world affects us here and the world is now having convulsions in financial, military and climate change sectors. If there is turmoil or disaster in a region, you can be sure we will have an influx of those entrepreneurs coming to a safe haven in Brooklyn. Where, perhaps helped by loans from the over 140 foreign branches in New York, they are able to open shops, stores and construction companies. Change is happening around the world and African-Americans have to recognize and change with it. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said recently that given what is happening throughout the world, “If Europe doesn’t change fast enough, the future of Europe will be written without it.” The same can be said for African-Americans. It will require bootstrapping self-reliance, mentors, families, political leadership, community-based nonprofits and community activists all working together and the common goal is as it always has been, freedom. As the rants on the Facebook page remind us, there is nothing “post-racial” about the time we’re in.

Von King Park Neighborhood Hero Retires

On Saturday, November 19th manager Lemuel H. Mial and the Von King Cultural Arts Center honored Leroy Thompson, one of their unsung giants and strong supporters with a “roast”.
His involvement with all the recreation centers, softball baseball leagues, and drum & bugle corps brought out an array of roasters. St. John’s Recreation Center presented him with a plaque. Met Pool’s retired manager Eve Johnson and Sunset Park’s manager Karen Gripper gave their best wishes and a monetary donation from their staff.
Mom Davis had her stories to tell and a personal gift for Leroy. Von King and the Toppers presented him with a 3-seasonal jacket and cap that read “The Mayor”.
The ceramic group had a personal coffee cup and vase with his name scripted. Last but not least, Mr. Mial gave him a winter coat to remember him by with his end-of-the year retirement.
Mr. Mial said in his tribute that Thompson “is one of Brooklyn’s own gentle giants who loves and serves his community. We call him the ‘Honorary Mayor’ of the Von King Park and Cultural Arts Center. He’s always on the job working to make the park as safe and accommodating as it can be.
“You can see him directing the dog walkers and picnicking customers to their proper areas. He is there chasing the youth from the roof or stopping them from playing on the amphitheater steps where many accidents happen on a daily basis during the summer months.
He knows how to set up program areas and is a master operating the handicap lift. Wherever he is needed is where you will find Leroy hard at work.
He is one of the most sincere and real persons that I know. He is a giant and will always be the Mayor of the Von King Park.”

DECEMBER CALENDAR

Throughout the month, purchase holiday gifts from local merchants and artisans … Occu-buy!THURSDAY, DEC. 1:
6:00p-9:00p Neighborhood Technical Assistance Clinic’s Champions of Bedford Stuyvesant, hosted by Valerie Oliver-Durrah, convenes neighborhood leaders, representatives, key nonprofit organizations and others to celebrate neighborhood legends and advocates, at its annual CHAMPIONS of BEDFORD STUYVESANT event. Honorees: Seth Edwards, VP, Community Relations, Brooklyn and Staten Island, JP Morgan Chase, and Ralph Bumbaca, Senior VP, Brooklyn and Staten Island Commercial Lending, TD Bank. The event theme is Nonprofits Rule: Neighborhoods Matter. Nonprofit organizations as well as their attending board staff will be introduced and recognized. Location: Victorian Mansion at 247 Hancock Street, Brooklyn. For information, contact NTAC, 718-455-3784 or email volivere@aol.com.

6:00p-8:00p Opening Reception: Her Word as Witness: Portraits of Women Writers of the African Diaspora. Photography by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn. Skylight Gallery of the Center for Arts & Culture of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. On view through March 31, 2012. 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn. Information: 718-636-6949 or 646-573-2422.

FRIDAY, DEC. 2:
7:00p-11:00p Kevin Powell’s 11th Annual Holiday Party and Clothing Giveaway to benefit The Safe Horizon Streetwork Project, a program for homeless teens and young adults in New York. Location: Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village, 158 Bleecker Street, Manhattan. Cash bar. Dress code: holiday or business. Free entry WITH donation of warm outerwear, primarily clean/slightly used and/or new coats. RSVP required: send first and last name to rsvp@kevinpowell.net:

SATURDAY, DEC. 3:
12:00n-7:00p Occu-buy Local Gifts for the Holidays – The Boutique Collective’s 1st Christmas/Kwanzaa Gift Expo Location: YWCA Conference & Art Center, 30 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, 2nd Floor Gallery Featuring “The Artisan’s Marketplace.” FREE ADMISSION. Entertainment, Giveaways, Raffles. Produced by Lois Brown, a former partner of Zawadi Gift Shop, and Grace Derrick, a former associate of 4W Circle of Art & Enterprise. Details: bcgiftshow@gmail.com

6:00p-11:00p Guerilla Journalism 101 Fundraiser hosted by community journalism students and their instructor Milton Allimadi, publisher of the award-winning Black Star News and creator of the “in-the-neighborhood guerilla journalism training” concept and classes. Tickets are $25. Entertainment, Refreshments. Honorees: Prof. Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, Bro. Clemson Brown, Sis Jocelyn Cooper, Sis. Betty Dopson, co-founder, Committee Media Offensive to African People. Details: 212-481-7745

FRIDAY, DEC. 9:
6:00p-until George Johnson’s Celebration Benefit for Needy Children in Association with The Tribune Society of the Courts of NY State and the Guardian’s Association of the Courts of New York State. Guest host: Ann Tripp of 107.5 WBLS. Location: Sugar Hill Restaurant and Supper Club, 609 DeKalb Ave. @ Nostrand Ave. Admission: A Great Gift for a Needy Child (per person) or a minimum $15 donation. Complimentary Buffet. Music by DJ Josef. Info: George Johnson, 646-386-4448, Crystal Daughtry, 646-386-5570, John W. Stubbs, 347-219-6222
SATURDAY, DEC. 10:
Begins 9:00a The RFK MEMORIAL HOLIDAY PARTY! Fun winter season activities for kids 5-12. The event promotes literacy and healthy lifestyles in Central Brooklyn. Sponsors: Foodtown, Applebee’s, Restoration and the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Inc. RSVP by completing form online: www.restorationplaza.org.

SATURDAY, DEC. 17:
12:00n-7:00p Occu-buy Local Gifts for the Holidays – The Boutique Collective’s 1st Christmas/Kwanzaa Gift Expo Location: YWCA Conference & Art Center, 30 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, 2nd Floor Gallery Featuring “The Artisan’s Marketplace.” FREE ADMISSION. Entertainment, Giveaways, Raffles. Produced by Lois Brown, a former partner of Zawadi Gift Shop, and Grace Derrick, a former associate of 4W Circle of Art & Enterprise. Details: bcgiftshow@gmail.com

10:00p-5:00p Occu-buy JAHBULANI NATURAL HAIR and SKIN CARE PRODUCTS for Seasonal Giftgiving at the Park Slope Holiday Craft Fair. Location: John Jay HS, 237-7th Avenue, Brooklyn, (bet. 4th & 5th Avenues.) www.jahbulaniproducts.com

SATURDAY, DEC. 18:
12:00n-7:00p Occu-buy Local Gifts for the Holidays – The Boutique Collective’s 1st Christmas/Kwanzaa Gift Expo Location: YWCA Conference & Art Center, 30 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, 2nd Floor Gallery Featuring “The Artisan’s Marketplace” and Kwanzaa Candle Lighting Ceremony!!! FREE ADMISSION. Entertainment, Giveaways, Raffles. Produced by Lois Brown, a former partner of Zawadi Gift Shop, and Grace Derrick, a former associate of 4W Circle of Art & Enterprise. Details: bcgiftshow@gmail.com

Barron Says He’ll Take “Voice of the 99%” to Congress

By Amadi Ajamu —
NYC Councilman Charles Barron officially announced his candidacy for Congress representing the 10th Congressional District on Sunday. Surrounded by a host of supporters and media in front of Sonny Carson Park in the heart of East New York, Barron vowed to be “the voice of the 99%”.
Well wishers included his family, community activists, parents, tenant association leaders, youth leaders, Freedom Party members, and labor organizers. Speakers told of Barron’s history as a tireless fighter for the rights of the people and the resources he has brought to his Council District (East NY and Brownsville) including affordable housing, health care, senior care, quality education and jobs, refurbishing and renovating parks, and planting trees throughout the communities.
When Councilman Barron stepped to the podium, the crowd started singing the campaign song ‘Charles Barron for Congress!’ He began chanting, “Whose voice?” They responded ‘Our voice!’ “Our voice is going to Washington! When they extend the tax breaks for the rich, we say no! Everyone shouted “no!” in unison. When they say they’re going to cut Medicare, we say no! When they try to cut social security, we say no! When they say they’re going to continue the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, spending trillions of dollars on war and no money for our elderly, no money for our youth, we say no!”
“Our voices are going to be the voice of the 99%. Guess what? We are 99% of the 99%. They are occupying places all over the country. We support that movement. But we know we catch the most hell. They say, well Charles how are you going to impact Washington all by yourself? I say, I’m not. I’m bringing you to Washington. We are going to be the voice of our people,” he continued.
“I am sick and tried of the Democrats and Republicans, they should just have one party the Republicrats. They are both the same. It don’t matter who gets into office, we still have a corporate elite running the two party system. I’m going to put some fire under the Congressional Black Caucus and say come on brothers and sisters, our time has come for us to stand and be the voice of the people. Even if you don’t get the vote, say it! Don’t just sit there like some political punks.” The crowd cheered him on and applauded.
“I’m not going to be afraid to speak out against Israel and what they are doing to the Palestinian people,” he said. “We are going to tell it like it is. We are not going to go up there and be cowards. We are going to say, you should have never bombed Libya and murdered Colonel Gaddafi. He is an African hero. We are also going to stand up for Robert Mugabe, an African hero. He is taking land back from white people, who stole it from us in the first place.”
Congressional Candidate Barron concluded with, “They say, Charles you have to be for everybody. Well I am! But I’m Black and proud and strong. I will represent everyone in the district. But I will take care of Blacks and Latinos because we catch the most hell!”
Mr. Barron will be running against incumbent Congressman Edolphus Towns who has held on to his seat for fifteen terms. The 10th Congressional District includes the neighborhoods of East New York, Canarsie, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Cypress Hills, Clinton Hill, Mill Basin, Midwood, downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill, as well as parts of Fort Greene and Williamsburg.

New NYPD Data Raise Concerns over Racial Disparities in NYC School Arrests

November 28, 2011 – Police arrested or ticketed approximately four students each day in New York City public schools from July through September, according to a New York Civil Liberties Union analysis of new NYPD data. About 94 percent of students arrested were black or Latino; nearly 83 percent were male.
“The data raise concerns about black students being disproportionally arrested in the city’s schools,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “If the Bloomberg administration is truly serious about closing the achievement gap, then they must address this disparity and focus more attention on educating children – not arresting them.”
The NYPD recently released the data pursuant to the Student Safety Act – a new law requiring the Police Department to submit quarterly reports to the City Council on information related to its school safety operations, including the number of students arrested and issued summonses by the School Safety Division of the NYPD. The data, which covers operations from July 1 to September 30, includes the number of arrests conducted by the NYPD’s School Safety Division; the number of summonses issued by the School Safety Division; and the number of non-criminal incidents involving the School Safety Division and students. The same reporting law also required that the NYPD release data on arrests and summonses in schools from April 1 to June 30. The reporting of this data is several months overdue.
According to the data, the School Safety Division arrested, on average, more than one student a day and issued summonses to approximately three students each day. Overall, the School Safety Division made 63 arrests and issued 182 summonses in the reporting period, which includes only 43 school days for middle school students and 50 school days for high school students, two-thirds of which occurred during summer school. (About 11 percent of public school students were required to attend summer school this year, indicating that during a typical three month period, the number of arrests and summonses in schools would be much higher.)
The majority of summonses issued by NYPD school safety officers were for disorderly conduct (54 percent). The second most issued summons was for riding a bike on the sidewalk (13 percent). Sixty-three percent of all summonses were issued in the Bronx and Queens.
Among arrested students – the only group for whom racial data was released – 68 percent were black and 25 percent were Latino. All of the arrests made in Brooklyn and Staten Island were of black and Latino students. Black and Latino students represent approximately 29 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of the overall public school population, according to New York City Department of Education statistics.
The DOE does not release demographic data on the student population required to enroll in summer school, but black students made up 37 percent of third through eighth graders who scored a 1 on the English Language Arts (ELA) exam and 42 percent of students who scored a 1 on the mathematics exam. Latino students made up 49 percent and 48 percent of students who scored a 1 on the ELA and mathematics exam, respectively. Students who score less than 2 must attend summer school and retake the exams.
“This report provides the first glimpse into what the NYPD is doing in our schools,” said Udi Ofer, NYCLU advocacy director. “Instead of arresting students who need the most help, the Bloomberg administration should redirect resources from police to services that support student achievement. Why are we employing 5,400 police personnel and only 3,000 guidance counselors?”
It is not clear why the NYPD omitted racial data on summonses issued as the Student Safety Act requires disclosure of this data, and summonses currently capture racial demographic information. Moreover, these statistics only include NYPD personnel assigned to school buildings. Arrests and summonses by precinct officers, who are often called in by school safety officers, are not reflected in this quarterly report, indicating that the data reported by the NYPD represents only a portion of the arrests and summonses in schools. It is unclear how many of the arrests and summonses by the School Safety Division of the NYPD were of non-students.
According to the data, there were 380 total non-criminal incidents involving police personnel at city schools during the reporting period. It is unclear from the Police Department’s report what happened during these incidents.
Last month, the city reported that schools handed out more suspensions to students than ever before, increasing to 73,441 in 2010-2011. (In Mayor Bloomberg’s first year in control of city schools, the Department of Education issued 31,879 suspensions.) More than half of the suspensions were given to black students, and nearly a third to students with special needs.

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