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I’m told it was standing- room- only at the House of the Lord Church on Monday, August 23rd, 2004.  An all-star linedup of activists joined Pastor Herbert Daughtry to show their support to the Barron Campaign for Mayor.  Among those present were Percy Sutton, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Minister Kevin Muhammad, Amiri Baraka, Elombe Brath and Viola Plummer.  Upset for missing what sounded like a historic Black Activist gathering and the highlight of the political season, I rushed to the newsstand to read about it in our daily black newspaper.  I was quite disappointed to see that it received absolutely no mention. While everyone is entitled to their opinion regarding who they support, our community must be astute in analyzing the response of Black media and Black political leadership to the Barron Campaign for Mayor.
Charles Barron’s theme of “White Men Have Too Much Power” has resonated throughout the town.  He is the only Black elected official bold enough to make that statement to expose the racist makeup of New York City and state government.  White men currently serve as governor, mayor, chancellor, speaker of city council, speaker of state senate, speaker of state assembly, police commissioner and fire commissioner.  The Charles Barron  Campaign for Mayor is also a campaign against “white male supremacy” and the conspiracy to destroy Black males.  We must be clear that it is no accident that 50% of Black males in NYC are unemployed and that 70% of our youth drop out of H.S.  The relationship between education and employment are apparent.  What is not so apparent are the racist policies that have suppressed Black male leadership in the  D.O.E. 
The over-100-year history of the  D.O.E. has been dominated by white men.  The only Black men serving as Chancellor were brought in from outside of N.Y.C. They obviously did not know the political landscape of N.Y.C. It is believed by many that the system killed Dr. Richard Greene and Rudy Giuliani.  No NYC Black educator was ever chancellor of the  D. O. E..  I do not consider this an accident.  Neither is it accidental that not one Black male was selected to serve as superintendent of any of the 10 school regions. The system is making a statement that Black males will not be allowed to serve in top-level education positions in this administration.  Again, ” white men have too much power”. This is wrong and unacceptable given the plight of Black males and the history of white male supremacy.  A study should be done on the current state of Black male leadership. This should include the impact of the mass exodus of some of our most prominent educators and their frustration with the D.O. E.
Dr. Lester Young recently announced his retirement from the D.O.E. after 35 years of dedicated service.  He was the top Black in the Klein administration; however, he has far more educational credentials than Joel Klein.  Dr. Young has served as the associate commissioner of the New York State Department of Education, superintendent of School District 13, principal and teacher. Dr. Young was interviewed for the position of chancellor by Mike Bloomberg and with all the qualifications was passed over for Joel Klein, who did not have the required qualifications.  Mr. Klein received a special waiver of the requirements by the state commissioner of education so that he could become chancellor. 
Mr. Frank Mickens, the nationally acclaimed Principal of Boys and Girls High School is rumored to be retiring any day now.  Mr. Mickens has served with distinction over 36 years.  He turned Boys and Girls H.S. around and has written two books on urban education.  Due to his independent leadership, Boys and Girls H.S. will become a part of an autonomous zone this school year.  This is a major accomplishment and victory for our community.  For over 18 years, Mr. Mickens has run the safest zoned H.S. in the system yet he has had to struggle each day against persons who have never spent 10 minutes on Fulton Street.  He has never been granted the respect that he deserves. 
Mr. Ray Haskins was forced to retire from the system after serving for over 3 decades.  Ray, too, had served our community with distinction.  A Black woman superintendent is responsible for Mr. Haskins being removed from M.S. 390 even after he received 3 bonuses for raising both reading and math scores at his school.  Ray received massive support from community leaders including Councilman Al Vann.  This support fell on the deaf ear of the chancellor and his subordinates who feel they know more about the culture of Albany Avenue than Ray and Al Vann. 
Mr. Michael Johnson, former principal and founder of Science Skills H.S. and superintendent of District 29 has also left the  D.O.E.   Johnson and George Leonard of Bedford Academy are the best in the system at preparing Black youth to take standardized tests.  He would have made a great Deputy of Instruction.
Mr. Basir Mchawi was founder and former principal of Freedom Prep.  He also served as special assistant to Chancellor Richard Greene.  Mr Mchawi introduced the concept of starting an all Black male H.S. over a decade ago.  He was told it was illegal and discriminatory.  Shortly thereafter, an all- girls H.S was started by white women in Harlem.  This year an all- male charter school started by a white man will open in Bedford- Stuyvesant.  It is being enthusiastically supported.  Imagine how many Black males Basir’s school may have saved if his ideas were embraced over a decade ago.
All of the above-mentioned Black male educators if given the opportunity and proper resources could greatly impact the education of Black males.  They have all struggled to maintain their dignity as Black men in a system that has suppressed their brilliance.  A new Million Man March might have to be called in NYC to outline a plan to stop the destruction of Black males.

This past month, Syl Williamson, owner of “Trophies by Syl,” joined the ancestors.  Syl was an institution and one of the strongest Black male role models in our community.  His firm handshake was legendary and would stop you cold and make you aware that you were in the presence of a powerful man.  Syl, while not in the school system, was a great educator.  As a young boy growing up I felt safe in his store and was inspired by his profound wisdom about life, politics, business, art and culture.  The afrocentric mural on the outside of his store was the first of its kind in our community.  The tile on his floor was red, black and green and his plaques were all masterpieces done with love.  The loss of Syl Williamson, Chief Bey and Sonny Carson are monumental.  It is unfortunate that the school system never embraced and promoted them as role models to Black males.  We must seize control of the system.

By Stanley Kinard

The House of the Lord Church, pastored by Reverend Herbert Daughtry in Brooklyn, was again filled to the rafters when the energy to elect Charles Barron Mayor of New York, paused for a moment to coalesce, raise some money, $8,000 that night to be matched 4-to-1 by Campaign Financing bringing it to $40,000, and  to speak on the rightness of their quest.
Among the many speakers on Councilman Barron’s behalf was Tiffany Schley, the high school valedictorian who was refused her diploma for speaking her mind, who said, “This experience has opened my eyes.  When Black people start up and do things, they want to knock us down.  We need someone from the street who knows our struggle.”  And then speaking of those who say that the councilman helping her was “All about politics,” Ms. Schley says, they’re right.  “They labeled it, ‘All about politics’ and it is…elect Charles Barron Mayor!” 
Poet Amiri Baraka, speaking of the Greek Myth of Sisyphus, he condemned to pushing a huge stone up a high hill, only to have it roll back down for him to start again, said that the struggle of African people here in the Americas has been a lot like that.  “All those things we had in the Sixties have been taken away… Down in Florida there was a right-wing coup.  When they worked outside the constitution of the United States. Abolishing the Voter Registration Act of 1965, taking us back and making it a confederate victory in 1863, rather than the Emancipation Proclamation.”   Baraka himself took us back to the first black political convention in Gary, Indiana, in 1971.  Where as co-convener, he sent out the cry of Black Power and organization that they thought would change the world.  Remembering those exciting days of Black politics, and after an extended poetic riff on Black “firsts”, he said,  “I’m just back on the scene to say Black Power.   Back on the scene to say it’s time to rise again.  Time to rise, time to get to that higher ground.”
Many of the speakers spoke of what separates Councilman Barron from others in office.  As one said, “Most politicians, you can smell the selling out pouring off of them, but there is none of that from Barron.” 
After going over his qualifications for the job, the budgets passed, the positions taken, Mr. Barron said that one of the tenets of his campaign is that white men have too much power.  
He said that candidates will come and talk about quality education, affordable housing, health care, waste management programs and all the rest of it and all the candidates will have programs to deal with those issues, as he, Barron, does.   “But unless they come to you and say white men have too much power and that they are going to address the structural racism in the system, then all of that will mean nothing.”
The councilman expects to have a lot of progressive white support, but, “Don’t tell me to tone it down, to get it.  And the same goes for middle-class Blacks who say, “He’s too Black.”   To those who feel that way he says, “I don’t know how to be a little bit Black.”
This is a movement that is going to take New York like a quiet storm, suddenly it will be all around you.  Mr. Barron said former Congresswoman McKinney counseled him to “keep your strategy to yourself,” and sometime next year the mass media is going to look up and say, “Charles Barron might win what?”  
And Ms. McKinney, in private conversation, told the councilman who the special interests are and what they come with when they come hard, as they did when they came after her and got her out of office.  Mr. Barron no doubt listened attentively to the strategies of the Right and the political twists, but as a former Black Panther, a student of history and someone who did thirty days for civil disobedience, he comes to this race knowing it’s a gauntlet, but the prize is for Black people to wield power, not just influence, in New York.   And for a man who cannot be vaguely Black, that’s worth the run.

Faith Y. Cole is thankful for the excellent education her oldest son, Antonio, is receiving at Brooklyn’s Public School 270. However, this Bedford-Stuyvesant resident isn’t completely leaving it up to the teachers to educate, guide and prepare Antonio, as well as her youngest son, Asha, for success in life. Cole, a single mom, is doing her part by spending one-on-one time with her boys, exposing them to cultural activities, and like many other moms and dads, participating in parenting workshops such as the ones conducted at this past July’s first- ever Bedford-Stuyvesant Children’s Book and Reading Awareness Fair at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center.
Cole, who frequently attends role-play parenting workshops offered by Willa F. Jones, one of the workshop presenters and executive director of the Association of Black Social Workers, says she does so because she’s still learning how to be an effective parent and desires for her boys to have an upper hand in life. That’s why she was able to get so much out of Jones’ workshop on “Instilling Self-Esteem in Children,” with a focus on encouraging children to love to read.
“We need to be in tune to teaching our kids about books early on,” says Jones, also the president and CEO of Crojon, Inc., which facilitates seminars, speaking engagements, dramatic presentations, promotion of self- esteem- building materials, supplies, and products. “It’s a process, though.
Jones kicked off her workshop with a skit in which a mom reacts negatively and then positively to a child who wants to read when she gets in from work.  “Our children will approach us even when we’re tired, but we have to give them the respect and explain to them why we can’t read to them at that [present] time,” says Jones. “Communication is key.”
The hour-long workshop wrapped up with Jones putting parents into groups of five where they had to use a list of words and creatively come up with a method of getting a child to want to read. This was exactly the type of activity Janice Peterson needed to participate in. Peterson has been struggling with how to get her eighth-grade daughter, who’s an excellent reader, to want to read. “She’s an advanced reader, but she just doesn’t enjoy reading,” she shares.
In Peterson’s group, it was discovered that her daughter likes the Cheetah Girls (they focus on “girl power” through books, music and movies). With this information, her group decided to channel their energies on creating a catchy rhyme with a  musical influence, using the words they were given, to show her daughter that reading is cool and fun; that it’s the “in” thing to do. The results of their labor, which an appointed group member had to perform!
Go girl
I am fast
In the house
I eat well because fish in greens is good
I look happy
Jump long
Father help
Me look like a little flower with my hat
It is hot
But I will finish
Both Peterson and Cole came away from the workshop with a newfound way to encourage literacy on their kids’ learning and interest level.
“It showed me that you can get around doing stuff with your kids and [still] be there for them,” Cole notes. “Mrs. Jones is doing an excellent job and I try to support her any way I can.” 
In the workshop, “Are We Raising Winners or Losers,” Dr. Marceline Watler, director of community education for the Satterwhite Academy (a division of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services), implored parents like Peterson and Cole to understand the difference between discipline and punishment in dealing with their kids. The distinction, she says, helps determine what children become in life.
“Discipline  involves  guiding and directing children; to show them how to handle conflict,” Watler says. “We have to take time to listen to our children, and by doing so we are teaching them how to communicate.”
“You want to discipline your children with love, not by scolding them,” she adds. “Let them know it’s okay to make a mistake. Children aren’t perfect, and neither are you.”
Cole understands this parenting concept and is clear about the actions she takes if and when her sons misbehave. “When they are wrong, they are wrong,” Cole says. “I let them know that mommy is going to be there for them as much as I can, but if they do something wrong, they have to face the consequences.”

Watler says that if you want to raise a winner, you must be an active parent. Cole prides herself on this, as well as being a role model and speaking positive affirmations on a regular basis.  She advises her fellow parents to do the same.
“You have to be there for your kids,” Cole stresses. “You need to take at least 15 minutes a day and focus on your children, and you’re going to see a major improvement and they will be successful in life. Forget about the cell phone and [other things]¼” And, of course, it doesn’t hurt to participate in parenting workshops! 
Want to be the best parent you can be? Start flipping through the pages of these recommended reads:  1. The Black Parenting Book by Anne C. Beal, M.D., M.P.H., Linda Villarosa, and Allison Abner (Broadway Books, $20)
2. Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African-American Young Women by Freeman A. Hrabowski, Kenneth I. Maton, Monica L. Greene and Geoffrey L. Grief (Oxford University Press, $25)
3. Raising Confident Girls: 100 Tips for Parents and Teachers by Elizabeh Hartley-Brewer (Fisher Books, $12.50)
4. As For Me and My House: 50 Easy-to-Use Devotionals for Families edited by Tomand Lori Ziegler (Discipleship Publications International, $11.95)
5. The Trouble I See: Motivational Storyline Poetry for Teens and Parents by
Vickie Lynn Wilson (Butterfly Loves Publishing, $15)
Feona Sharhran Huff is the editorial director of SingleMomzMag.com and an active parent in her children’s educational and social environment.E-mail her at singlemomzmag@netzero.net.
Special to Our Time Press

By Alton Maddox
On Friday, December 21, 2007, the Congressional Black Caucus finally called on Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a lame duck, to pardon the Jena 6.  Forty percent of Blanco’s vote came from the Black community.  Blanco leaves office on January 14, 2008.  Pardons should be issued to avoid miscarriages of justice.  What happened to double jeopardy?
Black leaders, who led the September 20 march in Jena, LA, still remain mute.  This was a media event with no demands on any branch of government.  The march around the Justice Department was a pre-emptive strike to scare off a grand jury investigation in New York.  It had no relationship to Jena 6.  But for the belated demand of the CBC for pardons, the Jena 6 is history.
Black leaders erroneously described Don Imus sabbatical as a firing.  A firing includes a complete loss of compensation of any kind coupled with whiteballing.  Imus received $20 million and is enjoying a new contract entitling him to millions of dollars.  Today, everyone is trying to get fired.
On Saturday, December 23, 2007, a virtually all-white jury in Suffolk County, NY ruled that slavery is still in effect.  John White faces up to 15 years in prison for protecting his family and his home against white marauders.  A Black residence, in New York, is still considered slave quarters.  Minoo Southgate sought unsuccessfully to enter the Slave Theaterby claiming that she believed it was the Slave Quarters.
The New York City Council voted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 that Columbia University could expand its space even if it meant destroying Black culture in Harlem.  Twenty-five members of the fifty-one-person council are Black, Latino or Asian.  Most of them sided with Columbia.  As we elect more Blacks to political offices, our condition is worsening.
Three police assassins, in killing Sean Bell, committed a crime against humanity but the Queens County district attorney’s office only asked a grand jury, in 2007, for a manslaughter indictment replete with so many holes that you could drive a tank through it.  These assassins have already fled the criminal justice system and Blacks are confusing shadows with bodies.

By Mary Alice Miller
Many Black “leaders” decry the lack of massive support when calls go out for community action. They wonder why outrage is not spontaneous and ubiquitous. Black leaders actually vocalize their wonder when the masses go about their business as if nothing is going on.
What most Black leaders miss are these facts: the leaders are Black men, the issues revolve around Black males, those expected to engage in community action are Black women, and issues related to the well-being of Black women and children are ignored.
Under normal circumstances, male leadership stands for the well-being of the entire community- men, women and children. In the Black community, male leadership are generally concerned only with themselves, and other males. The well-being of women and children, in the community and the home, do not seem to be of paramount concern. The low rates of stable marriages among Blacks, and the doubling of Black children in single-parent families (from 35% in the 1960’s to 70% at the beginning of the 21st century) are two examples of the absence of “operational unity” in the Black community.
During the Civil Rights Movement, with Black men in leadership roles, Black women and children were the backbone. Rosa Parks’ courageous defiance was the spark of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Black children were at the center of integrating Little Rock High School. Black  male leadership strategically used Black children as fodder for water cannons, dogs and filling jail cells during Civil Rights marches. What did Black women and children get for their efforts? Dismissed.
Years of sustained action  culminated with the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the National Voting Rights Act in 1965. The March on Washington was organized by A. Phillip Randolph (international president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters), Whitney Young (president of the National Urban League), Roy Wilkins (president of the NAACP), James Farmer (president of the Congress of Racial Equality), John Lewis (president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) and Bayard Rustin (organizer of the first Freedom Rides).
Black women played the central role in a wide variety of Civil Rights organizations and actions, including Daisy Bates (president of Little Rock NAACP who recruited the Little Rock 9), Pauli Murray (lawyer and feminist who had staged the first sit-in at a Washington restaurant during World War II), Dorothy Height (president of the National Council of Negro Women), Diane Nash (student leader and organizer of the Freedom Riders in the South), Jo Ann Robinson (college teacher who worked with a group of middle-class Black women to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott), Ella Baker (acting director of King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, advisor for Black college students who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and Rosa Parks (long time activist and catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott). Despite the sacrifices of these and other Black women, the organizers of the March on Washington refused to let even one Black woman speak.
Black women thought the Civil Rights Movement included our well-being, in spite of Black men marching with large placards tied to their torsos declaring in huge black lettering, “I AM A MAN.” Black women thought we were included when we got arrested at protest marches side by side with Black men. It was our children who were strategically used as human targets for water hoses. But when Stokely Carmichael (who appropriated the term “Black Power_” from Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.) was asked the role of the  Black woman in the movement, he slipped up and honestly (from his point of view) retorted, “On her back.”
Popular culture was sometimes not much better. A classic Parliament Funkadelic line: “Stupid Jill forgot her pill, and now they have a son,” as if Jack, who had no concern for the well-being of Jill or his son, was not responsible for the situation he created. Blaxploitation movies glorified “pimpin” and being a “playa” at the expense of Black women, nurtured children and stable families. Gangsta rap is no better when it tells the world Black women ain’t nothin’ but hos, not wives.
Last season’s Survivor: Cook Island graphically illustrated how casually Black female opinion is dismissed. The 16 participants were divided into 4 teams- Black, white, Asian and Latino. The Black team members, Sekou, Nathan, Sephanie and Sundra were asked to make a decision. Without thinking, Sekou grabbed Nathan’s shoulder, stepped forward and conferred for a decision. Left out of the team process, Stephanie and Sundra looked at Sekou like he was stupid. Later, it was no surprise that Sekou was voted out. Sekou’s analysis of the vote was that the team made a mistake by voting him, their leader, out. It never occurred to Sekou that a true leader takes into account the gifts and opinions  all team members bring, including Black women.
In spite of this and other increasingly public and private indignities, our love for Black men has kept hope alive.
For decades, Black women have been the backbone of community action. Interestingly, when many of these same women (who are members of any number of community groups) ask for development of  community action around issues related to the well-being of Black women and children, they are told they are being “divisive”. Many Black women, not wanting to be “divisive”, have dropped  their inquiries and calls for action. This has been going on for years.
Who are really the “divisive” ones? When Black male  leadership chooses “Black issues”, why are they (with few exceptions) limited to support for Black male challenges with the criminal justice system? Could it be that addressing the well-being of Black women and children would require Black men to look at and amend their selfish male privilege instead of myopically focusing on white racism?  The greatest risk to the well-being of Black women and children is not racism or police brutality. The greatest risk to the well-being of Black women and children is the behavior and attitudes of Black men.  Consider, for example, the large numbers of Black children on welfare and the family and community instability attendant with Black women begging for food stamps to feed Black men’s children as if it is a glamorous lifestyle. Why has no Black male leader called for a rally at the welfare center demanding that Black men get their children off welfare? Why has no Black male leader held a march in support of children who feel threatened when they are sexually harassed while walking to school?
There are a few glimmers of hope. Tamika Mallory has led the National Action Network’s Decency Initiative in challenging denigrating lyrics in Hip-Hop.  Girls For Gender Equity, under the leadership of JoAnn Smith, gives young teens tools to deal with street sexual harassment. Kevin Powell has been hosting monthly men’s meetings after his successful Black and Male in America conference. Byron Hurt produced Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a documentary look at misogyny in popular Black music. Taharka Robinson recently organized a march against domestic violence.
In the meantime, Black women need to speak up, even at the risk of being called “divisive” by “divisive” male leadership. The survival of the Black community is at stake.