Greene County Democrat

Month: August 2021

  • Greene County commemorates 52nd Annual Freedom Day at Courthouse Square; Mayor Johnny Ford of Tuskegee keynotes; vaccinations offered

    Staff of the Greene County Health System administering Johnson and Johnson one shot COVID-19 vaccine as part of the program
    L to R: John Zippert , Anita Lewis , Greene County Housing Authority Director, Lewis Leonard, who was the first person vaccinate and received a $100 gift certificate, and Spiver W.Gordon
    L t o R: Spiver W. Gordon presents certificate to keynote speaker, Johnny Ford , Mayor Latasha Johnson, Lorenzo French and John Zippert

    The Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement Museum sponsored the 52nd Annual Freedom Day Program at the Old Courthouse Square on Saturday, July 31, 2021.

    About one hundred people attended the outside meeting, in blistering

    heat, to commemorate the Special Election on July 29, 1969, when Black people were elected to control the County Commission and School Board in Greene County. 

    The Special Election of July 1969 was ordered by the U. S. Supreme Court, after local white officials left the Black candidates, running in the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA) off the ballot in the November 1968 General Election. The meeting was to commemorate over half a century of Black political progress in Greene County.

    The Greene County Health System was on hand to give Johnson and Johnson one-shot coronavirus vaccinations at the event to persons who needed a vaccination. Seven persons were vaccinated and many others received information on the importance of vaccination to protect their health and the health of their families, friends and community. The Museum and other sponsors provided gift certificates to those who were vaccinated.

    Spiver Gordon, President of the Museum spoke on the occasion for the program. “Many things have changed for the better since 1969. Electing Black officials allowed us to change many of the insulting racist practices n Greene County but we still need to keep working and keep moving forward.

    Everything that happened, happened because ordinary people stood up to help make the needed changes.”

    Lorenzo French, Chair of the Greene County Democratic Executive Committee, lamented, “Too many of our candidates are ‘bought and paid for’ before they run for office and when they get into office, they don’t do what we need them to do. We must recruit and train better candidates that will serve the people.”

    Johnny Ford, eight term Mayor of Tuskegee and currently a City Council member gave the keynote address. Ford has served as head of the Alabama Conference of Black Mayors, National Conference of Black Mayors and World Conference of Black Mayors. He recently tried to saw the base of the Confederate Soldiers Memorial in Tuskegee to topple the statue.

    Ford thanked Greene County for its work over the years since 1969 to pave the way for Black elected officials in Alabama and across the nation. “Today we have 50 Black mayors in Alabama, 200 across the South and more than 700 Mayors and Council-people across The United States, all inspired by what happened in Greene County,” said Ford.

    Ford urged people to get vaccinated for the coronavirus and save their lives and the lives of the people around them. “Some people have hesitancy because of what happened in Tuskegee years ago in the syphilis study, where 600 Black men were denied medicine, to study the effects on them. In this case we are being offered a safe vaccine that was developed with the participation of Black doctors. Everyone should take the vaccine,” declared Ford in his remarks.

    Ford said, “We have some more rivers to cross. We must Expand Medicaid for poor and working people in Alabama. We must end voter suppression and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. We must end police brutality and pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”

    Eutaw Mayor Latasha Johnson also addressed the crowd and urged everyone to participate in government by voting and attending meetings. She also urged everyone to get vaccinated to protect themselves from the coronavirus, especially the new delta strain, which is more powerful and contagious.

    Spiver Gordon concluded the meeting by giving a plaque to speaker Mayor Johnny Ford, gift certificates to those who took coronavirus shots at the event and some door prizes to those in attendance. Refreshments were provided at the end of the meeting.

  • Jamaica seeking $10.6 Billion in slave trade reparations from Great Britain 

    Antique photograph of Cane cutters in Jamaica

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Jamaica has put a price tag on slavery and is sending the British government the bill. State officials of the Caribbean nation said they are asking Great Britain to pay $10.6 billion (USD) in reparations.

    The former British colony served as the center of the slave trade, where Africans were kidnapped, enslaved, and forced to work on sugar cane, bananas, and other plantations. That free and inhumane labor greatly enriched the slave owners.

    “We are hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect if they are to really ensure that we get justice from injustices to repair the damages that our ancestors experienced,” Olivia Grange, Minister of Sports, Youth, and Culture, told the Reuters news service.

    “Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labor to the benefit of the British Empire. Redress is well overdue.”

    In the U.S., Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee has pushed H.R. 40, a bill to form a commission to study reparations for African American victims of the transatlantic slave trade. “Has anyone addressed the question of slavery and its comprehensive impact on Black Americans in this country? This is what H.R. 40 will do,” Jackson Lee remarked.

    While H.R. 40 doesn’t place a specific monetary value on reparations, it does focus on investigating and presenting the facts and truth about the unprecedented centuries of brutal enslavement of African people, racial healing, and transformation.

    The bill would fund a commission to study and develop proposals for providing reparations to African Americans.

    The commission’s mission includes identifying the role of federal and state governments in supporting the institution of slavery, forms of discrimination in public and private sectors against freed slaves and their descendants, and lingering adverse effects of slavery on living African Americans and society.

    Congresswoman Jackson Lee, who sits on numerous House committees, including the Judiciary, Budget, and Homeland Security, has made the reparations legislation her top priority during the 117th Congress.

    “I think if people begin to associate this legislation with what happened to the descendants of enslaved Africans as a human rights violation, the sordid past that violated the human rights of all of us who are descendants of enslaved Africans, I think that we can find common ground to pass this legislation,” Congresswoman Jackson Lee pronounced.

    In Jamaica, officials displayed shackles, coffles, slave collars, cotton screws, bear traps, branding irons, and other items used to control slaves as stirring evidence for the case for reparations.

    “We need a sense of outrage directed at those who could do such things to other human beings,” Verene Shepherd, a Jamaican resident, wrote in a petition on the Facebook page of the country’s National Council on Reparations.

    According to the National Library of Jamaica, about 600,000 Africans landed in Jamaica during the slave trade. “Seized from Spain by the English in 1655, Jamaica was a British colony until it became independent in 1962,” the Reuters report noted. 

    “The West Indian country of almost three million people is part of the Commonwealth, and the British monarch remains head of state.” Britain prohibited trade in slaves in its empire in 1807 but did not formally abolish the practice of slavery until 1834.

    To compensate slave owners, the British government took out a 20-million-pound loan – or $27.7 million U.S. – and only finished paying off the subsequent interest payments in 2015.

    Slaves and their descendants have never received compensation. “I am asking for the same amount of money to be paid to the slaves that were paid to the slave owners,” Mike Henry, a member of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, told Reuters.

    “I am doing this because I have fought against this all my life, against chattel slavery, which has dehumanized human life.”

  • Newswire: National civil rights and personal injury attorneys Ben Crump and Bob Hilliard uncovering widespread racism in banking

    Atty: Ben Crump addresses Press Conference

    NEW YORK, N.Y. – Nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorneys Ben Crump of Ben Crump Law and Bob Hilliard of Hilliard Martinez Gonzales announced today that they are reviewing a host of cases of racial profiling and discrimination in banking, suggesting a widespread pattern by multiple financial institutions.


    “We’re uncovering unjustifiable, blatant discrimination against Black Americans by a number of major financial institutions,” said attorney Ben Crump. “If this year has revealed anything, it’s that Black Americans are too often treated like second class citizens in America. We won’t stand for that any longer. We will hold these institutions accountable for their racist actions and get justice for employees or customers who have been wrongly terminated, discriminated against, or profiled.”


    Crump and Hilliard are reviewing bank discrimination cases in venues across the country. Together, they also represent hundreds of plaintiffs who were victimized by pharmaceutical giant Gilead’s actions to withhold a safer HIV drug so it could maximize profits from a drug with potential to damage patients’ bones and kidneys.


    “In reviewing these cases against several financial institutions, we have uncovered a terrible pattern of racism against people of color,” said Hilliard. “I’m honored to work alongside Ben Crump to correct these injustices and hold these institutions accountable.”
    Among the behaviors uncovered were these:


    • Client and a few colleagues went to a well-known bank branch in California to cash checks they had received from their employer that day. The checks were drawn from an account at that bank. The bank employees refused to cash the checks, insisting that they were fraudulent. Client asked the teller to verify the check, and she was simply told “no.”


    Without verifying the checks, the bank employees called the police who soon arrived at the bank and detained the client, her daughter, and her other colleagues. After a long period of time, the checks were verified and cashed. The client was in fear for her safety as she watched the police handcuff her daughter and other colleagues all because she was attempting to make a simple bank transaction.


    • In June of 2020, a client went to a well-known bank branch in Georgia to deposit a check. Client was wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt. The Caucasian teller at the bank told our client “All lives matter” and refused to deposit his check. The client didn’t create a scene, he just calmly left the bank after being discriminated against and denied services.


    • A client who owns 18 popular fast-food franchises with great financial scores and sales was denied a $12 million business loan by a well-known bank even though he knows white franchise owners who have stores with worse financials who have been granted loans of this type.
    Representatives from the fast-food corporation reached out to the bank to give their approval and recommendation that he be approved for the loan. The bank denied the loan for pretextual reasons, adding to the difficulty of being a black business owner.


    • A client who received a notice from the bank saying they owe the balance of their mortgage in 90 days, or the bank will foreclose on their house — without any just cause and with several more years remaining on the loan.

  • Newswire : New report reveals ‘breakthrough cases’ in vaccinated are extremely rare

    Black women getting vaccinated

    By: Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Breakthrough cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are extremely rare events among those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new study released on Monday, August 2, by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.


    The rate of breakthrough cases reported among those fully vaccinated is well below 1 percent in all reporting states, ranging from 0.01 percent in Connecticut to 0.90 percent in Oklahoma.
    The rate of breakthrough cases in the District of Columbia stands at 0.04 percent.


    The hospitalization rate among fully vaccinated people with COVID-19 ranged from effectively zero (0.00 percent) in California, Delaware, D.C., Indiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, and Virginia to 0.06 percent in Arkansas.


    The report’s authors also noted that hospitalization might not have been due to COVID-19.
    Further, the report revealed that the rates of death among fully vaccinated people with COVID-19 were even lower, effectively zero (0.00 percent) in all but two reporting states, Arkansas and Michigan, where they were 0.01 percent.


    Even then, the researchers said it’s not clear whether those deaths were COVID-19 related.
    More than 90 percent of all COVID cases and 95 percent of all hospitalizations have been among unvaccinated individuals.


    In most states that track COVID data, more than 98 percent of COVID cases were among unvaccinated people, the report concluded.


    “While the information on breakthrough events is still limited and incomplete, this analysis of available state-level data indicates that COVID-19 breakthrough cases, and especially hospitalizations and deaths, among those who are fully vaccinated are rare occurrences in the United States,” the report’s authors submitted.


    “Moreover, this data indicates the vast majority of reported COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the U.S. are among those who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated,” the researchers continued.


    “These findings echo the abundance of data demonstrating the effectiveness of currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines.


    “Moving forward, particularly as the more transmissible Delta variant is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 circulating in the U.S., more robust state-level data will help to monitor ongoing vaccine effectiveness and inform discussions about booster vaccinations.”

  • Newswire: White House says $44 Billion still available to avoid evictions

    By: Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Editor Note: At press time, the CDC extended the eviction moratorium until October 3, 2021.

    House and Senate Democrats are looking to the White House to immediately act to stop evictions after the federal moratorium expired on July 31. But President Joe Biden said a recent Supreme Court ruling means the administration cannot unilaterally extend the moratorium.

    For his part, the President has called on state and local governments to resolve the problem.

    The White House said the American Rescue Plan provided $47 billion in rental assistance earlier this year, but states and localities have used just $3 billion.

    “We as a country have never had a national infrastructure or national policy preventing avoidable evictions,” American Rescue Plan Coordinator Gene Sperling responded in a White House briefing on Monday, August 2.

    “State and local governments must do more to help,” Sperling asserted. It’s not currently known just how many Americans face eviction, but leaders in the House and Senate have urged the White House to act.

    Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said she believes about 11 million families are affected. “As they have called upon the American people to mask up, to be vaccinated and to take other public health precautions, it is critical, in recognition of this urgency, that they extend the eviction moratorium,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated in an August 2 letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “Putting people on the streets contributes to the spread of the virus,” Pelosi wrote.

    White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki stated that the administration had taken further action to prevent Americans from experiencing eviction. Psaki said nearly 33 percent of the country wouldn’t face eviction through August.

    “Thanks to the bipartisan COVID relief act Congress passed in December 2020 and the American Rescue Plan the Biden administration enacted in March, state and local governments long ago received emergency rental assistance – a $46.5 billion plan to protect millions of Americans facing deep rental debt and potential eviction during the pandemic,” Psaki continued.

    Some cities and states have “demonstrated their ability to release these funds efficiently to tenants and landlords in need,” Psaki further insisted. “But even though funds began to be distributed in February by the Biden administration, too many states and cities have been too slow to act,” she determined.

    Psaki continued: “There is no excuse for any state or locality not to promptly deploy the resources that Congress appropriated to meet the critical need of so many Americans.

    “This assistance provides the funding to pay landlords current and back rent so tenants can remain in their homes or apartments, not be evicted.

    “No one in America should be evicted when federal funds are available, in the hands of state and local government, to pay back rent due.”

    While Congresswoman Pelosi has asked President Biden to act, Psaki said he would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to extend the eviction moratorium.

    “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court declared on June 29 that the CDC could not grant such an extension without clear and specific congressional authorization via new legislation,” Psaki said.

    Because of the spread of the Delta variant, President Biden asked the CDC to consider executive action. The White House said he raised the prospect of a new, 30-day eviction moratorium focused on counties with high or substantial case rates.

    Psaki said the temporary measure would spur states and localities to ramp up emergency rental assistance programs to full spend – allowing every landlord to collect the rent they are owed and ensuring no eligible family gets evicted.

    “To date, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and her team have been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium,” Psaki stated.

  • Oil giants seeking new profits prepare to abandon polluted Niger Delta

    Abandoned Niger Delta oilfield

    July 26, 2021 (GIN) – After years spent scooping up billions in profits from the Niger Delta, multinational oil companies Chevron, Shell and Eni are deserting the rich ecosystem that now bubbles with dirty oil, dead fish and polluted air – abandoning hundreds of Nigerian fisherwomen who once eked out a living there.

     

    Over the years, the bubbling oil from leaking oil pipes turned this paradise, that once fed families and supported communities, into one of the most polluted places on the planet, say government monitors and environmental and human rights organization. The oil giants, they say, are leaving utter ruin in their wake.

     

    News reports say the departure of the “oil majors” is due to falling profits, a shift to renewable fuels, and the “current environment of chaos… no business can survive under such a circumstance.”

     

    Decades of exposure to gas flaring by the foreign oil refineries have harmed the health of Niger Delta residents. Thick plumes of black smoke are the constant reminder of an industry that gives them nothing in return. At the same time, Chevron CEO M.K. Wirth’s 

    total compensation in 2020 topped $29.02 million, according to MarketWatch, April 2021.

     

    Chevron denies that oil was spilling from its pipes. But local women leaders say otherwise and have decided to take their claims to a new level. On March 26, hundreds of women from 18 communities arrived at three Chevron facilities to demand a proper investigation into the oil spill’s cause.

     

  • Newswire: A blueprint for the nation’s infrastructure urges inclusion in housing, small business, and student debt

    Rolled House Blueprints and Construction Plans.

     

    By Charlene Crowell

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – As the country continues to increase COVID-19 vaccinations, businesses and consumers alike still struggle with evolving versions of daily life. At the same time, there is little disagreement that sustained effort is needed for a return to stability – not only in public health, but in personal finance and the larger economy as well.

     

    By the end of July, the moratoriums on housing evictions and foreclosures will expire. Without a timely and broad-ranging federal response, the nation’s homeless population could explode to unprecedented levels.

     

    President Biden and majorities in Congress are pushing for enactment of an infrastructure plan to serve as a financial antidote for a nation wracked with myriad social and economic challenges. A recently negotiated and bipartisan multi-year plan has the support of the Biden Administration, 22 U.S. Senators, and a diverse coalition of business, labor, policy and professional organizations. In the first five years of the plan, $579 billion in new revenues would be directed to transportation investments.

     

    According to the White House web, “The historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework will make life better for millions of Americans, create a generation of good-paying union jobs and economic growth, and position the United States to win the 21st century, including on many of the key technologies needed to combat the climate crisis.”

     

    President Biden expanded his view of the plan in a June 28 Yahoo guest column.

     

    “The Infrastructure Deal is part of my economic strategy that, taken as a whole, will help create millions of jobs for years to come and add trillions of dollars in economic growth. According to one study of my Jobs Plan, nearly 90 percent of the jobs it will create won’t require a college degree, and 75 percent won’t require an associate’s degree. It’s a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.”

     

    “This deal will also make it easier for all Americans to get to work each day, including communities of color who in some cities are twice as likely to take public transit but often have fewer good transit options,” continued President Biden. “In fact, it contains the largest federal investment in public transit in American history — making the public transportation that millions of working people rely on safer, quicker, cleaner, more frequent and more reliable.”

     

    For much of Black America, Biden’s remarks reflect the wish list of our working poor: livable wages, and reliable public transportation. No one wants or needs for their work commute to be a job in itself. Yet that is indeed a daily reality where public transit is limited and predictably unreliable.

     

    A diverse coalition declared its support of the revised plan, bringing additional pressure to bear on lawmakers expected to vote on the measure in the coming days.

     

    Supporters such as the AFL-CIO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Laborers International Union of North America, National Association of Manufacturers, National Retail Federation and others overcame historic labor and business rivalries to make a united call on July 8 for Congress to act with dispatch.

    “Now is the time to turn these promises into projects,” stated the coalition. “We urge Congress to turn this framework into legislation that will be signed into law, and our organizations are committed to helping see this cross the finish line. Enacting significant infrastructure legislation, including investments in our roads, bridges, ports, airports, transit, rail, water and energy infrastructure, access to broadband, and more, is critical to our nation and will create middle-class family sustaining jobs,” the coalition urged.

    “Don’t let partisan differences get in the way of action — pass significant, meaningful infrastructure legislation now,” warned the coalition.

    Other major provisions in the plan propose closing tax gaps, redirect unspent emergency relief funds and targeted corporate user fees to finance economic benefit projects such as:

     

    • Improvements to combat the multiple impacts of climate change, cyber-attacks, and extreme weather events; 

     

    • Long-term, billion-dollar investments in clean energy and transportation via a first-of-its kind Infrastructure Financing Authority; 

     

    • Creation of good-paying jobs to mitigate and support environmental justice; and 

     

    • Construction of thousands of miles of new, resilient power transmission lines to facilitate the expansion of renewable energy, including through a new Grid Authority. 

     

    Even though this plan proposes a major economic boost, many in Congress are debating exactly what ‘infrastructure’ means. Which meaning prevails will determine which investments will be made and for whom.

     

    For some, infrastructure is only about systems of roads and bridges, electrical grids, or water delivery and disposal – and as reflected in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework. Others endorse a much broader view of the term that includes the underpinnings of a functioning society: affordable housing, day care, and education – to name a few.

     

    Even a review of the Merriam Webster dictionary’s definition of ‘infrastructure’ offers two meanings. The first reads, “the system of public works of a country, state, or region also; the resources (such as personnel, buildings, or equipment) required for an activity”. The second expands the term as follows: “the underlying foundation or basic framework (as of a system or organization)”.

    For consumer advocates like Mike Calhoun, President of the Center for Responsible Lending, what qualifies as infrastructure is clear. “Equitable housing investment and policy, student debt relief and reform, and grants for struggling small businesses, particularly those owned by people of color, must be a part of the infrastructure and recovery plan to come,” noted Calhoun. “We are hopeful for the nation’s future and look forward to working with the President and with Congress on enacting a plan for these communities to achieve financial security, build wealth, and thrive, all while stimulating the overall economy.”

     

    Similarly, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee is equally lucid on infrastructure and what it includes. “As Chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee and a longtime advocate for ending homelessness and promoting fair, affordable, and accessible housing, my number one priority has been to ensure that President Biden’s infrastructure plan recognizes that Housing Is Infrastructure through robust funding,” stated Waters.

     

    “To say that the pandemic destabilized an already unstable housing market is an understatement,” continued Waters. “Our nation’s chronic shortage of affordable housing has left millions of people at all income levels struggling to pay their housing costs, and in the worst cases, has locked people out of homeownership, led to people being evicted or foreclosed on, and exacerbated our homelessness crisis… I look forward to continuing to work with the President, his administration, my colleagues in the House and Senate, and America’s housing advocates on enacting once-in-a-generation investments in our nation’s housing programs.”

     

  • Newswire: Biden-Harris Administration to invest more than $1.6 Billion to support COVID-19 and mitigation in vulnerable communities

    Black woman celebrates her vaccination

    NNPA Newswire Report

    As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing COVID-19 response efforts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will invest more than $1.6 billion from the American Rescue Plan to support testing and mitigation measures in high-risk congregate settings to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and detect and stem potential outbreaks.

    As COVID-19 cases rise among unvaccinated people and where the more transmissible Delta virus variant is surging, this funding will expand activities to detect, diagnose, trace, and monitor infections and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in homeless shelters, treatment and recovery facilities, domestic violence shelters and federal, state and local correctional facilities– some of the hardest hit and highest risk communities across the country.

    “As we continue the vaccination program to get more Americans protected, it is important that we double down on our efforts to increase testing, especially in vulnerable communities,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

    “Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we can make sure high-risk environments like correctional facilities and shelters for those experiencing homelessness have greater capacity for testing to prevent potential outbreaks and continue our nation’s progress in moving out of the pandemic.”

    This funding will support expanded COVID-19 testing and mitigation measures for:

    • Mental Health and Substance Use Providers: HHS, through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will invest $100 million to expand dedicated testing and mitigation resources for people with mental health and substance use disorders. This funding provides supplemental funding to both the substance abuse prevention and treatment and community mental health services block grant state grantees for rapid onsite COVID-19 testing and for facilitating access to testing services.
    • Funds are available to provide behavioral health services to staff working as contact tracers and other members of the COVID-related workforce, training and technical assistance on implementing rapid onsite COVID-19 testing and facilitating access to behavioral health services, including the development of onsite testing confidentiality policies, personal protective equipment (PPE), supporting mobile health units, particularly in medically underserved areas, and expanding local or tribal programs workforce to implement COVIDresponse services for those connected to the behavioral health system.
    • Shelters for People Experiencing Homelessness, Group Homes and other Congregate Settings: HHS, in partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will invest $80 million to support state and local COVID-19 testing and mitigation measures among people experiencing homelessness, residents of congregate settings including group homes, and encampments.
      State health departments will use this funding to hire workers to coordinate resources, develop strategies and support existing community partners to prevent infectious disease transmission in these settings. State health departments will also use this funding to procure COVID-19 tests and other mitigation supplies such as handwashing stations, hand sanitizer, and masks for people experiencing homelessness and for those living in congregate settings.
    • Federal, State, and Local Prison Populations: HHS, in partnership with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Prisons, will invest $169 million to advance testing and mitigation efforts in federal congregate settings.
    • This will include funding to support routine testing and surveillance for outbreak and non-outbreak situations according to public health recommendations. This funding will also be used to support ongoing vaccination efforts and the necessary hospital costs associated with this pandemic.
    • In partnership with DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, HHS also announced that CDC is distributing $700 million to 64 state and local jurisdictions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in confinement facilities, including prisons, jails, and juvenile confinement facilities. These funds will allow facilities to implement COVID-19 diagnostic and screening programs for people who are incarcerated, staff, and visitors.
    • Funds also may be used to support other activities, including COVID-19 contact tracing, isolation and quarantine strategies, infection control practices, and education and training on ways to minimize the spread of COVID-19 for facility staff and people who are incarcerated/detained.
    • Local Domestic Violence Shelters and Tribal Shelters Supportive Services for Survivors of Domestic and Dating Violence: HHS, through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), will invest $550 million in the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program to support state and tribal programs for detecting, diagnosing, and mitigating infections for adults, children, and youth experiencing domestic violence and dating violence.
    •  

    This funding will also support cultural competency training and technical assistance for implementing rapid onsite COVID-19 testing and facilitating access to mobile health unit services for adult and youth victims of family violence, domestic violence, or dating violence and their dependents, including the development of onsite testing confidentiality policies, procurement of PPE, enhancing information technology, data modernization, and to coordinate confidential reporting with local health departments.

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  • Newswire: Civil Rights legend Bob Moses dies at 86

    Bob Moses

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Robert Parris Moses, one of America’s foremost civil rights leaders who stood fearless in the face of violence to register African American voters in the South, has died at the age of 86. His daughter, Maisha Moses, announced his death.

    Often clad in denim overalls, Moses drew comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The depth and scale of Moses’ courage proved legendary. His activism drew the ire of White supremacists, but minorities and the oppressed hailed him as a pioneer. Moses famously noted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) Ella Baker as an inspiration.

    In a tribute released by the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on Sunday, July 25, SNCC officials said Moses was key to the SNCC launching its voter registration campaign in Mississippi.

    That work led to Freedom Schools, the 1964 Summer Project, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the Poor People’s Campaign, and the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union.

    “And these not only began to alter the face of Mississippi but also challenged the country to be true to the best in itself,” the SNCC wrote in its tribute.

    They continued: “At the heart of these efforts was SNCC’s idea that people – ordinary people long denied this power – could take control of their lives. These were the people that Bob brought to the table to fight for a seat: maids, sharecroppers, day workers, barbers, beauticians, teachers, preachers, and many others from all walks of life.”

    The statement continued: “The Algebra Project [Moses] founded in 1982 is a direct outgrowth of this early work in Mississippi. The project’s work aims to prepare those still kept on the bottom rungs of our society for success in the information economy of the 21st century.

    “Finally, the SNCC Legacy Project want to issue a call on behalf of Bob and other SNCC veterans like Julian Bond, John Lewis, Chuck McDew, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruby Doris Robinson, James Forman, Marion Barry, Ms. Ella Baker, Amzie Moore, Unita Blackwell, and the local people with whom they worked to continue to raise the banner of the continuing struggle for a better world.”

    Noted Civil Rights leader and National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., saluted the life and legacy of Moses on behalf of the Black Press of America. “Bob Moses’ entire life was dedicated to freedom, justice, and equality for African Americans and all people,” Dr. Chavis reflected.

    “The Black Press of America pauses to express our condolences to the Moses family and to rededicate our journalistic efforts to keep alive the legacy and the vision of Bob Moses.“SNCC does not get enough credit for all of the transformative work that SNCC accomplished in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Long live the spirit of Bob Moses.”

    When people would ask what they should do, Moses asked them what they thought; filmmaker Ava DuVernay offered in a quote she credited to political activist Tom Hayden.

    “At meetings, he usually sat in the back and spoke last,” DuVernay noted.“He slept on floors, wore overalls, shared the risks, took the blows. ”DuVernay said Moses dug deep.

    Imani Perry, the Hughes Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, called Moses her model for organizing. “Principled, intellectual, humble, deliberate, willing to work with all who come, never berating but consistently challenging,” Perry stated. “Fun loving, kind, and a reflective teacher,” she concluded.

    NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson told the New York Times that Moses exemplified putting community interests above ego and personal interest.

    “If you look at his work, he was always pushing local leadership first,” Johnson exclaimed.

    Born on Jan. 23, 1935, in Harlem, New York, Moses became a schoolteacher. He later moved to Mississippi and quickly organized civil rights activists to counter actions by the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups.

    Despite the violence that African Americans routinely faced when trying to vote, Moses helped register thousands of voters. He trained countless organizers inside the walls of so-called freedom schools to carry out the mission of civil rights.

    During one encounter with White supremacists, Moses suffered a severe head injury that required nine stitches. While bloodied, bruised, and nearly unconscious, Moses led a group to a Mississippi courthouse to register them to vote.

    When he was 73, Moses told CNN he did not vote for a president in three decades until 2008 for President Barack Obama. “I don’t do politics, but I made sure to vote this time,” Moses said. “Obama is the first person I really felt moved to vote for.”

    CNN noted that “Obama called Moses a hero of his, Moses recalled, recounting to an Obama rally he attended where the former President discovered he was in the audience.”

    Moses is survived by his wife, Janet, and children Maisha, Omo, Taba, and Malika.