$104 million juvenile detention facility to be built
"Liberation not incarceration”
Maryland
After much uproar from Baltimore City residents and community leaders, a $104 million juvenile detention facility is still scheduled to be built in East Baltimore.
But not without a fight. Hundreds gathered at Dunbar High School’s football field to protest the jail’s construction at an event the Rev. Heber Brown III and youth organizers from Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, Baltimore Algebra Project and others deemed Youth Justice.
They demanded that funding for the youth jail be redirected to schools, parks and recreation, mentorship programs and other outlets to nurture youth before they commit crimes. The two-hour rally was culminated by a fervent march to the proposed jail site. Yelling “liberation not incarceration,” the predominately adolescent protestors used bolt cutters to peel away the chain fence to the property and planted signs that read “Money for jobs and education, not jails.”
May brings us holidays from May 1 (May Day) through Memorial Day, May 27 (originally, Decoration Day), the preeminent celebration of loyalty and courage in America’s Civil War. In between May Day and Memorial Day, there is also Cinco de Mayo and the always adventurous Mother’s Day.
In fact, May hosts more than 25 distinctive political observances, including the annual Malcolm X birthday gala and festival (there’s also another Malcolm X festival held annually in April), held in most major urban areas in America.
The congressional hearings on May 8 may become the beginning of the end for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Three credible eyewitnesses of the Benghazi consulate assault last Sept. 11, 2012, finally got to give their accounting of it. They had been kept from the FBI, all committees of Congress—Senate and House, media and anyone else in the world. It was through the Whistleblower Program that they came to tell the real story.
When Beyoncé Knowles sang the Etta James song “At Last” at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, the song could have had several meanings. At last, we have an African American president? At last, the muscle of the Black vote has been flexed? At last, there is some hope for our country to come together with the mantra “Yes We Can.”
Sunday, May 19, is a day when many in Los Angeles and surrounding cities will have an opportunity to be twice-blessed. On that day, many will go out to worship, but will also have the options of getting their physical health and mental health check-ups at the same time.
This Sunday is the day that first ladies of 35 local congregations will host free medical tests for illnesses that particularly target African Americans and Hispanics in the community.
A panel of political, labor, educational and clergy leaders are demanding that elected officials establish and maintain a high level of accountability in providing services to and improving the standard of living in the African American community.
The Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance (BCCLA) convened a summit Monday morning at the African American Cultural Center in the Crenshaw District, specifying to liberal-democratic officeholders and candidates that the Black vote will no longer be automatic.
