The Melding of Spiritual Activism and Social Justice is the title of a lecture to be given by Ericka Huggins on February 13 at 7 pm at Gonzaga University’s Jepson Wolff Auditorium. Ms Huggins is an “activist, poet, professor, and former Black Panther Party Leader and political prisoner”.
Support Jerrelene Williamson and the Martin Luther King Jr Family Outreach Center. Come to Jerrelene’s book signing at the Spokane Valley Barnes & Noble Bookfair. A percentage of every book bought at the bookfair or online using the bookfair ID 10692119 will go to benefit the MLK Outreach Center.
Barnes & Noble is located in the Market Pointe Shopping Center 15310 East Indiana Avenue.
Hi, all:
My mom, Jerrelene Williamson, will be signing her book “African Americans in Spokane” on Saturday, Feb. 18, at Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Spokane Valley. This time it is also a bookfair to benefit the Martin Luther King Center Jr. Family Outreach Center.
If you buy ANY book that day from B&N using the attached voucher in ANY store, or using the bookfair ID number online, the MLK Center will get a percentage of the proceeds.
If there’s a book you want to buy, now’s the time to support my mom and a good cause. Thanks a million!
Jennifer Roseman
Publisher’s Note: Jerrelene Williamson is the mother of Jennifer and Larry Roseman, all long-time contributors to the community.
February 10 7 pm Seeley G. Mudd Chapel: Join Whitworth students and Spokane-area choirs for this annual celebration of Black History Month. Contact Stephy Nobles-Beans 509.777.4568 or sbeans@whitworth.edu
March 8 7:30 pm Robinson Teaching Theater, Weyerhauser Hall: Great Decisions Lecture: Megan Hershey “Democratic Challenges and Change in Contemporary Africa”. Hershey won the Carlton T. Hodge Prize in African Studies and Fulbright Hays Research Abroad Grant for her work with NGOs addressing HIV/AIDS in Kenya.
Eric Holder’s wife tells her story in PBS’ ‘Slavery by Another Name’. Dr. Sharon Malone speaks during the ‘Slavery By Another Name’ panel during the PBS portion of the 2012 Winter TCA Tour held at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa on Jan. 4, 2012 in Pasadena, Calif.
*Imagine this… You do some research into your family tree and discover that your uncle, who was born nearly 30 years after slavery ended in the U.S, was one of thousands of black men pulled back into a forced labor system in which they were arrested – largely on trumped up charges – and compelled to work without pay as prisoners. Imagine that this “convict leasing” system saw the groups of prisoners sold to private parties – like plantation owners or corporations – and that it was not only tolerated by both the North and South, but largely ignored by the U.S. Justice Department. Now, imagine that nearly a century after your uncle served 366 days in this penal labor system, you find yourself married to the head of the U.S. Justice Department, who, ironically, just so happens to be the first African American in the position.
Dr. Sharon Malone, wife of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, tells the heartbreaking story of her Uncle Henry in the upcoming 90-minute PBS documentary “Slavery by Another Name.” The film is based on the eye-opening book by Douglas A. Blackmon, which exposes a part of American history that most folks either had no clue existed, or didn’t know existed to the extent that it did. “I want people to understand that this is not something that’s divorced and separate, and this doesn’t have anything to do with them,” Dr. Malone told EURweb exclusively at the Television Critics Association press tour last week. “If you were a black person who grew up in the South, some way or the other – whether or not you were directly involved in the system as my uncle was – you knew somebody who was, or your daily lives were circumscribed by those circumstances.” “But more importantly,” she continues, “why I really want people to see this film is because this is American history. This isn’t just southern history, or African American history. It explains a lot of who we are as a people. It is a missing puzzle piece for what happened. You had the Civil War, you had reconstruction, gap, gap, gap, and then you’re at Martin Luther King. This fills in that gap.”
“Slavery by Another Name,” narrated by Laurence Fishburne and produced and directed by Sam Pollard, premieres Monday, Feb. 13, 2012 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. Click on link below to watch the promo. Dr. Malone says she sensed that something was always on low boil with Uncle Henry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5s8ccKepCms <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5s8ccKepCms> History has repeated itself with the rate of incarcerations of this century!!
Thanks, Yvor, for the heads up. Slavery by Another Name is on the KSPS channel 7 schedule at 9 pm on February 13.
It’s no coincidence that Baratunde Thurston’s new memoir and satirical self-help book How to Be Black was slated for release on the first day of Black History Month.
“I feel great about that,” Thurston tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “I think we have a moment every year in our country where everyone buys black stamps and thinks more explicitly about black people and blackness, so it was a perfect month to release a book on this subject.”
Thurston, a stand-up comedian and The Onion‘s digital director, says that he doesn’t get as many gigs this month as one might think.
Let Baratunde tell you his story.
And remembering the Don Cornelius memories Rose shared with us the summer of 2011.
The membership of the City of Spokane’s Use of Force Commission is now complete. Ivan Bush, equal opportunity officer for Spokane School District 81, and Susan Hammond, director of outpatient and psychiatric services for Spokane Mental Health are two of the members.
Former mayor Mary Vernor established the commission and chose Earl Martin, former dean of the Gonzaga Law School, as the chair.
The purpose of the commission was originally to investigate the use of force by police in the Otto Zehm case. Chair Martin says the the commission will now also review police procedures and training and civilian police oversight.
Other members of the commission include retired Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Bill Hyslop, former states attorney for Eastern Washington.
See the Spokesman Review article of January 25, 2012 for additional details:
37 years ago might see an African American downtown every month or so. You would give the Black power salute and say “What’s up brother?” Since then the African American population in Spokane has increased. Now you might see an African American downtown once a week but you will never see an African American on a walk through the neighborhoods. It did not encourage me to go for a walk. But since I have been diagnosed with diabetes, wife, doctors and friends have suggested that I walk. Then one day in January 2012 my friend Robert, an African American, asked me if I would accompany him on one of his daily walks. See where the two Robert’s walked . . . .
Do African Americans in Spokane walk? If so, where? I would like to take your walk and post the photographs here.
