Although Black and Brown’s educational attainment has been on the rise, their ability to rise out of poverty and remain has been harder to maintain. For example, first-generation college students amass significant debt on top of family economic sacrifices to access institutions of higher learning. Working in federal competitive service positions many times allows students to have loans forgiven due to their public service occupational status. Recently, the Executive Order on Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring of Federal Job Candidates signed by the 45th President of the United States on June 26, 2020, highlights a subtle and threatening backlash to the role education can play in fighting against COVID19. The President signed an executive order which is considered lawthat in Section(1) directs important, merit-based reforms that will replace degree-based hiring with skills and competency-based hiring. As people of color make educational strides, the rules have changed from educational merit to perceived skill-based competencies limiting the progress minorities have made in attaining college degrees and moving out of poverty.

As the Tuskegee University research project looks to understand to the health messages within minority communities that are pertinent to reducing the spread of COVID19, research projects, like this one, can also underscore the structural changes that are being made to ensure that the poor people remain disenfranchised from the attainment of wealth and job security that federal competitive service jobs provide. Reflecting on the pains and gains of the signing of the Voting Rights Bill of 1965, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr stated “Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash”.   The President’s Executive Orderis a clear effort to minimize the gains of people of color who have made the necessary sacrifices to advance in the race towards economic security to once again have the finish line moved and blurred.When economic opportunities are moved so are the stakes for healthy communities. We must exercise all legal and political remedies to ensure this effort is not successful.

Crystal M. James, JD, MPH,
Special Assistant to the President for COVID19.
Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine
Head, Dept. Graduate Public Health

Edward Leon Robinson, Jr, Ph.D.
Instructor of African Americans Studies
California State University.
Indignant Dignity: Black Lives Matter in Early Black Writing (Forthcoming, 2021)

³ King, Martin L., Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community? Beacon Press, Boston, MA., 1968

GREENWOOD CANDLE COMMEMORATES BLACK WALL STREET

The Maroon Artisans organization is pleased to formally present the Greenwood Black Wall Street Candle which memorializes the Oklahoma Massacre which occurred on May 31, 1921. On this date, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma was burned to the ground and more than 300 black citizens were massacred by a white mob.  One thousand houses were destroyed and an untold number of black-owned businesses were tragically burned. Although Black Wall Street would rebuild, the collective memory of that fateful day lives on in the hearts and minds of African Americans. The commemorative candle has the scent of papaya blended with the essence of mango, orange, apple, guava and passion fruit. The aroma recreates the memories of the richness of the African American heritage and spirit embodied in the extraordinary entrepreneurship of a community only decades from enslavement.

Created by Frankie L. Bethea, owner of the Maroon Artisan Artist Collective, the candle has been embraced by Duke Ellington School of the Arts and the African American Civil Rights Museum, both in Washington, DC. A portion of proceeds will be distributed to the school’s community of budding, talented student/ scholars.

The Maroon Artisan is an Artist Collective Community engaged in social change initiatives impacting communities through art, culture and business entrepreneurship.
 
For more information or to purchase a candle, please call: 1-800-988-3796.

Limited Edition – Greenwood 1921 Candle

• Light this candle to remember
 

• BLACK WALL STREET TULSA with the scent of papaya blended with the essence of mango, orange, apple, guava and passionfruit.
 

• To Pre Order call customer service: 1-800-988-3796

Negotiating Alzheimer’s With Acceptance and Love

– By Zenobia D. Bailey, Integrated Wellness Coach

In the middle of our current pandemics and their residuals, many of us find ourselves wrestling with other health tsunamis such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).  While this month’s video post presents a necessary perspective on the topic, this written post shares important postscripts on the matter, including the strong recommendation and endorsement of face protection.  While opinions on face masks continue to vary, some scientists, including those from the World Health Organization, report that there are too many unknowns regarding the travel distance of both small and large droplets that are emitted from sneezing, coughing, and even breathing. Therefore, I strongly recommend wearing a mask. 

Another Silent Epidemic
Today’s estimates place the total US figures of the disease at close to 6 million with a projected growth of at least another million by 2025 and another 7 million by 2050.  According to JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), AD is “more prevalent among African Americans than among whites; with estimates ranging from 14% to almost 100% higher.”

Alzheimer’s is indeed at epidemic proportions and growing.  In fact, it is projected that the number of African American victims will more than double to 6.9 million over the next 30 years.  For the time it took me to type this sentence, someone in the United States was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another one of the Dementias.

Care for the Caregiver

It is essential that our caregivers regular respite and nurturing.  While all of us cannot contribute the sweat equity that must be given to our loved ones, we can certainly undergird the individual(s) on hand with everything from encouraging calls, visits, gifts (including massage and chiropractic care), arranging regular vacations and mental health days, to financing supplementary in home care as frequently as possible.  Bouquets of fresh flowers provide wonderful accents and pick me ups.  Adult Day Care Centers offer a great respite option; one that can be scheduled according to the number of daily or weekly hours that would be most suitable for everyone concerned.

Helpful Resources 
The local Agency on Aging – Respite Care for Caregiver and Care
Alzheimer’s Association – Training and Sounding Board
https://www.veteranaid.org  Advocacy site started by Debbie Burak  
Veterans’ Affairs (Office of Aid and Attendance) – $ Assistance for Vets and Spouses
State Representatives that serve on the Veterans and Aging Adults Committees
https://alz.org/media/Documents/african-americans-silent-epidemic-r.pdf

Engagement Resources for the Care
Sunshine On My Face by Lydia Burdick
Wishing On A Star – by Lydia Burdick
Happy New Year to You – by Lydia Burdick
Blue Sky White Clouds – by Eliezer Sobel
Bible Verses – by Matthew Schneider
Through the Seasons – by C. Green and J. Beloff
Bingo – Large Cards for Seniors
Connect 4
Matching Large Cards 
Large Piece Wooden Puzzles
Public Television’s Sit and Be Fit Exercise Program 
Simple Flowers and Butterflies Coloring Book – by Ena Beleno
Match the Suits Activities
Sensory Pillows and/or Lap Blankets – Shop Etsy

*All resources are Zenobia Bailey’s personal recommendations.  Feel free to contact her with any questions at zenobiabailey1@aol.com. To avoid the trash box, be sure to place HBCU Magazine Question in the reference area. 

John Lewis

Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation

February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020

“Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.”

While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.

That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.

Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.

Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain.

Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, though decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.

When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

See interview on book in HBCU Research and Speakers Bureau Magazine, Issue 1 (hbcuspbresearch.org)