Darryl Strawberry Back At 100% After Recent Heart Attack
The former New York Mets player is in New York, where his No. 18 will be retired June 1.
Former New York Mets baseball player Darryl Strawberry suffered a heart attack March 11. The next day, he celebrated his 62nd birthday at St. Joseph West in Lake St. Louis, Missouri.
Thankfully, the former All-Star outfielder and World Series champ has had better days. He told TMZ that he is back at 100%.
Strawberry is in New York City, where the Mets will retire his number 18 on June 1. The cameras caught him out and about. “My heart was pumping at 40 percent,” Strawberry said. “So, there was a lot going on. There was not a lot of blood flowing through my heart at that particular time.”
In January, the Mets announced that Strawberry and his teammate and good friend, Dwight Gooden, would have their numbers retired at the Mets’ home stadium, Citi Field. Gooden’s ceremony took place April 14.
Like Strawberry, Gooden’s early promise was ravaged due to personal issues, including drug abuse. During their time in New York, the supremely talented pair led the Mets to a world championship in 1986.
“We had an opportunity to be young players and come up through the farm system, develop and become the type of players that we were … in the city that is very tough to play in,” Strawberry said when the Mets made the announcement. “I’m so glad that we had an opportunity to play in New York City in the National League at Shea Stadium. I wouldn’t trade it in for anything. To be able to have this honor. Your number is going to be retired, and that’s forever; it’s bigger than going into the [Baseball] Hall of Fame.”
Strawberry will be the 10th Met to have his number retired, joining Gooden, Willie Mays, Keith Hernandez, Jerry Koosman, Mike Piazza, Jackie Robinson (whose number 42 was retired by every MLB franchise), Tom Seaver, Gil Hodges, and Casey Stengel.
Biggie’s Mom, Voletta Wallace, Wants To ‘Slap the Daylights Out of Sean Combs’
The mother of The Notorious B.I.G. expresses disappointment in Diddy after seeing video of the mogul attacking then-girlfriend Cassie.
One integral figure in Diddy’s life has expressed disappointment in the music executive, and she is speaking out. A Rolling Stone article quoted Voletta Wallace, rapper Notorious B.I.G.’s mother, as saying, “The only thing I want to do is slap the daylights out of him.”
The media outlet recently released a piece detailing violence from the “Bad Boy” label owner based on information from many former associates, friends, and employees of Diddy. Rolling Stone investigated after Cassie filed a bombshell lawsuit accusing Diddy of sexual assault, among other things.
The article goes back to his days as a student at Howard University, where former schoolmates detailed some instances of abuse they witnessed while they attended the D.C. HBCU. They also had conversations with people who worked with him in the early days of starting his label up until recent times, where some stated they witnessed abuse from Diddy.
One of the people the media outlet spoke to was Wallace. Although she doesn’t want to believe what she has heard, after viewing the video, she says she is praying for Cassie and hopes he apologizes to his ex.
She also added, “I hope that I see Sean one day, and the only thing I want to do is slap the daylights out of him. And you can quote me on that. Because I liked him. I didn’t want to believe all the awful things, but I’m so ashamed and embarrassed.”
She also stated that the former Revolt owner needs to apologize to his mother, Janice Combs, and speak to her about his misdeeds.
“He needs to apologize to his mother,” she says. “I hope to God he sits her down and spills his guts and apologize to her.”
Bronx Mother Indicted After Being Accused Of Killing 6-Year-Old Daughter
27-year-old Lynija Eason Kumar allegedly hung and beat her daughter, Jalavah Eason for several months before her death
A 27-year-old woman in the Bronx has been indicted after being accused of hanging and abusing her 6-year-old daughter in her apartment last year.
Lynija Eason Kumar has been charged with murder and manslaughter for the alleged killing of her daughter. Police officers were summoned to her residence in the Morrisiania area of the Bronx on May 26, 2023. After arriving at her 12th-floor apartment, officers found her daughter, Jalavah Eason, with multiple bruises and scars, some old, others healing, showing signs of prolonged abuse by Kumar.
Paramedics rushed her to Lincoln Hospital, where she was pronounced dead after attempts to save her.
Detectives allege that Kumar was abusing Eason between March 1 and the day police officers found her body. Her mother allegedly would hang Jalayah in a closet and beat her with a hard object, according to authorities.
Prosecutors stated that the city medical examiner ruled Eason’s cause of death due as child abuse, including asphyxia, blunt force injuries, and malnourishment.
Eason lived with two siblings, an 8-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, who were taken into custody by the Administration for Children’s Services after their sister’s death. The two children also showed signs of abuse and neglect.
“For weeks before she succumbed, Jelayah [sic] knew only pain and hunger, allegedly committed by her own mother,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a written statement. “We will get justice for Jelayah [sic] and are providing services and support to her two siblings who survived a house of horrors.”
The New York Post reported that Kumar was indicted for second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, Clark said.
She is currently remanded at the Rose M. Singer Center in the Bronx and will remain there until her next court date, which is scheduled for June 26.
Technology & Enterprise With April Walker: A Q2 Chat About Artificial Intelligence And The Future At Hand
BLACK ENTERPRISE contributor April Walker challenges the Black community to look at Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the future.
Written By April Walker
You can’t begin any discussions about technology and enterprise today, without addressing the juggernaut of topics – artificial intelligence (AI). AI is without question a variable that every business leader, government entity, and global mission has line of sight and focus on. Audacious and bold predictions that the future of everything will be impacted and affected by the influence of artificial intelligence (AI), to some may seem theoretically premature, yet conceptually if you read the latest headlines and news reports, it’s certainly plausible. The acceleration and headways being made with this technology thus far depict that AI is and will in some measure or in its entirety be a part of everything that we as a global society will encounter. By all accounts the narrative is – there will be very few segments of our existence that will remain untouched by AI, and it will make everything better – does this sound like a dramatically utopian world is coming? Maybe, but perhaps not too far-fetched. So, what exactly is meant by everything? Well, I am referring to how we navigate the world. Specifically, how we will live, learn, and even how we love. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I first want to provide context on a few fundamental terms before I explain my thoughts on these three areas. If you are curious about AI (as we all should be) – these are a few terms you should be familiar with, but know the AI list of terminologies is vast, so by no means should you consider this list exhaustive.
As an experienced AI practitioner, architect, engineer, educator, and evangelist, I’m often asked: “Where should one begin their AI journey of discovery?” Agreeably, there is so much information available now that the thought of gaining knowledge and grasping all the concepts of AI could become overwhelming to even think about. Trust me, even the most disciplined, well-intentioned, voraciously well-read straight-A student would find it a daunting undertaking to absorb it all. My counsel – take it slow – there is no need to boil the ocean or overload the available bandwidth of precious time trying to fill your brain with every nuanced white paper, blog, or article written about this topic – except for mine of course! Attempts to do so would be fruitless anyway, this technology is evolving so quickly the notion that we’ll have to routinely expect to learn something new every day, appears to be the new normal. That said, you’d need to become a walking ‘Large Language Model (LLM)’ to comprehend it all – but don’t get distracted by the introduction by what may be this ‘new’ term – I’ll share more on LLMs in a minute – so keep reading!
A Brief History of AI
Simply put, AI can mimic human capabilities. A more refined definition equates to AI being a theory and development that computer systems can perform tasks normally required by human intelligence, i.e., such as communication, learning, and decision-making. These tasks can also include visual perception, speech recognition, and translation between languages, this represents the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines or computer systems. The birth of AI started between 1950-1956. Alan Turing, an English mathematician and computer scientist and often considered the father of modern computer science was famous for his work developing the first modern computers, decoding the encryption of German Enigma machines during the second world war, and detailing a procedure known as the Turing Test, forming the basis for artificial intelligence. He published “Computer Machinery and Intelligence” which proposed a test of machine intelligence called The Imitation Game. The actual field of AI research was founded at a workshop held on the campus of Dartmouth College during the summer of 1956.
Terminologies and Definitions.
This next section should aid in deciphering and decoding this incredible technology and how it’s evolving in everyday use. Intentionally absent from this are concepts such as ethical AI, bias and inequality, societal and economic ramifications, and analysis of wealth creation and conversely wealth gaps. AI has a direct impact on each of these areas and each concept will have material consequences for communities of color, thus, these topics merit comprehensive discussion and I will cover them in-depth in a future column, but for now, let’s start with the fundamentals.
Chatbot: A software application that is designed to imitate human conversation through text or voice commands. For example, when shopping online you may encounter a pop-up window on your screen asking if you need assistance with your purchase – thus you’ve experienced a chatbot!
Generative AI (GenAI): A type of technology that uses AI to create content, including text, video, code, and images. A generative AI system is trained using large amounts of data, so that it can find patterns for generating new content. The litany of benefits GenAI creates for industries presents compelling opportunities to improve consumer experiences and improve productivity for businesses. As a patient, customer, or client-facing assistant, access to information that is easily available and understandable alone demonstrates the significant potential for democratizing data, like never before.
Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT): Developed by AI research company, Open AI, now on its most recent release GPT-4o (“o” for omni), ChatGPT is an AI chatbot technology that can process our natural human language and generate a response. OpenAI’s website reports this latest version is a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction—it accepts as input any combination of text, audio, image, and video and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. It can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which is like human response times in a conversation. While it may be easy to confuse the difference between generative AI and ChatGPT, the two are summarily different. Where Generative AI’s focus is to generate ‘original’ responses, ChatGPT ‘mimics’ human conversation. Think of it this way, GenAI will create new content based upon inputs it receives and ChatGPT is what you would encounter during an exchange with online customer support.
Big Data: The power of AI is non-existent without data. Consider this, data is the fuel that AI needs to do its job! Big Data refers to what is called the 3Vs – volume, velocity, and variety of data that artificial intelligence technologies are using to discover patterns and correlations hidden in massive collections of data.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): A type of AI that enables computers to understand spoken and written human language. NLP enables features like text and speech recognition on devices. A common example of an NLP can be found when querying voice assistant Siri for directions!
Machine Learning (ML):Many online and on-demand streaming platforms that provide content such as movies, documentaries, etc, leverage ML algorithms to better understand and improve customer experience simply by using our viewing history.
Deep Learning (DL):If you are an avid connoisseur of platforms where you can contribute your own content or view those of others, and wondered how so many recommended videos appear for your viewing experience – well that’s DL at work as it leverages vast amounts of data of other viewers with similar viewing interests.
Neural Network: A method in artificial intelligence that teaches computers to process data in a way that is inspired by the human brain. It is a type of machine learning process, called deep learning, that uses interconnected nodes or neurons in a layered structure that resembles the human brain. Have any of you had an experience of being a passenger in a self-driving car? Neural networks power self-driving vehicles – so the next time you are in San Francisco, take a ride!
Large Language Model (LLM): An AI model that has been trained on large amounts of text so that it can understand language and generate human-like text. The use of the word ‘trained’ here is important, hence this is the critical element of LLMs, as they are fed more data, they continue to learn and evolve. LLMs require an extensive training and fine-tuning process before they can deliver reliable and useful results. They are deep learning models that can perform natural language processing tasks, such as translation, summarization, and text classification. LLMs can also recognize images, solve math problems, and write code. LLMs, such as ChatGPT are now prevalent tools used in recruitment and hiring practices. Given the vast amount of data submitted by candidates seeking jobs, LLMs can make the task of shortlisting candidates a lot more efficient for HR professionals and reduce the time-to-select and hire by doing the tasks of parsing through CVs and matching them to desired or preferred criteria.
Living with AI
The concepts illustrated here depict the sheer magnitude of how today and well into the future AI influence will impact how we navigate the world. Living with and in the world of AI shouldn’t cause fear but should embolden a global perspective that significant opportunities to improve the human condition exists. Imagine a future that consists of robots powered by AI that can clean your home, run your errands, baby-sit your children – okay perhaps that last one maybe taking things a bit too far, but is it really?! I digress. From healthcare, finance, manufacturing, to entertainment, AI is the catalyst of the future that will forever change all aspects of human engagement, experiences, and interaction that we have with one another, and increasingly our connection with that of machines. Vastly improving many of these circumstances, but some could argue creating more isolation, disconnectedness, and a diminishing sense of security in the very same way. The cautionary lesson will be to ensure that amid this rapid innovation we don’t forget that while humans create this technology, it is our humanity that will determine its most powerful use.
AI Advancement on How and What We Learn.
Traditional methods of learning that required sitting in an actual classroom with a teacher at the helm, thank goodness, have not been entirely replaced with the likes of online learning, (we still love our face-to-face interaction with teachers and the classroom experience). Today, a growing population of students reaching the farthest corners of the most impoverished communities globally can now obtain education through various means of virtual tools and resources. Artificial intelligence, by far, presents the most compelling and feasibly game-changing effect on how education could become accessible to a much larger audience than ever before. The dilemma – one must ponder, is this the universal goal, if not, why not? As a competitive advantage, every country and its leaders should be embracing the notion that competitive advantage lies with those whose communities are the most educated, innovative, and skilled – to disregard this as a non-societal imperative, is, well enormously and dangerously shortsighted.
Recognizing the growing economic precarity, business leaders are grappling with how to upskill their workforce for the future. The advent of GenAI is helping to free-up time-consuming and often mundane tasks in the workplace and as a result allowing employees to focus their time on other things and enterprise leaders to rethink and prioritize the most critical needs of their businesses and to drive growth. So, what does that mean in terms of the skills needed for the future – it will require a talent pool that is versed in the application of AI, digital literacy, and data analysis, to name just a few. The good news is that there are ample resources available to learn about AI and in many cases these training courses are available at no cost. Online education platforms such as edX and Coursera each provide self-paced options and offer a myriad of specializations and preparation for technical certifications.
The final theme – Love and AI.
Candidly conjuring up images of romantic interludes isn’t exactly easily invoked in your mind when thinking about love and AI as conduits for achieving connection, but as strange as it may sound, there do exist plausible intersections between the two. Stay with me – it will make a lot more sense to some of you naysayers, very soon. Now I’m not suggesting that AI would serve as the proverbial wing man or woman, but [it] could in the very near future become the data-infused ‘dating agent’ that leverages profile data to assist with identifying viable matches on dating apps for example and could even be used by these very same apps to safeguard subscribers against potential risks – the benefits and use cases are endless. That said, privacy is always a big concern. Sharing of personal information is rampant and inescapable in the world of AI, striking the right balance between how much to relinquish and whom it is given should always be at the forefront of our minds. Trust is key! Knowing that companies entrusted with your data have unwavering policies and practices for protecting your personal information is evidenced through their willingness to be held accountable and responsible for storing and using this data. These companies should relentlessly pursue measures to maintain our privacy at all costs – this diligence should resemble the same approach to consider when choosing a soul mate or…. just allow AI to do it for you!
April Walker is a digital transformation expert, technologist, board member, published author, industry thought-leader, and C-suite advisor. A career spanning more than 30 years in STEM, April has held leadership roles in both the public and private sectors. She has been an executive leading global organizations and served as a catalyst for driving change, direction, and developing enterprise-wide and global strategies for digital transformation, technology, and innovation for Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, MetLife, and NBCUniversal, to name a few, and today,Aprilserves as Salesforce’s Senior Vice President of Customer Success for North America.
Voorhees University To Induct Basketball Head Coach Shawn Walker Into Athletics Hall of Fame
The HBCU announced that its former basketball head coach will be inducted into this year's Voorhees University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Voorhees University has announced that Shawn Walker, former basketball head coach, will be inducted into this year’s Voorhees University Athletics Hall of Fame.
The coach, who is currently leading the men’s basketball team at Allen University, started his coaching career at Voorhees in 1997. The school recently acknowledged his achievement with a social media post.
“I am very honored and excited to be selected to the Hall of Fame at the institution that gave me my very first opportunity to be a head coach at 25 years old,” said Walker in a written statement. “I am forever grateful for all the lessons I was able to learn at that young age, and I am not where I am today without my experiences at Voorhees.”
Walker started leading the Tigers Men’s Basketball program in 1997 and coached the team for four seasons. While heading the team, they won two regular-season EIAC Championships in 1998 and 2000 and an EIAC Tournament Championship in 1999, winning 81 games in total. The Tigers’ success led to Walker being named the EIAC Coach of the Year during the 1998-1999 season.
“Shawn Walker’s impact at Voorhees University surpasses mere statistics and championships,” said Allen University Director of Athletics Jasher Cox. “At Allen University, we eagerly anticipate celebrating not only his remarkable success and achievements from the beginning of his coaching career but also the lasting legacy he has forged for generations to come.”
After completing his collegiate playing career at Elizabeth City State University, Walker took on several coaching positions at several schools. He was a graduate assistant at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania in 1995. He returned to Voorhees in 1996 as an assistant coach before taking the reins the following season. After leaving Voorhess, he became coach of the women’s basketball team at Elizabeth City State University in 2001 before moving over to coach the men’s team from 2003-2014. He took the same position at Grambling State University from 2014-2017 before returning to Elizabeth City State University from 2018-2022. Shaw University hired him as an assistant coach for the women’s team before he took over the men’s coaching job at Allen before last season.
Walker will be inducted on September 7, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in Denmark, South Carolina.
How Coach Sydney Carter Embodies Substance, Style, And Success In Sports, ‘I’ve Always Been A Leader’
Coach Sydney Carter opens up about the current state of the WNBA and how she's bringing style to the leaderskhip side of sports.
Coach Sydney Carter, retired WNBA and overseas professional basketball player, lifestyle maven, and fashion influencer, is opening up about the current state of the WNBA, her current role as the assistant coach and director of player development for the University of Texas Longhorns, and how she’s bringing style to the leadership side of sports.
The Dallas native kicked off her high-profile sports career playing guard at Texas A&M University and winning an NCAA title in 2011. This accomplishment helped Carter get drafted by the WNBA in 2012.
“When I won the national championship. It’s still something that I cannot describe,” Carter tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“It’s such a hard thing to do—one of the toughest seasons that I was ever a part of. Even pro basketball, like nothing was harder than that year. So it was just one of the best memories that I have in college.”
So much has changed since Carter competed and won an NCAA title. The national tournament saw record-breaking viewership in 2024, thanks in part to the increased popularity of star players like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.
It’s a beautiful thing for Carter to see as someone who has always known the value of women’s sports. It was just a matter of time before the rest of the world opened its eyes.
“I mean, it’s fantastic. You’re giving women the platform now. You’re seeing so many things about the women’s game that we already knew,” Carter says about the increased interest in women’s sports.
“And it’s not just with women’s basketball. Now other sports are starting to get publicity as well. So it’s like, everybody’s like a girls girl now.”
With new eyes, increased funding, and growing fans in women’s sports, Carter is looking to the future and wants to see “how can we keep the needle moving?”
During her professional career, Carter played for the Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, and Atlanta Dream. In the 2014 season, she began playing overseas in Latvia, where she achieved significant success, becoming a three-time Latvian/Estonian Champion in 2014, 2016, and 2017 and an Eastern European League champion in 2016. Carter also briefly played in Israel during her seven years overseas before retiring from the WNBA in 2018.
After retiring, Carter embarked on leadership positions in women’s basketball. She had a full-circle moment going from winning the NCAA tournament for Texas A&M to serving as the former assistant coach at her alma mater. Now, she works as the assistant coach and director of player development at the University of Texas, where she focuses on fostering and sustaining a positive impact for student-athletes while shifting the norms in the workforce on behalf of women in sports leadership roles.
“For me to be back here after I’ve played at a completely different school in Texas, a rival school in Texas, and then had a pro career, it’s always been a passion of mine to help young women. So, I feel like I’ve always been a leader. Like I’ve always been a talker,” Carter explains.
“I kind of just flowed into a role that will allow me to showcase my leadership skills for young women on and off of the court.”
Dubbed “The Pink Pants Coach,” Carter exemplifies how women with strong influence in sports, the boardroom, or life can embrace their own sense of style. She went viral by wearing pink leather pants during the Cancer Awareness game night of the 2021-2022 basketball season.
However, despite the criticism, Carter used the national attention she garnered to showcase how women can lead and be powerful while also being fashionable.
“I think it was a negative aspect to it because that’s what was put out there: ‘How dare she? Why does she think this is appropriate,'” Carter recalls.
“Now I just think a lot of people see the confidence that I wear and then they see the clothes because I just show up as me and I’m not apologizing for whatever.”
Press play below to learn more about coach Sydney’s leadership role at the University of Texas, her plans for the future, the current WNBA players she thinks we should be watching out for, and her excitement about the expansion of the WNBA.
Although the initial recall only affected around 70,000 cases, the FDA expanded that recall to encompass 1.9 million bottles of water.
The Food and Drug Administration has announced an update to a March recall of more than 70,000 cases of Fiji artesian spring water over concerns that a manganese contamination could have caused severe health consequences or death. During the week of May 20, the FDA adjusted its concern to a Class III, which dictated that there is no relative risk of adverse health consequences.
As Food and Wine reported, the initial recall only affected water sold on Amazon between Feb. 1, 2024, and Mar. 3, 2024. The company voluntarily recalled the water without any prompting from the FDA. The water was tested and confirmed to contain manganese as well as three strains of bacteria. Although the initial recall only affected around 70,000 cases, the FDA expanded that recall to encompass 1.9 million bottles of water.
On Twitter/X, the company maintained that the majority of water bottles the company shipped out remain safe to drink.
@plaujr88 we learned of a quality issue affecting select FIJI Water 500mL (24-Pack) cases with PRD dates of Nov. 11, 2023, Nov. 12, 2023, Nov. 13, 2023, Nov. 24, 2023, and Nov. 25, 2023 sold through https://t.co/pjkiNSOBN7. Please call 1.866.406.4149 for more information.
“Fiji Water remains safe to buy and consume,” the company wrote. “This is a quality issue only affecting the specific lots sold on Amazon.com.”
Fiji made another post in an attempt to clarify a statement from Amazon regarding the recall.
They wrote, “The notice sent by Amazon does not accurately reflect the issue. We were notified of a quality issue with complaints of discoloration in select products with PRD dates of Nov. 11, 12, 13, 2023, and Nov. 24, 25, 2023,”
Fiji continued, saying that the email consumers received from Amazon “does not accurately reflect“ the problem. In another post, the company wrote, “We have no reason to believe there is a health or safety issue. We have been diligently looking into this and are working with a third-party lab for this quality issue.”
According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, manganese is described as: “(a) naturally occurring substance found in many types of rocks and soil.”
According to the FDA, tap and bottled water contain a negligible amount of the substance, but the maximum amount allowed by the agency is 0.05 mg/L.
Melissa England, a spokeswoman for The Wonderful Company, which represents Fiji, indicated to KSNT on May 25 that the majority of contaminated bottles have already been collected. England told the outlet, “The FDA classification […] relates to a matter from several months ago that never posed any health or safety risk. It affected products that were sold through only one distributor, and 99% of all those affected bottles were reclaimed, with the remainder in warehouses to be returned. There is no higher priority to us than the safety and quality of Fiji Water. There is no health or safety risk posed by manganese or bacteria in the recalled lots of Fiji. Moreover, Fiji Water conducts regular testing to ensure consumers enjoy the soft, smooth taste of Fiji Water that they expect and love.”
The details of the recalled water are as follows: Case UPC Code – 6 32565 00004 3, Bottle UPC Code – 6 32565 00001 2, Production dates – Nov. 11, 2023; Nov. 12, 2023; Nov. 13, 2023; Nov. 24, 2023 and Nov. 25, 2023.
Anyone who has questions about the Fiji recall is encouraged to call 1-866-406-4149.
Rhode Island To Celebrate Juneteenth As A State Holiday
Juneteenth, which has been historically connected to Texas since its inception, has been receiving more widespread celebration since the day was made a national holiday in 2021.
According to the press release, McKee recognized the holiday’s importance to Black people of the state. “Today, Rhode Island makes a crucial and official recognition of the horrors and injustices of slavery,” McKee said. “Making Juneteenth an official holiday in Rhode Island is an important act that acknowledges our past, highlights the progress we’ve made toward creating a more equal and just world, and underscores the work that lies ahead. On behalf of all Rhode Islanders, I thank all the leaders and community members who led the charge and ensured that this significant chapter in our nation’s history is properly recognized for generations to come.”
Rhode Island will join the federal government next year in recognizing Juneteenth as an official holiday under legislation sponsored by @MackDistrict6 and @bhenriesri and approved by the General Assembly today.
As Helen Baskerville-Dukes, the President and Executive Director of Rhode Island’s Juneteenth Committee, told ABC 6, there was a two-and-a-half-year gap between the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on Jan 1. 1863, and the words of freedom to reach the ears of the enslaved. “So it’s a two and a half year gap, it was passed in 1863 and it took two and a half years for it to get to the rest of the slaves, to be notified that they were free.”
Baskerville-Dukes continued, “It’s important because Black history is American history, and of course Black history is surrounded around slavery, so because of the Emancipation and the commemoration around the African slaves being freed, it is necessary that we remember how far America has come.”
Baskerville-Dukes also expounded on the history of what led Juneteenth to become a holiday in Rhode Island, saying, “So we started in 2019 here, there were small Juneteenth celebrations going on, but we brought to a larger level here and in 2019 we started with a festival, then we started adding on other events such as an awards gala where we celebrated grassroots businesspeople and organizers and all the wonderful things they were doing in the community. And then after the gala we added on youth day, which we focus on literacy and closing the literacy gap amongst African-American youth.”
In 2020, Annette Gordon-Reed, the author of On Juneteenth, traced how Juneteenth has spread from Texas to everywhere that Texans settled once they left the state in an essay for The New Yorker. “Black Texans had moved all over the country, carrying their traditions with them. It was fitting that their legacy was, in part, this celebration, which honored black humanity in the face of a powerful community that continued to reject it.”
“On June 19, 1865, the nearly two hundred thousand men, women, and children enslaved in Texas learned of their emancipation, two and a half years after Lincoln had issued the proclamation terminating slavery in states rebelling against the union. The institution of slavery was essentially an open-air prison and proved remarkably successful, at least in this instance, at the kind of information control that exploitation relies on.”
Cobb continued, “Juneteenth, the annual celebration marking the day that this postponed freedom arrived in Texas, occupies a strange niche in American culture, isolated as a Black tradition, as if the currents of slavery and its death did not shape the direction of the nation in its entirety.”
Juneteenth, which has been historically connected to Texas since its inception, has been celebrated more widely since the day was made a national holiday in 2021. Juneteenth, which is celebrated each year on the 19th of June, marks the date that the last enslaved persons were informed that they were free from the bondage of slavery in 1865.
Senate Republicans Bicker With DOJ Over Wisconsin’s Missing And Murdered Black Women Task Force
Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, who chairs the Senate Committee on Government Operations, blocked a hearing for the task force in March.
Republican state senators and the state’s Department of Justice stand in disagreement over a legislative proposal aimed at establishing a task force to investigate the issue of missing and murdered Black women in Wisconsin.
Spearheaded by Rep. Shelia Stubbs, D-Madison, the bill achieved a rare feat in February after garnering robust bipartisan support in the Assembly. According to The Cap Times, it also unanimously cleared the Senate Committee on Mental Health, Substance Abuse Prevention, Children and Families. However, the proposal’s momentum stalled as it was never brought to the Senate floor for a vote, drawing ire from Democrats who attempted to push it forward during a recent session where Republicans sought to override a series of gubernatorial vetoes.
Senate Republicans who impeded the bill’s progress have called upon Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to create the task force himself. Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, who chairs the Senate Committee on Government Operations, wrote Kaul, citing his previous establishment of a cohort probing cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women. “Notwithstanding the laudable motives of the (bill’s) authors, it was my determination that the creation of a DOJ task force does not require legislation,” the May 16 letter stated. “I reached this conclusion, in part, as a result of the precedent set through your unilateral establishment in 2020.”
The state’s top law enforcement official underscored the fundamental differences between the two task forces, highlighting distinct funding mechanisms and law enforcement strategies. Kaul elucidated that the Indigenous women’s task force drew upon federal Violence Against Women Act funding, which is currently unavailable, potentially delaying the creation of a task force focused on Black women. Moreover, Kaul emphasized the pivotal involvement of tribal governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Indigenous women’s task force, necessitating disparate processes for gathering and storing information.
Stroebel initially blocked a hearing for the bill in March, contending that all missing and murdered individuals should receive equal attention irrespective of race or gender. However, Kaul and others argue that Black women are impacted differently by this issue. The conversation regarding the task force remains open between Kaul, Stubbs, and other legislators.
The cost for the cohort has been estimated at $380,000 for one year’s operation.
Stroebel asserted that the creation of the task force lies in the hands of the Department of Justice.
Residents of the allegedly targeted neighborhoods claim law enforcement has been following opposing people in cars, blasting sirens outside bedroom windows, and shining headlights into homes at night. The actions allegedly started in February 2024 following a pre-dawn raid of three Atlanta houses on Feb. 8, where police and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began looking for evidence related to arson of construction and police equipment.
Since then, police have been accused of setting up shop in four neighborhoods and focusing on close to 12 homes – including the homes that were previously raided.
Both marked and unmarked cars were allegedly parked close by, driving by slowly, and then leaving when approached by residents.
One resident of the raided neighborhood remembered being in the care of another person and being followed by a car for over four hours. This prompted them to drive outside county lines into the neighboring county of Gwinnett. A Gwinnett police officer pulled them over after stopping at a drive-thru and gave them a ticket for having the car’s license plate in the back window and not on the bumper.
Close to ten other residents in different Atlanta neighborhoods shared similar experiences of increased Atlanta police presence in recent months. The same person followed in the car for hours said he was startled in March 2024 after a police car blasted a siren outside their home around 3:30 am. “I’m not a lawyer,” he said. “But it eventually reaches the point of harassment – how do you tell cops they’ve crossed that threshold?”
With no arrests being made, residents are confused about what privacy and harassment laws are in place to protect them.
Social movement historian Dan Berger connects this level of surveillance to the civil rights era, calling the actions “naked intimidation with plausible deniability attached to it.”
“A common strategy of police work is, when a movement reaches a point of threat, the powers that be begin actively trying to scare them out of existence – showing them they know where they live, who they hang out with,” Berger added.
Lawyer and law professor at the American University Washington College of Law, Andrew Ferguson, points the finger at the courts for giving law enforcement this intimidation power. “Generally speaking, courts have given police the power to investigate crimes,” he said. “The problem is, abuse and harassment are usually harder to define … and there aren’t great external laws to say, ‘You can’t do this.’”
Atlanta police say that Cop City is needed for “world-class” training. Being built on a 171-acre lot just southeast of Atlanta, the city council received public outcry after 11 members voted in favor of the project in June 2023, while only four voted against it. Opposing voices who feel the city’s resources should be used in other productive and less harmful ways.
After the city of Atlanta tried to halt the “Stop Cop City” initiative from activists, a federal judge denied the appeal as organizers of the Vote to Stop Cop City coalition claim they gathered close to 80,000 signatures in August 2023, which was more than its original goal of 70,000 announced at the start of the campaign in June.
