AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/black/)
The newly launched website -www.BlackShopFriday.com – provides a guide to more than 500 local Black-owned businesses – more than 40 of them in Austin – that can be searched by category and/or neighborhood. Black Shop Friday is a partnership of the city of Chicago, the Chicago Urban League and advertising agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul (OKRP).
About 50 people came together last week to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Million Man March and to call for new economic drivers for the Austin community. The Million Man March, which the Washington Post called “the largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history,” was held in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 16, 1995.
Important parts of our history have not been told or taught because it hasn’t been believed it actually happened, writes state Rep. La Shawn Ford. Until they saw it on their TV screens, the dominant White culture didn’t believe that Blacks could be treated like John Lewis was treated – and many did not believe that so many Blacks are victimized by police until they saw the last 8 minutes and 46 seconds of George Floyd’s life.
The Austin Peoples Action Center hosted a rally Friday that featured George Floyd’s brother Po Floyd and former NBA player Stephen Jackson, who called for Blacks to come together and stop the violence. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced $5 million in anti-violence funding at the event.
Raheem Cooper-Thomas, Cortez Watson Jr., Chukwuka John Okafo and Herb Howard have these questions on their minds: When do we fight back? How and when do we seek justice for all the lives lost? And when will we have any opportunity in this country?
Four Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Chicago – including PCC Community Wellness Center, which operates two sites in Austin, and the Lawndale Christian Health Center – will expand testing on the West and South sides over the next several days to an additional 400 tests per day.
More than 20 elected officials – including Congressman Danny Davis, state Reps. La Shawn Ford and Camille Lilly, and state Sen. Kimberly Lightford – will be hosting a “tele” town hall April 7 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on the impact of COVID-19 on black communities.
The event will be held from 12 to 3 p.m. March 23 at Sankofa Cultural Arts Center, 5820 W. Chicago Ave.
Columnist John W. Fountain III urges us not to forget about Kalief Browder, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The conviction on Friday of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in the shooting death of teen Laquan McDonald is no cause for celebration, Fountain writes.
Until the African-American community accepts the importance of addressing mental health issues, progress on all the other pressing problems won’t be achieved, writes columnist John W. Fountain III.