Own Stories and Scars, Atlanta Mayor Says Keisha Lance Bottoms Addresses Fmu Grads Before They Roar Across Stage
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Volume 95 Number 39 | MAY 16-22, 2018 | MiamiTimesOnline.com | Ninety-Three Cents OWN STORIES AND SCARS, ATLANTA MAYOR SAYS KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS ADDRESSES FMU GRADS BEFORE THEY ROAR ACROSS STAGE PHILIPPE H. BUTEAU Miami Times Contributor Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told s Florida Memorial University’s spring 2018 graduates pre- FMU graduates she saw pared to walk across the stage and turn the tassel on a new her father arrested for chapter in their lives, they heard from a mayor who advised cocaine distribution them to own their stories and their scars. at commencement AKeisha Lance Bottoms, the 60th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, gave the services on Saturday, keynote speech at FMU’s 139th graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 12, May 12 in Miami SEE FMU 8A Gardens. Miami Times photos/ Philippe H. Buteau Tired and afraid of gun violence Black youth continue to push for many people that have actual- ly gotten killed by a gun per- more change in their communities sonally and friendship, family members and other people JANIAH ADAMS The voices of Miami’s in- that I know,” he said May 9 at [email protected] ner-city youth swelled during In a Black communi- the Little Haiti Cultural Cen- a youth-led town hall held last ty, we don’t experience ter. “I just see it on the news The last time high school week to shed light on the vio- gun violence inside the where somebody is dead.” student Jamesha Corker felt lence youth face. schools. It’s outside the Jeremiah traveled to An audience Washington, D.C. with safe in her community was Four students, Jamesha school when we’re walk- member at Be- when she was 8 years old. Corker, Jeremiah Johnson, “ more than 30 in- yond the March: “Although I was living in Jonathan Janvier, and Aliyah ing home, and we’re ner-city high the projects, it was like, very Blackmon sat on a panel to going to the store. school students A Youth-Led family-oriented, so if I had a share their view on violence to attend the Town Hall on birthday party, I would invite through a guided discus- Jonathan Janvier March For Violence, May 9, all my friends from the neigh- sion at Beyond the March: A Our Lives ral- at the Little Haiti borhood, and we see each Youth-Led Town Hall on Vi- land Senior High School, said ly. During the Cultural Center. other as brothers and sisters olence. The common thread: when he thinks about vio- trip, he said he had the op- – we were real close,” Corker The students see too much lence, gun violence is the first portunity to hone his speak- said. “None of us had to really death, mostly as a result of that comes to mind. ing skills and gained a path- worry about somebody com- gun violence. “I know it’s all types of vi- way to a platform to speak ing by shooting or a fight or Jeremiah Johnson, a 16-year- olence, but I’m known to gun against gun violence. anything.” old sophomore at Miami Nor- violence because I know so SEE GUN 8A Miami Times photo/Gregory Reed School district lags on minority bond goals Administrator says performance has The audit focused on work showed zero percent. In con- tion rate goals in 2013 were done in the district’s Office trast, Frank C. Martin Inter- more “aspirational” in nature improved and financials are good of School Facilities depart- national K-8 Center had a 13 because the school board did ment. That office oversaw 10 percent participation rate, not have a policy in place. ANDREA ROBINSON The audit is the first that construction projects at nine compared with a goal of 3.9 “These were not mandatory [email protected] looked at entire projects that school sites that were among percent. goals,” said Torrens. “It was were completed under the the first wave of construction Other schools included in not enforceable.” A recent audit of 10 con- $1.2 billion general obligation in the first year of the bond. the review were Biscayne Torrens said at that time, struction projects across bond that was approved by Of the 10 projects, Black and Hialeah Elementary, Cor- contractors “told us what Miami-Dade County Public voters in 2012. Promises of participation rate goals fell al Park Senior High, Miami they were going to try to do” Schools found that the school minority inclusion in contrac- short at six of the sites. Goals Lakes K-9 and Myrtle Grove in terms of bringing in mi- district did not achieve goals tor and subcontractor partic- were met at two sites and sur- K-8 centers and MAST Acad- nority and women business- set for minority and wom- ipation was a huge selling passed at two other sites. emy, which had two construc- es. He stated that his depart- en-owned subcontractors. point to lure Black people to Iraida Mendez-Cartaya Participation rates were tion projects. ment did not have an array That conclusion was one vote for the bond. under water at Gloria Floyd Office of School Facili- of minority businesses from of several findings in a recent Auditors recommended bond program, and also im- and Van E. Blanton Elemen- ties director, Jaime Torrens, which to pull at that time. audit that will be discussed that the district update and prove documentation and re- tary schools, both of which said those projects launched “We were getting firms at Wednesday’s school board enhance its policies and pro- cord keeping to verify “final during the early stages of the registered. We didn’t have a meeting. cedures used to execute the walkthroughs of projects.” program and that participa- SEE BOND 8A BUSINESS ................................................. 9B YOU & YOURS ............................................ 7D Ceremony in Today Miami Gardens 84° CLASSIFIED ............................................. 11B FAITH CALENDAR ................................... 8D kick off National IN GOOD TASTE ......................................... 1C HEALTH & WELLNESS ............................. 9D Nurses Week INSIDE LIFESTYLE HAPPENINGS ....................... 5C OBITUARIES ............................................. 12D 7D 8 90158 00100 0 Editorials Cartoons Opinions Letters VIEWPOINT BLACKS MUST CONTROL THEIR OWN DESTINY | MAY 16-22, 2018 | MiamiTimesOnline.com Credo Of The Black Press MEMBER: National Newspaper Periodicals Postage EDITORIAL The Black Press believes that America Publisher Association paid at Miami, Florida (ISSN 0739-0319) can best lead the world from racial and MEMBER: The Newspaper POSTMASTER: Published Weekly at 900 NW 54th Street, Association of America Send address changes to national antagonism when it accords Miami, Florida 33127-1818 Subscription Rates: One Year THE MIAMI TIMES, to every person, regardless of race, Brownsville residents Post Office Box 270200 $52.99 – Two Year $99.99 P.O. Box 270200 creed or color, his or her human and Buena Vista Station, Miami, Florida 33127 Foreign $75.00 Buena Vista Station, Miami, FL Phone 305-694-6210 legal rights. Hating no person, fearing 7 percent sales tax for Florida residents 33127-0200 • 305-694-6210 need assurance about no person, the Black Press strives to H.E. SIGISMUND REEVES, Founder, 1923-1968 help every person in the firm belief that GARTH C. REEVES, JR., Editor, 1972-1982 all persons are hurt as long as anyone GARTH C. REEVES, SR., Publisher Emeritus is held back. Lincoln Gardens RACHEL J. REEVES, Publisher and Chairman Soon after the May 2 front-page article entitled “Liberty Spilt” appeared in The Miami Times, residents started to write to the newspaper. The common theme was that it appeared that the Discovering the best of Black America Lincoln Gardens part of the project had changed, and they didn’t BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS JR., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) know anything about it. Indeed the original plan – approved by County Commissioners There is an old African are identifying and mento- justices and systematic ra- July 6, 2016 – as they knew it, had changed. proverb that says, “What ring the next generation of cial discriminations that are As part of the Liberty Square Rising Project, developers were you seek, you will surely young, gifted, talented and in fact facets of the realities required to include a plan to redevelop Lincoln Gardens, a 9-acre find.” We live in a world committed journalists and that are all too prevalent in public housing community, whose 47 four- and five- bedroom where the news cycle con- publishers who will rise to Black America. We need, apartments were previously demolished. At the onset of plans tinues to decrease because take their rightful place as Seeking out the best of however, more balance and for Liberty Square, Lincoln Gardens apartments would have been of innovations in communi- our future community lead- Black America not only truth-telling in the media cations technology. Yes, we ers and business owners. when it comes to the strug- built first and Liberty Square residents transferred there. Outcry in the field of journal- from Brownville and Liberty Square residents halted that pro- are living in the fast-paced Seeking out the best of gles and plight as well as cess. After the County Commissioners voted to accept the plan digital age. The high veloc- Black America not only ism, but also in the the resilience and transfor- for Related Urban Development Group to rehab and rebuild Lib- ity delivery and transmis- in the field of journalism, overall“ context of the mation of Black America. erty Square Rising, Commissioner Audrey Edmonson asked that sion of news and informa- but also in the overall con- long-protracted struggle For more than 191 years, Brownsville residents be pulled into the planning process. tion, however, may or may text of the long-protracted for freedom, justice, since the first publication of That Kenneth Kilpatrick, Brownsville Civic Neighborhood As- not produce authentic or struggle for freedom, jus- equality and empower- Freedom Journal in March sociation president, found out March 28 that “the Master Devel- accurate facts or simply the tice, equality and empow- ment is of the utmost 1827, the Black Press of opment Agreement and Community Benefits Program that was truth.