Preventing Costly Cyberattacks with Stronger Algorithms

Journal of Black Innovation Special Tech Heritage Issue Fall 2017 Vol. 6, No. 7 May 2021 1 yearly subscription $175

70 Years of Tech History © 2021 since 1947 for Roy L. Clay Sr. The Journal of Black DynaKrypt’s Dr. Frederick Foreman: Innovation Honorary Editor in Chief Preventing Costly Cyberattacks Roy L. Clay Sr. Jackie robinson of Silicon Valley withhigh Stronger technology Algorithms SPECIAL ISSUE FALL 2017 souloftechnology.com Former FAMU Professor is theSubscription Dr. $175 George yearly New stem cell trial Washington Carver of cybersecurity targets sickle cell

Fighting vaccine

From top left: Roy L. Clay Sr. at Rod-L Electronics, founded in 1977 celebrating its 40th year as an electronic test equipment manufacturer; nationalism with below, programming the HP 2116 in 1967 and as vice mayor of Palo Alto. Engineering Hall of Fame Scouting Sites African producers © 2017 Zenviba 1 All Rights Reserved Publisher Artist Malik Seneferu John William Templeton joins Publisher John Will Oakland learn Research Director William Templeton at Dr. Cheryl Bryant Bruce from its mistakes potential location for with sports teams Sargent Claude Johnson National Museum of African- FDA menthol ban American Art on SF could save 200,000 waterfront African-Americans iNSIDE: New discoveries on Table of Contents Sargent Johnson Publishers Page 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publishers Page Page 3

DuBois Data Symposium Page 5 FAMU, NOAA promote earth science careers Page 5 Satcher returns to Charles Drew University Page 6 Charles Scott symposium at Howard medical Page 6

Senegal, Rwanda step up to make vaccines for Africa Page 8

Gullah/Geechee team with EPA Page 11 Granholm projects $23 trillion market for energy transformation Page 13 CIRM funds sickle cell trial Page 14 Building research equity at Stanford Page 16 Psychiatrist leader joins How to Do Equity Page 16 California Small Business Advocate Tara Lynn Gray Page 17 When will Oakland learn Page 19 THE CARVER OF CYBERSECURITY Dr. Frederick Foreman on the recent hacks Page 24 FDA goes after menthol cigarettes Page 30 COVER STORY Sargent Johnson chose to make art Black and beautiful Page 34 3

PUBLISHERS PAGE

At Hilltop Park in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood

From Pandemic to Prosperity: State of Black Business 18

The answer to racism is simple. Vote. 4

After 247 years of lack of representation, four million Africans in America decided in 1869 that ending slavery wasn’t enough; that equal protection of the law wasn’t enough. Their charge for the service of keeping the United States as a nation was simply to have the right to vote. In my book, We Fought, We Vote: the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment, the legislative history of the most important of the three Reconstruction amendments tells a pertinent story. Even Sen. Charles Sumner concluded that white men would never agree to Negro suffrage and left it out of the 14th Amendment. But in 1866 and 1867, Black voters turned out in proportions of 90 percent and above, casting the majority of the ballots in South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. An appreciative President U.S. Grant, who first deployed the Corps d’Afrique along the Mississippi River to propel himself from an unknown shoe clerk to national hero moved forward with the 15th Amendment. He more than anyone understood that Black soldiers were the deciding element in the Civil War, sending the 25th Corps to Texas after it captured Richmond for the last engagement of the conflict. So too did no one anticipate that Black voters could rise up in Georgia, the state which gave the final ratification for the 13th Amendment on Dec. 6, 1865, on Jan. 5, 2021 and elect an African-American senator for the first time. Like the 15th Amendment, they were clear that the difference between being shot down in the streets and receiving full funding for historically Black colleges and universities was the act of voting. To the surprise of many, President Biden, with the help of Rep. James Clyburn, is redeeming the promise of voting with an agenda that invests directly in Black communities. If any validation were needed, it would come in the form of Jim Crow 2.0, a spate of measures to restrict voting. Further validation would come when a jury found a Minneapolis former police officer guilty of murdering George Floyd. The trial would not have happened had it not been for the election of Attorney General Keith Ellison in Minnesota, who made the decision to indict for second degree murder and recruited a team of special prosectors for the case. In St. Louis, new Mayor Tishaura Jones gets to decide where more than $500 million in American Rescue Plan funds go to make transformative change in her city. Boston’s first Black woman Mayor Kim Janney broke three centuries of precedent. New York City and Virginia elections this fall offer even more opportunities to change the course of history. Vote like your life depends on it. It does. On May 15, we release our 18th State of Black Business report 5

RESEARCH NEWS

DuBois Data Symposium updates his legacy

ATLANTA — On Friday, April 23, 2021, the AUC Data Science Initiative held its inaugural W.E.B. Du Bois Data Science Symposium! Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois is a former professor at Atlanta University who pioneered data visualizations to unravel the social plight of Blacks in the 19th century. The goal was to carry on the legacy of Du Bois through data science innovations that address issues facing Black America. Dr. Sean Jones of the National Science Foundation gave a keynote on “Harnessing the Technological Revolution Through AI, Data Science, and Quantum.” Dr. Nathan Alexander of Morehouse College addresse “Data and Du Bois: Futurist Frameworks for an Interdisciplinary Education.” The Symposium will also feature other engaging presentations, lightning talks, and roundtable discussions. Dr. Talitha Washington came from Howard University to direct the ﬁve year $8.5 million initiative, funded by a grant from United Health Group.

FAMU, NOAA promote earth science careers

Florida A&M University (FAMU) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prepared for Earth Day with an April 8-9 virtual event, themed “Two Decades of Excellence: Nurturing Future Leaders in STEM,” is presented by the NOAA Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI). The forum is hosted by the FAMU-based NOAA Center for Coastal and Marine Coastal Ecosystems (CCME) and its director, FAMU President Larry Robinson, Ph.D. The two-day event will feature oral and poster presentations by students, faculty, NOAA scientists and managers, and invited speakers. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. “Florida A&M University and the NOAA Center for Coastal and Marine Ecosystems are honored to host this important education and science forum once again. The theme of this year’s forum reﬂects our commitment to prepare STEM leaders who will make impacts for generations to come,” Robinson said. “HBCUs and minority serving institutions are sources of largely untapped STEM talent. This forum gives students at these institutions an opportunity to showcase their talent and to hear from professionals about how to prepare for the challenges ahead.” The forum emphasized 20 years of successful partnerships between NOAA EPP/MSI and the Cooperative Science Centers (CSC) that have resulted in the training and graduation of hundreds of students, with a focus on students from traditionally underrepresented minority communities, in science ﬁelds relevant to NOAA’s mission. 6

Satcher addresses racism as public health issue

LOS ANGELES — Dr. David Satcher is the featured presenter for Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science’s Leadership Summit on Health Equity and Social Justice June 10. The former Surgeon General is founder of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute.

Roland B. Scott Symposium highlights Howard sickle cell research

The Center for Sickle Cell Disease and Howard University Hospital share a long history of treating a patients and advancing research. The center has participated in every major clinical trial that has led to FDA-approved medications for sickle cell disease treatment, including the recent FDA approval of L- glutamine, the ﬁrst new medication in two decades. “The Center for Sickle Cell Disease is committed to further expanding Howard University’s clinical and translational research programs with a focus on new treatments and opportunities for curative therapy,” Dr. Taylor said. “We have a long-standing commitment to research advocacy and community outreach, particularly screening for sickle cell trait.” virtually on May 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 for cutting-edge research on new sickle cell treatments and engaging panel discussions on stigma, sexuality, aging, and insurance. Dr. Roland B. Scott was the chairman of Department of Pediatrics at Howard when it was established in 1949. Dr. Scott had a life-long dedication to individuals with sickle cell disease. His 1948 paper on the prevalence of sickling in newborn blood samples was a precursor of the newborn screening programs that were later implemented nationwide. Dr. Scott established the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease and was the Center Director until his retirement in 1990. Due in part to his efforts, the 1971 Sickle Cell Disease Control Act was passed and eventually led to the establishment of the Sickle Cell Disease Program at the NIH that funded 10 comprehensive sickle cell centers. Dr. Scott's legacy continues through lectures such as those presented in this symposium. 7

Dr. Amadou Sall, Senegal’s Pasteur Institute 8

Senegal, Rwanda step up to make vaccines for Africa DAKAR — Dr. Amadou Alpha Sall, director of the Pasteur Institute in Senegal, announced his laboratory would make 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by 2022, the major announcement in the Africa Centers for Disease Control conference April 12-13 on vaccine manufacturing in Africa. “We’ve been doing yellow fever manufacturing for 80 years,” he said. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, one of 20 heads of state on the call, also promised to launch mRNA vaccine manufacturing by year’s end. These announcements came as less than 0.3 percent of vaccines have been distributed to Africa’s 1.3 billion people. Vera Songwe, director of the United Nations Economic Council for Africa, said meeting the demand could create 6 million jobs on the continent. “The whole vaccine supply chain should be produced here on the continent.” Her survey found 600 pharmaceutical value chain providers in just eight of the 54 countries. Despite the long odds, she noted that the entire global vaccine industry grew four fold in the past year. “We cannot continue to sustain continuous dependance on imports,” she said. With the joint sponsorship of the African Development Bank, the two-day session included health and ﬁnance ofﬁcials of the major vaccine manufacturing countries. Koen Doens from the European Union development agency said the stars are aligned. “Africa imports 94% of pharmaceuticals, but the market is growing rom $5 billion 10 years ago to $28 billion this year and $56 billion by 2030,” robust enough to sustain a continental industry. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and Dr. George Gao, director of China’s Centers for Disease Control, both said African vaccine manufacturing should be stood up as quickly as possible. “We have to move from donorship to ownership,” said Collins. Gao said China’s example in starting from scratch 10 years ago can be instructive. Later in the week, World Trade Organization Director General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela and World Health Organization DIrector Dr. Tedros Gebreyesus met with vaccine makers from around the globe. She said, “One thing that came out of today's discussions is that it was only through working together across borders that scientists developed safe and effective vaccines in record time. And it is only by working together, across borders, that we'll be able to solve the problems [of vaccine scarcity and equitable access] discussed today. “This is a problem of the global commons, and we have to solve it together.Our purpose today was to contribute to efforts to increase vaccine production and broaden access, starting with the immediate term. 9

“Specifically we had three goals:The first was to pinpoint the obstacles, particularly the trade-related obstacles, to ramping up production, and to equitably distributing and administering vaccines — and we looked at how the WTO could contribute to these solutions.The second was to bring together people who are able to increase and to scale up manufacturing, people in a position to share technology and knowhow, and people willing to finance additional manufacturing capacity.And third, to think about the road ahead, including on the TRIPS waiver and incentives for research and development, so that we get the medical technologies we need, and no country is left at the back of the line waiting. If there is one refrain we heard continuously from everyone today it is that no one is safe until everyone is safe.”

Top right, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa; UN Economic Commission for Africa Executive Director Vera Songwe, African Union President FelixTshishekedi and Africa Centers for Disease Control Dr John Nkengasong. 10

In a statement released, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation called for a series of urgent actions aimed at upscaling vaccine access in Africa. “Africa is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions. The continent is home to 17% of the world’s population and yet accounts for just 0.5% of global vaccine distribution, according to the latest data. Ensuring equitable and balanced access to vaccines is a matter of global security and shared interest. If the virus is not defeated everywhere, it will continue to spread and mutate.” The statement, signed by the Foundation’s Board Members, Ibrahim Prize Committee and Prize Laureates, calls for immediate and united efforts to advance vaccine equity. This includes unlocking additional resources to fill Africa’s vaccine gap and build the continent’s vaccine manufacturing capacity in the longer term. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation is calling for wealthier countries to share 5% of their vaccine supplies with less advanced countries, and for the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to be efficiently channelled to benefit the countries and sectors that need them most critically. These priority areas, as well as new research from the Foundation on ‘Africa and COVID-19: one year on’, will be at the centre of discussions at the Ibrahim Forum during the upcoming Ibrahim Governance Weekend, taking place for the first time in a virtual format from 3-5 June 2021. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the African Union Commission have announced the signing of an memorandum of understanding, which aims to strengthen ties between the organisations and the Africa CDC—a specialised institution of the African Union responsible for the prevention and control of diseases in Africa—to enhance vaccine R&D and manufacturing in Africa. This collaboration forms a major part of CEPI’s longer term epidemic and pandemic strategy, announced in March, 2021. As part of this strategy, CEPI aims to work with low-income and middleincome countries to develop the infrastructure and expertise to undertake the epidemiological and clinical studies needed to advance vaccine development, support technology transfer, and develop national and regional manufacturing capacity that will enable these countries to take full ownership of their national health security. 11

EARTH DAY SUMMIT

Gullah/Geechee team with EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Saint Helena Island and Beaufort County, South Carolina will receive technical assistance through the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. This year, EPA selected four communities to receive technical assistance through the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. The program provides quick, targeted technical assistance to selected communities using a variety of results-based tools. These tools stimulate discussions about growth and development and strengthen local capacity to implement sustainable approaches. “Through the Building Blocks program, EPA continues to help communities improve quality of life, and become more economically and environmentally sustainable,” said EPA Acting Region 4 Administrator John Blevins. “This program provides not only tools but a pathway towards additional resources designed speciﬁcally to build resilience and strengthen communities.” "Working with the building blocks grant team will assist natives of St. Helena Island with sustaining the resiliency that is naturally a part of our Gullah/Geechee cultural heritage," said Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and Chair of the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay District Committee. We will use the community engagements to pour that resilient energy and our history into green infrastructure in order to increase the sustainability of our environment and create places in which people can learn more about our Gullah/Geechee culture and how it is inextricably tied to our land. We want our future generations to be able to build on the foundation that we will lay via these building blocks." The Gullah/Geechee community of Saint Helena Island and Beaufort County intend to develop a network of green infrastructure projects that will buffer storm surge and mitigate sea level rise impacts while also protecting local food production, historic sites, and cultural traditions. This project will work with community members on asset mapping of green infrastructure projects throughout the island and then solidify action plans and funding sources. The project will highlight the connections between sites, set clear resilience goals for each location, and work with the county and state to ensure culturally appropriate adaptation solutions are reﬂected in plans and policies. 12

“The climate crisis is an urgent threat and President Biden has set forth an ambitious commitment to confront it. EPA will be at the center of delivering on this agenda, and in doing so, we are lifting up overburdened communities while creating new jobs and building a 21st Century clean economy,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “The Leaders Summit is a statement that the United States is once again a global climate leader. America is back, and we are committed to empowering the people who’ve been left out of the conversation for too long – the same communities who are on the frontlines of pollution, who suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change.”

In the spirit of partnership, the EPA is proud to announce that we will resume and strengthen our commitment to the United Nations Foundation's Clean Cooking Alliance. The U.S. government will work with the Clean Cooking Alliance, other country governments, and partners at every level of government to reduce emissions from home cooking and heating that contribute to climate change and directly affect the health and livelihoods of almost 40 percent of the world’s population.

In addition to cookstoves, EPA is also pleased to announce the Black Carbon Health Assessment in Indigenous Arctic Communities project to be implemented by the Aleut International Association. Indigenous Arctic communities are on the front lines of climate change, and this project will provide needed tools to understand their exposure to black carbon emissions, to help Indigenous communities identify signiﬁcant local sources, and to share best practices for preventing and mitigating the health impacts of air pollution and climate. EPA is already reaching out through the Arctic Council to work with fellow arctic governments to support and grow this project.

And with our North American partners in Canada and Mexico, EPA will support an initial allocation of $1 million for an Environmental Justice and Climate Resilience Initiative. Through the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC), this initiative will support underserved and vulnerable communities, including Indigenous communities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, helping to build resilience in the face climate-related impacts. These announcements support President Biden’s Climate Leaders Summit, which underscores the urgency – and the economic beneﬁts – of stronger climate action. The U.S. is demonstrating America’s leadership and commitment to tackling the climate crisis and rallying the rest of the world. The health of our communities, well-being of our workers, and competitiveness of our economy requires quick and bold action. 13

Granholm projects $23 trillion market for clean energy transformation

WASHINGTON —During the Earth Day summit, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the market for a clean energy transformation exceeds the current U.S. economy ($21 trillon). “We’re looking at a $23 trillion global market in the clean energy transition by 2030. $23 trillion—at a minimum! “That means we can remake our economies, build new businesses, and put millions upon millions of people to work. “President Biden believes this will be an historic advance in prosperity and quality of life. “That’s why the American Jobs Plan calls for massive investments in clean energy research, development, and deployment. And it’s why we’re mobilizing American ingenuity like never before. “Over the coming weeks, we at the Department of Energy will be announcing new goals for bold, achievable leaps in next-generation technologies—starting with hydrogen, carbon capture, industrial fuels, and energy storage. “We will marshal our National Labs, our universities, and our private sector to unlock major breakthroughs. “So we’ve already announced a goal of cutting the price of solar in half yet again by 2030. “And next, we’ll start lowering the cost of clean, renewable hydrogen by 80 percent before 2030, making it competitive with natural gas. “We going to slash battery cell prices in half—again!—and reduce the need for critical materials, making EVs affordable, and maybe even cheaper than gasoline vehicles. And we’re going to dramatically reduce the costs of industrial and atmospheric carbon capture, while ramping up incentives for large-scale efforts, here and across the world. 14

Dr. Lila Collins, Associate Director of Therapies, CIRM opened How to Do Equity April 3

California Institute for Regenerative Medicine funds sickle cell trial

Oakland, CA – The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in collaboration with UC Berkeley (UCB) and UC Los Angeles (UCLA), have been given permission by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to launch a first-in-human clinical trial using CRISPR technology as a gene-editing technique to cure Sickle Cell Disease. This research has been funded by CIRM from the early stages and, in a co-funding partnership with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under the Cure Sickle Cell initiative, CIRM supported the work that allowed this program to gain FDA permission to proceed into clinical trials. Sickle Cell Disease is a blood disorder that affects around 100,000 people, mostly Black and Latinx people in the US. It is caused by a single genetic mutation that results in the production of “sickle” shaped red blood cells. Normal red blood cells are round and smooth and flow easily through blood 15 vessels. But the sickle-shaped ones are rigid and brittle and clump together, clogging vessels and causing painful crisis episodes, recurrent hospitalization, multi-organ damage and mini-strokes. The three UC’s have combined their respective expertise to bring this program forward. The CRISPR-Cas9 technology was developed by UC Berkeley’s Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, PhD. UCLA is a collaborating site, with expertise in genetic analysis and cell manufacturing and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland is the lead clinical center, leveraging its renowned expertise in cord blood and marrow transplantation and in gene therapy for sickle cell disease. The approach involves retrieving blood stem cells from the patient and, using a technique involving electrical pulses, these cells are treated to correct the mutation using CRISPR technology. The corrected cells will then be transplanted back into the patient. UCSF’s Dr. Mark Walters, the principal investigator of the project, says using this new gene-editing approach could be a game-changer. “This therapy has the potential to transform sickle cell disease care by producing an accessible, curative treatment that is safer than the current therapy of stem cell transplant from a healthy bone marrow donor. If this is successfully applied in young patients, it has the potential to prevent irreversible complications of the disease. Based on our experience with bone marrow transplants, we predict that correcting 20% of the genes should be sufficient to out-compete the native sickle cells and have a strong clinical benefit.” Dr. Maria T. Millan, President & CEO of CIRM, said this collaborative approach can be a model for tackling other diseases. “When we entered into our partnership with the NHLBI we hoped that combining our resources and expertise could accelerate the development of cell and gene therapies for SCD. And now to see these three UC institutions collaborating on bringing this therapy to patients is truly exciting and highlights how working together we can achieve far more than just operating individually.” The 4-year study will include six adults and three adolescents with severe sickle cell disease. It is planned to begin this summer in Oakland and Los Angeles. 16

Top nursing research executive tells how to build clinical research with equity embedded

Michelle Y. Williams, Ph.D., M.S.N., R.N. Stanford Healthcare’s Executive Director, Research Clinical Trials Operations & Practice Equity Research: Health, Practice & Operations Academic, Nursing & Patient Care Research ScientistsCo-Chair, Black Employee Resource Group: BEAM TEAM, discusses Investing in Equity during How to Do Equity Saturday, May 1 at noon Pacific. The Office of Research Patient Care Services (ORPCS) is a department within Stanford Health Care Patient Care Services (PCS) that provides research support to nurses, interdisciplinary professionals, and clinical trials teams. ORPCS consists of an executive director leading a team of nurse and research scientists, business analysists, and administrative professionals who provide consultations on PCS research studies from start to finish. Williams is the former chief nursing officer for Kaiser Permanente and an active member of the National Black Nurses Association, who recently launched a chapter on the Stanford campus.

American Psychiatric Association executive joins How to Do Equity May 1

Dr. Regina James, deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, lends her expertise to Investing in Equity. The Oakland native and UCLA alumnus was Director of Clinical and Health Services Research at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health before joining 2M Clinical as Chief Medical Ofﬁcer. 17

Small business advocate addresses Investing in Equity May 1

Sacramento, CA – Following the Newsom Administration’s announcement today that Tara Lynn Gray will lead the California Ofﬁce of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA), part of the Governor’s Ofﬁce of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), small business leaders across the state responded in support of the decision. “Tara is a tireless and effective leader in California’s small business community and the right choice at this pivotal time,” said Ashley Swearengin, CEO of the Central Valley Community Foundation and former mayor of Fresno. “As the State of California continues its recovery, Tara will turn advocacy into action, get results for small businesses, and ensure our diverse small business owners and entrepreneurs are at the table driving towards an equitable and inclusive economic recovery.” “As California continues in its recovery, it’s crucial that we recognize minority, women, and immigrant small business owners across the state and the need for connection that is authentic,” said Jay King, President/CEO of the California Black Chamber of Commerce. “Tara is a one-of-a-kind advocate making her exceptionally well-positioned for this new role. Her dedication to all of California’s small business owners will ensure that inclusivity and equity absolutely remain the cornerstone of our economic recovery.” 18

“Our recovery must focus on equitable small business growth,” said Mark Herbert, Managing Director of California for Small Business Majority. “As a longstanding advocate for small businesses across the state, Tara’s insight and commitment to the needs of all of our entrepreneurs is critical as the State continues its important work to preserve all of the small businesses that make our communities home. Today’s announcement is yet another proof point of Governor Newsom’s ongoing commitment to equity and inclusivity as we recover together.” “Small business has always been integral to the success of California’s economy, which is why today is a very special day for small business owners and entrepreneurs across the state,” said Betty Jo Toccoli, President of the California Small Business Association. “Tara will bring a longstanding history of understanding the nuances of small business and advocacy for small businesses to this new role. She is extremely well-qualified for this position and we couldn’t be more ecstatic to collaborate with her to ensure an equitable recovery and sustained growth for California’s small business community.” “Small businesses are the hardworking hearts of our communities,” said Tate Hill, Executive Director of Access Plus Capital. “As they continue to face the ongoing challenge of recovering from this pandemic, they need an advocate who won’t stop when it comes to providing them all the support possible so they can be the engines of our economy they’re meant to be. Tara is the right person at the right time to help lead the fight to strengthen California’s local small business ecosystem.” Tara Lynn Gray, 57, of Fresno, has been appointed Director of the Office of the Small Business Advocate. Gray has been Chief Executive Officer of the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce and Chamber Foundation since 2017 and Chief Executive Officer of YADARI Enterprises since 2004. She was President of Ecopia Information Technology Consulting from 2000 to 2002. She was Senior Telecommunications Project Manager and Network Engineer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan from 1995 to 1999, Client Side Systems Engineer for Lotus Development Corporation in 1995 and IT Director for Ross-Dove Company Auctioneers in 1989. She is a member of Black Women Organized for Political Action, Abundant Life Worship Center, the California Black Chamber of Commerce and Chamber Foundation Board, Central Valley New Markets Tax Credit LLC Advisory Board, the California Small Business Employer Advisory Council, Caltrans Small Business Council and California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, Hospital Supplier Diversity Commission. Gray earned a Master of Theology degree in Christian studies from Grand Canyon University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $175,644. Gray is a Democrat. 19

When will Oakland learn from its waterfont, sports mistakes?

OAKLAND — At the end of the blockbuster movie Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman’s character King Tshala retruns to East Oakland to buy up abandoned property and crreate economic growth. In the real world, the City of Oakland wants to abandon the area in favor of moving the Oakland As away from their current stadium. More than 54 community participants opposed the draft Environmental Impact Statement for plan, which would spend $12 billion to put a smaller baseball stadium on the Howard Terminal of the Port of Oakland, adjacent to the historically signiﬁcant West Oakland neighborhood originally populated by Black railroad porters after the opening of the transcontinental railroad. The East Oakland Stadium Alliance combines the shippers and labor unions who operate the Port, the economic magnet of the city for a century, and neighborhood groups who favor rebuilding the stadium at the current site. With the Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors having already left the complex in the past ﬁve years, the As would have the ability to tailor a facility to their own wishes. 20

The implicit problem is the sports redlining which has dominated major league sports over the past several decades. When sports were seen as recreation, facilities were placed in predominately Black neighborhoods, often using eminent domain to displace Black businesses and homes and concentrating the impacts of traffic and pollution. Ironically, as Black athletes propelled dramatic growth in major league sports, including Oakland icons like Bill Russell, Willie Stargell, Frank Robinson and Ricky Henderson, the revenues caused owners to look at the franchises as a profit center and most recently as a cover for luxury real estate development. With luxury boxes as the driver of revenue, essentially the move of the Oakland A’s stadium is driven by the racist feeling that affluent whites will not drive into a Black neighborhood. Paradoxically, a similar community, Inglewood, is proving that to be false as the home of the new SoFI stadium which will host the Super Bowl in 2022, and site of a new Los Angeles Clippers arena. Inglewood has seen both sides of the spectrum as the home of the Forum which hosted the Lakers, before they moved to Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. A new stadium at the current site would stand on its own appeal and amenities. In addition, a group of Black investors has sought approval from Oakland City Council to purchase the current Coliseum complex to attract an expansion NFL franchise, which would be the first owned by African-Americans. The publisher of the Journal of Black Innovation submitted the following findings to the Oakland Planning Commission April 27: “Los Angeles County recently acknowledged a century-old error in waterfront land use by voting to return Bruce’s Beach, a historic Black-owned resort to the descendants of the original owners. You have the opportunity to prevent such a generational mistake by acting in the public interest to halt the proposed re-use of the Howard Terminal ostensibly for a baseball stadium. From the personal and scholarly perspectives, we must ask a halt to the obliteration of a historic resource of global significance. It is an egregious example of sports redlining, in which the social construction of space is converted into a massive mis-allocation of scarce resources in order to subsidize luxury boxes because the current site is considered a place where the privileged will not go. The draft environmental impact statement is silent on the profound violation of one of the most important labor, political and musical areas for global human rights, spur to a legacy of important leaders who have shaped the globe. Los Angeles has begun to recognize the architectural legacy of architect Paul Revere Williams, who built 3,000 structures across the state, which are part of the 6,000 site California African-American Freedom Trail. San Francisco is acknowledging the public art footprint of Sargent Claude Johnson. Oakland is still oblivious to the greatest civil engineering impact of an African-American engineer on any region. From the cranes on the Port to the Cypress Structure, the imprint of F.E. Jordan & Associates 21 on the built environment and protecting the natural environment is a matter of recognized excellence in the profession. The Howard Terminal was lauded by Engineering News Record for its seismic design, which was demonstrated in 1989. More broadly, the San Francisco Bay shoreline is filled with a rich legacy of African-American heritage which shaped American and world history. Over the past 18 years, we have examined public policy and its economic impact on Black communities in all 50 states in our annual State of Black Business report, creating our Ten Key Factors for Black Business Success. Our findings are used to create a new paradigm for land use and public investment, which is now bearing fruit in the current legislation and executive orders of the Biden-Harris administration. African-American communities are not an adjunct of enriching land speculators, but the best public investment for sustainable and inclusive growth in their own right. Placing a pharmacy school in honor of the late Assemblymember W. Byron Rumford or a cybersecurity center of excellence would bear more economic growth than the suggested move. Oakland and its port has been shackled by an original huckster. Horace Carpentier saw the value of its waterfront in 1853 and arranged for the California legislature, which had just passed the right of testimony and franchise acts, blocking indigenous, Black and Chinese residents from voting or testifying in court, to incorporate the city of Oakland, in land he had no ownership interest in at the time. Becoming the elected mayor, he soon arranged the sale of the waterfront for $5, parlaying that into a fortune once the transcontinental railroad reached the shore. It is not an overstatement to compare the proposed deal in the transfer of public assets to a singular private benefit. We are asked to leave the most accessible venue for mass gatherings in the nation with an airport, train station, subway, two Interstates and 700 acres of parking in favor of placing a smaller facility at the junction of traffic congestion for the region, block the sight access of a historic African-American community with tall structures (the real impetus for the project); and reduce the ability of the community’s economic engine to facilitate global trade. And, the proponents get to keep the original property too, a recipe for gentrifying the declining Black population on multiple fronts. With the Biden-Harris administration proposing $20 billion to remediate the impact of past transit racism which split communities, this proposal includes a gondola to bypass in a unique aerial fashion — a tacit admission to how impractical the whole scheme is. Such a gondola is prima facie racist based on regulatory case law in Oakland and Alameda County. The first example is the civil rights violation by the Department of Transportation against the aerial BART connector, which also proceeded from a sports stadium for the same team. 22

The second example is the successful campaign by South Berkeley to require BART to go underground rather than destroy their community. A fig leaf to “equity” asks us to believe the sports franchise would do something it not done in 50 years of operation in the midst of a Black neighborhood — benefit the surrounding residents. “In recent years however, professional organizations have found a new core fan base in corporate America. Businesses have more money and are not afraid to spend it, and conversely, have caused team owners to want to relocate back to downtown and metropolitan areas,” according to Garrett Johnson in the University of Denver Sports and Entertainment Law Journal. The implicit economic assumption is that the preferred corporate clients would not come to the “Black community”, leading to the destruction of San Francisco’s Candlestick Park and the flight from the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. Johnson continues, “Scholars give several reasons why economic development will not occur as a result of having a professional franchise or building a new stadium/arena. The first is that consumer spending on professional sports is by and large a substitute for spending on other entertainment related activities. Because of this, there is not a great deal of new spending or income produced. A second explanation given is that there is a relatively small multiplier effect concerning spending at sporting events. The money spent at these venues typically goes towards the salaries for players, many of whom only live in the host city during the season. Studies show that wealthy individuals spend a smaller fraction of their income than individuals with less money, and much of the spending by professional athletes occurs in places other than the city in which they earned it. A final reason given by scholars is that stadium subsidies tend to reduce the net spending spawned by construction of a new facility.” In San Francisco, the location of Candlestick Park supported Black-owned restaurants along Third Street for 30 years. The development of the Giants and Warriors stadia downtown led to the closure of those businesses. Just weeks after the opening of the Chase Center, the oldest Black restaurant in California, Sam Jordan’s Bar, closed. In an environmental impact analysis of the Chase Center called T’eed Up: Technical Fouls Endanger Environmental Justice, I correctly predicted that the basketball arena would practically cut off Bayview- Hunters Point from bus and light rail service. As Johnson concluded, Taxpayers usually do not get a positive return on their investment..” This is particularly the case for a replacement stadium for an existing team. We need only look at the proponent. We have the benefit of 50 years from the time when Charlie Finley moved the team from Kansas City to Oakland. Who would argue that the taxpayers got a return on the investment? Public officials have the responsibility to act on behalf of the entire region, and also for the benefit of the proponent, who is so ensnared in the social construction of space, one of the underpinnings of racism, as not realize the sweet deal it already has. 23

Instead of being the junior tenant among three sports franchises, it has a dual complex to redevelop to suit its needs. Fifty years hence, at current trends, it would be thankful that it didn’t spend $12 billion in construction next to the current waterline. A proper racial-ethnic analysis of the proposal would require the independent analysis of the underlying assumptions regarding the viability of the current location as opposed to the massive dislocation suggested. It would also require a compelling analysis of the alternative scenario in the current site. If the proponent wishes to push that under the rug, the public agencies are required by law to consider the less disruptive alternative. A state facing drought, expanding wildﬁres, housing shortages, health inequity and declining air quality can not gamble limited resources to build skyscrapers which could wind up empty in a pandemic. The post-earthquake boom in skyscrapers in San Francisco turned into a mirage one year ago as a forest of tall buildings turned into empty space. We discussed the racism inherent in the architectural decisions of recent decades in two recent Architecture and the City lectures for the American Institute of Architects-San Francisco. A replacement stadium with every projected amenity could be built on the current site in a fraction of the time, with no negative impacts to surrounding communities, and ultimately more proﬁt to the proponents. 24

Dr. Frederick Foreman The Carver of Cybersecurity 25 Why Stronger Encryption in the Cybersecurity Field Is Needed

MATHEMATICAL MODELING, INC. DR. FREDERICK J. FOREMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO

In 2019, Javelin Strategy & Research indicated that fraud losses due to identity theft has risen 15% to $16.9 billion, even as instances of fraud have fallen from 14.4 million in 2018 to 13 million in 2019. Consumers have absorbed $3.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs, as criminals switched from card fraud to account takeovers. The standard encryption algorithms that are available to use today (AES, BlowFish, TripleDES, etc.) have been proven to be inadequate for protecting sensitive data and communications from cyber criminals, information thieves, and other bad actors from stealing and using said data for nefarious purposes. Why these algorithms are insufﬁcient are as follows: Encryption Key Length, Algorithm Type, and Algorithm Performance.

Encryption Key Length

The standard algorithms currently in use today do not have key sizes larger than 256 bits, or 32 bytes for use in encryption and decryption. Here is a simpliﬁed explanation of how encryption and decryption works: Suppose you have a house, with important and personal information you want to safeguard and protect from unauthorized forces. In order to protect your personal information, you install locks for the house, and the only way access can be granted is if the right key is used for the lock. Keys can be any shape and size. Some keys may have 16 grooves, others may have 32 grooves, and the locks and keys are static. With the maximum encryption key length of 256 bits, the fastest quantum computers today (Titan, Tianhe-2, and now the Honeywell H0) will be able to brute force AES, TripleDES, BlowFish, and the other encryption algorithms almost instantaneously due to their sheer computing power. Now imagine if cyber criminals and information thieves were able to gain access to one of these quantum computers, and use them for nefarious purposes, such as stealing patient info from a hospital, or leaking credit card information out onto the Internet in a pastebin ﬁle. True privacy as we know it will cease to exist, and become a relic of the past. These examples are only the beginning, and the power of cyber criminals and information thieves will continue to increase unless we stop them. 26

Algorithm Type

The standard encryption algorithms fall into two (2) classifications, namely Symmetric and Asymmetric. Symmetric algorithms use the same key for encryption and decryption, and the decryption key can be derived from the encryption key. Asymmetric algorithms use a different key for encryption and decryption, and the decryption key cannot be derived from the encryption key. The commonalities that these two algorithm types share is that they are static. When a file is encrypted, the algorithm uses the same technique to encrypt, and does not change. A cyber criminal could reverse engineer the algorithm to defeat the encryption and get access to whatever was encrypted. How can we truly protect confidential and sensitive information if the current algorithms can be defeated with ease?

Algorithm Performance

The ﬁve (5) measures an encryption algorithm can be tested to determine its cryptographic strength are Shannon File Entropy, Measure of Randomness, Measure of Roughness, Index of Coincidence, and File Compression. The table below shows the various security algorithms that are available today compared to the best and only solution to this cybersecurity problem: DynaKrypt®.

As one can see, all the security algorithms shown have various weaknesses in one or more categories, except one algorithm: DynaKrypt®. In all known measures of cryptographic strength, DynaKrypt® scores on average 99.99% of the theoretical maximum values, and has zero weaknesses of any kind.

CISA Report

As of September 24, 2020, there has been a report1 filed with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) involving the compromise of a federal agency’s network from a cyber threat actor exploiting the weaknesses in the agency’s firewall. The cyber threat actor was able to leverage compromised credentials from Microsoft Office 365 accounts for multiple users, and implant multi- stage malware that evaded the agency’s anti-malware protection and wreaked havoc on its network. CISA’s solutions for preventing such an attack involve “monitoring unusual open ports, large outbound files, unexpected and unapproved protocols including outbound Internet protocols, deploying enterprise firewalls, block unused ports, implementing multi-factor authentication…” (CISA Analysis Report AR20-268A) The issues with the solutions CISA points out are that they are not sufficient to prevent a cyber threat actor from doing what they were able to accomplish, and expect that an anti- malware program would be an adequate layer of protection.

In the report, CISA goes through the steps the cyber threat actor has taken in creating chaos in the agency’s network. First, the cyber threat actor was able to “obtain valid credentials from Microsoft Office 365 users, and then created a connection from the IP address they used to the agency’s virtual private network server (VPN)” (AR20-268A) CISA was not able to determine how the cyber threat actor was initially able to obtain the credentials, but posits that they possibly “obtained the credentials from an unpatched agency VPN server by exploiting a known vulnerability—CVE-2019-11510—in Pulse Secure” (AR20-268A) What this first step tells us is that the cyber actor was possibly able to remotely download files unrestricted through an unprotected VPN server that had a vulnerability. If so, then stronger encryption could have been used in this area to completely stop this cyber actor from gaining access to Office 365 accounts. Stronger encryption algorithms, such as DynaKrypt®, would effectively protect the internet traffic from being manipulated because of its dynamic encryption methods. Its encryption changes based on dynamic parameters, which are independent of each other, so the cyber actor would not know where to even begin to try to defeat it. Defeating encryption that is not static is virtually impossible. With stronger encryption protecting networks, the cyber actor would be unable to obtain credentials in the first place, which would prevent Step Two from being implemented.

1 CISA Analysis Report – September 24, 2020 28

In Step Two of the cyber actor’s malicious plan, they established a persistent Secure Socket Shell (SSH) tunnel/reverse SOCKS proxy connection, ran a malware program named inetinfo.exe, and set up a locally mounted file share connection for destroying the actor’s paper trail.2 The second step allowed the cyber actor to establish a constant connection between their controlled IP address and the IP address of the agency network, so they can insert their malware program to steal important files from the victim network, and also used file share to mask their activity. If stronger encryption methods, such as DynaKrypt®, were used to protect the important files from being used for nefarious purposes, then it would not matter if the cyber actor was able to obtain the files, because they would not be able to gain access to those files and accounts, and do harm. The keys that were used to encrypt the files and directories would have to be matched in the exact sequence with the correct dynamic parameters in order to successfully decrypt the files and directories. If the incorrect parameters were used for decryption, then the files and directories would become severely encrypted and would not be recoverable, effectively stopping the cyber actor from being able to use the stolen information for their malicious plans.

Conclusion

There needs to be a push for stronger encryption algorithms that can actually provide the proper and adequate security to protect against any threats that will arise, whether it be from domestic attacks or foreign attacks. The recent CISA report discussed above demonstrates the danger that cyber criminals can pose if we do not advocate for stronger encryption methods. The federal agency’s information was stolen from exploiting vulnerabilities, and defeating inadequate security in place, which would not happen if we had adequate security. Reducing the strength of encryption algorithms by shrinking the key length, or making them perform worse than they do currently only increases the power of the cyber criminals and foreign adversaries. Imagine if all the hospitals in America were attacked by cyber criminals at the same time in a global attack on our American infrastructure. Who can we trust to safeguard our personal and conﬁdential data from being stolen for destructive purposes? Technology cannot thrive and advance without the proper security needed to protect new and current technologies. With the advent of artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) and similar technologies on the horizon, this increasing threat to security will become ever more prevalent. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Foreman has over 39 years of industrial experience in Information Technology, manufacturing, process, and mechanical design. He has 40 inventions in information processing, software modeling of random behavior, numerical analysis, developing processes that support materials processing,

2 Federal Agency Compromised by Malicious Cyber Actor – September 24, 2020 29 alternative energy, and manufacturing from conception, pilot plant, startup, and production; was the lead Plant Start-up Engineer for a $60 million Plant Expansion project for the Procter & Gamble Company in Albany, Ga.; was the Senior Engineer of record for the #7 cold mill and coil slitting operations for the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) in Davenport, Iowa; and made signiﬁcant engineering and cost saving contributions to the design and schedule of the Ford Escort/Mercury Lynx at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI.

Dr. Foreman developed a new revolutionary finite element method called the Finite Particle Method or FIPART. This mathematical technique is able to generate solutions to typical finite element approximations and has been found to be the most accurate and efficient discovered. FIPART generates excellent agreement with experimental data and shows unmatched accuracy when compared to theoretical solutions of problems of interest.

Dr. Foreman received several patents for alternative energy systems (ReﬂectorLight and Scavenger) and two (2) distinguished patents for the surface treatment of aluminum alloys to improve their ruggedness and make them impervious to laser ﬁre. Dr. Foreman has extensive experience in the rapid heat treatment of organic materials making them rugged to harsh environmental conditions. He recently was issued a new breakthrough patent in software encryption processes making the current Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm or any conventional algorithm use larger secret keys based on the concept of Dynamic Cryptography that he invented.

Dr. Foreman was an University Professor at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Florida State University (FSU) for 11 years and an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for four (4) years, a distinguished scholar and researcher with 21 awards including being selected to Tau Beta Pi, Pi-Tau- Sigma, Sigma Xi, and the New York Academy of Sciences; He also was selected as a GEM Graduate Fellow, NASA Graduate Fellow, and Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow; received the MIT Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service; is a Senior Member of SME; and received the Teacher of the Year Award and the Superior Accomplishment Award at Florida A&M University. Recently, Dr. Foreman was selected as Who's Who Worldwide and was named the IT Professional of the Year for 2009 and 2010 (STRATHMORE Worldwide) for his work on DynaKrypt®, a nine (9) million bit software encryption product. 30

How to Do Equity Rear Adm. Denise Hinton, Chief Scientist; and Rear Adm. Richardae Araojo, Associate Commissioner for Minority Health, of the Food and Drug Administration are part of the fourth session of the opening program for the Dr. T. Nathaniel Burbridge Center for Inclusive Innovation May 15 at noon.

FDA rulemaking geared to end menthol cigarettes

WASHINGTON — U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it is committing to advancing two tobacco product standards to significantly reduce disease and death from using combusted tobacco products, the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. The FDA is working toward issuing proposed product standards within the next year to ban menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and ban all characterizing flavors (including menthol) in cigars; the authority to adopt product standards is one of the most powerful tobacco regulatory tools Congress gave the agency. This decision is based on clear science and evidence establishing the addictiveness and harm of these products and builds on important, previous actions that banned other flavored cigarettes in 2009. 31

“Banning menthol—the last allowable flavor—in cigarettes and banning all flavors in cigars will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products. With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation among current smokers, and address health disparities experienced by communities of color, low-income populations, and LGBTQ+ individuals, all of whom are far more likely to use these tobacco products,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “Together, these actions represent powerful, science-based approaches that will have an extraordinary public health impact. Armed with strong scientific evidence, and with full support from the Administration, we believe these actions will launch us on a trajectory toward ending tobacco-related disease and death in the U.S.”

The agency is taking urgent action to reduce tobacco addiction and curb deaths. There is strong evidence that a menthol ban will help people quit. Studies show that menthol increases the appeal of tobacco and facilitates progression to regular smoking, particularly among youth and young adults. Menthol masks unpleasant ﬂavors and harshness of tobacco products, making them easier to start using. Tobacco products with menthol can also be more addictive and harder to quit by enhancing the effects of nicotine. One study suggests that banning menthol cigarettes in the U.S. would lead an additional 923,000 smokers to quit, including 230,000 African Americans in the ﬁrst 13 to 17 months after a ban goes into effect. An earlier study projected that about 633,000 deaths would be averted, including about 237,000 deaths averted for African Americans.

“For far too long, certain populations, including African Americans, have been targeted, and disproportionately impacted by tobacco use. Despite the tremendous progress we’ve made in getting people to stop smoking over the past 55 years, that progress hasn’t been experienced by everyone equally,” said Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “These ﬂavor standards would reduce cigarette and cigar initiation and use, reduce health disparities, and promote health equity by addressing a signiﬁcant and disparate source of harm. Taken together, these policies will help save lives and improve the public health of our country as we confront the leading cause of preventable disease and death.”

If implemented, the FDA’s enforcement of any ban on menthol cigarettes and all ﬂavored 32

cigars will only address manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers and retailers. The FDA cannot and will not enforce against individual consumer possession or use of menthol cigarettes or any tobacco product. The FDA will work to make sure that any unlawful tobacco products do not make their way onto the market.

These actions are an important opportunity to achieve signiﬁcant, meaningful public health gains and advance health equity. The FDA is working expeditiously on the two issues, and the next step will be for the agency to publish proposed rules in the Federal Register allowing an opportunity for public comment.

The agency also recognizes the importance of ensuring broad and equitable access to all the tools and resources that can help currently addicted smokers seeking to quit, including those who smoke menthol cigarettes and would be impacted by these public health measures. The FDA will work with partners in other federal agencies to make sure the support is there for those who are trying to quit. Smokers interested in quitting today should visit smokefree.gov or call 1-800-QUIT-NOW to learn about cessation services available in their state.

The FDA also remains focused on its regulatory oversight of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). The Center for Tobacco Products recently provided an update on its ongoing work of conducting the premarket review of ENDS and other tobacco product applications, and has issued warning letters to ENDS product manufacturers and retailers who continue to sell products that are illegally on the market. The FDA has also made a signiﬁcant investment in a multimedia e-cigarette public education campaign. The campaign targets nearly 10.7 million youth aged 12-17 who have ever used e-cigarettes or are open to trying them, and highlights information about the potential risks of e-cigarette use.

Background Menthol Product Standard

The FDA granted a citizen petition requesting that the agency pursue rulemaking to prohibit menthol in cigarettes, afﬁrming its commitment to proposing such a product standard.

The 2009 Tobacco Control Act (TCA) did not include menthol in its ban on characterizing ﬂavors in cigarettes, leaving menthol cigarettes as the only ﬂavored combusted cigarettes still marketed in the U.S. The law instructed the FDA to further consider the issue of menthol in cigarettes. 33

Since then, the FDA sought input from an independent advisory committee as required by the TCA, and further demonstrated its interest by issuing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, undertaking an independent evaluation and supporting broader research efforts—all to better understand the differences between menthol and non-menthol cigarettes and the impact of menthol on population health.

In the U.S., it is estimated that there are nearly 18.6 million current smokers of menthol cigarettes. But use of menthol cigarettes among smokers is not uniform: out of all Black smokers, nearly 85% smoke menthol cigarettes, compared to 30% of White smokers who smoke menthols. In addition, among youth, from 2011 to 2018, declines in menthol cigarette use were observed among non-Hispanic White youth but not among non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic youth. Cigar Flavor Product Standard

After the 2009 statutory ban on flavors in cigarettes other than menthol, use of flavored cigars increased dramatically, suggesting that the public health goals of the flavored cigarette ban may have been undermined by continued availability of these flavored cigars.

Flavored mass-produced cigars and cigarillos are combusted tobacco products that can closely resemble cigarettes, pose many of the same public health problems, and are disproportionately popular among youth and other populations. In 2020, non-Hispanic Black high school students reported past 30-day cigar smoking at levels twice as high as their White counterparts.

Nearly 74% of youth aged 12-17 who use cigars say they smoke cigars because they come in flavors they enjoy. Among youth who have ever tried a cigar, 68% of cigarillo users and 56% of filtered cigar users report that their first cigar was a flavored product. Moreover, in 2020, more young people tried a cigar every day than tried a cigarette. 34

Sargent Johnson chose to make art Black and beautiful SAN FRANCISCO — One of the most important artists of the 20th century is just as notable for his courage as his creativity. With the help of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Parks Noemesha Williams, we explore the extent of his imprint across San Francisco, part of the California African- American Freedom Trail. In the same way that Johnson’s presence brought Black San Francisco to its high point of population, his art is the magnet that rejuvenates this global center of commerce and culture. 35

The three photos above show the geographic range of his public art, from Sunnydale in the far southeast of the city to George Washington High School on the western edge. Between, Johnson’s work dominates the National Maritime Museum on the front and the back. On the rear terra cottas of the Aquatic Bathhouse building is an even more telling symbol of what makes Johnson so essential. The work is unﬁnished because Johnson walked off the job in 1939 when

National Black Business Month co-founders Frederick E. Jordan Sr. P.E. and John William Templeton join artist Malik Seneferu inside a Port of San Francisco pier being considered as a site for the Sargent Claude Johnson National Museum of African-American Art. it was proposed that the building, built with Works Progress Administration funds, be used as a casino for the wealthy. (hark back to the previous story about the Oakland baseball team) As we build out the Freedom Trail, we have successfully brought two of his sculptures for the 1939 Worlds Fair from Treasure Island to the San Francisco waterfront and now propose the development of the Sargent Claude Johnson National Museum of African-American Art for the centennial of Johnson winning ﬁrst prize from the San Francisco Art Association. We get a sense of Johnson’s extraordinary journey is his own words from a June 1964 interview with the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art. Born in 1888, he arrived in San Francisco for the Panama Paciﬁc International Exposition in 1915 to attend the California School of Fine Arts, then housed on Nob Hill in the former mansion of abolitionist Mark Hopkins. 36

Johnson was the nephew of May Howard Jackson, the first Black woman to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She opened a studio in Washington, D.C. in 1902 and took in Johnson after his parents died. Jackson’s work such as her 1916 Head of a Negro Child explicitly highlighted the features of African-Americans. This would also become a trademark of Johnson, who was part of the New Negro Movement along with Jackson and her husband, a teacher at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. Johnson studied for four years at the fine arts school under noted sculptors such as Ralph Stackpole, Beniano Bufano and Maurice Stern. By 1922, he won the first prize of the San Francisco Art Association. The Great Depression and New Sargent Johnson fresco at front of National Maritime Museum Deal would catapult him into arts immortality. In 1939. he created The History of Athletics, perhaps the largest work of public art in San Francisco, on the football field of George Washington High School. The project was taken away from Bufano and extended to Johnson. What is remarkable about that is that Black artists were not being employed by the Federal Arts Project or other New Deal agencies across the country. Similarly, the Aquatic Bathhouse projects were re-assigned to Johnson from Bufano. Art and politics were closely linked in early 20th century San Francisco. In 1934, a general strike along the San Francisco waterfront led to the death of two union members, eventually leading to the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. Among the organizers were Langston 37

Hughes, who arrived by ship from China after a worldwide tour. A. Philip Randolph, the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, would speak at AFL conference in San Francisco, to call for integration of the labor movement, the key to the success of the San Francisco general strike. In that same year, Johnson would give an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle, saying that he was explicitly creating “a Negro art” so that Black people could love their own features. It would be thirty years before that sentiment was commonly expressed. Tom Fleming, the late managing editor of the San Francisco Sun Reporter, described meeting Johnson in North Beach, near the Barbary Coast. “In the 1920s and '30s, there was a famed barkeep in North Beach named Izzy Gomez, a Latino, who operated a pub (House of All Nations) even through Prohibition. He always saw that you got a drink or a bowl of soup if you came in there, whether you had money or not. “Top artists from all over the United States would go to Izzy's. Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco, the Mexican muralists, used to hang out there, and that attracted the literary people and the working press. “One of Izzy's best customers was Sargent Claude Johnson, the black sculptor and painter. When I met him in the late 1920s, he had already gained an international reputation. He preferred to be called Claude. He had his studio in a small cottage in the backyard of his Berkeley home, and his work was exhibited in New York and other parts of the country. But guys like he and Rivera lived a sort of hand-to-mouth existence.” Fleming described Johnson’s politics. “At the time, I lived in Berkeley too, as did John Pittman, the founder of the Spokesman, a black newspaper in San Francisco. John and I and Ishamel Flory, a young black communist, would often come around Claude's house on Dohr Street late at night, with a gallon jug of wine. We spent many an evening at the studio, staying up to 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, talking primarily about the problem. When I say the problem I mean racial issues in America. What we were ﬁghting for was equality of opportunity. That's all we've ever asked for. And Claude was a very strong advocate of that.” Despite those sentiments, Johnson was hired for the Federal Arts Project. He told the Smithsonian interviewers: “I came over to San Francisco and well – then I met Hilaire Hiler. He wanted to know why I wasn’t on WPA and I said, “Well, I went down and they wouldn’t take me.” But he said, “All right, you go with me tomorrow. I’ll see that you get on.” So, I went with Hiler and I was allowed on, given a job.” SImilarly, Johnson got the George Washington High School commission based on his connections and reputation. “Oh, the George Washington High School. Well, Bufano had a lot of work, you know. They seemed to give everything to Bufano and all the rest of the sculptors had nothing and so he had this one for the George Washington High School and so Phleuger, the architect, said that he was going to take it away from Bufano. “MARY MCCHESNEY: Was Timothy Phleuger the architect? 38

“SARGENT JOHNSON: Yeah, Timothy Phleuger. So I think it was Johnny Maganni who came over to me ﬁrst and said, “You know, they are going to take that thing away from Benny and you ought to apply for it.” I said, “No.” So then I think it was Danysh who saw me and said, “Why don’t you take it?” I accepted it and that’s when Benny and I fell out, of course. Because I took his pride and glory. It was his big statue.”

The project is 185 feet long and 12 feet high.

In addition to his house in Berkeley, Johnson had studio locations along Green Street in North Beach and at 14th and Howard Streets. The George Washington piece was done in studio.

“MARY MCCHESNEY: I was going to ask you something more about this George Washington High School panel that you did. The big one, 12 feet by 185 feet. This was done ﬁnally in cast stone?

“SARGENT JOHNSON: Cast stone, yes.

“MARY MCCHESNEY: How did you work that? Did you do a clay model?

“SARGENT JOHNSON: Yeah. We did it in three sections. We built a – what’s the word? Well, we built some place to put the clay up, anyhow, and then I put up four inches of clay and Portonova – he’s dead now, an Italian sculptor of the old school – he helped me with it, cutting out the clay, you know. Then we had men to make the molds from it.

“MARY MCCHESNEY: In plaster?

“SARGENT JOHNSON: In plaster. After the molds were made, then we had men to put the aggregate and the cement together, you know. It’s cast stone.

“MARY MCCHESNEY: The sections must have been pretty large, then.

“SARGENT JOHNSON: What’s that?

“MARY MCCHESNEY: You did it in three sections? So they’d be about sixty feet long?

“SARGENT JOHNSON: Yeah. That’s an awful long building and we could only put up so much clay because during the summer you had to keep wetting the clay down. It dries and falls off, you know. Every time you’d get started, part of it would come out of the – what do you call it?

“MARY MCCHESNEY: I don’t know what the word for that is. It’s a form. 39

“SARGENT JOHNSON: It’s a form, anyhow. Which kept me—I was always the last man at night. I would go and take a hose and wet the whole thing down.

“MARY MCCHESNEY: You did it there at the high school?

“SARGENT JOHNSON: No, no. This was in the studio.

“MARY MCCHESNEY: I see.

“SARGENT JOHNSON: In Gardina’s studio.

“LEONARD POLLAKOFF: How did you put those sixty foot pieces into place?

“SARGENT JOHNSON: Well, we’d divide it up in squares about, I think they were three by four.

“RUTH POLLAKOFF: Like a jigsaw puzzle.

“SARGENT JOHNSON: Yes. Just like a jigsaw puzzle.

The extent of Johnson’s imprint is like a puzzle that has been spilled out across the Bay Area. The only way to interpret his massive role as a working artist for 50 years is an institution of national scope which addresses the overall problem that May Jackson pointed to. We’re conceiving the Sargent Claude Johnson National Museum of African-American Art as a permanent home for major collections in the genre and as the cultural attraction to return African-Americans to San Francisco as they were in the 1960s. 40