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MILWAUKEE COMMUNITY JOURNAL SPECIAL FOCUS VOL. XXXVIV NO.23 SEPT. 4, 2020 50 CENTS EDITIONEDITIONBULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN PERMIT 4668 WEEKENDWEEKENDMR. NITTY GOES TO WASHINGTON! Milwaukee activist ends 700-plus COPING trek to nation’s capitol with spirited COPING speech at March on Washington 2020 WITHWITH ilwaukee activist Frank Nitty captured the nation’s COVID-19COVID-19 attention recently when heM passionately spoke at the 2020 March on Washington, after walk- ing 750 miles from his hometown to the na- Report: COVID-19 Now is tion’s capital. Claiming he was “tired,” and The Third Leading Cause asking the overflow gathering if they were tired too, Nitty de- of Death Among Black clared the current protests against police violence People against Black and Brown By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Americans, sparked by the Correspondent•@StacyBrownMedia killing of George Floyd in Min- America’s economic situation has substantially deterio- neapolis several months ago, rated since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, and fami- is a “revolution.” lies across race and ethnicity feel the pain, according to “We just marched 750 miles a new report from the Brookings Institution, which notes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin- 24 days to get here, because that the coronavirus now stands as the third leading we’re not going to stop until cause of death among African Americans. we get change.” “If I told you on January 1 that a new virus that we did During his speech, Nitty ex- not even know about would, in August, be the third lead- pressed frustration that ing cause of death for Black Americans, our hair should marchers are still protesting have been set on fire and we would have an extensive the same issues that were ad- public policy response to this unprecedented pandemic,” dressed at the first march, noted Trevon Logan, professor of economics at the Ohio nearly 60 years ago. State University. “We’ve been marching for Logan co-authored the report titled, “The Hamilton Proj- the same stuff for 60 years. ect, Racial Economic Inequality Amid the COVID-19 Cri- Black people shouldn’t be marching for the same stuff sis,” with Bradley L. Hardy of the American University in Martin Luther King was Northwest, Washington D.C. marching for. I’m tired. I’m “In 2020, more Black Americans will die of COVID-19 tired. And I’m tired of asking than will succumb to diabetes, strokes, accidents, or for justice. I just want it to pneumonia. In fact, COVID-19 is currently the third lead- stop,” Nitty said. ing cause of death for African Americans,” Logan and It was far from an uneventful Hardy concluded. walk. Nitty and his group, Among the reasons for the disparity is that African Amer- which included Tory Lowe, icans are more than twice as likely as the average encountered challenges more (continued on page 2) (continued on page 3) The Weekend Edition•September 4, 2020•Page 2 ByIN Nsenga MEMORIAM: Burton, Ph.D., A statement Chadwick released by Boseman NNPA Newswire Culture his family said Boseman and Entertainment Editor was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2016 The world is reeling from and the disease progressed the loss of iconic actor to stage 4. Boseman en- Chadwick Boseman, who dured countless surgeries died Friday, August 28, and treatments as he con- after losing a private battle tinued to make films from to colon cancer. Boseman Marshall (directed by Regi- died at home surrounded nald Hudlin), Da 5 Bloods Mr. Nitty Goes by his family. (continued on page 4) (continuedto W from covera page)shington threatening then the weather. Both men, and other local protestors, were called the ‘N’-word, had food and shoes thrown at them, and were prohibited from going down certain streets. Theywere even shot at as they walked through a Pennsylva- nia county. One person was injured, but will survive. Nitty said police in Indiana were blocking off gas stations in Indiana so that his group couldn’t use the restrooms or get gas. Police even told businesses to close because they said the walkers were there to burn them down. “The women couldn’t use the bathroom. We had to—some- one brought us a portable toilet.” In a video posted on Facebook, Lowe said the group had parked to organize before they walked up an incline when a man emerged from a house and started shooting at them with a rifle, firing at least seven shots. Pennsylvania State Police say the gunfire was exchanged during an incident between the protestors and two area residents. The two residents were questioned, but no one was ar- rested. During an interview after his speech with National Public Radio’s Michel Martin on the weekend “All Things Considered,” Nitty said despte the 700+ sojourn he felt “amazing.” “Believe it or not. I don’t know how. It was like, a very spiritual journey for some reason. Even the last day, I had to walk 40 miles that morning, and then the group walked 42 miles into Washington, D.C., later on that evening. And my body was so fine until the-like, literally the last 20 miles.” Nitty said a woman and her children came up to him, saying that she had been looking for him for four hours, and she was crying. “She’s like, you’re doing what nobody else could do, you know? You’re doing this for my kids. And, you know, this is such a big thing, and you’re almost there. Just a little bit more to go. And she was crying and everything. And I started crying and everything. But it gave me so much energy, and I was able to walk from there.” Nitty said during the last hour of the journey, he felt his legs getting sore. Once he sat down, he claimed his feet became shore and he couldn’t walk for some two hours. “Now I’m fine. I’m ready for the world. Like, I woke up this morning like I hadn’t walked for the last 24 days.” —Source for article:tmj4.com, National Public Radio•Photos courtesy of: The Milwaukee Independent, Urban Milwaukee, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, tmj4, USAToday, MILWAUKEE COMMUNITY JOURNAL Phone: 414-265-5300 (Advertising and Administration) • EDITIONWEEKEND414-265-6647 (Editorial) • Website: communityjournal.net • Email: Edito- [email protected]/[email protected] Patricia O’Flynn -Pattillo Colleen Newsom, Founder, Publisher Classified Advertising Sales Robert J. Thomas, Co-Founder Leader Assoc. Publisher Jimmy V. Johnson, Advertising Todd Thomas, Vice President Sales Mikel Holt, Founding Editor, Mike Mullis, Advertising Associate Publisher Coordination Thomas E. Mitchell, Jr., Editor Robin Davis, Circulation Teretha Martin, Terri’s Innovative Yvonne Kemp, Photographer Computers: Billing Clerk, Pro- Kim Robinson, Photographer duction assistance, tech-support Bill Tennessen, Photographer Opinion and comments expressed on the Perspectives page do not nec- essarily reflect the views of the publisher or management of the MCJ. Let- ters and “other perspectives” are accepted but may be edited for content and length. The Weekend Edition•September 4, 2020•Page 3 Report: COVID-19 Now is The Third Leading Cause(continued from cover page)of Death Among Black People worker to be employed in the healthcare support service industry, which has been decimated by COVID- 19 in assisted living facili- ties and nursing homes. African Americans are also significantly overrepre- sented in the personal care and service and food preparation industries, which are disproportion- ately essential worker industries, the authors discovered. “Black Americans also com- prise more than a quarter of the meatpacking industry’s frontline workforce, which has seen several outbreaks of COVID-19. Among those out of the labor force, the outbreak of the virus among the incarcerated has a dis- proportionate racial impact as well, given the overrep- resentation of African Amer- icans in the prison population,” Logan and Hardy wrote. Additionally, on average, African Americans share their living quarters with more people. While only 48 percent of white households have three or more members, more than 58 percent of Black households do, the authors noted, citing a 2013 Pew Re- search Center study. “This increases the scope for exposure to COVID-19 in living quarters for Black households. For nearly all of the health conditions that increase the likelihood of serious COVID-19 compli- cations, African Americans have higher rates of preva- lence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Logan and Hardy said. For example, African Ameri- cans are more likely to have cancer, be obese, have diabetes, and have kidney disease relative to white Americans. African Americans also have higher rates of lung disease than White Americans, which is particularly pertinent for respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19. Death rates among African Americans due to diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and obesity are all higher than among White Americans, according to the CDC. The authors summarized the report by noting that America’s economic situation has substantially deteri- (continued on page 5) The Weekend Edition•September 4, 2020•Page 4 Boseman in the Marvel Pictures mega-hit, “Black Panther” GETGET YOURYOUR WEEKWEEK IN MEMORIAM: ENDEND EDITIONEDITION Chadwick(continued from page 2) Boseman (directed by Spike Lee) and August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s ONLINE! Black Bottom (directed by George C. Wolfe and produced ONLINE!ith area by Denzel Washington). Washington and Boseman were first introduced when churches Washington paid for Boseman and several other Howard University students to continue their theater studies by closed due to taking a theater course in Oxford. The Howard University-educated thespian was the star the COVID-19 pan- of Marvel’s Black Pantherfranchise, bringing to life one of demic and the city’s “stay-at-home” order, the Mil- the most important and revered superheroes in American WW film history.

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