STRONG MEN, STRONG MINDS A DISCUSSION ABOUT EMPOWERING AND UPLIFTING THE BLACK COMMUNITY JOIN US at 2 pm Saturday, August 1, 2020 facebook.com/IndyRecorder Moderator: Panelist: Panelist: Panelist: Panelist: Larry Smith Kenneth Allen Keith Graves Minister Nuri Muhammad Clyde Posley Jr., Ph.D. Community Servant Chairman Indianapolis City-County Speaker, Author Senior Pastor Indianapolis Recorder Indiana Commission on the Council District 13 Community Organizer Antioch Baptist Church Newspaper Columnist Social Status of Black Males Mosque #74 Indiana’s Greatest Weekly Newspaper Preparing a conscious community today and beyond Friday, July 31, 2020 Since 1895 www.indianapolisrecorder.com 75 cents ‘Elicit a change’: protests then and now By BREANNA COOPER [email protected] Mmoja Ajabu was 19 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. He was in the military at the time, in training in Missouri. He and the other Black soldiers in his base were Taran Richardson (left) stands relegated to a remote part of the with Kelli Marshall, who previously base and told they would be shot worked at Tindley Accelerated Schools, where Richardson gradu- if they attempted to leave as the ated from this year. Richardson white soldiers went out to “quell plans to attend Howard University the rebellion in St. Louis,” he said. in the fall to study astrophysics. (Photo provided) “I started understanding at that point what the hell was going on,” Ajabu said. Tindley grad ready NiSean Jones, founder of Black Out for Black Lives, addresses a for a new challenge See PROTESTS, A5® crowd downtown on June 19. (Photo/Tyler Fenwick) IPS MAY VOTE TO at Howard University CHANGE COURSE By TYLER FENWICK [email protected] By STAFF Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) When Taran Richardson was in high could change course and go to e- school at Tindley Accelerated Schools, learning for all students instead of he developed an appropriate motto for giving students the option of vir- himself: #NoSleepInMySchedule. tual learning or going to a building. Richardson, who graduated this year, The IPS Board of School Commis- was a four-sport athlete at Tindley sioners will vote whether to begin and put the motto on the back of his the 2020-21 school year remotely warm-ups for all of his sports: cross at the next board meeting July 30. country, basketball, soccer and track. Students and staff were set to He made the Dean’s List his junior return to the classroom Aug. 17. It and senior years with a 3.7 GPA and is unknown at this time if that date will change. graduated as salutatorian. That was If the recommendation is ap- while serving as class president all proved, IPS students will continue four years of high school, working a e-learning until at least October, part-time job at Walmart and earning in hopes that COVID-19 cases in Eagle Scout honors. The 1953 eighth grade class at John Hope School #26. (Photo pro- Marion County will have decreased “It’s me essentially saying I’m gonna vided) by that time. persevere and push through,” Richard- In a press conference earlier this son said in an interview. Alumni remember John Hope month, IPS Superintendent Aleesia Now, Richardson is on his way to Johnson said school administra- Howard University, one of 65 colleges tion were fl exible with reopening he was accepted to, where he’ll study School on 100th anniversary plans, and she didn’t want to have a “blanket response that we would astrophysics. By TYLER FENWICK [email protected] put into place.” “You know how you want certain This story is ongoing, and will be things for your child? For me, it’s like, updated online at indianapolisre- wow, it’s really happening,” Rita Rich- The alumni of John Hope School have corder.com. ardson, his mother, said. “I’m so proud of him. He is an awesome, wonderful many stories to tell about the teachers, the kid and has been since the day he was born.” friends, the neighborhood that raised them A mother’s praise doesn’t mean Rich- ardson followed a straight and easy from kindergarten through eighth grade. path from birth to Howard, though. Bill Gibson, from the class of Gibson, a 76-year-old retired in- Embarking on the Rita didn’t like the direction her son 1958, remembers a teacher coming formation technology worker, looks was going in middle school, when to his house one rainy evening in back on that day fondly, though, genealogy journey Richardson started looking at what his the fi fth or sixth grade because he because he came to learn his classmates had — a cell phone, more was acting up in her class. Gibson teacher would only take the time By MIKAILI AZZIZ name brands — and began prioritizing is hesitant to say he remembers to do that if she really cared for her material pursuits over his education. something for certain, but the de- students. All Doris Fields knew about her He even drew Nike symbols on his tails from that night are clear: His Betty Glenn, from the class of father was he was Jamaican — and he socks. mother was upset and embarrassed, 1953, can remember her music wasn’t present in her life. Education must come fi rst, Rita and his siblings made fun of him class walking the halls around With Fields’ mother unwilling to would tell him, which is why Rich- for a month. Christmas time to sing carols. talk about him, she was left in the ardson enrolled at Tindley in seventh “Back in the day, parents did not Classrooms would stay silent and dark. She joined the Indiana African grade. He wasn’t on board at fi rst — want a preacher or teacher to come leave their doors open as the class American Genealogy Group (IAAGG) he had to cut his dreadlocks and the to the house to talk about their See TARAN, A7® kids,” he said. See ALUMNI, A7® See GENEALOGY, A7® INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER USPS (262-660) Volume 125 Follow Us! Published weekly by: The George P. Stewart Subscription price by mail or carrier: $39 SUBSCRIBERS BY MAIL: Printing Co., Inc., P.O. Box 18499, 2901 N. per year; $19.50 for 6 mos.,75 cents per We are not responsible for replacing issues Tacoma Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46218. Periodicals copy. National advertising representative: missed due to change of address or late Number 31 postage paid at Indianapolis, IN. Amalgamated Publishers Inc., 45 W. 45th renewals. Please allow two weeks when placing POSTMASTER: St., New York, NY 10036. Member: National a new subscription or change of address order. Send address changes to: The Indianapolis Newspaper Publishers Association, Central Call (317) 924-5143. Two Sections Recorder, P.O. Box 18499, 2901 N. Tacoma Ave., Indiana Publishers Association, Hoosier State Indianapolis, IN 46218. Press Association. @indyrecorder A2 FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2020 INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER A Section indianapolisrecorder.com Friday, July 31, 2020 ‘It feels like going into a battleground’: some schools set to reopen By BREANNA COOPER [email protected] Jo Burnside is gearing up to begin her 17th year as a teacher in the Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Wayne Township. In a typical summer, she prepares for the nearly 30 children who will fi ll her classroom and stocks the room with supplies. This isn’t a typical summer. Due to COVID-19, Burnside is preparing to teach her third graders through a face shield, fi guring out a way to maintain social distancing and teaching her students how to use the appropriate technol- ogy if the township is forced to return to e-learning. Not only that, she’s been discussing her plans and wishes with her family in case she gets sick. Wayne Township teachers return to school on Aug. 6, and Burnside said they will undergo train- ing to help students deal with the pandemic and all the changes it has caused. However, Burnside isn’t convinced it will be enough. torn, because it’s his senior year, and he kept saying 2020-21 school year, just in case students had dif- “It takes a certain type of teacher to be able to ‘I’m going back.’ I could understand where he was fi culty accessing or understanding the material. navigate that,” Burnside said. “If this teacher has coming from, but I wasn’t comfortable with it.” “I think it’s going to be very diffi cult,” Burnside possibly been dealing with the effects of COVID Mann isn’t alone. In districts where families have said. “Wayne [Township] is going full steam ahead, or fi nancial problems because of it, that puts an the option, including in Wayne Township, schools and I’ll still be teaching fi ve days a week in class. educator in a very tough space to be able to nurture are seeing a signifi cant number of students opt for It’s defi nitely going to be a no-second wasted three students the way they may want to. e-learning. months of work on top of what I should be doing.” “I hope everyone is ready, but if I’m speaking real- Burnside said roughly 100 families in Rhoades One issue Burnside is worried will be left out of istically,” Burnside continued, “I think it’s going to Elementary have opted to continue learning from the conversation when students return to the class- be diffi cult.” home. While she’s nervous about returning to the room is trauma. This year, Burnside said she’ll have roughly 24 classroom, she said e-learning last quarter hin- Not just trauma stemming from the ongoing pan- students in her classroom, but that number could dered her ability to foster the relationships she had demic, but from heightened racial tensions as well.