25 pges vol 28 no 1 12-22-21

Vol. XIX No. 1

N A T I O N A L

Chicago Street Journal December 22-Januray 4, 2022 Page 1

$1 donation is requested.

773-595.5229

Free Imprisoned

Marijuana Inmates

Warren Urges Biden

According to the ACLU’s original analysis, marijuana

arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the

United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between

2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana

nationwide. The arrest data revealed one consistent trend:

significant racial bias. Despite roughly equal usage rates,

(Continued on page 4)

Black Wall Street Bill in

SPRINGFIELD

Still in committee

– State Senator Napoleon Harris, III (D-

Harvey) continues to advocate for increased

support for Black-owned businesses

throughout Illinois, passing a

new economic stimulus program out of the Senate, called

the Black Wall Street Act.

Next issue:

Page 13

Page 12

Donnell Robinson

CSJ Staff writer

“Resurrecting Black Wall Street on

State Street” (25th Street to 29th Street

on South Street) has become the direction

targeting Chicago Public Housing

development of Dearborn Homes.

Spearheaded by Chicago Black Wall

Street (CBWS) started with the need of

a grocery store for Dearborn Homes.

The initiative has gained a city-wide

support and from the National Black

Wall Street based in Oakland, Ca.

Dearborn homes has not had a grocery

store since 1995. Addressing the

need CBWS developed the State Street

Coalition Food Coop (SSCFC) primary

of residents of Dearborn Homes and is

now chartered with the State of Illinois.

What started as a grocery store, has

now focus on the commercial strip of

State Street for other needed businesses

as the grocery being the anchor.

During the 1930’s and 40s State

Street was know as a Black Wall

Street; As noted on the monument on

the south east corner

of 35th And

State Street.

At the start of this

project, it did not

take long to realize

that many residents

of the surrounding

neighborhood has

been designated as a

food desert because

Bernard Howard

of the complexity accessing fresh, nutritious

foods, particular fruits and vegetables.

Bernard Howard, the newly ap-


Calven Jarrett ’Boo’

By Vincent Walker

Calvin Jarrett, President of BEE Manufacturing,

Inc., has been recognized for his

excellent tailoring skills for over 30 years.

He is best known for designing and manufacturing

jackets, caps, school team uniforms

and more. In the 90’s, he designed

and manufactured apparel worn for members

of Operation Unite To Save The

Youth, a nonprofit organization managed

by himself and Craig Hodges (former Chicago

Bull).

The mission brought athletes and entertainers

into underserved neighborhoods to

provide vision, inspiration and motivation

to the youth. T’Keyah Crystal Keymah (In

Living Color), Harry Lennix (The Five

Heartbeats), Queen Latifah, and many

more came to the “hood” to uplift and unite

young people. A host of influential community

leaders, including Donald Dew

(Habilitative Systems, Inc.), Marsha Davis

and Doc Brown (Promoter), Ella Muhammad

(Department of Human Services),

Dwight McKee, Marry Dee (WGN) Abe

Thompson (WGCI) participated in the

cause.

Calvin relocated to Maryland where his

apparel company has reached new levels,

making jackets for Democratic National


While shopping in the Dollar General

store on 79th and Damen the music in the

sound system permitted bad rap music

with the N word, degrading cruse words

of violence and ones lover of the streets;

When the mid 20s cashier about such

harsh music taking into consideration

children can hear while in the store. He

replied, “that’s the language of today”. He

later change the music. Upon exiting the

store, he was thanked for doing so.

Last summer of this year the National

Black Leadership Alliance (NBLA) released

an open letter to the public titled:

‘There Is Indeed

A Message

In The Music’

The Grammys and the NAACP image

awards 2021 were given to songs that

called for the killing of Black people and

the abuse and degradation of Black (Continued on page 8)

Page 2 December 22-Januray 4, 2022

Chicago Street Journal

What is general known but the public, the wheels of justice runs slow but it has a way of catching up. The coverage

the House January 6 select committee has recommended former Con. Mark Meadows, and former chief of staff to

former President Trump, for contempt of Congress. This comes after he refused to further cooperate with their investigation

into the Capitol riot. Republican Congressman Jim Jordan admits to being one of the unnamed Republican

lawmakers whose texts to Mark Meadows were released by the 6th Select Committee. New details from the investigation

into the Capitol riot reveal that Trump’s attempted coup started far earlier than initially thought, just hours after

election day when a GOP lawmaker texted Mark Meadows about an “aggressive strategy” to overturn the election.

The

Quarry is a

South Shore miracle. Originally conceived

as a performance venue, the

community center/jazz night club/

fine dining restaurant/meeting space/

art gallery survived the death of its

founders Ernest Armstrong Vice

Chair of Black Wall Street Chicago,

to become under the ownership and

direction of Real Men Charities Inc.

CEO Yvette Moyo an essential South

Shore/South Side cultural institution.

Moyo and her team have opened the

doors of the Quarry to be the allpurpose

community space South Shore

needed and still continues to desperately need.

Now, however, after a 2019 renovation the Quarry is

moving forward once in a fight for its economic life as the

pandemic stopped activity at the venue and killed a plan to

pay back property taxes owed on the space. The space was

not eligible for a PPP Shuttered Venue loan and so Moyo

and the Quarry need the community's help to stay open and

rebuild the traffic and rental activity built up over the last

three years.

Moyo, a veteran marketing executive who founded the

MOBE (Marketing Opportunities In Business And Entertainment)

Symposium in addition to the internationally

known Real Men Cook Charities, Inc., has launched a Go-

FundMe to help stabilize The Quarry.

The Phillip Jackson PKWY

Alderman Sophia King (sponsor), friends and supporters

of The Black Star Project honored the iconic founder of The

Black Star Project, Phillip Jackson, with a renaming of the

east side of 35th at King Drive, in honor of Jackson and The

Black Star Project, the organization he founded 25 years

ago, in 1996.

A larger celebration is planned (in honor of Phillip's

birthday). Stay tuned for more details.

The organizing strategies and philosophies that led to the

founding of the Black Star Project by Phillip Jackson the

subject of a documentary film being developed and produced

by members of The Black Star Project cohort of

Building Chicago's Next CEO program.

The as-yet untitled documentary is being produced in two

phases: the first phase as part of the Healing Illinois program

promoting anti-racism initiatives and solutions and the

second phase as part of a larger more expansive documentary

funded by community partners and donors.

Phase 1 is being produced through a partnership between

The Black Star Project and Community TV Network, a nonprofit

which trains underserved youth in video production.


Springfield attorney and businessman Don Tracy, the former head

of the Illinois Gaming Board, is the new

elected chairman of the Illinois Republican

Party early Feburary this year. Going

after Governor Pritzker, charging

that the Gov LIED to the people of Illinois

when he pledged to veto a politiciandrawn

map. He promised to take politicians

out of the mapmaking process and

instead, he let politicians redraw boundaries

for 118 House and 59 Senate seats --

then approved it without any Republican

input. Tracy went on to say, “This isn’t just dishonest, friend --

this is a grab for power. Duhhh. _______________.

The Chicago Park District (CPD) is considering

naming the new Jackson Park track and

field after Bob Pickens, a pioneering Black

Olympic wrestler and former CPD commissioner.

Pickens (1943-2018), was born in Chicago,

raised in Evanston and resided for much

of his adult life in South Shore. For a decade,

beginning in 2000, he was a CPD Board Commissioner.

He was known as an indefatigable

advocate for parks and recreational programming

for inner-city youth.

Rise Strategy Group Announces Darlene

Hill As Executive Director: Today, communications

and public affairs firm Rise Strategy

Group announced Emmy awardwinning

journalist Darlene Hill has been

named Executive Vice President. Prior to

joining Rise, she served as lead anchor for

WCMH NBC 4 TV in Columbus, Ohio, and a

reporter and anchor for Chicago’s WFLD

FOX TV 32.

The Bud Billiken parade was re-routed and shortened. Misinformation

was leaked to make this actual change more

acceptable. It has been alleged Mariano’s

felt the parade disrupted their business.

The 10 block shortening makes the parade

not pass by Mariano’s. Syron Smith say,

“If true, that a new to the community business

was at the center of why a 92 year

parade was

shortened,

shame on us not them.”

Remembering Dr. Tim Black.

Now that is gone and his wife is

no longer with CHA, Black use

to write $50 checks to Ron

Carter and not to Chicago

(then South) Street Journal.


Publisher and Editor:

Ron Carter

Assitant to the publisher: Carolyn

Munkwitz

Writers: Donnell Robinson,

Frank Ottman, Gregory

Thomas, Circulation: Roosevelt

Martin, Temple Of Mercy

Association (TOMA)

Photographers: Parthenia

Luke, Vincent Walker.

Community Laison/Black Wall

Street: Frederick Williams

Chicago ‘South’ Street Journal

founded in 1993

c/o BOP: 642-644 East 79th

Street, Chgo, Ill.

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Columbia University South

Street Journal archive: http://

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Archived by Columbia University’s

Urban Research Workshop

(URW) , back issues from 1993

to 2006 of Chicago Street Journal’s

predecessor, the South

Street Journal, were donated to

provide material for URW students

to collaboratively research

themes such as gentrification,

racism, political affairs, and

youth development.

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CSJ assumes no responsibility

to return unsolicited editorial

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upon credit given to CSJ

and source with requested.

A sick woman was lying on her sick bed with her Husband

by her side, she turns to him and said.

Wife: Honey, I have a confession to make…

Husband: Save your strength my dear.

Wife: (cuts in) Nooo, I want to say it so that when I die my

spirit will be at rest.

I have been stealing your money and giving to my boyfriend,

you are not the father of our son Junior, I was the

one who stole your gold wrist watch and hide it in your

sister’s bag so that you will drive her away…. Please forgive

me.

Husband: I know all these, that’s why I poisoned you.

Keep calm let the poison work…

Who is more wicked??


Dr. Maulana Karenga,

professor and chairman of

Black Studies at California State

University, Long Beach, created

Kwanzaa in 1966. After the

Watts riots in Los Angeles, Dr.

Karenga searched for ways to

bring African Americans together

as a community. He

founded US, a cultural organization,

and started to research

African “first fruit” (harvest)

celebrations. Karenga combined

aspects of several different harvest

celebrations, such as those

of the Ashanti and those of the

Zulu, to form the basis of the

week-long holiday. Kwanzaa 2021 will take place Sunday,

December 26, 2021 through Saturday, January 1,

2022.

KWANZAA HISTORY

The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase

“matunda ya kwanza” which means “first fruits” in

Swahili. Each family celebrates Kwanzaa in its own

way, but celebrations often include songs and dances,

African drums, storytelling, poetry reading, and a large

traditional meal. On each of the seven nights, the family

gathers and a child lights one of the candles on the Kinara

(candleholder), then one of the seven principles is

discussed. The principles, called the Nguzo Saba (seven

principles in Swahili) are values of African culture

which contribute to building and reinforcing community

among African-Americans. Kwanzaa also has seven

basic symbols which represent values and concepts reflective

of African culture. An African feast, called a

Karamu, is held on December 31.

Did you know? The seven principles, or Nguzo Saba

are a set of ideals created by Dr. Maulana Karenga.

Each day of Kwanzaa emphasizes a different principle.

The candle-lighting ceremony each evening provides

the opportunity to gather and discuss the meaning of

Kwanzaa. The first night, the black candle in the center

is lit (and the principle of umoja/unity is discussed). One

candle is lit each evening and the appropriate principle

is discussed.

SEVEN PRINCIPLES

The seven principles, or Nguzo Saba are a set of ideals

created by Dr. Maulana Karenga. Each day of Kwanzaa

emphasizes a different principle.

Unity:Umoja (oo–MO–jah)

To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community,

nation, and race.

Self-determination: Kujichagulia (koo–gee–cha–goo–

LEE–yah)

To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves,

and speak for ourselves.

Collective Work and Responsibility: Ujima (oo–GEE

–mah)

To build and maintain our community together and

make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems

and to solve them together.

Cooperative Economics:

Ujamaa (oo–JAH–mah)

To build and maintain our

own stores, shops, and

other businesses and to

profit from them together.

Purpose: Nia (nee–YAH)

To make our collective

vocation the building and developing of our community

in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Creativity: Kuumba

(koo–OOM–bah)

To do always as much as we can,

in the way we can, in order to leave

our community more beautiful and

beneficial than we inherited it.

Faith: Imani (ee–MAH–nee)

To believe with all our heart in our

people, our parents, our teachers,

our leaders, and the righteousness

and victory of our struggle.

Dec. 16

· Kwanzaa Celebration

Tomorrow, 6:30 – 7:30 PM

Glenwood-Lynwood Public Library District,

19901 Stoney Island Ave, Lynwood, IL

Dec 19

Poets Nite With JUSTUS arts poetry/

storytelling at Studio 2226 Inc, 2226 E 71st st

Sun, 7 – 11 PM, Chicago, IL

· A Celebration of the Stories and Values of

Kwanzaa...Sun, 2 PM, Forest Park Public

Library, 7555 Jackson Blvd, Forest Park, IL

·Dec26

Happy Day of Kwanzaa, 1:00 – 3:30 PM,

Bottle & Bottega Arlington Heights, 10 W

Campbell St, Arlington Heights, IL

City of Evanston Kwanzaa Celebration!

Sun, 12 PM, Robert Crown Community Center,

1801 Main St, Evanston, IL

AfroBang Unity Day Party

Sun, 4 – 10 PM, Ace Hotel Chicago, 311 N

Morgan St. Chicago, IL

Kwanzaa begins

Oak Park, Oak Park, IL

Lighting the Kwanzaa Kinara

Flossmoor, Flossmoor, IL

Dec 29

Kwanzaa 2021 "Celebrating Community,

Care and Culture"

Wed, 10 AM – 5 PM, Malcolm X College,

1900 W Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL

Kwanzaa Celebration at Woodson Regional

in Chicago. Wed, 5 – 7 PM, Woodson Regional

Library, Chicago Public Library, 9525

S Halsted St, Chicago, IL

Women in Chicago March in Protest For Missing Black Women & Girls

Special Correspondent:

Delmarie Cobb

Kierra Coles, Jerrica Lizette

Laws, and Nancie Walker: These

are the names of Black women who

were reported missing to police.

Coles is the 26-year-old postal

worker who disappeared in 2018.

Her cellphone and lunch were still

in the car outside her Chatham

home.

Laws went missing during her

daily afternoon walk in Park Forest.

In 2015, neighbors saw the 24-

year-old leave, but never return.

Nancie disappeared in 2003. The

55-year-old was heading downtown

from her Bronzeville rental property

to meet her sister for lunch.

Walker had just called to say she

was running late.

Gabby Petito, Laci Peterson, and

Natalee Holloway: These are the

names of White women who were

reported missing to the police. Petito

is the 22-year-old who was

discovered missing when her boyfriend

returned to his parents’ Florida

home without her. The two had

been documenting their crosscountry

adventure on social media.

The 27-year-old California woman

disappeared on Christmas Eve in

2002.

Peterson and her unborn child’s

remains were found four months

later. Her husband was convicted of

their murder. Holloway was 18-

years-old when she disappeared

during a high school graduation trip

in Aruba. In 2020, one-third of the

nearly 300,000 missing girls and

women in the U.S. were Black,

according to the National Crime

Information Center. As the producer

of a recent four-part documentary

series on HBO, Soledad

O’Brien says missing Black girls

and women get little attention and

are all but ignored by law enforcement,

news media, and the community.

Missing Black Women is just one

in a series of documentaries on the

subject airing in recent weeks.

News anchor Candace Collum of

WVON produced a five-part radio

documentary series, The Invisible

Ones: Voices of the Missing. One

of the people she highlights is Nancie

Walker, whose body parts were

found in plastic garbage bags by a

cleaning crew along the side of the

road at 108th & Stony Island Avenue

In another documentary, starting

Dec. 3, discovery+ is exploring the

possibility of a serial killer, Hunt

for the Chicago Strangler. The

three-part series chronicles the

deaths of 51 women, predominantly

Black, killed in Chicago over the

last 20 years. The project caught

the attention of producers after the

Unforgotten 51 was professor and

columnist, John Fountain, challenged

his students at Roosevelt

University to tell the women’s stories.

I know firsthand how difficult it

is to get coverage for missing Black

people. As a former television reporter,

families need someone inside

the newsrooms who’ll advocate

for them. Using every lesson




Free

Marijuana

Inmates

C h i c a g o S t r e e t J o u r n a l

(Continued from page 1)

Blacks are 3.73 times more likely

than whites to be arrested for marijuana.

Citing “over a century of failed

and racist cannabis policies,” Sen.

Elizabeth Warren and two other leading

Democrats have joined a growing

chorus of activists, celebrities and

lawmakers calling on President Joe

Biden to pardon people with federal

marijuana convictions and set up a

process for formally clearing their

criminal records.

Warren joined fellow Massachusetts

Sen. Ed Markey and Sen. Jeffrey

Merkley of Oregon in sending a

letter to Biden requesting a “blanket

pardon” for all nonviolent federal

marijuana convictions. The lawmakers

urged Biden to use his constitutional

authority to pardon a “broad

class” of people, which would fulfill

“promises” made by Biden on the

campaign trail and transform

the lives of “tens of thousands

of Americans,” including those

who are currently in prison and

formerly incarcerated people

who may have difficulty accessing

jobs and services due to

their criminal record.

Biden is facing mounting

pressure to take executive action

on marijuana from advocates

and Democrats who

have introduced sweeping

bills in the House and Senate

that would end federal prohibition

and expunge convictions

— but those bills are once

again at risk of falling on the back

burner. The House made history last

year by passing an earlier version of

the legislation that died in the Senate.

As a presidential candidate, Biden,

who was debating Warren and

other Democrats on marijuana policy

at the time, said “we should decriminalize

marijuana,” and declared people

with marijuana convictions

should be “let out of jail” and have

their records expunged. In a pledge to

“Black America,” the Biden campaign

said the president would

“decriminalize the use of cannabis”

and “expunge all prior cannabis use

convictions.”

The latter pledge to expunge

convictions for cannabis “use” appears

to fall short of requests by Warren

and others to issue a “blanket

pardon” for all nonviolent cannabis

offenses, which would include people

charged with growing and selling

cannabis.

“In the 1970s, President Nixon

launched the War on Drugs over the

objections of his own advisors and

experts, spawning mass incarceration

policies with devastating effects on

Black and Brown families,” the

senators wrote. “Today, despite

legalization efforts across the

country and roughly equal cannabis

usage rates, Black Americans

are still nearly four times as

likely to be arrested for cannabis

possession as white Americans.”

An ACLU research report, A Tale

of Two Countries: Racially Targeted

Arrests in the Era of Marijuana

Reform, details marijuana

arrests from 2010 to 2018 and

examines racial disparities at the

national, state, and county levels.

Updating our previous report, The

War on Marijuana in Black and

White, this report reveals that the

racist war on marijuana is far from

over. More than six million arrests

occurred between 2010 and 2018,

and Black people are still more likely

to be arrested for marijuana possession

than white people in every state,

including those that have legalized

marijuana. The report provides a

detailed road map for ending the War

on Marijuana and ensuring legalization

efforts center racial justice.

Biden has remained resistant to

the idea of legalizing marijuana at the

federal level, even as other Democrats

say legalization’s sheer popularity

among voters makes marijuana

reform a political no-brainer. Instead,

Biden has said he supports decriminalization,

which typically means

reducing or eliminating criminal

penalties for possessing small

amounts of a drug without lifting

prohibition.

The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment

and Expungement

(MORE) Act introduced by Democrats

in the House would go further by

prohibiting the denial of federal

benefits and immigration protections

based on marijuana convictions and

funnel tax revenues from legal sales

to programs for communities harmed

by the drug war. Democratic Majority

Leader Chuck Schumer has introduced

similar legislation in the Senate.

In April, White House Press Secretary

Jen Psaki said Biden supports

legalizing medical marijuana while

leaving decisions over whether to

legalize and how to regulate recreational

weed up to individual states,


Bring All Torture Survivors Home for the Holidays!

the Chicago Alliance's Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors

of Police Torture (CFIST) , kicking off Twelve Days of Action to

free survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction with a rally

outside the Thompson Center at 11:30am, Every day between now

and Christmas, in 12 Days of Action to #Free Torture Survivors

#Free Them All and Bring Them All Home! Survivors, family members

& fellow activists in demanding Governor Pritzker & the Office

of the State's Attorney use their powers to bring torture survivors

home for the holidays! – 12 Days of Action are a culmination of

massive amounts of work on the part of the Chicago Alliance and

our CFIST campaign, and mark the release of the Report on the

Pattern and Practice of Torture and Wrongful Conviction by CPD

Detectives and the open letter to the Cook County State's Attorney's

office.

Saturday, Dec. 18th. Englewood winterfest!, We Grow

Collective’s Winterfest

on serves to

share the love and

give back to the

EnglEwood commUnity

this holiday season by offering FREE warm winter

gear and essentials, hot meals, fresh veggies and food

boxes, toys and more! Bring the family for hot cocoa, arTist

Xmas trees, arts and crafts, and a holiday photo booth!

· 2:00 to 6:00 PM, The Peace House, 6402 S. Honore St.,

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2021 Harvey Area Chamber

AT 11 AM – 3 PM, New Life Pentecostal Church of God in

Christ, 148 E. 155th Street.Mask Up For A HEALTHY HAR-

VEY! Join HACC and New Life in Celebrating A Safe And Healthy

Holiday Season with Community Partners and Harvey Residence.

Holliday Family Activities, Raffles for Free 52 Inch TV 's, Free

F o o d P P E S u p p l i e s a n d M o r e ! ! !

Walķ Up - Drive Thru COVID-19 Testing, All Vaccines/Boosters

Will Be Available.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2021 AT 10 AM, "SOCK FunDraiser"

for those walking to Freedom. South Side YMCA, 63 rd

Stoney. Chicago. Socks play a big part in how we feel prOvide

protection for our feet. A pair of sock may not seem like

much but they can mean so much to some on that does not

h a v e a p a i r .

We are asking people to bring socks for men, women, and

children from Haiti.

December 27, 2021The African American Arts Alliance (AAAA)

will host the 20th annual Black

Excellence Awards, an evening

celebrating Black artists,

Black voices, and Black stories

across various artistic

disciplines, at 7pm. The 2021

virtual celebration will honor

selected honorees who have

exhibited artistic excellence

throughout the past year. The live ceremony, to be broadcast on

Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/aaaachicago is free and

open to the public.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 2022 AT 5

PM, IMANI: Fitness Networking Party

w/ a Purpose. Real Men Charities The

Quarry Event Center. 2423 E. 75th

Street. If you like to party and/or enjoy a

purpose, this is the place for you. The

first event of the New Year will be focused

on fitness. If you want to get fit,

you will find Chicago's premier fitness

trainers and professionals... If you are a

fitness professional, you'll find people

eager to connect with you. There will be

games and appetizers, full bar, and

FREE parking... Music by DJ CHUD.

Advanced tickets $20 ($30 at the Door)

https://www.eventbrite.com/.../imani-new-year-meet-greet...


“Unlocked’ movie released in the United Kingdom

2017, (just a lil before the Covid 19 outbreak)

where the villain reveals he wants the biological

attack to occur in a major country USA; the visiting

Americans in London (real life China) will

transport the virus back home and force the US

Government to take the threat of biological warfare

seriously. Of course the ending fight of the

movie the bad guy is killed, and the good guy disarms

the virus canisters. Getting to the real stuff

POLITICO reported in March of 2020 Donald

Trump administration offered

"large sums of money"

to get exclusive access to a

coronavirus vaccine being

developed by a German

company. German politicians

demanded that Berlin

do everything possible to

prevent the U.S. from controlling

access to an eventual

coronavirus vaccine. Saying that no country

should be able to purchase exclusive access to the

vaccine. "Capitalism has limits," he said. In Covid

19 the villain was never discovered. Oh and

word is Trump will run in 2024.

The Chicago Police, in conjunction with

churches such as, the New Beginnings Church,

St. Sabina and others has been working to get

guns out of the community by hosting a noquestions-asked

Gun Turn In. All of the guns

collected are destroyed (supposedly). Each gun

turned in receive a $100 prepaid gift card; each

BB, replica and air gun will receive a $10 gift

card. However, what is known in some turn-ins

that they are out dated, and those that turn the

guns in use the $100 for an updated and better

gun.


Marijuana

Inmates

which the Democratic bills and Mace’s

legislation are also designed to do.

“At this point, it is nonsensical and cruel

for President Biden to stand by any position

that is not in full support of descheduling

marijuana, particularly when the tide is now

turning toward full drug decriminalization,”

Maritza Perez, the national affairs director

at the Drug Policy Alliance, recently told

Truthout.

On October 6, Warren and Sen. Cory

Booker (D-New Jersey) sent a letter to Attorney

General Merrick Garland requesting

Tyrone Muhammed, fifth from right, and Ex-Cons for

Community and Social Change demonstrating in

Summer 2021 outside Sunnyside Dispensary’s

Wrigleyville Chicago location, calling on customers

to ditch white-owned companies and to support

your local weed man.” Credit: Submitted / ECCSC

As the social acceptance and legalization

of weed continues to drastically

shift, Ex-Cons for Community

and Social Change (ECCSC) aims

to bring awareness to the Cannabis

Industry's current inequity. By shedding

light on the issues and providing

quality alternatives to the current

corporate Cannabis Industry, “We

are empowering individuals in order

to bring wealth back to our communities,

and forming a new paradigm

within the Cannabis Industry”. Tyrone

Muhammed, founder of

ECCSC.

Muhammed went on to say

“While the war on drugs ravaged

communities of color, a booming legal cannabis

industry was built on the backs of the incarcerated”.

ECCSC like their apparel to serve as a

message of gratitude to the men and women

who have long been providing for the people.

“Decades before big businesses and politicians

declared weed beneficial, our weed men

have been answering the call to serve, risking

it all!” said Muhammed.

ECCSC a leading advocate for the underground

market says in the Chicago Sun-Times

report that legal cannabis sold in Illinois dispensaries

is not always free of mold reveals

that the legal market isn’t as good as advertised.

Muhammad saying that dispensary marijuana

is safer than what you get on the street,

is a scare tactic used on citizens to further

isolate street vendors from the industry,”

Support Your Local Weed Man is bringing

awareness to the cannabis industry's

that his office initiate a multiagency review

of cannabis scheduling, which would be the

Biden administration’s first step toward

removing marijuana from Schedule I without

waiting for Congress to pass legislation.

An effort by the Biden administration to

deschedule marijuana administratively

would take time and likely face legal challenges.

Warren, Markey and Merkley wrote

that issuing a blanket pardon for people with

nonviolent cannabis convictions and setting

up a process for expunging criminal records

would allow President Biden to “act now.”

“a reversal of decades of ineffective and

discriminatory cannabis policies, allowing

Americans to return to their communities,

find housing and jobs, and rebuild their lives

without the burdens of an unjustly imposed

criminal record,” the senators wrote.

current inequity. Their message adding,

this is why ECCSC and the Support Your

Local Weed Man Team fight so hard against

this Racist Cannabis Industry because of stuff

like this. Time to create peddler license for

serious street dealers who's been locked out

the Cannabis Industry.

Congrads to folks vowed stop using the N-Word

like the late great Richard Pryor: Rev. Al

Sampson,

Eddie Read, Grady Norword, Joseph Samules.

Now if Revin Fellows would join the team.

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pointed President of the SSCFC said, “This

mission is further than a need. This food desert

neighborhood is almost exclusively African

American. Therefore, the problem of food

desert is not simply a public health issue, but

an urgent to meet the needs of the community

economic development”.

The State Street Food Coop is one that with

all the unlimited resources, funding and policies

of government are in place for this to

happen.

SSFC is seeking square feet from 5,000 to

11,000; which is suitable to all the property

that presently is across the street of Dearborn

Homes.

There are only 9 mid size African American

grocery stores owned in the United States; we

are striving for number 10 here in Chicago,

says Mr. Howard.

As define as first major task for this Grocery

store is to have land control, stress by

many supporters including Alderman Pat

Dowel (3) which presently the committee is

striving to do. The Seven (7) owners of the

undeveloped properties (25th Street to 29th

Street) has been for over 40 years and blighted

across from the CHA public housing of Dearborn

Homes.

Dearborn Homes has been without a store for

20 years and has been declared by the U.S.

government commission a food deserts in the

country.

At the same time while private development

is on the rise in the neighborhood, Illinois

Institute of Technology (IIT) that own the

29th block have made interest earlier of 2021

whether to grant their land or sale it for a price

that has not been disclosed. The school now is

more focus on leasing the property.

Mercy Hospital owns 26th and State, asking

price is $750,000. The real estate agent for

25th and State is asking $10,000 a month for

their blighted property, which can be leased

Frederick Williams

Board member of SSFC

and Chicago Black Wall

Street

Alderman Pat Dowell (3).

for only a parking lot. Then there is a private

owner, Rodgers Dealership and East Lake

Management.

As the on-line petition to Mayor Lori

Lightfood surpassed its 1,500 goal signees,

this project meets the operations of The Department

of Planning and Development (DPD)

SOUTH WEST INVEST INITITIVE $750

million program that supports private rehabilitation

and construction projects on the West

and South sides.

It is not presently in the eligible area of the

city special funding of a community such as a

TIFF stated Alderman Pat Dowell (3). However,

she indicated that once the committee

secures land control she would bring resources

to help the project.

Ald. Dowell replied to SSFC that she know

Gloria Carter, widow of Don

Carter who owned a grocery store

in Dearborn Homes, and his

nephew Ron Carter CSJ publisher

and Convener/Chair of Chicago

Black Wall Street leading the efforts

in supporting the SSFC

During the 1930’s and 40s

State Street was know as a

Black Wall Street; As noted

on the monument on the

south east corner of 35th

and State Street.

how to bring grocery stores to the third ward,

noting here accomplishments of two

Mariano’s on 16th and 39th Street, and in the

works to bring Pete’s Fresh Foods on 39th and

State Street.

We want our own” Says Bernard Howard,

member of the Chicago Black Wall Street

Grocery store Ad Hoc committee. “We have

asked for over four years.

This can be different giving residents’ equity

in this project – this is why our committee

is seeking IIT in joining the urgency of the

enthusiasm.

IIT once expressed granting the property for

the grocery store. Now they said it may use

the property for their own expansion. However,

the school kept the door open for the

committee to present an offer. Saying they

have determine not to sale, but to offer

to lease the property at market rate.

Stressing to the committee that property

in Bronzeville is prime land.

However according to IIT web site on

October 14 release of expanding, they

did not include the property in SSCFC

is seeking.

Reaching out to the newly appointed

president of IIT, September 17, Raj

Echambadi as the university’s 10th

president. Echambabi did not return

calls for comment.

Howard said, “IIT has been a part

of the Bronzeville community development

over the years. Our position

they should come up with a plan or

sale the property to the SSFC. Those

that hold back the advancement of the

community, accepts the role of malevolence

economically protesting

what is good for the community at

large.

“What we are asking for is not just

what is needed, but what is mandated

by Section 3 of the federal government,

and really by President Joe Biden

when he visited Black Wall Street

of Tulsa, Ok. On the centennial of the

Tulsa Race Massacre, the Biden-Harris

Administration announced new steps

to help narrow the racial wealth gap

and reinvest in communities that have

been left behind by failed policies.

Specifically, the Administration is expanding

access to two key wealth-creators – homeownership

and small business ownership – in communities

of color and disadvantaged communities.

The disinvestment in Black families in

Tulsa and across the country throughout our

history is still felt sharply today. The median

Black American family has thirteen cents for

every one dollar in wealth held by White

families.

Given that Dearborn has witness its share of

violence, Howard insist, a lot of the violence

is really economics. This is a key to stop

those senseless drive-bys.

Frederick Williams spearheading relationships

working closing with Chicago South


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5. 5. Tax Records blank

(assume IIT) Offering

6. 6. Tax Records blank

(assume IIT) Offering

Emmett Till's Family’s ‘Heart Is Broken’

After Justice Department Closes Investigation

Emmett Till’s family members

said they were “not surprised” but

still heartbroken after the Justice

Department officially closed the


Loop Hotel and Dearborn Homesnoted,

the hotel is an exsample of

starting Black Wall Street on State

Street as it was in Black Wall Street

of Tulsa's Greenwood District in

WEST Side —

For Grocery Store

A key panel approved a proposal

that would allow the city to

buy a closed West Garfield Park

grocery store, as community leaders

appealed to city leaders for

help after the Aldi at 3835 W.

Madison St. closed abruptly in

October, worsening the severe

scarcity of healthy food in West

Garfield Park, which is considered

to be a dire food desert.

The Garfield Park Rite to Wellness

Collaborative (RWC) organized

a campaign demanding Aldi

sell the vacant building to the

community for $1 so it can be

redeveloped into a supermarket

with a mission and values that

align with the needs of residents.

The city plan, approved unanimously

by the Community Development

Commission Thursday,

authorizes the city to buy the

building if negotiations between

neighborhood groups and Aldi

fall through, planning department

spokesperson Peter Strazzabosco

said. The building is listed for

$700,000.

The plan is scheduled for a City

Council vote in January.

TJ Crawford, director of the

RWC said, “The support from the

city is a “demonstration of what it

looks like to have community-led

initiatives in cooperation with

public officials,” he said.

Source: Block Club Chicago

investigation it had reopened into

Till’s brutal 1955 lynching and

whether a white woman had recanted

the claims that led to the

Prospected Property footage for Coop

(3,000 to 10,000

Properties Owned by and based on

County Records:

1a. Private property, lease price $10K

mo.

1. Mercy Hospital, Sell price $750k

2. Private owner

3. Rodgers Auto

4. East Lake Management

5. Records blank (assume IIT) Offering

6. Records blank (assume IIT) Offering

the early 20th century. Business

owners, lawyers and more helped

build the area into one of the most

prominent neighborhoods in Tulsa.

“But not only in Tulsa. We know

the politics of community economics.

How many people you know

that does want this major economic

example for us? And those that do

not want it to happen?”

“ “In the end, we will remember

not the words of our enemies, but

the silence of our friends” -Martin

Luther King Jr”. Williams said.

“It is the equivalent as the City of

Chicago decided to take the Old

Post Office building for $4.5 billion

from the owners as a blighted part

of Chicago Loop. We must do the

same at least in the community that

we live. We must incite the city for

the resurrection of ‘State Street of

Black Wall Street’ as it was during

the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.


Black 14-year-old’s murder.

“I’m not surprised but my heart is

broken,” Till’s cousin Thelma

Wright Edwards said at a press

conference Monday December 6, in

Chicago. “I had hope that we could

get an apology, but that didn’t happen.

Nothing was settled. The case

is closed and we have to go on from

here.”

The Justice Department met with

members of Till’s family to tell

them that the agency had closed the

investigation it reopened in 2018

into the teen’s murder.

In 1955, white men lynched 14-

year-old Till after Carolyn Bryant

Donham claimed the boy had harassed

her in a Mississippi grocery

store. Bryant Donham’s husband

and his half-brother kidnapped,

brutally beat and tortured the teen,

shot him dead and threw his body

into the Tallahatchie River. An allwhite

jury acquitted the men. Till’s

killing and the photos of his brutalized

body from his funeral fueled

the civil rights movement.

The DOJ reopened the investigation

into Till’s death after a 2017

book quoted Bryant Donham, who

is still living, admitting that she had

lied about what happened.

The DOJ and FBI examined

whether Bryant Donham had recanted,

as the book claimed, which

could have led to new charges, including

against her.

But after years of inquiry, officials

concluded that “there is insufficient

evidence” that Bryant Donham

had, in fact, recanted her story,

according to a press release from

the DOJ.

“When asked about the alleged

recantation, [Bryant Donham] denied

to the FBI that she ever recanted

her testimony,” the release

said, adding that there is

“insufficient evidence to prove that

she ever told [the book’s author]

that any part of her testimony was

untrue.”

Officials noted that there also

“remains considerable doubt as to

the credibility of her version of

events,” adding that Bryant Donham’s

story is “contradicted by

others who were with Till at the

time.”

Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Emmett

Till's cousin, speaks at a press conference

on the Justice Department

closing its investigation into the

1955 lynching.

“This family has waited 66 years

By the Publisher

Art work for

Purchase

to learn who would answer for Emmett.

And now we know: nobody.

And that’s a tragedy on top of a

tragedy,” said Christopher Benson,

an associate professor of journalism

at Northwestern University who met

with the DOJ, FBI and other officials

with Till’s family on Monday.

Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till’s

cousin and best friend, who was in

the house when the men kidnapped

Till in the middle of the night, said

that “today is a day we’ll never

forget,” speaking of officials closing

the investigation.

“For 66 years we have suffered

pain, loss,” Parker said, noting he

was only 16 years old when his

cousin was kidnapped and killed.

“You did not die in vain,” he said

of Till. “We can’t bring him back,

but we can carry on and let America

know we need to know the truth.”

Till’s cousin Ollie Gordon echoed

other family members that the

government’s findings “came as no

surprise.”

“I did not expect they would find

new evidence… or be able to validate

Carolyn Bryant recanting her

story,” Gordon said, urging people

to “look to the future.” “Where do

we go from here? Even though we

don’t feel we got justice, we still

must move forward. Let’s figure out

how we can continue to make

change.”

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women. NBLA reported these kinds of songs

also remain in heavy rotation on radio stations

that target Black audiences like Chicago's

WGCI and WPWX as well as New York’s

Hot 97 and Power 105.

Consider this lyric “ Coupe! Got the missing

roof, your boo came up missing too. Poof!

I just stole your boo, now ooh she gon’ eat the

whole crew.” Or this one “Headshot a nigga

ass to see what his mind do. Catch him at a

red light or a F***in drive through.”

In NBLA letter stated, “While we do indeed

like the music we also tend to like the com-

Derrick A. Riley,

(Continued from

page 1)

pany it puts us in. In this sense the music creates

its own community including a life style

that is validated by the acceptance of the music.

It is the music that validates the

“Gangsta.”

When the Chicago based, Clear The Airwaves

Project appealed to the FCC, the commissions

response was that they trusted the

white owners of the radio stations to determine

what was in the best interest of the Black

a u d i e n c e .

When the National

Congress Of Black

Women appealed to

Harvey Mason Jr.

thinking that a Black

man as head of the

Grammy committee

would make a difference,

that he would

at least be sensitive

to the concerns of

Black women, he

ignored them.

We doubt that this

music would even

be considered for a

Grammy or a

NAACP imag e

award if these songs

r e f e r r e d

instead to any other

marginalized group.

Has a certain segment

of the Black

population been

irreparably harmed

by a battered psyche

associated with the

music and the "N"

word in the music?

Does the word elicit

a sense of selfloathing

and devaluation?

Is it this

self-loathing and

denigration that makes some blacks also devalue

life, theirs, and others’?

According to a poll published by the

Pew Research Center back in 2008, more

than 70 percent of Americans believed

that rap had an overall negative impact

on society. Some rap and hip-hop songs

do indeed glamorize destructive behavior

like substance abuse and violence.

Music touches us in ways that other art

forms cannot, it is not only in the lyrics as

noted musician David Byrne and

others have explained, it is also the combination

of sounds, rhythms, and vocal textures

t h a t c o m m u n i c a t e i n w a y s

that bypass the reasoning centers of the brain

Photo by Elvert Barnes

and go straight to our emotions. Poet Larry

N e a l , o n e o f t h e

architects of the Black Arts movement of the

1960’s said “It is indeed the music that can

affirm our highest possibilities.” That may be

precisely why the best of our music is being

r e m o v e d .

The late Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, of

Chicago, a psychiatrist best known for

writing The Isis Papers, Welsing sought

to help bring about a solution to the mental

health problems of the

black community by understanding

racism. Sighting

“You can even program them

to kill themselves and they

won’t even understand what

happened.”

In Chicago, African American

youth have been the victims of

roughly 81 percent of the 317

murders in the first six months

of 2021, data shows. They were

the victims of about 70 percent

of the 295 murders committed

in the first six months of 2020.

In the major cities across the

country there is an uptick in

violent crime across the country,

specifically gun violence,”

Black people have represented a

massive share of murder victims

in six major cities through the

first six months of 2021 compared

to last year, which itself

saw a large crime surge, according

to data analyzed by the

Daily Caller News Foundation.

While we do indeed like the

music we also tend to like the

company it puts us in. In this

sense the music creates its own

community including a life style

that is validated by the acceptance

of the music. It is the music

that validates the “Gangsta.”

The percentage of murder victims in Chicago

that were black increased from 70 percent in

2020 to 81 percent in 2021 while that figure

increased from 60 percent to 90 percent yearover-year

in Milwaukee, the data showed. In

one of the cities analyzed, the percentage of

black victims decreased, but the raw number

of black victims still increased.

At least 317 total homicides were committed

in Chicago between Jan. 1, 2021 and June

22, 2021, according to a Chicago Sun-Times

database. In that same period last year, 295

murders were committed.

While black people represented 207 of the

murder victims in Chicago through the period

last year ending on June 22, 2020, they represented

a whopping 257 of the victims this

year, according to the Sun-Times database.

That means black people have been the victims

of roughly 81 percent of murders this

year while they were the victims in about 70

percent of 2020 murders.

“These are all painfully honest statistics and

it's even more important to dig further into the

data. The majority of the male black-on-black

crime variables are not only those youngsters,

with priors, and from impoverished communities,

but the other key unifying statistic that

few focus on is gang activity. In each one of

these categories, the lifestyle that promotes

consistent violent criminality is gang involvement

by its very nature. It's a business and

lifestyle in these neighborhoods. Young &

impressionable youth with no fathers around

have little hope to pursue higher education in

conjunction with gang recruiters pinpointing

their hiring tactics during childhood.

While one would be hard-pressed to locate

a study providing data that addresses these

specific issues it could be argued that the violence

in the music might be enhanced through

the use of the “N”-word in the music, especially

when there is a racial component. Perhaps

it could also be said that the use of the

word heightens one’s sense of anger, the degree

of, and desire to commit more violence.

Does the "N"-word, wielded by gangsters and

gun-toting thugs provoke them to kill or be

more violent? Probably not, they have likely

become desensitized to the word just as they

have to violence in general.

What if we substitute the negative word

“nigga” and inserted a word like “faggot” or

“Jew.” Just insert that one word so that the

song now says, “My daughter a G, she saw

me kill a Jew in front of her before the age of

two, and I’ll kill another jew too fore I let

another Jew do something to you” or remove

the word nigga from this lyric and say instead

“I don’t like faggots, I don’t like bit***s, I

don’t like nobody (nobody,

nobody)”

We seriously doubt that Harvey Mason Jr.

or the NAACP Image award committee would

condone any such lyrics, nor would the Black

program directors like Johnnie D. Glover and

Jay Alan at black music radio stations condone

and accept such music, it appears that

this music is worthy of airplay, recognition

and awards if it clearly only targets Black

people.

It seems that it is up to the Black community

to take the necessary steps to demand respect.

If you are opposed to music that calls for the

death of Black people and the ongoing degradation

of Black women, TURN IT OFF. If it is

being played on any given radio station,

What stands out the most looking at both

charts and knowing that 90% of the victims

are male is that a lot of young, Black men are

being killed in Chicago. No race comes even

close to overall deaths by homicide. Keep in

mind that based on 2010 Census numbers,

only 33% of Chicago's population was classified

as Black.


December 22-Januray 4, 4, 2022 Page 9

Proceeds to benefit the State Street Food Coop of Dearborn Homes




Watch BlackStar website for more

d e t a i l s a t h t t p : / /

www.blackstarproject.org or call 773

-285-9600.

$42 MIL WATER

ASSISTANCE

Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois

Department of Commerce and

Economic Opportunity (DCEO)

announced a new program available

to assist low-income Illinois families

experiencing economic hardship.

A new water billing assistance program,

the Low-Income Household

W a t e r A s s i s t a n c e P r o g r a m

(LIHWAP), provides $42 million in

shut-off avoidance for residents unable

to pay their water and sewer

bills. Residents in need of financial

s u p p o r t c a n v i s i t

www.helpillinoisfamilies.com for

more information on how to apply

for water and other assistance this

season. “Illinois is launching the Low

-Income Household Water Assistance

Program to help residents keep

up with their water and sewage bills,

avoiding utility shut-offs and ensuring

the roof over their head is also a

home,” said Governor Pritzker.

“Households are finding it difficult to

keep up with their utility bills, including

water and sewer bills." contact

1-833-711-0374. -

Chicago Football

Classic Award $200K

in Scholarships

The Chicago Football Classic has

partnered with several sponsors to

award $200,000 in scholarships at

Soldier Field. Unfortunately, there

will not be a game again this year.

Everett Rand, Larry Huggins and Tim Rand, founders of the Chicago

Football Classic - MG Media

However, it’s the 24th anniversary of

the Chicago Football Classic (CFC),

and their passion, activism, and mission

to serve as many students as

possible in the Chicagoland area

continues - in large part because of

the commitment and generosity of on

-going sponsors.

Corporate leaders throughout Chicagoland

have once again partnered

with the CFC to award $5,000 scholarships

to 40 area students. David

Dickens of Sherman Dodge of

Skokie, along with Ron Redd, Senior

Vice President of BMO Harris

Bank and Emma Asante with NBC

5 are long time partners and supporters

of the Classic. In 2020, CFC

honored 20 deserving students in the

Chicagoland area on the South and

West sides with $5,000 scholarships

and laptops to 13 Historically Black

Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

In 2021, CFC is excited to continue

their mission to support the educational

goals of disadvantaged youth

and ensure that those deserving

scholars are not deprived of the opportunity

to receive a higher education

from Historically Black Colleges

and Universities.

CFC is granting 40 students with

$5,000 scholarships to assist them

with continuing their education for

the 2021-22 school year. To learn

m o r e , v i s i t

www.chicgaofootballclassic.org or

contact Frances Jackson at 312-415-

3200. - Content Curated By MG

Media.

Mr. Thaddeus

Jones, Mayor of

Calumet City, conducted a

press conference on Thursday, December

16, at the Calumet City

City Hall to discuss the four-monthlong

audit of the Calumet City

Clerk’s Office. Upon his election

victory in Mayor 2021, Mayor Jones

promised the residents

of Calumet

City transparency.

This audit was

performed by the

accounting firm

of Benford Brown

and Associates,

LLC.

Immediately after Mayor Jones

(first African Mayor of Calumet

City) was sworn in, he ordered an

HAROLD L. BAILEY

OWNER AT……..

Bamani Obadele, “So..This thing Happened Today I made Amends and

Peace with a brother I publicly vowed to hate for the rest of my life.

@mazejackson said we are stronger together. This is what it look like

when Black Men can come together for a meeting to put their differences

to the side to strategize about the best way to serve Black People

and Black People Issues in this City and State. We are united now to

create the change we want to see. Here we come. Pictured: Bamani

Obadele, Tyrone Muhammad, Mark Carter, Maze Jackson, Von

audit of the Clerk’s Office to ensure

the reliability of the finances of the

City as he was unable to obtain adequate

details regarding the City’s

financial operations from the prior

administration. He was also seeking a

means to streamline and improve

spending and procurement practices.

Some findings INCLUDE: Revealed

s e v e r a l i n s t a n c e s

of Amazon purchases that do not

appear to be in accordance with the

City’s policies and procedures. The

documentation shows that items were

shipped to a former employee’s

home.

Findings discovered public works

employees using city

trucks, taking scrap items

from city property, and

selling them for cash. The

cash was not being deposited

into the city’s bank

accounts. Additionally,

The city experienced a

significant increase in

document shredding expenditures

in April 2021 compared to

April 2020. Documents appear to

have been shredded that were not a

part of the Clerk Figgs City Shredding

events and without notice and

approval.

The accounting firm is in the process

of reviewing municipal liens,

water liens, crime-free housing, cash

deposits, and real estate transfer

stamps. Results from the audit indicated

that internal controls processes

related to many of the abovementioned

operations are not operating

in compliance with the City’s

policies and procedures with strong

encouragement to the mayor and city

council.

UIC, CCC offer new

pathway for nursing

degree program,

The University of Illinois Chicago

along with City Colleges of Chicago

signed an agreement Friday, Dec. 17

at Malcolm X College, to offer dual

enrollment in their nursing degree

programs. With nursing shortages

projected to continue, the career outlook

for registered nurses is excellent

reported CCC. In order to help

meet the demand for a highly

s k i l l e d a n d d i -

verse workforce of nurses, CCC and

UIC have created a dual-admissions

pathway for nursing students.

Under the agreement, nursing

students can earn an associate degree

in nursing at CCC’s Malcolm X College

while at the same time, enrolling

in courses that are part of the fully

online UIC RN to BSN degree completion

program. The signing ceremony

which featured remarks from

UIC Chancellor Michael Amirdis and

MXC Chancellor Juan Salgado as

well as Illinois State Rep. Jawaharial

Williams and Alderman Mitts. UIC

College of Nursing Dean Eileen

Collins, MXC Dean of Nursing

Tammy Scott-Brand, and new nursing

graduates also offer remarks. For

info call: 773-620-6370.

808 East 79th Street

Chicago

Phone: (773) 891-5762


A new poll has Mayor Lightfoot

underwater in Chicago. According

to the Ogden Poll, only 26% of

Chicagoans want a second Mayor

Lightfoot term, 46% say no, and

28% are unsure. Chicago reporter

William J. Kelly, who has gone

viral for his tough, no-nonsense

questioning of Mayor Lightfoot

during her press conferences had

this to say:

"Mayor Lightfoot's lack of accountability

on Chicago crime has

come home to roost," Kelly says.

"Over and over again, she has been

dishonest on basic quality of life

issues that are important to Chicagoans

- even when confronted with

the facts. This poll is a wake-up

call to politicians like Lightfoot

who govern like they are above the

law - at least that is public perception,"

Kelly says.

But Kelly says that Lightfoot's

problems go beyond the hypocrisy

of the powerful. During Kelly's

contentious pressers with Lightfoot,

she has routinely lied about out-ofcontrol

Chicago crime rate. In fact,

at last week's press conference,

Lightfoot blasted Kelly, calling him

an extremist, warned him to behave"

or else and then falsely

claimed that Chicago's murder

solve rate was up. According to

Chicago Tribune, Chicago's clearance

rate is one of the lowest in the

nation.

Kelly reported he asked Mayor

Lightfoot if she had lost control of

the city. She angrily dismissed his

comments and said that crime was

down. The video of the heated

encounter has since received more

than 1.5 million views and more

than 35,000 comments - most of

them critical of Mayor Lightfoot.

Kelly's second video with Mayor

Lightfoot also went viral when she

denied that the George Floyd riots

had anything to do with race.

Mayor Lightfoot campaign office

did not return email questions

on the Ogden Poll.

Illinois Secretary of State Candidates, Aldermen David Moore (17) and Pat Dowell (3), attended

"Forum" by "Women's March Chicago", one of the sponsoring groups hosting the "Candidates

Forum" in Skokie, which was co-organized by the "Indo-American Democratic Organization, Asian

American Midwest Progressives, Young Dems of Illinois, Common Cause Illinois, Vote Assyrian"

and "Asian Americans Advancing Justice" - Delmarie Cobb / The Publicity Works joins a growing

field of candidates interested in succeeding retiring Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White that

already includes State Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Tinley Park, City Clerk Anna Valencia and former

State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

Redistricting is to effect every

citizen for the next Ten years. Aldermen

unveiled a proposed ward

map at City Council meeting showing

Chicagoans for the first time

what the city’s newest political

boundaries could look like. The

proposed ward map introduced into

City Council Dec. 1, 2021.

But City Council did not vote on

the map that was largely worked out

behind closed doors and repeatedly

delayed by political battles, increasing

the possibility of a contentious

referendum where voters would

decide on which map will be in

The City

Council map

showed the

34th ward

north from

the far south

side to

where the

2nd ward is,

then the 2nd

ward on the

near north

side of Chicago,

two

historic

Black wards.

place the next

decade

.Paper copies of

the map were

handed out at City

Will Crosby

Council Wednesday. A copy was

made available later in the day on

the city’s website, but it wasn’t clear

enough to show street boundaries.

Committee to Preserve Voting

Rights CPVR Director Will Crosby

said the Chicago city council has

denied access to the public to the

computer system that runs the redistricting

map and the software that

they give out that the public can use

online does not work.

“There is a misnomer that the

African-American population is the

only population that left Chicago.

Even though we are only 33% of the

city”. Reports are 80,000 Blacks

left Chicago in the past ten years.

Crosby says it is more like 26,000

left Chicago in the last ten years. In

contrast to Englewood which was

split up into six different wards

in 2010 .

The US census predicted that

there will an undercount 60

million families in the 2020

census.

Part Source: blockclubchicago



T

he real Christmas story is the story

of God’s becoming a human being

in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Why did God do such a thing?

Because He loves us!

Why was Christmas necessary?

Because we needed a Savior!

Why does God love us so much?

Because He is love itself (1 John 4:8).

Why do we celebrate Christmas each year?

Out of gratitude for what God did for us, we

remember His birth by giving each other

gifts, worshiping Him, and being especially

conscious of the poor and less fortunate.

Is Santa Claus real yes or no?

The short answer, in every way that matters,

is YES, Santa Claus is real! Not only is

Santa true, he is legendary! ... There is no

Santa greater than Santa!

Where did Santa Claus start?

By all accounts, his story begins in the

fourth century AD in what is now modern

-day Turkey. A man named Nicholas became

the bishop of a village called Myra. He

was later canonised, and soon became one of

the most popular saints in Christianity.

Is Santa still alive in 2021?

The answer is Santa is 1,751 years old. According

to legend, he was born in a small

Greek village in Turkey on March 15, 270

A.D. That makes him 1,751 years old in

2021.

What does Santa Claus have to do with

Jesus?

Santa Claus is a legend based mostly on the

life of Saint Nicholas, a real-life, historical

follower of Jesus Christ –a man who gave

generously to those in need and fulfilled the

Biblical command to love your neighbor.

Is Christmas Day actually Jesus

birthday?

The short answer is no. It is not believed

Jesus was born on the day Christmas is

globally celebrated. Instead, Christmas was

chosen as a convenient celebratory day on

the same day of a pagan holiday that celebrated

the winter solstice, according to The

History Channel

Where in the Bible does it say Jesus

was born on December 25?

Dec. 25 is not the

date mentioned

in the Bible as

the day of Jesus's

birth; the Bible is

actually silent on

the day or the

time of year when

Mary was said to

have given birth

to him in Bethlehem.

The earliest

Christians did

not celebrate his

birth.

Why is December

25th Jesus's

birthday?

The Roman

Christian historian

Sextus

Julius Africanus

dated Jesus' conception

to March 25 (the same date upon

which he held that the world was created),

which, after nine months in his mother's

womb, would result in a December 25 birth.

Where in the Bible does it talk about

Jesus birth?

The two accounts: Matthew and Luke

Only two of the four canonical gospels, Matthew

(Matthew 1:18-25) and Luke (Luke 2:1

-7), offer narratives regarding the birth of

Jesus.

Was Jesus born in June or July?

Astronomers have calculated that Christmas

should be in June, by charting the appearance

of the 'Christmas star' which the Bible

says led the three Wise Men to Jesus. They

found that a bright star which appeared over

Bethlehem 2,000 years ago pinpointed the

date of Christ's birth as June 17 rather than

December 25.

Is Jesus a Pisces?

With the story of the birth of Christ coinciding

with this date, many Christian symbols

for Christ use the astrological symbol for

Pisces, the fishes. The figure Christ himself

bears many of the temperaments and personality

traits of a Pisces, and is thus considered

an archetype of the Piscean.

Who prophesied the birth of Jesus?

To whom was the angel Gabriel sent to announce

the news that Jesus was about to be

born and to testify of the fulfillment of

Isaiah's prophecy? (Luke 1:26–31; Matthew

1:18–23.) How did Isaiah say Jesus would

come? (Isaiah 9:6; as a baby.)

What was the reason for Jesus

birth?

Read Hebrews 10:1–10. 4. To destroy the

works of the devil – In 1 John 3:8 we are

told that one of the reasons Jesus needed to

be born as a man, was so that He could destroy

the works of the devil.

What is a real name of Jesus?

Due to the numerous translations, the Bible

has undergone, "Jesus" is the modern term

for the Son of God. His original Hebrew

name is Yeshua, which is short for yehōshu'a.

It can be translated to 'Joshua,'

Did Jesus have a last name?

Jesus would have been known as Jesus, son

of Joseph. ... Christ is a title, not a last

name. Christ is the English form of the

Greek word, which means “Anointed One.”

Messiah is the English form of the same

word in Hebrew.

What was Jesus's religion?

Of course, Jesus was a Jew. He was born of

a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of

the world. All of his friends, associates, colleagues,

disciples, all of them were Jews. He

regularly worshipped in Jewish communal

worship, what we call synagogues.

What was the importance of Jesus

being born in Bethlehem?

According to the Gospels (Matthew 2; Luke

2), Bethlehem was the site of the Nativity of

Jesus Christ. Christian theology has linked

this with the belief that his birth there fulfills

the Old Testament prophecy of Israel's

future ruler coming from Bethlehem Ephrathah

(Micah 5:2).

What was the purpose of Jesus's

birth?

The birth of Jesus holds particularly special

meaning for us in that because Jesus overcame,

so can we. He was able to live and

endure this world in human form, teach

and love others, point them to the Father,

then conquered death, hell, and the grave.

Why did Jesus love us so much?

It is an important question for one simple

reason: Jesus told His disciples to love each

other in the same way He loved them. ... Jesus

focused his time and energy on God the

Father's will. Loving each other as Jesus

loves us includes a constant focus on following

God and His direction for our lives.

What is Santa's phone number?

(951) 262-3062

No stamps, no problem. It turns out that a

good old fashioned pencil isn't the only way

to get a hold of Santa Claus anymore. Now,

kids can reach the big guy in the North Pole

by phone! That's right, Kris Kringle has a

direct line: (951) 262-3062. One penny per

minute may apply to pay for Elfs labor.

What Is Jesus' Phone Number? -

No phone number needed; the only

combination we need is hitting our

knees, folding our hands, and pouring

out our hearts.

The true meaning of Christmas is

love. John 3:16-17 says, "For God

so loved the world that he gave his

one and only Son, that whoever believes

in him shall not perish but

have eternal life. For God did not

send his Son into the world to condemn

the world, but to save the

world through him." The true

meaning of Christmas is the celebration

of this incredible act of love.

Elle Tharp

Updated

June 26, 2020 612.9k

T

is the

season...

but is white Jesus the

reason? How did Jesus’ "skin

of bronze" turn into the widely

revised blue-eyed, blonde hair

version that we’ve grown accustomed

to seeing? And take

into consideration, Caucasus

are not really white, as the Native

Americans calls pale face.

Why Is Jesus

Depicted As Being

White

Whatever your religious affiliation,

it's widely accepted by historians

that Jesus, the man, did exist.

What hasn't been agreed upon,

however, is what Jesus looked like.

Since Jesus was a Galilean man

who was born and raised in the

Middle East, you would think that

the common first guess as to what

Jesus looked like would be a Middle

Eastern man. But nah. Somewhere

along the way, Jesus became

a Caucasian, white man, and many

Western Christians now dogmatically

protect this appearance. Considering

the long-documented history

of racism in Western civilization,

it isn't exactly shocking that

Jesus is so commonly thought of

and depicted as a white man. But

how exactly did this phenotypic

transformation happen? Like Jesus'

"Lost Years," the unknown has

created a vacuum for people to fill

however they like.

The Few Descriptions

Of Jesus In The Bible Contradict

Each Other

In general, the New Testament

gives little description of the appearance

of Jesus or anyone else

for that matter. The few descriptors

that do exist are hardly foolproof

evidence, as they describe Jesus in

some crazy, not-of-thisworld

terms.

In John's vision of Jesus in the

Book of Revelation: "The hair on

his head was white like wool, as

white as snow, and his eyes were

like blazing fire... His feet were

like burnished bronze... His face

was like the sun shining at its

brightest" (1:14-16). Obviously,

this depiction speaks to Jesus less

as a human being and more as

God, and it doesn't really state his

racial make-up other than as a

bronzed-footed, white-haired shiny

man with fire eyes.

Old Testament descriptions

speak of the coming Messiah

(which Christians believe to be

Jesus) and describe him as "fairer

than the children of men" (Psalms

45:2). And a verse in Lamentations

believed to refer to Jesus states,

"Her Nazarites were purer than

snow, they were whiter than milk,

they were more swarthy in body

than rubies, their polishing was of

sapphire: Their visage is blacker

than coal" (4:7-8). So, while purer

than snow, the Nazarites' visages

(AKA their faces) were black; does

this give you a clearer picture?



All those folks that were on 75th Street needs to be invited back

75

th Street; of all of the events of

2021. What was missed the real

story of 75th Street, the first Street in Illinois

that was voted in the House and the Senate as a

Black Wall Street District in 2008 lead by then

State Senator Donnie Trotter. Then 13 years ago

it was 90% Black owned, today maybe 60% of

about 110 businesses are Black owned. Sadly, it

may be the only business strip in the country to

have such a group of Black owned businesses.

When Chicago (South) Street Journal started

the Black Wall Street movement in 2007 there it

was opposition from then Alderman V. Lyle.

Even from then the late publisher of the Citizen

newspaper William Garth, and even the present

Alderman Sawyer, he questioned why we have

to have a symbol of “Black” at one of the Summit

meetings. (I agree to a point that they are

not country called Black, nor White).

However, well there is China Town, Lil Italy,

Korean town, Little Village of Chicago. They

have no problem with their business ethnicity

being identified. And there is not a Black business

in none of their business community. If the

alderman can relate to the New White Towns of the near

south and west side of Chicago where once Black folks lived

and had businesses as an example of no Black Wall Street,

fine. But that is not the case.

A community character is what guides the people in it, as

its economic business direction to make allies or adversary.

There is no Harold’s chicken in China Town. And most

likely never will be one. If it did happen, even a four year old

Asian child would ask their parent, “What the hell is Harold’s

Chicken doing in China Town?”

In the summer of 2021, there was a “Pop Up” gathering

reported about 1,000 African youth popped up on 75th

Street. None of them may have known that they were on the

first Black Wall Street in Chicago, and their conduct alienated

an entire generation community not approving of their

presence.

The quick popup from social media came to be like Tupac

appeared out of nowhere.

The Pop Up may have been pure, in the beginning. Pop-up

gatherings happens all around Chicago, “...The difference on

75th Street” Police Commander Roderick S. Watson stated,

“The moment they was a killing that made 75th Street different.”

It was no longer about Black youth partying on the streets

on 75th Street. A few of them jumped on police cars. One

female striped nude. It felt into the hands of a generation that

was not aware of the Black Wall Street purpose that lost

itself along the way sustaining and increasing Black businesses.

The Greater Chatham Initiative that includes 75th Street

launched in June 2016, back by corporate funds performs the

role of planning business strongholds; upon its beginnings it

had no reference of 75th Street being a Black Wall Street

District.

That Asian child in China Town knows what to expect and

respect what their future to be, with or without activist movements

like BLM, or Patriot Prayer, or Antifa, or the Proud

Boys, or a China Wall Street or Little Italy. African American

youth do not. As a people they were not programmed to.

Those youth needs to be invited back to 75th Street. This

time come with their dollars. It can be difficult to understand,

much less believe, - the day will come where Black

Wall Streets of America has been belittled, minds has been

poisoned and for the future without it. The generations to

come would question and condemn why the economics at

least in their own communities have not been claimed. Of

course it rest on the leadership that has not done its part. And

yes the government had a major part in it worldwide with the

federal law of E-B 5 early 1980 – Congress pass this law as a

Ron Carter

Publisher and Editor

key that help defuse the growth of Black businesses, and

aided others.

This chapter of 75th Street explores the disparities when

going to buy gas, food and liquor and no Black representation

behind the cash registrar.

So who have the influence to bring those Black youth

back 75th Street? Obama, Farrakhan, Jackson, the Mayor,

other elected officials. Or the youth themselves.

It has been a momentous year as far as politics, economics,

business, Covid, human rights and the youth are concerned.

Chicago Street Journal has been there for the last 28

years, every step of the way to document, suss out the facts,

and amplify the voices of those who are working to create a

better Chicago, and as the founder of Chicago Black Wall

Street. Many have taken on the name in some form in Chicago.

But our work is far from finished, and the journalism

of engagement we publish has never been more necessary for

the generations to come.

Ron Carter, Chair and founder

Chicago Black Wall Street

Letters to the Editor

Dear (Editor) Ron,

them directly about their hopes for the

Center.

Yesterday, I visited Jackson Park, the

future home of the Obama Presidential

Center, and surprised some of the Center’s

future neighbors.

Take a look. We can’t wait to bring

this Center to the South Side. For Michelle

and me, this project is about more

than building a gathering space and museum—it’s

an opportunity to bring jobs,

investment, and economic opportunity to

a neighborhood that’s given us so much.

But we also know that to be successful,

this project needs to not just be for the

community, it must be built in partnership

with the community.

That’s why, this week, I spent time

with local business owners at South Shore

Brew coffee shop and got to hear from

I also stopped by the Wolfpack youth

football team’s practice and talked to

some of the kids who use Jackson Park

every day. I came away certain that by

working together, we can build a space

that will act as an economic catalyst for

the community, create new jobs in the

neighborhood, and serve as a gathering

place for young people to learn, play, and

take action.

We’re so excited to break ground on

the Center this fall. When it’s completed,

we look forward to welcoming hundreds

of thousands of visitors to the South Side

and introducing them to the community

we love.

I hope you’ll check out more of my

visit to Chicago, then stay tuned for more

news about groundbreaking this fall.

— Barack



Dearborn Homeboy

Great time taping on on

Moody Radio's Urban

Praise with my good

friend Rev. Roy Patterson

discussing my new

book, THE OFFICIAL

GUIDE TO CHICAGO

GOSPEL MUSIC.

Get ready to go back, way

back. Even way, way back. Join Pastor

Mack Mason as he crisscrosses the gospel

city, sharing memories and personal insights

from his nearly five decades in gospel

music and on Chicago radio.

Over 300 pages with Photographs.

Pastor Mack Mason of Chicago, IL was

raised in a musical household, with his

mother and sister being accomplished musicians.

Around the age of 5, he began singing

with his siblings as the Mason Specias.

As a teenager, he began directing the

Youth Choir at his grandfather's church,

and also sang in State and National COGIC

choirs under both Kitty Parham and Dr.

Mattie Moss Clark. Later he sang with the

Billy Carson Singers, and also with Pastor

Maceo Wood's Christian Tabernacle Conc

e r t C h o i r .

He began broadcasting on August 1,

1976, at the age of 16 on WXFM, and is yet

being heard 44 years later, every Sunday

morning on WBGX. Pastor Mason has

performed on Gospel Television shows

such as Saturday Night Sing, Gospel City

Videos, and I'm Just Sayin.

In 1985, Pastor Mack Mason was called to

preach, and has ministered across the country,

as well as overseas.

He has appeared as a conference

speaker, and has authored numerous books.

However his love and passion for gospel

m u s i c r e m a i n s .

Pastor Mack Mason now pastors his late

grandfather's church - Greater Prayer Garden

COGIC in Chicago, IL. He is a proud

husband, father and grandfather. He enjoys

cooking, travel and reading.

Stoves, Washers and Dryer Sale $175.00

Huge Refrigerator Sale

Design you appliance package with hot brands such as Vikings,

Whirlpool, Kenmore, GE, & More!

Here at SunBird Appliances, we pride ourselves in providing our customers

with the best Reconditioned and Scratch and Dent appliances on the market!

We offer services designed to assist Property Managers, Investors,

Landlords, & Homeowners

On The 75th St. Black Wall Street District


Convention participants,

including President Clinton,

he has again expanded his

mission to empower our people

by introducing self preserving

opportunities with a

goal of creating a path to

entrepreneurship.

BEE is an acronym for

Building Economic Empowerment

and it is that vision

that brings him back home to

Chicago. He co-owns and

operates a mall in the south

west suburbs where he is

headquartered to serve the

greater Chicagoland area. He

has partnering in a warehouse

on the South Side of Chicago

for the purpose of starting a

business management and

tailoring academy that will

provide instruction for sewing

and selling in a retail environment.

Calvin, also an activist, has been hosting

a celebration entitled ‘MLK 50’ to show

appreciation for the life and sacrifice of Martin

Luther King Jr. The next event will be

held on April 2, 2022 . The date will commemorate

the 54th anniversary of King’s

assassination. BEE Manufacturing has designed

exclusive sportswear—MLK

Gear for the occasion that he

hopes everyone there will be

wearing! We will gather on

King Drive in our MLK Gear to

recognize our great leader!

His popularity in the apparel

business is second to his fame in the

‘Steppin’ dance craze where he is

known as “Taboo”. Search

‘Taboo Chicago Steppin’ ,

and you’ll find that he has

over 5 million hits on You

Tube!

Back in the day, the

dance was called ‘the Bop’

where one foot crossed over

the other one while moving

from side to side. He went to

a sock hop at Wendell Phillips

where he witnessed the innovation

of Slim and Romeo doing their version

of the dance. He was hooked!

Calvin attended Dunbar High School,

where he played on the basketball

team and also learned how to sew. He

was good on the court, that passion

was replace by tailoring and mastering

that dance! His friend, Bernard from the

Dearborn Homes, says “Calvin used to

play basketball in the playground with

tailor made suits on!”. Calvin and his

cut buddy the late Lil’ Mike used to

practice the dance together. They

would study James Brown and Fred

Astaire and develop their skills.

The turns were so rugged, they

would just practice with the

fellas!

The practice became known

as “Man On Man!” He met life

long friends in the Steppin’

circle, including Ken Bowie

from the Wentworth Gardens.

They were well known in the

projects and would compete

every week at a club in Roseland

called the Dungeon. It was

there that they encountered the

well known DJs Kirk Townsend

and the legendary Sam Chatman,

who coined the phrase Steppin’

while watching their innovative

moves! “Y’all not Boppin’, y’all Steppin’!”

Sam said.

The difference is that they were

moving forward and backward not

just side to side! Sam invited Taboo

to the West Side to compete.

The word got around that

the winner of the contest was

going to get stuck up! When

Taboo won, a well respected

personality named Willie Cage put a stop to

the stick up and said about Taboo, “That

dude is just too cold on the dance floor!”

Taboo became so popular on the West

Side that they claimed him for their own! He

has won Steppin’ contests across the country

and instructs classes in Michigan and Maryland.

He even taught Mayor Lightfoot how to

Step! Look for Taboo’s Steppin’ instruction

video to hit the market early

next year.

Cavin Jarrett kicked

off the MLK 54

campaign at the

South Loop Hotel

at 2600 S. State

St. around the

corner from the

D e a r b o r n

Homes, last November

27, 2021.

There he spoke to

the youth from the

heart because he

identifies with

them, he knows

their experiences,

and he wants to help them

stop the violence and

create economic empowerment!

Stay tuned for the

upcoming documentary

about his life!


CHICAGO – Emphasizing the

need to target the root causes of

violence by connecting youth

with opportunity, state Rep. La

Shawn K. Ford, D-Chicago, is

encouraging residents to hear

directly from area youth at

“Come Listen to Black Youth,”

a conversation about community

needs and opportunity scheduled

for Wednesday, Dec. 22 at

10 a.m. in the Thompson Center’s

auditorium.

“The violence our youth face

too often in our city is preventable,

not inevitable,” Ford said.

“We must all work together to

develop peaceful and productive

alternatives to violence.

One key element in reducing

violence involves developing

partnerships in communities

with at-risk people. Some

Black youth in Chicago are

putting themselves and our

communities in the line of fire,

which is why Black youth must

be listened to and supported to

protect their future and make

all our lives safer.”

Ford notes that many children in

Chicago are dealing with risk factors

that can lead to violence, including

past victimization, family

conflict, rejection by peers, drugs,

alcohol and lack of community

involvement. Depression, anxiety

and other health problems that can

State Rep. La Shawn Ford and Pastor Anthony Williams

teamed up before in addressing the Illinois-

Indiana border to discuss efforts to halt the flow of

illegal guns into Illinois.

Marquinn McDonald

Rep. La Shawn K. Ford

lead to mental health struggles are

also a topic of concern.

“Protective factors that can help

prevent youth violence include mentoring,

parental training and involvement,

non-violent conflict

resolution, building social skills and

reinforcing support systems in the

community,” Ford said.

“That’s why we are

coming together with

groups to be proactive in

saving Black lives in the

city and state.”

Wednesday’s event is

designed to give youth

an opportunity to share

their thoughts and concerns

on the challenges

they face as well as the

hopes they have for heir

future. As part of the

function, students will

have the opportunity to

tour the nearby James M.

Nederlander Theatre and

learn about career opportunities

in the entertainment

industry. Ford will

also take time Wednesday

to recognize athletes

and coaches from local

athletic organizations

Southside Wolfpack,

Ladye Wolves and The

Show Baseball.

State Rep. La Shawn K.

Ford will be joined by

Rev. Anthony Williams, and Marquinn

McDonald in the “Come Listen

to Black Youth: Listening to

Our Future”; Wednesday, Dec. 22;

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Thompson

Center Auditorium; 100 W.

Randolph St., Chicago.

DREAM OF SOLITUDE

As I laid my head down

And softly fell asleep

I drifted in a dream world

Of solitude and peace

The earth was hot and barren

With not a living soul around

My feet burned with fiery pain

As I walked along the ground

My throat was parched and very dry

And no water was anywhere

I ran and looked into the Sea

Just to find no water there

I looked and looked for my home

Nearly drove myself insane

Until I finally realized that

My search was all in vain

And to think I prayed for quietness

And a place alone to find

Now I ask over and over

Is this my peace of mind

I cried out loud in terror

As I jumped up out of bed

To find myself not alone

But in a dream instead


learned as a reporter, we kept attention

on Nancie’s disappearance. It

wasn’t easy. Nancie disappeared

not too long after Laci. While the

California woman was on the front

page of Chicago’s newspapers,

Nancie’s picture was buried near

the obituary section.

Reporters were sharing with me

that police were saying she

“walked away.” They also shared

Nancie’s case was getting coverage

only because of me. It wasn’t until

Nancie’s body was found that police,

news media, and most elected

officials took her disappearance

seriously. It’s interesting that some

elected officials are advocating for

a Missing Black Women’s Task

Force, but ignored my pleas when I

sought help for Nancie.

“Black Lives Matter” isn’t just a

slogan, it’s an alarm to see us as

human beings in every aspect of

our lives and under every circumstance.

The lives of White girls and

women are no more or less valuable

than those of Black girls and

women. Hopefully, this newfound

attention will help to equalize the

investigating and media coverage

in the disappearance of all women.

F A S T

Hours

(Mon—Sat)

9 am - 8 pm

(Sun)

9 am - 5 pm

So, no matter how cruel the world

Or the people that live within

Never will I ever Pray

To be alone again

From: Gloria Cummings Carter

Anthology of My Mind

We

Sell used

Top Line

Tires

D E P E N D A B L E



Activists march on City Hall to

d e m a n d a f a i r s h a k e

A highly qualified group of Black

Economic Development Activists

led by retired State Senator Rickey

Hendon, supporters and other subject

matter experts was be on hand to

speak up and demand justice, inclusion

and fairness.

In 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker

signed a gambling law creating a

Chicago casino, legalizing sports

betting and allowing large stadiums

like the United Center and Guaranteed

Rate Field to open sportsbooks.

This group of activists spoke out

city ordinance. That’s why Ald.

Walter Burnett (27th), whose ward

includes the United Center, introduced

a proposal this summer paving

the way for stadium wagers.

The ordinance stalled in a City

Council committee meeting earlier

this week as even allies of Mayor

Lori Lightfoot — who backs the

proposal — criticized the size of the

city’s would-be cut of 2% as too

small, especially without any commitments

to minority participation.

Black Economic Activists are looking

for substantive change in State

Law that is needed to help the effort

Members of Bally’s Chicago construction management team the Chicago Community Builder’s

Collective (CCBC) – a partnership between nine dynamic Chicago firms (left to right): Larry

Huggins of Riteway-Huggins Construction; Shon Harris of LiveWire, Inc.; Rozie Makhani of

SQN Associates, LLC; Jimmy Akintonde of UJAMAA Construction; Kelly Powers Baria of Powers

& Sons; Ernest Brown of Brown & Momen, Inc.; Melanie Jefferies of Millhouse, Inc.; Karrie

Kratz of Gilbane Building Company; and Miguel d’Escoto of d’Escoto, Inc.

When Bally’s decided to bid on

the opportunity to open a worldclass

casino in Chicago, their first

priority was making sure their proposal

was a reflection of the rich

history and heritage across Chicago.

So, they met with community organizations

as well as diverse business

owners and other Chicagoans

interested in being involved in what

will become its flagship casino

resort.

As a newcomer to Chicago but

certainly not new to the casino industry,

Bally’s decades-long years

of successful casino development

and ownership start with one primary

premise - a focus on the community.

Creating meaningful career

paths, empowering local businesses,

supporting community organizations,

and providing investment/

ownership opportunities are the

cornerstone of its success.

Recognizing the uniqueness of

the Chicago market, Bally’s Chairman

Soo Kim says, “This property

will be built, owned, and operated

by Chicagoans, with a focus on

minority and women investors,

contractors, suppliers, consultants,

and employees.” One key component

of the project’s $1.6 billion

budget is the company’s commitment

to equitable economic development

and investment. Its construction

management team is the

Chicago Community Builder’s Collective

(CCBC).

CCBC is a consortium of nine

successful local, minority-owned

firms. CCBC is a partnership between

Brown & Momen, Inc.,

d’Escoto, Inc., LiveWire, Inc.,

Milhouse Inc., Powers & Sons,

Riteway-Huggins Construction,

UJAMAA Construction, Inc. – all

MBE-certified firms – and SQN

Associates, LLC, a W/MBEcertified

firm, and Gilbane Building

Company. Bally’s seeks to not

only empower today’s business

leaders, but that of generations to

come.

UJAMAA President & CEO

Jimmy Akintonde says that a sense

of community and focus on empowering

future generations is what’s

most attractive to him about the

CCBC. “We’re all excited about this

collective, and this unique opportunity

with Bally’s Chicago,” explains

Akintonde. Bally’s met with civic

and business organizations like the

Chicago Urban League and the

Chicago Minority Supplier Development

Council (CMSDC) to share

its innovative vision with programs

such as “Bally’s Rewards/

Community Rewards.”

The program is a collaboration

between Bally’s and small businesses

in which casino visitors are

incentivized to visit small businesses

by using rewards points

earned at the casino. Bally’s approach

is a great revenue generator

for small businesses. Bally’s will

advertise the small business and

create an online store. To learn

m o r e , v i s i t

www.BallysChicago.com or contact

Diane Spiers at 609-377-4706

or ADORN Lewis-Mitchell at

alewismitchell@explorefcg.com or

Brinton Flowers at bflowers@explorefcg.com.

- Content

Curated By Bally’s Chicago

and mounted a fight against being

“squeezed” out of the opportunity to

fairly participate in the Sports Betting

indu stry in Chica go .

Protesting in front of Chicago City

Hall, time as it relates to minority

ownership in Sports Betting in Chicago.

Under the law — and with a $10

million state license fee — teams

can open their own betting windows

within a five-block radius of their

stadium. The Cubs announced plans

to open a sportsbook last year, and

all the city’s other major teams have

shown interest.

But all gambling is outlawed under

which failed. "Our hope is to help

Mayor Lightfoot in her good faith

efforts to give people of color a fair

chance to participate in yet another

lucrative industry in the city that is

actively blocking minority participation,”

Hendon said.

Hendon and his group are fighting

for minority sports betting ownership

beginning at a 10-block radius

of any stadium. Hendon is specially

qualified to take on such a fight as

(during his 18-year tenure in the

Illinois State Senate), he was the

Chairman of the Sub-Committee on

Gaming and a member of the Gaming

Committee.

CHICAGO–World Business Chicago

announced that, for the eighth

year in a row, Chicago leads the U.S.

in foreign direct investment (FDI)

according to the 2020 IBM Global

Location Trends report. The annual

report, which outlines the latest

trends in corporate location selection,

named Chicago the top North

American metro in foreign direct

investment projects.

“Chicago is a leader in the global

economy,” said Michael Fassnacht,

CEO & President, World Business

Chicago. “This ranking demonstrates

what we hear from companies

around the world — they see Chicago

as the city where their business

is best set up for success and growth,

where they can create jobs and economic

opportunities across the city.

Our work creating and sustaining

economic partnerships around the

world and growing our international

network ensures that Chicago will

continue to lead on the global stage

for many years to come.”


Boxville is an Enterprise Hub,

founded by Bernard Lloyd. Boxville

features enterprises in the

Food & Beverage and Creative

Economy sectors. While offering

community entrepreneurs accessible

spaces for building their enterprises,

our goal is to build a community

of business and social entrepreneurs

that will move our enterprises

— and our neighborhood —

forward.

Bernard’s civic efforts has been

focused on improving access to economic

opportunity. Boxville is an

example as each business is independently

owned but together have

created a community of commerce

like no other in the city.

The Boxville effort began in 2014

with a single shipping container —

the Bronzeville Bike Box. The Bike

Box offers neighbors and commuters

with bike sales and repair services,

meeting their needs for transportation

and community.

Boxville was born in 2017 out of

the overwhelming support of the

Bike Box concept with the addition

of 4 shipping containers and the recruitment

of 15 local businesses. It

quickly became a thriving weekly

market, doubling its footprint again

in 2018 with the addition of

Neighborhood Square, which provides

space for the community to

gather as well as a venue for cultural

celebrations and programming.

Since then, the development has

continued to grow. Today Boxville is

a year-round operation with 17 shipping

containers and the capacity to

host up to 20 enterprises on site.

Bernard drive is also on the

historic Forum building on

43rd and the L Tracks. Now,

after a four-decade hiatus,

Build Bronzeville is working

to bring back The Forum.

Renovations are underway.

Since 1897, The Forum’s

muscular presence at 43rd

Street, with the “El”, its distinctive

“Forum Hall”, and it’s six large retail

slots, made it a South Side Hub for

prominent performers, powerful

politicians, parties and partygoers,

and peddlers and patrons of all persuasions.

“A Black Wall Street Journey,”

next to the Boxville, a collaboration

between Build Bronzeville and Smart

Museum artist Rick Lowe. “A Black

Wall Street Journey” also serves as a

companion project to Lowe’s and the

Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Greenwood

Art Project, and honors the economic

resilience of Black Chicago and beyond.

Native Chicagoan, Blaise Vonbruchhaeuser

has created a website,

which has transformed and streamlined

the logistics industry.

In short, logistics is the transportation,

organization, and planning of

information from Point A to Point

B. In the past, the logistics industry

was very cumbersome and inefficient.

It involves multiple operations,

departments, and agents. And,

with the exception, of the small

category of “logistics veterans”, it

was very difficult to obtain the necessary

information to expedite the

logistics transactions.

“Logistics and trucking run the

economy, and minorities need to be

a part of this too”. In response, to

this lack of access, Blaise who

worked as a freight broker, created

and developed, Minorities

In Logistic

List. Com. The website

has consolidated all facets

of the trucking industry and

operates within all the U.S.

states and 525 American Cities.

Never before, has there been

one source, which addresses

every feature of the logistics

industry. “Eventually, Blaise

will also offer an app which will

provide global coverage. The

world can’t survive without logistics-

from transporting food to

bottled water, to building materials;

civilization is logistics. Vonbruchhaeuser’s

technology revolutionizes

the world, and opens the industry to

minorities, who were previously

limited within the industry.

C o n t a c t

bhall2083@gmail.com websitewww.minoritiesinlogisticlist.co

m Facebook trucking group-

Minority Women In Logistics

Blasie is the

granddaughter

of the late actor

Carl Wright

known for Big

Momma's

House , Barbershop

and Soul

Food

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APPLYING FOR

MINORITY

PROGRAM

AWARDS

Chicago State University, Northeastern

Illinois University, University

of Illinois Chicago, the Illinois

Innovation Network, and a number of

community organizations partnered

to submit an application for federal

funding from the National Telecommunications

and Information Administration's

Connecting Minority

Communities Pilot Program.

The $268 million grant program is

directed to Historically Black Colleges

and Universities, Tribal Colleges

and Universities, and Minority-

Serving Institutions for the purpose

of expanding broadband internet

access service and purchasing equipment

or to hire and train information

technology personnel. The program

was established by the Consolidated

Appropriations Act, 2021. The consortium

seeks $3.99 million in funding

to aid the community-driven

Digital Navigator program. The

Digital Navigator program addresses

digital inequity and exclusion in

communities that have endured historic

segregation and disinvestment.

The program is housed at Chicago

State and Northeastern Illinois. "We

at CSU are excited and honored to

work with our sister schools in Illinois

on this important grant opportunity

to undertake essential research

on the digital divide," said Mary

Daniels, Ph.D., Associate Provost for

Academic Innovation and Strategic

Initiatives at CSU.

the former GN/Illinois Service Federal Building (once Illinois Federal

Service Bank) at 87th Martin L. King is being targeted as the

African America Community Trust wealth center.

The African America

C o m m u n i t y T r u s t ,

charging to be the

leader in new financial

innovative and disruptive

products for community

empowerment,

will re-purpose the former

GN/Illinois Service

Federal Building at 87th

Martin L. King Drive to

its unique Community

Financial Inclusio n

Wealth Center and Collaboratory.

ISF, the last blackowned

bank based in Chicago

changed hands in 2016 to GN,

followed by closing the branch on

87th and King Drive. The other

Black owned financial institution is

the South Side Federal Credit Union

on 54th and Wentworth.

Many black-owned banks have

struggled to stay afloat in recent

years. There are now fewer than 20

of them in the country.

“It’s time for the Black Conscience

Community to step up,

reform and rid our community

of social and economic ills and

have the greatest financial impact

in the community that

America has ever seen,“ stated

Mr. Derric Price, President of

t h e C o m m u n i t y T r u s t .

Now let’s look at the Black

community today, our homeownership

is down to 37%,

Whites76%. We plan to increase

homeownership rates to 65%.

Before the pandemic, 1.6 million

Illinoisans lived in poverty,

with 739,000 living in deep poverty.

Today, in Illinois 1 of 3

Blacks and Hispanics live in

poverty.

“Under “our system” this is a

right, and not just checking accounts,

but the total wealth

building functions and access,

to financial planning advisors

which is usually reserved for

athletes, and wealthy elite.

Price said the Center is to give

the community an alternative to

the traditional American bank

debt-cycle system. “We are the

one-stop shop to reduce your

loan debt, reduce your loan payment,

build wealth, set-up retirement

planning, establish

generational wealth transfer,

and increase community econ

o m i c e m p o w e r m e n t .

The Center will offer a “Free

Financial Check-up”.

All “foreclosures are eliminated”,

because the monthly

payment comes from our payment

system not the borrower.

It’s a win-win for the borrower,

because borrower knows

Mr. Derric Price, President of the Community

Trust in leading the efforts for

the financial center say, “I expect Black

crime in Chicago to drop by 50% once

we get the Center open.”

the payment will be made ontime

in case of payment difficulties,

the lender is receiving

payment on time of behalf of the

borrower. The borrower’s credit

becomes impeccable, on time

every month, and the community

benefits because of increase

savings, wealth, local shopping

and the recycling of community

dollars. “It’s a win-win for the

banks, they don’t lose in our

model, the borrower still has the

debt obligation but with less

stress.” Said Price.

STUDENTS LOANS: Student

loan debt is being added on our

system. Any student loan below

$100,000, the payment will be

$35 a month,

In fact, Governor Pritzker

should promote anyone working

in Illinois with student debt, it

would be converted to the Illinois

(2)-two-factor” said Price.

We have the financial exchanges

in Illinois to get it done.

CHICAGO

PHILANTHROPY STEP-UP

Price said all Chicago and

National banks that are interested

or investing in the community

can be represented at the

Center. Opening support from

donors, the Chicago Philanthropy

Community, and City,

State, “We are accepting donations

to pay for the $2 Million

building and programs.” said

Price.

“I expect Black crime in Chicago

to drop by 50% once we

get the Center open. We will

introduce our programs, the

Community Corps of Engineers

TM , and Community Millionnaire

TM, designed for young

adults. The Black community

crime and moral failure problems

are solved quickly, by introducing

moral and spiritual

knowledge, high expectations,

community suasion, awareness,

and community unity” said

Price.

Making

Illinois

Affordable

In recent years, Illinois has lost

close to a quarter million residents

due to lack of economic opportunity

and the high cost of living; unfunded

liabilities, such as the pension crisis,

have devastated the state budget and

Illinois has the

second highest

property taxes in

the country.

Quite frankly,

Illinois is in

crisis.

The Illinois

Property Relief

Task Force Citizen

Advisory Coalition (“The Coalition”)

has been tirelessly advocating

on behalf of Illinoisans for the past 2

years seeking solutions to the Illinois

property tax debacle. The Coalition’s

progressive report (https://

bit.ly/PropertyTaxReliefCovid19)

identifies strategies to reform the

Illinois tax system and provides the

basis for Proposition 2022.

Proposition 2022 can be a vehicle

to provide Illinois property owners

with the much needed tax relief.

Proposition 2022 is comprised of 3

pillars designed to save our state

from financial peril.

This strategy alone, according to

the Democratic Report issued by

Governor Pritzker’s Property Tax

Relief Task Force, will save taxpayers

60-72% off their tax bill.

Prior to the 1970s, revenue for

schools and municipalities were

generated by an advalorem tax on

personal property. Leading up to the

1970 Constitutional

Convention,

there was a movement

to abolish

such a tax and the

business community

took this fight

all the way to the

Illinois Supreme

Court. To summarize, in a decision

rendered on 1/01/1971, the high

court ruled the ad valorem tax on

personal property as unconstitutional

and directed the General Assembly

to enact legislation to establish a

statewide income and/or sales tax to

compensate for the loss revenue.

Instead, the General Assembly

shirked its responsibility and placed

it on the backs of Illinois taxpayers.


$300 MILLION FOR

ILLINOIS RENTERS

AND LANDLORDS

Building on Illinois’ COVID-19 support

response for Illinois renters and

landlords, the Illinois Housing Development

Authority announced that

applications are now open for the second

round of the Illinois Rental Payment

(ILRPP) program, which Governor

JB Pritzker announced on October

27.

The reopening of ILRPP will provide

an additional $297 million to renters

and landlords in an effort to prevent

evictions and keep families safe and

secure while they regain their financial

footing. It is the third major housing

relief initiative in response to the pandemic

in Illinois, with the state executing

the nation’s best assistance program

in 2020.

Applications will be accepted

through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 9,

2022, at illinoishousinghelp.org. The

additional ILRPP funding is expected

to assist more than 32,500 Illinois

households. “I came into the governor’s

office with a promise to rebuild

and revitalize Illinois’ social services

sector. That begins with doing everything

possible so Illinoisans can find

an affordable home and stay there,”

said Governor Pritzker. “Even with all

the challenges of the pandemic, we are

delivering on that promise.”

For more information and updates on

the program, visit illinoishousinghelp.org

or contact Amy Lee at

alee@ihda.org.

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and

Chicago Department of Housing

(DOH) Commissioner Marisa Novara

joined City and community

leaders to announce

more than $1 billion

in affordable housing.

In 2021, the City of

Chicago made unprecedented

investments

for affordable

housing creation and

preservation through

the Chicago Recovery

Plan and Mayor

Lightfoot’s 2022

budget.

The City reported

as a result, DOH is

more than doubling

developments awarded

and units built over

the 2019 Low-Income

Housing Tax Credit

(LIHTC) round: 11

developments, 1,083

units, and $398 million

in 2019 vs. 24

developments, 2,428

units, and $1 billion

in 2021. "Investing in

affordable housing is

Mayor Lightfoot

Ald. Byron

Sigcho-Lopez

(25th)

a critical component to creating an

equitable, strong city," said Mayor

Lightfoot. "I am thrilled that we've

been able to expand our investments

in affordable housing to

move us closer towards that vision

for our city. I look forward to seeing

these developments come to

life and provide more affordable,

safe housing options on our South

and West Sides."

Mayor Lightfoot also announced

that the City is

acquiring more than six

acres of vacant land at 18th

and Peoria that will be used

for the creation of affordable

housing in Pilsen. This

is the single largest parcel

of vacant developable property

in Pilsen. "Today's

announcement has been

more than six years in the

making with the people of

Pilsen standing shoulder-toshoulder,

demanding affordable

housing, and that

collective fight was for the

social fabric of an entire

community that stretches

beyond this intersection,"

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez

(25th) said. "Thanks to our

city and to our community,

this is how we stop displacement

together." The 24

selected LIHTC developments

reflect DOH’s commitment

to conduct the Department’s

work through a racial

equity lens.

A list of the 51 proposals received

can b e fo u nd at

www.chicago.gov/qap. Renters

and landlords can apply by visiting

Chicago.gov/renthelp

Welcome to the South Side Community FCU

We are a federally charted, community-owned and operated, not-for-profit financial institution

that invests 100% of our deposits in people. We help them to save money, build credit,

purchase homes and grow their businesses.

REMITTANCES

SSCFCU offers wire transfers at a

cost of $20.00

BILL PAYMENT

SERVICES

An online automated service to pay

household bills (utility, rent) will be

available soon.

DEBT

CONSOLIDATION

LOANS

Low-interest rate debt consolidation

loans up to $5K.

CREDIT

ENHANCEMENT

SSCFCU provides one-on-one credit/

financial counseling to help

you improve your credit score. We

offer low-interest rate credit builder

loans for new and existing members.


Rep. Ford,

Push Trade

School

Investment


CHICAGO – As part of efforts

to emphasize the need to reinvest

in trade schools, state Rep. La

Shawn K. Ford, D-Chicago, will

lead a joint hearing of the House

Appropriations-Higher Education

Committee and House Higher

Education Committee this Monday,

Aug. 23 at 10 a.m. virtually

and in-person at the Bilandic

Building in Chicago.

Ford believes that our traditional

educational system leaves

too many people behind and

locks them out of the mainstream

economy. Therefore, we must

connect them to new opportunities

that give people hope and can

end the ongoing violence in Chicago.

"Just in the last week, I was

able to tour an aviation trade school

in Chicago – the Aviation Institute

of Maintenance – that trains mechanics

for United, American,

Southwest, and also meet with an

Illinois trade school – Escoffier

School of Culinary Arts – which

is headquartered in Schaumburg

and trains chefs and culinary professionals,”

Ford said. “Trade

schools should be a foundational

part of our education system, opening

doors for young adults to pursue

well-paying careers in demand.”

Ford notes that Illinois had a

long tradition of effective vocational

schools, including Chicago’s

Washburne Trade School, which

served to train thousands of skilled

workers through a public-private

partnership with public educators,

building contractors and trade unions.

Monday’s hearing will discuss

the possibility of how Illinois can

reinstitute trade schools and reengage

young adults to consider a

trade career. Representatives from

area unions are expected to speak at

the hearing.

“While college can be a tremendous

path for many, it doesn’t

have to be the only way to have a

successful future,” Ford said.

“There is a need for a renaissance

of trade schools here in Illinois, and

it’s time we begin to invest in this

economic generator that will profoundly

impact communities across

our state.”

To follow the committee

online, please visit https://

ilga.gov/houseaudvid.asp.

Send Resume to: Chicagostjournal@aol.com

Call 773 595 5229

Before the Illinois Lottery there was the

“King of Kings: Chasing Edward Jones”

The unique documentary a crowdfunding

campaign has been launched that delves into

the history of segregation and the fight for

power in Chicago during the 30s and 40s.

Film director Harriet Marin Jones (Abelart

Productions) documentary “King of Kings:

Chasing Edward Jones” the untold story of

one of the most prominent, yet elusive African

American figures of the 20th century. As director

and producer Jones has spent the past

10 years gathering documents and interviews

about her grandfather, Edward Jones, a man

who built an empire on an illegal numbers

game, known as Policy, which went on to

b e c o m e t h e S t a t e l o t t e r y .

Many illustrious personalities crossed paths

with the most famous Policy King of all

times; among them Josephine Baker, Duke


Film director

Harriet Marin

Jones to

produce film

on her grandfather,

Edward

Jones

Ellington, Billie Holiday,

Bojangles, Frida Kahlo,

Joe Lewis, and Quincy

Jones (whose father

worked for Edward Jones).

Edward Jones' life was and remains an

inspiration.” says Harriet Marin Jones. “As his

granddaughter, I have access to extraordinary

pictures and documents enabling us to unveil

the compelling story of how he managed to

build an empire and then lose control. Edward

Jones’ race made him controversial to many

who could not tolerate that an influential and

wealthy African American continue to prosper.

Before falling into oblivion, he set an

example, by supporting his community, helping

to create thousands of jobs, and opening

m a n y d o o r s f o r t h e A f r i c a n

A m e r i c a n s o f C h i c a g o .

Accompanied by Debbie Allen (Executive

Producer), Michel Fessler Academy awardwinning

screenwriter) and Bruno Coulais (a

multiple award-winning composer), Harriet

Marin Jones is launching this crowdfunding

campaign to not only raise funds, but also to

raise awareness about her documentary and

her grandfather’s extraordinary narrative.

“Crowdfunding on Kickstarter will allow each

and every participant to personally own a bit

of this significant untold story.”

More on Edward Jones: KINGS The

True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings

and Numbers Racketeers An Informal

History by Chicagoan Nathan Thompson

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Krunch Time Headline

New Year’s Eve Set

for State Street Food Cooperative

Krunch Time Production (KTP) will be highlighting at

the Chicago South Loop Hotel for United Production for

New Years Eve Gala. Also part of the extravaganza will

be Javon Watson DJ King George, The New Reflections,

Aronda Simpson, The KTP Band, Special Guest:

Kards and Rob Willis. KTP is live every Monday at

Ques lounge 4469 s Broadway 8.00 to 12.00 come to

see your favorite Entertainers perform . Great food and

Drinks special guest.

Ye is West

Months after Kanye West filed paperwork to change his

name, his wish was granted. A Los Angeles judge

signed off on the petition, and his name is no longer

Kanye Omari West but 'Ye', with

no middle or last name.

As for why he chose Ye, the

"Runaway" singer has long held

that nickname.It's even the title of

his eighth studio album. During a

2018 interview promoting Ye, he

said he connected to the biblical

significance of the moniker. "I

believe "ye" is the most commonly

used word in the Bible, and in the

Bible, it means ''you.'' "So I'm you, I'm us, it's us" he

stated.

KTP members are, (not in order) James Edwards Brian Williams Charles

Kimble Glover Washington. Slyvester Nettle Tom Hayes Tyrone Williams

"Shabba-Doo" Quinones

produced dance workshop

master classes in

Poland, Russia, Sweden,

Rome, Japan, United

Kingdom, and his hometown

of Chicago,

Quinones created his

own personal dance

style known as "Shway",

" because of his impact

on the world of street

dancing, a form of Street

dancing known as

"BREAK DANCING" has

been approved as an

Olympic Sport for the

2024 Paris Games;

It

appears

crime plays.

Chicago’s R.

Kelly may be

trapped in prison, but “I

believe I can fly” and a slew

of his other hit singles are flying

and surging in popularity following

his conviction on sex trafficking

charges.

The disgraced singer’s album

sales have jumped a whopping

517% since a New York jury

handed down their guilty verdict

on Sept. 27, according to Rolling

Stone.

Kelly, 54, was found guilty of

sexual exploitation, bribery, racketeering

and sex trafficking involving

five victims. He is now facing

the prospect of life behind bars.

Many may have guessed that the

crimes would cause a cancellation

of Kelly’s classic tracks, but the

opposite has occurred.

In addition to the spike in album

sales, streams of the R&B

crooner’s tunes are also up.

From Sept. 27 and Oct. 3 — the

week following Kelly’s conviction

— his “on-demand audio streams

were up 22%,” while his “video

streams were up 23% compared to

the previous seven days.”

And while the verdict prompted

a pronounced spike in streams, his

music has been well-played

throughout the entirety of 2021.

Adolfo "Shabba-Doo"

Quinones Day in the

City of Chicago

Adolfo Quiñones known professionally as Shabba Doo,

was an actor, dancer, and choreographer of African American

and Puerto Rican descent. Quiñones is perhaps best

known for his role as Orlando "Ozone" in the

1984 breakdancing film Breakin' and its sequel, Breakin' 2:

Electric Boogaloo. He was born and raised in Cabrini Green

housing projects and saw dancing as an outlet which led him

and his dance partner sister Fawn

Quinones to Soul Train.

Shabba-Doo passed away on December 30, 2020, cause

of death was clogged arteries. He was 65 years old.

"It was even more important now that Shabba-Doo has

left this earth to continue the plans of getting the holiday

resolution passed" said Mother Diva, former journalist for

Chicago St Journal. Alderman Walter Burnett Jr of the 27th

Ward and Alderman Daniel La Spata of the 1st Ward passed

the resolution through Chicago City Council. A celebration

and reading of the holiday resolution was held on what

would have been Shabba-Doo 66th Birthday on May 11,

(Godfather of Street Dance Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones

Day in the City of Chicago) on Division and Halsted on the

grounds were Shabba-Doo grew up in Cabrini Green building

1230 Burling. Break Dancers, Poplockers, and a Graffiti

Artist joined in the celebration. KFC was served as a joke

reference to when Don Cornelius would pay the Soul Train

Dancers with Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Shabba-Doo is one of the original founding members of

The Lockers.

He went on to become the Bob Fossi of Street Dance and

also as the Godfather of Street Dance.

He was the choreographer and dance consultant for

Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bette Midler and has also

worked with Frank Sinatra. He would return to Chicago and

host dance workshop to give back to his community.

Mother Diva's House an internet news entertainment web

series led by Valencia Dantzler aka Mother Diva interviewed

Shabba-Doo for the 50th Anniversary of Soul Train

in 2020. In the interview they discussed Mother Diva's desire

to pay it forward to get a holiday resolution honoring

Shabba-Doo since the City of Chicago honored Mother

Diva with her own holiday (APRIL 16, 2019 is named

Madam Ambassador of House/EDM Day in The City of

Chicago.

He will also be honored with a street sign in 2022 in Chicago

1st Ward where he attended elementary school and

acknowledged at the Olympics in 2024 breakdancing is now

an official sport.


Last Man Standing' Steppin Up for the Grocery Store

“WE are with

you!!”

Steppin has been a

culture for former residents

of the Robert Taylor

group of men that grew up

in what was know as ‘Da

Hole’ (53rd and State

Street. However, banding

together from being 11

and 12 years old, the boys

to men came up in 2015 to

form Last Man Standing

Association (LMSA) social

club, from Steppin to

bonding together how

their lives have change

since living in public

housing and the people

they have known living in

them.

They are now in their late 60’s.

as they stepped up to declare in

support of the Dearborn Homes

drive to secure a Grocery Store for

Naroy Carter, founder and president of Last Man Standing

Assoc. with Mimi Johnson and his brother Ron Carter,

publisher of CSJ and of the State Street Food Coop, at the

Last Man Standing Steppers set at Room 43.

the Douglas community targeting

Dearborn Homes. “We are with

you” declared Naroy Carter, presid

e n t a n d f o u n d e r

pointing out, “We also

share the history of being

under served and

overlooked in the growth

of Chicago in parity to

others. So we share the

potential growth this

State Street Food Cooperative

can have for the

present and the future of

an example of community

self-determination

with many friends and

acquaintances in common”.

LMSA was present at the

State Street Food Cooperative

on Saturday

October 23 at the Chicago

South Loop Hotel where they

gave support for the SSFC..

Naroy Carter brother of Ron

Carter of CSJ said “Yes we are

Ye ‘Kanye West’ , Drake’s ‘Free Larry Hoover’

Benefit Concert to Stream On Amazon

SHOW WHICH SUPPORTS IMPRISONED GANGSTER DISCIPLES CO-FOUNDER

steppers. However as our sponsorship

of social and entertainment for

the younger people and anyone who

wants to better their lives”.

“However, this initiative of

Dearborn Homes will be a total

compliment of residents present and

past coming joining with Dearborn

Homes. As the last public housing

high raise standing (Dearborn

Homes as a hictoric landmark

statue).

“We stand with Dearborn

Homes with its landmark status. We

are highly impressed by their dedication

and integrity to make this

happen”.

Steppin with this campaign with

unreserved recommendations for all

Chicago and Steppers and the Chicago

Black Wall Street thoughtful

demonstration with the responsibility

and respect to lead this effort.

“This is our next move in solitary

for the food cooperative for our

organized pledges and money.

For those of us who are still here

we have made a decree, our motto,

“Committed To Unconditional Love

Until The Last Man Is Standing.”

Last Man Standing Association

(Robert Taylor ‘Da Hole’)

Amazon produced

a livestream Ye

‘Kanye West’ and

Drake’s “Free Larry

Hoover” benefit

concert

The $200 ticket

concert, which was

broadcast Dec. 9th at

Los Angeles’ Coliseum,

it was meant

to advocate for

prison reform and for

the release of Hoover,

the Gangster

Disciples co-founder

who is currently

serving multiple life

sentences. One attendee

stated the only

thing they could hate on is Ye & Drake not mentioning

Larry Hoover at all enough. The concert

will benefit advocacy groups including Hustle 2.0,

Ex-Cons For Community And Social Change and

Uptown People’s Law Center.

The special is also significant because the rappers

squashed their long-running beef just last month with

the help of music executive J Prince. West previously

said that the show was an effort “not only bring

awareness to our cause, but to prove to people everywhere

how much more we can accomplish when we

lay our pride to the side and come together.”

“Kanye and Drake have spent their careers pushing

boundaries and defining culture, and we’re excited to

give fans around the world a front-row seat to this

concert,” Tim Hinshaw, Amazon Music’s head of hip

-hop and R&B, said in a statement.

Tyrone Muhammad of the “Thank you to J. Prince,

Kanye West, Drake, Amazon and Social Change for

honoring and acknowledging Ex-Cons for Community

and Social Change - ECCSC for the work we do

in The Rollingstone.com article. We will be screening

the concert live from our Ex-Cons for Community

and Social Change ECCSC page. "It's going to

take us to save us."

In every neighborhood, there is

a place where people gather. In

the North Kenwood and Hyde

Park area, that place is Norman’s

Bistro, a distinctive restaurant

that reflects the charm

of its surroundings and provides

residents with a welcoming

place in which to dine, socialize,

and relax.

Bistro Location & Hours

1001 East 43rd Street, Chicago, IL 60653-3006

(Street Parking Available)

Open Wednesday thru Sunday 3pm to 10pm

ROOM 43 • THE EVENT

VENUE

is a fully customizable space

and the perfect venue your special

event needs. This 9,000

square foot facility features two

bi-level event suites of beautiful

open space, which have the

capacity for up to 450 guests.



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This imagery is most likely meant in a figurative sense,

but it gives cause for misinterpretation of the literal image

of Jesus. And these descriptions even change depending on

the version of the Bible you read.

ROMAN ARTISTIC DEPICTIONS BE-

CAME MAINSTREAM

By the 5th century, with Roman Emperor Constantine's

conversion to Christianity, Jesus was all the rage, and artistic

depictions began to flourish in the Roman Empire.

The classic representation of Jesus today - as a white

man with longish brown hair, a beard, and a halo - became

prolific under Constantine. As the artwork was mostly

being created in Rome, it's likely that they painted their

Messiah as appearing similar to themselves, with European

features and lighter skin, to deepen their own connection

to him.

Artists Had Numerous Incentives

To Portray Jesus As

White

While Popes weren't the ones painting

the pictures, artists during this time

could've faced some dark consequences

for going against the Church and its

accepted depiction of Jesus. For most

starving artists, compromising in their

rendering of Christ certainly beat out

getting burned for heresy.

In addition, artists would want to

actually sell their artwork, which would

have been difficult if they strayed from

the popular and mainstream image of

White Jesus. Having one agreed-upon

image of the savior helped to unify the religion and

worked as proof against the nay-sayers.

Documents Of Questionable Origin Began

Describing His Appearance In The

Middle Ages As Christianity became acceptable,

and then even popular, people realized they didn't

have any true physical renderings of their savior,

Jesus Christ. So they did what people do best and

started making stuff up.

WHITE JESUS IS MORE

OPPRESSIVE

So, at this point, you might be saying to yourself: don't

other racial and ethnic groups of Christians create representations

of Jesus that look like themselves? Aren't there

Black and Korean versions of Jesus? Why all the focus

and criticism of White Jesus? If you're asking yourself

these kinds of questions, you're right - to a point. Undoubtedly,

representations of Jesus get created in the likenesses

of the groups who worship him; people have a way of

liking to see themselves in their deity. The big difference

is that Black and Korean Jesus aren't as oppressive as

White Jesus; they haven't been used as a tool of suppression

throughout history.

According to the scholar Francesca Ramsey, the "pure"

whiteness of Jesus plays into the longstanding "narrative

of dark skin people being bad, thus needing to be tamed or

killed in order to confirm to the good, or white, standard."

Added to that is the fact that, during slavery, Christianity

was used as a tool of oppression and a justification for

wrongdoing. Black and Korean Jesus simply don't carry

that historical baggage, and they definitely aren't as widespread.

Whiteness Is

Associated

With Purity,

And Jesus

Was Pure

So…The color

white is frequently

symbolic of purity in

the Bible. Jesus is frequently

referred to as

"the lamb of god," and

the holy spirit is often

depicted as a white

dove. This long-lasting

association between

the color white and

goodness/purity could be part of the reason Jesus

was depicted as white.

Or, alternatively, it could explain a larger misunderstanding

of interpreting figurative whiteness from

the Bible as a literal light skin tone. Anyone can

have a conscience so pure that it's white like snow,

and it doesn't necessarily mean their racial appearance

is white. The connection between the color

white and purity has long been misused to justify

racism and slavery.

White Jesus Was A Necessary

Tool For Slavery. Slavery was built on the

premise that only certain racial groups (the white one)

possessed higher-order faculties like morality. Under this

way of thinking, Black Africans had souls somewhere

beneath their "heathen" behaviors and exteriors, and it

became Europeans' "Christian duty" to convert them.

White Jesus was an essential tool in this fight for the souls

of the slaves. As the scholar Francesca Ramsey points out:

"white supremacy" was "used in Christianity to colonize

and control before and during slavery," and Jesus represented

whiteness, purity, and European superiority; a more

Israeli-looking Jesus simply wouldn't have worked in the

same way.

Biblical scholar Christena Cleveland adds: "By negating

his true identity as a dark-skinned, oppressed minority,

slaveholders were better able to justify the master-slave

hierarchy and forget Jesus’ ministry to set the oppressed

free (Luke 4:18)."

A forged letter from one Publius Lentulus (circa 14-

37 CE) to the Roman senate claims to give a physical

description of Jesus, saying he is tall, wavyhaired,

rosey-cheeked, and blue-eyed. The only

problem is that there's pretty much no way this letter

was written at the time it claimed to be, as there was

no such Lentulus during this time period, and it includes

many phrases and references that place its

creation sometime around the 13th century.

Several other supposed ancient descriptions of

Jesus arose during this time, but, like the Lentulus

letter, they have been dated to the Middle Ages,

when artistic depictions of Jesus would have already

become commonplace and influential.

The Nazis Claimed Jesus

Was Aryan

The

image of white

Jesus was initially

popularized

by Europeans

in the Middle

Ages to support

their own

political and

racial agenda

against Arabs.

And since then,

it has similarly

been misused

for racial bias.

In the 19th

century, folks

tried to make

Jesus even whiter. The idea that Jesus was Aryan, or

specifically Nordic, arose in accordance with antisemitism.

Scholars attempted to separate Jesus from

his Jewish roots, which culminated in the Nazi ideology

of "Positive Christianity." The racially charged

argument posited that there was a religious Judaism

separate from an ethnic or racial Judaism. Theories

also claimed Galilee (where Jesus was from) was a

non-Jewish region speaking an Indo-European language,

which has been widely debunked.

Mainstream Media Continues

To Portray Jesus As White.

The US has adhered to the not-so-grand tradition of white

-washing Jesus in film and television by exclusively casting

white actors as Christ. In the 20-something films made

about Jesus throughout the 20th century, white actors have

almost exclusively been cast as Christ. It wasn't until the

2015 National Geographic mini-series Killing Jesus, that a

Middle Eastern actor (Lebanese actor Haaz Sleiman) was

cast as Jesus in a major English-language film.

Read full story https://www.ranker.com/list/how-jesusbecame-white/elle-tharp

25 pges vol 28 no 1 12-22-21

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