Data News Weekly

www.ladatanews.com December 9 - December 15, 2023
National News
Page 7
Congressional Leaders Advocate for
Rosa Parks Day Federal Holiday
Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior
National Correspondent
As the nation approaches the
68th Anniversary of Rosa Parks’ historic
arrest, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell
of Alabama’s 7th District, along
with Congressional Black Caucus
(CBC) Chairman Steven Horsford
and Representative Joyce Beatty,
held a press conference on Capitol
Hill to rally support for H.R. 308,
the Rosa Parks Day Act. The proposed
legislation aims to designate
December 1st as a federal holiday
in honor of Rosa Parks, recognizing
her pivotal role in the Civil Rights
Movement.
December 1, 1955, marked a
turning point in American history
when Rosa Parks, a courageous
African American woman, was arrested
in Montgomery, Alabama,
for refusing to surrender her bus
seat to a White passenger. Her act
of defiance ignited the Montgomery
Bus Boycott and became a
Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks
catalyst for the broader struggle for
Civil Rights.
Sewell, representing the district
where Rosa Parks’ arrest occurred,
emphasized the significance of
recognizing this momentous occasion.
As Rep. Sewell’s first bill in
the 118th Congress, the Rosa Parks
Day Act (H.R. 308) is of particular
significance to the Congresswoman
and CBC members.
“Rosa Parks’ bravery on that
December day changed the course
of history, and it is only fitting that
we honor her legacy with a federal
holiday,” Sewell stated. “It’s time for
our nation to officially recognize
the contributions of a woman and a
Black woman to the fight for equality.”
Currently, the United States
lacks a federal holiday dedicated
explicitly to honoring a woman or
a Black woman. The Rosa Parks
Day Act seeks to rectify this by
amending Section 6103(a) of Title
5, United States Code, to include
“Rosa Parks Day” as a legal public
holiday, placing it alongside other
significant national observances.
The bill’s proponents argue that
recognizing Rosa Parks’ arrest as a
federal holiday would pay tribute to
her courage and serve as a broader
symbol of the ongoing struggle for
equality and justice.
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Commentary, Continued from page 6.
dinary housing advocates. The
win is not for me, Vice President
Moreno or members of this City
Council; the win was on behalf of
our residents, and they deserve
it. This is another meaningful tool
in the toolbox and a testament to
what we can accomplish when we
work together.”
“I am in full support of this item
addressing the nonprofit status of
owners who own properties that
for years have negatively affected
the quality of life for tenants and
surrounding communities,” said
Dawn Hebert, President of East
New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory
Commission. “Properties
that have been poorly managed
have not been properly addressed
or cited by Code Enforcement,
HANO or HUD. In particular, The
Willows Apartment Complex has
experienced increasingly higher
rates of crime including several
murders and ongoing substantiated
tenant complaints. I am happy that
Councilmember Moreno has been
out there to see up close and personal
what is happening. Over the
last couple of years, I have been attempting
to get some type of citation
on this apartment complex because
my neighborhood borders the complex.
Many of the owners of these
complexes are outside owners. I
am thankful for you all to bring this
to fruition, and I do wish that Code
Enforcement takes this seriously
because they have the documents
and the data to go forward and deal
with these properties.”
The law was inspired by apartment
properties such as The Willows
in New Orleans East, which are
owned by out-of-state nonprofits
and have clear code enforcement
violations that go unenforced due
to the property’s tax-free status.
Under the new law, the Council
has the authority to hold a public
hearing to strip the nonprofit
tax exemption from the property
and, therefore, subject it to code
enforcement liens and fines. Without
tools like this, properties like
The Willows can avoid accountability
even when they violate life
safety codes that puts residents’
health and lives at risk.
The constitutional amendment
passed overwhelmingly on October
14th and goes into effect on January
1, 2024. The new laws passed by
Councilmember Moreno enact this
authority at the first possible date.
Newsmaker, Continued
from page 6.
heavily dominated by companies
owned and run mostly by men.
“Seeing a Black woman, like me,
express herself and reach her goals
while I’m in college struggling, and
hearing her say ‘go through college
and do what you really want to do
while taking risks,’ redirected me
to stay focused on my studies,” said
Cambria Carey, a business, sales,
and marketing major at Xavier University
of Louisiana, who attended
Brown’s talk as part of the “Lunch
with a ‘Trep,” a series coordinated
by Xavier’s Entrepreneurship Institute.
Mark Quinn, a Professor in the
Division of Business at Xavier, said
that it is necessary to host these
events where potential connections
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can guide young people in the right
direction on what it takes to create
a start-up, scale it, and to remain
passionate about an idea.
“We bring entrepreneurs in person
here on campus to meet informally
with the students and share
their stories, give some insight as
to what motivated them to start
their business, their successes, and
their challenges, all with an eye
towards showing the students that
entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship
is not something that’s unattainable,”
Quinn said.
“We think that everybody is an
entrepreneur at some point in their
life. You know, we’re just trying to
show students that entrepreneurship
is accessible and that there is
a lot of help here on campus as well
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