The Westside Gazette

PAGE 12 • JUNE 13 - JUNE 19, 2024
Deeply Rooted
www.thewestsidegazette.com
Juneteenth Books
By Various Authors
c.2024, The History Press / Chronicle Books $24.99 /
$17.99 141 pages / 40 pages
The park shelter has been reserved.
You’ve told everyone where to be and what to bring
(Grandma’s favorite dessert!) and someone will set up games
to occupy the kids. Your whole family celebrates Juneteenth,
Motown & the Civil Rights
Part 1 of a 2 Part Series
By Don Valentine
Motown is as homogenous
as “Ice Cream and Apple
Pie.” If you haven’t heard a
Motown song you like, then
you just haven’t heard the
right song. That affection
placed Berry Gordy’s record
label as the vanguard musical
advent for the Civil Rights
movement. We all learned
in school the story of how an
$800 loan turned into a global
passion for Soul music. What
schools do not teach is the
impact Motown had on the
Civil Rights movement.
Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy,
Jesse Jackson and the other
icons of the movement had a
march planned in Detroit on
June 23, 1964. “The Walk To
Freedom” march coincided
with the 100th anniversary of
the Emancipation of Slavery.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
delivered, for the first time,
the famous “I Have A Dream”
speech. That was 2 months
before the great march on
Washington. In Detroit,
a crowd of nearly 150,000
people gathered singing
so maybe it’s time to bring
these two great books to your
jubilee...
If you sometimes feel like
you’re always the last to know,
then read “Galveston’s
Juneteenth Story: And
Still We Rise” by Tommie
Boudreaux, Alice Gatson,
Jami Durham and W.
Dwayne Jones (The History
Press, $24.99). Because
sometimes, you are the last.
Some sixty years before the
end of the Civil War, Britain
and the U.S. both “banned
the international trade of
enslaved people...” Slavery
still existed, of course, and
“Galveston [Texas] was known
as the largest slave market
west of New Orleans...”
Roughly a thousand people
were enslaved there, and
“many more... passed through
the city’s slave trading
houses.” It’s estimated that
“thousands” also tried to
escape slavery through
Galveston and Brownsville,
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freedom songs and carrying
signs demanding racial
equality. The news outlet
Visit Detroit.com wrote, “Dr.
King was hoping to inspire
the end of segregation and
discrimination. In the Detroit
speech, he speaks of his
dream for Blacks in Detroit to
‘be able to buy a house or rent
a house anywhere that their
money will carry them, and
they will be able to get a job.’
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Community Members Express Robust
Support for 1908 Springfield Race
Riot National Monument
Springfield, IL — At
a public meeting today
hosted by the Department
of Interior (DOI) at Union
Baptist Church, Springfield
community members called
on President Biden to
commemorate the site of
1908 Springfield Race Riots
as a national monument.
Brenda Mallory, chair of
the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, and
Shannon Estenoz, Assistant
Secretary of the Interior
for Fish and Wildlife and
Parks, attended the meeting
and heard from community
Local Leaders
Join Elected
Officialsfor
Public Meeting
To Urge National
Monument
Designation
leaders as they expressed
robust support for President
Biden to use the Antiquities
Act to designate a national
monument in Springfield.
Attendees included
representatives from
Springfield organizations,
elected officials, faith leaders,
conservation advocates,
and local residents. The
Springfield site would be the
first national park to tell the
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Idris Elba helps uncover the WWII soldiers
of Color who never got their due
Actor Francesco Di Rauso portrays combat medic
Waverly Woodson Jr., who served with the 320th Barrage
Balloon Battalion on D-Day, in a scene from “Erased:
WW2’s Heroes of Color.” (National Geographic Via AP)
Submitted by Mark
Kennedy
Associated Press
(Source Florida Courier)
NEW YORK — One of
Idris Elba’s grandfathers
fought in World War II,
but he doesn’t know what
he endured. No pictures or
stories survive. “That part of
my family’s history has been
erased somewhat,” says Elba.
That helped fuel the
actor’s push to narrate and
executive produce the fourpart
National Geographic
docuseries “Erased: WW2’s
Heroes of Color,” which
premieres Monday, days
ahead of the 80th anniversary
of D-Day, when the Allies
landed on the coast of France,
on June 6. Episodes will also
later be available on Disney+
and Hulu.
More than 8 million people
of color served with the Allies,
and the series digs deep to
focus on how some fared
at D-Day, Dunkirk, Pearl
Harbor and the Battle of the
Bulge.
It tells the story of the
320th Barrage Balloon
Battalion, the only all-Black
combat unit to fight on the
D-Day beaches, and Force
K6, a little-known Indian
regiment of mule handlers
from the British army trying
to evacuate at Dunkirk.
The series uses archival
footage, descendant
interviews, soldier journals
and actor portrayals — a
mix that Elba says he found
visceral and moving.
“It really did actually
impact me just in the
narration booth, watching
the imagery, looking at the
faces, wondering about my
own personal connect. Could
my grandfather be one of the
people in one of the pieces?
Idris Elba
That was what I thought
about. So, it did definitely
resonate with me.”
The series also highlights
stories like that of Doris
Miller, a mess attendant
aboard the USS West Virginia
who after the Japanese attack
at Pearl Harbor raced to an
unattended anti-aircraft gun
and fired at the planes until
forced to abandon ship.
He had never been trained
to use the gun because
Black sailors serving in the
segregated steward’s branch
of the Navy were not given the
gunnery training received by
white sailors. Miller’s bravery
earned him the Navy Cross.
“It just feels like a
privilege and an honor to be
able to shed some light on
their stories,” says director
Shianne Brown, who helmed
the D-Day episode.
Her episode highlighted
Waverly Woodson, Jr., a
medic who was wounded by
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT
WWW.TAMARAC.ORG/SPECIALEVENTS.
ARTFUL MINDS from Front Page
included Moss, Memorial Healthcare
System, Bright Star Credit Union, GRYC Trial
Lawyers, BBX Capital, Michaelangelo Impact
Partners, Entertainment Impact Partner,
Richardo Bichara CPA, P.A., SC- StrubleCohen
Trial Lawyers Appellate Council, Kip Hunter
Marketing, Edgar Degas Impact Partners
Segal Trials, Baron Silver Steven, Media
Impact Partners, Magazine Lifestyle, SFBW
South Florida Business & Wealth, and more.
Dr. Joe Oraveck, CEO, is excited to
be leading NAMI in celebrating its 40 th
anniversary. He stresses that what NAMI is
known for “peer to peer” support. Family to
family programs assist families going through
a mental health journey with a loved one by
connecting them with others going through a
similar experience. There are also individual
mentor programs. He emphasizes that NAMI’s
helpers are not therapists but trained peer
to peer facilitators. In addition to facilitating
these peer connections in community-based
locations there is a goal of having a presence
in every one of the thirty-one municipalities in
Broward County. NAMI has been encouraging
the self-reflection and healing that can come
through engaging in art.
Indeed, art as a somewhat individualized
form of therapy which can later be displayed is
shone throughout the exhibit area. Mad Arts
gallery provided ample space for display of art,
vocal performance and tasty hors d’oeuvres.
NAMI offered an auction component which
allowed the artist to receive full price on their
pieces while fundraising to provide even more
assistance to those in need of the services. The
items ranged in price from well under $100
and up.
Jewelry artists, poets, painters, musicians
and more all flowed seamlessly through the
space as visitors soaked in the variety and
high quality of the works on display. For
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