united states

Amani suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, had completed diversion and mental health treatment after past criminal charges and was living in a rented residential hotel room in town, according to his former lawyer, case manager and property manager. He came to the United States on a visa in 2014 after working for more than five years as an Afghan interpreter for US military special forces, said Deputy Public Defender Scott Grant, who represented Amani. His background was first reported by the San Francisco Standard.

Police identified the officers involved as John Quinlan, who fired four times with a firearm, and Danny De Leon Garcia, who fired three times with a long-range impact weapon, also known as ball gun.

“We recognize that our sworn duty as law enforcement officers imposes on us no more solemn obligation than to honor and respect the sanctity of human life,” said Police Chief Bill. Scott at a virtual town hall on Wednesday. “We also know that as police officers we are sometimes required to use force – sometimes including lethal force – in the performance of our duties.”

Scott said the police department was in contact with Amani’s family to offer their condolences. The district attorney’s office, the investigative services division of the police department, the internal affairs of the SFPD, the police accountability department and the forensic pathologist are investigating.

The incident began shortly after 8 a.m. Friday at the Covered Wagon hotel at 917 Folsom St. Amani was living in a rented room in town at the hotel, according to a private property manager who asked to remain anonymous.

As of April 2020, the Adult Probation Service has rented 22 rooms – less than a third of the hotel – for clients involved in the criminal justice system. Nonprofit Recovery Survival Network manages rooms and guests.

CCTV footage of the building, which does not capture audio, shows Amani walking down a hallway with a knife with a 6-inch blade in hand at around 8:04 am He appears to be screaming and gesturing at two building workers, l ‘one holding a broom between him and Amani as the employee steps back into an open door.

At 8:05 a.m., a building worker called 911 and told a dispatcher that a man was in the building with a knife. The caller said he would “not stay on the phone while the man has a knife in my face” before the line was disconnected. During a follow-up call to 911, Amani’s case manager told a dispatcher that Amani “was having a really bad episode” and mentioned that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Officers Quinlan and De Leon Garcia arrived at the hotel at 8:10 a.m. and spoke with the two employees, according to body camera footage. An employee said that Amani “came up to me” and faked her actions by holding a large knife over her head. The person told officers that Amani said, “I’m going to stab you right now, I’m going to kill you” and he was “very violent”.

The two officers entered the hallway and spotted Amani at the other end as he stooped around the corner. They called her name and said they wanted to talk to her, show body camera footage.

“Nobody wants to hurt you,” Quinlan said.

“Don’t talk to me, shut up,” Amani replied. “Leave the f- alone.” “

Officers held their guns holstered and ready, but pointed at the ground. After about a minute, at around 8:14 a.m., Amani came out of his room around the corner, knife in hand, and rushed down the hall to the officers, videos show. Quinlan yelled at him to stay back as they retreated. In less than five seconds, Amani had covered half the distance and the two officers fired their weapons. Amani fell to the ground, his legs moving as he made unintelligible sounds.

“Let me see your hands!” Quinlan yelled. “We want to help you, but we need to hear your voice, okay? “

Other officers have arrived. After more than two minutes, they walked over, obtained the knife, handcuffed Amani, and began providing medical treatment until paramedics arrived.

David Elliott Lewis, tenant advocate and member of the SFPD Crisis Response Team, which trains police in dealing with situations with people with mental illness, told The Chronicle that the incident was “extremely annoying”. Lewis asked Scott during the town hall’s public comment on why the officers appeared to fire lethal and non-lethal weapons at the same time and why it took so long to provide medical assistance.

Police explained that in the pairs of officers, one carries a long-range impact weapon and the other carries a gun to provide cover. Scott said he couldn’t judge from the videos whether the police fired at the exact same time. He also said officers are trained to make a plan before approaching a suspect.

Recovery Survival Network director Lou Gordon will stop releasing information on Tuesday. He said the organization has been providing services “for a very long time” and that “nothing like this has ever happened”.

Grant said he was “totally devastated” by the death of Amani, to whom he was “very close”. Grant said Amani “suffered incredible trauma both prior to her service due to the violence and while on duty, including seeing her comrades being killed and shot multiple times.”

In 2019, police arrested Amani for allegedly injuring a San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks ranger with a cutter. The ranger described Amani as being in a “clearly altered mental state,” Grant said, citing the preliminary hearing.

Amani was arrested on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and charges related to carjacking, court records show. Grant said a judge immediately dismissed the attempted murder charge.

A judge released Amani to residential treatment in April 2020 and ordered her a mental health diversion in June 2020. Amani remained in treatment until February 2021 and completed the diversion in August – the same week the Taliban took over. control of Kabul. Grant said Amani’s progress was “the most impressive I have ever seen in a client and his trauma was among the worst I have ever seen in a job where I have seen a lot.”

Mental health diversion requires a treatment plan when a person graduates. The Department of Public Health was unable to comment on any care that Amani received, if any, due to patient privacy laws. According to the Department of Health, more than one in five people – about 22% – incarcerated at some point in 2018 in the San Francisco County Jail has been diagnosed as critically ill mentally ill.

Police shot and killed another man who accused officers with a knife in October 2020, body camera footage showed. The number of shootings involving police officers, use of force incidents and gun pointing has declined in recent years, according to police data.

“It’s our goal not to have these incidents and to have better results,” Scott said.

Mallory Moench is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @mallorymoench

Emmert’s words came after the NCAA’s online constitutional convention, in which the membership of more than 1,100 schools in its three divisions weighed in on the proposed scaled-down version of the association’s founding document .

Emmert called for constitutional convention over the summer, shortly after the United States Supreme Court dealt a potentially crippling blow to the NCAA. By upholding a lower court’s ruling in an antitrust case, the High Court has left the association vulnerable to prosecution whenever it enacts a new rule that impacts athletes.

The rewrite of the constitution is the first step towards decentralizing the governance of college sports and reducing the role of the NCAA.

“It has been a long time, 50 years, half a century, since there has been a thorough examination of what college sport is and how it works,” Emmert said. “The association’s inaction at this particular time would be very, very frowned upon and it should be, frankly. If you have so many changes going on, you had better be ready and willing and able to change.

The college athletic administrators who make up the constitution committee, including Georgetown President Jack DeGioia, who is the chairman of the NCAA Board of Governors, spent about four hours presenting the proposal to members and answering questions.

“I… thought it was a very successful first take, especially having never done anything like it in the history of the association,” said Emmert.

Last week, the NCAA unveiled an 18-page constitution proposal that more closely focuses the mission of America’s largest college sports organization while also providing each of its three divisions with a path to further govern themselves.

After two periods of feedback, the proposed constitution could be amended. The plan is for all members to vote on it at the NCAA convention in January in Indianapolis.

Then comes the hardest part. Leaders from each of the three NCAA divisions will be looking at the task of restructuring and reimagining how college sports should be run.

At the Division I level, where varsity sports have also become a multi-million dollar business for some schools, dramatic changes could occur. Everything from how revenues are shared, how schools and sports align, access to championship events and what is needed to be a Division I member will be on the table.

This includes what to do with major college football, which operates largely independently of the NCAA and rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars that are shared by 130 Bowl Subdivision schools. The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a group of past and current college athletic administrators, recommended that FBS be completely separate from the NCAA.

DeGioia said the constitution committee has met with representatives from the Knight Commission, but these types of structural changes relate to the next phase of NCAA reform.

“We felt this was a Division I matter that needed to be dealt with by Division I management,” DeGioia said. “And what we hope to create is a framework where this can be dealt with most effectively at the Division I level.”

The Division I transformation committee was chosen, led by Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey and Ohio University Athletic Director Julie Cromer. The hope is that every division will have changes that can take effect by August 2022.

The new constitution continues to refer to college athletes as student-athletes, a term coined decades ago as the NCAA tried to make a clear distinction between its amateurs and paid professionals.

Emmert said there has been a significant discussion about removing the term from official NCAA use, but the athletes themselves have pushed to keep it.

“We were really, really passionate about this title,” former University of California, Pennsylvania volleyball player Madeleine McKenna said during the convention’s question-and-answer session with members.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo on https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen on http://www.appodcasts.com

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Born to a black mother and Puerto Rican father, Monteze Morales, 44, loves being able to explore both of her cultural identities as an Afro-Latina woman. She often cooks authentic Puerto Rican dishes for her friends and family and uses her different backgrounds to better connect with her constituents as the County Commissioner of Kalamazoo.

But in a society where race plays a big role, it’s not always easy to embrace both sides of who you are.

“At the end of the day, the majority of what I’ve been through as a Métis individual is undiluted and that really puts a strain on you psychologically,” Morales said.

Before his family moved to Michigan at the age of 5, Morales grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She said the city was a “melting pot of identities and cultures” where it was engulfed in different ethnicities, cultures and languages.

When her family finally settled in Kalamazoo, it was a “culture shock” for Morales. Compared to the diverse environment she once experienced in Bridgeport, there was no community of Puerto Ricans, she said.

“Not having what I had, I moved away from my Hispanic culture and there was nothing really in town that offered that,” Morales said. “I didn’t really know I was mixed race until I moved to Kalamazoo.”

Morales is one of Michigan’s fastest growing demographic groups who identify with two or more races.

Data from the 2020 Census shows that the number of Michigan residents who identified as two or more races increased 176% since 2010 and 230% since 2000. However, the vast majority of Michigan residents still consider themselves to be one race.

The census recorded 635,315 people in 2020 who identified themselves as multiracial, representing 6% of Michigan’s population. This category included 230,319 people ten years ago, or 2% of the population.

In the past 10 years, 211,305 fewer people reported single-race in Michigan.

Related: Michigan is becoming more and more multiracial. See county changes in diversity from 2010 to 2020 – mlive.com

Earl Lewis, professor of history, African American and African studies, and public policy at the University of Michigan, said the growing number of multiracial people in the 2020 census means the data is catching up with reality.

“In many ways, the current census data is catching up with human behavior that has gone unnoticed in previous censuses,” Lewis said.

According to the US Census Bureau, it is a challenge for them to adjust to how American society may view race and ethnicity differently than in the past.

The Bureau’s race and ethnicity research indicates that “in our diverse society, an increasing number of people find current racial and ethnic categories confused, or they wish to see their own specific group reflected on the census questionnaire.”

Since the first census in 1790, the Bureau has collected information on race / ethnicity. The census form changes to reflect changes in society and the way the Bureau classifies race and ethnicity.

The 2020 census year saw an improvement in the design of two separate questions (one for Hispanic and Latino origin and one for race) which has been a standard used since 1997.

The categories of race and ethnicity in the 2020 Census were:

• Hispanic or Latino.
• Single white non-Hispanic.
• Black or African American single non Hispanic.
• Native Americans and Alaskan natives only non-Hispanics.
• Asian single non-Hispanic.
• Native Hawaiian and other non-Hispanic Pacific Islander.
• Another single non-Hispanic race.
• Multiracial non-Hispanic.

What some might find an easy choice, Morales has said for years that she will tick and uncheck the boxes that categorize breed in the census.

“I felt like I didn’t identify with what the US census box was trying to put me in,” Morales said. “I usually put black and if it isn’t Latin or Hispanic and not black, I mark them both.”

At a fundamental level, race is a social construct, Lewis said. The breed groups together sets of people based on identifiable characteristics such as skin color or hair.

In America, we’ve been “socialized to think these categories mean something,” Lewis said.

“In the United States, these broader categories of race settled almost in accord with the founding of the nation,” Lewis said. “It has had a devastating effect for some and great benefits for others.”

This can lead to internal conflicts for people who identify with multiple races. Multiracial individuals have the choice of defining themselves based on how they want to navigate the world socially.

“They are part of understanding both the obligation of history and the burden of history on how they fit into society and how they will be viewed,” Lewis said.

However, the company will more than likely make this choice for you. Lewis calls this the “racial guessing game”.

“It’s when you watch someone walking down the street that is ambiguous, and before you realize you are trying to put them in boxes,” Lewis said.

Morales is proud of both of her origins, but due to her looks, she said people would ignore her Latina heritage or even her Spanish last name.

“A lot of people don’t know what Afro-Latina means,” Morales said. “So you get into that disconnect of conversations that ‘Oh, you’re just black’.”

21-year-old myrah beverly also knows what it’s like not to tick society’s boxes when it comes to race and ethnicity. She has a black father from Alabama and an Asian mother from Singapore.

“Either way, people the way they look or the way they grew up, they don’t fit the label,” Beverly said.

beverly said she was more tied to her Asian heritage, but used to be seen more as black compared to her sister, for example, who has a lighter complexion than her.

She said that for multiracial people, it’s hard to find where to fit in.

“They are not too black, not too white, not too Asian, not too native,” Beverly said. “Your identity is a bit denied. “

She said that growing up in north Chicago, she didn’t see herself as an ordinary black because race was not discussed in her family. She thought it was normal in society to have two parents from two different backgrounds.

But racial affiliation isn’t just biological – it’s the who, what, where, when, and how a person is raised that defines it.

Now a senior at Michigan State University, Beverly said she learned to switch to African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or ebonic as she got older, though that’s not how ‘she speaks naturally. She said she wanted to feel comfortable finding community with other black people.

Lewis said the need for community is part of the reason breed categorization remains prevalent. No one wants to be “without company,” he said.

“At some level, these categories make sense for sociological purposes and friendship groupings,” Lewis said. “On another level, they obscure the ways people interact. “

When Beverly is asked about her ethnicity, she will answer both. When asked about her race, she will answer Black because that is how the outside world sees her.

“It has good and bad,” Beverly said. “Good because you feel in community, bad because you have to pretend a bit. “

beverly performed an original spoken word titled “My People” at the Asian Pacific American Student Organization (APASO) Cultural Vogue at MSU in 2019.

In the poem, Beverly brings together her life experiences as Black and Asian: from me before, as if I wasn’t one of them too. I’m just their little doll. I’m just pretending.

Defining the breed is important because of the way it plays out in these daily social interactions as well as in the history of the United States, according to Lewis.

But race is not a conversation that all parents have with their children. For multiracial school-aged children, it may not be until they are surrounded by their peers or prepare for a standardized test that they are faced with “ticking a box” – literally and metaphorically.

“It can be confusing,” Morales said. “Children look at their parents like ‘What am I? And the parents may not have had this conversation, especially when you start to leave downtown. “

beverly learned the breed mostly from black comedians like Dave Chapelle, Bernie Mac, and Kat Williams. She thought racism was part of their comedic routine, not necessarily something that would affect her in real life.

“In my head when I was growing up, I was like ‘I’m Asian, this is never going to happen to me,’” Beverly said. “But I didn’t know it until it happened to me myself.”

Now that she’s older, Beverly doesn’t think her parents could have said or done anything to prepare her for the experiences that accompany her run because “racism is inevitable.”

There is room to become more aware of the experiences of different cultures when they are brought together in the same family.

Beverly said she was happy to see her Asian mother frequently advocating on social media for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Morales said her Puerto Rican grandmother taught her black grandmother to cook traditional Puerto Rican dishes. These were then passed on to her aunt ‘on the black side of the family who they can always enjoy at family reunions.

It is this cultural mix that allows people to be flexible in attributing and describing their own identity than in the past.

beverly is the outreach chair for a student-led organization at MSU called Mixed MSU. The organization educates and provides a safe space for multiracial, cultural or ethnic students of MSU.

“I think the community has to be served as well to have a space for that identity and be validated,” Beverly said.

Morales said she has faith in seeing how the new generation is handling their identity.

“They’re really strong in who they are and what they want to be, especially when it comes to race and gender identity,” Morales said.

For Morales, one of the most important lessons she has learned from being multiracial is to be authentic in all of her identity.

“I had conflicts on both sides, trying to fit in,” Morales said. “Now I’m right in the middle. “

DENVER – The United States issued its first passport with a gender designation “X”, marking an important milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female, and hopes to be able to offer the option more widely thereafter year, the State Department said Wednesday.

The department did not identify the recipient of the passport, but Dana Zzyym, an intersex activist from Fort Collins, Colorado, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that they received it. Since 2015, Zzyym, who prefers a gender-neutral pronoun, has been waging a legal battle with the State Department to obtain a passport that did not require Zzyym to lie about gender by choosing a man or a woman.

Zzyym (pronounced Zimm) picked up the UPS package with the passport after receiving an early morning text and phone call from their lawyer, Paul Castillo of Lambda Legal, stating that it had arrived. Zzyym had stayed up late to celebrate Intersex Awareness Day with two visiting activists.

While Zzyym, 63, said it was exciting to finally get the passport, the goal was to help the next generation of intersex people be recognized as full citizens with rights, rather than to travel the world, Zzyym said.

“I am not a problem. I am a human being. That’s the goal, ”said Zzyym, who has a tattoo on his arm that says,“ Never give up, ”a reminder of goals in life.

Zzyym was born with ambiguous physical sex characteristics, but was raised as a boy and underwent several surgeries that failed to make Zzyym appear fully masculine, according to court records. Zzyym served in the Navy as a male, but later identified as intersex while working and studying at Colorado State University. The State Department’s denial of Zzyym’s passport prevented Zzyym from attending two meetings of the Intersex International Organization.

Zzyym would love the chance to go to another advocacy conference once they resume after the pandemic or maybe go sea fishing in Costa Rica but, being on a fixed income, says a road trip to the Canada for fishing might be more feasible.

Advocates, who praised Zzyym’s work, said the US decision to join more than a dozen countries that allow a third-sex option would allow people to travel like themselves and possibly keep them safe.

“Intersex, non-binary and transgender people need identity documents that accurately reflect who we are, and having incompatible documents can create security and visibility issues,” said Mary Emily O ‘ GLAAD’s Hara, the tallest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender in the world. and queer media organization (LGBTQ),

U.S. Special Diplomatic Envoy for LGBTQ Rights Jessica Stern said the ruling brings government documents into line with the “lived reality” that there is a wider range of human sexual characteristics than there is. the two previous designations reflect it.

“When a person obtains identity documents that reflect their true identity, they live with more dignity and respect,” Stern said.

The State Department said in June it was preparing to add a third gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-compliant people, but that would take time due to necessary updates to its systems. computer science. In addition, a ministry official said the passport application and updating the system with the designation option “X” is still awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget, which approves all government forms. .

The department now allows applicants to choose their gender as male or female themselves, no longer requiring them to provide medical certification if their gender does not match that stated on their other identification documents.

Stern said his office plans to talk about the American experience with changing its interactions around the world and hopes that may help inspire other governments to offer the option.

“We see this as a way to assert and elevate the human rights of trans and intersex and gender nonconforming and nonbinary people everywhere,” she said.

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PA diplomatic writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Today in history

Today is Monday, October 25, the 298th day of 2021. There are 67 days left in the year.

The highlight of today’s story:

On October 25, 1983, a United States-led force invaded Grenada on the orders of President Ronald Reagan, who said action was necessary to protect American citizens there.

To this date :

In 1760, the King of England George III succeeded his late grandfather, George II.

In 1854, the “Charge of the Light Brigade” took place during the Crimean War when an English brigade of more than 600 men charged the Russian army, suffering heavy losses.

In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown was tried in Charles Town, Virginia, for his failed raid on Harpers Ferry. (Brown was convicted and hanged.)

In 1881, artist Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain.

In 1910, “America the Beautiful”, with lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates and music by Samuel A. Ward, was first published.

In 1962, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson II asked Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin to confirm or deny the existence of Soviet-built missile bases. in Cuba ; Stevenson then presented photographic evidence of the bases to the Council.

In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly voted to admit mainland China and expel Taiwan.

In 1982, the sitcom “Newhart”, starring Bob Newhart as a Vermont innkeeper, premiered on CBS.

In 1994, Susan Smith of Union, SC, claimed that a black car thief had left with her two young sons (Smith later confessed to drowning the children at John D. Long Lake and was convicted of murder) . Three defendants have been convicted in South Africa for the murder of Amy Biehl, an American exchange student. (In 1998, all three were granted amnesties by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.)

In 1999, golfer Payne Stewart and five others were killed when their Learjet flew uncontrolled for four hours before crashing in South Dakota. Stewart was 42 years old.

In 2002, US Senator Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., Was killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota along with his wife, daughter and five other people a week and a half before the election.

In 2014, the World Health Organization said more than 10,000 people had been infected with Ebola and nearly half of them had died as the epidemic continued to spread. Jack Bruce, 71, the bassist and singer of the 1960s power trio Cream, has died in London.

Ten years ago: ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Muatassim and former defense minister Abu Bakr Younis were buried at dawn in a secret location, five days after Gaddafi was killed by fighters revolutionary.

Five years ago: A federal judge in San Francisco approved a nearly $ 15 billion settlement, giving almost half a million Volkswagen owners and renters the choice of reselling their diesel-powered cars or get it repaired so they don’t cheat on emissions tests and spit out excess pollution. The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago Cubs 6-0 in Game 1 of the World Series.

A year ago: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN that “we are not going to control the pandemic” because it is a “contagious virus just like the flu”. Hundreds of thousands of Californians lost power as utilities sought to reduce the risk of their equipment starting wildfires and the fire-weary state braced for another spell of dry and windy weather .

The Associated Press

Several grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other members of Lack’s family attended the awards ceremony at the WHO Geneva office. His 87-year-old son, Lawrence Lacks, Sr., accepted the award on his behalf.

“We are moved to receive this historic recognition from my mother, Henrietta Lacks – honoring who she was as a remarkable woman and the lasting impact of her HeLa cells. My mother’s once-hidden contributions are now rightly honored for their global impact, “Lawrence Lacks said in a statement.

“My mother was a pioneer in life, giving back to her community, helping others live better lives and caring for others,” he added. “In death, she continues to help the world. Her legacy lives on in us and we thank you for saying her name – Henrietta Lacks.”

Family sues biotech company for non-consensual use of its cells

At the time of the Lacks procedure, taking cells from people without their consent was not against the protocols.

The lawsuit alleges that Thermo Fisher Scientific knowingly profits from the “unlawful conduct” of Johns Hopkins physicians and that its “ill-gotten gains belong by right to Ms. Lacks’ estate.”

He argues that the company “made a conscious choice to sell and mass produce the living tissues of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman, grandmother, and community leader, although the company knows that Ms. Lacks’ tissues have left her behind. been taken without his consent. by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a racially unfair medical system. “

The lawsuit claims that with this broad recognition, there is no way for Thermo Fisher Scientific to say that it did not know the history of its products containing HeLa cells and points to a page on the website of the ‘company which recognizes that the cells were taken without Lacks’ consent. According to the lawsuit, there are at least 12 products marketed by Thermo Fisher that include the HeLa cell line.

Thermo Fisher Scientific generates annual sales of approximately $ 35 billion, according to its website. CNN has contacted the company for comment.

Patron of the library

Read the book by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “People of color: a memory” a few months ago i read other black history books.

The next title and author of the book is “My slavery and my freedom” by Frederick Douglass, written in 1855. The first chapter makes him live as a little boy, and those years are those when his life was happy. Although he was born into a family of slaves, he still did not feel these terrible factors. He lived with his grandparents and didn’t feel like anyone owned him.

He was born in an agricultural country in eastern Maryland called Tuckahoe. The best feature was the Choptank River that ran through the area.

He tells us about the family he was born into: “Family trees do not flourish among slaves” (p. 30). They usually did not keep family records, so it is not certain what year he was born, but he believes it was 1817. When the slave family had a baby, the slave owners did not note the date of birth for them.

The family member he has fond memories of is his grandmother, Betsy Baily. She caught shad and herring in fishnets, and when the time was right, she planted sweet potatoes for people.

Her grandparents lived in a cabin built of clay, wood and straw. Her grandmother looked after her grandchildren while their mothers (her five daughters) were hired to work remotely. Her mother’s name was Harriet.

He writes that living with his grandmother and grandfather gave him the experience of not feeling like a slave when he was a little boy.

Eventually he learned that his grandparents did not own the hut they lived in, but “Old master” made. That’s what her grandmother used to say. He also began to realize that one day he would no longer live with his grandparents.

He was always worried and sad when he thought about when he would be separated from his grandmother. He was sad now even when she was gone for a short time.

Towards the end of this chapter, he writes that the white boy in the family has more problems than he does. The slave boy goes wild. The owner’s boy – the white boy – has rules to follow, such as using your knife and fork correctly. The slave boy is free from these rules of behavior.

The end of this chapter is a powerful read, for you know that this 7 or 8 year old slave boy will soon no longer feel that freedom.

Chapter II begins with a description of the slave-owning family, which came from Wales to Maryland, and in a few pages we read that Frederick was taken 12 miles to their plantation. When he realizes that he will no longer be with his grandmother, he falls to the ground and cries.

The appendix to the book contains excerpts from speeches Douglass gave throughout his life. He died in 1895.

Here is my first note on “Give me wings: how a choir of former slaves conquered the world”, by Kathy Lowinger, circa 2015: “This book is like an encyclopedia! It’s only 144 pages long, but it’s a complete book, written by a Jewish Canadian. Her family came to Canada from Hungary when she was very young.

One of the book’s many historical stories tells how the Fisk Jubilee Singers started in Tennessee in 1861 with hard times. In two years, they became very well known by performing in the United States, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. In the recent book by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “The Black Church”, he writes about the Jubilee Singers.

On a second overseas trip, they performed in England again, as well as Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

They made enough money to save Fisk University, which was about to close for lack of funds.

However, while they traveled by train and boat and stayed in hotels, their wish to be treated fairly like white people was often not honored. These situations got better as they became more famous.

When the Jubilee Singers performed in Hartford, Connecticut, the state governor was in attendance, as was Mark Twain. He was a Jubilee fan and wrote “I think these gentlemen and ladies make eloquent music – and what’s nicely done, they reproduce the real melody of the plantations, and are the only people I’ve ever heard of doing this on a public platform.” (p.97).

The book features many songs written by black people, giving the history of who wrote it and the lyrics. These songs include “Republic battle anthem” “Come down to Moses” and “Rock low, Sweet Chariot.”

Each chapter of this book contains many illustrations. On page 127, readers see the poster for THE ORIGINAL FISK UNIVERSITY JUBILEE SINGERS ORGANIZED OCTOBER 1871.

The next book is “Black girl well read: finding our stories, discovering ourselves”, Edited by Glory Edim, c 2018. There are 22 selections of black writers. I started in the book while reading “Zora and I” by Marita Golden, who has taught writing at numerous universities.

One of the awards she received was for her novel “After”; this award was presented by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. This author co-founded The Zora Neale Hurston / Richard Wright Foundation. These writers have both written about black life in the South – rural areas and small towns.

Marita Golden tells us that Zora’s writings “Offer the world a people who are a symphony, not a disturbing minor key” (p.55). Zora’s father told her about Frederick Douglass before she was old enough to hear about him at school.

We read that for a long time Zora’s writings weren’t well known. The first book she read was “Their eyes looked at God”, and then she read all of her books. Her last paragraph is a thank you to Zora for all the inspiration she has given to black people.

The Hurston book that we have on our shelves is “Traces of dust on the road.”

You can search the history of black subjects on the Plum Creek library system and find many authors and titles, and there is also a wide selection on the Overdrive and Hoopla library digital platforms.

For more information, visit marshalllyonlibrary.org or call 507-537-7003.

Monday’s federal holiday dedicated to Christopher Columbus highlights the lingering rift between those who view the Explorer as a representative of Italian-American history and others horrified by an annual tribute that ignores the indigenous peoples whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism.

Spurred on by national calls for racial fairness, communities across the United States have taken a closer look at Columbus’ legacy in recent years – by associating or replacing it with Indigenous Peoples Day.

On Friday, President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of “Indigenous Peoples Day,” the most important impetus to date in efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Columbus.

But activists, including members of Native American tribes, said the end of the official Columbus name vacation was blocked by politicians and organizations focusing on Italian-American heritage.

“The opposition tried to portray Columbus as a benevolent man, in the same way that white supremacists painted Robert E. Lee,” said Les Begay, a member of the Diné nation and co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Coalition of Illinois, referring to the Civil War general who led the Confederate Army.

The arrival of Columbus began centuries of exploration and colonization by European nations, bringing violence, disease and other suffering to indigenous peoples already living in the Western Hemisphere.

“Failure to honor indigenous peoples on this day continues to erase our history, our contributions and the fact that we were the original inhabitants of this country,” Begay said.

Across the country, the tension, over the two public holidays, has been playing out since the early 1990s. Debates over monuments and statues of the Italian explorer are treading on similar ground, as in Philadelphia where the city has placed a box on a statue of Columbus last year following the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis policeman. Protesters opposing racial injustice and police brutality against people of color rallied for months in the summer of 2020.

Philadelphia attorney George Bochetto, who fought against Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration to uncover the statue, said on Saturday many viewed the efforts to remove it as an attack on Italian-American heritage.

Kenney previously signed an executive order changing the city’s annual Columbus Day celebration to Indigenous Peoples Day. Monday will be the city’s first public holiday under the new name.

“We have a mayor who is doing all he can to attack the Italian-American community, including canceling his parade, removing statues, changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day by decree,” said Bochetto .

Kenney’s spokesperson Kevin Lessard said the statue should remain wrapped “in the best interest and public safety of all Philadelphians.”

In 2016, Lincoln, Nebraska joined other cities in adding Indigenous Peoples Day to the calendar on the same date as Columbus Day. Monday’s events will focus on the most recent addition, including the unveiling of a statue in honor of the first Native American physician, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte.

Some believe that a split day causes even more harm. Activists are planning a small protest outside the Robert V. Denney Federal Building, calling for an outright end to the holidays on behalf of Columbus at all levels of government.

“It is patently absurd to honor indigenous peoples and the man who tortured and murdered their ancestors,” said Jackson Meredith, an organizer. “As far as we are concerned, we will continue to protest until Columbus Day is abolished.”

In New York City, the annual Columbus Day Parade returns after a one-year in-person absence attributed to the coronavirus pandemic. The parade is touted by some as the biggest Columbus Day celebration in the world.

In May, Italian-American activists complained after the Board of Education removed Columbus Day from the New York City school calendar, replacing it with “Indigenous Peoples Day”. Following the outcry, schools changed the designation to: “Italian Heritage Day / Indigenous Peoples Day”.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he supports the compromise.

“We must honor this day as a day to recognize the contributions of all Italian Americans, so of course the day should not have been changed arbitrarily,” said de Blasio.

The annual Columbus Day Parade in Chicago also returns on Monday after the pandemic forced the event to be canceled in 2020 which draws 20,000 people. It’s a vivid reminder of the ongoing fight for three statues of Columbus, still in storage by the city after protesters targeted them in the summer of 2020.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot in July 2020 ordered the statues to be removed and said the protests endangered protesters and police.

She then created a committee to examine the city’s monuments, including the fate of the monuments of Columbus. No plan has been publicly announced, but the Joint Italian-American Civic Committee planning the Columbus Day parade this summer has sued the city’s park district, demanding it be restored.

Ron Onesti, the organization’s chairman, said the parade usually attracts protesters and expects that on Monday as well. He sees the holidays, parade, and statues as a celebration of the contributions of Italian Americans to the United States, not just to Columbus.

“The result I am looking for is (for) our traditions to be respected and conversations to continue,” Onesti said on Saturday. “Each plaque that accompanies a statue indicates that it recognizes the contributions of the Italian community. So people have to figure out why it’s there, and then let’s sit down and figure out where to go from here.

In 2017, Illinois designated the last Monday in September as Indigenous Peoples Day, but maintained Columbus Day as the second Monday in October. A proposal to replace Columbus Day tabled this year has not received any action.

Chicago public schools in 2020 voted to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, sparking outrage from several aldermen and Italian-American groups. The city’s public holiday calendar still lists Columbus Day.

Begay, the advocate for Indigenous Peoples Day, said the organization decided to focus on changing Columbus Day in Cook County first, hoping it would be an easier route than convincing officials state or Chicago. But so far, members of the county’s board of directors have not sided with the proposal.

“Why are more than 500 years still forgotten? Said Bégay. “Why don’t we have this one day to recognize these horrific atrocities committed against native people? “

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Associated Press Reporter Lawrence Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design will host the “500 Years and Counting” online panel discussion from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 13, via Zoom.

The “500 Years and Over” roundtable will explore Hispanic heritage and agency in the built environment of the United States in the context of the year 2021 and the 500 years since the first European conquest of the American continent: the fall of Aztec Tenochtitlan to the Spaniards and their native allies.

Registration for the conversation is available on Zoom.

Several additional events are being held on the University of Alberta campus in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15. Find more details on campus events on the University of A’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion website. .

Gabriel Díaz Montemayor, ASLA, is the Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Fay Jones School. He hosted the October 13 event, inviting five panelists who are experts in Latin / Hispanic architectural, urban planning and landscape forms to participate.

“This year’s National Hispanic Heritage Month is special because it coincides with the 500th anniversary of the fall of Aztec Tenochtitlan – in 1521 and in what is now Mexico City – to the Spanish conquistadors and their native allies.” , said Díaz Montemayor. “Five centuries of a new culture in the making, both European and indigenous to the Americas. A new built environment, being a cultural environment, has been forming ever since. Add to this the imprint and the continuous transformation of the built environment by Hispanics in a different culture also expressed in the built environment, the Anglo-American. “

Díaz Montemayor said that according to the recently released 2020 U.S. Census results, Arkansas’ Hispanic population made up 8.5 percent of the state’s total population. In 2010, this same population represented 6.4% of the state’s total population. Over the past 10 years, Arkansas’ Hispanic population has grown by 38.1%. Nationally, the Hispanic population growth rate was 23% from 2010 to 2020.

“So in Arkansas, the presence of the Hispanic population is increasing at a rate close to double that of our country,” he said. “We see all of the profound, significant and beneficial impacts of the Hispanic population in our built environment – from the construction industry, the food industry, to restaurants, to urban art and to the revitalization of neighborhoods, Main streets and urban neighborhoods thanks to the demonstrated entrepreneurship of Hispanics, which is above the average American population. “

Nayelli Garcia, an architectural student and representative of the National Organization of Minority Architectural Students (NOMAS) chapter at Fay Jones School, will join Díaz Montemayor in moderating the October 13 conversation.

The panellists’ expertise includes historical colonial structures and the transfer of technology from Europe to the Americas, the history and theory of architecture and town planning in the Americas and their links to Europe, the cultural landscapes of immigrant populations with a focus on business and entrepreneurship, environmental justice and climate equity affecting low-income communities, and how Latinos are transforming public spaces, streets and the environment built.

“This round table includes a wide range of leading expertise in architecture – both contemporary and historical – in urban planning and landscapes, with an emphasis on social and environmental justice and participatory processes,” he said. he declares. “I certainly look forward to seeing the breadth and depth of our guests discussing the legacy and agency of Hispanics in the built environment of the United States.”

The panelists for this conversation are:

• Benjamin Ibarra-Seville, Associate Professor of Architecture and Historic Preservation, Master of Advanced Studies Program Director and Masters of Science in Historic Preservation Program Coordinator at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an architect who graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and holds a degree in conservation and restoration of built heritage from the program of excellence of the Carolina Foundation and the University of Alcalá de Henares, in Spain. Ibarra-Sevilla’s expertise involves case studies of ancient masonry techniques, stereotomy, descriptive geometry, and architectural geometry illuminated by form-resistant structures. His most recent research focuses on the transmission of building technology from Europe to the Americas, exploring the constructive and geometric analysis of 16th century rib vaults in Mexico. His work in masonry, geometry and stereotomy has received awards in Mexico and the United States and has been featured in various forums and journals in Europe, Latin America and North America. His most recent book, Mixtec stonecutting art, published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has received numerous awards, and its exhibition of the same name has been traveling for two years to eight cities in Mexico and the United States. He has participated in the development of aid to World Heritage cities such as Zanzibar in Tanzania, Baku in Azerbaijan and the Batanes Islands in the Philippines.
• Edna Ledesma, Assistant Professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The body of his research, teaching and mentoring focuses on understanding the development of the smart, green and fair city of the 21st century, in particular the cultural landscapes of immigrant populations, micro-economies and their development of a new understanding of the town square. One of her recent publications is the book chapter “Shaping Success: Exploring the Evolution of Latino Business on US-Mexico Border States”, which is co-authored with Cristina Cruz and included in Advancing Latin American entrepreneurship: a new national economic imperative, edited by Marlene Orozco, Alfonso Morales, Michael J. Pisani and Jerry I. Porras (Purdue University Press).
• Juan Luis Burke, assistant professor of architecture and architectural history and theory at the University of Maryland-College Park, where he teaches architectural studio and history and theory classes at the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Burke was originally trained as an architect with a specialization in the preservation of built heritage in his native Mexico. During the first part of his career, he collaborated in the preservation of important monuments in the city of Puebla de los Ángeles, Mexico. He has practiced architecture in Mexico, the United States, and Sweden, in projects that include historical preservation, museum design, school design and private residences. He completed his master’s and doctoral studies in the history and theory of architecture at McGill University, earning his doctorate. in 2017. His academic interests revolve around the history and theory of architecture and town planning from early modern times to modern periods in Mexico and Latin America, as well as his links with Europe , in particular Spain and Italy. He has published a number of articles, articles and chapters edited in Spanish and English, dealing with questions of the reception of architectural and urban theory in Viceregal Mexico. He is the author of a book on the history of architecture and urban history of Puebla during the viceroyal period, Architecture and town planning in Viceregal Mexico: Puebla de los Ángeles, 16th-18th centuries (Routledge, 2021).
• Danielle Zoe Rivera, Assistant Professor in the Landscape Architecture + Environmental Planning Department at the University of California at Berkeley. Rivera leads the Just Environments Lab, which seeks to center social justice and equity concerns in discussions about the future of our environment. His work focuses on environmental planning, urban design and community development. Within these spaces, she focuses on issues of environmental justice and climate equity affecting low-income communities. His current work draws on community-based research and design methods to identify and address environmental injustices affecting low-income communities in South Texas, the Bay Area, and Puerto Rico. She has conducted previous research in Southeast Michigan, the Philadelphia area, and the Denver area. She holds a doctorate in urban planning from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Pennsylvania State University.
• James rojas, who for 30 years has observed, researched and documented the ways Latinos are transforming the streets to meet their non-motorized mobility needs. He has become one of the few nationally recognized experts on this subject and has written and lectured extensively on how culture and immigration are transforming the spatial mobility patterns of Americans. He is the founder of the Latino Urban Forum, an advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness of the planning and design issues facing low-income Latinos. Rojas has lectured and facilitated workshops at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Cornell University, and the University of California at Berkeley, as well as other schools and public forums. His lectures help Latinos clear any doubts they have about city planning or transportation.