Category: Racial Justice

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Baltimore native Ivy Wells, one of many women of color in trucking

By J.J. McQueen
Special to the AFRO

With a record number of female drivers flocking to the trucking industry, more women are hitting the road and leveling the playing field in a male-dominated industry. The influx of Black women in the industry is paving the way for other women of color and has historically done so, too. In the late 1800’s, Mary Fields became the first licensed African-American female driver who worked for the United Postal Service. 

Ivy Wells chose to charter the same road as the pioneering women before her. Having been raised by a single mother who worked as an educator in the Baltimore City Public School system, she has always been a hard worker. And as a mother of three herself, Wells strives to be successful for her family.

At the age of 44, Wells boasts a multitude of notable experiences, like her time working with the legendary band Earth Wind & Fire, of which she uses to remain inspired to dream beyond her days in her rig even when it gets challenging. 

“It’s a tough job because you have to think for everyone around you. I’ve had unpopular moments when I’ve been stopped by law enforcement because they were curious to see a Black-female driver. In those moments I shrugged off the things that I can’t control, and urged the officers to proceed with whatever checks that they had to make as a result of the procedure of being stopped. Some things you just deal with and keep it moving.”

The Baltimore Poly graduate hopes to continue to be someone that inspires the next wave of African-American female truckers. When asked what advice she wants to leave for other females interested in trucking she said, “I recommend for them to enroll in a good reputable driving school. One where you’re really being taught vs watching someone else drive all day.”

Wells also wants people to practice safety on the road and realize what factors can be hazardous for truck drivers, too. “I want people to make safe driving decisions. For instance, when people flash their lights to go around us it’s blinding. Many don’t realize that it temporarily makes us lose visibility, and it increases the chances of crashes. I’d rather for people to just go around us safely.”

Help us Continue to tell OUR Story and join the AFRO family as a member – subscribers are now members!  Join here! 

Baltimore native Ivy Wells, one of many women of color in trucking

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Three Black Spanish podcasters find humor as they deal with prejudice and stereotypes

When Spanish rapper Frank T heard a quip from Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, it stuck in his mind.

The comedian brings an audience member on stage for a rap battle, and the person was wearing a shirt that said “Free Tibet,” to which Chappell said, “ain’t no n—– in Tibet!”

And for Frank T,he knew he would use that somehow.

“I told myself if I ever started something, I’d name it ‘there are no Black people in Tibet,’ ” he told NPR’s Michel Martin.

Of the many challenges facing immigrants in Spain, especially those who arrive from sub-Saharan Africa, he is among three comedians are taking on one — the lack of visibility in Spain’s media for Black people.

And they’re doing it with a podcast that launched this yearand with a title that plays with Chappelle’s line: No hay negros en el Tíbet.

It means “There are no Black people in Tibet” in Spanish.

Frank T — along with his co-hosts, comedians Asaari Bibang and Lamine Thior — want to put the issues facing Black Spaniards front and center.

“For the first time, we have the space to talk about what we want and what we’re going through and what we are concerned with as Black people,” Bibang, who is also a writer, told NPR during a group interview.

One of the ways they’re doing this is merely by talking about their lived experience of growing up Black in Spain.

“There was a time where [the police] stopped me four times in a day, and it was always for different things,” said Thior. “[The police would say] ‘there was a car robbery somewhere around here, and you fit the profile.’ The Black profile.”

Thior, who also posts comedy videos on Instagram, and Frank T exchange stories about who has gotten profiled more.

“There comes a time where it’s so absurd that it makes you laugh. When they stopped me for the 29th time, I’m just like ‘what do you need from me? You want me to pat myself down?'” added Thior. “At the end of the day, it’s the only way [to deal].”

For Bibang, the discrimination takes a different form, through people assuming that she’s either a maid or a sex worker. She says this is a common occurrence in Spain.

“A lot of the time, when you watch TV or movies, the Black women are generally vulnerable and at the mercy of someone who’s acting as a white savior, or they’re prostitutes. I’ve done five films in my career as an actress. And in four of them, I’ve been a prostitute.”

The hosts said comedy is cathartic and helps them deal with the challenges they face in a society where they ebb between invisibility and discrimination.

Frank T adds that it’s helped deliver their message, too: “Humor allows us to bring these issues up to the audience and show them how absurd it is.”

The trio said they hope No hay negros en el Tíbet will bring a more nuanced conversation about race to Spain. They want to add to the conversation in a more profound way and to create a space where Black people’s concerns are central to the discussion and treated with respect.

So far, the reception has been mostly positive.

Bibang said the podcast has opened up conversations about race in her own life — and she now engages with listeners via social media on the topics they discuss on the podcast. And those interactions are helping to create change.

“I think No hay negros en el Tíbet is adding to conversations [about race]. It’s true that things are changing,” she said. “We now have colleagues who are doing roles that have nothing to do with the color of their skin.”

And — Bibang noted — there could be drawbacks for her personal career.

“It’s true that talking about issues of race doesn’t [always] open doors for us, it closes them,” she said. “But for me its worth it.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/23/1113206670/no-hay-negros-en-el-tibet-spain-podcast-black-diaspora

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American comedian, civil rights leader and vegetarian activist.^[1][2] His writings were best sellers. Gregory became popular among the African-American communities in the southern United States with his “no-holds-barred” sets, poking fun at the bigotry and racism in the United States. In 1961 he became a staple in the comedy clubs, appeared on television, and released comedy record albums.^[3]

Gregory was at the forefront of political activism in the 1960s, when he protested the Vietnam War and racial injustice. He was arrested multiple times and went on many hunger strikes.^[4] He later became a speaker and author, primarily promoting spirituality.^[3] Gregory died of heart failure, aged 84, at a Washington, D.C., hospital in August 2017.^[3]

Early life

Gregory was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Lucille, a housemaid, and Presley Gregory.^[5] At Sumner High School, he was aided by teachers, among them Warren St. James; he also excelled at running, winning the state cross country championship in 1950.^[6] Gregory earned a track scholarship to Southern Illinois University (SIU),^[7] where he set school records as a half-miler and miler.^[8] He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. In 1954, his college career was interrupted for two years when he was drafted into the United States Army. At the urging of his commanding officer, who had taken notice of his penchant for joking, Gregory got his start in comedy in the Army, where he entered and won several talent shows. In 1956, Gregory briefly returned to SIU after his discharge, but dropped out because he felt that the university “didn’t want me to study, they wanted me to run.”^[9]

In the hopes of becoming a professional comedian, Gregory moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he became part of a new generation of black comedians that included Nipsey Russell, Bill Cosby, and Godfrey Cambridge, all of whom broke with the minstrel tradition that presented stereotypical black characters. Gregory drew on current events, especially racial issues, for much of his material: “Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a collision where the people in the back of the bus got hurt?”^[10]

Comedy career

Gregory started helping his family with the gigs he started to get at a young age. He was always involved in sports and in social groups in high school. He enrolled in Southern Illinois University in 1951. He was named the university’s outstanding student athlete of the year in 1953. The same year he left college when he was drafted into The United States Army, where he performed comedy shows hosted by the Army after encouragement by his Commanding Officer. In 1961, Gregory made his New York debut at The Blue Angel nightclub, also recording a live set there, “Dick Gregory at the Blue Angel” for his album East & West.^[11][12] He soon came back to Chicago and finally got his big break at the Playboy Club in Chicago, also in 1961, that was supposed to be one night and ended up being six weeks and earned him a spot in Time and a guest appearance on Jack Paar’s show and other night clubs shows, etc.

Gregory began his career as a comedian while serving in the military in the mid-1950s. He served in the Army for a year and a half at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Lee in Virginia, and Fort Smith in Arkansas. He was drafted in 1954 while attending Southern Illinois University. After being discharged in 1956, he returned to the university but did not receive a degree. He moved to Chicago with a desire to perform comedy professionally.^[10]

In 1958, Gregory opened the Apex Club nightclub in Illinois. The club failed and landed Gregory in financial hardship. In 1959, Gregory landed a job as master of ceremonies at the Roberts Show Club.^[13]

While working for the United States Postal Service during the daytime, Gregory performed as a comedian in small, primarily black-patronized nightclubs. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Gregory described the history of black comics as limited: “Blacks could sing and dance in the white night clubs but weren’t allowed to stand flat-footed and talk to white folks, which is what a comic does.”^[14]

In 1961, Gregory was working at the black-owned Roberts Show Bar in Chicago when he was spotted by Hugh Hefner.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.

Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, “We don’t serve colored people here.” I said, “That’s all right. I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.”

Then these three white boys came up to me and said, “Boy, we’re giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we’re gonna do to you.” So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, “Line up, boys!”

Gregory attributed the launch of his career to Hefner. Based on his performance at Roberts Show Bar, Hefner hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club as a replacement for comedian “Professor” Irwin Corey.^[15]

Gregory’s comedy occasioned controversy in some conservative white circles. The administration of the University of Tennessee, for instance, branded Gregory an “extreme racist”^[16] whose “appearance would be an outrage and an insult to many citizens of this state”,^[17] and revoked his invitation by students to speak on campus. The students sued, with noted litigator William Kunstler as their counsel, and in Smith v. University of Tennessee, 300 F. Supp. 777 (E.D. Tenn. 1969), won an order from the court that the university’s policy was “too broad and vague”. The University of Tennessee then implemented an “open speaker” system, and Gregory subsequently performed in April 1970.^[16]

In 1964, Gregory’s book, Nigger, was published. Since then, the book has never been out of print. In 2019 a trade paperback was published as well as an audio version.^[18]

Post-standup career

Gregory was number 82 on Comedy Central‘s list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of all time and had his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.^[19]

He was a co-host with radio personality Cathy Hughes, and was a frequent morning guest, on WOL 1450 AM talk radio’s The Power, the flagship station of Hughes’ Radio One.^[20] He also appeared regularly on the nationally syndicated Imus in the Morning program.^[21]

Gregory appeared as “Mr. Sun” on the television show Wonder Showzen (the third episode, entitled “Ocean”, aired in 2005). As Chauncey, a puppet character, imbibes a hallucinogenic substance, Mr. Sun warns: “Don’t get hooked on imagination, Chauncey. It can lead to terrible, horrible things.” Gregory also provided guest commentary on the Wonder Showzen Season One DVD.^[22] Large segments of his commentary were intentionally bleeped out, including the names of several dairy companies, as he made potentially defamatory remarks concerning ill effects that the consumption of cow milk has on human beings.

Gregory attended and spoke at the funeral of James Brown on December 30, 2006, in Augusta, Georgia.^[23]

Gregory was an occasional guest on the Mark Thompson’s Make It Plain Sirius Channel 146 Radio Show from 3pm to 6pm PST.^[24]

Gregory appeared on The Alex Jones Show on September 14, 2010, March 19, 2012, and April 1, 2014.^[25][26][27]

Gregory gave the keynote address for Black History Month at Bryn Mawr College on February 28, 2013.^[28] His take-away message to the students was to never accept injustice.

Once I accept injustice, I become injustice. For example, paper mills give off a terrible stench. But the people who work there don’t smell it. Remember, Dr. King was assassinated when he went to work for garbage collectors. To help them as workers to enforce their rights. They couldn’t smell the stench of the garbage all around them anymore. They were used to it. They would eat their lunch out of a brown bag sitting on the garbage truck. One day, a worker was sitting inside the back of the truck on top of the garbage, and got crushed to death because no one knew he was there.^[28]

Towards the end of his life, he was featured in a Fantagraphics book by Pat Thomas entitled Listen, Whitey: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965–1975, which uses the political recordings of the Civil Rights era to highlight sociopolitical meanings throughout the movement.^[29] Gregory is known for comedic performances that not only made people laugh, but mocked the establishment. According to Thomas, Gregory’s monologues reflect a time when entertainment needed to be political to be relevant, which is why he included his standup in the collection. Gregory is featured along with the likes of Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Langston Hughes and Bill Cosby.^[30]

Political career

Gregory began his political career by running against Richard J. Daley for Mayor of Chicago in 1967. Though he did not win, this would not prove to be the end of his participation in electoral politics.^[31]

Gregory ran for President of the United States in 1968 as a write-in candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party, which had broken off from the Peace and Freedom Party. He garnered 47,097 votes, including one from Hunter S. Thompson,^[32] with fellow activist Mark Lane as his running mate in some states. His running mate in New Jersey was Dr. David Frost of Plainfield, a biologist, Rutgers professor, and Chairman of NJ SANE (Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy). Famed pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock was the running mate in Virginia^[33] and Pennsylvania^[34] garnering more than the party he had left.^[35] The Freedom and Peace Party also ran other candidates, including Beulah Sanders for New York State Senate and Flora Brown for New York State Assembly.^[36] His efforts landed him on the master list of Nixon’s political opponents.

Gregory then wrote the book Write Me In about his presidential campaign. One anecdote in the book relates the story of a publicity stunt that came out of Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. The campaign had printed one-dollar bills with Gregory’s image on them, some of which made it into circulation. The majority of these bills were quickly seized by the federal government,^[8] much in part to the bills resembling authentic US currency enough to work in many dollar-cashing machines of the day.^[37] Gregory avoided being charged with a federal crime, later joking that the bills could not really be considered United States currency, because “everyone knows a black man will never be on a U.S. bill.”^[38] On October 15, 1969, Gregory spoke at the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam demonstration in Washington, D.C., where he joked to the crowd: “The President says nothing you kids do will have any effect on him. Well, I suggest he make one long-distance call to the LBJ ranch”.^[39]

Political activism

Anti-Apartheid

On July 21, 1979, Gregory appeared at the Amandla Festival where Bob Marley, Patti LaBelle, and Eddie Palmieri, among others, performed.^[40] Gregory gave a speech before Marley’s performance, blaming President Jimmy Carter, and showing his support for the international Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Civil rights movement

Gregory was active in the civil rights movement. On October 7, 1963, he came to Selma, Alabama, and spoke for two hours on a public platform two days before the voter registration drive known as “Freedom Day” (October 7, 1963).^[41]

In 1964, Gregory became more involved in civil rights activities, activism against the Vietnam War, economic reform, and anti-drug issues. As a part of his activism, he went on several hunger strikes and campaigns in America and overseas. In the early 1970s, he was banned from Australia, where government officials feared he would “…stir up demonstrations against the Vietnam war.”^[42]

In 1964, Gregory played a role in the search for three missing civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, who vanished in Philadelphia, Mississippi. After Gregory and members of CORE met with Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey, Gregory became convinced that the Sheriff’s office was complicit. With cash provided by Hugh Hefner, Gregory announced a $25,000 reward for information. The FBI, which had been criticized for inaction, eventually followed suit with its own reward, and the rewards worked. The bodies of the three men were found by the FBI 44 days after they disappeared.^[43]

At a civil rights rally marking the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Gregory criticized the United States, calling it “the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world’s population and consumes 96 percent of the world’s hard drugs”.^[44]

Feminism

Gregory was an outspoken feminist, and in 1978 joined Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Margaret Heckler, Barbara Mikulski, and other suffragists to lead the National ERA March for Ratification and Extension, a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol. Gregory was invited to join the march by actress and activist Susan Blakely.^{[citation needed]} There were over 100,000 on Women’s Equality Day (August 26), 1978, to demonstrate for a ratification deadline extension for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, and for the ratification of the ERA.^{[45][citation needed]} The march was ultimately successful in extending the deadline to June 30, 1982, and Gregory joined other activists to the Senate for celebration and victory speeches by pro-ERA Senators, members of Congress, and activists. The ERA narrowly failed to be ratified by the extended ratification date.

JFK assassination and the Warren Commission

Gregory became an outspoken critic of the findings of the Warren Commission concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. On February 3, 1975, in Washington, D.C., Gregory introduced photographic forensic investigator Stephen Jaffe and assassination researchers Robert J. Groden and Ralph Schoenman to the members and lawyers for the presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission who gave testimony and presented evidence. A month later, on March 6, 1975, Gregory and researcher Robert J. Groden appeared on Geraldo Rivera‘s late night ABC talk show Goodnight America. An important historical event happened that night when the famous Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination was shown to the public on TV for the first time.^[46] The public’s response and outrage to its showing led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, which contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, which resulted in the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gregory and Mark Lane conducted landmark research into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helping move the U.S. House Select Assassinations Committee to investigate the murder, along with that of John F. Kennedy. Lane was the author of conspiracy theory books such as Rush to Judgment. The pair wrote the King conspiracy book Code Name Zorro, which postulated that convicted assassin James Earl Ray did not act alone. Gregory also argued that the moon landing was faked and the commonly accepted account of the 9/11 attacks is incorrect, among other conspiracy theories.^[1][47]

In 1998, Gregory spoke at the celebration of the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., with President Bill Clinton in attendance. Not long after, the President told Gregory’s long-time friend and public relations consultant Steve Jaffe, “I love Dick Gregory; he is one of the funniest people on the planet.” They spoke of how Gregory had made a comment on Dr. King’s birthday that broke everyone into laughter when he noted that the President made Speaker Newt Gingrich ride “in the back of the plane,” on an Air Force One trip overseas.^[48]

Native American rights

In 1966, Gregory and his wife were arrested for illegal net fishing alongside of the Nisqually people in Washington state in a protest fish-in. The tribe was protesting against the state laws that ban forms of fishing other than hook-and-line because it barred their rights guaranteed to them through a federal treaty that allowed them to fish in their traditional ways.^[49] He was later released from jail in Olympia, Washington after six weeks of fasting to call attention to the violation of Native American treaties by the United States government.^[49]

Pollution

In 2008, Gregory stated he believed that air pollution and intentional water contamination with heavy metals such as lead and possibly manganese may be being used against black Americans, especially in urban neighborhoods, and that such factors could be contributing to high levels of violence in black communities.^[50]

US Embassy hostage crisis in Iran

Gregory was an outspoken activist during the US Embassy hostage crisis in Iran. In 1980, he traveled to Tehran to attempt to negotiate the hostages’ release and engaged in a public hunger strike there, weighing less than 100 pounds (45 kg) when he returned to the United States.^[51]

Vegetarianism and animal rights

Gregory became a vegetarian and fasting activist in 1965 “based on the philosophy of nonviolence practiced during the Civil Rights Movement.”^[52] His 1973 book, Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet For Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ With Mother Nature, outlined how fasting and going vegetarian led to dramatic weight loss.^[52] He developed a diet drink called Bahamian Diet Nutritional Drink and went on TV shows to advocate his diet to help the morbidly obese. He wrote the introduction to Viktoras Kulvinskas’ book Survival into the 21st Century.^[31] A talk he gave at Amherst College in 1986 inspired Tracye McQuirter to become a vegan activist.^[52]

In 1984, he founded Health Enterprises, Inc., a company that distributed weight-loss products. With this company, Gregory made efforts to improve the life expectancy of African Americans, which he believed was being hindered by poor nutrition and drug and alcohol abuse.^[53] In 1985, Gregory introduced the Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet, a powdered diet mix.^[54] He launched the weight-loss powder at the Whole Life Expo in Boston under the slogan “It’s cool to be healthy.” The diet mix, if drunk three times a day, was said to provide rapid weight loss. Gregory received a multimillion-dollar distribution contract to retail the diet.^[55]

In 1985, the Ethiopian government adopted, to reported success, Gregory’s formula to combat malnutrition during a period of famine in the country.^[56] Gregory’s clients included Muhammad Ali.^[57]

In 2003, Gregory and Cornel West wrote letters on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to Kentucky Fried Chicken‘s CEO, asking that the company improve its animal-handling procedures.^[58]

Gregory saw civil rights and animal rights as intrinsically linked, once stating, “Because I’m a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We shouldn’t be a part of it.”^[59]

Personal life

Gregory met his future wife Lillian Gregory^[60] at an African-American club; they married in 1959. They had 11 children (including one son, Richard Jr., who died two months after birth): Michele, Lynne, Pamela, Paula, Xenobia (Stephanie), Gregory, Christian, Miss, Ayanna, and Yohance.^[10] In a 2000 interview with The Boston Globe, Gregory was quoted as saying, “People ask me about being a father and not being there. I say, ‘Jack the Ripper had a father. Hitler had a father. Don’t talk to me about family.'”^[20]

Health and death

Gregory was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 1999. He said he was treating the cancer with herbs, vitamins, and exercise, which he believed kept the cancer in remission.^[61]

Gregory died from heart failure^[62] at a hospital in Washington, D.C., on August 19, 2017, at the age of 84.^[51] A week prior to his death, he was hospitalized with a bacterial infection.^[63]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Gregory

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Isha Joseph owns Make Manifest, a clothing and jewelry store in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, which also functions as a workshop space for the community. She remembers the first days of the pandemic in 2020.

“I was just like … this can’t be it,” she says.

In the next few months, nationwide, the pandemic took a massive toll on the economy. Especially hard hit were Black-owned businesses like hers. Joseph watched as the vibrant activity on Tompkins Avenue, where her store is located, came to a halt.

“It was like a ghost town,” she says. “It was more the despair. Just people feeling very uncertain. Not knowing what’s going on, not knowing what’s happening.”

To counter some of the uncertainty, she and other women who owned businesses on Tompkins banded together. They and some of their customers pledged to support one another through the most difficult of times, so no one would have to close down. It worked.

Today, as the pandemic wanes, the number of Black-owned businesses in the U.S. is currently around 30% above pre-pandemic levels. That growth is being driven by Black women like Joseph and her fellow nearby entrepreneurs.

Their efforts kept their doors open eventually earned the nickname “Black Girl Magic Row.”

While Joseph and the others celebrate their success, they also acknowledge the challenges they faced.

Tompkins Avenue has been heavily gentrified in recent decades but commerce remains significantly Black-owned

Even in the dead of New York winter, Bedford Stuyvesant, or Bed-Stuy, is gorgeous. Under a canopy of bare trees, lined by stunning old brownstones, it’s always been a hub of Black culture, home to artists like Lena Horne and Jay-Z.

And while it has been heavily gentrified in recent decades, commerce on Tompkins Avenue remains significantly Black-owned. On any given day you can walk by and smell some smoky jerk chicken from a local stand, mixed with incense wafting out from one of the neighborhood stores that specializes in local Black designers and African textiles.

Khadija Tudor grew up around here in the 1980s. She has a lot of fond memories, like listening to music with friends. “I am a card-carrying member of the New Edition fan club!” she says, with a full laugh.

But it was also difficult. This neighborhood was hard hit by drugs and violence. “I had a really good friend, we were like maybe 12 or 13 years old,” Tudor remembers. “And we would walk around in our neighborhood, but we would look down, we would never really look up. Because we didn’t really want to see what was around us. But we would talk about what we wanted it to look like.”

Part of that vision was having her own business. Tudor is now a massage therapist, and she co-owns the Life Wellness Center with her partner.

“When I started doing this work I started seeing that, it didn’t matter what the socioeconomic background was,” she says.

She takes pride in the symbiotic relationship between her store and her clients. Especially women. She depends on them to stay in business, and many of them depend on her, for their wellbeing.

But in early 2020, as the city went into lockdown, the entire symbiosis of Tompkins Avenue was tested.

“What happens to designers and entrepreneurs if they can’t open their doors?”

Hekima Hapa co-owns Botanical Life Style, which sells locally designed home décor and clothing. She’s also the founder of the nonprofit “Black Girls Sew,” which teaches tailoring to young Black women. She remembers one evening, in March 2020, when one of her students walked in, and made a strange request.

She wanted to make face masks.

“And I kinda laughed. Like … what a silly thing.” It was so unusual, Hapa posted a picture of the self-made mask, on Instagram. “And maybe two, three days later, we found out we were going to have to close down our space. And I just remember thinking: ‘What happens to designers and entrepreneurs if they can’t open their doors?’ “

Her concerns were well founded. Nationwide, by April 2020, Black-owned businesses dropped by 41%.

The situation proved especially dire for folks like Khadija Tudor. After all, massage and acupuncture require a level of physical contact that was being actively discouraged by health authorities.

People like Goldwyn Lewis Wilkinson, a retired nurse who is one of Tudor’s regulars, says she was too scared to go out. “I remember a particular moment where I knelt to the side of my bed, and I said ‘I’m scared. I’m scared.’ “

The coronavirus killed four people in Wilkinson’s family, including her daughter.

“She was 39. Just married two months,” Wilkinson says. “She got married in February and she died in April.”

The pandemic battered this community, but also brought out its fighting spirit

Tiecha Merritt owns a juice bar in this area, The Bush Doctor. “When I shut down, I said, ‘If I’m going through this issue, so are the [other] merchants.’ “

Merritt, who is also the president of the Tompkins Avenue Merchants Association (TAMA), says she immediately called every store owner and helped them apply for loans and grants.

“All the businesses that are part of TAMA received grants, which was a number one press for us,” she says. “To keep their business afloat.”

In addition, TAMA helped owners move their businesses online, and outside: they closed down the avenue, and had sidewalk sales.

For many entrepreneurs, it was also about responding to new customer needs.

Hekima Hapa, the sewing teacher who shared a picture of the face mask her student made that last day of class, says she woke up the next day, checked her social media, and, “There was literally 100 people saying: ‘where can I get a mask?’ “

Although at first she hesitated, she gave in to the requests. It paid off: For the next two years, she says it was precisely the sale of handmade masks that helped keep her business afloat.

But it was a lot more than that. The Tompkins Avenue owners checked in on each other every day, in a WhatsApp group. They’d compare notes about PPP loans, the cost of new hygiene requirements.

“So much information coming at you,” says Tudor. “You’re a small business owner, and you’re just trying to figure out how to open up, and sell online.”

Isha Joseph says banding together was huge.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Truly,” Joseph says.
“The landlord was very supportive. I mean we had to pay the rent eventually- but he wasn’t on top of us. He understood that he was in the same situation. And he believed in us too.”

In an area where gentrification has pushed the price of housing into the millions, she says that was a very important gesture.

Tompkins Avenue was dubbed “Black Girl Magic Street” after news about their efforts were reported. Joseph smiles when she hears the nickname. “Black women have been able to really rise up in times that you just have to get it done,” Joseph says. “It’s like a magical thing. Like you can turn chitlins into a gourmet dish. Black girl magic is all about how women literally can turn dust into gold.”

Customers say the “Black Girl Magic” magic keeps them coming back to Tompkins Avenue

Still, it took many months for “Black Girl Magic Row” to re-open fully.

Goldwyn Lewis Wilkinson had been a long-time customer at Khadija Tudor’s. After her daughter’s death, Wilkinson needed care more than ever, but she couldn’t bring herself to go anywhere. She’d spent years going to Tompkins Avenue, but this time, Tompkins Avenue reached out to her.

Tudor and her partner called her, and offered to bring her in on a day when no one else came, so she’d feel safer.

Wilkinson says as she lay there, she felt “a sense of calm, and relief.”

She told the massage therapist, “She’s here you know. She’s watching us. She’s smiling at us. ‘Who are you talking about?’ the therapist asked. I said, ‘My daughter. She’s right here, she’s happy that I’m taking care of myself.’ “

Afterward, Wilkinson says, she sat in silence for a while, holding on to that feeling.

That magic, it helped get her through.

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/13/1082519078/black-business-ownership-is-higher-than-pre-pandemic-women-are-driving-that-grow

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

As a racial justice activist, NBA great Bill Russell was a legend off the court

Bill Russell, who has died at the age of 88, was more than just a basketball superstar and world-class athlete. As a dedicated human rights activist, Russell fought against racial inequality both in and out of professional sports.

In February 2011, Barack Obama presented Russell with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House. He told those in attendance about Russell’s record 11 NBA titles, more than any player in history. All of the championships were playing for the Boston Celtics.

However, the president was more impressed by Russell’s life outside of his athletic accomplishments: marching with Martin Luther King Jr.; standing up for Muhammad Ali; and boycotting a game in Kentucky after his Black teammates were refused service in a coffee shop.

“He endured insults and vandalism, but he kept on focusing on making the teammates who he loved better players, and made possible the success of so many who would follow,” Obama said in 2011. “And I hope that one day, in the streets of Boston, children will look up at a statue built not only to Bill Russell the player, but Bill Russell the man.”

The first game boycott over civil rights

In October 1961, the Boston Celtics were in Lexington, Ky., for a pre-season exhibition game. Before the game, Sam Jones and Tom Sanders, two Black members of the Boston team, were refused service when they tried to grab a bite to eat from the hotel’s café.

According to Mark C. Bodanza’s biography of Sam Jones, Ten Times a Champion, Jones and Sanders walked away humiliated and angry. The two bumped into Russell and K.C. Jones on the way back to their hotel rooms and explained what had happened in the café.

The four men brought the news to Celtics Coach Red Auerbach, who rang the hotel management about the incident. Though the players were eventually given permission to eat at the hotel, they wanted nothing to do with the establishment and chose to fly home.

It was the first boycotting of a game over a civil rights protest, according to the Basketball Network. When the players landed back in Boston, they were welcomed by a predominantly white crowd that supported their decision.

Russell told reporters the following day, per Bodanza: “We’ve got to show our disapproval of this kind of treatment or else the status quo will prevail. We have the same rights and privileges as anyone else and deserve to be treated accordingly. I hope we never have to go through this abuse again. But if it happens, we won’t hesitate to take the same action again.”

Almost 60 years later, Russell referenced the incident as he applauded another NBA team for speaking out. In August 2020, players on the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to take the court in a playoff game against Orlando after police shot a Black man in Wisconsin.

“In [1961] I walked out if an exhibition game much like the [NBA] players did yesterday,” Russell wrote. “I am one of the few people that knows what it felt like to make such an important decision.”

Many of Russell’s most notable actions were during the 1960s

Russell was at the 1963 March on Washington, sitting nearby King as he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Another notable action came when Russell spoke to students in support of a one-day Black student boycott of Boston’s public schools to protest segregation that same year. He was involved in local issues in Boston, including being involved in planning the graduation and speaking to graduates at a predominantly Black high school in 1966.

After Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963, Russell traveled to Mississippi to work with Evers’ brother to open an integrated basketball camp.

In 1967, when boxing legend Muhammad Ali refused to fight in America’s war in Vietnam, Russell joined other prominent Black figures gathering in Cleveland to meet with Ali. Russell supported Ali’s decision to go to prison instead of denouncing his beliefs surrounding civil rights and religious freedom.

Later in life, he continued speaking out.

In 2017, he posted a photo of himself – wearing his Presidential Medal of Freedom – taking a knee in a sign of solidarity with protesters within the NFL.

“Proud to take a knee, and to stand tall against social injustice,” Russell wrote.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/01/1114795613/racial-justice-pioneer-nba-bill-russell

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ dies at 89

Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, best known as Star Trek‘s communications officer Lieutenant Uhura, died Saturday night in Silver City, New Mexico. She was 89 years old.

“I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years,” her son Kyle Johnson wrote on the website Uhura.com. “Her light, however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration.”

Nichols was one of the first Black women featured in a major television series, and her role as Lt. Nyota Uhura on the original TV series was groundbreaking: an African American woman whose name came from Uhuru, the Swahili word for “freedom.”

“Here I was projecting in the 23rd century what should have been quite simple,” Nichols told NPR in 2011. “We’re on a starship. I was head communications officer. Fourth in command on a starship. They didn’t see this as being, oh, it doesn’t happen til the 23rd century. Young people and adults saw it as now.”

In 1968, Nichols made headlines when Uhura shared an intimate kiss with Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) in an episode called “Plato’s Stepchildren.” Their interracial kiss on the lips was revolutionary, one of the first such moments on TV. https://www.youtube.com/embed/lThvEsP5-9Y?rel=0

Nichelle Nichols shared one of the first interracial kisses in TV history with William Shatner. YouTube

Nichols was born Grace Dell Nichols in a Chicago suburb where her father was the mayor. She grew up singing and dancing, aspiring to star in musical theater. She got her first break in the 1961 musical Kicks and Co., a thinly veiled satire of Playboy magazine. She was the star of the Chicago stock company production of Carmen Jones, and in New York performed in Porgy and Bess.

‘To me, the highlight and the epitome of my life as a singer and actor and a dancer/choreographer was to star on Broadway,” she told NPR in 2011, adding that as her popularity on Star Trek grew, she was beginning to get other offers. “I decided I was going to leave, go to New York and make my way on the Broadway stage.”

Nichols said she went to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and announced she was quitting. “He was very upset about it. And he said, take the weekend and think about what I am trying to achieve here in this show. You’re an integral part and very important to it.”

So that weekend, she went to an NAACP fundraiser in Beverly Hills and was asked to meet a man who said he was her number one fan: Martin Luther King, Jr.

“He complimented me on the manner in which I’d created the character. I thanked him, and I think I said something like, ‘Dr. King, I wish I could be out there marching with you.’ He said, ‘no, no, no. No, you don’t understand. We don’t need you … to march. You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for.’ So, I said to him, ‘thank you so much. And I’m going to miss my co-stars.'”

“His face got very, very serious,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘what are you talking about?’ And I said, ‘well, I told Gene just yesterday that I’m going to leave the show after the first year because I’ve been offered… And he stopped me and said: ‘You cannot do that.’ I was stunned. He said, ‘don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen. He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch.’ I was speechless.”

Nichols returned to the series, which lasted until 1969. She also reprised her famous role in six subsequent feature films, including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where Uhura was promoted to commander.

For years, Nichols also helped diversify the real-life space program, helping to recruit astronauts Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Guion Bluford, and others. And she had her own science foundation, Women in Motion.

“Many actors become stars, but few stars can move a nation,” tweeted actress Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s. “Nichelle Nichols showed us the extraordinary power of Black women and paved the way for a better future for all women in media. Thank you, Nichelle. We will miss you.”

George Takei, who costarred on Star Trek as helmsman Hikaru Sulu tweeted: “I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise,” her wrote. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.”

He also posted a photo of his longtime friend, both of them flashing the Vulcan greeting, and these words: “We lived long and prospered together.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/31/1114792935/nichelle-nichols-dies-star-trek

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

NOTE ON MY NAME

I have an ongoing practice of spelling my name JJJJJerome Ellis in certain circumstances. I do this because the word I stutter on most frequently is my name. You can choose which spelling you prefer.

JJJJJerome Ellis is a blk disabled animal, stutterer, and artist. He prays, reads, gardens, cycles, wanders, and plays. Through music, literature, performance, and video he researches relationships among blackness, disabled speech, divinity, nature, sound, and time. Born in 1989 to Jamaican and Grenadian immigrants, he grew up and lives by a heron rookery in Virginia Beach, USA.

His diverse body of work includes: contemplative soundscapes using saxophone, flute, dulcimer, electronics, and vocals; scores for plays and podcasts; albums combining spoken word with ambient and jazz textures; theatrical explorations involving live music and storytelling; and music-video-poems that seek to transfigure historical archives. 

JJJJJerome collaborates with James Harrison Monaco as James & Jerome. Their recent work explores themes of border crossing and translation through music-driven narratives. They have received commissions from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Ars Nova.

https://jjjjjerome.com/about

Ellis has also been named a 2022 Disability Futures Fellow:

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/27/1113643836/fellowship-supports-disabled-artists

More:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/10/artist-and-stutterer-jjjjjerome-ellis-so-much-pain-comes-from-not-feeling-fully-human

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

This story is part of KQED’s series, “Sacrifice Zones: Bay Area Shoreline Communities Reimagining Their Homes in the Face of the Climate Emergency.” The project looks at communities of color facing the worst of rising seas and fighting to thrive. Read more of KQED’s reparations coverage.

Arieann Harrison accepted her calling at her mother’s funeral, sitting in St. John Missionary Baptist Church in the San Francisco shoreline community of Bayview-Hunters Point.

“You find out a lot about yourself at a funeral,” said Harrison. Her mother, Marie Harrison, passed away in 2019 at 71 from lung disease. Harrison says her mom believed the illness was tied to pollution from a nearby shipyard, where she once worked and lived close to.

At St. John’s, person after person shared reasons why they valued Harrison’s mother.

She organized, marched and protested for decades, pushing for a shipyard cleanup — even chaining herself to the fence outside the site. Marie Harrison famously said to neighbors, officials and anyone who would listen, “We’ll never surrender.”

Harrison realized it was time to stand on her mother’s shoulders, taking on her legacy of advocacy.

“What I learned in that moment is that love is an action word,” she said. She’s since launched the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, whose focus is environmental justice. ‘We’re just one natural disaster away from something we can never come back from. This is not a game.’Arieann Harrison, Marie Harrison Community Foundation

The shipyard is now a Superfund site, one of the country’s most polluted places. The 866-acre area is a jigsaw slab of concrete docking bays and abandoned buildings jutting out of the southeast shoreline of San Francisco. The site butts up against the community of Bayview-Hunters Point, where more than 35,000 people live.

Marie Harrison fought for a cleanup. Her daughter’s struggle is arguably more difficult, as climate change and sea level rise threaten to flood the area. Scientists are increasingly sounding the alarm about rising bay water pushing freshwater up from belowground, uncorking chemicals from the shipyard before spilling into homes and businesses.

“We’re just one natural disaster away from something we can never come back from,” said Harrison, who lives in the neighborhood and works helping military veterans and unhoused people find housing and recovery programs in San Francisco. “This is not a game.”

Three years after her mother’s death, Harrison, who is in her mid-50s, is pressing officials for the strongest possible cleanup of the site to ensure the community isn’t exposed to toxic waste. She’s helping lead an effort to document how living near the Superfund site may have exposed residents — many of whom are people of color — to toxics, by testing for contaminants in their bodies.

People of color, all around the bay and the globe, are disproportionately victimized by the effects of climate change. Harrison is one of the many Black women who are increasingly focused on climate justice and are leading the modern environmental movement.

“Climate justice is a real thing. Sea level rise is real,” she said. “This is the opportunity to stand up and do the right thing by the people.”

Her advocacy also now includes a call for reparations for descendants of enslaved people, saying the tendrils of slavery are still very alive today in this historically Black neighborhood. Racist housing policies siloed Black and brown people in this part of San Francisco, where she says they were exposed to contaminants from the Superfund site; repair is needed.

‘The worst contaminants you can imagine’

Bayview-Hunters Point Hazardous Sites and 2100 Sea Level Rise

Use your mouse to move different directions on the map. Use the + and – signs to zoom in and out. Click on the magnifying glass at the bottom to search for a specific address. Click on the down arrow at the top right of the legend to remove it. Areas marked by triangles show the impact of rising seas and groundwater together, while circles show groundwater impacts only. Icons are sized by population within 1 km. Sources: Climate Central, UCLA, UC Berkeley, USGS.

https://kqed.carto.com/u/kqednews/builder/ad710fe6-e00c-4eab-85e6-06e8f9771982/embed

In California, communities of color are five times more likely than the general population to live within a half mile of polluted places like San Francisco’s shipyard, according to an analysis by environmental health scientists from UCLA and UC Berkeley.

The researchers predict these same spots could flood from rising seas in the coming decades; they launched a statewide mapping project last year called Toxic Tides, to identify hazardous places along the state’s shoreline. They’ve studied a less-understood threat: Rising seas flood over the top of the land and also push in underneath, propelling any buried contamination toward the surface. Groundwater could rise as far as 3 miles inland from the edge of San Francisco Bay.

Researchers identified as many as 900 power plants, cleanup sites, refineries and other places in California that could experience flooding from sea level rise or groundwater spreading into neighborhoods — sometimes both.

California’s latest guidance report on sea level rise says bay waters may rise more than 10 feet by the end of the century and nearly 3 feet by 2050 in the most extreme scenarios. The leading cause of climate change is humans burning fossil fuels.

The Hunters Point Superfund site is one of those hazardous sites. In the middle of the last century, the U.S. Navy decontaminated ships after atomic bomb tests and established the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory at the shipyard. This process contaminated the soil with radionuclides, heavy metals and petroleum fuels, among other toxic compounds.

Bay Area scientists say that before rising tides flood aboveground, bay waters will press inward under the surface of the land, pushing up the groundwater, spreading buried contamination. ‘Our health risks within the community are very deep. It goes way back. We know what time it is when it comes to Hunters Point.’Lonnie Mason, Bayview-Hunters Point resident

“The Hunters Point Superfund site is expected to experience monthly flooding by the end of the century,” said UCLA’s Lara Cushing, who created the mapping project with UC Berkeley’s Rachel Morello-Frosch.

The Superfund site is partially cleaned up. With the oversight of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Navy is preparing for the eventual development of research institutions, parks and thousands of homes.

But Morello-Frosch says any cleanup that caps toxic contamination likely won’t be good enough as the bay presses groundwater upward.

“If you start having groundwater encroachment, those caps of legacy sites can be breached,” she noted. “So it can come up, and it can move to different areas.”

Cole Burchiel, a field investigator for the environmental watchdog group San Francisco Baykeeper, is worried that rising groundwater levels will harm human and aquatic life.

“We’re dealing with some of the worst contaminants you can imagine — lead, arsenic, radioactive isotopes,” he said. “They will infiltrate existing infrastructure. We’re talking sewer lines, water supply lines — and that has a direct impact on people’s homes.”

‘We’re tired of begging for our lives’

Every five years the Navy examines progress on the shipyard’s cleanup. The last study, completed in 2020, said they “have adequately addressed all exposure pathways that could result in unacceptable risks.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s office denied multiple requests for an interview for this story. The city said in an emailed statement that it’s conducting a study with Bay Area climate scientists on how sea level rise will affect groundwater, and they’re seeking funding to study how sea level rise could affect known contaminated sites.

A May report released by the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury reprimands city and Navy officials, saying they have not accounted for the serious risk that rising groundwater could have here.

“Aside from some glimmers of awareness at regulatory agencies, groundwater rise has not yet been meaningfully considered in the cleanup at the Hunters Point Shipyard,” the grand jury wrote. ‘What’s actually at stake here are people’s lives. We need to make sure that people are not at the risk of death, if we really say that their lives matter.’Maya Carrasquillo, UC Berkeley

San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose district includes Bayview-Hunters Point, requested a hearing on the jury report. But his office declined repeated requests for an interview. In an emailed statement, he said he is aware of the longstanding issue of radioactive contamination and is working with all the agencies involved in the cleanup.

But he acknowledged that “the effect of sea level rise and groundwater rise has not been studied” for the Hunters Point Superfund site.

Harrison organized a June rally in front of City Hall to highlight the findings. Wearing a bright purple shirt with “CAN WE LIVE” printed on the front and speaking into a megaphone, she said the city needs to prepare Bayview-Hunters Point for the effects of sea level rise.

“I want to invite our mayor, who we love, to show us that she loves us back,” she said.

She said reparations are necessary to create an equitable future for Bayview-Hunters Point and its Black and brown residents who will be disproportionately harmed by climate change.

Government agencies redlined Black people into the neighborhood now dominated by polluting industries. As a result, residents live near toxic sites and face potentially deadly impacts from climate change.

“We’re tired of begging for our lives,” Harrison told KQED. “I holla for reparations because that’s paying for crimes against humanity. You can bet your bottom dollar we’re gonna need long-term care.”

California’s task force on reparations is deep in a conversation on how to repair the centuries of oppression endured by descendants of the enslaved on a statewide level. San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee is exploring how the city can repair the harm its discriminatory policies have caused to Black homeownership, access to schools and availability of health care.

Bayview-Hunters Point residents regularly attend the meetings of San Francisco’s advisory committee to express their concerns. Lonnie Mason said at a January session that the city is not giving enough attention to the historically Black area of San Francisco. He was born and raised in the neighborhood.

“Our health risks within the community are very deep,” he said. “It goes way back. We know what time it is when it comes to Hunters Point.”

Reparations mean preparing for sea level rise

For longtime Bayview-Hunters Point residents like Tonia Randell, city leaders have taken way too long to demonstrate they value people of color in this neighborhood, one of the most polluted parts of San Francisco, according to a state environmental analysis.

“We have all the utilities here,” she said, noting the neighborhood is home to Recology; the city’s sewage treatment plant; and other waste facilities. “We still have the garbage dump here. Why is it all in our area? Because they don’t value us.”

UC Berkeley professor Maya Carrasquillo says it’s not unusual for Black people to feel left out of plans to improve residents’ lives, even if they are represented by Black city officials. Carrasquillo, who identifies racially as a Black American and ethnically as an Afro-Latina, is a civil and environmental engineering professor focused on environmental justice.

She says Black people in power would argue they advocate for all Black residents, but decisions made by those in control often center communities of affluence.

“There is still a distinct difference of how we value Black and brown lives across class barriers,” she said. “When we say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ it is all Black lives.”

Carrasquillo says Bayview-Hunters Point deserves the same kind of investment that wealthy neighborhoods of San Francisco receive. If that doesn’t happen, lower-income people of color will suffer disproportionately as the world warms and the bay rises. She says San Francisco and other cities should invite the people who will be the most harmed by rising tides to decide their own future by including them in every aspect of climate adaptation plans. That is an act of reparation.

“What’s actually at stake here are people’s lives,” she added. “We need to make sure that people are not at the risk of death, if we really say that their lives matter.”

‘That set my hair on fire’

To seize the attention of city leaders, residents are documenting their health conditions.

A map of Bayview-Hunters Point lies on the wood desk in Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai’s office. It’s filled with red, blue, black, yellow and white pushpins — they look like ants piled up on a piece of food. Each pin represents a person whom she tested and found to have high levels of a toxic chemical in their body at that time.

“[Toxic chemicals] have no role in the human body, and there is no justification for any of them,” she said.

In 2018, the state announced that a radioactive object was found near new condos in the community in an area the city and numerous government agencies said was cleaned up. For Porter Sumchai, that was the last straw.

In 2019, she began testing residents who volunteered to have their urine examined for toxic contaminants. The 70-year-old physician is the founder and medical director of the Hunters Point Biomonitoring Foundation.

She’s now tested and retested more than 100 residents for toxic elements like lead, mercury and arsenic, and for elevated levels of natural elements that people need, like iron and zinc. Porter Sumchai said she recently tested a woman in her 40s and found uranium at dangerously high levels.

“That set my hair on fire,” she said. “I had never seen anything like that.”

Harrison was tested in 2021. Porter Sumchai found cadmium, copper, manganese and other contaminants in her body at levels she described as “very dangerous.” The contaminants could cause damage to the brain, heart, kidney, liver and lungs.

“I am retaining fluid, have muscle tightness, tingling in my feet and my hair is falling out of my head like a cancer patient,” she said, pointing to the test results on her office computer. “It doesn’t look like it because my wig is really cute.”

On that day she wore long, black braids.

Officials with the San Francisco Department of Public Health told KQED in an emailed statement that the agency is “committed to protecting and promoting the health of those in the Bayview-Hunters Point” neighborhood, but wouldn’t comment directly on Porter Sumchai’s testing, saying the agency did not have a “subject matter expert.” They deferred comment to state health officials.

The California Department of Public Health told KQED in an email that it is “aware” of the community testing, but “has not been directly provided any test results from those samples.”

The city conducted a community health survey in 2006 that found “cancer is a major cause of years of life lost in Bayview Hunters Point,” and “African-American women and men have the highest mortality rates of any other racial/ethnic group for several major cancers.” But the city did not look at whether buried toxic contamination at the shipyard contributed to any health problems.

Dr. Timur Durrani, a UCSF physician who is not involved with Porter Sumchai’s effort, said the tests are cause for a wider-scale survey.

Durrani, who provides care for acutely poisoned patients at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, cautioned that to understand the full extent of the problem, a comprehensive evaluation of the exposure and the community is needed.

“What it sounds like is the community wants to be heard,” he said.

Porter Sumchai submits her data on cancers and toxic contamination to the California Cancer Registry. She is compiling her own — the Hunters Point Community Toxic Registry — and hopes to gather enough evidence documenting a relationship between illness and toxic exposure to use in a structured legal settlement.

“The more evidence we collect, the more pins we place in this map,” she said. “I do think, ultimately, there is going to be a recovery for this community. It’s just in the stars.”

But any recovery takes hard work. Porter Sumchai and Harrison’s work is practical, methodical and deliberate. Climate change adds extreme urgency to their effort.

At the June protest on the steps of City Hall, Harrison invited Porter Sumchai to speak on her findings. Rallying the crowd, she called her “a woman who has been fighting since Day One. I like to call her my second mother.”

“People in Bayview-Hunters Point are being treated like canaries in the coal mine for an impending catastrophe that will impact the entire city,” Porter Sumchai said.

Bayview-Hunters Point residents are facing a life-or-death crisis, she said, but she promised to fight, even if city leaders don’t act.

Then she quoted Marie Harrison.

“We’ll never surrender,” she said.

KQED’s Annelise Finney contributed reporting to this story. 

https://www.kqed.org/science/1979614/for-these-black-bayview-hunters-point-residents-reparations-include-safeguarding-against-rising-toxic-contamination

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

The Great Ones is a celebration of humans we admire — and an exploration of why they cook, not just how. Sherród Faulks has been cooking all his life, and in 2019, he discovered another passion: pottery. In 2020, Sherród launched his own pottery business, DEEP BLACK, with an emphasis on creating luxurious yet accessible products as well as uplifting artisans of color. We teamed up with Sherród to create a spoon rest and joined him in his kitchen to talk all about his journey to DEEP BLACK.

To say that I’m a cooking person is a major understatement. I started cooking when I was 14, about 20 years ago. I took cooking classes during school, took catering in school, and in college I cooked professionally to put myself through school. I looked up to many of the cooks in my family; my dad is one of the major cooks in my family. My aunt Ella Mae was another main cook in the family. I loved how at holidays the old folks would just sit back and watch. I would feed off of her energy and admire how she was able to bring together the whole family. I thought, I want to be able to do this for the important people in my life.

After college, cooking fell to the wayside, but a few years later my friend and I came up with this idea to create a food media company before that was really a thing, in 2014. It’s called Slice & Torte. That’s when food became an activity for me. Slice and Torte was the birth of my food-blogging career. 

Also, I was a very homosexual child, so Martha Stewart was on 24/7. I loved that kind of lifestyle of cocktail parties and dinner parties, even though I was 14. I wanted to be that person — and I am, and I love it.

Any time I have a dinner party I always try to push the envelope. I like to push people outside of their comfort zone. Whenever I cook for other people I am cooking for myself. I consider other people’s tastes, but I think I have good taste and want other people to try new things. I want to pique people’s curiosity. I think dining should be fun. What the hell is the point of having friends and family over if you’re not going to have fun?

I think dining should be fun. What the hell is the point of having friends and family over if you’re not going to have fun?

My family is very Southern and old-school. But I did not grow up cooking soul food. My first-ever cookbook was from my aunt, and it was on pan-Asian cuisine. I cooked that book cover to cover. My mom was sick of everything smelling like fish sauce! I was in high school; I did not have a life. I just went to Asian grocery stores and kept cooking. But that book gave me fundamentals. Today I especially love to cook Korean food, and Japanese food has always been very close to my heart.

I left Virginia when I was 16, and I just came back. For the very first Mother’s Day, I made this marinated chicken and cucumber salad with gochugaru and kimbap. Everyone loved it. At first everyone was eyeing the food like, I don’t know about that … Is it spicy? But those plates were clean, honey!

Cooking is exhilarating every time. When I started it was kind of scary, and it felt complex. As I ascended in my cooking career, though, I got into molecular gastronomy, and I got into classic French cuisine. The dishes kept getting more complex. Then once I got divorced I said, “Oh, I don’t need to cook no more.” For a while, I just kind of unclenched and realized I could just make easy food — just simple and just fun. I did not cook for a year, and then I got my mojo back.

Cooking is exhilarating every time.

I feel in control, and I feel powerful in the kitchen. I’ve always said that cooking is the one and only form of magic on this planet. You can stop time. I can put peaches in a jar, and a year later they will still be good. I can put you back in your childhood, or I can make you travel forward. I can heal your body with my food. It’s all power. It’s pure alchemy.

I’ve always said that cooking is the one and only form of magic on this planet. You can stop time.

When I got divorced I was like, Oh f–k it, I’m doing everything! I traveled, and then I bought the Dutchess in Mustard. It was the first thing I bought that made me feel like I had my power back. It was like saying, “Here is something you’ve been denied … now have fun with it.” The other thing was ceramics. I always wanted to take a class, and the instant I sat down, I was like, Oh, got it got it got it. It was an instant connection, and it was so obvious that that was what I wanted to do.

I would go into the studio every day for six to seven hours at a time and just practice. At the end of 2019 I knew I wanted to do ceramics professionally. In about three months I had the business model, the financial plan, shipping, visuals — I got it together, honey!

I launched in March 2020, but sales didn’t really pick up until the summer. George Floyd was killed, and the whole nation erupted. Within the art community, especially, it hit hard. It seemed like all of the Black artists were like, “You know what? This ain’t working.”

I wrote a post about how I feel in these spaces and what people can actually do instead of giving me stupid platitudes, and it went kind of viral, and I got a lot of support and traction out of it. It showed me that I wasn’t alone and there were a lot of artists who would support me if I would just sink into this community.

I felt like I was getting so much love and support. I wanted to do something good with it, and I donated a solid 40% of what I made. I sunk in with the community and customers and other companies, and they have buoyed me in return.

I am obsessed with longevity. I hope that people will buy my pieces and think, That is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen — I have to have it in my home! My hope is they keep it forever and their kids pass it on to their kids, or the pieces go to a new home. I want my pieces to last forever and for people to love them.

I’m so detailed, so this spoon rest was designed with a capital D! From the curvature of the base to the shoulder to the way the glaze is applied, every bit of it is intentional. That’s me as a designer. I like to think about how you’ll place the spoon on the rest, how the juices will drip off the spoon, and how they will rest in that dish. I think what we ended up with … these glazes sing. There are certain colors that make me feel joyful, electric, or like the sun. So I was so happy with how these came out. The blue hue of this spoon rest was a complete and total accident. I was just messing around with this blue, and now I can’t get rid of it. This was truly a custom collaboration.

My partner just moved in with me, and in my mind I had this idea that I’d be making roast chicken every Sunday and we’d be sipping cocktails with the hydrangeas in the background. In reality, we are very busy … Still, I wanted to make a recipe that spoke to the kind of home I wanted to build. The recipe I came up with and that I cooked today is this garlic roast chicken and herb sauce. I used King Sear, and I love it because it’s enormous, which is perfect for this! You need that space for all the fat to come out. I also snuck in Holy Sheet to roast some vegetables, and, of course, the spoon rest.

What I love about this dish is that everything about it is incorrect. It goes against all conventional classical cooking rules. You use a garlic press to press the garlic. You have to almost burn the garlic. It goes directly onto a very hot pan. The chicken is pressed within an inch of its life. The sauce is just the drippings from the pan with herbs. This chicken is out-of-this-world good, and it’s easy. It’s deeply chicken-y. And you can serve it for two, for a dinner party, or, to be honest, you can just cook it for yourself. Not a lot of recipes work like that. This is a crown jewel in my collection of recipes.

https://greatjonesgoods.com/blogs/great-ones/sherrod-faulks-cooks-to-push-the-envelope

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!

I am currently an assistant professor at the University of Indianapolis. I teach graduate courses in psychological assessment, research methods, and couples/family therapy.

I completed my postdoctoral fellowship with Harvard Medical School, working out of Cambridge Hospital’s Child & Adolescent Inpatient Units. While there, I received advanced training in assessment, treatment, and transition planning for children and adolescents within the context of an intensive assessment unit.

I completed my predoctoral internship in clinical psychology at the Indiana University School of Medicine where I received advanced clinical training in a broad spectrum of areas while rotating through various departments. All of my graduate school work was completed at the University of Tennessee where my doctorate degree (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology) was conferred in December/2014.

Largely concentrated on adolescents & emerging adults, my research interests generally surround topics such as: technology, psychosocial developmental tasks, online self-presentation, attachment quality, and online relationship dynamics. Specifically, I’m interested in understanding how technology and/or social connectivity through various media outlets (e.g. – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Xbox Live, etc.) may impact human behavior, psychosocial development, and psychological health. I am also interested in studying these topics within the SMI &/or non-college student population.

Overall, my professional areas of interest include: Teaching, Practice, and Research. As a generalist, I enjoyed seeing patients in child, adolescent, emerging adult, and adult age ranges for both diagnostic assessment & traditional psychotherapy throughout my training. My theoretical orientation is eclectic and integrative, drawing from psychodynamic, cognitive, and behavioral perspectives. As a psychology professor, I try to meld my passion for teaching & mentoring with my appreciation of clinical material and research.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/slgray?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F