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LOS ANGELES, CA- The California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) celebrated its 50th Anniversary with “The Legacy Continues” Black Tie Gala at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Globe Theatre. Nearly 500 people gathered at the Gala to honor 50 years of advocacy by former CLBC leaders, including the Founder’s Award recipients, Hon. Willie L. Brown, Jr. and the Hon. Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke; the Chairman’s Award recipient, Hon. Nate Holden; and the Vanguard Award recipient, Hon. Mark Ridley-Thomas. 

“The California Legislative Black Caucus began with the belief that by speaking with a single voice, we could be a force on issues affecting education, justice, and civil rights.” said CLBC Chair, Assemblymember Chris Holden. “The Gala’s honorees are visionaries who successfully passed policies on these issues and are responsible for making California the leader it is today.”

“[The California] Legislative Black Caucus became a reality because [Mervyn Dymally] came to us and said let’s do something together,” said former Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown during his acceptance speech. “And the votes that we put together from that moment on became part of the public policy consideration for the state of California.”

The Gala, attended by members of the California Legislature, Congress, state government and community leaders, was emceed by Margaret Shug Avery who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in the film The Color Purple. The event concluded with a musical performance by Aloe Blacc.

“With each new generation comes a renewed commitment to the future, and as valuable as it is that we look back and honor these milestones, we always have to keep looking forward, keep moving forward. We will continue to fight for equality, for criminal justice reform, for environmental justice, and for ensuring greater access to education and enterprise for African Americans,” said Holden.

The CLBC Gala Honorees are as follows:

Congresswoman Karen Bass presented the second CLBC Founder’s Award to Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. was born March 20, 1934 in Mineola, Texas. He was the fourth African American to serve in the 80-member Assembly when he was elected in 1964.  He was the first African American and longest serving Speaker of the Assembly, a top legislative leadership post he held for 16-years. In the early 1980s, he led efforts to divest state university holdings in South Africa during that nation’s apartheid era and was a strong advocate for increased funds for AIDS research. Additionally, he authored landmark legislation that legalized sex between consenting adults in California.  He retired from the Assembly in 1995 and was elected Mayor of San Francisco in 1995. He served as Mayor until his retirement in 2004.  In 2013, legislation was passed to rename the western span of the Bay Bridge to the Willie L. Brown, Jr., Bridge.  The signs went up in 2014, and Brown said that he hoped having the bridge named after him would be, “inspirational for kids.”

Assemblymember Autumn Burke presented the CLBC Founder’s Award to her mother, Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke. Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke was born October 5, 1932 in Los Angeles, California.  She was the first African American woman elected to the California State Assembly in 1966. During her legislative tenure, she focused on civil rights and juvenile issues. She was the first African American woman from the Golden State in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1973, and continued to break new ground as the first woman to have a child and secure maternity leave while serving in the U.S. Congress.  She became the first African American member of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, a position she has held on and off since 1978.  Assemblywoman Burke retired from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2008.

Assemblymember Chris Holden presented the CLBC Chairman’s Award to his father, Nate Holden. Nathaniel N. ‘Nate’ Holden was born June 19, 1929 in Macon, Georgia and was elected to the California State Senate in 1974. In 1975, Nate Holden passed legislation to require public schools and educational institutions to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for his contributions to the U.S. civil rights movement. He also passed legislation to provide health care for sickle cell anemia patients. In 1987, he was elected to Los Angeles City Council and stayed in office until 2002.

Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas presented the CLBC Vanguard Award to his father, Mark Ridley-Thomas. Mark Ridley-Thomas was born in November 6, 1954 in Los Angeles, California.  He was elected to the Assembly in 2002 and to the Senate in 2006. His legislative agenda focused on job development, public safety, education, economic development, healthcare access and community empowerment. He also served as Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus and is currently Supervisor for the Second District in Los Angeles County.

Nanette M. Rodriquez passed away on August 15, 2017. She was born on August 25, 1953 in New York, NY to George and Belgica Andrick. She was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and aunt. She is survived by her husband Mario; daughters Monica, Amanda, Kathy, and Rebecca; son Raymond, and nine grandchildren.

She had a career with the California Department of Corrections, California Institution for Women, beginning in 1981. She promoted to Correctional Sergeant in 1986 and Correctional Counselor in 1988. In 1996, she became a State Parole Agent, retiring in 2007.

A celebration of life will be held on Friday, September 8 at the grove Church located at 19900 Grove Community Drive in Riverside at 11 a.m.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA- On Friday, September 8, the San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation will be hosting its Annual Black Rose and Humanitarian of the Year Community Service Awards Banquet. The annual event will take place at 6 p.m. in the Renaissance Ballroom at the National Orange Show Events Center located at 689 South E Street in San Bernardino.

San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation is proud to announce this year’s recipients which are: Humanitarian of the Year, Gwendolyn Rodgers; Community Service Award, Clarisa Howard; Black Rose Awards, Eta Phi Beta Sorority, Lesford Duncan, and Jamie Rios.

Please join us in congratulating our well-deserved recipients. Tickets are $65 per person for dinner or $750 for a table of ten. To purchase yours, please visit www.sbbcfoundation.com or http://2017blackrose.eventbrite.com/?s=75272501.

Dorothy Inghram

SAN BERNARDINO, CA- The San Bernardino County Board of Education voted to name its newest facility after the first African American teacher in San Bernardino County, Dorothy Inghram, during its meeting on September 5.

The board, which voted unanimously (5-0) for the naming, officially will call the new site the San Bernardino County Board of Education Dorothy Inghram Learning Center. The new building is located at 670 E. Carnegie Drive in San Bernardino.

“(Dorothy) was the Harriet Tubman of education for African American students in San Bernardino County,” said Sherman Garnett, president of the County Board. “This is true history right here.”

Inghram, who was born and raised in San Bernardino, graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1923. She graduated from San Bernardino Valley College in 1932 and wrote the school’s alma mater. In 1942, she was hired to teacher second grade at the Mill School, the first African American teacher in the county.

In 1945, she became a teaching principal at the Mill School, becoming the full-time principal in 1951. In 1953, she became the superintendent of the Mill School District, the first African-American in California to be a district superintendent. She lived to be 106 years old before passing away in 2012.

The new facility will serve as an administrative site for Regional Occupational Program and East Valley Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) staff, a cybersecurity career technical education training center, house regular County Board of Education meetings and provide conference rooms for educational leadership workshops and events. 

The board considered 45 names for the new facility before ultimately choosing the name honoring Inghram.

(from left to right: Alyssa Suarez, Alyssa Holmes, and Ethan Wilson with Tracy Holmes.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA- Ms. Tracy Holmes is a local author from the Inland empire. She has hosted six Barnes & Noble book signings this year throughout Southern California. Her most recent book signing featured her newest release under her publishing company Say It Twice books entitled, “Fruits,” which was at the Rancho Cucamonga Barnes & Noble located on Foothill Boulevard on Sunday, August 20th.

Customers received a free face painting with the purchase of a book. Ms. Holmes has created a fun way for children to learn Spanish and an even easier way for their parents to read it in her Spanish to English books. Say It Twice Books all include a learning activity in the back of each book to enhance learning. Children are loving “Fruits” and have given great reviews on it.

“It was fun reading fruits. I like how it teaches you Spanish. I also like that my friends were there,” Alyssa Suarez a 3rd grader from North Fontana said.

“I like the face painting, it’s cool,” Ethan Wilson, a 3rd grader from North Fontana, said.

All Say It Twice Books are available on Amazon, as well as Barnes & Noble. To learn more about Ms.Holmes go to www.Sayittwicebooks.com.

Submitted by Angela Coggs

SAN BERNARDINO, CA- Young Women Empowerment Foundation (YWE) will host their fifth Annual Women’s Wellness Conference at San Bernardino Community Hospital Henderson Auditorium located at 1800 Western Avenue in San Bernardino on Saturday, September 9 from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. YWE invites family, friends, faith-based, students and community supporters to this augural event that focuses on emotional and physical health and wellness. This is a free event for all women in the Inland Empire.

This year’s theme is, “Silence No More.” It refers to not keeping silent regarding heart disease and domestic violence. Both areas of concern plague all people but especially minority women. The conference will focus on the prevention of heart disease as well as learning to live with and maintain if diagnosed. Women who attend will have the opportunity to participate in interactive demonstrations and hear life changing testimonials from other women on heart disease and domestic violence.  There will also be complimentary continental breakfast, lunch, entertainment, giveaways, and opportunity drawings.

The three keynote speakers for the wellness conference will focus on issues that are important and relevant to heart disease and domestic violence. The keynote and guest testimonial speakers are as follows:

Dr. Romeo Brooks, Ph.D. (Keynote)

Herbalist, Iridologist, Natural Hygienist and Naturopathic Medicine

Roots Nutrition

Melinda Cuellar

Representative

Divine Connections, H.O.P.E.

*Joyce Fairman

CEO/Founder

Hearts of Color

As we continue to mourn the loss of our beloved friend and heart health advocate Joyce Fairman we will celebrate her memory during her original scheduled speaking time. 

Cuellar will discuss domestic violence and how Divine Connections, H.O.P.E. mission to offer guidance, empowerment, education and resources for building healthy relationships. Option House will also provide additional information about domestic violence and conduct a question and answer segment at the end. Additionally, a unique skit on the subject of domestic violence will take a personal look inside a potential volatile situation.

Dr. Brooks will discuss preventing and living with heart disease and how the physical body is not only the expressed image of the invisible mind but is also the visible barometer of what occurs in our mental, emotional and spiritual bodies.

In addition to providing useful health and wellness information at the conference, the attendees will also be presented with the opportunity to get physical during the live line dance demonstrations by Heart and Soul’s Harriette Coggs Stuckey. The line dance demonstrations has been a huge success for the past three years. Please come dressed to participate. Workout clothes are highly encouraged and recommended.Please register on Eventbrite under “Free Young Women’s Empowerment Foundation (YWE) 5^th Annual Women’s Wellness Conference.  Also, please encourage and invite family and friends to register and attend this noteworthy opportunity focused on empowering women to live mentally and physically healthy lives. Space is limited, sign up today.

YWE serves to strengthen the character of young women of high school age in the San Bernardino City region of the Inland Empire in Southern California. Young Women’s Empowerment was founded by CEO Gwendolyn Dowdy- Rodgers. The mission of our program is to empower these young women to achieve at their highest potential, particularly in education, and to instill in them a commitment to return to their community as leaders and mentors.

The Young Women’s Empowerment Foundation (YWE) is dedicated to strengthening the self-esteem, character, integrity and capacity of young women ages 12-21 so that they may achieve their highest potential. YWE accomplishes its purpose through strategic partnerships with other organizations. YWE is guided by ethics and principles which exhibit respect for cultural diversity.

All inquiries, pre-register individual or groups, please email Tiffany James at ywefoundation@gmail.com.

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Producing, selling and using plastic bags becomes illegal as officials say they want to target manufacturers and sellers first

NATIONAL- Kenyans producing, selling or even using plastic bags will risk imprisonment of up to four years or fines of $40,000 from Monday, as the world’s toughest law aimed at reducing plastic pollution came into effect.

The East African nation joins more than 40 other countries that have banned, partly banned or taxed single use plastic bags, including China, France, Rwanda, and Italy. 

Many bags drift into the ocean, strangling turtles, suffocating seabirds and filling the stomachs of dolphins and whales with waste until they die of starvation. 

“If we continue like this, by 2050, we will have more plastic in the ocean than fish,” said Habib El-Habr, an expert on marine litter working with the UN environment programme in Kenya.

Plastic bags, which El-Habr says take between 500 to 1,000 years to break down, also enter the human food chain through fish and other animals. In Nairobi’s slaughterhouses, some cows destined for human consumption had 20 bags removed from their stomachs.

“This is something we didn’t get 10 years ago but now it’s almost on a daily basis,” said county vet Mbuthi Kinyanjui as he watched men in bloodied white uniforms scoop sodden plastic bags from the stomachs of cow carcasses.

Kenya’s law allows police to go after anyone even carrying a plastic bag. But Judy Wakhungu, Kenya’s environment minister, said enforcement would initially be directed at manufacturers and suppliers. 

It took Kenya three attempts over 10 years to finally pass the ban, and not everyone is a fan. 

Samuel Matonda, spokesman for the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, said it would cost 60,000 jobs and force 176 manufacturers to close. Kenya is a major exporter of plastic bags to the region. 

“The knock-on effects will be very severe,” Matonda said. “It will even affect the women who sell vegetables in the market – how will their customers carry their shopping home?” 

Big Kenyan supermarket chains like France’s Carrefour and Nakumatt have already started offering customers cloth bags as alternatives.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA- The San Bernardino Pastors United (SBPU) will be having another Community Block party on Saturday, September 16th at Anne Sherrill Park, located at 1367 California Avenue in San Bernardino.  The community leaders are giving back to the community and taking a stance against crime, increasing gang actively and other senseless violence in our City. The Pastors believe that we must show love, help thy neighbor, be there for one another. The Churches of San Bernardino will take a stand together as a united front to encourage the community.

There will be Free food, free groceries, free shoes, free backpacks for kids, free clothes and free health checks and the money machine. There will be a life-saving message by Pastor Raymond Turner, Temple Missionary Baptist Church, powerful gospel music, dancing and good fellowship. Please register by phone, email or at our website www.sbpastorsunited.org.  They are asking the community to join them as they bring “Healing, Change, and Progress” to the City of San Bernardino, for more information call (909) 353-7977 or email sbpastorsunited@gmail.com.

By Naomi K. Bonman

As you drive around Southern California, you can’t help but to notice graffiti. It’s on the freeway bridges, ramps, train cars, abandon buildings, and just about every flat surface that is in attention to the general public.

Graffiti frustrates many because they feel as if it destructs the city unless it is done in a tasteful manner. Over the recent years, we have seen more graffiti artists who have turned their art into something more positive and of value, such as Rialto, California’s own WetPaint Larry.

“I’ve been painting for a long time,” he states on what inspires him to paint. “Everything around me inspires me to go harder. I have a lot of things that I paint that makes me feel good.”

WetPaint Larry started off doing graffiti but now he paints murals for small businesses, cities, and schools. He is known well regionally and has built up an impressive social media following with over 15,000 followers on Instagram. Larry’s accomplishments recently earned him recognition in the “Under 30 Awards” that was presented by Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes. 

“That was a good highlight for this year,” WetPaint Larry discusses his recent achievement. “That was something huge for me because when I went in there and looked around I seen high rank [city officials]. As I sat there, I thought ‘[Man], I’m among great people that are doing great work. So, for me that’s huge from being a graffiti artist to getting that award. I look at it all the time.”

Since his latest city achievement, WetPaint Larry has been on the grind with trying to secure more jobs for himself in the schools. He is looking forward to expanding beyond Rialto and has had school officials from Fontana and San Bernardino call him to do some work for their schools.

You can check out WetPaint Larry’s work on his Instagram page @wetpaintlarry and if you want to collaborate with him on a project send him a direct message via the platform.

(from left to right) CEO of Black Business Expo, Jerry Green; President of the Black Chamber of Commerce Inland Empire, Tammy Martin-Ryles; Black is Lit Founder, Winter Minisee; and Host of “Empire Talks Back”, Wallace.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA- Sunday’s “Empire Talks Back” (ETB) radio broadcast was amazing as usual.  Their special guest, Winter Minisee, 16-year old founder of ‘Black is Lit’, had no problem tackling all our world issues. Watch the video of the show live at www.ustream.tv/search?q=empire+talks+back.

ETB is broadcast each Sunday morning at 10 a.m. on KCAA 1050-AM, 102.3 FM and 106.5 FM Radio, and it streams live at www.kcaaradio.com.