Bravo

Congratulations to Operation Unite and everyone who made the annual Hudson Black Arts and Cultural Festival and Parade a great success.

Celebrating culture
By Andrew Amelinckx
Register-Star/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
August 10, 2008

HUDSON — The annual Black Arts Festival began with a parade that rolled down Warren Street in Hudson Saturday, led by Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera and Greg Mosley, president of Operation Unite New York, the organization that is the main sponsor of the event.

The festival, held at Waterfront Park, brings together the arts, social issues and family fun. Children and adults learned the art of traditional African dance and how to play the djembe — a West African drum — thanks to Frank Malloy of Harambee Dance Company of New York City.

The culinary arts were also represented at the event with Hazel’s Kitchen serving up soul food and other vendors selling traditional Jamaican as well as old-fashioned American eats.

Scalera recommended Hazel’s sweet potato pie. “Get one before they’re all gone,” he said.

The art of Double-Dutch rope jumping was also on display.

Nya Franklin, 11, jumped in and skipped rope for several minutes while Kertrice Willis and Jazmyne Dunkle, both 14, swung the rope that had been doubled over to make two arcs which moved in opposite directions. Later in the evening there was a gospel concert featuring the Albany District Chorale and the Dorothy Holloway Gospel Choir.

“It’s a day to show the arts and culture of the community,” said Mosley, adding there were other important aspects the festival, including “career opportunities and voter registration.”

The Columbia/Greene Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was on hand Saturday. The organization was there recruiting members and signing up people to vote.

“We’re reaching out to people to join us,” said Columbia-Greene NAACP Vice President James M. White Jr. “We’re worried about the treatment of a certain segment of the population and we have been addressing...tough issues.”

Several local candidates were also on hand Saturday, including Ken Dow, who is running for state Senate in the 41st District, as well as Richard Koweek and Brian Herman, both running for Hudson City Judge.

“I’m not telling you who to vote for...Just to vote,” Mosley told the festival crowd. “Many of our people worked hard and died so we could have the right to vote.”

Operation Unite, New York has been putting on the event for the past 16 years. “It started as a family day on Columbia street,” said Mosley.

“Can you believe this started as a block party?” asked Hudson Second Ward Supervisor, the Rev. Ed Cross, looking at the crowd gathered for the event.

Mosley said that it was getting harder to put the event together because of declining volunteerism and funding, blaming it on the current economy.

“We truly are a not-for-profit. It doesn’t work without funding,” he said.

He told the Register-Star that the city of Hudson, especially under Scalera’s leadership, had been a great supporter of theirs.

According to Mosley, his wife Elena was the person most responsible for the festival’s existence.

“This wouldn’t happen without Elena,” he said.

Voter registration Saturday

Visit the NAACP table in Hudson Waterfront Park Saturday during the annual Black Arts Festival presented by Operation Unite. We will be registering people to vote and enrolling new members of the NAACP. The festival runs from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The parade will step off at 2 p.m. at Seventh Street Park and proceed down Warren Street to the waterfront.

Food vendors and kids' activities from 3 p.m. on. The day's activities include: Harambee Dance Company, community talent show, Hip-Hop Afro fusion, arts and crafts tent, African dance and drum workshops, Rowdy the Clown, Albany Step Team and a school supply giveaway; gospel concert at 6 p.m.

For more information about the festival call 828-3612.

Mayor Cory Booker of Newark

Forty years after race riots in Detroit, Newark, and dozens of other cities stunned the nation, has anything changed? Bill Moyers interviews Newark Mayor Cory Booker for a frontline report on race and politics today.

Part 1 of this program is an update of the Kerner Commission Report, which blamed the violence that erupted in Newark and Detroit in the summer of 1967, on the devastating poverty and hopelessness endemic in the inner cities of the 1960s and includes an interview with former Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris, one of the last living members of the Kerner Commission.

Original air date: March 28, 2008

Education as a Civil Rights Issue

The New York Times

August 1, 2008

Editorial

Civil rights groups have begun a welcome attack on a House bill that would temporarily exempt the states from the all-important accountability requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law in 2002. The attack, led by powerful groups like the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, was unexpected, given that the nation’s two big teachers’ unions actually hold seats on the conference’s executive committee. Recent events suggest that the civil rights establishment generally is ready to break with the teachers’ unions and take an independent stand on education reform.

Despite innocuous packaging, the House bill looks very much like a stealth attempt to gut the national school accountability effort. Introduced by Representatives Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, and Timothy Walz, a Democrat from Minnesota who is a former teacher, it is supported by the National Education Association, the influential teachers’ union that has been trying to kill off No Child Left Behind for years.

The bill, which is unlikely to pass, would permit the states to ignore the parts of the law that require them to pursue corrective actions at failing schools. That would encourage lassitude in states and districts that have already dragged their feet for too long. It would sap the energy of states that have shown clear progress since the law was passed and are eager to move forward. Once stopped, the reform effort could take years to get moving again.

The support of civil rights groups for the No Child Left Behind Act has been muted in the years since the law was first passed. But with the reauthorization process under way, the groups are making it clear that they view education reform as a civil rights issue. They want changes in No Child Left Behind — but only changes that strengthen the law — and they are fully prepared to fight the unions for those changes if necessary.

Hudson High School students take over City Hall

Register-Star/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
Friday, May 30, 2008

by Robert Ragaini

Students from Hudson High School took over the various governmental offices in Hudson City Hall Thursday as part of the annual Youth Government Day. Sponsored by Operation Unite in conjunction with Hudson High School and the city of Hudson, the day-long event sees handpicked students trail the various city officials during the morning session and then after lunch they gather for a mock Common Council meeting. [CG NAACP's youth committee member] Yasmin Martinez, in the role of Common Council President, bangs the gavel in an attempt to regain control of the meeting during a “spirited” discussion between members of the audience and the aldermen.

Photo by Robert Ragaini/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

National NAACP selects new President, CEO

On May 17, the NAACP National Board of Directors selected Benjamin T. Jealous as National President and CEO. He is the 17th person -- and the youngest ever -- chosen to lead the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization in its 99-year history.

Benjamin Todd Jealous served as President of the Rosenberg Foundation - a private independent institution that supports advocacy efforts to make significant improvements in the lives of California's working families and recent immigrants. He was the fourth person to hold the position since the Foundation was founded in 1935.

Mr. Jealous was Director of US Human Rights Program at Amnesty International. While there he led its efforts to pass federal legislation against prison rape, rebuild public consensus against racial profiling in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and expose the widespread sentencing of children to life without the possibility of parole. He is the lead author of the 2004 report Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States, the release of which received coverage by major media outlets in most states and on six continents.

Formerly, Mr. Jealous served as Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) - a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers. While at the NNPA, he rebuilt its 90-year old national news service and spearheaded the creation of a proprietary software system that enabled dozens of local papers to begin publishing online.

During the mid 1990s, Mr. Jealous served as Managing Editor of the Jackson Advocate, Mississippi's oldest black newspaper. His reporting for the frequently firebombed weekly was credited with exposing corruption amongst high-ranking officials at the state prison in Parchman, and helping to acquit a small farmer who had been wrongfully and maliciously accused of arson.

He initially came to Mississippi as a field organizer on a successful campaign to stop the state's plan to close two of its three public historically black universities, and convert one of them into a prison.

Mr. Jealous began his career as an organizer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund working on issues of healthcare access.

He was born, raised, and attended public and parochial schools in Monterey County, California. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University and a master's degree in comparative social research from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Mr. Jealous is a member of the Asia Society. He is a board member of Northern California Grantmakers and the California Council for the Humanities.

Meeting Monday, May 5

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION: We will meet at the Hudson Opera House, 327 Warren Street.

The Columbia-Greene NAACP will hold a special meeting 6 p.m. Monday at 401 State Street.

The primary focus of the meeting will be to hear from Marian Ahlstedt. Marian is a long-time friend and colleague of Alan Skerrett. She holds a Masters degree in social work, and was employed by the New York City Department of Mental Health before she retired to Florida. Ms. Ahlstedt currently lives and works in a suburb of Fort Myers, where she is employed as a substitute teacher.

In addition to her work as a teacher, Marian is part of a community actively dealing with similar issues to those faced by families with children enrolled in the Hudson City School District -- out-of-school suspension, inconsistent disciplinary practices, over-classification of students into special education, etc. Alan asked her to join us and share some of these experiences, and to speak about the strategies she and her colleagues are using to advocate for change. It should make for an interesting discussion.

If time allows, we will also have a report from Alan and James White on their attendance at the NAACP regional meeting and their conversation with Ann Pope. Hope to see you Monday.