“You sit in the Colored section,” an usher directed me.  When I was 12 years old, the pastor of my church took me to a play about the passion of Christ.  Although my pastor, a White Roman Catholic priest, bought tickets for both of us to go to this play, we could not sit together.  So, he decided to leave and come back for me when the play had ended.  

As a teenager in Richmond, VA, the course of my life really began to take shape at Bishop Van De Viver High School.  I remember being impressed by how a group of White nuns, the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore, shown untiring dedication and service to a Black school when segregation and racism dominated the social landscape.  Can you image in 1955, a group of White nuns teaching Back students the Black National Anthem?  But, they did, and they taught us to sing it unflinchingly and with pride.

However, my ministry as a social worker slowed and eventually halted when multiple sclerosis (MS) took hold of my body. Now, for over 20 years, I have lived with MS and all of its challenges. People often ask me how do I keep going? I tell them:

The courageous example of these nuns had such a powerful influence on me that in 1957, while in my junior year of high school, I decided to become a religious brother in the Catholic Church.  Religious brothers are men who live together in solidarity with the common purpose of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ by serving a particular need in society. 

In 1958, I joined as a novice with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, a Catholic Italian order of religious brothers and priests.  Their mission is to serve the poor and the most abandoned people in the world.  After spending a year learning how to live a dedicated life of prayer and service, on August 1, 1959, I professed the solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and I became a Redemptorist brother.

Over the past 50 years as a Redemptorist, one of the major climactic points in my life occurred in 1989 when I reached the arduous summit of obtaining my Masters of Social Work degree.  Working as a social worker in Baltimore, I was able to make a difference in the lives of children and families just like those nuns who I greatly admired in my youth.  I can still see the faces of children from broken homes, battered women and women of domestic violence who were able to break free from their abusers and taste the sweet fruit of opportunity and prosperity.

However, my ministry as a social worker slowed and eventually halted when multiple sclerosis (MS) took hold of my body.  Now, for over 20 years, I have lived with MS and all of its challenges.  People often ask me how do I keep going?  I tell them:  Keep moving.  Don’t dwell on it.  I could think about it and think about it; and cry over it.  But that won’t change anything.

As the population of Washington, DC continues to fade from black to gray, another facet of Black life is struggling to remain in the city, the KanKouran Dance group. In a plea to community groups, Ayana Smith urged DC citizens to contact local politicians to assist them “to stop the erosion of African cultural organizations” based in the city."

For about 15 years the KanKouran Dance group has moved around in what was a struggling neighborhood, but is now the prestigious and renamed Penn Quarters area; later the group moved to a building north of Penn Quarters in a space that is now condominiums.

Most recently KanKouran conducted their programs at the Randall Recreation Center in the gentrifying Navy Yard area. DC government is renovating the recreation center and KanKouran is out of a home - - again.

The group is currently talking with the Office of African Affairs (OAA), but discovered that the city agency does not have grant making authority. “It’s a matter of valuing African cultural arts organizations that have been in the city for generations,” said Eureka Huggins, a KanKouran member, about why OAA should have grant making authority. However, the OAA does have limited capacity building assistance, while the Office of Latino Affairs has two main grants programs, Latino Community Education and Latino Community Health grants.

KanKouran was founded in Washington, DC in 1983 as a non-profit performing arts organization by Assane Konte and Abdou Kounta, both nationals from Senegal, West Africa. The company members are from Africa, the Caribbean and the United States, all dedicated to preserving and sharing the rich culture of Africa. The company has been offering educational and cultural programming for children and adults in the authentic dancing and drumming styles of West Africa.

Melvin Deal African Heritage Dancers and Drummers is having similar problems. Deal cited raising rents as regentrification grows along the Martin Luther King Jr. corridor. Ironically, the group was evicted from its studio on Good Hope Road, SE the first week of Black History Month.

"It's speaks of a trend this is happening around the country," added Melvin Deal who started the group in 1959. "People deem it not necessary to support Black culture anymore."

Click the video button to see the 1.5 minute video where Mrs. Jallow thanks donors and potential donors.

Photo: Mrs. Jallow (left) counts the dalasi's given to her from Wayne Young on behalf of POHGEP donors before handing the money to the SOPA president Mrs. Yassin Ceesay. Read more about his women-controlled cooperative below.

- Jason Collins as he became the first openly gay active member of one of the big four American sports organizations – basketball, football, baseball and hockey:

“I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm Black. And I'm gay”

President Barack Obama:

"I told him I couldn't be prouder. You know, one of the extraordinary measures of progress that we've seen in this country has been the recognition that the LGBT community deserves full equality, not just partial equality, not just tolerance but a recognition that they're wholly a part of the American family."

"Given the importance of sports in our society for an individual who's excelled at the highest levels in one of the major sports to go ahead and say, 'This is who I am. I'm proud of it. I'm still a great competitor. I'm still seven-foot tall and can bang with Shaq. And, you know, deliver a hard foul.

"I think a lot of young people out there who are gay or lesbian who are struggling with these issues to see a role model like that, who's unafraid, I think it's a great thing. And I think America should be proud that this is just one more step in this ongoing recognition that we treat everybody fairly. And everybody's part of a family. And we judge people on the basis of their character and their performance, and not their sexual orientation. So I'm very proud of him."

First Lady Michelle Obama:

"So proud of you, Jason Collins! This is a huge step forward for our country. We've got your back!"

America in Change

1947 Jackie Robinson becomes first Black to play major league baseball
1948 President Harry Truman merges Black and White armies
1955 Supreme Court ruled segregation in public schools was unconstitutional
1967 Supreme Court invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage
2013 Students hold Georgia school's 1st racially integrated prom

2011 President Obama ends “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” allowing gays to openly serve in the military
2013 Jason Collins becomes the first openly gay active member of one of the big four American sports organizations
2013 Supreme Court set to rule on same-sex marriage this summer

Looking at Power:  Male Privilege /
Heterosexual Privilege
May - July 2007 issue:

Why does it take more evidence to convict a man of the theft of the sanctity of a woman's body than to convict a man of a theft of property? Why do men, particularly young men, have to prove their manhood by manifesting some type of physical or violent activity? Our experts examine these questions and provide you with very provocative, enlightening, and even liberating answers.

Back issues are available for $5.00

• Bern Nadette Stanis on Acting and Love
  
  

• Rev Al, Julianne Malveaux Join the Great Debate
  
  
• America's Next Natural Model 2013