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Volume 114 No.

28

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Black History Month Edition


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Character Education Inside


FEBRUARY 25, 2006- MARCH 3, 2006

Commercial anti-discrimination

State Caucus preparing for battle


LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN
By Leonard Sparks AFRO Staff Writer Seeking to send a message to companies that discriminate and boost prospects for disadvantaged businesses, Maryland legislators have introduced a bill that punishes state contractors and prospective contractors who discriminate in their commercial relationships. The bill is similar to one unanimously passed by the Baltimore City Council on Feb. 6 and is sup-

Bills to protect witnesses, victims cause stir among legislators


By Matt D. Wilson Capital News Service ANNAPOLIS - A series of bills designed to protect witnesses and victims in Maryland criminal cases set off heated debate between proponents and legislators Wednesday,

mirroring a battle from last years session. Much of the contention centered on a House of Delegates bill backed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and co-sponsored by over 40 delegates - that would add 10 additional Continued on A9

ported by the entire Maryland Legislative Black Caucus. The legislation, introduced by Baltimore City Del. Talmadge Branch in the House and Prince Georges County Sen. Gloria Lawlah in the Senate, prohibits businesses that contract with the state from discriminating based on race, age, sex, national origin or disability in their solicitation or selection of subcontractors, vendors and suppliers. The legislation also empowers the attorney generals office to investigate allegations of discrimination against state contractors and creates a pool of 15 volunteer experts available to testify during investigations. If allegations of discrimination are upheld, businesses are subject

to penalties that include the termination of existing contracts, the suspension of their right to bid on state contracts for three years or permanent debarment. Branch, who introduced a similar bill last year that eventually was withdrawn, said the state should not Continued on A9

Madea talks to the AFRO. See B2.

Courtesy photo

Harold Seaborne
By Leonard Sparks AFRO Staff Writer

Historic challenger of U. of Md. segregation dies

AFROs Online Poll


Bryant Gumbel, host of HBOs Real Sports, shared an observation concerning the visible absence of people of color from the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Do you believe such absence: Simply reflects the disinterest of people of color in winter sports?

68%

Is a worldwide failure to encourage participation of people of color in the Winter Olympic sport categories?

Dramatizes an Olympics point of view that Winter Olympic sports can only involve snow or ice?
The above results may not reflect the actual opinions of AFRO readers.

20% 12%

Shani Davis of the United States competes against Jeremy Wotherspoon of Canada (not seen) during the mens 1,000 meter speedskating race at Oval Lingotto during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Feb. 18. Davis won the gold medal.

AP Photo/Dusan Vranic

Harold A. Seaborne, who in 1933 became the first in a series of applicants to challenge the University of Maryland Law Schools refusal to admit Black students and later became a junior high school principal, died Feb. 2 at Long Green Center in Baltimore. He was 94. He was a man with great dignity, said Katherine Richardson, a former student and employee of Seabornes who became his longtime friend. We will miss him.

Seaborne was born Feb. 12, 1911, in Baltimore, Md., the third of six children of Samuel and Sallie Seaborne. He grew up in West Baltimore and attended Baltimore City public schools. After graduating as an honors student from Frederick Douglass High School, he enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he attended school with future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and future civil rights warrior Clarence Mitchell Jr. He graduated with Continued on A2

Applied to Law School in 1933

Stop. Western Union expires. Stop


By Zenitha Prince AFRO Staff Writer The telegram recently joined the ranks of smoke signals, talking drums, carrier pigeons and the Pony Express as defunct means of communication when Western Union announced it would discontinue the service earlier this year. On Jan. 27, the company

The Davis showdown


TURIN, Italy (AP) Something happened on the way to the showdown between Americans Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick. Italian Enrico Fabris doused the smoldering U.S. rivalry by winning Olympic gold in mens 1,500meter speedskating Tuesday. Davis earned silver and Hedrick settled for bronze. Fabris posted a time of 1 minute, 45.97 seconds, then By Beth Harris and Paul Newberry AP Sports Writers waited anxiously to see if any of the remaining four pairs could better him on the slow ice. Davis, the former world record holder, went in the final pair, knowing full well the time he had to beat. The Chicagoan finished in 1:46.13. The Italian broke up the American hold on gold medals at these games, becoming the first non-U.S. skater to win one in an individual race. It was Fabris second gold, having helped the Italians win the team pursuit. He also won

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bronze in the 5,000. While Fabris and Davis skated a victory lap together, an irritated Hedrick plopped down and took off his skates. Americans Joey Cheek and Derek Parra, the defending Olympic champion, were ninth and 19th. Im a little surprised, Cheek said. I had thought it would be between Shani and Chad, but if I knew what was going to happen, Id be a gambler.

sent its final telegram, ending its more than 150 years of telegraphic messaging since its inception in 1851. The move, officials said, was part of the companys metamorphosis. Believe me it was not an easy decision for us to make because the telegram was part of our heritage, said Amy Fischer, Western Unions cor-

Continued on A2

Continued on A8

See Calendar of Events on B3

afro.com
Your History Your Community Your News

By Zenitha Prince AFRO Staff Writer

The business of staying in business gets harder


the damage to the building itself, the city engineers came in and said ... we have to tear it down and rebuild it completely, Watts said. Watts story is the story of many Black business owners in the Gulf States, whose businesses were adversely affected

This is the sixth of an 8-part series of stories about the Gulf Coast and the road to recovery after Hurricane Katrina. This project is a cooperative effort between the Baltimore AFRO and National Newspaper Publishers Association. GULFPORT, Miss. Hezekiah Hezzie Watts stood in the glare of the midday sun looking at the shattered remains of his lifes dream, H.W. Marine Repair, a boat repair and service company that he started 15 years before. It was not a large company; it comprised just him and an assistant, but it was his. This was a dream of mine and it was going well, Watts said. But that was before Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf coast, leaving destruction and mayhem in its wake. Now, H.W. Marine Repair was nothing but a hollow shell. Its a total loss. Because of

by one of the worst storms of the century. To the west, in the Crescent City, the situation is even worse. Of the 9,747 Black firms in New Orleans recorded by the last U.S. Economic

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A reproduction of an actual telegram sent to the AFRO Newspapers by AFRO reporters covering the Scottsboro Boys case, which was held in Alabama in April 1931 and March 1933.

Photo from AFRO files

Boys became men at Baraka

By H. Allen Hurst AFRO Staff Writer

Documentary chronicles rite of passage for formerly atrisk students.

Courtesy photo

More than three years ago, twenty 12- and 13-year-old at risk young Black men from the inner city of Baltimore left home to attend the 7th and 8th grade at Baraka, a boarding school located in Kenya, East Africa. Now that the film, The Boys of Baraka, has been produced and released in theaters across the country, theater goers and philanthropists wonder where we go from here. At a special screening held by the Greater Baltimore Urban Leagues Young Professionals

organization, patrons expressed both relief and frustration concerning the issues raised by the documentary. I dont understand why we cant have something like this in Baltimore, said Sarah Mitchell, theater patron. Films are good for many things, especially for exposing ills in our community, but this is a problem everyone in Baltimore was aware of. If being in Africa didnt have any real significance then why not start a school in rural Maryland? At Baraka, the young men were faced with a strict aca-

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Copyright 2006 by the Afro-American Company

A4

The Baltimore Afro-American, February 25, 2006 - March 3, 2006

The business of staying in business gets harder


Census, many are not expected to return. Were going to lose a lot of Black businesses, theres no doubt about that, said James Washington, vice president of Hewitt-Washington Architects and Planners and president of the National Organization of Minority Architects. We were suffering economically down here prior to the hurricane. Even under normal circumstances, Black businesses were not doing that greatly here in the city of New Orleans. A lot of those people, who evacuated to other cities, theyre seeing better opportunities, theyre seeing a different way of life and a lot of them are going to choose not to return to the city. And for those companies that choose to stay, the road to recovery will be fraught with difficulties. Hewitt-Washington was one of the premier Black firms in New Orleans. It built most of the schools in New Orleans and participated in the building of major projects such as the convention center, the sports arena and the aquarium. Weve participated in the building of several of the major buildings that have been built in New Orleans in the last few years, Washington said. We have a reputation of delivering projects on time and within the budget. Weve had the reputation for 28 years of being just a solid design firm. Yet, for all its stellar reputation, the firm is still suffering. We actually have not worked since the Friday before Continued from A1 the hurricane, Washington said. We were on the brink of signing some major contracts, [now] all of the work we had has been put on hold. We think that weve lost about $1.5 million in fees because of conBechtel, Fluor and the Shaw Group, even before the flood waters receded. Washington said he even submitted an application to Shaw to work as a local architect, but has not received a response. All of the work thats being done right now in New Orleans in terms of the clean Besides being deliberately cut out, Black firms have sustained significant damage to their infrastructure and severe depletion of human resources, which cripples their ability to compete with other firms, Washington said. [The hurricane] destroyed most Black businesses. Ive evacuate. A lot of the folks who own those businesses had to evacuate and its hard to get people to come back to work to restart the firm. Washingtons own employees have been scattered across the South and farther, he said, and he does not have the facilities to house them even if they ensure the companys survival. Im not earning cash so Im going to have to see if I can put some sort of loan package together to get some cash to resume operations because certain bills are going to continue whether you are active or not; the telephone is still on, the electricity is on, the water is on, I have car insurance on the company vehicles, professional liability insurance. I still have my overhead that I have to find money to pay for even though were not functioning, he said. Rebuilding his marine repair business from the ground up is proving equally difficult, Watts said, especially since boats are considered luxury items. To shut down totally is extreme, its hard, Watts said. Because of the hurricane most people are not using the boats right now so we have to operate on what we have stashed away. Despite the looming challenges, Watts said he is hopeful that his dream will be rebuilt. When I started, I trusted in God and it seems simple that whenever I run into a problem or things slow down and I talk to him straight up: Dear God, my parking lot is getting empty, I need some boats in here, [that] sometimes before the end of the week, I would get five, six boats in here. In the meantime, Watts said he filed for unemployment. He also filed for insurance compensation and for FEMA assistance. And now I wait.

Above, Hezekiah Watts stands in the remains of his marine repair business which he started from scratch 10 years before. Right, all that is left of H.W. Marine Repair is the tattered frame of the building.

Photos by Zenitha Prince

tracts being canceled or put on hold. Part of the problem is that all of FEMAs $1.8 billion clean up and rebuilding contracts were pounced upon and divvied up among politically connected fat cats such as Haliburton and its subsidiaries,

up and construction is going to a lot of companies from out of town, Washington said. You see people from all over the country that are coming here to participate in clean up and rebuilding. I have not seen any significant involvement of African-American firms.

been in contact with everybody from funeral homes to contractors, a lot of equipment is under water, they dont have the ability to get new equipment to participate in the rebuilding effort right now, Washington said. Its hard to compete when you have to

did return. And the insurance adjustor cannot be found and has not responded to calls, so he cannot even depend on insurance compensation to repair the damage to his building. In the meantime, Washington said, he is trying to come up with a plan to

Boys became men at Baraka


Continued from A1 demic program, but also some theater goers asserted that the freedom to be normal teenage boys was tantamount to success. I think the film did a good job of showing what Black kids can do when focusing on learning rather than survival, said Esekwe Devo, executive vice president of the Greater Baltimore Leadership Association. Richard was at a Academy Award. Loki Films, a New York-based documentary film production company, was founded in 2001 by Heidi Ewing, in her kitchen, along with Rachel Grady. After beating the odds and other local filmmakers for the right to gaze into the lives of Black youth, Grady and Ewing finally received the Abel Foundations blessing to start filming. Ewing grew up in Detroit, but had

When I met the kids, I was charmed by them. They were funny and smart. The thing about Baltimore is that there is no delusion about the plight of the city. However, sometimes after shooting, Im not proud to say that I was relieved to go home.
second grade reading level, but anybody that heard him speak knew he was a genius. We think we have it all when it comes to measuring someones ability, but a young man like Richard proves otherwise. However, some patrons felt the trip to Africa was a waste of time, considering that the young men were not introduced to African culture throughout. One of the things that I would have really like to have seen in the movie was the cultural aspect of going to Africa, Adrian Miller, a patron from Seattle, Wash. It seemed more they were at a camp. They never got a chance to experience the African culture at all. I think that could have helped the boys reevaluate their lives in America. The Boys of Baraka is Loki Films first production and has already been nominated for an never been to Baltimore prior to starting filming. Grady was familiar with Baltimore. Both filmmakers, young White women, said this first project was a true revelation of societal ills existing in the Black community. I thought the whole concept of sending American children to a developing country to be educated was so strange, Heidi Ewing told the AFRO in an earlier interview. What happens to someone if they are removed from their reality of a toxic environment and a broken public school system and are allowed to start over? Thats an interesting experiment for atrisk prepubescent kids. Both Ewing and Grady have produced and directed documentaries for The Discovery Channel and other nationally recognized stations. Grady, a private investigator turned film-

maker, has produced and directed a wide variety of documentaries. At Loki, we want to make films that evoke a deeper understanding of the human experience with all its complexities, high stakes and humor, said Ewing. Obtaining permission to film took the two young directors over a year and another three and a half years to complete filming. I called them every month

The Boys of Baraka is Loki Films first production and has already been nominated for an Academy Award.
for a year, said Ewing. They finally relented and allowed us to make the film. She said she was charmed by the students when she met them. They were funny and smart. The thing about Baltimore is that there is no delusion about the plight of the city. However, sometimes after shooting, Im not proud to say that I was relieved to go home. Although the kids rejected the discipline at the beginning, the directors saw grown men in the young boys that were allowed to be kids again in Africa. They were extremely mature and had a lot to say for their age, said Ewing. I guess the fact that it was in Africa was a coincidence, said Ewing. They were just looking for an economically good place to put a school. In no way was it any sort of back to Africa concept, but I think the fact that it was in Africa added a new dimension for the kids. In Africa, these kids were suddenly the rich kids. Devon Brown, 16, one of the four boys featured in the documentary, is now a sophomore at the Academy for College and Career Exploration in Baltimore and became student-body president during his freshman year. He delivers sermons sometimes at Zion Baptist Church in East Baltimore. Devon writes and sings gospel and has recorded a demo CD. While in Africa, Devon, who was 12 during the filming and now is 16, says he learned something about himself that everybody around him has always known. I learned that I was smart while at the Baraka school, said Devon. Once I had that confidence it was as if every-

Courtesy photo

thing was fundamental. Before, I wanted to be the class clown and goof off. When I became focused, I knew what I was capable of. He also learned the importance of keeping a positive attitude. In Africa, we used what we had to get along. There werent many resources, he said. I became a man in Africa. Although Africas a developing country they focus on education all day long. In our culture, there are a lot of distractions that are not helpful to learning. Montrey Moore, 16, scored high enough on his Maryland School Assessment math exams to be accepted to City College, where he is currently a sophomore. Montrey says the experience at Baraka not only opened his eyes to what a good education is, but he also witnessed how real brotherhood feels. In Africa, everyone watches out for each other, said Montrey, because the concept of materialism doesnt exist. In Africa, we were like the rich kids from East Baltimore. But they have something we dont have in America - a sense of community. At Baraka, I was a student, said Montrey. Before, I was just another Black kid.

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