Kamala Harris Regrets That Parents Were Arrested Under Her Truancy Law

Sen. Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she regrets that some California prosecutors “criminalized the parents” of truant children using a controversial 2011 law she helped pass when she was the district attorney of San Francisco.

“My regret is that I have now heard stories where in some jurisdictions, DAs have now criminalized the parents,” Harris said in an interview with “Pod Save America.”

“And I regret that that has happened and the thought that anything that I did could have led to that,” she added.

Truancy — which refers to unexcused school absences — was one of Harris’ signature issues while she was the San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general.

The law in question imposes fines and jail time on parents of children in kindergarten through eighth grade who have missed 10 percent of school days or more without a valid excuse.

Harris championed the law in the state legislature after she successfully reduced truancy in San Francisco by threatening to prosecute parents under a more dated law.

Many observers also questioned whether Harris’ push to address truancy through the criminal justice system inherently punished low-income and struggling families. She has previously framed truancy as “a parent issue” that stems from parental “neglect.”

Harris has always said her goal in involving prosecutors in the truancy process was not to punish parents but to give schools more leverage to bring them to the table.

When she was district attorney of San Francisco, she noted, her office never jailed any parents.

“I realized that the system was failing these kids, not putting the services in place to keep them in school, to make it easier for parents to do what parents naturally wanted to do around parenting their children,” she said in the interview. “And so I put a spotlight on it.”

“As a result of doing that, we ended up increasing attendance by over 30% because we actually required the system then to kick in and do the services that they were required to do and sometimes had available, but they weren’t doing outreach with the parents,” she continued. “And so that was the whole purpose.”

If any parents who were punished as a result of the law she later helped pass, that was an “unintended consequence,” Harris said.

[SOURCE: HUFFPOST]

Seventh District Baptist Association raising money to help black churches burned down in Louisiana

The Seventh District Baptist Association, is a 149 year old non-profit religious organization. They are working with the Governor of Louisiana, local leaders, elected officials, the impacted churches and their pastors, other faith organizations and the community to raise money and to ensure 100% of all funds raised will be evenly distributed to the three churches affected by suspicious fires.

The historically black churches have burned in less than two weeks in one south Louisiana parish, where officials said they had found “suspicious elements” in each case. The officials have not ruled out the possibility of arson, or the possibility that the fires are related.

“There is clearly something happening in this community,” State Fire Marshal H. Browning said in a statement on Thursday.

Please donate here and look for upcoming opportunities to help these churches and communities begin to heal: Seventh District Baptist Church Fires St Landry

The Seventh District Baptist Association lead by President Freddie Jack, is comprised of approximately 60 Baptist churches from seven parishes in Southwest Louisiana, which includes the three churches affected by the recent fires. The District meets on a quarterly and annual basis emphasizing Christian Education, Evangelism, Discipleship and fellowship in the Body of Christ.

The District's annual session is held the first week in June where we celebrate our legacy and plan continual ministry events to reach the lost and edify the Saints. The District will be holding its 149th Annual Session in Lake Charles, Louisiana the week of June 2nd.

President Jack requested that a Go Fund Me campaign be initiated to show our support for our church families and the communities affected. We are unequivocally committed to aiding our Sister Churches. The donations received are earmarked specifically for the Seventh District's member churches - St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church and Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. All of your generous donations will be disbursed equally among all three churches for not only rebuilding their sanctuaries, but for the purchase of all necessities lost in the fires, including pews, sound system, musical instruments, etc.

Seventh District and the Pastors and congregations of the St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church and Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church thank you and solicit your continual prayers and support as we will overcome this tragedy together because we are ONE BODY IN CHRIST!

Ruth V. Jack, Finance Secretary

Seventh District Baptist Association

Contact information: sdbajack@gmail.com

Pete Buttigieg pledges to 'do better' at attracting black voters

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg pledged on Tuesday to do more to reach out to African-American voters, laying out specifics of how he'll address the lack of diversity.

"We need to invite more and more people into the process. We do it through our team and the team that we're building," Buttigieg told CNN's Poppy Harlow and John Avlon on "New Day."

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said he needs to do better when it comes to reaching out to African-American voters and increasing the diversity of the crowd at his campaign events.

"I think we need to do better," Buttigieg told CNN. "As I've been on the trail, we found, to some extent, it depends on geography. We had a very diverse crowd at my first stop in Nevada, but less so in South Carolina. One of the most important things you can achieve in South Carolina is engage with African-American voters in particular, which represents such an important part of our party's coalition."

Buttigieg said his outreach to African-American voters will include ensuring his campaign addresses "issues that disproportionately affect families of color," like housing, income, entrepreneurship and criminal justice reform.

He also plans to reach out to African-American voters by "working to build a diverse team within our organization."

"Some of it is quantity time. Where do you go on these campaign visits? They're very traditional and important places where you can engage in voters of color, from church networks to some of the associations that have built up around the search for justice," Buttigieg said.

"But also, there's a bit of a generational divide here. Younger people of color are less likely to organize in some of the traditional structures that would be true for my parents' generation. And that's where digital organization and reaching into different media venues is going to be important to make those connections."

Asked if he was disappointed that his crowds have not been more diverse, Buttigieg said on Tuesday it means "we've got our work cut out for us."

[SOURCE: CNN]

Jeffrey C. Stewart wins Pulitzer Prize for a biography, The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke

Author Jeffrey C. Stewart has won Pulitzer Prize for his book The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke which is a panoramic view of the personal trials and artistic triumphs of the father of the Harlem Renaissance and the movement he inspired.

Jeffrey C. Stewart, a professor of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has spent his career studying the issues of race and culture as they relate to art, history, literature, music, and philosophy. His previous books include 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History and Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen. He has been a Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Rome III, a W.E.B. Du Bois and a Charles Warren Fellow at Harvard University, and Lecturer at the Terra Foundation for American art in Giverny, France.

WINNING WORK

The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke

By Jeffrey C. Stewart



A tiny, fastidiously dressed man emerged from Black Philadelphia around the turn of the century to mentor a generation of young artists including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jacob Lawrence and call them the New Negro -- the creative African Americans whose art, literature, music, and drama would inspire Black people to greatness.

In The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, Jeffrey C. Stewart offers the definitive biography of the father of the Harlem Renaissance, based on the extant primary sources of his life and on interviews with those who knew him personally. He narrates the education of Locke, including his becoming the first African American Rhodes Scholar and earning a PhD in philosophy at Harvard University, and his long career as a professor at Howard University. Locke also received a cosmopolitan, aesthetic education through his travels in continental Europe, where he came to appreciate the beauty of art and experienced a freedom unknown to him in the United States. And yet he became most closely associated with the flowering of Black culture in Jazz Age America and his promotion of the literary and artistic work of African Americans as the quintessential creations of American modernism. In the process he looked to Africa to find the proud and beautiful roots of the race. Shifting the discussion of race from politics and economics to the arts, he helped establish the idea that Black urban communities could be crucibles of creativity. Stewart explores both Locke's professional and private life, including his relationships with his mother, his friends, and his white patrons, as well as his lifelong search for love as a gay man.

Stewart's thought-provoking biography recreates the worlds of this illustrious, enigmatic man who, in promoting the cultural heritage of Black people, became -- in the process -- a New Negro himself.

The Congressional Black Caucus Responds to President Trump’s Reckless Attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) released the following statement criticizing President Donald Trump’s despicable attack on Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) by tweeting a video accusing the Congresswoman of supporting terrorist responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

CBC Chair Representative Karen Bass (D-CA) said the following:

“There was a time when Presidents of either party could be looked too for leadership in pulling our country together and denouncing hate, but it’s clear that those days are over so long as Donald Trump is in the White House. His attacks on Representative Omar, as well as those from right wing media and commentators, not only spew hate and division, they are putting the life of a member of Congress in danger. These attacks are despicable and must stop so that our nation can focus on the real issues that need to be addressed to ensure our national security.”