Emancipation Day 2010

January 1, Friday from 10AM till Noon
The St. Pete NAACP Branch will host an Annual Emancipation Day Celebration
"Continuing Our Legacy, Bold Dreams Speak Victories,"
Bethel Community Baptist Church
2901 54th Ave. So. in St. Pete

``On the first day of January 1863 all persons held as slaves within any state shall be thenceforth and forever free,`` said the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Day has been commemorated in our community on New Year's Day by the NAACP and the Council on Human Relations in various churches. Years ago we had older participants who grew up with former slaves, their great grandparents. Now they are not here to tell their story and we must learn this history from books.


Washington, D.C. celebrates April 16 as Emancipation Day. That day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act. This Act freed enslaved persons nine months before the more famous Emancipation Proclamation.

Two years ago Mayor Anthony Williams signed legislation making Emancipation Day an official public holiday in the District. Wikipedia reports that the Emancipation Day celebration was held yearly from 1866 to 1901, and was just resumed in 2002.

Emancipation Day has long been celebrated in Texas, where it is known as Juneteenth. St. Pete has had one of the biggest and best Juneteenth celebrations.

The emancipation proclamation freed slaves only in states that were in rebellion and, Juneteenth celebrates the day much later that the slaves learned they were free.

Here is an account of last years ceremony from community activist Norm Bungard.

I attended an inspiring event that took place at the Lakewood United Church of Christ, on New Year's Day. The annual (we think it was the thirtieth) Emancipation Proclamation Service emceed by Elder Martin Rainey, First President, and Trenia L. Cox, Second President, of the St Petersburg Branch of the NAACP was very inspiring. There were political leaders; ministers; NAACP state and local leaders present and each had an opportunity to share the past, present and future of Race Relations.

I first became a member of this branch a L O N G time ago when Morris Milton was President and Myrna Gemmer and her late husband Dr Bob were the educational chairs. I certainly learned a lot about the movement, which I have supported since the sixties. It was probably 26 or so years ago that I head Morris speak at the Princess Martha Hotel. He was a real orator, the greatest I have ever heard. He lifted us out of our seats.

There were two highlights I want to share. One was the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by a teen who has such a strong and beautiful voice that it added to the words in an eloquent manner. Her name is Kalima Haneef and I hope at some future point you will get to hear her or see her. She is a leader and I feel certain we will hear more from her in future years.

The second highlight was from a Minister (all ministers were inspiring; as were all speakers). Frank Peterman introduced Rev Joe Tucker of the 5th Avenue Church of Christ. We had heard from speakers who called attention to the low graduation rate in Pinellas for all students, black students in particular, and how we collectively need to fix that. Rev Tucker's thundering comment that I will recall is this: The answer to our problems is not in the White House; it's in your house.

There is much to digest and you may agree or disagree. I personally believe it's in both houses and everywhere in between. His point was that proper parenting is the most important.

My best to each of us for a new year filled with hope for improved relations among everyone.
Norm Bungard

Credit: "Memory for the slaves" by Clara Sornas, at the former auction square in front of the now Anglican Church , Zanzibar, Tanzania. Photo by Farl, Cebu, Philippines, some rights reserved.

FRESH --an upbeat and wonderfully fresh look at our food system

Check here for a listing of local screenings.

Will Allen, 6ft 7" former professional basketball player, is now one of the most influential leaders of the food security & urban farming movement. His farm and not-for-profit, Growing Power, have trained and inspired people in every corner of the US to start growing food sustainably. This man and his organization go beyond growing food. They provide a platform for people to share knowledge and form relationships in order to develop alternatives to the industrial food system.


"FRESH is just that--an upbeat and wonderfully fresh look at our food system and how to make it work better for the health of humans and the planet. It's a must see for everyone who eats."

-Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor,
Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University

We all know about the problems with the American food system, but what about the solutions? FRESH is a bracing, even exhilarating look at the whole range of efforts underway to renovate the way we grow food and feed ourselves.
-Michael Pollan, Author, In Defense of Food

"Absolutely first-rate...The film is not a preach-fest; it's an informative, inspirational, swiftly-edited and beautifully scored movie. What the doc does best is demonstrate that nature's own ways of doing things - nature's food chain, nature's circle of life - is, ultimately, the best treatment of land and livestock."
-Moving Pictures Magazine

"FRESH, The Movie, in contrast to Food Inc. presents a vision of the possible by profiling heroes all over the country who are changing the way we eat. FRESH'S strength is that it shows how organic, ecological farming methods can be viable."
-EcoSalon.com

"It is becoming increasingly clear that for all its past benefits, the industrial food system no longer serves the best interests of people or the planet. FRESH begins to suggest what at least part of our future food system might look like...."
-Frederick Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

"FRESH is a rich and inspiring meal. FRESH offers not only a serious look at where we are and a useful primer on how we got there, but repeated heart-lifting demonstrations that there are ways to produce food that are safer, kinder and more natural."
-Joan Gussow, Author, and Professor Emeritus (Nutrition), Columbia University Teachers College

Our current industrial method of food production is increasingly viewed as an unsustainable system, destructive to the environment and public health. But what is the alternative?

Fresh profiles the farmers, thinkers, and business people across the nation who are at the forefront of re-inventing food production in America. With a strong commitment to sustainability, they are changing how farms are run, how the land is cared for, and how food is distributed. Their success demonstrates that a new paradigm based on sustainable practices can be profitable and a model for our food system, if people choose to support it.

Fresh opens with a short summary of the problems and consequences of industrialized food production, then focuses primarily on the individuals who are creating new approaches to address environmental, health, and economic challenges throughout the food chain.

Joel Salatin is a world-famous sustainable farmer and entrepreneur who, by observing nature, devised a rotational grazing system for his animals that heals the land while making his operations many times more profitable than his conventional farming neighbors.

Will Allen, a former pro basketball player and recipient of a Macarthur Genius Award, is now one of the most influential leaders of the urban farming movement. He teaches people in the inner city the value of healthy food and how to grow their own.

David Ball saw his family-run supermarket and a once-thriving local farming community dying with the rise of Walmart and other big chains. So he reinvented his business, partnering with area farmers to sell locally-grown food at an affordable price. His plan has brought the local economy back to life.

Fresh also features a farmer in Iowa who illustrates the struggles family farmers face, a hog farmer in Missouri who stopped using antibiotics on his pigs, and commentary by noted food expert and author Michael Pollan.

www.freshthemovie.com

Running Time: 70 minutes
A film by Ana Sofia Joanes

2008 MacArthur Fellow: Will Allen

Victory Gardens-Free Class on Saturdays

http://www.bartlettpark.net/2009/05/community-garden-ordinance.html

Kid FABulous! Fit, Active, Black Families

From Keisha Bell, JD, FAB Families Project Manager

FAB Families is currently accepting applications for its upcoming Kid FABulous! program. For a visual of Kid FABulous! watch the video.

Our next 12-week series begins Saturday, January 30^th. The application deadline is Friday, January 15^th. Space is limited!

Please share with your networks!

Kid Fabulous is part of the F.A.B. (Fit, Active, Black) Families St. Petersburg program aimed at reducing childhood obesity and improving all around health in St. Petersburg's African-American community.
For more information on FAB Families, visit: www.stpeteFABFamilies.com

Substantial savings on delicious food and groceries

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Field of Forgotten Dreams/The African-American Baseball Experience Exhibit comes to Tampa

Hinchliffe is one of the last surviving stadiums that hosted Negro League games. Can it be saved?

Monte Irvin stepped into the batter's box at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J., took measure of the stately new ballpark, and began depositing baseball after baseball over the outfield wall, some of his prodigious blasts traveling more than 400 feet.

It was the spring of 1937, and Irvin, a 17-year-old rising star from the nearby city of Orange with a .666 high school batting average, was at Hinchliffe trying out for a professional baseball team. Because Irvin was African American, and because of the color barrier in the major leagues, the team was not the New York Yankees or the Brooklyn Dodgers but a Negro League ball club called the Newark Eagles.

The sweet sound of home run after home run—crack, crack, crack—attracted the attention of Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, two Negro League players preparing for a game at Hinchliffe later that day. Irvin was introduced to the two stars, whose grace, athleticism, and dapper uniforms and dress had inspired him. Indeed, Gibson had been called The Black Babe Ruth and Leonard The Black Lou Gehrig (though some wondered if Gehrig should have been dubbed The White Buck Leonard). And on this day, Irvin learned he would play alongside his two idols. He had made the Eagles.

Even though Irvin never imagined it possible at the time, with his paltry $125-a-month salary and the seemingly unshakeable reality of segregation in America, he would become one of the first African American players to make the major leagues after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, and would go on to enjoy a Hall of Fame career as a left fielder for the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs.

The courage that players such as Irvin and Robinson mustered in the face of hostile crowds in the majors had a profound impact on African Americans everywhere, their performance and character a rebuke to the notion that race somehow rendered them inferior. It was in the Negro Leagues —where conditions were often second-rate but the play was anything but—that their long journey began. More: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/story-of-the-week/2009/negro-league-stadium.html

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New Southside

PRIDE & PASSION: The African-American Baseball Experience Exhibit

From: Monday, January 4, 2010
To: Friday, February 19, 2010

Location: John F. Germany Public Library 900 North Ashley Dr. in Downtown Tampa

Price: Free to the public

Contact: Stacey Jurewicz | phone: 813-272-5504 | email: Jurewiczs@hillsboroughcounty.org | website: http://www.hcplc.org

The Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System is pleased to announce it has been awarded the opportunity to host Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience at the John F. Germany Library, from Jan 4, 2010 through Feb 19, 2010 and to receive $2500 grant funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name on permanent display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and tells the story of black baseball players in the U.S. over the past century and a half. In addition to the exhibit, the John F. Germany Library will be presenting an Opening Day Ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. with the Tampa Bay Rays, acclaimed illustrator Kadir Nelson, Jackie Robinson’s daughter Sharon Robinson and Negro League scholars Dr. Lawrence Hogan and Dr. Robert Cvornyek. Many other programs that are inspired by the exhibit will also be offered during its run, including appearances by former players, scholarly panel discussions, baseball-themed craft programs for children, and much more!