Nov. 11, 2021 - During World War II, Black newspapers rallied African-Americans behind the “Double Victory” campaign to fight the war against ethnic oppression abroad as well as racial oppression at home. But the African-American women who served during this time also had a third enemy – the one that held them back because of their gender. 

The Double Victory campaign was inspired by a letter published in the Pittsburgh Courier on January 31, 1942 entitled “Should I Sacrifice To Live ‘Half-American?” In the letter, James G. Thompson explained that the first V was “for victory over our enemies from without” and the second V was “for victory over our enemies from within.” The paper would later proclaim “this slogan as the true battle cry of colored America.” The Pittsburgh Courier debuted its Double V logo the next week in the February 7 edition, and would continue to print it as part of its masthead for the remainder of the war.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers was hard at work on a bill to create a women’s branch of the U.S. military. Many women had served as volunteers during World War I but were not eligible for veteran’s benefits since they had not been official members of the U.S. military. Rogers wanted to make sure that this did not happen again during this new war.

Once the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC, later WAC) was established, Mary McLeod Bethune went into action. Bethune was the head of the Negro division of the National Youth Administration as well as founder of what is now Bethune Cookman University. She was also an advisor to four presidents, including President Franklin Roosevelt. She had seen how Black young people, especially Black women, struggled to find good jobs during the Great Depression of the 1930s. With her access to the highest reaches of the U.S. government, she used her influence to ensure that Black women would be able to have meaningful opportunities within the WAAC. Ones that would position them to be eligible for those educational and professional veteran’s benefits too.

In general, the women who joined the WAC were subjected to sexist assumptions about their virtues and ability to make meaningful contributions to the war effort as a part of the military. Male soldiers and officers were vocal about their beliefs that women had no place in the service. Inside and outside of the military, a common assumption was that these women had enlisted so that they could “service” the male service members. They were not issued weapons nor given any weapons training – even when ordered into hostile areas – because brandishing a gun was considered “unladylike.” However, the Black women who served had to deal with a unique set of challenges.

These challenges included being subjected to double segregation. Black men in the military were segregated only on the basis of their race. Black women were separated by their race and gender. To get into the WAC, a woman had to meet high standards of morality and femininity; white women might be able to loosen up a little once they were officially in. But Black women had to meet the highest of these standards at all times. Even when they continued to maintain those standards, they were more often than not perceived as only capable of performing domestic duties despite their educational and professional backgrounds.

The stripes that the Black female officers wore made them even more of a target. It enraged some members of the American public that a white soldier who held a lower rank was expected to salute these women and follow their orders. This led to Black female officers experiencing encounters with the police because they were assumed to be imposters and worse. One was hospitalized after being beaten up on a train platform in Tennessee.

However, despite these unique challenges, Black female soldiers fought back in creative ways. They used the power of their personal connections and of the Black press to overturn discriminatory policies and practices, such as having the “Colored” signs removed from the mess hall tables during the first WAAC officer training class. They studied Army policies until they knew them backwards and forwards. So when Major Charity Adams responded “Over my dead body, sir” to a general’s threat to have her replaced after refusing his frivolous order, she had the documentation to back her up when he attempted to have her court martialed. They even went as far to stop work, effectively going on strike, when pigeonholed into intolerable working conditions at the Fort Devens Hospital in Massachusetts in 1945.

Despite these extra burdens, Black women who served in the WAAC/WAC during World War II went on to distinguish themselves. The 6888th Postal Battalion Directory was given the “impossible” task of getting the backlog of mail moving in six months. They cleared the backlog in three. Black female officers trained all of the Black women who enlisted in the corps. They showed the top brass what Black women were capable of achieving, if only given a chance.

NEW ORLEANS (10/29/2021) Calling the proposal a naked power grab that will hurt New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell has come out against a November referendum to grant a state board control over local tax dollars.

The proposal, which will appear on the Nov. 13 ballot as Constitutional Amendment No. 1, would grant an eight-member commission the right to collect and distribute sales taxes on behalf of parishes across Louisiana.

The new board would be funded with a portion of sales tax revenue. It would be asked to issue advice about tax collection and to create other tax rules.

Lawmakers and advocates for the change argue it will help businesses by creating a single statewide body to manage sales tax collections instead of the parish-based system currently in place. But Cantrell argued that it's really a bid to rob New Orleans of its rightful revenue. At present, City Hall collects sales and property taxes on behalf of itself and other local taxing authorities...

By Donna Kimura

Noel Khalil, founder, chairman, principal, and CEO of Columbia Residential and Columbia Ventures, died Oct. 25 after a long battle with an illness, announced the companies. He was 70.

Khalil founded the Atlanta-based Columbia Residential 30 years ago with the purpose of providing high-quality affordable housing where people would be proud to live.

“Noel had an incredible impact on Atlanta and other cities he worked in, and his work created nearly 10,000 homes for families from very low-income to market-rate,” says Jim Grauley, president and COO at Columbia Residential. “His vision and persona were the driving force behind the creation of Columbia Residential and Columbia Ventures and will continue to be our guide and inspiration for carrying the work of our companies forward. Noel’s inspiration of ‘building cathedrals for God’s children’ will extend through the more than 350 associates of our combined companies to animate and continue the great work he started.”

Khalil was inducted into Affordable Housing Finance’s Hall of Fame last year when he recalled that the first project he developed when he went out on his own was an affordable housing community. “My view of affordable housing was that I was not going to lower the standards or quality just because it was affordable,” Khalil said. “It was a common perspective at the time to do a cheap product. I thought there would be a residual value to the property long term, and it made sense to build to market-rate standards.”

His career in real estate began at an early age. His parents, immigrants from Jamaica, purchased a home in the Bronx, living in the downstairs unit while renting out the second level. The family eventually moved and rented both units.

“My mother would send me on the train to the old duplex,” Khalil recalled. “I would shovel the snow, sweep the leaves, collect rent, and my mother made a tough rental officer. I couldn’t come home without the money.”

After working at U.S. Home Corp. and then H.J. Russell & Co. in Atlanta, Khalil took a chance and started Columbia Residential to work on his own developments.

The firm’s work has included revitalizing public housing. One of his proudest accomplishments was the mixed-income Columbia Parc at the Bayou District in New Orleans. The firm overcame numerous obstacles to redevelop the St. Bernard public housing development, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“The other thing that is so powerful and will be so missed about Noel Khalil is the individual generosity and personal touch he had with so many residents, staff members, and partners,” Grauley says. “There are countless stories being recounted of how Noel gave opportunity, inspired careers, or helped in the most personal and impactful ways in so many lives he touched.”

The company, which began as a one-man shop, has had an active presence in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

Khalil’s family includes three sons and two daughters.

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Donna Kimura is deputy editor of Affordable Housing Finance. She has covered the industry for more than a decade. Before that, she worked at an Internet company and several daily newspapers. Connect with Donna at [email protected] or follow her @DKimura_AHF.

NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell today announced that the City of New Orleans will suspend its mask mandate for most public spaces, effective this Friday, Oct. 29th. New Orleans will move largely in line with the State to lift its mandate following yesterday’s announcement from Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.

The mask mandate will remain in place for all K-12 schools and healthcare facilities throughout Orleans Parish. Masks will also be required for use of public transportation as detailed in the federal guidelines, for all residents ages 2 and older. COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented for certain businesses requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for entry announced in August, will remain in place with one minor adjustment; to include proof of either a PCR or antigen test for all indoor activities.

For several weeks, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths drastically decreased due to the City’s more stringent mitigation measures, strong vaccine rates, and indoor proof of vaccination and negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours for entry required for all businesses and other facilities previously implemented. The New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) encourages residents to continue to wear masks in public indoor spaces – especially when social distancing is not possible as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

“The indoor mask mandate that was in place over the past several months helped us reduce the surge in cases we saw due to the Delta variant,” said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, Director of NOHD. “Even though the numbers are currently low, we must remind our residents that this pandemic is not over and remains dangerous for all that may come in contact with the virus.”

The mask mandate was reinstated to slow the spread of the virus on July 30th following the devastating surge of new COVID-19 Delta variant cases and hospitalizations statewide. Currently, the City of New Orleans reports that 60.3 percent of the total population is fully vaccinated, and 75.6 percent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.

For more information regarding COVID-19 updates, restrictions, and vaccination calendar visit https://ready.nola.gov/home/.

EDUCATION POST (September 23, 2021) - Ethan Ashley (left) is the president of the Orleans Parish School Board, which regained full control of New Orleans public schools on July 1, 2018. New Orleans is the only school district in the U.S. with a majority of charter schools, and the district is preparing to launch a search for a new superintendent. Ashley and his fellow board members are determined to disrupt the usual opaque, insider-network ways of finding district leaders by building a transparent, community-focused search and hiring process. Here’s how.

We are extremely interested in making sure our next leader is a visionary: equity-minded, anti-racist, experienced. That’s the goal. To get there, we have to include the community.

We are trying to be extremely transparent about this process of going through a superintendent search. The board is leading this process in partnership with the community. We are ensuring that the folks who are most impacted — our students, our families, our educators, our administrators — are kept up to date as transparently as possible.

We’ve launched a website where the community can view every committee meeting or special board meeting, as well as provide their input [related to the search]. it’s not super-fancy. It works well on phones. Information is available in three languages: English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

We can honestly say as a district there’s only one person who has experience running our kind of district, and that’s our current superintendent. No one else has been a superintendent of a majority-charter district. That uniqueness alone puts us in a different position.

We’re not as wedded to the traditional qualifications that folks want to see in a superintendent. We’re not going to cut anybody out who is talented and can do the job. We want to see someone who is unique. We want to see someone who will be good partners with our community of schools.

After the search firm is selected, we’re going to work to ensure that educators, students and families are truly able to build a superintendent profile and job description. We really want to make sure that certain populations are included. Then we’ll publicize it.

Once we get to interview the candidates, the community will have an opportunity to ask critical questions. The public is an integral part of the process. It happened in the past, in our previous search.

There was an ask to make sure that we do not just do blanket, all-call community meetings where you ask people to show up and sit in a gym. In the current [COVID] environment, you can’t do that because there are certain populations that we need to hear from that in-person meetings would make it hard for them to participate. Essentially, we need to have various opportunities for our community to engage. We want to make sure we are providing a real virtual option [to give input].

Our next-largest population, after African-American, is Latinx — that’s important to acknowledge, important to know. We need to ensure we are engaging our Latinx brothers and sisters. We need to reach other minorities, including the LGBTQ+ community. There are grandparents who are acting as second parents — some of my board colleagues are doing just that. Extended family, not just grandparents, who are helping raise children. Community leaders who are doing the work to make sure our students are safe and supported in the after-school hours.

Our board is no longer majority-Black, since January of this year. In fact, we have three Black members out of seven. With that said, this board has been committed to equity. We know how hard it is to get high-level leadership that is anti-racist. Women dominate teaching. In urban districts, women of color are prominent. Yet we still see a male-dominated, not-very-diverse superintendency. We need to make sure we don’t carry biases into the process. You can be as anti-racist as you personally want to be and still perpetuate racism systematically. We’re not perfect.

Last year, after George Floyd’s murder, we had the opportunity to present a request for qualifications to do a racial equity audit. The people who won that bid were Beloved Community. They did the anti-bias training with our staff, and as a board we thought, “We need to do that.”

COVID has been really hard on the education sector. There has been pressure put on superintendents around the country. When former Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson’s contract came up for renewal, she said “no, thank you,” and that’s not unique among superintendents. Education leaders are exhausted from the challenges of the pandemic.

We are welcoming folks who want to continue transforming an urban district full of great culture, food, and community. Our board is with you. We’re for innovation and we’re ready for bold leadership. We’re trying to be thoughtful at every step of the hiring process. For our students and families, the most important thing is to get this right.

OCTOBER 10, 2921 - Duane "Yellow Feather" Shepard stands at the top of a narrow park that slopes downward toward a lifeguard training center and panoramic views of the Pacific coast.

"We're looking over the horizon at a beautiful, beautiful ocean," Shepard says. "It's blue, serene — it's quiet. It's just a gorgeous, gorgeous view."

For Shepard, this oceanfront park known as Bruce's Beach — located in Manhattan Beach, Calif., just south of Los Angeles — holds a painful history. "This is the land that our family used to own," he says.

Shepard's ancestors, an African American couple named Charles and Willa Bruce, owned this land a century ago. The couple built a beachfront resort called Bruce's Beach Lodge in 1912 and welcomed Black beachgoers with a restaurant, a dance hall, and changing tents with bathing suits for rent.

But the Bruces were run out of Manhattan Beach and forced to shut down their successful resort. Their property was seized by the city, and they lost their fortune. For years, the land was owned by the county of Los Angeles — until last month, when California passed a law that allowed the property to be transferred back to the couple's descendants.

The historic Bruce's Beach case is inspiring social justice leaders and reparations activists to fight for other Black families whose ancestors were also victims of land theft in the United States.

Shepard, a cousin of the direct descendant of Charles and Willa Bruce, says Bruce's Beach offered a refuge for Black patrons during the Jim Crowe era.

"There weren't many areas where Black people could get into the water along the entire coast of California at that time," Shepard, 70, tells NPR. He's a clan chief of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation.

"[Bruce's Beach] was a place where people could have social functions," he says. "You had Black entertainers, actors and actresses, jazz artists, Black politicians as well as business owners and socialites."

However, some white residents of Manhattan Beach feared an "invasion" by the African American community, according to local historian Robert L. Brigham's 1956 Fresno State master's thesis Land Ownership and Occupancy by Negroes In Manhattan Beach, California. White residents set up barricades to keep Black beachgoers from getting to the ocean, and the Ku Klux Klan, active along the California coast, reportedly planned attacks against the Bruce's resort.

"They slashed tires, they burned mattresses under the porch of the resort, they tried to blow up a gas meter of one of the residents here," Shepard says. "They had 24/7 phone campaigns and made threats against Willa and her family."

In November 1923, a white realtor named George H. Lindsey approached Manhattan Beach's Board of Trustees with an option to condemn Bruce's Beach through the Park and Playground Act of 1909, according to an April 13, 2021 report by the Bruce's Beach Task Force, a resident-led task force appointed by the Manhattan Beach city council last year.

By 1924, Manhattan Beach city officials invoked eminent domain, claiming the city would build a public park over 30 lots, including the Bruces' land and four other lots owned by African American families.

Bruce's Beach resort was shuttered and demolished, and the property sat vacant for decades. Willa and Charles Bruce requested $120,000 for both damages and the value of their property, but the city granted them $14,500.

Today, the two parcels of land are worth an estimated $75 million.

On Sept. 30, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 796, authorizing the county to transfer the land back to the Bruce family after nearly 100 years.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to begin the process of transferring the land. That process will also include confirming the Bruce's rightful heirs.

"Today, we're making history," Newsom said at the ceremony held on Bruce's Beach. "I'm proud to be here, not just for the descendants of the Bruce family, but for all of those families torn asunder because of racism."

Bruce's Beach stands as just one example of land theft that's taken place across the United States through violence, intimidation and legal maneuvers. For generations, Black landowners like Willa and Charles Bruce have been victimized by eminent domain abuse and unjust property laws.

"One of the reasons why the Bruce's case has been generating so much attention is because it represents the first instance in the history of the United States where an African American family or community that had their property taken unjustly, ended up having it returned," says Thomas W. Mitchell, a property law scholar at Texas A&M University. He's worked to reform discriminatory policies that have stripped African Americans of their land.

Mitchell is part of a research team called the Land Loss and Reparations Research Project, which is trying to put an economic value on agricultural land unjustly taken from Black farmers over the last hundred years.

"Our research team has come up with a preliminary estimate of $300 billion," Mitchell says, noting that it only accounts for the farm land itself. "We're also going further and saying that as a result of losing this land, we lost the ability to benefit from the land ownership in terms of families getting loans to send their children to college, which then has a negative impact on economic mobility — and that's just Black farmers."

Mitchell estimates the total loss of generational wealth for Black Americans across the U.S. falls into the trillions.

But families such as the Bruces whose property was taken generations ago don't have legal recourse to get their land back, Mitchell says. Statutes of limitation restrictions prevent families from successfully filing lawsuits.

Mitchell points to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 in Tulsa, Okla., when white mobs tried to destroy what was known as Black Wall Street.

"Yes, there was a state commission. Yes, it did do a detailed report. Yes, that detailed report documented tremendous and horrible abuses and killings and burning of businesses and taking of property," he says. "But it didn't lead to one penny — it didn't lead to a single property being returned."

Bruce's Beach had a different outcome because the government actually stepped in to make amends for a historical wrong. The California legislature passed a law allowing for the land to be given back to the Bruce family, making it a unique case.

"Is the Bruce's Beach case a recognition that the time has come for real racial justice in this country?" Mitchell asks. "Can this serve as a template for providing effective redress to other African American families who have had their property taken unjustly? We'll see."

During the signing ceremony in Manhattan Beach, Newsom recognized activist Kavon Ward as the driving force behind the Bruce's Beach movement. Advocating for the Bruce family led to the founding of her organization called Where Is My Land, dedicated to helping Black Americans reclaim stolen land and secure restitution.

"I informed the [Bruce] family that I would do anything in my power to help them," Ward, 39, tells NPR. "Not only to get restitution for their loss of civil rights — their loss of business enterprise, but for me, I felt like justice was getting their land back."

At about the same time on the opposite coast, in Philadelphia, Pa., 43-year-old Ashanti Martin was on a similar mission. The two were introduced through a mutual friend — and together, Ward and Martin co-founded Where Is My Land. Both say they were compelled to take action after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.

"I read about George Floyd's ancestor Hillery Thomas Stewart who back in the late 1800s had owned 500 acres of land in North Carolina, and that land was stolen by white farmers," Martin says. "I think there's no question, had George Floyd's ancestors kept that land in their family, his life outcomes would have transformed."

Through their organization, Martin and Ward are fielding dozens more requests from African American families across the U.S., hoping to reclaim their land.

"I don't think that we can handle all of this within my lifetime," Ward says. "It took a long time for the land to be stolen — it didn't happen overnight. And so getting it back is going to take even longer because there's so many obstacles and road blocks in the way. And so the only thing we can do is to make sure we're dealing with this, one family at a time."

As for the Bruce family, they say they won't move to Manhattan Beach or build on the land that's now being returned to them. Instead, they'll rent the lifeguard training center back to the County of Los Angeles.

Shepard, their descendent, says reclaiming Bruce's Beach was just the first step. Now, he says his family will continue their fight for restitution for the loss of revenue over the past 97 years.

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