To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre and our meeting happens to fall on Juneteenth, we will review the history, the meaning and what one can do about bigotry in our country.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today. Sensitized to the conditions and experiences of others, only then can we make significant and lasting improvements in our society. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.
The Tulsa Massacre took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of White residents, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked Black residents and burned businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The attack, carried out on the ground and from private aircraft, destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the district – at that time the wealthiest Black community in the United States, known as "Black Wall Street". About 10,000 Black people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to $32.65 million in 2020). Many survivors left Tulsa, while Black and White residents who stayed in the city kept silent about the terror, violence, and resulting losses for decades. The massacre was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories.
Also a resolution to prevent the recall off District Attorney Gascon will be up for a vote. Here are links and the actual resolution:
Oppose the Recall of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón
WHEREAS Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón campaigned on a promise to implement sweeping reforms intended to move the District Attorney’s office away from excessive sentencing practices and other draconian policies that do not enhance public safety, beginning to correct long-standing racial and class-based inequities in the County's justice system, while decreasing the County's incarceration rates that have caused severe overcrowding of the jails, human rights abuses, and multiple lawsuits, and since his election, DA Gascón has taken immediate steps to follow through on the platform for which he was elected by a clear majority of voters, as we should expect of all elected officials;
WHEREAS Gascón's follow-through on the mandate he was given by voters to affect positive change is now being attacked by a Republican-led effort to recall him from office, which uses scare tactics to mislead voters, manipulated data ignoring the voice of many victim’s groups, exaggerations and lies misrepresenting the facts of Gascón’s policy reforms;
WHEREAS leaders of the recall effort – which subverts democracy by seeking to remove a duly elected District Attorney – claim they are seeking this recall “on behalf of crime victims”, however a recent survey from Californians for Safety and Justice reveals that a huge majority of victims of violent crime in Los Angeles County feel a harshly punitive criminal justice system failed them in their time of need and that justice system resources should be invested in rehabilitation and crime prevention, not incarceration.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley opposes the recall of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.
Author: Elise Moore, AD 46
Additional links:
LA County agrees to settle immigration suit for $14 million - ABC News (go.com)
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department settles lawsuit to make jails more accessible for disabled - ABC7 Los Angeles
L.A. County Sued Over Danger to Jail Inmates from COVID-19 | KFI AM 640 (iheart.com)
Lawsuit: LA Sheriff's Department denied Muslim inmates' religious needs (religionnews.com)
asset (lynwoodstripsearch.com)
Republicans
https://prospect.org/power/trump-mega-donor-geoff-palmer-also-la-s-controversial-developer/
