Black History
The Golden Thirteen
CHICAGO CRUSADER — It was a time when America’s military branches were segregated, thanks to President Woodrow Wilson, who, during World War I, created the draft and called it “Selective Service” to encourage men to enlist and serve their country. Wilson also declared Jim Crow the law of the land, segregating the military branches, parks, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods across the country.
For 146 years, the U.S. Navy had no Black officers until 13 Black men — many from Chicago — endured the pain and humiliation of segregation to blaze the trail for thousands of Black sailors. On the 75th anniversary of their historic achievement on a naval base, they remain forgotten, unsung heroes who served a country that gave them little respect.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was first published in the Chicago Crusader on May 25, 2019
Spring was settling in Chicago in March 1944. In Waukegan, some 41 miles north of the city, a historic event broke a racial barrier that had existed for 146 years in the U.S. Navy. Thirteen Black sailors successfully navigated through the pain and humiliation of racism and segregation to become the first Black commissioned officers in the Navy. They eventually became known as the “Golden Thirteen.”
In their crisp naval uniforms, they turned heads, erased doubts, and sparked a movement that angered many whites. On top of the world, they served a country that still hated them as they blazed the trail for thousands of future sailors of color. On the 75th anniversary of their historic achievement, they remain unsung, forgotten heroes whose achievement changed the Navy and countless lives of Blacks forever.
This Memorial Day weekend, thousands will attend parades and ceremonies to remember and honor the lives of the men and women who sacrificed and served their country. Few will remember the contributions of a group of Blacks who fought their own country for the right to serve their homeland with the same respect and dignity as anyone else.
It was a time when America’s military branches were segregated, thanks to President Woodrow Wilson, who, during World War I, created the draft and called it “Selective Service” to encourage men to enlist and serve their country. Wilson also declared Jim Crow the law of the land, segregating the military branches, parks, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods across the country. During Wilson’s presidency in 1915, “Birth of a Nation,” a movie that had been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes of Black men, was shown in the White House’s East Room.
The twelve commissioned officers, and a warrant officer who received his rank at the same time, came to be known as the “Golden Thirteen”. March 17, 1944 photo Top row: John Walter Reagan, Jesse Walter Arbor, Dalton Louis Baugh, Frank Ellis Sublett. Middle row: Graham Edward Martin, Charles Byrd Lear, Phillip George Barnes, Reginald E. Goodwin. Bottom row: James Edward Hair, Samuel Edward Barnes, George Clinton Cooper, William Sylvester White, Dennis Denmark Nelson. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy).
Under the Wilson administration, very few Black people served in the Navy. In August 1919, the Navy stopped enlisting Blacks, according to author Paul Stillwell’s “The Golden Thirteen: Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers.” By 1932, Blacks made up only .55 percent of the enlisted force in the Navy, according to Stillwell.
Most Black sailors who served in the Navy were messmen, entry-level positions that involved cleaning busy kitchens and eating areas, which were often hard to keep clean. Messmen also served as waiters and were responsible for maintaining a sufficient supply of clean linen and utensils for chefs. It was a job that kept them on their feet constantly, but gave them little respect among white sailors.
Then-Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was opposed to allowing Black and white sailors to train and live together while they served their country.
Knox was also opposed to having Black officers.
The Navy held firm to not allowing Black sailors into ratings other than messmen. They feared that if Blacks advanced to officer status, they would not be strong leaders over their subordinate white sailors. Blacks who had risen to chief steward still had no authority over lower-rated enlisted white men in the general services.
In the 1930s, Congress appointed two Black civilians as midshipmen to the prestigious U.S. Naval Academy, but white officers at Annapolis soon encouraged them to seek careers in other fields.
In 1941, a committee established to investigate opportunities for Blacks in the Marine Corps concluded that no changes were needed regarding race.
Things began to change when the NAACP and other outside organizations pressured President Franklin D. Roosevelt to expand opportunities for Black sailors in the Navy. In January 1942, Roosevelt began pressuring Knox to place Black sailors in positions higher than messmen. On April 7, 1942, the Navy agreed to begin accepting Blacks for general service on June 1 of that year. These new recruits were still not allowed to serve on ships, but only in small defense crafts. Many Blacks would continue to serve as messmen.
On July 1, 1943, the Navy created the V-12 program to beef up its officer training for wartime service. The college-oriented program combined education with officer training. There was a push to include Black people in the program, but Knox resisted. In late March that year, President Roosevelt directed Knox to include Black students in testing for the V-12 program.
It was a change in Navy policy that was kept extremely low-key. There were no publicity campaigns or newspaper advertisements, leaving many organizations unaware of the historic change. A number of Blacks had excellent scores and were admitted. In November, Samuel Gravely, Jr. was among the V-12 graduates, later becoming the Navy’s first Black admiral in 1971.
The Golden Thirteen came about when Civil Rights pioneer, Mary McLeod Bethune, convinced President Roosevelt to have Black officers in the Navy, according to Captain Roosevelt “Rick” Wright, a Navy historian who served 22 years in the military, including the Army and the Navy. He serves on the board of directors at the National Naval Officers Association, an organization of Black members who have served in the Navy and U.S. Coast Guard.
Sixteen Blacks were chosen for V-12 training. Navy officials picked extra men to reach the desired total of 12. Several of the 16 men had college degrees and were lawyers, athletes, and teachers.
Many of those chosen were either born or raised in Chicago, including: Jesse Arbor, who worked as a Pullman car porter and as doorman at the defunct Chicago Beach Hotel in Hyde Park; Reginald Goodwin, who became a successful attorney after he retired from the Navy; John W. Reagan, who graduated from Lindblom High School in Englewood; Frank E. Sublett Jr., who grew up in suburban Highland Park and Glencoe on Chicago’s North Shore; Lewis Williams, a social worker; and William White, a U.S. judge who graduated from Hyde Park High School and earned both a bachelors and a law degree from the University of Chicago by 1937.
Other Golden Thirteen members included: James E. Hare, Samuel E. Barnes, George C. Cooper, Dennis Nelson, Warrant Officer Charles Lear, Phillip G. Barnes, and Dalton Baugh.
There is little information available about the lives of many members of the Golden Thirteen. The Navy has photos and some data, but there is no data available at the U.S. Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
For this story, the Crusader relied on information from Stillwell’s book, which was written with the help of James E. Hare, Jr., the son of one of the members of the Golden Thirteen. The book, published in 1993, includes the stories of eight of the Black naval officers, who give rare insights to their experiences before and after their historic achievement.
In January 1944, the men began their training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Waukegan, IL. They were confined to the all-Black training facility Camp Robert Smalls, named after an escaped slave from South Carolina who had been a hero in the Navy during the Civil War. The 16 Black recruits trained under Commander Daniel Armstrong, whose father founded the HBCU Hampton University in Hampton, VA.
For the next three months, the men would spend long hours studying navigation, gunnery, aircraft recognition, naval history, Morse code and survival techniques. In Stillwell’s book, Samuel Barnes said during training the men forged a strong bond.
“At an early meeting, while discussing our studies, we decided that whatever knowledge any one of us had on a given topic would be shared with everyone else. We decided not to compete with other members of the group, so we had many study sessions together. We were determined to succeed in spite of the burdens that would be placed on us. We knew that we were the foot in the door for many other Black sailors, and we were determined not to be the ones who were responsible for having the foot removed.”
There were some intense moments. One Black sailor had vitiligo, a skin disease in Blacks that causes patches of skin with no pigmentation. During a strip down, a group of white sailors laughed and picked at a Black sailor whose genitals were half-white and half-black. To break the tension in the room, the officer candidate made light of the situation by saying he was raised in a white neighborhood. The Black sailors remained angry, but went back to work without retaliating.
“We were under a lot of pressure during training,” Hare told Stillwell. “We were cooped up in that barracks (sic) almost all the time, and we knew we had to make it. Our goal in this class took precedence over Jim Crowism, racism and harassment, and insults. We had to operate as controlled individuals. We would get many, many insults.”
All 16 recruits passed the training, but only 13 were commissioned as officers. There were no formal graduation ceremonies because Navy officials wanted to keep the achievement low-key to avoid publicity that would attract more Black recruits.
Twelve Black recruits were commissioned as ensigns, an officer who ranks below a lieutenant and higher than a chief warrant officer. Lear was commissioned as a warrant officer. The three other trainees who did not make it pursued other careers. The class grade-point average during graduation was 3.89.
“To this day, those guys had the highest grade-point average than any graduation class of any officers in Great Lakes,” said Captain Wright.
According to Stillwell, some 2.5 million men were serving the Navy that month. About 100,000 sailors and recruits flooded the Great Lakes base, and over 3,000 officers were commissioned in the first six months of 1944 alone. Those figures made the achievement of just 13 Black naval officers extraordinary.
Great Lakes Navy Station. More than one month after they were commissioned, Knox—the Secretary of the Navy who had fought long against integrating his ranks—died after a string of heart attacks.
After they were commissioned as naval officers, the men went to a tailor in Chicago to be fitted for their uniforms. Dennis Nelson, the most flamboyant member of the group, bought the optional naval officer cape. The group then went to the Palmer House Hotel in the Loop and had “dinner with all the trimmings,” as Reagan described it. Nelson pulled out a cigar and asked a white lady nearby if he could smoke.
She said, “I don’t give a damn if you burn.”
After they were commissioned, the 13 men were known as those “Negro naval officers” or later, as “those Black naval officers.” They had no identity until the 1970s when a Captain Edward Secrest learned about the group and coined the term, “Golden Thirteen.” They angered many with their skin color, but their status as naval officers made white sailors and civilians hate them even more.
During training, the men weren’t allowed inside the elite Great Lakes Naval Club—the social gathering place for white officers—despite their status. When Samuel Barnes entered the Naval Club in Okinawa, Japan—months after he was commissioned—nearly all the white officers got up and walked out.
The Black naval officers were never assigned on ships, like their white counterparts. Initially, they were forced to follow white officers of the same rank all day, while acting as junior officers.
On the streets and trains in Chicago, whites often stopped and stared at them. Most had never seen a Black man in a naval officer’s uniform. Since 1798, the Navy had never had a full, active duty, Black naval officer.
Graham Martin told Stillwell that while he was on a naval base after he was commissioned, a white sailor did not salute him when he walked by. He called the sailor and asked why he did not salute an officer. The sailor did not answer. Martin took off his hat and held it out in front of him and said, “Now, salute the insignia of the United States Navy.”
The white sailor saluted and said smartly, “But you do understand that I’m not saluting you.”
In Newport News, VA, a passerby approached George Cooper, his wife and daughter on the street and said, “You Black son of a bitch, I read about you guys, but I never thought I’d meet one.”
In Oxnard, CA, Reagan called the naval base after a waiter in a restaurant wanted to seat him in the back, near the kitchen. A white officer showed up and reminded the establishment how much business it received from the naval base nearby. Reagan got the seat he wanted.
None of the members of the Golden Thirteen made a career in the Navy. They were briefly together in 1944, but went their separate ways on assignments after they became naval officers.
For the next several decades, they would come back and reminisce during reunions sponsored by the Navy. All 13 members of the Golden Thirteen are gone. The last surviving member, Frank E. Sublett, died in 2006.
“Their incredible leadership and commission in the Navy laid the foundation that produced admirals, officers and other leaders in the military,” Captain Wright said.
Since 1994, thousands of Blacks have made gains while serving in the Navy. In 1949, Wesley A. Brown became the first Black graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. William Goines became the first Black Navy Seal, a military team created by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
Samuel L. Gravely Jr. was promoted to rear admiral in July 1971, making him the first African American to reach flag officer rank of admiral. In 1996, Admiral J. Paul Reason became the Navy’s first African-American four-star admiral on November 15, 1996. Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne became the first African-American woman Navy flag officer in February 1998. There are at least 115 African-American male captains and 22 female captains. On the enlisted side, there are 268 male master chiefs and 15 female master chiefs.
In 1987, Recruit Training Command cut the ribbon for the “Golden Thirteen” Recruit Inprocessing Center. A plaque that bears the name of all 13 members remains on the building. The facility is the location where recruits experience their first “Night of Arrival,” after they report to boot camp. Here, they receive their initial issue of uniform items, haircuts and begin the civilian to Sailor transformation process.
Runzel said there are some programs that honor the memory of the Golden Thirteen, but said there will be no ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the historic achievement of the group.
Based on reporting by Chicago Crusader.
Art
Houston’s ‘call Me Mother’ Exhibit Opens Today, Spotlighting Black Maternal Health
AFRICAN-AMERICAN NEWS AND ISSUES – DALLAS — The Health Museum in Houston today opens “The Call Me Mother Experience,” an exhibition spotlighting Black maternal health through art and personal storytelling. Curated by Houston’s first Black poet laureate, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, the project originated from her own poem written during a miscarriage.
HOUSTON — A new exhibition opening Sunday, Oct. 4, at The Health Museum is bringing Black maternal health into public view through art and personal storytelling.
The Call Me Mother Experience will be on display through Feb. 28, 2027. The museum lists a preview reception today from 3 to 5 p.m. at 1515 Hermann Drive, with tickets priced at $5 for members and $15 for nonmembers.
A personal story becomes a community conversation
According to the museum, founder, curator and lead artist Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton developed the project from a poem she wrote during a miscarriage. The installation combines films, recorded interviews, visual artwork and contributions created with community members.
Mouton, Houston’s first Black poet laureate, discussed the exhibition and her connection to its subject in an Oct. 1 appearance on KPRC’s Houston Life. The station described the project as addressing the unequal burden of pregnancy-related illness and death faced by Black women in Harris County.
An announcement distributed by the Call Me Mother Experience says the initiative will also reach community locations and faith-based organizations across Greater Houston. Those additional settings are intended to extend the conversation beyond a museum visit.
What visitors can expect
The museum says reception guests can explore the exhibit, hear the curator and meet participating artists. Reception admission includes general museum entry; refreshments are available while supplies last.
The featured image accompanying this article is an original illustrative concept, not a photograph of the exhibition or its artwork.
Sources and visitor information:The Health Museum exhibition listing; preview reception details and tickets; KPRC Houston Life; organizer announcement.
The post Houston’s ‘Call Me Mother’ Exhibit Opens Today, Spotlighting Black Maternal Health appeared first on African American News and Issues.
Based on reporting by African-American News and Issues – Dallas.
Black History
Morehouse School of Medicine Fall Convocation Has Strong Ties to Nashville
TENNESSEE TRIBUNE — Morehouse School of Medicine recently held its 42nd Fall Convocation and White Coat and Pinning Ceremony, which highlighted strong connections to Nashville. Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, in her 12th year as president and CEO, leads the institution, which welcomed 355 new students.
Morehouse School of Medicine held its 42nd Fall Convocation and White Coat and Pinning Ceremony on September 18, and it featured strong ties to Nashville. Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice is completing her 12th year as president and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). The school boasts 355 students seeking degrees and certificates in the medical field.
“This entering class represents the future of medicine, science, public health and health care leadership,” said Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, and FACOG. “As these students begin their journeys at Morehouse School of Medicine, they join a community grounded in excellence, service and our shared commitment to advancing health equity. We look forward to supporting their development as leaders who will transform the health and well-being of the communities they serve.”
Infectious diseases physician and scientist Dr. Barney S. Graham, MD, and PhD, served as the keynote speaker. He serves as the director of the David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute, professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Biochemistry and Immunology at Morehouse School of Medicine. He is an inventor of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies approved for human use to prevent or treat RSV, COVID-19 and Ebola. He joined MSM in 2022. He served in various positions at Vanderbilt University for 21 years.
Dr. Graham told the audience to “Embrace the Unseen” and focused on three points: Do the Best You can with what’s in front of you, Do what makes you come alive and Do the right thing even when no one is looking. He added, “Anything you do to improve mental and physical wellness and promote disease prevention will reduce health disparity by reducing the resources needed for treatment.”
His remarks commanded a roaring applause from the audience, which included his wife, Dr. Cynthia Turner Graham, and the former First Lady of Tennessee State University, Mrs. Edwina Hefner, a close friend to the family.
Based on reporting by Tennessee Tribune.
Black History
Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publishes Global Circle’s Vatican Reparations Call in Special Edition Alongside Heads of State
GLOBAL CIRCLE FOR REPARATIONS AND HEALING — Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing’s submission, “From Accra to the Vatican,” in a special edition of The Ghanaian Envoy. This marks the first time a sovereign state has incorporated the Reparations Presentment to the Holy See into its official record. The 175-page edition, titled “Creating A New World,” also documents Ghana’s campaign that led to UN Resolution A/RES/80/250, which recognized the trafficking and enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
“From Accra to the Vatican” appears in The Ghanaian Envoy Special Edition on UN Resolution A/RES/80/250 — the first time a sovereign state has carried the Reparations Presentment to the Holy See into its official record
ACCRA, Ghana / CHICAGO, Illinois — October 7, 2026 — The Global Circle for Reparations and Healing today announced that its submission to Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “From Accra to the Vatican: A Call for a Global Plan of Action on Catholic Church Redress”, has been published in the Special Edition of The Ghanaian Envoy, the official newsletter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ghana. The 175-page edition, titled “Creating A New World,” documents the Ghana-led campaign that culminated on March 25, 2026, in United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/80/250, which declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialized chattel enslavement of Africans the gravest crime against humanity.
The Global Circle’s submission, authored by Co-Convener Kamm Howard, appears in Part V of the edition, “What Repair Must Now Mean,” at page 161. It shares the volume with statements by President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr. of Liberia, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of Namibia, President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye of Senegal, President Carlos Manuel Vila Nova of São Tomé and Príncipe, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, African Union Commissioner Amma Twum-Amoah, CARICOM Reparations Commission Chair Sir Hilary Beckles, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Dr. Julius Garvey, and Congressional Black Caucus Executive Director Vincent Evans, among others.
The submission traces the Global Circle’s delivery of the Reparations Presentment to the Holy See in Vatican City on July 18, 2022, the document’s subsequent use by the former Vice President of Costa Rica and the Vice President of Colombia in their engagements with Pope Francis, and the partial response contained in Pope Leo XIV’s May 2026 encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. It argues that while three of the Presentment’s seven demands have entered the Church’s official language in diluted form, four remain wholly unmet: rescission of the papal bulls that authorized African enslavement, the Church’s call upon other offending Western nations to make redress, the establishment of a joint Vatican–African Diaspora–African Papal Commission on Reparations and Healing, and a substantial financial commitment to repair. The submission asks Ghana to adopt the Presentment as the reference instrument for a Vatican track within the Accra Next Steps Commitments and to convene a first meeting of Global African reparationists toward a collective response.
“For four years the Presentment has been a civil society document carried by civil society hands,” said Kamm Howard, Co-Convener of the Global Circle and Commissioner of the National African American Reparations Commission. “Ghana has now placed it in the official record of a sovereign state, in a volume that opens with a President’s address to the General Assembly and closes by asking what repair must mean. That is not a courtesy. It is a signal to every government, every reparations commission, and every African Catholic that the claim against the Holy See belongs on the state agenda, and that the state which broke the deadlock at the United Nations is prepared to see it there.”
The significance of the publication extends beyond the Vatican file. The Presentment was created as a legal claims instrument by Howard in 2014 and first delivered to corporations and institutions in the United States, where it secured significant concessions. Its appearance in a foreign ministry’s official publication, translated and distributed in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, establishes the reparations presentment as a recognized instrument of international reparatory diplomacy, one that other states and descendant communities can adopt without drafting a new framework of their own. The Global Circle has described this catalytic potential as the “N’namba Effect,” after the Evanston, Illinois, reparations initiative – led by N’nanba Robin Rue Simmons – that gave municipalities across the United States the model, permission, and courage to act.
“The Vatican told us in 2022 that it moves in fifteen-year increments,” Howard added. “Ghana has just demonstrated at the United Nations that a determined state can compress that timeline to a single vote. We are asking Ghana to do for the Church what it did for the General Assembly, and we are asking Global Africa to organize behind that ask with one document, one voice, and one set of demands.”
The Global Circle has written to President Mahama and Foreign Minister Ablakwa to express its gratitude and to propose that its Vatican and Interreligious Actors Working Group lead the first meeting on a collective Vatican response under the auspices of the Government of Ghana. The Global Circle has also formally advised the Congressional Black Caucus of the publication in connection with its pending request that the Caucus recognize the Presentment as the foundational document for reparations engagement with the Roman Catholic Church and join the Government of Ghana in this global call to action.
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About the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing
The Global Circle for Reparations and Healing was convened in 2022 to help build united global reparations front across Africa and its worldwide diaspora. In July 2022 the Global Circle delivered the Reparations Presentment to the Holy See in Vatican City. It co-organized Accra Summit I in August 2022 with the Government of Ghana and the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund, and led the organization of Accra Summit II: Centering Healing Across Global Africa in March 2025 in partnership with the African Union. The Reparations Presentment to the Holy See is available in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish at gcrh.org.
Media Contact
Global Circle for Reparations and Healing
Kamm Howard, Co-Convenor
[email protected] 773 520 0369
gcrh.org
Black History
Annika Ashton First Black Woman and Jamaican Broward County Attorney
SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES — Annika E. Ashton is the new Broward County Attorney, becoming the first Black woman and Jamaican American to hold the position. Ashton, 42, was sworn in last month, replacing Andrew Meyers who retired after eight years.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Annika E. Ashton is the new Broward County Attorney, becoming the first Black woman and Jamaican American to assume the role.
Ashton, 42, was sworn in last month to replace Andrew Meyers who retired after eight years at the helm.
The Broward County Commission unanimously appointed Ashton, who was the Deputy Broward County attorney, in April 2026 and she took over on September 10, 2026 the official last day of Meyers’ tenure.
She will oversee more than 50 attorneys and a support staff.
Ashton’s appointment reflects overcoming racial and gender barriers to become the chief legal advisor for the county.
The Coral Springs resident thanked the commission and Broward County legal department for their support.
“I’m very excited to work with a really great office of people and have the support of the Broward County Commission,” Ashton said.
Broward County Commissioner Nan Rich called Ashton “the most qualified person to lead the County Attorney’s Office,” noting the county attorney position is one of only three the board is responsible for appointing
Ashton has worked for Broward County since 2014, starting as an assistant county attorney and rose to senior assistant county attorney before becoming deputy county attorney in 2019.
She graduated from Princeton University and Columbia Law School and clerked for the Hon. Adalberto Jordan on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Ashton’s county work has included litigating federal court cases, drafting ordinances and contributing to the $1 billion expansion of the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale.
She previously did private practice in New York and Miami.
According to her bio, Ashton was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica and raised with deepy family roots in Clarendon, particularly Palmer Cross.
She migrated to the U.S. and graduated from Ft. Lauderdale Boyd Anderson High School, earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and law degree from Columbia Law School.
As the new chief attorney for Broward County, Ashton will provide legal counsel for commissioners and administrators, represent the county in litigation, drafting legal documents including preparing ordinances, government contracts and oversight of zoning issues.
Ashton will also advise commissioners on legal aspects of county projects, developments and public services, including environmental, transportation, and consumer protection issues in Broward County.
She is also a Past President of the Caribbean Bar Association.
Ashton credits her Jamaican upbringing for a stellar legal career.
She said women leadership in Jamaica helped her thrive, studying successful women in business and public service, as well as community figures like Cathy Levy, founder of the iconic Little People and Teen Players Club, who has been a stalwart of youth arts education in Jamaica for decades.
These early influences, along with the cultural ethos of resilience captured in the popular Jamaican refrain, “Wi likkle but wi tallawah,” she notes, helped shape her ambition and belief that she could make a meaningful impact on the world around her.
The post Annika Ashton first Black woman and Jamaican Broward County Attorney appeared first on South Florida Times.
Based on reporting by South Florida Times.
Black History
Cuts and Conversations Turns Barber Chairs into Space for Lifesaving Dialogue
ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY – THE HORNET TRIBUNE — Alabama State University recently hosted “Cuts and Conversations,” an event that transformed barber chairs into a venue for vital dialogue about prostate cancer, a disease disproportionately affecting Black men.
The sound of clippers buzzed with a different kind of conversation Monday at 11 a.m. as Alabama State University students and staff listened to barbers, cancer survivors and health professionals discuss a disease that disproportionately affects Black men.
Cuts and Conversations, held Sept. 28 in the John Garrick Hardy Center Ballroom, used free haircuts and the familiarity of the barbershop to open conversations about prostate cancer, early detection, family history and men’s health.
Tanjula Petty, Ed.D., vice president for Institutional Effectiveness, Strategic Initiatives and Transformation, and Willie S. Rockward, Ph.D., dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, opened the forum and welcomed those in attendance.
For Petty, the message came from experience.
“I’m not just speaking to you based on research,” she said. “I’m talking to you from a place of experience.”
Petty said she exercised regularly, ate well and considered herself healthy when a doctor told her she had cancer. She challenged students to take what they learned back to their fathers, grandfathers and uncles.
“It’s not all about genetics; you may be the first in your family to experience it,” Petty said. “People ask me all the time, ‘Who in your family was diagnosed?’ Nobody. I’m the first.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black men are more likely to develop prostate cancer than other men and are more than twice as likely to die from the disease. The American Cancer Society recommends that Black men begin discussing prostate cancer screening with a health care provider at age 45 or at 40 for men at higher risk because of family history.
Three prostate cancer survivors were recognized during the event: Andy Maxwell, Leroy Huffman and Dandrea Evans Sr. Evans and Huffman shared their experiences with those in attendance.
Evans was 44 when a routine doctor’s visit led to his prostate cancer diagnosis. He had no symptoms.
“Initially it was the worst news you could ever hear because I didn’t feel like I had cancer. I felt great,” he said.
Evans said he turned to his faith and made the decision “to trust God through the process and to live.” Four years later, he said he is cancer-free.
“The more you know, the more you’ll be prepared to deal with it and understand it a little bit better,” Evans said.
The five-year survival rate is greater than 99% for prostate cancer diagnosed at a localized or regional stage, according to the American Cancer Society. That rate falls to 38% when the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.
Huffman has worked at Heritage Barber & Style Shop for about 26 years, has cut hair for 63 years.
“Awareness about prostate cancer is the best thing that Black men should do,” Huffman said.
His advice was simple.
“Age is not the key here. Life is,” Huffman said.
Dawna Nelson, Ph.D., an associate professor of social work, licensed master social worker, and principal investigator for the Cuts and Conversations research project, said the project grew from years of community health work and conversations with Heritage about the role barbershops already play in Black communities. When funding became available, the partnership trained barbers to speak with clients about prostate cancer, early detection, and family history.
Heritage owner Vladimir “Boo Man” Averett said the shop wanted to be part of that work, particularly because of Huffman’s experience.
“He gives conversation all the time to us younger barbers as well as our clients about get checked, get checked, get checked,” Averett said.
For Averett, the message comes down to five words.
“It’s not about wealth. It’s about health,” Averett said.
The partnership extended to student barbers.
Brittany Hollins, planning and evaluation specialist in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Strategic Initiatives, and Transformation, said organizers worked with Student Life and athletics to identify student barbers who were trained at Heritage to carry those conversations to their peers.
“They’re cutting hair, and they’re having these conversations,” Hollins said. “And so it’s Cuts and Conversations today.”
Hollins’ grandfather died a little more than a year ago after his prostate cancer progressed to Stage 4.
“It is not an easy task to have that loved one at home on hospice, and you are being tasked to give them that last dose of morphine, and then you realize there’s no pulse,” Hollins said.
Beyond the personal stories, the event connected students with cancer research and health resources.
Manoj K. Mishra, Ph.D., director of the university’s Cancer Research Center and professor of biology, said the center supports cancer research, trains students, and works to increase cancer awareness in the community.
Pastor Lee B. Walker Jr. and Terrance “Wolfgang” Baldwin hosted a live recording of the “Off the Cuff” podcast, continuing the discussion about prostate cancer awareness and Black men’s health.
Five Horizons Health Services, the Alabama Department of Public Health, the university’s Cancer Research Center and Health Services were represented. Five Horizons also provided free HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing.
For the students in the barber chairs, the conversations made the message immediate.
Freshman Jonathan Alexandre said events such as Cuts and Conversations can make it easier for young Black men to begin talking about their health.
Freshman Elijah Kidd, a computer engineering major from Pensacola, Florida, said cancer has already touched his family through his uncle.
“Really just cherish every moment you have, because you never know when it might end,” Kidd said.
Senior Xavier Moore, a double major in music education and music performance, said the setting allowed younger and older Black men to learn from one another.
“Your health comes first,” Moore said.
Student barber Mark Coaxum II, a biology major who plans to become a doctor, brought the message back to action.
“Knowing the probability is good, but getting tested is best, because whether you’re probable or not, you never know,” Coaxum said. “It could be you.”
Nelson said she hopes those conversations continue long after the barber chairs are gone.
“The barbershop is where these conversations start, but then the next day they’re in the gym, and then the day after that on the golf course, and in the boardroom, and most importantly, at a family dinner table amongst the father and the son,” Nelson said.
For students who may think prostate cancer is years away, Nelson left them with a reason to start talking now.
“You are a son. You are a nephew. You are a grandson,” she said. “And if you take the time to talk to your fathers and your uncles and all of the men in your life about this, you are potentially saving their life, and you’re also at the same time empowering yourself so that when your time does come, you have all the information you need to be able to make good health choices.”
Based on reporting by Alabama State University – The Hornet Tribune.
Black History
National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award Honors the Relentless Fight for Equality
TRI-STATE DEFENDER — The National Civil Rights Museum’s 35th annual Freedom Award ceremony, held on Thursday, October 1, at the Orpheum Theatre, recognized a diverse group of civil rights leaders. Honorees included Fred Gray Sr., a legal strategist who represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The honorees at the National Civil Rights Museum’s 35th annual Freedom Award ceremony held at the Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 1, reflected a changing era of civil rights leadership.
Fred Gray Sr., one of the last surviving legal strategists of the Civil Rights Movement, helped dismantle segregation in America as the lawyer who represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Gray’s pioneering legacy now rests with the generations he helped empower, including fellow award recipients Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, Nneka Ogwumike and Bakari Sellers.
Arline-Bradley, an ordained minister, public health advocate, and president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women since 2023, credits the women and civil rights legends who preceded her and built the organizations she now leads with making her work possible.
Nneka Ogwumike, WNBA champion and four-term president of the league’s players association, and Bakari Sellers, a lawyer, author, CNN political correspondent and former South Carolina legislator, represent a younger generation of human and civil rights activists. They are taking the fight into new arenas, from women’s sports and economic opportunity to voting rights, education and social justice.
Together, their stories shaped the event’s overall theme and mood, which celebrated the courage of freedom fighters of the past while embracing what civil rights leadership looks like now — and what it may become.
Before the ceremony, hundreds of guests gathered for photographs and interviews on the red carpet and hors d’oeuvres at the Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education next door to the Orpheum. Actor Larenz Tate hosted the event for the second consecutive year. Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Tamela Mann brought the audience to its feet with her performance of the hit song “Take Me to the King.” And local artist Garry Goin and the Freedom Award House Band performed a mix of R&B and liberation songs.
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Fred Gray Jr. accepted the Freedom Award on behalf of his father, civil rights attorney Fred Gray Sr., who was unable to attend the ceremony. (Gary S. Whitlow/Tri-State Defender) -
Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women, was among the honorees at the National Civil Rights Museum’s 35th annual Freedom Award. (Gary S. Whitlow/Tri-State Defender) -
Nneka Ogwumike, WNBA champion and four-term president of the league’s players association, was honored at the National Civil Rights Museum’s 35th annual Freedom Award. (Gary S. Whitlow/Tri-State Defender) -
Bakari Sellers, lawyer, author, CNN political correspondent and former South Carolina legislator, was honored at the National Civil Rights Museum’s 35th annual Freedom Award. (Gary S. Whitlow/Tri-State Defender)
Taking the stage to accept the first award was Arline-Bradley, who reflected on the legacy that shaped her path to leadership.
“This honor means more to me than you can ever imagine,” Arline-Bradley said, describing the moment as the culmination of what she believes God had in store for her.
She paid tribute to Dorothy Height, whose leadership helped secure the headquarters for the women’s advocacy nonprofit on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Arline-Bradley described the building, located on the same street as the White House, as a representation of Black women’s history, power and resilience.
“NCNW stands as the only Black and women-owned building on Pennsylvania Ave,” she continued.
During her speech, Arline-Bradley outlined what she believes it will take to achieve freedom and equality today.
“If America wants to get her healing, we’ve got to climb to the rooftop of justice,” she said.
And justice includes using Black economic power to support companies with compatible values, she continued.
Fred Gray Jr. accepted the award on behalf of his father, who was unable to attend the ceremony. Gray, who practices law alongside his father and brother, recalled his father’s decision to become a lawyer and return to Montgomery, Alabama, determined to challenge segregation.
Gray connected his father’s legal work to Memphis’ sanitation workers, whose 1968 strike became a defining moment in the city’s civil rights history. “At 95, if he was here, he would say to you, ‘I have done what I can do. The rest is up to you,’” Gray Jr. said.
Ogwumike used her acceptance speech to connect the growing visibility of women’s sports to a broader conversation about opportunity and equality.
“In this moment, there are greater and more opportunities for girls and women in sports,” Ogwumike said, pointing to the example provided by the WNBA’s professional athletes who serve as role models for young girls.
She also addressed what she described as threats to women’s rights and access, including debates surrounding Title IX, voting rights, reproductive healthcare and gender violence. “We refuse to be bullied and we refuse to be silenced and made to disappear,” Ogwumike said.
Her remarks were followed by a surprise video message from former Vice President Kamala Harris, who thanked Ogwumike for “being a fighter for the people” and congratulated the evening’s other honorees.
The final honoree, Bakari Sellers, has family ties to Memphis. His mother grew up in the city. His grandfather, the Rev. E.W. Williamson, once served as pastor of Middle Baptist Church and Olivet Baptist Church.
Sellers wrapped his remarks in light humor as he reflected on his conversations with other advocates and his own social justice journey. At one point, he paused, overcome with emotion, as he recalled visiting the National Civil Rights Museum earlier in the day and standing on the balcony where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
“The victories they won are being torn down all around us,” Sellers said.
To illustrate the cost and cruelty of social injustice, he asked the audience to imagine a 10-year-old student who might one day cure cancer but is struggling in school because of hunger.
“Somewhere we have forgotten that we come from a people of dreamers,” Sellers said. “We have forgotten the price that was paid.
“I am only 42 years old. I don’t really deserve this thing,” Sellers said. “But I will promise you this: Tomorrow I will work harder than I did yesterday.”
A video montage at the black-tie ceremony paid tribute to influential figures who died this year, including civil rights organizer Bernard Lafayette, a leader in the Nashville Movement, Freedom Rides and the Selma voting rights campaign; Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon, minister and founder of Operation PUS;, Memphis civil rights activist Clara Ester; feminist leader and journalist Gloria Steinem; and country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton.
Museum President Russ Wigginton commented ahead of the program on the generational evolution of Freedom Award honorees. He noted that earlier generations of civil rights leaders often could measure progress through changes in laws, court decisions and government policy. Marches, sit-ins and other forms of direct action helped produce the landmark legal changes achieved during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.
But today, he said, the work can be more difficult to measure because much of it involves changing hearts and minds, increasing empathy and encouraging people to understand cultural differences.
“It is a delicate balancing act that requires patience and commitment,” Wigginton said.
He added, however, the fundamental goal remains unchanged: equal rights for everyone.
Based on reporting by Tri-State Defender.
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