Editor

NAACP New Bedford Branch commends the nomination of the nation’s first Black woman Supreme Court justice

The NAACP New Bedford Branch commends the nomination of DC-native Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and fully agrees with a statement by the NAACP DC Branch, the city where the first Black woman nominee for the Supreme Court was born. For two and a half centuries and through 115 Supreme Court justices, only three have been people of color and only five have been women. President Biden's appointment of Judge Jackson is not only a promise kept but a wise choice since, as the DC Branch points out, so many issues directly impact Black families and women. It's...

Reckoning with race and history: Dartmouth edition

[caption id="attachment_2328" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Maulian Dana speaking at Skowhegan, Maine school board meeting, March 8, 2019. Photo by Amelia Tuplin, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.[/caption] Like so much in America that is touched by race, a reckoning with the Dartmouth High School mascot has been simmering for years. Maine, Oregon and Washington state have all banned Native American school mascots. And here in Massachusetts -- even after Pentucket, Groveland, Merrimac, West Newbury, Athol, Barnstable, Nashoba, Hanover, Winchester, Grafton, Brookfield, Taconic High, Braintree, Walpole, and Pittsfield abandoned theirs -- many in the Town of Dartmouth insist on defending their "Indian" mascot...

Community

YWCA Board Leadership Training

The YWCA Southeastern Massachusetts is starting to recruit for their next board leadership class. Enrollment is focused on diverse communities: BIPOC, LGBTQ+, under 30, cultural backgrounds and levels of ability who have not yet served on a Board of Directors. A FREE SIX-PART SERIES Open to all who have never served on a board and are interested to learn more! Virtual Workshop Series Happening the first and third Tuesday of the month on Zoom 5:30pm-7:00pm April 5, 2022 Workshop -- Board Expectations 101 April 19, 2022 Workshop - Financial Oversight/Fiscal Responsibility May 3, 2022 Workshop - Development and Fundraising May...

Summer pause

The NAACP New Bedford branch will be on Summer break from July 1st through August 31st. No branch or executive committee meetings will take place over the Summer, although committee meetings may be called as chairs deem necessary.

Dartmouth, it’s time to retire the mascot and logo

[caption id="attachment_2328" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Maulian Dana speaking at Skowhegan, Maine school board meeting, March 8, 2019. Photo by Amelia Tuplin, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.[/caption] With the author's permission, this post combines two separate articles in the Dartmouth High Spectrum written by Assistant Editor Avary Amaral. Ms. Amaral is also a member of the NAACP New Bedford Youth Council. The views in this essay are Ms. Amaral's alone and do not represent those of the DHS Spectrum. Introduction This past year, despite COVID, multiple active shooters across the country, Asian hate, and the death of 212 people by police issued...

Reading Douglass Together

The New Bedford Historical Society is hosting a reading of Frederick Douglass' powerful speech, "What, to the slave, is your Fourth of July?" The reading will take place on July 1st from 6-8pm at the Seamen's Bethel at 15 Johnny Cake Hill. If you would like to join the reading, contact the Historical Society at 508-979-8828 or email info@historicalsociety.org. The text of Douglass' speech follows the flyer. On July 5,1852, Frederick Douglass delivered the following speech in Rochester, New York. It is a fiery reproach of American independence — "your 4th of July" not "ours" — demanding that White America...

NAACP

American book-burners

1933 - a member of the SA throws confiscated books into the bonfire during the public burning of "un-German" books on the Opernplatz in Berlin. The New England Area Conference of the NAACP (NEAC) is alarmed by recent attempts to censor the teaching of American history and punish those who teach it. Whitewashing history, pushing a revisionist national-patriotic curriculum that refuses to acknowledge the crimes of history, book banning, book burning, and punishing truth-tellers and teachers — the world has seen this too many times before. NEAC issued the following statement: "Many states throughout the country with political leanings to...

Police

Too Blue

Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ) has released its new report: Too Blue: A Vision for Non-Police Responses to Community Incidents in Boston The report aims to answer two questions: What incidents do the BPD respond to; and What types of incidents could be handled more efficiently and effectively by non-police alternatives to meet community need? The Boston Police Department (BPD) is tasked with responding to a wide variety of incidents and situations, many of which fall well beyond core law enforcement responsibilities. The report divides these incidents into six broad categories, each of which represents a different type of community...

New Bedford celebrates Juneteenth

[caption id="attachment_2269" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Houston, 1880 - the first Juneteenth celebration[/caption] What is Juneteenth? Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written an excellent overview of the history of Juneteenth, first celebrated in 1880 by thirty-one people in Houston's Fourth Ward. Sometimes called "Black Independence Day," Juneteenth commemorates the belated emancipation of slaves who were freed only two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln's proclamation — an emancipation denied until federal troops actually liberated the slave state of Texas on June 19, 1865. Juneteenth is now a state holiday in Massachusetts and a contender for a future federal holiday. Juneteenth...

UIA Community Education Forum Survey

Our friends at United Interfaith Action of Southeastern MA have been conducting Education Community Forums involving the New Bedford Public Schools. If you have not done so already, please offer your feedback on the Forums and share your interest in next steps of action at the following link: Community Forum Feedback & Next Steps Form: https://forms.gle/9caCHdubcMEjbofy5 If you have not completed their Funding Survey for NBPS, please do so. Feel free to share this funding survey with other New Bedford parents, students, educators, and community members, in order to hear back from as many people as possible on how the...