Black students in Moncton come together to share experiences, spark change
More than 100 Black students from four high schools met with education and community leaders at the Elevate: Empowering Black Youth Summit.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
New Anglican bishop believes background, experience will help in new role
Anglicans in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario have selected the first Black person to be their bishop — and the first who was born in Africa. Naboth Manzongo, 40, currently rector at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in downtown Winnipeg, was elected to be the 14th bishop of the Diocese of Rupert's Land last Saturday. He succeeds Geoffrey Woodcroft, who stepped down for health reasons. Naboth Manzongo was elected to be the 14th bishop of the Diocese of Rupert's Land on May 31. He says he hopes he can be 'an inspiration to Black youth, and to youth from other marginalized communities.' (Ryan Turner photo) Manzongo, who came to Canada from Zimbabwe seven years ago, had previously served as priest at St. Luke's Anglican Church in Dryden, Ont. He arrived at Holy Trinity in September. Manzongo, who is married with three children, will begin his new role as bishop in September. Being the first Black and African bishop is both a burden and an opportunity, in his view. 'It's a burden to be the first of anything,' he said, adding he can be an inspiration to Black youth and to youth from other marginalized communities. His immigrant experience will help him relate to other immigrants and refugees in Manitoba, he said. Manzongo acknowledged he wasn't keen on letting his name stand for bishop when it was first suggested, because he had just started his new job at Holy Trinity, and because of his young family, with children ages 11, seven and nine months. 'I never thought I would be chosen,' he said. 'But when God calls, you can't resist.' Manzongo is sorry to be leaving Holy Trinity when plans are in the works to repair the historic building and save it for future generations. 'It's a bittersweet time for Holy Trinity,' he said. 'They are happy for me, but sad for themselves.' As he looks ahead to his new role, there are a number of challenges and opportunities on his mind. 'The diocese is increasingly diverse,' he said. 'I want to be a bridge builder, to create space for dialogue between the various groups.' He also wants to keep building bridges to other faith groups. 'Too many wars have been fought over religion,' he said. 'I want to look for the values that unite us all, the glue that connects us, see what we can learn from each other.' Then there are the challenges of an aging membership and buildings that are old and costly to maintain and repair, along with financial issues. 'I have deep respect for tradition, but I want to be open to innovation,' he said of how he hopes to approach those issues. 'I want to look at the structures of the church, see what works for us today, and see what new things need to be brought to the table.' One issue that divides some Anglicans is welcoming and affirming LGBTTQ+ people. Manzongo marched in Sunday's Pride Parade. 'All are created in the image of God… I see God in every person,' he said. 'My goal is to welcome everyone, not to say who is in and who is out. As a person of colour, I can understand what it is like to be marginalized, I can empathize.' Noting that the issue also divides Anglicans in North America and Europe from many Anglicans elsewhere, Manzongo said he might be able to play a role in bridging that divide. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. 'Maybe I can be a connector… I understand both contexts, north and south, having lived in both. There are many things we in Canada don't understand about Christians in the global south, and many things they don't understand about us.' Wilson Akinwale is rector at St. Bartholomew Anglican Church and St. George's Anglican Church in Transcona and national President of Black Anglicans of Canada. He welcomes Manzongo's election. 'It shows the church is not only ready to speak about diversity, but to act, a church that is willing to practise what it preaches.' faith@ The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER John LonghurstFaith reporter John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Black Entrepreneurs and Small Business Program grants open
A new program that aims to assist Black businesspeople is now accepting applications. Manitobans who self-identify as part of the Black community are eligible to apply for the Manitoba Black Entrepreneurs and Small Business Program grants, offered by the provincial government. Applications are due on July 4. People can apply for one project grant annually, between $5,000 and $20,000, per a news release from the province. The goal of the program is to address the realities, barriers and opportunities specific to Black entrepreneurs and business owners, Jamie Moses, minister of business, mining, trade and job creation, said in the release. Grants will be awarded with focus on three main areas: training on capital acquisition; assistance with building connections to experienced professionals; and building capacity through skills development. A steering committee of representatives from the Black and business communities in partnership with the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce will administer the program. — Free Press staff
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
WWII veterans speak of sacrifice and freedom on France's D-Day battlefields, 81 years later
OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — The D-Day generation, smaller in number than ever, is back on the beaches of France where so much blood was spilled 81 years ago. World War II veterans, now mostly centenarians, have returned with the same message they fought for then: Freedom is worth defending. In what they acknowledge may be one of their last hurrahs, a group of nearly two dozen veterans who served in Europe and the Pacific is commemorating the fallen and getting rock-star treatment this week in Normandy — the first patch of mainland France that Allied forces liberated with the June 6, 1944, invasion and the greatest assembly of ships and planes the world had known. On what became known as ' Bloody Omaha ' and other gun-swept beaches where soldiers waded ashore and were cut down, their sacrifices forged bonds among Europe, the United States and Canada that endure, outlasting geopolitical shifts and the rise and fall of political leaders who blow hot and cold about the ties between nations. In Normandy, families hand down D-Day stories like heirlooms from one generation to the next. They clamor for handshakes, selfies, kisses and autographs from WWII veterans, and reward them with cries of 'Merci!' — thank you. Both the young and the very old thrive off the interactions. French schoolchildren oohed and aahed when 101-year-old Arlester Brown told them his age. The U.S. military was still segregated by race when the 18-year-old was drafted in 1942. Like most Black soldiers, Brown wasn't assigned a combat role and served in a laundry unit that accompanied the Allied advances through France and the Low Countries and into Nazi Germany. Jack Stowe, who lied about being 15 to join the Navy after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, said he gets 'the sweetest letters' from kids he met on previous trips. 'The French people here, they're so good to us,' the 98-year-old said, on a walk to the water's edge on Omaha. 'They want to talk to us, they want to sit down and they want their kids around us.' 'People are not going to let it be forgotten, you know, Omaha, these beaches,' he said. 'These stories will go on and on and on.' The dead honored with sand At the Normandy American Cemetery that overlooks Omaha, the resting place for nearly 9,400 American war dead, workers and visitors rub sand from the beach onto the white gravestones so the engraved names stand out. Wally King, a sprightly 101-year-old, wiped off excess sand with a weathered hand, resting the other atop the white cross, before saying a few words at the grave of Henry Shurlds Jr. Shurlds flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighters like King and was shot down and killed on Aug. 19, 1944. In the woods where they found his body, the townspeople of Verneuil-sur-Seine, northwest of Paris, erected a stele of Mississippi tulip tree wood in his memory. Although Shurlds flew in the same 513th Fighter Squadron, King said he never met him. King himself was shot down over Germany and badly burned on his 75th and last mission in mid-April 1945, weeks before the Nazi surrender. He said pilots tended not to become fast friends, to avoid the pain of loss when they were killed, which was often. When 'most veterans from World War II came home, they didn't want to talk about the war. So they didn't pass those experiences on to their children and grandchildren,' King said. 'In a way, that's good because there's enough unpleasantness, bloodshed, agony in war, and perhaps we don't need to emphasize it,' he added. 'But the sacrifice needs to be emphasized and celebrated.' When they're gone With the march of time, the veterans' groups are only getting smaller. The Best Defense Foundation, a non-profit that has been running veteran trips to Normandy since 2004, last year brought 50 people for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. This year, the number is 23. Betty Huffman-Rosevear, who served as an army nurse, is the only woman. She turned 104 this week. The group also includes a renowned romantic: 101-year-old Harold Terens and his sweetheart, Jeanne Swerlin, were feted by France's president after they tied the knot in a symbolic wedding inland of the D-Day beaches last year. D-Day veteran Jake Larson, now 102, has made multiple return trips and has become a star as 'Papa Jake' on TikTok, with 1.2 million followers. He survived machine-gun fire when he landed on Omaha, making it unhurt to the bluffs that overlook the beach and which in 1944 were studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American soldiers. 'We are the lucky ones,' Larson said amid the cemetery's immaculate rows of graves. 'They had no family. We are their family. We have the responsibility to honor these guys who gave us a chance to be alive.' As WWII's survivors disappear, the responsibility is falling on the next generations that owe them the debt of freedom. 'This will probably be the last Normandy return, when you see the condition of some of us old guys,' King said. 'I hope I'm wrong.'
