Latest news with #MartinLutherKingJr
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cory United Methodist Church celebrates 150 years
CLEVELAND (WJW) – Cory United Methodist Church on East 105th Street in Cleveland was founded in 1875 and moved to its current location in the 1940s. It's known as one of the oldest African-American churches in Cleveland, and celebrated its 150th anniversary on Sunday. List: Where over 70 Big Lots stores are reopening this week There was worship time followed by a celebration organized by Lisa Young. 'We're happy today that everyone that used to come to Cory is coming back home — reunited, and it feels so good,' Young said. According to Young, the church has hosted prominent figures such as Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr., among others. It can seat 2,400 people. The Cleveland Orchestra has performed there several times for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. concert. 'Because of all the great things that they have had and are still doing, this is the mothership,' Pastor Darlene Robinson said. 'Once-in-a-lifetime:' When you can see all three Goodyear Blimps together over NE Ohio Cory United Methodist has also expanded into a recreation center and is home to many community outreach programs, including day care and senior services. 'A lot of the youth from the Glenville community come and play basketball there, they swim, they do other things there to make sure they are learning skills to prepare them for adulthood,' Young said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's $34 Million ‘American Heroes' Garden is Already Facing Major Hurdles
You'd struggle to find a more perfect metaphor to capture Donald Trump's brash, self-aggrandizing modus operandi than the proposed National Garden of American Heroes, a gaudy tourist attraction built to whitewash history using tens of millions in funding stripped from actual historical conservation and scholarship programs. The icing on the cake here is that it is already being sued. The garden has been the source of much derisive humor, but still looked to be going according to plan, opening to coincide with the nation's 250th birthday celebrations in July 2026. Now, experts have poured cold water on the idea, claiming that it's fundamentally impractical. 'It seems completely unworkable,' Daniel Kunitz, editor of Sculpture magazine, told Politico. The issues lie in the capacity for the American sculpting sector to actually undertake the work. White House communications in the executive orders passed to get the project done demand fine, realistic depictions of such figures as Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr. There are fewer than 70 workshops capable of undertaking such work in the United States, and most of them are booked out six to 18 months in advance. 'You'd be flooding the capacity of artists in this country who do that kind of stuff, and the capacity of foundries,' said Dylan Farnum, former head of one of the nation's top fine-art sculptors. On top of this, sculptors will not be chosen until late September, with a delivery deadline of June 1, 2026; commission grants are thought to be lower than necessary to complete the work in the requisite materials; and the White House has yet to select a location for the garden. Of course, there is one place the Trump administration could turn to to get the job done faster—China. The Asian superpower rival has a significant advantage when it comes to pumping out life-like replicas, but the quality may not meet American standards. While it remains to be seen just how the statues in the garden will be crafted, a Chinese-made National Garden of American Heroes would certainly not go unnoticed.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes aim at Trump's 'tyrannical administration' during Harvard speech
NBA icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has praised Harvard University amid its ongoing battle with Donald Trump. The six-time NBA champion hit out at the president and his administration as he addressed the elite university's graduating seniors during Wednesday's Class Day celebration. Speaking at Harvard's Tercentenary Theatre during the annual ceremony, the 78-year-old branded Trump's White House 'tyrannical' as he reflected on his own social activism. Abdul-Jabbar went on to recall Martin Luther King Jr.'s claim that 'if anything happens to me there will be others to take my place.' 'One of the reasons I'm so pleased to be here today is because I view Harvard University as being among the "others" willing to take Dr. King's place,' Abdul-Jabbar said, via the Boston Globe. 'When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy free speech, [Harvard President] Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures the way Rosa Parks declined...' he continued to riotous applause. The Los Angeles Lakers legend's remarks come amid Harvard's feud with Trump's administration after the president has cut billions in federal funding from the institution. Trump additionally vowed to make Harvard 'great again' by capping the number of foreign students who can attend the elite university. The president further accused the university of accepting students who come from radical countries. Trump has railed against Harvard and other schools for not stopping pro-Palestine protests that popped up in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. He has also demanded Harvard eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion program; cut the power of its professors; refuse foreign students; and ban masks at campus protests. Harvard has fought back just as hard, filing a lawsuit last month that seeks the restoration of more than $3 billion in federal funding. Another filed last week asked a federal court to reinstate its right to enroll international students. Last week a federal judge temporarily reinstated Harvard's right to enroll international students. There will be a hearing on Thursday to determine whether that order should be extended. And Abdul-Jabbar said Wednesday that Harvard president Garber's 'defiant refusal to succumb to fear' gave him hope that 'there are still people willing to take Dr. King's place.' The Lakers legend delivered the address at Harvard's Class Day on Wednesday 'After seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians, and other universities bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the US Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard take a stand for freedom,' he said. Class Day is an annual celebration ahead of the school's commencement exercises, which will be held Thursday morning. Abdul-Jabbar, who spent 20 seasons in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks and Lakers, joined the likes of former vice president Al Gore and comedian Amy Poehler among the Class Day speaker ranks. While most famous for his career on the court, which included a record six MVP nods, the Harlem native is also an award-winning author and a former Time magazine, who has written on a wide range of topics, including race, religion, sports and black history. In 2019, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former president Barack Obama for his social justice work.
Mail & Guardian
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Trump exposed white fragility during his theatrics in the Oval Office
President Cyril Ramaphosa had the upper hand in the Oval office meeting, but US President Donal Trump does not have the emotional intelligence to recognise this. 'Love your enemy, turn the other cheek.' Many of us have been brought up with these Christian adages. Many who are not Christian, are generally aware of them. Indeed, it is said that if you are able to not succumb to violence even in the face of violent oppression, somehow you are the better person. Militant Argentinian-Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara may not be an obvious example, but he said, 'At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.' India's Mahatma Gandhi built an entire liberation movement of daring the oppressor to be openly evil and not reacting. The United States' Martin Luther King Jnr was famously moved by Gandhi's non-violent philosophy of satyagraha , and made it a central plank of his civil rights movement. Even Malcolm X, who embraced violence but after he returned from a holy pilgrimage to Mecca where he witnessed black and white Muslims, he started to walk back from his message of anger towards white people. American revolutionary socialist and one of the leaders of the Black Panthers, Fred Hampton, was militant and advocated for the oppressed and working class to be armed. He drew no distinction between black and white working class people. He organised and called for unity of the working class so that they are able to take on the bosses and elites of American society. And this is the conundrum. We can be starry-eyed, turning the other cheek and loving our neighbour as the height of radical struggle, in the hope that the oppressor's morality kicks in and they see the error of their ways? Nothing in the history of humankind reveals such a Damascus moment and conversion. At the same time we cannot discount that liberation struggles, which placed the military pillar at the centre, generally get consumed by their own violence. As Brian May from supergroup Queen sang, 'Too much love will kill you, it will kill you every time', we could also add, that too much hate will also do the same. Today, we are witnessing the weaponising of white fears by their leaders in countries around the world. These leaders, like the US's Donald Trump, Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Hungary's Viktor Orban have successfully convinced themselves that white oppression because of past mistakes (which are deliberately downplayed) is the greatest challenge, not that the majority of the world's poor and oppressed are black. We are yet to witness a reaction to this growing weaponising of white fear. Already there is a growing terrorising of black activism, and it has not yet resulted in a rising of black anger, but it could be just a matter of time. The post-apartheid government of South Africa was an exercise in restraint when it came to getting the beneficiaries of apartheid to pay for the sins of the past. South Africa's liberation struggle, as led in the main by the ANC, famously did not place its military struggle at the centre, compared to contemporaries such as the Irish and Palestinian liberation movements. Its military wing was under civilian and political control, and its activities were by and large restricted to urban and rural guerrilla missions, not armed insurrection. It focused on liberating South Africa, not just for black people, who were the targets of colonial dispossession and systematic oppression, but for all people, even those who benefited from apartheid. It is that ethos that primarily influenced how it constructed the South African Constitution and the laws, policies and programmes, including those that promoted transformation. The problem with a turn the other cheek philosophy is when there is no cathartic moment. A moment where white people in general admit that apartheid and racism was wrong and not just an expedient instrument they used because of fear. Where they admit they either turned a blind eye to the violence meted out to thousands of black people on a daily basis or they were the perpetrators of the violence. In South Africa there have been newsworthy moments such as when former apartheid government minister Adriaan Vlok washed the feet of the ANC's Frank Chikane in public. But Vlok did it when he represented nobody. It was not popular white leaders like Tony Leon or Helen Zille who offered to wash the feet of black people to say sorry. It was the opposite. The behaviour of white leaders was more that they should be thanked and appreciated for giving up power. FW de Klerk did not have the humility to say that he was embarrassed to be receiving the Nobel peace prize for agreeing to dismantle an obviously wrong system. Any reminder of their oppressive past is viewed as an attack. Hence, instead of dealing with the sins of the past, there is a false narrative of the victimhood of white people. The cathartic moment is not one where ownership is taken for being oppressive. On the contrary ownership is taken that they will not apologise for being superior to others. In the light of this, how does one then advocate for turning the other cheek? How do you even contemplate turning the other cheek when it can mean you risk losing your dignity? On 21 May 2025 in the White House's Oval Office, with the world's media looking on, South Africa gave a lesson to the world that it is possible to turn the other cheek no matter how belligerent, sneaky, cunning and intransigent the other person is. The US president tried to ambush South Africa, in particular President Cyril Ramaphosa, by playing a video of militancy and anger in South Africa. His ambushing only succeeded in him being witness to something he wishes he has. The only natural ally of Ramaphosa present who spoke in his defence was the Congress of South African Trade Union's Zingiswa Losi. The rest who rose and spoke in defence of South Africa and Ramaphosa were those who politically oppose d him. Trump had insisted that golfers Ernie Els, who exposed himself as a probable apartheid supporter, and Retief Goosen, attend the meeting. It was those two who began the defence of the South African government and pooh-poohing that there is a white genocide. Even the leader of the second largest party and the historical class enemy of the ANC, the Democratic Alliance's John Steenhuisen, was at pains to explain that the ANC and his party are working together so that there is no rising support for this misplaced anger and militancy. For me, though, it was Johan Rupert, the face of Afrikaner capital and who for many epitomises those who refuse to accept that it was not their magnanimity that brought down apartheid but a noble struggle, that really showed that Ramaphosa and the ANC's starry-eyed turning the other cheek can actually work. Rupert said a lot. He said that as much as Trump may be angered by the video of militancy and anger, he, Rupert, is the object of that anger more than anyone else. He told Trump that he does not lock his door at night when he sleeps. He openly and simply stated that there are too many deaths in South Africa, 'but it is across the board not only white farmers'. He cleverly reminded Trump, the property mogul, what New York was like in the 1970s, where it resembled a war zone and how they overcame that. He showed his commitment to South Africa was not just words; he is building three houses for his grandchildren on a farm near Graaff Reinet, the implication being that if he believed for a moment that white people faced imminent danger of being, why would he place his grandchildren in harms' way. Of course his advocacy for Elon Musk's Starlink will require more discussion. Rupert was unafraid, like many poor black people, to highlight the problem of illegal immigrants and their involvement in crime. Moreover, he reminded Steenhuisen that his political party is in charge in Cape Town and the Cape Flats is the murder capital of South Africa. Rupert showed why leaders like Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and now Ramaphosa always engage with him. It is not just because of his money, it's because you do not detect any bitterness in him, and there is a deep-founded commitment to South Africa, not just white South Africa, but this diverse and real South Africa. I doubt that Trump has the emotional intelligence to understand the moment. There was no chance that he went to bed envious that Ramaphosa and South Africa had what he yearns for — that despite a history of enmity, South Africans are willing to give each other a chance. What he would not give for any of the opposition Democrat and business leaders stepping up to the podium and defending him and his administration. I will not hold my breath. The Oval Office scene can become as valueless as Vlok washing Chikane's feet if we do not harness the constructive energy of Rupert into a real economic recovery programme that visibly lifts black people out of poverty. Otherwise the disappointment that black people feel in South Africa will result in their own cathartic moment and they openly and unapologetically own their anger and act it out as well. Donovan E Williams is a social commentator. @TheSherpaZA on X (formerly Twitter).
Washington Post
21-05-2025
- Washington Post
Fire at historic Black church in Memphis was intentionally set, investigators say
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A fire that severely damaged a historic Black church that served as the headquarters for a 1968 sanitation workers' strike, which brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr . to Memphis, was intentionally set, investigators said Wednesday. The fire at Clayborn Temple, which was undergoing a yearslong renovation, was set in the interior of the church, the Memphis Fire Department said in a statement. Investigators are searching for a person suspected of being involved with the blaze.
