Local & State

After a tragic mill explosion left several children orphaned, the Washburn Center for Children was founded in 1883 by Cadwallader Washburn as the Washburn Memorial Orphan Asylum.

On June 17, nine African Americans were murdered at The Mother Emanuel AME Church, located in Charleston, South Carolina.

Ancestry Books unequivocally is a boon to writers, readers, and the Twin Cities at large, not in the least because it is located in North Minneapolis (intersection of Penn and Lowry). It is an invaluable enterprise in a day and age of corporate juggernauts overwhelming and banishing small and alternative bookstores to oblivion, running them out of business by a principle of greed trumping need.
It is an important social statement in giving people one more thing to point to in this part of the Twin Cities and cite something besides criminal and otherwise unsavory activity, focusing on the fact that there is much more good than bad going on in that part of town.

Dr. Fayneese Miller, who has been the dean of the College of Education and Social Services and a professor of leadership and developmental sciences at the University of Vermont for the last 10 years, has been named the 20th president of Hamline University. She is expected to officially take office in historic fashion on July 1, 2015, as the first African American and the second woman president since Hamline University was founded in 1854.

Wintana Melekin moved with her family from Eritrea to America in 1989 when she was three years old. Eritrea, which is located in the Horn of Africa, is bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Her family left their homeland in the midst of a 30-years-plus war with neighboring Yemen and Ethiopia, a few years before Eritrea’s independence in 1993 from Ethiopia.
After working for a local health company, Melekin got involved in community action by participating in a local protest march against the Trayvon Martin killing a couple of years ago. Soon thereafter, she joined Neighborhood Organizing for Change (NOC) after a local protest march against the state Voter ID proposal.

Mildred Brunson, the youngest of three children, a community legend, and a community mother who loves and is loved by her community has retired after 39 years of service from the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center. Although she does not like to talk about herself, she will speak openly about her love of the children, their parents and our community when she is honored on August 27 at the Center for her life’s work of community service and youth education.

In a recent farewell statement dated May 4, 2015, released via the Internet to the Minneapolis community, including the MSR newspaper, Ishmael Israel announced his departure as executive director of the Northside Residents Redevelopment Council (NRRC) effective April 2015.

The June 17 Charleston massacre where nine persons were killed inside a church has “rekindled the debate” for stricter gun laws, says the latest Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) policy brief. But Minnesotans soon will be able to buy gun “silencers” after Gov. Mark Dayton on May 22 signed an omnibus public safety finance and policy bill that overwhelmingly passed both in the Senate and in the House during this year’s state legislative session.

Young people are now back home energized and ready to “build” their personal brand after attending a teen leadership conference in St. Paul. The Minneapolis Jack and Jill of America chapter last week hosted the four-day 61st annual Mid-Western Regional Teen Leadership Conference.

In its aftermath, Champion said Blacks should use the Charleston shooting as “an opportunity for change…to define what this moment means to us. What will we as people of faith ask and what will be our demand of ourselves and of others? How do you use this opportunity for change? How do we get past this situation? And will we ever get past it?”

The HIRED Program of Minnesota was formed in 1968. Its mission is to provide personalized and innovative work solutions through a wide range of programs located in communities and neighborhoods throughout the Twin Cities.

With an awesome turnout and a beautiful day for the 11th Annual 38th & Chicago BBQ & Music Festival, all the good energy and good vibes prevailed. The June 14 festival was the largest of the events to date.

In what is quickly and unexpectedly gaining ground as a fitting memorial to the nine African Americans killed by a White supremacist at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., some of the most ardent defendants of the confederate flag are reversing course and saying for the first time that the flag should no longer fly over the Capitol in South Carolina.