By Charles Hallman

Staff Writer

Minneapolis is vastly different today than a couple of decades ago as the city’s population has grown with more persons of color. Is the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) keeping pace with the demographic changes?

Residents of color often complain that neighborhood parks and centers aren’t as welcoming as in the past, and many suspect it is because MPRB staff doesn’t reflect or respect them. However, in recent months the MPRB has instituted several changes they believe will better serve their increasingly diverse customers.

“When you walk into our parks, people should know who our staff is,” explains Community Outreach Director Cordell “Corky” Wiseman on the staff dress code. “You should know who you are dealing with. If there is a problem, you should know that there is a staff [member] standing [nearby].”

MPRB staff must be more involved with the clientele, says Wiseman. “We’re there, but we are constantly defending ourselves because [of the perceived lack of involvement]. Besides our dress code, our programming needs to be looked at — what type of programs we are doing and how we are doing it.”

Wiseman adds that these changes have been stressed since Nick Williams was hired in January as assistant recreation superintendent. “He expects the staff to stand up, step up and say, ‘We are going to do a better job. We are going to be involved. We are going to be present. Our buildings are going to be open, and we are going to have staff involved [rather] than staff sitting and throwing out a ball and saying, ‘Open gym.’ I believe in that wholeheartedly.”

Before Williams’ hiring, the MPRB last year instituted mandatory cultural diversity training for all staff.

“Every employee in this organization will go through cultural competency training,” says Wiseman. “There is going to be a basic expectation on training and understanding that everybody understands what the organization expects when it comes to different cultures that are in our community.”

Nonetheless, Wiseman admits that “angst” still exists at MPRB, especially among staff members who have seen major organizational changes in recent months. “Of course, there’s angst — I understand that,” he confirms. “There’s angst and there’s fear [of losing one’s job] — it’s there. But I do believe that change is good.

“We have to keep up with the changing of our clients and our community,” says Wiseman. “I do agree that we need to move and look at doing things differently. Everything is not wrong or broken, but there are some things that we need to improve and get better at.

“Overall I do believe in change, and I do believe that we should be doing this,” he reiterates. “We should get more efficient in order to serve our community better. If it is not serving our community, I don’t want to be here.”

Wiseman also disputes rumors that the Park Board has plans to convert some parks into “event centers” that would eventually leave kids and families without a safe place to go.

There have “event center” discussions, but Wiseman says they didn’t involve all parks. Central Community Gym in South Minneapolis“is the only one that we had talked about, and that’s because of the space and the gym. Central Gym had been slated as an event-type center these last few years. We’ve done major events there for years — there’s been boxing there and other things, but we are just now calling it that.”

Wiseman pledges that neighborhood youth will continue to be served at Central. Furthermore, he points out, “Every park doesn’t offer every program… The [particular] program itself is more successful because it got more kids. There still are kids’ programs, and that is not going to change.”

Also, the city parks still offer summertime outdoor activities. For example, over 200 free concerts are scheduled through September 2, such as the Twin Cities Mobile Jazz Concert series. “Jazz is non-threatening music,” says Wiseman. “It is neutral music that people in general [are] going to like.

“We are doing more picnics in the park and park festivals,” he continues. “Each park is doing things around ice cream socials.”

As community outreach director, Wiseman says his responsibilities include “gathering data” from the community “and bringing that back to Nick, the superintendent and the board. We’re reaching everybody — the Somalians, Native Americans, Hmong and Asians. What we have to be better at is getting our message out to the community.

“We were doing a great job 15 years ago, but it went down to good,” Wiseman says. “Good, in my opinion, is not acceptable. Now it’s about doing our jobs differently and better. We want to deliver service better and more efficient.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

Photo by Charles Hallman

By Charles Hallman

Staff Writer

The 12-member University of Minnesota Board of Regents is the school’s governing body. Its members are elected by the Minnesota Legislature and serve without pay. Eight members represent the state’s eight congressional districts, and four members, including a current U of M student representative, are elected at large. Their six-year terms are staggered so that only four positions are available for appointment every two years.

Abdul Omari
Photo by Jaak Jensen courtesy of the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs

Current Minnesota student Abdul Omari was among four new regents selected during this year’s state legislative session. He was among 14 finalists interviewed by the Regent Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC), created by the legislature in 1998 to screen and recommend candidates to the full legislative body.

“This council is of citizens from all over the state, and there are 24 individuals,” explains RCAC Vice Chair David Fisher. Four regent candidates are selected “in the odd-numbered years. We plan together as a body and develop a plan for doing recruitment and [establishing] interview schedules,” he adds. “It is difficult to narrow it down, but when we get to the process of narrowing, we first go over the applications, and that includes an essay and a description of who they are and a list of references who speak on behalf of the individual.

“We try to determine just on paper who would be the best to interview,” continues Fisher. “Not many of the 24 of us really know these people. Some we do know because some of us come from congressional districts where we know individuals, or some of the people who apply have a reputation that precedes them. But in most cases, we don’t know the individual.”

Josie Johnson duly points out that the regent selection process was vastly different back in the 1970s. She became the university’s first Black regent in 1971, a year after the U of M Morrill Hall takeover by Black students. “We supported the students who were protesting,” she remembers.

Afterwards, Johnson was approached by several DFLers to apply for a school regent post. “It appeared to me as an opportunity to continue the struggle that the students had been engaged in… So I agreed to be a candidate,” she continues. “Once you have been accepted as a candidate, then you have to go before the House Committee on Education and then the Senate Committee on Education. They interview you, and if they support [you], then they recommend you to the full legislature. They then elect you.”

Josie Johnson
Photo by
Charles Hallman

After her election in May 1971, Johnson says, “I guess that every week [or] every other week I went to all of our campuses. Duluth became one of the places that I visited regularly because of my commitment to diversity at the university, and to make sure the American Indian community was represented and [their] issues” were heard as well, she points out.

Johnson also served on two committees, one on students, faculty and staff, and another on health science. She also chaired a student engagement and concerns subcommittee. “Having been engaged in the issues facing Black students…I felt it was not only my responsibility but my commitment to make sure that our students’ wishes were continued while I was on the board,” she says.

She also fought for university-operated hospitals to share high-priced medical equipment, keeping patient expenses down. “That didn’t go very far, because every hospital feels they have to have their own MRI machine,” notes Johnson. “I tried to suggest and argued that it didn’t make sense for every hospital to have one of those expensive MRI [machines] or other technical equipment.”

Unfortunately, Johnson was able to serve only about a third of her one six-year term because her husband was being transferred out of town for his job. “I resigned in November of 1973. I recommended Katie McWatt and Wanda Moore” to be considered by the governor to succeed her. “The governor selected Wanda Moore as my replacement. She then became the second Black person to serve.”

All total, six Blacks have served as U of M regents: Johnson (1971-73), Moore (1973-1989), Willis (Bill) Drake (1981-87), Alan Page (1989-1993), William Hogan II (1993-2005), Lakeesha Ransom (2001-07) and Peter Bell (2002-07).

Being the first-ever Black regent “wasn’t something that was on my agenda,” admits Johnson, a longtime educator and community activist. Omari, however, is the first Black since 2007 to become a regent. Fisher admitted that there were “very few” Blacks and other people of color among the 33 applications received this year, and the RCAC lacks diversity as well, he points out.

The university “serves the whole state… Everyone is supposed to have access to the university,” says Johnson. “We have to continue to fight that struggle, because the system doesn’t maintain a commitment,” especially where diversity is concerned.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

Dwight Hobbes

Contributing Writer

This being June and all, between school graduations, Father’s Day, birthdays and folk just generally being in their usual frame of mind to send someone a kind or pleasant sentiment, card shops are making a killing. One kind of customer, however, never seems to find quite the same selection as most consumers.

The blank greeting cards section characteristically is the smallest and, accordingly, offers the least variety. That’s fine for shoppers who want to simply grab

Beverly Franklin
Photo and card
designs courtesy of
Beverly Franklin

something quick that says something nice and be on about their day. But what about those who want to give their own message to friends, family and other loved ones?

Cards By Beverly (cardsbybeverlyavmn.com) widens the selection range with a handsome line of stationery note cards. It’s a collection of more than 200 abstract images, drawings and paintings that readily catch the eye and easily hold one’s attention. Owner-principal-designer Beverly Franklin created the product line from an interesting combination of inspiration, capability and experience.

She has put in the requisite grunt work, doing retail in high school and college at, among other prestigious Twin Cities outfits, Dayton’s Department Store, now Macy’s. From there, she moved on from a University of Minnesota B.S. to earn an M.B.S. at the University of St. Thomas. She entered the workplace in a field one hardly associates with marketing creativity.

Franklin spent most of a long career specializing in human resources at, among other institutions, Fairview University Medical Center, accepting staff positions before doing private consulting. It made the donuts. At length, she decided she was done punching a time clock.

Leaving the workforce after 2009 not yet ready to hang it up, Beverly Franklin found herself restless, looking for a way to set both her energy and creativity to good purpose. “[I] hated being retired with nothing to do.”

Franklin recalls that even before pulling the proverbial pin, a bug was there. In human resource management, responsible to recruit top-flight personnel from across the U.S., she’d find herself, during moments of downtime, “defacing work papers — drawing in the margins.”

Once she had time on her hands, she started to make constructive use of fanciful doodlings. She’d sit with drawing pencil, pen and cardstock to dash off a note. “People would call back and ask, ‘Well, where did you get that card?’ [They] liked them.” Franklin, sitting in a South Minneapolis coffee shop, reflects, “It’s really a great feeling to create a product that people like.”

It called for pavement pounding and cold-calling. “Initially, I went to crafts and art shows and began participating in that.” This was through researching at FestivalNet.com. Reception at such events as Woodbury Arts & Crafts Show at International Market Square was encouraging, fueling the fire. 

After which, on confirming public interest, Franklin strategically set about the business of further taking care of business. She looked around at available resources and availed herself of every market’s fastest path to growth, the best way to get a leg up, establishing an Internet presence.

It has worked out well. As an entrepreneur, Franklin matter-of-factly states, “[It’s] direct sales. You have to let people know you’re out there — what you have to offer.” Mining a highly marketable niche, filling a hole the industry pretty much leaves open, Cards By Beverly has something rewarding to offer.

“A lot of times, people will look at cards and see it as one facet of what you can do with it.” In the course of networking, that quintessential ingredient in successful merchandising, Franklin visited Sister Spokesman, MSR’s monthly meet-and-greet for female Black professionals. Of this she says, “I like how comfortable Sister Spokesman is as a forum for women of color. I love seeing ladies come together, relax, and share great information and have fun.”

This is the company’s third increasingly successful year. Each annum has shown such strong signs of life that Franklin now has an eye out to expand and include as more arrows in the Cards By Beverly’s quiver such items as first-run, collectible posters and clothing designs as well as acrylics.

From here, Beverly Franklin looks to expand on a lucrative local base to go national with a mapped-out idea of how to accomplish that considerable objective. “You have to first be successful locally and make sure that all parts work.” By this, she refers to infrastructure, the concrete foundation on which one sustains a viable, perceptibly profitable business plan.

For the coming fiscal year, she’s putting in place a process by which the company is able to handle greater volume on short notice. This will have her in solid standing as a provider to national clearinghouse CardSmart Inc., a direct pipeline to fairs, online venues, and, importantly, retail stores.

Convenient as it is to shop from home, card-buying consumers haven’t, by a long shot, forsaken the option of browsing through aisles when out and about. Cards By Beverly, a smart boutique business born of necessity, is poised to advantageously position a highly marketable product.

For more information, call toll free 866-380-2643 or email info@cardsbybeverlyavmn.com. 

Dwight Hobbes welcomes reader responses to P.O. Box 50357, Mpls., 55403. 

By Jamal Denman

Online Editor

On Thursday, June 6, the Sabathani Community Center in South Minneapolis hosted the One MPLS Mayoral Forum, giving candidate hopefuls the opportunity to address the questions and concerns of members of Minneapolis’ communities of color. Questions were collected from the audience before the start of the forum, and the candidates were randomly selected to answer each question.

While it is assumed that the participants in the forum were made aware of the forum’s overriding theme, because of the candidates’ constant inability or unwillingness to directly answer questions posed to them it would not be hard to believe otherwise.

The auditorium in the Sabathani Community Center was packed with a diverse crowd of community activists, politically active young people, and concerned citizens eager to hear what the people vying to become the next mayor of Minneapolis had to say. Mayoral candidates Mark Andrew, Jackie Cherryhomes, Betsy Hodges, Tony Lane, Doug Mann, Don Samuels, Gary Schiff, and Jim Thomas faced the 500-plus people in attendance and their questions that centered on addressing issues facing communities of color. Bob Carney Jr., a GOP mayoral candidate, was given a chance to introduce himself, but did not participate in the forum. Cam Winton, an Independent mayoral candidate, was scheduled to participate but was a no-show.

The forum was masterfully moderated by Nekima Levy-Pounds, associate professor of law and director of the Community Justice Project at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Levy-Pounds started the forum with an introduction that set the tone: “In some ways, I think Minneapolis [is] a tale of two cities. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. And unfortunately, for many of our communities of color, we are experiencing the worst of times. So our new mayor is going to have to understand what is happening in our poorest communities.

“They’re going to have to understand how we have the largest gap in unemployment between Blacks and Whites in the nation…that we have one of the highest rates of racial disparity in public education…that we have high rates of contact between law enforcement and African American men; and even today, in our community we’re mourning the loss of Terrance Franklin.

“Our [next] mayor is going to have to understand the pain that we feel as a result of these losses of our young men.” Levy-Pounds also brought up the issue of affordable housing, and how these compounding factors negatively impact communities of color.

Every candidate acknowledged that they were aware of the racial inequalities and neglect of communities of color. For instance, Mark Andrew started his introduction with, “I want to welcome you to one of the most economically and racially segregated cities in America!” Andrew went on to say that being able to make such a statement about Minneapolis is what made him want to run for mayor so he could “address” the “equity questions.” However, during the two-hour forum, he never got around to explaining how he planned on doing so.

Andrew was by no means the only candidate who did not provide much detail about specific actions it would take to address the issues. The lack of detail in the candidates’ answers may have been attributed to the time constraints of the forum, but judging from the statements made in the time allotted, that did not seem to be much of a factor.

For the most part, candidates answered questions by reverting to their talking points and making attempts to connect something they did in the past. Nekima Levy-Pounds did her best to get candidates to answer questions thoroughly by calling them out numerous times in response to vague or irrelevant answers.

Most of the candidates talked about the need for jobs and the hiring of minorities in city jobs and contracts awarded to private companies by the city. Tony Lane was mainly focused on the rights of workers to the point that he suggested that the discussions about racial and cultural issues were intended to distract people from the issue.

Don Samuels and Jim Thomas expressed their feelings on the importance of education. Unfortunately, neither of them went into any details about actions they would take to improve the educational system for people of color.

Adjusting to the rapidly changing demographics and diversity of communities in Minneapolis is a challenge for leaders and residents alike. Jackie Cherryhomes described how she views the city’s current communal climate: “One of the things I’m struck by as I travel throughout the city right now is how we are not ‘One Minneapolis’; we’re four, five, six, seven, maybe 13 [different] Minneapolises. And we won’t be a strong city until we are ‘One Minneapolis.’”

The forum was organized by Henry Jiménez, Marjaan Sirdar, Ishmael Israel, Nimco Ahmed, Jenny Lock, Jeff Hnilicka, and a host of concerned community activists, youth and residents. Jiménez also pointed out that the group involved with organizing the event is not associated with the City of Minneapolis or the Minneapolis Foundation.

After the forum, the candidates and attendees met at El Paraiso Mexican Restaurant to socialize and continue the conversations started during the forum. Questions that were submitted but not posed due to time will be posted on the One MPLS Facebook page at www.facebook.com/oneminneapolis. The entire forum is available online at the Twin Cities Daily Planet website.

Jamal Denman welcomes reader responses to jdenman@spokesman-recorder.com. 

By Jerry Freeman

Community Editor

In view of former city council president Jackie Cherryhomes’ return to the political scene with her current mayoral campaign, we are reprinting, with the author’s permission, this story that appeared on MSR’s  front page March 7, 2002, five months after Natalie Johnson Lee replaced Cherryhomes as the Fifth Ward’s council member. 

When Minneapolis City Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee came to her City Hall office January 3 [2002], newly elected and ready to assume her duties, she expected to find the Fifth Ward’s records there, records she needed to brief and prepare herself. Instead, she found a desk, a blank computer, and a small cardboard box containing eight thin files.

Certain there had to be more, Johnson Lee began opening the banks of file cabinets lined up outside her office. They were all empty. She asked Billy Binder, former aide to former council president Jackie Cherryhomes, where the ward’s files might be. Cherryhomes had previously represented the Fifth Ward, losing by a narrow margin to Johnson Lee in the November election.

“That box is it,” Binder replied. That’s when Johnson Lee began to realize that there might be no records for her to consult. She and other City staff had seen large trash cans in Cherryhomes’ office, two or three at a time, filled with paper, but it hadn’t occurred to her that they could contain virtually all the Fifth Ward’s records.

“No correspondence,” said Johnson Lee. “No record of complaints. No neighborhood files. Nothing on the ward’s community organizations and business associations. Nothing on Block E and other development sites, West Broadway development. Not one file on affordable housing. Nothing on nothing.”

In addition to the missing files, Johnson Lee said she discovered the Ward’s computer file tracking system had been deleted, so she could not access information there. After several weeks, technicians have been able to retrieve much of the database, but Johnson Lee is not certain how complete it is.

According to Johnson Lee, Cherryhomes told her in December that she was archiving old records, and that all current information would be maintained. Johnson Lee later went to the City Clerk’s office to ask if any of the material had been archived. “They’ve repeatedly told me no.”

Without the ward’s records, Johnson Lee finds herself with no history on the issues and concerns her constituents brought to Cherryhomes over the previous eight years. “We have to start all over.

“This is not a personal thing,” she said. “They are the public’s records. Information is power. If you come in with no information, everyone else is at the starting line and you are three blocks behind trying to catch up.”

According to official City Council Records Guidelines, all correspondence is to be maintained in the office for two years. It is then transferred to the Records Center, which maintains it for another two years. The same procedure is specified for records of constituent complaints, except that the Records Center keeps that information permanently.

The Spokesman-Recorder asked two other new city council members, the Sixth Ward’s Dean Zimmerman and the Eighth Ward’s Robert Lilligren, now council vice president, how the loss of their files would have affected their work. Both found complete ward records available to them upon assuming office.

“I probably would have been lost,” said Lilligren. “I don’t know what I’d have done. It would have been impossible. I rely immensely on my files. It would have been crippling.”

“Devastating,” said Zimmerman. “If we have a problem or issue, we pull the file to see the history. So if someone comes in, we don’t have to say, ‘I don’t know.’ There’s a lot of documentation of meetings, records, for institutional memory.

“Those are not my records,” Zimmerman said. “They belong to my ward. I’m only the caretaker for a brief time.” Asked if he agreed with Johnson Lee’s plan for a transition policy, Zimmerman said, “I guess you need a policy when common courtesy no longer applies.”

Johnson Lee said she intends to take preventative action: “This will not happen to another council person. I want it investigated thoroughly. I want to see a transition policy that spells out how it is to happen. And I want to make sure staff is protected, so they don’t feel pressured into participating in unethical, possibly illegal activity.”

According to City Council President Paul Ostrow, “There is not an investigation [on the missing files] at this point, but I have asked that the record retention policy be reviewed and that there be every effort to obtain any records that are needed by the council members. Just so it’s clear, that is really what we are trying to do now, is to resurrect and inventory the information that is there and what’s needed by the council members.”

Cherryhomes did not return Spokesman-Recorder phone calls inquiring about the missing files.

Johnson Lee is determined not to let the ward’s missing records slow her down. “It’s really too bad,” she said. “It was probably very good, thorough information. It’s harder when you have to borrow or track down all your information from other council members. But I’ll do what I have to do.

“As the only African American elected official here, the spotlight is on me to perform at a level higher than my other 12 colleagues. That’s enough of a challenge. But you have to make light of it and move on anyway. That’s one of my strengths as a woman of color.”

Jerry Freeman welcomes reader responses to jfreeman@spokesman-recorder.com.

By Charles Hallman

Staff Writer

Black students nationwide are suspended at least twice more frequently than any other student group and up to three times more often in many Twin Cities metro area urban and suburban school districts. However, school officials say that they are working on reducing Black suspension rates using a variety of strategies.

“I cannot speak for all districts, but I can tell you that we have worked extremely hard in Anoka-Hennepin to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of all students of color,” stated Anoka-Hennepin spokesperson Mary Olson. The district had a nearly 33 percent Black suspension rate in 2011-12 while only 10 percent of its overall student population is Black.

Anoka-Hennepin has been using cultural competency and culturally responsive teaching strategies by the Seattle-based Gary Howard Equity Institute for nearly four years, added Olson. In an email response, Gary Howard last week told the MSR, “There has been a sustained effort to reduce the number and rate of Black students’ discipline suspensions… My work has been just one part of their district-wide effort in this area. This effort is still very much a work in progress.”

Although the “race-based discipline gap” continues in many U.S. school districts, Howard believes Anoka-Hennepin is showing positive results. “The number of suspensions of Black students has been reduced by 30 percent in the current school year as compared to the previous year,” he said. “The gap remains, but the trend line is moving in the right direction.”

According to Olson, “total days of absence [due to suspensions]” have decreased over two years — 107 for Blacks during the first two tri-semesters this school year compared to 152 in 2011-12. “We are seeing great success, especially with Black students,” she stated.

Hopkins School District officials last week announced that the February suspensions of two Black Hopkins High School students after an altercation with a school administrator had been overturned. The students in question were trying to retrieve posters they had created to protest an earlier incident where White students were mocking Blacks. Petty misdemeanor citations given to the two students by Minnetonka police also were dropped.

A “restorative justice process” involving the two Black students, Superintendent John Schultz, Hopkins’ school principal and associate principal and the students’ attorney, Nekima Levy-Pounds, subsequently took place.

“The process was a step in the right direction to promote healing and understanding,” according to a statement released jointly by Schultz and Levy-Pounds. “During the restorative justice process, everyone was able to voice their concerns about the treatment of students of color at Hopkins High School… The students involved in the process were able to make clear that they did not intentionally disrespect the school staff, but were making a conscious effort to stand up for what they believed was right.”

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) also uses the restorative process in conjunction with Legal Rights Services of Minneapolis. The district and the legal organization work with suspended students and their families to avoid expulsion, said MPS teacher Chul Schwanke, who works in the district’s social work services office.

Levy-Pounds earlier told the MSR, “My primary areas have been juvenile justice and criminal justice.” She has been outspoken against schools using suspensions disapportionally against Blacks and other students of color, not only as a St. Thomas law professor but also as a parent of two Black sons.

She admitted, “Those are things that I am really concerned about. I constantly go to my children’s school and advocate on their behalf — not only for my daughters, but more specifically [for] the fact that I am raising two Black boys in the public school system.

“I constantly had to talk to my sons and communicate to them about some of the traps that exist for them,” Levy-Pounds continued. “I know that they are good kids and typically they make good decisions. The problem is that the deck is so stacked against them as Black boys that even [for] a young man [who] is going to school and doing their best to learn, he can still be caught up in a system and wind up suspended or tracked into a system that is beneath his level of intelligence,” said Levy-Pounds.

“One of my greatest lessons and disappointments over the 35 years that I have been working on racial equity issues in schools is the slow pace of change,” said Howard. “We need to be careful when criticizing the schools alone for these inequities. Race-based inequality is epidemic in our society.”

“I would like to see a grassroots movement helping our parents teach their children behavior that is expected in public,” said St. Paul teacher Aaron Benner. “This movement would not be blaming anyone, but rather helping our parents who may feel overwhelmed when it comes to their children. Education has to become important again in our community. We have to take the initiative and not expect other races to get us out of this predicament.”

“We as a community have to get behind these children and hold these systems accountable,” said Levy-Pounds, “whether it’s an urban school district or a suburban school district, to make sure that they are educating our children.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

By Charles Hallman

Staff Writer

Deborah Montgomery’s longtime mentoring and community leadership will be formally recognized later this year. The International Association of Women Police (IAWP) in April selected Montgomery, a 28-year veteran St. Paul police officer (1975-2003), for its 2013 Heritage Award and will honor her at their annual training conference September 21-26 in Durban, South Africa.

Senior Commander Deborah L. Montgomery
Photo courtesy of Deborah Montgomery

The award is given to an individual with “substantial and significant contributions to women police,” wrote St. Paul Board President Angie Holt in her congratulations letter to Montgomery. Speaking exclusively to the MSR last week, Montgomery said that Holt told her she had been nominated by several people.

“It was a fluke,” recalled Montgomery, who holds a master’s degree in urban planning, on what led her to the capital city’s police department, which at the time had less than five Blacks and was sued in 1971 by the NAACP for not hiring more Blacks. “I was doing administrative planning and budgeting out of the mayor’s office” when top City officials urged her to apply after a judge ruled that the City needed to hire at least 10 Blacks among 50 new hires.

“I was the only woman who passed [the written test],” continued Montgomery, “and only eight men scored higher than I did in the combined test,” which included a physical agility test. “They offered me the job, but I actually turned it down because it was a $10,000-a-year cut in pay.

“But the Friday before the academy was going to start, one of the 10 African American men who did accept the job decided to drop out.” After assurances from the mayor, Montgomery changed her mind and spent the weekend in hurried preparations.

“They [tried] to fit me into a man’s uniform…and they [were] adding pieces to it because women have a little bit of butt, and men don’t. Then I had to wear men shoes because they didn’t have any women shoes at the time. And my hat — I looked like Clarabell the Clown,” said Montgomery, smiling.

At the academy, Montgomery dealt with inequity issues: “I had to share a locker room with 21 men — they didn’t [have] a women’s locker room or bathroom.” She also struggled in marksmanship: “The one thing I couldn’t do was shoot a gun.”

She almost quit to “[go] back to my job” in the mayor’s office but decided, “I’m going to stay in here for the 21 weeks so that they don’t think that women couldn’t do this job,” said Montgomery, who practiced shooting on her lunch breaks and eventually qualified in every area of her training.

“It didn’t become an ego thing for me. If I would’ve quit, they would have said, ‘I told you a woman couldn’t do this job.’”

After that, Montgomery learned the job from field-training officers. “I had some [for whom] anything I did was wrong, but I had others who would actually take the time and say, ‘No, you did this wrong,’ and [who would] tell you how to do stuff,” she recalled.

“Before I came on the job, they had a height requirement that you have to be six-feet tall, but they had to get rid of [it] because it was discriminatory against women and minorities. I didn’t get to drive the majority of my 36 weeks of field training because the guys wouldn’t let me drive because they were going to be uncomfortable” due to her 5’6” height. The police cars were designed for taller persons. “All I [got] to do is write reports,” she said.

“It was hard in the beginning,” Montgomery admitted. “They put me on Rice Street, which at the time had the highest crime in the city, and every car had two men in it. But they put me in a one-person car on midnights. I had some battles, but I held my own.”

Looking back without regrets, Montgomery pointed out, “I was the first female [police officer] who happens to be Black, but I probably was the worst thing that could’ve happened to the department. Not only was I Black, but I also was a woman, and they had no women. I’ve trained women in Russia, China, Australia. I’ve been blessed to see other cultures and other women and the things they go through.”

Come this fall Montgomery will be recognized by her peers. “This is an award that is not handed out every year,” she said proudly. “My dedication [has been] to training women both nationally and internationally and being a mentor to them and helping the field of law enforcement grow overall.

“It’s been a journey. It’s never been about me but always about my community and the people I worked for. I’ve been a public servant my whole life.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com

Uncle says ‘crazed individual’ profiled in media is not his nephew

By Charles Hallman

Staff Writer

Something happened May 10 after he allegedly was earlier involved in a theft.

Exactly what happened in the basement of that South Minneapolis house May 10, the day Terrance Franklin was shot and killed by Minneapolis police, remains a mystery to all but the police officers involved. Although the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) investigation is still ongoing, Franklin’s family still seeks answers to their questions nearly a month after his death.

(l-r) Attorney Karlowba Powell, Sheila O’Neal (victim’s mother), Attorney Michael Padden and Walter Franklin (victim’s father).

They question earlier police reports that say their son shot two MPD officers with a submachine gun. They also question the extent to which a racial element may have played a role in the man’s death.

“There has been a history [of contention] between the African American community and the Minneapolis Police Department,” said attorney Karlowba Powell after a May 30 press conference at the Minneapolis Urban League. She is one of two lawyers representing Franklin’s parents, Walter Franklin and Sheila O’Neal. “There have been several incidents that already rooted themselves in the minds and opinions of the community,” added Powell.

“I don’t know anything except that my son is not here,” admitted Walter Franklin, who briefly spoke to the MSR after the press conference held on the day that would have been his son’s 23^rd birthday. He also said he’s disturbed by the “leaks” or “unnamed sources” in earlier media stories about his son ever since his death.

“I believe that he was shot [by the police] to cover up something… I may be wrong, but that is what I feel,” said Terrance’s uncle, Rev. Marlon Bell, who also is concerned that his slain nephew has been unfavorably portrayed in media reports.

“The person they are trying to make him out to be, trying to profile my nephew as some crazed individual…that’s not my nephew,” Bell said. “I know my nephew, and he would never do that. First of all, what [the police] did to him was wrong. Even when he went into the bike shop — did he do anything to them? No. All he was trying to do is get away.

“Terrance was a good kid, grew up in the church and was baptized,” Bell continued. “He respected everyone in the church, and Terrance always was eager to help people. He was 22 years old and lived like a 22-year-old. He was a college student and took classes.

“He had issues just like everyone else, but he was a good person,” said Rev. Bell. “Terrance did nothing to jeopardize his life. He loved life.

Terrance Franklin

“Yes, he did have a criminal record,” Bell acknowledged, “but about 75 to 80 percent of it was juvenile. He got into trouble as an adult, too.” But Bell firmly believes that the story and investigation should focus instead on what ultimately caused his nephew’s death.

During last week’s press conference, attorney Michael Padden often referred to a You Tube video posted by someone in the area during the May 10 incident. Padden employed an audio expert to clean up the sound and noted that two Minneapolis officers are heard using a racial slur to describe Franklin in the sound-enhanced version of the recording.

“I have heard the ‘N’ word” on the video,” said Walter Franklin.

“I was shocked,” added Powell.

Padden said that he believes Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau will do the right thing by investigating Franklin’s death. “The main thing is when you reach a conclusion you have to have physical evidence to support it,” he pointed out.

The attorney also disputed an email reportedly sent by Harteau to a local television station alleging that the Franklin family is refusing to meet with her and police investigators. Padden afterwards told the MSR, “She [Harteau] seemed to be really upset that we haven’t met with her… What is she going to say — she’s sorry? I don’t have a personal axe to grind with her.”

Padden said that he has no problems meeting with police officials, “but I want to know the ground rules before the meeting.”

When asked if last week’s press conference, other community protests, or even the You Tube video will have an effect on the MPD police investigation, Powell replied, “That information is going to get out there either by word of mouth [or by] what’s going on in the streets. There are going to be different opinions that are going to be made available to the public anytime you have a high-profile case such as this. Meanwhile, the police department has a job to do.

“I’m hopeful she [Chief Harteau] is going to be someone different from the past regimes,” said Padden on the MPD investigation of Franklin’s death. “I don’t agree with everything she’s done, [but] I like what I see about her so far. She doesn’t have an easy job.”

“I believe that they want to get things right,” said Rev. Bell. “But from day one, things have been wrong, because if everything were done right, we wouldn’t be here right now. There is nobody who can confirm [what really happened the day Franklin was killed but] “the police.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

To see more stories by Charles Hallman click HERE

By Jamal Denman

Online Editor

Over the years, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) has had its fair share of critics. Often the criticism has come from residents concerned about the amount of effort the Board and its members have put into providing resources to the community and maintaining park grounds and facilities.

Park attendees playing soccer at the East Phillips Park.
Photos by Jamal Denman

Some such critical sentiments were recently expressed in a story published in the MSR (“Youth sports build more than just muscle,” April 4, 2013), where youth sports coach and community leader Laverne Turner questioned if the MPRB’s actions were matching up with their claims of providing extensive programs and activities for youth.

MPRB Communications and Marketing Manager Dawn Sommers agrees with Director of Recreation Centers and Programs Al Bangoura that such concerns were warranted some years ago. “We saw the story…and we appreciate [and] we understand his [Turner’s] criticism of the time,” said Sommers. However, they claim that the MPRB has made significant improvements in recent years. The two recently sat down and spoke with the MSR to address the issue.

“A lot has changed since then in what we do for programming in facilities, particularly in [the Phillips] neighborhood,” explained Sommers. In 2007, Bangoura said, the MPRB “pulled together the community to address the needs of the community.” They met with people from organizations that service the Phillips neighborhood, which included Hope Communities, Anderson School, and Waite House/Pillsbury United Communities.

Collectively, Bangoura, the MPRB, and members of the community discussed strategies for improvement. Bangoura quickly realized the first thing to consider was how to make sure the MPRB was servicing the entire community. He explained how the process was initiated in the Phillips neighborhood:

“One of the things that Phillips did was that they had neighborhoods and blocks that were defined by Phillips West, Midtown, East and Ventura [Village]… My idea was that everybody within [those neighborhoods are a part of] Phillips; we’re going to serve all of them. So the organizations that came in together believed in that also, and said let’s move forward where we can address the needs of the community as a whole and not be so defined by blocks.”

Al Bangoura is director of recreation centers and programs for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board

Bangoura said he was able to make an immediate impact on athletic programming in Phillips. “From 2008 to the current time, we have pushed out probably 96 teams…and that’s from working in cooperation with a lot of the organizations and agencies and people who really wanted to see the sports programs grow. We knew we could address that right away.”

Bangoura estimated that the MPRB has serviced over 1,500 youth through sports programs in the Phillips neighborhood since 2008. “And it’s growing; this year alone we’re going to have five baseball teams, when we had none in 2007.” Bangoura said that there has been an increase in soccer and other sports programs as well.

The MPRB claims to have invested heavily in improving the grounds at the parks in Phillips. This included putting a new $300,000 soccer field made out of artificial turf at Stewart Park, a $4.4 million project at East Phillips Cultural and Community Center (EPCCC) that included the construction of a new community center and outdoor fields, and more than one million dollars invested in renovating the Phillips Community Center and its amenities.

Prior to 2007, Sommers says, “There were reasons we couldn’t do it beforehand.” For instance, Phillips Community Center was acquired by MPRB in 1987 after its closing as a junior high school. MPRB leased the space to the Boys and Girls Club until 2007.

“One of the challenges for us, and I think one of [the] reasons the perception was we weren’t doing anything back in the early 2000s, [was because] we really didn’t have the facilities to do much, because there were other people in these buildings.”

Many reasons are given for MPRB’s heavy investment in Phillips, among them the fact that it has the highest density of families with children and the most diverse population in the city. Bangoura and Sommers believe that “the Board is really committed to investing and providing in a neighborhood that really needs those types of resources.”

Sommers says the challenge has been “very exciting, and Al has been leading a lot of those efforts.” Even Turner is optimistic about Bangoura being the person building, strengthening and maintaining relationships between MPRB and members of the community.

“I’ve known Al since he’d been working in East Phillips. I always felt that he’s had the community’s best interest at heart and did the best that he could do under his authority. When I heard about his promotion, I thought that he was the right guy for the job… I think it might be a turning point,” says Turner.

Bangoura looks forward to continuing to work with communities on developing programs and is inspired by the level of involvement of the people in Phillips. “It has been a privilege to come at the time that I did, because this community did some amazing things.

“To be able to do what they did, to be able to come to us and work as partners, to be able to keep the Phillips Community Center open…it’s pretty amazing… It’s been a true collaboration and a true community building. If you want an example of how a community can rise from really not a lot…to where we are today… [It’s an] incredible story to see [EPCCC] up and running.”

The collaboration of neighborhoods, volunteers and organizations is an important factor in MPRB providing programs and amenities that meet the needs and desires of neighboring communities. It is what helped spur the progress that has been made to date.

“The dynamics and the reality of what the park was providing for facilities and services in the early 2000s in [the Phillips] neighborhood is drastically different in 2013 than it was in 2002 in facilities, programming, and community collaboration,” offered Sommers. She also feels the building improvements will help.

“When you don’t have the facilities, and the gathering places, and the places to play,” noted Sommers, “whether they’re athletic fields or community meeting [rooms] or all the things that happen in our 47 recreation centers [throughout Minneapolis] , it makes it tougher to have that type of [community] collaboration. And…the investments made in the facilities and facility enhancements were made in direct — very direct — collaboration based on what the community said they needed… That’s why they’re so successful.”

For more information on programs and activities offered at Minneapolis parks or to find out about volunteer opportunities, stop in to your local park, or visit MPRB’s website at www.minneapolisparks.org.

Jamal Denman welcomes reader responses to jdenman@spokesman-recorder.com. 

Claims of progress challenged

By Charles Hallman

Staff Writer

FIFTH IN A SERIES

According to 2010-11 and 2011-12 Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) suspension data, nine of 11 St. Paul suburban school districts reported Black double-digit suspension rates.

Although these districts reported lower Black suspension rates than other Twin Cities-area schools that the MSR has analyzed in previous reports, the rates, ranging from 13 to 37 percent, are still at least twice the overall Black student enrollments. The statewide Black suspension rate during the same period is 39 percent.

None of the districts the MSR contacted was able to provide breakdown data on the types of negative behaviors that produced these high rates of Black suspensions. A UCLA report released in April points out that nationwide most suspensions of Black students fall under the “insubordination” category.

University of St. Thomas Law Professor Nekima Levy-Pounds told the MSR that she is disturbed by what she calls “a misuse of discretion” by teachers and administrators regarding Black student suspensions.

“Black suspension rates both here in Roseville and at the state level remain unacceptably high,” admits Roseville Area Schools Director of Teaching and Learning Peter Olson-Skog of the district’s 31 percent Black suspension rate (377 of 1,229 total suspensions) The Roseville district’s overall Black student population is 14 percent.

The North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale district’s Black suspension rate is 27 percent (541 of 1,986 suspensions). “Those numbers are accurate,” confirmed Assistant Superintendent Troy Miller, who added that along with the district’s educational equity office they are “actively working to address” the issue. “We are aware that our rate of suspensions is disproportionate for our Black student population [15.6 percent].”

It’s a district-wide commitment, said Olson-Skog on several strategies now in place to lower Black suspensions, including teacher and staff cultural training, restorative justice, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (`) and “Courageous Conversations” programs.

PBIS “is a decision-making framework that guides selection, integration and implementation of the best evidence-based academic and behavioral practices for improving important academic and behavior outcomes for all students,” according to its website.

“I would like to see the evidence that it is as effective as the schools are saying,” stated Levy-Pounds of PBIS. “Obviously, if it is effective then it is something that should be utilized more regularly.” However, the professor added that she believes that schools tend to hire Blacks and other persons of color solely to run PBIS and similar type programs.

“These same people are not in front of the classroom, teaching the students,” she noted. “It’s almost like people of color are being hired to help control the behavior of students of color, yet they are not being given equal opportunity to either teach those students of color or serve in leadership [positions] in a particular school district. This is almost like a two-tier system being created, even among those who work inside of the school system.”

Almost a dozen Minnesota school districts are using Courageous Conversations, a training program developed by the Pacific Educational Group that helps teachers and staff address educational disparities, including lowering suspensions.

“Including kids and families in all conversations” regarding the issue of reducing suspensions also is important, stated Olson-Skog.

“We have made a significant effort to promote inter-cultural competence for all staff and to hire staff of color,” said Miller. “Our site-based equity and leadership teams are working to address this issue by strengthening family connections, making home visits, and working to build partnerships within the community.”

Along with Culturally Responsive Teaching, professional and leadership development, North St. Paul recently received an “Alternatives to Suspension” grant to specifically address the suspension issue “over the next five years.”

“We will continue to monitor this issue at a district and school level,” said Miller. “We still have work to do in this area, and we are committed to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed.”

“I think the paradigms that are being used to address the [suspension] problems in our public schools are off base — they’re flawed,” said Levy-Pounds. “When these kids aren’t in school, it is actually hindering their academic achievement because they are spending days at home. Maybe they are roaming the streets or sitting and watching television. Maybe they are engaging in unsavory activities because they are unsupervised while their parents are at work. They definitely are not learning.”

Levy-Pounds also warned against any “one-size-fits-all” approaches to solving the Black suspension problem. “They need to look specifically at what’s happening to Black kids in terms of how they are applying their disciplinary policies and whether the teaching is effective to meet the needs of these students,” she said.

“We believe we are making progress,” said Olson-Skog. “We’ll know more after we analyze this year’s data. The entire district — from the [school] board down — is aware of and committed to addressing the issue.

“We will not be satisfied until we remove the racial disproportionality of suspensions,” Olson-Skong, stated. “Our belief is that [Black] suspensions will go lower as we build stronger and stronger relationships with families and students.”

Next: A final look at district initiatives on reducing Black suspensions

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

To see more stories by Charles Hallman click HERE