Washington, D.C
Black Georgia veterans take ‘Honor Flight’ to D.C. in Juneteenth celebration of their service • Georgia Recorder
This Juneteeth, retired U.S. Air Force Captain Marian Dee Elder and 25 of her fellow Black veterans will board a plane in Atlanta and fly to Washington D.C.
There, this group will spend the day visiting various commemorative sites. They will share stories, shed tears and strengthen bonds forged by their unique experiences and challenges as Black servicemen and women.
Elder recalls that she faced discrimination and closed doors as a Black woman in the military. it was more difficult for Black soldiers to get promotions or selective duty stations, she said. Elder said she believes that racial discrimination has lessened since her enlistment, but she knows that there is a significant history of downplaying Black veterans’ contributions.
“This opportunity to go on this Juneteenth flight is just a way of, to me, a recognition that African Americans are important, did play a significant role in the military and it’s about time we got recognized,” Elder said.
In Washington, D.C., these Veterans will visit the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. When they return to Georgia Wednesday evening, the group will continue to celebrate Juneteenth and one another as they wrap up the inaugural Juneteenth “Honor Flight.”
Historically, Black veterans are some of the least recognized soldiers in American military history. African Americans have fought alongside white soldiers dating back to the American Revolution, throughout the World Wars and in conflicts overseas since then. Despite their equal service and sacrifice, for decades America’s Black veterans received a sliver of the recognition and celebration that white veterans did.
The Juneteenth tribute put together by the Honor Flight Network is a celebration tailor-made for veterans. Since 2005, the Honor Flight Network has provided veterans with all-expenses-paid round-trip flights to the United States capital, where they spend the day touring memorials.
This experience gives veterans from across Georgia are included in the chance to meet one another and memorialize history. The new Juneteenth Honor Flight is particularly special because Black veterans share a unique past that outsiders white veterans cannot fully comprehend.
John McCaskill, Honor Flight Network board member and historian, attests to the unique effect the flights have had on so many veterans.
“It is what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes called the ‘incommunicable experience of war,’” said McCaskill. “Unless you’ve experienced combat, you wouldn’t understand, and it wouldn’t do any good for [veterans] trying to explain it. They couldn’t explain it in a language that you could understand. But when they are around each other, it allows them to release some things and to heal from some things.”
Elder, or “Captain Dee” as she was called, began service in the Army in 1973 and went on to serve in the Navy before retiring from the Air Force in 1996. Elder primarily served delivering health care, beginning with driving ambulances and giving physical exams and then getting an associate’s degree in nursing to serve in the Navy and Air Force. She went on to become a flight nurse and retired as a captain.
Elder found out about the Juneteenth Honor Flight by word of mouth at a Veterans Affairs medical center and found herself especially interested in this special Juneteenth trip.
“Juneteenth, the holiday, is an important holiday for all African Americans,” said Elder. “That’s emancipation. So that was a sign of freedom, and as a veteran, I fought for our freedom while I was in the service during wartime. So it’s important that I can be a part – it’s like I’m making history.”
Juneteenth, a federal holiday since 2021, is an annual commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.
On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, freeing all enslaved people in the Confederate states. But the freedom didn’t spread to territory still controlled by Confederates. In Texas, freedom wasn’t realized until much later.
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and the army announced more than 200,000 enslaved people were freed, hence the celebration of the day as Juneteenth. In 2021, Congress designated June 19 as a federal holiday.
Georgians across the state celebrate this holiday in a variety of ways throughout the whole week. From the Taste of Juneteenth festival in Dublin last Saturday, the day-of Juneteenth Augusta Festival all the way to Savannah’s Juneteenth Fine Arts Festival next Saturday, Georgians are memorializing and celebrating.
The D.C. Council passed emergency legislation Tuesday that changes the city’s open meeting law to allow private meetings in certain situations. Critics of the measure are pouncing on the change, saying it would dramatically modify the way the city operates. But city officials insist it’s needed.
The D.C. Council passed emergency legislation Tuesday that changes the city’s open meetings law to allow private meetings in certain situations. Critics of the measure are pouncing on the change, saying it would dramatically modify the way the city operates. But city officials insist it’s needed.
Under this new law, council members will be allowed to have private meetings without the required two days of notice to the public, as long as the meeting is to discuss a possible terrorist threat, public health threats or to meet with the mayor. During those meetings, no votes or official actions can be taken.
Council Chairman Phil Mendelson argued that council members were not allowed to discuss items among themselves without the fear someone will claim they violated the current law.
“Sometimes we want to have a conversation, and they can’t be public, or we won’t have those conversations,” he said.
The council passed the emergency legislation 10-2. Once signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, the law will be enacted for 90 days, during which the council will consider what changes it wants in a permanent bill. It will hold a public hearing April 22 to discuss the matter.
Mendelson said with the Trump administration in office, it is almost impossible for city officials to privately discuss strategy without running afoul of open meetings. He said the current law hinders getting anything done.
The bill gives the city more flexibility, Mendelson said, when it comes to dealing with federal issues and interference from Congress, especially after lawmakers passed a recent spending bill that cut $1 billion from the city’s budget.
But critics of the law are pushing back.
In a lengthy letter to the D.C. Council, the D.C. Open Government Coalition said the bill poses a substantial threat to government transparency and should not be enacted without more public input.
The coalition argued the council could resolve the issues “more efficiently through the modification of its rules without exacting such a toll on public access,” noting the bills have been in the works since at least last October.
“Regardless of what the DECLARATION says, there is no emergency — no ‘situation that adversely affects the health, safety, welfare, or economic well-being of the District, its residents, its businesses, or other persons or entities,’” Coalition Chairman Robert S. Becker said in the letter.
The legislation also gives an open meeting exemption to “consequential, large-scale business and economic development,” such as the recently completed, nearly $1 billion deal with Monumental Sports & Entertainment to remodel Capital One Arena.
Critics of the legislation say the timing is unusual, especially since the city, Washington Commanders and NFL could begin negotiations for a new stadium and they feel that information will be kept secret.
However, a city official told WTOP no member of the council has had any negotiations or discussions with the Commanders or the NFL about building a new stadium at the RFK Stadium campus and Mayor Muriel Bowser is the one taking part in those discussions.
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Washington, D.C
Black Lives Matter Plaza’s end — like its beginning — is a barometer of the times – WTOP News
WASHINGTON (AP) — It started as an ordinary D.C. intersection — a tourist destination with a modest white church on…
WASHINGTON (AP) — It started as an ordinary D.C. intersection — a tourist destination with a modest white church on the corner, notable largely for an unobstructed view of the White House across Lafayette Park. Then, in the pandemic summer of 2020, it transformed.
The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police turned the nexus of 16th and H streets into a focal point for decades-old grievances over police brutality and racial inequities.
Even before it was named Black Lives Matter Plaza, thousands of protesters descended there daily, many staying around the clock as support tents and infrastructure sprung up. At times, the protests turned violent: A groundskeeper building in the park burned down; the church, St. John’s Episcopal, briefly caught fire; and at least one night saw storefronts destroyed downtown.
At other times, the violence was directed at protesters, including when police abruptly used chemical agents to clear out protesters, so President Donald Trump could pose in front of St. John’s holding a Bible.
Later that year, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the creation of Black Lives Matter Plaza, with official street signs and “Black Lives Matter” painted in giant yellow letters on a multiblock stretch of 16th Street. The move was symbolic, but the impact concrete: BLM Plaza became a magnet point for years of political activism. Hundreds of protests started, ended or rallied there. Semipermanent protesters mingled with tourists; crowds brought vendors and food trucks, creating a street-fair vibe.
But Bowser’s move was derided by local activists, who accused her of co-opting an organic movement whose values she did not share. In a brief game of cat-and-mouse, activists erased the stars from the Washington, D.C., flag painted on the street, creating the image of an equal sign; they temporarily changed the message to “Black Lives Matter = Defund the Police.”
Despite local resistance, Bowser’s act of public defiance established her as a prominent foil for Trump in his first term.
Now, the site has changed again, an indicator of America’s political pendulum swings. Bowser announced early this month that the city would remove the words as she struggled with threats of encroachment from Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.
The work was supposed to take at least six weeks, but appears to be finishing ahead of schedule. Workers have completed removing the letters.
And the street signs reading Black Lives Matter Plaza have come down.
___
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WASHINGTON – A much cooler and breezy Tuesday across the Washington, D.C. region after Monday featured 85-degree temperatures and a night of storms that brought wind and rain to the area.
Expect partly sunny skies with highs in the upper-50s to the low-60s. FOX 5’s Tucker Barnes says we will warm up later this week but with it will come unsettled weather.
A mostly clear and chilly overnight with cool conditions still present Wednesday morning.
The region will have the chance for showers and storms starting on Thursday and each day through the weekend. Highs near 80 degrees on Thursday.
The Source: FOX 5 DC & National Weather Service
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