There are currently 456 juveniles serving life sentences in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. At a meeting held by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, community leaders discussed the concept of the school-to-prison pipeline, a system they say accounts for the large numbers of African-American male juveniles in the prison system. ONE HOOD—Jasiri X facilitates an ACLU discussion at the Amani International Coffee House in the North Side.
This week, A+ Schools launched their new School Works program, a community-based action initiative through which volunteers will interview Pittsburgh Public School District principals. The goal is to discover where there are inequities within the schools and to create an action plan for correcting those inequities. MARK BRENTLEY and CAREY HARRIS
Man sentenced Last Tuesday a Lawrenceville man was sentenced for the March 2007 killing of an 18-year-old outside of the Cotton Club on Webster Avenue in the Hill District. Common Pleas Judge Lester G. Nauhaus sentenced Kevin D. Coaston, 32, to eight-and-a-half to 20 years in prison for killing Jerrell Everett. Coaston was found guilty, in July at a non-jury trial, of third-degree homicide. During his trial witnesses testified to seeing him shoot Everett and running away with the gun.
What can you do when you’re raising your child’s child; you don’t believe in spanking; you don’t have a car; you don’t have the energy or strength you had 20 or 30 years ago; and you’re on a fixed income? Where can you go? Who can you talk to? PROUD GRANDPARENTS—Barbara Witherspoon, left, is founder of “It takes more than love.” With her is Betty Brown. These are the kinds of questions that motivated Barbara Witherspoon to get together with two other Wilkinsburg-area grandmothers in 2004 to discuss how they could help others facing the same challenges while raising their children’s children, which led to the establishment of “It Takes More Than Love: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.”
For every two American soldiers killed so far this year in the Iraq war, one person has been killed in Pittsburgh. It’s no secret that a large number of these local homicide victims have been African-Americans, accounting for 45 of the 64 deaths. LOOKING FOR ANSWERS—Moné Parker tells the crowd about the loss of her grandson. One Vision One Life, an organization working to curb these numbers, has been a pillar in the community after every homicide in recent years. After the death of 5-year-old Jaylon Johnson-Floyd, the youngest of all the 2009 victims, they took the lead at attempting to wake up the city to the violence in the Black community.
The loss of a life to senseless acts of violence is hard to cope with, but it is exceptionally hard when it is an innocent 5-year-old child who is asleep in his own home, like Jaylon Johnson-Floyd. There has to be a point where the community says enough is enough, not one more life. But what will it take to get to that point? It is a shame, when we, as a community, are holding vigils at what seems to be every other day due to these horrific acts that continue unabated.
On Oct. 3, more than 300 people gathered at the Northview Heights Bridge to begin the second Annual Women’s Walk for Peace. By the time they reached their destination in West Park, two miles later, their numbers had doubled. “No one is killing us, but us. These are our children. You have mothers whose children are in all kinds of trouble and they’re running around talking about, ‘my baby didn’t do that.’ Your baby did that and some and your baby did it because you let your baby do it.” BEV SMITH Meeting them head on in the park later that day was national radio personality Bev Smith with a tough message. She told the women to take responsibility for the violence in their community and to take a stand against it.
Outside his southeastern Pennsylvania district, or the U.S. Navy, Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak admits he is not well known. So, he’s not surprised to be trailing Sen. Arlen Specter by 44 percent to 25 percent in the latest Quinnipiac poll. But the primary election is still seven months away, and the first-term congressman and retired rear admiral plans to continue crisscrossing the state in the interim. JOE SESTAK
YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh marked its 140th anniversary with a symposium at the Westin Hotel Oct. 2. With the theme “Women Who Dare: Do They Make a Difference?,” the symposium featured a series of sessions and speeches from nationally renowned women and many of Pittsburgh’s own trailblazers. One of the afternoon’s keynote speakers was political commentator Donna Brazile who chairs the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute. Brazile addressed the role of women in politics, especially in last year’s presidential election.
The POISE Foundation recently announced the appointment of Karris M. Jackson to the position of vice president of programs effective Oct. 1. In this...
