Category / Community

by Vickii Howell

Cooper Green Mercy Madness and The Healthcare Divide

I saw trouble coming when Maralyn Mosley called the GOP JeffCo commissioners who favored closing Cooper Green Mercy Hospital “cowards” and refused to be silent. When asked to leave the chambers and sheriff’s deputies surrounded her, she shouted, “If you want me out, you’ll have to carry me out! I’m not gonna leave these cowards in here!”

But I knew the war was on when Rev. Tommy Lewis, who earlier tried to calm Ms. Mosley and supporters who started singing “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round,” came out of the commission’s back chamber, where he and other civic leaders apparently tried to reason with the GOP commissioners. He waved his hand in the air, exclaiming that the commissioners wouldn’t act in good faith to reconsider their vote to end Cooper Green’s in-patient services.

Then Lewis – all 6-foot-8 of him – turned toward Commissioner Joe Knight, and looking down, wagged his finger in Knight’s face, and practically shouted , “Either you take this back to committee (for further discussion), or we’re all going to jail!” It’s only the beginning, he said later.

Thus the commission debate over Cooper Green Mercy Hospital – which provides medical services to the county’s poor, uninsured and underinsured residents – turned into a full-blown civil rights protest.

How did it come to this?

Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

Why I’m Glad Tommy Bice is Taking Charge of Birmingham City Schools

Tommy Bice impressed me the first time I met him. In fact, I think he impressed us all.

He was the first on the second of two panels at a townhall meeting that my organization,  the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists, sponsored to discuss the academic “crisis” in Birmingham City Schools. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

Obamacare and the State Takeover of Birmingham City Schools

As I thought about what to write about the Alabama Education Department’s decision to take over Birmingham City Schools, the Supreme Court also came out with its decision to essentially uphold the basic tenants of Obamacare.

Now, what am I gonna do? Write two columns? Not enough time. So, I decided to look for the existential meaning of both these events happening on the same day. I got my answer, from a good friend who’s been closely following both issues.

His point is really simple: people don’t like forced change, even if it turns out to be good for them. Continue reading →

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by Vickii Howell

Birmingham: Epicenter of the New Economics Movement?

On Wednesday Thursday, journalism colleague Kathy Times nationally launches her new website – aimed at improving the status of black-owned businesses – in Birmingham that is known as the universal vortex of the civil and human rights movement.

Where2Go411.com is an online destination to help connect black enterprises to local and national buyers, including city governments, school boards, counties, airport authorities, and other entities specifically seeking to aid the growth of these businesses.

Now, if you’re questioning the connection between Birmingham’s civil and human rights history and this announcement, please let me connect the dots for you. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

Education Shenanigans Do Not Take A Holiday

I was distressed this morning to hear that the Birmingham School Board hastily called together a 5 p.m.  meeting today – a religious holiday for most people – to discuss the contract of Superintendent Craig Witherspoon.

All the people who are reportedly not Dr. Witherspoon fans will be there. But several of his supporters, who had already planned to be out of town because of the holiday, won’t be there to have a say in what happens at this meeting.

For a while now, I have heard rumblings about plans to get rid of the superintendent, and it’s my fault for not taking enough time to learn exactly what problem(s) the grumblers were having with him. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

The Struggle Continues – Bloody Sunday and The 4-1-1

Black History Month officially ended yesterday, but the message it carries is as important today as it was on February 29 (or the 28th, if it hadn’t been for the leap year).

Black History is American History, so it has no one-month limit. And the struggle for equality, unfortunately, is far from over.

I try to get to Selma every first weekend in March for Bloody Sunday commemorations. If you don’t know what Bloody Sunday is, don’t feel bad. Until 6 years ago, I didn’t know either. The annual celebration includes the re-enactment of Selma’s civil rights leaders’ initial trek across the Edmund Pettus Bridge toward Montgomery on March, 7, 1965. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

February Events This Weekend and Beyond

As very connected folks in Birmingham, I’m sure you’re well abreast of the latest events going on across the city as February /Black History Month closes out.

I’m sure you know about Bill Cosby’s two performances tonight at the Alabama Theater to benefit Miles College. The Cos has been in the ‘Ham several times over the past year, working as he can to encourage and strengthen the community with his words of wit and wisdom. A good fatherly kick in the pants and advice can motivate us to do better. I hope that somehow his words can especially touch the hearts of some of our youth who seem headed for trouble, like the sage counsel former Judge J. Richmond Pearson shared last week with disgruntled teens at Huffman High.

But you may also want to check out the free film festival that’s going on right now. For Black History Month, the Carver Theatre is hosting the 5th annual E. Desmond Lee Africa World Documentary Film Festival (AWDFF). It’s open to the public and FREE, folks. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

Why Black History Month Is Important for Everyone

Renowned historian and author Carter G. Woodson started Negro History Week in 1926 as a way to highlight the contributions of African Americans in a country that distorted the historical records of their contributions.

After all, if black folks, being intellectually and morally inferior as individuals and as a group, had no record of having done anything of import to advance human civilization (according to the reasoning of racially chauvinistic of males in the dominant society in the 18th and 19th centuries),  then what is their worth? It was a sad rationale for racial oppression, without much consequence.

Woodson’s own research of African history – not to mention the work being done by his own American peers and plain ol’ common sense – roundly refuted such arguments. And he wanted black people to know what he knew, as a way to build their self esteem in a society that constantly pulverized it. And he wanted the world to know too, particularly because it would help eliminate prejudice among whites. So he chose February to start his campaign. Continue reading →