GREATER HOUSTON EDITION African-American News&Issues
July 12, 2024
“Addressing Current & Historical Realities Affecting Our Community”
Vol. 29, Issue 26
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The Negro who lives on the patronage of philanthropists is the most dangerous member of our society, because he is willing to turn back the clock of progress when his benefactors ask
him so to do.
- Marcus Garvey
PROJECT 2025
BRIAN JACK By: Shelley McKinley, Ed.D.
Brian Jack, CEO and Owner of Brian Jack Productions, LLC was born and raised in Dayton, Texas. Music seems to be his birthright since he watched and studied other family members as they performed in their zydeco and gospel bands and later picked up the accordion without any formal training. His mother is from Lebeau, LA and his father is from Barrett Station with roots in Elton and Washington, LA so time spent with extended family in Texas and Louisiana gave Brian the opportunity to learn how to play the guitar at 14 years old. Taught by his uncle in Louisiana, who played in zydeco bands,
and his uncle in Texas who had his own gospel group, Brian stated, “I got lessons from both uncles. I got lessons in Lebeau in the summertime from my mother’s brother and lessons from weekend to weekend from my father’s brother in the Crosby area.” On a trip to Baytown for boudin, Brian’s Godmother bought a toy accordion for her grandchildren, however they never played with them. “I asked my mother, ‘do you think she’ll give it to me?’ because I’m looking at a toy but once I fooled around with it, it was tuned and had the buttons and played like a real instrument,” Brian on pg. 3
Authoritarian regimes generally abolish or restrict civil liberties, concentrate political power, and impede and weaken free elections that allow for alternations of power. Authoritarian states might nominally contain democratic institutions such as political parties, legislatures, and elections, which are managed in such a way as to entrench authoritarian rule, for example gerrymandering and a restriction of social services, including education. Authoritarianism’s opposite is liberal democracy, which the bipartisan Freedom House, the oldest American institution defending global democracy, defines as encompassing much more than elections and majority rule. Liberal democracies are typified by governance based on Project on pg. 3