AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH
February 18 - 24, 2021
VOL. 70, No. 7
Brrr! It’s cold
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Whopped by winter storm, area residents dig in, out
This Ida B. Wells illustration (I. Garland Penn., 1891) was published in The African-American mosaic, a Library of Congress resource guide for the study of black history and culture / Debra Newman Ham, ed. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1993.
by Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell
Special to The New Tri-State Defender
Brrr! And that is putting it mildly. It was cold as (insert you preferred word here), with snow levels deeper than the boots of some and traveling conditions that posed threats to life. Blankets of snowfall, icy roads and single-digit wind chills froze movement around the city this week. Monday’s (Feb. 15) temperatures plummeted to near zero as government offices shut down and COVID-19 vaccine stations canceled all appointments. Snow continued to blanket Memphis Wednesday (Feb. 17) evening, adding to the traffic misery. Wednesday’s temperatures remained in the low 20s, with windchill factors in the teens. Temperatures are expected to remain in the 20s Thursday, with a chance of more precipitation. The sun is forecast to reappear Friday, with temperatures in the high 20s. Icy conditions on roads and bridges continued to make travel dangerous for private citizens, disrupted the operations of emergency vehicles and impeded the delivery of goods and services. Grocery stores and fast-food restaurants limited their hours of operation, if not closed for business altogether. All the accompanying problems are plaguing households and businesses in a winter storm – broken water mains, burst pipes, frozen pipes under the sink and, power outages. Warming centers opened around the city, and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland declared a state of emergency as residents and businesses hunkered down and sheltered in place against the brutally cold conditions.
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Telling the story!
Jamal Hampton had his hands full playing in the snow. (Photos: Gary S. Whitlow/GSW Enterprises) The Memphis Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Management personnel worked to make sure people without shelter are taken to warming centers. Social service agencies and restaurants donated food to warming centers. Three meals a day were being served. Approximately 150 persons have sought shelter in warming centers, which have been opened 24 hours each day, according to officials. By Wednesday, two heavy snowfalls wrapped the city in 2-6 inches of snow. The area remained under a Winter Storm Warning set to expire Thursday evening. The virtual learning model adopted by Shelby County Schools has been unaffected by the snow and wintry weather. “There is no need for snow days because the students don’t have to
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Ida B. Wells’ legacy: a point of measurement, path forward by Erica R. Williams
Special to The New Tri-State Defender
“I’d rather go down in history as one lone Negro who dared to tell the government that it had done a dastardly thing than to save my skin by taking back what I said.” These words, credited to journalist and suffragist Ida B. Wells, underscore the courage of a woman who decided to make it her mission to expose racial injustices, even if it meant losing her life. Telling the truth, especially when marred with injustice and inequality, is no easy feat. For Wells, who was born into slavery during the Civil War, the price to pay for revealing such discrimination could be fatal. Still, she charged on, eventually launching an anti-lynching crusade, reporting on the gruesome acts that Tim Garfield shoveling a path in his driveway.
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SC officials to tackle racial disparity in COVID-19 vaxxing by Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell
Special to The New Tri-State Defender
Almost as quickly as the COVID-19 rollout of vaccines across the nation, a distribution disparity gap opened between communities of color and whites receiving the vaccines. According to an analysis of 17 states by the Associated Press, African Americans in each of those states were being vaccinated at levels well below their percentage of the general population. The numbers were the more re-
markable since African Americans represent a larger percentage of the nation’s healthcare workers designated for priority vaxxing. North Carolina and Mississippi were among the states releasing racial demographics. In North Carolina, African Americans make up 22 percent of the population and 26 percent of the healthcare workforce. However, only 11 percent of those vaccinated are African American. In Mississippi, 15 percent of vaccinations administered were given to
African Americans, while that community comprises 38 percent of coronavirus cases and 42 percent of total fatalities. The Racial Equity and Health Policy Program at the Kaiser Family Foundation said data currently being reported shows a “consistent pattern of a mismatch between who is receiving the vaccine and who has been hardest hit by the pandemic.” During a CNN town hall meeting Tuesday (Feb. 16) night, President Joe Biden addressed how his administration plans to combat the racial
disparities in COVID-19 vaccine distribution. “The biggest part of this is physical access,” Biden said. Tennessee’s numbers reflect a similarly growing racial gap in African Americans being vaccinated and those of their White counterparts. In a Shelby County Joint Task Force update Feb. 9, Shelby County Health Department data placed the total number of vaccines at 80,000. Of that number, the breakdown was 43 percent White, 22 percent African American, 14 percent classified as
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“other” and 19 percent unidentified. “I wasn’t surprised by the racial gap in vaccinations,” said Dr. Stanley Dowell, an internal medicine specialist in Memphis. “My patients are seniors, for the most part, and some of them have told me, ‘Hey, Doc, I don’t have a car,’ or ‘I can’t wait in line three or four hours to get the vaccine.’” Dowell said appointments are made online also, and many of his patients don’t have access to a com-
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