The March for the Animals is The Maryland SPCA’s largest annual fundraiser, attracting thousands and thousands of participants (along with their furry companions!) Featuring a 1.5 mile walk, pet costume contests and other activities, an agility course for dogs, obedience demos, a “flealess” market of pet-friendly vendors, adoptable animals from The Maryland SPCA and other local rescues, games, prizes and much, much more, the March for the Animals is fun for the whole family!

I’m Rojo! The Coolest Dog on the Block!

I am walking with my favorite person Debbi  and all of my other animal friends Sunday, April 19th, 2009 9:00 A.M. Come on out for a fun day in the park.

This is my neighbor ROJO  (RED) and we are asking that you go to the Maryland SPCA web page to make a donation because he is so cool. He protects the building and even brings in my recycling bin when he sees it on the sidewalk.

Make a pledge online at this link  March for the Animals

Or Join us in beautiful Druid Hill Park!

MapQuest Directions to Druid Hill Park

Schedule of Events, See you at the Park!

All donations go directly to provide care, shelter, food, spay/neuter and medication to the animals in our adoption center.

Your donations enable us to operate our adoption center, which places more than 3,000 pets a year into loving homes.

With no government funding or money from national animal welfare organizations, The March for the Animals raises critical funds needed to care for the animals while they await their new homes.

The Maryland SPCA. 1869 – 2009. Dedicated to improving the lives of animals for 140 years.

The Education of a phenomenal man -  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.  Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

I was nine years old before the Civil Rights became real to me after seeing pictures of people knocked down to the ground with fire hoses and dogs dragging them and nipping at their legs.  I felt sad to see only Black people treated that way for standing up equal rights and equal treatment.

By the time Dr. King was nine years old he had already been skipped ahead in school because he started the first grade at age four when his sister was entering the same grade at age six.  Throughout his education, Dr. King was exposed to the influences of Christian theology and how it impacted the struggles of oppressed people.

At Morehouse, Crozer, and Boston University, he studied the teachings on nonviolent protest of Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi.

King also read and heard the sermons of white Protestant ministers who preached against American racism. Benjamin E. Mays, president of Morehouse and a leader in the national community became vitally  important in shaping Dr. King’s theological development.

In looking at the first 23 years of his life before he married Corretta Scott at age 24, ask yourself what have you been doing with your education.

•    Age One
o    When he was only a year old his father received his undergraduate degree in Theology from Morehouse College in 1930
•    Age 2
o    His maternal grandfather AD Williams dies of a heart attack
•    Age 3
o    Started nursery school at age 3 in 1932 (rare in that time period)
•    Age 4
o    1933 King, Jr., enters the first grade at Yonge Street Elementary School with his six-year-old sister, Christine.
•    Age 5
o    1934 King, Jr., reveals to his first-grade teacher that he is only five years old and is expelled from school.
•    Age 6
o    1935 King, Jr., reenters the first grade at Yonge Street Elementary School and after half a year advances to the second grade
o    1936 King, Jr., is baptized after Ebenezer’s two-week annual revival, led by guest evangelist Rev. H. H. Coleman of Macedonia Baptist Church in Detroit.
o    1936 King, Jr., enters the third grade at Atlanta’s David T. Howard Colored Elementary School
•    Age 7
o    1937 King, Jr., enters the fourth grade at Howard Elementary School.
•    Age 8
o    1938 King, Jr., enters the fifth grade at Howard Elementary School.
•   Age 9
o    1939 King, Jr., enters the sixth grade at Howard Elementary School.
o    1939 King, Jr., and members of Ebenezer’s choir sing at the Junior League gala ball celebrating the premiere of Gone with the Wind at Loew’s Grand Theater in Atlanta
•    Age 10
o    1940 King, Jr., graduates from Howard Elementary School.
o    1940 King, Jr., enters the seventh grade at Atlanta University Laboratory School.
•    Age 11
o    1941 The King family moves from 501 Auburn Avenue to 193 Boulevard.
•    Age 13
o    1942  King, Jr., becomes the youngest assistant manager of a newspaper delivery station for the Atlanta Journal.
o    1942 January After half a year in the eighth grade at Atlanta University Laboratory School, King, Jr., enrolls in the ninth grade.
o    1942 September King, Jr., enters the tenth grade at Booker T. Washington High School.
•    Age 14
o    1943  September King, Jr., enters the eleventh grade at Booker T. Washington High School.
•    Age 15
o    1944 April King, Jr., wins the right to represent Booker T. Washington High School in the state competition of the Elks’ oratorical contest.
o    1944  April – King travels to Dublin, Georgia, to deliver his oration “The Negro and the Constitution.” Although he does not win the contest, his speech is later printed in the Booker T. Washington High School yearbook, The Cornellian.
o    1944 Summer King, Jr., participates in a summer work program for Morehouse students, picking tobacco on a farm in Simsbury, Connecticut. At the end of the summer, King, Jr., is admitted to Morehouse College as an early admissions student.
o    1944 September King begins his freshman year at Morehouse, taking Freshman Mathematics, Church History, Composition and Reading, History of Civilization, and Introduction to Biology.
•    Age 16
o    1945 September King, Jr., accompanies King, Sr., as he leads the Atlanta delegation to the National Baptist Convention in Detroit
o    1945 King, Jr., begins his sophomore year at Morehouse, taking Elementary French, Introduction to General Literature, Introduction to Sociology, Matter and Energy, General Psychology, and Educational Psychology.
•    Age 17
o    1946 As a sophomore at Morehouse, King, Jr., wins second prize in the John L. Webb Oratorical Contest.
o    1946 Summer King, Jr., quits his job as a laborer at the Atlanta Railway Express Company when a white foreman calls him “nigger.”
o    1946 September King, Jr., begins his junior year at Morehouse; his courses include Shakespeare, the Bible, American Literature, Intermediate French, Contemporary Social Trends, Social Anthropology, and a seminar in Sociology.
•    Age 18
o    1947 Jan/Feb King, Jr.’s article, “The Purpose of Education” is published in the Morehouse student paper, the Maroon Tiger.
o    1947 March King, Jr., is elected chair of the membership committee of the Atlanta NAACP Youth Council in a meeting on the Morehouse College campus.
o    1947 Summer King, Jr., works on a tobacco farm in Simsbury, Connecticut.
o    1947 September King, Jr., begins his senior year at Morehouse College, enrolling in Social Psychology, Classics in English, Social Institutions, Social Legislation, Urban Sociology, Intercultural Relations, Introduction to Philosophy, Principles and Methods of Statistics, and a seminar in Sociology.
o    Fall 1947 King, Jr., preaches a trial sermon at Ebenezer.
•    Age 19
o    1948 King, Jr., wins second prize in the John L. Webb Oratorical Contest.
o    1948 February King, Jr., offers the prayer at graveside memorial services for former Morehouse College presidents John Hope and Samuel H. Archer.
o    1948 February King, Jr., is ordained and appointed assistant pastor at Ebenezer.
o    1948 King, Jr., accepts Crozer’s offer of admission.
o    1948 April King, Jr., preaches “Life is What You Make It” in the morning and “The Meaning of Christian Living” in the evening at Liberty Baptist Church in Atlanta.
o    June 1948 King, Jr., receives his bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Morehouse and Christine King receives her bachelor of arts degree in economics from Spelman College. Age 19
o    Summer 1948 King, Jr., serves as assistant pastor of Ebenezer.
o    July 1948 King, Jr., is guest speaker at a meeting of the Negro Cultural League at Ebenezer.
o    August 1948 King, Jr., delivers sermon at Ebenezer’s evening service on “External Versus Internal Religion.”
o    August 1948 King, Jr., preaches at Ebenezer’s morning service on “God’s Kingdom First.”
o    September 1948 During the first term of his first year at Crozer Theological Seminary, King takes Public Speaking, Preaching Ministry of the Church, Introduction to the Old Testament, Orientation for Juniors, Choir, and Church Music.
•    Age 20
o    February 1949 King, Jr., is enrolled in Christian Mysticism, Practice Preaching, and Public Speaking.
•   Age 21
o    September 1950 King, Jr., enters his senior year at Crozer, taking courses on American Christianity–Colonial Period, Minister’s Use of the Radio, and Religious Development of Personality. He serves as student pastor at the First Baptist Church in Queens, New York.
•   Age 22
o    September 1951 King, Jr., audits courses on the Problems of Esthetics and Kant at the University of Pennsylvania.
o    February 1951 King, Jr., enrolls in Philosophy of Religion and Theological Integration at Crozer.
o    December Nov 1950/ Feb 1951  King, Jr., is accepted as a student in the Post-Graduate School of the Faculty of Divinity at Edinburgh University, Scotland.
o    January 1951 King, Jr., is accepted as a student in the Post-Graduate School of the Faculty of Divinity at Edinburgh University, Scotland.
o    Feb 1951 King, Jr., takes the Graduate Record Examination.
o    Feb – May 1951 King, Jr., is enrolled in Advanced Philosophy of Religion, Christian Social Philosophy, and Christianity and Society.
o    May 1951 King, Jr., graduates from Crozer with a bachelor of divinity degree, delivering the valedictory address at commencement. He receives both the Pearl Plafker Memorial Award as the graduating student who, “in the judgment of the faculty, has been the outstanding member of his class during his course in the seminary,” and the J. Lewis Crozer Fellowship, which provides $1,200 toward graduate school.

In the next decade Dr. King meets Correct Scott and gets married at the age of 24, then become the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Civil Rights Movement took hold and American was swept up in protest against segreation, lynchings, bombings, the assassinations of Medgar Evers, President John F. Kennedy, Malcom X , more riots and violence leading up to his death.

The time line continues with from age 24 up to today when we celebrate the installation of the man we call Barack Obama to continue the legacy. We shall struggle no more.“Give Us The Ballot.”

It is widely known that the American Public School system has many problems that affect the quality of education resulting in low outcomes of our students ranking at the bottom of the list academically when compared to students in other industrialized countries. As a parent, I have a measured confidence in our public school system and frequently feel that there is no attainable solution to correct it. If you are low to middle income, you may not be able to afford a private school education or be available to educate your children at home. It does not hurt to bolster whatever work they are doing school with extra study assignments.

President Barack Obama’s mother woke him up at 4:30 a.m. to study before she went to workbecause that is the level of education she wanted for him, we have no excuse for not studying with our children so they get the most out the education that is available to them. Our children will model the behavior we demonstrate about education, if we do not value it, they will not see the importance of it either.

The alternatives to public school education are home-schooling or a private school. If you are feeling stifled with dissatisfaction about the conditions in your public schools funded by the taxes you pay, you must do take a stand. The anxiety that borders on helplessness can empower you to create a new interests in the education of your entire family, including yourself. Most working families are hard pressed to spend time at their local school beyond Parent/Teacher conferences and seasonal programs or sports events.

Less than two years ago as reported by John Stossel of 2020, a Gallup Poll survey indicated that 76 percent of Americans were completely or somewhat satisfied with their kids’ public school. The percentages for the current academic year could be significantly lower based on reaction to Charter Schools, standardized tests, violence, a lack of parental involvement. We have witnessed inadequate management of the school environment by the administration or local governing body. Reform of the licensing and certification requirements and increased salaries for teachers is long overdue. The cost of education per student is under funded at urban schools comparied to suburban schools due to thier socioeconomic status which deprives minority students of the opportunity for a solid education.

The NCLB (No Child Left Behind) program was designed as mandates set up to require schools and teachers to achieve acceptable passing scores on Nationalized academic tests. Schools are considered failing if they do not meet the goal of testing 95% of each nationality, and after three years of failure, the federal government withdraws its contribution for the education of poor children. To get this money back, the school must turn over large amounts of its budget to private companies.

Our schools are supposed to be a safe place for teaching and learning, free of crime and violence but students are often so out of control with no respect for teachers as authority figures. Teachers often are not connected to the students because they come from neighborhoods outside of the urban school they teach in where their students live. The expectations are somewhat unrealistic due a lack of understanding about African American or Hispanic family values and practices. Teachers are ready to teach and do their very best but cannot do what they are paid to do. Hispanic students were more likely than
White students to report being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.

Parental involvement is essential and is a combination of commitment and active participation on the part of the parent to the school and to the student. Parental involvement is non existent, at least for the students that need it the most. Parents feel unwelcome in their schools, and inadequate in their own educational achievements, others feel that education is not important. There are parents who are actively involved and informed about the everyday activities of their schools and students. Family participation should be mandatory and recognized as a key in successfully educating children. In inner-city communities, parental involvement is a challenge because of the negative experience so many parents have had in school.

Government mandates force teachers to plan scripted reading programs as part of the curriculum. These programs fail to meet federal testing standards and make it difficult to verify how effective they are. Benchmarks designed by the textbook companies are imposed on the whole school district and pacing guides determine how much time a teacher has to cover each topic in the textbook. This is followed with the test to measure outcomes. If a teacher focuses on a “teachable moment” like a historic presidential election of the first President of African American descent, they are seen as not being on the
script and the students fail the benchmarks set.

Is there a link between spending and student achievement funding due to socioeconomic status for minority students? Over 100,000 is spent over the 12 year career of a student from Kindergarten to 12th grade. John Stossl of 2020 revealed that Ben Chavis is a former public school principal who now runs an alternative charter school in Oakland, Calif., that spends thousands of dollars less per student than the surrounding public schools. He laughs at the public schools’ complaints about money. His school also thrives because the principal gets involved. Chavis shows up at every classroom and uses gimmicks like small cash payments to reward students for perfect attendance. He is a visable presence in his school not sitting in a chair behind a desk and the students know him.

The modern American educational system is filled with so many problems that students are not learning much as they should be and graduating with less knowledge or skills than students in other industrialized countries. School officials do not know how to deal with the nontraditional family because of constraints in the areas of concern and the solutions that they are permitted to use to improve parental involvement.

But there are inner city models of success, like the School Development Plan, created by James P. Comer, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. The Comer Plan for inner-city elementary schools focuses on social service recipients with dependent. Working mainly with a three part structure consisting of a management team, led by a principal and includes teachers, parents, counselors and other school staff members. The team has the power to set overall policy for the school. Secondly, parent involvement is increased due to the focused efforts of the team to recruit parents for organizing school events and serve as classroom assistants. Thirdly, intervention is provided for children who have emotional, behavioral or academic problems and identified early.

Are our children prepared for the intellectual demands of modern society? According to report card evaluation done by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “despite decades of reform efforts and many trillions of dollars in public investment, U.S. schools are not equipping our children with the skills and knowledge they-and the nation-so badly need.

Check out your school report card at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for your state.

I consider myself a revolutionary and have great respect for the individuals who paved the way for the freedoms we enjoy and sometimes take for granted today.

During the 1950’s when I was born, the battle against segregation and discrimination was being waged in the court system all the up way to the Supreme Court.

In many ways the tone and climate of the times influenced me to be a fighter for social justice and throughout my life I have always fought for the oppressed and those less fortunate. Mainly my causes have always been for women and children. Injustice is a serious issue for me and as a high school student I was involved in many protest for equal rights.

The United States Supreme Court is the highest court in the land where all cases and controversies come under review when it is a violation of the right to be protected under the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court is the custodial protector and voice of the Constitution with the authority to change legislation or presidential orders by ruling on a constitutional issue and creating a constitutional amendment or a new ruling.

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall grew up in Baltimore and throughout his career fought for revolutionary causes that contributed significantly to the struggle for the civil rights of African Americans. Born on July 2, 1908, the grandson of a slave, he became the first African-American appointed to serve as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

As a young man he attended Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania with talented individuals who also made significant contributions to history. Thurgood Marshall’s attended college along with famous classmates like Langston Hughes, Kwame Nkrumah and Cab Calloway.

While at Lincoln University, at that time Dean Charles Hamilton Houston further influenced the revolutionary spirit of Thurgood Marshall with a burning desire to maintain the integrity of the principles of the Constitution for all Americans not just for African Americans.

In 1930, at the age of 22 Thurgood Marshall experienced discrimination due to the color of his skin, when he applied and was denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School. Later he was accepted to the Howard University Law School that same year.

Dean Houston of Lincoln Univeristy is pivotal in challenging the “Separate but Equal” mandate in 1898 in which the Supreme Court ruling allowed legal segregation under the Constitution. As a result of the Plessy vs Ferguson case, the “separate but equal” – ruling meant that separate facilities for non whites, if equal, did not violate the Constitution.

In 1890 Louisiana law required railroads to provide “equal but separate” accommodations for the white, and colored, races. To protest the law, Homer Plessy allowed himself to be arrested because he refused to move from a seat reserved for whites and filed a lawsuit against the State of Louisiana for poor, not equal accomodations. The judge in this case determined that the law had been violated by Plessy’s protest, rejected his case and the case ended up in the Supreme Court.

Legal discrimination under the “separate but equal” doctrine prevented free Blacks from gaining access to equal opportunities they were entitled to as citizens. Racial division between the North and South was fueled by the self-interest of segregationist while Blacks were treated as second class citizens not worth receiving access to the same education whites received through the public school system.

At the age of 27 Thurgood Marshall, represented Donald Gaines Murray by arguing that Murray was denied “separate but equal” treatment because he was denied access the University of Maryland law school.  Thurgood Marshall was successful in integrating the University of Maryland as his first major case by suing the university to admit Mr. Murray. The Court of Appeals Judge Carroll T. Bond ruled that, in order to accommodate Plessy v. Ferguson, Murray could attend the institution but he had to remain separated from white students.

Throughout his life Thurgood Marshall fought for the oppressed in the United States many credit him as igniting the Civil Rights Movement by winning the case of Brown vs the Topeka Board of Education in the 1950’s. His victory overturned the “separate but equal” law and set a precedent as a major turning point to desegregate schools in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. The Supreme Court first heard the case on December 9, 1952, but failed to reach a decision until May 17, 1954.

The Supreme Court case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education enforced the 14th Amendment which guarantees all citizens the right to equal protection of the laws, but it did not put a stop to segregation in other public areas of life for non white people. Public places like restaurants and restrooms did not allow Blacks to use the same facilities as whites. The time line was not set for the desegregation of public schools. Discrimination continued in many areas inside of public schools even though the ruling established that deliberately committing or even tolerating segregation as unconstitutional.

I am thankful for the contributions of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall because without his courage to fight for the rights of others, I would not have the opportunity to write this article. Things would be definitely be different for me as a participant in the public education system.