Bring It On! – WFHB

This program originally aired on February 5, 2024:

Today Bring It On!’s hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Micthell, spend the hour with Jim Sms and Beverly Calender Anderson.

When Bring It On launched in 2005, Jim Sims was the first co-anchor, along with Delia Alexander. Jim was employed at Indiana University – Residential Programs and Services Division (31 years) and additionally served as Council liaison to the City of Bloomington Utilities (among other council board, commission, and committee appointments), as President of the Monroe County NAACP, and as Chair for Second Baptist Church Trustee Board. Jim is the second African American to ever serve on Bloomington City Council, where he also served as Council President and At-Large Representative.

Beverly Calender Anderson has enjoyed a long tenure as one of the distinctive voices as an anchor for Bring It On! For more than 18 years Beverly has served the City of Bloomington in the Community and Family Resources Department. First as the director of Safe and Civil Cities (9+ years) and then as director of the department (9+ years). She is a longtime leader in the community, through her roles with the City of Bloomington, and countless other community-based roles on boards and commissions. She serves as an inspiration to women in local government and social services. She leads humbly but firmly, she encourages creative solutions to new problems, mentors and supports others, and she is willing to go above and beyond her job description to serve our community. Among her many recognitions, in 2021, she was bestowed the distinction as a Women Excel Bloomington Honoree.

Credits:

This program originally aired on June 5, 2023:

On today’s edition of Bring It On!,  hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell, speak with Diana Daniels of the Lick Creek African American Settlement. These settlers were free citizens who fled racial persecution and increasingly restrictive laws for free blacks in their previous homes in North Carolina. Traveling with the Quakers offered some protection on their journey and the promise of supportive neighbors upon their arrival. According to the census records, 96 blacks were living in Orange County in 1820. As more blacks came into the area, they purchased land from the United States of America (patented) in what we now call the Lick Creek African American Settlement area.

Credits:

This aired originally on November 6, 2023. On Friday, April 26, 2024, this program won First Place for Outstanding Contributions in Reporting Events of Public Importance from the Indiana Chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists.

On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell, explore what the term woke really means.  To help us better understand the concept and origins of “Wokeness”, Artina Carter, Chief of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the Huron-Clinton MetroParks in Southeast Michigan, joins them.

CREDITS:

This is a rebroadcast from August 17, 2020.

Hosts Cornelius Wright and Amnita Myers discuss the 1921 Tulsa/Greenwood Race Massacre with Liz Mitchel, a regular Bring It On! anchor and producer of award-winning WFHB segment “Dark Past, Bring Future”, and Professor Jewell Parker-Rhodes, bestselling novelist and award-winning academic.

The Tulsa Race Massacre occurred over the span of two days in 1921,  from May 31 to June 1, when mobs of whites from the area indiscriminately attacked and often killed the black residents, especially those living in the Greenwood District of Tulsa. The white mobs went on to destroy more than 35 square blocks of what was then the wealthiest black community in the United States, which was dubbed the “Black Wall Street”.

In mid-June, Donald Trump was widely criticized as extremely insensitive to this tragedy when he scheduled his “Keep America Great” rally in Tulsa, OK shortly after the Massacre’s 99-year anniversary and on, and then rescheduled to the day after, Juneteenth.  With the spark of the massacre starting with the arrest of 19-year-old black  Dick Rowland for the assault of Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white, rumors had spread that Rowland was going to be lynched. Reportedly, 75 black men, some armed, arrived at the jail to ensure that would not happen. After reassurance from the sheriff,  while the group of black men was leaving the jail, a member of the white mob already assembled at the jail attempted to disarm one of the black men. A shot was fired, and, according to the sheriff, “all hell broke loose”.

Many members of the white mob were deputized and armed by city officials.  It is estimated that more than 800 black residents were hospitalized and up to 6,000 black residents were detained, many for several days. Officially, 36 were killed in the Race Massacre, but historians have estimated that anywhere from 75 to 300 were killed. Black Wall Street was left in ashes.

Professor Jewell Parker Rhodes and Liz Mitchell come to Bring It On! to help us understand this tragedy and its long-lasting psychological and economic impact on the black communities in Tulsa and throughout the United States.

CREDITS:

On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell, spend the hour with Bo Peterson. Bo Petersen has been a successful professional actor, theatre director, dialogue coach, and voice-over artist for the past 45 years. Her experience is rich and varied. She has appeared on stage, television, radio, and film. While working as a dialogue coach, she was fortunate to work with the great, late Sydney Poitier and Michael Caine. She is a South African, living in the USA.

This Tuesday, April 16th at 7 p.m. on the IU campus, in the Great Hall of the Hutton Honors College, Bo Petersen performs her one-woman play, which explores her family’s. She unveils her father’s hidden life during apartheid. This play delves into the complexities of identity and the impact of historical injustices. More than a play, it’s a powerful exploration of transgenerational trauma and a call to break free from silence. Bo believes in theatre’s power to heal across generations. “Pieces of Me” is a catalyst for change, an ode to resilience, and a beacon of hope for a South Africa grappling with its tumultuous history.

At the midpoint of the program, we also take time to remember Nelson Mandela by airing the speech he made upon his release from prison in which he called for the end of apartheid.

Credits:

This program originally aired on February 19, 2024:

On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Bone and Liz Mitchell, speak with Leon Bates, local Indianapolis historian and former guest of Bring It On!, and Judith Thomas, Deputy Mayor of Neighborhood Engagement for the City of Indianapolis, about respecting the remains from Greenlawn Cemetery as the land is being developed. In addition, the city is putting together a commission to recommend how best to memorialize the history of Greenlawn once the bridge project is complete.

Eunice Trotter, director of Indiana Landmarks’ Black Heritage Preservation Program, said they have found city death records for a decade of the late 1800s showing hundreds of Black residents were buried in Greenlawn. City officials say they plan to disturb as little of the site as possible. They have hired an archeologist to examine the ground as construction progresses and look for signs of burials. If remains are found, work in the area will stop and everything will be documented and processed, according to the city.

Diamond Chain bought a portion of the site in 1913 for its manufacturing facility and remains have been discovered there over the years. That portion of the property is now being turned into Eleven Park, the massive mixed-use development that will include Indy Eleven’s new 20,000-seat soccer stadium, and historians expect more remains will be uncovered during the construction. Eunice Trotter, director of Indiana Landmarks’ Black Heritage Preservation Program, said they have found city death records for a decade of the late 1800s showing hundreds of Black residents were buried in Greenlawn.

Credits:

This program originally aired on August 21, 2023:

On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell, spend the hour with Dr. Marvin Dunn. Dr. Dunn is fighting against the potential miseducation of countless children and young adults in Florida. He is here to discuss his efforts to combat this miseducation and the current state of racial politics in Florida.

Last Wednesday, August 16, 2023, before the first day of school for the Miami-Dade County school system, he led a march to protest the new education curriculum standards instituted by the Republican Governor Ron DeSantis that affect the teaching of Black history. This is part of a larger effort by DeSantis to purge what he calls “woke” idealogy in Florida.

Earlier this year, DeSantis had rejected the College Board’s AP African American Studies course for high school students because it included lessons on diaspora reparations, Black LGBTQIA+ studies, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. He has also barred instruction in schools that suggests anyone is privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin color, according to a CNN report. The new curriculum teaches that some Black people benefited from being enslaved because they learned useful skills.

Dr. Dunn was joined by some members of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, who then were holding a conference in Miami. Tennessee state Representative Justin Pearson also joined the protest. Rep. Pearson, along with fellow representative Justin James, had recently been voted back into office, after being expelled for calling out state Republicans for failing to pass gun control laws after the Covenant School mass shooting in Nashville.

The union representing around 150,000 Florida teachers, the Florida Education Association, called these new curriculum changes  “a disservice to Florida students and are a big step backward for a state that has required teaching African American history since 1994.” One of the most controversial aspects of these new standards includes teaching that some Blacks benefited from chattel slavery by learning useful skills. Further, these new curriculum changes include teaching that the Rosewood massacre was instigated by when a black man shot two white men who came onto his porch, rather than that a white woman falsely accused a Black man of assault.

Dr. Dunn has been leading “Teach No Lies” tours that take teachers and young people to places like Rosewood, Florida. Officially, it is recorded that the Rosewood Massacre of 1923 led to the killing of six Black residents and the fleeing of the rest of its black residents. Many say, however, that the death toll was much higher. By the massacre’s end, all but one of Rosewood’s buildings had been burned down. No law enforcement agency ever did an investigation, nor were there any criminal charges.

Dr. Dunn is a professor emeritus at Florida International University, and the author of many books, including A History of Florida: Through Black Eyes, where he writes:

Almost all of Florida’s painful racial past has been whitewashed, marginalized, or buried intentionally. But I was born here. I know Florida’s flowers and her warts.

He is also a co-founder of the Miami Center for Racial Justice. He began giving his Tell No Lies Tours in response to the state’s escalating efforts to further whitewash Florida’s Black History.

On a personal front, Dr. Dunn recently saw his neighbor, David Emanuel, convicted on July 26 on six counts of federal hate crime charges for screaming the N-word and attempting to run him and five companions over in September 2022. Dr. Dunn, 83,  acquired his five-acre property across from Emanuel’s home back in 2008 and turned it into a park to “celebrate Rosewood heritage.” He is the only black homeowner currently in Rosewood.

Credits:

In this edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Gloria Howell, spend the hour with investigative reporter and documentarian, Sandra Chapman.

In 2001, Chapman aired on WISH-TV in Indianapolis a series of reports on the murder of Carol Jenkins. Jenkins was murdered on September 16, 1968, after a day of selling encyclopedias in Martinsville; thus, becoming known as a ‘sundown town’. After the airing of these reports, Chapman would later receive a phone call from a woman who claims to have seen her murder.

Credits:

Today’s hosts are Clarence Boone and Gloria Howell.

On this edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Liz Mitchell and Gloria Howell, speak with Resilence Production members, Gladys DeVane, Danielle Bruce, Erin Carter, Kate Braun and our Bring It On! Assistant Producer – Liz Mitchell. Resilience Productions is hosting a theatrical event dedicated to the invincible Pauli Murray – a gifted scholar, theorist, socio-political activist, essayist, poet, attorney, and Episcopal priest. Pauli Murray: I’ve Come Full Circle offers a rare glimpse into the life and contributions of a true 20th-century trailblazer.

Credits:

On this episode of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell, speak with Andrea Allen. She is the founder of RAD Travel Group, RAD Nurses Travel, and Travel Talk Tuesday.

Andrea has always loved travel, creating experiences, and planning. She believes that travel allows one to be exposed to different cultures, time for self-care, fun adventures, and so much more. Andrea loves to help others check destinations off their bucket list, meet new people, and build a community of friends.

Are you a busy and stressed-out mom and need a kid-free/guilt-free getaway? Or, do you want to learn how to prepare for and maximize your international travel? Well, these are a few of the exciting topics that Andrea Allen of Rad Travel joins us to talk about today.

Credits: