Bring It On! – WFHB

Today’s program is a rebroadcast from June 9, 2025, in honor of the upcoming Juneteenth holiday on Thursday, June 19. We also invite you to celebrate the holiday at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Courtyard. This year’s celebration will feature a self-guided Black cultural walking tour, a cakewalk, food, music, and fellowship. They are located at 275 North Eagleson Avenue, and the celebration starts from Noon to 3 PM on June 19.

On June 24, there will also be a celebration of Black Music at the Blockhouse Bar at 8 PM, located at 205 S Collge Ave.

On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell spend the hour with Andrew Shannon, City of Bloomington Director of Safe and Civil Cities, and Bring It On Contributor, Dr. Gloria Howell, director of the IU Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, to discuss Bloomingtons’s celebration of Juneteenth.

The City of Bloomington invites the community to celebrate Juneteenth from 2 to 9 p.m. Friday, June 13,  at Switchyard Park, 1601 S. Rogers St.  The event is a free and family-friendly way to honor Black Americans’ history, resilience, and culture.  The holiday marks the historic moment on June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to proclaim the freedom of enslaved Black Americans, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Long celebrated by Black communities, Juneteenth became the 11th official federal holiday in 2021, recognizing its enduring importance in American history.

This year’s celebration will feature live entertainment beginning at 6:10 p.m. with DJ Darran Mosley, followed by a performance by Troy Thomas and Trumusiq at 7:15 p.m. Guests are invited to explore a vibrant vendor market featuring Black-owned businesses, enjoy a variety of food options from food truck vendors, and take part in health and wellness services provided on-site by the Bloomington Fire Department’s Mobile Integrated Health and Indiana University Hoosier Health Check teams. All activities will take place outdoors at Switchyard Park. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or picnic blankets and enjoy a meaningful celebration of freedom, culture, and unity. For more information, visit the City of Bloomington Juneteenth webpage at bloomington.in.gov/Juneteenth.

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In this edition of Bring It On!, hosts Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell spend the hour with Natalia Almanza of the Indiana University Arts and Humanities Council; Dr. Olivia Ekeh, faculty member in the IU African American and African Diaspora Studies; and, our good friend and BIO contributor, Dr. Gloria Howell, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, to talk about all the happenings surrounding Black Music Month, the Bloomington Granfalloon Festival, and the upcoming visit by Mavis Staples.

Black Music Month, traditionally celebrated each June, honors the profound contributions of Black artists to the development and evolution of music across genres. From jazz and blues to soul, R&B, hip-hop, and beyond, Black musicians have shaped the soundscape of the world and continue to influence global music culture today. This month will also host the Bloomington Granfalloon.

The Granfalloon is presented by the IU Arts and Humanities Council and is inspired by legendary Hoosier author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Granfalloon brings together musicians, artists, thinkers, and good people from all walks of life for a celebration of art, ideas, and community. The festival kicks off the Bloomington summer arts season.

The Bloomington Granfalloon festival events occur in venues all around Bloomington and encompass a wide range of creative forms, including live music concerts, literary readings, art exhibits, film screenings, theatrical performances, panel discussions, craft workshops, and interactive demonstrations. This year’s special Granfalloon festival is legendary performing artists, activists, and the musician, Mavis Staples of the famed singing group, The Staples Singers.

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On today’s edition of Bring It On!, host Clarence Boone spends the hour with Jim Sims, Dr. Charlie Nelms, and Dr. Gloria Howell to shed light on the continuing controversy surrounding Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith and offer their perspectives on what the political and educational horizon looks like in Indiana.

On Monday, May 19, Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith faced tough questions on race and education during an Ellettsville town hall. According to Ethan Sandweiss of Indiana Public Media, Beckwith met with some of his most dissatisfied constituents. An hour before the meeting, opponents had already showed up in force. Clergy, activists, and elected officials arranged a ‘Rally against Racism’ protest against Beckwith’s controversial defense of the three-fifths compromise.

Beckwith had contradicted mainstream historians, arguing that the 18th-century agreement to count enslaved Black people as three-fifths of a person when determining the number of seats in Congress was intended to limit the power of slaveholding states. Bring it On! had addressed this erroneous view during our May 5th broadcast.

President of the Monroe County NAACP, Jim Sims, was not buying Beckwith’s explanation but said it’s not from the lieutenant governor that he’s asking for accountability. “I think Beckwith has shown his true character. Now, just as importantly, I wonder as I’m sure you do too, why hasn’t Governor Braun denounced his lieutenant governor’s attempt to distort this historical narrative?” Braun appeared to rebuke Beckwith for his comments in April, but Sims believes his response was insufficient.

Also, it should be noted that on May 22, Indiana University announced that:

Because “Silence is not an Option!” on tonight’s edition of Bring It On!, we are here for a discussion on the DEI dismantling efforts in Indiana and the Nation.

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On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell spend the hour discussing recent Indiana Senate Bill 289, which aims to repeal provisions concerning university diversity committees and prohibit unlawful discrimination in education, public employment, and licensure.

Sen. La Keisha Jackson, D-Indianapolis, called the bill a “fight against racial equality.” Meanwhile, Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith has erroneously claimed that the Three-Fifths Compromise was a decisive step towards ending slavery.  The Indiana Black Legislative Caucus (IBLC) has condemned Beckwith’s statement as inaccurate.

In summary, State Rep. Earl Harris Jr. (D-East Chicago), chair of the IBLC, condemns the Three-Fifths Compromise as a strategy rooted in Southern Slave owners’ efforts to institutionalize the idea that African-Americans are less than a person while also ensuring Southern states a greater share of political power, thereby, strenthening the institution of slavery, within the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Although nullified by the 14th and 15th Amendments, ratified in 1868 and 1870, which granted equal Constitutional rights to all, the corrosive effects of systemic racism still adversely affected the civil rights of the formerly disenfranchised and their descendants.

Here to shed more light upon this controversy and to delve into the history of the Three-Fifths Compromise is Robin Winston, a political strategist and former State Democratic Party Chair.  In 1999, he made history when he became the first African American to chair a major political party in Indiana. We are also joined by State Rep Cherrish Pryor, who has served as a legislator in the Indiana House of Representatives since November 4, 2008. She is currently the Indiana House Democratic Caucus Floor Leader and is a member of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus. And finally, Leon Bates, a local Indianapolis historian who focuses on areas of Urban History, including Education, Housing, Labor, Medicine, Policing, Violence, and the Intersection of Race.

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This program originally aired on March 25, 2024:

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.

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Today’s hosts are Clarence Boone and Gloria Howell.

On today’s edition of Bring It On!, host Clarence Boone spends the hour with April Hennessey, the board president of the Monroe County Community School Corporation, and Dountonia S. Batts, a community advocate and board member of the Indiana Coalition of Public Education (ICPE). They discuss the impact of Trump’s most recent executive order, which directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to start dismantling the Department of Education.

Congressional approval, however, would be needed to fully abolish the department. Trump said that he hoped Democrats would vote in favor of legislation to do that. Seated at the signing was Indiana Governor Mike Braun, whom the President warmly acknowledged. Trump’s agenda seems to be matched also Indiana. Not only is Governor Braun a supporter of Trump’s agenda, but, on January 8, 2025, Indiana Representative Jake Teshka, Jeffrey Thompson, and Timothy O’Brien introduced Indiana House Bill 1136 for consideration. HB 1136 provides that:

“…if more than 50% of students who have legal settlement in a school corporation were enrolled in a school that is not operated by the school corporation on the 2024 fall average daily membership count date, the school corporation must be dissolved and all public schools of the school corporation must be transitioned to operating as charter schools. Establishes a new governing board, requirements, and procedures regarding the dissolution and reorganization of the applicable school corporations.”

To date, this legislation appears to be dead in the legislature.

Here to shed light upon this Executive Order by Donald Trump, proposed educational bills in the Indiana legislature, and their views on charter and public schools are April Hennessey, board president of the Monroe County Community School Corporation, and Dountonia S. Batts, community advocate and board member of the Indiana Coalition of Public Education (ICPE).

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This program originally aired on February 17, 2025:

On this President’s Day, not even a month into the second term of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America, uncertainty and chaos have escalated to unprecedented levels through the use of seemingly haphazard presidential executive orders and decrees from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) that face little to no oversight from an apparently impotent Republican Congress.

We are currently witnessing a dismantling of established federal agencies by an unelected billionaire with no resistance from a muted Republican-led Congress. Closer to home in Indiana, within hours of being inaugurated as Governor Mike Braun, signed a flurry of detrimental Executive Orders, such as Executive Order #25-14 which states executive branch state agencies may not use state funds or resources to “support diversity, equity or inclusion positions, departments, activities, procedures or programs if they grant preferential treatment based upon one person’s particular race, color, ethnicity, or national origin, over that of another person.”

On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell, tackle this issue with former University Chancellor, Dr. Charlie Nelms, and Director of Undergraduate Studies in African American and African Diaspora Studies, Dr. Valerie Grim.

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On today’s edition of Bring It On!, host Clarence Boone spends the hour with Indiana University doctoral student, Latonya Wilson, and fellow MLK Commission member and Bring It On contributor, Dr. Gloria Howell, the director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, to discuss the 57th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination on April 4, 1968. Further, as representatives of the City of Bloomington’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Commission, Latonya Wilson and Dr. Gloria Howell explore the historical significance of his life and death and his legacy of social justice.

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On tonight’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell spend the evening speaking with, first, with Jael Davise, the recipient of the City of Bloomington’s Commission on the Status of Women’s 2025 “Young Woman of the Year”. Next, we then talk with Danielle Bruce, the Director of Resilience Productions. She is here to discuss the Remarkable Women’s Series, which features an evening retrospect on the inspiring life of Judge Viola Taliaferro.

Credits: Today’s hosts are Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell.