Midday

In June, 1921, White mobs destroyed Tulsa Oklahoma’s Greenwood neighborhood, a thriving African American community known as Black Wall Street. An estimated 200 - 300 African Americans were killed during the attack. Perhaps as many as 10,000 people were left homeless.

There has been renewed interest in this bloody chapter in America’s history because President Trump is set to hold a campaign rally in Tulsa tomorrow. The rally was originally scheduled to take place today, on Juneteenth, but the date was changed after a national outcry.

Washington Post reporter DeNeen L. Brown joins Tom to discuss the significance of Juneteenth, and the sacred space that the Tulsa massacre holds in our history, and its significance for race relations in the current moment.

You can read DeNeen L. Brown's moving essay, "Black people are tired of trying to explain racism," here.

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Streets around the world remain filled with protesters demanding that police be “de-funded.” Today on Midday, a police perspective on the intensifying calls to defund and reform the nation's police departments.

Tom is joined by Officer Seth Templeton, a beat cop in Baltimore County who wrote an open letter in the Baltimore Sun to a protester, hoping to bridge the gap between demonstrators and law enforcement; Chief Melvin Russell, who served in the Baltimore City Police Department for 40 years; and Matthew Horace, a 28-year veteran of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and author of The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement.

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Nationally, the United States ranks 26th in the world in voter turnout. It remains to be seen whether more voters will embrace the power they yield at the ballot box in November.

Tom’s guest is Kim Wehle, a constitutional scholar who has written a primer on voting: how voting differs from state to state, what the structural barriers are to voting, and how those barriers can be overcome. Wehle is a law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and a legal commentator for CBS News.

Her last book was called "How to Read the Constitution and Why." Her new book is "What You Need to Know About Voting and Why."

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Now, a look at how restaurants are adapting to "the new normal." The National Restaurant Association estimates that about 40% of US restaurants will be forced to close because of the pandemic. Many will never re-open. Here in Maryland, indoor dining is now allowed in many jurisdictions, although not yet here in Baltimore City.

Later in this program, we'll be joined by two chef-owners of restaurants here in Baltimore City. Alex Perez is the owner and executive chef of Papi Cuisine, a six-year-old custom catering service and recently, a brick-and-mortar Fells Point eatery serving Afro-Cuban fusion and traditional Dominican food. Khari Parker is the owner and executive chef of Connie’s Chicken and Waffles, a family-style sit-down and take-out eatery he founded in 2016 with his brother Shawn, now with four locations in Lexington and Broadway Markets, Charles Plaza and in Wilmington, Delaware.

But Tom begins with Martha Lucius, a former Charm City restaurant owner who is now working as an independent restaurant strategist. Dave Seel is a founder and principal with Blue Fork Marketing, a firm that caters to clients in the food and hospitality industries. At the start of the pandemic shutdown three months ago, Seel set up the Baltimore Restaurant Relief Fund. Lucius and Seel join Tom on the line from their homes in Baltimore.

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All 50 states are in some phase of re-opening their economies after a few weeks, and in some cases several months, of lockdown. Here in Maryland, health officials announced another day of fewer than 400 new cases of COVID-19, and the statewide positivity rate has dropped to 6.2%. It’s been 10 weeks since we’ve had as few COVID patients in ICU beds as we do now, and as of yesterday (6/15/20), overall hospitalizations had dropped for 20 days in a row. With 150+ testing sites now open, state officials hope that many more people will be tested in the coming weeks.

These trends propelled Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to announce last Wednesday further easing of restrictions for a greater number of businesses. Indoor dining is now allowed in many jurisdictions, and as of Friday, gyms and malls will also be allowed to re-open.

Tom's first guest today is considered one of the world’s leading experts on infectious diseases, and at a media briefing last week he expressed concerns about the pace at which our state, and others, are re-opening. Dr. Tom Inglesby is the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has served on Governor Hogan’s Coronavirus Response Team since the governor announced a state of emergency in early March. Dr. Inglesby joins us via Skype.

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We are nearly three weeks into sustained worldwide protests over the Minneapolis police killing last month of George Floyd. On Friday night, a white police officer in Atlanta named Garrett Rolfe killed a 27 year old Black man, Rayshard Brooks, as he fled after failing a sobriety test. Brooks had taken a Taser gun from another officer and pointed it, and possibly fired it at Rolfe. The coroner has declared Brooks’ death a homicide. Rolfe has been fired, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating.

This latest incident has further intensified calls for reform of police use-of-force policies, and growing demands in cities across the country to “defund the police.” The Baltimore City Council met virtually on Friday night to discuss cuts to the Baltimore Police Department budget. The US Senate and the House are considering federal legislation, and leaders in Annapolis have vowed that police reform will be a high priority in the next General Assembly...

Some call for reform within traditional law enforcement structures; others advocate for reallocating funds from police to social services.

So far this year in Baltimore, 146 people have been victims of homicide. If police departments are de-funded or abolished altogether, can entities other than police adequately safeguard communities wracked by almost daily violence?

Later in this hour Tom talks with Alex Vitale, an associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the director of the Policing and Social Justice Project. Dr. Vitale is also the author of The End of Policing and a proponent of new paradigms for public safety and security. Then, Tom speaks with historian Dr. Terry Anne Scott, an associate professor and specialist in African American history at Hood College.

But Tom begins today with DeRay Mckesson, who has concentrated his activism on reducing police violence for years. He’s a co-founder of Campaign Zero, a national movement for police reform that recently launched what it calls the 8 Can’t Wait project, a prescription for police departments designed to curb the use of force against civilians. DeRay Mckesson joins us on the line from New York City.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

A Middle River crab house has become a flashpoint in the struggle for social justice in Maryland.

On June 1st, Vince Meyer, the owner and operator of Vince’s Crab House wrote on Facebook, “There is one place I bet the protesters/rioters won’t light on fire or break into or even block the road to .... the social services buildings.”

Tom's guest is local activist Kellie Vaughan, who organized the protests against Vince’s Crab House.

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If history repeats itself and the Democratic nominees for local offices prevail in November, a new cadre of progressive leaders will take a sharp left turn on their way to Baltimore City Hall, where they will assume responsibility for the COVID 19 pandemic, the re-build of the local economy, a persistent murder rate and the reform of a police department.

Political strategist Sophia Silbergeld and WYPR City Hall reporter Emily Sullivan join Tom with Analysis.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

At the heart of Gov. Hogan’s plan to reopen the state economy are increased testing for COVID-19 and contact tracing. The state has tested more than 460,000 people and deployed 1,400 contact tracers so far. Vickie Fretwell is special assistant and senior advisor in the office of Maryland Health Secretary Robert R. Neall. And she is leading the Maryland Health Department’s new statewide effort to educate the public about contact tracing.

An important note: If a contact tracer for the state calls, your phone's caller ID will read MD COVID, and the call will come from this number: 240-466-4488. The Health Department's simple message: Please answer the call.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

A new coalition of local business leaders, foundations and the union that represents journalists at The Baltimore Sun have banded together to try once again to buy the paper so that it is locally owned, and then turn it into a nonprofit.The group has launched a campaign called Save Our Sun, and two of its leaders join Tom.

Liz Bowie is a Sun reporter and a leader of the Baltimore Sun Guild. Matt Gallagher is the president and CEO of the Goldseker Foundation, one of the philanthropic organizations that would help fund the purchase, if the current owners agree to a sale.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.