#NNPA BlackPress
BHERC’s Operation Love Delivers Love, Easter Sunday Meals and Essential Goods to Seniors in Los Angeles Area
NNPA NEWSWIRE — “Operation Love” meals and gift baskets were delivered to seniors including retired nurses, caregivers and other that have labored in the community for many years among others. All have in some way or another added to the betterment of Los Angeles over the decades. “This small showing of love is both a practical and a heartfelt demonstration of the importance of our seniors. We want our seniors to know they have not been forgotten during this mandated and necessary physical distancing,” states Sandra Evers-Manly, president of the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC).
By Sentinel News Service
The Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC) continued its “Operation Love” outreach Sunday, April 12, 2020 in the Los Angeles area targeted towards seniors and those with “underlying” health conditions who have been extremely impacted and need assistance. This effort provided a heartwarming – from a distance — welfare check, Easter Sunday meal and gift basket of essential items for 100 seniors. The program has reached over 500 seniors since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic.
“Operation Love” meals and gift baskets were delivered to seniors including retired nurses, caregivers and others that have labored in the community for many years among others. All have in some way or another added to the betterment of Los Angeles over the decades. “This small showing of love is both a practical and a heartfelt demonstration of the importance of our seniors. We want our seniors to know they have not been forgotten during this mandated and necessary physical distancing,” states Sandra Evers-Manly, president of BHERC.
The gift basket included hard to find items such as: gloves, toilet paper, face masks, hand sanitizer, paper towels and various other essential items. The meals and baskets were prepared and delivered using City/State and CDC guidelines by a host of volunteers. Contributors to the gift baskets include the Barbershop Health Outreach Program (www.blackbarbershop.org), Dr. Bill Releford, founder, Mothers in Action, Tracy Mitchell, president and Larry Chapman, production coordinator, Record One Studio. “You thought of everything,” exclaimed recipient Millicent Newkirk. “You even thought to include the L.A. Sentinel and I have truly missed my paper!”
During this unprecedented time in our lives, this COVID-19 worldwide health and humanitarian pandemic is redefining the very way we live out our lives daily. In many instances, eclipsing the future of what daily work, education, entertainment and play will look like in the future for all of us. In addition to the need for essential supplies is the need for emotional support. “Operation Love delivers a strong message that you are not alone in these difficult times. We are with you!” remarked Evers-Manly.
At BHERC, this is the kind of action that has characterized the BHERC family, its friends and colleagues; a unique demonstration of enthusiastic, abiding support and responsive manner when called upon over the years. BHERC encourages everyone that can to act. “Let’s remind the ones around us how much they matter. Encourage them to stay strong and steadfast,” noted Evers-Manly.
The BHERC family encourages everyone to consider supporting a senior. You can:
- Call a senior to check on their well being
- If shopping (do so under City/State and CDC guidelines), pick up an item or two for a senior or someone in need (practice social distancing)
- Help with an online task
- Make a meal and drop off (practice social distancing)
- Send an online order to someone in need
It was an emotional day full of love and thanksgiving and the camaraderie BHERC members, community volunteers and members of the National Black Nurses Association participating in the distribution.
In addition to the focus on seniors, the BHERC Operation Love is focused on distributing masks to the homeless in Los Angeles and supporting the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA). Last week, the BHERC president contributed to the NBNA to create a special fund to support nurses on the front-line battling COVID19 and to curate an online instructional program for Nurses to Help Nurses. The NBNA donation will also provide 1000 masks for NBNA nurses and provide support for their distribution of masks and meals where chapters are located across the country. “Each and every one of us must reach out in a safe way to make sure vulnerable populations have someone to talk to, have medications and have enough food to eat during these difficult times,” expressed Dr. Martha A. Dawson, president of the National Black Nurses Association. “We are pleased to partner with Ms. Sandra Evers-Manly during these challenging times.”
Everyone can all join in the fight by making just a quick phone call or sending a simple text message. Keeping each other positive and reminding your neighbors and loved ones that even in our isolation, we are not alone. #BHERCStrongTogether
For more information about BHERC email bherc@bherc.org.
#NNPA BlackPress
Fighting to Keep Blackness
BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

By April Ryan
As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum
Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.
Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”
#NNPA BlackPress
Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

By Lauren Burke
In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.
On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.
All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.
#NNPA BlackPress
Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
The Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. While the president lacks the authority to unilaterally shut down the agency—requiring congressional approval—McMahon has been tasked with taking “all necessary steps” to reduce its role “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The administration justifies the move by claiming the department has spent over $1 trillion since its 1979 founding without improving student achievement. However, data from The Nation’s Report Card shows math scores have improved significantly since the 1990s, though reading levels have remained stagnant. The pandemic further widened achievement gaps, leaving many students behind.
The Education Department provides about 10% of public-school funding, primarily targeting low-income students, rural districts, and children with disabilities. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 61% of voters oppose Trump’s efforts to abolish the agency, while just 34% support it. In Washington, D.C., where student proficiency rates remain low—22% in math and 34% in English—federal funding is crucial. Serenity Brooker, an elementary education major, warned that cutting the department would worsen conditions in underfunded schools.
“D.C. testing scores aren’t very high right now, so cutting the Department of Education isn’t going to help that at all,” she told Hilltop News. A report from the Education Trust found that low-income schools in D.C. receive $2,200 less per student than wealthier districts, leading to shortages in essential classroom materials. The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.
The Office for Civil Rights also plays a key role in enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination. Moving it to the Department of Justice, as proposed in Project 2025, would make it harder for families to file complaints, leaving vulnerable students with fewer protections. Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and loan repayment plans, could face disruption if the department is dismantled. Experts warn this could worsen the student debt crisis, pushing more borrowers into default. “With funding cuts, they don’t have the materials they need, like books or things to help with math,” Brooker said. “It makes learning less fun for them.”
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