2011 African-American Leadership Summit

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Presents:

 

2011 African-American Leadership Summit

Sharing Lessons in Emergency Management

 

Monday, August 1-Tuesday, August 2, 2011

 

Location To Be Announced

Washington, DC

 

*** Registration is free ***

This conference will build partnerships between FEMA and leaders in the national and local African-American communities. Leaders from all levels of government, non-profit, private sector, faith-based and community efforts will come together to discuss the whole community approach to emergency management. Join us to share resources and build relationships that will assist in better preparing your community to protect against, respond to and mitigate all hazards.

 

Please contact Andrea Williams with any questions at andrea.m.williams@dhs.gov or 202-646-2643

 

Andrea Maria Williams, M.L.A.

Intergovernmental Affairs Specialist

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Phone: 202-646-2643

Cell: 202-679-6128

Fax: 202-646-3208

Email: andrea.m.williams@dhs.gov

ONR Reflects on African-American Contributions

From Office of Naval Research Public Affairs

ARLINGTON, Va. (NNS) -- The Office of Naval Research celebrated African-American History Month with a speaking event at its Arlington, Va., headquarters, Feb. 22.

Rear Adm. Julius Caesar, Joint Concept Development and Experimentation vice director, U.S. Joint Forces Command, gave the keynote address, using the theme of "African-Americans and the Civil War" as the context for the lecture.

Caesar said that African-Americans are an influential American history and people as a whole have a pride for who they are, bringing them together as a group but also allowing them to be individuals.

"People have a natural sense of pride for where they come from," he said. "That sense of identity affirms the groups we are from and affirms you as an individual."

The audience learned the history of African-Americans' involvement in the Civil War, and how influential figures, such as Frederick Douglass, Civil War spy John Scobell and ship's pilot Robert Smalls, were important in defining American culture throughout history.

While stressing the inequalities that African-American troops encountered during the Civil War, Caesar also described how they played a decisive role in its outcome. More than 186,000 African-Americans served in 'negro' regiments and comprised nearly 10 percent of the Union Army. However, the casualty rate of the entire African-American troop contingent throughout the Civil War was more than 30 percent, which was 35 percent higher than their white counterparts.

"African-Americans were also paid 35 percent less than the white troops," he added. "And there were only 16 blacks who received the Medal of Honor during the Civil War."

This reality was portrayed in "The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union," a book Caesar cited during his speech, drawing anecdotal examples of both the oppression of African-American troops and their loyalty to the country.

"What it comes down to is that people want their freedom. African-Americans helped fight for, and build, this country. With that said, their contributions should never be overlooked," he said.

Caesar followed his discussion with a question and answer session where he addressed diversity in the Navy as well as his own personal motivations for pursuing a naval career.

There are currently more than 89,000 African-Americans serving in the Navy, comprising 18 percent of Navy enlisted personnel and 8 percent of naval officers. African-American History Month was founded by the writer, editor and historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926, to address and memorialize the significant achievements of African-Americans throughout history.

The Department of the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) provides the science and technology necessary to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps' technological advantage. Through its affiliates, ONR is a leader in science and technology with engagement in 50 states, 70 countries, 1,035 institutions of higher learning and 914 industry partners. ONR employs approximately 1,400 people, comprising uniformed, civilian and contract personnel, with additional employees at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C.

For more news from Office of Naval Research, visit www.navy.mil/local/onr/.

This article was sponsored by Military Leadership.

FBI Los Angeles Celebrates Black History Month and Historic Contributions by African-Americans

In celebration of Black History Month, the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office will host a presentation by Dr. Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, nationally renowned for assembling one of the largest private collections of African-American art and artifacts.

The Kinsey Collection, a diverse collection of African-American art, sculpture, literature, historical documents, and artifacts that spans four centuries of politics, art, literature, and culture, is known for engaging and inspiring people of all ages, races, and backgrounds. The collection reflects the unique experience of America's black heritage from the 1600s to the present.

The Kinseys have raised millions of dollars for numerous civic organizations and educational institutions. In 2008, the couple created the Bernard and Shirley Kinsey Foundation for the Arts and Education to promote education and understanding of African-American history and culture. The Kinseys have provided scholarships for over three hundred young people to attend college. Dr. Kinsey has served as an economic adviser to foreign governments.

"The FBI is committed to celebrate the history of leadership and accomplishments of the many diverse groups in America." said Steven M. Martinez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. "Black History Month is a celebration of American history, and provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the countless contributions that African Americans have made to this country."

American historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who was of African descent, inspired Black History Week. The first celebration occurred on February 12, 1926; and in 1976, this commemoration of black history in the United States was expanded to Black History Month. This year's national theme of "African-Americans and the Civil War" commemorates the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War.

For more information about African-American history in the FBI, please visit: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/february/history_021511/history_021511

Media are invited to attend this event. Please confirm attendance by contacting:

Laura Eimiller

FBI Press Relations

Los Angeles Field Office

310 996-3343

310 420-6441

laura.eimiller@ic.fbi.gov

http://losangeles.fbi.gov

www.labankrobbers.org

A Byte Out of History: Early African-American Agents

His commanding officer was “shell shocked” from the intense fighting, his company of soldiers poorly trained and ill-equipped. Yet, as World War I drew to a close in September 1918, an African-American Army captain named James Wormley Jones fearlessly fought on, pushing forward against German forces.

In less than 15 months, this brave officer would find himself serving the nation in another capacity—as a special agent of the Bureau of Investigation, as the FBI was known then. We believe, in fact, that he was one of the first—if not the first—of the early African-American agents who blazed a sometimes tough trail during a difficult era.

James Jones brought plenty of experience to our young organization. He’d served for many years as a D.C. police officer prior to joining the African-American Army regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers. And while stationed in Europe following the war, he was a senior instructor for his division’s school of specialists, teaching soldiers how to handle high-powered explosives and the mechanics of bombs and grenades.

We quickly put that expertise to work. As an agent, Jones was employed exclusively in an undercover capacity, working directly under the head of the General Intelligence Division (GID), future director J. Edgar Hoover. The GID had been created a few months before in response to recent terrorist bombings, and Jones’ talents and experience fit well with the division’s anti-terrorist mission.

We are aware of at least four other African-American agents who followed Jones in these early years of the Bureau:

■James Amos, a former bodyguard of President Theodore Roosevelt, joined the Bureau in August 1921. He was the longest-serving of these early black agents, working some of the Bureau’s biggest cases during his 32-year career.

■Earl F. Titus, after working as an Indianapolis police officer, joined the Bureau on January 9, 1922. His assignments included undercover work in the investigation of Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923. Titus retired in June 1924 at the age of 56.

■Arthur Lowell Brent became a special agent on August 1, 1923 after serving two years as a “special employee” (a sort of assistant investigator) in the Department of Justice. Brent was assigned to the Washington Field Office, where he worked on the Garvey case and other investigations. He left the Bureau in June 1924.

■Thomas Leon Jefferson—an experienced investigator who had worked for a detective agency in Chicago from about 1904 to 1921—entered the Bureau as an agent on September 22, 1922. Jefferson participated in many investigations, working on the Garvey case, car thefts, and prostitution/human trafficking matters. In November 1924, he was commended by Acting Director Hoover for his work on a bankruptcy investigation. Jefferson retired in January 1930.

Over time, other African-American agents would follow these path-breakers. Father and son agents Jesse and Robert Strider served in our L.A. office from the 1940s through the 1970s, tackling difficult fugitive investigations, military deserter matters, and other cases. They were joined in other field offices by Special Agents James Thomas Young, Harold August Carr, and Carl Vernon Mason, among others.

The careers of each of these agents, though exemplary, did reflect the struggles of the day. Unlike most investigators, some of these black agents were asked to handle lesser assignments outside their normal duties. Their struggles, though, paved the way for agents like Aubrey Lewis and James Barrow, who in 1962 became the first African-American agents accepted to the FBI Academy, ushering in a new era for minority agents in the Bureau.

This article was sponsored by Leadership Books.