February 21, 2020

Inside this issue

• CCUSA Presents the Washington Weekly

  CCUSA Presents the Washington Weekly  
  This week lawmakers were home in their districts for the President's Day holiday. When lawmakers return to Washington they will begin discussions around appropriations. In other news, the federal government is appealing a judge's injunction on an Executive Order that allows states and localities to stop refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions.

Appropriations
It was announced that the House is set to kick-off appropriations season starting in late April. Appropriators are planning on subcommittee markups for FY21 on April 21st. They are planning on then following up with a full committee markup and adoption of subcommittee allocations on April 28th.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will follow tradition and allow the House to begin the process. The Senate Appropriations Committee has indicated that they would like to finish markups before the August recess.

The appropriations committee will divvy up nearly $1.4 trillion in discretionary spending among the various federal agencies. This is a roughly $5 billion spending increase over FY20. Last year lawmakers agreed to a two year spending deal setting topline spending levels for FY21 and allowing appropriators to exceed debt limits set in place through the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Refugee Ruling
On Tuesday the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a ruling by a U.S. District Judge in Maryland over President Trump's Executive Order allowing states and local governments the option to bar refugees from resettling in their communities.

The president's order was issued in September and was set to go into effect in June 2020. It required the U.S. State Department to receive written consent from state and local officials before resettling refugees in their jurisdictions. The White House argued that it has authority over the refugee resettlement process.

Stay tuned to Washington Weekly as this story continues to unfold.
 
Faith and the Common Good For the second week in a row, Beverly Earl was the first to identify Gloria Richardson as the leader of the Cambridge Movement in the early 1960s in Cambridge, Maryland.

There were many challenges in Cambridge, Maryland, especially for residents of the Second Ward.  Economic security was extremely hard to come by, with black unemployment in Cambridge at 30 to 40 percent in 1961. This was roughly four times the unemployment rate for the white residents of Cambridge.  White unemployment in Cambridge was actually double the national average-a result of the closing of the town's major employer, the Phillips Packing Company.

In the late 1950's, the two remaining large factories in the area, both defense contractors struck a deal with some residents and politicians in the area, the factories promised to hire only white workers in return for the workers rejecting any attempt at unionization.

In Cambridge, all lunch counters, cafes, churches and entertainment venues were either separated with white and black sections or had race-specific days. Schools were segregated and black children received half the funding of white children. Residents of the Second Ward were forced to travel two hours by car to Baltimore if they wanted to visit a hospital because the local Cambridge hospital would not admit them.

This was the climate of racism and oppression that gave birth to the Cambridge movement, a community-based effort, launched in 1963 by the residents of the Second Ward in Dorchester County, Maryland.  This led to a year-long stand-off between residents of Cambridge. Eventually, the struggle led to the desegregation of schools, hospitals and recreation areas in all of Maryland and the longest martial law deployment in the United States since 1877.
Gloria Richardson, leader of the Cambridge, Maryland Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC), was as tough as they come.

Ebony magazine dubbed her "The lady general of civil rights."
Gloria Richardson was drawn into the CNAC protests by her daughter, Donna Richardson, a high school student leader. Her efforts would cause some to call her "Glorious Gloria" and even "the Second Harriet Tubman".  In the spring of 1963 Gloria Richardson and the CNAC brought their demands for desegregation and economic equality to the local city council and began to hold demonstrations that lasted for several weeks.

Richardson was honored with five other women leaders by being seated on the stage at the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but none were allowed to speak to the crowd. 
A portrait of activist Gloria Richardson Dandridge was unveiled last week at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore.
 
For Courage to Do Justice
O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others
Open my ears that I may hear their cries;
Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,
Nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
And use me to bring them to those places.
And so open my eyes and my ears
That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.
- Alan Paton
 
Trivia In 1960, who was a leader of the Nashville sit-ins?
Please send your answers to [email protected]

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