Gant connected workforce development directly to the night\u2019s theme. \u201cWhen you can understand where we fit into society,\u201d he said, \u201cthat is freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tina Baltimore, founder of the Sacramento Line Dancers, also was recognized. Baltimore said she began teaching line dancing more than two decades ago after a personal turning point, building what has since grown to roughly a dozen classes across the Sacramento area. Former students now teach their own classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed something to do, something that could make a difference, something that could leave a lasting noise,\u201d Baltimore said. \u201cAnd clearly, it has.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also honored were Stevante Clark, executive director of the I Am Sac Foundation, and Cheryl Brownlee, owner of CB Communications.<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019ve Become Desensitized\u2019<\/p>\n
Clark, known for his public advocacy following the 2018 police killing of his brother Stephon Clark, spoke about recent police violence \u2014 including the death of a 1-year-old child in Mississippi and a school resource officer incident in Fairfield.<\/p>\n
He said he was considering traveling to Mississippi to stand in solidarity with the family, who since have retained attorney Ben Crump. He also renewed his call to replace school resource officers with community-based mentors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have brothers that can relate to the people, they\u2019re not feeling like they\u2019re in some kind of militarized facility,\u201d Clark said. He cited organizations including Brother to Brother Neighborhood Mentoring and the Young Gentlemen\u2019s Program as models.<\/p>\n
Clark placed the killings in a broader pattern. He said law enforcement officers are held accountable in fewer than 2% of cases involving the deaths of civilians, while Black people \u2014 who make up roughly 14% of the U.S. population \u2014 account for approximately 28% of those killed by law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to get away with murder in America, go join law enforcement,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThe message has been clear: Black lives don\u2019t matter \u2014 at least from that side.\u201d<\/p>\n
He expressed concern that the relentlessness of the violence has numbed the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a country, we have become desensitized to the killings of young Black men and babies,\u201d Clark said. \u201cAll of it, all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Kevin McCarty noted during the program that this year marked the first time the City of Sacramento officially recognized Juneteenth \u2014 a milestone that lent added significance to an event Sacramento Juneteenth Inc. has sustained for more than two decades without municipal backing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gant connected workforce development directly to the night\u2019s theme. \u201cWhen you can understand where we fit into society,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[153441,32957,15636,9739,121,123,122,6095],"class_list":["post-379332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-black-press","tag-juneteenth","tag-police-reform","tag-print","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-voting-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}