Black communities in greater Los Angeles and throughout the United States will observe Juneteenth with solemn memorials, spirited programs, singing and dancing, and a sense of jubilee.
The various celebrations, which will occur on Saturday, June 19, honor the end of slavery and the date that African Americans in the Confederate state of Texas learned that they were free, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
The rejoicing reached a higher level this week when the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
It is the first new federal holiday since 1983 when Congress established Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Juneteenth is perhaps the oldest African American holiday in the country.
According to documents and oral histories, 250,000 Blacks in Texas were still enslaved when Union troops marched into Galveston Bay on June 19, 1865, and read the executive decree that granted freedom to the slaves.
The day was eventually called Juneteenth, which some speculate is a combination of June and 19th, by the newly freed people.
The delay in telling the slaves that they were free was not uncommon at the time because, according to history.com, “the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t instantly free any enslaved people.
The proclamation only applied to places under Confederate control and not to slave-holding border states or rebel areas already under Union control. However, as Northern troops advanced into the Confederate South, many enslaved people fled behind Union lines.”
Even though Texas was part of the Confederacy, the state was not impacted by the decree and life continued as if the proclamation didn’t exist.
Also, the Civil War was likely not at the top-of-the-mind among White Texans since there were not huge battles taking place nor was there a significant presence of Union troops.
Therefore, the government operated as it always had – as a slave state.
But that situation came to an end once Union General Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3 on June 19, 1865: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” History.com reports that “celebrations broke out among newly freed Black people, and Juneteenth was born.”
Starting in 1866, African American communities in Texas hosted a variety of annual celebrations for Juneteenth, which was initially called Jubilee Day and later referred to as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day and other names. Activities ranged from prayer services to picnics to parades and pageants. As people moved from Texas to other states, Juneteenth celebrations were instituted across the nation.
Juneteenth commemorations gradually declined in the early through the mid-20th century, a circumstance that historians attribute to the increase of Jim Crow laws (thus dampening the enthusiasm to celebrate freedom) and Blacks searching for work migrating from rural areas to urban locations, which provided fewer opportunities to take time off for festivities.
The modern civil rights era brought renewed interest in Juneteenth. Battlefields.org cites “the Poor People's March planned by Martin Luther King Jr. [and carried out by Ralph Abernathy] was purposely scheduled to coincide with [June 19].
March participants took the celebrations back to their home states and soon the holiday was reborn.”
Currently, 48 states and the District of Columbia designate Juneteenth as either a state or ceremonial holiday.
“Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs, and reading of works by noted African American writers.
Celebrations can also take the form of rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, and Miss Juneteenth contests,” as recorded on battlefields.org.
Golden West College assembled a list of “Fun Facts About Juneteenth” on its website at goldenwestcollege.edu.
The fun facts include:
- It is the oldest known holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the US.
- Juneteenth is the title of a book by Ralph Ellison, an African American author.
- Strawberry soda pop was once a popular drink associated with celebrating the day.
- The Juneteenth Flag of Freedom is half red and half blue with a star in the middle.
If you read Everett Sands bio or check out his LinkedIn, you’d see all the standard prestige that you’d expect from a bank CEO. Ivy League education and corporate experience at both a Black- owned bank and then, what most would call up and onward to a pristine career in banking at Wells Fargo. 
But Everett Sands and Lendistry are much more than just your typical bank or lending institution, and Sands is much more than your typical bank CEO.
Sands says Lendistry, is the perfect formula combining the speed and convenience of technology, the knowledge and guidance of responsible lending professionals, and the investment capital of social impactors and national banks. Sands says, “Our mission is to provide economic opportunities and progressive growth for small business owners, and their underserved communities, as a source of financing and financial education. Responsible lending for the benefit of both small business owners and investors, is at the core of Lendistry’s culture.”
Sands took time out of his busy schedule to speak directly with the Sentinel; he wanted the community to know that both he and Lendistry are so much more than your typical lending institution.
Sands graduated high school from the prestigious college prep school, St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania where he received a BA in Japanese Economics. This educational foundation equipped Sands with the knowledge necessary to lead a traditional lending institution, but Sands says it is his personal and family experiences which drive him to make Lendistry the largest and Black-lead lending institution in the country. He says his motivation started with his grandfather who in 1939 opened the first tailoring shop and school in Washington, D.C. He says his grandfather’s business was very successful and that his grandfather was the first African American to receive a contract from the U.S. Army.
He says his grandfather’s business grew, but like so many Black-owned businesses, some bad financial and tax advice ultimately hurt the business. That experience is what drives Sands to help every business. “By understanding what happened to my grandfather, I look at every business as if they are [my] grandfather and if not but for Lendistry or Everett, maybe their business doesn’t grow, their business has to consolidate.”
Sands says this is the motivation that inspires him to work longer, harder, and push his team to heights like very few banks have ever achieved. “Business is a great builder of wealth in our community. Wishing I was there for him (my grandfather), he is definitely part of the fire that keeps me going,” says Sands.
When the COVID pandemic began to effect local businesses, the State of California allocated $500 million to assist small and minority-owned businesses, but they needed a qualified financial institution to administer the program. In comes Lendistry, who competed and won the opportunity to serve as the administrator for the California Relief Grant (CRG). Sands says that when they received this award, they had to coordinate services for over 60 different financial institutions and received over 344,000 applications in just 44 days. But Lendistry was up to the challenge. Sand says by leveraging the systems, their lending alga-rhythms, by leveraging our people, and their technology. “We were not only able to service the $500 million in state funding, but the State of California added another $2 billion to the CRG Program, bringing the total available dollars $2.575 billion and making it the largest state program in the country,” said Sands.
But Sands says that Lendistry is much more than just an administer of State funds, Lendistry has three separate client funding sources. One is a partnership with several banks who either don’t have the lending products or resources to fund small local businesses. He explained, “We have about 50 bank partners who use us to invest or deploy capital. When we started, it was about credit profiles, but no, it’s also about operational efficiency.” Lendistry can play a part in working with small and local businesses to help them obtain the capital necessary that traditional banks cannot.
The other role Lendistry plays is in administering funds for governmental institutions like the County or the California Relief Grant. Lendistry has the capability to compete with any of the larger financial institutions, and because of their hands-on and personal approach to business evaluation, feel they can do a far better job than the traditional lending institutions.
The other part of Lendistry is serving as a traditional Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Lendistry funds small businesses with a variety of lending programs, with lines of credit with term loans and even supports commercial real estate investments. Sands says business is the best resource to building wealth within the African American community. He says that investing in a business, especially here in California, is a better way to build wealth than buying real estate. “Especially here in California, a person can often buy two or three franchises for what it costs to invest in a home or duplex.”
The other key service that Sands takes great pride in is The Center for Strategic Economic Studies and Institutional Development. This non-profit 501(c)3 was started in Baltimore MD to help African Americans expand their business. The founder was Joy Bramble, the owner of the Baltimore Times, one of several local African American newspapers owned by Bramble and her family.
Sands points out that the Center for Strategic Economic Studies and Institutional Development is older than Lendistry by 16 years. Joy’s son, David Bramble serves as chairman of the non-profit's board and together, he and Sands have managed to leverage individuals who have had great success inside of the Los Angeles Community. They developed a program that provides one-on-one counseling based on businesses’ needs, along with online education to assist businesses and business owners to reach a level of operations that makes sustainability possible. Sands says that the program is run by Constance Anderson who serves as the program’s president.
“Before taking the helm of the Center for Strategic Economic Studies and Institutional Development, Constance ran the largest small business development company in CA, but now we have been able to leverage her skill set along with Lendistry’s technical skills to create a program that does so much more than just business development,” Sands said. He pointed out that Lendistry and the center have several strategic partnerships with companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Eco System, as well as Metro Link project. Sands explained, “Our staff and our partners are committed to doing whatever it takes to make our clients and their businesses better. Sometimes it’s a mom-and-pop company trying to understand financials, sometimes it’s a business looking to grow or assistance with business procurement. We look at all these challenges and help these businesses position themselves for growth.”
Lendistry and Sands are looking at a variety of opportunities in the area and they want to make sure that their clients and business partners are ready when the opportunity presents itself. Sands points out that they are looking at events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics coming to Los Angeles, and point out that LAX is constantly growing, including all the Metro lines under construction.
“We want our clients to be able to seize these opportunities. We are looking at helping business growth through construction procurement, how to get a bond, how to fill out applications,” Sands said. Whatever it is, Lendistry and The Center for Strategic Economic Studies and Institutional Development are sister organizations; one handles technical assistance and business advising and the other handles capital, but together, they work to ensure that none of our clients miss the opportunity.
“Lendistry does about $4 to $5 billion of lending, which makes them one of the top minority lenders; we have intentionality to helping minority businesses, but we really just want to be the best and help as many businesses as we can,” stated Sands.
Lendistry is not trying to only be a small business lender. Sands says that Lendistry has plans to expand in the fourth quarter of this year. He says they are looking to launch a new consumer lending program. But Sands says this program is not a traditional individual consumer lending program, but more of a consumer business lending program. “We’re not really talking about consumer lending to individuals, it is really looking to find ways to fund small business. Let businesses focus on their core business with a ‘buy now, pay later’ approach. We’re saying to our customers we already finance you, now let us finance your customers. What we’re hoping is that we free up small business to do what they do best,” he said.
Sands gives this example of their planning: We will finance a dentist; we will give her working capital for her to grow her business. Now, a family wants to buy braces for a couple of thousand dollars. She can offer financing for the braces to her customer. We give her the money up front, so she doesn’t have to worry about cash flow. We do what we do best, which is lend money and collect the payments. We think this is going to be fairly enterprising program for African American businesses in our community.” He says it’s not a new idea; if you’re a baby boomer it was called layaway, Gen X & Z called this 0% credit and Millennials, they now call it buy now, pay later. We call it whatever marketing calls it, and for this generation, it’s called buy now, pay later. But we do think it will be a phenomenal resource; were just trying to help small businesses.
Sands says that he has a never stop, never give up approach to Lendistry. He points out that the tradition PPP has closed. He says that the only lenders still loaning PPP funds are CDFI’s. He says when people asked if he was going to close his PPP program he said, “Absolutely Not. My grandfather may still be out there looking for help, so If I have to stay up later, if we have to work harder, I have excepted and accepted that task.”
There are a lot of community development and finance programs out there, but Sands points out that what makes Lendistry different is the community. “Our people, our people make us unique. We care and we’ve been there before. What makes us unique to the small business owner, is we think about them. We have great products, we provide great service, we employ a mentality that is missing today, but was around when we were younger. We’re trying to be a game changer. We’re going to take on bigger projects with the mentality and the hope factor. It’s like when Obama got elected President. We said OK, we can do this!”
Sands says he hopes Lendistry is not the only Black lending institution that’s loaning billions of dollars. He says that while the billions of dollars they are lending is good, he believes they should be lending trillions of dollars. “I want us to be trailblazers; I hope we are not only paving the way for those small businesses to be able to receive funds. But I think it’s important that we are sitting at the table when the rules are being created for capital deployment. That’s how we will have the right rules in place for the different federal and state programs.”
Everett Sands says what keeps him pushing to move Lendistry to the top is that he knows there’s a young person out there who is thinking about a career in finance or thinking of starting a business; he wants to make sure that the future dreamers have someone that looks like them showing them the way. Then maybe, they will say, “If he did it so can I.”
On the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a 51-48 vote in the U.S. Senate seals Kristen Clarke’s place in history: the first woman, the first woman of color, and the first Black woman to receive Senate confirmation to head the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Civil Rights Division.
The largely partisan vote included Maine’s U.S. Senator Susan Collins as the only Republican to support the historic confirmation.
After years of rollbacks to hard-won racial progress, Ms. Clarke and all of DOJ are poised to correct, reverse, and advance ‘justice for all’ as a genuine reality instead of a slogan. The COVID-19 pandemic and recession have thrown into sharp view vast health disparities and economic inequities.
Much of Black America has suffered in ways that harkened back to Jim Crow and its separate, but never equal status.
For Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, Clarke’s nomination is as significant as it is promising.
“At this moment in history, filling this Division, the Civil Rights Division, on the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder on the streets of Minnesota, we are confirming the first woman of color in the history of the United States to head this Division,” said Sen. Durbin.
“It is an historic choice… It shouldn’t be trivialized by ignoring the many endorsements she received because of her good life’s work, having spent her entire career defending the civil rights of all Americans.”
“Kristen Clarke is the right person at the right time to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights,” said Center for Responsible Lending Federal Advocacy Director and Senior Counsel Ashley Harrington.
Her vast experience in civil rights law reflects our country’s challenges – from fighting against mortgage discrimination and a grossly inequitable criminal justice system to taking on hate crimes and voter suppression aimed at denying Black and brown people the right to vote. We are excited for Ms. Clarke to take the helm in protecting the civil rights of all Americans.”
Since a new Administration began this January, a series of hopeful signs signal that regressive and harmful practices will be challenged in the name of justice.
Nominated on January 7 by President Biden, his remarks noted Clarke’s nomination for both its significance and opportunity.
“The Civil Rights Division represents the moral center of the Department of Justice. And the heart of that fundamental American ideal that we’re all created equal and all deserve to be treated equally,” said President Biden. “I’m honored you accepted the call to return to make real the promise for all Americans.”
Soon thereafter, a tsunami of endorsements for Clarke’s confirmation highlighted national and diverse support for her service. Her backers included labor unions, environmental activists, law enforcement officials, along with legal colleagues and civil rights leaders.
Perhaps one of the earliest and most poignant expressions came from John W. Marshall, the son of the nation’s first Black Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall. Penned on behalf of his family, the February 9 letter to U.S. Senate leadership drew a key historic connection.
“Ms. Clarke is a pathbreaking lawyer, like my father, who built her career advancing civil rights and equal justice under the law, and breaking barriers through her leadership for people of color while making our nation better for everyone,” wrote Mr. Marshall.
His letter also shared an eye-opening example of Ms. Clarke’s groundbreaking work in civil rights. “Ms. Clarke has successfully utilized the law as a vehicle for advancing equality, as my father did.
For example, she successfully represented Taylor Dumpson, who was targeted for a hate crime after her election as American University’s first female Black student body president.”
Similarly, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, the NAACP, advised Senate leadership before its scheduled confirmation hearing of its support for Ms. Clarke.
On April 12, Derrick Johnson, its President and CEO wrote, “The NAACP believes that Ms. Clarke is exceptionally suited to oversee the Civil Rights Division at a time when people of color have suffered devastating harm at the hands of law enforcement. She is the leader we need to ensure local police agencies are complying with civil rights laws and advancing public safety by maintaining positive relationships with the communities they serve. Ms. Clarke has prosecuted police misconduct cases and has worked to make the criminal justice system fairer for people of color.”
Ms. Clarke’s legal career takes on even more significance when one considers this daughter of Jamaican immigrants grew up in Brooklyn New York’s public housing. Although financial resources were limited, the family’s teachings of discipline and hard work were not. From public schools, her collegiate studies took her to the prestigious Ivy League.
In 1997, she received her Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. Three years later in 2000, Clarke completed her Juris Doctor at Columbia University.
Her first job as a new attorney was as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice, working on voting rights, hate crimes, and human trafficking cases. In 2006, she joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund until then New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman appointed her as director of the state’s Civil Rights Bureau.
In this state role, Clarke led enforcement actions spanning criminal justice, voting rights, fair lending, housing discrimination, disability rights, reproductive access and LGBTQ rights.
As recognition of her legal acumen grew, so did the number of honors she received: the 2010 Paul Robeson Distinguished Alumni Award from Columbia Law School; 2011 National Bar Association’s Top 40 Under 40; the 2012 Best Brief Award for the 2012 Supreme Court term from the National Association of Attorneys General; and the New York Law Journal’s 2015 Rising Stars.
Months later, the August 2016 edition of the American Bar Association (ABA) Journal featured a Q&A interview with Ms. Clarke. In part, she reflected on her childhood and how it influenced her career aspirations.
“I’ve experienced what it’s like to be underprivileged, and I’ve experienced very privileged settings as well. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to use the opportunities that I have been given to help those less fortunate. We live in a nation that’s divided along lines of race and class. I have a personal sense of what life is like on both sides of that divide, and I want to figure out how we close some of those gaps and level the playing field.” 
At the April 14 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on her nomination, Clarke recalled her legal career journey and the principles that guided her work.
“I began my legal career traveling across the country to communities like Tensas Parish, Louisiana and Clarksdale, Mississippi,” testified Clarke. “I learned to be a lawyer’s lawyer – to focus on the rule of law and let the facts lead where they may.”
“When I left DOJ,” she continued, “I carried the words of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall as my guide: ‘Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on’. I’ve tried to do just that at every step of my career.”
Now, Ms. Clarke returns to the Department of Justice at a time when the agency is recommitting its focus on serving the entire nation equitably.
early this year, a series of actions reflect the agency’s renewed commitment to civil rights. Here are a few examples:
This February and following an FBI investigation, a Michigan man was indicted on a charge of hate crimes after confronting Black teenagers with racial slurs and weapons for their use of a public beach.
In March, two former Louisiana correctional officers were sentenced for their roles in a cover-up of a 2014 prisoner’s death at the state’s St. Bernard Parish that followed a failure to provide medical treatment while incarcerated.
On May 7, DOJ issued a three-count indictment of four Minneapolis police officers on federal civil rights charges in the death of George Floyd. Additionally, convicted former officer Derek Chauvin faces an additional two-count indictment for his actions in 2017 against a 14-year-old teenager.
In April, DOJ and the City of West Monroe, Louisiana reached a consent agreement following a lawsuit alleging violation of the Voting Rights Act. Although nearly a third of the city was Black, the at-large election of city aldermen resulted in all white local officials.
With the consent decree, the method of aldermen selection will change to a combination of single district representatives and others elected at-large.
The indictment charges Chauvin with keeping his knee on the youth’s neck and upper back, as well as using a flashlight as a weapon.
Additionally, DOJ is currently investigating police practices in both Louisville, and Minneapolis. Readers may recall that Breonna Taylor was killed in her Louisville home during a late-night, no-knock warrant police entry.
“Our nation is a healthier place when we respect the rights of all communities,” advised Ms. Clarke in her confirmation hearing remarks. “In every role I’ve held, I have worked with and for people of all backgrounds…I’ve listened deeply to all sides of debates, regardless of political affiliation.
There is no substitute to listening and learning in this work, and I pledge to you that I will bring that to the role if confirmed.”
Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Satra Zurita has spent her entire career working for the betterment of Compton. At an early age Satra learned at the footsteps of her mother, then Compton Councilwoman Delores Zurita, that dedicating your time and talents for the betterment of your community will always payoff for yourself and the people in the end.
Leaning on her years of experience in improving communities, the current Vice President of the Compton Unified School District is running to be the Treasurer for the City of Compton.
When asked why she was running for treasurer Zurita stated, “We desperately need reform.
My mother is 84-years-old, and for her to have to pay her water bill, she has to drive around and around city hall looking for a parking space in order to pay for her basic services. This makes no sense.”
Zurita says the Compton Treasurer’s Office has been plagued by scandal and mismanagement for years. She believes the office urgently needs new and honest leadership. 
She discussed how more than $3.7 million was recently embezzled by a Deputy City Treasurer, and the Treasurer’s Office has failed to implement basic technological advancements that would allow residents to pay their water bills with a credit or debit card over the phone.
She says that in today’s tech savvy world, “the inability to process payments in a simpler way and to still be operating [in 2021] where cash is the easiest option to pay your bills, is both unsafe and out of touch with today’s technology.”
Currently, Zurita is vice president of the Compton Unified School District Governing Board of Trustees, a local businesswoman, and a community leader.
She has a keen knowledge of city government and how they can and are not operating at maximum capacity.
Her experience in managing complex budgets has helped turn around Compton School District’s troubled finances. Zurita says she desires to be the treasurer for the city because she has the experience, the energy and work ethic to do the job.
If elected to the Treasurer’s Office, she looks forward to accomplishing the task of helping to rebuild the city for the citizens of Compton.
As the new City Treasurer, Satra’s agenda is to work towards:
• Balance all the books and eliminate wasteful and fraudulent spending.
• Responsibly manage tax dollars and improve the city’s credit rating.
• Implement customer service-oriented policies at City Hall.
• Enable more online and phone technologies, so residents can use debit/credit cards to pay bills.
• Lower fees residents must pay to use credit or debit cards in person and online.
• Make holdings more profitable by investing City funds in securing high yield accounts.
“As your City Treasurer, I’ll implement common sense reforms to protect the City’s tax dollars and ensure that the people’s money is never embezzled again,” Zurita said.
She says that the City Treasurer’s Office and the City overall need to embrace technology. “We need remote kiosks located throughout the city to make it easier for residence to pay for city services.
She says we must think about the residents of the city; the young mothers and senior citizens who don’t have access or readily available transportation, and make it simpler for them pay their bills,” she said. 
Zurita feels paying bills in these difficult times is challenging enough, why make paying the bill difficult as well?
“The City is still collecting cash at city parks, the fire station and other locations throughout the city. Many times, it is volunteers who are collecting these funds and that is a big liability for the city.
“In a city where $3.7 million dollars just walked out the door, I would think that creating systems to ensure that this cannot ever happen again would be a priority.
Having the money stolen is only part of the problem, but we are not a wealthy city. The city services that have suffered because of this theft has an overall impact on everything in the city.
Our streets are in shambles; we need more social and senior programs that almost $4 million [stolen] would have gone a long way in addressing these problems,” says Zurita.
Zurita says she has no problem with working with the Compton City Council if elected as treasurer. She points out that as the treasurer, she is not the person who decides how the money is spent.
That is a decision for the Council, but as the treasurer, she points out that it must be done in a manner that is both accurate, efficient, and legal. She says “the job of the treasurer is to make sure that systems are in place to spend the money correctly and legally.
Those contracts that are in place and the payments are reflective of the commitments, and she believes she has the skills, experience and talents to make sure this pursuit of excellence can and will be done.
It is for this reason and many more that the LAWT proudly endorses Satra Zurita for City Treasurer in the City of Compton.