Holly Mitchell was sworn-in to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Sunday, December 6, 2020.  However, she says that between moving out of her Senate office, moving into her new Supervisors office, hiring a full staff, getting brought up to speed on exactly what’s going on in the 2nd Supervisorial District, thanking voters and supporters and the holidays, all while remaining socially distant, she really didn’t get down to business until January 1, 2021.

With Mitchell’s “let’s get down to business” personality the newest member of Los Angeles County’s all-female Board of Supervisors didn’t waste much time doing the people’s business. 

"Obviously, my office has been working diligently to get up to speed and to get help to the people in my district. 

 

It’s about equity and justice for those who so desperately need the resources the county can provide to combat this pandemic,” said Mitchell. 

She says that equity in resources is her main focus. 

She points out that the residents of her district have been disproportionately affected by Covid. 

 

She says her constituents are the people on the front lines.  

“We are the health care providers, the grocery store workers, the service providers the people who most often are affected by this pandemic,” said Mitchell.

“But, we are not getting our proportionate share of the resources. We need more testing, more vaccines because unfortunately we are also the ones most often dying from this disease.”

 

Mitchell succeeds Mark Ridley-Thomas in representing the Second District, which runs from Wilshire Center to Carson, from Mar Vista to Lynwood.  

Mark Ridley-Thomas, who now serves as the Councilman for Los Angeles 10th Council District, left his seat because of term limits and Mitchell defeated former L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson to become the second African American Female to hold the high-powered seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

 

She knows that the seat she now sits in has a lot of influence, but she also realizes that because of the diversity and tremendous gaps between the haves and the have nots in her district, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. 

While responding to the pandemic is the major issue today in her district, she also realizes that economic empowerment, quality and affordable housing, and community concerns about gentrification are only a few of the other major issues her office will need to address.

Mitchell served almost 10 years in the California Legislature, three years in the California Assembly and seven years in the California Senate.  During that time, she was one of the most progressive political leaders in the state. 

She was a powerful voice for criminal justice reform, an advocate for youth in the foster care system, and fought for greater services for those with mental illness. 

In the senate, she served as the chairperson for the powerful budget committee and was the key leader in fighting to keep funding in place for Martin Luther King Hospital when so many hospitals were targeted for major budget cuts in response to the fiscal challenges brought on by COVID-19.

Mitchell sees her role as a Supervisor much like she saw it as a member of the State Senate.  “My job is to bring resources and opportunity to my community,” said Mitchell. 

 

She says that she has always been an advocate for those less fortunate.  

 

 

A very similar role as the one she played before she ran for elected office as the executive director of Crystal Stairs, a local non-profit organization committed to helping parents find childcare, training childcare providers on how to nurture and educate young children, and helping parents and providers bridge the affordability gap with child care subsidies.

When asked about housing in the county and people concerns about gentrification, Mitchell does not bite her tongue. 

 

“We need to say to Black and Brown people to stop selling your homes,” said Mitchell.

But, while that answer alone may not be something people want to hear, she does have a plan.  She says that in order for us to maintain communities of color we have to understand and have a transition plan. 

 

We have to educate our people on what it takes to buy a home, maintain a home, have an estate plan and understand what effects not having a plan will do to our families, our communities and our future.

 

She says that she wants to provide incentives to homeowners to build accessory dwellings that low- and very-low-income tenants could rent, by reducing property taxes through subsidies or reducing or eliminating construction fees.  She also wants to find ways to have more landlords accept rent vouchers.

Lastly, she wants to address economic empowerment by assuring that the developers and people building developments within our community look like the people who will buy, occupy and operate businesses in our community. 

 

She says that “economic empowerment needs to come from within.  We have to create economic opportunities for people in our community to be in the lead roles of development, that is a key factor in how we can move forward and uplift our community.”

 

Mitchell also talks about creating a land trust.  A public/private partnership which can purchase properties (at market rate) from sellers, transfer the property into the trust and then make the property’s more affordable for those in the community at re-sale.

 

 

Mitchell ran a campaign she described as based on "creating a more equitable, inclusive, and prosperous L.A. County" and touted her accomplishments in 10 years in the state Legislature, which included passage of a package of criminal justice reform bills, and other legislation providing for transitional housing placement for foster youth to help prevent youth homelessness and extended access to mental health care services.

 

Holly Mitchell has very little energy for wasting time.  Whether you start her clock on December 6th or January 1.  Since ramping up, she has been doing the people’s business from day one. 

She has already taken local, state and federal government to task calling for an equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. She has also advocated for additional resources to be provided to the youth home where David McKnght-Hillman was brutally killed.  She has pulled together members of the faith community to aid in a countywide movement to prevent and combat homelessness and she has pushed to expand protections for small property owners and wants to create pathways to homeownership for communities hit hardest by COVID-19.

Either way you look at it.  Holly Mitchell is up to speed and running hard.  She knows there is a lot of work to do and she is ready, willing and able to respond for those in need and those who need help the most.

Former State Senator and now Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell has left Sacramento.  While her ascension to the Board of Supervisors has pleased so many of her supporters, it has left a crucial vacancy in the halls of the State Capitol. 

Not only for a Senator to represent the 30th Senate District with one of the most racially and economically diverse districts in the state, Mitchell’s vacancy also leaves the entire State of California with no African American woman in the California Senate and currently, State Senator Steve Bradford is the only African American Senator representing the entire state. 

 

 

To most, this disparity is obviously unacceptable; State Assembly member Sydney Kamlager-Dove is looking to fill the void in the special election called by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill the seat vacated by Mitchell.

 

 

Assembly member Kamlager-Dove is no newcomer to the 30th Senate District.  Prior to her election to represent the 54th Assembly District, she served as then Senator Holly Mitchell’s District Director for over six years.  Based on this experience, she identifies with the dynamics of the district and its residents. 

 

Kamlager-Dove's familiarity with the senate district is not her only value her quest for the Senate, she has been one of the most successful and active assembly members working in Sacramento.  With her proven track record, her steady increase of followers feel strongly she can be equally, if not more effective, in the Senate.

As the State representative for the 54th District, Representative Kamlager-Dove has proven to be an effective and powerful force in the halls of Sacramento. 

 

She has been an unapologetic voice for the justice reform bill that completely restructured how Black and Brown people are tethered to the probation dept., and she continues to hold those on probation accountable, and has made probation sentencing lengths far shorter.

 

She also helped passed legislation which allowed community-based organizations to respond to 911 calls when non-violent and mental issues were involved rather than police. 

 

This visionary legislation was introduced before George Floyd was murdered and before the nation picked up the mantle of racial reckoning or the movement to defund the police.

While Sydney Kamlager-Dove has carved out a space as a fighter for the rights of those less fortunate and who have served time in the criminal justice system.  

Like most elected officials, her last year has been filled, and sometimes overwhelmed, in the fight with the life-altering challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has worked diligently to ensure that her district and all of South Los Angeles isn’t forgotten and that we get our fair share of the resources that California is providing.

 

Some of those resources she has managed to bring to her district and South Los Angeles and poor and underserved communities throughout California include:

• Securing over $1 Billion for the state to purchase bankrupt hospitals and re-opened them to ensure there were enough beds available for those infect by the virus.

• Secured an additional $1 billion dollars for Project Home Key and Project Room Key to help house the homeless during the surge of the pandemic.

•  Passed a statewide eviction moratorium relief bill that prevented families affected by COVID-19 who could not pay their rent or mortgages from being evicted.

 

• Helped raise the funds to purchase over 100,000 pieces of PPE equipment to give to our health care and front-line workers at the beginning of COVID-19 when the state was struggling to provide adequate supplies for front-line and health care workers from the federal government.

• Created a partnership with SEIU, Biz Fed and the LA County delegation to insure we were able to secure PPE equipment to grocery workers and other front-line workers to ensure that every possible precaution was taken to keep people safe.

• Helped pass legislation to deposit over $50nm into the I-Bank which is the state’s institution to ensure that small businesses that couldn’t get PPP funds, could get money from states to help them stay afloat.

• She has been one of the loudest voices in Sacramento to ensure Black and Brown communities, that are highly infected and disproportionately devastated by the virus, are receiving and continue to secure an adequate share of resources into our community including testing services and now vaccinations.

 

 

 

• She is also working diligently to get schools reopened.  But she does not want to just reopen schools, but reopen schools in a way that is safe, and taking into consideration how the process can be implemented the “right way” and in a safe way for teachers and students.

Sydney considers Mitchell a close friend and mentor; she feels she has a great partnership with Holly Mitchell, which she hopes will allow her to make an almost seamless transition into the seat. 

But she says there is still a lot of work to be done in the district.  She says that she must keep fighting for those parts of her district that have not been getting their fair share of the resources from the state, receive the resources from the state; the fact that being a representative in the Senate will allow her to be a more effective leader in securing those desperately needed resources. 

She wants to make sure that all parts of the district feel connected to each other. “I want to connect the east and the west parts and the south parts and the north parts of the district.  “I want to have an opportunity to bring everyone together in a way that neighborhood and community member can all feel a part of the entire district,” stated Kamlager-Dove

 

This idea of bringing diverse groups of people together is not new to Sydney.  She has been one of the most effective leaders in uniting forces that often agree and serve different agenda’s together like few legislatures have been able to do. 

She has been applauded by labor, by business and by community based non-profit organizations throughout her district; three groups that often themselves at odds on various issues throughout the state.  When asked how she has been able to forge these alliances when so many others have not, she simply explains, “I have family members who are members of labor unions. 

 

 

 

 

Being members of labor, has afforded my family the opportunity to have health care, to be able to provide a home and housing for them and their families, but I have also worked in the non-profit service delivery business, so I understand the issues and challenges that face that industry and I am married to a small business owner and support business.

I understand all of these issues and I try and approach all of them with honesty and an understanding of how we can move forward for the betterment of everyone”.

Dove also says she has an understanding that Black people are not a monolithic group and have influenced the world of business.  “We are entrepreneurs, we are union members, artist, doctors, teachers, janitors, environmentalist, and animal lovers.” 

What Sydney knows is that everyone wants a better quality of life for ourselves, and our families, and that is the job of those in public service.

While serving in the legislature and while on the campaign trail, Sydney Kamlager-Dove has had the opportunity to do what she says she does best, listen.  “I have spoken to those in the district and I hear their voices.  

They know that they are being heard.  They’ve said to me that nobody comes to talk to [them] and no one cares about [their] concerns. 

But [I’m] different [I] show up and listen, and not beholding to outside interest,” and that is the representative that I want to be, the representative that I am and that is the representative that I will continue if elected to the Senate.

When asked what message Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager-Dove wants to share with the voters of Senate District 30 she says: “I am going to represent your voice in Sacramento, because I am going to continue to engage with you, learn from you and work with you on the issues that you care about. 

I am about building consensus and I’m also about fighting for what’s right. I am unafraid and unabashed and unapologetic.  I am true to the values that this district represents. I am not afraid to roll up my sleeves, get my feet wet or get my hands dirty.  I am not afraid to keep fighting for the people of this district.  That is Who I am!

It is because of this tenacity that her commitment to serve the community and those who are often overlooked and underserved, that the Los Angeles Watts Times and Bakewell Media proudly endorse Sydney Kamlager-Dove for election as the next African American woman to be elected to the California State Senate’s 30th District.

The world was taken for a surprise Thursday, January 28 when the news broke that legendary actress Cicely Tyson had passed away at the age of 96.

 

The pioneering Hollywood actress left a legacy of grace, beauty, and immeasurable talent after starring in television shows and films for over 60 years.

 

 

 

 

Born in East Harlem, New York on December 19. 1924 to West Indian immigrant parents, Tyson found her love of the arts early.

 

 

 

 

As a child, she sang in the choir and as she neared 30, she was discovered by a photographer for Ebony Magazine, a fateful moment that turned into a successful modeling career.

 

However, there was more for Tyson to do and accomplish, for that, she turned to acting. In an interview with NPR, she shared that she began acting to speak thru other people as she was known to be quite shy for most of her life.

“ I learned that I could speak through other people.

 

 

I was a very shy child. I was an observer.

 

I would sit and observe and listen and watch people's actions in order to understand what they were.

 

 

I wanted to know what prompted them to say and do the things that they did,” she told the publication.

 

 

A natural at nearly everything she’s done, her skills of observing proved to create powerful portrayals bringing each role she was to take on to life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tyson landed her first role in 1951 on NBC’s Frontiers of Faith TV show and had several other small roles on TV and films, some of which included the likes of Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, and Godfrey Cambridge.

 

 

In 1963, she was cast for a role on CBS’s East Side/West Side where she was the first and only Black actor at the time to have a regular role on a show.

 

 

 

 

Although it seems like a moment to celebrate, Tyson stated that it often, “hurt me deeply,” because much of her success at the time was due to her skin tone and gender.

 

 

 

 

Though she’d garnered years of valuable work, her big push to stardom wasn’t until 1972 when she played Rebecca Morgan in the film Sounder.

 

 

 

 

 

Her role was followed by Oscar, Academy, and Golden Globe Award nominations, also winning the Nation Society of Film Critics and National Board of Review award for best actress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tyson’s next roles earned her Primetime Emmy nominations and a few wins as she took on the lead role of the TV film, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and the role of Binta in Roots.

 

 

 

 

 

Refusing to play roles that demeaned Black women, Tyson set a standard for herself. With each decade, she was able to transcend time, reminding us all of our worth time and time again, playing to roles that fit her age but spoke to every generation.

 

 

 

Her roles in films such as Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman alongside the late great Maya Angelou and The Help, and How to Get Away With Murder as the main character Annalise Keating played by Viola Davis’ mother,  introduced her to a group of people born in the late 90s and 2000s.

 

 

Finding comfort in her spirit, many continued to follow her journey as she continued to work year after year on both television shows, movies, and within the theater.

 

 

 

 

Outside of acting, Tyson lent her talents to services to several charities and was a founding member of the Dance Theater of Harlem in 1969.

 

 

Her charities included Urban Gateways, the Human Family Institute, and the American Film Institute.

 

She received several honorary awards from the National Council of Negro Women, the NAACP, and the Capitol Press Award. In 2005 she was honored for her contributions to art, entertainment, and civil rights during Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball.

 

 

 

 

In 2016, then-President Barack Obama awarded Tyson with the United States' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. and honorary degrees from several HBCU’s including Howard University, Clark Atlanta University, and the all-male, Morehouse College.

 

Unknown to us all, in her final years, Tyson continued to break barriers with her work and be honored for her contributions.

 

In 2018, she was given an Academy Honorary Award and became the first Black woman to receive an honorary Oscar and was also inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

 

 

Just last year, she was also inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Days before her passing, Tyson published her memoir, Just As I Am on January 26, 2021.

In one of her final interviews, Tyson stated, “I’m amazed every single day I live. What my life became is not what I expected.

I had no idea that I would touch anybody.”

 

Throughout her lifelong career, she’s most proud of staying true to herself, stating, “I done my best. That’s all.”

Tyson lived a full and rewarding life.

 

 

It leaves the world great comfort and reassurance to know that a woman who lived her life to provide and serve others through her art, worked until her very last day, leaving nothing left but love and light onto the world.