Black History

Black history tour focuses on history, wellness and walking

LOUISIANA WEEKLY — On March 14, in honor of Black History Month, health benefits company Aetna sponsored a historic walking tour for older adults. The tour started at the Treme Recreation Center and progressed to Congo Square. Aetna arranged the tour in order to not only educate residents about the history of the city and its vibrant Black music culture, but to also provide older adults with an activity that keeps them physically active.

Published

7 years ago

March 23, 2019

Oakland Post

By Victoria Clark

Black history was on full display as New Orleans residents set out on a historic walking tour to learn more about the city, its history and culture, last week.

On March 14, in honor of Black History Month, health benefits company Aetna sponsored a historic walking tour for older adults. The tour started at the Treme Recreation Center and progressed to Congo Square. Aetna arranged the tour in order to not only educate residents about the history of the city and its vibrant Black music culture, but to also provide older adults with an activity that keeps them physically active.

The tour was originally scheduled for Feb. 28 but had to be rescheduled due to weather concerns.

Aetna wanted the opportunity to be a chance for individuals to learn about their ancestors’ unique history in a celebratory, dignified way while providing a healing cathartic experience.

The culture of New Orleans is strongly impacted by Congo Square because of the history of music, dance, and the overall arts of the enslaved Africans brought to America. Congo Square was a safe space for those enslaved to practice their rituals, religions, traditions and ways of life from their homelands on Sundays. Participants said that learning about Congo Square would allow them to be educated on less popular parts of New Orleans.

“Being that I’m from New Orleans, learning about the actual historical background of Congo Square would be getting complete knowledge of the New Orleans culture,” Klervae Stinson, a NORD commission cultural programs assistant said.

From being enslaved to eventually gaining their freedom, Black people transformed the sounds from their ancestors into negro spirituals, jazz, blues and rock and roll throughout the years. As Congo Square became the birthplace for these genres, New Orleans became known as a city that allows you to express yourself freely with the art of music. Statues of musical giants like Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson and Buddy Bolden are in Congo Square to honor the musical legends.

Throughout the tour, tour guides Sakura Konē, and Mikhala Iverson, explained that Congo Square was not only a place of music, but a place that helped shape the history of New Orleans and branded the city as a whole.

During the Jim Crow era, Black musicians had very few ways to enjoy their music as their own. Iverson explained that famous musicians like Buddy Bolden, a cornetist, would guard his hand while playing his instrument and never recorded his music. He did this because of the possibility of his music being stolen. Music was considered sacred. Iverson who is a jazz singer as well as a tour guide, explained that the same tradition is still practiced in New Orleans because it is a part of the culture.

“I was taught if we write it down, then the white man will take it and make it his,” she said.

The park does more than just honor the music of the New Orleans area. It also gives insight to the traditions of New Orleans like the Black Indians, Super Sunday and second lines. It includes statues of famous Black Indians like Allison “Tootie” Montana to show how the history of Africans has transformed and molded New Orleans from the past until now. Konē explained that Native Americans and Africans became allies during times when slavery was prominent, which would eventually form a relationship that created the modern-day Black Indians.

“In honor of their unity of the Black people and the Red people, the indigenous and the African, Black Indians would hand sew elaborate and colorful suits for 365 days,” Konē explained.

Iverson explained that Mardi Gras as a celebration was started by a group called the Anglo Saxon. They wanted to celebrate Mardi Gras to show wealth.

“The reason they started Mardi Gras in New Orleans was to mock the royalty of Europe here,” Iverson said.

Congo Square is a space to remember those that made New Orleans what it is known for today. It celebrates not only the negative side of Black history, but it also shows how Africans experienced positivity in history which eventually branded an entire city.

“Everyone should always know their past to be able handle their present and future,” said Stinson.

Konē explained that Congo Square’s history continues to be added to today by active citizens celebrating through music every Sunday.

“On Sunday’s they still celebrate the culture till this day. Just follow the drums,” he said.

This article originally appeared in the Louisiana Weekly.

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Activism

Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

4 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

4 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.