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Susan Burton shares personal journey with LMU students

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — For Susan Burton, helping formerly incarcerated women embrace a new way of life is a calling.

Published

7 years ago

March 9, 2019

By Angela N. Parker

WESTCHESTER — For Susan Burton, helping formerly incarcerated women embrace a new way of life is a calling. As a formerly incarcerated woman herself, Burton is committed to giving back a little bit of what was given to her when she received her second chance.

With that commitment comes a desire to reach into the community and to tell her story to those whose time, talent and resources can make all the difference in the lives of the most vulnerable among us. One of those communities is Loyola Marymount University, a catholic university where Burton has formed a partnership with faculty and students.

On Feb. 5, Burton was the featured speaker at a conversation on incarceration, hosted on campus as part of Black History Month, where she challenged the 100 students and faculty members in attendance to rethink how they view incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.

“We have been trained to think about people who are incarcerated in a certain way,” Burton said. “There is this idea that everyone in jail is a sexual predator (or a monster) when the truth is most people are in prison because we have criminalized mental health, we have criminalized poverty and those are the reasons most people are incarcerated.”

That is a message that Deanne Cooke, assistant clinical professor and director of engaged learning at LMU, wanted to impart to the students in attendance.

“Our university’s mission is to promote social justice and so we enact that mission by helping our communities understand the current system of justice and imagine what it might look like to have a system that is more just,” Cooke said. “The most powerful way I can envision educating students is to let people tell their own stories and connect their humanity to the humanity of our students and community members.”

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in 37 adults, 2.7 percent of the adult population in the United States, is under some form of correctional supervision. African Americans as a whole are incarcerated at a rate five times higher than their white counterparts, while African-American women are twice more likely to go jail than their white counterparts.

“We rarely think about how the individual and their extended families are impacted by incarceration,” Cooke said. “We rarely think about why, by far, America has the largest rate of incarceration in the world; why there has been a large increase in incarceration of women; what happens to people’s children or parents when individuals are incarcerated; how incarcerated people continue to be impacted by various policies well after their release; or how our policies create disproportionate enforcement and convictions for black, brown and poor people.”

The sentiment is shared by Nathan Sessoms, director of the office of black student services at LMU.

“Speaking about the need for justice is one thing; understanding that need and getting involved in the eradication of injustice is something totally different,” Sessoms said. “My hope is that today participants develop a better understanding of this justice-related issue, as well as the various ways they can get involved.”

Burton, who is the author of “Becoming Ms. Burton,” an autobiographical memoir in which she discusses her journey to become who she believes she was born to be, hopes that her speaking out will change how people think and act about the issue of mass incarceration.

“I was out of prison six different times,” said Burton, who became addicted to substances after attempting to self-medicate to cope with the death of her child. “Then somebody helped me, provided me with a safe place to live, provided me with food, showed me compassion and introduced me to Alcoholics Anonymous. That was the magic pill for me. But that help came out of Santa Monica and … I became driven to bring these types of services to my community.”

In 1998, Burton founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project, an organization that offers housing, legal services and leadership training to formally incarcerated women. Through her organization, she has provided a safety net and a chance for reunification for more than 1,000 women and children.

“In addition to the related and long-standing issue of police brutality, mass incarceration represents the critical justice issue of our time,” Sessoms said. “However, people’s knowledge about these issues is often derived from television shows and, perhaps, social media.

“So, the opportunity to hear about Ms. Burton’s experiences, as well as the amazing work that she’s done and continues to do, paints a much clearer picture of the bias and disparities present within the criminal justice system.”

Burton said that from the very beginning her organization was committed to going beyond providing shelter and was determined to eliminate the institutional obstacles that made succeeding post prison nearly impossible.

“According to the American Bar Association, more than 48,000 barriers to reentry have been documented,” Burton said. “These barriers included limited access to employment, inability to get a driver’s license or a student loan, inability to secure permanent housing, and inability to get public assistance.

“We are all human and we have all made mistakes whether we have been convicted of them or not,” Burton added. “It is not fair to continually punish someone for a crime they have already served the time for.”

One of the ways that Burton hopes to convey this message is through the Justice on Trial Film Festival, which features films that speak to the challenges of people navigating the criminal justice system. Held annually at LMU, the event is open to the public.

“It is important that we understand all the struggles that people who are incarcerated face … and that we focus more on restorative justice,” Burton said. “We need to start speaking to each other and working towards creating the type of close communities that look out for each other.”

This article originally appeared in Wave Newspapers.

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COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

1 day ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

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June 9, 2026

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Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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2 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.