Connect with us

Star Tribune

Radio personality, media trailblazer Norma Jean Williams lifted community

Avatar

Published

on


Norma Jean Williams was a woman who opened her home to strangers, opened her network to aspiring professionals, and told jokes that could make a room full of people laugh.

Williams, the former publisher of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a family run publication focused on African Americans since 1934, died June 6. She was 81.

Born in Des Moines in 1941, Williams moved to Minneapolis in 1965 to help run the family business. She would interview African American celebrities visiting Minneapolis like Eartha Kitt, Rosa Parks, James Brownand B.B. King for the newspaper. Her weekly column provided opportunities for singles to meet.

Williams was also a radio personality on Twin Cities radio stations KMOJ and KFAI and was an amateur stand-up comedian.

To Tracey Williams-Dillard, Williams’ second-born daughter, Williams was more than a mother. She was a mentor and a best friend. Williams-Dillard is now publisher of the Spokesman-Recorder, and like her mother, has a strong passion for media.

“All these parallel things,” Williams-Dillard said. “I didn’t connect the dots at the time. I was doing everything mom was doing. She set up the stage for me to be on it, and I’m able to do exactly what she was able to do. I’m so ever grateful for her to have instilled that in me.”

Williams-Dillard created her own series for the publication, and associated dinner events.

In 1980, Williams took under her wing a 20-something from Chicago trying to wiggle his way into the Twin Cities’ events scene.

Pete Rhodes had moved to Minnesota to grow his events company, Boss Productions, and landed a job as Williams’ assistant, accompanying her during her interviews and other meetings.

Rhodes’ association with Williams opened several doors and opportunities, he said, including the chance to meet, and take a photo with Parks.

“When you were with her, you felt like a celebrity,” Rhodes said. “Everyone knew her.”

Rhodes went on to launch his own events, including the Minnesota Black Music Awards, which Williams supported. Williams instilled in Rhodes the importance of media in the African American community, and the BMA blossomed into a network cable channel highlighting Black culture and the contributions of African Americans to music and business.

Trailblazing in media made Williams known throughout the city. Her quieter efforts in the community also made her an inspiration, Williams-Dillard said.

“I could go on and on with insane stories where people were homeless and they just basically had nowhere to go and mom just opened up her house to them,” she said.

Williams’ mother, Launa Newman, was the same way. “They did it without expectation of payback,” Williams-Dillard said.

In her early 50s, Williams went back to school to become a certified nurse assistant to care for the elderly.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Wallace Jackman,and is survived by her children Vicky, Tracey, James Jr., Greg and Tina, and her brother Wallace Jackman Jr., 12 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held June 17 at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Minneapolis.

In recognition of her contributions, Gov. Tim Walz declared June 17 as Norma Jean Williams Day in the state of Minnesota. A proclamation was read at her memorial service by state officials.

“It was well deserved,” Williams-Dillard said.



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings

Star Tribune

After defeat, supporters of St. Paul’s childcare payment plan not giving up

Avatar

Published

on


In compiling a workable plan that shows a way to help families fill the gaps in state and federal aid for childcare, years of planning and advocacy paid off in greater visibility of low-income families’ struggles — and a possible way forward., Loewen said.

“The problem’s not going away, and neither are we,” he said. “We just have to determine what‘s next.”



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Star Tribune

Minneapolis Park Board recommends closure of four outdoor rinks partially because of last year’s warm winter

Avatar

Published

on


After only one week when people could skate on outdoor ice rinks during a record warm winter last year, Minneapolis wants to scale back its number of rinks.

In late October, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board recommended closing five outdoor rinks in its proposed 2025 budget due to climate change, increased supplies and materials needed due to inflation as well as fluctuating lake ice and warming house costs. The number of suggested rink closures has since been reduced to four, according to Park Board staff.

The rinks that are recommended to close this winter are in Webber, Windom and Powderhorn Parks. The Lyndale Farmstead Park rink will close in 2025-26.

“Powderhorn and Webber are both built on water bodies, and that makes it more challenging to open and maintain than rinks built on land due to changing ice thickness and quality,” said board spokeswoman Robin Smothers.

The decision to close the Windom and Lyndale Farmstead rinks are “based on proximity to other rinks and the challenges of constructing the various sites,” Smothers said.

The Matthews Park rink was originally recommended to be closed, but Smothers said the rink will stay open since the board would not want two rink closures in one district.

All of this is subject to change until the budget gets approved by the board on December 10. If all the proposed rinks close, it would bring the number of Minneapolis outdoor rinks from 22 to 18.

Joe Dziedzic, a former Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey player who went on to play professionally for the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Phoenix Coyotes, grew up near the Windom Park rink in northeast Minneapolis. He said it saddened him to see the city potentially discontinue the rink.



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Star Tribune

Minneapolis Labor Standards Board plan gets mixed reception

Avatar

Published

on


After years of speculation, Minneapolis City Council members have finally laid out their long-awaited Labor Standards Board proposal, which would bring workers and employers together to deliberate new regulations for industries with well-known problems, such as labor trafficking in construction.

Labor unions are pushing for it, and two years ago Mayor Jacob Frey and a majority of council members said they supported creating a Labor Standards Board. But the notion of creating a new layer of government, with workers having a role in regulations that impact business owners, has led to a wave of opposition from local and national industry groups.

Council members promised to pass the Labor Standards Board by the end of the year. At Wednesday’s public health committee, City Clerk Casey Carl, Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Council Members Aurin Chowdhury and Katie Cashman presented the structure of the panel for the first time.

Facing a phalanx of competing signs for and against the Labor Standards Board, they described the proposed board as being composed of an equal number of business owners, workers and other community stakeholders (such as consumer advocacy representatives), who would create sector-specific work groups as needed to discuss issues in specific industries and recommend policy solutions to the City Council, which would then go through its regular process of vetting new policies.

“The goal of this structure is to foster collaboration among stakeholders and creative solutions instead of one-size-fits-all policymaking,” said Chughtai. “It’s supposed to increase participation and engagement of those affected day to day by our workplace policies, and ultimately to allow for data informed policy recommendations to be considered by the City Council.”

Chowdhury said: “What this is about is trusting our local businesses, trusting our workers and trusting consumers and experts and saying, ‘Hey, we trust you, we believe that you’re the experts, you should have a table to come together on and have a robust discussion to inform us as policy makers. Most [businesses}, they aren’t acting in an egregious way that’s impacting their workers in a negative fashion, but we want to go and examine the sectors where workers are struggling, where labor standards that are needed are missing, to improve the workplace and in turn improve our economy.”

Earlier this year, national organizations that opposed raising wages for fast food workers in California conducted an ad blitz opposing the Minneapolis Labor Standards board. Since then, a growing number of business groups — the Minneapolis Restaurant Coalition, Hospitality Minnesota, the Minneapolis Regional Chamber, the Downtown Council and Minnesota Retailers — have also urged the council to abandon the board. Small business restaurateurs of color have been the most outspoken, saying they cannot withstand any new regulations after previous years’ passage of minimum wage and sick time ordinances, and do not want workers telling entrepreneurs how to run their businesses.

Speaking for business owners on Wednesday, Council Member Michael Rainville predicted the Labor Standards Board would pit small business owners against their employees. “This makes the city government become a union organizer,” he said. “This will do nothing to decrease the amount of empty storefronts in Uptown or downtown. The business community has made it clear that when their leases are up, they’re going to leave Minneapolis and or just simply close the business.”



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024 Breaking MN

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.