Isaiah Brazzell greets honking cars and people waving signs as the graduation parade travels through the 54th District in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 13.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
All around the country, the coronavirus pandemic has forced communities, educators, and families to come up with socially-distanced alternatives to the pomp and circumstance of traditional high-school graduation ceremonies. Last Saturday in Los Angeles, community members in the state’s 54th Assembly district organized a graduation parade — complete with gift bags and a fire truck — to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of high-school seniors from schools across the district.
Photographer Alexis Hunley was there:
Over the last two and a half months, I have been documenting the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on my neighborhood here in Los Angeles. Too often, published images of Black people focus solely on our pain, so I was particularly excited about this event because it was one of the moments in this project where I’ve been able to highlight Black joy.
Riding along the parade route was some of the most fun I’ve had in quite a while. Not because I was out of the house, but simply because I was surrounded by so much love and joy. Neighbors took time out of their day to decorate cars, which snaked through the streets of the 54th district. They honked horns and waved signs with giant grins and loud cheers. Students met us in their yards wearing their cap and gowns, beaming with pride as their families looked on lovingly. More than I realized, I needed those moments. I needed to be surrounded by Black people laughing and smiling and loving each other. I needed a reminder that we are more than our collective pain and suffering, and that we are fighting not only for justice, but for the freedom to live peacefully and joyously.
Samantha Jackson reads a certificate of recognition she received from Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Camille Wilson decorates a car in preparation for the graduation parade.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Megan Mingo and her family wave to parade participants.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Graduate Jasmine Jean-Louis.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Sasha Benson greets honking cars and people waving signs.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Joshua Alexander greets the parade.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Nierah Whitfiled greets the parade at the View Park Bebe Moore Campbell Library.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
The parade traveled through several neighborhoods with participants honking and waving signs to celebrate the recent graduates.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
April Williams (right) presents Joshua Alexander with a certificate of recognition from Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Family members of graduate Sailor Caught join the fun.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Nierah Whitfiled and Joshua Alexander embrace as the graduation parade through the 54th district comes to an end.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Nierah Whitfiled and her family pause for a quick photograph at the View Park Bebe Moore Campbell Library at the end of the parade.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Aiyana Lopez-Spears tips her cap.
Photo: Alexis Hunley
Most job gains were in the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes restaurants
Hiring accelerated sharply in February as restaurants and other hospitality businesses reopened, adding 379,000 to U.S. payrolls and fueling renewed growth as the coronavirus pandemic eases.
U.S. employers added jobs for the second straight month in February, the Labor Department said Friday, in what marks a sharp pickup from earlier this winter.
The unemployment rate, determined by a separate survey, ticked down to 6.2% last month. The jobless rate is well down from a 14.8% peak in April 2020, but remains above pre-pandemic levels, when unemployment was near 50-year lows.
According to Quinnipiac, Cuomo’s position post-scandal is not disastrous
New via @QuinnipiacPoll: -New York voters say 55-40% that Cuomo should *not* resign -59-36% say they would *not* like to see Andrew Cuomo run for reelection in 2022 -45-46% Cuomo job approval rating, with Democrats *approving* 65-27% https://t.co/8AGvqH6YTB
If only someone had told them that sort of thing was frowned upon
Punchbowl News: Three Republicans — Louie Gohmert, Kelly Armstrong, and Randy Weber — tried to change Lance Gooden’s vote for him after he voted in favor of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. This is a big, big no-no.
What they did could be a violation of House rules.
Maybe Chao’s resignation on January 7 wasn’t about the Capitol riot?
While serving as transportation secretary during the Trump administration, Elaine Chao repeatedly used her office staff to help family members who run a shipping business with extensive ties to China, a report released Wednesday by the Transportation Department’s inspector general concluded.
The inspector general referred the matter to the Justice Department in December for possible criminal investigation. But in the weeks before the end of Trump administration, two Justice Department divisions declined to do so.
Ms. Chao, the wife of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced her resignation on Jan. 7, the day after the Capitol riot. At the time of her departure, an aide to Ms. Chao said her resignation was unrelated to the inspector general’s investigation.
… The investigators did not make a formal finding that Ms. Chao violated ethics rules. But they detailed more than a dozen instances where her office took steps to handle matters related to her father, who built up a New York-based shipping company after immigrating to the United States from Taiwan in the late 1950s, and to her sister, who runs the company now.
