Around Town

Watertown Police Lieutenant to Speak About Community Policing

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The public is invited to hear from the Watertown Police about community policing and challenges facing the police department. World in Watertown sent out the following information:

At the February 4 World in Watertown Meeting, Lt. Daniel Unsworth, head of the Community and Staff Development Division, Watertown Police Department, will talk about his role in community policing and the challenges the police department faces in a community like Watertown. This will be an informal discussion, so bring your questions. The World in Watertown meets at First Parish of Watertown, 35 Church Street, the first Thursday every month, from 7:15-9 p.m. For more information, call 617-926-7814.

Around Town

Powerful Speeches Part of the 16th Annual Watertown Unity Breakfast

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The 16th annual Watertown Unity Breakfast was filled with calls to action, and speeches that made people think about discrimination felt by groups in today’s world –  poor minority communities, Muslims and the LGBT community. The keynote speaker, Andrea James, has been working to change the “mass incarcerations” due to the War on Drugs, which she said has unfairly targeted “poor communities of color.” James is the founder and executive director of Families for Justice as Healing, and was an inmate herself at the Danbury Federal Correctional Facility, made famous by the show “Orange is the New Black.” The system is broke, James said. In Massachusetts, for instance 60 percent of inmates come back into the system after being released.

Around Town

Author to Speak About Book Chronicling Her Father’s Lynching

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Author Josephine Bolling McCall will speak about her book she wrote about the  true story Of her father’s lynching in the 1947, and what she learned when researching the book. The event will be on Wednesday, June 17 at 7 p.m. at First Parish Church, 35 Church Street, Watertown. Event organizers sent out the following information:
Just weeks before Christmas, 1947, Josephine Bolling was five years old and learned that her father, Elmore Bolling, just 39 and the father of seven was dead. Elmore Bolling was a leader in Lowndes County’s black community, had established himself as a man who volunteered to serve the less fortunate and had worked hard to build a small trucking business and provide for his family and others. In this moving and important book, THE PENALTY FOR SUCCESS: My Father Was Lynched In Lowndes County Alabama, the author tells the story of the murder of a black man in 1940s Lowndes County, Alabama.  It is a story that reveals the scheme to cover up a “lynching”.  Josephine Bolling McCall’s story of her father’s murder presents convincing evidence that he was lynched, although he was  not hanged, mutilated, or burned before a crowd of people.  Elmore Bolling was shot six times in the front of his body with a pistol and once in the back with a shotgun.

Around Town

African-American Culture Expert Speaking at Unity Breakfast

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For the 15th year, Watertown will mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day with the Unity Breakfast, and the keynote speaker is an expert on African-American Culture. Organizers provided the following information on the event:

Watertown will celebrate its fifteenth Unity Breakfast on Monday, January 19, 2015. The event brings together hundreds of people, representing Watertown’s diverse population, will gather to to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the man who devoted his life to ending prejudice and racism in our country. The Unity Breakfast has become a Watertown tradition, with 400 participants and a diverse program that includes a noted keynote speaker, lively choral and vocal performances, essays and art projects by Watertown middle and high school students, and presentation of the annual Unity Award to a distinguished individual or community organization. This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Emmett G. Price III, one of the nation’s leading experts on African American Music, Music of the African Diaspora, and African American Culture.

Around Town

Peace Pole to be Erected at Watertown Library

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A pole will be “planted” Saturday outside the Watertown Free Public Library to promote harmony and collaboration. The eight sided pole will have the word Peace written on it in the eight most common languages in Watertown, said Town Councilor Tony Palomba. There are 50 languages spoken in Watertown and others will be recognized on the base of the pole. Along with the pole, a planter will be installed. The flowers were donated, Palomba said, and the area will be taken care of by the library staff.