Word: dekalb
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
First, she wrote "in DeKalb, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta." In fact, DeKalb is a county, not a suburb. The population of DeKalb county is 594,400. It contains many independent communities (including my town, Decatur) and some remaining rural areas...
...into the public school system. Editorials rang out for protection of the First Amendment on the pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. However, reports Doug Cumming in The New Republic, from one quarter a conspicuous silence greeted the school's action: African Americans in the predominantly black suburb of DeKalb (the fastest growing black suburb in America) did not protest the motivational assembly...
...Incidents in the Southwest DeKalb High School represent an unusual confluence of race, rights and religion. The explicit blurring of public education and religious doctrine and the support from the largely middle-class, black community brings to the fore some critical questions about the relationship between church and state...
Only two weeks before the assembly, a young DeKalb student, Ronald Gaines, had been stabbed to death in a fight with another student. Even more unnerving, the murder occurred in the sight of a crowd of students who were cheering on the two boys and who shouted, "Yeah!" as Gaines fell to the ground with a knife wound to his chest. The school decided an assembly focused on spiritual guidance would provide an environment in which students and parents alike could try to come to terms with the violence. And they thought the very popular pastor of the New Birth...
...incidents that shaped the events in DeKalb highlight the complicated nature of this issue. In communities attempting to address particular problems in ways that make sense for their particular communities, the line between church and state may become blurred. When the dust settles and the motivational sermons fade into the background, our courts and our country will have to decide what role religion can play in communities' attempts to heal themselves...