Community recalls devastation of crack Event mourns losses of life and stolen futures

Community recalls devastation of crack
Event mourns losses of life and stolen futures

April 10, 2011|By Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff

One man recalled selling it to his best friend’s father. A woman watched her husband fall further into its grips. A nurse recounted caring for babies born addicted to it.

Twenty-five years after crack cocaine swept across this city, destroying families and neighborhoods, Bostonians say they are still reeling from its deadly legacy. Yesterday more than 100 people came together at Hibernian Hall in Dudley Square to mourn the lives, the years, and the friends they lost.

“Crack cocaine came and infiltrated our community like [Hurricane] Katrina,’’ said Leonard Lee, a 52-year-old from Dorchester who works with drug and violence prevention issues for the city. “It got rid of all our moral values.’’

FULL STORY HERE
http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-10/news/29403983_1_powder-cocaine-crack-cocaine-families-against-mandatory-minimums

READ MORE - Community recalls devastation of crack Event mourns losses of life and stolen futures

Crack chipped away at Hub

Crack chipped away at Hub

By Marie Szaniszlo  |   Sunday, April 10, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage
Photo by Faith Ninivaggi

Twenty-five years after crack cocaine surfaced in urban America, dozens of people gathered in Roxbury yesterday to talk about its lingering impact on Boston’s black community.

“In the beginning of the 1980s, we were feeling good about ourselves,” said George “Chip’’ Greenidge, founder of the National Black College Alliance and organizer of the symposium. “We had ‘The Cosby Show,’ affirmative action. And then something just came out of the sky and hit us.”

The “game-changer,” as Greenidge put it, came in a new, cheaper form of cocaine.

Fulani Haynes was a pediatric nurse who used to treat crack-addicted babies at the former Boston City Hospital. Screaming, shaking and sleepless, the infants were born showing withdrawal symptoms no amount of cuddling seemed to soothe, Haynes said. So nurses would give them small, decreasing amounts of pure opium in a hypodermic needle, wrap them tightly in blankets and lay them in their cribs in complete darkness to calm them for a few hours.

“The nurses became the mothers,” she said, “because the parents were busy getting high.”

Grandmothers spent their “golden years” caring for their grown children and their children’s children, and violence increased as word spread that dealing crack was a fast way to make money, said Boston Deputy Police Superintendent William Gross.

In the late 1980s, Congress brought back mandatory minimum drug sentences, treating crack offenses much more harshly than powder cocaine crimes, said Barbara Dougan of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

“These laws were not passed out of concern for young, black men, but out of fear of young, black men,” Dougan said.

The result, she said, was an explosion in the prison population that has left one out of nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 in behind bars.

“Clearly, they’ll be coming back to our communities,” said Boston Police Superintendent Paul Joyce, “and we want to make sure they end up in a better situation than they began.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1329648

READ MORE - Crack chipped away at Hub

BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR HIRES GEORGE “CHIP” GREENIDGE AS CHIEF OF STAFF

BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR HIRES GEORGE “CHIP” GREENIDGE AS CHIEF OF STAFF

Boston—City Councilor Michael P. Ross has appointed George R. Greenidge, Jr. as Chief of Staff.

PRESS RELEASE
January 10, 2011
Contact:   Amy Derjue, 617.635.4225, (c) 401.368.8952

BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR HIRES GEORGE “CHIP” GREENIDGE AS CHIEF OF STAFF
Boston—City Councilor Michael P. Ross has appointed George R. Greenidge, Jr. as Chief of Staff.

Greenidge is the Founder and Executive Director of the National Black College Alliance an organization of alumni and college students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities committed to mentoring the next generation of civic leaders. Previously, he served as a Program Officer at the Boston Foundation. He recently served as the Board Chair of the Boston Empowerment Zone, a non-profit charged with dispersing HUD resources to Boston’s most economically challenged neighborhoods.  Greenidge graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and International Affairs, and received his Master's Degree at Harvard University’s School of Education.  Greenidge is a longtime resident of the Boston area, and he currently resides in the Ashmont section of Dorchester.  His father currently lives in Mission Hill.

“I am honored to join the great team Councilor Ross already has in place.  I look forward to bringing the Councilor’s innovative ideas to our city as his Chief of Staff,” Greenidge said.

“I am thrilled to have George Greenidge as the newest member of my team.  He has worked tirelessly to bring people together to change our city for the better.  His energy and enthusiasm will be an asset to my office, and to the entire district,” Ross said.

======================================

George R. Greenidge, Jr.
Chief of Staff for
Michael P. Ross ( District 8 )
617.635.4225
george.greenidge@gmail.com (email)

READ MORE - BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR HIRES GEORGE “CHIP” GREENIDGE AS CHIEF OF STAFF