CaribPR Wire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Tuskegee Airmen ECCTAI President, Gabriel J. Christian, and Keynote Speaker Robert Rashford Bring Caribbean Leaders to Forefront

CaribPR Wire, WASHINGTON, Thursday, June 27, 2019: On December 1, 2018, Gabriel J. Christian, Esq., became the first Caribbean-born President of the Tuskegee Airmen East Coast Chapter.

This summer, Christian led the Tuskegee Airmen by organizing and hosting a historic fundraising event which featured two prominent Caribbean nationals during its 2019 Tuskegee Youth In Aviation Breakfast Fundraiser on May 25th in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

The theme for this year’s fundraiser event was ‘Honoring the Legacy of Excellence’ as featured on CBS News (WUSA9) in Washington, D.C. The full news feature is available on CBS online at https://on.wusa9.com/2J9tIzi.

The East Coast Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc,. (ECCTAI), is the largest and most active chapter in the national organization and brings together — in the spirit of friendship and goodwill — all who share in the aspirations and successes of the men and women who pioneered military aviation in the Tuskegee Airmen; a group of Black military pilots who fought in World War II.

As the newly elected President of ECCTAI, Gabriel J. Christian, a native islander from The Commonwealth of Dominica, is the first Caribbean-born President to serve in this role. Keeping the legacy of his father, Wendell McKenzie Christian, who was a British Army World War II veteran.

Christian is an attorney, an author, and a long-standing and active volunteer member of ECCTAI for over a decade whilst also serving as Lead Counsel at his Bowie-based law practice: The Maryland Law Offices of Gabriel J. Christian & Associates. Having been raised by a decorated fireman father and a dutiful mother who impressed upon him the importance of civil services, Christian seeks to preserve the legacy of the proud Tuskegee Airmen. “Their successes expanded the bounds of freedom and equality for all people, at home and abroad.”

The event’s keynote speaker, Jamaican-native islander, Robert Rashford, is an internationally known aerospace engineer who makes tools for use in outer space. His wide-ranging work has earned him many awards. This includes four awards from NASA for his work on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and the Hubble Space Telescope. He also received an award for Excellence in Science and Technology from the Institute of Caribbean Studies.

Today, he says to young people: “Expect challenges in your life; if you have no challenges, you do not live- use each one to motivate you to achieve great things.”

Rashford’s stellar accomplishments and focus on encouraging today’s youth to challenge themselves made him the ideal choice for Keynote during the event. “At a time when space exploration is key to the survival of our species, our scholarship program helps fund activities that promote aerospace and youth leadership development, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” said Christian.

ECCTAI is dedicated to fostering recognition of and preserving the history of Black achievements in aviation, and to inspiring and motivating young men and women toward endeavors in aviation and aerospace careers.

For more on ECCTAI and to start making a difference, log on to http://ecctai.org/.

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REFERENCES

CaribNation TV News Feature of Tuskegee Airmen Youth in Aviation Event

https://youtu.be/FfEpsDuvWS0

CBS News Feature of Tuskegee Airmen

https://on.wusa9.com/2J9tIzi

https://www.wusa9.com/video/opinion/editorials/off-script/tuskegee-airmen-work-to-get-teens-interested-in-aviation-stem/65-cb75b160-7da0-4ad4-8644-48731dfbefa6

Tuskegee Airmen Photo Gallery

https://ecctai.smugmug.com/2019-ECCTAI-YOUTH-RECOGNITION-BREAKFAST-FUNDRAISER/

Tuskegee Airmen ECCTAI – President’s Message

http://ecctai.org/presidents-message

Robert Rashford Bio

http://icons.niherst.gov.tt/icon/robert-rashford-ci1/

Wendell M. Christian Obituary

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=wendell-m-christian&pid=154037173

PRESS CONTACT:

Above Prestige Public Relations

Office: 202-670-6489

Email: [email protected]

www.AbovePrestigePR.com

CaribPR Wire, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Sept. 25, 2018: With 42 days until the November 6, 2018 mid-term election in the U.S. from today, September 25, 2018, one organization is taking a unique voter education message to its growing foreign-born immigrant voting bloc this National Voter Registration Day.

CaribPR Wire, the PR newswire of the Caribbean and partner of the PR Newswire, is tapping into the carnival and party culture of the burgeoning Caribbean immigrant population in the US by leading a carnival-themed voter promotion campaign to urge Caribbean immigrants and Caribbean Americans who are eligible to vote, to ensure they do.

The promotion is the brain-child of CaribPR Wire founder, Felicia J. Persaud, to stimulate and drum-up voter turn-out among Caribbean immigrant voters in the U.S. this November. According to the recent U.S. Census’s American Community Survey, the Caribbean immigrant population in the US has grown by a projected 600,000 in recent years to surpass a conservative estimate of 3 million nationally.

The creative social media targeted advertising campaign includes 9 Caribbean-centric messages as: “Lime, Wine, Vote” “Vote Or Your Lime Is History” and “Jam Up The Polls This Nov. 6^th.” There are also culturally specific messages including: “Jab Jab To The Polls This Nov. 6^th,” “Hot Gyal A Vote,” “Dutty Wine To The Polls This Nov. 6^th” and “Ride De Riddim and Vote This Nov. 6^th.” There is also a unique message for Haitian voters.

“This is the most critical election of our life-time as immigrants in this country, especially given the anti-immigrant policies being put in place by this administration,” said the Guyana-born, U.S. citizen and media entrepreneur. “Those of us who have earned the hard-fought right to vote need to use it on D-Day, Nov. 6^th, or we may lose it forever and be shocked to find ourselves sucking salt back in the islands and nations we came from.”

The campaign was conceptualized and created by award-winning digital media company, Hard Beat Communications and is aimed at keeping the beat of carnival going into the polls this November 6th.

The messages can accessed on CaribPR’s Facebook page here.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kathy Bronson

[email protected]

CaribPR Wire, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Mar. 29, 2018: Caribbean-American elected officials are being urged to speak up on new US Census changes by the Donald Trump administration that could cost them their jobs.

CaribID Founder Felicia J. Persaud

Felicia J. Persaud, the founder of CaribID, the historic initiative launched in 2009 to get Caribbean nationals accurately counted by the US government, said she is appalled by the deafening silence so far from many Caribbean born and Caribbean-Americans in elected office across the US, to the Trump administration’s racist decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census.

Such a move will not only result in the further undercount of the Caribbean and other immigrant populations already living in fear of Trump’s immigration round-ups, but it will lead to serious redistricting, which will leave many Caribbean and immigrant elected officials possibly out of a job, said Persaud.

“The entire move is a xenophobic political one, aimed at creating fear and slamming the door in the face of immigrants while shoring up the ‘Trump base’ through redistricting triggered by a massive undercount,” said Persaud. “Immigrants have long been fearful of taking the decennial Census and this decision will only serve to drive them further underground, despite their immigration status, while leaving many Caribbean American elected officials vulnerable to having entire districts banished from electoral maps and their jobs becoming history.”

The Caribbean-born, US-based entrepreneur, is also urging the Caribbean Bar Association to join other rights organizations and attorneys general across the US, to take a stand and sue the federal government.

“The US Constitution requires that every resident of the United States be counted in a decennial census, whether or not they are citizens,” said Persaud. “The results are used not just to redraw political boundaries, from school boards to House seats, but to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants and subsidies to where they are needed most. Census data provide the baseline for planning decisions made by corporations and governments alike. We in the Caribbean US Diaspora must realize how important this is and stand up for those who are too fearful to stand up for themselves but most of all, stand up and be counted because our future and our livelihoods do depend on it.”

ABOUT CARIB ID

Carib ID is a historic initiative started by Persaud in 2009, to get Caribbean nationals a category on US Census forms in order for them to be accurately counted. So far, the movement, which has created dozens of partnerships across the country in its infancy and secured two bills in the US Congress to call for a separate category for Caribbean nationals in the US, has been able to lobby effectively for a write in portion for the 2020 Census under the African American race category, for Caribbean immigrants to write in their country of origin or ancestry.

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SOURCE: CaribID

MEDIA CONTACT:

For more information or interviews:

Kathy Bronson

[email protected]