💸 Goodman employee charged with embezzling $640K

💰Former Goodman Employee Charged With Embezzling $640K

• Madison police have charged the former vice president of business and finance at Goodman Community Center with embezzling more than $640,000 from the nonprofit.
• Prosecutors say Dewayne L. Powell misused the nonprofit’s credit cards and cashed fraudulent checks, spending the money at casinos, hotels and restaurants, paying his family’s phone bills, and sending Venmo payments to his girlfriend. He faces nine felony counts of theft and forgery. [WPR]

🏫 School Board Extends Superintendent’s Contract

• Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Joe Gothard has had his contract with the district extended by a year until June 2027. The Madison School Board approved the extension last week.
• Gothard will lead the district through the design and construction of 10 new school buildings approved by voters in last fall’s $507 million capital referendum.
• 🎧 Dig deeper: Why are so many Madison school teachers working under emergency contracts? Listen to the City Cast Madison podcast today as Bianca Martin talks to Madison teachers union president Michael Jones and Cap Times education reporter Kayla Huynh about the situation. [ 🔒WSJ, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

🛎️ Want To Buy a B&B for $2.3 Million?

• One of the most expensive homes in Madison is for sale. An 1850s mansion on Gorham Street that has operated as a bed-and-breakfast called The Livingston Inn is on the market with an asking price of $2.29 million.
• That’s about triple the $725,000 that owner Peggy Furlan and her ex-husband Dave paid when she bought and renovated the property in 2011. The 5,400-square-foot, six-bedroom Gothic Revival mansion is called the William T. Leitch House after its original owner, a former Madison mayor. [Cap Times]

Black history is American history, and though we pay special attention to the significant achievements and contributions Black Americans and people of African descent have made to this country during February, learning and honoring Black history is absolutely of year-round importance.

"Black History Month shouldn't be treated as though it is somehow separate from our collective American history,” said President Barack Obama in 2016. “It's about the lived, shared experience of all African Americans, high and low, famous and obscure, and how those experiences have shaped and challenged and ultimately strengthened America.”

History of Black History Month

Black History Month’s roots started in 1915 — half a century after slavery was abolished — when scholar Carter G. Woodson co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He urged other Black scholars and civic organizations to promote their community’s achievements, and out of that motivation the Association sponsored Negro History Week in the second week of February 1926.

By the late 1960s, Woodson’s concept was expanded into what we now recognize as Black History Month, officially recognized by President Gerald R. Ford during the 1976 bicentennial.

How Madison is Celebrating

There are plenty of local events around Madison to celebrate Black History Month. Here are a few to check out.

“I AM A Man: The Rehumanization of Black Men” is a group exhibit at the Goodman South Madison Library inspired by the slogan of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike that became a hallmark of the civil rights movement. Listen to curator Sharon Bjyrd and artist Jerry Jordan on the City Cast Madison podcast talk about how the exhibit celebrates the humanity and joy of Black men.