Photos from the summer and fall of 1980, when thousands of Cuban refugees stayed at the Fort McCoy military base in Sparta, Wisconsin, after coming to the U.S. via the Mariel Boatlift.
by afampov · March 2, 2021
By Frederick A. Hurst
Jynai McDonald is running for Springfield’s Ward 4 City Council seat placing her in position to join several other local African American women elected officials who have been playing a significant, if not dominant, political leadership role for the benefit of the African American community and Springfield in general.
32-year-old Jynai is the daughter of Lester McDonald III and Victoria Lewis. Her paternal grandparents migrated to Springfield from Mississippi and North Carolina many years ago. Her maternal grandparents migrated to Springfield from Georgia and South Carolina. Along with the McDonald and Lewis families, she is also connected to the Washington, Redd and Wilkerson families just like so many of our Springfield African-American families are so interconnected. And, like so many of us, Jynai is a product of the distant generation of Southern migrants who escaped to the North for a better