Approaching the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's martyrdom on April 4, 1968, many people seek to speak authoritatively about what his focus would be today. Some forget that President Johnson, the FBI, national media and conservative religious leaders maligned Dr. King during the last years of his life. When Dr. King was alive, they were not holding parades, naming streets for him or aligning with the civil-rights struggle. Far from the iconic image of Dr. King today, the stark reality remains that Dr. King was killed by an assassin's bullet in the ultimate act of hate.
Working with Dr. King for the last years of his life, and identifying the focus of his work on April 4, 1968, points my mind to where his contemporary nexus would be. Traveling from Chicago, I met up with Dr. King in Memphis, along with Andy Young, Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams and Gary Massoni. Their flight had been delayed by a bomb scare. We had no knowledge of the constant pressures he faced and the invidious dirty tricks the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover used to discredit him and the movement.
At the urging of James Lawson, we were in Memphis supporting sanitation workers striking for a union and trying to improve their oppressive working conditions. Memphis was to be a short detour en route to the Poor People's Campaign to dramatize the war on poverty in the nation's capital later that summer. Earlier that year on his birthday in January, Dr. King had brought together a "rainbow coalition" — blacks from the South, Al Lowenstein and Jewish allies in New York, poor whites from Appalachia and Latinos fighting for farmworker rights — to plan the last major campaign of his life, the Poor People's Campaign in Washington.
I remember vividly our moment at the Lorraine Motel, joshing with Doc, as we called Dr. King, as we prepared to go to dinner at the home of local leader Billy Kyles. Then that shot rang out. I rushed up to the balcony; we all pointed across the street where we heard the shot ring out. Ralph called out, "get down, get down." In a moment, the world turned upside down.
The bullet killed the man but not the movement, or what we had accomplished. Dr. King and the civil-rights movement transformed a "conversation" into legislation about race — comprehensive legislation and other actions striking down centuries of legal racial segregation and discrimination: the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision; the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, validated by the 1956 Supreme Court decision; the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. President Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, the last landmark civil-rights legislation, on April 11, 1968, just a week after Dr. King's assassination.
Dr. King and the civil- rights movement redefined American democracy. "Jeffersonian Democracy" contained the irreconcilable contradiction where slavery coexisted with "democracy." But "King Democracy" — his quest for a more perfect union emanating from the marching feet in Selma, the sit-ins at bus counters, and the legislation in Congress — resulted in a more inclusive democracy now admired around the world.
Today, Dr. King would no doubt see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the beneficiaries of historical and ongoing civil-rights struggle. They are, in fact, conduits through which a better and more mature America is expressing itself — where Dr. King once fought for the right of blacks, Latinos, women and youth to vote, he would now rejoice in the prospect of the first African American or woman as president of the democracy he helped to forge.
He'd also be tackling today's issues of injustice, many of which he was grappling with 40 years ago. He'd want to end the unjust war in Iraq and redirect the resources ($1 trillion) to fight today's war on poverty.
(Just one year before his assassination, Dr. King delivered the Riverside Church speech in New York, declaring opposition to the Vietnam War and decrying the need to conquer the "giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.")
He'd be appalled that a failure to enforce fair housing laws has led to the predatory lending crisis now driving a global economic recession.He'd want us to have a multiracial coalition and learn to live together across the lines of fear.
He'd want to educate our youth, lift them up and not tear them down, to give each an opportunity to achieve and succeed in life.He'd want a criminal justice system that focuses on justice, not criminalization of our youth.
He'd want us to register and vote, and he'd demand that people previously disenfranchised be permitted to vote. He'd want us to have a sense of self-confidence, to end self-destruction and self-degradation, from drug and alcohol abuse to self-inflicted violence and homicide, to the name-calling of women and the perverse use of the "N" word. He would want us to have a love of God.
Most of all, he'd want us to complete the unfinished business of the civil-rights movement, moving from "freedom" to "Equanomics" — measurable economic equality in jobs, employment, education, entrepreneurship, and other life categories where inequality remains as true today as 40 years ago.
Dr. King was a dreamer who marched to a different beat. Like his fellow dreamers Gandhi and Mandela, he was a change agent. He marched to a different beat; he dreamed with his eyes wide open. He was a minority, with a majority vision.
Today we live in the wake of his dreams, his risks and his sacrifice, and have the power to fulfill Dr. King's agenda. To lift our sights above fear, to lift the poor from the pits of poverty, to feed the hungry and heal the land. Were he alive today, the "drum major for justice" would be marching to fulfill the never-ending journey for full racial and economic equality. Long Live Dr. King!
By Jessee Jackson for Washington Times
Monday, March 31, 2008
Spike Lee Honored for Movie Career
Spike Lee is celebrating after being honoured at the sixth annual Behind The Lens Awards.
The director, producer, writer and actor was supported by Hollywood friends John Singleton, Rosie Perez, Damon Wayans and Patti Austin as he picked up the gong at the Chrysler LLC event at LA's Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Spike said: "I think that most importantly this award is not just for one particular film. It's for the body of work we've done from 1986's She's Gotta Have It to 2008 - my new film is coming out in October, called Miracle At St Ana - so it's for the body of work."
The 51-year-old has earned two Oscar nominations and is best known for his celebrated works Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X and Inside Man.
Speaking at the ceremony held in Spike's honour, director John Singleton said: "He has always been there. Even when I was in school for me to talk to about what I was going to do. That was great because over 20 years later we're still rolling.
"I think that a lot of people don't realise that if it weren't for Spike there are a whole lot of people in this business who wouldn't be working.
"He established a whole lot of careers in front of and behind the cameras. I think not too many people talk about it as much as they should."
The Press Association
The director, producer, writer and actor was supported by Hollywood friends John Singleton, Rosie Perez, Damon Wayans and Patti Austin as he picked up the gong at the Chrysler LLC event at LA's Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Spike said: "I think that most importantly this award is not just for one particular film. It's for the body of work we've done from 1986's She's Gotta Have It to 2008 - my new film is coming out in October, called Miracle At St Ana - so it's for the body of work."
The 51-year-old has earned two Oscar nominations and is best known for his celebrated works Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X and Inside Man.
Speaking at the ceremony held in Spike's honour, director John Singleton said: "He has always been there. Even when I was in school for me to talk to about what I was going to do. That was great because over 20 years later we're still rolling.
"I think that a lot of people don't realise that if it weren't for Spike there are a whole lot of people in this business who wouldn't be working.
"He established a whole lot of careers in front of and behind the cameras. I think not too many people talk about it as much as they should."
The Press Association
Sunday, March 30, 2008
NY Mets Cherish Experience from Civil Rights Game
In one last stop before Opening Day and real games, the Mets ventured into the real world. They visited the museum on the site where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, and their manager caught a ceremonial first pitch from Martin Luther King III.
They were here for Major League Baseball's annual Civil Rights Game, a pre-Opening Day exercise in opening eyes.
"It's not just baseball," said Mets reserve player Marlon Anderson, an African-American who grew up outside Montgomery, Ala. "That's the biggest thing out of this weekend. It's to bring awareness that it's not about baseball, it's not about bringing blacks into baseball. It's about bringing equality to people all around, no matter what their profession is. Baseball is trying to make an effort."
The effort included a panel discussion at the Civil Rights Museum on Friday night (featuring remarks by Hank Aaron about the decreasing number of African-American players in the big leagues), an awards ceremony honoring Frank Robinson as a Beacon of Life, an appearance by the Hall of Fame plaques of Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, and one spring training-ending exhibition in which the Mets beat the White Sox, 3-2.
By most important measures, the Mets appeared ready for the real games, which they begin tomorrow against the Marlins in Florida. John Maine finished an outstanding spring with four scoreless innings. "I feel good out there," Maine said, adding that he is building on 2007. "It's a learning process. There were things that I messed up and I could have fixed."
Said Willie Randolph: "From Day 1, he was in great shape. He's starting to feel who he is, and his place in the rotation. He was crisp, he was efficient."
Carlos Beltran hit a two-run homer and Joe Smith came in with the bases loaded and ended the seventh with a strikeout.
But as much as it was one last opportunity to tune up, it was an invitation to think. Anderson reflected on the firsthand stories he heard about the civil rights struggle. "It was an unfortunate time. I thank God all the time I didn't have to grow up and live through that," he said, thinking about his great-grandfather, a sharecropper who was given the chance to own an 80-acre farm because the woman who owned it allowed him to buy it with his own labor.
"So you can't look at everything as being bad because if everything was bad, we wouldn't have ever had the opportunities we have," he said. "I'm big on education for black people. If you can educate yourself, you can travel, you can see things in different ways, you can expand your mind and be able to dream."
The Mets' Friday night tour of the museum, which is at the site where King was shot, "was educational, and it was obviously moving," David Wright said. "It was good to get to know where everybody is coming from."
Carlos Delgado said: "I don't think you can cover all that in 45 minutes, but I thought it was great. I can only begin to imagine what some of the African-Americans in the '40s and '50s had to do to fight for their civil rights." Delgado has an interest in social issues, but he added, "I think once you walk in that room, if you don't have it, you acquire it."
Randolph was grateful for the opportunity to see his players react to what they saw. He was grateful to get a chance to catch a ball from the younger King yesterday and tell him how much he admires the family. "I always give thanks to forefathers who really paved the way for me and a lot of other people of color," he said. "And for the country. Civil rights was about the country, the rights for all human beings, especially African-Americans."
The Mets' real world is their profession, and they get back to that tomorrow. "We'll take the wraps off on Monday. I'm very excited about it," said Randolph, whose team had a good spring and a memorable ending.
By MARK HERRMANN for Newsday.com
They were here for Major League Baseball's annual Civil Rights Game, a pre-Opening Day exercise in opening eyes.
"It's not just baseball," said Mets reserve player Marlon Anderson, an African-American who grew up outside Montgomery, Ala. "That's the biggest thing out of this weekend. It's to bring awareness that it's not about baseball, it's not about bringing blacks into baseball. It's about bringing equality to people all around, no matter what their profession is. Baseball is trying to make an effort."
The effort included a panel discussion at the Civil Rights Museum on Friday night (featuring remarks by Hank Aaron about the decreasing number of African-American players in the big leagues), an awards ceremony honoring Frank Robinson as a Beacon of Life, an appearance by the Hall of Fame plaques of Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, and one spring training-ending exhibition in which the Mets beat the White Sox, 3-2.
By most important measures, the Mets appeared ready for the real games, which they begin tomorrow against the Marlins in Florida. John Maine finished an outstanding spring with four scoreless innings. "I feel good out there," Maine said, adding that he is building on 2007. "It's a learning process. There were things that I messed up and I could have fixed."
Said Willie Randolph: "From Day 1, he was in great shape. He's starting to feel who he is, and his place in the rotation. He was crisp, he was efficient."
Carlos Beltran hit a two-run homer and Joe Smith came in with the bases loaded and ended the seventh with a strikeout.
But as much as it was one last opportunity to tune up, it was an invitation to think. Anderson reflected on the firsthand stories he heard about the civil rights struggle. "It was an unfortunate time. I thank God all the time I didn't have to grow up and live through that," he said, thinking about his great-grandfather, a sharecropper who was given the chance to own an 80-acre farm because the woman who owned it allowed him to buy it with his own labor.
"So you can't look at everything as being bad because if everything was bad, we wouldn't have ever had the opportunities we have," he said. "I'm big on education for black people. If you can educate yourself, you can travel, you can see things in different ways, you can expand your mind and be able to dream."
The Mets' Friday night tour of the museum, which is at the site where King was shot, "was educational, and it was obviously moving," David Wright said. "It was good to get to know where everybody is coming from."
Carlos Delgado said: "I don't think you can cover all that in 45 minutes, but I thought it was great. I can only begin to imagine what some of the African-Americans in the '40s and '50s had to do to fight for their civil rights." Delgado has an interest in social issues, but he added, "I think once you walk in that room, if you don't have it, you acquire it."
Randolph was grateful for the opportunity to see his players react to what they saw. He was grateful to get a chance to catch a ball from the younger King yesterday and tell him how much he admires the family. "I always give thanks to forefathers who really paved the way for me and a lot of other people of color," he said. "And for the country. Civil rights was about the country, the rights for all human beings, especially African-Americans."
The Mets' real world is their profession, and they get back to that tomorrow. "We'll take the wraps off on Monday. I'm very excited about it," said Randolph, whose team had a good spring and a memorable ending.
By MARK HERRMANN for Newsday.com
Hopes Fade for 65 Feared Drowned in Tanzania Mine
Hopes faded on Sunday for 65 miners feared drowned in Tanzania after floods swept through a remote gemstone mine near Mount Kilimanjaro.
Manyara Regional Commissioner Henry Shekifu told Reuters six bodies had been recovered and that 59 workers were missing after the disaster in the northern town of Mererani. Thirty-five people had been rescued.
"That's the latest information we have this morning," Shekifu said by telephone from the scene. He said eight pits were inundated early on Saturday, drowning miners.
He held an emergency meeting on Sunday with the mine owners, local members of parliament and the area's police commander.
Local media said President Jakaya Kikwete had expressed his condolences to the victims and their families and had dispatched three cabinet ministers to the scene.
Volunteers had rushed to the area on Saturday and the government said it was bringing equipment to drain the water as fast as possible. But engineers battled to restore power after the flash floods brought down electricity poles.
Much of east Africa has been hammered by torrential seasonal rains this week, swamping city slums, damaging crops and cutting off remote villages. Local media in neighbouring Kenya said six people had died in floods there, including two children.
A schoolboy also reportedly drowned in Kampala, Uganda.
Mining accidents are relatively common in the north of Tanzania, which is the continent's third biggest gold producer after South Africa and Ghana.
Mererani, south of Arusha city, is the only place in the world where the violet-blue gemstone tanzanite is found.
It was discovered in the late 1960s and at some pits it is still mined haphazardly by small-scale prospectors with little capital using crude, unsafe technology.
As well as floods, miners have sometimes died in explosions or suffocated. In 2002, at least 48 workers were killed when a compressor used to pump clean air failed. (Additional reporting by George Obulutsa in Nairobi; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Catherine Evans) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)
By Antony Njuguna from Reuters.com
Manyara Regional Commissioner Henry Shekifu told Reuters six bodies had been recovered and that 59 workers were missing after the disaster in the northern town of Mererani. Thirty-five people had been rescued.
"That's the latest information we have this morning," Shekifu said by telephone from the scene. He said eight pits were inundated early on Saturday, drowning miners.
He held an emergency meeting on Sunday with the mine owners, local members of parliament and the area's police commander.
Local media said President Jakaya Kikwete had expressed his condolences to the victims and their families and had dispatched three cabinet ministers to the scene.
Volunteers had rushed to the area on Saturday and the government said it was bringing equipment to drain the water as fast as possible. But engineers battled to restore power after the flash floods brought down electricity poles.
Much of east Africa has been hammered by torrential seasonal rains this week, swamping city slums, damaging crops and cutting off remote villages. Local media in neighbouring Kenya said six people had died in floods there, including two children.
A schoolboy also reportedly drowned in Kampala, Uganda.
Mining accidents are relatively common in the north of Tanzania, which is the continent's third biggest gold producer after South Africa and Ghana.
Mererani, south of Arusha city, is the only place in the world where the violet-blue gemstone tanzanite is found.
It was discovered in the late 1960s and at some pits it is still mined haphazardly by small-scale prospectors with little capital using crude, unsafe technology.
As well as floods, miners have sometimes died in explosions or suffocated. In 2002, at least 48 workers were killed when a compressor used to pump clean air failed. (Additional reporting by George Obulutsa in Nairobi; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Catherine Evans) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)
By Antony Njuguna from Reuters.com
Black Schools Hit by Funds Ax as Bush Erases Aid Gain
When it comes to America’s more than 100 historically black colleges, the Bush administration is giving with one hand and taking back with the other.
President George W. Bush signed a law in September adding $85 million to the annual support of $238.1 million for Spelman College, Grambling State University in Louisiana and the other schools, saying it would help low-income Americans earn degrees and prepare them to compete for U.S. jobs. The Bush administration’s new budget cuts aid to the schools by the same amount, angering Democrats who helped provide the money.
“It’s devastating, a devastating effect, these kinds of cuts,” Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the Senate Education Committee, said in an interview in Boston. “It doesn’t make sense to cut back in terms of vitally needed education programs.”
North Carolina Central University in Durham says students who are training to become special-education teachers may see support for their program eliminated. Efforts to recruit minority students to become math and science teachers may be slashed at dozens of the colleges.
Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina gets about $4.2 million from the U.S. government, partly to provide tutors for chemistry and computer-science programs, said Everette Witherspoon, the university official who monitors such funding. The money, more than 4 percent of the budget, also supports an honors program and evening classes.
“They would be scaled back,” Witherspoon said. The cut would hurt efforts “to compete as a mainstream university.”
Education Department officials defend the conflicting policy actions, saying the cutback returns funding to previous levels.
“We have to make tough budget decisions in priorities with discretionary spending,” said Samara Yudof, a spokeswoman for the Education Department. “Our budget reflects that.”
The government defines historically black colleges and universities as those established primarily to educate African-Americans before 1964, when the doors to most institutions were closed to them.
Some were founded even before the Civil War, the oldest being Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, which began in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth. Today, they represent about 3 percent of U.S. colleges and universities and account for about one-fourth of all African-American college graduates.
Winston-Salem had $21.8 million in endowment assets on June 30, ranking 676th among 785 North American colleges and universities reporting figures. Harvard University’s $34.9 billion fund, the world’s biggest college endowment, is about 1,600 times larger. Wake Forest University, also in Winston-Salem, has a $1.2-billion endowment.
Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, author Alice Walker from Spelman in Atlanta, and civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in Greensboro.
Maceo K. Sloan, a Durham, N.C., financier, graduated from Morehouse, and Harold E. Doley Jr., founder and chairman of Doley Securities Inc. in New Orleans, is an alumnus of Xavier University of Louisiana. Sloan couldn’t be reached and and Doley declined to comment.
House Republicans last year attacked the added spending for historically black institutions, as well as for colleges that predominantly serve Latinos and Native Americans, saying it didn’t provide direct aid to students. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, ranking Republican on the House education committee, said at a recent hearing that funding for black colleges has more than doubled from $109 million in 1995.
Bush now is seeking “significant mandatory and discretionary savings that are essential to meeting” his goal of eliminating the federal deficit by 2012, according to an Education Department budget summary issued in February.
The Bush budget would increase total federal spending by 6 percent for fiscal 2009. The proposal raises Defense Department spending by 7.5 percent as the U.S. pours money into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Domestic spending, excluding defense and homeland security, would rise about 1 percent.
From Bloomberg.com
President George W. Bush signed a law in September adding $85 million to the annual support of $238.1 million for Spelman College, Grambling State University in Louisiana and the other schools, saying it would help low-income Americans earn degrees and prepare them to compete for U.S. jobs. The Bush administration’s new budget cuts aid to the schools by the same amount, angering Democrats who helped provide the money.
“It’s devastating, a devastating effect, these kinds of cuts,” Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the Senate Education Committee, said in an interview in Boston. “It doesn’t make sense to cut back in terms of vitally needed education programs.”
North Carolina Central University in Durham says students who are training to become special-education teachers may see support for their program eliminated. Efforts to recruit minority students to become math and science teachers may be slashed at dozens of the colleges.
Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina gets about $4.2 million from the U.S. government, partly to provide tutors for chemistry and computer-science programs, said Everette Witherspoon, the university official who monitors such funding. The money, more than 4 percent of the budget, also supports an honors program and evening classes.
“They would be scaled back,” Witherspoon said. The cut would hurt efforts “to compete as a mainstream university.”
Education Department officials defend the conflicting policy actions, saying the cutback returns funding to previous levels.
“We have to make tough budget decisions in priorities with discretionary spending,” said Samara Yudof, a spokeswoman for the Education Department. “Our budget reflects that.”
The government defines historically black colleges and universities as those established primarily to educate African-Americans before 1964, when the doors to most institutions were closed to them.
Some were founded even before the Civil War, the oldest being Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, which began in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth. Today, they represent about 3 percent of U.S. colleges and universities and account for about one-fourth of all African-American college graduates.
Winston-Salem had $21.8 million in endowment assets on June 30, ranking 676th among 785 North American colleges and universities reporting figures. Harvard University’s $34.9 billion fund, the world’s biggest college endowment, is about 1,600 times larger. Wake Forest University, also in Winston-Salem, has a $1.2-billion endowment.
Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, author Alice Walker from Spelman in Atlanta, and civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in Greensboro.
Maceo K. Sloan, a Durham, N.C., financier, graduated from Morehouse, and Harold E. Doley Jr., founder and chairman of Doley Securities Inc. in New Orleans, is an alumnus of Xavier University of Louisiana. Sloan couldn’t be reached and and Doley declined to comment.
House Republicans last year attacked the added spending for historically black institutions, as well as for colleges that predominantly serve Latinos and Native Americans, saying it didn’t provide direct aid to students. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, ranking Republican on the House education committee, said at a recent hearing that funding for black colleges has more than doubled from $109 million in 1995.
Bush now is seeking “significant mandatory and discretionary savings that are essential to meeting” his goal of eliminating the federal deficit by 2012, according to an Education Department budget summary issued in February.
The Bush budget would increase total federal spending by 6 percent for fiscal 2009. The proposal raises Defense Department spending by 7.5 percent as the U.S. pours money into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Domestic spending, excluding defense and homeland security, would rise about 1 percent.
From Bloomberg.com
Saturday, March 29, 2008
At the center of a massive new real-estate development in Atlanta, an $18 million monument designed to honor 2,000 years of human achievement is nearing completion. When it opens this summer, a museum inside the Millennium Gate also will pay special tribute to the accomplishments and philanthropy of some of the founding families of modern Atlanta. Organizers say plans for the exhibit don't include one overlooked aspect of two of the city's post-Civil War leaders: the extensive use of thousands of forced black laborers. The builders of the 73-foot archway say the museum is too small to convey every aspect of the city's founders and that it's appropriate to focus on the positive aspects of these men. In this adaptation from his new book, "Slavery by Another Name," Douglas A. Blackmon, Atlanta bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, chronicles how companies owned by these two men used forced labor to help rebuild Atlanta -- a practice that was widespread through the South.
Millions of bricks used to make the sidewalks and streets of Atlanta's oldest neighborhoods -- many of them still in use today -- came from a factory owned by James W. English, the city's former mayor, and operated almost entirely with black forced laborers. Many had been convicted of frivolous or manufactured crimes and then leased by the city to Mr. English's company, Chattahoochee Brick Co.
Between the Emancipation Proclamation and the beginning of World War II, millions of African-Americans were compelled into or lived under the shadow of the South's new forms of coerced labor. Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands were arbitrarily detained, hit with high fines and charged with the costs of their arrests. With no means to pay such debts, prisoners were sold into coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroad construction crews and plantations. Others were simply seized by southern landowners and pressed into years of involuntary servitude.
At the turn of the 20th century, at least 3,464 African-American men and 130 women lived in forced labor camps in Georgia, according to a 1905 report by the federal Commissioner of Labor.
Beginning in July 1908, a commission established by the Georgia Legislature convened a series of hearings into the state's system of leasing prisoners to private contractors. Meeting early every day and late into the night to escape the city's excruciating heat, the panel called more than 120 witnesses over three weeks to give testimony in the state Capitol's regal Room No. 16.
Accounts of Brutalities
Witness after witness -- ranging from former guards to legislators to freed slaves -- gave vivid accounts of the system's brutalities. Wraithlike men infected with tuberculosis were left to die on the floor of a storage shed at a farm near Milledgeville. Laborers who attempted escape from the Muscogee Brick Co. were welded into ankle shackles with three-inch-long spikes turned inward -- to make it impossibly painful to run again. Guards everywhere were routinely drunk and physically abusive.
Testimony described hellish conditions at Chattahoochee Brick and other operations owned by Mr. English, a luminary of the Atlanta elite and a man hardly anyone in the reviving city would have associated with human cruelty. But by 1908, Mr. English -- despite having never owned antebellum slaves -- was a man whose great wealth was inextricably tied to the enslavement of thousands of men.
Born in 1837 near New Orleans and orphaned as a teenager, he served as a young man in the Confederate army, rising to become a captain in a prominent Georgia brigade. After the South's defeat, he went to Atlanta to establish himself in the business and politics of the bustling new capital of southern commerce. He led a drive to make the city the state capital of Georgia, cementing its foundation as an economic center. In 1880 he was elected mayor.
Presiding from an elegant home, Mr. English, a portly man with a thick shock of white hair and a matching mustache, fostered a collection of enterprises that grew as Atlanta emerged from its Civil War ruin.
Chattahoochee Brick
The base of his wealth, Chattahoochee Brick, relied on forced labor from its inception, in 1878, and by the early 1890s, more than 150 prisoners were employed in the wilting heat of its fires. By 1897, Mr. English's enterprises controlled 1,206 of Georgia's 2,881 convict laborers, engaged in brick making, cutting crossties, lumbering, railroad construction and making turpentine.
Mr. English parlayed his industrial wealth to become one of the South's most important financiers as well. In 1896, he founded Atlanta's Fourth National Bank and became its first president.
Mr. English strenuously denied to the Georgia committee that any "act of cruelty" had ever been "committed upon a convict" under the control of himself or any member of his family. He insisted that he and his son were essentially absentee owners of the brick factory, having little to do with its daily operations.
"If a warden in charge of those convicts ever committed an act of cruelty to them," Mr. English said, "and it had come to my knowledge, I would have had him indicted and prosecuted."
Yet his testimony affirmed how Chattahoochee Brick -- like so many other Southern enterprises -- forced laborers to their absolute physical limits to extract modern levels of production using archaic manufacturing techniques.
Once dried, the bricks were carried at a double-time pace by two dozen laborers running back and forth -- under almost continual lashing by Mr. English's overseer, Capt. James T. Casey. Witnesses testified that guards holding long horse whips struck any worker who slowed to a walk or paused.
By the end of the century, the forced laborers churned out 300,000 hot red rectangles of hardened clay every day. Millions were sold to the Atlanta City Council to pave streets and line the sidewalks of Atlanta's flourishing new Victorian neighborhoods, according to company and city records.
The prisoners of the brickyard produced nearly 33 million bricks in the 12 months ending in May 1907, generating sales of $239,402 -- or about $5.2 million today. Of that, the English family pocketed the equivalent of nearly $1.9 million in profit -- an almost-unimaginable sum at the time.
A string of witnesses told the legislative committee that prisoners at the plant were fed rotting and rancid food, housed in barracks rife with insects, driven with whips into the hottest and most-intolerable areas of the plant, and continually required to work at a constant run in the heat of the ovens.
On Sundays, white men came to the Chattahoochee brickyard to buy, sell and trade black men as they had livestock and, a generation earlier, slaves on the block. "They had them stood up in a row and walked around them and judged of them like you would a mule," testified one former guard at the camp.
Another guard told the committee that 200 to 300 floggings were administered each month. "They were whipping all the time. It would be hard to tell how many whippings they did a day," testified Arthur W. Moore, a white former employee.
A rare former convict who was white testified that after a black prisoner named Peter Harris said he couldn't work because of a grossly infected hand, the camp doctor carved off the affected skin tissue with a surgeon's knife and then ordered him back to work. Instead, Mr. Harris, his hand mangled and bleeding, collapsed after the procedure. The camp boss ordered him dragged into the brickyard and whipped 25 times. "If you ain't dead, I will make you dead if you don't go to work," shouted a guard. Mr. Harris was carried to a cotton field. He died lying between the rows of cotton.
Similar testimony emerged from camps owned by Joel Hurt, the rich Atlanta real-estate developer and investor most remembered as the visionary behind the city's earliest and most-elegant subdivisions. Mr. Hurt was also the founder of Atlanta's Trust Company Bank -- the city's other pre-eminent financial institution.
The 'Water Cure'
In 1895, Mr. Hurt bought a group of bankrupt forced-labor mines and furnaces on Lookout Mountain, near the Tennessee state line. Guards there had recently adopted for punishment of the workers the "water cure," in which water was poured into the nostrils and lungs of prisoners. (The technique, preferred because it allowed miners to "go to work right away" after punishment, became infamous in the 21st century as "waterboarding.")
An elderly black man named Ephraim Gaither testified during the state's hearings as to the fate of a 16-year-old boy at a lumber camp owned by Mr. Hurt and operated by his son George Hurt. The teenager was serving three months of hard labor for an unspecified misdemeanor.
"He was around the yard sorter playing and he started walking off," Mr. Gaither recounted. "There was a young fellow, one of the bosses, up in a pine tree and he had his gun and shot at the little negro and shot this side of his face off," Mr. Gaither said as he pointed to the left side of his face. The teenager ran into the woods and died. Days later, a dog appeared in the camp dragging the boy's arm in its mouth, Mr. Gaither said. The homicide was never investigated.
Called to testify before the commission, Mr. Hurt lounged in the witness chair, relaxed and unapologetic for any aspect of the sprawling businesses.
Another witness before the commission, former chief warden Jake Moore, testified that no prison guard could ever "do enough whipping for Mr. Hurt." "He wanted men whipped for singing and laughing," Mr. Moore told the panel.
In response to the revelations, Gov. Hoke Smith called a special session of the state Legislature, which authorized a public referendum on the fate of the system. In October 1908, Georgia's nearly all-white electorate voted by a 2-to-1 margin to abolish the system as of March 1909. Without prison labor, business collapsed at Chattahoochee Brick. Production fell by nearly 50% in the next year. Total profit dwindled to less than $13,000.
The apparent demise of Georgia's system of leasing prisoners seemed a harbinger of a new day. But the harsher reality of the South was that the new post-Civil War neoslavery was evolving -- not disappearing.
The above is an Excerptfrom "A Different Kind of Slavery
By DOUGLAS A. BLACKMON
from The Wall Street Journal
Millions of bricks used to make the sidewalks and streets of Atlanta's oldest neighborhoods -- many of them still in use today -- came from a factory owned by James W. English, the city's former mayor, and operated almost entirely with black forced laborers. Many had been convicted of frivolous or manufactured crimes and then leased by the city to Mr. English's company, Chattahoochee Brick Co.
Between the Emancipation Proclamation and the beginning of World War II, millions of African-Americans were compelled into or lived under the shadow of the South's new forms of coerced labor. Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands were arbitrarily detained, hit with high fines and charged with the costs of their arrests. With no means to pay such debts, prisoners were sold into coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroad construction crews and plantations. Others were simply seized by southern landowners and pressed into years of involuntary servitude.
At the turn of the 20th century, at least 3,464 African-American men and 130 women lived in forced labor camps in Georgia, according to a 1905 report by the federal Commissioner of Labor.
Beginning in July 1908, a commission established by the Georgia Legislature convened a series of hearings into the state's system of leasing prisoners to private contractors. Meeting early every day and late into the night to escape the city's excruciating heat, the panel called more than 120 witnesses over three weeks to give testimony in the state Capitol's regal Room No. 16.
Accounts of Brutalities
Witness after witness -- ranging from former guards to legislators to freed slaves -- gave vivid accounts of the system's brutalities. Wraithlike men infected with tuberculosis were left to die on the floor of a storage shed at a farm near Milledgeville. Laborers who attempted escape from the Muscogee Brick Co. were welded into ankle shackles with three-inch-long spikes turned inward -- to make it impossibly painful to run again. Guards everywhere were routinely drunk and physically abusive.
Testimony described hellish conditions at Chattahoochee Brick and other operations owned by Mr. English, a luminary of the Atlanta elite and a man hardly anyone in the reviving city would have associated with human cruelty. But by 1908, Mr. English -- despite having never owned antebellum slaves -- was a man whose great wealth was inextricably tied to the enslavement of thousands of men.
Born in 1837 near New Orleans and orphaned as a teenager, he served as a young man in the Confederate army, rising to become a captain in a prominent Georgia brigade. After the South's defeat, he went to Atlanta to establish himself in the business and politics of the bustling new capital of southern commerce. He led a drive to make the city the state capital of Georgia, cementing its foundation as an economic center. In 1880 he was elected mayor.
Presiding from an elegant home, Mr. English, a portly man with a thick shock of white hair and a matching mustache, fostered a collection of enterprises that grew as Atlanta emerged from its Civil War ruin.
Chattahoochee Brick
The base of his wealth, Chattahoochee Brick, relied on forced labor from its inception, in 1878, and by the early 1890s, more than 150 prisoners were employed in the wilting heat of its fires. By 1897, Mr. English's enterprises controlled 1,206 of Georgia's 2,881 convict laborers, engaged in brick making, cutting crossties, lumbering, railroad construction and making turpentine.
Mr. English parlayed his industrial wealth to become one of the South's most important financiers as well. In 1896, he founded Atlanta's Fourth National Bank and became its first president.
Mr. English strenuously denied to the Georgia committee that any "act of cruelty" had ever been "committed upon a convict" under the control of himself or any member of his family. He insisted that he and his son were essentially absentee owners of the brick factory, having little to do with its daily operations.
"If a warden in charge of those convicts ever committed an act of cruelty to them," Mr. English said, "and it had come to my knowledge, I would have had him indicted and prosecuted."
Yet his testimony affirmed how Chattahoochee Brick -- like so many other Southern enterprises -- forced laborers to their absolute physical limits to extract modern levels of production using archaic manufacturing techniques.
Once dried, the bricks were carried at a double-time pace by two dozen laborers running back and forth -- under almost continual lashing by Mr. English's overseer, Capt. James T. Casey. Witnesses testified that guards holding long horse whips struck any worker who slowed to a walk or paused.
By the end of the century, the forced laborers churned out 300,000 hot red rectangles of hardened clay every day. Millions were sold to the Atlanta City Council to pave streets and line the sidewalks of Atlanta's flourishing new Victorian neighborhoods, according to company and city records.
The prisoners of the brickyard produced nearly 33 million bricks in the 12 months ending in May 1907, generating sales of $239,402 -- or about $5.2 million today. Of that, the English family pocketed the equivalent of nearly $1.9 million in profit -- an almost-unimaginable sum at the time.
A string of witnesses told the legislative committee that prisoners at the plant were fed rotting and rancid food, housed in barracks rife with insects, driven with whips into the hottest and most-intolerable areas of the plant, and continually required to work at a constant run in the heat of the ovens.
On Sundays, white men came to the Chattahoochee brickyard to buy, sell and trade black men as they had livestock and, a generation earlier, slaves on the block. "They had them stood up in a row and walked around them and judged of them like you would a mule," testified one former guard at the camp.
Another guard told the committee that 200 to 300 floggings were administered each month. "They were whipping all the time. It would be hard to tell how many whippings they did a day," testified Arthur W. Moore, a white former employee.
A rare former convict who was white testified that after a black prisoner named Peter Harris said he couldn't work because of a grossly infected hand, the camp doctor carved off the affected skin tissue with a surgeon's knife and then ordered him back to work. Instead, Mr. Harris, his hand mangled and bleeding, collapsed after the procedure. The camp boss ordered him dragged into the brickyard and whipped 25 times. "If you ain't dead, I will make you dead if you don't go to work," shouted a guard. Mr. Harris was carried to a cotton field. He died lying between the rows of cotton.
Similar testimony emerged from camps owned by Joel Hurt, the rich Atlanta real-estate developer and investor most remembered as the visionary behind the city's earliest and most-elegant subdivisions. Mr. Hurt was also the founder of Atlanta's Trust Company Bank -- the city's other pre-eminent financial institution.
The 'Water Cure'
In 1895, Mr. Hurt bought a group of bankrupt forced-labor mines and furnaces on Lookout Mountain, near the Tennessee state line. Guards there had recently adopted for punishment of the workers the "water cure," in which water was poured into the nostrils and lungs of prisoners. (The technique, preferred because it allowed miners to "go to work right away" after punishment, became infamous in the 21st century as "waterboarding.")
An elderly black man named Ephraim Gaither testified during the state's hearings as to the fate of a 16-year-old boy at a lumber camp owned by Mr. Hurt and operated by his son George Hurt. The teenager was serving three months of hard labor for an unspecified misdemeanor.
"He was around the yard sorter playing and he started walking off," Mr. Gaither recounted. "There was a young fellow, one of the bosses, up in a pine tree and he had his gun and shot at the little negro and shot this side of his face off," Mr. Gaither said as he pointed to the left side of his face. The teenager ran into the woods and died. Days later, a dog appeared in the camp dragging the boy's arm in its mouth, Mr. Gaither said. The homicide was never investigated.
Called to testify before the commission, Mr. Hurt lounged in the witness chair, relaxed and unapologetic for any aspect of the sprawling businesses.
Another witness before the commission, former chief warden Jake Moore, testified that no prison guard could ever "do enough whipping for Mr. Hurt." "He wanted men whipped for singing and laughing," Mr. Moore told the panel.
In response to the revelations, Gov. Hoke Smith called a special session of the state Legislature, which authorized a public referendum on the fate of the system. In October 1908, Georgia's nearly all-white electorate voted by a 2-to-1 margin to abolish the system as of March 1909. Without prison labor, business collapsed at Chattahoochee Brick. Production fell by nearly 50% in the next year. Total profit dwindled to less than $13,000.
The apparent demise of Georgia's system of leasing prisoners seemed a harbinger of a new day. But the harsher reality of the South was that the new post-Civil War neoslavery was evolving -- not disappearing.
The above is an Excerptfrom "A Different Kind of Slavery
By DOUGLAS A. BLACKMON
from The Wall Street Journal
Zimbabweans Line Up Early to Vote
Eager to vote, Zimbabweans lined up before dawn Saturday for crucial elections in which President Robert Mugabe faces the toughest challenge yet to his 28-year rule.
Meanwhile, the opposition has been urging its supporters to defend their votes against an alleged vote-rigging plot.
With lines of up to 500, some people said they arrived at the polls as early as midnight. But more than a dozen poll stations monitored had not opened by 7:15 a.m., 15 minutes after the scheduled opening.
Tensions rose Friday when the military put on a show of force, with soldiers and police in a convoy of armored personnel carriers and water cannon patrolling through downtown Harare, the capital, and security chiefs warning against violence.
Mugabe told a final rally Friday that Saturday's vote would show Zimbabweans' opposition to former colonizer Britain, whom he accuses of supporting the opposition.
"Zimbabweans are making a statement against the meddling British establishment," he told about 6,000 supporters in Epworth, an impoverished town outside Harare.
Mugabe called for discipline at the polls despite "provocation from outsiders who are already claiming the elections are not free and fair."
Running against Mugabe are opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, who narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections, and 58-year-old former ruling party loyalist and finance minister Simba Makoni.
Tsvangirai on Friday urged supporters at a rally to stay at polling stations until they closed and the counting began, to help prevent rigging.
"They would not rig in front of you," he told about 4,000 people at Domboshawa, a small farming community north of Harare. "We have won this election already. What's left is for us to defend our vote."
Zimbabwe's security chiefs, however, are firmly behind Mugabe.
Defense Forces commander Gen. Constantine Chiwenga has said his soldiers will not serve anyone but Mugabe and on Friday the chiefs of the police, army, air force, prison service and intelligence agency told reporters the armed forces were "up to the task in thwarting all threats to national security."
In downtown Harare, soldiers on quadbikes and police outriders escorted a convoy of armored cars and water cannon.
"Those who have been breathing fire about Kenya-style violence should be warned," the security chiefs said in a statement. Deadly protests erupted in Kenya after December presidential elections so rigged no one knows who won. More than 1,000 people were killed there.
On Thursday, Tsvangirai appealed to soldiers and other public servants not to participate in fraud.
Mugabe also has warned he would crush any anti-government demonstrations.
"Just dare try it," he was quoted as saying in the state-controlled Herald newspaper. "We don't play around while you try to please your British allies. Just try it and you will see."
Mugabe blames Britain and Western sanctions for the ruin of the southern African country that once exported food, tobacco and minerals. Today, Zimbabweans struggle to survive inflation in excess of 100,000 percent, crippling shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine.
The British charity Save the Children said Friday the number of children who die before their fifth birthday has more than doubled from 59 per 1,000 births in 1989 to 123 per 1,000 in 2004.
The sanctions, introduced after independent monitors said 2002 elections were rigged, involve visa bans and frozen bank accounts for Mugabe and 100 of his cronies, but he has convinced many supporters that the sanctions are to blame for the country's woes.
Mugabe's critics, however, say it was the government-ordered, often violent eviction of white farmers from land so that it could be handed over to blacks that doomed the agriculture-based economy.
But Fungai Shangwa, a 30-year-old unemployed mother of two, said land reform was one of the reasons she would be voting for Mugabe.
"The opposition will give back land to the whites," Shangwa said — even though she got no land. Most of the seized farms went to Mugabe's friends, relatives and allies.
If he beats Mugabe, Makoni, once a leader in the ruling party, said his priority would be to restore the rule of law to pave the way for economic recovery, and re-engage with the international community.
"The cure is not big piles of money," Makoni said in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday. "We will need money to deal with the crises of food, energy and water but the solution lies in the revival of our own institutions and production in a climate of constitutional order" to restore local, regional and international investor confidence.
Tsvangirai and other opponents have said Mugabe should be tried, possibly at an international human rights court, for violations including the massacres of an estimated 30,000 people, mainly civilians, during a campaign to subjugate the minority Ndebele tribe in the 1980s.
Makoni said he would not mount a witch hunt against Mugabe, but he also said he would grant Mugabe no special immunity.
Makoni has shaken up Zimbabwe's politics with his appeal to disillusioned citizens, threatening to take votes from both the opposition and the ruling party.
Makoni and Tsvangirai called a joint news conference Thursday, their first together, to appeal to election organizers and regional observers to stop vote rigging.
They complained they had yet to receive full nationwide voters' lists. But Makoni said partial lists showed enough problems to indicate "a very well thought out and sophisticated plan to steal the election from us."
Friday night, monitors from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community said they had observed "a number of matters of concern," which they did not identify, and that they would investigate these and raise them with relevant authorities.
From AP
Meanwhile, the opposition has been urging its supporters to defend their votes against an alleged vote-rigging plot.
With lines of up to 500, some people said they arrived at the polls as early as midnight. But more than a dozen poll stations monitored had not opened by 7:15 a.m., 15 minutes after the scheduled opening.
Tensions rose Friday when the military put on a show of force, with soldiers and police in a convoy of armored personnel carriers and water cannon patrolling through downtown Harare, the capital, and security chiefs warning against violence.
Mugabe told a final rally Friday that Saturday's vote would show Zimbabweans' opposition to former colonizer Britain, whom he accuses of supporting the opposition.
"Zimbabweans are making a statement against the meddling British establishment," he told about 6,000 supporters in Epworth, an impoverished town outside Harare.
Mugabe called for discipline at the polls despite "provocation from outsiders who are already claiming the elections are not free and fair."
Running against Mugabe are opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, who narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections, and 58-year-old former ruling party loyalist and finance minister Simba Makoni.
Tsvangirai on Friday urged supporters at a rally to stay at polling stations until they closed and the counting began, to help prevent rigging.
"They would not rig in front of you," he told about 4,000 people at Domboshawa, a small farming community north of Harare. "We have won this election already. What's left is for us to defend our vote."
Zimbabwe's security chiefs, however, are firmly behind Mugabe.
Defense Forces commander Gen. Constantine Chiwenga has said his soldiers will not serve anyone but Mugabe and on Friday the chiefs of the police, army, air force, prison service and intelligence agency told reporters the armed forces were "up to the task in thwarting all threats to national security."
In downtown Harare, soldiers on quadbikes and police outriders escorted a convoy of armored cars and water cannon.
"Those who have been breathing fire about Kenya-style violence should be warned," the security chiefs said in a statement. Deadly protests erupted in Kenya after December presidential elections so rigged no one knows who won. More than 1,000 people were killed there.
On Thursday, Tsvangirai appealed to soldiers and other public servants not to participate in fraud.
Mugabe also has warned he would crush any anti-government demonstrations.
"Just dare try it," he was quoted as saying in the state-controlled Herald newspaper. "We don't play around while you try to please your British allies. Just try it and you will see."
Mugabe blames Britain and Western sanctions for the ruin of the southern African country that once exported food, tobacco and minerals. Today, Zimbabweans struggle to survive inflation in excess of 100,000 percent, crippling shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine.
The British charity Save the Children said Friday the number of children who die before their fifth birthday has more than doubled from 59 per 1,000 births in 1989 to 123 per 1,000 in 2004.
The sanctions, introduced after independent monitors said 2002 elections were rigged, involve visa bans and frozen bank accounts for Mugabe and 100 of his cronies, but he has convinced many supporters that the sanctions are to blame for the country's woes.
Mugabe's critics, however, say it was the government-ordered, often violent eviction of white farmers from land so that it could be handed over to blacks that doomed the agriculture-based economy.
But Fungai Shangwa, a 30-year-old unemployed mother of two, said land reform was one of the reasons she would be voting for Mugabe.
"The opposition will give back land to the whites," Shangwa said — even though she got no land. Most of the seized farms went to Mugabe's friends, relatives and allies.
If he beats Mugabe, Makoni, once a leader in the ruling party, said his priority would be to restore the rule of law to pave the way for economic recovery, and re-engage with the international community.
"The cure is not big piles of money," Makoni said in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday. "We will need money to deal with the crises of food, energy and water but the solution lies in the revival of our own institutions and production in a climate of constitutional order" to restore local, regional and international investor confidence.
Tsvangirai and other opponents have said Mugabe should be tried, possibly at an international human rights court, for violations including the massacres of an estimated 30,000 people, mainly civilians, during a campaign to subjugate the minority Ndebele tribe in the 1980s.
Makoni said he would not mount a witch hunt against Mugabe, but he also said he would grant Mugabe no special immunity.
Makoni has shaken up Zimbabwe's politics with his appeal to disillusioned citizens, threatening to take votes from both the opposition and the ruling party.
Makoni and Tsvangirai called a joint news conference Thursday, their first together, to appeal to election organizers and regional observers to stop vote rigging.
They complained they had yet to receive full nationwide voters' lists. But Makoni said partial lists showed enough problems to indicate "a very well thought out and sophisticated plan to steal the election from us."
Friday night, monitors from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community said they had observed "a number of matters of concern," which they did not identify, and that they would investigate these and raise them with relevant authorities.
From AP
Young Shooting Victim, Mother Honored
A young shooting victim and her mother were honored for their spirit of community in Boston on Thursday.Kai Leigh Harriott was just 3 when she was paralyzed when a stray bullet severed her spinal cord.
NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff said what makes Kai Leigh, 7, and her mother heroes of the Urban League is their continued work in the community, talking about violence and their ability to forgive.
"She remembers every day, but it is not the focal point in our home," Kai Leigh's mother, Tonya David, said.
When she was 6, Kai Leigh faced her shooter, Anthony Warren, in court and said she forgave him.
"I forgive you, Anthony Warren. What you did to me was wrong, but I still forgive you," Kai Leigh said in court.
Now, Kai Leigh is learning to swim and enjoying school.
"I get to learn a different language -- Mandarin," Kai Leigh said.
"(She's) progressing like a normal 7-year-old would be doing right at this time," David said.
David, who has four other children, said her family has no regrets about forgiving the shooter.
"Even though we are surrounded by so much negativity, why not just be glad and joyful for what we have?" David asked.
The pair will be honored at an Urban League fundraising gala next week. The group hopes to raise $1 million to help send inner-city children to camp.
from thebostonchannel.com
NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff said what makes Kai Leigh, 7, and her mother heroes of the Urban League is their continued work in the community, talking about violence and their ability to forgive.
"She remembers every day, but it is not the focal point in our home," Kai Leigh's mother, Tonya David, said.
When she was 6, Kai Leigh faced her shooter, Anthony Warren, in court and said she forgave him.
"I forgive you, Anthony Warren. What you did to me was wrong, but I still forgive you," Kai Leigh said in court.
Now, Kai Leigh is learning to swim and enjoying school.
"I get to learn a different language -- Mandarin," Kai Leigh said.
"(She's) progressing like a normal 7-year-old would be doing right at this time," David said.
David, who has four other children, said her family has no regrets about forgiving the shooter.
"Even though we are surrounded by so much negativity, why not just be glad and joyful for what we have?" David asked.
The pair will be honored at an Urban League fundraising gala next week. The group hopes to raise $1 million to help send inner-city children to camp.
from thebostonchannel.com
Friday, March 28, 2008
Jamaican Tourism Nets $2 Billion in 2007
The Jamaican tourism sector is experiencing growth and is continuing to gather pace. For the calendar year 2007, approximately three million visitors came to Jamaica, earning the country US$2 billion. Tourism is now Jamaica's largest foreign exchange earner followed by remittances.
According to recently released data from the Jamaica Tourist Board's Statistical Division, stopover arrivals came in at 1.7 million with cruise passengers numbering 1.21 million.
Speaking with Caribbean Business Report from the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel, St Andrew yesterday, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said that figures for 2008 to date marked a 13 per cent improvement on the previous year's figures. This is the best performance for any country in the Caribbean.
" These figures are most encouraging. In February of this year, visitor arrivals were up 17 per cent on last year, March is also significantly up and bookings for April and May are looking very positive. In fact, we are looking good all the way into summer.
"There is some potential for some softening in the fall, but we are working on a number of events that will augment those inflows.
"Even at the tail end of March, winter is indeed looking very rosy."
The sluggishness of the US economy is a cause for concern but Bartlett pointed out that to date this has not hindered Jamaica's tourism product. "If this depression, as some people are calling it, goes well into 2009 then it will begin to have some effect on us because travel is affected by affordability," said the minister.
This is the first time in 25 years that Jamaica has recorded double-digit growth on a sustained basis which augurs well for the sector. The hotel sector is expected to bring on around 3,000 new rooms this year, which by itself will augment growth. This breaks down to 1,000 rooms from Fiesta (June 7th), 250 rooms from Palmyra, 630 rooms from IberoStar, 750 rooms from Riu. Even predicating 60 per cent occupancy for an average of four months will still add up to additional growth despite an absence of marketing efforts.
But the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) under John Lynch has stepped up its marketing efforts and is exhibiting a new verve and drive. This has not escaped Bartlett's attention.
"We are underscoring our marketing efforts with a new inspiration, and in a smarter and more effective way. We can see incremental growth of two per cent after maintaining our double-digit growth, "the minister added.
Europe has been targeted and last year posted an overall increase of 12.8 per cent in visitor arrivals, with Spain up a whopping 140.8 per cent. The UK still leads the European segment with 185,657 Britons visiting Jamaica last year. Continental Europe and the UK accounted for 17 per cent of market share last year.
Commenting on Europe, Bartlett said: "A lot of marketing work is presently being put into Europe, more particularly Eastern Europe. We are looking at places like Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and Georgia - the new emerging economies. Poland is a challenge just in terms of air access, but we are hoping to work with Air Berlin to help us with the Eastern European segment. Berlin can be a useful hub for the eastern block. Rome and Austria can also help us move traffic from that part of the world."
The Italian segment has worked well for Jamaica but more recently has fallen off, which in part can be attributed to the fate of Air Italia. The airlift situation from Spain has improved significantly. Bartlett is expecting five flights a week from Spain direct to Jamaica by the end of this year. No doubt the Spanish hotel's presence is largely responsible for this boom. Over the next four years an additional 10,000 rooms are expected, and with the Spanish operations being highly integrated, this is all good news for Jamaica.
"We have strategically sought to diversify our visitor segment and not place too much of a reliance on the US market. We are spending a good portion of our marketing and advertising dollars to achieve this. China, Japan and India are critical areas, which we are focusing upon. China has shot up to number two in the world for outbound travel, with last year seeing 40 million Chinese travelling. We have been given approved destination status by the Chinese, which makes it possible for people from China to visit our wonderful shores," explained Jamaica's minister for tourism.
By Al Edwards from JamaicaObserver.com
According to recently released data from the Jamaica Tourist Board's Statistical Division, stopover arrivals came in at 1.7 million with cruise passengers numbering 1.21 million.
Speaking with Caribbean Business Report from the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel, St Andrew yesterday, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said that figures for 2008 to date marked a 13 per cent improvement on the previous year's figures. This is the best performance for any country in the Caribbean.
" These figures are most encouraging. In February of this year, visitor arrivals were up 17 per cent on last year, March is also significantly up and bookings for April and May are looking very positive. In fact, we are looking good all the way into summer.
"There is some potential for some softening in the fall, but we are working on a number of events that will augment those inflows.
"Even at the tail end of March, winter is indeed looking very rosy."
The sluggishness of the US economy is a cause for concern but Bartlett pointed out that to date this has not hindered Jamaica's tourism product. "If this depression, as some people are calling it, goes well into 2009 then it will begin to have some effect on us because travel is affected by affordability," said the minister.
This is the first time in 25 years that Jamaica has recorded double-digit growth on a sustained basis which augurs well for the sector. The hotel sector is expected to bring on around 3,000 new rooms this year, which by itself will augment growth. This breaks down to 1,000 rooms from Fiesta (June 7th), 250 rooms from Palmyra, 630 rooms from IberoStar, 750 rooms from Riu. Even predicating 60 per cent occupancy for an average of four months will still add up to additional growth despite an absence of marketing efforts.
But the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) under John Lynch has stepped up its marketing efforts and is exhibiting a new verve and drive. This has not escaped Bartlett's attention.
"We are underscoring our marketing efforts with a new inspiration, and in a smarter and more effective way. We can see incremental growth of two per cent after maintaining our double-digit growth, "the minister added.
Europe has been targeted and last year posted an overall increase of 12.8 per cent in visitor arrivals, with Spain up a whopping 140.8 per cent. The UK still leads the European segment with 185,657 Britons visiting Jamaica last year. Continental Europe and the UK accounted for 17 per cent of market share last year.
Commenting on Europe, Bartlett said: "A lot of marketing work is presently being put into Europe, more particularly Eastern Europe. We are looking at places like Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and Georgia - the new emerging economies. Poland is a challenge just in terms of air access, but we are hoping to work with Air Berlin to help us with the Eastern European segment. Berlin can be a useful hub for the eastern block. Rome and Austria can also help us move traffic from that part of the world."
The Italian segment has worked well for Jamaica but more recently has fallen off, which in part can be attributed to the fate of Air Italia. The airlift situation from Spain has improved significantly. Bartlett is expecting five flights a week from Spain direct to Jamaica by the end of this year. No doubt the Spanish hotel's presence is largely responsible for this boom. Over the next four years an additional 10,000 rooms are expected, and with the Spanish operations being highly integrated, this is all good news for Jamaica.
"We have strategically sought to diversify our visitor segment and not place too much of a reliance on the US market. We are spending a good portion of our marketing and advertising dollars to achieve this. China, Japan and India are critical areas, which we are focusing upon. China has shot up to number two in the world for outbound travel, with last year seeing 40 million Chinese travelling. We have been given approved destination status by the Chinese, which makes it possible for people from China to visit our wonderful shores," explained Jamaica's minister for tourism.
By Al Edwards from JamaicaObserver.com
Morehouse Conference to Examine Health Disparity
Just over a year ago, a 12-year-old boy, Deamonte Driver, went to a hospital in Maryland’s Prince George’s County and was diagnosed with a tooth abscess and sinusitis. He was given antibiotics and sent home.
A few weeks later, his mother, Alyce Driver, was burying her son. She couldn’t afford the $80 to have Deamonte’s tooth extracted, and bacteria from the infected tooth migrated to his brain and killed him.
Deamonte Driver became another victim of the health disparities that grip this nation. All across the country, Black men, women and children suffer and die prematurely because people of color are in far poorer health than Whites, and are more likely not to have health insurance. Blacks suffer disproportionately from diseases ranging from heart disease, to diabetes and certain cancers. And the infant mortality rate for Black babies is higher than any other demographic in American society.
Belatedly, experts have come to realize there is no single reason for health disparities—there are many. Blacks are in poor health because of their total environment. Clearly, the combinations of social and economic conditions under which people of color live are the determinants that ultimately impact our health. These conditions include income level, social status, social supports, political environment, education, employment, ecological environment, and culture—just to name a few.
Moreover, these factors exacerbate health disparities in the most vulnerable populations, including the poor in urban and rural areas, immigrants, adults and juveniles re-entering life after prison, and the homeless.
Data paints a bleak picture of Blacks at risk from the moment their lives begin in the mother’s womb. Health disparities are devastating urban and rural communities alike, burdening our families and friends. To be sure, racism and discrimination play a role in the health crisis that Blacks face. The Institute of Medicine issued a report entitled “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare” documenting that minorities receive a lower quality of healthcare even when insurance status and incomes are considered. Researchers found that stereotyping, biases, and uncertainty on the part of healthcare providers all contributed to the unequal treatment.
Consider these statistics:
• The infant mortality rate for Blacks is 13.5 per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.7 for Whites.
• Age-adjusted death rates for cancer is 25.4 percent higher for Blacks than Whites.
• 3.2 million Blacks, or 13.3 percent over the age of 20, have diabetes and Blacks are nearly twice as likely to have diabetes as Whites.
• Blacks are more likely to die of heart disease than any other racial or ethnic group.
• Black men have the highest death rate of any racial or ethnic group.
Unfortunately, the millions spent examining health disparities have yielded few results. Only recently have researchers begun to understand that to improve the health of Blacks, their total environment must be considered, and acted upon.
On April 9, the Community Voices Initiative at the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine will host leaders in civil rights and health disparities to discuss the relationship between poor health and inequities in society. The First Annual “Freedom’s Voice Conference” at Morehouse School of Medicine hopes to plot a new direction in the fight against health disparities.
Participants from the nation’s leading think tanks, universities, government and health industry will participate in the panel discussions, as well as present case studies and interactive presentations. Sessions will include: Underserved Populations: The Social Determinants of Health; Incarceration and Reentry: Addressing the Health of Those Returning Home; Innovators: Mayors Speak Out about Reentry; Legislative and Legal Strategies to Address the Collateral Impacts of Incarceration and Reentry; and The Role of News Media in the Health Disparities Dialogue.
Further, after hosting a panel discussion to hear the voices of the victims of health disparities, there will be a session on the crucial next steps. Participants will begin to craft components for an action plan and implement the ideas that will ultimately benefit our communities.
“Until the social determinants of health are identified and addressed, Black men, women and children will continue suffering needlessly. This conference is a crucial step towards saving lives,” said Dr. Henrie M. Treadwell, associate director of development at the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine and director of Community Voices, a non-profit working to improve health services and health-care access.
By FinalCall.com News
A few weeks later, his mother, Alyce Driver, was burying her son. She couldn’t afford the $80 to have Deamonte’s tooth extracted, and bacteria from the infected tooth migrated to his brain and killed him.
Deamonte Driver became another victim of the health disparities that grip this nation. All across the country, Black men, women and children suffer and die prematurely because people of color are in far poorer health than Whites, and are more likely not to have health insurance. Blacks suffer disproportionately from diseases ranging from heart disease, to diabetes and certain cancers. And the infant mortality rate for Black babies is higher than any other demographic in American society.
Belatedly, experts have come to realize there is no single reason for health disparities—there are many. Blacks are in poor health because of their total environment. Clearly, the combinations of social and economic conditions under which people of color live are the determinants that ultimately impact our health. These conditions include income level, social status, social supports, political environment, education, employment, ecological environment, and culture—just to name a few.
Moreover, these factors exacerbate health disparities in the most vulnerable populations, including the poor in urban and rural areas, immigrants, adults and juveniles re-entering life after prison, and the homeless.
Data paints a bleak picture of Blacks at risk from the moment their lives begin in the mother’s womb. Health disparities are devastating urban and rural communities alike, burdening our families and friends. To be sure, racism and discrimination play a role in the health crisis that Blacks face. The Institute of Medicine issued a report entitled “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare” documenting that minorities receive a lower quality of healthcare even when insurance status and incomes are considered. Researchers found that stereotyping, biases, and uncertainty on the part of healthcare providers all contributed to the unequal treatment.
Consider these statistics:
• The infant mortality rate for Blacks is 13.5 per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.7 for Whites.
• Age-adjusted death rates for cancer is 25.4 percent higher for Blacks than Whites.
• 3.2 million Blacks, or 13.3 percent over the age of 20, have diabetes and Blacks are nearly twice as likely to have diabetes as Whites.
• Blacks are more likely to die of heart disease than any other racial or ethnic group.
• Black men have the highest death rate of any racial or ethnic group.
Unfortunately, the millions spent examining health disparities have yielded few results. Only recently have researchers begun to understand that to improve the health of Blacks, their total environment must be considered, and acted upon.
On April 9, the Community Voices Initiative at the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine will host leaders in civil rights and health disparities to discuss the relationship between poor health and inequities in society. The First Annual “Freedom’s Voice Conference” at Morehouse School of Medicine hopes to plot a new direction in the fight against health disparities.
Participants from the nation’s leading think tanks, universities, government and health industry will participate in the panel discussions, as well as present case studies and interactive presentations. Sessions will include: Underserved Populations: The Social Determinants of Health; Incarceration and Reentry: Addressing the Health of Those Returning Home; Innovators: Mayors Speak Out about Reentry; Legislative and Legal Strategies to Address the Collateral Impacts of Incarceration and Reentry; and The Role of News Media in the Health Disparities Dialogue.
Further, after hosting a panel discussion to hear the voices of the victims of health disparities, there will be a session on the crucial next steps. Participants will begin to craft components for an action plan and implement the ideas that will ultimately benefit our communities.
“Until the social determinants of health are identified and addressed, Black men, women and children will continue suffering needlessly. This conference is a crucial step towards saving lives,” said Dr. Henrie M. Treadwell, associate director of development at the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine and director of Community Voices, a non-profit working to improve health services and health-care access.
By FinalCall.com News
Court: Mumia Abu-Jamal Deserves New Hearing
An appeals court Thursday upheld Mumia Abu-Jamal's conviction for murdering a police officer 27 years ago but rejected prosecutors' request to reinstate the death penalty for the former Black Panther.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that because the jury that sentenced Abu-Jamal to die was given flawed instructions in the penalty phase, he must either get a new sentencing hearing or be sentenced to life in prison.
Abu-Jamal's lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, said he was glad the judges did not reinstate the death sentence, but added that he will continue fighting to get his client a new trial.
"I've never seen a case as permeated and riddled with racism as this one," Bryan said Thursday. "I want a new trial and I want him free. His conviction was a travesty of justice."
Prosecutors are weighing their options, but said they were expecting Abu-Jamal to request a hearing before the full appeals court.
A Philadelphia jury convicted Abu-Jamal, who is black, of killing white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 after the patrolman pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in an overnight traffic stop.
Prosecutors say Faulkner, 25, managed to shoot Abu-Jamal during the confrontation. A wounded Abu-Jamal, his own gun lying nearby, was still at the scene when police arrived, and authorities consider the evidence against him overwhelming.
Since Abu-Jamal's 1982 conviction, activists in the United States and Europe have rallied in support of his claims that he was the victim of a racist justice system. Abu-Jamal, 53, has kept his case in the spotlight through books and radio broadcasts.
District Attorney Lynne Abraham said she was pleased Abu-Jamal's conviction had been upheld and believes the ruling should dispel some myths about him.
"For all those here who believe that the system might have went awry, the 3rd Circuit has finally decided ... that Mr. Jamal is guilty when he was convicted and he's still guilty today," she said. "So don't shed any tears for Mr. Jamal; he's where he ought to be, at least in prison for the rest of his life."
Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook, has argued in numerous appeals that racism by the judge and prosecutors corrupted his conviction at the hands of a mostly white jury. Prosecutors, meanwhile, had appealed a federal judge's 2001 decision to grant Abu-Jamal a new sentencing hearing because of the jury instructions.
The issue over the instructions relates to whether jurors understood how to weigh mitigating circumstances that might have kept Abu-Jamal, 53, off death row. Under the law, jurors did not have to unanimously agree on a mitigating circumstance.
"The verdict form together with the jury instructions were misleading as to whether unanimity was required in consideration of mitigating circumstances," the appeals court wrote.
Faulkner's widow, Maureen Faulkner, said she was gratified that the court upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction, but noted that the case's long odyssey is still not over.
"In a way I do feel a victory," she said. "In another way ... it's like a thorn in my side that is still there that cannot be pulled out."
Faulkner has kept her husband's memory alive through public appearances, a foundation and a recent book, "Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice."
The appeals court heard arguments in May that focused on several constitutional issues, including whether prosecutors improperly eliminated black jurors in the 1982 trial.
Ten whites and two blacks served on the jury. Prosecutors struck 10 blacks and five whites from the pool, while accepting four blacks and 20 whites, according to Bryan, who argued that prosecutors at the time fostered "a culture of discrimination."
However, the court indicated there is no record of the makeup of the approximately 150-person jury pool, making it impossible to determine the total percentage of blacks excluded.
In dismissing the bias claims Thursday, the court also noted Abu-Jamal did not allege improper exclusions until an appeal that was rejected in 1989.
Assistant District Attorney Hugh Burns Jr. said the dismissal fell in line with other federal court decisions that maintain such claims need to be raised in a more timely fashion.
But in a partially dissenting opinion Thursday, Judge Thomas Ambro disputed the timeliness standard and said that Abu-Jamal presented enough evidence to warrant further investigation of the exclusion claims.
By KATHY MATHESON, AP
A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that because the jury that sentenced Abu-Jamal to die was given flawed instructions in the penalty phase, he must either get a new sentencing hearing or be sentenced to life in prison.
Abu-Jamal's lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, said he was glad the judges did not reinstate the death sentence, but added that he will continue fighting to get his client a new trial.
"I've never seen a case as permeated and riddled with racism as this one," Bryan said Thursday. "I want a new trial and I want him free. His conviction was a travesty of justice."
Prosecutors are weighing their options, but said they were expecting Abu-Jamal to request a hearing before the full appeals court.
A Philadelphia jury convicted Abu-Jamal, who is black, of killing white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 after the patrolman pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in an overnight traffic stop.
Prosecutors say Faulkner, 25, managed to shoot Abu-Jamal during the confrontation. A wounded Abu-Jamal, his own gun lying nearby, was still at the scene when police arrived, and authorities consider the evidence against him overwhelming.
Since Abu-Jamal's 1982 conviction, activists in the United States and Europe have rallied in support of his claims that he was the victim of a racist justice system. Abu-Jamal, 53, has kept his case in the spotlight through books and radio broadcasts.
District Attorney Lynne Abraham said she was pleased Abu-Jamal's conviction had been upheld and believes the ruling should dispel some myths about him.
"For all those here who believe that the system might have went awry, the 3rd Circuit has finally decided ... that Mr. Jamal is guilty when he was convicted and he's still guilty today," she said. "So don't shed any tears for Mr. Jamal; he's where he ought to be, at least in prison for the rest of his life."
Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook, has argued in numerous appeals that racism by the judge and prosecutors corrupted his conviction at the hands of a mostly white jury. Prosecutors, meanwhile, had appealed a federal judge's 2001 decision to grant Abu-Jamal a new sentencing hearing because of the jury instructions.
The issue over the instructions relates to whether jurors understood how to weigh mitigating circumstances that might have kept Abu-Jamal, 53, off death row. Under the law, jurors did not have to unanimously agree on a mitigating circumstance.
"The verdict form together with the jury instructions were misleading as to whether unanimity was required in consideration of mitigating circumstances," the appeals court wrote.
Faulkner's widow, Maureen Faulkner, said she was gratified that the court upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction, but noted that the case's long odyssey is still not over.
"In a way I do feel a victory," she said. "In another way ... it's like a thorn in my side that is still there that cannot be pulled out."
Faulkner has kept her husband's memory alive through public appearances, a foundation and a recent book, "Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice."
The appeals court heard arguments in May that focused on several constitutional issues, including whether prosecutors improperly eliminated black jurors in the 1982 trial.
Ten whites and two blacks served on the jury. Prosecutors struck 10 blacks and five whites from the pool, while accepting four blacks and 20 whites, according to Bryan, who argued that prosecutors at the time fostered "a culture of discrimination."
However, the court indicated there is no record of the makeup of the approximately 150-person jury pool, making it impossible to determine the total percentage of blacks excluded.
In dismissing the bias claims Thursday, the court also noted Abu-Jamal did not allege improper exclusions until an appeal that was rejected in 1989.
Assistant District Attorney Hugh Burns Jr. said the dismissal fell in line with other federal court decisions that maintain such claims need to be raised in a more timely fashion.
But in a partially dissenting opinion Thursday, Judge Thomas Ambro disputed the timeliness standard and said that Abu-Jamal presented enough evidence to warrant further investigation of the exclusion claims.
By KATHY MATHESON, AP
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Florida Passes Resolution, Apologizes for Slavery
Florida has become the sixth U.S. state to apologize for slavery.
Both chambers of the Florida legislature adopted a resolution Wednesday expressing "profound regret for the shameful chapter in this state's history."
The resolution notes that Florida sanctioned and enforced "African slavery in one of its most brutal and dehumanizing forms" from 1822 -- a year after Florida became a U.S. territory -- until the end of the American Civil War in 1865.
Florida became a U.S. state in 1845. It joined other slave-holding states in the American South in seceding from the Union in 1861, triggering a civil war that ended slavery and preserved the Southern states as part of the United States.
Five other U.S. states have apologized for slavery since last year, including Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia.
The Florida resolution cites state laws from the 1800s saying that any "slave duly convicted of robbery ... or burglary shall suffer death or have his or her ears nailed to posts and there stand for one hour and receive 30 lashes on his or her bare back at the discretion of the court."
Freed slaves "were denied the right to vote and in later years were, by law, so repressed, restricted and harassed that by 1850 most had been driven from Florida."
The resolution also "calls for healing and reconciliation among all residents of the state."
Both chambers of the Florida legislature adopted a resolution Wednesday expressing "profound regret for the shameful chapter in this state's history."
The resolution notes that Florida sanctioned and enforced "African slavery in one of its most brutal and dehumanizing forms" from 1822 -- a year after Florida became a U.S. territory -- until the end of the American Civil War in 1865.
Florida became a U.S. state in 1845. It joined other slave-holding states in the American South in seceding from the Union in 1861, triggering a civil war that ended slavery and preserved the Southern states as part of the United States.
Five other U.S. states have apologized for slavery since last year, including Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia.
The Florida resolution cites state laws from the 1800s saying that any "slave duly convicted of robbery ... or burglary shall suffer death or have his or her ears nailed to posts and there stand for one hour and receive 30 lashes on his or her bare back at the discretion of the court."
Freed slaves "were denied the right to vote and in later years were, by law, so repressed, restricted and harassed that by 1850 most had been driven from Florida."
The resolution also "calls for healing and reconciliation among all residents of the state."
The Hidden History of Slave Resistance
One of the more controversial aspects of the Black struggle in America involves the history of Black slave resistance in the antebellum South. Many are unaware that there is a history of violent resistance to plantation owners and uprisings led by those unwilling to peacefully acquiesce to a life of passive slavery, suffering and death.
This hidden history of Black slave rebellion is almost completely left out of history books in American schools.
The Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion was one of the earliest organized acts of Black slave resistance. On September 9, 1739, 20 Black slaves in South Carolina gathered at the Stono River to plan a march. After marching to the Stono Bridge they seized weapons and ammunition from a store and killed the store’s owners. They continued to march south towards Spanish Florida, which was at that time a well known refuge for escaped slaves.
On the way, more insurgents joined them in the rebellion. On the trail, they burned seven plantations and killed 20 Whites. The next day, a mounted militia of slave masters and plantation owners confronted the group of Black slaves. Forty-four of the slaves were killed and the Stono Rebellion was ended. The remaining captured slaves were decapitated and their heads were displayed on posts along the route of the rebellion sending a message to those who would consider planning future uprisings.
The Haitian Revolution
Another early episode of Black resistance was the Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804. It is remembered as one of the most successful slave rebellions ever to take place in the Western hemisphere. Led by Toussaint L’Ouverture and his top military general Jean-Jacques Dessalines (later known as Emperor Jacques I), it ultimately resulted in the formation of the independent Black Republic of Haiti and defeat of the French.
Denmark Vesey
Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, Denmark Vesey planned what would have been one of the largest Black slave rebellions in the U.S. Scheduled to take place on Bastille Day, July 14, 1822, word of a planned rebellion spread to thousands of Black slaves throughout Charleston, S.C. and along the Carolina coastal areas.
Vesey and his group of fellow slaves planned to slay their slave masters and seize control of the city of Charleston. Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti after the rebellion. The plot, however, was leaked to authorities by two Black slaves who disagreed with the plan. The rebellion was over before it began. One-hundred and thirty-one people were charged with conspiracy, 67 were convicted and 35 were hanged, including Vesey.
David Walker’s Appeal
In 1829, David Walker, a free Black abolitionist wrote a bold 76-page pamphlet, “Walker’s Appeal.” His writings called for Black pride and demanded the immediate and complete emancipation of Black slaves. In addition to identifying the causes of Black suffering, he also encouraged violent rebellion as a remedy for Blacks seeking freedom.
The Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner was a Black slave who led an uprising in Southampton County, Va. By all historical accounts, it is considered the most remarkable incident of Black resistance to slavery in the antebellum South.
On February 12, 1831, a solar eclipse was seen in Virginia. Turner saw this as a Black man’s hand reaching over the sun. This celestial sign was interpreted as meaning that he should make preparations for a slave rebellion. Turner and a few of his trustworthy rebellious fellow slaves originally planned for July 4th to be the date of the rebellion, but, after further discussion and deliberation, they postponed the date. On Aug. 13, there was another solar eclipse, which Turner interpreted as the final sign. The uprising began Aug. 21. Slaves seeking justice went from house to house freeing slaves and killing all White people encountered. At the end of the rebellion which lasted two days, 57 Whites were killed.
Turner eluded capture by authorities until Oct. 30. On Nov. 5, 1831, Nat was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He was hanged Nov. 11. After being executed, his corpse was beheaded and his body quartered.
By Ashahed M. Muhammad
Assistant Editor of The Final Call
This hidden history of Black slave rebellion is almost completely left out of history books in American schools.
The Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion was one of the earliest organized acts of Black slave resistance. On September 9, 1739, 20 Black slaves in South Carolina gathered at the Stono River to plan a march. After marching to the Stono Bridge they seized weapons and ammunition from a store and killed the store’s owners. They continued to march south towards Spanish Florida, which was at that time a well known refuge for escaped slaves.
On the way, more insurgents joined them in the rebellion. On the trail, they burned seven plantations and killed 20 Whites. The next day, a mounted militia of slave masters and plantation owners confronted the group of Black slaves. Forty-four of the slaves were killed and the Stono Rebellion was ended. The remaining captured slaves were decapitated and their heads were displayed on posts along the route of the rebellion sending a message to those who would consider planning future uprisings.
The Haitian Revolution
Another early episode of Black resistance was the Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804. It is remembered as one of the most successful slave rebellions ever to take place in the Western hemisphere. Led by Toussaint L’Ouverture and his top military general Jean-Jacques Dessalines (later known as Emperor Jacques I), it ultimately resulted in the formation of the independent Black Republic of Haiti and defeat of the French.
Denmark Vesey
Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, Denmark Vesey planned what would have been one of the largest Black slave rebellions in the U.S. Scheduled to take place on Bastille Day, July 14, 1822, word of a planned rebellion spread to thousands of Black slaves throughout Charleston, S.C. and along the Carolina coastal areas.
Vesey and his group of fellow slaves planned to slay their slave masters and seize control of the city of Charleston. Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti after the rebellion. The plot, however, was leaked to authorities by two Black slaves who disagreed with the plan. The rebellion was over before it began. One-hundred and thirty-one people were charged with conspiracy, 67 were convicted and 35 were hanged, including Vesey.
David Walker’s Appeal
In 1829, David Walker, a free Black abolitionist wrote a bold 76-page pamphlet, “Walker’s Appeal.” His writings called for Black pride and demanded the immediate and complete emancipation of Black slaves. In addition to identifying the causes of Black suffering, he also encouraged violent rebellion as a remedy for Blacks seeking freedom.
The Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner was a Black slave who led an uprising in Southampton County, Va. By all historical accounts, it is considered the most remarkable incident of Black resistance to slavery in the antebellum South.
On February 12, 1831, a solar eclipse was seen in Virginia. Turner saw this as a Black man’s hand reaching over the sun. This celestial sign was interpreted as meaning that he should make preparations for a slave rebellion. Turner and a few of his trustworthy rebellious fellow slaves originally planned for July 4th to be the date of the rebellion, but, after further discussion and deliberation, they postponed the date. On Aug. 13, there was another solar eclipse, which Turner interpreted as the final sign. The uprising began Aug. 21. Slaves seeking justice went from house to house freeing slaves and killing all White people encountered. At the end of the rebellion which lasted two days, 57 Whites were killed.
Turner eluded capture by authorities until Oct. 30. On Nov. 5, 1831, Nat was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He was hanged Nov. 11. After being executed, his corpse was beheaded and his body quartered.
By Ashahed M. Muhammad
Assistant Editor of The Final Call
CNN Denied Permission to Cover Elections in Zimbabwe
CNN has been denied permission to cover this week's parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe, an official at the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information and Publicity said Tuesday.
The official, who did not want to be named, gave no reason for the government's decision to bar CNN from the crucial vote.
Reached on the phone in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, the official would not reveal whether any international media organizations had been given permission to cover the election.
A CNN representative issued the following statement in reaction: "CNN regrets the Zimbabwean government's decision to deny us permission to enter the country to cover the parliamentary and presidential elections on Saturday March 29th. We hope that the government will reconsider its decision. CNN will continue to cover the elections as widely as possible from South Africa and surrounding countries."
South Africa's independent station ETV and British TV networks ITV and Sky all said they were denied permission to cover the election as well.
In another development that has opposition leaders crying foul and has increased their concerns about the Saturday poll, Zimbabwean police have impounded a helicopter that was to carry a Zimbabwean opposition leader to rallies, the aircraft's owner said. The helicopter's pilot was arrested, he said.
Wessel Vannenberg, owner of ATS helicopters, told CNN that all paperwork and flight plans had been filed ahead of time with the authorities. He said police gave no reason for their actions.
Movement for Democratic Change, a Zimbabwean opposition party, had hired the helicopter to fly their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to campaign rallies, according to Vannenberg.
Roy Bennett of the MDC said the flight plan was filed with the authorities in good time. According to Bennett, the helicopter flew from South Africa to the Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo on Saturday.
Only after the authorities discovered that the intended passenger was Tsvangirai was the flight prohibited from taking off, he said.
As a result, the MDC was forced to cancel four rallies in Matabeleland North, he said.
The pilot, Brent Smyth, was allowed to fly from Bulawayo to Harare early Monday morning before being arrested in the capital, Bennett told CNN.
Vannenberg said the pilot was arrested at 7 a.m. at Charles Prince Airport outside Harare and that the helicopter was grounded.
Smyth, a South African national, has been taken to Harare Central Police station, Vannenberg said.
CNN was unable to reach the Zimbabwean police for comment.
From Kim Norgaard
CNN
The official, who did not want to be named, gave no reason for the government's decision to bar CNN from the crucial vote.
Reached on the phone in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, the official would not reveal whether any international media organizations had been given permission to cover the election.
A CNN representative issued the following statement in reaction: "CNN regrets the Zimbabwean government's decision to deny us permission to enter the country to cover the parliamentary and presidential elections on Saturday March 29th. We hope that the government will reconsider its decision. CNN will continue to cover the elections as widely as possible from South Africa and surrounding countries."
South Africa's independent station ETV and British TV networks ITV and Sky all said they were denied permission to cover the election as well.
In another development that has opposition leaders crying foul and has increased their concerns about the Saturday poll, Zimbabwean police have impounded a helicopter that was to carry a Zimbabwean opposition leader to rallies, the aircraft's owner said. The helicopter's pilot was arrested, he said.
Wessel Vannenberg, owner of ATS helicopters, told CNN that all paperwork and flight plans had been filed ahead of time with the authorities. He said police gave no reason for their actions.
Movement for Democratic Change, a Zimbabwean opposition party, had hired the helicopter to fly their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to campaign rallies, according to Vannenberg.
Roy Bennett of the MDC said the flight plan was filed with the authorities in good time. According to Bennett, the helicopter flew from South Africa to the Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo on Saturday.
Only after the authorities discovered that the intended passenger was Tsvangirai was the flight prohibited from taking off, he said.
As a result, the MDC was forced to cancel four rallies in Matabeleland North, he said.
The pilot, Brent Smyth, was allowed to fly from Bulawayo to Harare early Monday morning before being arrested in the capital, Bennett told CNN.
Vannenberg said the pilot was arrested at 7 a.m. at Charles Prince Airport outside Harare and that the helicopter was grounded.
Smyth, a South African national, has been taken to Harare Central Police station, Vannenberg said.
CNN was unable to reach the Zimbabwean police for comment.
From Kim Norgaard
CNN
LA Times Apologizes for Shakur Story
The Los Angeles Times apologized for using documents that were apparently fabricated in a story implicating associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs in a 1994 assault on rapper Tupac Shakur.
"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used," Editor Russ Stanton said in a story posted Wednesday night on the newspaper's Web site. "We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents ... and in the story."
Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chuck Philips, who wrote the story, and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, also apologized.
The apologies followed an investigation launched by Stanton after The Smoking Gun Web site reported earlier in the day that the paper was conned by a prisoner who doctored the documents.
Combs denied that he had any prior knowledge of or involvement in the robbery and shooting of Shakur at a New York recording studio. He and other subjects of the story claimed they had been defamed by the newspaper.
The Smoking Gun said the documents seemed phony because they appeared to be written on a typewriter instead of a computer and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents, among other problems.
The Web site claimed the documents were fabricated by a prison inmate with a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.
The Times said its March 17 story was based on FBI records, interviews with people at the scene of the 1994 shooting, and statements to the FBI by an informant.
None of the sources was named.
Philips said Wednesday that a former FBI agent examined the documents in question for him and said they appeared to be legitimate.
But Philips said he wished he had done more to investigate their authenticity.
"I now believe the truth here is I got duped," he said.
Marc Lichtman, an attorney representing rap manager James Rosemond, one of two men the story linked to the Shakur attack, had earlier demanded an apology.
"I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks — or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit," Lichtman said Wednesday.
The shooting triggered a feud between East and West Coast rappers that led to the killings of Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.
The story said associates hoping to curry favor with Combs — who was overseeing B.I.G.'s white-hot career at the time — lured Shakur to the studio because of his disrespect toward them.
The story and related features on latimes.com attracted nearly 1 million hits — more viewers than any other story on latimes.com this year, the newspaper said.
"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used," Editor Russ Stanton said in a story posted Wednesday night on the newspaper's Web site. "We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents ... and in the story."
Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chuck Philips, who wrote the story, and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, also apologized.
The apologies followed an investigation launched by Stanton after The Smoking Gun Web site reported earlier in the day that the paper was conned by a prisoner who doctored the documents.
Combs denied that he had any prior knowledge of or involvement in the robbery and shooting of Shakur at a New York recording studio. He and other subjects of the story claimed they had been defamed by the newspaper.
The Smoking Gun said the documents seemed phony because they appeared to be written on a typewriter instead of a computer and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents, among other problems.
The Web site claimed the documents were fabricated by a prison inmate with a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.
The Times said its March 17 story was based on FBI records, interviews with people at the scene of the 1994 shooting, and statements to the FBI by an informant.
None of the sources was named.
Philips said Wednesday that a former FBI agent examined the documents in question for him and said they appeared to be legitimate.
But Philips said he wished he had done more to investigate their authenticity.
"I now believe the truth here is I got duped," he said.
Marc Lichtman, an attorney representing rap manager James Rosemond, one of two men the story linked to the Shakur attack, had earlier demanded an apology.
"I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks — or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit," Lichtman said Wednesday.
The shooting triggered a feud between East and West Coast rappers that led to the killings of Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.
The story said associates hoping to curry favor with Combs — who was overseeing B.I.G.'s white-hot career at the time — lured Shakur to the studio because of his disrespect toward them.
The story and related features on latimes.com attracted nearly 1 million hits — more viewers than any other story on latimes.com this year, the newspaper said.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Affirmative Action Foes Push Ballot Initiatives
Sixteen months after voters in Michigan voted to kill affirmative action in the public sphere, opponents of preferences based on race and gender are pushing five more states to ban the practice.
Foes of affirmative action, which is meant to address current and historical inequities, delivered 128,744 signatures to Colorado authorities earlier this month. Similar organizations in Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska are circulating petitions as civil rights groups and educators are mobilizing to defeat the measures.
The initiatives are spearheaded by Ward Connerly, the nation's most prominent opponent of affirmative action, who said he has raised about $1.5 million for the campaigns. He sees the November ballot initiatives as the next step in his drive to end preferences in public education, hiring and contracting.
"Without any doubt, we have to understand that race preferences are on the way out," said Connerly, who heads to Missouri next week to deliver speeches on behalf of that state's constitutional amendment, now tangled in a court battle over the ballot measure's wording.
In the states where Connerly's self-described "civil rights initiative" appears on the ballot, voters are likely to see it alongside the name of the first black or female major-party presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) Connerly contends that the success of Obama and Clinton shows that preferences are no longer necessary "to compensate for, quote, institutional racism and institutional sexism."
Connerly, a prosperous and conservative black Republican, said he contributed $500 to Obama's campaign to honor him "for trying to take race out of the body politic." Obama opposes Connerly's approach to affirmative action and lent his voice to a 2006 radio ad opposing the Connerly-sponsored Proposition 2 in Michigan. (The Obama campaign would not comment on whether it is keeping the money.)
Obama is not alone. Opponents of Connerly's effort are using legal challenges and grass-roots organizing techniques to keep the measures off the ballot, or to defeat them.
"As we feared, Connerly's attack on equal opportunity in Michigan has metastasized," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "We know that most Americans support equal opportunity. They know that diversity is good for business, good for the classroom and ultimately good for the country."
Henderson dismissed Connerly's reference to Obama as a willingness to "seize on any factoid to justify his assault on equal opportunity" and added: "I am not surprised he would lift up the performance of Barack to say that race no longer matters in American life. That's a gross overstatement of the lives of most Americans."
Redditt Hudson, who heads the racial justice program in the St. Louis office of the American Civil Liberties Union, contends that the deck is stacked against qualified minority firms in Missouri. He said where affirmative action programs are absent from the local private sector, "you've got a minimal proportion of those contracting dollars going to minority-owned firms."
Hudson said a number of organizations are working to educate Missouri voters and hoping that Connerly's Missouri Civil Rights Initiative will fall short of the 140,000 to 150,000 signatures it needs to make the ballot.
Tim Asher, a former college admissions officer, is leading the Missouri ballot effort. He said the organization is on pace to meet a May 4 deadline, circulating petitions that contain language written by a judge, although the case remains on appeal.
Asher described affirmative action as a form of discrimination because it permits or requires the use of diversity as a factor in employment, contracting and university admission. He said diversity can be achieved through programs that target economically and socially disadvantaged people of all races.
"We need to get beyond race in this country and make sure that everyone is treated equally under the law," Asher said. His counterpart in Nebraska, management professor Marc Schneiderjans of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, said paid signature-gatherers in his state have been slowed by an unusually long Midwestern winter but will be back in action soon.
Hudson, of the Eastern Missouri ACLU, said opponents of affirmative action "fail to take into account the on-the-ground realities that continue to persist." Their victory, he said, "would undermine one of the greatest achievements of the civil rights era."
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Foes of affirmative action, which is meant to address current and historical inequities, delivered 128,744 signatures to Colorado authorities earlier this month. Similar organizations in Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska are circulating petitions as civil rights groups and educators are mobilizing to defeat the measures.
The initiatives are spearheaded by Ward Connerly, the nation's most prominent opponent of affirmative action, who said he has raised about $1.5 million for the campaigns. He sees the November ballot initiatives as the next step in his drive to end preferences in public education, hiring and contracting.
"Without any doubt, we have to understand that race preferences are on the way out," said Connerly, who heads to Missouri next week to deliver speeches on behalf of that state's constitutional amendment, now tangled in a court battle over the ballot measure's wording.
In the states where Connerly's self-described "civil rights initiative" appears on the ballot, voters are likely to see it alongside the name of the first black or female major-party presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) Connerly contends that the success of Obama and Clinton shows that preferences are no longer necessary "to compensate for, quote, institutional racism and institutional sexism."
Connerly, a prosperous and conservative black Republican, said he contributed $500 to Obama's campaign to honor him "for trying to take race out of the body politic." Obama opposes Connerly's approach to affirmative action and lent his voice to a 2006 radio ad opposing the Connerly-sponsored Proposition 2 in Michigan. (The Obama campaign would not comment on whether it is keeping the money.)
Obama is not alone. Opponents of Connerly's effort are using legal challenges and grass-roots organizing techniques to keep the measures off the ballot, or to defeat them.
"As we feared, Connerly's attack on equal opportunity in Michigan has metastasized," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "We know that most Americans support equal opportunity. They know that diversity is good for business, good for the classroom and ultimately good for the country."
Henderson dismissed Connerly's reference to Obama as a willingness to "seize on any factoid to justify his assault on equal opportunity" and added: "I am not surprised he would lift up the performance of Barack to say that race no longer matters in American life. That's a gross overstatement of the lives of most Americans."
Redditt Hudson, who heads the racial justice program in the St. Louis office of the American Civil Liberties Union, contends that the deck is stacked against qualified minority firms in Missouri. He said where affirmative action programs are absent from the local private sector, "you've got a minimal proportion of those contracting dollars going to minority-owned firms."
Hudson said a number of organizations are working to educate Missouri voters and hoping that Connerly's Missouri Civil Rights Initiative will fall short of the 140,000 to 150,000 signatures it needs to make the ballot.
Tim Asher, a former college admissions officer, is leading the Missouri ballot effort. He said the organization is on pace to meet a May 4 deadline, circulating petitions that contain language written by a judge, although the case remains on appeal.
Asher described affirmative action as a form of discrimination because it permits or requires the use of diversity as a factor in employment, contracting and university admission. He said diversity can be achieved through programs that target economically and socially disadvantaged people of all races.
"We need to get beyond race in this country and make sure that everyone is treated equally under the law," Asher said. His counterpart in Nebraska, management professor Marc Schneiderjans of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, said paid signature-gatherers in his state have been slowed by an unusually long Midwestern winter but will be back in action soon.
Hudson, of the Eastern Missouri ACLU, said opponents of affirmative action "fail to take into account the on-the-ground realities that continue to persist." Their victory, he said, "would undermine one of the greatest achievements of the civil rights era."
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
First Black Female Astronaut Exhorts Youth to Soar
What are we doing now for the children?
This provocative question and many others were asked in Miami-Dade County by Dr. Mae Jemison, the world's first black female astronaut.
She was the speaker at a recent centennial luncheon hosted by Gamma Zeta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Founded on the campus of Howard University in 1908, it is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African-American college-educated women.
Dr. Jemison is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. According to their souvenir program, honorary membership ``is bestowed upon women exhibiting outstanding achievements that set them apart in their communities and careers, making them worthy of recognition.''
Dr. Jemison's accounts of growing up in Chicago and preparing for space travel were humorous and inspirational. Her achievements are legendary.
The audience of more than 500 well-wishers included school children from Holmes Elementary School's Magnet NASA program and Miami Central High School's Aero Space Academy.
Both groups were sponsored by County Commissioner Dorrin Rolle of District 2.
These students had the opportunity to see first-hand one who has made history and to hear of her struggles and joys. No doubt the next time they read about her they will have a better understanding of the struggle for African Americans in the 20th century.
Those in attendance likely also increased their knowledge of pioneers in space and gained some ideas for ways they can participate in their chosen career.
Dr. Jemison shared life lessons and encouraged them to ``try every day and never give up.''
Gamma Zeta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Sorority began its service by inviting youth and pioneers to participate in the historic occasion.
What are we doing for the children? From time to time, this column will feature groups who provide opportunities for youth to learn about experiences of the past as a means of preparing for the future. Pre-activities that prepare youth for the experience(s), post-activities that help youth engage with their heritage and annual events showcasing achievements will be highlighted.
Also, youth who participated in an organization in previous years and distinguished themselves in the community or careers will be featured. Interested groups located in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties should include information about youth and youth activities and a history of the organization with an e-mail address and telephone numbers of the president and contact person.
BY DOROTHY JENKINS FIELDS
Special to The Miami Herald
This provocative question and many others were asked in Miami-Dade County by Dr. Mae Jemison, the world's first black female astronaut.
She was the speaker at a recent centennial luncheon hosted by Gamma Zeta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Founded on the campus of Howard University in 1908, it is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African-American college-educated women.
Dr. Jemison is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. According to their souvenir program, honorary membership ``is bestowed upon women exhibiting outstanding achievements that set them apart in their communities and careers, making them worthy of recognition.''
Dr. Jemison's accounts of growing up in Chicago and preparing for space travel were humorous and inspirational. Her achievements are legendary.
The audience of more than 500 well-wishers included school children from Holmes Elementary School's Magnet NASA program and Miami Central High School's Aero Space Academy.
Both groups were sponsored by County Commissioner Dorrin Rolle of District 2.
These students had the opportunity to see first-hand one who has made history and to hear of her struggles and joys. No doubt the next time they read about her they will have a better understanding of the struggle for African Americans in the 20th century.
Those in attendance likely also increased their knowledge of pioneers in space and gained some ideas for ways they can participate in their chosen career.
Dr. Jemison shared life lessons and encouraged them to ``try every day and never give up.''
Gamma Zeta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Sorority began its service by inviting youth and pioneers to participate in the historic occasion.
What are we doing for the children? From time to time, this column will feature groups who provide opportunities for youth to learn about experiences of the past as a means of preparing for the future. Pre-activities that prepare youth for the experience(s), post-activities that help youth engage with their heritage and annual events showcasing achievements will be highlighted.
Also, youth who participated in an organization in previous years and distinguished themselves in the community or careers will be featured. Interested groups located in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties should include information about youth and youth activities and a history of the organization with an e-mail address and telephone numbers of the president and contact person.
BY DOROTHY JENKINS FIELDS
Special to The Miami Herald
Detroit's Kilpatrick Pleads Not Guilty to Perjury
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, pleaded not guilty today to charges of lying under oath about an affair and using taxpayer money in an attempt to cover it up.
The pair face charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. They were released on $75,000 bail each, and preliminary examination has been set for June 9.
If convicted of all charges, Kilpatrick could face up to 90 years in jail.
The mayor has vowed to fight the civil felony charges, which grew out of an $8.4-million settlement of a lawsuit against him by police officials and the leaking of steamy romantic text messages he exchanged with Beatty.
In a brief news conference Monday, Kilpatrick had dismissed the case against him as "a very flawed process from the beginning." But the seriousness of the charges is daunting.
The indictment is the latest development threatening to derail Kilpatrick's meteoric rise. The youthful political figure gained fame as "the hip-hop mayor," both for his election at age 31 in 2001 and his penchant for the high life. Kilpatrick, who is married and has three children, has been dogged by allegations of a party at the mayor's mansion that featured appearances by strippers and recent revelations about his affair with Beatty.
Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy accused the mayor of lying under oath during a "public whistle-blower" trial last fall and trying to obstruct justice by attempting to hide his extramarital relationship with Beatty, who was charged with seven felony counts.
"Even children understand that lying is wrong," Worthy said Monday, adding that "lying cannot be tolerated even if a judge and jury sees through it."
Worthy's filing had been expected for weeks. And as her investigators wrapped up their work last week, the Detroit City Council voted 7 to 1 to demand Kilpatrick's resignation, heightening the animosity between Detroit's political community and Kilpatrick's embattled inner circle.
One council veteran worried aloud Monday that the city's business could be hampered by the prospect of a long trial.
"We have a constitutional crisis in this city," said City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, who questioned the mayor's insistence that he would move ahead with plans for a $300-million economic stimulus package. "There are basic items of city governance that need clear mayoral focus. I don't see how he can do that."
Kilpatrick's lawyer, defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Daniel Webb, criticized the charges as "a weak prosecution case" and said he had advised his client not to resign.
"I don't think he's going to be distracted," Webb said in a telephone interview. "He can govern the city of Detroit. For him to cave in and resign would be to let politics trump his right to a jury trial."
Kilpatrick also tried to defuse public concerns about his legal defense and political effectiveness by turning to a Washington-based public relations group that set up interviews with Webb.
Revelations of the sexually explicit cellphone text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty exposed their relationship, made the 37-year-old mayor the target of public ridicule and indicated that he may have intimidated police officials in order to contain the damage from his affair.
Kilpatrick's troubles stem from lawsuits filed against the city by several members of his police security detail, who complained they were punished for investigating allegations of misconduct by the mayor and his bodyguards.
Both the mayor and Beatty testified during legal proceedings last fall that they did not have a relationship, but after the city approved an $8.4-million settlement with the police officials, the Detroit Free Press in January released racy snippets from more than 14,000 text messages sent to and from Beatty's city-provided pager in 2002 and 2003.
Despite insisting during the trial in August that he did not have an affair with Beatty, Kilpatrick had told her in a 2002 text message, "I'm madly in love with you."
Worthy was quick to insist Monday that her case was not "focused on lying about sex." The investigation had expanded, she said, to grapple with the firing of one Detroit police officer and allegations of pressure against several others.
"Public dollars were used, people's lives were ruined, the justice system was severely mocked and the public trust trampled on," she said.
Worthy also angrily accused city officials of "machinations" that slowed her investigation "at every bend and turn."
She did not detail the hurdles that her investigators faced, but Sheila Cockrel and her stepson, City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr., have questioned the actions of city lawyers and officials who failed to cooperate with investigators. The council is taking steps to order city officials to cooperate with its investigation.
Sheila Cockrel said that the council president was "signing subpoenas for documents and records that go to the very heart of the role the city law department and other city personnel have played in keeping this confidential [settlement] agreement away from council members."
By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
The pair face charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. They were released on $75,000 bail each, and preliminary examination has been set for June 9.
If convicted of all charges, Kilpatrick could face up to 90 years in jail.
The mayor has vowed to fight the civil felony charges, which grew out of an $8.4-million settlement of a lawsuit against him by police officials and the leaking of steamy romantic text messages he exchanged with Beatty.
In a brief news conference Monday, Kilpatrick had dismissed the case against him as "a very flawed process from the beginning." But the seriousness of the charges is daunting.
The indictment is the latest development threatening to derail Kilpatrick's meteoric rise. The youthful political figure gained fame as "the hip-hop mayor," both for his election at age 31 in 2001 and his penchant for the high life. Kilpatrick, who is married and has three children, has been dogged by allegations of a party at the mayor's mansion that featured appearances by strippers and recent revelations about his affair with Beatty.
Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy accused the mayor of lying under oath during a "public whistle-blower" trial last fall and trying to obstruct justice by attempting to hide his extramarital relationship with Beatty, who was charged with seven felony counts.
"Even children understand that lying is wrong," Worthy said Monday, adding that "lying cannot be tolerated even if a judge and jury sees through it."
Worthy's filing had been expected for weeks. And as her investigators wrapped up their work last week, the Detroit City Council voted 7 to 1 to demand Kilpatrick's resignation, heightening the animosity between Detroit's political community and Kilpatrick's embattled inner circle.
One council veteran worried aloud Monday that the city's business could be hampered by the prospect of a long trial.
"We have a constitutional crisis in this city," said City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, who questioned the mayor's insistence that he would move ahead with plans for a $300-million economic stimulus package. "There are basic items of city governance that need clear mayoral focus. I don't see how he can do that."
Kilpatrick's lawyer, defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Daniel Webb, criticized the charges as "a weak prosecution case" and said he had advised his client not to resign.
"I don't think he's going to be distracted," Webb said in a telephone interview. "He can govern the city of Detroit. For him to cave in and resign would be to let politics trump his right to a jury trial."
Kilpatrick also tried to defuse public concerns about his legal defense and political effectiveness by turning to a Washington-based public relations group that set up interviews with Webb.
Revelations of the sexually explicit cellphone text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty exposed their relationship, made the 37-year-old mayor the target of public ridicule and indicated that he may have intimidated police officials in order to contain the damage from his affair.
Kilpatrick's troubles stem from lawsuits filed against the city by several members of his police security detail, who complained they were punished for investigating allegations of misconduct by the mayor and his bodyguards.
Both the mayor and Beatty testified during legal proceedings last fall that they did not have a relationship, but after the city approved an $8.4-million settlement with the police officials, the Detroit Free Press in January released racy snippets from more than 14,000 text messages sent to and from Beatty's city-provided pager in 2002 and 2003.
Despite insisting during the trial in August that he did not have an affair with Beatty, Kilpatrick had told her in a 2002 text message, "I'm madly in love with you."
Worthy was quick to insist Monday that her case was not "focused on lying about sex." The investigation had expanded, she said, to grapple with the firing of one Detroit police officer and allegations of pressure against several others.
"Public dollars were used, people's lives were ruined, the justice system was severely mocked and the public trust trampled on," she said.
Worthy also angrily accused city officials of "machinations" that slowed her investigation "at every bend and turn."
She did not detail the hurdles that her investigators faced, but Sheila Cockrel and her stepson, City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr., have questioned the actions of city lawyers and officials who failed to cooperate with investigators. The council is taking steps to order city officials to cooperate with its investigation.
Sheila Cockrel said that the council president was "signing subpoenas for documents and records that go to the very heart of the role the city law department and other city personnel have played in keeping this confidential [settlement] agreement away from council members."
By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
India.Arie Launches New Label SoulBird
R&B singer/songwriter India.Arie has entered her new imprint SoulBird Music into a label deal with Universal Republic Record. Arie’s musical partner and R&B sensation Anthony David will be the first artist to release an album under the new banner, with his much anticipated major label offering, Acey Deucey, scheduled for in-store release on June 17.
“I’m excited that Tony will be the first artist to be released on SoulBird,” stated India.Arie, “Tony is a great talent and one of my oldest friends. I have so many memories with him. Not only did he encourage me to start performing professionally, but it was Tony who suggested I use my first and middle name as an artist. There was even a time when he spent his rent money for me to experiment in the studio.”
Describing Anthony’s sound as ‘Bill Withers meets Mos Def,’ India.Arie adds, “ I love his music for how he speaks from a man’s emotional perspective in relationships, and his views on learning about life as a young man of the hip hop generation."
"Music with wings" is the philosophy behind SoulBird, in whose operation India.Arie will play an active role. "In this era, soul is not a sound or a color, it's an intention," she says in a statement. "That's the kind of music I want SoulBird to represent: music with intelligence and heart, music that moves people in their souls and their bodies. Music with wings."
"Acey Deucey" will be comprised of tracks from David's two critically acclaimed independent albums, 2004's "Three Chords and the Truth" and 2006's "Red Clay Chronicles." He and India.Arie duet on lead single "Words," which the pair also wrote. Going to R&B radio nationwide on April 15, the single first appeared on "Red Clay Chronicles."
From singersroom.com
“I’m excited that Tony will be the first artist to be released on SoulBird,” stated India.Arie, “Tony is a great talent and one of my oldest friends. I have so many memories with him. Not only did he encourage me to start performing professionally, but it was Tony who suggested I use my first and middle name as an artist. There was even a time when he spent his rent money for me to experiment in the studio.”
Describing Anthony’s sound as ‘Bill Withers meets Mos Def,’ India.Arie adds, “ I love his music for how he speaks from a man’s emotional perspective in relationships, and his views on learning about life as a young man of the hip hop generation."
"Music with wings" is the philosophy behind SoulBird, in whose operation India.Arie will play an active role. "In this era, soul is not a sound or a color, it's an intention," she says in a statement. "That's the kind of music I want SoulBird to represent: music with intelligence and heart, music that moves people in their souls and their bodies. Music with wings."
"Acey Deucey" will be comprised of tracks from David's two critically acclaimed independent albums, 2004's "Three Chords and the Truth" and 2006's "Red Clay Chronicles." He and India.Arie duet on lead single "Words," which the pair also wrote. Going to R&B radio nationwide on April 15, the single first appeared on "Red Clay Chronicles."
From singersroom.com
Radio One to Sell Its L.A. Station
Radio One yesterday announced that it is selling its Los Angeles station to Bonneville International for about $137.5 million, a decision that means the Lanham urban radio giant will no longer have a presence in the nation's largest radio market by revenue.
Radio One's chief executive and president, Alfred C. Liggins III, said in a statement that the sale will enable the firm to reduce its debt, focus on its Internet strategy and initiate a $150 million stock buyback program.
"This is an attractive transaction for Radio One, as it frees up capital and management resources which can be re-deployed to execute our long-term strategy," he said.
In 2000, not long after Liggins took the helm of the company founded by his mother, he brokered a $1.3 billion deal with Clear Channel to buy 12 stations in such major markets as Houston, Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles. At the time, Radio One's strategy had been to buy struggling stations and turn them around, programming them with music and talk shows aimed at African American and urban listeners.
In metropolitan Los Angeles, where the Hispanic population is nearing 50 percent, Radio One struggled to maintain and expand its audience share. Like many other media companies, Radio One has faced stiff competition from new media such as MP3 players, and satellite and Internet radio.
Last year, the company announced that it would sell 10 underperforming stations to improve its cash flow and reduce its debt. Over the past year, Radio One stock lost about 80 percent of its value as revenue declined when advertisers shifted to other media, including the Internet.
J.P. Morgan analyst John Blackledge said the $137.5 million sale price reflects the value of a station that has no audience or revenue. Last year, according to his analysis, the station lost about $5 million.
"The sale of the troubled L.A. station makes sense for [Radio One] at this point, in our view, as reformatting and focused efforts could not turn around the station's fortunes over the past few years," Blackledge said in a statement. "We do not believe this sale precludes further station sales, and we believe [Radio One] is largely done divesting stations at this point."
Yesterday, Bonneville president and chief executive Bruce Reese said he expected federal regulators to take up to 90 days to approve the Los Angeles sale. In the meantime, Bonneville plans to enter an agreement that would allow it to take over the station's airwaves sooner.
"We're not acquiring the personnel or the format from [Radio One]," Reese said. "We basically bought the operating equipment . . . the antenna, the transmitter and the studio to operate out of. When they move out, we'll move in."
Reese said he was approached by a broker for Radio One several months ago about buying the Los Angeles station, known as KRBV (100.3 FM).
"We know we'll get the right people, we think we'll get the right ideas and we think we can do well in L.A.," he said. "It's obviously a huge radio market, and we're excited about the opportunity."
Last year, Bonneville sold Radio One a station in Washington. Reese said he expected the sale of what is now WPRS (104.1 FM) will close in the second quarter of this year, around the same time as the deal for the Los Angeles station.
Radio One's stock price rose sharply on the news, adding 65 cents, or about 59 percent, to $1.76. The company's stock has ranged from 99 cents to $7.73 over the past year.
By Anita Huslin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Radio One's chief executive and president, Alfred C. Liggins III, said in a statement that the sale will enable the firm to reduce its debt, focus on its Internet strategy and initiate a $150 million stock buyback program.
"This is an attractive transaction for Radio One, as it frees up capital and management resources which can be re-deployed to execute our long-term strategy," he said.
In 2000, not long after Liggins took the helm of the company founded by his mother, he brokered a $1.3 billion deal with Clear Channel to buy 12 stations in such major markets as Houston, Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles. At the time, Radio One's strategy had been to buy struggling stations and turn them around, programming them with music and talk shows aimed at African American and urban listeners.
In metropolitan Los Angeles, where the Hispanic population is nearing 50 percent, Radio One struggled to maintain and expand its audience share. Like many other media companies, Radio One has faced stiff competition from new media such as MP3 players, and satellite and Internet radio.
Last year, the company announced that it would sell 10 underperforming stations to improve its cash flow and reduce its debt. Over the past year, Radio One stock lost about 80 percent of its value as revenue declined when advertisers shifted to other media, including the Internet.
J.P. Morgan analyst John Blackledge said the $137.5 million sale price reflects the value of a station that has no audience or revenue. Last year, according to his analysis, the station lost about $5 million.
"The sale of the troubled L.A. station makes sense for [Radio One] at this point, in our view, as reformatting and focused efforts could not turn around the station's fortunes over the past few years," Blackledge said in a statement. "We do not believe this sale precludes further station sales, and we believe [Radio One] is largely done divesting stations at this point."
Yesterday, Bonneville president and chief executive Bruce Reese said he expected federal regulators to take up to 90 days to approve the Los Angeles sale. In the meantime, Bonneville plans to enter an agreement that would allow it to take over the station's airwaves sooner.
"We're not acquiring the personnel or the format from [Radio One]," Reese said. "We basically bought the operating equipment . . . the antenna, the transmitter and the studio to operate out of. When they move out, we'll move in."
Reese said he was approached by a broker for Radio One several months ago about buying the Los Angeles station, known as KRBV (100.3 FM).
"We know we'll get the right people, we think we'll get the right ideas and we think we can do well in L.A.," he said. "It's obviously a huge radio market, and we're excited about the opportunity."
Last year, Bonneville sold Radio One a station in Washington. Reese said he expected the sale of what is now WPRS (104.1 FM) will close in the second quarter of this year, around the same time as the deal for the Los Angeles station.
Radio One's stock price rose sharply on the news, adding 65 cents, or about 59 percent, to $1.76. The company's stock has ranged from 99 cents to $7.73 over the past year.
By Anita Huslin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Kilpatrick's Responds to Perjury Charges
It's probably different than you've seen me before, I will read a prepared statement, and I would not go away from the remarks that are in front of me.
First, obviously, I'm deeply disappointed in the prosecutor's decision. I can't say that I am surprised, however. This has been a very flawed process from the very beginning.
However, at the same time, I recognize that this is merely the first step in a process that I believe in, that's grounded in a presumption of innocence, that is guaranteed to each and every American citizen by the Constitution of these United States.
I look forward to complete exoneration once all the facts surrounding this matter have been brought forth.
In the meantime, I will remain focused on moving this city forward with the key initiatives that we have laid out before you. Modernizing our police department, moving expeditiously towards the next Detroit, expanding our workforce development department efforts to prepare our citizens for jobs today.
And we are prepared to go to council to present our economic stimulus package as soon as they give us time on the schedule to do that.
We also are making final preparations to present our balanced budget to City Council on April the 14th.
As my attorney, Daniel Webb, said, because of the nature of these allegations, I will have no further comment on this matter as it moves it way through the legal system.
I approach this process with the faith that I have in the system, what I've been taught about this country and this legal process, and the constitutional rights of all Americans since I was born.
I believe in it, and I believe that there will be a full airing of all the facts in this case that will result in my full and complete vindication of all that has been laid before me.
Thank you very much.
From freep.com
First, obviously, I'm deeply disappointed in the prosecutor's decision. I can't say that I am surprised, however. This has been a very flawed process from the very beginning.
However, at the same time, I recognize that this is merely the first step in a process that I believe in, that's grounded in a presumption of innocence, that is guaranteed to each and every American citizen by the Constitution of these United States.
I look forward to complete exoneration once all the facts surrounding this matter have been brought forth.
In the meantime, I will remain focused on moving this city forward with the key initiatives that we have laid out before you. Modernizing our police department, moving expeditiously towards the next Detroit, expanding our workforce development department efforts to prepare our citizens for jobs today.
And we are prepared to go to council to present our economic stimulus package as soon as they give us time on the schedule to do that.
We also are making final preparations to present our balanced budget to City Council on April the 14th.
As my attorney, Daniel Webb, said, because of the nature of these allegations, I will have no further comment on this matter as it moves it way through the legal system.
I approach this process with the faith that I have in the system, what I've been taught about this country and this legal process, and the constitutional rights of all Americans since I was born.
I believe in it, and I believe that there will be a full airing of all the facts in this case that will result in my full and complete vindication of all that has been laid before me.
Thank you very much.
From freep.com
Monday, March 24, 2008
African American National Biography Launched
From Aaron, a former slave without a last name, through Paul Burgess Zuber, a 20th century lawyer and professor, the recently published African American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008) is the most extensive and inclusive collection of biographical information about African American lives ever published.
The African American National Biography (AANB), co-edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Higginbotham, is an eight-volume series that includes biographies of more than 4,000 African Americans throughout 500 years, dating back to the arrival of Esteban, the first recorded African explorer to set foot in North America.
Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, and Higginbotham, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African and African American Studies and chair of the Department of African and African American Studies, have included the famous and the infamous, as well as hitherto obscure individuals.
The series includes national heroes and historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. But the biographies also include Sissieretta Joyner Jones, a 19th century opera singer; Richard Potter, a magician, sword swallower, and ventriloquist who owned 175 acres in New Hampshire and died in 1835; and the pistol-packing, fist-fighting Mary Fields, also known as Stagecoach Mary, of the late 19th century.
“These are people that were trapped in historical purgatory,” says Gates. “They were trapped in the amber of the archive, and now their contributions will never be lost again.”
Also included are local figures and community leaders throughout the United States. In many neighborhoods, numerous streets, schools, and playgrounds are named after prominent community leaders, and these names are seen every day — but the person behind the name might not be as well known.
For example, Higginbotham explains, there is a boulevard in Boston’s South End called Melnea Cass Boulevard. While she had driven on that street many times, she was not familiar with its namesake until editing the series, when she learned that Cass was a civil rights activist during the first half of the 20th century, and is now remembered as the “first lady of Roxbury.” Now, every time Higginbotham drives down Melnea Cass Boulevard, it’s not just a name. It’s a life. Higginbotham emphasizes that the history of the Civil Rights movement now focuses on such local leaders in both the North and the South who led their communities in the fight against racial inequality.
Not all in the series are native-born Americans, but they did spend a significant period of their lives in the United States. Gates and Higginbotham also made the decision to include contemporary figures in the series.
The entries were written by more than 1,700 contributors in response to a call for entries that was put forth in 2001. In 2004, Oxford University Press published a preview book, also edited by Gates and Higginbotham, titled “African American Lives,” which included 400 names. In addition to those names published in the printed series, an additional 2,000 names will be included in a forthcoming online database, as part of the African American Studies Center digital archive, available through the Oxford University Press Web site.
Entries were written by scholars, graduate students, and journalists. Many names were contributed by those with personal connections to the individual, and in this way, the series includes local figures who might not have otherwise been included.
The scope of the AANB was always ambitious, and, since issuing the call for entries, Gates and Higginbotham have compiled a database that includes 12,500 names. The extent of the project illustrates the impact of African-American lives on American history, according to Gates.
“Black people have been present in every aspect of American history, but have been in the interstices, in the spaces in between,” says Gates. “In spite of what would seem to most of us [to be] rigid racial boundaries, exceptional black people have always been able to carve out a place for themselves.”
While the African American National Biography is not the first of its kind, it is the first of its magnitude. As Gates explains, the first African-American biographical dictionary was published in 1808, and more than 300 of these volumes have been published throughout the past two centuries. In 1987, Gates, along with Randall and Nancy Burkett, published a three-volume index of these biographical dictionaries.
The catalyst for the AANB occurred when Gates was asked by Oxford University Press to write an essay about individuals of his choice who were included in the American National Biography. To his dismay, he found that many of the African-American names that he was looking for were simply not in that series. As a result, Oxford University Press asked him to edit a national biography of African Americans.
Gates and Higginbotham hope that the books will be used by scholars and historians, but also will have a place in schools, libraries, and in the homes of African-American families.
“What better way to understand the richness, complexity, and depth of African-American history than through biography, because people’s lives are so complex,” says Higginbotham.
By Amy Lavoie from news.harvard.edu
The African American National Biography (AANB), co-edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Higginbotham, is an eight-volume series that includes biographies of more than 4,000 African Americans throughout 500 years, dating back to the arrival of Esteban, the first recorded African explorer to set foot in North America.
Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, and Higginbotham, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African and African American Studies and chair of the Department of African and African American Studies, have included the famous and the infamous, as well as hitherto obscure individuals.
The series includes national heroes and historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. But the biographies also include Sissieretta Joyner Jones, a 19th century opera singer; Richard Potter, a magician, sword swallower, and ventriloquist who owned 175 acres in New Hampshire and died in 1835; and the pistol-packing, fist-fighting Mary Fields, also known as Stagecoach Mary, of the late 19th century.
“These are people that were trapped in historical purgatory,” says Gates. “They were trapped in the amber of the archive, and now their contributions will never be lost again.”
Also included are local figures and community leaders throughout the United States. In many neighborhoods, numerous streets, schools, and playgrounds are named after prominent community leaders, and these names are seen every day — but the person behind the name might not be as well known.
For example, Higginbotham explains, there is a boulevard in Boston’s South End called Melnea Cass Boulevard. While she had driven on that street many times, she was not familiar with its namesake until editing the series, when she learned that Cass was a civil rights activist during the first half of the 20th century, and is now remembered as the “first lady of Roxbury.” Now, every time Higginbotham drives down Melnea Cass Boulevard, it’s not just a name. It’s a life. Higginbotham emphasizes that the history of the Civil Rights movement now focuses on such local leaders in both the North and the South who led their communities in the fight against racial inequality.
Not all in the series are native-born Americans, but they did spend a significant period of their lives in the United States. Gates and Higginbotham also made the decision to include contemporary figures in the series.
The entries were written by more than 1,700 contributors in response to a call for entries that was put forth in 2001. In 2004, Oxford University Press published a preview book, also edited by Gates and Higginbotham, titled “African American Lives,” which included 400 names. In addition to those names published in the printed series, an additional 2,000 names will be included in a forthcoming online database, as part of the African American Studies Center digital archive, available through the Oxford University Press Web site.
Entries were written by scholars, graduate students, and journalists. Many names were contributed by those with personal connections to the individual, and in this way, the series includes local figures who might not have otherwise been included.
The scope of the AANB was always ambitious, and, since issuing the call for entries, Gates and Higginbotham have compiled a database that includes 12,500 names. The extent of the project illustrates the impact of African-American lives on American history, according to Gates.
“Black people have been present in every aspect of American history, but have been in the interstices, in the spaces in between,” says Gates. “In spite of what would seem to most of us [to be] rigid racial boundaries, exceptional black people have always been able to carve out a place for themselves.”
While the African American National Biography is not the first of its kind, it is the first of its magnitude. As Gates explains, the first African-American biographical dictionary was published in 1808, and more than 300 of these volumes have been published throughout the past two centuries. In 1987, Gates, along with Randall and Nancy Burkett, published a three-volume index of these biographical dictionaries.
The catalyst for the AANB occurred when Gates was asked by Oxford University Press to write an essay about individuals of his choice who were included in the American National Biography. To his dismay, he found that many of the African-American names that he was looking for were simply not in that series. As a result, Oxford University Press asked him to edit a national biography of African Americans.
Gates and Higginbotham hope that the books will be used by scholars and historians, but also will have a place in schools, libraries, and in the homes of African-American families.
“What better way to understand the richness, complexity, and depth of African-American history than through biography, because people’s lives are so complex,” says Higginbotham.
By Amy Lavoie from news.harvard.edu
Haiti’s Poverty Stirs Nostalgia for Old Ghosts
The imported granite was smashed. The giant cupola was toppled. The grave of François Duvalier, the longtime dictator, is a wreck, much like the country he left behind.
But Victor Planess, who works at the National Cemetery here, has a soft spot for Mr. Duvalier, the man known as Papa Doc. Standing graveside the other day, Mr. Planess reminisced about what he considered the good old days of Mr. Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude, who together ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986.
“I’d rather have Papa Doc here than all those guys,” Mr. Planess said, gesturing toward the presidential palace down the street. “I would have had a better life if they were still around.”
Mr. Planess, 53, who complains that hunger has become so much a part of his life that his stomach does not even growl anymore, is not alone in his nostalgia for Haiti’s dictatorial past. Other Haitians speak longingly of the security that existed then as well as the lack of garbage in the streets, the lower food prices and the scholarships for overseas study.
Haiti may have made significant strides since President René Préval, elected in 2006, became the latest leader to pass through the revolving door of Haitian politics. But the changes he has pushed have been incremental, not fast enough for many down-and-out Haitians.
“It’s time to show people that democracy is not just about voting but changing their real lives,” said Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis, who survived a no-confidence vote in February pushed by critics of his handling of the economy.
Jean-Claude Duvalier, now in exile in France, sought recently to take advantage of the discontent by raising the possibility of a return to Haiti. In a radio address in September, he offered a tentative apology for his acts, saying, “If, during my presidential mandate, the government caused any physical, moral or economic wrongs to others, I solemnly take the historical responsibility.”
Mr. Duvalier’s remarks, in which he also asked for “forgiveness from the people,” together with the nostalgia one hears on the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital, these days provoke fury among present-day leaders.
They say they cannot believe that Mr. Duvalier’s National Unity Party is attracting followers, and that a giant photograph of the elder Mr. Duvalier hangs from the party’s headquarters.
They wonder who is buying copies of a sympathetic new book about François Duvalier called “The Misunderstood” by Jean-Claude Duvalier’s former information minister, Rony Gilot.
Even François Duvalier’s grave has received some sprucing up, and the talk at the cemetery is that supporters plan to rebuild it to its former glory.
“It’s such an insult to the victims to praise the Duvaliers,” said Patrick Elie, whom Mr. Préval recently appointed to head a commission to look into whether the army disbanded under the former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide ought to be rebuilt. “There is nothing redeemable about them. We’re still paying for what they did to the country.”
Mr. Elie, who was a minister in Mr. Aristide’s government, calls the praise of the Duvaliers a “conspiracy of amnesia” that makes his blood boil.
“If you say François Duvalier was good, I feel like coming over and slamming my beer bottle in your face,” Mr. Elie said, sipping from a bottle of Prestige beer one recent evening. “There is a limit to tolerance. It becomes complicity with butchery. If you do that, I am going to go ballistic.”
Mr. Préval has acknowledged the Duvalier nostalgia and says he is working to counter it.
“People don’t know what the Duvalier regime truly represents,” Mr. Préval told The Miami Herald late last year. Acknowledging that there was peace back then, he added that Haitians born after Jean-Claude Duvalier fled in 1986 — who make up the bulk of the country’s population of 8.5 million — “don’t know the price of that peace.”
Mr. Préval has sought to recover some of the tens of millions of dollars that the younger Mr. Duvalier has stashed in foreign banks, funds the president says were looted from Haiti. Mr. Préval is also is pushing a plan to create a museum at the site of a former prison next to the palace, in which the Duvaliers’ henchmen tortured political prisoners. The site would be a reminder of that era’s horrors, he has said.
Haiti has a poor track record when it comes to preserving its past. A previous effort to restore another ignominious site, the Fort Dimanche prison, failed. The crumbling prison, where political executions once took place, is now home to squatters, some of whom get by selling patties made from dirt to quell hunger pangs.
“To think that the children being raised today do not have the reference of what wrongs have been done in the past,” said Wilson Laleau, vice president for academic affairs at the University of Haiti. “It’s so frustrating. We don’t use history and memory to understand our present and build the future. We keep beginning again from scratch.”
Mr. Laleau, an economist, said the economic growth that Haiti experienced in recent years was not really growth at all but a burst to catch up to where the economy was decades ago. “The economy was not as weak back then,” he said of the Duvalier era.
The old days come up in Haiti’s debate about whether to recreate the army. Mr. Préval’s commission is leaning against a traditional army, but it is grappling with how to control the rise of drug trafficking and what sort of force is needed to monitor the border that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.
“I know that the higher level of insecurity has made people nostalgic for the strong hand,” said Mr. Elie, the commission’s leader. “They think the army is going to bring back what they call ‘the good old days.’ We don’t want people to fall for that nostalgic trap.”
Those old days, Mr. Elie said, were a time in which Haiti’s elite lived lives on the backs of the suffering masses. Creating a more equitable society, he said, is a long-term struggle that inevitably makes many uncomfortable.
“The idea of recreating that monster that was the army is preposterous and unacceptable,” he said. “One thing they did well was taking .50-caliber weapons and shooting into shanty towns. They are going to have to step over my dead body if that’s the kind of army they want.”
A United Nations peacekeeping force is now in charge of Haiti’s security. It has battled the gangs that used to control the slums in the capital and restored a semblance of normality in the poorest neighborhoods. The United Nations force, a mixture of soldiers and police officers, has also trained Haitian police officers, who are increasingly visible on the streets. The police force is being vetted to rid it of officers who are themselves criminals.
But the judicial system is a shambles, ill equipped to prosecute law breakers. Some gang leaders arrested last year have already been released and are stirring up trouble again.
Moreover, kidnapping has become a new money-making opportunity for Haiti’s poor, with no one — babies, old people, rich or poor — safe from being grabbed from the streets for ransom.
The situation in Haiti remains tenuous. “All of this remains very fragile,” said Hédi Annabi, a Tunisian who leads the peacekeeping force. “It’s not irreversible. If we were to leave or downsize now or in the immediate future, we would leave a vacuum, which would be filled by the bad guys.”
Mr. Duvalier is not the only former leader with dreams of a comeback. In a New Year’s message, Mr. Aristide, now in exile in South Africa, declared in Haitian Creole, “We are waiting to meet again, face to face on Haitian soil.” About a thousand of his supporters took to the streets last July to celebrate his birthday and call for his return from exile.
The political establishment in Haiti considers the likelihood that either Mr. Duvalier or Mr. Aristide will return to the presidential palace to be remote. But the two men have devoted followings and play the role of spoilers in the country’s volatile politics.
One of those who heard Mr. Duvalier’s radio address was Bobby Duval, who remembered shaking his head as he listened to the former dictator.
“I heard his apology, but it’s a little late for that,” said Mr. Duval, who served 17 months in jail in the mid-1970s, a result of one of Mr. Duvalier’s crackdowns on critics. “He destroyed this country. He left our psyche completely destroyed. Since 1986, we’ve been suffering the aftereffects of what happened back then.”
Mr. Duval said he would welcome Mr. Duvalier back, but only to experience what so many Haitians did during his rule.
“If he comes back, he ought to go to prison to reflect on what he did,” Mr. Duval said. “Anything else would be spitting on all those who died under him.”
By MARC LACEY from New York Times
But Victor Planess, who works at the National Cemetery here, has a soft spot for Mr. Duvalier, the man known as Papa Doc. Standing graveside the other day, Mr. Planess reminisced about what he considered the good old days of Mr. Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude, who together ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986.
“I’d rather have Papa Doc here than all those guys,” Mr. Planess said, gesturing toward the presidential palace down the street. “I would have had a better life if they were still around.”
Mr. Planess, 53, who complains that hunger has become so much a part of his life that his stomach does not even growl anymore, is not alone in his nostalgia for Haiti’s dictatorial past. Other Haitians speak longingly of the security that existed then as well as the lack of garbage in the streets, the lower food prices and the scholarships for overseas study.
Haiti may have made significant strides since President René Préval, elected in 2006, became the latest leader to pass through the revolving door of Haitian politics. But the changes he has pushed have been incremental, not fast enough for many down-and-out Haitians.
“It’s time to show people that democracy is not just about voting but changing their real lives,” said Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis, who survived a no-confidence vote in February pushed by critics of his handling of the economy.
Jean-Claude Duvalier, now in exile in France, sought recently to take advantage of the discontent by raising the possibility of a return to Haiti. In a radio address in September, he offered a tentative apology for his acts, saying, “If, during my presidential mandate, the government caused any physical, moral or economic wrongs to others, I solemnly take the historical responsibility.”
Mr. Duvalier’s remarks, in which he also asked for “forgiveness from the people,” together with the nostalgia one hears on the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital, these days provoke fury among present-day leaders.
They say they cannot believe that Mr. Duvalier’s National Unity Party is attracting followers, and that a giant photograph of the elder Mr. Duvalier hangs from the party’s headquarters.
They wonder who is buying copies of a sympathetic new book about François Duvalier called “The Misunderstood” by Jean-Claude Duvalier’s former information minister, Rony Gilot.
Even François Duvalier’s grave has received some sprucing up, and the talk at the cemetery is that supporters plan to rebuild it to its former glory.
“It’s such an insult to the victims to praise the Duvaliers,” said Patrick Elie, whom Mr. Préval recently appointed to head a commission to look into whether the army disbanded under the former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide ought to be rebuilt. “There is nothing redeemable about them. We’re still paying for what they did to the country.”
Mr. Elie, who was a minister in Mr. Aristide’s government, calls the praise of the Duvaliers a “conspiracy of amnesia” that makes his blood boil.
“If you say François Duvalier was good, I feel like coming over and slamming my beer bottle in your face,” Mr. Elie said, sipping from a bottle of Prestige beer one recent evening. “There is a limit to tolerance. It becomes complicity with butchery. If you do that, I am going to go ballistic.”
Mr. Préval has acknowledged the Duvalier nostalgia and says he is working to counter it.
“People don’t know what the Duvalier regime truly represents,” Mr. Préval told The Miami Herald late last year. Acknowledging that there was peace back then, he added that Haitians born after Jean-Claude Duvalier fled in 1986 — who make up the bulk of the country’s population of 8.5 million — “don’t know the price of that peace.”
Mr. Préval has sought to recover some of the tens of millions of dollars that the younger Mr. Duvalier has stashed in foreign banks, funds the president says were looted from Haiti. Mr. Préval is also is pushing a plan to create a museum at the site of a former prison next to the palace, in which the Duvaliers’ henchmen tortured political prisoners. The site would be a reminder of that era’s horrors, he has said.
Haiti has a poor track record when it comes to preserving its past. A previous effort to restore another ignominious site, the Fort Dimanche prison, failed. The crumbling prison, where political executions once took place, is now home to squatters, some of whom get by selling patties made from dirt to quell hunger pangs.
“To think that the children being raised today do not have the reference of what wrongs have been done in the past,” said Wilson Laleau, vice president for academic affairs at the University of Haiti. “It’s so frustrating. We don’t use history and memory to understand our present and build the future. We keep beginning again from scratch.”
Mr. Laleau, an economist, said the economic growth that Haiti experienced in recent years was not really growth at all but a burst to catch up to where the economy was decades ago. “The economy was not as weak back then,” he said of the Duvalier era.
The old days come up in Haiti’s debate about whether to recreate the army. Mr. Préval’s commission is leaning against a traditional army, but it is grappling with how to control the rise of drug trafficking and what sort of force is needed to monitor the border that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.
“I know that the higher level of insecurity has made people nostalgic for the strong hand,” said Mr. Elie, the commission’s leader. “They think the army is going to bring back what they call ‘the good old days.’ We don’t want people to fall for that nostalgic trap.”
Those old days, Mr. Elie said, were a time in which Haiti’s elite lived lives on the backs of the suffering masses. Creating a more equitable society, he said, is a long-term struggle that inevitably makes many uncomfortable.
“The idea of recreating that monster that was the army is preposterous and unacceptable,” he said. “One thing they did well was taking .50-caliber weapons and shooting into shanty towns. They are going to have to step over my dead body if that’s the kind of army they want.”
A United Nations peacekeeping force is now in charge of Haiti’s security. It has battled the gangs that used to control the slums in the capital and restored a semblance of normality in the poorest neighborhoods. The United Nations force, a mixture of soldiers and police officers, has also trained Haitian police officers, who are increasingly visible on the streets. The police force is being vetted to rid it of officers who are themselves criminals.
But the judicial system is a shambles, ill equipped to prosecute law breakers. Some gang leaders arrested last year have already been released and are stirring up trouble again.
Moreover, kidnapping has become a new money-making opportunity for Haiti’s poor, with no one — babies, old people, rich or poor — safe from being grabbed from the streets for ransom.
The situation in Haiti remains tenuous. “All of this remains very fragile,” said Hédi Annabi, a Tunisian who leads the peacekeeping force. “It’s not irreversible. If we were to leave or downsize now or in the immediate future, we would leave a vacuum, which would be filled by the bad guys.”
Mr. Duvalier is not the only former leader with dreams of a comeback. In a New Year’s message, Mr. Aristide, now in exile in South Africa, declared in Haitian Creole, “We are waiting to meet again, face to face on Haitian soil.” About a thousand of his supporters took to the streets last July to celebrate his birthday and call for his return from exile.
The political establishment in Haiti considers the likelihood that either Mr. Duvalier or Mr. Aristide will return to the presidential palace to be remote. But the two men have devoted followings and play the role of spoilers in the country’s volatile politics.
One of those who heard Mr. Duvalier’s radio address was Bobby Duval, who remembered shaking his head as he listened to the former dictator.
“I heard his apology, but it’s a little late for that,” said Mr. Duval, who served 17 months in jail in the mid-1970s, a result of one of Mr. Duvalier’s crackdowns on critics. “He destroyed this country. He left our psyche completely destroyed. Since 1986, we’ve been suffering the aftereffects of what happened back then.”
Mr. Duval said he would welcome Mr. Duvalier back, but only to experience what so many Haitians did during his rule.
“If he comes back, he ought to go to prison to reflect on what he did,” Mr. Duval said. “Anything else would be spitting on all those who died under him.”
By MARC LACEY from New York Times
Lupe Fiasco Refuses to 'Dumb it Down'
There is obviously something in the waters of Lake Michigan. Hip Hop artists hailing from Chicago consistently challenge audiences and other artists both lyrically and sonically. Interpreters of the world around them, they translate their ideas into some of the most imaginative, socially conscious, sensitive, and provocative songs of the genre. Few Chicagoan rappers (or those from anywhere else, for that matter) embody these and other sensibilities more eloquently than Lupe Fiasco does on his sophomore CD, The Cool.
The number of Chicago rappers that have risen to national prominence may be smaller than those from other cities, but their contributions to the Hip Hop landscape are disproportionate. They range from the famous (Common, Twista,) the emerging (Rhymefest, Shawnna, No I.D.), and the legendary (Do Or Die, Jitu and Ten Tray, Cap 1, Crucial Conflict). They each possess an individual style yet remain connected by a soulfulness (born in the voices of the Chi-Lites, Curtis Mayfield, and Gene Chandler), a story telling sense (brought to the city on the backs of Delta blues musicians during the great migration), grounded by the consciousness of Gospel and encouraged to sweat by a burgeoning House Music movement. 160;It is no wonder then that Fiasco’s 19-song set (including a few spoken word gems) is enjoyably all over the place, musically and stylistically.
The Cool is a genre-bending ride through infested cities, dark caverns of paranoia, happy destinations around the world, and wide rivers of hope. His songs are consistently contradictory: Sesame Street Bright (“Go Baby,” “High Definition”) and Blade Runner dark (“Streets On Fire”), apocalyptic (“Little Weapon”), and promising (“Hip Hop Saved My Life”), bleak (“Intruder Alert”), and encouraging (“Fighters”), problem-laden (“Dumb It Down”), and solution providing (“Superstar”). Fiasco has taken the artistic bar that Kanye raised and turned it sideways. Add to this formula the ridiculously pleasing hooks provided by Mathew Santos (John Legend if he played guitar instead of piano) and the borderline alt-rock swing of his friend The Gemstones (thought it was a band with one wild-ass drummer but it’s really just a singular, multi-talented, incredibly nimble, guy ), and you have built a masterpiece.
That Lupe is a talented wordsmith is undeniable. He has proven himself in battles and ciphers around the world where he has buried many an MC while simultaneously perfecting his chops. However, he is the exception to the rule that many gifted rappers known for being able to “spit off the top” (improvise lyrics on the fly) rarely translate well on record. Instead of gaining appreciation by the masses, they are relegated to a “back-packer” status wherein they are respected by many conventional artists, fans, and writers but fall to deep lyrically for the average radio listener. Fiasco addresses that ideal by being incredibly visual and melodic without losing any intellectual cred.
On “Dumb It Down,” for example, Fiasco’s lyrics, use of metaphor, wit, and complicated rhymes schemes might challenge an English professor. Instead of letting his lines hang like a dangling modifier, He introduces a voice of nemesis that might represent how the masses might identify with his cerebral swagger:
"You goin' over n*ggas' heads Lu (Dumb it down) / They tellin' me that they don't feel you (Dumb it down) / We ain't graduate from school n*gga (Dumb it down) / Them big words ain't cool n*gga (Dumb it down)"
The highway to The Cool is not a straight one. Perhaps it would be easier to describe the journey. The fact is Lupe Fiasco is all over the road employing a vocal dexterity that includes straight poetry, speed rapping, complex alliteration, and sinister voices and with tracks that move from a basic “808” banger (“Gold Watch”) to art-rock mash-ups (“Hello Goodbye”). His greatest strength, however, is in his film-like story telling and use of metaphor and soft hyperbole.
In “Put You On Game,” a slow driving track – reminiscent itself of a “here-come-the-bad-guys movie soundtrack – the voice of Mephistopheles speaks of the evil of the world and how he is accountable:
"Through the back alleys / And the black markets / The Oval Offices / Crack houses and apartments / Through the mazes of the queens / The pages of the sages / And the Chambers of The Kings / Through the veins of the fiends / A paper chaser’s pager / Yo, I’m famous on the scene / One of the oldest, most ancient-est of things / Speak every single language on the planet, nah mean?"
Lupe has said, “What you put out into the world comes back to you. You actually change the world with what you do. I want to put some good in the world." He acknowledges in his songs, however, that he is smart enough to know achieving that goal is more than a notion – he will not win any popularity contests on the way.
There are likely other artists like Fiasco waiting to be heard. Maybe his songs will seduce young ears to look beyond his catchy hooks and clever beats to his brave lyrics. Perhaps, then, a door of opportunity will be knocked down and even parents of this generation will become defenders of the art when it refuses to dumb itself down.
Kevin Gibbs for EbonyJet.com.
The number of Chicago rappers that have risen to national prominence may be smaller than those from other cities, but their contributions to the Hip Hop landscape are disproportionate. They range from the famous (Common, Twista,) the emerging (Rhymefest, Shawnna, No I.D.), and the legendary (Do Or Die, Jitu and Ten Tray, Cap 1, Crucial Conflict). They each possess an individual style yet remain connected by a soulfulness (born in the voices of the Chi-Lites, Curtis Mayfield, and Gene Chandler), a story telling sense (brought to the city on the backs of Delta blues musicians during the great migration), grounded by the consciousness of Gospel and encouraged to sweat by a burgeoning House Music movement. 160;It is no wonder then that Fiasco’s 19-song set (including a few spoken word gems) is enjoyably all over the place, musically and stylistically.
The Cool is a genre-bending ride through infested cities, dark caverns of paranoia, happy destinations around the world, and wide rivers of hope. His songs are consistently contradictory: Sesame Street Bright (“Go Baby,” “High Definition”) and Blade Runner dark (“Streets On Fire”), apocalyptic (“Little Weapon”), and promising (“Hip Hop Saved My Life”), bleak (“Intruder Alert”), and encouraging (“Fighters”), problem-laden (“Dumb It Down”), and solution providing (“Superstar”). Fiasco has taken the artistic bar that Kanye raised and turned it sideways. Add to this formula the ridiculously pleasing hooks provided by Mathew Santos (John Legend if he played guitar instead of piano) and the borderline alt-rock swing of his friend The Gemstones (thought it was a band with one wild-ass drummer but it’s really just a singular, multi-talented, incredibly nimble, guy ), and you have built a masterpiece.
That Lupe is a talented wordsmith is undeniable. He has proven himself in battles and ciphers around the world where he has buried many an MC while simultaneously perfecting his chops. However, he is the exception to the rule that many gifted rappers known for being able to “spit off the top” (improvise lyrics on the fly) rarely translate well on record. Instead of gaining appreciation by the masses, they are relegated to a “back-packer” status wherein they are respected by many conventional artists, fans, and writers but fall to deep lyrically for the average radio listener. Fiasco addresses that ideal by being incredibly visual and melodic without losing any intellectual cred.
On “Dumb It Down,” for example, Fiasco’s lyrics, use of metaphor, wit, and complicated rhymes schemes might challenge an English professor. Instead of letting his lines hang like a dangling modifier, He introduces a voice of nemesis that might represent how the masses might identify with his cerebral swagger:
"You goin' over n*ggas' heads Lu (Dumb it down) / They tellin' me that they don't feel you (Dumb it down) / We ain't graduate from school n*gga (Dumb it down) / Them big words ain't cool n*gga (Dumb it down)"
The highway to The Cool is not a straight one. Perhaps it would be easier to describe the journey. The fact is Lupe Fiasco is all over the road employing a vocal dexterity that includes straight poetry, speed rapping, complex alliteration, and sinister voices and with tracks that move from a basic “808” banger (“Gold Watch”) to art-rock mash-ups (“Hello Goodbye”). His greatest strength, however, is in his film-like story telling and use of metaphor and soft hyperbole.
In “Put You On Game,” a slow driving track – reminiscent itself of a “here-come-the-bad-guys movie soundtrack – the voice of Mephistopheles speaks of the evil of the world and how he is accountable:
"Through the back alleys / And the black markets / The Oval Offices / Crack houses and apartments / Through the mazes of the queens / The pages of the sages / And the Chambers of The Kings / Through the veins of the fiends / A paper chaser’s pager / Yo, I’m famous on the scene / One of the oldest, most ancient-est of things / Speak every single language on the planet, nah mean?"
Lupe has said, “What you put out into the world comes back to you. You actually change the world with what you do. I want to put some good in the world." He acknowledges in his songs, however, that he is smart enough to know achieving that goal is more than a notion – he will not win any popularity contests on the way.
There are likely other artists like Fiasco waiting to be heard. Maybe his songs will seduce young ears to look beyond his catchy hooks and clever beats to his brave lyrics. Perhaps, then, a door of opportunity will be knocked down and even parents of this generation will become defenders of the art when it refuses to dumb itself down.
Kevin Gibbs for EbonyJet.com.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Freed After 25 Years, Former Inmate Rejoices
Willie Earl Green looked dazed. He walked slowly.
Before him were streets he could stroll freely for the first time since he was young. Behind him were the last of the lockups that had caged him since 1983, for a murder he insists he did not commit.
"It's like I'm in a dream," said Green, 56, moments after he stepped into the sunlight outside the downtown Criminal Courts Building, where a judge ordered him released Thursday. The witness whose testimony had sent Green away for 33 years to life recanted, and prosecutors decided not to retry him.
Now, after a quarter-century behind bars, there were all these wonders for Green to behold: cellphones, remote car locks, a hug from his wife that would not be cut short by a prison guard. He sobbed as they embraced at the Kyoto Grand Hotel, around the corner from the courthouse, his first stop on the way to their Chowchilla, Calif., home. "It's all right, baby," his wife, Mary, said. "Everything's all right. . . . It's time to start living."
Her husband said he half-expected a guard to tap him on the shoulder, the routine at San Quentin State Prison. "That's what I'm waiting for," he said, "for them to come and tell me now, 'One hug, one kiss, you're over.' "
There was another person to hug Thursday -- Susan Breyer, the forewoman of the jury that found him guilty. "I'm thrilled," said Breyer, who had come to believe in Green's innocence. "I, they, took 24 years of his life."
And Green remarked on all the hugs he could have given -- to his father before he died in 1999, and to Mary before she underwent surgery for breast cancer last year. "I never asked for mercy," Green said. "I only asked for justice. . . . They can't hurt me no more. I'm free."
It was a day of firsts for Green. He drank his first cup of Starbucks coffee. He took it with cream and sugar -- two treats forbidden in state prison. His wife told Green that she would teach him to use her newfangled coffee maker and washing machine when they got home.
The soft-spoken Mississippi native was convicted of fatally shooting a woman at a South Los Angeles crack house. The sole witness, Willie Finley, had placed him at the murder scene, but Green and his lawyers said Finley had lied.
Four years ago, Finley told the lawyers that he had been high on crack the night of the killing and had not gotten a good look at the shooter. He said detectives helped him identify Green.
Last week, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus cited Finley's new version of events in overturning Green's conviction. The ruling stopped short of declaring Green factually innocent, but Marcus found that jurors could have exonerated him if they had known the full story.
"Only the person up there, you and perhaps Mr. Finley know exactly what happened that night," the judge told Green at a hearing Thursday morning. "Don't let me read about you in the newspaper. As you go about your life, enjoy it."
About 4:15 p.m., deputies escorted Green from his holding cell, and he stepped haltingly onto the sidewalk outside the courthouse, where TV news cameras awaited him. He was dressed in a white linen suit his wife had brought, a stark change from the prison denims with "PRISONER" stenciled down each leg.
"I was wrongly accused," Green said. "I'm out now, I'm not bitter. I'm happy today."
He marveled at his surroundings. At San Quentin, he was allowed out in the yard just three hours during a typical day, his view mostly of the towering walls. "I feel like Cinderella," he said, gazing at the sky. He pointed at City Hall. "I like that building."
Then he asked a reporter to let him hold a cellphone, a contraption he had never touched before. He fingered the keypad a bit and carefully relinquished the phone. "Take it back before I drop it," he said.
He climbed into a rented Chevrolet, buckling up for the short ride to the hotel. "I don't want to break no laws today," he said.
At the hotel, an investigator for Green's legal team demonstrated a remote device to unlock the car. Green watched with delight as the investigator showed him how to open the doors and pop the trunk.
"That is something," Green said. "Teach me that someday."
A few minutes later, his arms were wrapped around Mary, who was introduced to him through a friend in 1991, six years after his conviction. Their relationship began with letters; they were married within a year. Until Thursday, they had never been together outside a prison, jail or courthouse.
They celebrated in a small hotel banquet room, with Willie Green wolfing down turkey and cheese sandwiches and mounds of fresh strawberries. He said the San Quentin dinner usually was so bad that he ate only the dessert, filling his belly with Top Ramen bought from the prison store.
Mary Green said she would serve him lobsters Sunday at home, where he would also take his first dip in a whirlpool bath. He shared a shower with two dozen men at San Quentin.
"I want to get that jailhouse smell off me," he said. He declared his cup of Starbucks far superior to the Big House coffee, known as "John Wayne," after the way the actor drank it in the movies.
Green had not been a model citizen before his imprisonment. He admits to using drugs and committing petty crimes.
On Thursday, he said prison had set him straight. He worked in the San Quentin library, earned his associate of arts degree and helped run a life-skills program -- parenting, anger management -- for inmates. He also never stopped proclaiming his innocence year after year, until the cell door finally opened.
"The system that put me in here was the same system that got me out," he said. "It's not perfect, but it's the best system in the world."
By Jack Leonard and Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
Before him were streets he could stroll freely for the first time since he was young. Behind him were the last of the lockups that had caged him since 1983, for a murder he insists he did not commit.
"It's like I'm in a dream," said Green, 56, moments after he stepped into the sunlight outside the downtown Criminal Courts Building, where a judge ordered him released Thursday. The witness whose testimony had sent Green away for 33 years to life recanted, and prosecutors decided not to retry him.
Now, after a quarter-century behind bars, there were all these wonders for Green to behold: cellphones, remote car locks, a hug from his wife that would not be cut short by a prison guard. He sobbed as they embraced at the Kyoto Grand Hotel, around the corner from the courthouse, his first stop on the way to their Chowchilla, Calif., home. "It's all right, baby," his wife, Mary, said. "Everything's all right. . . . It's time to start living."
Her husband said he half-expected a guard to tap him on the shoulder, the routine at San Quentin State Prison. "That's what I'm waiting for," he said, "for them to come and tell me now, 'One hug, one kiss, you're over.' "
There was another person to hug Thursday -- Susan Breyer, the forewoman of the jury that found him guilty. "I'm thrilled," said Breyer, who had come to believe in Green's innocence. "I, they, took 24 years of his life."
And Green remarked on all the hugs he could have given -- to his father before he died in 1999, and to Mary before she underwent surgery for breast cancer last year. "I never asked for mercy," Green said. "I only asked for justice. . . . They can't hurt me no more. I'm free."
It was a day of firsts for Green. He drank his first cup of Starbucks coffee. He took it with cream and sugar -- two treats forbidden in state prison. His wife told Green that she would teach him to use her newfangled coffee maker and washing machine when they got home.
The soft-spoken Mississippi native was convicted of fatally shooting a woman at a South Los Angeles crack house. The sole witness, Willie Finley, had placed him at the murder scene, but Green and his lawyers said Finley had lied.
Four years ago, Finley told the lawyers that he had been high on crack the night of the killing and had not gotten a good look at the shooter. He said detectives helped him identify Green.
Last week, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus cited Finley's new version of events in overturning Green's conviction. The ruling stopped short of declaring Green factually innocent, but Marcus found that jurors could have exonerated him if they had known the full story.
"Only the person up there, you and perhaps Mr. Finley know exactly what happened that night," the judge told Green at a hearing Thursday morning. "Don't let me read about you in the newspaper. As you go about your life, enjoy it."
About 4:15 p.m., deputies escorted Green from his holding cell, and he stepped haltingly onto the sidewalk outside the courthouse, where TV news cameras awaited him. He was dressed in a white linen suit his wife had brought, a stark change from the prison denims with "PRISONER" stenciled down each leg.
"I was wrongly accused," Green said. "I'm out now, I'm not bitter. I'm happy today."
He marveled at his surroundings. At San Quentin, he was allowed out in the yard just three hours during a typical day, his view mostly of the towering walls. "I feel like Cinderella," he said, gazing at the sky. He pointed at City Hall. "I like that building."
Then he asked a reporter to let him hold a cellphone, a contraption he had never touched before. He fingered the keypad a bit and carefully relinquished the phone. "Take it back before I drop it," he said.
He climbed into a rented Chevrolet, buckling up for the short ride to the hotel. "I don't want to break no laws today," he said.
At the hotel, an investigator for Green's legal team demonstrated a remote device to unlock the car. Green watched with delight as the investigator showed him how to open the doors and pop the trunk.
"That is something," Green said. "Teach me that someday."
A few minutes later, his arms were wrapped around Mary, who was introduced to him through a friend in 1991, six years after his conviction. Their relationship began with letters; they were married within a year. Until Thursday, they had never been together outside a prison, jail or courthouse.
They celebrated in a small hotel banquet room, with Willie Green wolfing down turkey and cheese sandwiches and mounds of fresh strawberries. He said the San Quentin dinner usually was so bad that he ate only the dessert, filling his belly with Top Ramen bought from the prison store.
Mary Green said she would serve him lobsters Sunday at home, where he would also take his first dip in a whirlpool bath. He shared a shower with two dozen men at San Quentin.
"I want to get that jailhouse smell off me," he said. He declared his cup of Starbucks far superior to the Big House coffee, known as "John Wayne," after the way the actor drank it in the movies.
Green had not been a model citizen before his imprisonment. He admits to using drugs and committing petty crimes.
On Thursday, he said prison had set him straight. He worked in the San Quentin library, earned his associate of arts degree and helped run a life-skills program -- parenting, anger management -- for inmates. He also never stopped proclaiming his innocence year after year, until the cell door finally opened.
"The system that put me in here was the same system that got me out," he said. "It's not perfect, but it's the best system in the world."
By Jack Leonard and Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
World Bank Presents Findings on Investment Climate in Southern Africa
Despite being forced to compete with their economically powerful neighbor South Africa, the investment climate in Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland appears to be faring well, according to the results of the latest Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) conducted in each of the three countries.
Investment Climate Assessments are comprehensive country reports that draw upon the results of Investment Climate Surveys and other available information. They are used to identify and prioritize constraints on a country’s investment climate, benchmark reform progress, provide cross-country comparisons of investment climate indicators, and help countries forge broad consensus on priority areas for reform that can help spur growth and development. These assessments ultimately feed into World Bank operations and technical assistance.
Investment Climate Assessments are often used along with other analytical tools, such as the World Bank's Doing Business Indicators, according to World Bank Private Sector Specialist Bernard Drum, who participated in a recent trip to Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland to present the ICA findings for those countries.
“They can assist in the design of reform programs which the Bank and other development partners can support,” said Drum. “They also often point out and flag issues in high priority areas that later become the subject of follow-up after more in-depth analysis.”
According to Drum, the private sector normally welcomes the ICAs as a vehicle for raising the visibility of their own concerns with policy makers.
“The private sector can also use the ICAs to get an objective overview on how favorable or otherwise the investment climate might be in a particular country,” he said.
The investment climate is made up of location-specific factors that shape the opportunities and incentives for firms to invest productively, create jobs, and expand. These factors include macroeconomic and regulatory policies; the security of property rights and the rule of law; and the quality of supporting institutions such as physical and financial infrastructure.
In each country the World Bank team presented the findings in workshops involving policymakers and private sector leaders, local think tanks and development partners, among others. Drum said in all countries the debates were lively and interesting, providing thoughtful questions and insights as the team moves forward with continued work on the issue.
Findings
The investment climate in all three countries appears to be quite good, according to Drum. He notes firm level productivity is quite high.
“All three are doing relatively well compared with most of their comparators in Sub-Saharan Africa. But they fare slightly less well when compared with middle income countries elsewhere,” he said.
Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland are competing with a highly productive neighbor, South Africa, Drum notes.
“Since they cannot change their size or location or demographic characteristics, they need to do all they can to improve the things that they can change, in the area of policies and institutions,” he said.
The three countries share common development challenges, he noted: the need to improve access to finance for micro and small businesses and the need to upgrade technical and managerial skills and improve the delivery of much needed training.
The World Bank plans follow-up surveys in these countries, as well as in South Africa and Lesotho.
For more information go to web.worldbank.org
Investment Climate Assessments are comprehensive country reports that draw upon the results of Investment Climate Surveys and other available information. They are used to identify and prioritize constraints on a country’s investment climate, benchmark reform progress, provide cross-country comparisons of investment climate indicators, and help countries forge broad consensus on priority areas for reform that can help spur growth and development. These assessments ultimately feed into World Bank operations and technical assistance.
Investment Climate Assessments are often used along with other analytical tools, such as the World Bank's Doing Business Indicators, according to World Bank Private Sector Specialist Bernard Drum, who participated in a recent trip to Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland to present the ICA findings for those countries.
“They can assist in the design of reform programs which the Bank and other development partners can support,” said Drum. “They also often point out and flag issues in high priority areas that later become the subject of follow-up after more in-depth analysis.”
According to Drum, the private sector normally welcomes the ICAs as a vehicle for raising the visibility of their own concerns with policy makers.
“The private sector can also use the ICAs to get an objective overview on how favorable or otherwise the investment climate might be in a particular country,” he said.
The investment climate is made up of location-specific factors that shape the opportunities and incentives for firms to invest productively, create jobs, and expand. These factors include macroeconomic and regulatory policies; the security of property rights and the rule of law; and the quality of supporting institutions such as physical and financial infrastructure.
In each country the World Bank team presented the findings in workshops involving policymakers and private sector leaders, local think tanks and development partners, among others. Drum said in all countries the debates were lively and interesting, providing thoughtful questions and insights as the team moves forward with continued work on the issue.
Findings
The investment climate in all three countries appears to be quite good, according to Drum. He notes firm level productivity is quite high.
“All three are doing relatively well compared with most of their comparators in Sub-Saharan Africa. But they fare slightly less well when compared with middle income countries elsewhere,” he said.
Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland are competing with a highly productive neighbor, South Africa, Drum notes.
“Since they cannot change their size or location or demographic characteristics, they need to do all they can to improve the things that they can change, in the area of policies and institutions,” he said.
The three countries share common development challenges, he noted: the need to improve access to finance for micro and small businesses and the need to upgrade technical and managerial skills and improve the delivery of much needed training.
The World Bank plans follow-up surveys in these countries, as well as in South Africa and Lesotho.
For more information go to web.worldbank.org
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Nicole Paultre Bell: Woman on a Mission
The cavernous, wood-paneled Queens courtroom of the Sean Bell trial is packed. Even though proceedings are well into the third week for the New York detectives charged in shooting Bell—an unarmed Black man who died in a storm of 50 police bullets on what was supposed to have been his wedding day—the case has sustained vigilant attention. The young man’s parents, William and Valerie Bell, listen intently to the witnesses called to the stand, along with a diverse mix of news reporters, local high school students, the Reverend Al Sharpton and other community activists.
Also in attendance, flanked by close relatives, is Bell’s fiancée. Dressed in a chic black suit, a tiny gold pin attached to her lapel reading “Sean Bell: See You Later,” Nicole Paultre Bell, 23, leans forward in her seat. As she listens to testimony from residents who recount being jolted awake by the sound of gunshots, and crime-scene detectives with ballistics evidence, her poise never breaks. Paultre Bell has made getting justice for her slain fiancé a full-time job, and she’s serious about her business.
During recess, at an Italian restaurant across from the Queens County Criminal Court, Paultre Bell sits up straight and speaks confidently about the trial and Sean Bell, her high school sweetheart and the father of her two young daughters.
Essence.com: You’ve attended every day of the trial so far, and you plan to make all the court dates. Why is it so important for you to be here?
Nicole Paultre Bell: Sean meant the world to me; he still does. So this is personal—this happened to Sean, but it also happened to me. That’s just the bond we have. So I have to be here every day, to know what happened to Sean. I need to know.
Essence.com: I noticed in court that you seemed very focused, even on the more technical ballistics details.
Paultre Bell: Every little detail is just so important. I have my pad and my pen ready if there’s something I don’t understand. I’ll ask my attorney or bring it to the DA’s attention. This is the day my life changed and turned upside down, and I have to have answers.
Essence.com: Do your daughters [Jada, 4, and Jordyn, 1] understand what’s going on?
Paultre Bell: Jada doesn’t quite understand what it is, but she knows it’s about her daddy. She misses me picking her up from school; she asks me every day if I’m coming to pick her up. But I tell her hopefully it won’t be much longer. It’s hard. I miss being home with Jordyn. But when I get there, she gives me a big hug and kiss, and it feels so good to be home with them after a long day here. They know as soon as I get home, even though it’s emotionally draining being here every day, they’re my priority.
Essence.com: What’s been the most difficult part of the trial so far?
Paultre Bell: Honestly, all of it. Everything. Even seeing all those holes in my car, the car that my kids and I were in every day. My children’s car seats were in that car, and my daughter’s baby mirror. You can still see all of that in the pictures. It hurts.
Essence.com: Only three of the five detectives involved in the shooting were indicted. Do you think the other two should be on trial too?
Paultre Bell: Well, the grand jury heard all the evidence. And the officers who weren’t indicted did testify before the grand jury, so…I’m comfortable with the way it is. I feel safe with that.
Essence.com: Do you have faith that the verdict will go the way you want?
Paultre Bell: Deep down inside, I do. I feel safe that Judge Cooperman will make the right decision. I don’t see why he wouldn’t. Sean and his friends were just out there trying to have a good time.
Essence.com: Besides jail time for the officers, what else do you hope comes out of the trial?
Paultre Bell: Nothing will ever bring Sean back. I don’t think there is any such thing as victory or even satisfaction in this situation, not for me. But I pray that in the future this will be an example for any officer who wants to abuse their authority. Hopefully they’ll think twice before anything like this ever happens again, and no other family will have to suffer the way we have.
Essence.com: From the beginning you’ve always said that you’re not angry at the officers. But have you been able to forgive them for what happened?
Paultre Bell: I don’t think I’ve reached that point yet. Every day I have to look at my children’s faces and know that their father was taken away from them. My daughters have to one day have a Sweet Sixteen and a wedding, and they have no father to be there with them. That’s very hard. And it’s something that should not have happened. It could have, and should have, been avoided. There are still times when I’m at home and in disbelief and think, Not Sean. I still have those moments.
Essence.com: During those moments, who is the person you turn to, that one person you know you can always call if you need to talk or cry?
Paultre Bell: First I have to say, my family has supported me so much. I don’t know where I would be right now if it wasn’t for them, especially my mom and my dad. But I think that one person would have to be my older sister Shelby. She’s so strong. She encourages me. There was one time she called me at about 4 o’clock in the morning, and she knows I go to sleep early, but it just so happened that I was awake and couldn’t sleep. She goes, “Is everything all right? I just had a feeling that you were up.” It was the strangest thing. But we just have that bond, and I appreciate her.
Essence.com: When the trial is over, have you thought about what the next phase of your life will be?
Paultre Bell: I have. But I can’t get past…I have to take one day at a time. Since November 25, 2006, all I can do is take it one day at a time. That’s the only way I can get through it. Otherwise I start to get so overwhelmed just thinking about everything and all the pressure. But right now my focus is justice. I want to see justice done. From that day, I’ll start to look forward and plan and see what’s ahead.
By Cynthia Gordy
If you would like to send a letter of condolence, a gift or monetary donation, please mail it to:
Nicole Paultre Bell
PO Box 900537
Far Rockaway, NY 11690
Also in attendance, flanked by close relatives, is Bell’s fiancée. Dressed in a chic black suit, a tiny gold pin attached to her lapel reading “Sean Bell: See You Later,” Nicole Paultre Bell, 23, leans forward in her seat. As she listens to testimony from residents who recount being jolted awake by the sound of gunshots, and crime-scene detectives with ballistics evidence, her poise never breaks. Paultre Bell has made getting justice for her slain fiancé a full-time job, and she’s serious about her business.
During recess, at an Italian restaurant across from the Queens County Criminal Court, Paultre Bell sits up straight and speaks confidently about the trial and Sean Bell, her high school sweetheart and the father of her two young daughters.
Essence.com: You’ve attended every day of the trial so far, and you plan to make all the court dates. Why is it so important for you to be here?
Nicole Paultre Bell: Sean meant the world to me; he still does. So this is personal—this happened to Sean, but it also happened to me. That’s just the bond we have. So I have to be here every day, to know what happened to Sean. I need to know.
Essence.com: I noticed in court that you seemed very focused, even on the more technical ballistics details.
Paultre Bell: Every little detail is just so important. I have my pad and my pen ready if there’s something I don’t understand. I’ll ask my attorney or bring it to the DA’s attention. This is the day my life changed and turned upside down, and I have to have answers.
Essence.com: Do your daughters [Jada, 4, and Jordyn, 1] understand what’s going on?
Paultre Bell: Jada doesn’t quite understand what it is, but she knows it’s about her daddy. She misses me picking her up from school; she asks me every day if I’m coming to pick her up. But I tell her hopefully it won’t be much longer. It’s hard. I miss being home with Jordyn. But when I get there, she gives me a big hug and kiss, and it feels so good to be home with them after a long day here. They know as soon as I get home, even though it’s emotionally draining being here every day, they’re my priority.
Essence.com: What’s been the most difficult part of the trial so far?
Paultre Bell: Honestly, all of it. Everything. Even seeing all those holes in my car, the car that my kids and I were in every day. My children’s car seats were in that car, and my daughter’s baby mirror. You can still see all of that in the pictures. It hurts.
Essence.com: Only three of the five detectives involved in the shooting were indicted. Do you think the other two should be on trial too?
Paultre Bell: Well, the grand jury heard all the evidence. And the officers who weren’t indicted did testify before the grand jury, so…I’m comfortable with the way it is. I feel safe with that.
Essence.com: Do you have faith that the verdict will go the way you want?
Paultre Bell: Deep down inside, I do. I feel safe that Judge Cooperman will make the right decision. I don’t see why he wouldn’t. Sean and his friends were just out there trying to have a good time.
Essence.com: Besides jail time for the officers, what else do you hope comes out of the trial?
Paultre Bell: Nothing will ever bring Sean back. I don’t think there is any such thing as victory or even satisfaction in this situation, not for me. But I pray that in the future this will be an example for any officer who wants to abuse their authority. Hopefully they’ll think twice before anything like this ever happens again, and no other family will have to suffer the way we have.
Essence.com: From the beginning you’ve always said that you’re not angry at the officers. But have you been able to forgive them for what happened?
Paultre Bell: I don’t think I’ve reached that point yet. Every day I have to look at my children’s faces and know that their father was taken away from them. My daughters have to one day have a Sweet Sixteen and a wedding, and they have no father to be there with them. That’s very hard. And it’s something that should not have happened. It could have, and should have, been avoided. There are still times when I’m at home and in disbelief and think, Not Sean. I still have those moments.
Essence.com: During those moments, who is the person you turn to, that one person you know you can always call if you need to talk or cry?
Paultre Bell: First I have to say, my family has supported me so much. I don’t know where I would be right now if it wasn’t for them, especially my mom and my dad. But I think that one person would have to be my older sister Shelby. She’s so strong. She encourages me. There was one time she called me at about 4 o’clock in the morning, and she knows I go to sleep early, but it just so happened that I was awake and couldn’t sleep. She goes, “Is everything all right? I just had a feeling that you were up.” It was the strangest thing. But we just have that bond, and I appreciate her.
Essence.com: When the trial is over, have you thought about what the next phase of your life will be?
Paultre Bell: I have. But I can’t get past…I have to take one day at a time. Since November 25, 2006, all I can do is take it one day at a time. That’s the only way I can get through it. Otherwise I start to get so overwhelmed just thinking about everything and all the pressure. But right now my focus is justice. I want to see justice done. From that day, I’ll start to look forward and plan and see what’s ahead.
By Cynthia Gordy
If you would like to send a letter of condolence, a gift or monetary donation, please mail it to:
Nicole Paultre Bell
PO Box 900537
Far Rockaway, NY 11690
Annan: 'Hypocrisy' in Global Response to Darfur
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan questioned whether all countries on the Security Council have lived up to their responsibility to protect civilians in Darfur from atrocities.
Annan said there was "quite a bit of hypocrisy on all sides" in trying to resolve the five-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, especially in encouraging the African Union to take on peacekeeping without sufficient resources.
The overwhelmed A.U. force struggled for years to stem the bloodshed in Darfur until it was replaced by a joint A.U.-U.N. force that began deploying in January after months of wrangling with the Sudanese government.
The new force is authorized to have 26,000 troops and police but only a fraction are on the ground. Annan criticized well-equipped countries for refusing to provide essential helicopters for the mission despite repeated appeals from the U.N.
At a dinner in his honor on Thursday, Annan said U.N. member states had placed the duty to protect civilians threatened by genocide or war crimes in the hands of the members of the Security Council.
"It is fair to question whether all of them have yet fully lived up to that responsibility -- notably in Darfur," Annan said.
He did not single out any countries on the council, which unanimously passed a resolution authorizing a joint A.U.-U.N. force last year.
China and Russia, two of the five permanent members of the council, have been reluctant to impose new sanctions on the Sudanese government, which has been accused of atrocities in a conflict that has left more than 200,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million.
Recently Russia proposed sanctioning the ethnic African rebels fighting the Arab-dominated government. But the other three permanent council members -- the United States, Britain and France -- have stressed that Sudan's leaders must also be targeted.
The Security Council adopted a resolution in March 2005 authorizing an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals who defy peace efforts, violate international human rights law, or are responsible for military overflights in Darfur. The council has also imposed an arms embargo against the government and rebels.
As secretary-general, Annan promoted the concept of an international "responsibility to protect" those caught in conflict that was adopted by world leaders at a 2005 summit. He also played a key role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.
Annan spoke at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where he received the first MacArthur Award for International Justice from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation at a dinner attended by 1,200 people.
Earlier in the day at wide-ranging round-table with journalists, Annan warned that military action against Iran would be "a real disaster" and the whole region could explode if the world community does not handle the many conflicts there carefully.
He said he did not have enough information to determine whether Iran's nuclear program is peaceful -- as Tehran maintains.
But he said he had told the Iranians that if they had nothing to hide they should allow U.N. inspectors to go anywhere and reassure the world "that you have no intention of producing nuclear weapons."
The Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue, he said.
"We cannot, I'm sure, take on another military action in Iran, and I hope no one is contemplating it. It would be a real disaster," Annan stressed.
from cnn.com
Annan said there was "quite a bit of hypocrisy on all sides" in trying to resolve the five-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, especially in encouraging the African Union to take on peacekeeping without sufficient resources.
The overwhelmed A.U. force struggled for years to stem the bloodshed in Darfur until it was replaced by a joint A.U.-U.N. force that began deploying in January after months of wrangling with the Sudanese government.
The new force is authorized to have 26,000 troops and police but only a fraction are on the ground. Annan criticized well-equipped countries for refusing to provide essential helicopters for the mission despite repeated appeals from the U.N.
At a dinner in his honor on Thursday, Annan said U.N. member states had placed the duty to protect civilians threatened by genocide or war crimes in the hands of the members of the Security Council.
"It is fair to question whether all of them have yet fully lived up to that responsibility -- notably in Darfur," Annan said.
He did not single out any countries on the council, which unanimously passed a resolution authorizing a joint A.U.-U.N. force last year.
China and Russia, two of the five permanent members of the council, have been reluctant to impose new sanctions on the Sudanese government, which has been accused of atrocities in a conflict that has left more than 200,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million.
Recently Russia proposed sanctioning the ethnic African rebels fighting the Arab-dominated government. But the other three permanent council members -- the United States, Britain and France -- have stressed that Sudan's leaders must also be targeted.
The Security Council adopted a resolution in March 2005 authorizing an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals who defy peace efforts, violate international human rights law, or are responsible for military overflights in Darfur. The council has also imposed an arms embargo against the government and rebels.
As secretary-general, Annan promoted the concept of an international "responsibility to protect" those caught in conflict that was adopted by world leaders at a 2005 summit. He also played a key role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.
Annan spoke at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where he received the first MacArthur Award for International Justice from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation at a dinner attended by 1,200 people.
Earlier in the day at wide-ranging round-table with journalists, Annan warned that military action against Iran would be "a real disaster" and the whole region could explode if the world community does not handle the many conflicts there carefully.
He said he did not have enough information to determine whether Iran's nuclear program is peaceful -- as Tehran maintains.
But he said he had told the Iranians that if they had nothing to hide they should allow U.N. inspectors to go anywhere and reassure the world "that you have no intention of producing nuclear weapons."
The Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue, he said.
"We cannot, I'm sure, take on another military action in Iran, and I hope no one is contemplating it. It would be a real disaster," Annan stressed.
from cnn.com
Howard's Student Newspaper Halts Publication
Howard University administrators have halted publication of the university's student newspaper, the editor in chief and the university spokesman told Black College Wire this week.
Drew Costley, a Howard senior and The Hilltop's top editor for the 2007-08 academic year, said the action was taken because of more than $48,000 in outstanding printing costs. He also said $20,000 is missing from the paper's account. Costley was reached in New Orleans where he was participating in alternative spring break to help Hurricane Katrina victims.
Costley said administrators "went against protocol" and independently decided to stop publication of The Hilltop indefinitely after it was revealed that the newspaper owed its printer, The Washington Times, $48,000 for printing during the fall semester. The Hilltop is the nation's only HBCU student newspaper that is published daily.
Costley said the decision to stop publication resulted from an "illegal vote" taken without a quorum at a March 6 meeting of the policy board that governs the paper.
Ron Harris, director of the office of communications, confirmed that publication of The Hilltop has been suspended. "The university administration is not happy that school newspaper is not being published. They're having conversations right now to discuss how did this happen, are there systemic problems, and what do we need to change to make sure it doesn't happen again." Harris also said discussions were underway to determine if the printing bills could be paid.
During the March 6 meeting, Costley said administrators suggested stopping publication, but Costley said he motioned to continue publishing through March 21.
"The board started discussing my motion without verifying what the words were. It somehow got twisted that my motion was to stop publishing," he said.
After 45 minutes to an hour of "talking in circles," Costley's motion was passed and the meeting was adjourned without a solution to the financial problem, he said. At a board meeting on March 12, five pages of minutes from that meeting were approved after one minute of review. Costley said the minutes of the meeting stated, in error, that he had motioned for the paper to stop publication.
"These administrators that sit on the board took it upon themselves to decide that the newspaper wasn't publishing any more," Costley said.
Harris said he had been informed that it was the editor's recommendation at the meeting that publication be suspended.
Costley said the administration did not adhere to the requirement of having a quorum of 11 voting members choose. At the March 6 meeting, Costley said only "8 or 9" members were present and 11 were required for a quorum. There was no vote at the March 12 meeting, he said.
Conflicting reports of board meeting
The issue of the quorum remains in question. Harris, who was not present at the meeting, said a board member told him there was a quorum. Howard University Student Association President Marcus Ware initially told Black College Wire a quorum was not present, but later amended his statement, saying he was unsure because "there were people entering and exiting the room." Ware added that the chair is supposed to call for quorum prior to a vote, but that did not happen.
Ware also agreed with Costley's statement that he did not recommend halting publication of the paper. "The motion that was made didn't say that we should stop publishing," Ware said.
Costley, a former Black College Wire intern, said of the $48,000 owed to the printer, $20,000 is at least 120 days outstanding and the remaining $28,000 is between 60 and 90 days outstanding. He said $20,000 was taken out of the newspaper's account in January, and has not been replaced or accounted for, even after an audit. "I'm not sure who, I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure why," he said, referring to the missing funds.
According to Costley, on the evening of March 12 he heard that administrators were halting publication, and when he called one administrator to complain, he was warned "to be aware of the repercussions of not listening to the board."
Letter to advertisers sent
Soon after, The Hilltop's business manager, Ashley D. Marshall, sent out a letter to the paper's advertisers notifying them that the paper would not be publishing for the rest of the school year. "We are looking foward [sic] to a more prosperous publication year beginning in the fall, and hope to continue business with you then. We extend our apologies for any inconvenience this notice may serve you, but we will be in touch if publication resumes any time before the publication year ends," the letter said.
That letter was a surprise to Costley, who said he had sent out an email telling his staff to continue working just before he heard about Marshall's letter.
"The letter was sent prematurely without my authorization or the authorization of the policy board or board of directors or review and it was completely incorrect," he said. Costley said he told Marshall she needed to send out a correction.
The letter cited "the lack of advertising and extensive difficulty in recieving [sic] collections from some of our partners and clients" as financial precursors to the paper halting publication.
Marshall could not be reached for comment.
Costley said in December 2007, he found out that the business staff had not sent out invoices to advertising clients for a month and a half, causing $40,000 to $45,000 in lost revenue.
He said tearsheets to show clients their ads were actually run, also had not gone out, so clients refused to pay. Costley said by the time he found this out, the assistant business manager had been fired for an unrelated reason. Marshall was not fired over the incident.
It appears that miscommunication and alleged mismanagement are at the heart of The Hilltop's financial woes. Costley said he could have exercised more oversight, but that the traditional dynamic of The Hilltop has been for the editor in chief to handle the editorial side and let the business manager run the business office.
Budget, workload presented challenges
"I think I went wrong in not being closer to the business office," he said, adding that he spent two weeks during the fall in the business office watching how things were run. He said overseeing a paper with a $250,000 budget and a staff of 40 people was more of a challenge than he expected.
"I expect other people to bring their sand to the beach. I might be naive for that, but I would expect people to do what they are saying they're going to do," he said. Costley said he has advised his staff to continue working as though they will be putting out an issue on March 25.
On March 20, Costley said an administrator told him the university was pulling together money to cover the printing bill and has scheduled a meeting for Monday, March 24 to discuss whether the newspaper will resume publishing.
Harris mentioned speculation that the move to daily publication in 2005 was too ambitions.
But Ruth Tisdale, the paper's top editor from 2004 to 2006, said daily publication is possible with proper organization and management. Tisdale, now a reporter at The Roanoke Times, led The Hilltop's transition from weekly to daily publication in February 2005. She was named the National Association of Black Journalists' Student of the Year in 2006.
Though Tisdale did not want to comment on the current situation, she said that all student newspapers need to be more independent of university support. "You have to work in the present. People that have come behind me still have to work hard to ensure that the paper remains financially whole and produces news for Howard University," she said. She said there were some difficulties between her and her business staff, but it was necessary to find "common ground" with the business manager during her tenure.
The Hilltop's managing editor, senior Josh Thomas, said it's important for the paper, as the first and only HBCU daily, to continue publishing and he hopes the situation will be resolved. He said it would be "erasing history" if publication stops.
By Shauntel Lowe
Black College Wire
Drew Costley, a Howard senior and The Hilltop's top editor for the 2007-08 academic year, said the action was taken because of more than $48,000 in outstanding printing costs. He also said $20,000 is missing from the paper's account. Costley was reached in New Orleans where he was participating in alternative spring break to help Hurricane Katrina victims.
Costley said administrators "went against protocol" and independently decided to stop publication of The Hilltop indefinitely after it was revealed that the newspaper owed its printer, The Washington Times, $48,000 for printing during the fall semester. The Hilltop is the nation's only HBCU student newspaper that is published daily.
Costley said the decision to stop publication resulted from an "illegal vote" taken without a quorum at a March 6 meeting of the policy board that governs the paper.
Ron Harris, director of the office of communications, confirmed that publication of The Hilltop has been suspended. "The university administration is not happy that school newspaper is not being published. They're having conversations right now to discuss how did this happen, are there systemic problems, and what do we need to change to make sure it doesn't happen again." Harris also said discussions were underway to determine if the printing bills could be paid.
During the March 6 meeting, Costley said administrators suggested stopping publication, but Costley said he motioned to continue publishing through March 21.
"The board started discussing my motion without verifying what the words were. It somehow got twisted that my motion was to stop publishing," he said.
After 45 minutes to an hour of "talking in circles," Costley's motion was passed and the meeting was adjourned without a solution to the financial problem, he said. At a board meeting on March 12, five pages of minutes from that meeting were approved after one minute of review. Costley said the minutes of the meeting stated, in error, that he had motioned for the paper to stop publication.
"These administrators that sit on the board took it upon themselves to decide that the newspaper wasn't publishing any more," Costley said.
Harris said he had been informed that it was the editor's recommendation at the meeting that publication be suspended.
Costley said the administration did not adhere to the requirement of having a quorum of 11 voting members choose. At the March 6 meeting, Costley said only "8 or 9" members were present and 11 were required for a quorum. There was no vote at the March 12 meeting, he said.
Conflicting reports of board meeting
The issue of the quorum remains in question. Harris, who was not present at the meeting, said a board member told him there was a quorum. Howard University Student Association President Marcus Ware initially told Black College Wire a quorum was not present, but later amended his statement, saying he was unsure because "there were people entering and exiting the room." Ware added that the chair is supposed to call for quorum prior to a vote, but that did not happen.
Ware also agreed with Costley's statement that he did not recommend halting publication of the paper. "The motion that was made didn't say that we should stop publishing," Ware said.
Costley, a former Black College Wire intern, said of the $48,000 owed to the printer, $20,000 is at least 120 days outstanding and the remaining $28,000 is between 60 and 90 days outstanding. He said $20,000 was taken out of the newspaper's account in January, and has not been replaced or accounted for, even after an audit. "I'm not sure who, I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure why," he said, referring to the missing funds.
According to Costley, on the evening of March 12 he heard that administrators were halting publication, and when he called one administrator to complain, he was warned "to be aware of the repercussions of not listening to the board."
Letter to advertisers sent
Soon after, The Hilltop's business manager, Ashley D. Marshall, sent out a letter to the paper's advertisers notifying them that the paper would not be publishing for the rest of the school year. "We are looking foward [sic] to a more prosperous publication year beginning in the fall, and hope to continue business with you then. We extend our apologies for any inconvenience this notice may serve you, but we will be in touch if publication resumes any time before the publication year ends," the letter said.
That letter was a surprise to Costley, who said he had sent out an email telling his staff to continue working just before he heard about Marshall's letter.
"The letter was sent prematurely without my authorization or the authorization of the policy board or board of directors or review and it was completely incorrect," he said. Costley said he told Marshall she needed to send out a correction.
The letter cited "the lack of advertising and extensive difficulty in recieving [sic] collections from some of our partners and clients" as financial precursors to the paper halting publication.
Marshall could not be reached for comment.
Costley said in December 2007, he found out that the business staff had not sent out invoices to advertising clients for a month and a half, causing $40,000 to $45,000 in lost revenue.
He said tearsheets to show clients their ads were actually run, also had not gone out, so clients refused to pay. Costley said by the time he found this out, the assistant business manager had been fired for an unrelated reason. Marshall was not fired over the incident.
It appears that miscommunication and alleged mismanagement are at the heart of The Hilltop's financial woes. Costley said he could have exercised more oversight, but that the traditional dynamic of The Hilltop has been for the editor in chief to handle the editorial side and let the business manager run the business office.
Budget, workload presented challenges
"I think I went wrong in not being closer to the business office," he said, adding that he spent two weeks during the fall in the business office watching how things were run. He said overseeing a paper with a $250,000 budget and a staff of 40 people was more of a challenge than he expected.
"I expect other people to bring their sand to the beach. I might be naive for that, but I would expect people to do what they are saying they're going to do," he said. Costley said he has advised his staff to continue working as though they will be putting out an issue on March 25.
On March 20, Costley said an administrator told him the university was pulling together money to cover the printing bill and has scheduled a meeting for Monday, March 24 to discuss whether the newspaper will resume publishing.
Harris mentioned speculation that the move to daily publication in 2005 was too ambitions.
But Ruth Tisdale, the paper's top editor from 2004 to 2006, said daily publication is possible with proper organization and management. Tisdale, now a reporter at The Roanoke Times, led The Hilltop's transition from weekly to daily publication in February 2005. She was named the National Association of Black Journalists' Student of the Year in 2006.
Though Tisdale did not want to comment on the current situation, she said that all student newspapers need to be more independent of university support. "You have to work in the present. People that have come behind me still have to work hard to ensure that the paper remains financially whole and produces news for Howard University," she said. She said there were some difficulties between her and her business staff, but it was necessary to find "common ground" with the business manager during her tenure.
The Hilltop's managing editor, senior Josh Thomas, said it's important for the paper, as the first and only HBCU daily, to continue publishing and he hopes the situation will be resolved. He said it would be "erasing history" if publication stops.
By Shauntel Lowe
Black College Wire
Friday, March 21, 2008
America’s New Slavery: Black Men in Prison
A new American slave trade is booming, warn prison activists, following the release of a report that again outlines outrageous numbers of young Black men in prison and increasing numbers of adults undergoing incarceration. That slave trade is connected to money states spend to keep people locked up, profits made through cheap prison labor and for-profit prisons, excessive charges inmates and families may pay for everything from tube socks to phone calls, and lucrative cross country shipping of inmates to relieve overcrowding and rent cells in faraway states and counties.
Advocates note that the constitution’s 13th amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States, but provided an exception—in cases where persons have been “duly convicted” in the United States and territory it controls, slavery or involuntary servitude can be reimposed as a punishment, they add. The majority of prisoners are Black and Latino, though they are minorities in terms of their numbers in the population.
According to “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008,” published by the Pew Center on the States, one in nine Black men between the ages of 20-34 are incarcerated compared to one in 30 other men of the same age. Like the overall adult ratio, one in 100 Black women in their mid-to-late 30s is imprisoned.
“Everyone is feeding off of our down-trodden condition to feed their capitalism, greed and lust for money. They are buying prison stock on the market and this is why they want to silence the restorative voice of Minister Louis Farrakhan, because he is repairing those who fill and would support the prison system as slaves,” said Student Minister Abdullah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam Prison Ministry.
The report states that the rising trend stems from more than a parallel increase in crime or surge in the population at large, but it is driven by policies that put more criminals in prison, extending their stay through measures like California’s Three Strikes Law.
Atty. Barbara Ratliff, a L.A.-based reparations activist, said the prison industrial complex’s extension of the slave plantation plays out in a pattern of behavior that Black people must study in order to survive. “I’m not talking about behavior of the individual incarcerate, but the pattern of treatment that digs into institutional racism. Corporate profit from prisons is no different than how slave owners received benefit from their labor, and that impact remained even after slavery. For instance, freed Blacks were arrested and put on chain gangs for their labor which continued to benefit slave owners, so this is no accident,” she said.
Inmates produce items or perform services for almost every major industry. They sew clothes, fight fires and build furniture, but they are paid little or no wages, somewhere between five cents and almost $2.
Phone companies charge high amounts for collect calls and inmate care packages can no longer be sent from families directly. Inmates must purchase products from companies to be sent in, which feeds capitalism, activists charge.
Although the costs of prisons is skyrocketing and consuming state budgets, money continues to be spent to push more Black youth into prison, activists assert. Many education and prison advocates charge there is a plot to populate U.S. prisons based on the dumbing down of America’s youth. Figures show those most likely to be incarcerated and to return generally have the lowest level of education. The report said, “While states don’t necessarily choose between higher education and corrections, a dollar spent in one area is unavailable for another.”
U.S. spending on prisons last year topped $49 billion, compared to $12 billion in 1987. California spent $8.8 billion on prisons last year and 13 states spend more than $1 billion a year on corrections.
Data from the National Association of State Budget Officers indicates:
• Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and Delaware spent as much or more on corrections than on higher education;
• For every dollar spent on higher education, Alaska spent 77 cents on corrections;
• For every dollar spent on higher education, Georgia spent 50 cents on corrections;
• On the average, all 50 states spent 60 cents on corrections for every dollar spent on higher education; and
• For every dollar spent on higher education, Minnesota spent 17 cents on corrections.
Between 1985 and 2005, Texas’ prison population alone jumped by 300 percent.
“All we have to do is follow the logic to see this connection between prisons and enslavement. When you look at prison costs and they say it cost $45,000 to house one prisoner, where does that break down? There’s only three square meals a day. The prisoners make their clothes and bedding in sewing factories and about 90 percent of the items they use in the prisons,” said Nathaniel Ali of the National Association of Brothers and Sisters In and Out of Prison (NABSIO).
He believes the majority of prison costs support guard unions and pay enormous base and overtime salaries of prison guards and other staff.
“They receive these exorbitant wages regardless of their education and training. You don’t have an I.Q.; all you have to have is the ability to be brutal” to command these wages through this new slave system, he said.
Mr. Ali said the public school system has become the feeder to prisons and their slave populations by increasing the heavy presence of school police and sheriffs on middle school campuses and penalties students face for often trivial offenses, other activists added.
Prison watch groups note corporate-owned prisons feed job-starved communities where businesses have disappeared. By incarcerating so many people, America deals with warehousing them and not finding out why they are incarcerated in the first place, advocates said.
“The fact is, it’s a business and a readily accessible, ‘free’ workforce removes prisons’ incentive to rehabilitate, especially those that are owned by corporations,” Atty. Ratliff said.
Laini Coffee, a self-described “unity activist” said, “At current trend, we could very well see the number of so-called free Blacks rival to the same number of those that are incarcerated. The answer is simple: Unity.”
By Charlene Muhammad from Final Call
Advocates note that the constitution’s 13th amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States, but provided an exception—in cases where persons have been “duly convicted” in the United States and territory it controls, slavery or involuntary servitude can be reimposed as a punishment, they add. The majority of prisoners are Black and Latino, though they are minorities in terms of their numbers in the population.
According to “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008,” published by the Pew Center on the States, one in nine Black men between the ages of 20-34 are incarcerated compared to one in 30 other men of the same age. Like the overall adult ratio, one in 100 Black women in their mid-to-late 30s is imprisoned.
“Everyone is feeding off of our down-trodden condition to feed their capitalism, greed and lust for money. They are buying prison stock on the market and this is why they want to silence the restorative voice of Minister Louis Farrakhan, because he is repairing those who fill and would support the prison system as slaves,” said Student Minister Abdullah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam Prison Ministry.
The report states that the rising trend stems from more than a parallel increase in crime or surge in the population at large, but it is driven by policies that put more criminals in prison, extending their stay through measures like California’s Three Strikes Law.
Atty. Barbara Ratliff, a L.A.-based reparations activist, said the prison industrial complex’s extension of the slave plantation plays out in a pattern of behavior that Black people must study in order to survive. “I’m not talking about behavior of the individual incarcerate, but the pattern of treatment that digs into institutional racism. Corporate profit from prisons is no different than how slave owners received benefit from their labor, and that impact remained even after slavery. For instance, freed Blacks were arrested and put on chain gangs for their labor which continued to benefit slave owners, so this is no accident,” she said.
Inmates produce items or perform services for almost every major industry. They sew clothes, fight fires and build furniture, but they are paid little or no wages, somewhere between five cents and almost $2.
Phone companies charge high amounts for collect calls and inmate care packages can no longer be sent from families directly. Inmates must purchase products from companies to be sent in, which feeds capitalism, activists charge.
Although the costs of prisons is skyrocketing and consuming state budgets, money continues to be spent to push more Black youth into prison, activists assert. Many education and prison advocates charge there is a plot to populate U.S. prisons based on the dumbing down of America’s youth. Figures show those most likely to be incarcerated and to return generally have the lowest level of education. The report said, “While states don’t necessarily choose between higher education and corrections, a dollar spent in one area is unavailable for another.”
U.S. spending on prisons last year topped $49 billion, compared to $12 billion in 1987. California spent $8.8 billion on prisons last year and 13 states spend more than $1 billion a year on corrections.
Data from the National Association of State Budget Officers indicates:
• Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and Delaware spent as much or more on corrections than on higher education;
• For every dollar spent on higher education, Alaska spent 77 cents on corrections;
• For every dollar spent on higher education, Georgia spent 50 cents on corrections;
• On the average, all 50 states spent 60 cents on corrections for every dollar spent on higher education; and
• For every dollar spent on higher education, Minnesota spent 17 cents on corrections.
Between 1985 and 2005, Texas’ prison population alone jumped by 300 percent.
“All we have to do is follow the logic to see this connection between prisons and enslavement. When you look at prison costs and they say it cost $45,000 to house one prisoner, where does that break down? There’s only three square meals a day. The prisoners make their clothes and bedding in sewing factories and about 90 percent of the items they use in the prisons,” said Nathaniel Ali of the National Association of Brothers and Sisters In and Out of Prison (NABSIO).
He believes the majority of prison costs support guard unions and pay enormous base and overtime salaries of prison guards and other staff.
“They receive these exorbitant wages regardless of their education and training. You don’t have an I.Q.; all you have to have is the ability to be brutal” to command these wages through this new slave system, he said.
Mr. Ali said the public school system has become the feeder to prisons and their slave populations by increasing the heavy presence of school police and sheriffs on middle school campuses and penalties students face for often trivial offenses, other activists added.
Prison watch groups note corporate-owned prisons feed job-starved communities where businesses have disappeared. By incarcerating so many people, America deals with warehousing them and not finding out why they are incarcerated in the first place, advocates said.
“The fact is, it’s a business and a readily accessible, ‘free’ workforce removes prisons’ incentive to rehabilitate, especially those that are owned by corporations,” Atty. Ratliff said.
Laini Coffee, a self-described “unity activist” said, “At current trend, we could very well see the number of so-called free Blacks rival to the same number of those that are incarcerated. The answer is simple: Unity.”
By Charlene Muhammad from Final Call
Liberians Stand Up to Be Counted
Liberia is conducting its first census since 1984, after years of civil war, and a public holiday has been declared.
Public adverts and pop songs have been reminding people to stay at home to be counted, while dispelling fears that the census would mean extra taxes.
Government officials hope the census will provide accurate statistics, vital for development planning.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came to power in 2006 after elections supposed to end the 14-year conflict.
Constitutionally a census should be held every 10 years. Last year, the UN estimated the population was about 3.8 million.
The count will last several days.
Pop song
The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in the capital, Monrovia, says years of civil war have led to a poverty-stricken and mostly illiterate population.
There has been a vigorous campaign to educate people on the purpose of the census.
To try and dispel any suspicions, the government commissioned one of the country's top pop stars, Juli Endee, to compose a song.
Our correspondent say it has been translated into Liberia's 16 languages and is playing daily on the radio, urging Liberians to "stand up and be counted".
"It is for development, not for taxes," the lyrics say.
A national housing authority official told the BBC that the census statistics were vital to help with planning.
Census workers have already discovered that numerous villages that existed on the 1984 map are now deserted because of the war, AP news agency reports.
Around 250,000 people were killed in Liberia's civil war and many thousands more fled the fighting.
The UN maintains some 15,000 peacekeepers in Liberia.
BBC.com
Public adverts and pop songs have been reminding people to stay at home to be counted, while dispelling fears that the census would mean extra taxes.
Government officials hope the census will provide accurate statistics, vital for development planning.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came to power in 2006 after elections supposed to end the 14-year conflict.
Constitutionally a census should be held every 10 years. Last year, the UN estimated the population was about 3.8 million.
The count will last several days.
Pop song
The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in the capital, Monrovia, says years of civil war have led to a poverty-stricken and mostly illiterate population.
There has been a vigorous campaign to educate people on the purpose of the census.
To try and dispel any suspicions, the government commissioned one of the country's top pop stars, Juli Endee, to compose a song.
Our correspondent say it has been translated into Liberia's 16 languages and is playing daily on the radio, urging Liberians to "stand up and be counted".
"It is for development, not for taxes," the lyrics say.
A national housing authority official told the BBC that the census statistics were vital to help with planning.
Census workers have already discovered that numerous villages that existed on the 1984 map are now deserted because of the war, AP news agency reports.
Around 250,000 people were killed in Liberia's civil war and many thousands more fled the fighting.
The UN maintains some 15,000 peacekeepers in Liberia.
BBC.com
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Supreme Court Finds Racial Bias in La. Murder Verdict
The Supreme Court yesterday reversed the murder conviction of a black Louisiana death-row inmate on the grounds that racial bias had infected the selection of his jury.
more stories like thisThe 7-2 decision is the court's latest effort to press trial judges to intervene when a prosecutor moves to exclude blacks from the trial of a black defendant.
In yesterday's opinion, the court said a trial judge in Jefferson Parish, La., "committed clear error" by sitting idly while prosecutor James A. Williams excluded all the blacks in the jury pool for the 1996 trial of Allen Snyder, an African-American accused of stabbing to death a man his estranged wife was dating and wounding her.
The same prosecutor also referred to the trial as "his O.J. Simpson case" because, he said, the facts were "very, very similar" to the famous murder case in Los Angeles.
The court has "resoundingly told judges and prosecutors throughout the country that the practice of striking people from jury service based on their race must end," said Atlanta civil rights lawyer Stephen Bright, who represented Snyder. "I hope that, as a result of this decision, juries will be more representative of their communities."
Though it is commonly said that Americans have a right to trial by a jury of their peers, the Constitution does not use those words. It says only that defendants have a right to a "public trial by an impartial jury."
Nearly a quarter of the population of Jefferson Parish is black, yet a study of death penalty cases tried there found that many were decided by all-white juries.
For its part, the Supreme Court has said that excluding jurors because of their race violates the Constitution's guarantee of the equal protection of laws. Enforcing that rule is not easy, however, because it is not entirely clear why a prosecutor may choose to remove a particular juror.
Both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer have considerable freedom to shape the jury. Both sides may remove potential jurors for cause - for example, jurors may be excused because they know or work with someone involved in the case.
In addition, both sides are free to exclude a certain number of jurors for any reason, including a hunch about their views. In Louisiana, each side can use up to 12 of these "peremptory challenges."
In Snyder's case, all five of the prospective black jurors were eliminated by the prosecutor.
Louisiana's highest court had upheld Snyder's conviction in a 4-3 decision.
In overturning the conviction, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. described the prosecutor's reasons for excluding the last black juror as suspicious and implausible. The contrast of that action with the decision to retain a white juror with a busy schedule was "particularly striking," he added.
When put together, the evidence strongly suggests the prosecutor was "motivated in substantial part by discriminatory intent" when he shaped the jury, Alito said. His opinion focused narrowly on the facts of this case, and did not lay out a new or clear principle of law.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented. Thomas faulted the majority for second-guessing the prosecutor's "race-neutral reasons" for excluding the black jurors, including the college senior.
The ruling overturns Snyder's conviction, but prosecutors can retry him on the murder charges.
By David G. Savage
Los Angeles Times
more stories like thisThe 7-2 decision is the court's latest effort to press trial judges to intervene when a prosecutor moves to exclude blacks from the trial of a black defendant.
In yesterday's opinion, the court said a trial judge in Jefferson Parish, La., "committed clear error" by sitting idly while prosecutor James A. Williams excluded all the blacks in the jury pool for the 1996 trial of Allen Snyder, an African-American accused of stabbing to death a man his estranged wife was dating and wounding her.
The same prosecutor also referred to the trial as "his O.J. Simpson case" because, he said, the facts were "very, very similar" to the famous murder case in Los Angeles.
The court has "resoundingly told judges and prosecutors throughout the country that the practice of striking people from jury service based on their race must end," said Atlanta civil rights lawyer Stephen Bright, who represented Snyder. "I hope that, as a result of this decision, juries will be more representative of their communities."
Though it is commonly said that Americans have a right to trial by a jury of their peers, the Constitution does not use those words. It says only that defendants have a right to a "public trial by an impartial jury."
Nearly a quarter of the population of Jefferson Parish is black, yet a study of death penalty cases tried there found that many were decided by all-white juries.
For its part, the Supreme Court has said that excluding jurors because of their race violates the Constitution's guarantee of the equal protection of laws. Enforcing that rule is not easy, however, because it is not entirely clear why a prosecutor may choose to remove a particular juror.
Both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer have considerable freedom to shape the jury. Both sides may remove potential jurors for cause - for example, jurors may be excused because they know or work with someone involved in the case.
In addition, both sides are free to exclude a certain number of jurors for any reason, including a hunch about their views. In Louisiana, each side can use up to 12 of these "peremptory challenges."
In Snyder's case, all five of the prospective black jurors were eliminated by the prosecutor.
Louisiana's highest court had upheld Snyder's conviction in a 4-3 decision.
In overturning the conviction, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. described the prosecutor's reasons for excluding the last black juror as suspicious and implausible. The contrast of that action with the decision to retain a white juror with a busy schedule was "particularly striking," he added.
When put together, the evidence strongly suggests the prosecutor was "motivated in substantial part by discriminatory intent" when he shaped the jury, Alito said. His opinion focused narrowly on the facts of this case, and did not lay out a new or clear principle of law.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented. Thomas faulted the majority for second-guessing the prosecutor's "race-neutral reasons" for excluding the black jurors, including the college senior.
The ruling overturns Snyder's conviction, but prosecutors can retry him on the murder charges.
By David G. Savage
Los Angeles Times
Russell Simmons Leads Pa. Voter Registration Drive
The co-founder of a legendary hip hop record label hopes to see Pennsylvania's voter rolls spin in record numbers before next month's presidential primary.
Russell Simmons has sold millions of records since Def Jam Records spawned the careers of Run-DMC, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys in the 1980s. Now, the producer-turned-activist is hoping to register thousands of voters for Pennsylvania's critical April 22 primary.
Simmons announced the "Hip-Hop Team Vote: Turn up the Vote" campaign at the University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday. The group plans to use public service announcements from Will Smith, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Wyclef Jean and others to help register 15,000 to 20,000 voters before Monday's deadline.
"We know that young people answer the call," Simmons said, adding that the turnout effort was geared toward people ages 18-35. "We know that at this critical time our country needs new leadership with new ideas."
In 2001, Simmons created the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network to engage young people in community development issues. He had to take a leave of absence as chairman before endorsing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton because it is a nonprofit.
Both Obama and Clinton have been campaigning heavily in Pennsylvania as they head toward the state's April 22 primary.
Simmons, 50, and other organizers said they plan to hold a hip-hop summit in Philadelphia on April 20, two days before the primary.
"It starts here in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia," said Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the Hip-Hop Research and Education Fund.
The group also hopes to target voters in Ohio, Missouri, Texas and Florida.
PATRICK WALTERS
The Associated Press
Russell Simmons has sold millions of records since Def Jam Records spawned the careers of Run-DMC, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys in the 1980s. Now, the producer-turned-activist is hoping to register thousands of voters for Pennsylvania's critical April 22 primary.
Simmons announced the "Hip-Hop Team Vote: Turn up the Vote" campaign at the University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday. The group plans to use public service announcements from Will Smith, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Wyclef Jean and others to help register 15,000 to 20,000 voters before Monday's deadline.
"We know that young people answer the call," Simmons said, adding that the turnout effort was geared toward people ages 18-35. "We know that at this critical time our country needs new leadership with new ideas."
In 2001, Simmons created the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network to engage young people in community development issues. He had to take a leave of absence as chairman before endorsing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton because it is a nonprofit.
Both Obama and Clinton have been campaigning heavily in Pennsylvania as they head toward the state's April 22 primary.
Simmons, 50, and other organizers said they plan to hold a hip-hop summit in Philadelphia on April 20, two days before the primary.
"It starts here in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia," said Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the Hip-Hop Research and Education Fund.
The group also hopes to target voters in Ohio, Missouri, Texas and Florida.
PATRICK WALTERS
The Associated Press
Rick Ross Scores a Second No. 1
'I knew I had to come back and sculpt me a masterpiece,' rapper says of sophomore effort.
Rick Ross didn't grind on the underground for more than 12 years just to solidify his spot in the rap game and then come up short. The man who calls himself the Boss (well, more like the Bawwwse!) is enjoying being two for two.
"That's two number-ones," Ross said Tuesday in a phone call from the road. Just like his 2006 debut, Port of Miami, his second LP, Trilla, has hit #1 on the Billboard albums chart in its first week of release. He bested other debuts by Snoop Dogg and his good friend Fat Joe.
"I told them we bossin' up," Ross said. "We grinding it out. Trilla! I'm just trying to get ahead and make bigger moves. It's that movement. The industry is still there. That's what that shows."
Last week, Ross, Snoop and Joe were all in New York partying and promoting their releases.
"I gotta be open for competition in this business," Ross said of coming out the same week as his more experienced peers. "I looked at it from the angle of 'I'm a n---a in the game with a hot first album and potential for greatness.' I looked at Snoop and Fat Joe as legends with careers. To say you had a career in this business is big. I knew I had to come back and sculpt me a masterpiece. I didn't grind 10 years to get here and lose. So I just wanted to step it up. I made the production more soulful. The record's a little more meaningful, and I stepped my flows up to challenge whoever at the top."
Ross laughed when asked what the follow-up to "Speedin' " and his current single, "The Boss" (featuring T-Pain), would be. He hasn't decided yet, but he feels his hand is loaded with possibilities.
"You know, we got multiple choices right here. Trilla! That's one thing the album is full of, next moves," he said. " 'Luxury Tax' could definitely be a next move. 'Maybach Music' could be a next move. 'Here I Am' could be a next move. 'All I Have in This World' with Mannie Fresh. I think it's a decision we're gonna make within the next week. I'm just in the clubs touching the people in the streets. These are the people I make the music for, and I'm just seeing what they are absorbing."
Even though Ross is known for party records and for detailing his exploits in the drug trade, he strikes a different tone on "I'm Only Human," his most personal and favorite song from Trilla.
"I talked about growing up and overlooking a lot of things," he said of the record. "I was reckless, like not having a relationship with my dad when he died of cancer. Now that I'm older, I look at the mistakes I made. Talking about our house being burnt down, having to live in motels. Not being able to bounce back. [I was] just absorbing that and channeling that and [began] dreaming big."
The Trilla tour is supposed to kick off sometime in mid-April or May. Flo Rida, he said, is being lined up, in addition to some other names. Ross also made guest appearances on current LPs by Webbie and Danity Kane, as well as Brass Knuckles, Nelly's upcoming project.
By Shaheem Reid from mtv.com
Rick Ross didn't grind on the underground for more than 12 years just to solidify his spot in the rap game and then come up short. The man who calls himself the Boss (well, more like the Bawwwse!) is enjoying being two for two.
"That's two number-ones," Ross said Tuesday in a phone call from the road. Just like his 2006 debut, Port of Miami, his second LP, Trilla, has hit #1 on the Billboard albums chart in its first week of release. He bested other debuts by Snoop Dogg and his good friend Fat Joe.
"I told them we bossin' up," Ross said. "We grinding it out. Trilla! I'm just trying to get ahead and make bigger moves. It's that movement. The industry is still there. That's what that shows."
Last week, Ross, Snoop and Joe were all in New York partying and promoting their releases.
"I gotta be open for competition in this business," Ross said of coming out the same week as his more experienced peers. "I looked at it from the angle of 'I'm a n---a in the game with a hot first album and potential for greatness.' I looked at Snoop and Fat Joe as legends with careers. To say you had a career in this business is big. I knew I had to come back and sculpt me a masterpiece. I didn't grind 10 years to get here and lose. So I just wanted to step it up. I made the production more soulful. The record's a little more meaningful, and I stepped my flows up to challenge whoever at the top."
Ross laughed when asked what the follow-up to "Speedin' " and his current single, "The Boss" (featuring T-Pain), would be. He hasn't decided yet, but he feels his hand is loaded with possibilities.
"You know, we got multiple choices right here. Trilla! That's one thing the album is full of, next moves," he said. " 'Luxury Tax' could definitely be a next move. 'Maybach Music' could be a next move. 'Here I Am' could be a next move. 'All I Have in This World' with Mannie Fresh. I think it's a decision we're gonna make within the next week. I'm just in the clubs touching the people in the streets. These are the people I make the music for, and I'm just seeing what they are absorbing."
Even though Ross is known for party records and for detailing his exploits in the drug trade, he strikes a different tone on "I'm Only Human," his most personal and favorite song from Trilla.
"I talked about growing up and overlooking a lot of things," he said of the record. "I was reckless, like not having a relationship with my dad when he died of cancer. Now that I'm older, I look at the mistakes I made. Talking about our house being burnt down, having to live in motels. Not being able to bounce back. [I was] just absorbing that and channeling that and [began] dreaming big."
The Trilla tour is supposed to kick off sometime in mid-April or May. Flo Rida, he said, is being lined up, in addition to some other names. Ross also made guest appearances on current LPs by Webbie and Danity Kane, as well as Brass Knuckles, Nelly's upcoming project.
By Shaheem Reid from mtv.com
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Dozens of Katrina Victims Sue FEMA Over Fumes in Trailers
A group of Gulf Coast hurricane victims sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday for sheltering them in trailers that allegedly exposed them to dangerous fumes.
The complaint filed in federal court adds FEMA as a defendant in a batch of consolidated cases against several manufacturers that provided the agency with tens of thousands of trailers and mobile homes after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
The cases against trailer makers were consolidated in November 2007 and transferred to U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt in New Orleans. However, FEMA couldn't be named as a defendant in the litigation until at least six months after a plaintiff had filed a claim against the agency.
Several plaintiffs from Louisiana have met that threshold, allowing FEMA to be named as a defendant in the consolidated litigation, according to one of the lead plaintiffs lawyer Gerald Meunier.
Meunier said FEMA already has been dismissed from similar federal lawsuits because that mandatory six-month waiting period hadn't expired yet. Including FEMA in the cases is an "essential step," he added.
"I don't think we can have any conversation ... about this controversy without the government's role in this being legally addressed," he said.
Many trailer occupants have blamed their illnesses on formaldehyde, a common preservative found in building materials. Formaldehyde can cause respiratory problems and has been classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The plaintiffs accuse trailer makers of using shoddy materials and construction methods in a rush to fill FEMA's unprecedented demand for emergency housing after Katrina laid waste to tens of Gulf Coast homes in August 2005.
Recent government tests on hundreds of FEMA trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times higher than what people are exposed to in most modern homes.
FEMA spokesman James McIntyre declined to comment on the suit's allegations, but he said the agency has been "fully transparent" in responding to the formaldehyde concerns.
"Formaldehyde is an industry issue. It is not a FEMA issue," McIntyre said.
Nearly 100 residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama are named as plaintiffs in the cases against more than 60 trailer manufacturers. Their lawyers want Engelhardt to certify the cases as a class action.
Meunier said hundreds if not thousands of trailer occupants have filed claims against FEMA over the formaldehyde concerns, but he doesn't know how many of those claims have exceeded the six-month waiting period.
"We don't know the count. FEMA won't tell us," he said.
Justice Department lawyers have been involved in the litigation even though FEMA wasn't a party in the litigation before Tuesday. Lawyers for the Justice Department and the trailer makers didn't immediately respond to calls for comment.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Writer
The complaint filed in federal court adds FEMA as a defendant in a batch of consolidated cases against several manufacturers that provided the agency with tens of thousands of trailers and mobile homes after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
The cases against trailer makers were consolidated in November 2007 and transferred to U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt in New Orleans. However, FEMA couldn't be named as a defendant in the litigation until at least six months after a plaintiff had filed a claim against the agency.
Several plaintiffs from Louisiana have met that threshold, allowing FEMA to be named as a defendant in the consolidated litigation, according to one of the lead plaintiffs lawyer Gerald Meunier.
Meunier said FEMA already has been dismissed from similar federal lawsuits because that mandatory six-month waiting period hadn't expired yet. Including FEMA in the cases is an "essential step," he added.
"I don't think we can have any conversation ... about this controversy without the government's role in this being legally addressed," he said.
Many trailer occupants have blamed their illnesses on formaldehyde, a common preservative found in building materials. Formaldehyde can cause respiratory problems and has been classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The plaintiffs accuse trailer makers of using shoddy materials and construction methods in a rush to fill FEMA's unprecedented demand for emergency housing after Katrina laid waste to tens of Gulf Coast homes in August 2005.
Recent government tests on hundreds of FEMA trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times higher than what people are exposed to in most modern homes.
FEMA spokesman James McIntyre declined to comment on the suit's allegations, but he said the agency has been "fully transparent" in responding to the formaldehyde concerns.
"Formaldehyde is an industry issue. It is not a FEMA issue," McIntyre said.
Nearly 100 residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama are named as plaintiffs in the cases against more than 60 trailer manufacturers. Their lawyers want Engelhardt to certify the cases as a class action.
Meunier said hundreds if not thousands of trailer occupants have filed claims against FEMA over the formaldehyde concerns, but he doesn't know how many of those claims have exceeded the six-month waiting period.
"We don't know the count. FEMA won't tell us," he said.
Justice Department lawyers have been involved in the litigation even though FEMA wasn't a party in the litigation before Tuesday. Lawyers for the Justice Department and the trailer makers didn't immediately respond to calls for comment.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Writer
Mich. Affirmative Action Lawsuit Tossed
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday that challenged a Michigan law banning racial and gender preferences in government hiring and public university admissions.
The ruling upholds the constitutionality of a measure approved by Michigan voters in 2006. It had been challenged by several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Supporters of what was known as Proposal 2 said U.S. District Judge David Lawson's ruling should finally put to rest the debate over its legality.
"It's about time the people of Michigan's voices were heard," said Jennifer Gratz, who led the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and is now leading similar campaigns in other states. "Every time we have a fair hearing, we are upheld."
Shanta Driver, an attorney for By Any Means Necessary, which supports affirmative action, said the group will appeal Lawson's decision. Driver said the judge ruled without having a full trial.
"It's really ridiculous," Driver said. "We will appeal immediately."
The proposal passed with 58 percent of the vote and took effect in December 2006.
The law may have had the most effect on the admissions policies of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The university previously had considered race as a factor in admission, a policy that was challenged in court in the 1990s.
Lawson wrote that "it is difficult to see how Proposal 2 could not have a disparate impact on minorities." But he added: "Based on the evidence presented, the Court cannot say that the only purpose of Proposal 2 is to discriminate against minorities."
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was formed after the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2003 upheld a general affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan Law School. The high court also struck down the university's undergraduate formula as too rigid because it awarded admission points based on race.
MCRI submitted more than 500,000 voter signatures in support of putting its proposal on the ballot. Opponents charged that some of them were collected by fraud or misrepresenting the issue. But after several court challenges, the proposal was allowed to go on the ballot.
After the election, the proposal faced renewed challenges. Critics argued Proposal 2 burdens the ability of minority groups and women to initiate policy changes at universities. Allowing race to be a factor in admissions, for example, now would take a statewide voter initiative to change the state constitution rather than a vote of the university's governing board.
Others seeking admissions policy changes, such as those from a particular geographic location or legacy groups, could continue to ask for changes solely through the governing board or university officials.
Attorney General Mike Cox said in a statement Tuesday that the ruling has "upheld the will of the people."
By TIM MARTIN from AP
The ruling upholds the constitutionality of a measure approved by Michigan voters in 2006. It had been challenged by several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Supporters of what was known as Proposal 2 said U.S. District Judge David Lawson's ruling should finally put to rest the debate over its legality.
"It's about time the people of Michigan's voices were heard," said Jennifer Gratz, who led the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and is now leading similar campaigns in other states. "Every time we have a fair hearing, we are upheld."
Shanta Driver, an attorney for By Any Means Necessary, which supports affirmative action, said the group will appeal Lawson's decision. Driver said the judge ruled without having a full trial.
"It's really ridiculous," Driver said. "We will appeal immediately."
The proposal passed with 58 percent of the vote and took effect in December 2006.
The law may have had the most effect on the admissions policies of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The university previously had considered race as a factor in admission, a policy that was challenged in court in the 1990s.
Lawson wrote that "it is difficult to see how Proposal 2 could not have a disparate impact on minorities." But he added: "Based on the evidence presented, the Court cannot say that the only purpose of Proposal 2 is to discriminate against minorities."
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was formed after the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2003 upheld a general affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan Law School. The high court also struck down the university's undergraduate formula as too rigid because it awarded admission points based on race.
MCRI submitted more than 500,000 voter signatures in support of putting its proposal on the ballot. Opponents charged that some of them were collected by fraud or misrepresenting the issue. But after several court challenges, the proposal was allowed to go on the ballot.
After the election, the proposal faced renewed challenges. Critics argued Proposal 2 burdens the ability of minority groups and women to initiate policy changes at universities. Allowing race to be a factor in admissions, for example, now would take a statewide voter initiative to change the state constitution rather than a vote of the university's governing board.
Others seeking admissions policy changes, such as those from a particular geographic location or legacy groups, could continue to ask for changes solely through the governing board or university officials.
Attorney General Mike Cox said in a statement Tuesday that the ruling has "upheld the will of the people."
By TIM MARTIN from AP
Obama Confronts Racial Division
Barack Obama confronted the nation's racial divide head-on, tackling both black grievance and white resentment in a bold effort to quiet a campaign uproar over race and his former pastor's incendiary statements.
Standing before a row of eight American flags near the building where the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Obama on Tuesday urged the nation to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years.'"
"The anger is real," he said. "It is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."
The speech, at the National Constitution Center, was by far the most prominent airing of racial issues in Obama's 13-month campaign to become the first black president. It was prompted by the wider notice his former pastor's racial statements have been receiving in the past week or so.
He said he recognized his race has been a major issue in a campaign that has taken a "particularly divisive turn." Many people have been turning to the Internet to view statements by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who suggested in one sermon that the United States brought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on itself and in another said blacks should damn America for continuing to mistreat them.
Obama rejected Wright's divisive statements but still embraced the man who brought him to Christianity, officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and inspired the title of his book "The Audacity of Hope."
"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."
Obama's father is a black Kenyan who left the family when he was 2. He was raised by his white mother and her parents in Hawaii.
Wright's controversial statements have gotten new life as his church's most prominent member became the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. A CBS News poll taken Sunday and Monday indicated most voters had heard at least something about Wright's comments, and about a third said they made them feel more negative.
Obama at first tried to avoid the controversy. Then he responded Friday in a blog entry on the Huffington Post in which he said he was not in church to hear those comments and condemned them. That only increased news coverage, and Obama's advisers said he came to them Saturday saying he wanted to deliver a major speech to address the controversy and broader problems of race in the country.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's chief Democratic rival, said she was glad Obama had given the speech.
"Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they are complicated in this primary campaign," said Clinton, also campaigning in Philadelphia. "There have been detours and pitfalls along the way, but we should remember that this is a historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate."
Obama's speech also drew praise from one of his former Democratic presidential rivals who has not endorsed him or Clinton. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden called it powerful, truthful and "one of most important speeches we've heard in a long time"
"He told the story of America — both the good and the bad — and I believe his speech will come to represent an important step forward in race relations in our country," Biden said.
Obama advisers said he wrote the deeply personal speech himself. They said it was delivered in Philadelphia because of the city's historical significance, not because it is the most populous black city in Pennsylvania, site of the next primary vote on April 22.
Obama said he came to Wright's church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, nearly 20 years ago because he was inspired by the pastor's message of hope and his inspiration to rebuild the black community. He also said black anger persists over injustice in America, and whites shouldn't be surprised that it bursts out in sermons.
"The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning," he said.
"In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed," Obama said.
Obama said it's not just blacks who are angry — some whites are, too, because they feel blacks are often given an unfair advantage through affirmative action.
"When they are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear that an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time," he said.
"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American," Obama said, drawing a rare burst of applause in a somber address.
During an interview with ABC's "Nightline" for broadcast Tuesday night, Obama said he always expected he'd have to give the race speech, but that he didn't anticipate the subject would come up in the way that it did.
"This is a big leap for the country," he said. "Even me being the nominee is a big leap and then, obviously, actually being the president is a big leap. ... What I want to do is to make sure that we understand that my campaign is not premised on that, it's not premised on making history, but that, whoever is president, this is always going to be an ongoing issue that we have to struggle with and that, perhaps, I can lend some special insight into."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who until Obama had been the black candidate closest to winning a major party's presidential nomination, said video of Wright's sermons had threatened to derail the campaign with racial fear — along with comments by Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro that Obama wouldn't have gotten so far in the campaign if he were white.
"He made the case we've been here before, but not this time will we linger. This time we're going to higher ground," Jackson said.
By NEDRA PICKLER and MATT APUZZO from AP
Standing before a row of eight American flags near the building where the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Obama on Tuesday urged the nation to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years.'"
"The anger is real," he said. "It is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."
The speech, at the National Constitution Center, was by far the most prominent airing of racial issues in Obama's 13-month campaign to become the first black president. It was prompted by the wider notice his former pastor's racial statements have been receiving in the past week or so.
He said he recognized his race has been a major issue in a campaign that has taken a "particularly divisive turn." Many people have been turning to the Internet to view statements by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who suggested in one sermon that the United States brought the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on itself and in another said blacks should damn America for continuing to mistreat them.
Obama rejected Wright's divisive statements but still embraced the man who brought him to Christianity, officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and inspired the title of his book "The Audacity of Hope."
"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."
Obama's father is a black Kenyan who left the family when he was 2. He was raised by his white mother and her parents in Hawaii.
Wright's controversial statements have gotten new life as his church's most prominent member became the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. A CBS News poll taken Sunday and Monday indicated most voters had heard at least something about Wright's comments, and about a third said they made them feel more negative.
Obama at first tried to avoid the controversy. Then he responded Friday in a blog entry on the Huffington Post in which he said he was not in church to hear those comments and condemned them. That only increased news coverage, and Obama's advisers said he came to them Saturday saying he wanted to deliver a major speech to address the controversy and broader problems of race in the country.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's chief Democratic rival, said she was glad Obama had given the speech.
"Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they are complicated in this primary campaign," said Clinton, also campaigning in Philadelphia. "There have been detours and pitfalls along the way, but we should remember that this is a historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate."
Obama's speech also drew praise from one of his former Democratic presidential rivals who has not endorsed him or Clinton. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden called it powerful, truthful and "one of most important speeches we've heard in a long time"
"He told the story of America — both the good and the bad — and I believe his speech will come to represent an important step forward in race relations in our country," Biden said.
Obama advisers said he wrote the deeply personal speech himself. They said it was delivered in Philadelphia because of the city's historical significance, not because it is the most populous black city in Pennsylvania, site of the next primary vote on April 22.
Obama said he came to Wright's church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, nearly 20 years ago because he was inspired by the pastor's message of hope and his inspiration to rebuild the black community. He also said black anger persists over injustice in America, and whites shouldn't be surprised that it bursts out in sermons.
"The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning," he said.
"In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed," Obama said.
Obama said it's not just blacks who are angry — some whites are, too, because they feel blacks are often given an unfair advantage through affirmative action.
"When they are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear that an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time," he said.
"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American," Obama said, drawing a rare burst of applause in a somber address.
During an interview with ABC's "Nightline" for broadcast Tuesday night, Obama said he always expected he'd have to give the race speech, but that he didn't anticipate the subject would come up in the way that it did.
"This is a big leap for the country," he said. "Even me being the nominee is a big leap and then, obviously, actually being the president is a big leap. ... What I want to do is to make sure that we understand that my campaign is not premised on that, it's not premised on making history, but that, whoever is president, this is always going to be an ongoing issue that we have to struggle with and that, perhaps, I can lend some special insight into."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who until Obama had been the black candidate closest to winning a major party's presidential nomination, said video of Wright's sermons had threatened to derail the campaign with racial fear — along with comments by Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro that Obama wouldn't have gotten so far in the campaign if he were white.
"He made the case we've been here before, but not this time will we linger. This time we're going to higher ground," Jackson said.
By NEDRA PICKLER and MATT APUZZO from AP
Sunday, March 16, 2008
US Lawmaker Wants US Citizenship for All Liberians
Representative Benjamin Swan from Springfield, Massachusetts, a Democrat has called for the granting of citizenship to all Liberians as reciprocity for automatic citizenship granted African Americans by the Republic of Liberia for over a hundred years.
He recalled that 10 Liberian Presidents were African-Americans and educated in the United States.
A statement issued on March 12, 2008 by Universal Human Rights International (UHRI) said Rep. Swan was speaking on a live radio broadcast commemorating the 199th birth anniversary of the 1st African American President of an independent Country, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a native of Norfolk. Virginia.
The transatlantic broadcast is part of UHRI's year-long activities of cultural and educational exchange to commemorate the 199th through the 200th anniversary of President Roberts.
Citing human rights and the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution, Rep. Swan also called for the immediate granting of equal protection to all Liberian mothers of American citizen children in the United States through an addendum to President Bush's Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) that affords many Liberians the opportunity of working legally in the United States for 18 months.
DED excludes many Liberian mothers evacuated to safety in the United States in 2003, thus putting this vulnerable population and young American citizens at serious risk for nearly five years.
He praised Torli Krua of Universal Human Rights International (UHRI) as being the only one he knows, who has single-handedly contributed more to further the cause of African refugees in general and Liberian refugees in particular in the United States.
He called on all Africans and Liberians to move beyond complacency and become proactive, 'asking not what the government doing but asking how they can get involved and make their own contributions by writing letters and visiting elected officials to make them aware of the plight.'
He promised to visit Liberia after the general elections to assess conditions in Liberia as the first step in promoting sustainable development in Liberia and promoting educational and cultural exchanges between ordinary Liberians and American citizens.
Rep. Swan has promised to promote relationships between places of worship, schools, universities and colleges as a way of cementing the relationship between Liberia and the United States.
UHRI has launched a year long celebration of the life of President J. J. Roberts to create awareness of his contribution to democracy, the rule of law, human rights and education and forge closer ties between ordinary Liberians and American citizens.
UHRI setup a hotline for Liberians and Americans to call in and make one minute comments about their take on Liberian-American relationships past and present. The comments will be posted online and selected comments will be aired on a weekly radio show in Liberia.
Hotline: 617-933-9391
His call is also in support of several calls by Liberians to the United States to grant US citizenship. Former Chief of Mission at the Liberian fmbassy in Washington, D.C, Abdullah Dunbar has been vocal on the issue and on several occasions wrote US President Bush to use his good office in giving Liberians citizen status.
from allafrica.com
He recalled that 10 Liberian Presidents were African-Americans and educated in the United States.
A statement issued on March 12, 2008 by Universal Human Rights International (UHRI) said Rep. Swan was speaking on a live radio broadcast commemorating the 199th birth anniversary of the 1st African American President of an independent Country, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a native of Norfolk. Virginia.
The transatlantic broadcast is part of UHRI's year-long activities of cultural and educational exchange to commemorate the 199th through the 200th anniversary of President Roberts.
Citing human rights and the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution, Rep. Swan also called for the immediate granting of equal protection to all Liberian mothers of American citizen children in the United States through an addendum to President Bush's Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) that affords many Liberians the opportunity of working legally in the United States for 18 months.
DED excludes many Liberian mothers evacuated to safety in the United States in 2003, thus putting this vulnerable population and young American citizens at serious risk for nearly five years.
He praised Torli Krua of Universal Human Rights International (UHRI) as being the only one he knows, who has single-handedly contributed more to further the cause of African refugees in general and Liberian refugees in particular in the United States.
He called on all Africans and Liberians to move beyond complacency and become proactive, 'asking not what the government doing but asking how they can get involved and make their own contributions by writing letters and visiting elected officials to make them aware of the plight.'
He promised to visit Liberia after the general elections to assess conditions in Liberia as the first step in promoting sustainable development in Liberia and promoting educational and cultural exchanges between ordinary Liberians and American citizens.
Rep. Swan has promised to promote relationships between places of worship, schools, universities and colleges as a way of cementing the relationship between Liberia and the United States.
UHRI has launched a year long celebration of the life of President J. J. Roberts to create awareness of his contribution to democracy, the rule of law, human rights and education and forge closer ties between ordinary Liberians and American citizens.
UHRI setup a hotline for Liberians and Americans to call in and make one minute comments about their take on Liberian-American relationships past and present. The comments will be posted online and selected comments will be aired on a weekly radio show in Liberia.
Hotline: 617-933-9391
His call is also in support of several calls by Liberians to the United States to grant US citizenship. Former Chief of Mission at the Liberian fmbassy in Washington, D.C, Abdullah Dunbar has been vocal on the issue and on several occasions wrote US President Bush to use his good office in giving Liberians citizen status.
from allafrica.com
Food Aid 'Hard to Get to Darfur'
It has become increasingly difficult to supply food aid to Darfur because of the worsening security situation, according to the World Food Programme.
A senior WFP official told the BBC that more than 50 supply trucks have been hijacked there in the last year alone.
As many as 13 drivers are still missing, he said.
Fighting in the war-torn Sudanese region has increased recently, and some two million people there rely on the UN agency for their food supplies.
'Worse to come'
Speaking to BBC News, senior WFP official Paulo Mattei gave details of the losses his organisation had suffered in the last 12 months.
"That makes the delivery of food to this remote part of Sudan very difficult," he said.
And he warned that the situation will only worsen once the rainy season begins.
The WFP has not said who is behind the attacks on its convoys - there are numerous rebel groups and pro-government militia in the region.
Last Monday, the WFP warned that it may also be forced to halt its Humanitarian Air Service at the end of this month because of a lack of funding.
Progress on ending the violence in Darfur has been slow.
A joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force still has only 9,000 troops in the region out of a planned 26,000.
from bbc.com
A senior WFP official told the BBC that more than 50 supply trucks have been hijacked there in the last year alone.
As many as 13 drivers are still missing, he said.
Fighting in the war-torn Sudanese region has increased recently, and some two million people there rely on the UN agency for their food supplies.
'Worse to come'
Speaking to BBC News, senior WFP official Paulo Mattei gave details of the losses his organisation had suffered in the last 12 months.
"That makes the delivery of food to this remote part of Sudan very difficult," he said.
And he warned that the situation will only worsen once the rainy season begins.
The WFP has not said who is behind the attacks on its convoys - there are numerous rebel groups and pro-government militia in the region.
Last Monday, the WFP warned that it may also be forced to halt its Humanitarian Air Service at the end of this month because of a lack of funding.
Progress on ending the violence in Darfur has been slow.
A joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force still has only 9,000 troops in the region out of a planned 26,000.
from bbc.com
New Details Uncovered In 1994 Tupac Shooting In New York
It's been nearly 15 years since Tupac Shakur was shot for the first time in what appeared to be robbery attempt inside the lobby of New York's Quad Recording Studios in 1994. Although the shooting has remained unsolved, much like his murder in Las Vegas in 1996, new evidence has surfaced that links Diddy to the shooters.
Via a web-only presentation that will appear on LATimes.com on Monday (March 17), staff writer Chuck Philips -- who has been covering the murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. for the paper for years -- deconstructs the 1994 ambush of the superstar rapper, which he calls the first shot of a lethal, bi-coastal feud that culminated in the killings of both rappers.
In the article Philips will uncover FBI records and interviews with individuals present at the studio during the night in question, which will support Shakur's long-winded theory that Diddy knew of the orchestrated hit before it took place.
Philips confirms, writing in the upcoming article that Diddy (real name: Sean Combs) knew, in advance, that Shakur was walking into a trap, citing sources familiar with the incident.
The story will also name two individuals as being the main players behind the ambush -- Jimmy "Henchmen" Rosemond, who now runs the successful management company Czar Entertainment, and James "Jimmy" Sabatino.
Sabatino is the alleged individual who is said to have personally told Diddy that Tupac was going to be attacked, sources say in the article.
Both men are said to have grown close with Diddy after the attack.
After the '94 shooting, Sabatino allegedly introduced Diddy to mobsters and escorted the label mogul into mafia frequented nightclubs throughout New York and Miami after he was welcomed into Diddy's inner circle.
They became chummy. So much so that Diddy brought Sabatino on the road for his 1997 No Way Out tour, where he allegedly used credit cards to charge up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills for posh hotel suites, limousines and parties on behalf of the Bad Boy entourage.
Their relationship remained strong and Sabatino allegedly worked for Diddy's Bad Boy Records up until 1998, when he was arrested in London and later extradited to the U.S. where he was convicted and jailed.
Phillips reportedly uncovered the new details while investigating the still-unsolved murder of B.I.G. in New York. While following up on leads, he discovered FBI records and interviewed key people related to the incident to support his claims.
Monday's story will be accompanied by photos of the cast of characters, copies of confidential documents, an interactive timeline and audio of lyrics from Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., which Philips used to piece together the unsolved case that has left the music world as well as law enforcement baffled for years.
The story will go live first thing Monday (March 17) at LATimes.com/Tupac.
Words by Allen Starbury of Ballerstatus.com
Via a web-only presentation that will appear on LATimes.com on Monday (March 17), staff writer Chuck Philips -- who has been covering the murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. for the paper for years -- deconstructs the 1994 ambush of the superstar rapper, which he calls the first shot of a lethal, bi-coastal feud that culminated in the killings of both rappers.
In the article Philips will uncover FBI records and interviews with individuals present at the studio during the night in question, which will support Shakur's long-winded theory that Diddy knew of the orchestrated hit before it took place.
Philips confirms, writing in the upcoming article that Diddy (real name: Sean Combs) knew, in advance, that Shakur was walking into a trap, citing sources familiar with the incident.
The story will also name two individuals as being the main players behind the ambush -- Jimmy "Henchmen" Rosemond, who now runs the successful management company Czar Entertainment, and James "Jimmy" Sabatino.
Sabatino is the alleged individual who is said to have personally told Diddy that Tupac was going to be attacked, sources say in the article.
Both men are said to have grown close with Diddy after the attack.
After the '94 shooting, Sabatino allegedly introduced Diddy to mobsters and escorted the label mogul into mafia frequented nightclubs throughout New York and Miami after he was welcomed into Diddy's inner circle.
They became chummy. So much so that Diddy brought Sabatino on the road for his 1997 No Way Out tour, where he allegedly used credit cards to charge up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills for posh hotel suites, limousines and parties on behalf of the Bad Boy entourage.
Their relationship remained strong and Sabatino allegedly worked for Diddy's Bad Boy Records up until 1998, when he was arrested in London and later extradited to the U.S. where he was convicted and jailed.
Phillips reportedly uncovered the new details while investigating the still-unsolved murder of B.I.G. in New York. While following up on leads, he discovered FBI records and interviewed key people related to the incident to support his claims.
Monday's story will be accompanied by photos of the cast of characters, copies of confidential documents, an interactive timeline and audio of lyrics from Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., which Philips used to piece together the unsolved case that has left the music world as well as law enforcement baffled for years.
The story will go live first thing Monday (March 17) at LATimes.com/Tupac.
Words by Allen Starbury of Ballerstatus.com
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Civil Rights Exhibit Honors 20 Women
A veteran civil rights leader says the Democratic presidential field this year represents what she and others who have worked for equal rights have long anticipated.
Myrlie Evers-Williams was in Cincinnati on Friday to preview a new Smithsonian traveling exhibit called "Freedom's Sisters" that showcases the pivotal roles she and 19 other black women played in the struggle for civil rights.
Referring to the strong candidacies of a woman and a black man, Evers-Williams said, "I knew this day would come; it was a matter of when."
She urged people to look at the campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton as the result of years of work by many people — including those represented in the exhibit — who have struggled for equal rights, regardless of race or gender.
"It's more than time for this to happen," Evers-Williams said.
Fellow civil rights activists and honorees Dorothy Height, Sonia Sanchez and Charlayne Hunter-Gault also attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Cincinnati Museum Center, where the exhibit opens to the public Saturday. The four, along with activist and professor Kathleen Cleaver, are the only living women among the 20 whose lives are chronicled in the exhibit.
Evers-Williams' husband, NAACP leader Medgar Evers, was assassinated in their driveway in Mississippi in 1963, and she continued her activism after his death. She served as chairwoman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and became the first black female commissioner of public works in Los Angeles.
Height, who was elected president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1957, was often the only woman in attendance at top civil rights meetings in the 1950s and 1960s. Poet and playwright Sanchez was a leading voice in the Black Power movement of the 1960s, while journalist Hunter-Gault and another student won a court case enabling them in 1961 to become the first black students at the University of Georgia.
Height, 95, said she also was thrilled to live to see the strong candidacies of a black man and a woman, as well as an exhibit honoring some of the many black women who contributed to the growth of civil rights — women she said have not always received enough recognition for their efforts.
"When I look back and see all these women who always had a positive outlook and knew what could happen, it makes me so grateful to be part of this," Height said. "I hope the young people seeing these stories will realize that we have come a long way, but we also have a long way to go."
The exhibit was created by the Cincinnati Museum Center in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and funded by a grant from Ford Motor Co. It includes large-scale photos of the women, accompanied by information about their contributions and several interactive displays.
Among the honorees is Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 led to the end of segregation in public transportation and helped spark the civil rights movement. But also honored are lesser-known women such as Septima Poinsette Clark.
Clark, fired in 1956 after 40 years as a South Carolina teacher because of her NAACP membership, later started the Citizenship Schools that taught adults reading and writing skills required to pass voter literacy tests.
Clark's granddaughter traveled from her home in Atlanta to see the exhibit. She said it would have made her grandmother proud, but humble.
"She didn't think anyone should think big things of her," said Yvonne Clark, who cried when she saw the exhibit. "She just did what she felt was the right thing to do."
By LISA CORNWELL from AP
Myrlie Evers-Williams was in Cincinnati on Friday to preview a new Smithsonian traveling exhibit called "Freedom's Sisters" that showcases the pivotal roles she and 19 other black women played in the struggle for civil rights.
Referring to the strong candidacies of a woman and a black man, Evers-Williams said, "I knew this day would come; it was a matter of when."
She urged people to look at the campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton as the result of years of work by many people — including those represented in the exhibit — who have struggled for equal rights, regardless of race or gender.
"It's more than time for this to happen," Evers-Williams said.
Fellow civil rights activists and honorees Dorothy Height, Sonia Sanchez and Charlayne Hunter-Gault also attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Cincinnati Museum Center, where the exhibit opens to the public Saturday. The four, along with activist and professor Kathleen Cleaver, are the only living women among the 20 whose lives are chronicled in the exhibit.
Evers-Williams' husband, NAACP leader Medgar Evers, was assassinated in their driveway in Mississippi in 1963, and she continued her activism after his death. She served as chairwoman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and became the first black female commissioner of public works in Los Angeles.
Height, who was elected president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1957, was often the only woman in attendance at top civil rights meetings in the 1950s and 1960s. Poet and playwright Sanchez was a leading voice in the Black Power movement of the 1960s, while journalist Hunter-Gault and another student won a court case enabling them in 1961 to become the first black students at the University of Georgia.
Height, 95, said she also was thrilled to live to see the strong candidacies of a black man and a woman, as well as an exhibit honoring some of the many black women who contributed to the growth of civil rights — women she said have not always received enough recognition for their efforts.
"When I look back and see all these women who always had a positive outlook and knew what could happen, it makes me so grateful to be part of this," Height said. "I hope the young people seeing these stories will realize that we have come a long way, but we also have a long way to go."
The exhibit was created by the Cincinnati Museum Center in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and funded by a grant from Ford Motor Co. It includes large-scale photos of the women, accompanied by information about their contributions and several interactive displays.
Among the honorees is Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 led to the end of segregation in public transportation and helped spark the civil rights movement. But also honored are lesser-known women such as Septima Poinsette Clark.
Clark, fired in 1956 after 40 years as a South Carolina teacher because of her NAACP membership, later started the Citizenship Schools that taught adults reading and writing skills required to pass voter literacy tests.
Clark's granddaughter traveled from her home in Atlanta to see the exhibit. She said it would have made her grandmother proud, but humble.
"She didn't think anyone should think big things of her," said Yvonne Clark, who cried when she saw the exhibit. "She just did what she felt was the right thing to do."
By LISA CORNWELL from AP
China Denies Gun Sales to Sudan Grew
A U.S.-based human rights group said China dramatically boosted small-arms sales to Sudan as violence escalated in Darfur. Beijing denied the group's report on Friday.
The report released Thursday by Human Rights First said China is the biggest supplier of small arms to Sudan. It provided 90 percent of all the African nation's small arms acquisitions between 2004 and 2006, totaling more than $50 million.
China ramped up its small-arms supply to Sudan almost fivefold in 2004 as others cut back to comply with a U.N. arms embargo, according to data Sudan provided to the United Nations.
Small arms such as assault rifles are the most common weapon used in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million people displaced in five years of fighting between African rebels and government troops allied with Arab militia known as janjaweed.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement the report was "groundless" and "with ulterior motives."
He also denied that China had broken the U.N. arms embargo and said it never exported arms to a country or region under embargo. The arms sold to Sudan were limited in number and accounted for a small proportion of the country's arms imports, Qin said.
Sudanese government officials could not be reached for comment.
Human Rights First based its report on data from the U.N. Commodity Trade Statistics Database Web site, where Sudan reported its small-arms imports to the United Nations from 2002-2006.
Betsy Apple, director of the rights organization's Crimes Against Humanity program, said the report was based on Sudan's reporting because China does not disclose all its arms sales.
She said Sudan was unlikely to overestimate its imports from China and it is possible the figures reported were low-balled because it was reporting to the U.N.
"For China to say these allegations are baseless is China essentially saying that Sudan is lying to the U.N.," Apple said.
There is no specific information on the number of weapons sold because both the Sudanese and Chinese governments are not required to report those figures, she said.
The report also says that, as the arms supply increased, so did Sudan's sales of oil vital to China's economy — a commodity the report says explains China's interest in supporting the Sudanese government and President Omar al-Bashir.
Apple described a "lethal cycle" where Sudan sells China oil and uses that income to purchase China's weapons.
"The people of Darfur suffer the consequences as the arms are turned against them, resulting in more death, displacement and destruction," she said.
Beijing is the biggest investor in Sudan's oil fields, buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports, invests in its economy and protects Sudan at the U.N. Security Council. In the last decade, China has given Sudan more than $1 billion in low- or no-interest loans, the rights report says.
China also supplies bomber jets to Sudan.
"People who say Chinese weapons are fueling genocide in Darfur, and that Chinese should be held responsible, and even linking the issue to the Olympics, are just not supported by the facts," Liu Guijin, China's special envoy to Sudan's war-torn western region, said last week on his return from Sudan.
China says it is one of seven countries supplying weapons to Sudan.
As international pressure mounted last year, China took credit for persuading al-Bashir to agree to a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur. China also announced it would send an additional $10 million in humanitarian aid to Darfur, and 275 military engineers who have been digging wells and making other preparations for the hybrid force.
"China has launched a PR campaign — a charm offensive — to convince the world it's doing everything possible to stop the violence in Darfur, but the rhetoric simply doesn't match the reality," said Apple.
Human Rights First, a civil rights advocacy group based in New York City and Washington, works on cases involving refugees, civil rights post-Sept. 11 and detainee abuse.
By MICHELLE FAUL from AP
The report released Thursday by Human Rights First said China is the biggest supplier of small arms to Sudan. It provided 90 percent of all the African nation's small arms acquisitions between 2004 and 2006, totaling more than $50 million.
China ramped up its small-arms supply to Sudan almost fivefold in 2004 as others cut back to comply with a U.N. arms embargo, according to data Sudan provided to the United Nations.
Small arms such as assault rifles are the most common weapon used in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million people displaced in five years of fighting between African rebels and government troops allied with Arab militia known as janjaweed.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement the report was "groundless" and "with ulterior motives."
He also denied that China had broken the U.N. arms embargo and said it never exported arms to a country or region under embargo. The arms sold to Sudan were limited in number and accounted for a small proportion of the country's arms imports, Qin said.
Sudanese government officials could not be reached for comment.
Human Rights First based its report on data from the U.N. Commodity Trade Statistics Database Web site, where Sudan reported its small-arms imports to the United Nations from 2002-2006.
Betsy Apple, director of the rights organization's Crimes Against Humanity program, said the report was based on Sudan's reporting because China does not disclose all its arms sales.
She said Sudan was unlikely to overestimate its imports from China and it is possible the figures reported were low-balled because it was reporting to the U.N.
"For China to say these allegations are baseless is China essentially saying that Sudan is lying to the U.N.," Apple said.
There is no specific information on the number of weapons sold because both the Sudanese and Chinese governments are not required to report those figures, she said.
The report also says that, as the arms supply increased, so did Sudan's sales of oil vital to China's economy — a commodity the report says explains China's interest in supporting the Sudanese government and President Omar al-Bashir.
Apple described a "lethal cycle" where Sudan sells China oil and uses that income to purchase China's weapons.
"The people of Darfur suffer the consequences as the arms are turned against them, resulting in more death, displacement and destruction," she said.
Beijing is the biggest investor in Sudan's oil fields, buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports, invests in its economy and protects Sudan at the U.N. Security Council. In the last decade, China has given Sudan more than $1 billion in low- or no-interest loans, the rights report says.
China also supplies bomber jets to Sudan.
"People who say Chinese weapons are fueling genocide in Darfur, and that Chinese should be held responsible, and even linking the issue to the Olympics, are just not supported by the facts," Liu Guijin, China's special envoy to Sudan's war-torn western region, said last week on his return from Sudan.
China says it is one of seven countries supplying weapons to Sudan.
As international pressure mounted last year, China took credit for persuading al-Bashir to agree to a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur. China also announced it would send an additional $10 million in humanitarian aid to Darfur, and 275 military engineers who have been digging wells and making other preparations for the hybrid force.
"China has launched a PR campaign — a charm offensive — to convince the world it's doing everything possible to stop the violence in Darfur, but the rhetoric simply doesn't match the reality," said Apple.
Human Rights First, a civil rights advocacy group based in New York City and Washington, works on cases involving refugees, civil rights post-Sept. 11 and detainee abuse.
By MICHELLE FAUL from AP
Former Vibe Editor Tapped to Helm Radio One Magazine
Giant Magazine, Radio One's lifestyle magazine for urban readers, has hired Vibe's former editor-in-chief, Emil Wilbekin, as its new top editor.
Wilbekin, 40, replaces Smokey Fontaine, who launched the current version of Giant Magazine in 2006. Lanham-based Radio One Inc. acquired Giant last year for $270,000.
Fontaine has been promoted to the position of chief content officer and will oversee content for Radio One's new digital and cross-platform initiatives, the company said in a statement.
Radio One (NASDAQ: ROIA) currently owns 54 radio stations, including four Baltimore stations: WERQ-FM 92Q Jams, WOLB-AM 1010, WWIN-AM 1440 and WWIN-FM Magic 95.9. Its stations primarily target African-American and urban listeners.
Vibe promoted Wilbekin to editor-in-chief in 1999, replacing Danyel Smith who left for an editor-at-large job at Time Magazine. Wilbekin joined Vibe in 1992. He has written for magazines that include Metropolitan Home, People and Rolling Stone.
Giant, originally an entertainment magazine for 20-something men, was remade into one covering lifestyle and music news of interest to black readers.
"Emil is one of the superstars in the magazine business," Radio One's chief executive officer, Alfred Liggins, said in a statement. "He is ideally suited to take on this role and build on the terrific work Smokey Fontaine has done growing the Giant brand."
The broadcaster, whose fourth-quarter losses grew to $386 million on what it called a challenging advertising market, will look to Fontaine to find new outlets for advertising dollars. Its digital incentives will become "a critical growth engine" for the company, Liggins says.
Radio One has been paring its radio station holdings in the last year to concentrate on its most profitable markets. It currently operates stations in 17 cities. Radio One also owns the "Tom Joyner Show" and is a partner with Comcast in ownership of TV One.
by Jeff Clabaugh from bizjournals.com
Wilbekin, 40, replaces Smokey Fontaine, who launched the current version of Giant Magazine in 2006. Lanham-based Radio One Inc. acquired Giant last year for $270,000.
Fontaine has been promoted to the position of chief content officer and will oversee content for Radio One's new digital and cross-platform initiatives, the company said in a statement.
Radio One (NASDAQ: ROIA) currently owns 54 radio stations, including four Baltimore stations: WERQ-FM 92Q Jams, WOLB-AM 1010, WWIN-AM 1440 and WWIN-FM Magic 95.9. Its stations primarily target African-American and urban listeners.
Vibe promoted Wilbekin to editor-in-chief in 1999, replacing Danyel Smith who left for an editor-at-large job at Time Magazine. Wilbekin joined Vibe in 1992. He has written for magazines that include Metropolitan Home, People and Rolling Stone.
Giant, originally an entertainment magazine for 20-something men, was remade into one covering lifestyle and music news of interest to black readers.
"Emil is one of the superstars in the magazine business," Radio One's chief executive officer, Alfred Liggins, said in a statement. "He is ideally suited to take on this role and build on the terrific work Smokey Fontaine has done growing the Giant brand."
The broadcaster, whose fourth-quarter losses grew to $386 million on what it called a challenging advertising market, will look to Fontaine to find new outlets for advertising dollars. Its digital incentives will become "a critical growth engine" for the company, Liggins says.
Radio One has been paring its radio station holdings in the last year to concentrate on its most profitable markets. It currently operates stations in 17 cities. Radio One also owns the "Tom Joyner Show" and is a partner with Comcast in ownership of TV One.
by Jeff Clabaugh from bizjournals.com
Jim Jones & Lyfe Jennings Help Raise AIDS Awareness
Dipset Capo Jim Jones and soul singer Lyfe Jennings will join in the fight against AIDS, as they participate as panelist for the Third Annual Hip-Hop and Higher Education Symposium "HIV/AIDS and the Hip-Hop Generation," at Howard University.
This year's conference, which is sponsored by HowardUniversity's Afro-American Studies Department, aims to raise awareness about the alarming increase in statistics of young African-American males and women infected with the deadly disease. There will be a screening of two short films courtesy of BET's Rap-It-Up campaign.
"The purpose of this year's symposium is to raise awareness about the staggering rates of HIV/AIDS infection in young African-American males and in particular African-American women who are members of the Hip-Hop generation," said the Chair of the symposium, Joshua Kondwani Wright, MA, in a statement. "It will also impart helpful knowledge, for those living with the disease, to lead a healthy life."
President & CEO of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Dr. Benjamin Chavis and video vixen turned television personality, Melyssa Ford, are the keynote speakers for the event and will deliver the address. Washington Redskins running back, Clinton Portis, HIV/AIDS activist, Maria Davis will also participate in the symposium that will feature discussions on awareness and prevention, HIV/AIDS and the Black Church and HIV/AIDS and Black women.
The Third Annual Hip-Hop and Higher Education Symposium will take place at Howard University's Blackburn Center Ballroom from 12 p.m.-5 p.m. on March 27, 2008.
In related news, Jim Jones recently stood as an award recipient at the 5th Annual Hip Hop Summit Action Awards, last month. Jones, along with Snoop Dogg and Ciara, were among those honored for their outstanding contributions in the community.
by Thomas A. Harden from sohh.com
This year's conference, which is sponsored by HowardUniversity's Afro-American Studies Department, aims to raise awareness about the alarming increase in statistics of young African-American males and women infected with the deadly disease. There will be a screening of two short films courtesy of BET's Rap-It-Up campaign.
"The purpose of this year's symposium is to raise awareness about the staggering rates of HIV/AIDS infection in young African-American males and in particular African-American women who are members of the Hip-Hop generation," said the Chair of the symposium, Joshua Kondwani Wright, MA, in a statement. "It will also impart helpful knowledge, for those living with the disease, to lead a healthy life."
President & CEO of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Dr. Benjamin Chavis and video vixen turned television personality, Melyssa Ford, are the keynote speakers for the event and will deliver the address. Washington Redskins running back, Clinton Portis, HIV/AIDS activist, Maria Davis will also participate in the symposium that will feature discussions on awareness and prevention, HIV/AIDS and the Black Church and HIV/AIDS and Black women.
The Third Annual Hip-Hop and Higher Education Symposium will take place at Howard University's Blackburn Center Ballroom from 12 p.m.-5 p.m. on March 27, 2008.
In related news, Jim Jones recently stood as an award recipient at the 5th Annual Hip Hop Summit Action Awards, last month. Jones, along with Snoop Dogg and Ciara, were among those honored for their outstanding contributions in the community.
by Thomas A. Harden from sohh.com
Maximum Sentences In W. Va. Torture Case
Two defendants charged in connection with the torture of a black woman in Logan County last summer have received the maximum sentences possible.
Forty-six-year-old Karen Burton and 49-year-old Frankie Brewster were sentenced Thursday for their roles in the kidnapping and assault of Megan Williams. Both pleaded guilty last month.
Brewster and Burton were among seven white Logan County residents who were charged in the Williams case.
Logan County Circuit Judge Roger Perry sentenced Burton, of Chapmanville, to three consecutive sentences. She received separate 2-10 year sentences for malicious assault and assault during the commission of a felony and 10 years for the civil rights charge.
Brewster received a 10-to-25-year sentence for second-degree sexual assault.
Authorities say Williams was held captive for several days last summer at Brewster's trailer in Big Creek. In addition to the beatings and assaults, authorities said Williams was forced to eat animal feces and stabbed.
The 21-year-old Charleston woman was rescued by Logan County sheriff's deputies on Sept. 8 after they received an anonymous tip.
Williams and her parents were in the courtroom Thursday and wept as the sentences were read.
Carmen Williams, Megan's mother, and several of her supporters following the sentencing. They told CBS News affiliate WOWK-TV in Huntington that they are not satisfied with the outcome and they say they have not seen justice in the case.
"I just believe the (prosecutor Brian Abraham) shouldn't have plea bargained with any of them," her mother Carmen Williams said during a press conference after the sentencing, according to the Charleston Daily Main. "She (Megan Williams) wanted them to do life."
Two other defendants had already pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
Burton's 23-year-old daughter, Alisha, and George Messer, 27, both of Chapmanville, both pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping and assault and received 10-year sentences.
Felony charges including kidnapping and sexual assault are pending against Brewster's 24-year-old son, Bobby of Big Creek, and Danny Combs, 21, of Harts.
A seventh defendant, Karen Burton's son, Linnie Burton Jr., 21, was indicted on a misdemeanor battery charge.
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother, Carmen, agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams has said she wanted people to know what her daughter had endured.
From cbsnews.com
Forty-six-year-old Karen Burton and 49-year-old Frankie Brewster were sentenced Thursday for their roles in the kidnapping and assault of Megan Williams. Both pleaded guilty last month.
Brewster and Burton were among seven white Logan County residents who were charged in the Williams case.
Logan County Circuit Judge Roger Perry sentenced Burton, of Chapmanville, to three consecutive sentences. She received separate 2-10 year sentences for malicious assault and assault during the commission of a felony and 10 years for the civil rights charge.
Brewster received a 10-to-25-year sentence for second-degree sexual assault.
Authorities say Williams was held captive for several days last summer at Brewster's trailer in Big Creek. In addition to the beatings and assaults, authorities said Williams was forced to eat animal feces and stabbed.
The 21-year-old Charleston woman was rescued by Logan County sheriff's deputies on Sept. 8 after they received an anonymous tip.
Williams and her parents were in the courtroom Thursday and wept as the sentences were read.
Carmen Williams, Megan's mother, and several of her supporters following the sentencing. They told CBS News affiliate WOWK-TV in Huntington that they are not satisfied with the outcome and they say they have not seen justice in the case.
"I just believe the (prosecutor Brian Abraham) shouldn't have plea bargained with any of them," her mother Carmen Williams said during a press conference after the sentencing, according to the Charleston Daily Main. "She (Megan Williams) wanted them to do life."
Two other defendants had already pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
Burton's 23-year-old daughter, Alisha, and George Messer, 27, both of Chapmanville, both pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping and assault and received 10-year sentences.
Felony charges including kidnapping and sexual assault are pending against Brewster's 24-year-old son, Bobby of Big Creek, and Danny Combs, 21, of Harts.
A seventh defendant, Karen Burton's son, Linnie Burton Jr., 21, was indicted on a misdemeanor battery charge.
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother, Carmen, agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams has said she wanted people to know what her daughter had endured.
From cbsnews.com
Chad, Sudan Sign Peace Deal
The presidents of Sudan and Chad signed a non-aggression agreement late Thursday, aiming to halt cross-border hostilities between the two African nations.
The signing came after nearly two full days of talks in Dakar, Senegal, between Sudan President Omar al-Beshir and Idriss Deby, the president of Chad.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade facilitated the talks, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with officials from both nations and witnessed the signing of the agreement at about 10 p.m.
"The idea is to get the governments of Sudan and Chad to normalize their relations with each other and to halt any action that would allow for the cross-border movement of rebel factions or armed factions of either side that could hurt the other country," said United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq.
Each country accuses the other of supporting armed rebel groups that cross the border to attempt to destabilize the government. The rival nations' armies have skirmished several times.
The United Nations says refugees and armed groups have been regularly crossing the border between the troubled Darfur region of Sudan and Chad. They allegedly include many of the rebels that attacked N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, in early February.
As recently as Thursday, just hours before the agreement was signed, Chad issued a communique saying rebels from Sudan had crossed the border.
Chad is still recovering from a failed attempt last month by rebels to overthrow Deby's regime.
The United Nations says the swelling number of Darfur refugees and other displaced people living in eastern Chad is causing serious strain on the region.
Kingsley Amaning, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Chad, said more than 10,000 people from Darfur, in Sudan, have fled into 12 official refugee camps in eastern Chad.
They join some 240,000 Darfurians who have lived in Chad since 2004 because of fighting in their homeland and an estimated 180,000 displaced Chadians also living there.
The number of displaced Chadians is growing because of the recent fighting there, Kingsley said.
Haq said the United Nations, which has peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region, will work to assure Sudan and Chad carry out the terms of Thursday's deal. The countries have signed several peace agreements in the past, only to see renewed violence flare up.
From CNN.com/world
The signing came after nearly two full days of talks in Dakar, Senegal, between Sudan President Omar al-Beshir and Idriss Deby, the president of Chad.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade facilitated the talks, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with officials from both nations and witnessed the signing of the agreement at about 10 p.m.
"The idea is to get the governments of Sudan and Chad to normalize their relations with each other and to halt any action that would allow for the cross-border movement of rebel factions or armed factions of either side that could hurt the other country," said United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq.
Each country accuses the other of supporting armed rebel groups that cross the border to attempt to destabilize the government. The rival nations' armies have skirmished several times.
The United Nations says refugees and armed groups have been regularly crossing the border between the troubled Darfur region of Sudan and Chad. They allegedly include many of the rebels that attacked N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, in early February.
As recently as Thursday, just hours before the agreement was signed, Chad issued a communique saying rebels from Sudan had crossed the border.
Chad is still recovering from a failed attempt last month by rebels to overthrow Deby's regime.
The United Nations says the swelling number of Darfur refugees and other displaced people living in eastern Chad is causing serious strain on the region.
Kingsley Amaning, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Chad, said more than 10,000 people from Darfur, in Sudan, have fled into 12 official refugee camps in eastern Chad.
They join some 240,000 Darfurians who have lived in Chad since 2004 because of fighting in their homeland and an estimated 180,000 displaced Chadians also living there.
The number of displaced Chadians is growing because of the recent fighting there, Kingsley said.
Haq said the United Nations, which has peacekeeping troops in the Darfur region, will work to assure Sudan and Chad carry out the terms of Thursday's deal. The countries have signed several peace agreements in the past, only to see renewed violence flare up.
From CNN.com/world
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Patterson Scheduled to Become Only Third Black Govoner Since Reconstruction
With the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, David A. Paterson, the calm and affable legislative leader turned lieutenant governor, is set to ascend New York’s highest office in the midst of a political storm.
Mr. Paterson, 53, is scheduled to become the state’s 55th governor on Monday. He will be the state’s first black governor, and the third black governor of any state since Reconstruction.
As news of Mr. Spitzer’s impending departure spread Wednesday morning, Mr. Paterson’s staff grappled with the need to plan a transition at a time the state faces a $4.4 billion deficit. Mr. Paterson himself has begun to reach out to the state’s senior Democrats, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Congressman Charles B. Rangel, a fellow Harlem Democrat with long ties to Mr. Paterson’s family.
“This doesn’t come as a surprise, and it seems very appropriate that Governor Spitzer takes some time to say farewell to colleagues and friends with whom he has worked,” an aide to Mr. Paterson said. “It also gives a very brief period of time for Governor-designate Paterson to have the opportunity to meet with legislative leaders, senior staff and other professionals in the Spitzer administration.”
The aide said that Mr. Paterson’s office has been “flooded with calls of support from the state’s elected officials of both parties, friends and ordinary New Yorkers who wish him well and to offer their support and prayers.”
Like many in the state, Mr. Paterson spent Tuesday awaiting Mr. Spitzer’s decision. Known for a deliberative, cooperative political style, Mr. Paterson was careful not to inject himself into the process, instead awaiting a signal from the governor’s office. “I have said nothing to anyone during this time, because I thought that was the most respectful way to act,” he said on Tuesday outside the state Capitol.
In a statement after the governor said he would resign, Mr. Paterson said, “Like all New Yorkers, I am saddened by what we have learned over the past several days.”
Noting that he regarded Mr. Spitzer and his wife, Silda, as “close and steadfast friends,” Mr. Paterson asked New Yorkers to remember them in their prayers. “It is now time for Albany to get back to work as the people of this state expect from us,” his statement concluded.
New York faces a number of issues that will draw Mr. Paterson’s attention. Foremost among them is the budget. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Wednesday that people at all levels of government need to help Mr. Paterson move forward.
“There’s no reason why we can’t have an on-time budget, why we can’t have congestion pricing and do all of the other things that the state needs,” Mr. Bloomberg said during an appearance in Brooklyn. “The state has problems with facing very difficult economics times. We all know that. This is not a time to put our feet up and look back. This is a time to look forward.”
Taking charge after a lightning-fast transition will be a difficult test for Mr. Paterson, who is liked and respected by leading figures in both parties, but relatively new to statewide office. In 2006, he surprised the Democratic establishment in Albany by leaving the Senate — and the possibility of becoming majority leader if the Democrats capture a majority there — to run for the largely ceremonial post of lieutenant governor.
To a degree, striking his own course is characteristic of Mr. Paterson, who became the Senate minority leader in 2002 by staging a rare coup against Senator Martin Connor.
Born in Brooklyn on May 20, 1954, he was raised in a powerful Harlem political fraternity that would become known as the Gang of Four. It included his father, Basil, a former state senator who later served as deputy mayor and New York’s secretary of state; Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president; Representative Rangel; and David N. Dinkins, the city’s first black mayor.
An early childhood infection left him with severely limited sight. Because New York City could not guarantee him an education without placing him in special education classes, his parents bought a house in Hempstead and he attended school there. He went on to graduate from Columbia University and Hofstra Law School. Mr. Paterson, who has completed the New York Marathon, is now an adjunct professor at Columbia.
He and his wife, the former Michelle Paige, have a son, Alex, 13, and Mrs. Paterson has a daughter, Ashley, 19, from a previous marriage.
In contrast to Mr. Spitzer’s confrontational governing style, Mr. Paterson has he tried to foster “a more collegial atmosphere in the institution.”
As lieutenant governor, he has focused on stem-cell research, domestic violence and improving business opportunities for women and minorities.
As the new governor, Mr. Paterson will face several immediate challenges, the most significant of which is likely to be the state budget and the March 31 deadline to enact it. Mr. Paterson will also have to deal with questions about the congestion-pricing plan for Manhattan, pay raises for legislators and proposals for campaign finance reform.
“He is on the hottest seat I can imagine,” said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “He will have to rely on his two-plus decades of experience in Albany to show he knows how it works.”
Mr. Russianoff said Mr. Paterson’s low-key style might be well suited for such a chaotic situation.
“Given the nature of the resignation and the tension between the two political parties, someone with a reputation as a conciliator is a good thing,” he said.
By JOHN SULLIVAN and DANNY HAKIM from New York Times
Mr. Paterson, 53, is scheduled to become the state’s 55th governor on Monday. He will be the state’s first black governor, and the third black governor of any state since Reconstruction.
As news of Mr. Spitzer’s impending departure spread Wednesday morning, Mr. Paterson’s staff grappled with the need to plan a transition at a time the state faces a $4.4 billion deficit. Mr. Paterson himself has begun to reach out to the state’s senior Democrats, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Congressman Charles B. Rangel, a fellow Harlem Democrat with long ties to Mr. Paterson’s family.
“This doesn’t come as a surprise, and it seems very appropriate that Governor Spitzer takes some time to say farewell to colleagues and friends with whom he has worked,” an aide to Mr. Paterson said. “It also gives a very brief period of time for Governor-designate Paterson to have the opportunity to meet with legislative leaders, senior staff and other professionals in the Spitzer administration.”
The aide said that Mr. Paterson’s office has been “flooded with calls of support from the state’s elected officials of both parties, friends and ordinary New Yorkers who wish him well and to offer their support and prayers.”
Like many in the state, Mr. Paterson spent Tuesday awaiting Mr. Spitzer’s decision. Known for a deliberative, cooperative political style, Mr. Paterson was careful not to inject himself into the process, instead awaiting a signal from the governor’s office. “I have said nothing to anyone during this time, because I thought that was the most respectful way to act,” he said on Tuesday outside the state Capitol.
In a statement after the governor said he would resign, Mr. Paterson said, “Like all New Yorkers, I am saddened by what we have learned over the past several days.”
Noting that he regarded Mr. Spitzer and his wife, Silda, as “close and steadfast friends,” Mr. Paterson asked New Yorkers to remember them in their prayers. “It is now time for Albany to get back to work as the people of this state expect from us,” his statement concluded.
New York faces a number of issues that will draw Mr. Paterson’s attention. Foremost among them is the budget. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Wednesday that people at all levels of government need to help Mr. Paterson move forward.
“There’s no reason why we can’t have an on-time budget, why we can’t have congestion pricing and do all of the other things that the state needs,” Mr. Bloomberg said during an appearance in Brooklyn. “The state has problems with facing very difficult economics times. We all know that. This is not a time to put our feet up and look back. This is a time to look forward.”
Taking charge after a lightning-fast transition will be a difficult test for Mr. Paterson, who is liked and respected by leading figures in both parties, but relatively new to statewide office. In 2006, he surprised the Democratic establishment in Albany by leaving the Senate — and the possibility of becoming majority leader if the Democrats capture a majority there — to run for the largely ceremonial post of lieutenant governor.
To a degree, striking his own course is characteristic of Mr. Paterson, who became the Senate minority leader in 2002 by staging a rare coup against Senator Martin Connor.
Born in Brooklyn on May 20, 1954, he was raised in a powerful Harlem political fraternity that would become known as the Gang of Four. It included his father, Basil, a former state senator who later served as deputy mayor and New York’s secretary of state; Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president; Representative Rangel; and David N. Dinkins, the city’s first black mayor.
An early childhood infection left him with severely limited sight. Because New York City could not guarantee him an education without placing him in special education classes, his parents bought a house in Hempstead and he attended school there. He went on to graduate from Columbia University and Hofstra Law School. Mr. Paterson, who has completed the New York Marathon, is now an adjunct professor at Columbia.
He and his wife, the former Michelle Paige, have a son, Alex, 13, and Mrs. Paterson has a daughter, Ashley, 19, from a previous marriage.
In contrast to Mr. Spitzer’s confrontational governing style, Mr. Paterson has he tried to foster “a more collegial atmosphere in the institution.”
As lieutenant governor, he has focused on stem-cell research, domestic violence and improving business opportunities for women and minorities.
As the new governor, Mr. Paterson will face several immediate challenges, the most significant of which is likely to be the state budget and the March 31 deadline to enact it. Mr. Paterson will also have to deal with questions about the congestion-pricing plan for Manhattan, pay raises for legislators and proposals for campaign finance reform.
“He is on the hottest seat I can imagine,” said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “He will have to rely on his two-plus decades of experience in Albany to show he knows how it works.”
Mr. Russianoff said Mr. Paterson’s low-key style might be well suited for such a chaotic situation.
“Given the nature of the resignation and the tension between the two political parties, someone with a reputation as a conciliator is a good thing,” he said.
By JOHN SULLIVAN and DANNY HAKIM from New York Times
Africa: Continent's Top Young Leaders Named
Twenty-three Africans are among 245 executives, scientists, journalists, sports stars and other public figures named by the World Economic Forum as "Young Global Leaders" for 2008.
The forum announced in Geneva on Tuesday a list of Africans aged 40 or younger who, it said, had earned their places on the list "for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world."
They included President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lalla Salma, Queen of Morocco. Others came from Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.
Business leaders formed the biggest group. There were two journalists: Andrew Mwenda, political editor of The Monitor in Uganda, and Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian in South Africa.
The full list of Africans is:
Cameroon:
Achankeng Leke
Partner, McKinsey & Company
Democratic Republic of Congo:
Joseph Kabila
President of the DRC
Kenya:
Mugo Kibati
Group Chief Executive Officer, East African Cables Ltd
James Shikwati
Founder and President, Inter-Region Economic Network
Morocco:
Merieme Chadid
Explorer/Astronomer, Concordia Research Station, Antartica
Lalla Salma
Queen of Morocco
Nigeria:
Kola Karim
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Shoreline Energy International
Senegal:
Karim Wade
Special Advisor to the President of Senegal
South Africa:
Yolanda Cuba
Chief Executive Officer, Mvelaphanda Holdings
Kuseni Dlamini
Executive Chairman, Richards Bay Coal Terminal
Natalie Du Toit
Athlete and Ability Rights Activist
Theodore Ernest 'Ernie' Els
Founder, The Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation
Ferial Haffajee
Editor-in-chief, Mail & Guardian
Michael Jordaan
Chief Executive, First National Bank, FirstRand Ltd
Lisa Kropman
Founder, Investec Ltd
Tumi Makgabo
Head of Communications, 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee
From allafrica.com
The forum announced in Geneva on Tuesday a list of Africans aged 40 or younger who, it said, had earned their places on the list "for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world."
They included President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lalla Salma, Queen of Morocco. Others came from Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.
Business leaders formed the biggest group. There were two journalists: Andrew Mwenda, political editor of The Monitor in Uganda, and Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian in South Africa.
The full list of Africans is:
Cameroon:
Achankeng Leke
Partner, McKinsey & Company
Democratic Republic of Congo:
Joseph Kabila
President of the DRC
Kenya:
Mugo Kibati
Group Chief Executive Officer, East African Cables Ltd
James Shikwati
Founder and President, Inter-Region Economic Network
Morocco:
Merieme Chadid
Explorer/Astronomer, Concordia Research Station, Antartica
Lalla Salma
Queen of Morocco
Nigeria:
Kola Karim
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Shoreline Energy International
Senegal:
Karim Wade
Special Advisor to the President of Senegal
South Africa:
Yolanda Cuba
Chief Executive Officer, Mvelaphanda Holdings
Kuseni Dlamini
Executive Chairman, Richards Bay Coal Terminal
Natalie Du Toit
Athlete and Ability Rights Activist
Theodore Ernest 'Ernie' Els
Founder, The Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation
Ferial Haffajee
Editor-in-chief, Mail & Guardian
Michael Jordaan
Chief Executive, First National Bank, FirstRand Ltd
Lisa Kropman
Founder, Investec Ltd
Tumi Makgabo
Head of Communications, 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee
From allafrica.com
Tiki Barber Plans to Develop Low-Income Housing
Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber paid a visit to City Hall last week in the midst of a fire drill, but he wasn’t there to talk football or even politics.
Barber, a correspondent for NBC’s “Today Show,” has a side job investing in low-income housing projects. He was in town to try to score points with Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, Chief Administrative Officer Sheila Hill-Christian and Rachel Flynn, director of community development. (“I didn’t know who he was,” Flynn confesses.)
His business, Tiki Ventures, LLC, has partnered with a New York City firm, Related Affordable, to purchase, renovate and re-landscape Woodcroft Village, a 250-unit apartment complex at the corner of Jennie Scher and Government roads in the Fulton neighborhood.
As part of the project’s financing, Barber wants to acquire federal low-income housing credits. The tax credits are available to developers who agree to keep rents low. In Richmond, that means if a developer rents to a family of four, for example, the family would have to make less than $34,650 a year, and rent could be no more than $780 a month for a two-bedroom unit or $900 for a three-bedroom, including utilities.
Winning the tax credits is a competitive process. This year the Virginia Housing Development Authority, the agency responsible for distributing the low-income housing credits, has received more than twice as many applications as there are available credits.
Which explains Barber’s visit with Wilder.
Applicants earn points for clearing certain hurdles and having a letter of support from the sponsoring locality, says Jim Chandler, director of low-income-housing tax-credit programs for the VHDA. The credits are divided into regional pools, meaning Barber’s project will compete against others in Richmond. That includes an application from the Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority for work on Dove Court, for which the administration has also written a letter of support.
Chandler says he’s not sure what that means for Barber’s project, but says that other localities sometimes decline to write letters for private developers competing against their own housing authorities.
Flynn says the city is waiting for the landscaping plans before it will make a final determination on a letter of support.
Barber has also applied for credits toward projects in Portsmouth, Danville and Roanoke.
by Amy Biegelsen from styleweekly.com
Barber, a correspondent for NBC’s “Today Show,” has a side job investing in low-income housing projects. He was in town to try to score points with Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, Chief Administrative Officer Sheila Hill-Christian and Rachel Flynn, director of community development. (“I didn’t know who he was,” Flynn confesses.)
His business, Tiki Ventures, LLC, has partnered with a New York City firm, Related Affordable, to purchase, renovate and re-landscape Woodcroft Village, a 250-unit apartment complex at the corner of Jennie Scher and Government roads in the Fulton neighborhood.
As part of the project’s financing, Barber wants to acquire federal low-income housing credits. The tax credits are available to developers who agree to keep rents low. In Richmond, that means if a developer rents to a family of four, for example, the family would have to make less than $34,650 a year, and rent could be no more than $780 a month for a two-bedroom unit or $900 for a three-bedroom, including utilities.
Winning the tax credits is a competitive process. This year the Virginia Housing Development Authority, the agency responsible for distributing the low-income housing credits, has received more than twice as many applications as there are available credits.
Which explains Barber’s visit with Wilder.
Applicants earn points for clearing certain hurdles and having a letter of support from the sponsoring locality, says Jim Chandler, director of low-income-housing tax-credit programs for the VHDA. The credits are divided into regional pools, meaning Barber’s project will compete against others in Richmond. That includes an application from the Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority for work on Dove Court, for which the administration has also written a letter of support.
Chandler says he’s not sure what that means for Barber’s project, but says that other localities sometimes decline to write letters for private developers competing against their own housing authorities.
Flynn says the city is waiting for the landscaping plans before it will make a final determination on a letter of support.
Barber has also applied for credits toward projects in Portsmouth, Danville and Roanoke.
by Amy Biegelsen from styleweekly.com
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Football Star, 17, Slain Before He Could Answer Gang
Jamiel Shaw was just three doors from his house on March 2. His father told the 17-year-old high school football star to be home before dark. That is exactly what he was trying to do when, just before dusk, gunshots rang out.
Gang members pulled up in a car and asked Shaw if he was in a gang. Shaw didn't have time to tell them "no." He was mowed down before he could answer, police say.
His dad heard the shots from inside his house and immediately called his son's cell phone to warn him to stay away. But within seconds, the father realized what had happened.
"I just ran down there," Jamiel Shaw Sr. told CNN.
His son was wearing the same shirt his dad had pressed for him that morning. "He was laying on the ground and his face was so peaceful. I knew he was dead."
"For three hours, I was just completely blacked out walking."
More than 7,500 miles away, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw was serving her second tour in Iraq. Her commanding officer called her into his office and told her to sit down next to the chaplain. He then informed her that her son had been killed on the streets of Los Angeles.
"I freaked out," she said. "I wanted to run out of the room. I was screaming and kicking. I was shouting, 'No.'"
Anita Shaw is now back in Los Angeles to bury her son.
Police announced Tuesday that an arrest had been made in the shooting. Pedro Espinoza, a 19-year-old member of the Hispanic 18th Street Gang, was charged in the killing and could face the death penalty if convicted, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. Espinoza is scheduled to be arraigned March 25.
Espinoza was released from jail -- where he was held on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon -- one day before the incident.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton Tuesday called on the community to help police locate a second suspect who was with Espinoza at the time of the shooting.
Hundreds of family members and friends gathered Tuesday at West Los Angeles Cathedral to remember Shaw, a standout running back and sprinter at Los Angeles High School who had good grades and stayed out of trouble despite his rough neighborhood. Among the schools recruiting him was Stanford University.
Blue-and-white flowers -- his school colors -- adorned his casket, and photos of Shaw over the years were displayed at the service. Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" played as mourners entered the church.
"He was a Christian and I thank God for that because I know he's in a better place," his mom said, trembling as she sobbed. "He'd just try all the time to do the right thing. He was so good."
Shaw is one of several innocent victims in a horrifying three-week spate of gang-related shootings around Los Angeles. A man was gunned down as he held a 2-year-old baby in his arms. A 13-year-old boy was shot to death last week as he went to pick lemons from a tree. In another incident, a 6-year-old boy was critically wounded when he was shot in the head while riding in the car with his family; two gang members have been arrested in connection with that shooting, according to police.
"I think what is particularly unnerving for all of us is just the random nature of these shootings," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said last week.
Bratton and Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner met with community members from the South Side of Los Angeles over the weekend to try to calm tensions between black and Hispanic communities. Among those in attendance were Shaw's parents and his younger brother.
Bratton acknowledged some neighborhoods are rife with underlying racial tensions that have "taken too many young lives." He said he is in the process of hiring 1,000 new police officers to help combat inner city gang violence.
"There's no denying that some of the crime in this city is a direct result of hatred, animosity, racial animosity, ethnic differences," Bratton said. "We must all work to the best of our ability to try to prevent that."
"None of it is right," said Garner. "We can't get so incensed that we lose focus that it's going on on both sides."
He added, "Wrong is wrong."
The killing of Shaw has rallied his neighborhood. Dozens of people gathered outside his home for a vigil last week and placed candles, flowers and blue-and-white balloons at a makeshift memorial. One sign read, "We love you! Jamiel Shaw."
On the online social networking site Facebook, more than 100 people have joined a page called "Good people live in our hearts forever RIP Jamiel Shaw."
"Loved you lots babyboi! Still do! I know many, many, many people who are missing you right NOW!!!" wrote Christina Stewart on the Facebook wall.
Another person, Harley Lally, wrote, "Football will never be the same without you. I miss you every Sunday, and every time I step on that field."
Shaw, a junior, carried the ball 74 times for 1,052 yards this season, with an average of 14.2 yards per carry, according to MaxPreps Web site. The longest of his 10 touchdowns went for 75 yards.
He passed the ball one time all year in the last game of the season -- the last game of his career. It was a 60-yard touchdown strike.
But he will be missed for more than his football. The beloved player with the big smile meant so much more.
The father and son years ago had made a pact: Keep focused, stay away from drugs and gangs, and get into college on an athletic scholarship. In return, the dad promised to do everything for his son, nicknamed "Jas," to make that happen.
Breaking down in tears, the father said, "I guaranteed 'Jas.' That's why it hurts so much -- because I told him, 'I promise you, if you sacrifice these years, I'll sacrifice with you.'"
Bratton and Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner met with community members from the South Side of Los Angeles over the weekend to try to calm tensions between black and Hispanic communities. Among those in attendance were Shaw's parents and his younger brother.
Bratton acknowledged some neighborhoods are rife with underlying racial tensions that have "taken too many young lives." He said he is in the process of hiring 1,000 new police officers to help combat inner city gang violence. Watch Bratton describe an "always underlying tension" »
"There's no denying that some of the crime in this city is a direct result of hatred, animosity, racial animosity, ethnic differences," Bratton said. "We must all work to the best of our ability to try to prevent that."
"None of it is right," said Garner. "We can't get so incensed that we lose focus that it's going on on both sides."
He added, "Wrong is wrong."
The killing of Shaw has rallied his neighborhood. Dozens of people gathered outside his home for a vigil last week and placed candles, flowers and blue-and-white balloons at a makeshift memorial. One sign read, "We love you! Jamiel Shaw."
On the online social networking site Facebook, more than 100 people have joined a page called "Good people live in our hearts forever RIP Jamiel Shaw."
"Loved you lots babyboi! Still do! I know many, many, many people who are missing you right NOW!!!" wrote Christina Stewart on the Facebook wall.
Another person, Harley Lally, wrote, "Football will never be the same without you. I miss you every Sunday, and every time I step on that field."
Shaw, a junior, carried the ball 74 times for 1,052 yards this season, with an average of 14.2 yards per carry, according to MaxPreps Web site. The longest of his 10 touchdowns went for 75 yards.
He passed the ball one time all year in the last game of the season -- the last game of his career. It was a 60-yard touchdown strike.
But he will be missed for more than his football. The beloved player with the big smile meant so much more.
The father and son years ago had made a pact: Keep focused, stay away from drugs and gangs, and get into college on an athletic scholarship. In return, the dad promised to do everything for his son, nicknamed "Jas," to make that happen.
Breaking down in tears, the father said, "I guaranteed 'Jas.' That's why it hurts so much -- because I told him, 'I promise you, if you sacrifice these years, I'll sacrifice with you.'"
The dad said more must be done to combat gang violence. "It's a gang problem and they have nothing in their heart for people."
Shaw's mother, the Army sergeant, compares the gang members who killed her son to those she's fighting against in Iraq. "To me, they're terrorists."
Gang members pulled up in a car and asked Shaw if he was in a gang. Shaw didn't have time to tell them "no." He was mowed down before he could answer, police say.
His dad heard the shots from inside his house and immediately called his son's cell phone to warn him to stay away. But within seconds, the father realized what had happened.
"I just ran down there," Jamiel Shaw Sr. told CNN.
His son was wearing the same shirt his dad had pressed for him that morning. "He was laying on the ground and his face was so peaceful. I knew he was dead."
"For three hours, I was just completely blacked out walking."
More than 7,500 miles away, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw was serving her second tour in Iraq. Her commanding officer called her into his office and told her to sit down next to the chaplain. He then informed her that her son had been killed on the streets of Los Angeles.
"I freaked out," she said. "I wanted to run out of the room. I was screaming and kicking. I was shouting, 'No.'"
Anita Shaw is now back in Los Angeles to bury her son.
Police announced Tuesday that an arrest had been made in the shooting. Pedro Espinoza, a 19-year-old member of the Hispanic 18th Street Gang, was charged in the killing and could face the death penalty if convicted, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. Espinoza is scheduled to be arraigned March 25.
Espinoza was released from jail -- where he was held on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon -- one day before the incident.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton Tuesday called on the community to help police locate a second suspect who was with Espinoza at the time of the shooting.
Hundreds of family members and friends gathered Tuesday at West Los Angeles Cathedral to remember Shaw, a standout running back and sprinter at Los Angeles High School who had good grades and stayed out of trouble despite his rough neighborhood. Among the schools recruiting him was Stanford University.
Blue-and-white flowers -- his school colors -- adorned his casket, and photos of Shaw over the years were displayed at the service. Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" played as mourners entered the church.
"He was a Christian and I thank God for that because I know he's in a better place," his mom said, trembling as she sobbed. "He'd just try all the time to do the right thing. He was so good."
Shaw is one of several innocent victims in a horrifying three-week spate of gang-related shootings around Los Angeles. A man was gunned down as he held a 2-year-old baby in his arms. A 13-year-old boy was shot to death last week as he went to pick lemons from a tree. In another incident, a 6-year-old boy was critically wounded when he was shot in the head while riding in the car with his family; two gang members have been arrested in connection with that shooting, according to police.
"I think what is particularly unnerving for all of us is just the random nature of these shootings," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said last week.
Bratton and Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner met with community members from the South Side of Los Angeles over the weekend to try to calm tensions between black and Hispanic communities. Among those in attendance were Shaw's parents and his younger brother.
Bratton acknowledged some neighborhoods are rife with underlying racial tensions that have "taken too many young lives." He said he is in the process of hiring 1,000 new police officers to help combat inner city gang violence.
"There's no denying that some of the crime in this city is a direct result of hatred, animosity, racial animosity, ethnic differences," Bratton said. "We must all work to the best of our ability to try to prevent that."
"None of it is right," said Garner. "We can't get so incensed that we lose focus that it's going on on both sides."
He added, "Wrong is wrong."
The killing of Shaw has rallied his neighborhood. Dozens of people gathered outside his home for a vigil last week and placed candles, flowers and blue-and-white balloons at a makeshift memorial. One sign read, "We love you! Jamiel Shaw."
On the online social networking site Facebook, more than 100 people have joined a page called "Good people live in our hearts forever RIP Jamiel Shaw."
"Loved you lots babyboi! Still do! I know many, many, many people who are missing you right NOW!!!" wrote Christina Stewart on the Facebook wall.
Another person, Harley Lally, wrote, "Football will never be the same without you. I miss you every Sunday, and every time I step on that field."
Shaw, a junior, carried the ball 74 times for 1,052 yards this season, with an average of 14.2 yards per carry, according to MaxPreps Web site. The longest of his 10 touchdowns went for 75 yards.
He passed the ball one time all year in the last game of the season -- the last game of his career. It was a 60-yard touchdown strike.
But he will be missed for more than his football. The beloved player with the big smile meant so much more.
The father and son years ago had made a pact: Keep focused, stay away from drugs and gangs, and get into college on an athletic scholarship. In return, the dad promised to do everything for his son, nicknamed "Jas," to make that happen.
Breaking down in tears, the father said, "I guaranteed 'Jas.' That's why it hurts so much -- because I told him, 'I promise you, if you sacrifice these years, I'll sacrifice with you.'"
Bratton and Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner met with community members from the South Side of Los Angeles over the weekend to try to calm tensions between black and Hispanic communities. Among those in attendance were Shaw's parents and his younger brother.
Bratton acknowledged some neighborhoods are rife with underlying racial tensions that have "taken too many young lives." He said he is in the process of hiring 1,000 new police officers to help combat inner city gang violence. Watch Bratton describe an "always underlying tension" »
"There's no denying that some of the crime in this city is a direct result of hatred, animosity, racial animosity, ethnic differences," Bratton said. "We must all work to the best of our ability to try to prevent that."
"None of it is right," said Garner. "We can't get so incensed that we lose focus that it's going on on both sides."
He added, "Wrong is wrong."
The killing of Shaw has rallied his neighborhood. Dozens of people gathered outside his home for a vigil last week and placed candles, flowers and blue-and-white balloons at a makeshift memorial. One sign read, "We love you! Jamiel Shaw."
On the online social networking site Facebook, more than 100 people have joined a page called "Good people live in our hearts forever RIP Jamiel Shaw."
"Loved you lots babyboi! Still do! I know many, many, many people who are missing you right NOW!!!" wrote Christina Stewart on the Facebook wall.
Another person, Harley Lally, wrote, "Football will never be the same without you. I miss you every Sunday, and every time I step on that field."
Shaw, a junior, carried the ball 74 times for 1,052 yards this season, with an average of 14.2 yards per carry, according to MaxPreps Web site. The longest of his 10 touchdowns went for 75 yards.
He passed the ball one time all year in the last game of the season -- the last game of his career. It was a 60-yard touchdown strike.
But he will be missed for more than his football. The beloved player with the big smile meant so much more.
The father and son years ago had made a pact: Keep focused, stay away from drugs and gangs, and get into college on an athletic scholarship. In return, the dad promised to do everything for his son, nicknamed "Jas," to make that happen.
Breaking down in tears, the father said, "I guaranteed 'Jas.' That's why it hurts so much -- because I told him, 'I promise you, if you sacrifice these years, I'll sacrifice with you.'"
The dad said more must be done to combat gang violence. "It's a gang problem and they have nothing in their heart for people."
Shaw's mother, the Army sergeant, compares the gang members who killed her son to those she's fighting against in Iraq. "To me, they're terrorists."
Darfur Refugees Trade Aid for Luxuries
Relief workers may battle chronic insecurity to deliver aid to the tens of thousands displaced by the Darfur war, but recipients in this southern Sudanese market trade handouts for luxuries.
Having scrambled for newly arrived aid, Darfuris taking refuge in the desolate Boro Medina camp in Western Bahr el-Ghazal state carry off the booty to barter for something tastier at the local trading post.
There are no tarpaulins in the camp, home to 3,000 men, women and children from African tribes who fled the conflict in western Sudan, but many prefer to sleep under wattle-and-reed shelters and exchange the canvas for meat.
"What is the point of eating sorghum (a staple crop in relief packages) when you can sell and buy meat?" said a steely-eyed Miriam Taban, who fled the area around Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.
Many say they were rich pastoralists before war evicted them from their villages. Others talk of seeing mass rape and family members killed by "men on horseback," the Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia fighting ethnic rebels in a conflict that erupted in 2003.
"The problem with aid workers is that they rarely come here, and when they do, they bring the kind of food we do not like. That is why it ends up in the market," said Taban, sitting outside a simple hut.
"We might have lost everything, but not our traditions and eating habits."
One Western priest with decades of experience in Sudan said that selling aid is a habit entrenched in the culture of long-term camps for internally displaced people, which come to resemble "more or less a village."
"Much of the food and other supplies brought here end up in the market," he told AFP, refusing to give his name because of the insecurity facing aid workers in the remote and impoverished part of southern Sudan.
"Many Sudanese people have lived in camps for a long time. Remember that (many) people who fled Darfur in recent years originally escaped from the first war in the south," he explained referring to the 21-year civil war that ended in 2005.
"The politics of aid is difficult, either it does not get to the intended source of if it does, the needy misuse it. I have seen that in Sudan for a long time," recalled a South American church worker, also requesting anonymity.
At Boro Medina market, displaced people-turned-merchants barter their aid for roasted meat or perfume; and tarpaulins for Coke cans, mostly under sweltering reed shelters. One stall was stacked with sacks marked "USAID - NOT FOR SALE."
Local trader Mohammed Khalifa said business booms after aid deliveries, which end up augmenting local supplies.
"We do barter trade. They give us relief and we give them food like meat, eggs and Coca Cola," Khalifa told AFP on a recent trip to the outpost, not far from the borders with South Darfur and the Central African Republic.
"They sell because aid groups just bring aid without consulting refugees on what they really need," he said.
In the refugee camp, about five kilometres (three miles) from the market, men idle away their time, chatting about wartime experiences in Darfur while they wait for relief workers to arrive.
Their scalps wrapped in white turbans, the men sit under trees, sharing their hopes and fears. Children, visibly malnourished, play in the hot dust. Women on donkeys travel to fetch water.
"These people need both food and non-food supplies. They have suffered the brunt of war and it's up to the international community to help them," said Klaus Stieglitz, a human rights lawyer from German charity Sign of Hope.
"We just sit here waiting, nobody knows when relief comes. It just comes on trucks," said Mohammed Juma, who fled to Boro from Darfur in February 2006.
The Sudanese military said the area is too remote to monitor security and said there had been attacks from militia who roam nearby woodlands.
"That area is outside our area of operation... but we usually hear reports of violence," said army Lieutenant Colonel Babakir Mohammed.
One international aid worker said some Darfur refugees have guns and have established business in the camp.
"Those refugees are not the best. They are armed, maybe for protection or for attacks," said the worker.
In the camp, built out of a woodland clearing, an AFP reporter saw two fighters sat amid many AK-47 assault rifles. Refugees refused to talk about them, most of them citing fear.
From teh AFP
Having scrambled for newly arrived aid, Darfuris taking refuge in the desolate Boro Medina camp in Western Bahr el-Ghazal state carry off the booty to barter for something tastier at the local trading post.
There are no tarpaulins in the camp, home to 3,000 men, women and children from African tribes who fled the conflict in western Sudan, but many prefer to sleep under wattle-and-reed shelters and exchange the canvas for meat.
"What is the point of eating sorghum (a staple crop in relief packages) when you can sell and buy meat?" said a steely-eyed Miriam Taban, who fled the area around Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.
Many say they were rich pastoralists before war evicted them from their villages. Others talk of seeing mass rape and family members killed by "men on horseback," the Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia fighting ethnic rebels in a conflict that erupted in 2003.
"The problem with aid workers is that they rarely come here, and when they do, they bring the kind of food we do not like. That is why it ends up in the market," said Taban, sitting outside a simple hut.
"We might have lost everything, but not our traditions and eating habits."
One Western priest with decades of experience in Sudan said that selling aid is a habit entrenched in the culture of long-term camps for internally displaced people, which come to resemble "more or less a village."
"Much of the food and other supplies brought here end up in the market," he told AFP, refusing to give his name because of the insecurity facing aid workers in the remote and impoverished part of southern Sudan.
"Many Sudanese people have lived in camps for a long time. Remember that (many) people who fled Darfur in recent years originally escaped from the first war in the south," he explained referring to the 21-year civil war that ended in 2005.
"The politics of aid is difficult, either it does not get to the intended source of if it does, the needy misuse it. I have seen that in Sudan for a long time," recalled a South American church worker, also requesting anonymity.
At Boro Medina market, displaced people-turned-merchants barter their aid for roasted meat or perfume; and tarpaulins for Coke cans, mostly under sweltering reed shelters. One stall was stacked with sacks marked "USAID - NOT FOR SALE."
Local trader Mohammed Khalifa said business booms after aid deliveries, which end up augmenting local supplies.
"We do barter trade. They give us relief and we give them food like meat, eggs and Coca Cola," Khalifa told AFP on a recent trip to the outpost, not far from the borders with South Darfur and the Central African Republic.
"They sell because aid groups just bring aid without consulting refugees on what they really need," he said.
In the refugee camp, about five kilometres (three miles) from the market, men idle away their time, chatting about wartime experiences in Darfur while they wait for relief workers to arrive.
Their scalps wrapped in white turbans, the men sit under trees, sharing their hopes and fears. Children, visibly malnourished, play in the hot dust. Women on donkeys travel to fetch water.
"These people need both food and non-food supplies. They have suffered the brunt of war and it's up to the international community to help them," said Klaus Stieglitz, a human rights lawyer from German charity Sign of Hope.
"We just sit here waiting, nobody knows when relief comes. It just comes on trucks," said Mohammed Juma, who fled to Boro from Darfur in February 2006.
The Sudanese military said the area is too remote to monitor security and said there had been attacks from militia who roam nearby woodlands.
"That area is outside our area of operation... but we usually hear reports of violence," said army Lieutenant Colonel Babakir Mohammed.
One international aid worker said some Darfur refugees have guns and have established business in the camp.
"Those refugees are not the best. They are armed, maybe for protection or for attacks," said the worker.
In the camp, built out of a woodland clearing, an AFP reporter saw two fighters sat amid many AK-47 assault rifles. Refugees refused to talk about them, most of them citing fear.
From teh AFP
India.Arie Starring in Broadway Revival
Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter India.Arie will star in the first Broadway revival of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf."
Often described as a choreopoem, the play presents the stories of seven women of color from the African Diaspora. No other cast members have been chosen, nor has a theater been named. It is scheduled to begin previews in mid-July, ahead of an opening in early August.
Shirley Jo Finney will direct, and three-time Tony winner Hinton Battle will choreograph.
In summer 1976, the Obie-winning play had a three-month run off-Broadway at the Public Theater and then moved to Broadway, where it ran for nearly two years. It was nominated for the Tony for best play, and Trazana Beverley won a Tony for best featured actress in a play.
"For Colored Girls" was remounted off-Broadway at American Place Theatre in summer 2000, but this will be its first revival on the Main Stem.
India.Arie (real name: India Arie Simpson) currently has the No. 2 album on the U.S. pop chart with "4th World War," her first full-length album in eight years. Her brief acting credits include a stint as singer Nina Simone on NBC's "American Dreams."
Andrew Salomon from Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Often described as a choreopoem, the play presents the stories of seven women of color from the African Diaspora. No other cast members have been chosen, nor has a theater been named. It is scheduled to begin previews in mid-July, ahead of an opening in early August.
Shirley Jo Finney will direct, and three-time Tony winner Hinton Battle will choreograph.
In summer 1976, the Obie-winning play had a three-month run off-Broadway at the Public Theater and then moved to Broadway, where it ran for nearly two years. It was nominated for the Tony for best play, and Trazana Beverley won a Tony for best featured actress in a play.
"For Colored Girls" was remounted off-Broadway at American Place Theatre in summer 2000, but this will be its first revival on the Main Stem.
India.Arie (real name: India Arie Simpson) currently has the No. 2 album on the U.S. pop chart with "4th World War," her first full-length album in eight years. Her brief acting credits include a stint as singer Nina Simone on NBC's "American Dreams."
Andrew Salomon from Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Global Leaders Meet at UN Over Africa's Development
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted on Monday a meeting that brought together international leaders with the aim to boost the development agenda of Africa, the only continent still not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Speaking to reporters after the second meeting of the MDG Africa Steering Group since last September, Ban struck a note of urgency and appealed for "concrete action" to help the continent achieve the MDGs.
"The fact that we are here together to speak with one voice on the MDGs underscores the urgency we see in taking concrete action to achieve goals in Africa," Ban said.
"We see important reasons to be optimistic," Ban said. "No new promises are needed to make 2008 the year of opportunity for the 'Bottom Billion'," a reference to the 1 billion people living on less than 1 U.S. dollar per day.
"Tremendous gains are possible if the international community translates commitment to deliverables," he said.
He pointed to examples of achievements made, such as Malawi's lowering of child mortality rates, Senegal's accomplishments in enhancing its water and sanitation facilities and Tanzania's improvements in primary education.
"The challenge is now to replicate these successes in more countries," he noted.
The MDG Africa Steering Group was set up last September in an effort to coordinate and redouble international efforts to support the MDGs across the African continent, after data showed that despite faster growth and strengthened institutions, Africa remains off-track to meeting the goals.
Besides the UN chief, participants at the meeting included leaders from the African Development Bank, the African Union (AU),the World Bank, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Islamic Development Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
During the meeting, the leaders reviewed a first set of draft recommendations from the MDG Africa Working Group, chaired by UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro and responsible for following through with the steering group's decisions and recommendations.
They identified several key programs that need to be implemented in the near future, including launching an African "Green Revolution" to speed up economic growth and tackle hunger, control infectious diseases, provide comprehensive AIDS treatment and deliver emergency obstetric care to all.
"To finance these programs, African countries need to mobilize domestic resources, and receive the support promised by development partners," he said.
Noting what the UN chief called a "lack of aid predictability," the steering group called on development partners to take measures to increase aid and enhance aid effectiveness.
They also noted "several pressing challenges," especially that of rising food prices which the UN chief said underscore "the pressing need to invest in raising agricultural productivity across Africa" and increase "the need for additional resources to fight malnutrition and hunger."
At least some 500 million U.S. dollars will be required to meet the most urgent needs, Ban said, calling for efforts aimed at "improving access to markets and reducing subsidies for agriculture in rich countries."
"Rapid progress is possible and needed in the Doha Round of trade negotiations, and we call on all participants to take the necessary decisions to move forward," Ban said.
A UN report released in mid-2007 showed that sub-Saharan Africa is not on track to achieve any of the MDGs, which aim to reduce by half the number of people living in extreme poverty, to promote gender equality and to improve the provision of food, water, sanitation, health and education, all by the year 2015.
Although there have been major gains in several areas and the goals remain achievable in most African nations, even the best governed countries on the continent have not been able to make sufficient progress in reducing extreme poverty in its many forms, said the report.
Intensifying its efforts to boost Africa's development, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution last week that designated a high-level meeting in September to take stock of the needs and challenges for the development of Africa.
The high-level event will be held "at the highest possible political level, including the participation of heads of state or government, ministers, special representatives and other representatives, as appropriate," according to the resolution, which was adopted by consensus.
from www.chinaview.cn
Speaking to reporters after the second meeting of the MDG Africa Steering Group since last September, Ban struck a note of urgency and appealed for "concrete action" to help the continent achieve the MDGs.
"The fact that we are here together to speak with one voice on the MDGs underscores the urgency we see in taking concrete action to achieve goals in Africa," Ban said.
"We see important reasons to be optimistic," Ban said. "No new promises are needed to make 2008 the year of opportunity for the 'Bottom Billion'," a reference to the 1 billion people living on less than 1 U.S. dollar per day.
"Tremendous gains are possible if the international community translates commitment to deliverables," he said.
He pointed to examples of achievements made, such as Malawi's lowering of child mortality rates, Senegal's accomplishments in enhancing its water and sanitation facilities and Tanzania's improvements in primary education.
"The challenge is now to replicate these successes in more countries," he noted.
The MDG Africa Steering Group was set up last September in an effort to coordinate and redouble international efforts to support the MDGs across the African continent, after data showed that despite faster growth and strengthened institutions, Africa remains off-track to meeting the goals.
Besides the UN chief, participants at the meeting included leaders from the African Development Bank, the African Union (AU),the World Bank, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Islamic Development Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
During the meeting, the leaders reviewed a first set of draft recommendations from the MDG Africa Working Group, chaired by UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro and responsible for following through with the steering group's decisions and recommendations.
They identified several key programs that need to be implemented in the near future, including launching an African "Green Revolution" to speed up economic growth and tackle hunger, control infectious diseases, provide comprehensive AIDS treatment and deliver emergency obstetric care to all.
"To finance these programs, African countries need to mobilize domestic resources, and receive the support promised by development partners," he said.
Noting what the UN chief called a "lack of aid predictability," the steering group called on development partners to take measures to increase aid and enhance aid effectiveness.
They also noted "several pressing challenges," especially that of rising food prices which the UN chief said underscore "the pressing need to invest in raising agricultural productivity across Africa" and increase "the need for additional resources to fight malnutrition and hunger."
At least some 500 million U.S. dollars will be required to meet the most urgent needs, Ban said, calling for efforts aimed at "improving access to markets and reducing subsidies for agriculture in rich countries."
"Rapid progress is possible and needed in the Doha Round of trade negotiations, and we call on all participants to take the necessary decisions to move forward," Ban said.
A UN report released in mid-2007 showed that sub-Saharan Africa is not on track to achieve any of the MDGs, which aim to reduce by half the number of people living in extreme poverty, to promote gender equality and to improve the provision of food, water, sanitation, health and education, all by the year 2015.
Although there have been major gains in several areas and the goals remain achievable in most African nations, even the best governed countries on the continent have not been able to make sufficient progress in reducing extreme poverty in its many forms, said the report.
Intensifying its efforts to boost Africa's development, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution last week that designated a high-level meeting in September to take stock of the needs and challenges for the development of Africa.
The high-level event will be held "at the highest possible political level, including the participation of heads of state or government, ministers, special representatives and other representatives, as appropriate," according to the resolution, which was adopted by consensus.
from www.chinaview.cn
Working African American Women Respond To Study
Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and Philadelphia's First Lady, Lisa Nutter are African American women who have power, influence and success, but a recent study says most black women in the U.S. are lagging behind women of other races.
"It's very hard, very hard," said Davonne Bay.
Davonne Bay, 25, is a single mother of two who attends East Stroudsburg University, works a part time job and is a legislative intern. She says she knows all too well the challenges some young black women face today.
"My Mom is a recovering addict, she just celebrated five years. She wasn't around when I was younger, growing up," said Bay.
The Urban League report says black women are more likely than white or Hispanic women to raise children and head a household.
"We don't have a lot of resources we need to educate these females and let them know there are other resources out there to help you get to a certain point," said Bay.
The struggles African American women face are not simply financial. The study says they have higher rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
North Philadelphia native Ursula Augustine now owns her own business, but says growing up; she had to brush off stereotypes.
"On a job application when you had to put your home address, that would always be the thing, 'Oh, your from North Philly.' Then when I would go into the interview and they would meet me and speak with me, they would say, 'Oh, you don't look like your from North Philly,'" Augustine said.
Augustine spends much of her free time speaking to young girls about the importance of education and self esteem things she says are essential for success.
"My blessing was growing up in North Philly," said Augustine, describing her attitude as, "I'm from North Philly, I make it happen."
From CBS3.com
"It's very hard, very hard," said Davonne Bay.
Davonne Bay, 25, is a single mother of two who attends East Stroudsburg University, works a part time job and is a legislative intern. She says she knows all too well the challenges some young black women face today.
"My Mom is a recovering addict, she just celebrated five years. She wasn't around when I was younger, growing up," said Bay.
The Urban League report says black women are more likely than white or Hispanic women to raise children and head a household.
"We don't have a lot of resources we need to educate these females and let them know there are other resources out there to help you get to a certain point," said Bay.
The struggles African American women face are not simply financial. The study says they have higher rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
North Philadelphia native Ursula Augustine now owns her own business, but says growing up; she had to brush off stereotypes.
"On a job application when you had to put your home address, that would always be the thing, 'Oh, your from North Philly.' Then when I would go into the interview and they would meet me and speak with me, they would say, 'Oh, you don't look like your from North Philly,'" Augustine said.
Augustine spends much of her free time speaking to young girls about the importance of education and self esteem things she says are essential for success.
"My blessing was growing up in North Philly," said Augustine, describing her attitude as, "I'm from North Philly, I make it happen."
From CBS3.com
Gossett at Bat for Negro Baseball Documentary
Former "Roots" star Louis Gossett Jr. has signed on as executive producer and narrator of a documentary about the Negro Baseball Leagues.
"The Untold Truth" focuses on the history of black baseball from 1865-1947, when Jackie Robinson became the first black baseball player in the major leagues.
The film's director, Gregg Champion, said the film will not only focus on the story of the Negro Baseball Leagues but also "how jazz and baseball came together, how women influenced baseball at that time and how the economics of baseball played into black Americans succeeding in all walks of life."
The filmmakers, who have an exclusive rights contract with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., plan to release the film during this year's World Series. A distribution deal has not been secured yet.
By Gail Schiller from Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
"The Untold Truth" focuses on the history of black baseball from 1865-1947, when Jackie Robinson became the first black baseball player in the major leagues.
The film's director, Gregg Champion, said the film will not only focus on the story of the Negro Baseball Leagues but also "how jazz and baseball came together, how women influenced baseball at that time and how the economics of baseball played into black Americans succeeding in all walks of life."
The filmmakers, who have an exclusive rights contract with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., plan to release the film during this year's World Series. A distribution deal has not been secured yet.
By Gail Schiller from Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Monday, March 10, 2008
UN Again Criticizes Treatment of Blacks Post-Katrina
With the second United Nations opinion in a week criticizing the government's treatment of black Hurricane Katrina victims, a group of New Orleans housing activists on Friday urged federal and local officials to save portions of the city's public housing projects from the wrecking ball.
"The United Nation's today for the second time has gone on record saying "What are you doing in New Orleans?" said Natalie Walker, co-director and attorney for Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, a public interest law firm. "We're not protecting human rights in the guise of this so-called recovery."
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokeswoman Donna White pointed out that nobody from the U.N.'s Geneva offices visited New Orleans.
"The view from the Alps is obviously different than the view from the Mississippi," she said in an E-mail. "Our plan is a vast improvement over the old paradigm of concentrating families in islands of poverty, a recipe for dependence and despair across generations."
The activists cited a statement by the U.N.'s International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted a "disparate impact that this natural disaster continues to have on low income African Americans" and called for local and federal governments to help people displaced by Katrina return.
The statement was among 46 opinions the committee issued on alleged racial discrimination worldwide. It was less pointed than the Feb. 28 opinion by U.N.-appointed experts Miloon Kothari, a U.N. investigator for housing, and Gay McDougall, an expert on minority issues. They called the treatment of blacks in Katrina's aftermath a human rights violation, saying "the spiraling costs of private housing and rental units, and in particular the demolition of public housing, puts these communities in further distress."
Neither opinion carries legal or regulatory power, but they have given housing advocates some standing to argue for a last-minute stop to the demolitions. The fate of the four complexes and the 4,500 units they comprise seems all but assured, with early stages of demolition occurring at some and permits holding up the process for others.
HUD says the units will be replaced with "mixed-income mixed-use" developments, which are built through Bush administration tax breaks for private developers. But the agency has not committed to a one-to-one replacement of the units and some estimates have found that only 18 percent of the units are slated for replacement.
The local arm of HUD, the Housing Authority of New Orleans, on Thursday publicized a self-commissioned survey. It found that 72 percent of former public housing residents wanted to return to New Orleans, but only 14 percent wanted to return to the four complexes slated for demolition.
But the advocates on Friday, including former public housing residents, called the survey questions a "false choice" that did not ask Katrina victims if they wanted to return to a refurbished version of their old unit with more open space and better inclusion in the city grid.
"Who would want to return to the public housing (conditions) pre-Katrina?" said Walter Gallas, of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who has argued for the old buildings to be saved and improved. "We don't want that either."
John Moreno Gonzales / Associated Press Writer
"The United Nation's today for the second time has gone on record saying "What are you doing in New Orleans?" said Natalie Walker, co-director and attorney for Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, a public interest law firm. "We're not protecting human rights in the guise of this so-called recovery."
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokeswoman Donna White pointed out that nobody from the U.N.'s Geneva offices visited New Orleans.
"The view from the Alps is obviously different than the view from the Mississippi," she said in an E-mail. "Our plan is a vast improvement over the old paradigm of concentrating families in islands of poverty, a recipe for dependence and despair across generations."
The activists cited a statement by the U.N.'s International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted a "disparate impact that this natural disaster continues to have on low income African Americans" and called for local and federal governments to help people displaced by Katrina return.
The statement was among 46 opinions the committee issued on alleged racial discrimination worldwide. It was less pointed than the Feb. 28 opinion by U.N.-appointed experts Miloon Kothari, a U.N. investigator for housing, and Gay McDougall, an expert on minority issues. They called the treatment of blacks in Katrina's aftermath a human rights violation, saying "the spiraling costs of private housing and rental units, and in particular the demolition of public housing, puts these communities in further distress."
Neither opinion carries legal or regulatory power, but they have given housing advocates some standing to argue for a last-minute stop to the demolitions. The fate of the four complexes and the 4,500 units they comprise seems all but assured, with early stages of demolition occurring at some and permits holding up the process for others.
HUD says the units will be replaced with "mixed-income mixed-use" developments, which are built through Bush administration tax breaks for private developers. But the agency has not committed to a one-to-one replacement of the units and some estimates have found that only 18 percent of the units are slated for replacement.
The local arm of HUD, the Housing Authority of New Orleans, on Thursday publicized a self-commissioned survey. It found that 72 percent of former public housing residents wanted to return to New Orleans, but only 14 percent wanted to return to the four complexes slated for demolition.
But the advocates on Friday, including former public housing residents, called the survey questions a "false choice" that did not ask Katrina victims if they wanted to return to a refurbished version of their old unit with more open space and better inclusion in the city grid.
"Who would want to return to the public housing (conditions) pre-Katrina?" said Walter Gallas, of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who has argued for the old buildings to be saved and improved. "We don't want that either."
John Moreno Gonzales / Associated Press Writer
Some Fear Rezoning Will Sap Harlem of Character
Harlem’s heart still beats strong on 125th Street, a lively thoroughfare where remnants of the neighborhood’s legendary past sit side-by-side with newly arrived banks and chain stores.
But as new development sprouts among the soul food restaurants, funky record stores and such landmarks as the Apollo Theater, Harlem’s main street — named one of the nation’s 10 greatest last year — is struggling to retain the character residents have cherished for decades.
On Monday, city officials are scheduled to vote on a massive rezoning plan for the corridor. The proposal would create condominiums, more performing arts space, hotels and a 21-story office tower with such high-profile tenants as Major League Baseball.
‘It will be a disaster’
Officials say the changes will revive a cultural identity that had been threatened by unregulated development. But many longtime residents fear a rezoned 125th Street will price them out of their homes and erode even more of their community.
“It will be a disaster,” said Sikhulu Shange, the owner of a 125th Street record store for more than three decades.
“People come to Harlem, they don’t come to see a McDonald’s. They don’t come to see a Burger King,” he said. “They want to come to places like The Record Shack, like Sylvia’s (the famed soul food restaurant), where they can come down and feel the atmosphere of Harlem. All these things, they are in danger.”
Many business leaders disagree with Shange’s take on the zoning proposal, which has been in the works for four years and would cover dozens of blocks.
The largest arts groups in the corridor have supported it. Jonelle Procope, president and CEO of the Apollo Theater Foundation, said the rezoning “demonstrates a true understanding of Harlem, where culture is not simply important, but fundamentally woven into the fabric of community.”
The plan offers developers incentives to create performing arts space by allowing them to build three square feet of space for every one square foot for the arts, said Planning Department spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff.
“We wanted to respect the heritage and respect the great heyday of the arts,” Raynoff said. “People used to come here to be entertained. We’re trying to have more Apollos.”
Concerns about height
City Council Member Inez Dickens, who represents central Harlem, has also largely supported the plan, which would require the council’s approval. Dickens has said fears that rezoning would create a high-rise district are unfounded. The plan, he noted, actually sets height limits for development that don’t exist now.
“If you had the resources and you could get a shovel into the ground before this rezoning, no one could stop you from building something so out of context, so out of character with the rest of the streetscape, you could pierce the very fabric of this village of Harlem,” Dickens said at a public hearing.
City planners will propose one exception to the height restriction: Harlem Park, the first large office tower to be built in Harlem in decades. Major League Baseball is a likely tenant and the city has offered millions in other economic incentives.
‘A village character’
Height is a main concern for Franc Perry, chairman of a Harlem community board. The neighborhood is one of the last business districts in New York to allow pedestrians unobstructed sky views, he said.
“It has a village character. You really do see people walking down the street saying hello to each other,” Perry said.
He said no building should rise higher “than the cap of the Hotel Theresa,” the landmark where Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Fidel Castro stayed and where Malcolm X held meetings of the Organization of Afro-American Unity after breaking from the Nation of Islam.
Perry and others also worry that allowing about 2,500 new apartments on the corridor would displace residents and threaten the street’s commercial feel. Raynoff said new residents would bring a customer base for the businesses.
Shange said denser development would dwarf his small storefront, where he has fought eviction for over a year. He said when he arrived in Harlem, his store selling Caribbean, African and gospel was one of 15 music stores.
“I’m the only one left now,” he said.
About 70 other small businesses with a history on the street feel similarly threatened, he said.
“The little bit we have, we are being dislocated. It doesn’t seem that there is anything we can do if they are successful,” Shange said. “The only thing which will help us is that this whole plan fails.”
From AP
But as new development sprouts among the soul food restaurants, funky record stores and such landmarks as the Apollo Theater, Harlem’s main street — named one of the nation’s 10 greatest last year — is struggling to retain the character residents have cherished for decades.
On Monday, city officials are scheduled to vote on a massive rezoning plan for the corridor. The proposal would create condominiums, more performing arts space, hotels and a 21-story office tower with such high-profile tenants as Major League Baseball.
‘It will be a disaster’
Officials say the changes will revive a cultural identity that had been threatened by unregulated development. But many longtime residents fear a rezoned 125th Street will price them out of their homes and erode even more of their community.
“It will be a disaster,” said Sikhulu Shange, the owner of a 125th Street record store for more than three decades.
“People come to Harlem, they don’t come to see a McDonald’s. They don’t come to see a Burger King,” he said. “They want to come to places like The Record Shack, like Sylvia’s (the famed soul food restaurant), where they can come down and feel the atmosphere of Harlem. All these things, they are in danger.”
Many business leaders disagree with Shange’s take on the zoning proposal, which has been in the works for four years and would cover dozens of blocks.
The largest arts groups in the corridor have supported it. Jonelle Procope, president and CEO of the Apollo Theater Foundation, said the rezoning “demonstrates a true understanding of Harlem, where culture is not simply important, but fundamentally woven into the fabric of community.”
The plan offers developers incentives to create performing arts space by allowing them to build three square feet of space for every one square foot for the arts, said Planning Department spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff.
“We wanted to respect the heritage and respect the great heyday of the arts,” Raynoff said. “People used to come here to be entertained. We’re trying to have more Apollos.”
Concerns about height
City Council Member Inez Dickens, who represents central Harlem, has also largely supported the plan, which would require the council’s approval. Dickens has said fears that rezoning would create a high-rise district are unfounded. The plan, he noted, actually sets height limits for development that don’t exist now.
“If you had the resources and you could get a shovel into the ground before this rezoning, no one could stop you from building something so out of context, so out of character with the rest of the streetscape, you could pierce the very fabric of this village of Harlem,” Dickens said at a public hearing.
City planners will propose one exception to the height restriction: Harlem Park, the first large office tower to be built in Harlem in decades. Major League Baseball is a likely tenant and the city has offered millions in other economic incentives.
‘A village character’
Height is a main concern for Franc Perry, chairman of a Harlem community board. The neighborhood is one of the last business districts in New York to allow pedestrians unobstructed sky views, he said.
“It has a village character. You really do see people walking down the street saying hello to each other,” Perry said.
He said no building should rise higher “than the cap of the Hotel Theresa,” the landmark where Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Fidel Castro stayed and where Malcolm X held meetings of the Organization of Afro-American Unity after breaking from the Nation of Islam.
Perry and others also worry that allowing about 2,500 new apartments on the corridor would displace residents and threaten the street’s commercial feel. Raynoff said new residents would bring a customer base for the businesses.
Shange said denser development would dwarf his small storefront, where he has fought eviction for over a year. He said when he arrived in Harlem, his store selling Caribbean, African and gospel was one of 15 music stores.
“I’m the only one left now,” he said.
About 70 other small businesses with a history on the street feel similarly threatened, he said.
“The little bit we have, we are being dislocated. It doesn’t seem that there is anything we can do if they are successful,” Shange said. “The only thing which will help us is that this whole plan fails.”
From AP
Africa: Americans Shouldn't Give Up on Africa
The news Americans hear about Africa these days is mostly bad – the periodic outbreak of violence, the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, runaway inflation in Zimbabwe, and the devastating impact of malaria and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
In addition to the crises of the moment, Africans face structural challenges unlike those faced by any other continent in the world everyday – chronic food insecurity, unsafe and inadequate water, preventable childhood diseases, infant and maternal mortality, an alarming increase in the number of orphans and vulnerable children, inadequate schools, cycles of drought and flooding, civil war, the devastation of HIV/Aids, lack of basic infrastructure and social services, and grinding poverty.
It is no wonder that some people ask, "Is there any hope for Africa?"
Yes, there is reason for hope. There is another Africa, an emerging Africa, that belies the dire news of the day. The trends are truly encouraging.
According to the United Nations Economic Report on Africa, Africa overall has enjoyed sustained economic growth over the recent past. In 2006 Africa's economies grew by more than five percent – their greatest expansion in eight years – and are projected to grow by seven percent this year, with Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania among the fastest-growing countries in the world. Across a broader comparison, Africa's economic growth has surpassed the average economic growth of Latin America (4.3 percent).
Africa's oil industry has emerged to become the most viable alternative supplier to that of the Middle East. Over the past few years, Africa has benefited from a significant oil boom, resulting both from large increases in oil prices and the substantial influx of investments in petroleum exploration and production. The U.S. alone derives 15 percent of its oil imports from Africa; China buys 28 percent of its oil from African countries, in particular Angola, Nigeria and Sudan.
The Bush administration has understood the importance of supporting a prosperous and stable African continent. Under President Bush's leadership, American development assistance to Africa has more than doubled – part of the largest expansion of development assistance since the Marshall Plan.
Plans are under way again to double these assistance levels over the next five years to fulfill the United States' G8 commitments. Having created the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), the Bush administration has seen to it that more than two-thirds of that account's $5.5 billion is being invested in Africa.
In short, America has become an investor, not just a donor. Private capital flows in general to sub-Saharan Africa now exceed development assistance.
In addition, investments in Africa have been made by the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which expects to mobilize a total of $1.6 billion in new capital. The Bush administration has suggested numerous other initiatives, such as the Africa Education Initiative, to distribute textbooks, train teachers, provide scholarships; and $15 billion for PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Reduction, the largest international health initiative in history to fight a single disease.
And these programs are getting results. As the President said before leaving for his recent trip to Africa, "Africa is increasingly vital to our strategic interests… Nations that replace disease and despair with healing and hope will help Africa do more than just survive – they will help Africa succeed."
There's an African proverb that says "No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come." I have lived and worked in Africa for more than 46 years and have never felt more hopeful about its future. I believe a new day is dawning across the continent.
Democracy in Africa is growing, with more than 50 democratic elections between 2001 and 2005. The impact of HIV/Aids and other infectious diseases is being lessened. The social and economic indicators listed above tell a promising story of energetic, resourceful, and forward-thinking nations.
Another recent sign of Africa's positive developments has been the successful outcome of the negotiations, led by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in building the basis of a coalition government in Kenya in which President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga will share political power. This outcome is a real triumph for democratic governance in Africa. It also speaks well of the continent's ability to find acceptable solutions to difficult political problems and may enable Kenya to finally come to grips with long-term ethnic problems that have threatened the country's stability over the past 30 years.
America is inextricably linked to this critical continent – through individual histories, though our deep and enduring commitment to justice and human needs and through our practical approach to business and security. We cannot afford to let the dark forces of radical Islam win over young hearts and minds for lack of a better future. We can't afford to let non-democratic nations such as China, through its less than well-conceived foreign policy towards Africa, destroy the burgeoning values of freedom, equality and independence. Our friends in Africa are working hard for change. Now is the time for our most steadfast support.
By Julius Coles for allafrica.com
Jules Coles is President of Africare, the largest and oldest African-American led organization focused solely on Africa.
In addition to the crises of the moment, Africans face structural challenges unlike those faced by any other continent in the world everyday – chronic food insecurity, unsafe and inadequate water, preventable childhood diseases, infant and maternal mortality, an alarming increase in the number of orphans and vulnerable children, inadequate schools, cycles of drought and flooding, civil war, the devastation of HIV/Aids, lack of basic infrastructure and social services, and grinding poverty.
It is no wonder that some people ask, "Is there any hope for Africa?"
Yes, there is reason for hope. There is another Africa, an emerging Africa, that belies the dire news of the day. The trends are truly encouraging.
According to the United Nations Economic Report on Africa, Africa overall has enjoyed sustained economic growth over the recent past. In 2006 Africa's economies grew by more than five percent – their greatest expansion in eight years – and are projected to grow by seven percent this year, with Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania among the fastest-growing countries in the world. Across a broader comparison, Africa's economic growth has surpassed the average economic growth of Latin America (4.3 percent).
Africa's oil industry has emerged to become the most viable alternative supplier to that of the Middle East. Over the past few years, Africa has benefited from a significant oil boom, resulting both from large increases in oil prices and the substantial influx of investments in petroleum exploration and production. The U.S. alone derives 15 percent of its oil imports from Africa; China buys 28 percent of its oil from African countries, in particular Angola, Nigeria and Sudan.
The Bush administration has understood the importance of supporting a prosperous and stable African continent. Under President Bush's leadership, American development assistance to Africa has more than doubled – part of the largest expansion of development assistance since the Marshall Plan.
Plans are under way again to double these assistance levels over the next five years to fulfill the United States' G8 commitments. Having created the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), the Bush administration has seen to it that more than two-thirds of that account's $5.5 billion is being invested in Africa.
In short, America has become an investor, not just a donor. Private capital flows in general to sub-Saharan Africa now exceed development assistance.
In addition, investments in Africa have been made by the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which expects to mobilize a total of $1.6 billion in new capital. The Bush administration has suggested numerous other initiatives, such as the Africa Education Initiative, to distribute textbooks, train teachers, provide scholarships; and $15 billion for PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Reduction, the largest international health initiative in history to fight a single disease.
And these programs are getting results. As the President said before leaving for his recent trip to Africa, "Africa is increasingly vital to our strategic interests… Nations that replace disease and despair with healing and hope will help Africa do more than just survive – they will help Africa succeed."
There's an African proverb that says "No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come." I have lived and worked in Africa for more than 46 years and have never felt more hopeful about its future. I believe a new day is dawning across the continent.
Democracy in Africa is growing, with more than 50 democratic elections between 2001 and 2005. The impact of HIV/Aids and other infectious diseases is being lessened. The social and economic indicators listed above tell a promising story of energetic, resourceful, and forward-thinking nations.
Another recent sign of Africa's positive developments has been the successful outcome of the negotiations, led by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in building the basis of a coalition government in Kenya in which President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga will share political power. This outcome is a real triumph for democratic governance in Africa. It also speaks well of the continent's ability to find acceptable solutions to difficult political problems and may enable Kenya to finally come to grips with long-term ethnic problems that have threatened the country's stability over the past 30 years.
America is inextricably linked to this critical continent – through individual histories, though our deep and enduring commitment to justice and human needs and through our practical approach to business and security. We cannot afford to let the dark forces of radical Islam win over young hearts and minds for lack of a better future. We can't afford to let non-democratic nations such as China, through its less than well-conceived foreign policy towards Africa, destroy the burgeoning values of freedom, equality and independence. Our friends in Africa are working hard for change. Now is the time for our most steadfast support.
By Julius Coles for allafrica.com
Jules Coles is President of Africare, the largest and oldest African-American led organization focused solely on Africa.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Affirmative Action Ban Heads for Ballot in 5 states
Come election time in November, voters in five states might have a decision to make as big as whom to elect president.
Ballot initiatives have been proposed in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma that would give voters the chance to decide whether they want to do away with affirmative action in government-funded projects and public schools.
Ward Connerly, who heads the American Civil Rights Coalition -- a nonprofit organization working to end racial and gender preferences -- and the main backer of the ballot initiatives, says the 37 word initiative would read: "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting."
"It would forbid any state or local agency or special district from engaging in preferential treatment," Connerly said. Watch what Connerly says about the initiative »
Connerly, who is of African-American and American Indian descent, said affirmative action causes resentment. He criticized cases in which a Caucasian student might be denied a college slot in favor of a black student with a lower grade-point average.
"It's foolish not to think that the kid who is turned away is not going to ... resent that," Connerly said.
Connerly, who grew up in Leesville, Louisiana, said he experienced oppression because of his skin color during his youth.
"If it was wrong when I was born in '39 ... it's wrong now," he said. "If it was wrong to do it against a brown-skinned man, it's wrong to do it against a white man."
Shanta Driver, National Director of United for Equality and Affirmative Action Legal Defense Fund -- an organization dedicated to integrating minority students in educational institutions -- said the ballot initiative is a mistake.
"It places us in the position of denying ... equal opportunity to blacks and Latinos," she said. Watch Driver explain her position on the initiative »
Driver and other affirmative action supporters believe this movement would erase the progress made since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
"It's obviously a huge step backwards," she said.
The ballot initiative, dubbed the Civil Rights Initiative, has already passed in California, Michigan and Washington.
Some 140,000 signed petitions have been submitted in Oklahoma. Backers in the remaining four states have until late March to early July to collect enough signatures for the initiative to be on the November ballot.
If successful, the ballot measures would cut off tax dollars for programs offering preferential treatment based on gender or race.
The issue may have some support in the Supreme Court.
In June, justices threw out public school choice plans that relied on race. That leaves many states uncertain about whether their affirmative action policies will stand up in court and against political scrutiny in this election year.
By Lindy Royce from CNN Washington Bureau
Ballot initiatives have been proposed in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma that would give voters the chance to decide whether they want to do away with affirmative action in government-funded projects and public schools.
Ward Connerly, who heads the American Civil Rights Coalition -- a nonprofit organization working to end racial and gender preferences -- and the main backer of the ballot initiatives, says the 37 word initiative would read: "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting."
"It would forbid any state or local agency or special district from engaging in preferential treatment," Connerly said. Watch what Connerly says about the initiative »
Connerly, who is of African-American and American Indian descent, said affirmative action causes resentment. He criticized cases in which a Caucasian student might be denied a college slot in favor of a black student with a lower grade-point average.
"It's foolish not to think that the kid who is turned away is not going to ... resent that," Connerly said.
Connerly, who grew up in Leesville, Louisiana, said he experienced oppression because of his skin color during his youth.
"If it was wrong when I was born in '39 ... it's wrong now," he said. "If it was wrong to do it against a brown-skinned man, it's wrong to do it against a white man."
Shanta Driver, National Director of United for Equality and Affirmative Action Legal Defense Fund -- an organization dedicated to integrating minority students in educational institutions -- said the ballot initiative is a mistake.
"It places us in the position of denying ... equal opportunity to blacks and Latinos," she said. Watch Driver explain her position on the initiative »
Driver and other affirmative action supporters believe this movement would erase the progress made since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
"It's obviously a huge step backwards," she said.
The ballot initiative, dubbed the Civil Rights Initiative, has already passed in California, Michigan and Washington.
Some 140,000 signed petitions have been submitted in Oklahoma. Backers in the remaining four states have until late March to early July to collect enough signatures for the initiative to be on the November ballot.
If successful, the ballot measures would cut off tax dollars for programs offering preferential treatment based on gender or race.
The issue may have some support in the Supreme Court.
In June, justices threw out public school choice plans that relied on race. That leaves many states uncertain about whether their affirmative action policies will stand up in court and against political scrutiny in this election year.
By Lindy Royce from CNN Washington Bureau
President of Malcolm X College Retires
March 31 will mark the end of a 16- year career at the helm of Malcolm X College for President Zerrie Campbell. “Although my season as president is ending, my heart swells with gratitude and pride for the many persons who have contributed to Malcolm X College's emergence as an educational force,” Campbell said.
“The College's successes are not mine alone, but are the result of the combined efforts of the Malcolm X College family of students, employees, our community partners and neighbors. I look forward to cheering on the college's continuing growth from the sidelines.”
In the nearly two decades she served as president, she has touched a lot of lives at Malcolm X, 1900 W. Van Buren St., including Tasha Holloway, 22, who will graduate in June with an associates degree in nursing. “I enjoy helping people, so I wanted a career that would allow me to help others in times of need,” Holloway said.
“But when I first came to Malcolm X, I wasn't sure what course of study to pursue. One day, while sitting in the student cafeteria, President Campbell came inside to get a pop from the machine and I just bluntly asked her, 'How can I help people and make money at the same?' She told me I should consider the medical field because there is a demand for jobs in that industry and it is a lot like teaching because you are helping people who sometimes may not want it even though they need it.”
Under her leadership as the first female president at a City Colleges of Chicago, Malcolm X received $12 million in federal grants to assist student access to higher education, said Wayne Watson, chancellor of CCC. Additionally, he said Malcolm X won three awards for excellence from the Illinois Community College Board in “Teaching and Learning; Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning; and Workforce Preparation. “Under Zerrie Campbell's leadership, Malcolm X College has become a nationally recognized community college.
Her commitment to quality postsecondary education has earned the college two consecutive 10-year accreditations from The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools,” he added. “President Campbell has been a role model - not only for African Americans or female presidents - but a role model for all presidents.
I commend her for her many accomplishments and thank her for the excellent educational opportunities she has provided to City Colleges' students and the community.” Her retirement next month will cap a 34-year education career that included working at several city colleges in Chicago. Campbell taught English at Malcolm X and Harold Washington College before becoming an administrator.
She also served as the associate vice chancellor of arts and sciences and vice president for academic affairs at CCC. And in 1992, she was part of a threeperson team named to manage the seven-college district prior to the appointment of former Chancellor Ronald Temple.
She earned a bachelor's degree in English and a master's in Secondary Professional Education at Northern Illinois University and a master's in English from Chicago State University. She was inducted into HistoryMakers in 2003.
by Wendell Hutson from Chicago Defender
“The College's successes are not mine alone, but are the result of the combined efforts of the Malcolm X College family of students, employees, our community partners and neighbors. I look forward to cheering on the college's continuing growth from the sidelines.”
In the nearly two decades she served as president, she has touched a lot of lives at Malcolm X, 1900 W. Van Buren St., including Tasha Holloway, 22, who will graduate in June with an associates degree in nursing. “I enjoy helping people, so I wanted a career that would allow me to help others in times of need,” Holloway said.
“But when I first came to Malcolm X, I wasn't sure what course of study to pursue. One day, while sitting in the student cafeteria, President Campbell came inside to get a pop from the machine and I just bluntly asked her, 'How can I help people and make money at the same?' She told me I should consider the medical field because there is a demand for jobs in that industry and it is a lot like teaching because you are helping people who sometimes may not want it even though they need it.”
Under her leadership as the first female president at a City Colleges of Chicago, Malcolm X received $12 million in federal grants to assist student access to higher education, said Wayne Watson, chancellor of CCC. Additionally, he said Malcolm X won three awards for excellence from the Illinois Community College Board in “Teaching and Learning; Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning; and Workforce Preparation. “Under Zerrie Campbell's leadership, Malcolm X College has become a nationally recognized community college.
Her commitment to quality postsecondary education has earned the college two consecutive 10-year accreditations from The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools,” he added. “President Campbell has been a role model - not only for African Americans or female presidents - but a role model for all presidents.
I commend her for her many accomplishments and thank her for the excellent educational opportunities she has provided to City Colleges' students and the community.” Her retirement next month will cap a 34-year education career that included working at several city colleges in Chicago. Campbell taught English at Malcolm X and Harold Washington College before becoming an administrator.
She also served as the associate vice chancellor of arts and sciences and vice president for academic affairs at CCC. And in 1992, she was part of a threeperson team named to manage the seven-college district prior to the appointment of former Chancellor Ronald Temple.
She earned a bachelor's degree in English and a master's in Secondary Professional Education at Northern Illinois University and a master's in English from Chicago State University. She was inducted into HistoryMakers in 2003.
by Wendell Hutson from Chicago Defender
South Africa Ripe for Black Business Growth Potential
In the mist of endless sunshine, fresh produce, and glowing brown faces, I spent much of my four-month stay in sub-Saharan Africa exploring the many opportunities I saw to make money.
Contrary to the perception of Africa as a perpetual mess–too poor, politically corrupt, and AIDS-ridden to offer economic opportunity– many African nations are experiencing the best economic growth in years.
According to a 2007 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce, sub-Saharan African countries grew by 5.3 percent, a number higher than the world average. “At this rate, Africa's poverty rate could halve by 2015.
Take India and China out of the equation, and sub-Saharan Africa is actually growing faster than Asia,” SeekingAlpha.com, a provider of stock market opinion and analysis, reported.
While the West virtually ignores Africa–currently, only 1 percent of the private capital in the world is invested in sub-Saharan Africa–China has aggressively increased its presence on the continent. In 2006, trade between China and Africa soared by 40 percent to a record $55.5 billion, according to SeekingAlpha.com.
In her cozy home in Johannesburg, South Africa, I spoke with Monica Faith Stewart, a Chicago native and former Illinois state senator who is now the Managing Director of the State of Illinois Africa Office of Trade and Investment. Stewart first came to South Africa in 1994 as an international observer for the country's first democratic election.
Nelson Mandela was among the candidates for South Africa’s presidency. “One of the most important experiences I had was being involved in Harold Washington's election. There were lots of parallels with Nelson Mandela. When I came [to South Africa] it was the same 'keep hope alive' kind of sensation. It was overwhelming to look as far as I could see–Black people lined up to vote.
The chance to be in a real transition, I couldn't pass up,” said Stewart. After Mandela's election Stewart returned to South Africa. She kept her foot in both worlds, lobbying South Africa's Parliament on behalf of Chicago-based clients. In 2000, Stewart became Managing Director of the Africa branch of the revitalized Illinois Office of Trade and Investment. Originally established in 1965, the OTI helps Illinois companies identify new markets and locate distribution channels for their products and services abroad.
Today, the OTI has 10 foreign offices across the globe. Multi-national companies based in Ilinois such as Abbott Labs, John Deere, Caterpillar, Motorola, and Boeing, help make the state the sixth largest exporting one in the nation. In 2007, the OTI reported Illinois exports to Africa totaled $846 million, an increase of 46 percent from 2005.
Top sectors include machinery, chemicals, computer and electronic products, transportation equipment, fabricated metal components, and food and kindred products, the agency reported. “For most American companies, South Africa represents the gateway to Africa. It offers comfortable and familiar infrastructure and banking systems,” Stewart said. South Africa now accounts for 67 percent of economic activity between Illinois and Africa, according to OTI.
Although American corporate presence is slowly increasing in Africa, Black-owned companies don't have strong representation. For Stewart, change begins with a visit. “People often can't believe what they're seeing,” Stewart said of the frequent visitors she receives. “Americans are notoriously ignorant about Africa.
But like Africa suffers terribly from negative perception, we suffer from negative self-conception tied to our ideas about where we come from.” Stewart exclaims, “If African Americans were a separate nation we'd have nearly the same purchasing power as the entire African continent. It is important for the sons and daughters of Africa to come home and make a contribution. African Americans have a lot to offer.
And, there is satisfaction in demonstrating a connection between African Americans and Africa.” For companies interested in doing business in Africa, Stewart suggests first researching the markets. “Get on the Internet and learn about this market. There are opportunities and you get a higher return.” Stewart’s assertion is supported by MoneyWeek.com.
The Web site indicates that Africa currently offers the highest returns on foreign and direct investment of any region in the world. And African companies are some of the most profitable and fastest growing, according to the site. For small and medium sized businesses, Stewart recommends finding a local partner. “If business people think they have a marketable product or service, find a joint venture partner in the new market.
There is a wealth of opportunities for Black contractors selling building materials, engineers, and in communications technology.” Partnering with a Black Economic Empowerment company may enhance chances of obtaining large contracts and finance. According to BEE regulations, businesses must have a set percentage of previously disadvantaged people (Black South Africans) in management, shareholding and partnerships.
Much like affirmative action in the United States, South Africa organizations must comply with BEE regulations to qualify for several economic incentives or obtain government contracts. In addition, South Africa offers attractive incentives geared toward foreigners who want to invest or open a business in South Africa.
The African nation’s Department of Trade and Industry offers non-tax grants in the form of below average interest rates on business loans, utility allowances for larger companies, tax deductions, and allowances for initial setup or relocation costs. Stewart also suggested looking to South Africa for career opportunities. “There is a real need for technical skills-in agriculture, engineering, industrial and environmental fields,” she said.
by Ayana Haarun from Chicago Defender
Contrary to the perception of Africa as a perpetual mess–too poor, politically corrupt, and AIDS-ridden to offer economic opportunity– many African nations are experiencing the best economic growth in years.
According to a 2007 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce, sub-Saharan African countries grew by 5.3 percent, a number higher than the world average. “At this rate, Africa's poverty rate could halve by 2015.
Take India and China out of the equation, and sub-Saharan Africa is actually growing faster than Asia,” SeekingAlpha.com, a provider of stock market opinion and analysis, reported.
While the West virtually ignores Africa–currently, only 1 percent of the private capital in the world is invested in sub-Saharan Africa–China has aggressively increased its presence on the continent. In 2006, trade between China and Africa soared by 40 percent to a record $55.5 billion, according to SeekingAlpha.com.
In her cozy home in Johannesburg, South Africa, I spoke with Monica Faith Stewart, a Chicago native and former Illinois state senator who is now the Managing Director of the State of Illinois Africa Office of Trade and Investment. Stewart first came to South Africa in 1994 as an international observer for the country's first democratic election.
Nelson Mandela was among the candidates for South Africa’s presidency. “One of the most important experiences I had was being involved in Harold Washington's election. There were lots of parallels with Nelson Mandela. When I came [to South Africa] it was the same 'keep hope alive' kind of sensation. It was overwhelming to look as far as I could see–Black people lined up to vote.
The chance to be in a real transition, I couldn't pass up,” said Stewart. After Mandela's election Stewart returned to South Africa. She kept her foot in both worlds, lobbying South Africa's Parliament on behalf of Chicago-based clients. In 2000, Stewart became Managing Director of the Africa branch of the revitalized Illinois Office of Trade and Investment. Originally established in 1965, the OTI helps Illinois companies identify new markets and locate distribution channels for their products and services abroad.
Today, the OTI has 10 foreign offices across the globe. Multi-national companies based in Ilinois such as Abbott Labs, John Deere, Caterpillar, Motorola, and Boeing, help make the state the sixth largest exporting one in the nation. In 2007, the OTI reported Illinois exports to Africa totaled $846 million, an increase of 46 percent from 2005.
Top sectors include machinery, chemicals, computer and electronic products, transportation equipment, fabricated metal components, and food and kindred products, the agency reported. “For most American companies, South Africa represents the gateway to Africa. It offers comfortable and familiar infrastructure and banking systems,” Stewart said. South Africa now accounts for 67 percent of economic activity between Illinois and Africa, according to OTI.
Although American corporate presence is slowly increasing in Africa, Black-owned companies don't have strong representation. For Stewart, change begins with a visit. “People often can't believe what they're seeing,” Stewart said of the frequent visitors she receives. “Americans are notoriously ignorant about Africa.
But like Africa suffers terribly from negative perception, we suffer from negative self-conception tied to our ideas about where we come from.” Stewart exclaims, “If African Americans were a separate nation we'd have nearly the same purchasing power as the entire African continent. It is important for the sons and daughters of Africa to come home and make a contribution. African Americans have a lot to offer.
And, there is satisfaction in demonstrating a connection between African Americans and Africa.” For companies interested in doing business in Africa, Stewart suggests first researching the markets. “Get on the Internet and learn about this market. There are opportunities and you get a higher return.” Stewart’s assertion is supported by MoneyWeek.com.
The Web site indicates that Africa currently offers the highest returns on foreign and direct investment of any region in the world. And African companies are some of the most profitable and fastest growing, according to the site. For small and medium sized businesses, Stewart recommends finding a local partner. “If business people think they have a marketable product or service, find a joint venture partner in the new market.
There is a wealth of opportunities for Black contractors selling building materials, engineers, and in communications technology.” Partnering with a Black Economic Empowerment company may enhance chances of obtaining large contracts and finance. According to BEE regulations, businesses must have a set percentage of previously disadvantaged people (Black South Africans) in management, shareholding and partnerships.
Much like affirmative action in the United States, South Africa organizations must comply with BEE regulations to qualify for several economic incentives or obtain government contracts. In addition, South Africa offers attractive incentives geared toward foreigners who want to invest or open a business in South Africa.
The African nation’s Department of Trade and Industry offers non-tax grants in the form of below average interest rates on business loans, utility allowances for larger companies, tax deductions, and allowances for initial setup or relocation costs. Stewart also suggested looking to South Africa for career opportunities. “There is a real need for technical skills-in agriculture, engineering, industrial and environmental fields,” she said.
by Ayana Haarun from Chicago Defender
Friday, March 7, 2008
Promising Young Athelete Jamiel Shaw Jr. Gunned Down
Jamiel Shaw's "18-year plan" for his son was beautifully simple: stay in school, make the grades, stay out of trouble and go off to a college far away from their gang-infested neighborhood.
The plan was working to perfection. Two months past his 17th birthday, Jamiel Shaw Jr. had stayed out of gangs, was a solid student and standout athlete. An ultra-quick running back who led his high school's football team to a Southern League title, he was attracting scholarship attention from Stanford, Rutgers and other schools.
Two gunshots ended the plan, and Jamiel Jr.'s life.
"I thought everything that I was doing was going to keep him from this," his father said, choking back tears.
The boy was shot Sunday night on a sidewalk just a few doors from home, close enough for Jamiel Sr. to hear the gunfire. He ran outside and found his mortally wounded son in a pool of blood.
Several Los Angeles neighborhoods are experiencing a spate of gang violence. In the last two weeks, police engaged in a gunbattle with a carload of alleged gang members after a man was shot as he walked with a child; eight people — five of them children — were wounded when a man fired into a crowd near a bus stop; and a 6-year-old boy was shot in the head and critically wounded while riding in a car with his family.
"What's particularly unnerving for all of us is the random nature of these shootings," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday, noting that a "cloak of fear" has spread across parts of the city.
Police Chief William Bratton acknowledged the spike in gang crime and said he's responding the same way he did in 2002, the last time there was such violence. He's "putting cops on the dots" — meaning flooding crime hot spots with officers.
Villaraigosa is calling for the hiring of at least 400 more officers in the next two years to push the department total to 10,000.
Homicides on the rise
Los Angeles has recorded 74 homicides this year, a 27 percent increase from the same time last year. Still, Bratton said overall crime is down, as are gang-related homicides — from 28 last year to 22 so far this year.
That statistic doesn't mean much to Jamiel Jr.'s friends and relatives, who remembered him as a happy, friendly teen. "He always used to have a smile on his face," said Colletti Scorza, 18, who was Jamiel's track-and-field training partner.
Jamiel's mother, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, was on her second tour in Iraq and flew home to bury her son.
Jamiel, who was black, was killed by Hispanic gang members who asked him what gang he belonged to, then shot him when he didn't answer, police and witnesses said. No arrests have been made.
The 6-year-old boy shot in his family's car also is black. Two men, both Hispanic, have been arrested. Witnesses said the assailants flashed gang signs before opening fire.
Bratton described the area where the 6-year-old was shot as "under the influence of a Latino gang" but rejected the idea that the recent violence is racially motivated.
He said hate crimes would be prosecuted if evidence suggests race was a component. But he bristled at a news conference Wednesday when asked if recent shootings were indicative of wider racial problems.
"There are several, unfortunately, among you who every time we have one of these incidents want to make more out of it than it is," Bratton said.
Latino migration creates tension
Hispanics constitute about half of Los Angeles' nearly 4 million residents. As the population has surged, Latinos have moved into traditionally black neighborhoods, sometimes creating tension.
Joe Hicks, vice president of Community Advocates Inc. and former executive director of the city's Human Relations Commission, said race is one part of the complex gang problem.
"There seems to be some reticence to talk about what is taking place," Hicks said. "There certainly appears to be a racialized component."
Jamiel Shaw Sr. doesn't think race was a factor in his son's death, noting the boy had many Hispanic friends, some of them on the Los Angeles High School football team.
At a candlelight vigil attended by about 200 friends, family members and neighbors, the grieving father pleaded for an end to the violence.
"We are so occupied with this black-and-brown crap that nobody is dealing with the gangs," he said. "We don't have no problem with black and brown. What we've got to do is focus our attention on the gangs."
--AP
The plan was working to perfection. Two months past his 17th birthday, Jamiel Shaw Jr. had stayed out of gangs, was a solid student and standout athlete. An ultra-quick running back who led his high school's football team to a Southern League title, he was attracting scholarship attention from Stanford, Rutgers and other schools.
Two gunshots ended the plan, and Jamiel Jr.'s life.
"I thought everything that I was doing was going to keep him from this," his father said, choking back tears.
The boy was shot Sunday night on a sidewalk just a few doors from home, close enough for Jamiel Sr. to hear the gunfire. He ran outside and found his mortally wounded son in a pool of blood.
Several Los Angeles neighborhoods are experiencing a spate of gang violence. In the last two weeks, police engaged in a gunbattle with a carload of alleged gang members after a man was shot as he walked with a child; eight people — five of them children — were wounded when a man fired into a crowd near a bus stop; and a 6-year-old boy was shot in the head and critically wounded while riding in a car with his family.
"What's particularly unnerving for all of us is the random nature of these shootings," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday, noting that a "cloak of fear" has spread across parts of the city.
Police Chief William Bratton acknowledged the spike in gang crime and said he's responding the same way he did in 2002, the last time there was such violence. He's "putting cops on the dots" — meaning flooding crime hot spots with officers.
Villaraigosa is calling for the hiring of at least 400 more officers in the next two years to push the department total to 10,000.
Homicides on the rise
Los Angeles has recorded 74 homicides this year, a 27 percent increase from the same time last year. Still, Bratton said overall crime is down, as are gang-related homicides — from 28 last year to 22 so far this year.
That statistic doesn't mean much to Jamiel Jr.'s friends and relatives, who remembered him as a happy, friendly teen. "He always used to have a smile on his face," said Colletti Scorza, 18, who was Jamiel's track-and-field training partner.
Jamiel's mother, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, was on her second tour in Iraq and flew home to bury her son.
Jamiel, who was black, was killed by Hispanic gang members who asked him what gang he belonged to, then shot him when he didn't answer, police and witnesses said. No arrests have been made.
The 6-year-old boy shot in his family's car also is black. Two men, both Hispanic, have been arrested. Witnesses said the assailants flashed gang signs before opening fire.
Bratton described the area where the 6-year-old was shot as "under the influence of a Latino gang" but rejected the idea that the recent violence is racially motivated.
He said hate crimes would be prosecuted if evidence suggests race was a component. But he bristled at a news conference Wednesday when asked if recent shootings were indicative of wider racial problems.
"There are several, unfortunately, among you who every time we have one of these incidents want to make more out of it than it is," Bratton said.
Latino migration creates tension
Hispanics constitute about half of Los Angeles' nearly 4 million residents. As the population has surged, Latinos have moved into traditionally black neighborhoods, sometimes creating tension.
Joe Hicks, vice president of Community Advocates Inc. and former executive director of the city's Human Relations Commission, said race is one part of the complex gang problem.
"There seems to be some reticence to talk about what is taking place," Hicks said. "There certainly appears to be a racialized component."
Jamiel Shaw Sr. doesn't think race was a factor in his son's death, noting the boy had many Hispanic friends, some of them on the Los Angeles High School football team.
At a candlelight vigil attended by about 200 friends, family members and neighbors, the grieving father pleaded for an end to the violence.
"We are so occupied with this black-and-brown crap that nobody is dealing with the gangs," he said. "We don't have no problem with black and brown. What we've got to do is focus our attention on the gangs."
--AP
Tons of Food Aid Rotting in Haiti Ports
While millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of food are stacking up in the nation's ports because of government red tape — leaving tons of beans, rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be devoured by vermin.
A government attempt to clean up a corrupt port system that has helped make Haiti a major conduit for Colombian cocaine has added new layers of bureaucracy — and led to backlogs so severe they are being felt 600 miles away in Miami, where cargo shipments to Haiti have ground almost to a standstill.
The problems are depriving desperate people of donated food. Some are so poor they are forced to eat cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable oil to satisfy their hunger.
An Associated Press investigation found the situation is most severe in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city. One recent afternoon, garbage men shoveled a pile of rotting pinto beans that had turned gray and crumbled to dust as cockroaches and beetles scurried about.
The men had found the putrid cargo by following a stench through stacked shipping containers to one holding 40,000 pounds of beans. It had been in port since November.
"So many times, by the time (the food) gets out of customs it's expired and we're forced to burn it," said Susie Scott Krabacher, whose Colorado-based Mercy and Sharing Foundation has worked in Haiti for 14 years. "The food is there. It is available. It just can't get to the people."
Though it is unclear how much of Haiti's food supply is tied up in the port delays, the effects could be serious. Haiti imports about 75 percent of its food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And there is little room for error in a country where the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that almost half the population was undernourished in 2002.
The U.N. World Food Program and large-scale U.S. rice growers say they have been able to get their food into Haiti by hiring local agents to handle bureaucratic procedures. But smaller charities, merchants and private citizens have often been forced by the delays to throw away containers of food or pay exorbitant fees.
The problems stem in part from efforts to clean up a port system the World Bank recently ranked as the second-worst in the region, ahead of only Guyana.
Before the changes were implemented last fall, bribes flowed freely and goods passed through unsearched and without duties being paid. That deprived the government of money and helped make Haiti a major transshipment point for Colombian cocaine destined for the United States.
The international community has encouraged Haiti's customs reform efforts, with the U.S. government helping fund port security and U.N. peacekeepers stepping up anti-smuggling patrols along the coast and Dominican border.
But new requirements for licenses and manifests in triplicate have overwhelmed poorly trained workers and the country's archaic, handwritten customs system.
Unlike U.S. ports, where less than 5 percent of containers were scanned last year and only a fraction of those opened up and inspected, Haitian cargo handlers said each container at Cap-Haitien must now be completely emptied and inspected. Customs chief Jean-Jacques Valentin said that policy was Haiti's own decision.
Frustrated by the new procedures and demanding higher pay, striking workers shut down the port at Cap-Haitien for 20 days in December. Graffiti denouncing the port's director still mars its buildings.
And despite the reforms, some say the bribes are continuing.
Jean-Paul Michaud, a Canadian, said he sailed to the capital of Port-au-Prince late last year carrying 60 pounds of donated clothing and medicine — and that port authorities demanded $10,000 in "customs fees" — code for a bribe to make the fees disappear.
"I'd have rather thrown the aid in the water," said Michaud. The Canadian Embassy intervened and the fee was later waived.
Krabacher's group says it has paid nearly $16,000 in fees in the first six weeks of 2008 alone, compared to $23,418 for all of 2007.
Lawmakers concerned about the situation questioned Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis about the port delays during a February no-confidence vote.
"There is a lot of work being done in terms of the ports," Alexis maintained. "We are looking at a way to implement a 'fast-track' policy, so people can get their merchandise out more quickly."
He also recommended splitting the National Port Authority into two agencies, one focusing on the logistics of port management and the other overseeing customs because he does not believe the current agency can handle both tasks.
Haitian President Rene Preval echoed those concerns in a speech to parliament in January, calling for a crackdown on illegal contraband and a lowering of exorbitant container fees that are three times higher than those in neighboring Dominican Republic.
While lawmakers haggle over the answers, precious food rots by the ton.
After opening the door of the orange container filled with rotting beans last month, the workers were hit by a revolting smell. They let the odor dissipate for a week before spending two days loading the beans into a flatbed truck and hauling them away for disposal.
The garbage collectors grumbled about the waste, with one saying he wished he could have taken the beans to his neighborhood before they rotted. The workers then went in search of a container loaded with spoiling rice.
Dimitri Torres, the director of container-handler Cap Terminal SA., said he doesn't even know who shipped the beans. They had already been transferred from one container to another during inspection and the shipping documents had disappeared.
Valentin, the customs chief, blames the backlog on shippers who are trying to skirt the new system. He said some intended to smuggle items into Haiti and avoid customs duties.
"They are people that weren't straight with not bringing contraband, and that's why they're making excuses and that's why things are slow," Valentin said.
Cap Terminal normally has about 50 containers at its yard next to the port, Torres said. More than 200 are now stacked up, at least half belonging to Miami-based Frontier Liner Services.
That company, like several others, has stopped shipping to Haiti until the delays are resolved and its empty containers are returned. Haiti-bound cargo traffic in Florida's Miami River is at a virtual standstill.
"We've had to lay off people," said Munir Mourra, president of Miami-based River Terminal Services. "Pretty much all the stevedores on the vessels have been laid off."
By JONATHAN M. KATZ and JENNIFER KAY from AP
A government attempt to clean up a corrupt port system that has helped make Haiti a major conduit for Colombian cocaine has added new layers of bureaucracy — and led to backlogs so severe they are being felt 600 miles away in Miami, where cargo shipments to Haiti have ground almost to a standstill.
The problems are depriving desperate people of donated food. Some are so poor they are forced to eat cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable oil to satisfy their hunger.
An Associated Press investigation found the situation is most severe in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city. One recent afternoon, garbage men shoveled a pile of rotting pinto beans that had turned gray and crumbled to dust as cockroaches and beetles scurried about.
The men had found the putrid cargo by following a stench through stacked shipping containers to one holding 40,000 pounds of beans. It had been in port since November.
"So many times, by the time (the food) gets out of customs it's expired and we're forced to burn it," said Susie Scott Krabacher, whose Colorado-based Mercy and Sharing Foundation has worked in Haiti for 14 years. "The food is there. It is available. It just can't get to the people."
Though it is unclear how much of Haiti's food supply is tied up in the port delays, the effects could be serious. Haiti imports about 75 percent of its food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And there is little room for error in a country where the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that almost half the population was undernourished in 2002.
The U.N. World Food Program and large-scale U.S. rice growers say they have been able to get their food into Haiti by hiring local agents to handle bureaucratic procedures. But smaller charities, merchants and private citizens have often been forced by the delays to throw away containers of food or pay exorbitant fees.
The problems stem in part from efforts to clean up a port system the World Bank recently ranked as the second-worst in the region, ahead of only Guyana.
Before the changes were implemented last fall, bribes flowed freely and goods passed through unsearched and without duties being paid. That deprived the government of money and helped make Haiti a major transshipment point for Colombian cocaine destined for the United States.
The international community has encouraged Haiti's customs reform efforts, with the U.S. government helping fund port security and U.N. peacekeepers stepping up anti-smuggling patrols along the coast and Dominican border.
But new requirements for licenses and manifests in triplicate have overwhelmed poorly trained workers and the country's archaic, handwritten customs system.
Unlike U.S. ports, where less than 5 percent of containers were scanned last year and only a fraction of those opened up and inspected, Haitian cargo handlers said each container at Cap-Haitien must now be completely emptied and inspected. Customs chief Jean-Jacques Valentin said that policy was Haiti's own decision.
Frustrated by the new procedures and demanding higher pay, striking workers shut down the port at Cap-Haitien for 20 days in December. Graffiti denouncing the port's director still mars its buildings.
And despite the reforms, some say the bribes are continuing.
Jean-Paul Michaud, a Canadian, said he sailed to the capital of Port-au-Prince late last year carrying 60 pounds of donated clothing and medicine — and that port authorities demanded $10,000 in "customs fees" — code for a bribe to make the fees disappear.
"I'd have rather thrown the aid in the water," said Michaud. The Canadian Embassy intervened and the fee was later waived.
Krabacher's group says it has paid nearly $16,000 in fees in the first six weeks of 2008 alone, compared to $23,418 for all of 2007.
Lawmakers concerned about the situation questioned Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis about the port delays during a February no-confidence vote.
"There is a lot of work being done in terms of the ports," Alexis maintained. "We are looking at a way to implement a 'fast-track' policy, so people can get their merchandise out more quickly."
He also recommended splitting the National Port Authority into two agencies, one focusing on the logistics of port management and the other overseeing customs because he does not believe the current agency can handle both tasks.
Haitian President Rene Preval echoed those concerns in a speech to parliament in January, calling for a crackdown on illegal contraband and a lowering of exorbitant container fees that are three times higher than those in neighboring Dominican Republic.
While lawmakers haggle over the answers, precious food rots by the ton.
After opening the door of the orange container filled with rotting beans last month, the workers were hit by a revolting smell. They let the odor dissipate for a week before spending two days loading the beans into a flatbed truck and hauling them away for disposal.
The garbage collectors grumbled about the waste, with one saying he wished he could have taken the beans to his neighborhood before they rotted. The workers then went in search of a container loaded with spoiling rice.
Dimitri Torres, the director of container-handler Cap Terminal SA., said he doesn't even know who shipped the beans. They had already been transferred from one container to another during inspection and the shipping documents had disappeared.
Valentin, the customs chief, blames the backlog on shippers who are trying to skirt the new system. He said some intended to smuggle items into Haiti and avoid customs duties.
"They are people that weren't straight with not bringing contraband, and that's why they're making excuses and that's why things are slow," Valentin said.
Cap Terminal normally has about 50 containers at its yard next to the port, Torres said. More than 200 are now stacked up, at least half belonging to Miami-based Frontier Liner Services.
That company, like several others, has stopped shipping to Haiti until the delays are resolved and its empty containers are returned. Haiti-bound cargo traffic in Florida's Miami River is at a virtual standstill.
"We've had to lay off people," said Munir Mourra, president of Miami-based River Terminal Services. "Pretty much all the stevedores on the vessels have been laid off."
By JONATHAN M. KATZ and JENNIFER KAY from AP
Zimbabwe Shuts Door on Western Election Observers
Zimbabwe's government will not invite observers from countries critical of President Robert Mugabe's rule to monitor a general election due later this month, a government official said.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper on Friday quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi as telling diplomats in Harare that the government had selected 47 foreign observer teams, "on the basis of reciprocity, objectivity and impartiality in their relationship with Zimbabwe."
"Clearly, those who believe that the only free and fair election is where the opposition wins, have been excluded since the ruling party, ZANU-PF, is poised to score yet another triumph," Mumbengegwi said.
The southern African country -- in the middle of a severe economic and political crisis -- votes on March 29 in presidential, parliamentary and council elections.
The most important contest will be between Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, former ally Simba Makoni and old rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Critics say Mugabe has rigged elections since 2000 to cling to power. The veteran leader denies the charge.
The Herald said Russia was the only European country invited while 23 African and several Asian nations would also monitor the polls, along with teams from regional economic blocs.
Mumbengegwi said all diplomats, including those from the West, accredited to Zimbabwe on a full-time basis could observe the polls.
"Only those diplomats who are accredited on a full time basis -- and not those on temporary assignment -- and wish to observe the March elections, will be granted accreditation upon their request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.
Zimbabwe's government frequently accuses Western countries, especially Britain and the United States, of plotting to unseat Mugabe, mainly over his seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.
Analysts say an economic crisis marked by the highest inflation rate in the world at above 100,000 percent and shortages of food, fuel, and electricity had increased pressure on Mugabe but he could still claim victory aginst a divided opposition.
From Reuters
The state-controlled Herald newspaper on Friday quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi as telling diplomats in Harare that the government had selected 47 foreign observer teams, "on the basis of reciprocity, objectivity and impartiality in their relationship with Zimbabwe."
"Clearly, those who believe that the only free and fair election is where the opposition wins, have been excluded since the ruling party, ZANU-PF, is poised to score yet another triumph," Mumbengegwi said.
The southern African country -- in the middle of a severe economic and political crisis -- votes on March 29 in presidential, parliamentary and council elections.
The most important contest will be between Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, former ally Simba Makoni and old rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Critics say Mugabe has rigged elections since 2000 to cling to power. The veteran leader denies the charge.
The Herald said Russia was the only European country invited while 23 African and several Asian nations would also monitor the polls, along with teams from regional economic blocs.
Mumbengegwi said all diplomats, including those from the West, accredited to Zimbabwe on a full-time basis could observe the polls.
"Only those diplomats who are accredited on a full time basis -- and not those on temporary assignment -- and wish to observe the March elections, will be granted accreditation upon their request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.
Zimbabwe's government frequently accuses Western countries, especially Britain and the United States, of plotting to unseat Mugabe, mainly over his seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.
Analysts say an economic crisis marked by the highest inflation rate in the world at above 100,000 percent and shortages of food, fuel, and electricity had increased pressure on Mugabe but he could still claim victory aginst a divided opposition.
From Reuters
Thursday, March 6, 2008
US Pushes for Deployment of Darfur Force
The United States has called for a new initiative to get a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force on the ground in Darfur, where the 5-year conflict has escalated and malnutrition is rising.
Ambassador Richard Williamson, who took over in January as President Bush's special envoy to Sudan, said countries that are "friends" of the African Union-United Nations force would meet Thursday at U.N. headquarters for the first time to start tackling obstacles to deployment of the hybrid force known as UNAMID.
"Given the humanitarian suffering, given the instability and violence that's going on, its way past time for talk. We have to have action including accelerating deployment of UNAMID troops on the ground," Williamson told reporters Wednesday after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Sudan's Arab-dominated government has been accused of unleashing the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads to commit atrocities against ethnic African communities in the country's western Darfur region as part of a fight with rebel groups. At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.2 million displaced since the fighting began five years ago.
The AU-U.N. force for Darfur is authorized to have 26,000 troops and police, but Ban said only about 7,500 military personnel and 1,500 police officers were in Darfur as of Jan. 31. He appealed to all countries that have pledged troops to expedite their deployment — reiterated an appeal for critically needed helicopters.
At Sudan's insistence, the U.N. Security Council agreed that the force would be predominantly African. But the Sudanese government has refused to approve non-African units from Thailand, Nepal and Nordic countries.
Williamson said he discussed the composition of the force with Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir in Kharrtoum last week and asked him for a commitment to allow 1,600 troops from Nepal and Thailand to deploy to Darfur this summer if thousands of African troops are on the ground first.
"He did not reject it," Williamson said. "We're going to have some follow up discussions."
Williamson said another 3,600 African peacekeepers would on the ground by the end of May.
"All we want is results on the ground, so there can be alleviation of humanitarian suffering, so there can be some stability," he said. "I think we're wrong to obsess about the helicopters. Our immediate obsession should be to try to get peacekeepers on the ground."
Williamson said that in addition to moving troops into Darfur, the new Friends of UNAMID group would help address other problems, such as building camps for the troops, providing reliable water supplies, finding helicopters and developing infrastructure.
"Those who can provide assistance will be meeting on a weekly basis, going through specific lists" of what needs to be done and coordinating with the U.N. Secretariat, Williamson said.
Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed said his government had "a question about whether it is an attempt by one member to monopolize the operation because the entire Security Council membership has a stake in this exercise."
He added that anyone who wants to assist UNAMID can do so through the AU or the U.N. Peacekeeping Department.
EDITH M. LEDERER from AP
Ambassador Richard Williamson, who took over in January as President Bush's special envoy to Sudan, said countries that are "friends" of the African Union-United Nations force would meet Thursday at U.N. headquarters for the first time to start tackling obstacles to deployment of the hybrid force known as UNAMID.
"Given the humanitarian suffering, given the instability and violence that's going on, its way past time for talk. We have to have action including accelerating deployment of UNAMID troops on the ground," Williamson told reporters Wednesday after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Sudan's Arab-dominated government has been accused of unleashing the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads to commit atrocities against ethnic African communities in the country's western Darfur region as part of a fight with rebel groups. At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.2 million displaced since the fighting began five years ago.
The AU-U.N. force for Darfur is authorized to have 26,000 troops and police, but Ban said only about 7,500 military personnel and 1,500 police officers were in Darfur as of Jan. 31. He appealed to all countries that have pledged troops to expedite their deployment — reiterated an appeal for critically needed helicopters.
At Sudan's insistence, the U.N. Security Council agreed that the force would be predominantly African. But the Sudanese government has refused to approve non-African units from Thailand, Nepal and Nordic countries.
Williamson said he discussed the composition of the force with Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir in Kharrtoum last week and asked him for a commitment to allow 1,600 troops from Nepal and Thailand to deploy to Darfur this summer if thousands of African troops are on the ground first.
"He did not reject it," Williamson said. "We're going to have some follow up discussions."
Williamson said another 3,600 African peacekeepers would on the ground by the end of May.
"All we want is results on the ground, so there can be alleviation of humanitarian suffering, so there can be some stability," he said. "I think we're wrong to obsess about the helicopters. Our immediate obsession should be to try to get peacekeepers on the ground."
Williamson said that in addition to moving troops into Darfur, the new Friends of UNAMID group would help address other problems, such as building camps for the troops, providing reliable water supplies, finding helicopters and developing infrastructure.
"Those who can provide assistance will be meeting on a weekly basis, going through specific lists" of what needs to be done and coordinating with the U.N. Secretariat, Williamson said.
Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed said his government had "a question about whether it is an attempt by one member to monopolize the operation because the entire Security Council membership has a stake in this exercise."
He added that anyone who wants to assist UNAMID can do so through the AU or the U.N. Peacekeeping Department.
EDITH M. LEDERER from AP
Lincoln Considered 'Emancipation with Compensation'
Barely a year into the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suggested buying slaves for $400 apiece under a "gradual emancipation" plan that would bring peace at less cost than several months of hostilities.
The proposal was outlined in one of 72 letters penned by Lincoln that ended up in the University of Rochester's archives. The correspondence was digitally scanned and posted online along with easier-to-read transcriptions.
Accompanying them are 215 letters sent to Lincoln by dozens of fellow political and military leaders. They include letters from Vice President Andrew Johnson and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who both succeeded Lincoln in the presidency in the 12 years after his assassination in 1865.
War Cost $2 Million a Day
In a letter to Illinois Sen. James A. McDougall dated March 14, 1862, Lincoln laid out the estimated cost to the nation's coffers of his "emancipation with compensation" proposal.
Paying slaveholders $400 for each of the 1,798 slaves in Delaware listed in the 1860 census, he wrote, would come to $719,200 at a time when the war was soaking up $2 million a day.
Proposal Didn't fly
Buying the freedom of an estimated 432,622 slaves in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Washington, D.C., would cost $173,048,800 — nearly equal to the estimated $174 million needed to wage war for 87 days, he said.
Lincoln suggested that each of the states, in return for payment, might set something like a 20-year deadline for abolishing slavery.
The payout "would not be half as onerous as would be an equal sum, raised now, for the indefinite prosecution of the war," he told McDougall.
The idea never took root. Six months later, Lincoln issued the first of two executive orders known as the Emancipation Proclamation that declared an end to slavery. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified after the collapse of the Confederacy, ending two centuries of bondage in North America.
"To be given a document that plunks you right into a situation that Lincoln was facing, it's very compelling," said Brian Fleming, a University of Rochester librarian who is heading the online project, which debuted Feb. 18 — Presidents Day.
Seward Had Letters
The Lincoln letters addressing the war, slavery and other affairs of state are part of a collection of papers once belonging to his secretary of state, William H. Seward Sr.
They were bequeathed by Seward's grandson William Henry Seward III, who lived in Auburn, 70 miles east of Rochester, and arrived at the University of Rochester between 1949 and 1987.
The digitally scanned letters appear on the school library's Web site — Library.rochester.edu — along with transcriptions, contextual essays written by graduate students and lesson plans designed to help teachers.
From AP
The proposal was outlined in one of 72 letters penned by Lincoln that ended up in the University of Rochester's archives. The correspondence was digitally scanned and posted online along with easier-to-read transcriptions.
Accompanying them are 215 letters sent to Lincoln by dozens of fellow political and military leaders. They include letters from Vice President Andrew Johnson and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who both succeeded Lincoln in the presidency in the 12 years after his assassination in 1865.
War Cost $2 Million a Day
In a letter to Illinois Sen. James A. McDougall dated March 14, 1862, Lincoln laid out the estimated cost to the nation's coffers of his "emancipation with compensation" proposal.
Paying slaveholders $400 for each of the 1,798 slaves in Delaware listed in the 1860 census, he wrote, would come to $719,200 at a time when the war was soaking up $2 million a day.
Proposal Didn't fly
Buying the freedom of an estimated 432,622 slaves in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Washington, D.C., would cost $173,048,800 — nearly equal to the estimated $174 million needed to wage war for 87 days, he said.
Lincoln suggested that each of the states, in return for payment, might set something like a 20-year deadline for abolishing slavery.
The payout "would not be half as onerous as would be an equal sum, raised now, for the indefinite prosecution of the war," he told McDougall.
The idea never took root. Six months later, Lincoln issued the first of two executive orders known as the Emancipation Proclamation that declared an end to slavery. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified after the collapse of the Confederacy, ending two centuries of bondage in North America.
"To be given a document that plunks you right into a situation that Lincoln was facing, it's very compelling," said Brian Fleming, a University of Rochester librarian who is heading the online project, which debuted Feb. 18 — Presidents Day.
Seward Had Letters
The Lincoln letters addressing the war, slavery and other affairs of state are part of a collection of papers once belonging to his secretary of state, William H. Seward Sr.
They were bequeathed by Seward's grandson William Henry Seward III, who lived in Auburn, 70 miles east of Rochester, and arrived at the University of Rochester between 1949 and 1987.
The digitally scanned letters appear on the school library's Web site — Library.rochester.edu — along with transcriptions, contextual essays written by graduate students and lesson plans designed to help teachers.
From AP
$1 Now Equals 25,000,000 Zimbabwe Dollars
It's easy being a multmillionaire in Zimbabwe these days, at least if you're counting in local dollars.
Money traders in the economically depressed African country say the Zimbabwe currency has tumbled to a record low of 25 million for a single U.S. dollar.
With Zimbabwe dollars mostly available in bundles of 100,000 and 200,000 notes, one $100 note bought nearly 20 kilograms (40 pounds) of local notes at the new market rate Wednesday.
Currency dealers said uncertainties ahead of elections scheduled March 29 and the world's highest inflation of 100,500 percent led holders of hard currency to hang on to their money at the same time as the state central bank pumped more local cash into the market for election costs.
The price of the U.S. currency was also pushed up by central bank buying on the unofficial market to pay for power, gasoline and vehicle imports ahead of the polling, said one black market dealer who could not be identified out of fear of reprisals.
In the economic meltdown, the black market exchange rate for the U.S. dollar broke the 1 million Zimbabwe dollar mark for the first time in late October.
The value of the Zimbabwe dollar weakened steadily against hard currencies throughout last year but its fall quickened dramatically in recent weeks, the dealer said.
With industry and production collapsing, Zimbabweans have become heavily dependent on imports of the corn meal staple and basic goods. Until last year, the former regional breadbasket was self sufficient in canned and processed foods, household goods, soap, toothpaste, toiletries and other items now imported from neighbors Malawi, South Africa and Zambia and from as far afield as Egypt, Germany, Iran and Malaysia.
According to latest official poverty line data, an average family of five needs a monthly income $35 to survive while remaining living in poverty.
But most general hands and other lower paid workers earn less than the equivalent of $10 a month in an economy also suffering record formal sector unemployment of 80 percent.
From CNN.com
Money traders in the economically depressed African country say the Zimbabwe currency has tumbled to a record low of 25 million for a single U.S. dollar.
With Zimbabwe dollars mostly available in bundles of 100,000 and 200,000 notes, one $100 note bought nearly 20 kilograms (40 pounds) of local notes at the new market rate Wednesday.
Currency dealers said uncertainties ahead of elections scheduled March 29 and the world's highest inflation of 100,500 percent led holders of hard currency to hang on to their money at the same time as the state central bank pumped more local cash into the market for election costs.
The price of the U.S. currency was also pushed up by central bank buying on the unofficial market to pay for power, gasoline and vehicle imports ahead of the polling, said one black market dealer who could not be identified out of fear of reprisals.
In the economic meltdown, the black market exchange rate for the U.S. dollar broke the 1 million Zimbabwe dollar mark for the first time in late October.
The value of the Zimbabwe dollar weakened steadily against hard currencies throughout last year but its fall quickened dramatically in recent weeks, the dealer said.
With industry and production collapsing, Zimbabweans have become heavily dependent on imports of the corn meal staple and basic goods. Until last year, the former regional breadbasket was self sufficient in canned and processed foods, household goods, soap, toothpaste, toiletries and other items now imported from neighbors Malawi, South Africa and Zambia and from as far afield as Egypt, Germany, Iran and Malaysia.
According to latest official poverty line data, an average family of five needs a monthly income $35 to survive while remaining living in poverty.
But most general hands and other lower paid workers earn less than the equivalent of $10 a month in an economy also suffering record formal sector unemployment of 80 percent.
From CNN.com
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
China Buys Stake in African Bank
A Chinese state-owned bank said Tuesday it has completed the purchase of a 20 percent stake in South Africa's biggest lender for $5 billion in a deal that expands China's financial presence in Africa.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's investment in Standard Bank was completed Monday after receiving approval from regulators in both countries, ICBC said in a statement issued through the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The deal, first announced in October, is one of China's biggest foreign acquisitions to date and comes amid efforts to expand ties with Africa.
From CNN World
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's investment in Standard Bank was completed Monday after receiving approval from regulators in both countries, ICBC said in a statement issued through the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The deal, first announced in October, is one of China's biggest foreign acquisitions to date and comes amid efforts to expand ties with Africa.
From CNN World
Sean Bell Trial: Did Officers Identify Themselves?
“Police!”
That single word is playing an increasing role in the trial of three detectives charged in the killing of Sean Bell, as prosecutors seek to prove that the detectives did not identify themselves as police officers before they opened fire.
On Friday, the commanding officer of the undercover police unit that confronted Mr. Bell on Nov. 25, 2006, Lt. Gary Napoli, testified that he did not hear the detective who fired first, Gescard F. Isnora, yell, “Police!” Nor did he hear any of the other officers, including the other two on trial, Detectives Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper, shout the word, he said.
While similar claims have been made by Mr. Bell’s friends, who were around the corner, and by an exotic dancer who said she saw the shooting, Lieutenant Napoli’s was the first such testimony in the trial from a fellow officer. He also testified that he did not remember whether Detective Isnora or Detective Oliver, who fired 42 shots between them, were wearing their badges.
Detective Isnora testified before a grand jury that he shouted, “Police!” lawyers said in their opening statements last week.
Defense lawyers sought to question whether the lieutenant could have heard the shout.
At the time, Lieutenant Napoli was in the passenger seat of an unmarked car traveling south on Liverpool Street, away from Mr. Bell’s parked car, as Detective Isnora approached it. Mr. Bell sped from the curb, hitting Detective Isnora in the leg and ramming Detective Oliver’s unmarked van before reversing, hitting a wall and ramming the van again.
At the moment of the initial shots, the lieutenant had ducked down in his seat to find a police dome light for his unmarked car, he said. He first heard what sounded like two vehicles collide, followed by gunshots. Believing the police were under fire, he remained crouched in the seat, he said.
On cross-examination, a defense lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco, asked about his having not heard any shout. “Because you didn’t hear it,” he said, “does that mean it wasn’t done?”
“No,” Lieutenant Napoli replied.
Mr. Bell’s two friends in the car that morning, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, are expected to testify that Detective Isnora did not identify himself before firing.
By Michael Wilson, New York Times
That single word is playing an increasing role in the trial of three detectives charged in the killing of Sean Bell, as prosecutors seek to prove that the detectives did not identify themselves as police officers before they opened fire.
On Friday, the commanding officer of the undercover police unit that confronted Mr. Bell on Nov. 25, 2006, Lt. Gary Napoli, testified that he did not hear the detective who fired first, Gescard F. Isnora, yell, “Police!” Nor did he hear any of the other officers, including the other two on trial, Detectives Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper, shout the word, he said.
While similar claims have been made by Mr. Bell’s friends, who were around the corner, and by an exotic dancer who said she saw the shooting, Lieutenant Napoli’s was the first such testimony in the trial from a fellow officer. He also testified that he did not remember whether Detective Isnora or Detective Oliver, who fired 42 shots between them, were wearing their badges.
Detective Isnora testified before a grand jury that he shouted, “Police!” lawyers said in their opening statements last week.
Defense lawyers sought to question whether the lieutenant could have heard the shout.
At the time, Lieutenant Napoli was in the passenger seat of an unmarked car traveling south on Liverpool Street, away from Mr. Bell’s parked car, as Detective Isnora approached it. Mr. Bell sped from the curb, hitting Detective Isnora in the leg and ramming Detective Oliver’s unmarked van before reversing, hitting a wall and ramming the van again.
At the moment of the initial shots, the lieutenant had ducked down in his seat to find a police dome light for his unmarked car, he said. He first heard what sounded like two vehicles collide, followed by gunshots. Believing the police were under fire, he remained crouched in the seat, he said.
On cross-examination, a defense lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco, asked about his having not heard any shout. “Because you didn’t hear it,” he said, “does that mean it wasn’t done?”
“No,” Lieutenant Napoli replied.
Mr. Bell’s two friends in the car that morning, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, are expected to testify that Detective Isnora did not identify himself before firing.
By Michael Wilson, New York Times
Monday, March 3, 2008
Katrina Evacuees a Large, Silent Force
When Melva London, a committed Democratic activist in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, she quickly changed her registration so she could vote in Texas. But even though she decided long ago to support Barack Obama, the 55-year-old London did not feel comfortable canvassing her new neighbors on his behalf, knocking on strangers' doors in an unfamiliar area.
" 'Grandmaman,' you can do this," her 17-year-old grandson, still in Louisiana, beseeched her by phone. "Don't be afraid of Texas, get out there."
The other day, London was at Obama's Houston headquarters in a pink running suit and pristine white sneakers, holding a stack of handbills testifying to the candidate's Christian beliefs. She had enlisted as an Obama precinct captain, and was preparing for the campaign's ambitious pre-primary canvas last weekend.
Few of those Louisianans who have resettled in Texas have been pushed to take such initiative. Tomorrow's primary here will be the first national election since the 2005 storm that caused what could stand as the greatest domestic migration in American history. More evacuees ended up in Houston than any other city - 100,000 still remain, by some estimate - but only a small portion of them have even registered to vote, according to local officials, political consultants, and academic specialists.
As a result, many of the people who felt most aggrieved by the current administration's policies will have no role in tomorrow's potentially decisive opportunity to choose the candidates to replace it.
"We really haven't seen a tremendous influx," said Paul Bettencourt, the voter registrar of Harris County, which includes Houston. An analysis by Bettencourt's office a little over a year ago counted about 10,000 voters in the county who had been previously registered in Louisiana.
Despite their large numbers and dependence on government - and the fact that if, properly mobilized, they could help to swing the balance of power in local elections and the allocation of primary delegates next week - the overwhelmingly black population resettled by Katrina remains a largely silent force in Texas political life.
"I don't know a lot of folks that are trying to organize politically the New Orleans folks," said Charhonda Williams, a former resident of downtown New Orleans now working in Houston as an organizer for the Service Employees International Union. "Houston's a much different place for us. It's much more spaced out, so you don't have the same sense of community."
In the storm's immediate aftermath, many of the displaced Louisianans settled into a series of apartment buildings on Houston's west side that accepted their housing vouchers.
"We just went in and swept those apartment complexes," said Keir Murray, a consultant for a 2006 state-legislative candidate who tried to identify potential new voters there. "We encountered a lot of those folks and the general reaction was, 'We're moving back.' "
The campaign was successful in registering "several hundred," according to Murray, but only "50 to 60" likely voted.
"It was too early because there were still a lot of Katrina evacuees who were still expecting to return to New Orleans," said Gerry Birnberg, chair of the Harris County Democratic Party. "We've been respecting their desire to participate in choosing leadership in Louisiana."
Indeed, political operatives in Houston can recall with greater detail efforts to mobilize those new residents to vote - including local candidate rallies and scheduled buses to transport voters home - in the 2006 New Orleans mayoral election than any election in Texas.
"It was humbling for many of them to face the idea of abandoning New Orleans," said Ron Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, where an estimated 60,000 Katrina evacuees reside. "But many of them have found the necessity of moving on with their lives, and I have to believe that includes civic engagement."
Consultants say there are multiple methods for locating resettled Katrina survivors through public records. Recipients of aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency with Houston addresses, older residents who applied for new Texas drivers' licenses shortly after September 2005, and those who filed with the post office to change their address from ZIP codes in New Orleans to those in Houston would all likely be Katrina refugees.
Yet due to the way district boundaries have been drawn, and a lack of local interest in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial campaign and in Houston Mayor Bill White's effectively uncontested reelection in 2007, few campaigns have had an incentive to target the untapped votes.
Now they do, but neither of the two Democratic presidential candidates had established much of an organization in Texas when the voter-registration deadline passed in early February, before the Super Tuesday primaries that showed that Texas's vote could be decisive.
"I am not sure there will be a separate effort to target these folks," said Josh Earnest, an Obama spokesman. "I think we'll be casting a wide net in terms of reaching out to Democratic primary voters and African-American voters in particular." (A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton did not respond to a request for comment on the campaign's plans in Texas.)
In addition, the Harris County Democratic Party is playing no role in attempting to mobilize new voters to participate in the primary and caucuses that will be held tomorrow, according to Birnberg. "Our fear is that if we concentrate on Katrina evacuees it will be perceived as favoring one campaign or the other," he said.
While Obama has dominated the black vote in recent primary contests, the new residents would be a politically unpredictable presence in Houston elections because of demographic differences with a local black population that is a "tick or two higher" socioeconomically, according to Judson W. Robinson III, president of the Houston Area Urban League.
"We have noticed that the New Orleans population was learning towards the Hillary ticket. The Houston population is more an Obama population," said Robinson. "We would have to assume the more accommodating policies of the Hillary side were more attuned to a lower-income group."
Strategists say they expect greater efforts by campaigns, Democratic Party organizations, and outside groups to register new voters before the November election.
"This election is going to be crucial, so we're going to see turnout like never before," said Representative Al Green, who estimates that his Houston-area district includes 20,000 Katrina survivors.
Many of the Katrina refugees have continued to migrate within Houston.
"It has been hard to keep track of them," said Murray. "A lot of these folks have just disappeared into the fabric of the city."
By Boston Globe Staff writer Sasha Issenberg
" 'Grandmaman,' you can do this," her 17-year-old grandson, still in Louisiana, beseeched her by phone. "Don't be afraid of Texas, get out there."
The other day, London was at Obama's Houston headquarters in a pink running suit and pristine white sneakers, holding a stack of handbills testifying to the candidate's Christian beliefs. She had enlisted as an Obama precinct captain, and was preparing for the campaign's ambitious pre-primary canvas last weekend.
Few of those Louisianans who have resettled in Texas have been pushed to take such initiative. Tomorrow's primary here will be the first national election since the 2005 storm that caused what could stand as the greatest domestic migration in American history. More evacuees ended up in Houston than any other city - 100,000 still remain, by some estimate - but only a small portion of them have even registered to vote, according to local officials, political consultants, and academic specialists.
As a result, many of the people who felt most aggrieved by the current administration's policies will have no role in tomorrow's potentially decisive opportunity to choose the candidates to replace it.
"We really haven't seen a tremendous influx," said Paul Bettencourt, the voter registrar of Harris County, which includes Houston. An analysis by Bettencourt's office a little over a year ago counted about 10,000 voters in the county who had been previously registered in Louisiana.
Despite their large numbers and dependence on government - and the fact that if, properly mobilized, they could help to swing the balance of power in local elections and the allocation of primary delegates next week - the overwhelmingly black population resettled by Katrina remains a largely silent force in Texas political life.
"I don't know a lot of folks that are trying to organize politically the New Orleans folks," said Charhonda Williams, a former resident of downtown New Orleans now working in Houston as an organizer for the Service Employees International Union. "Houston's a much different place for us. It's much more spaced out, so you don't have the same sense of community."
In the storm's immediate aftermath, many of the displaced Louisianans settled into a series of apartment buildings on Houston's west side that accepted their housing vouchers.
"We just went in and swept those apartment complexes," said Keir Murray, a consultant for a 2006 state-legislative candidate who tried to identify potential new voters there. "We encountered a lot of those folks and the general reaction was, 'We're moving back.' "
The campaign was successful in registering "several hundred," according to Murray, but only "50 to 60" likely voted.
"It was too early because there were still a lot of Katrina evacuees who were still expecting to return to New Orleans," said Gerry Birnberg, chair of the Harris County Democratic Party. "We've been respecting their desire to participate in choosing leadership in Louisiana."
Indeed, political operatives in Houston can recall with greater detail efforts to mobilize those new residents to vote - including local candidate rallies and scheduled buses to transport voters home - in the 2006 New Orleans mayoral election than any election in Texas.
"It was humbling for many of them to face the idea of abandoning New Orleans," said Ron Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, where an estimated 60,000 Katrina evacuees reside. "But many of them have found the necessity of moving on with their lives, and I have to believe that includes civic engagement."
Consultants say there are multiple methods for locating resettled Katrina survivors through public records. Recipients of aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency with Houston addresses, older residents who applied for new Texas drivers' licenses shortly after September 2005, and those who filed with the post office to change their address from ZIP codes in New Orleans to those in Houston would all likely be Katrina refugees.
Yet due to the way district boundaries have been drawn, and a lack of local interest in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial campaign and in Houston Mayor Bill White's effectively uncontested reelection in 2007, few campaigns have had an incentive to target the untapped votes.
Now they do, but neither of the two Democratic presidential candidates had established much of an organization in Texas when the voter-registration deadline passed in early February, before the Super Tuesday primaries that showed that Texas's vote could be decisive.
"I am not sure there will be a separate effort to target these folks," said Josh Earnest, an Obama spokesman. "I think we'll be casting a wide net in terms of reaching out to Democratic primary voters and African-American voters in particular." (A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton did not respond to a request for comment on the campaign's plans in Texas.)
In addition, the Harris County Democratic Party is playing no role in attempting to mobilize new voters to participate in the primary and caucuses that will be held tomorrow, according to Birnberg. "Our fear is that if we concentrate on Katrina evacuees it will be perceived as favoring one campaign or the other," he said.
While Obama has dominated the black vote in recent primary contests, the new residents would be a politically unpredictable presence in Houston elections because of demographic differences with a local black population that is a "tick or two higher" socioeconomically, according to Judson W. Robinson III, president of the Houston Area Urban League.
"We have noticed that the New Orleans population was learning towards the Hillary ticket. The Houston population is more an Obama population," said Robinson. "We would have to assume the more accommodating policies of the Hillary side were more attuned to a lower-income group."
Strategists say they expect greater efforts by campaigns, Democratic Party organizations, and outside groups to register new voters before the November election.
"This election is going to be crucial, so we're going to see turnout like never before," said Representative Al Green, who estimates that his Houston-area district includes 20,000 Katrina survivors.
Many of the Katrina refugees have continued to migrate within Houston.
"It has been hard to keep track of them," said Murray. "A lot of these folks have just disappeared into the fabric of the city."
By Boston Globe Staff writer Sasha Issenberg
Russell Simmons Endorses Obama
Russell Simmons has been pushing young people to vote, but for a while there, it was looking as if the music industry heavyweight would have trouble casting his own ballot.
Not anymore.
The hip-hop mogul said Sunday he is endorsing Barack Obama for president, inspired by the diversity among the Illinois senator's supporters. Obama has built an unprecedented national movement of people from all ethnic, racial, political, social and economic backgrounds, Simmons said in a news release.
It was a little more than a year ago that Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings who says he's an independent who has supported Democrats and Republicans, sounded as if he was having a hard time deciding.
"If you could take Barack Obama's image, add Hillary Rodham Clinton's money and John Edwards' voice, that would be my candidate," Simmons said in January 2007.
At the time, Simmons called Obama "a rock star" who hadn't presented a clear picture of where he stands.
"I don't know what his opinions are," Simmons said then, noting that he preferred Edwards' message and was fond of liberal Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Simmons still has enough love to go around, it seems.
While endorsing Obama on Sunday, he noted his respect for Clinton from having worked with the New York senator on education, prison reform and anti-poverty programs.
Simmons, who has encouraged influential musicians to become more involved in the political process, said he's particularly impressed, however, by Obama's support among young people.
From AP
Not anymore.
The hip-hop mogul said Sunday he is endorsing Barack Obama for president, inspired by the diversity among the Illinois senator's supporters. Obama has built an unprecedented national movement of people from all ethnic, racial, political, social and economic backgrounds, Simmons said in a news release.
It was a little more than a year ago that Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings who says he's an independent who has supported Democrats and Republicans, sounded as if he was having a hard time deciding.
"If you could take Barack Obama's image, add Hillary Rodham Clinton's money and John Edwards' voice, that would be my candidate," Simmons said in January 2007.
At the time, Simmons called Obama "a rock star" who hadn't presented a clear picture of where he stands.
"I don't know what his opinions are," Simmons said then, noting that he preferred Edwards' message and was fond of liberal Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Simmons still has enough love to go around, it seems.
While endorsing Obama on Sunday, he noted his respect for Clinton from having worked with the New York senator on education, prison reform and anti-poverty programs.
Simmons, who has encouraged influential musicians to become more involved in the political process, said he's particularly impressed, however, by Obama's support among young people.
From AP
Financially Strapped Fisk University Ends NCAA Athletics
Clad in his Greek letters, Fisk University senior David Hill would make his way to the annual homecoming basketball game, on the lookout for his fraternity brothers, old and young, of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. They might embrace or just say hello, the older Omegas doling out pieces of wisdom to the younger frats. But not anymore.
"Usually everyone has a homecoming football game. We just have a basketball game. And now, we're not even going to have that," Hill said.
Amid a deepening financial crisis, Fisk administrators recently announced that they were ending all of the university's NCAA athletic programs after this year and will develop a system of intramural sports in their place.
According to a statement by Provost Kofi Lomotey, released Feb. 25, the Nashville university views the move as an opportunity to involve more students in sports.
But many current students, alumni and faculty see the loss of the sports program as potentially devastating to student life on campus.
"It decreases the camaraderie between students now that you don't have a function or an event where students get together. It decreases school pride. What are you rooting for, other than your academics?" said Hill, who is majoring in physics with plans for a career in astronomy.
The move is just the latest strategic shift for the university, which has been struggling to gain traction in its race to raise funds before it runs out of money.
Financial struggle is nothing new or uncommon at Fisk, known for the historic fundraising efforts of its student chorus, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who traveled throughout the United States and Europe in the early 1870s to raise money for the school. The group is honored with Jubilee Hall on the Fisk campus.
But this period of struggle for the university has attracted nationwide attention as Fisk has battled in court over the right to sell, or at this point simply keep, the 101-piece Stieglitz collection of modern art given to the university in the 1949 by renowned artist Georgia O'Keeffe, wife of photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
The university has tried to sell pieces of the collection and proposed a $30 million deal to share the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice L. Walton, according to The Associated Press. In court earlier this month, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., heir of the O'Keeffe estate, argued that the agreement between O'Keeffe and Fisk forbids selling or sharing any portion of the collection and Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbes Lyle ruled that this proposition violated the wishes of O'Keeffe.
Now the O'Keeffe museum is trying to reclaim the entire collection on the grounds that Fisk violated the terms of its agreement with O'Keeffe and has forfeited its rights to the collection. Fisk and the museum made closing arguments in that case before Lyle on Feb. 19 and are currently awaiting a ruling that could take up to 30 days.
Fundraising efforts stepped up
Meanwhile, Fisk is scrambling to get a hold on its financial situation through fundraising and budget cuts. University Spokesperson Ken West said the university annually spends $263, 075 to support the athletic program while only generating $10,000 in revenue from an NCAA grant for participating in certain games. West said none of the school's approximately 100 athletes are on scholarships related to their participation in the NCAA Division III sports. He said the university expects the intramural program to cost $60,000 annually.
While West said no revenue is generated from ticket sales or concessions, JoVan Kearse, Fisk's sports information director and head cheerleading coach, said non-students are charged $5 to attend basketball games. Kearse said there is often miscommunication between the administration and athletics.
It appears that miscommunication is at the heart of many of the university's fiscal and organizational problems. Kearse said on February 18, the coaches and directors in the athletic department found out the school would no longer be participating in the NCAA Division III.
"It was really just a surprise to the majority of us," she said. The evening of Feb. 19, the university held a townhall "family" meeting and announced the decision.
"As they were telling about the fundraising efforts, they kind of slipped in that the athletic department would end June 30 as far as participating in NCAA," she said. "Most of us just assume that we won't have a job. We just realize it's over."
Kearse said many people don't understand how important athletics are on a college campus, particularly at Fisk where there isn't much to do.
"Athletics is the only means of entertainment at Fisk. My cheerleaders were very, very excited. They were looking forward to next year," she said.
Keshea Morris, a junior and member of the women's basketball team, said she was upset and waiting to see what was going to come next for sports on the campus. She said she found out the news from a text message during Bible study. Like many other students and alumni, Morris wonders when the financial problems for the university are going to end.
"They said our school was always in debt. Why are these people hired if it's still the same problem with the finances? Where does it end? Where is the money going?" she asked. Hill, the senior physics student, said he also wonders what is happening to all of the money students pay in tuition and fees.
"We feel that we pay a lot more money than we're supposed to. We're not getting what we paid for," he said.
Hill said he also questions the university's profession of operating as a family when students had no say in the current changes.
"I'm sure you would consult your family about what they think they should do in a family crisis before you make an actual decision," he said.
Solutions sought through campus committees
But Provost Kofi Lomotey told Black College Wire that a series of campus-wide committees, comprised of faculty, students and staff have been employed to evaluate the current situation at the school and come up with solutions. He said students can share their concerns with their departments or their student representatives on the committees.
Lomotey said that all levels of university staff and students are currently involved in the school's fundraising efforts. Spokesperson West said The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has given the school a $1 million grant outright coupled with a $2 million challenge grant which requires Fisk to raise $4 million in unrestricted funds by June 30 in order to receive the grant. He said the university has raised $1 million in the past 60 days through corporate donations and gifts from "all over."
"A lot of people who we have not heard from in quite a long time have come back to show their support and dedication," he said.
West said Fisk has averaged a fundraising goal $3.6 million per year for the past five years and has met that goal. From this year on, he said the university plans to increase that goal.
The United Negro College Fund has partnered with Fisk to help the school pull through its financial turmoil.
John Donohue, executive vice president of development for UNCF, said it became clear in the fall that the university was struggling and UNCF was approached by the Mellon Foundation to help the school.
"Mellon was interested in helping Fisk, but they felt Fisk needed a partner with the skill sets and credentials to help them and that's how we got involved," he said. Donohue said UNCF started working with Fisk in November and at the time Fisk was in danger of not being able to make its payroll after the middle of December. He said there was even talk of the school having to close its doors. West contends there was never any talk of the school closing down.
Donohue said Fisk has a "two-pronged challenge": securing finances immediately to finish the year in the black and to come up with a new business model for the future.
"We have to change the business model so they can get out of this deficit position. It's not going to happen overnight," he said.
He added that his impression is the school is committed to getting out of this situation and because it is a "flagship institution among HBCUs" they cannot allow the university to fail. Many point to the Fisk Jubilee Singers as the reason Fisk is important both historically and for the future. Matthew Kennedy, now 86 years old, directed and performed as a concert pianist with the Jubilee Singers from 1957 to 1985 along with his late wife, Anne Gamble.
His daughter, Nina Kennedy, has recently been showing a documentary on her father at film festivals across the country. The film, "Matthew Kennedy: One Man's Journey," details Kennedy's involvement with the Singers, which he described as a "marvelous experience."
Kennedy said he reads the paper every morning to look for the newest developments in Fisk's financial crisis.
"It's my alma mater and I taught there for 33 years and I feel that Fisk has a marvelous legacy to preserve and a most important position to influence coming generations," he said. Kennedy said he disagrees with the court's decision not to allow the school to share the Stieglitz collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art.
"I believe if [O'Keeffe] were alive today she would be in favor of doing anything to keep Fisk afloat in good financial condition," he said. He said it's "unfortunate" that the O'Keeffe Museum feels it must protect O'Keeffe's wishes by preventing Fisk from doing what "it feels it needs to do to actually protect the collection as well as to survive."
Alumni, government support encouraged
Kennedy said that alumni need to come forward and support the university. Even though he is a "person of modest means," he said he contributes through an endowment he established at Fisk in honor of his wife, the Anne Gamble-Kennedy Matthew W. Kennedy Scholarship.
"I encourage my friends to support it where they can and I hope alumni who are in better financial condition will step forward and contribute more to the university," he said. Kennedy also said he thinks the administrators are doing all that they can right now and hopes for more assistance.
"The university, of course, is a treasure to the world and I hope our government will look into the possibility of directing more support to the university."
Other alumni are also calling for their fellow "Fiskites" to join in the fundraising effort. Crystal deGregory, who graduated from Fisk in 2003 with a B.A. in history and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Vanderbilt University, said even though Fisk needs millions of dollars, everyone with a vested interest in the school should contribute whatever small amount they can. DeGregory said she gives $300 per year to the school and is a member of the alumni association.
"It's similar to church; whatever you can give, do so," she said.
Damien Frierson, a 2002 Fisk graduate in history, said he was upset to hear about the financial crisis at Fisk that seemed to come without warning.
"I remember going back last year for my five-year reunion and they were encouraging us to give and there was no mention of how deep in the hole we were," he said. Frierson is currently a corporate program officer and an adjunct instructor at Temple University.
He said every Fiskite has been "indoctrinated" with the school's history of "extreme highs and lows" in terms of financial struggles as simply a part of Fisk life.
As an undergrad at Fisk, Frierson said there was constant "yard talk" about the instability of the school's financial state, but students didn't pay much attention to it. He said he wonders how much students would know about the current crisis if it wasn't a major story in the media right now.
But he says the struggle gives the students something to rally around.
"We're privy to [the struggles] and we're told that you may talk bad about Fisk, but don't let anybody else talk bad about Fisk. You actually know what's going on now won't likely be the end outcome of what happens to the university," he said.
DeGregory said her role now is to be an advocate for effective change at the university.
"The most valuable thing that I can do right now is to be an advocate for the best interest of Fisk in the perpetual sense in that short-term quick fixes will not necessarily produce the long-term yields that we're looking for," she said.
Provost Lomotey said Fisk's struggles are not unique to the university, but rather the plight of small, private liberal arts schools nationwide.
"We rely very heavily on tuition payments and we live basically from year to year," he said.
Lomotey said there is "no question in my mind" that Fisk will raise the needed money by June 30 to receive the challenge grant from the Mellon Foundation, even though the university is in the present crisis because of an inability to raise money.
"I'm convinced that people are serious about ensuring we address the situation currently," he said.
DeGregory said struggle is a part of Fisk and she hopes the university will pull through. "It hasn't been the road paved with gold, but it has been a road of triumph," she said.
By Shauntel Lowe
Black College Wire
"Usually everyone has a homecoming football game. We just have a basketball game. And now, we're not even going to have that," Hill said.
Amid a deepening financial crisis, Fisk administrators recently announced that they were ending all of the university's NCAA athletic programs after this year and will develop a system of intramural sports in their place.
According to a statement by Provost Kofi Lomotey, released Feb. 25, the Nashville university views the move as an opportunity to involve more students in sports.
But many current students, alumni and faculty see the loss of the sports program as potentially devastating to student life on campus.
"It decreases the camaraderie between students now that you don't have a function or an event where students get together. It decreases school pride. What are you rooting for, other than your academics?" said Hill, who is majoring in physics with plans for a career in astronomy.
The move is just the latest strategic shift for the university, which has been struggling to gain traction in its race to raise funds before it runs out of money.
Financial struggle is nothing new or uncommon at Fisk, known for the historic fundraising efforts of its student chorus, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who traveled throughout the United States and Europe in the early 1870s to raise money for the school. The group is honored with Jubilee Hall on the Fisk campus.
But this period of struggle for the university has attracted nationwide attention as Fisk has battled in court over the right to sell, or at this point simply keep, the 101-piece Stieglitz collection of modern art given to the university in the 1949 by renowned artist Georgia O'Keeffe, wife of photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
The university has tried to sell pieces of the collection and proposed a $30 million deal to share the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice L. Walton, according to The Associated Press. In court earlier this month, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., heir of the O'Keeffe estate, argued that the agreement between O'Keeffe and Fisk forbids selling or sharing any portion of the collection and Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbes Lyle ruled that this proposition violated the wishes of O'Keeffe.
Now the O'Keeffe museum is trying to reclaim the entire collection on the grounds that Fisk violated the terms of its agreement with O'Keeffe and has forfeited its rights to the collection. Fisk and the museum made closing arguments in that case before Lyle on Feb. 19 and are currently awaiting a ruling that could take up to 30 days.
Fundraising efforts stepped up
Meanwhile, Fisk is scrambling to get a hold on its financial situation through fundraising and budget cuts. University Spokesperson Ken West said the university annually spends $263, 075 to support the athletic program while only generating $10,000 in revenue from an NCAA grant for participating in certain games. West said none of the school's approximately 100 athletes are on scholarships related to their participation in the NCAA Division III sports. He said the university expects the intramural program to cost $60,000 annually.
While West said no revenue is generated from ticket sales or concessions, JoVan Kearse, Fisk's sports information director and head cheerleading coach, said non-students are charged $5 to attend basketball games. Kearse said there is often miscommunication between the administration and athletics.
It appears that miscommunication is at the heart of many of the university's fiscal and organizational problems. Kearse said on February 18, the coaches and directors in the athletic department found out the school would no longer be participating in the NCAA Division III.
"It was really just a surprise to the majority of us," she said. The evening of Feb. 19, the university held a townhall "family" meeting and announced the decision.
"As they were telling about the fundraising efforts, they kind of slipped in that the athletic department would end June 30 as far as participating in NCAA," she said. "Most of us just assume that we won't have a job. We just realize it's over."
Kearse said many people don't understand how important athletics are on a college campus, particularly at Fisk where there isn't much to do.
"Athletics is the only means of entertainment at Fisk. My cheerleaders were very, very excited. They were looking forward to next year," she said.
Keshea Morris, a junior and member of the women's basketball team, said she was upset and waiting to see what was going to come next for sports on the campus. She said she found out the news from a text message during Bible study. Like many other students and alumni, Morris wonders when the financial problems for the university are going to end.
"They said our school was always in debt. Why are these people hired if it's still the same problem with the finances? Where does it end? Where is the money going?" she asked. Hill, the senior physics student, said he also wonders what is happening to all of the money students pay in tuition and fees.
"We feel that we pay a lot more money than we're supposed to. We're not getting what we paid for," he said.
Hill said he also questions the university's profession of operating as a family when students had no say in the current changes.
"I'm sure you would consult your family about what they think they should do in a family crisis before you make an actual decision," he said.
Solutions sought through campus committees
But Provost Kofi Lomotey told Black College Wire that a series of campus-wide committees, comprised of faculty, students and staff have been employed to evaluate the current situation at the school and come up with solutions. He said students can share their concerns with their departments or their student representatives on the committees.
Lomotey said that all levels of university staff and students are currently involved in the school's fundraising efforts. Spokesperson West said The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has given the school a $1 million grant outright coupled with a $2 million challenge grant which requires Fisk to raise $4 million in unrestricted funds by June 30 in order to receive the grant. He said the university has raised $1 million in the past 60 days through corporate donations and gifts from "all over."
"A lot of people who we have not heard from in quite a long time have come back to show their support and dedication," he said.
West said Fisk has averaged a fundraising goal $3.6 million per year for the past five years and has met that goal. From this year on, he said the university plans to increase that goal.
The United Negro College Fund has partnered with Fisk to help the school pull through its financial turmoil.
John Donohue, executive vice president of development for UNCF, said it became clear in the fall that the university was struggling and UNCF was approached by the Mellon Foundation to help the school.
"Mellon was interested in helping Fisk, but they felt Fisk needed a partner with the skill sets and credentials to help them and that's how we got involved," he said. Donohue said UNCF started working with Fisk in November and at the time Fisk was in danger of not being able to make its payroll after the middle of December. He said there was even talk of the school having to close its doors. West contends there was never any talk of the school closing down.
Donohue said Fisk has a "two-pronged challenge": securing finances immediately to finish the year in the black and to come up with a new business model for the future.
"We have to change the business model so they can get out of this deficit position. It's not going to happen overnight," he said.
He added that his impression is the school is committed to getting out of this situation and because it is a "flagship institution among HBCUs" they cannot allow the university to fail. Many point to the Fisk Jubilee Singers as the reason Fisk is important both historically and for the future. Matthew Kennedy, now 86 years old, directed and performed as a concert pianist with the Jubilee Singers from 1957 to 1985 along with his late wife, Anne Gamble.
His daughter, Nina Kennedy, has recently been showing a documentary on her father at film festivals across the country. The film, "Matthew Kennedy: One Man's Journey," details Kennedy's involvement with the Singers, which he described as a "marvelous experience."
Kennedy said he reads the paper every morning to look for the newest developments in Fisk's financial crisis.
"It's my alma mater and I taught there for 33 years and I feel that Fisk has a marvelous legacy to preserve and a most important position to influence coming generations," he said. Kennedy said he disagrees with the court's decision not to allow the school to share the Stieglitz collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art.
"I believe if [O'Keeffe] were alive today she would be in favor of doing anything to keep Fisk afloat in good financial condition," he said. He said it's "unfortunate" that the O'Keeffe Museum feels it must protect O'Keeffe's wishes by preventing Fisk from doing what "it feels it needs to do to actually protect the collection as well as to survive."
Alumni, government support encouraged
Kennedy said that alumni need to come forward and support the university. Even though he is a "person of modest means," he said he contributes through an endowment he established at Fisk in honor of his wife, the Anne Gamble-Kennedy Matthew W. Kennedy Scholarship.
"I encourage my friends to support it where they can and I hope alumni who are in better financial condition will step forward and contribute more to the university," he said. Kennedy also said he thinks the administrators are doing all that they can right now and hopes for more assistance.
"The university, of course, is a treasure to the world and I hope our government will look into the possibility of directing more support to the university."
Other alumni are also calling for their fellow "Fiskites" to join in the fundraising effort. Crystal deGregory, who graduated from Fisk in 2003 with a B.A. in history and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Vanderbilt University, said even though Fisk needs millions of dollars, everyone with a vested interest in the school should contribute whatever small amount they can. DeGregory said she gives $300 per year to the school and is a member of the alumni association.
"It's similar to church; whatever you can give, do so," she said.
Damien Frierson, a 2002 Fisk graduate in history, said he was upset to hear about the financial crisis at Fisk that seemed to come without warning.
"I remember going back last year for my five-year reunion and they were encouraging us to give and there was no mention of how deep in the hole we were," he said. Frierson is currently a corporate program officer and an adjunct instructor at Temple University.
He said every Fiskite has been "indoctrinated" with the school's history of "extreme highs and lows" in terms of financial struggles as simply a part of Fisk life.
As an undergrad at Fisk, Frierson said there was constant "yard talk" about the instability of the school's financial state, but students didn't pay much attention to it. He said he wonders how much students would know about the current crisis if it wasn't a major story in the media right now.
But he says the struggle gives the students something to rally around.
"We're privy to [the struggles] and we're told that you may talk bad about Fisk, but don't let anybody else talk bad about Fisk. You actually know what's going on now won't likely be the end outcome of what happens to the university," he said.
DeGregory said her role now is to be an advocate for effective change at the university.
"The most valuable thing that I can do right now is to be an advocate for the best interest of Fisk in the perpetual sense in that short-term quick fixes will not necessarily produce the long-term yields that we're looking for," she said.
Provost Lomotey said Fisk's struggles are not unique to the university, but rather the plight of small, private liberal arts schools nationwide.
"We rely very heavily on tuition payments and we live basically from year to year," he said.
Lomotey said there is "no question in my mind" that Fisk will raise the needed money by June 30 to receive the challenge grant from the Mellon Foundation, even though the university is in the present crisis because of an inability to raise money.
"I'm convinced that people are serious about ensuring we address the situation currently," he said.
DeGregory said struggle is a part of Fisk and she hopes the university will pull through. "It hasn't been the road paved with gold, but it has been a road of triumph," she said.
By Shauntel Lowe
Black College Wire
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Fight to Regain Voting Rights Some Felons Never Lost
The Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, onetime criminal and founder of a ministry called The Ordinary People Society, spent years helping people with criminal records regain the right to vote in Alabama, where an estimated 250,000 people are prohibited from voting because of past criminal activity.
Then he discovered that many of them had never actually lost the right.
Because of a quirk in its Constitution, Alabama disqualifies from voting only those who have committed a “felony involving moral turpitude.” Those who have committed other felonies — like marijuana possession or drunken driving — can cast ballots even if they are still in prison, according to the state attorney general.
But it has been slow work cajoling public officials to enforce and publicize the law. Until Friday, the secretary of state’s Web site advised, incorrectly, that those with any kind of felony conviction could not register unless they had served their time and their right to vote had been restored by the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Because neither the Legislature nor the attorney general has offered a definitive list of crimes involving moral turpitude, there is no way of knowing how many inmates are eligible to vote. But state agencies generally agree that those convicted of drug possession — at least 3,000 of Alabama’s 29,000 prison inmates and thousands more on probation — are eligible. Most felons and former felons, however, assume that they have lost the right to vote.
“This is an issue that’s never come up before,” said Richard F. Allen, the commissioner of corrections. “I would think that if there were any latent feeling out there that they wanted to vote, they would have expressed it by now.”
Mr. Glasgow, who is the half-brother of a far less obscure crusader based in New York, the Rev. Al Sharpton, believes that not only do inmates and former convicts want to vote, but also that their ballots could alter the political landscape in this Republican-leaning state, adding that his group has registered more than 500 people by visiting a handful of county jails.
“There would be a lot of difference in our legislators, our elected officials and our presidents that we’ve had,” he said. “It would definitely change the political spectrum of Alabama.”
Republicans agree. They railed against a statute passed in 2003 that made it easier for some former felons to regain their voting rights by side-stepping a lengthy and backlogged pardon process.
“There’s no more anti-Republican bill than this,” said Marty Connors, the chairman of the state Republican Party, according to news reports at the time. “As frank as I can be, we’re opposed to it because felons don’t tend to vote Republican.”
In the two years after the 2003 statute took effect, more than 5,500 former felons had their rights restored, and interest in the November presidential election is running high, said Sarah Still, manager of the pardons department. In January, Ms. Still received more than 280 applications for voting rights, up from an average of 140 a month last fall.
Nationally, 5.3 million people are barred from voting because of their criminal history, according to a 2004 estimate cited by the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice policy group. In the last decade, as criminals who were swept into prison during the drug war have been released and the difficulty of re-integrating them into society has become clear, at least 16 states have made it easier for former felons to vote.
But in the South, where restrictions on former convicts are among the most severe and in many cases date to Jim Crow laws, there have been fewer changes. Last Monday the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in protest of a 2006 Tennessee law that requires former convicts to pay back child support before regaining the right to vote. In Alabama, the Republican attorney general, Troy King, has proposed a constitutional amendment that would delete the moral turpitude clause, prohibiting all felons from voting.
Though he is an active Democrat, Mr. Glasgow, 42, says his main goal is not to aid his party but to help former inmates become productive members of society.
But for most of his own life he was hardly an exemplar of civic engagement. Mr. Sharpton, in his memoir, “Go and Tell Pharaoh,” says his parents’ marriage was wrecked when his father, Al Sharpton Sr., had an affair with his mother’s teenage daughter from a previous marriage, resulting in the birth of Kenneth.
By the time Kenneth was a teenager, his mother had taken him to her hometown, Dothan, Ala., where he began to get in trouble for selling drugs, became addicted to crack cocaine and did time in Alabama and Florida for armed robbery and other crimes.
It was during his longest stint in prison, nine years, that the genes of activism and oratory that run in Mr. Glasgow’s family emerged and he began to preach. When he was released in 2001, the bondsman who had repeatedly bailed him out of jail became treasurer of The Ordinary People Society and paid for Mr. Glasgow to attend seminary.
Mr. Glasgow opened a soup kitchen, held church services under a white tent and began to help former convicts like Anna Reynolds, a recovering addict, regain the right to vote — a process often made onerous by the moral-turpitude clause.
As a legal concept, moral turpitude refers to conduct that would be immoral even if it were not illegal, unlike, say, speeding. The delegates to the 1901 constitutional convention who used the term also took away voting rights for other infractions that they believed blacks were more likely to commit, like wife beating, adultery and vagrancy. In 1985 the United States Supreme Court struck down most of the law on the grounds that it was racially discriminatory, but the moral-turpitude clause remained.
Most officials in Alabama were unaware of the clause until 2005, when it came to light after a man on probation tried to vote in St. Clair County. The parole board requested clarification, and the attorney general responded with an incomplete categorization of felonies based largely on previous court decisions.
The opinion leaves a large gray area, said Ms. Still of the pardons department. It says, for example, that rape is a crime of moral turpitude and that assault is not, but offers no clarification on variations like statutory rape or assault with intent to kill.
The parole board settled on a policy of treating drug possession and drunk driving as crimes devoid of moral turpitude, but that has not put an end to the confusion, Mr. Glasgow said.
Initially Ms. Reynolds, 52, was told by the local registrar that she could not vote because of a conviction for drug possession. She applied to the parole board, which told her that it could not restore her right to vote because she had never lost it. Finally, The Ordinary People Society helped cut through the red tape.
On Feb. 5, Ms. Reynolds stood outside the public library handing out sample ballots before casting her own. “Voting, that’s part of getting back to normal life,” she said. “I’ve been out of the loop for a long time, and it was good to have help getting back into the loop.”
By SHAILA DEWAN from New York Times
Then he discovered that many of them had never actually lost the right.
Because of a quirk in its Constitution, Alabama disqualifies from voting only those who have committed a “felony involving moral turpitude.” Those who have committed other felonies — like marijuana possession or drunken driving — can cast ballots even if they are still in prison, according to the state attorney general.
But it has been slow work cajoling public officials to enforce and publicize the law. Until Friday, the secretary of state’s Web site advised, incorrectly, that those with any kind of felony conviction could not register unless they had served their time and their right to vote had been restored by the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Because neither the Legislature nor the attorney general has offered a definitive list of crimes involving moral turpitude, there is no way of knowing how many inmates are eligible to vote. But state agencies generally agree that those convicted of drug possession — at least 3,000 of Alabama’s 29,000 prison inmates and thousands more on probation — are eligible. Most felons and former felons, however, assume that they have lost the right to vote.
“This is an issue that’s never come up before,” said Richard F. Allen, the commissioner of corrections. “I would think that if there were any latent feeling out there that they wanted to vote, they would have expressed it by now.”
Mr. Glasgow, who is the half-brother of a far less obscure crusader based in New York, the Rev. Al Sharpton, believes that not only do inmates and former convicts want to vote, but also that their ballots could alter the political landscape in this Republican-leaning state, adding that his group has registered more than 500 people by visiting a handful of county jails.
“There would be a lot of difference in our legislators, our elected officials and our presidents that we’ve had,” he said. “It would definitely change the political spectrum of Alabama.”
Republicans agree. They railed against a statute passed in 2003 that made it easier for some former felons to regain their voting rights by side-stepping a lengthy and backlogged pardon process.
“There’s no more anti-Republican bill than this,” said Marty Connors, the chairman of the state Republican Party, according to news reports at the time. “As frank as I can be, we’re opposed to it because felons don’t tend to vote Republican.”
In the two years after the 2003 statute took effect, more than 5,500 former felons had their rights restored, and interest in the November presidential election is running high, said Sarah Still, manager of the pardons department. In January, Ms. Still received more than 280 applications for voting rights, up from an average of 140 a month last fall.
Nationally, 5.3 million people are barred from voting because of their criminal history, according to a 2004 estimate cited by the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice policy group. In the last decade, as criminals who were swept into prison during the drug war have been released and the difficulty of re-integrating them into society has become clear, at least 16 states have made it easier for former felons to vote.
But in the South, where restrictions on former convicts are among the most severe and in many cases date to Jim Crow laws, there have been fewer changes. Last Monday the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in protest of a 2006 Tennessee law that requires former convicts to pay back child support before regaining the right to vote. In Alabama, the Republican attorney general, Troy King, has proposed a constitutional amendment that would delete the moral turpitude clause, prohibiting all felons from voting.
Though he is an active Democrat, Mr. Glasgow, 42, says his main goal is not to aid his party but to help former inmates become productive members of society.
But for most of his own life he was hardly an exemplar of civic engagement. Mr. Sharpton, in his memoir, “Go and Tell Pharaoh,” says his parents’ marriage was wrecked when his father, Al Sharpton Sr., had an affair with his mother’s teenage daughter from a previous marriage, resulting in the birth of Kenneth.
By the time Kenneth was a teenager, his mother had taken him to her hometown, Dothan, Ala., where he began to get in trouble for selling drugs, became addicted to crack cocaine and did time in Alabama and Florida for armed robbery and other crimes.
It was during his longest stint in prison, nine years, that the genes of activism and oratory that run in Mr. Glasgow’s family emerged and he began to preach. When he was released in 2001, the bondsman who had repeatedly bailed him out of jail became treasurer of The Ordinary People Society and paid for Mr. Glasgow to attend seminary.
Mr. Glasgow opened a soup kitchen, held church services under a white tent and began to help former convicts like Anna Reynolds, a recovering addict, regain the right to vote — a process often made onerous by the moral-turpitude clause.
As a legal concept, moral turpitude refers to conduct that would be immoral even if it were not illegal, unlike, say, speeding. The delegates to the 1901 constitutional convention who used the term also took away voting rights for other infractions that they believed blacks were more likely to commit, like wife beating, adultery and vagrancy. In 1985 the United States Supreme Court struck down most of the law on the grounds that it was racially discriminatory, but the moral-turpitude clause remained.
Most officials in Alabama were unaware of the clause until 2005, when it came to light after a man on probation tried to vote in St. Clair County. The parole board requested clarification, and the attorney general responded with an incomplete categorization of felonies based largely on previous court decisions.
The opinion leaves a large gray area, said Ms. Still of the pardons department. It says, for example, that rape is a crime of moral turpitude and that assault is not, but offers no clarification on variations like statutory rape or assault with intent to kill.
The parole board settled on a policy of treating drug possession and drunk driving as crimes devoid of moral turpitude, but that has not put an end to the confusion, Mr. Glasgow said.
Initially Ms. Reynolds, 52, was told by the local registrar that she could not vote because of a conviction for drug possession. She applied to the parole board, which told her that it could not restore her right to vote because she had never lost it. Finally, The Ordinary People Society helped cut through the red tape.
On Feb. 5, Ms. Reynolds stood outside the public library handing out sample ballots before casting her own. “Voting, that’s part of getting back to normal life,” she said. “I’ve been out of the loop for a long time, and it was good to have help getting back into the loop.”
By SHAILA DEWAN from New York Times
Rwanda Economy Thriving as Country Moves Past Genocide
When President Bush came here last month on his five-nation Africa tour, he paid a solemn visit to the site where 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide are buried, laying a wreath and strolling quietly along a row of concrete slabs marking mass graves.
But government officials here say Bush's more important act that day was something else: He signed a deal to promote bilateral U.S.-Rwandan investment.
Rwanda hasn't forgotten the genocide, but it's moving forward, and 14 years later this tiny central African nation boasts one of the most stable and rapidly expanding economies in the region. Poverty and illiteracy are declining, immunization rates are up, HIV and malaria have been dramatically curtailed, and new industries from coffee to information technology are experiencing sudden booms.
The country's rebirth under President Paul Kagame — a bookish former rebel leader— was noted last year by the Ibrahim Index, a scale that rates African countries on political and economic freedoms. It called Rwanda the most improved country over the past five years.
"After the genocide everyone was down, and there was a lot of confusion. Now we are on the right track," said Kainamura Issa, co-founder of Index, a local magazine that covers the burgeoning technology sector.
Under Kagame, the government has pumped money into the country's roads and electricity networks and slashed red tape on businesses in a bid to lure foreign investors. Since 1994, the country's economy has grown at a robust 6 percent clip annually.
Lured perhaps in part by its tragedy-to-triumph story, American corporate giants have been drawn to this tiny, hilly nation, where 8 million people are crammed into a space smaller than Maryland .
Starbucks and Costco have signed exclusive deals with Rwandan coffee growers to sell their smooth, aromatic beans in U.S. stores. Government officials say Microsoft has floated a plan to equip the country's Senate chamber so that lawmakers can draft and edit legislation electronically.
"There is a wave of enthusiasm right now for Rwanda ," said Josh Ruxin , a Columbia University public health professor who lives in Rwanda .
Rwanda's upward trajectory is belied by its sleepy-looking capital. Kigali , a city of about 1 million people, has the feel of a quiet small town, with orderly, tree-lined streets that meet at intersections where drivers use their turn signals more than their horns. Men hawking cell phone airtime run up and wave the scratch cards in people's faces, but they plead for a sale with their eyes, not their lungs.
The silence is subtle but unmistakable. It's as if everyone has a secret.
It's tempting to ascribe the feeling to the memory of the genocide, but many in Kigali say it has more to do with the current political climate.
To restore order after 1994— when Hutu militias slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days— Kagame's Tutsi-led government assumed complete control.
Kagame has a reputation as a micro-manager, overseeing everything from the AIDS policy to something he has dubbed "Vision 2020," a high-minded if quixotic plan to turn this overwhelmingly rural nation into a regional hub for information technology.
More worryingly, say human rights groups, he has imposed strict laws over free speech to stop people from inciting ethnic hatred, and some journalists who have published critical stories have been beaten, jailed or driven into exile.
The U.S. State Department last year cited reports that Rwandan security forces engaged in extrajudicial killings and arbitrarily detained and arrested countless people, including street children, vagrants and Jehovah's Witnesses. But the department's annual human rights report also noted that police officials fired more than 70 officers for indiscipline and formed a unit within the police force to investigate citizen complaints of abuse and corruption.
"Significant human rights abuses occurred," the report concluded, "although there were important improvements in some areas."
Rwandan officials prefer to discuss the country's record on AIDS. Experts say the country has made a turnaround thanks to the capable management of donor funding, including more than $300 million from Bush's global anti-AIDS program. The plan has helped put 50,000 Rwandan AIDS patients on life-saving drugs, although an additional 25,000 still lack access.
Six years ago, the U.N. estimated that 8.9 percent of Rwandan adults were living with HIV; by last year that had fallen to 3 percent.
The changes are evident in a redbrick HIV clinic in Nyagasambu, perched on a verdant hillside a half-hour's drive from the capital, Kigali . The clinic was built by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation , a Washington D.C. -based charity, with Bush administration funds. Now dozens of HIV patients from the surrounding villages troop in for regular check-ups.
"Now we have the medicines we need; we have the lab equipment we need," said Theogene Ndayambaje, the clinic's assistant administrator. Motioning to a gaggle of brightly clad women waiting for their check-ups, he added, "Three years ago, they would not have lived."
Rwanda has also expanded access to primary health care in its 438 public health facilities around the country. Nearly all children have been immunized against basic diseases, among the best rates in Africa .
"In the next five years, it's conceivable there will essentially be universal access to health care," said Ruxin, the Columbia professor. "They still have a way to go, but that's astonishing."
But government officials here say Bush's more important act that day was something else: He signed a deal to promote bilateral U.S.-Rwandan investment.
Rwanda hasn't forgotten the genocide, but it's moving forward, and 14 years later this tiny central African nation boasts one of the most stable and rapidly expanding economies in the region. Poverty and illiteracy are declining, immunization rates are up, HIV and malaria have been dramatically curtailed, and new industries from coffee to information technology are experiencing sudden booms.
The country's rebirth under President Paul Kagame — a bookish former rebel leader— was noted last year by the Ibrahim Index, a scale that rates African countries on political and economic freedoms. It called Rwanda the most improved country over the past five years.
"After the genocide everyone was down, and there was a lot of confusion. Now we are on the right track," said Kainamura Issa, co-founder of Index, a local magazine that covers the burgeoning technology sector.
Under Kagame, the government has pumped money into the country's roads and electricity networks and slashed red tape on businesses in a bid to lure foreign investors. Since 1994, the country's economy has grown at a robust 6 percent clip annually.
Lured perhaps in part by its tragedy-to-triumph story, American corporate giants have been drawn to this tiny, hilly nation, where 8 million people are crammed into a space smaller than Maryland .
Starbucks and Costco have signed exclusive deals with Rwandan coffee growers to sell their smooth, aromatic beans in U.S. stores. Government officials say Microsoft has floated a plan to equip the country's Senate chamber so that lawmakers can draft and edit legislation electronically.
"There is a wave of enthusiasm right now for Rwanda ," said Josh Ruxin , a Columbia University public health professor who lives in Rwanda .
Rwanda's upward trajectory is belied by its sleepy-looking capital. Kigali , a city of about 1 million people, has the feel of a quiet small town, with orderly, tree-lined streets that meet at intersections where drivers use their turn signals more than their horns. Men hawking cell phone airtime run up and wave the scratch cards in people's faces, but they plead for a sale with their eyes, not their lungs.
The silence is subtle but unmistakable. It's as if everyone has a secret.
It's tempting to ascribe the feeling to the memory of the genocide, but many in Kigali say it has more to do with the current political climate.
To restore order after 1994— when Hutu militias slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days— Kagame's Tutsi-led government assumed complete control.
Kagame has a reputation as a micro-manager, overseeing everything from the AIDS policy to something he has dubbed "Vision 2020," a high-minded if quixotic plan to turn this overwhelmingly rural nation into a regional hub for information technology.
More worryingly, say human rights groups, he has imposed strict laws over free speech to stop people from inciting ethnic hatred, and some journalists who have published critical stories have been beaten, jailed or driven into exile.
The U.S. State Department last year cited reports that Rwandan security forces engaged in extrajudicial killings and arbitrarily detained and arrested countless people, including street children, vagrants and Jehovah's Witnesses. But the department's annual human rights report also noted that police officials fired more than 70 officers for indiscipline and formed a unit within the police force to investigate citizen complaints of abuse and corruption.
"Significant human rights abuses occurred," the report concluded, "although there were important improvements in some areas."
Rwandan officials prefer to discuss the country's record on AIDS. Experts say the country has made a turnaround thanks to the capable management of donor funding, including more than $300 million from Bush's global anti-AIDS program. The plan has helped put 50,000 Rwandan AIDS patients on life-saving drugs, although an additional 25,000 still lack access.
Six years ago, the U.N. estimated that 8.9 percent of Rwandan adults were living with HIV; by last year that had fallen to 3 percent.
The changes are evident in a redbrick HIV clinic in Nyagasambu, perched on a verdant hillside a half-hour's drive from the capital, Kigali . The clinic was built by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation , a Washington D.C. -based charity, with Bush administration funds. Now dozens of HIV patients from the surrounding villages troop in for regular check-ups.
"Now we have the medicines we need; we have the lab equipment we need," said Theogene Ndayambaje, the clinic's assistant administrator. Motioning to a gaggle of brightly clad women waiting for their check-ups, he added, "Three years ago, they would not have lived."
Rwanda has also expanded access to primary health care in its 438 public health facilities around the country. Nearly all children have been immunized against basic diseases, among the best rates in Africa .
"In the next five years, it's conceivable there will essentially be universal access to health care," said Ruxin, the Columbia professor. "They still have a way to go, but that's astonishing."
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Black Youth Vote! Hosts Community Forums in Texas
Black Youth Vote! Hosts Community Forums in Dallas and Houston Featuring BET's Jeff Johnson Justice Speak Out aims to motivate Black youth to vote in the upcoming primary
After successfully galvanizing young voters for the primaries in South Carolina, Virginia, DC, Alabama and Georgia, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation's (NCBCP) youth division, Black Youth Vote! (BYV) will host Justice Speak Out's in Dallas, Sunday, March 2, and Houston on Monday, March 3. In addition to extensive get-out-the-vote efforts, BYV! launched the Justice Speak Out Tour to mobilize young voters around issues that impact them. The town hall type forum is free and open to the public. For information call 202 659-4929.
BYV! is a national grassroots coalition of organizations and individuals committed to increasing political and civic involvement among Black youth aged 18-35. Founded in 1996, the youth led organization educates young adults about the political process and trains them to identify issues and influence public policy through participation. BYV! has been instrumental reversing the downward spiral among young voters and educating voters who are increasingly disenfranchised from the electoral and legislative process. For more information visit http://www.ncbcp.org/byv.
DALLAS:
WHEN: Sunday, March 2, 2008 TIME: 3PM -6:00 PM CT
WHERE: Paul Quinn College - Gymnasium, 3837 Simpson Stuart Road, Dallas, Texas, 75241
WHO: Participants: Jeff Johnson of the popular Jeff Johnson Chronicles, Carl B. Mack, executive director, National Society of Black Engineers; and Chancee` Lundy, National Co-Chair, Black Youth Vote.
Co-Hosts: NCBCP, Black Youth Vote!, Hip Hop Government, Equal Justice, Metropolitan Dallas Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Paul Quinn College, Paul Quinn Chapter of National Council of Negro Women, Dallas League of Women Voters, and Urban League of Greater Dallas Young Professionals.
HOUSTON:
WHEN: Monday, March 3, 2008 TIME: 6PM -8:00 PM CT
WHERE: Texas Southern University - Education Auditorium, 3100 Cleburne Street, Houston, TX 77004
WHO: Participants include: Jeff Johnson of BET's popular Jeff Johnson Chronicles, Nnette, Madd Hatta's Morning Show (97.9 the box), and Def Comedy Jam's Ali.
Co-Hosts: NCBCP, Black Youth Vote!, Texas Southern University Political Science Department and Club, KBXX 97.9 The Box, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., Texas Southern University Student Government Association
After successfully galvanizing young voters for the primaries in South Carolina, Virginia, DC, Alabama and Georgia, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation's (NCBCP) youth division, Black Youth Vote! (BYV) will host Justice Speak Out's in Dallas, Sunday, March 2, and Houston on Monday, March 3. In addition to extensive get-out-the-vote efforts, BYV! launched the Justice Speak Out Tour to mobilize young voters around issues that impact them. The town hall type forum is free and open to the public. For information call 202 659-4929.
BYV! is a national grassroots coalition of organizations and individuals committed to increasing political and civic involvement among Black youth aged 18-35. Founded in 1996, the youth led organization educates young adults about the political process and trains them to identify issues and influence public policy through participation. BYV! has been instrumental reversing the downward spiral among young voters and educating voters who are increasingly disenfranchised from the electoral and legislative process. For more information visit http://www.ncbcp.org/byv.
DALLAS:
WHEN: Sunday, March 2, 2008 TIME: 3PM -6:00 PM CT
WHERE: Paul Quinn College - Gymnasium, 3837 Simpson Stuart Road, Dallas, Texas, 75241
WHO: Participants: Jeff Johnson of the popular Jeff Johnson Chronicles, Carl B. Mack, executive director, National Society of Black Engineers; and Chancee` Lundy, National Co-Chair, Black Youth Vote.
Co-Hosts: NCBCP, Black Youth Vote!, Hip Hop Government, Equal Justice, Metropolitan Dallas Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Paul Quinn College, Paul Quinn Chapter of National Council of Negro Women, Dallas League of Women Voters, and Urban League of Greater Dallas Young Professionals.
HOUSTON:
WHEN: Monday, March 3, 2008 TIME: 6PM -8:00 PM CT
WHERE: Texas Southern University - Education Auditorium, 3100 Cleburne Street, Houston, TX 77004
WHO: Participants include: Jeff Johnson of BET's popular Jeff Johnson Chronicles, Nnette, Madd Hatta's Morning Show (97.9 the box), and Def Comedy Jam's Ali.
Co-Hosts: NCBCP, Black Youth Vote!, Texas Southern University Political Science Department and Club, KBXX 97.9 The Box, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., Texas Southern University Student Government Association
Zimbabwe Leader Vows Victory in Election
Longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe vowed Friday to defeat "political prostitutes, political charlatans and two-headed political creatures" in the March 29 election.
Mugabe faces a challenge from former ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, who says the African country needs younger leaders to tackle the worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1980.
The 84-year-old Mugabe, who recently likened Makoni to a prostitute seeking clients, insisted Friday that his ZANU-PF party had resolved the deep divisions that emerged during an internal vote to select candidates.
"The struggles within the party that have taken place, and in some cases little wars, have been settled. At the end of the day, we have this congregation with me at the head," he told about 4,000 supporters as he launched his campaign in an auditorium in the capital, Harare.
"This is the official start of our march to another electoral victory," he said.
But he added, gazing across auditorium: "You who are here with us, I hope I trust you, all of you. Some politicians are sell outs, political prostitutes, political charlatans and two-headed political creatures."
Mugabe is also up against the head of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai. For the first time, Mugabe could face a run-off presidential vote if he does not win 51 percent.
Makoni, 57, was fired by Mugabe as finance minister in 2002 in disagreements over economic policy. He is expected to attract votes from disillusioned members of the ruling party and the fractured opposition.
Often violent seizures of farms first ordered by Mugabe's government in 2000 disrupted the agriculture-based economy in a country that once exported food. Mugabe, though, argues his country is the victim of a Western conspiracy.
Inflation, food shortages and crumbling power, water, sanitation and communication systems have fueled divisions within the ZANU-PF.
Speakers at Friday's ruling party gathering called for unity.
"There is evidence of hunger for power within our ranks. We have opportunists and saboteurs who have come into the fold. We must ensure he wins and we must ensure he wins resoundingly," said ZANU-PF chairman John Nkomo.
In power since leading Zimbabwe to independence, Mugabe is accused of using intimidation and rigging to ensure previous election victories.
On Wednesday, official media reported that police were ready to quell any violence during and after the election — adding to concerns the vote will be no different despite promises of reform.
New legislation rushed through parliament at the end of last year has relaxed the security laws, but so far there have been few signs of a more tolerant government approach to opposition demonstrations.
In an open letter this week, U.S. Ambassador James McGee said there were "ominous signs" that the elections would not be free or fair. He cited violence, inadequate preparation, voter confusion and evidence of registration irregularities.
But the foreign minister of neighboring Zambia, Kabinge Pande, praised recent changes to Zimbabwe's constitution and the Mugabe government's acceptance of regional election guidelines.
Regional leaders "strongly feel this (election) will be free and fair," Pande said.
Zambian President Levy Mwananwasa questioned last week whether Western countries would accept the results of the election as legitimate unless Mugabe lost.
by ANGUS SHAW from AP
Mugabe faces a challenge from former ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, who says the African country needs younger leaders to tackle the worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1980.
The 84-year-old Mugabe, who recently likened Makoni to a prostitute seeking clients, insisted Friday that his ZANU-PF party had resolved the deep divisions that emerged during an internal vote to select candidates.
"The struggles within the party that have taken place, and in some cases little wars, have been settled. At the end of the day, we have this congregation with me at the head," he told about 4,000 supporters as he launched his campaign in an auditorium in the capital, Harare.
"This is the official start of our march to another electoral victory," he said.
But he added, gazing across auditorium: "You who are here with us, I hope I trust you, all of you. Some politicians are sell outs, political prostitutes, political charlatans and two-headed political creatures."
Mugabe is also up against the head of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai. For the first time, Mugabe could face a run-off presidential vote if he does not win 51 percent.
Makoni, 57, was fired by Mugabe as finance minister in 2002 in disagreements over economic policy. He is expected to attract votes from disillusioned members of the ruling party and the fractured opposition.
Often violent seizures of farms first ordered by Mugabe's government in 2000 disrupted the agriculture-based economy in a country that once exported food. Mugabe, though, argues his country is the victim of a Western conspiracy.
Inflation, food shortages and crumbling power, water, sanitation and communication systems have fueled divisions within the ZANU-PF.
Speakers at Friday's ruling party gathering called for unity.
"There is evidence of hunger for power within our ranks. We have opportunists and saboteurs who have come into the fold. We must ensure he wins and we must ensure he wins resoundingly," said ZANU-PF chairman John Nkomo.
In power since leading Zimbabwe to independence, Mugabe is accused of using intimidation and rigging to ensure previous election victories.
On Wednesday, official media reported that police were ready to quell any violence during and after the election — adding to concerns the vote will be no different despite promises of reform.
New legislation rushed through parliament at the end of last year has relaxed the security laws, but so far there have been few signs of a more tolerant government approach to opposition demonstrations.
In an open letter this week, U.S. Ambassador James McGee said there were "ominous signs" that the elections would not be free or fair. He cited violence, inadequate preparation, voter confusion and evidence of registration irregularities.
But the foreign minister of neighboring Zambia, Kabinge Pande, praised recent changes to Zimbabwe's constitution and the Mugabe government's acceptance of regional election guidelines.
Regional leaders "strongly feel this (election) will be free and fair," Pande said.
Zambian President Levy Mwananwasa questioned last week whether Western countries would accept the results of the election as legitimate unless Mugabe lost.
by ANGUS SHAW from AP
Witness at Bell Trial Tells of Frantic Police Call
"It is getting hot, getting hot!" was the frantic telephone call a police commander remembered getting from a detective in the moments before Sean Bell was shot dead after partying at a Jamaica strip club.
In testimony Friday in State Supreme Court in Queens, Lt. Gary Napoli said that Gescard Isnora, who was working undercover, called him with an urgent message -- that there might be a gun among a group of men arguing outside the club.
"I told units to move in to where Jessie is," Napoli, 50, testified, referring to Isnora by his nickname.
Moments later around the corner on Liverpool Street, Napoli said that he suddenly saw the Nissan Altima Bell was driving speed away from the curb. The next instant, recalled Napoli, he heard a collision and then shooting. Bell, 23, died in a 50-shot barrage fired by cops early on Nov. 25, 2006.
Napoli testified as a prosecution witness in the trial of Isnora, 29, and detectives Michael Oliver, 36, and Marc Cooper, 40. Isnora and Oliver are charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter, as well as assault. Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.
The case is being tried without a jury before Judge Arthur J. Cooperman.
Under questioning by Executive Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa, Napoli said he did not see the collision or shooting because his Toyota Camry was facing in the wrong direction. The supervisor of an undercover operation targeting suspected prostitution at the Kalua Cabaret, Napoli said he drew his own gun in his car, then ducked low, got out and hunkered down for cover at the rear of the vehicle. Napoli didn't fire any shots.
Napoli said that he didn't hear anyone shout "police" or "Stop, police" and didn't recall seeing any of the officers in his unit display a badge, although he stressed he wasn't looking for the latter in the chaos.
Unlike other civilian witnesses who testified hearing a pause of as long as 10 seconds in the shooting before it resumed, Napoli said on cross-examination that the shots seemed continuous. When the firing stopped, Napoli said the quiet seemed "surreal."
"We were all in a bit of a surreal situation at that time," Napoli said.
Napoli's testimony meshed with that of earlier prosecution witnesses who claimed there was an angry altercation between Bell and another man outside the club and that there was a collision between Bell's car and a police van. Other witnesses also reported they did not see police badges on the cops or hear any warnings before the shooting.
But Napoli is the first witness to give evidence that Isnora relayed to his supervisor his fears that there might be a gun among Bell's entourage. Under cross-examination by Isnora's attorney, Anthony Ricco, Napoli appeared to undercut the prosecution's suggestion that the unit was trying to get arrests at Kalua to avoid being disbanded.
"We were out there because it was our job," Napoli said. "Whether we made an arrest wouldn't have kept [the unit alive]."
Outside court, Napoli's attorney Howard Tanner told reporters the lieutenant still believes his cops were legally justified in firing.
Tanner told Newsday that Napoli could face departmental charges for the shooting incident.
BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO from Newsday.com
In testimony Friday in State Supreme Court in Queens, Lt. Gary Napoli said that Gescard Isnora, who was working undercover, called him with an urgent message -- that there might be a gun among a group of men arguing outside the club.
"I told units to move in to where Jessie is," Napoli, 50, testified, referring to Isnora by his nickname.
Moments later around the corner on Liverpool Street, Napoli said that he suddenly saw the Nissan Altima Bell was driving speed away from the curb. The next instant, recalled Napoli, he heard a collision and then shooting. Bell, 23, died in a 50-shot barrage fired by cops early on Nov. 25, 2006.
Napoli testified as a prosecution witness in the trial of Isnora, 29, and detectives Michael Oliver, 36, and Marc Cooper, 40. Isnora and Oliver are charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter, as well as assault. Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.
The case is being tried without a jury before Judge Arthur J. Cooperman.
Under questioning by Executive Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa, Napoli said he did not see the collision or shooting because his Toyota Camry was facing in the wrong direction. The supervisor of an undercover operation targeting suspected prostitution at the Kalua Cabaret, Napoli said he drew his own gun in his car, then ducked low, got out and hunkered down for cover at the rear of the vehicle. Napoli didn't fire any shots.
Napoli said that he didn't hear anyone shout "police" or "Stop, police" and didn't recall seeing any of the officers in his unit display a badge, although he stressed he wasn't looking for the latter in the chaos.
Unlike other civilian witnesses who testified hearing a pause of as long as 10 seconds in the shooting before it resumed, Napoli said on cross-examination that the shots seemed continuous. When the firing stopped, Napoli said the quiet seemed "surreal."
"We were all in a bit of a surreal situation at that time," Napoli said.
Napoli's testimony meshed with that of earlier prosecution witnesses who claimed there was an angry altercation between Bell and another man outside the club and that there was a collision between Bell's car and a police van. Other witnesses also reported they did not see police badges on the cops or hear any warnings before the shooting.
But Napoli is the first witness to give evidence that Isnora relayed to his supervisor his fears that there might be a gun among Bell's entourage. Under cross-examination by Isnora's attorney, Anthony Ricco, Napoli appeared to undercut the prosecution's suggestion that the unit was trying to get arrests at Kalua to avoid being disbanded.
"We were out there because it was our job," Napoli said. "Whether we made an arrest wouldn't have kept [the unit alive]."
Outside court, Napoli's attorney Howard Tanner told reporters the lieutenant still believes his cops were legally justified in firing.
Tanner told Newsday that Napoli could face departmental charges for the shooting incident.
BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO from Newsday.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
