CBC member says Obama disrespects Blacks

Transcription

New York’s
Beacon
website:
NewYorkBeacon.net
Vol. 20 No. 05
Showing the Way to Truth and Justice
E-Mail
[email protected]
January 31, 2013 - February 6, 2013
75 Cents
PREDICTIONS!
RFK, King predicted election of Black president in 40 years
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama acknowledge well-wishers at 2013 Inauguration Ball. (CREDIT: Freddie Allen/NNPA)
(See Story On Page 3)
CBC member says Obama disrespects Blacks
(See Story On Page 3)
Mayor Bloomberg breaks ground
for reconstruction of Lowe’s Theater
BEACON, BEACON, January 31, 2013 - February 6, 2013 newyorkbeacon.net
2
By J. Zamgba Browne
Special to NY Beacon
James Reynolds, Jr.
Hon. Carl McCall
Vivian Pickard
Kevin Newell
The Honorable David N. Dinkins
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
joined by Borough President
Marty Markowitz broke ground
recently on the reconstruction of
historic Lowe’s Kings Theatre in
Brooklyn’s Flatbush community.
Originally constructed in 1929,
the 3,200-seat theatre is the largest indoor theatre in Brooklyn.
The design was heavily influenced by the Palace of Versailles
and Paris Opera House and features ornate architectural details
in the French Renaissance style.
In 1977, the theatre closed and
has remained vacant since, suffering decades of neglect and
deterioration. Mayor Bloomberg
said his action represents the culmination of the City’s efforts to
revitalize the theatre.
Once the largest and grandest
indoor venue in Brooklyn,
Loew’s Kings Theatre was a major attraction for hundreds of
thousands of New Yorkers and
countless visitors,” said Mayor
Bloomberg. “Soon it will be
again,” he added.
According to Bloomberg, the
massive restoration project will
be great for the Flatbush community, for Brooklyn’s booming
cultural scene, for local artists
and cultural groups, and for New
York City.
Borough President said that
restoring the glory of the Loew’s
Kings Theatre into a combination of the Beacon and the Apollo
all rolled into one has long been
the dream of his and the Flatbush
community and now it’s time for
the theatre’s triumphant encore.
“Not only will the new facility
be the largest indoor theatre in
the borough – hosting everything from concerts and plays to
special events and graduation
ceremonies – it will be an engine
of economic growth along
Flatbush Avenue and all of central Brooklyn,” said Markowitz.
Sen. Charles Schumer said the
project became a reality due in
part to the federal New Market
Tax Credits he and others fought
so hard to preserve the palatial
theatres of days gone by will
make a roaring return with the refurbishment of the Loew’s Kings
Theatre.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
“This glorious theatre will give
Central Brooklyn the grand stage
it needs and deserves,” Sen.
Schumer said.
City Councilman Mathieu Eugene in whose district the theatre
is based, thanked Mayor
Bloomberg and Borough President Markowitz for their contin-
ued efforts create jobs, spur economic growth and bring back the
grandeur of old Brooklyn.
Councilman Eugene also said that
Loew’s Kings Theatre is a great example of the private and public sectors working together in other to
serve the common good.
“This theatre is part of Brooklyn
history and will continue to be part
of its future as a great social and
cultural institution that uplifts, and
unites the community,” the Councilman continued.
State Sen. Kevin Parker who
helped secure funds for the project
said he was thrilled that the rehabilitation and restoration of theatre
is finally complete. “This project
created hundreds of jobs for individuals who were unemployed and
it is projected to create over 50 permanent positions right here in
Flatbush,” said Parker.
Originally designed by the renowned firm of Rapp & Rapp,
Loew’s Kings Theatre, located at
1027 Flatbush Ave., opened in 1927
as one of Lowe’s five Wonder Theatres.
Miss Teen USA makes
story time special for kids
Miss Teen USA, Logan West,
brought smiles to the faces of children at the Ryan/Chelsea Clinton
Community Health Center in Manhattan, when she stopped in for a special
story time. Her visit highlighted the
work of Reach Out and Read of Greater
New York, an early literacy program
that partners with pediatricians to encourage families to read together.
Miss West read two favorite
children’s books to children at the
health center: “Five Little Monkeys
Jumping on the Bed” and “If You Give
a Mouse a Cookie.”
According to the newly released
Kids and Family Reading Report,
“having reading role-model parents
or a large book collection at home has
more of an impact on kids’ reading
frequency than does household income.” Through Reach Out and Read,
pediatricians provide children with
free age-appropriate books at each
checkup, and work with parents and
caretakers to make reading aloud with
their children part of a daily routine.
“Reach Out and Read has been a
wonderful program for the Ryan/
Chelsea-Clinton Community Health
Center, as it helps us connect children
with books at a young age,” said Dr.
Carolyn Chu, medical director and acting executive-director of the health center. “It highlights the importance of literacy from the very beginning, and encourages families to bond through a
shared love of reading.”
In the last year, medical providers at
the Ryan Center distributed 800 books
to children through the Reach Out and
Read program.
There are Reach Out and Read programs at more than 180 hospitals and
health centers in the Greater New York
region, including the five boroughs of
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 15)
One Hundred Black Men to honor five at gala
Fitzgerald Miller, President of
the One Hundred Black Men,
Inc. of New York City, HAS announced the honorees for the
33rd Annual Benefit Gala, which
will be held on Thursday, Feb.
21 at the New York Marriott Marquis.
This year’s gala, celebrating
One Hundred Black Men, Inc.’s
50th anniversary, honors: The
Hon. David N. Dinkins, former
New York City Mayor and One
Hundred Black Men founder;
Hon. H. Carl McCall, former New
York State Comptroller and chairman, Board of Trustees, SUNY;
Kevin Newell, executive vice
president and Global Chief Brand
Officer, McDonald’s Corporation;
Vivian Pickard, president of GM
Foundation, General Motors Corporation; and James Reynolds, Jr.,
chairman & CEO, Loop Capital
Markets
Eytone Ruiz, Andrew Lyttle
and Tochukwu Agouji will also
be honored as Mentors of the
Year.
Dari Alexander, anchor of Fox
5 News, and David Ushery, anchor of NBC News 4 New York
and host of “The Debrief with
David Ushery,” will be co-emcees of the Black tie fundraiser
that features a cocktail reception
at 6:30 p.m. followed by dinner,
program and dancing at 7:30 p.m.
“As the founding chapter of
the now-international advocacy organization, the One
Hundred Black Men of New
York City have a proud halfcentury history of accomplishments in economic empowerment, education, public policy,
fellowship, mentoring, schola r s h i p awards, health and
wellness and contributing to the
fabric of the City of New York,”
noted President Fitzgerald Miller.
“Our members, partners, supporters and constituents can depend on our continued assistance
to the communities we serve, well
into the future,” Mr. Miller conROYAL VISIT—Miss Teen USA Logan West with students of Ryan
cluded.
Center where she read to the excited students.
Beacon (USPS 011-156), serving Metropolitan New York is published weekly by SHGM at 237 W. 37th Street, Suite 203, New York, NY 10018. Periodicals postage paid
at New York, NY. POSTMASTER; send address changes to The New York Beacon - 237 W. 37th Street, Suite 203, New York, NY 10018.
(212) 213-8585 Fax: (212) 213-6291, Web Site: www.newyorkbeacon.com, Email:[email protected], The New York Beacon Subscription rate: $35.00 per year.
Obama opens second term with a bold return to his base
By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings
CBC member says Obama
disrespects African Americans
By George E. Curry
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
(NNPA) – Rep. Alcee L. Hastings
says President Obama of consistently disrespects the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the
Black Press, and graduates of historically Black colleges, key
groups that were critical to his reelection in November.
Speaking Friday at the mid-winter convention of the National
Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), Hastings, a former
federal judge, said the Congressional Black Caucus carefully
vetted candidates they felt would
be ideal for the second Obama administration, which has come under criticism for being dominated
by White males.
The Black Caucus of Congress
then sent 61 names to the White
House,” Hastings recounted.
“Time went by. Not one of that 61
was selected – not one.”
In a speech that had a rich blend
of seriousness, humor and expletives, Hastings said during the
campaign, the CBC pressed the
Obama campaign about the paucity of advertising with Black newspapers in particular. He said a top
campaign official said Obama initially planned to spend only
$650,000 with Black newspapers, a
figure that was raised under pressure to $1 million – which meant
that $999 million went to others.
“If I was president of the United
States, there is no way in hell that
I would raise a billion dollars and
don’t spend but a million dollars
with people who probably had
as much to do with my becoming
president as anybody,” the
Florida Democrat said.
Hastings, the first AfricanAmerican elected to Congress
from Florida since the Reconstruction Era, expressed admiration for the Black Press, saying it
covers the full scope of Black life
better than White-owned media.
“I spent more money in this
election than I have in any election,” said Hastings, who has
served in Congress since 1992.
“And I believe Bobby [Henry,
publisher of the Westside Gazette in Fort Lauderdale] will tell
you that I spent an equivalent or
more money than the Obama for
America people did with his
newspaper.”
Hastings said he also outspent
the Obama campaign in other
media in Broward County, which
makes up part of his congressional district.
“I did that because I wanted
Obama to win the presidency, but
I particularly went to the ground
in this election to prove to him
and his minions that this was territory that had been watered,
flowered, grown and harvested
long before anybody knew his
(expletive) name.”
Hastings continued, “…Because of your efforts –national
Black publishers – because of
many of your efforts, we voted 2
percent in this election more than
we did in ’08. And I received 2
percent more in the congres
The election of Barack Obama
as president fulfilled the predictions of Rev. Martin Luther King,
Jr . and Robert F. Kennedy that it
might be possible to elect a Black
president in 40 years
Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, was
sworn in on the day the nation
observed the annual federal holiday to honor the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was sworn
in on a black leather traveling Bible
used by King that was topped by
a smaller one owned by President
Abraham Lincoln. And he referenced both men as he declared
Americans “are made for this moment.”
The direct link between the
nation’s first Black president and
the observance of King’s birthday
underscores how far this country
has progressed since the assassination of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC)
president and Nobel Peace Prize
After the inauguration, the Obamas led a parade procession that included 59 groups with 8,800 people from the Capitol approximately 1.6
miles down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
winner in 1968.
Kennedy that it might be possible
Although King did not live to see to elect a Black president in 40 years.
the election of an African-Ameri“I’ve seen levels of compliance
can to the nation’s highest office, with the civil rights bill and changes
he predicted in 1964 that a Black that have been most surprising,”
would be elected president of the King said. “So, on the basis of this,
United States. In an interview with I think we may be able to get a Nethe BBC, King was asked to com- gro president in less than 40 years. I
ment on a statement by then New
York Senator-elect Robert F.
Bipartisan group of senators reach
agreement on immigration reform
A bipartisan group of leading
senators has reached agreement
on the principles of sweeping legislation to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws.
The deal, which was to be announced at a news conference
Monday afternoon, covers border
security, guest workers and employer verification, as well as a
path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in
this country.
Although thorny details remain
to be negotiated and success is
far from certain, the development
heralds the start of what could be
the most significant effort in years
toward overhauling the nation’s
inefficient patchwork of immigration laws.
President Barack Obama also is
committed to enacting comprehensive immigration legislation
and will travel to Nevada on Tues-
day to lay out his vision, which is
expected to overlap in important
ways with the Senate effort.
The eight senators expected to
endorse the new principles Monday
are Democrats Charles Schumer of
New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois,
Robert Menendez of New Jersey
and Michael Bennet of Colorado;
and Republicans John McCain of
Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida
and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
Several of these lawmakers have
worked for years on the issue.
McCain collaborated with the late
Democratic Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy on comprehensive immigration legislation pushed by thenPresident George W. Bush in 2007,
only to see it collapse in the Senate
when it couldn’t get enough GOP
support.Now, with some RepubliSen. Charles Schumer
Wilmington Ten team thanks the Black Press for pardons
By George E. Curry
FORTLAUDERDALE, Fla. (NNPA)
– Nearly two years ago, an emotional
Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. stood before
the National Newspaper Publishers
Association Foundation’s annual
Black Press Week observance in the
nation’s capital, hoping the NNPA
would launch a national campaign to
win a pardon of innocence for each
member of the Wilmington Ten from
the governor of North Carolina.
On Thursday, he appeared at the
NNPA’s mid-winter conference here,
less than a month after the North Carolina governor issue the pardons just
before leaving office.
“First and foremost, we want to
thank God Almighty and in thanking
God, we thank the National Newspa-
per Publishers Association for your
courage, for your dedication, for
your steadfastness and commitment,” Chavis told the publishers.
“Gov. Beverly Perdue, the governor of North Carolina – the outgoing governor – on Dec. 31st, the eve
of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued a pardon of innocence to the Wilmington
Ten. If it were not for the National
Newspaper Publishers Association,
your leadership, I doubt if we would
be here today.”
But Chavis was here. And so was
Mary Alice Thatch, publisher of the
Wilmington Journal and the person
who urged the NNPA to seek pardons for the Wilmington Ten. So
were James E. Ferguson II and Irvin
Joyner, the original attorneys who
represented the activists and stood
Dr. Ben Chavis
by their side for more than 40 years. So
was Cash Michaels, who wrote the
stories that created tremendous pressure on Gov. Perdue to issue the pardons. And so were NNPA Chairman
Cloves Campbell, who actively supported the campaign, and Dorothy
Leavell, then-chairperson of the NNPA
Foundation when it sponsored the
Black Press Week luncheon where the
NNPA decided to launch a national
campaign to fully exonerate the
Wilmington Ten.
“I guarantee you that there’s no
other organization of journalists that
could have pulled off what you just
pulled off,” said Chavis, now an NNPA
columnist.
What the NNPA pulled off was a 2year campaign, which was accelerated
last spring when Michaels accepted a
request from Thatch to coordinate the
campaign. Michaels immediately
reached out to Irvin Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University, to serve as co-chair of the
Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence
Project, and James E. Ferguson II, the
lead attorney.
After more than a dozen stories by
Michaels, most of which were published on the front page of Black newspapers across the nation; numerous
public rallies, and a petition drive on
Change.org that collected more than
150,000 signatures, Gov. Perdue issued
the pardons on New Year’s Eve, less
than a week before leaving office.
The road to complete vindication was
not an easy one.
Chavis returned from New York to his
home state when the United Church of
3
BEACON, January 31, 2013 - February 6, 2013 newyorkbeacon.net
RFK, King predicted election
of Black president in 40 years
Jesse Jackson announces 16th annual
Wall Street Project Economic Summit
4
James R. Talton
Tuskegee University honors
George Washington Carver
The Tuskegee University community honored the life and legacy
of its most renowned professor,
George Washington Carver. After
a procession of faculty and staff
in academic regalia, the 14th Annual George Washington Carver
Convocation was held in the University Chapel.
This year’s keynote speaker was
James R. Talton, the director of the
Central Alabama Veterans Health
Care System in Montgomery, Ala.
In his introductory remarks,
Tuskegee University President Gilbert L. Rochon, shared details
about Tuskegee’s unique relationship with veterans’ medical care in
Alabama.
“It was the second president of
Tuskegee University Robert Russa
Moton who allocated 300 acres of
the campus of Tuskegee University to establish a VA hospital that
is now adjacent to the campus,”
Rochon said “Primarily to serve the
needs of black soldiers and to be
staffed by black doctors and
nurses, something that was unheard of.”
In a passionate address, Talton
warned the audiences of the danger of becoming irrelevant in
American society. Using a biblical
story about a king in Exodus 1:8,
Talton laid a basis for the importance of remaining an important
part of society.
He said a people’s relevancy in
America is judged by a virtual balance sheet of contributions to society and deductions of resources.
He said a lack of contributions and
draining resources makes a people
irrelevant, despite individual
achievements.
Talton said the disparities in
education and criminal behavior
found in black communities are
contributing to harmful misrepresentations. Also, he said that
misperceptions and disdain
among blacks are contributing to
the decline of society and impeding the achievement of equality.
“The real enemy of a man is
that part that keeps bringing
yesterday’s garbage to today’s
dinner table and feeds on it. And
he grows ill from eating rotten
food,” He said.
Talton urged the audience not
to look at his fiery address as a
damning criticism, but as a diagnosis. He concluded his speech
by calling the internal and external problems that blacks face a
“disease for which you and I are
definitely the prescription.”
Talton is board certified in
health care management and is a
fellow of the American College
of Healthcare Executives. He is
also a certified physician assistant. He received the Department
of Veterans Affairs “Secretary’s
Award” for his leadership following the devastating tornado in
Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 27,
2011.
He is also a recipient of the
2011 Alabama Hospital Association Hospital Heroes
Award for his leadership at
Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center. After his address, Rochon
presented him with the Robert Russa Moton Award for
Exemplary Leadership in
Health Systems Management.
The Rainbow PUSH Wall Street
Project will host the 16th annual
gathering of the Wall Street
Project Economic Summit from
January 30-Feb. 1, 2013 at The
Roosevelt Hotel, 45 East 45th
Street, New York, NY 10017.
This year’s summit, “Wall Street
to Main Street: Economic Parity The Struggle Continues ...” focuses on access to capital, career
development and labor. The 2013
honorary co-chairs are Danny J.
Bakewell, Sr.; John Graves; Louis
James; Byron Lewis; Former NY
Governor David A. Paterson; R.
Donahue Peebles; James
Reynolds, Jr., CFA; John W.
Rogers, Jr.; Maceo K. Sloan; and
Congresswoman Maxine Waters
(CA).
The Wall Street Economic Summit brings together the nation’s
leaders from politics to corporations to entrepreneurs to Wall
Street – all to discuss the economic parity and concerns unique
to men and women of African
American, Hispanic and diverse
cultures. Invited speakers and
special guests of the conference
include Rev. Al . Sharpton Jr., president, National Action Network
(NAN); Christopher J. “Chris”
Christie, governor of New Jersey;
Andrew M. Cuomo, governor of
New York; President Barack
Obama, and former President William J. “Bill” Clinton.
The Wall Street Project challenges corporate America to
end the multi-billion dollar
trade deficit with minority vendors and consumers; while
working to ensure equal opportunity for diverse employees,
entrepreneurs, and consumers.
“The goal of the conference is
simple – to become a changeagent for a more efficient and
diversified workforce by giving
individuals the correct tools,
resources, and knowledge that
will ultimately lead to better
business and career opportunities and increasing their bottom line” says Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of
the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
and organizer of the Wall Street
Project. “We are able to open
Jesse Jackson
doors for those on Wall Street
that have been closed for years.
It’s about creating an economic
parity for our community.”
“Last year’s 15th annual Wall
Street Project left me feeling more
confident and secure about my
firm’s bottom line. I was able to connect with decision-makers that was
not afforded to me prior,” states
Wall Street entrepreneur. Highlights of the three-day summit will
include:
• Wall Street Project Career Symposium: Three-in one career advancement session geared to
strengthen professionals with the
tools, insights, skills and resources to enhancing and managing career opportunities.
• Raising Our Voices On Advertising in The Marketplace: Corporate Marketing Officers and ethnic
media representatives will discuss
how their advertising and marketing efforts are meeting the needs
of growing ethnic markets.
• Parity in Public Procurement
Opportunities: A panel of state
caucus chairs and federal officials
will discuss best practices for accomplishing parity in public procurement, construction projects and
management of public pension
funds.
• New Development in Hedge Fund
Opportunities: The session will focus on recent alternative investment
trends, including federal regulation
of hedge funds, barriers to minority
participation, unintended hedges,
liquidity of pension fund liquidity,
the endowment model, total return
and payout ratios.
• The Business of Hip-Hop: This
Forum is a must for all 21st century
entrepreneurs and business owners
of all backgrounds. Panelists will examine the positive impact and extensive business opportunities of
an often misunderstood and overlooked business opportunity, Hip
Hop.
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a
progressive organization protecting,
defending and expanding civil
rights to improve economic and educational opportunity.
Young Blacks have not lost appreciation for Black History
By Maya Rhodan
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Although born long after the 1963
March on Washington and passage
of landmark legislation such as the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many Black
youth are excited about celebrating
Black History Month in February.
“It is a time to remind you of your
ancestors’ struggles and the things
that they’ve experienced so you
don’t lose sight of the past,” says
Ryann Roberts, 22, who refers to the
month as an opportunity to “lift as
you climb.”
Lifting up the accomplishments
of Blacks is what historian Carter G.
Woodson and his Association for
the Study of Negro Life and History had in mind when announced
in 1926 that the second week in February would be observed as Negro
History Week. On the bicentennial
of the founding of Negro History
Week in 1976, the celebration was
expanded to Black History
Month.
All modern presidents have acknowledged Negro History Week
or African American History
Month through executive orders
and proclamations.
In his proclamation last year,
President Obama said, “The
story of African Americans is a
story of resilience and perseverance. It traces a people who refused to accept the circumstances under which they arrived
on these shores, and it
chronicles the generations who
fought for an America that truly
reflects the ideals enshrined in
our founding documents. It is
the narrative of slaves who
shepherded others along the
path to freedom and preachers
who organized against the rules
of Jim Crow, of young people
who sat-in at lunch counters and
ordinary men and women who
took extraordinary risks to
change our Nation for the better.
During National African American
History Month, we celebrate the
rich legacy of African Americans
and honor the remarkable contributions they have made to perfecting our Union.”
Like everything else in American society, the occasion is used
by many major corporations to increase market share for their products. That’s evident even when
some young Blacks discuss their
heritage.
“Along with McDonalds, I celebrate my history 365 [days],”
says Phil Jones, 22.
Ryann Roberts, a graduate of
Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, said Black History
Month helps ease the sense isolation that some Black students
feel at predominantly White institutions.
“Going to a school with a small
Black population showed me that
there is a need for cohesion, and
opened my eyes to the benefits of
sharing and connecting with
people who are in your same minority group,” Roberts explains.
But Black History Month is not
fully appreciated by some students
even on the campuses of historically Black universities.
Aminata Sow, who graduated
from Howard University three
years ago, remembers encountering such students.
“People would say things like
‘no one else has a month,’ and all
kinds of other limited mindsets of
what it means to celebrate yourself,” says Sow, who makes a point
to commemorate the month in any
way she can—whether it’s going
to a Black History themed program
or volunteering in her community.
She explains, “Black History
Month isn’t just about Martin
Luther King and Rosa Parks. This
month should be the time we celebrate who we are as a people and
teach it to someone else.”
This year Ryann Roberts,, along
with members of her chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and
members of the Black Student Union
at George Washington University,
where she now attends graduate
school for Public Health, will host and
attend events that she hopes will get
people talking about and uplifting the
value of Black contributions.
“If we don’t acknowledge it, it’s
easy to forget the great things we’ve
done as a people,” she says.
And Blacks have accomplished
many great things, overcoming
salvery and rising to become president of the United States and CEOs
of Fortune 500 companies.
Aminata Sow, 24, grew up in Detroit, and she, too, has ignored critics who don’t fully appreciate Black
History Month.
“When other ethnic groups celebrate their race it’s fine, but when
we do it’s ‘racist,’ we’re ‘excluding’
other people,” Sow says. “But my
mother always taught me you should
celebrate yourself, you should always recognize what makes you different. If you stop celebrating, the
legacy is lost.”
5
6
Editorial
Beacon
Walter Smith: Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Miatta Haj Smith: Co-Publisher & Executive Editor
William Egyir: Managing Editor
Obama races away from the issue of race
by George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
When Barack Obama accepted his
party’s presidential nomination in
Denver on August 28, 2008 – the
45th anniversary of the March on
Washington where Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have
a Dream Speech” – excitement filled
the air.
Amid that jubilance, however, it
struck me as odd that Obama failed
to mention Dr. King by name.
“.. And it is that promise that, 45
years ago today, brought Americans
from every corner of this land to stand
together on a Mall in Washington,
before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear
a young preacher from Georgia
speak of his dream,” Obama said at
the time.
Seconds later, he would add: “’We
cannot walk alone,’” the preacher
cried. And as we walk, we must make
the pledge that we shall always
march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
When Obama was inaugurated for
the second time on January 21, 2013,
the day we officially celebrated as
the King federal holiday, I knew – or
thought I knew – that President
Obama would not make that same
omission again.
I listened carefully as he said: “We
the people declare today that the
most evident of truth that all of us
are created equal – is the star that
guides us still; just as it guided our
forebears through Seneca Falls and
Selma and Stonewall; just as it
guided all those men and women,
sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great mall, to hear a
preacher say that we cannot walk
alone; to hear a King proclaim that
our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every
soul on Earth.”
Why couldn’t President Obama
utter Dr. King’s name on the day he
used the slain civil rights leader’s
Bible to be sworn in? On King’s birthday, why couldn’t he be called more
than just a preacher?
Even though Beyoncé lip-synced
the National Anthem on Inauguration Day, she hasn’t been accused
of faking it when she sings another
song – “Say My Name.”
If you ain’t running a game
Say my name, say my name
The problem is larger than the failure to say Dr. King’s name. The problem, according to Michael Eric Dyson,
is that, “This president runs from race
like a Black man runs from a cop.”
When candidate Obama was
forced to address the issue of race in
the wake of controversial remarks by
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, he said in Philadelphia: “But race
is an issue that I believe this nation
cannot afford to ignore right now.”
However, that’s exactly what he
has been doing.
Frederick C. Harris, director of the
Institute for Research in AfricanAmerican Studies at Columbia University, noted, “… as president, Mr.
Obama has had little to say on concerns specific to blacks. His State of
the Union address in 2011 was the
first by any president since 1948 to
not mention poverty or the poor. The
political scientist Daniel Q. Gillion
found that Mr. Obama, in his first two
years in office, talked about race less
than any Democratic president had
since 1961. From racial profiling to
mass incarceration to affirmative action, his comments have been sparse
and halting.”
Sure, he had a beer summit at the
White House with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the
White police officer who arrested him
in his own home. Obama said the officer had “acted stupidly,” but later
softened his criticism. The president
also said, “If I had a son, he’d look
like Trayvon [Martin].”
Of course, the issue is not whether
Obama has a son who looks like
Trayvon Martin. What is he going
to do about people who are treated
like Trayvon?
To discuss race less than Lyndon
Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton, all White southerners who
grew up under segregation, should
be embarrassing to President Obama.
It should be even more of an embarrassment that Obama hasn’t taken
leadership on the issue as Bill Clinton
did when he launched his “One
America Initiative” on race. Putting
aside the merits of the initiative, it
demonstrated Clinton was willing to
confront the issue of race.
As my friend Courtland Milloy
wrote in the Washington Post, it’s
time to stop making excuses for
Obama.
He said, “Obama should not be
allowed to get away with thinking
that when it comes to making his
mark on the issue of race, all he had
to do was become the first black
president.”
Unfortunately, some of the most
vocal Black leaders have either been
co-opted by the White House or fear
a backlash from adoring Black voters.
The usually outspoken Rep.
Maxine Waters [D-Calif.] told a
crowd in Detroit, “If we go after the
president too hard, you’re going after us.”
And former Congressional Black
Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver,
II of Missouri admitted, “With 14 percent [black] unemployment if we had
a white president we’d be marching
around the White House.”
If we don’t get some true leadership on this issue, perhaps it will be
time to march around the White
House, Congress and the headquarters of some of our civil rights organizations.
George E. Curry, former editor-inchief of Emerge magazine, is editorin-chief of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) He is a keynote
speaker, moderator, and media
coach. Curry can be reached through
his Web site, www.georgecurry.com.
You can also follow him at:
www.twitter.com/currygeorge.
Obama slights his
loyal following
By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist
President Barack Obama has the
opportunity, in this second term,
to put his feet on history. He won
an election that his opponent had
essentially claimed, he has been
firm about that which he would
negotiate on, and he has offered a
progressive inauguration speech
that offers up a liberal agenda,
embracing Social Security and
Medicare, uplifting immigrants
and gay rights, and embracing
ways to address inequality.
One could not help but applaud
the strong direction of President
Obama’s speech. But those of us
in the African American community wonder why we could not get
a shout out about high unemployment and poverty rates, inner city
challenges, and income, economic
and unemployment disparities.
Failing to address the community
that offered him 97 percent of their
vote indicates that there is a reckless disregard of his strongest
supporters.
I understand that President
Obama is the president of the
whole United States, not the president of Black America. At the same
time some of the evils that affect
African Americans are issues that
any president would address. To
be sure, some of the gaps that are
recorded and experienced have
not changed since the 60s. Imagine the impact this president could
have if he made a minor attempt in
closing the gaps.
The inauguration speech spoke
to all of us when it offered a progressive agenda. It spoke to some
when it called out other communities and offered advancement
some of them, but it spoke to none
of us in the African American community unless we chose to parse
the subtleties, the Bible, the references to Detroit, and the
acknowledgement of inequalities.
Hundreds of thousands of
people thronged to the site of the
inauguration speech. Many of
them were parents and grandparents who were determined that
their children and grandchildren
had the opportunity to witness
history. A second term for President
Obama is actually more exciting than
a first term because now this president is freed from the shackles of
reelection possibilities and free to
do his thing.
Will his thing improve the lot of
all of us, some of us, or none of us.
In the African American community,
many think we won’t get a thing but
an amazing and uplifting symbolism.
There are still those who cheer simply because we have an African
American president. Can we put our
cheer on for results?
In the next 18 months, President
Obama has the opportunity to do
whatever he wants to do. He can
target resources and opportunities
to any community he choses to embrace his targets. For example, more
than $500 million was directed to a
failed wind experiment in California.
What about offering the same opportunity to inner cities?
Liberal agenda we heard during
the president’s inauguration suggested that all of us would have the
opportunity to benefit from progressive economic plans. He called out
some communities, which suggested that some of us would get
special attention. He to fail to give a
shout out to the African America
community suggests that none of
us can count on special attention.
President Barack Obama can make
a difference by targeting the African American community, either directly or subtly in his choices about
pubic policy. While this president
has a window of opportunity, who
will gain? All of us, some of us, or
none of us? Our president will leave
a legacy when he decides that African Americans deserve the same
focus that other communities do.
We need our President to target
disparate unemployment, unequal wages and wealth, and differential access to education
and opportunity. Immigration
and marriage equality addresses
some of us. Why can’t we address the inequality that faces all
of us?
Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist and
writer. She is President Emerita of
Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, N.C.
In the making: Black Americans and Obama’s re-election
By Lee A. Daniels
NNPA Columnist
What was it that made watching
the ceremonies of President Obama’s
second inauguration more satisfying
than even the thrilling spectacle of
four years ago?
Certainly, part of it was its occurring the same day as the celebration
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and amid the month-long commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation – underscoring the direct
line of descent from BlackAmericans’
longtime freedom struggle to the
present.
Certainly, part of it was also savoring Obama’s success in making history the second time around – knowing that he had endured the extraordinary test of staunching a wrenching
economic crisis; extricating the U.S.
from the Bush administration’s tragic
misadventure in Iraq; maneuvering
around the obstructionist tactics of
the Congressional Republicans; and
beating back the fat-cat power grab
the atrocious Supreme Court Citizens
United decision, which approved unlimited corporate donations to political campaigns, was supposed to further.
And part of it was knowing that,
albeit the operational genius of the
president and his campaign staff, the
credit for his victory doesn’t wholly
belong to them. To borrow a phrase,
they didn’t build that by themselves.
They had help from the multiracial,
multicultural coalition of voters that
enabled the Democrats to keep control of the White House and the Senate.
Barack Obama has been wreathed
in “making history” since he gained
the presidency of the Harvard Law
Review 23 years ago. But voluminous
evidence exists that the foundation
for his current history-making lies in
the astutely-waged, post-1960s po-
litical gamesmanship of the Democratic Party’s most sustaining voting
bloc: African-American voters.
That point was driven home most
recently by a report the Pew Research
Center released in late December. Its
title tells the tale: “The Growing Electoral Clout of Blacks Is Driven by
Turnout, Not Demographics.”
The study’s preliminary analysis of
the 129 million votes cast November
6 indicates that Blacks not only voted
at a substantially higher rate than Hispanic-American and Asian-American
voters – who also voted massively
for Obama – but may have voted at a
higher rate than Whites as well.
If so, it would be a “first” in the history of the presidential-election vote.
But the mere fact that it’s a possibility
underscores several powerful recent
developments about the political participation of Black voters and other voters of color.
For one thing, even as Blacks’ population growth and, therefore, growth in
eligible voters has been leveling off, their
rates of turning out to vote have increased markedly. In 2008 that rate hit a
high-water mark of 65.2 percent – a rise
of 5 percentage points from 2004. By
contrast, Whites turned out to vote that
7
The emancipation of the Wilmington Ten
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
NNPA Columnist
On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the outgoing governor
of North Carolina, Beverly Perdue,
issued an historic “Pardon of Innocence” to each member of the
Wilmington Ten after a 40-year
struggle for justice. This was a
long sought-after victory for the
Civil Rights Movement, the
United Church of Christ, National
Council of Churches, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Alliance
Against Racist and Political Repression,
the
National
Wilmington Ten Defense Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus, and millions of people
throughout the world who for
many years demanded “Free the
Wilmington Ten.” Famed civil
rights Attorney James Ferguson
and North Carolina Central University Law Professor Irv Joyner
led the successful legal effort for
the pardons.
In particular the Wilmington
Ten declaration by Gov. Perdue
was a winning tribute to the effectiveness and commitment of
the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) that
spearheaded the national campaign, led by Mary Alice Jervay
Thatch and Cash Michaels, to encourage Gov. Perdue to issue the
Pardon of Innocence. Yet, this was
also a another important milestone
of success for the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) and especially the North Carolina Conference of NAACP branches led
by Rev. William Barber II who
helped immeasurably to build
enough public momentum during
the last year to achieve such an
unprecedented positive outcome.
Victories for Black Americans,
and for all others who stand freedom, justice and equality, do not
come easy and do not occur without a prolonged, sustained
struggle or “movement of people”
that creates a “moment in history.”
On behalf of the four deceased
members of the Wilmington Ten –
William “Joe” Wright Jr, Jerry
Jacobs, Ann Shepard, and Connie
Tindall – and on behalf of six living members of the Wilmington
Ten – Wayne Moore, Willie Earl
Vereen, Reginald Epps, James
McKoy, and Marvin Patrick – I ex-
press our heartfelt gratitude and
appreciation to all who helped to
make this moment possible. Forty
years is an awful long time for justice to be done, but we are thankful that this day has finally come.
With 10 courageous strokes of
her ink pen, Gov. Perdue acted to
rectify what she described as a
case of “naked racism.” We note
that Gov. Perdue was under a lot
of pressure from many different
vantage points, but in the end she
made the right decision based on
her review of all the facts that had
been presented to her. Limited
space in this column will not permit the re-telling of the entire
Wilmington story. Suffice it to say
that this case was and continues
to be about equal quality education for Black American students
and for all students in public
school systems in across America.
In 1971 in Wilmington, N.C. the
city was racially polarized as a result of recent school desegregation and in 1972 the Wilmington
Ten were unjustly framed, arrested, tried and sentenced collectively to 282 years in prison on
false conspiracy, arson and assault charges. Although we were
all completely innocent of those
false charges, it took 40 years to
prove our innocence.
It is important for the record to
clarify that the victory of the
Wilmington Ten would not have
ever been possible if it were not
for the 40-year support of the
United Church of Christ (UCC). In
the 1970s and 1980s, Rev. Charles
Earl Cobb Sr., executive director of
the Commission for Racial Justice
of the United Church of Christ and
Rev. Edwin R. Edmonds, chairman
of the Commission for Racial Justice, along with Rev. Leon White,
Rev. Bill Land, Irv Joyner, Rev. .
Jeremiah A. Wright Jr,, T. Willard
Fair, Rev. Robert V. Moss, Rev.
Joseph H. Evans, Rev. Avery D.
Post, Rev. Eugene Templeton and
thousands of other pastors and
members of the UCC provided the
strong church leadership and support that gave the young people
of Wilmington strategic solidarity
and resolve to stand up to the insidious forms of racial injustice so
prevalent at that time.
Angela Y. Davis, Charlene
Mitchell, Ann Mitchell, Michael
Myerson, Maria Ramos and the
National Alliance Against Racist
and Political Repression
(NAARPR) did an outstanding job
in building effective national and crucial international support of the
Wilmington Ten and for the release
of all political prisoners in the USA.
Imani Kazana and the National
Wilmington Ten Defense Committee
remained steadfast in their support
during critical stages of the case. I
am recognizing and highlighting
these persons and organizations to
emphasize that building a successful movement for change involves
keeping the faith, perseverance, diversity and coalition-building, and
risk-taking actions guided by progressive principles of struggle and
human integrity.
Yes, 150 years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as “an act of justice,” racism is still alive in the United States
of America. Yet, there has been much
progress accomplished toward racial
justice for all people doing the last
two centuries. President Barack
Obama in his 2013 inaugural address
stated, “That is our generation’s task
– to make these words, these rights,
these values of life and liberty and
the pursuit of happiness real for every American.” The emancipation of
the Wilmington Ten is a another step
forward for the liberty and freedom
for all.
Children must stop dying from gun violence
By Marian Wright Edelman
Child Watch
On Saturday, January 26, I was
part of the March on Washington for Gun Control. We called on
members of Congress and state
legislators to pass common sense
gun safety laws to stop the epidemic of preventable child and
adult gun deaths. Others were
marching in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, San Antonio, Jersey City, and in communities
across the country.
Grassroots groups came together in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Mothers and fathers, grandparents, pastors, gun violence survivors, law enforcement officers,
elected officials, child advocates,
and everyone who believes that
our children’s right to live, learn
and grow up safely must be pro-
tected before guns, must not stop
marching, calling, writing, and visiting and holding our political leaders accountable. We must vote
them out if they do not act to end
the preventable and immoral loss
of child and human lives and honor
what most Americans want and our
children need.
A new Gallup poll shows that
most Americans support universal
background checks for gun buyers, a ban on assault weapons, limiting ammunition magazines to 10
rounds or less, and other proposals in President Obama’s plan to
reduce gun violence. It will be a
formidable fight to achieve these
essential steps but we can and will
succeed if all of us raise an irresistible and unrelenting voice in
every state in the weeks and
months to come, and for as long
as it takes.
Don’t let anyone tell you current gun safety regulations are
working just fine. They aren’t. The
massacre at Sandy Hook woke up
many Americans to the epidemic
of gun violence which has snuffed
out the lives of 148,000 children
since 1968 – this is the equivalent
of 7,400 classrooms of 20 children
and teens. Every 30 minutes a
child or teen is shot in the United
States. Every 3 hours and 15 minutes a child dies from gun violence. It’s time to say “no more.”
Epidemic gun violence against
children—and its toll on all who
live in the United States—is a
uniquely American phenomenon.
In 2010, the U.S. gun death rate—
homicides, suicides, and accidents—for children and teens was
nearly 65 times higher than the
rates in the United Kingdom and
Germany and 108 times higher
than in Spain. The U.S. gun homicide rate for children and teens
was 106 times higher than the rate
in Germany and 213 times higher
than the rates in Spain and the
United Kingdom.
The reason gun deaths are a
huge epidemic in the United States
is simple: it’s the guns and the permissive gun laws that protect
them. In a 2007 study of 178 countries by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies, the U.S.
ranked number one in the number
of guns per person (88.8 per 100),
far ahead of all the other countries
in the study. Yemen was a distant
runner-up with 55 guns per 100
people, 40 percent less than the
U.S. rate.
Although the U.S. accounts for
less than five percent of the global population, Americans own an
estimated 35 to 50 percent of all
civilian-owned guns in the world.
Between 270-300 million guns are
in civilian hands in the U.S. –
nearly one gun for every man,
woman, and child. Our nation is
saturated with guns and the National Rifle Association wants more
and more. We can free our nation of
this scourge of gun violence. No external enemy ever took the lives of
so many children and adults. We can
and must change this. I am confident
that most Americans value children’s
safety and right to live more than
they value the right of anyone to
have assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines. If
America can’t stand up for its children, it doesn’t stand for anything.
Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund
whose Leave No Child Behind®
mission is to ensure every child a
Healthy Start, a Head Start, a
Fair Start, a Safe Start and a
Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with
the help of caring families and
communities. For more information go to:
www.childrensdefense.org.
Giving Food Stamps instead of jobs
By Harry C.Alford
Beyond the Rhetoric
The Poverty Industrial Complex is
well established since its early years
in the 1960s.
Lately, it seems that it is on “steroids” with the increased number of
persons going on welfare, unemployment, social security disability, etc.
This is all federal, often with state components that complement these.
Food stamps have more than doubled
to more than 47 million Americans receiving them. A lot of this is because it
is more liberal in its use. People can
easily buy liquor, cigarettes and other
items with their food stamp card now.
Back in the 1960s, the federal government was sincere in finding ways
to address America’s discriminatory
economic system. Under President Richard Nixon, Section 3 of the HUDAct
was implemented. This is also known
as The Economic Opportunities for
Low and Very-Low Income Persons.
24 CFR part 135 was implemented by
former HUD Secretary George Romney in 1968. It was a response to urban unrest in Black communities, especially the Watts Riot of 1965.
The program was strengthened by
HUD Secretary Jack Kemp in 1992 as
a result of the Rodney King Riot in
Los Angeles. Under the law 30 percent of all jobs created by HUD money
are to go to people living in public
housing or living under the poverty
level (Section 3 workers).Also, 10 per-
cent of all contracts should go to firms
hiring those Section workers. Section
3 activity is broad. Waste removal,
painting, landscaping, accounting,
janitorial, daycare, construction and
secretarial are some of the activities
that can be applied to Section 3 opportunities. There are billions of dollars that apply to the Section 3 requirement annually. The goal is to use HUD
funding to bring people into the
workforce and out of poverty. If properly applied the need for HUD activity
in our cities would start diminishing year
by year.
In 1998, the National Black Chamber
of Commerce learned that only four
HUD grantees out of nearly 6,000 were
complying with Section 3. Also, each
grantee is to comply with annual activity reporting. More than 90 percent of
these grantees were not even submitting their annual report. To the benefit
of the current administration, the major(CONTINUED ON PAGE 16)
Opinion
8
East Coast track stars shine at Colgate women final prelim meet
The final preliminary meet of the nation’s largest track series, the Colgate Women’s Games, featured some of the East Coast’s best athletic talent,
as more than 10,000 participants of all ages competed for a spot in the semi-finals to be held at
Pratt on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013.
In the High School division on Friday, Junior
Olympic champion Lauren Lyons of Cardinal
Spellman High School finished the season undefeated with a fourth straight double victory, winning the 55 meters in 7.3 and the 200 meters in 25.8.
Sandreeka Bancroft of Cardozo High School in
Queens won the 55 meter-hurdles in 8.1. The
Colgate Women’s Games’ Mid School hurdles
record-holder heads to the semi-finals tied with
Staten Island’s Brigitte Pewu, who holds the Staten
Island High School Indoor Championship record
in the hurdles. Brooklyn’s Kezian Jones of Boys
and Girls High School tossed 11.41M to win the
Shot Put, and Shayla Broughton of Medgar Evers
High School in Brooklyn, who has twice cleared
5’6” this season, finished undefeated after jumping 5’2 to win the High Jump.
In the Mid School division on Saturday, Sydni
Townsend of Landsdowne, PA scored a double
win crossing the tape in the 200 meters in 25.9 and
the 400 meters in 58.9; and Gabrielle Wilkinson of
Friend’s Central in Philadelphia, who holds the
Colgate Women’s Games Elementary B 800 record,
made it a perfect season after winning the 800 meters
in 2:19.1 and the 1500 meters in 4:42.4.
In the College/Open Division, Brooklyn’s
Shemayra Braithwaite took first place, and remained undefeated in the high jump after clearing
5’2”. A graduate student at Hunter College,
Shemayra has a first grade daughter also competing in the Colgate Games’ high jump. Solange
Braithwaite is presently tied for 5th place advancing to the semi-finals in the Elementary A division.
Erica Nixon and Treasure Glymph both of the
Bronx, have traded wins throughout the series,
and tied the 55 meter-hurdles crossing the tape in
8.8.
Amber Williams of Parsippany, NJ scored double
wins in the 200 and 400 meters each week, and
heads to the semi-finals undefeated. The long-time
Colgate Games champion has had several undefeated seasons since joining as an elementary
school competitor.
Philadelphia’s Avery Lewis may be the youngest competitor in the Colgate Games, and is likely
the nation’s fastest 7 year-old. The first grader from
Philadelphia just turned 7 years old in December,
and won the 55 meters four weeks straight. She
heads to the semi finals after her final preliminary
victory in 8.4.
Meet Director Fred Thompson said, “We’re encouraged by so many talented younger girls this
year. They are some of the fastest elementary
school girls I’ve ever seen, and their excellent form
suggests they have caring parents and coaches
spending the time to teach them. Many of these
girls don’t get to run in school, even at recess, so
we’re happy to provide a fun and exciting worldfamous venue.”
The Colgate Women’s Games are among the
nation’s most competitive meets, but Thompson
says the goals of the Games are not only about
athletics.
“Thousands of girls each year have a great time
learning how to compete, and will draw on these
skills throughout their lives. They’ll learn how to
work hard and challenge themselves, discovering
how fast and how far they can go. It’s not just
about those who become national champions or
even Olympians, it’s more about the countless
young people whose lives have been positively
influenced by this experience,” said Thompson.
From an initial field of more than 11,000, some
430 top point scorers will compete in a semi-finals
on Saturday, February 2nd at Pratt to determine who
will face each other at the New Balance Track and
Field Center at the Armory in New York City on
Saturday, February 23, 2013, where trophies and
educational grants-in-aid from Colgate-Palmolive
Company are awarded to top place finishers in each
age/grade division.
The Colgate Women’s Games have produced
more than 20 Olympians, hundreds of age/grade
division national champions, and countless
changed lives. Each year, high school participants
are among the most heavily recruited athletes by
colleges and universities across the nation.
Coaches, recruiters, athletes and fans can follow
scores each week at Colgategames.com.
(Photos: Lem Peterkin)
C O Amber Williams winner in 200m - 25.4 and 400m 59.7
HS 55m Lauren Lyons – 7.1
ELM 55 m hurdles Lisha McKenize and Faith Edward
Elm A 55m Avery Lewis - 8.5
H S 400m Roazena Miller – 59.6
The Friends of Education Jazz Interlude 9
fêtes Spike Lee and Mera & Donald Rubell
AUDREY'S
SOCIETY
WHIRL
By Audrey J. Bernard
Lifestyles & Society Editor
Founded in 1993, The Friends
of Education (FOE), is an affiliate
group of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) created to foster a greater appreciation of art
created by African American artists and to encourage African
American participation in the activities and membership of
MoMA. In addition to financial
support, members provide invaluable assistance to the Museum’s
outreach efforts to the African
American community.
Every two years, the exemplary
organization hosts Jazz Interlude,
a bicentennial bash in which it
honors exceptional art advocates.
Proceeds from the event benefits
FOE which enables the museum
to acquire important works by
African American artists; to increase its outreach to the African
American community; and to
support the Museum’s extensive
educational programming.
The glitzy gala took place on
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
and featured a glamorous cocktail reception, formal dinner, an
awards program and live music
performance by jazz musician
Terence Blanchard whose work
has been featured in Spike Lee
films such as “25th Hour” (2002),
“When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” (2006), and
“Miracle at St. Anna” (2008).
During the jazzy awards program, FOE honored artist and filmmaker Spike Lee and philanthropists Mera & Donald Rubell. The
two honorees join a list of distinguished Jazz Interludes honorees
including Lois & Roland W. Betts
and Elizabeth Catlett (2010), Agnes
Gund and David Rockefeller Jr.
(2008), Dr. Camille O. Cosby
(2006), Dorothy Cullman (2004)
and George Wein (2001).
Spike Lee is among the best
known and most honored African
American feature and documentary filmmakers of the past 30
years. Lee’s work covers a broad
range, from the socially relevant
to biographical and from comedy
to crime-drama. Lee’s most recent
documentary “Bad 25” celebrates
the success of Michael Jackson’s
“Bad” album, and he is currently
in production on a remake of the
popular “Korean film Oldboy.”
A number of his films are included within MoMA’s vast film
collection: “School Daze” (1988),
“Do the Right Thing” (1989), and
“Get on the Bus” (1996). Lee’s
student film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” was
Friends of Education 2012 Jazz Interlude Honoree Spike Lee poses with Tonya Lewis Lee (wife), Friends of Education 2012 Jazz Interlude
Friends of Education Event Chair Sherry Bronfman, Satchel Lee (daughter) and Jackson Lee (son) Honorees Mera & Donald Rubell
Lois & Roland Betts
Eboni S. Gates, Eric Barkley, Sherry Bronfman, Noel Hankin
Michael D. Woodson, Spike Lee & Guest
also included in New Directors/
News Films in 1982, the annual film
festival co-organized by MoMA
and the Film Society of Lincoln
Center.
Lee is an advocate for African
American visual artists and was
delighted to see the evening promote support for African American
visual artists. “It was great to see
so many people supporting African
American artists. Hopefully they
get more sponsors for Black artists.
I’m an artist so all of the arts inspire
me,” he said.
Mera & Don Rubell are wellknown as longstanding champions
of young artists. The Rubell Family Collection — which first
opened to the public in 1993 —
contains over 6,000 works of art
by prominent contemporary artists including, Robert Colescott,
Damien Hirst, Paul McCarthy, Jeff
Koons, Sherrie Levine, Glenn Ligon, Takashi Murakami, Cindy
Sherman, and Kara Walker.
The artwork is displayed in
thematic exhibitions that often
travel to museums worldwide.
Most n o t a b l y, t h e R u b e l l s
demonstrated their commitment to African American artists through 30 Americans
Adrian Grenier, Rosie Perez, Spencer Means
(2008–13), a traveling exhibition
that highlights their collection
of 30 significant African American artists who have been
working over the last three decades.
But wait, the evening wasn’t
over yet! ‘Round about 9:30pm
to Midnight, dinner guests
were joined by avid FOE enthusiasts who attended the third
tier of the evening’s festivities
— the popular Jazz Interlude
Benefit after-party headlined
by Jason Moran and the Bandwagon featuring Tarus Mateen
and Nasheet Waits, with spe-
cial guest Ravi Coltrane..
The 2012 Jazz Interlude event
chair was Sherry B. Bronfman;
co-chaired by Eboni S. Gates and
Noel Hankin. Honorary co-chairs
were Agnes Gund, Tonya Lewis
Lee and David Rockefeller, Jr.
Among the guests were Rosie
Perez, Adrian Grenier, Roland &
Lois Betts, Ben Bronfman, Hannah
Bronfman, Thelma Golden, Kalup
Linzy, Ariana Rockefeller, Mickalene
Thomas and Michael D. Woodson.
Throughout the evening, wine and
spirits were provided compliments of
Moët Hennessey USA. (Photos by
Scott Rudd)
Vaccinating children against rotavirus may
indirectly protect adults too, study finds
10
Pediatric rotavirus vaccination
also indirectly protects unvaccinated adults from the highly contagious cause of severe diarrhea
and vomiting, suggests a new
study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online.
The findings suggest pediatric immunization against the virus may
be more cost effective than previously thought, given rotavirus-related health care costs among
adults.
Before the vaccine, rotavirus
caused an estimated 24 million outpatient visits, 2.4 million hospitalizations, and 453,000 deaths in infants and young children worldwide each year. Following the introduction of the pediatric rotavirus
vaccine in the United States, declines in the disease have been
seen in both vaccinated and unvaccinated children.
Evan J. Anderson, MD, now at
Emory University, and a team of
researchers at Northwestern Me-
Scott Stringer
Stringer urges MTA to
consider subway safety
By J. Zamgba Browne
Manhattan Borough President
Scott Stringer has written to MTA
Inspector General requesting that
he conducts an in-depth investigation of recent subway-related
injuries and fatalities, and to consider safety programs now being
effectively utilized in transit systems across the world.
“Too many people are dying in
our subways,”said Scott. “It’s time
to gain a deeper understanding of
why this is happening with such
regularity, and to explore possible
preventive steps. Our subway
system is one of the largest and
most traveled in the world, but we
must also make it the safest,” he
added.
The Borough President noted
that the number of subway fatalities this year puts New York City
on pace for 100 subway deaths in
2013, well above last year’s fiveyear high of 55 deaths.
Stringer also called on the MTA
to address the impact that subways fatalities have on MTA employees, with an eye towards
making sure enough is being done
to support the mental health of
employees exposed to subway-related deaths.
“These recent fatalities have created an almost palpable scene of
apprehension
among
straphangers in our city,” said
Borough President Stringer. “I urge
the Inspector General to conduct
a comprehensive assessment of
these issues, so that we can take
intelligent, cost-effective steps to
reduce these preventable deaths,”
he added.
In his letter addressed Barry L.
Kluger, Stringer called on the Inspector General to provide the following: A comprehensive analysis
of available safety programs and
features now being utilized effectively in the transit systems
around the world, such as platform
barriers and safety doors, as well
as the costs and feasibility of introducing them on a limited and
system-wide basis.
Also a breakdown of the frequency, type and volume of MTA
audio warnings, including the languages in which these warnings
are made, as well as signage related to safety. Internal MTA data
on the number of suicide attempts
within the subway system, on both
a short-term and long-term basis.
morial and Children’s Memorial
Hospitals in Chicago looked into
whether the vaccine’s benefits extended to unvaccinated adults.
They compared the prevalence
and genotypes of rotavirus in
stool samples collected from approximately 3,500 adults before
widespread implementation of pediatric rotavirus vaccination
(2006-2007) with the prevalence
in samples collected from 2008 to
2010. The researchers found the
number of unvaccinated adults
who had rotavirus was almost
halved in the years after the vaccine was introduced for use in
children in the U.S.
“In adults with diarrhea who
see the doctor and who have testing for bacterial infections, we
noticed an almost 50 percent decrease in rotavirus,” said Dr.
Anderson. With previous research estimating $152 million in
total adult inpatient hospital
charges related to rotavirus each
year in the U.S., this latest data may
make pediatric vaccination “much
more cost effective than previously
believed.”
Dramatic declines in rotavirus
prevalence were evident in both
adults admitted to the hospital and
in those treated as outpatients. The
findings suggest that “vaccinating
children can protect adults from
rotavirus by decreasing the amount
of rotavirus circulating in the community,” Dr. Anderson said. Because rotavirus genotypes change
from year to year, the researchers
also noted that “ongoing surveillance is needed to determine
whether this impact is sustained.”
The positive effect of pediatric
rotavirus vaccination programs on
the prevalence of disease among
both young and old, vaccinated or
not, underscores the need to support and encourage vaccination, Dr.
Anderson said. “By improving the
health of children, we indirectly improve the health of adults.”
Comedian Steve Harvey to host
annual NAACP Image Awards
The NAACP has announced
that comedian, author, radio and
talk show host, Steve Harvey will
host and Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie
Foxx, Queen Latifah, Wanda Sykes
and Tony Goldwyn will be part of
an all-star line-up to present at the
44th NAACP Image Awards . In
addition, Dennis Haysbert will be
the show announcer during the
LIVE broadcast from Los Angeles’
historic Shrine Auditorium on Friday, Feb. 1, 8-10 p.m. ET (PT tapedelayed) on NBC.
“I’m honored to be hosting the
44th NAACP Image Awards, and
celebrate the variety of film, TV, literary, music contributions, and
special honorees this year. We’re
live on stage, got great things in
store for the night!” commented
Mr. Harvey.
The NAACP Image Awards is
the premier multicultural awards
show. It celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the
fields of television, music, literature and film, and also honors individuals or groups who promote
social justice through creative endeavors.
The NAACP Image Awards are
being produced by Reginald
Hudlin and Brad Lachman. Bill
Bracken will serve as supervising
producer and Byron Phillips as producer. The production team also
includes Tony McCuin as director
and Melanie Massie as the talent
executive.
Nominees for the NAACP Image
Awards are determined by the num-
Steve Harvey
ber of entries received by the
deadline. To be eligible, projects
must have had a national distribution date between Jan. 1, 2012,
and Dec. 31, 2012. For the 2012
voting period, over 1,200 submissions were received by the artists, managers, publicists, production companies, record labels,
studios, networks and/or publishers. From those entries, a nominating committee of 300 industry
professionals and NAACP leaders from across the country select five nominees in each of
the 53 categories. Those results were announced at a
press conference. To determine the winners, the members
of the NAACP vote via a secured
online site. The results are tabulated by the Image Awards auditors, Bert Smith & Co., and the
results are confidential until the
envelope is opened live on stage
during the NBC telecast on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013.
Event sponsors include: FedEx,
UAW/Chrysler, AT&T, Hyundai
Motors, Wells Fargo, General Motors, Walmart, Bank of America,
Walgreens, Gilead Sciences, AARP,
Ford Motor, Anheuser Busch,
Pepsico.
For all information and latest
news, please visit the official
NAACP Image Awards website at
http://www.naacpimageawards.net.
Deadlines extended for FEMA registration, sheltering assistance
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, at the request
of the State of New York, has approved a 30-day extension for survivors to register for federal disaster assistance. The new registration deadline for Hurricane
Sandy survivors in New York is
Feb. 27. FEMA also approved a
14-day extension to the Transitional Sheltering Assistance
(TSA) program. The new checkout date for applicants staying in
hotels under this program is Sunday, Feb. 10.
The Feb. 27 registration
deadline allows survivors in the
13 New York counties designated for federal disaster assistance an additional 30 days to
register with FEMA and complete and return low-interest
SBA disaster loan applications,
an important step in the FEMA
grant process. Designated
counties include: Bronx, Kings,
Nassau, New York, Orange,
Putnam, Queens, Richmond,
Rockland, Suffolk, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester.
People in these counties who
sustained losses due to Hurricane
Sandy should register with FEMA
even if they have insurance. Applying by the deadline may help
survivors avoid a funding shortfall if they later find that they are
underinsured or have additional
damages.
Survivors who register may
be eligible for federal grants to
help cover various disasterrelated expenses including
rent, essential home repairs,
personal property losses and
other serious disaster-related
needs not covered by insurance.
By returning the SBA disaster
loan application, homeowners
may be eligible for up to $200,000
to repair or replace their stormdamaged primary residence.
Homeowners and renters may be
eligible for up to $40,000 for replacement.
11
THE ADAMS REPORT
Fashion, Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .& Stuff
By Audrey Adams
Getting wiggy with it
Audrey Adams
At one time or another, every
woman has an issue with her
hair. There are “bad hair days”
and “good hair days” with the
only commonality being the hair
on ones head. Correct me if I am
wrong, but I have yet to hear
about “bad feet days” or “bad
hand days” and those are two
other areas that we give our undivided grooming attention to as
well.
No, it’s always about the hair.
It either acts right or it doesn’t;
never mind that whichever way
it acts it does so naturally! So it
seems that in order to overcome
our hair’s natural tendency to be
itself, we look for ways to make
up for its bad behavior. We do
many things, weaves, braids,
scarves, hats and my favorite
wigs! But even with a wig it’s
possible to have a bad hair day.
So I decided to speak with an expert about what to look for when
buying a wig. Of course wanted
to jump right in to get the low
down but George Mayer, president of Jacquelyn Wigs, a premier Hairwear company for 25
years, stopped me, “Miss
Adams, before we can talk in
detail about how to buy a wig,
you must first tell me what kind
of wig is being purchased and
the purpose it will serve.”
Well, I have to admit that I was
just talking about a plain ole wig,
but after our conversation, I realized
that there was no such thing. And
so my tutorial began—first, according to Mr. Mayer, determine why you
want a wig. Because wigs are available at every conceivable price
point, the key is to buy appropriately. Is it for health reasons, for
fashion or will it just help make your
life easier? Your answer will help you
decide what kind of wig to get.
There are synthetics, human hair
and Hairlife. To help you determine
which is best for your needs, here’s
the difference and price ranges
within each category:
Synthetics: Good for fun and occasional wear, they retain their shape
well, but are less responsive to major styling changes. They are the
least expensive option, but they
work well if you are purchasing to
add to an existing hair wardrobe and
they pack easily. Styling is generally locked in fiber memory. Synthetics don’t take to heat well and tend
to interact with your body heat, frizzing at the nape. There are twentyfive different grades of synthetic hair
fibers, $20.00 to $100.00.
Human Hair: Great when you intend to wear it everyday. Human hair
needs the most maintenance and it
is the closest thing to your own hair.
It is the most expensive choice, but
will give you greater styling options
and years of wear if properly cared
for. Depending upon the type of hair
in the wig, Asian, European, prices
run from $300.00 to $800.00.
Hairlife This is a unique blend of
human hair and synthetics that offers the best of both worlds. It is
possible to have the easy care of a
synthetic with the natural appearance and styling versatility of human hair and costs less then 100%
human hair. Pricing is based on
length and style, $250.00 to $750.00.
I can assure you that there is
a great deal more to know before
you run out and buy a wig. Before you put that wig hat on your
head, know what you want before you go looking. Think about
it. See you next week.
Visit my website,
TheAdamsReport.com and
checkout my online radio show,
Talk! with Audrey for a series of
interviews that will inform, motivate and inspire you.
This week on TALK! with
AUDREY: One of the world’s
leading experimental psychologists and an expert on the science of optimism, ELAINE FOX
has spent more than twenty
years studying how people interpret the world around them.
Her research heralded discussion about a possible “optimism
gene” and her work has been
featured in a range of publications, including Nature, Science,
New Scientist, The Economist,
and the New York Times. In
2009, she appeared on-camera
with Michael J. Fox in the documentary, “Adventures of an Incurable Optimist.” In her book
RAINY BRAIN, SUNNY BRAIN
Fox explores the ways in which
we can retrain our brains to view
the world with a positive outlook.
Audrey Adams, former director of corporate public relations and fashion merchandising for ESSENCE continues to
motivate and inspire women
through her syndicated columns and motivational speaking engagements. E-mail your
fashion, beauty and lifestyle
questions or comments to her at:
[email protected]
THE ADAMS REPORT©
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Gillibrand reintroduces
Voter Empowerment Bill
By J. Zamgba Browne
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has reintroduced the Senate companion
of the Voter Empowerment Act.
Reps. John Conyers, John Lewis
and James Clyburn are taking care
of business on the House side.
The legislation if enacted will
help ensure equal access to the
ballot for every eligible voter. It
will also modernize the voter registration system to help more
American participation, and takes
steps to eliminate deceptive practices and voter fraud that deter
voters from casting their ballots.
As more and more stories of
voting problems emerge from last
year’s general election, Democrats
are continuing to press the issue
of ensuring Americans’ voter
rights through congressional ac-
tion.
Sen. Gillbrand said this is necessary, especially at a time when some
states have implemented or are planning to implement new barriers to
voting for certain groups, including seniors, students, low-income
Americans, and members of the
Armed Services.
The bill is being introduced on
the anniversary of the 24th Amendment, which banned the discriminatory practice of the poll tax.
“Dr Martin Luther King, jr. often
spoke about the fierce urgency of
now; now is the time to protect the
voting rights battles that have already been won, and to press for
new protections,” Sen. Gillibrand
said.
Ensuring that every vote counts
is a cornerstone of our democracy
that should be embraced by both
side of aisle,” said Gillibrand.
Modern day slavery in N. Africa uncovered at family reunion
In their startling and eye-opening documentary, directors
Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw
take viewers on a journey to a land
of vast deserts and even bigger
secrets. Their film, Stolen, which
captures a land at the juncture of
politics, nationality, and race, premieres on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 7:
pm ET (6:00 pm CT, 4:00 pm PT) as
part of season five of the AfroPoP:
The Ultimate Cultural Exchange.
The series is hosted by actress
Gabourey Sidibe on public
television’s WORLD channel and
produced by Black Public Media.
In Western Sahara to document
UN-monitored family reunions in
a refugee camp, Ayala and
Fallshaw plan to film the reunion
between Fetim Sellami, a Saharawi
refugee, and the mother she has
not seen since she was a child. At
the joyous reunion, a discussion
of their family history soon begins. Detailing the conditions that
led to parent and child living on
different sides of a contested border, Fetim reveals the shocking
secret that she is enslaved to
white Saharawis living in the
camp. Soon what was intended to
be a happy record of a family reunion
becomes an exposé of slavery in the
camp, bringing the filmmakers under the scrutiny of the Polisario, the
government ruling the Saharawis.
With video evidence of the enslavement of Fetim and other black
Saharawis in the refugee camps,
Ayala and Fallshaw face the threat
of losing their footage, being detained by the Polisario, or worse. As
the filmmakers struggle to find a way
out of the territory and still bring
the plight of the enslaved refugees
to greater attention, Stolen plays out
as a thriller that will shock and captivate viewers.
Stolen and the other episodes of
this season of AfroPoP will re-air
throughout January and February
on World and other public television stations. Please check your local listings for information on additional air dates and times.
AfroPoP is an innovative documentary series consisting of independent films about contemporary
life, art and pop culture across the
African Diaspora. The series premiered on Jan. 22 with A Lot Like
You by Eliaichi Kimaro and continues on Tuesdays weekly with
Dear Mandela (Jan. 29), by Dara
Kell and Christopher Nizza, and
Ayala and Fallshaw’s Stolen (February 5). A Lot Like You follows a
sexual abuse survivor as she
documents the history of sexual
violence against women in her
father’s Tanzanian homeland. Dear
Mandela captures the demonstrations of residents of the Durban
shantytowns as they fight for the
decent living conditions promised
by the post-apartheid government
and challenge the African National
Congress (ANC).
A Lot Like You and Dear
Mandela will be distributed by
American Public Television for
broadcast on additional public television channels in February 2013.
For more information on the series or films, visit:
www.blackpublicmedia.org. To find
your local WORLD station, check
your local listings.
Limited time for Hurricane Sandy survivors
in N.Y. to visit 3 Disaster Recovery Centers
All centers to discontinue Sunday service
Hurricane Sandy survivors in
New York have until 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, to receive assistance at three Disaster Recovery Centers in Queens and
Brooklyn.
The State of New York and the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency closely monitor visitor
traffic at all New York Disaster
Recovery Centers. Traffic at
these three centers has slowed,
indicating the information needs
of survivors in those areas have
mostly been met. So far, more
than 11,000 survivors have visited the three centers combined.
The three centers that will be
ending service at 6 p.m. Saturday,
Feb. 2, 2013, and their respective
hours and locations are:
* Social Security Building,
Gravesend:
10 Bouck Court, Brooklyn, NY
11223 Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monday through Saturday
* Community Church of the
Nazarene
1414 Central Ave.. Far Rockaway,
NY 11691 Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monday through Saturday and 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 27)
* Sands Point Professional Building
230 Beach 102nd St., Rockaway
Park, NY 11694,Hours: 8 a.m. to 6
p.m. Monday through Saturday
and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday (Jan.
27)
Also, all recovery centers will
discontinue service on Sundays
beginning Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013.
12
Beacon On The Scene
New-York Historical Society hosts
first-ever Family Benefit Party
Edited By Audrey J. Bernard
Lifestyles & Society Editor
On Saturday, January 26, 2013,
The DiMenna Children’s History
Museum at the New-York Historical Society hosted its first-ever
Family Benefit Party, Passport
Through American History at the
historic museum from 11am to 2pm.
The Family Benefit Party was “a
fantasy world created for 700-plus
families, showing that history is
serious fun,” said New-York Historical Society president and CEO
Louise Mirrer.
Children, parents, and grandparents collected “passport stamps”
by traveling through American
history, donning period costumes,
posing for portraits, tasting ice
cream from a 17th-century colonial
recipe that they churned by hand,
and recreating the signing of the
Cornelia Van Varick (Photo by Don Pollard)
Declaration of Independence.
Families also met some of the
groundbreaking “characters” from
New York’s past, including pioLucas Downes, Melody Rollins Downes, neering African American physiCamille Downes
cian James McCune Smith (who
had on hand the live leeches he
might have used to treat patients),
an elegant lady of the Gilded Age,
a Newsie from the Newsboy Strike
of 1899, and a soldier from World
War II. Special thanks to the generosity of event sponsor, designer
Yliana Yepez, and to Eleni’s New
York, for their cookie and activity
donation.
Proceeds from the Family Benefit
Party will help the institution
Family with WWII reenactor (Photo by Don Pollard)
Gigi Griffin, Amy Griffin
continue to provide an interactive,
entertaining experience for chilYliana Yepez, Alexandra Gill, Rafael Gill dren and families, helping young
visitors learn by making discoveries about our ancestors who
shaped the nation. This support
helps the DiMenna Children’s History Museum and the New-York
Historical Society care for a priceless collection, made fully accessible to the public, and provides
education programs with the resources to serve over 200,000 New
York City public school students
with both on-site and in-school
programming each year, and thousands of teachers in Professional
Development training throughout
the year.
Wendy Hoh, Audrey Hoh, Will Hoh, Caroline Hoh, Yliana Yepez, Eleni Gianopulos, Diana Harry Murphy, Annabella Murphy, Freddy
Event chairs for the Family
Sophia Hoh
Murphy
DiMenna
Benefit Party included Diana
Dimenna, Lise Evans, Marie-Anne
ABOUT THE DIMENNA CHILDREN’S HISTORY MUSEUM
de Rosier Ewig, Mary Kathryn
The DiMenna Children’s History Museum is a museum-within-a-museum and occupies the New-York Historical Society’s entire lower
Navab, Betsy Pitts, Alexia Hamm
level. It covers 350 years of New York and American history and includes character-based pavilions, interactive exhibits and digital
Ryan, Mary Snow, Liz Stern,
games, and the Barbara K. Lipman Children’s History Library. Families explore and learn together, through visiting the museum and
Kathryn Tucker, Yliana Yepez.
participating in intergenerational family learning programs. All ages can enjoy and learn in the DiMenna Children’s History Museum,
Event co-chairs included Michaela
but the exhibits are targeted at age 8-13.
J. Clary, Michael T. Cohen, Chesley
Maddox-Dorsey & Leon Lee
ABOUT THE KIDS’ CLUBHOUSE ONLINE
Dorsey, Joyce Giuffra, Linda
Check out our online interactive site for families and kids ages 6 and up. In the clubhouse, kids play online history games (Sloppy Copy
Greenberg, Sharon Hurowitz,
and Meet the People of New Amsterdam). Log-in, save earned points, and decorate your clubhouse. In History Detectives – New-York
Stacie Kiratsous, Ph.D., Rhona
Historical’s blog for kids – catch up on cool historical objects and facts, and read interviews with authors.
Kisch & Daniel Stamler, Nell
Kleinschmidt, Tiffany Moller,
ABOUT THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Pauline Reyniak, Christine & Brett
The New-York Historical Society, one of America’s pre-eminent cultural institutions, is dedicated to fostering research and presenting
Rogers, Kimberly & Viqar Shariff,
history and art exhibitions and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded
Anya Herz Shiva, Denise Spillane,
in 1804, New-York Historical has a mission to explore the richly layered history of New York City and State and the country, and to serve
Andrea Stern & Ken DiPaola.
as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.
(Photos by Patrick McMullan)
13
Hundreds attend BET’s “2013 Forward”
star-studded inaugural ball celebration
14
By Dedra N. Tate
Contributing Scribe
WASHINGTON, DC — Monday, January 21, 2013 was an incredible day of dual celebrations
— the birthday of civil rights advocate Dr. Martin Luther King;
and the Inauguration of our
nation’s 44th President, Barack
Obama. Washington, DC was
over flowing with celebrities,
influencers, policy makers, community leaders and media personalities with hundreds of them
making their way to the SmithChairman & CEO Debra Lee
President & COO Scott Mills, Erika Irish Brown BET President Programming & Specials Stephen
sonian American Art Museum
Hill, Dedra N. Tate (Photo by Jeanine Tate)
and National Portrait Gallery for
the invitation only BET Inaugural Ball.
There was no area left untouched as guests roamed freely
through all three levels of the historic museum. The main floor
hosted a red carpet entrance and
the ballroom where guests were
greeted with signature Hennessy
champagne cocktails and lavish
buffet stands. The black and
white checkerboard dance floor
led to the main stage where celebrity guest DJ Jermaine Dupri
was on the 1’s & 2’s spinning hit
after hit underneath a huge metallic “2013 Forward” floating
backdrop. Grammy nominated
recording artist Wayne Brady
Judge Greg Mathis & Wife
Congresswoman Maxine Waters & husband Ambassador NAACP President Benjamin Jealous &
was the host with the most, setSidney Williams & daughter-in-law Michele Moore
wife Lia
ting the tone for the main event
that included performances by
MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, Doug
E. Fresh and Bell Biv Devoe.
Level two was a crowd favorite featuring giant portraits of
President Obama and level three
was host to two live bands and
photographers providing each
of the Black Tie wearing guests
with an “official” BET Inaugural
Ball photo favor. BET’s chairman
and chief executive officer Debra
Lee, president of programming
& specials Stephen Hill and
president and chief operation ofInner City Broadcasting
ficer Scott Mills were on hand to
Uptown Magazine Publisher
mix and mingle with the bevy of Doug E. Fresh Dan Gasby & B. Smith Sister2Sister Publisher Jamie Len Burnett, Jeanine Tate Keisha Sutton-James & husband Michael James
Brown with Bell Biv Devoe
impeccably dressed celebrants.
Amongst them were actors
Jeffrey Wright, Boris Kodjoe,
Morris Chestnut, Wilmer Valderrama, Jamie Hector, Lynn Whitfield and Nicole Ari Parker;
Former NBA Players Patrick
Ewing and Jayson Jackson; TV
personalities Ed Gordon and
Judge Greg Mathis; political
heavyweights NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, ConJeff Johnson & Wife
gresswoman Maxine Waters and
Jeffrey Wright
her husband Ambassador Sidney
Moore; comedian Michael Collier,
RHOA’s Kenya Moore, Centric’s
EVP/GM Paxton Baker and VP/
Sales Michele Thornton.
The official sponsors for the
BET Inaugural Gala were AT&T,
Marriott, Hennessey V.S., Perennial Sports & Marketing, Southern Company, Wal-Mart and
Wells Fargo. (Photos courtesy Wilmer Valderrama & Jermaine
Dedra N. Tate)
Dupri
Kenya Moore
Shaun Robinson
Kevin Liles & Wife
RFK, King predicted election of Black president in 40 years
would think that this could come
in 25 years or less.”
Obama’s election came 44 years
after King’s statement and four
years longer than what Robert
Kennedy had envisioned. Standing in the shadows of a U.S. Capitol built by slave labor, Barack
Obama expressed much more selfassurance Monday than he had
four years ago.
Rejecting calls for him to move
closer toward his Republican critics, a confident President Barack
H. Obama kicked off his second
term last week by making an impassioned plea for a more inclusive America.
“It is not our generation’s task
to carry on what those pioneers
began,” Obama said in his inaugural speech. “For our journey is
not complete until our wives, our
mothers and daughters can earn
a living equal to their efforts. Our
journey is not complete until our
gay brothers and sisters are
treated like anyone else under the
law – for if we are truly created
equal, then surely the love we
commit to one another must be
equal as well.
“Our journey is not complete
until no citizen is forced to wait
for hours to exercise the right to
vote. Our journey is not complete
until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a
land of opportunity – until bright
young students and engineers are
enlisted in our workforce rather
than expelled from our country.
Our journey is not complete until
all our children, from the streets
of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of
Newtown, know that they are
cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.”
Obama’s speech represented a
clear shift from four years ago
when the newly-elected president
optimistically thought that he
could inject civility and common
sense into Washington’s contentious politics. After being re-
buffed by opponents who placed
politics ahead of the interests of
the country – including taking it to
the brink of a self-inflicted financial cliff – President Obama boldly
shifted gears Monday by sketching a progressive vision and signaling a willingness to fight for it.
“For now decisions are upon us
and we cannot afford delay,” he
stated. “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute
spectacle for politics, or treat
name-calling as reasoned debate.
We must act, knowing that our
work will be imperfect. We must
act, knowing that today’s victories
will be only partial and that it will
be up to those who stand here in
four years and 40 years and 400
years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a
spare Philadelphia hall.”
“We do not believe that in this
country freedom is reserved for the
lucky, or happiness for the few,”
the president said. “We recognize
that no matter how responsibly we
live our lives, any one of us at any
time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away
in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other
through Medicare and Medicaid
and Social Security, these things
do not sap our initiative, they
strengthen us. They do not make
us a nation of takers; they free us
to take the risks that make this
country great.”
The reference to a nation of takers was a direct rebuttal to Mitt
Romney’s telling a group of donors
that 47 percent of Americans are
“dependent on government” and
would “vote for the president no
matter what.” Ironically, Romney
received 47 percent of the popular
vote in his losing effort against
Obama.
The president indicated he plans
to move the U.S. away from “perpetual war” and will take on tough
issues such as immigration reform
and climate change. Obama became the first president to link the
1839 Seneca Falls Convention for
women’s rights, the 1965 SelmaMontgomery, Ala. voting rights
march and the 1969 Stonewall
movement that put gay rights center stage.
He said, “We, the people, declare today that the most evident
of truths –- that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides
us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and
Selma, and Stonewall; just as it
guided all those men and women,
sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to
hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom
is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.”
President Obama used “we the
people” — the opening words of
the U.S. Constitution — five times
during his 18 1/2 minute speech.
Although attendance at the inauguration was expected to be
half of the record 1.8 million four
years ago, it appeared that
Monday’s figures will probably
exceed previous estimates. One
official said there were probably
more than 1 million in attendance
on the National Mall. That would
still rank ahead of 400,000 George
W. Bush drew at the beginning of
his second term and more than Bill
Clinton’s 800,000 in 1993. Four
years ago, Obama exceeded the
then-record 1.2 million who saw
Lyndon B. Johnson inaugurated
in 1965.
After the inauguration, the
Obamas led a parade procession
that included 59 groups with 8,800
people from the Capitol approximately 1.6 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
The president and the first lady
exited their limousine near 9th
Street, N.W. and walked for three
blocks, returning the waves and
cheers of excited onlookers, before returning to the motorcade.
President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their families
watched the remainder of the parade from the glass-encased official review stand in front of the
White House facing Lafayette
Park.
Later, they danced at two pri-
vate balls in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, down
from the 10 held in their honor four
years ago. At each ball, they slowdanced as they were being serenaded by fellow Chicagoan Jennifer Hudson, who sang Al Green’s
“Let’s Stay Together,” a tune the
president had belted last year at
the Apollo Theater in Harlem to
display his vocal talent.
As usual, all eyes were on First
Lady Michele Obama as onlookers waited to see what fashion
designer she would elevate to international attention. She surprised everyone by selecting Jason Wu, the same designer she
used for the first inauguration. The
first lady came on stage at the
Commander-in-Chief’s Ball in a
dazzling ankle-length ruby-colored chiffon dress.
Alicia Keyes was no fashion
slouch, wearing a red backless
dress as she played the piano and
sang, “Obama’s on firrrrrre!”
Earlier, Beyoncé Knowles
stirred the inauguration crowd
with her rendition of the National
Anthem. However, the The Times
of London reported — and other
news outlets later confirmed —
that she lip-synced the National
Anthem.
According to the New York
Times, a spokesman for the Marine Band said it is routine for musicians to record music for the inauguration in case the weather
prevents them from keeping their
instruments in tune.
The Times said Col. Michael J.
Colburn, the band director, received orders from event organizers to use the backup track just
before Beyoncé was scheduled to
sing live.
“We don’t know why,” Sgt.
Kristin duBois told the New York
Times. “But that’s what we were
instructed to do so that is what
we did. It’s not because Beyoncé
can’t sing. We all know Beyoncé
can sing. We all know the Marine
Band can play.”
The New York Times later updated its story after a different
spokesman for the Marine Band
said no one in the band had been
in a position to know if Beyoncé
had performed live. However, CNN
confirmed earlier news reports that
the singer had lip-synced the National Anthem.
Kelly Clarkson and all other program events were performed live.
On Monday, Obama became the
second and probably last president
to be sworn in four times. In 2009,
Supreme Court Chief Justice John
G. Roberts flubbed his lines at the
official swearing in and do-over was
completed the next day. This time,
Roberts administered the oath of
office in a flawless private ceremony Sunday because the Constitution requires the president to
be sworn in on Jan. 20; he repeated
it in the public ceremony on Monday.
Reciting his oath Monday, it was
President Obama’s turn to make a
slight error. Instead of “United
States,” he said, “United Sta –.” It
didn’t matter because the official
oath had already been administered
the day before.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was
elected four times before presidents
were limited to serving two terms,
was the only other president to utter the presidential oath four times.
“… We, the people, understand
that our country cannot succeed
when a shrinking few do very well
and a growing many barely make
it,” Obama said. “We believe that
America’s prosperity must rest
upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that
America thrives when every person
can find independence and pride
in their work; when the wages of
honest labor liberate families from
the brink of hardship. We are true
to our creed when a little girl born
into the bleakest poverty knows
that she has the same chance to
succeed as anybody else, because
she is an American; she is free, and
she is equal, not just in the eyes of
God but also in our own.”
As he prepared to leave the U.S.
Capitol, President Obama stopped
and turned around. “I want to take
a look one more time,” he said. “I’ll
never see this again.”
Bipartisan group of senators reach agreement on immigration reform
(from Page 3)
cans chastened by the November elections which demonstrated
the importance of Latino voters
and their increasing commitment
to Democrats, some in the GOP
say this time will be different.
“What’s changed, honestly, is
that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of
the aisle - that we have to enact a
comprehensive immigration reform bill,” McCain said Sunday
on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think
the time is right,” McCain said.
The group claims a notable newcomer in Rubio, a potential 2016
presidential candidate whose
conservative bona fides may help
smooth the way for support
among conservatives wary of
anything that smacks of amnesty.
In an opinion piece published
Sunday in the Las Vegas ReviewJournal, Rubio wrote that the existing system amounts to “de
facto amnesty,” and he called for
“commonsense reform.”According
to documents obtained by The Associated Press, the senators will
call for accomplishing four goals:
-Creating a path to citizenship for
illegal immigrants already here,
contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people
here on visas.-Reforming the legal
immigration system, including
awarding green cards to immigrants who obtain advanced degrees in science, math, technology
or engineering from an American
university.-Creating an effective
employment verification system to
ensure that employers do not hire
illegal immigrants.-Allowing more
low-skill workers into the country
and allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can demonstrate
they couldn’t recruit a U.S. citizen;
and establishing an agricultural
worker program. The principles
being released Monday are outlined on just over four pages, leaving plenty of details left to fill in.
What the senators do call for is
similar to Obama’s goals and some
past efforts by Democrats and Republicans, since there’s wide agreement in identifying problems with
the current immigration system.
The most difficult disagreement is
likely to arise over how to accomplish the path to citizenship. In
order to satisfy the concerns of
Rubio and other Republicans, the
senators are calling for the completion of steps on border security
and oversight of those here on
visas before taking major steps
forward on the path to citizenship.
Even then, those here illegally
would have to qualify for a “probationary legal status” that would
allow them to live and work here but not qualify for federal benefits
- before being able to apply for
permanent residency. Once they
are allowed to apply they would
do so behind everyone else already in line for a green card within
the current immigration system.
That could be a highly cumbersome process, but how to make it
more workable is being left to future negotiations. The senators
envision a more streamlined process toward citizenship for immigrants brought here as children by
their parents, and for agricultural
workers. The debate will play
out at the start of Obama’s second term, as he aims to spend the
political capital afforded him by
his re-election victory on an issue
that has eluded past presidents
and stymied him during his first
term despite his promises to the
Latino community to act. “As
the president has made clear for
some time, immigration reform is
an important priority and he is
pleased that progress is being
made with bipartisan support,” a
White House spokesman, Clark
Stevens, said in a statement. “At
the same time, he will not be satis-
fied until there is meaningful reform
and he will continue to urge Congress to act until that is achieved.”
For Republicans, the November
elections were a stark schooling on
the importance of Latino voters,
who voted for Obama over Republican Mitt Romney 71 percent to 27
percent, helping ensure Obama’s
victory. That led some Republican leaders to conclude that supporting immigration reform with a
path to citizenship has become a
political imperative..”
Miss Teen USA
(from Page 2)
New York City and seven counties
north of the city.
Reach Out and Read of Greater New
York distributes books to over a quarter of a million children annually at
185 Reach Out and Read clinical locations throughout New York City,
Westchester, Putnam, Rockland,
Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster Counties. For more information,
visit our website:
www.reachoutandreadnyc.org.
About the Ryan Community Health
Network
For over 40 years, the family of Ryan
Community Health Centers has provided thousands of medically
underserved New Yorkers with access
to high quality, affordable, primary, preventive, and specialty health care and
supportive services. Operating under
the principal that “health care is a right,
not a privilege,” the Ryan Center opens
its doors to all people, regardless of
their income, neighborhood, race, or
the language they speak..
(from Page 3)
15
16
CBC member says Obama disrespects African Americans
(from Page 3)
sional district that I serve than he did
–and that’s the message I wanted to
send to him.”
He said a strong message also
needs to be sent to advertisers that
fail to support the Black Press. According to a 2012 report by Nielsen
titled, “African-American Consumers: Still Vital, Still Growing,” Black
consumers will have a projected buying power of $1.1 trillion by 2012. Yet,
of the $120 billion spent on advertising in 2011, only 2 percent was spent
with African-American media.
Hasting criticized several Florida
newspapers and local advertisers by
name.
“Many of the same people that
advertise in these [White-owned]
publications don’t advertise with you
and that’s insulting because we ultimately wind up using the products
that they advertise and somehow or
another, our news is ignored.”
Hastings graduated from Fisk University in Nashville and FloridaA&M
University Law School, both histori-
cally Black colleges. His said Obama
has also demonstrated insensitivity to
HBCUs. Obama administration officials disagree with that assessment,
pointing out that he announced a plan
to increase spending on HBCUs by
$850 million over the next 10 years.
“It was nine months into the administration before he appointed a single
person, not just at the cabinet level …
“ Hasting recalled. “But when you look
at the Schedule 1, Schedule 2, and
Schedule 3, none in his first nine
months of his administration was from
a historically Black college.”
Hastings predicted that the nation
will lose half of its 105 HBCUs over the
next 15 years.
“They, like you, will not survive unless you begin to form consortiums
and unless you understand that you
are Black-owned and not necessarily
Black when it comes to this media business,” he said. “You’re going to have
to form conglomerates; you’re going
to have to form bonds of trust like you
elders had to give birth to this organization being here in place in the first
place.”
Hastings said that unlike some journalists employed by White-owned
media, NNPA publishers are not conflicted by race. He recalled a speech
he gave to a National Association of
Black Journalists convention in Dallas where journalists were pondering
whether they were journalists or Black
first.
“I said, ‘If you are not sure about
whether or not you are Black, look in
the (expletive) mirror,’” Hastings recalled. “’And if the mirror does not
give you an answer, ask your mama.’”
The congressman said Whiteowned media is failing, in part, because of the rush to beat their competitors.
“The important thing for each of
you is to be different from some of
them,” he said. “You don’t have to
worry about being first; most of you
don’t publish but once a week. You’re
last, so you can get the (expletive)
story straight. And you can be accurate and, quite frankly, accuracy is
what this online thing doesn’t allow
for because everybody is rushing to
be first.”
Giving Food Stamps instead of jobs
(from Page 7)
ity of grantees now take the time to
submit an annual report. However,
there are still no more than four grantees actually in compliance with Section 3. If the vast majority of grantees would comply, this nation would
have over 100,000 new jobs for the
unemployed per year and approximately $5 billion in contracts for new
or small business owners.
It was discovered during a three
year review (2008 – 2010) by HUD
that the Chicago Housing Authority
received over $1 billion in HUD funding. Not once during those three
years did CHA hire a Section 3 company or utilize a Section 3 resident.
This is happening all over the nation. There is a lot of economic damage done via this noncompliance and
HUD knows it – that is the tragedy.
While people who have a vested
interest in the poor remaining poor
are all too willing to increase food
stamps to the needy and to the hustlers (you can buy $100 worth of
stamps for $50 in every city of the nation) opportunities are being denied
to the willing. I was in a supermarket in
Detroit when a hustler approached me.
He said, “Sir, you have about $70 worth
of food in your cart. I will sell you $70
worth of food stamps for $35. I turned
him down but was amazed when I
checked out the amount was just a little
over $70.
Who are these cronies that prevent
Section 3 from working? Construction
unions want to keep possession of the
jobs concerning the building and maintenance of public housing. They are a
big player plus housing authority managers whose business is to keep
people in poverty. Also, tenant association officers who feel empowered
leading their “sheep” as opposed to
freeing residents of poverty.
Congress should amend the law so
that Section 3 residents or businesses
can sue HUD grantees for noncompliance. The law does allow HUD to cease
funding a grantee that is out of compliance but it has never done that. The
city of Jacksonville, Fla. was discovered in noncompliance back in 1992.
Today, 2013, Jacksonville still refuses
to be in compliance and all HUD has
done is write a few threatening letters
which has had no effect. A few examples would go a long way in letting
the grantees know that the federal government is serious about this program.
I have been looking for some courageous members of the Congressional
Black Caucus to rise up and take the
charge in making Section 3 a reality.
They start off and then back off.
The lobbyists are running this show
as poverty is mega-bucks to the people
who partake in the business side of it.
The more people in poverty the better
their business.
People, please wake us!
Hastings drew loud laughter when
he discussed his deep aversion to
social media.
“That rush to judgment that the
media does is particularly damaging,
especially when you got people in
their bedrooms at 3 o’clock in the
morning, sitting looking at a screen
and Googling, twatting and tweeting
all night long. It ain’t that much communications in the world,” he said.
“People ask do I have a Blackberry?
No! AWhiteberry, either. The kids asked
to give me an iPad. What do I need an
iPad for? I have a flip phone and I have
no contacts on it. I don’t give a (expletive) if nobody calls me. I want to be
able to call when I want to call.”
In a more serious vein, Hastings said,
“The substantive news has long since
gone by the board you are the one that
can still educate not only our community [but others]. Don’t you think they
are not looking at your news.”
Black Americans and
Obama’s re-election
(from Page 6)
year at a rate of 66.1 percent, a percentage point lower than their 2004
showing.
Of course, Obama’s candidacy was
partly responsible for Blacks’ march
to the polls. But, in fact, their turnout
for presidential elections had been
climbing sharply since 1996. That
means that even before the Obama
candidacy, the Black electorate was
on a path to maximizing its voting
potential.
The importance of these facts and
trends is that this past November
President Obama won the support of
93 percent of Black voters; 73 percent of Asian-American voters; 71
percent of Hispanic-American voters; and the majority of votes from
women as a group and the 18-to-29
voting bloc. That support, along with
gaining 39 percent of White voters,
gave him his 4.7 million popular-vote
margin and 332-to-206 Electoral-College margin over Mitt Romney.
To try to blunt these groups’ rising
voting power, Republican Party officials – whose efforts at using voteridentification measures to limit the
electoral power of Blacks and other
Democratic-leaning voters clearly
backfired in November – are now
boosting a variety of legislative
schemes in such states as Virginia,
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Those measures seek to split up
the state’s total Electoral-College
votes according to which presidential
candidate wins what congressional districts in that state. Only Maine and Nebraska do it that way now. If such a
scheme, which favors rural – and thus,
overwhelmingly Republican — districts
over the more heavily-populated, diverse and Democratic-leaning urban
districts, had been in place in November, it would have enabled Romney to
eke out a win over Obama.
DonaldA. McEachin, a Virginia Democratic state legislator, interviewed about
such measures by the Washington
Post, called them “sore-loser bills.”
Progressive advocacy groups must
now do some doubling-down of their
own on these policies that come straight
from the tawdry playbook of the Jim
Crow South. They must mobilize to defeat these anti-democracy measures and
intensify efforts to increase both the
registration of new voters among white
progressives and Americans of color –
and to ensure that they turn out at the
polls in coming elections in ever-increasing numbers.
History is repeating itself, yes. The
forces of progress need to make sure
that for today’s neo-racists, in 2014 and
2016 as in 2012, history repeats itself
not only as farce, but also as defeat.
Lee A. Daniels is a journalist based in
New York City who was most recently
Founding Editor of
TheDefendersOnline.com.
His book, Last Chance: The Political
Threat to Black America was published
in 2008
Wilmington Ten team thanks the Black Press for pardons
(from Page 6)
Christ assigned him in Feb. 1971 to
assist Black students in Wilmington
protest unfair treatment of them in a
newly-desegregated school system.
During a period of unrest, someone
firebombed Mike’s Grocery, a Whiteowned business located near Gregory Congregational Church, where
Chavis had set up headquarters.
When fire fighters and police officers arrived, they were attacked by
snipers.
Chavis and nine others were
charged and convicted of arson and
conspiracy for their purported role
in the incident. Most of the defendants received a 29-year sentence,
with Ann Shepard, a White woman
fromAuburn, N.Y., receiving the most
lenient sentence of 15 years and
Chavis getting 34 years, the longest
sentence.
It was later disclosed that the chief
accuser against the Wilmington Ten
had mental problems and the prosecutor did special favors for him and
two others willing to provide false
testimony.
“I have decided to grant these pardons because the more facts I have
learned about the Wilmington Ten,
the more appalled I have become
about the manner in which their convictions were obtained,” said Perdue,
a Democrat. “Justice demands that this
stain finally be removed. The process
in which this case was tried was fundamentally flawed. Therefore, as Governor, I am issuing these pardons of
innocence to right this longstanding
wrong.”
Although many Blacks in
Wilmington had shunned the wrongfully accused defendants for years,
they turned out in full force at a recent
rally in which members or relatives of
the Wilmington Ten were presented
with the pardons of innocence.
According to the North Carolina
governor’s office, a pardon of innocence is granted “when an individual
has been convicted and the criminal
charges are subsequently dismissed.
Application for this type of Pardon allows an individual to petition the Governor for a declaration of innocence
when the individual has been erroneously convicted and imprisoned and
later determined to be innocent.”
Chavis said, “Four members died
before they could get that sheet of
paper. When Fergie and Irv [the two
attorneys] gave me the pardon, it was
on two sheets of papers. I said, ‘Wow!
This is some heavy two sheets of paper – a 40-year wait.’
“Another thing I’m most impressed
about [are] my co-defendants, which
you can see some of them on canes,
can barely walk, they never let their
spirit be broken – they kept their spirit
intact.”
That spirit was captured in a moving video made by Cash Michaels, a
video that documented the emotional
church service in Wilmington after
Gov. Perdue granted the pardons.
Throughout the video, Mary Alice
Thatch, whose father supported the
Wilmington Ten when many others in
the community rejected them, wept
quietly as she sat on the front row.
She held a glass of orange juice in her
left hand while using a tissue clutched
in her right hand to slowly dab tears
from each eye. It was a process she
would repeat throughout the 15minute video.
When the video ended, NNPA
Chairman Cloves Campbell noted that
many people in the audience had also
been shedding tears. After thanking
the publishers, Attorney Ferguson
highlighted the uniqueness of the pardon by the governor.
“This was not just a pardon of innocence that the governor signed on Dec.
31,” he explained. “Some governors
over time have given pardons of innocence. But there has been no par-
don of innocence in the history of
North Carolina – and I doubt in the
history of the country – where a governor signed it, saying our system of
justice has been disgraced by the
prosecution in this case. And she
talked about the findings from that
prosecutor’s box.
“She talked about a prosecutor
who racially manipulated a trial [by
pretending to be sick when a jury of
10 Blacks and two Whites were selected; when he got “well,” he had
picked a jury of 10 Whites and two
Blacks].
“She talked about a prosecutor
who had a list of jurors that said on
one side where there were White jurors: ‘KKK-good.’ And on the other
side: ‘Stay away from Black men.’ So
it was right there in the prosecutor’s
own handwriting. And one of the
things that motivated this governor
was the shame that she felt in seeing
what a prosecutor in North Carolina
had done in order to manipulate a
conviction.”
Ferguson said the governor considered taking milder actions, including issuing a pardon of forgiveness
that states a person had been forgiven of a criminal conviction. In the
end, she took the bolder route.
“I want you to know that it didn’t
come just from the goodness of their
heart,” the attorney said. “It came because you put her in a position where
she had no choice. And I can tell you
that they sought choices.”
Ferguson said no credible evidence
was ever presented against the
Wilmington Ten, including the testimony of three African-Americans who
were given lighter prison terms for unrelated crimes in exchange for their testimony.
“All three young men later also recanted their testimony,” Ferguson recounted. “All took an oath and said, ‘I
lied. And I lied because the prosecutor
induced me to lie.’”
In reversing a lower court decision
that found the activists guilty, the defense attorney said the panel of appeals
judges in 1980 issued a strong rebuke
of Jay Stroud, the prosecutor.
“It was one of the strongest indictments of a prosecutor I have seen in my
46 years of practice,” Ferguson said.
“… It said not only did these witnesses
perjure themselves, but the prosecutor
knew they were perjuring themselves
at the time. And that the court – the
judge – aided them in presenting perjured testimony.”
Professor Joyner said there are other
cases similar to the Wilmington Ten that
deserve media attention.
By Victoria Horsford
AMERICA, AMERICA
The 2012 Black American
History calendar began on
January 1 which was the 150 th
Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, President
Lincoln’s executive order
against the backdrop of the
American Civil War, which
freed all enslaved Africans in
the Confederate states. The
Anniversar y was cause for celebrations and commemorations, which will continue
through December. On January
21, the second inauguration of
American’s first Black President
Barack Obama intersected the
Martin Luther King federal holiday, a glorious day for Americans in general and specifically
for African Americans. I just reviewed a long list of inaugural
balls hosted by Blacks. There
was the BET Ball, the Root.com
Ball, the Jack and Jill Ball, and
the HBCU Ball to name a few.
Attorneys Leslie Demus and
Ralph Dawson; Dr. and Mrs.
John Mitchell; Alyah and
Kendall Sidberry; Jeanine and
Dedra Tate: and Sheryl Huggins
were among the cadre of NY
Black
Baby
Boomers
andGenXerswho visited Washington, DC for the historic proceedings. The balls, per se, require a stand-alone story!
AFRICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
South Africa’s Dr. NkosazanaDlamini-Zuma.
According to 1/30 NYTimes
article, the United States is considering the establishment of a
drone base in Niger, a northwest
African nation, to accelerate
surveillance missions of local Al
Qaeda affiliates, which US DOD
believes poses a threat to the
region, as in the current Mali crisis.
Caribbean: Sorry about my recent error about Haiti’s history.
The Caribbean nation celebrated it209th Independence on
1/1/13.
inducted in to the Advertising Hall
of Fame in April, It’s most prestigious award given to individuals
who exemplify excellence in advertising.
Print/broadcast journalist
extraordinaire, Mark Whitaker, resigns as managing editor of CNN
Worldwide. Former Newsweek
Magazine editor in chief and NBC
News VP, he was the highest ranking African American at the three
foregoing media outlets. Cannot
wait to see what’s next for this
enormously successful Fourth
Estater.
NY Attorney, Kenneth Thompson, former Federal Prosecutor
who headed the team on the
AbnerLouima case. In private practice, he represented the Malian
chambermaid against Frenchman,
IMF chief Dominick Strauss Kahn
and won a judgment for her. Attorney Thompson has announced
that he has tossed his hat into the
ring for the Brooklyn District
Attorney’s office.
MEDIA MATTERS
Randall Robinson, author of
THE DEBT, will be CSPAN’s
BOOK TV, In Depth guest author on February 2, at 12 pm. In
Depth is the 3-hour interlude
with a non-fiction writer which
runs the gamut of interview, exposition and audience telephone Q&A. The “In Depth”
interviews are televised frequently throughout the month /
Dr. Condoleeza Rice, former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State to President
George Bush adds news correspondent to her work creds. She
reported to work as a CBS Face
The Nation news correspondent
on Sunday, January 20. Her expertise will span national and international affairs. Is CBS following the MSNBC which experienced a 20% viewership boost
in 2012 with African American
viewership of 60.5%.Wonder if
Reverend Al Sharpton, Dr. Melissa Perry-Harris,
The contradictory FORBES
Lists: A few weeks ago, Forbes
says that sub Saharan Africa’s
richest woman and first woman
billionaire is Isabel dos Santos,
40, daughter of the Angola president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos.
Her net worth is $1+ billion.
About two months ago, Forbes
revealed that
Nigerian
womanFolorushoAlakija, 61,
whose net worth is $3.3 billion,
which exceeds Oprah’s net worth
and which makes her richest
Black woman. She has been a
billionaires for more than a decade. Forbes must start to get
the research straight or stop the
Lists!
Town and Country Magazine
published its “TOP 50 BACHELORS LIST , A Tell-All Survey
of the Most Eligible Men In the
World.” Three African Americans made the list, Reggie Love,
30, the 6’5" former Duke University basketball player, is the
former personal aide to President
Obama, who is an MBA candidate at University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. 2) biracial Jamerican
Malcolm Gladwell, 49, best- selling author of bestsellers like
“Blink(!)” and “Tipping Point;”
and 3) Democrat Newark Mayor
Cory Booker, 43, vegetarian ,
Rhodes Scholar who has set his
politics sights on the US Senate.
Jake Bright’s DailyBeast.com
essay, AFRICA IS RISING: INSIDE THE CONTINENT’S
GREAT ECONOMIC LEAP, is
good news! Essay analyzes eco
trends which make the continent attractive to Chinese investors, Walmart and global investment groups. Africa is referenced in some circles as the
“new Asia” with a large consumer class (projected 1 billion
middle class by 2050) which
spends $1 trillion annually, says
Bright. African economies are
booming while worldwide
economies are recovering from
the recession. The continent
boasts 29 stock exchanges and
many nations enjoy a GDP
growth north of 5%. Bright presumes that the reader knows
that the continent is the richest
in resources on the planet.
The 20 thAfrican Union (AU)
Summit convened in Ethiopia
last weekend. Most of the 54member AU heads of state and
theUN General Assembly Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
were among AU Summiteers.
The currentMali conflict;
South Sudan / Sudan crisis; and
unrest in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were
top Summit agenda items. The
PEOPLE/NEWSPAPERS
AU, originally the OAU, the Organization of African Unity,was
Advertising guru, founder of
founded 50 years ago. The AU
Commission Chairperson is UniWorld, Byron Lewis will be
John Lewis
ON BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Byron Lewis
Mark Whitaker
Randall Robinson
Kenneth Thompson
Reggie Love
Everyone is talking about The
Tribute – THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF OLU DARA aka Charlie Jones,
will be held at the Schomburg Center 515 Malcolm X Boulevard) on
February 2 at 7:30 pm . The multigenre event toplines Cassandra
Wilson, the OluDara Band, Melba
Joyce Amiri Baraka, Torny Terrell
Caribbean Jazz Quartet, Melba
Joyce and Lady Cantreseany many
more musicians. Actor Avery
Brooks hosts. The Mississippiborn Olu is a jazz musician/composer renown the world over. His
life narrative is thestuff that informs the scripts of good Hollywood movies. Tickets are $30 t0
$60, which includes a VIP reception.
For more info, call
212.491.2206.
The Harlem Fine Arts Show
(HFAS) 2012, a 4-day expo, opens
on Thursday, February 7, at the The
Riverside Church, located at 91
Claremont Avenue, Harlem, USA.
The $75 opening night gala is
billed as aTribute to prominent
Texas/Harlem business luminary,
Percy Sutton and will include performances by the MOTOWN, THE
MUSICAL cast and byVyHigginsen’sMAMA I WANT TO SING
cast; an open bar with hors
d’oeuvres by Melba’s: Live Jazz by
Cliff Lee Plus Three; and a meet
and greet of many HFAS participating fine artists. For full HFAS
schedule, call 212.280.1045 or visit:
www.hfas.org.
Civil rights warrior, Congressman John Lewis, of Georgia, is
among the honorees at the The
Asian American Legal Defense and
Education Fund’s (AALDEF) Annual Lunar New Year, celebrating
theYear of the Snake, Gala, on February 19, at Manhattan’s Chelsea
Piers. More than 800 denizens of
the city’s business, civil rights and
arts and culture precincts will attend the AALDEF Gala. Tickets are
$500-$1,000. For more info
call212.966.5932, X202 or email
[email protected].
A management consultant,
Victoria Horsford is a NY based
journalist and cultural historian
who is reachable at:
[email protected]
WHAT’S GOING ON
17
18
NNPA Award Winner
Enter tainment
By Don Thomas
‘Brooklyn In The House’
On King Day, Kings County hailed King and Obama
By Vinette K. Pryce
Contributing Scribe
At Brooklyn Academy of
Music where the 27 th annual
tribute to Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. invited visitors to celebrate the legacy of the Civil
Rights martyr, a historic,
the Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir.
Belafonte received celebrated
greeting. The much-admired,
tall, bald-headed New Yorker
might have inspired a patron to
break protocol to shout platitudes and also endear calypso
with lyrical embellishments to his
selves on the steps of the
Capitol…and demand” equity.
“He knew it would be the
most difficult of all the hurdles”
he maneuvered, Belafonte continued. The actor’s tone and
resonance connected with the
crowd as he reflected on the
task he and his colleagues intended with a challenge to the
government during the late
1960s.
He said among the issues to
tackle were dismantling banks,
disturbing the casual and corrupt system which he said enriched the rich and offered no
hope to the poor. During Dr.
King’s visit to Belafonte he
said the leader described his
mission akin to “integrating
into a burning house.”
The activist/actor said he
had no response to Dr. King’s
description but asked what
could be done. “We have to
become firemen,” Dr. King allegedly responded. The profound allegory seemed “a metaphor for how he (King) saw
America was going.”
“America lost its moral
compass and was drifting beyond reprieve.” In his address,
Belafonte also commended
President Obama on his second
inauguration. He said he hopes
the President will look at the
Memphis agenda and say ‘I am
a fireman.”
“The moral rudder on our
ship is still broken,” Belafonte
added. “I hope you will hold
the President to his promises.”
He referenced New York City’s
stop and frisk law; the war in
Afghanistan, the plight of
peoples of color, and admonished the rising prison population.
“We build more prison cells
than schools. Black people are
not at the forefront of the fight
against guns – our leaders are
silent. They should be writing
the laws. Martin Luther King
had America at its back, right on
his side – the church, the campuses, victims, Black people, the
poor – it was America in motion.
On this day when we celebrate
Martin Luther King and Obama
no one should profit from our
oppression we can change the
game –let’s stop the machine of
oppression,” Belafonte said.
The crowd seemed fired-up
and inspired by his words.
They applauded his message
and reflection by clapping heartily to deafening and amplified
cheers. Levity replaced nostalgia when Markowitz commanded attention.
“To those bigots who
thought the President’s victory
was a fluke, Get over it!”
His unyielding, Brooklyn accent
punctuated advice to a Republican senator from Kentucky:
“To Senator (Mitch) McConnell
who said he would work to make
Obama a one-term president –
Call him Mr. President.”
If the borough President had
not already been crowned King
of Kings – county, on King Day
he could have easily achieved
monarchy. The people seemed
unanimous in appeal for the
President of Brooklyn. He offered a wish list to the United
States President urging him to
“end America’s love-affair with
guns.”
“No more Columbines, no
more Auroras, no more … there
is no room for extremists of the
NRA, let us learn from Dr. King.
Let us rid our streets of guns
once and for all.” In keeping
with the theme of honoring Dr.
King’s legacy he lauded the
achievement of Blacks during a
segment that exposed his affinity to pop culture and reality television.
Oprah Winfrey won raves
Harry Belafonte delivered Keynote Address
double-header also hailed an- hit song “Day-O.” Harry reother prominent African-Ameri- turned greetings saying he was
can who changed the course of “particularly honored to talk to
America by becoming the first citizens of Brooklyn.”
Black President of the United
“I felt compelled to be here
States.
at BAM with those who live here
The oldest performing arts and those from the country in
center in America — which is the Caribbean I grew up.” Born
acclaimed for hosting the larg- in Harlem, Belafonte grew up in
est, annual celebration of the Jamaica where his mother was
national holiday — filled to ca- born. He wasted little time but
pacity for a program which in- promptly explained his relationcluded speakers and a concert ship with the celebrated Civil
tribute to the slain Nobel laure- Rights honoree.
“Martin was my friend, my
ate and also provided simulcast
viewing of the inauguration of closest. The last time I saw him
President Barrack H. Obama, was a few days before he went
the 44 th United States Presi- to Memphis – he came to my
dent.
home in New York City,”
It could have easily been Belafonte said.
The hush
tagged the best vantage point throughout the audience proto cheer Kings County and also vided acoustically-perfect enherald the day’s historic signifi- hancement to the landmark.
cance due to the alluring proAccording to Belafonte, the
gram marked by a keynote ad- preacher made a trip north to disdress from activist/actor Harry suade disgruntled residents of
Belafonte, one of Dr. King’s Newark, New Jersey from “burncolleagues, Dr. William L. Pol- ing the city.” He said many livlard, President, Medgar Evers ing there had become weary
College and Marty Markowitz, from “unjust treatment.”
the borough’s President.
Dr. King’s visit, he said was a
Emceed by Brooklyn’s calculated choice because after
Deputy Borough President, demonstrating solidarity with
Sandra Chapman, a program in- the sanitation workers in Memcorporated the legacies of the phis, he planned to launch a
two iconic Americans with re- poor people’s campaign. In ormarks from Ron Shuler, Karen der to dramatize the economic
Brooks Hopkins, (BAM) and disparity that existed throughentertainment which featured out the country: “we strategized
Kindred, The Family Soul and to go to Washington…park our- Audience viewing the Inaugural event Live
for her OWN Network; Jay-Z and
Beyonce’s baby Blue Ivy also received mention. Jennifer
Hudson’s weight loss did not
miss his list. And Olympians Venus and Serena Williams and
Gabby Douglas, the recovery of
ABC-TV morning anchor Robin
Roberts, athlete Michael
Strayhorn who replaced Regis
Philbin by teaming with Kelly
Ripa to co-host the popular morning show all found favor from the
BBP.
He garnered loud chuckles
when he mentioned a TV rivalry
between Nicky Minaj and Mariah
Carey, reality TV show “Real
Housewives of Atlanta,” Kim
Kardashian and Kanye West’s
pregnancy and loudest applause
when he expressed green-eyed
envy for hip-hop mogul Russell
Simmons’ ability to flaunt his association with a German model
during a vacation on a beach.
The veteran politician also
managed to spread kudos to Keija
Minor, the Editor-in-Chief of
Brides Magazine who became the
first Black editor-in-chief in the
Conde Nast publishing house’s
100 year history.
Markowitz delivered more
good news when he informed the
audience about Maurice Ashley,
the Brooklyn resident who
emerged the first Black chess
master last year. He also paid
tribute to prominent individuals
who departed. “We have not
reached the Promised Land,”
Markowitz said referencing Dr.
King’s “I Have A Dream” speech,
“but it is right there before our
eyes.”
Markowitz added that in order
to reach a closer proximity, kids
should have more access to essential services. He implored
young men who wear their pants
low in the waist to “Dress with
(Photos: Chris Griffith)
19
Phantom Of The Opera celebrates 25th anniversary
The longest-running show in
Broadway history, Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s The Phantom of the
Opera (Phantom), directed by
Harold Prince and produced by
Cameron Mackintosh and The
Really Useful Company, Inc., once
again made theater history when
it became the first Broadway
show ever to celebrate its 25th
Anniversary on Saturday, January 26, 2013 at The Majestic Theatre, 247 West 44th Street, NYC.
The milestone celebration began
with a 6:30 pm performance followed by a sumptuous after party
at the New York Public Library.
The black-tie glitzy production
was attended by Lord Webber,
producer Cameron Mackintosh,
director Harold Prince, original
star Sarah Brightman, current
stars Hugh Panaro (The Phantom), Sierra Boggess (Christine),
Kyle Barisich (Raoul) and Phantom cast alumni from 25 years on
Broadway, together with a cast
and orchestra of over 200 and
some special guest appearances
by original cast members including Michael Crawford and Phantom alumni from Colm Wilkinson
to Anthony Warlow.
Based on the classic novel Le
Fantôme de L’Opéra by Gaston
Leroux, The Phantom Of the Opera tells the story of a masked figure who lurks beneath the catacombs of the Paris Opera House,
exercising a reign of terror over
all who inhabit it. He falls madly
in love with an innocent young
soprano, Christine, and devotes
himself to creating a new star by
nurturing her extraordinary talents and by employing all of the
devious methods at his command.
Phantom is produced by
Cameron Mackintosh and The
Really Useful Theatre Company,
Inc., has music by Andrew Lloyd
Webber. Lyrics are by Charles
Hart (with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe) and the book is by
Richard Stilgoe and Andrew
Lloyd Webber. Phantom has production design by the late Maria
Björnson, lighting by Patrick
Woodroffe and Andrew Bridge
and sound design by Mick Potter
with original sound by Martin
Levan. Musical staging and choreography is by Gillian Lynne.
Orchestrations are by David
Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Phantom is directed by Laurence
Connor. The original London production was directed by Hal
Prince.
Phantom became the longest
Current cast of The Phantom of the Opera celebrated an unprecedented 25th Broadway milestone (Photo by Joan Marcus)
Cameron Mackintosh, Sarah Brightman and Harold Prince with
Sarah Brightman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Michael Crawford, Sierra Katherine Oliver, the Commission of New York City Mayor's
Boggess & Ramin Karimloo
Office of Media & Entertainment
running show in Broadway history production celebrated its 10,000th Olivier Awards. Phantom, which of Media & Entertainment has named
on 9 January 2006 when it celebrated performance.
opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre Jan. 26 “The Phantom of the Opera
its 7,486th performance, surpassing
Phantom has won over 60 ma- on 9 October 1986 starred Michael Day” and issued an official proclathe previous record holder “Cats.” jor theatre awards, including Crawford as ‘The Phantom’ and mation which was presented prior
This coincided with the Broadway seven Tonys on Broadway and Sarah Brightman as ‘Christine.’ It to the performance by Katherine
and the US national touring com- three Olivier Awards in the West is produced by Cameron Mackin- Oliver, Commissioner of New York
pany celebrating an unprecedented End. It won the ‘Most Popular tosh and The Really Useful The- City Mayor’s Office of Media & En20,000 performances in the United Musical Audience Award’, voted atre Company Limited.
tertainment. (Photos by Dave M.
States. In October 2010 the London by the public, in the 2002 Laurence
The Mayor of New York’s Office Benett/Getty Images)
LaChanze, Norm Lewis
Hugh Panaro, Sierra Bogess & Anthony Warlow, Ramin Karimloo, Michael Crawford, Colm Wilkinson, John Owen-Jones & Peter
Joback
Ramin Karimloo
Mayor’s office proclaims Jan. 26 Phantom
Day and Phantom Phans go wild
Review
20
An absorbing play at New England College
By Yusef Salaam
Contributing Scribe
“Circumstances” by Roger
Parris is the latest dramatic offering by the H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players, in
association with Voza Rivers/the
New Heritage Theatre Group, at
the Harlem School of the Arts, located in the Village of Harlem. The
setting of the absorbing play is at
a New England college, where
white students are the majority
and a handful of Black pupils also
attend.
The astute director, Arthur
French, a VIV AUDELCO Award
winner has lined up a talented array of players and has inspired
them to extract the milk of their gifts.
The plot centers on two students,
Timothy and Robert, who are as
different as night and day. Curtis
Williams’ Timothy is street-wise,
hard-headed, and undervalues his
intellectual aptitude.
Murumba Matthews fashions
Robert as a naïve collegian who
has a fervent aspiration for learning and an even more exertive
yearning to please his father. Dean
Hendricks (Allie Wood, Jr.) creates
a massive headache for himself
when he assigns them to the same
dormitory room.
Williams plays Timothy with
just enough edgy militancy that’s
relative to his hedonistic lifestyle.
He is a natural rebel who defies the
college rules about no women and
no drinking in the dorm. The audience senses Timothy’s noble attributes, particularly his humor and
his passion for the struggle of African Americans in the south to
obtain voting rights.
His biggest complaint is that the
students of African descent at the
school have no social consciousness. He views them and his dorm
mate as bourgeoisie. Matthews
chisels Robert as geek of sort, but
he offers subtle inferences that
there’s more to his character; the
audience just has to wait and see.
His Robert is strong-willed, but
inexperienced with what Timothy
calls “the real world.” Timothy tries
to make him shame of aspiring for
a middle-class lifestyle and the
materialism that goes with it, but
Robert is uncompromising about
that. Allie Woods is exceptional
as the dean. He sees immense pos-
‘Brooklyn In The House’
(from Page 18)
dignity.” A majority of the audience seemed to endorse this
mention.
“Pull up your pants!” he
shouted into the microphone.
Markowitz added that only after conquering AIDS and the
aforementioned “…then we can
be free at last.” None of the
speakers disappointed the capacity crowds that meandered
around the landmark structure
from early in the morning.
And if ever, the affirmation
that “Brooklyn is in the house”
was evident, on inauguration
day when President Obama
took his second oath of office
as the 44 th President of the
United States, Brooklyn represented in Washington D.C. and
in the most populous New York
City borough.
Residents and visitors exuded pride on the national holiday when a screen revealed The
Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.
Wearing scarlet red capes
trimmed by black fur, their
“Glory, Glory Aleluia” rendition
switched the focus to Washington D.C. and the second inauguration ceremonies for President Obama.
From the rafters at BAM to
the VIP orchestra section,
cheers and applause persisted
throughout the performance.
And when inaugural chairman
and NYS Senator Chuck
Schumer officially opened the
ceremony it seemed the Brooklyn audience comfortably resigned to a New York state of
mind.
Myrlie Evers-Williams Won
Cheers
The widow who made history becoming the first of her
gender to deliver a prayerful invocation at a Presidential Inauguration received a special
Brooklyn reception. Claimed a
citizen of the county due to the
naming of a CUNY institution in
her late husband’s honor –
Medgar Evers College – she
spoke at the historic capital setting. With Dr. Pollard, the President of that institution of higher
learning in the midst, the Brooklyn crowd felt included.
However, the decibel rose
highest when President Obama
laid his hand on two bibles —
one that belonged to President
Abraham Lincoln and one that
was owned by Dr. King to accept the task he was re-elected
last November when he gained
a majority of votes and overwhelmingly endorsed to serve
a second term in office.
The very first to take the
oath of office twice, the President won raves from a diverse
crowd who seemed elated despite their absence from the
nation’s capital. That they were
able to bear witness to history
seemed significant.
They watched keenly as Cuban-American poet, Richard
Blanco became the youngest
poet to recite a poem at a Presidential Inauguration. Blanco is
also the first Hispanic poet to
read at the swearing-in ceremony and the first gay poet to
add to the celebrations.
They also cheered long after Supreme Court Justice Sonia
Sotomayor — a New Yorker—
became the first Hispanic to administer the oath of office to a
Vice President of the United
States during a Presidential Inauguration. The ceremony is
now historically documented to
have attracted the largest crowd
for a second term President.
With historical dates to factor — 150 year anniversary of
President Abraham Lincoln’s
signing of Emancipation Proclamation, two oaths to swear, a
second four-year term as President and held in conjunction
with Dr. King’s 84 th birthday
anniversary, 2013 made the King
Day commemoration a Kings
County priority.
sibilities in Timothy and tells Dr.
Hudson (Leopold Lowe), Robert’s
father, that’s why he assigned his
son to Timothy’s room. He hoped
that Robert would be a moral influence on the insubordinate young
man.
His offering of some stereotypical concepts of an upscale dean in
a European American-dominated
college merge well with his masterful handling of the lines, which
speaks not of an Uncle Tom, but a
man who genuinely cares about the
success of the Black students.
The tension rises with the entry
of Dr. Hudson. He’s been notified
to come to the campus because
Robert was found intoxicated in the
dorm room with a lady friend, Pepper, played by Staxx Cadero. Lowe’s
Dr. Hudson is a no-nonsense man.
He speaks his mind candidly as he
does with Dean Hendricks regard-
ing using his son as a guinea pig to
sway Timothy in the right direction.
As is the norm with H.A.D.L.E.Y.
Players theatre audiences, the folks
talked back to the players as Dr.
Hudson gave the dean a scathing
admonishment. Lowe offers authenticity to his portrayal of Dr. Hudson.
Albert Eggleston plays the role of
Mr. Ellis, one of Timothy’s friends
from the real world outside of the
perimeters of the college campus.
Louise Mike is (Mama Dee),
Timothy’s grandmother, and she is
superb. See “Circumstances” if you
like theatre that entertains and educates.
Let the drums roll for Larry Floyd,
stage manager; AntoinetteTynes,
sound and lighting design; Marshall
Mitchell, set designer; Kimberlee
Monroe, prop coordinator; and
Katherine Robinson, costume designer.
KICKIN’ IT with Lifestyles & Society Editor Audrey J. Bernard
21
First Lady Michelle Obama
book cover
On Saturday, January 19, 2013
at Acadiana, Essence — the preeminent brand for African-American women — held a pre-Inauguration brunch to spotlight Washington D.C.’s top Black women
community leaders in honor of the
2013 National Day of Service including: Rhonda E. Willingham of
MenzFit, Inc.; and Tracy Lloyd
McCurty of The Black Belt Justice
Center. The event also commemo-
Marc Morial, National Urban League President; Donna
Brazile, CNN correspondent; Michelle Ebanks, Essence
President; and Edward Lewis, Essence Magazine founder.
(Photo Credit: Chaz Niell, Picture Group)
rated the launch of the Black
woman’s bible special commemorative book, “ESSENCE Presents
A Salute to Michelle Obama.”
This powerful pictorial combines stunning images of the First
Lady in and out of the White
House with the President and her
family — as well as explores the
social, cultural and political impact
of the First Lady’s education,
health, and military family initia-
tives; her national and international causes and campaigns; and
her broad fashion sense that connects with both Seventh Avenue
and Main Street. The event was
sponsored by AT&T.
The star-studded event was attended by Lynn Whitfield, actress
and contributor to, “ESSENCE
Presents: A Salute to Michelle
Obama,” Ben Todd Jealous, president and CEO, NAACP, actor
Chris Tucker, CNNs correspondent
Donna Brazile, Roland Martin and
Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, U.S. Ambassador At Large For International
Religious Freedom and Contributor
to, “ESSENCE Presents: A Salute
to Michelle Obama,” Marc Morial,
National Urban League president,
special guests Rhonda E. Willingham,
founder of MenzFit, Inc., and Tracy
Lloyd McCurty, The Black Belt Justice Center.
Fashion & Beauty expert Mikki Taylor; Essence presi- Debra Lee, BET CEO and Lynn Whitfield, actress and
dent Michelle Ebanks; and Lynn Whitfield, actress and contributor to “ESSENCE Presents: A Salute to Michelle
contributor to “ESSENCE Presents: A Salute to Michelle Obama”. (Photo Credit: Chaz Niell, Picture Group)
Obama.” (Photo Credit: Chaz Niell, Picture Group)
Constance C.R. White, Essence editor-in-chief; special guest Tracy
McCurty, founder of Black Belt Justice; special guest Rhonda
Willingham; founder of Menzfit; Michelle Ebanks, Essence president; and Tonya Lombard, AT&T AVP of Public Affairs.
(Photo Credit: Aaron Thornton, Red Carpet Images)
CNN correspondent Roland Martin and Ben Todd Jealous, president and CEO, NAACP.
(Photo Credit: Aaron Thornton, Red Carpet Images)
Constance C.R. White, Essence editor-in-chief
and actress Lynn Whitfield, and contributor to
“ESSENCE Presents: A Salute to Michelle
Obama.” (Photo Credit: Aaron Thornton, Red
Carpet Images)
Michelle Ebanks, Essence president and actor Chris
Tucker. (Photo Credit: Aaron Thornton, Red Carpet Images)
Essence puts spotlight on the nation’s
Black women community leaders
Flick Chat
22
‘Mumia’ showcases his intellect and long
standing defiance of the establishment’
By Kam Williams
Movie Critic
Wesley Cook, a/k/a Mumia
Abu-Jamal, was born on April 24,
1954 in the City of Brotherly Love.
There, he founded a branch of the
Black Panthers at the age of 15
after being kicked by a cop at a
rally for segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace.
After attending college in Vermont, he returned to Philly to pursue a career in journalism. He proceeded to provide a voice for the
voiceless as a politically-progressive reporter while simultaneously
moonlighting as a cab driver, until the fateful night in 1981 when
he and his brother William crossed
paths with a police officer named
Daniel Faulkner.
The cop was killed during the
traffic stop, when the bullets from
a gun registered to Mumia were
emptied into him at close range.
Faulkner managed to get off a few
shots, wounding Mumia.
At trial, the jury deliberated only
a few hours in what seemed like an
open-and-shut case, and the defendant was convicted and subsequently handed a death sentence.
However, because of Mumia’s previously clean record and his having served as such an articulate
mouthpiece for the poor and disenfranchised, he soon became
something of an international
cause célèbre.
Was he indeed a murderer or
had he been railroaded to prison
because of his radical views?
The left and the right would
disagree strongly on the issue.
Eventually his sentence was
commuted to life with no parole,
and the fundamental question
of guilt or innocence was essentially left unanswered.
The same can be said after view-
Mumia Abu-Jamal
ing “Mumia: Long Distance
Revolutionary,” a documentary
which doesn’t seek so much to
clear the controversial figure’s
name as to showcase his intellect
and longstanding defiance of The
Establishment.
To director Stephen Vittoria’s
credit, he hauls out a long line of
luminaries like Dr. Cornel West,
Ruby Dee, Hurricane Carter, Alice
Walker, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory and Amy Goodman to take
turns heaping praise on his sympathetic subject.
While their heartfelt testimoni-
The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA)
held its annual “Make A Muscle Make A
Difference Find A Cure” fundraiser at
Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. The event
included all the New York Sports Teams who
came together to raise money for the
association, by giving their time and money
for the cause. 3 of the 2012 Super Bowl
Champions of the New York Giants (L-R)
Prince Amukamara, Michael Boley and
Kevin Boothe, flex their muscle with one of
the Muscle Team Buddies Jashua Delvalle
(seated). If you wish to know more about
the annual event go to:
www.nymuscleteam.org
(Photo: Gerard)
als leave no doubt about Mumia’s
commitment to the struggle and
considerable talents as a writer,
none of them were eyewitnesses
to the murder. Thus, this is not a
biopic which seeks to poke holes
in the prosecution’s case or to indict the State of Pennsylvania for
a rush to judgment.
Rather, it merely endeavors to
highlight the squandered potential of a gifted, if fatally-flawed individual. Love him or hate him, no
one watching this inconclusive
piece can deny that Mumia has a
way with words.
A film that wisely leaves the
damning evidence on the back
burner in favor of focusing on everything about Mumia Abu-Jamal
except for what exactly transpired
at the corner of 13th and Locust in
the wee hours of December 9, 1981.
“Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary” opens Friday, February 1st at
Cinema Village in Manhattan, with
special appearances by the filmmaker and people appearing in the
film. Excellent (4 stars). Unrated.
In English and Spanish with subtitles. Running time: 120 minutes.
Distributor: First Run Features.
Adoption
Out of State Real Estate
Summons
Pregnant? Anxious? Get FREE,
no-pressure, confidential counseling, guidance, financial assistance at our licensed agency; if
adoption is your plan,
choose from loving, pre-approved
families. Call Joy: 866-922-3678.
www.ForeverFamiliesThroughAdoption.org.
Sebastian, Florida Affordable
custom factory constructed
homes $45,900+, Friendly community, No Real Estate or State
Income Taxes ,minutes to Atlantic Ocean. 772-581-0080,
www.beach-cove.com. Limited
seasonal rentals
SUPREME COURT OF THE
S TAT E O F N E W Y O R K
COUNTY OF NEW YORK SUMMONS - Index No.
151064/12, Date filed: 3/21/12
CORONA MEREDITH and
DENNIS S. MEREDITH,
Plaintiffs, -against- JOSEPH
TAVAREZ, Defendant. Plaint i f f s d e s i g n a t e N e w Yo r k
County as the place of trial.
The basis of venue is: Plaintiffs’ Residence. Plaintiffs
reside at: 310 E. 71st Street,
Apartment 5E, New York, NY
10021, County of New York
To
the
above
named
Defendant(s): You are hereby
summoned to answer the
complaint in this action, and
to serve a copy of your answer, of if the complaint is
not served with this summons, to serve a notice of
appearance on the plaintiffs’
attorney(s) within twenty
days after the services of this
summons exclusive of the
day of service, where service
is made by delivery upon you
personally within the state,
or within 30 days after
completion of service where
service is made in any other
manner. In case of your failu r e t o a p p e a r o r a n s w e r,
judgment will be taken
against you by default for the
relief demanded in the complaint. Dated: Douglaston, New
York, March 5, 2012 TO: JOSEPH TAVAREZ, 333 East 102nd
Street, Apartment 838, New
York, NY 10029 NOTICE: TO
THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANT: The Summons herein is
served upon you by publication
pursuant to an Order of the
Hon. Cynthia S. Kern; a Justice
of the Supreme Court, State of
NY, and County of NY dated
October 2, 2012. This is a personal injury action. PAUL W.
CUTRONE, ESQ. Attorney for
Plaintiffs 42-24 235th Street
Douglaston, New York 11363
(718) 631-5500
Services
buying/ sellling
BUYING/SELLING: Gold, gold
coins, sterling silver, silver coins,
silver plate, diamonds, fine
watches (Rolex, Cartier, Patek),
paintings, furs, estates. Call for
appointment 917-696-2024 JAY
Cellini Chair Doctor. Refinishing, Reupholstery, Drapery,
C h a i r s , Ta b l e s , B e d r o o m s ,
Diningrooms, Custom Upholstered Headboards, Valences,
Cornices & more. Over 50 years
experience. FREE ESTIMATES
call 347-627-5273.
Drivers
Vacation Rentals
Drivers: CDL-A
TEAM WITH TOTAL .50c/ Mile
For Hazmat Teams Solo Drivers
Also Needed! 1 year experience
required 800-942-2104 Extension:
7308 or 7307 www.TotalMS.com
Health
BUY REAL VIAGRA, Cialis,
Levitra, Staxyn, Propecia & more...
FDA- Approved, U.S.A. Pharmacies. Next day delivery avaiable.
Order online or by phone at
viamedic.com, 800-467-0295
Help Wanted
Driver- $0.03 quarterly bonus,
plus $0.01 increase per mile after 6 and 12 months. Daily or
Weekly pay. CDL-A, 3 months
current exp. 800-414-9569
www.driveknight.com
HOME HEALTH AIDES: Immediate Work! Free TrainingNassau/Suffolk. Sign-on Bonus, Paid Vacation, Paid In-Service, Direct Deposit...Nassau
516-681-2300, Queens 718-4296565, Suffolk 631-654-0789,
Bronx 718-741-9535
Drivers- HIRING EXPERIENCED/ INEXPERIENCED
TANKER DRIVERS! Earn up to
$.51/mile! New Fleet Volvo
Tractors! 1 Year OTR Exp.
Req.-Tanker Training Available. Call Today: 877-882-6537
www.OakleyTransport.com
Land For Sale
2- COUNTY LAND LIQUIDATION! Bank Repos, Farm Estates, Short Sales. 3- 38 acres
from $9,800! Streams, views!
Build hunt, invest! Easy drive
from NYC. Terms available!
(888)905-8847
Legal
DIVORCE or annulment in as
little as one day. Over 50 years
experience. 100% guarantee.
From $995. All information at
www.divorcefast.com
Out of State Real Estate
Exeter, NH- 55+ New homes
from $69,900-$129,000 2br/2ba
Along Scenic Exeter River. 7
miles to ocean, 50 minutes to
Boston! 603-772-5377 or email
[email protected]
OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND.
Best selection of affordable rentals. Full/ partial weeks. Call for
FREE brochure. Open daily.
Holiday Real Estate. 1-800-6382102. Online reservations:
www.holidayoc.com
Vacation Resorts
$399 Cancun All Inclusive Special
Stay 6 Days In A Luxury
BeachFront Resort With Meals
And Drinks For $399! http://
www.cancun5star.com/ 888-4819660
Wanted
CASH for Coins! Buying ALL Gold
& Silver. Also Stamps & Paper
Money, Entire Collections, Estates.
Travel to your home. Call Marc in
NYC 1-800-959-3419
Wanted to Buy
WE BUY ANYTHING OLD. Costume Jewelry, fountain pens, old
watches, world fair and military
items. Cigarette lighters, anything
gold. Call Mike 718-204-1402.
LEGAL NOTICES
NOTICE TO BE PUBLISHED
SUPREME COURT OF THE
STATE OF NEWYORK –COUNTY
OF NEW YORK – Index No. 307229/
2012- - Date Purchased: May 18,
2012– SUMMONS WITH NOTICE
– Plaintiff designates New York
County as the place of trial – Basis
of Venue: CPLR Sec. 509 – Ebin L.
Martinez, Plaintiff, - against – Jessica D. Washington, Defendant. - ACTION FOR DIVORCE – To the
above-named Defendant. YOU ARE
HEREBY SUMMONED to serve a
notice of appearance on Plaintiff’s
attorney within thirty (30) days after the service of this summons is
complete and in case of your failure
to appear, judgment will be taken
against you by default for the relief
demanded in the notice set forth
below. Dated: May 18, 2012 Law offices of Howard M. Rosengarten,
P.C., Plaintiff’s attorney, with offices
at 363 Seventh Avenue, 7th Fl., New
York, NY 10001; (212) 533-2606.
NOTICE: The nature of this action
is to dissolve the marriage between
the parties on the grounds of: the
relationship between the Plaintiff
and Defendant has broken down irretrievably for a period of six months
pursuant to DRL Section 170(7). The
relief sought is a judgment of absolute divorce in favor of the Plaintiff
dissolving the marriage between the
parties in this action. NOTICE OF
AUTOMATIC ORDERS. Pursuant
to domestic relations law section
236, part b, sec. 2, the parties are
bound by certain automatic orders
which shall remain in full force and
effect during the pendency of the
action. For further details you
should contact the clerk of the matrimonial party, Supreme Court, 60
Centre Street, New York, NY 10007;
Telephone: (646) 386-3010. DRL Section 255 Notice. Please be advised
that once the judgment of divorce
is signed in this action, both parties
must be aware that he or she will no
longer be covered by the other
party’s health insurance plan and
that each party shall be responsible
for his or her own health insurance
coverage, and may be entitled to
purchase health insurance on his or
her own through a COBRA option,
if available.
CLASSIFIED
23
24
BEACON
Marc Rasbury
SPORTS
Sloane has next
By Marc Rasbury
Perhaps lost in the hoopla of Super
Bowl hysteria, a significant event took
place in the world of sports last week.
Sloane Stephens catapulted herself
into the upper ranks of the women’s
tennis world by defeating Serena Williams in the quarter finals of the Australian Open.
Williams will no doubt go down as
one of the greatest female players in
the history of the sport when it is all
said and done and, believe me, she
ain’t done yet. Williams raced out to
an early lead when she took the first
set 6-2, and it looked as if she was
going to make short work of the young
upstart. In the second set, however,
one could see that Serena’s troublesome sore right ankle started to bother
her and then she strained her back as
she made a sudden stop to avoid the
net. To her credit, she fought through
these nagging injuries, like she has
done so many times in the past, and
did not use them as an excuse for the
defeat.
Stephens went on to rally to win
the second set and more than held
her own to win the third set and the Sloane has jumped into the ranks of the tennis elite with her victory over Serena last week.
match. I have been telling folks for (Photo by Marc Rasbury)
the past two years to watch out for this
kid. I watched her climb the amateur
ranks, where she demonstrated that she
not only had the talent to succeed in
the sport but she also showed that she
had the heart and determination to be a
champion. And she made that be known
off the court as well.
Last year Stephens even took on the
United States Tennis Association
(USTA) for sponsorship money. The
USTA was of the opinion that she was
not ready to turn pro and did not sponsor her as such. The young Stephens
went out and secured her own sponsorship, including American Express,
and a year later she found herself in a
major semifinal where she lost to Victoria
Azarenka.
Stephens also has an unique personality that will serve her well off the court.
Between now and the US Open, I can
see her in many endorsements, as sponsors will want to capitalize on her charm
and persona.
Don’t expect Serena to give up the
throne easily. Hopefully this might turn
out be the beginning of a great rivalry.
One thing is for sure, one quarter final
victory in a major does not guarantee
future success, but I see great things in
this young lady’s future.
St. John’s, Seton Hall and Fordham bring college hoop excitement
By Derrel “Jazz” Johnson
New York City gets an
undeserved bad reputation when it
comes to college basketball. In the
area, you have three teams that play
home games at local arenas. St.
John’s, who play at Madison Square
Garden in Manhattan and
Carnesecca Arena in Queens, Seton
Hall, who plays at Prudential Center
in Newark, and Fordham, who play at
Rose Hill gymnasium in the Bronx,
are all easily accessible.
Of the three area college teams, the
Red Storm of St. John’s seem to be
the best. Currently on a four-game
winning steak in the Big East Conference, the Red Storm defeated the Seton Hall Pirates on Sunday 71-67, at
Madison Square Garden. St. John’s
used a spectacular 30-6 run that
spanned the end of the first half and
the beginning of the second half to
take control of the game, but the Pirates did not give up, and were able to
cut the lead to one. In the final minute,
Sophomore D’Angelo Harrison, the
best player on the Red Storm, hit some
big shots. Junior Fuquan Edwin, Seton Hall Pirates best player, missed
two three pointers and two free throws
in the final minutes.
St John’s head coach Steve Lavin
talked about the team’s success after
the game. “The last four games had
similar themes, stretches where we
played brilliantly and the where teams
make runs on us. The opponent is always well coached because of the tal-
ent because the Big East is the best
conference in America. There are
many things we can improve upon
after we watch the tape, some things
offensively and defensively.”
Through 20 games, Harrison is
averaging 19.8 points, good for second in the Big East Conference. He
also leads St. John’s in steals, with
1.7 per game. Chris Obekpa, a Freshman from Nigeria, impacts the game
defensively for the Red Storm, leading all of NCAA Division I Basketball in shot blocking with 4.6 per
game. We should see both Harrison
and Obekpa playing in the NBA some
day. St. John’s takes on DePaul
Wednesday, then travels to challenge
Georgetown, before returning home
Wednesday, February 6, 2013, to face
Connecticut.
Though Seton Hall is only 2-5 in
the Big East, they have played hard
in most of their games. The Pirates,
however, are a young team that has
lapses at the end of the first half and
at the beginning of the second. This
was especially true against St. John’s.
Edwin leads the Pirates with 17.1
points a game and 2.5 steals. At 6’6",
Edwin needs to improve on his shot
selection and his free throw shooting, which is below 70%. Seton
Hall plays at Georgetown Wednesday,
before hosting #24 Cincinnati. The
schedule only gets tougher, as they
still must face top 25 teams Syracuse,
Louisville, and Marquette.
The Fordham Rams got off to a slow
start with an injury to their best player,
Chris Gaston, who has missed eight
games this season, including the last
two. At 6-14, Fordham is near the bottom of the newly revamped Atlantic 10
conference, which includes #9 Butler,
who Fordham will host February 16th,
in the Bronx. While there are no cheap
victories in the Atlantic 10 Conference,
Fordham must try to compete in the first
conference tournament at Barclays Center in March, which slots the top 12
teams.
With an improved St. John’s team
under head coach Lavin, a
young, competitive Seton Hall team
under head coach Kevin Willard, and a
fun team at Fordham under head coach
Tom Pecora, there are three teams to
choose from for exciting college basketball in the New York City area.
Nets to undergo toughest test under Coach Carlesimo
By Derrel “Jazz” Johnson
The Brooklyn Nets broke their
first two-game losing streak under
interim head coach PJ Carlesimo,
with a 97-77 win over the Orlando
Magic on Monday. They host
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and
the Miami Heat for the first time at
Barclays Center Wednesday, then
host the Chicago Bulls Friday. They
end the tough home stand Tuesday against Kobe Bryant, Dwight
Howard, and the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday of next week. Safe to
say we will know a lot more about
the Nets team after the next three
games.
Nets swingman Joe Johnson
talked about the upcoming schedule. “We feel pretty good, pretty
confident. We understand that we
have three tough games and we’re
going to take it one game at a time.
We’re preparing hard for Miami and
we’re going to come out with the
same intentions we had tonight and
try to dictate the pace of the game.”
We shall see how Johnson and his
Nets teammates come out against a
tougher team from the state of
Florida.
Brook Lopez continues to lead the
Nets, and with the unfortunate injury to Rajon Rondo of the Boston
Celtics over the weekend, who is out
for the remainder of the season with
an ACL injury, hopefully Lopez is
named as a replacement All-Star.
With his averages of 18.6 points
and 7.3 rebounds, to go along
with 2.2 blocks, Lopez is putting up
All-Star caliber numbers that are superior to anyone at the same position. The fact that the Nets are in
second place only cements his case
to be named to the team to correct
the original mistake made by the
coaches that didn’t place him there
in the first place.
Queens product Maurice
Harkless scored a career-high 14
points in the loss against the Nets.
Harkless played at St. John’s last
season, where he won Freshman of
the Year in the Big East Conference.
I spoke to Harkless about playing
in the NBA and it’s challenges. “Every game I want to get better, learn
from every game because you know
it is hard being a rookie, you have
to take your lumps and learn every
game.”
When I asked about his relationship with his former teammates,
Harkless said “I am going up there
tomorrow to hang out with those
guys. Unfortunately, they don’t
have a game tomorrow but on
Wednesday, and so do we, so I can’t
make it. I will definitely be up there
tomorrow.”
Though the Nets have played well
overall under the current interim
coach, it is troubling that their four
losses under him have all come by an
average of over 20 points per game.
If the Nets lose two of the next three,
it shows that they are not quite yet
ready for prime time. If they are able
to win two of the three games, it would
send a statement to the league that
they are a team to be reckoned with.
Winning all three games would
send a clear message not only to the
Heat, the best team in the Eastern
Conference, but also to the New York
Knicks, the leaders of the Atlantic Division, who the Nets defeated last
week.

CBC member says Obama disrespects Blacks

Transcription

Similar documents

2009-2010 Facts

Greta Van Susteren reveals

Obama`s Last Day 01.20.17™ Order Form

Just Thinking - The Complete Obama Timeline

the cybex trazer

IT`S TIME TO UNITE

Jan 6

BLACK HOLIDAY GIFTS GUIDE BLACK HOLIDAY