September 16, 2010
African and Caribbean Influential South African political groups are demanding a leftward shift in the country's market-friendly policies — including nationalizing mines — which they say have left too many citizens jobless and poor.
In the lead-up to a policy review next week, the country's largest trade union group has called for a radical change in policy. The youth wing of the governing African National Congress is calling for mines to be nationalized. Mining of gold, platinum and coal is a pillar of South Africa's economy.
The South African Communist Party has called for a state-owned mining company, but not the complete nationalization supported by the ANC Youth League.
The ANC and its allies will meet next week in Durban for a trial run for building a platform for the next general elections in 2014. Business groups will be watching closely.
The party has won every election since the first multiracial vote in 1994 but relies on support from the trade union bloc and from the communist party. The ANC's youth wing is known for getting voters to the polls.
Analysts say the ruling party will feel pressure to bow to supporters' demands before the 2014 election.
The union bloc and the communist party — whose members sit on key ANC leadership bodies and in the ANC Cabinet — helped engineer the ascendance of President Jacob Zuma in acrimonious 2007 party elections.
Economist Zamikhaya Maseti said he expects "a radical ANC government to emerge after the party 2012 conference and beyond" because of pressure from the left. Others, though, expect the general free market trends to hold.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions asked for more state intervention in currency rates and redistribution of income. It also proposed the formation of a state bank.
The union bloc says Zuma isn't fulfilling pledges to create decent jobs — in the face of unemployment of at least 24 percent — and share the country's wealth equitably. It says the Zuma administration is too wedded to market-friendly policies.
"We are headed in the direction of a full-blown predator state, in which a powerful, corrupt and demagogic elite of political hyenas increasingly controls the state," the bloc, known as Cosatu, said in a statement. "The ANC-led government should focus on redistribution of income and power in favor of the working class."
Cosatu's general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, who recently led 1.3 million public service workers on a debilitating three-week wage strike, has hinted at a possible withdrawal of Cosatu's support for the ANC at the polls.
But political analyst Adam Habib, based at the University of Johannesburg, said he thinks the tensions ahead of Monday's conference are "mere skirmishes and not serious battles" between those who want to retain market policies and socialists.
He added that he thinks it unlikely that mines will be nationalized.
"The youth league doesn't have the power it thinks it has," he said.
Source: The Associated Press.
AFROCENTRIC NEWS PORTAL
Until the Lion tells His Own story, the tale of the Hunt will Always Glorify the Hunter.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Thornton: Tells 911 Of Racist Work Place
Omar Thornton, 34, The emergency call confirmed suggestions from his relatives and girlfriend that he believed he was avenging racist treatment in the workplace.
"You probably want to know the reason why I shot this place up," he said, his voice steady. "This place is a racist place. They're treating me bad over here. And treat all other black employees bad over here, too. So I took it to my own hands and handled the problem. I wish I could have got more of the people."
Connecticut State Police released the audio of the four-minute emergency call on Thursday, the day company and union officials rebutted suggestions that the company had ignored Thornton's complaints of racism.
Is Hartford Distributors Racist?
According to Thornton; these people were racist from day one!
==================================
Hartford Distributors president Ross Hollander said there was no record to support claims of "racial insensitivity" made through the company's anti-harassment policy, the union grievance process or state and federal agencies.
'Ugly allegations'
"Nonetheless, these ugly allegations have been raised and the company will cooperate with any investigation," Hollander said.
Sankofa*
In my opinion, The Black Community should boycott Budweiser Brewery, as well as the union leader, for ignoring his complaint about racism at his place of work.
The Black communities should stop buying their products, as a show of unity.
Many of us don't realize how stressful it is, to be the only Black in a company, surrounded by racist vibes, at the work place. Racism can be felted, and seen by the actions of those who want it to be known.
The idea that Thornton's motive may not have been retaliation for losing his job has not sat well with many of the people who knew the victims.
This is obscured, We all could plainly see, a frustrated hard working "Black Man", trying to cope with the racist attitudes, he had to deal with, day to day.
When the report first broke, they were saying they asked him to resign, later they say he was fired. In my view we have to weigh in and sift out the truth for ourselves.
When I first heard of him shooting his union representative, I thought, why? But later understood, he ignored Thornton's complaints, now he was there for the termination. I could just imagine what was going on in his head.
Although, seeing this tragedy, we feel for the families, but had not Thornton's complaint been ignored, maybe this tragedy wouldn't have took place.
Thornton's ex-girlfriend, Jessica Anne Brocuglio, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had a history of racial problems with co-workers at other jobs and believed he was denied pay raises because of his race.
She said he told her: "I'm sick of having to quit jobs and get another job because they can't accept me."
Thornton's girlfriend of the past eight years, Kristi Hannah, said he showed her cell phone photos of racist graffiti in the bathroom at the beer company and overheard managers using a racial epithet in reference to him. Police said they recovered the phone and forensics experts would examine it.
Thornton complained about nooses being hung in the bathroom at work. High level managers doing the deed. Although, they are saying they have minorities working for them, I feel they would be afraid to admit any wrong doing, in fear of retribution.
BOTTOM LINE............
We really need to deal with the issue of Racism in the US.
"You probably want to know the reason why I shot this place up," he said, his voice steady. "This place is a racist place. They're treating me bad over here. And treat all other black employees bad over here, too. So I took it to my own hands and handled the problem. I wish I could have got more of the people."
Connecticut State Police released the audio of the four-minute emergency call on Thursday, the day company and union officials rebutted suggestions that the company had ignored Thornton's complaints of racism.
Is Hartford Distributors Racist?
According to Thornton; these people were racist from day one!
==================================
Hartford Distributors president Ross Hollander said there was no record to support claims of "racial insensitivity" made through the company's anti-harassment policy, the union grievance process or state and federal agencies.
'Ugly allegations'
"Nonetheless, these ugly allegations have been raised and the company will cooperate with any investigation," Hollander said.
Sankofa*
In my opinion, The Black Community should boycott Budweiser Brewery, as well as the union leader, for ignoring his complaint about racism at his place of work.
The Black communities should stop buying their products, as a show of unity.
Many of us don't realize how stressful it is, to be the only Black in a company, surrounded by racist vibes, at the work place. Racism can be felted, and seen by the actions of those who want it to be known.
The idea that Thornton's motive may not have been retaliation for losing his job has not sat well with many of the people who knew the victims.
This is obscured, We all could plainly see, a frustrated hard working "Black Man", trying to cope with the racist attitudes, he had to deal with, day to day.
When the report first broke, they were saying they asked him to resign, later they say he was fired. In my view we have to weigh in and sift out the truth for ourselves.
When I first heard of him shooting his union representative, I thought, why? But later understood, he ignored Thornton's complaints, now he was there for the termination. I could just imagine what was going on in his head.
Although, seeing this tragedy, we feel for the families, but had not Thornton's complaint been ignored, maybe this tragedy wouldn't have took place.
Thornton's ex-girlfriend, Jessica Anne Brocuglio, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had a history of racial problems with co-workers at other jobs and believed he was denied pay raises because of his race.
She said he told her: "I'm sick of having to quit jobs and get another job because they can't accept me."
Thornton's girlfriend of the past eight years, Kristi Hannah, said he showed her cell phone photos of racist graffiti in the bathroom at the beer company and overheard managers using a racial epithet in reference to him. Police said they recovered the phone and forensics experts would examine it.
Thornton complained about nooses being hung in the bathroom at work. High level managers doing the deed. Although, they are saying they have minorities working for them, I feel they would be afraid to admit any wrong doing, in fear of retribution.
BOTTOM LINE............
We really need to deal with the issue of Racism in the US.
Wyclef Jean Runs For President Of Haiti
Wyclef Jean Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean is running for president of his native Haiti after officially filing election papers confirming his candidacy on Thursday.
The Fugees rapper ended weeks of speculation when he jetted into the country on Thursday morning and headed straight to the electoral council office in the capital Port-Au-Prince to lodge the documents, according to the AFP.
Jean, who had earlier stepped down as head of his Yele Haiti charity, was accompanied by his wife Marie Claudinette and their adopted daughter, Angelina.
The star revealed his race for presidency was driven by "the people of Haiti", who are still dealing with the aftermath of January's devastating earthquake - and he's hoping to tackle issues including education and infrastructure if he's elected.
But Jean admits the rebuilding of the impoverished Caribbean nation "is going to take 25 to 30 years."
He tells the Wall Street Journal, "I always say that Wyclef Jean is not running for the presidency of Haiti, I'm being drafted by the people of Haiti.
"My whole life since I was a kid, the country has had political turmoil. The reason why is that there's never been one person who can unite all parties and get them to work together.
"I think there are issues we can start tackling - the education, the literacy problem, the job creation problem, the agricultural component. The idea that if everything is being imported how do we get our export back.
"These are some of the things that I feel we can start tackling. And when I say job creation, the infrastructure, the reconstruction of Haiti, should not only (involve) international contractors, but there should be local Haitian contractors too."
Jean is expected to join revered newsman Larry King on his CNN show tonight to give his first official interview as a candidate in the Haitian presidential elections.
The Fugees rapper ended weeks of speculation when he jetted into the country on Thursday morning and headed straight to the electoral council office in the capital Port-Au-Prince to lodge the documents, according to the AFP.
Jean, who had earlier stepped down as head of his Yele Haiti charity, was accompanied by his wife Marie Claudinette and their adopted daughter, Angelina.
The star revealed his race for presidency was driven by "the people of Haiti", who are still dealing with the aftermath of January's devastating earthquake - and he's hoping to tackle issues including education and infrastructure if he's elected.
But Jean admits the rebuilding of the impoverished Caribbean nation "is going to take 25 to 30 years."
He tells the Wall Street Journal, "I always say that Wyclef Jean is not running for the presidency of Haiti, I'm being drafted by the people of Haiti.
"My whole life since I was a kid, the country has had political turmoil. The reason why is that there's never been one person who can unite all parties and get them to work together.
"I think there are issues we can start tackling - the education, the literacy problem, the job creation problem, the agricultural component. The idea that if everything is being imported how do we get our export back.
"These are some of the things that I feel we can start tackling. And when I say job creation, the infrastructure, the reconstruction of Haiti, should not only (involve) international contractors, but there should be local Haitian contractors too."
Jean is expected to join revered newsman Larry King on his CNN show tonight to give his first official interview as a candidate in the Haitian presidential elections.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
7 MILLION SETTLEMENT AWARED IN SEAN BELL'S CASE
Closing a key chapter in one of the most controversial police shootings in recent memory, New York City agreed on Tuesday to pay more than $7 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the family and two friends of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man who was fatally shot by the police in 2006 on what would have been his wedding day.
The decision by the city came after two days of intense negotiations in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The children whom Mr. Bell had with his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, will receive $3.25 million, and two friends of Mr. Bell’s who were injured in the episode will also receive payments, with Joseph Guzman getting $3 million, and Trent Benefield $900,000.
The lawsuit, filed in 2007, accused the police of wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations. But it had repeatedly stalled as the state and federal governments and city police officials investigated the shooting.
The case, whose settlement ranks among the biggest in recent years involving the city’s police, set off a raw debate over the use of deadly force and prompted the city to change some of its policing procedures. Those include alcohol testing for officers in any shooting in which someone is injured, as well as improved firearms training.
On Nov. 25, 2006, five police officers — three of whom were black and two white — fired 50 shots into the Nissan Altima that Mr. Bell was driving outside a strip club in Queens. The car struck a detective in the leg and hit a police van just before the officers began firing.
None of the three men in the car had guns, although the officers apparently believed at least one did.
Three of the officers were acquitted of manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges in State Supreme Court in Queens in 2008. The other two officers who opened fire did not face criminal charges.
Federal prosecutors declined in February to file civil rights charges against the officers, citing insufficient evidence.
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said the department could now proceed with its administrative case against the eight officers with some involvement in the episode. Mr. Browne had no comment on the settlement.
At the federal courthouse in Downtown Brooklyn, Ms. Bell, 26, emerged from a courtroom looking weary after two days of negotiations, arm in arm with Mr. Bell’s mother, Valerie. Ms. Bell said the settlement was fair but not a victory. “No amount of money can provide closure, no amount of money can make up for the pain,” she said. “We’ll just try to learn how to live with it and move on.”
The money will go to her two children with Mr. Bell, Jada, 7, and Jordyn, 4; she will not receive a share because she was not married to Mr. Bell (she took his name legally after his death). Ms. Bell promised to keep pushing for the passage of police reforms intended to prevent a similar episode.
Standing beside her, Mr. Guzman, 34, said he was sure that something similar would happen again. “I don’t think a black or Hispanic man’s life means much in this city,” he said.
Mr. Guzman had walked out of the courtroom with a noticeable limp. “My injuries are my injuries,” he said. “I’ve got a metal rod in my leg. I’ve got four bullets still in me. I’ve got one pushing out my back right now.”
Mr. Benefield, 26, was not present, but he is expected to join Ms. Bell and Mr. Guzman at a news conference Wednesday at the Brooklyn offices of one of their lawyers, Sanford A. Rubenstein. “It’s a fair and reasonable settlement,” Mr. Rubenstein said.
Michael A. Cardozo, the city’s corporation counsel, said: “The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day. The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family. The city is also settling claims with Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield. We hope that all parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement.”
But Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detectives Endowment Association, criticized the settlement as “laughable.”
Albert W. O’Leary, a spokesman for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, declined to comment on the settlement. The five officers who fired the shots and were named in the lawsuit will not have to contribute to the settlement.
The five officers who opened fire — Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver, Marc Cooper and Paul Headley and Officer Michael Carey — were part of a unit investigating the strip club. All are on modified assignment, with no gun and no shield, Mr. Browne said. Officer Headley is on military leave.
Lt. Gary Napoli, the supervising officer that night, is also on modified assignment, Mr. Browne said, facing internal charges of failing to supervise the operation. Two other officers, Detective Robert Knapp and Sgt. Hugh McNeil of the Crime Scene Unit, were also internally charged, the detective with failing to thoroughly process the crime scene, and the sergeant with failing to ensure that thorough processing was done, Mr. Browne said.
The settlement was among the largest in recent years involving the police. In 2004, the family of Amadou Diallo agreed to a $3 million settlement after Mr. Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from West Africa, died in a hail of 41 police bullets in the Bronx. In 2001, Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was tortured with a broken broomstick in a Brooklyn police station in 1997, was awarded a total of $8.75 million in a settlement with the city and the police union.
Source: NY Times
================
New York City will pay over $7 million to settle a civil suit levied by the family of Sean Bell.
Bell was slain the night before his wedding in 2006 by New York City police. A judge finalized the settlement yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court, which also outlined the terms of the deal.
Sean Bell's estate will receive $3.25 million. Also, Joseph Guzman, a friend of Bell that was wounded too, will get $3 million. Trent Benefield, another friend wounded in the hail of police bullets will get $900,000.
Police shot more than 50 bullets at Bell and his friends when the men were out celebrating after his bachelor party. The police were both plainclothes and uniformed.
"The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day." Michael Cardozo, the city’s corporation counsel. "The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family."
"We hope that all the parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement," he concluded.
The decision by the city came after two days of intense negotiations in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The children whom Mr. Bell had with his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, will receive $3.25 million, and two friends of Mr. Bell’s who were injured in the episode will also receive payments, with Joseph Guzman getting $3 million, and Trent Benefield $900,000.
The lawsuit, filed in 2007, accused the police of wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations. But it had repeatedly stalled as the state and federal governments and city police officials investigated the shooting.
The case, whose settlement ranks among the biggest in recent years involving the city’s police, set off a raw debate over the use of deadly force and prompted the city to change some of its policing procedures. Those include alcohol testing for officers in any shooting in which someone is injured, as well as improved firearms training.
On Nov. 25, 2006, five police officers — three of whom were black and two white — fired 50 shots into the Nissan Altima that Mr. Bell was driving outside a strip club in Queens. The car struck a detective in the leg and hit a police van just before the officers began firing.
None of the three men in the car had guns, although the officers apparently believed at least one did.
Three of the officers were acquitted of manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges in State Supreme Court in Queens in 2008. The other two officers who opened fire did not face criminal charges.
Federal prosecutors declined in February to file civil rights charges against the officers, citing insufficient evidence.
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said the department could now proceed with its administrative case against the eight officers with some involvement in the episode. Mr. Browne had no comment on the settlement.
At the federal courthouse in Downtown Brooklyn, Ms. Bell, 26, emerged from a courtroom looking weary after two days of negotiations, arm in arm with Mr. Bell’s mother, Valerie. Ms. Bell said the settlement was fair but not a victory. “No amount of money can provide closure, no amount of money can make up for the pain,” she said. “We’ll just try to learn how to live with it and move on.”
The money will go to her two children with Mr. Bell, Jada, 7, and Jordyn, 4; she will not receive a share because she was not married to Mr. Bell (she took his name legally after his death). Ms. Bell promised to keep pushing for the passage of police reforms intended to prevent a similar episode.
Standing beside her, Mr. Guzman, 34, said he was sure that something similar would happen again. “I don’t think a black or Hispanic man’s life means much in this city,” he said.
Mr. Guzman had walked out of the courtroom with a noticeable limp. “My injuries are my injuries,” he said. “I’ve got a metal rod in my leg. I’ve got four bullets still in me. I’ve got one pushing out my back right now.”
Mr. Benefield, 26, was not present, but he is expected to join Ms. Bell and Mr. Guzman at a news conference Wednesday at the Brooklyn offices of one of their lawyers, Sanford A. Rubenstein. “It’s a fair and reasonable settlement,” Mr. Rubenstein said.
Michael A. Cardozo, the city’s corporation counsel, said: “The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day. The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family. The city is also settling claims with Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield. We hope that all parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement.”
But Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detectives Endowment Association, criticized the settlement as “laughable.”
Albert W. O’Leary, a spokesman for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, declined to comment on the settlement. The five officers who fired the shots and were named in the lawsuit will not have to contribute to the settlement.
The five officers who opened fire — Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver, Marc Cooper and Paul Headley and Officer Michael Carey — were part of a unit investigating the strip club. All are on modified assignment, with no gun and no shield, Mr. Browne said. Officer Headley is on military leave.
Lt. Gary Napoli, the supervising officer that night, is also on modified assignment, Mr. Browne said, facing internal charges of failing to supervise the operation. Two other officers, Detective Robert Knapp and Sgt. Hugh McNeil of the Crime Scene Unit, were also internally charged, the detective with failing to thoroughly process the crime scene, and the sergeant with failing to ensure that thorough processing was done, Mr. Browne said.
The settlement was among the largest in recent years involving the police. In 2004, the family of Amadou Diallo agreed to a $3 million settlement after Mr. Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from West Africa, died in a hail of 41 police bullets in the Bronx. In 2001, Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was tortured with a broken broomstick in a Brooklyn police station in 1997, was awarded a total of $8.75 million in a settlement with the city and the police union.
Source: NY Times
================
New York City will pay over $7 million to settle a civil suit levied by the family of Sean Bell.
Bell was slain the night before his wedding in 2006 by New York City police. A judge finalized the settlement yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court, which also outlined the terms of the deal.
Sean Bell's estate will receive $3.25 million. Also, Joseph Guzman, a friend of Bell that was wounded too, will get $3 million. Trent Benefield, another friend wounded in the hail of police bullets will get $900,000.
Police shot more than 50 bullets at Bell and his friends when the men were out celebrating after his bachelor party. The police were both plainclothes and uniformed.
"The Sean Bell shooting highlighted the complexities our dedicated officers must face each day." Michael Cardozo, the city’s corporation counsel. "The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family."
"We hope that all the parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement," he concluded.
Friday, July 16, 2010
N. Iowa Billboard Unfairly Links OBAMA to Hitler
An Iowa Tea Party group recently caused an uproar by creating a billboard that compares President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. What is even more interesting is that other members of the Tea Party are condemning the ad as well.
The ad shows pictures of Obama, Hitler and Lenin with the label, "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism." Below the pictures are the words, "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."
The group's co-founder says that the billboard is simply meant to be a message against socialism, but some of the members of the Tea Party openly disagreed with the tone and nature of the message:
The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the billboard in downtown Mason City last week. The sign shows large photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."
===================================================
Let's be "Perfectly Clear" the billboard comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler is wrong. Linking Obama to Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the killing of 6 million Jews and whose invasions of neighboring countries led to World War II. is madness! While Obama simply changed the health care system. Can we really compare the two?
===================================================
The ugly head of racism is such a subtle social disease, that we are not usually aware when it impacts our choices.
The outrage that America has shown toward its first "Black President" is no different from the anger that an angry white mob showed toward the "uppity negro" who said, "Hello," to a white woman 70 years ago.
===================================================
Even in those situations, people went out of their way to distinguish the "good blacks" from the bad ones. Being "good" effectively meant that you knew your place,
Has America forgotten that President Obama inherited this mess of an economy, and the problems of this nation? It will take more time then he has been given to ATTEMPT to solve this Nations issues.
Although, the Tea Party commited this childish act, at least a few members disagreed with this tactic of sending a message of hate.
That's just a waste of money, time, resources and it's not going to further our cause," said Shelby Blakely, a leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. "It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the tea party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true."
Seem like Bush would have been a better candidate for the poster than Obama hands down, but we all know it's the racist game of politcal gain taking place.
The N. Iowa Tea Party members who participated in this foul plot, should suffer some ramifications for their actions, because it's basically slanderous,"
Bottom line..............
Sankofa*
The ad shows pictures of Obama, Hitler and Lenin with the label, "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism." Below the pictures are the words, "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."
The group's co-founder says that the billboard is simply meant to be a message against socialism, but some of the members of the Tea Party openly disagreed with the tone and nature of the message:
The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the billboard in downtown Mason City last week. The sign shows large photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."
===================================================
Let's be "Perfectly Clear" the billboard comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler is wrong. Linking Obama to Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the killing of 6 million Jews and whose invasions of neighboring countries led to World War II. is madness! While Obama simply changed the health care system. Can we really compare the two?
===================================================
The ugly head of racism is such a subtle social disease, that we are not usually aware when it impacts our choices.
The outrage that America has shown toward its first "Black President" is no different from the anger that an angry white mob showed toward the "uppity negro" who said, "Hello," to a white woman 70 years ago.
===================================================
Even in those situations, people went out of their way to distinguish the "good blacks" from the bad ones. Being "good" effectively meant that you knew your place,
Has America forgotten that President Obama inherited this mess of an economy, and the problems of this nation? It will take more time then he has been given to ATTEMPT to solve this Nations issues.
Although, the Tea Party commited this childish act, at least a few members disagreed with this tactic of sending a message of hate.
That's just a waste of money, time, resources and it's not going to further our cause," said Shelby Blakely, a leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. "It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the tea party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true."
Seem like Bush would have been a better candidate for the poster than Obama hands down, but we all know it's the racist game of politcal gain taking place.
The N. Iowa Tea Party members who participated in this foul plot, should suffer some ramifications for their actions, because it's basically slanderous,"
Bottom line..............
Sankofa*
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Black Leaders to Move Against Conservative Attempt to Distort King Dream
National Correspondent
NEW YORK - Black Civil Rights leaders are furious that they will not be able to organize a march to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the historic March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's famed “I Have A Dream” speech at the location where it happened this year because infamous right wing Fox News personality and radio host Glenn Beck already booked the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28th to hold his own rally.
“We're going to get together because we are not going to let Glenn Beck own the symbolism of Aug. 28th, 2010,”
National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said during a National Newspaper Publishers Association breakfast at NNPA’s 70th Anniversary Celebration at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers on Friday. “Someone said to me, ‘Maybe we shouldn't challenge him. Maybe we should just let him have it.
“I was like,’ Brother, where have you been? Where is your courage? Where is your sense of outrage?” We need to collaborate and bring together all people of good will, not just Black people, on Aug. 28 to send a message that Glenn Beck's vision of America is not our vision of America.
As both a solution and response to what the leaders perceive as an attack on the legacy of King, NAACP President Ben Jealous announced at the conference that a national march for jobs and justice will be held on October 2 instead.
“A group of White males wealthier than their peers called the Tea Party has risen up in the land,'' said Jealous. ''They say that they want to take the country back. And take it back they surely will. They will take it back to 1963 if we let them.”
Last week, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, the country's largest federation of labor unions, announced that they were going to endorse a march for jobs that Jealous will be co-leading in Washington on Oct. 2. Other national civil rights leaders and organizations are also endorsing the Oct. jobs march as a follow up to an Aug. 28 protest of Beck.
''We will be fighting Glenn Beck on Aug. 28th and we will be using that to leverage the second march,” Jealous said. “That march has to happen. Our people are dying right now, literally, from lack of access to jobs.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, who also spoke at the NNPA Convention, said Beck will distort King’s Legacy and his message.
“On the anniversary of the March on Washington, Glenn Beck is going to talk about the dream of Martin Luther King and how he was with them – not us. So, we’ve been traveling all over this country because there is no way in the world that I am going to allow him to have more people there than us. I hope every Black person in the country will help us to challenge this. Everybody’s got to be in Washington. We can’t let them high jack Dr. King’s dream.”
Morial called Beck's right wing conservative vision “intolerant”.
“His vision is of an America of the past,” Morial said. “Our vision is of an America that understands its past but is of the future. Too many times we have become spectators. Some people thought that since Mr. Obama became president that they could go back to their couch to sit down and watch. Look at what have we witnessed - the resurgent voice of extremism. The 14th amendment has been incorrectly interpreted. They are talking in code talking about that we have to save our country. This is our country too.”
Morial added, ''One of the things that is so curious to me is the way that groups on the right have been very, very observant and have begun to utilize the tactics of the civil rights movement- marching, organizing in churches, things that we're the backbone of civil rights advocacy in the 1950s and 1960s. Others have begun to use those techniques and use those tactics. It would be a mistake if we would treat it and didn't recognize that the people in our communities and people across the nation who believe as we do that the future of this nation has to be inclusive in a multi-racial fashion so that African-Americans are involved in the major things that take place in this country.''
Upon the 70th anniversary of NNPA and the upcoming 100th anniversary of the NUL, Morial also spoke about the need to craft a new Black agenda in a “time of great contradictions”, referencing the 2000 presidential election that was decided by a 5-4 Supreme Court vote in favor of George W. Bush, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the recent economic recession that was one of the worst in U.S. history and very recently, the unprecedented oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But he then countered with the historicity of this decade with the ascension of Black men as the president of the United States, as the head of the Department of Justice, and as Black chief executives of some the country's most powerful corporations such as Merrill Lynch, Xerox and American Express.
''Along the continuum of history, no one would have suggested or predicted that any of the above would occur in just a ten year period,'' Morial said. ''These are times when the history books are being written and re-
written. In 1999, Black America had a 7.2 percent unemployment rate, the lowest rate in the 50 years since kind of data have been recorded. And now, ten years plus later, our unemployment rate is twice as high and the real rate is even higher. Against this backdrop of difficult and tough times, that we have also witnessed, African-Americans achieve the highest places in American life. These are the times that you and I, as community and civic leaders, are bound to address the challenges.''
He rallied for a new period of Black activism. He coined it “intelligent activism”, which he described as changing the conversation by “not raising hollow, holy” hell but, rather, making a pointed case with common sense facts and arguments.
“We have to be driven by our objective,” Morial said. “Dr. King, Thurmond Marshall and all of the great leaders of the 1960s had an objective, which was to end segregation in American life. And they achieved that objective as a matter of law. Our objective needs to be to end disparities in American life to achieve economic parity in the 21st century.”
Morial said that African-Americans, because of their size, are a force to be reckoned with. There are an estimated 40 million Black people that account for $800 billion dollars in spending in the U.S, according to Morial. There are also ten thousand Black elected officials in various local, state and national offices.
“We are a community that has assets and power as much as we want to organize it and use it,” Morial said. “I want us to think of ourselves as a community of assets that brings something to the economic table of America, not as a community of deficits and problems, so that we are not coming looking with a handout. We are looking as an investor in the American dream.”
NEW YORK - Black Civil Rights leaders are furious that they will not be able to organize a march to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the historic March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's famed “I Have A Dream” speech at the location where it happened this year because infamous right wing Fox News personality and radio host Glenn Beck already booked the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28th to hold his own rally.
“We're going to get together because we are not going to let Glenn Beck own the symbolism of Aug. 28th, 2010,”
National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said during a National Newspaper Publishers Association breakfast at NNPA’s 70th Anniversary Celebration at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers on Friday. “Someone said to me, ‘Maybe we shouldn't challenge him. Maybe we should just let him have it.
“I was like,’ Brother, where have you been? Where is your courage? Where is your sense of outrage?” We need to collaborate and bring together all people of good will, not just Black people, on Aug. 28 to send a message that Glenn Beck's vision of America is not our vision of America.
As both a solution and response to what the leaders perceive as an attack on the legacy of King, NAACP President Ben Jealous announced at the conference that a national march for jobs and justice will be held on October 2 instead.
“A group of White males wealthier than their peers called the Tea Party has risen up in the land,'' said Jealous. ''They say that they want to take the country back. And take it back they surely will. They will take it back to 1963 if we let them.”
Last week, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, the country's largest federation of labor unions, announced that they were going to endorse a march for jobs that Jealous will be co-leading in Washington on Oct. 2. Other national civil rights leaders and organizations are also endorsing the Oct. jobs march as a follow up to an Aug. 28 protest of Beck.
''We will be fighting Glenn Beck on Aug. 28th and we will be using that to leverage the second march,” Jealous said. “That march has to happen. Our people are dying right now, literally, from lack of access to jobs.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, who also spoke at the NNPA Convention, said Beck will distort King’s Legacy and his message.
“On the anniversary of the March on Washington, Glenn Beck is going to talk about the dream of Martin Luther King and how he was with them – not us. So, we’ve been traveling all over this country because there is no way in the world that I am going to allow him to have more people there than us. I hope every Black person in the country will help us to challenge this. Everybody’s got to be in Washington. We can’t let them high jack Dr. King’s dream.”
Morial called Beck's right wing conservative vision “intolerant”.
“His vision is of an America of the past,” Morial said. “Our vision is of an America that understands its past but is of the future. Too many times we have become spectators. Some people thought that since Mr. Obama became president that they could go back to their couch to sit down and watch. Look at what have we witnessed - the resurgent voice of extremism. The 14th amendment has been incorrectly interpreted. They are talking in code talking about that we have to save our country. This is our country too.”
Morial added, ''One of the things that is so curious to me is the way that groups on the right have been very, very observant and have begun to utilize the tactics of the civil rights movement- marching, organizing in churches, things that we're the backbone of civil rights advocacy in the 1950s and 1960s. Others have begun to use those techniques and use those tactics. It would be a mistake if we would treat it and didn't recognize that the people in our communities and people across the nation who believe as we do that the future of this nation has to be inclusive in a multi-racial fashion so that African-Americans are involved in the major things that take place in this country.''
Upon the 70th anniversary of NNPA and the upcoming 100th anniversary of the NUL, Morial also spoke about the need to craft a new Black agenda in a “time of great contradictions”, referencing the 2000 presidential election that was decided by a 5-4 Supreme Court vote in favor of George W. Bush, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the recent economic recession that was one of the worst in U.S. history and very recently, the unprecedented oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But he then countered with the historicity of this decade with the ascension of Black men as the president of the United States, as the head of the Department of Justice, and as Black chief executives of some the country's most powerful corporations such as Merrill Lynch, Xerox and American Express.
''Along the continuum of history, no one would have suggested or predicted that any of the above would occur in just a ten year period,'' Morial said. ''These are times when the history books are being written and re-
written. In 1999, Black America had a 7.2 percent unemployment rate, the lowest rate in the 50 years since kind of data have been recorded. And now, ten years plus later, our unemployment rate is twice as high and the real rate is even higher. Against this backdrop of difficult and tough times, that we have also witnessed, African-Americans achieve the highest places in American life. These are the times that you and I, as community and civic leaders, are bound to address the challenges.''
He rallied for a new period of Black activism. He coined it “intelligent activism”, which he described as changing the conversation by “not raising hollow, holy” hell but, rather, making a pointed case with common sense facts and arguments.
“We have to be driven by our objective,” Morial said. “Dr. King, Thurmond Marshall and all of the great leaders of the 1960s had an objective, which was to end segregation in American life. And they achieved that objective as a matter of law. Our objective needs to be to end disparities in American life to achieve economic parity in the 21st century.”
Morial said that African-Americans, because of their size, are a force to be reckoned with. There are an estimated 40 million Black people that account for $800 billion dollars in spending in the U.S, according to Morial. There are also ten thousand Black elected officials in various local, state and national offices.
“We are a community that has assets and power as much as we want to organize it and use it,” Morial said. “I want us to think of ourselves as a community of assets that brings something to the economic table of America, not as a community of deficits and problems, so that we are not coming looking with a handout. We are looking as an investor in the American dream.”
Blacks Still Support Obama: Jobs Is High Concern
Black voters, like those who lined up in the District to cast ballots for Obama in 2008, may be less enthusiastic about midterm elections. Many are concerned about persistently high unemployment.
(Marvin Joseph/the Washington Post)
======================================================
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 11, 2010
KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Curtis Adams, who owns Curtis A's barbershop here and who is also the establishment's senior political analyst, is a close observer of President Obama. This is something of a full-time job itself at Curtis A's, a gathering place in a black neighborhood five miles from downtown. All day every day, men (and occasionally women) come for a trim and wind up lingering to argue about jobs and the oil spill and the war in Iraq.
But mostly jobs. "If Obama was in this chair right here, I would tell him to give me a job. That's what I would ask for," said customer E.J. Jones one recent afternoon. Jones has worked off and on since he was let go from an Army ammunition plant in 2008.
The recession was especially rough on Kansas City's black community, where unemployment is 15 percent, nearly three times the rate for whites. Adams pointed to the empty chairs in his shop. He's down 75 customers a week. Of Obama, he said: "That man has a hell of a workload, and Bush left a hell of a mess. I like what he's doing. But I can't feel it."
Despite his frustration with the slow pace of the recovery, Adams, who has portraits of the first family on the walls of his shop, doesn't think Obama bears the blame for his troubles. And neither do most black Americans. Just the opposite:
===================================================
Polls show that 90 percent of African Americans believe Obama is doing a good job, far higher than the president's overall 46 percent approval rating. Obama's popularity has dropped among nearly every segment of the population -- old, young, Republican, Democrat, white, Latino.
Yet blacks still overwhelmingly support him, even though they are among those who have lost the most since he was elected.
===================================================
"We understand the difficulty of being a black man in his position, because of our close proximity to race and how it affects our lives, so we are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,"
===================================================
SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST
18th-Century Ship Found at WTC Site
Sankofa*
Could this ship be a slave ship?
==========================================
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Archaeologists examined the remains of a wooden ship found at the World Trade Center site.
In the middle of tomorrow, a great ribbed ghost has emerged from a distant yesterday.
On Tuesday morning, workers excavating the site of the underground vehicle security center for the future World Trade Center hit a row of sturdy, upright wood timbers, regularly spaced, sticking out of a briny gray muck flecked with oyster shells.
Obviously, these were more than just remnants of the wooden cribbing used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to extend the shoreline of Manhattan Island ever farther into the Hudson River. (Lower Manhattan real estate was a precious commodity even then.)
“They were so perfectly contoured that they were clearly part of a ship,” said A. Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist with the firm AKRF, which is working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to document historical material uncovered during construction.
By Wednesday, the outlines made it plain: a 30-foot length of a wood-hulled vessel had been discovered about 20 to 30 feet below street level on the World Trade Center site, the first such large-scale archaeological find along the Manhattan waterfront since 1982, when an 18th-century cargo ship came to light at 175 Water Street.
The area under excavation, between Liberty and Cedar Streets, had not been dug out for the original trade center. The vessel, presumably dating from the mid- to late 1700s, was evidently undisturbed more than 200 years.
News of the find spread quickly. Archaeologists and officials hurried to the site, not only because of the magnitude of the discovery but because construction work could not be interrupted and because the timber, no longer safe in its cocoon of ooze, began deteriorating as soon as it was exposed to air.
For that reason, Doug Mackey, the chief regional archaeologist for the New York State Historic Preservation Office, was grateful for the rainfall. “If the sun had been out,” he said, “the wood would already have started to fall apart.”
As other archaeologists scrambled with tape measures over what appeared to be the floor planks of the ship’s lowermost deck, Mr. Mackey said, “We’re trying to record it as quickly as possible and do the analysis later.” All around the skeletal hull, excavation for the security center proceeded, changing the muddy terrain every few minutes.
Romantics may conjure the picture of an elegant schooner passing in sight of the spire of Trinity Church. Professional archaeologists are much more reserved.
They were even careful not to say for certain whether they were looking at the prow or the stern of the vessel, though the fanlike array of beams seemed to suggest that the aft (rear) portion of the ship was exposed. Mr. Pappalardo said the whole vessel may have been two or three times longer than the portion found.
Perhaps the most puzzling and intriguing find was a semicircular metal collar, several feet across, apparently supported on a brick base, built into the hull. Perhaps it was some sort of an oven or steam contraption.
About the farthest Mr. Mackey and Mr. Pappalardo would go in conjecture was to say that the sawed-off beams seemed to indicate that the hull had deliberately been truncated, most likely to be used as landfill material.
A 1797 map shows that the excavation site is close to where Lindsey’s Wharf and Lake’s Wharf once projected into the Hudson. So, no matter how many mysteries now surround the vessel, it may turn out that the ghost even has a name.
Source:
NYTIMES CITY ROOM
Could this ship be a slave ship?
==========================================
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Archaeologists examined the remains of a wooden ship found at the World Trade Center site.
In the middle of tomorrow, a great ribbed ghost has emerged from a distant yesterday.
On Tuesday morning, workers excavating the site of the underground vehicle security center for the future World Trade Center hit a row of sturdy, upright wood timbers, regularly spaced, sticking out of a briny gray muck flecked with oyster shells.
Obviously, these were more than just remnants of the wooden cribbing used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to extend the shoreline of Manhattan Island ever farther into the Hudson River. (Lower Manhattan real estate was a precious commodity even then.)
“They were so perfectly contoured that they were clearly part of a ship,” said A. Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist with the firm AKRF, which is working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to document historical material uncovered during construction.
By Wednesday, the outlines made it plain: a 30-foot length of a wood-hulled vessel had been discovered about 20 to 30 feet below street level on the World Trade Center site, the first such large-scale archaeological find along the Manhattan waterfront since 1982, when an 18th-century cargo ship came to light at 175 Water Street.
The area under excavation, between Liberty and Cedar Streets, had not been dug out for the original trade center. The vessel, presumably dating from the mid- to late 1700s, was evidently undisturbed more than 200 years.
News of the find spread quickly. Archaeologists and officials hurried to the site, not only because of the magnitude of the discovery but because construction work could not be interrupted and because the timber, no longer safe in its cocoon of ooze, began deteriorating as soon as it was exposed to air.
For that reason, Doug Mackey, the chief regional archaeologist for the New York State Historic Preservation Office, was grateful for the rainfall. “If the sun had been out,” he said, “the wood would already have started to fall apart.”
As other archaeologists scrambled with tape measures over what appeared to be the floor planks of the ship’s lowermost deck, Mr. Mackey said, “We’re trying to record it as quickly as possible and do the analysis later.” All around the skeletal hull, excavation for the security center proceeded, changing the muddy terrain every few minutes.
Romantics may conjure the picture of an elegant schooner passing in sight of the spire of Trinity Church. Professional archaeologists are much more reserved.
They were even careful not to say for certain whether they were looking at the prow or the stern of the vessel, though the fanlike array of beams seemed to suggest that the aft (rear) portion of the ship was exposed. Mr. Pappalardo said the whole vessel may have been two or three times longer than the portion found.
Perhaps the most puzzling and intriguing find was a semicircular metal collar, several feet across, apparently supported on a brick base, built into the hull. Perhaps it was some sort of an oven or steam contraption.
About the farthest Mr. Mackey and Mr. Pappalardo would go in conjecture was to say that the sawed-off beams seemed to indicate that the hull had deliberately been truncated, most likely to be used as landfill material.
A 1797 map shows that the excavation site is close to where Lindsey’s Wharf and Lake’s Wharf once projected into the Hudson. So, no matter how many mysteries now surround the vessel, it may turn out that the ghost even has a name.
Source:
NYTIMES CITY ROOM
Sunday, July 4, 2010
African American Historical Site Excavated in New Jersey
African American historical site excavated in New Jersey
By Stephan Salisbury
Inquirer Culture Writer
Near the terminus of a dead-end road, on a bulb like hill in the midst of a grassy meadow, a group of Temple University archaeology students and volunteers is excavating what may be one of the most important African American historical sites in New Jersey.
It's called Timbuctoo - a once-thriving enclave probably founded by free African Americans and escaped slaves in the 1820s, now abandoned, if not forgotten, for more than half a century.
An entire village lies beneath the grassy hill near Rancocas Creek in Westampton Township outside Mount Holly - at least 18 houses, remains of a church, two roadways, an alley, a number of privies and wells, possibly schools, and large parts of a cemetery, where 13 graves of African American troops from the Civil War are marked by headstones - but where six times as many may lie in unmarked graves.
No African American site of this magnitude has been excavated in the region, and very few have been uncovered nationwide, according to archaeologists.
"This is the first time we're seeing such a site being excavated," said David Orr, the Temple professor and historical archaeologist overseeing the project. "The unique quality of this is that it's very large. It has no problems, perfect preservation of its core - that's also impressive. As an archaeological site, in my experience, I have never seen anything like this - only because nobody has excavated one."
The site of the Timbuctoo project covers four or five acres. Westampton Township has acquired much of it from private owners, allowing the dig to proceed unimpeded. Work started at the beginning of June and ends Saturday, but will resume next year.
Standing near the crest of the open field, next to the red brick foundation of the first house unearthed, Orr held up a corroded cast-iron buffalo that had been pulled from the ground. Christopher Barton, a doctoral student who serves as site manager, displayed a small, heavily corroded toy gun and a wheel - all early 20th-century relics. He held up a small brown Vicks VapoRub bottle, a blue Vaseline jar, a clear Listerine bottle - all dating from the first half of the last century.
Barton said that some visitors have questioned the relevance of 20th-century artifacts to an archaeological dig. "They say, 'Oh, that's not old enough,' " he said.
"That's not the point. What we're trying to do is recreate the life, recreate the stories of what these people had. This is true not only with the pre-Civil War context but also with the Jim Crow period. We're trying to discover what these people were doing and how they were living."
In fact, the presence of 20th-century life on the site increases its importance, said Orr.
"We have the opportunity here to see a total African American community over time," he said. "How it was like here in the 1830s. How it was like here in the 1870s. How it was like at the turn of the century and during Jim Crow. How it was like in the '20s and '30s, all the way to World War II. This is very exciting stuff."
Beyond that, he pointed out, descendants of Timbuctoo families are still in the area.
Mary Weston, 74, lives down the road on a piece of land that has been in her family since 1829, when her great-great-great-grandfather purchased the lot for $35.
Weston has volunteered to help at the site throughout the dig, washing, cleaning, bagging the countless artifacts drawn from the ground - ceramic shards, leather shoes, buckles, metal wheels, bottles, glassware - all the detritus of everyday life.
She was born in the area, but her family moved to Philadelphia with everyone else, she said, when city industry revved up at the onset of World War II. She returned as an adult and is deeply moved by the excavation.
"It brings a sense of connection that nothing else could bring," Weston said this week. "These wonderful artifacts being unearthed prove we did exist here very, very early. We did live here. Just the connection with the ancestors from the early 1800s brings a rush of joy."
In addition to the extensive excavation yet to come, much traditional historical work is also necessary. The origins of Timbuctoo are somewhat obscure. There is an oral tradition, for instance, that suggests the town was buttressed by the area's thriving Quaker community at the turn of the 18th century. A Quaker brickworks once stood nearby, which could have been an important source of work and building materials, said Orr.
Burton said the town stood directly on an Underground Railroad route, and there is no question that escaped slaves lived in Timbuctoo. Slave catchers worked the area too, and in 1860, residents took up arms to defend Harry Simmons, a runaway sought by southern bounty hunters. In what was known locally as the Battle of Pine Swamp, residents protected Simmons and drove off the slave catchers.
The prospect of such an attack was no doubt a source of anxiety, said Burton, and may have been one reason the village was laid out in an almost circular fashion, with small houses surrounding a large open area.
Such a layout would enable residents of each house to see what was happening around every other house.
"The point is, we don't know what these houses looked like until we dig a hole and look at them," said Orr. "We don't know who built them and how. Was this [settlement] predesigned? Did it come from African Americans? Quakers? We don't know. There are no images. None. That's why archaeology is so important with African American communities."
Weston looked up from wiping dirt off a bone button.
"It's awesome for me," she said. "I went to school in Philadelphia and the school did tell us something of ourselves as a people, but not very much. So for this to happen and for all these things to be unraveled and explored makes me have a greater sense of connection with who I am."
The Philadelphia Inquirer.
By Stephan Salisbury
Inquirer Culture Writer
Near the terminus of a dead-end road, on a bulb like hill in the midst of a grassy meadow, a group of Temple University archaeology students and volunteers is excavating what may be one of the most important African American historical sites in New Jersey.
It's called Timbuctoo - a once-thriving enclave probably founded by free African Americans and escaped slaves in the 1820s, now abandoned, if not forgotten, for more than half a century.
An entire village lies beneath the grassy hill near Rancocas Creek in Westampton Township outside Mount Holly - at least 18 houses, remains of a church, two roadways, an alley, a number of privies and wells, possibly schools, and large parts of a cemetery, where 13 graves of African American troops from the Civil War are marked by headstones - but where six times as many may lie in unmarked graves.
No African American site of this magnitude has been excavated in the region, and very few have been uncovered nationwide, according to archaeologists.
"This is the first time we're seeing such a site being excavated," said David Orr, the Temple professor and historical archaeologist overseeing the project. "The unique quality of this is that it's very large. It has no problems, perfect preservation of its core - that's also impressive. As an archaeological site, in my experience, I have never seen anything like this - only because nobody has excavated one."
The site of the Timbuctoo project covers four or five acres. Westampton Township has acquired much of it from private owners, allowing the dig to proceed unimpeded. Work started at the beginning of June and ends Saturday, but will resume next year.
Standing near the crest of the open field, next to the red brick foundation of the first house unearthed, Orr held up a corroded cast-iron buffalo that had been pulled from the ground. Christopher Barton, a doctoral student who serves as site manager, displayed a small, heavily corroded toy gun and a wheel - all early 20th-century relics. He held up a small brown Vicks VapoRub bottle, a blue Vaseline jar, a clear Listerine bottle - all dating from the first half of the last century.
Barton said that some visitors have questioned the relevance of 20th-century artifacts to an archaeological dig. "They say, 'Oh, that's not old enough,' " he said.
"That's not the point. What we're trying to do is recreate the life, recreate the stories of what these people had. This is true not only with the pre-Civil War context but also with the Jim Crow period. We're trying to discover what these people were doing and how they were living."
In fact, the presence of 20th-century life on the site increases its importance, said Orr.
"We have the opportunity here to see a total African American community over time," he said. "How it was like here in the 1830s. How it was like here in the 1870s. How it was like at the turn of the century and during Jim Crow. How it was like in the '20s and '30s, all the way to World War II. This is very exciting stuff."
Beyond that, he pointed out, descendants of Timbuctoo families are still in the area.
Mary Weston, 74, lives down the road on a piece of land that has been in her family since 1829, when her great-great-great-grandfather purchased the lot for $35.
Weston has volunteered to help at the site throughout the dig, washing, cleaning, bagging the countless artifacts drawn from the ground - ceramic shards, leather shoes, buckles, metal wheels, bottles, glassware - all the detritus of everyday life.
She was born in the area, but her family moved to Philadelphia with everyone else, she said, when city industry revved up at the onset of World War II. She returned as an adult and is deeply moved by the excavation.
"It brings a sense of connection that nothing else could bring," Weston said this week. "These wonderful artifacts being unearthed prove we did exist here very, very early. We did live here. Just the connection with the ancestors from the early 1800s brings a rush of joy."
In addition to the extensive excavation yet to come, much traditional historical work is also necessary. The origins of Timbuctoo are somewhat obscure. There is an oral tradition, for instance, that suggests the town was buttressed by the area's thriving Quaker community at the turn of the 18th century. A Quaker brickworks once stood nearby, which could have been an important source of work and building materials, said Orr.
Burton said the town stood directly on an Underground Railroad route, and there is no question that escaped slaves lived in Timbuctoo. Slave catchers worked the area too, and in 1860, residents took up arms to defend Harry Simmons, a runaway sought by southern bounty hunters. In what was known locally as the Battle of Pine Swamp, residents protected Simmons and drove off the slave catchers.
The prospect of such an attack was no doubt a source of anxiety, said Burton, and may have been one reason the village was laid out in an almost circular fashion, with small houses surrounding a large open area.
Such a layout would enable residents of each house to see what was happening around every other house.
"The point is, we don't know what these houses looked like until we dig a hole and look at them," said Orr. "We don't know who built them and how. Was this [settlement] predesigned? Did it come from African Americans? Quakers? We don't know. There are no images. None. That's why archaeology is so important with African American communities."
Weston looked up from wiping dirt off a bone button.
"It's awesome for me," she said. "I went to school in Philadelphia and the school did tell us something of ourselves as a people, but not very much. So for this to happen and for all these things to be unraveled and explored makes me have a greater sense of connection with who I am."
The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Court Rules NYPD Must Turn Over Racial Data On Police Shootings
Sankofa*
Although I am pleased about the board taking a look into this data, can we rely that this data is accurate? And what will be the result of such information.
============
A state appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court decision ordering the New York Police Department to turn over years of data identifying the race of suspects shot at by the police.
The New York Civil Liberties Union began trying to collect the data after the Sean Bell shooting in Jamaica, Queens, in 2006. After the group filed a lawsuit, the police turned over data on the race of suspects shot by the police from 1997 through 2008, but not that of suspects whom the police fired at but missed.
In December, Justice Joan A. Madden of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of the civil liberties group. The department appealed. The police argued that the shooting reports, because they could potentially be used in disciplinary proceedings against the police officers, amounted to personnel records, which are exempt from disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. But on Tuesday, a five-member appeals panel upheld the earlier decision.
The panel said that because the Police Department had turned over one category of data to the group, the police had “waived their right” to claim exemptions from releasing the additional data.
“Even were we to find that there was no waiver,” the panel wrote, “the record nonetheless demonstrates that the reports can be redacted to adequately protect their confidential nature.”
City officials said they were disappointed in the ruling.
“The Police Department has for as long as anyone can remember provided publicly, to the media, the race of individuals shot by police within hours of each shooting incident,” Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said in a statement. “This decision requires the police to provide the race of individuals that the police fired at but missed; data which we have not always recorded.”
In its lawsuit, the group presented testimony from a former police chief who said former Police Commissioner Howard Safir ordered the department to stop including the race of those killed by officers in police shooting statistics. The testimony did not say why Mr. Safir made the decision, but the change followed the public outcry over race and the department’s use of force following the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was killed in the Bronx in a hail of bullets fired by police.
“Ever since the Diallo shooting, the department has hidden from public view the race of shooting targets,” Christopher T. Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Today’s decision assures that that information will be public, which we believe is important in assessing the role of race in police shootings.”
Here are som examples of headlines of unjust police shootings.
===============================================
Minorities in New York and across the country, though, have the right to know whether their police are up to the job.
Before there was Sean Bell, there was Patrick Dorismond a security guard shot to death by undercover New York police in 2000 under questionable circumstances.
Before Dorismond, there was Amadou Diallo (pictured below), an unarmed West African immigrant who was killed by Bronx police in 1999 under questionable circumstances.
- Judge Acquits Detectives in 50-Shot Killing of Bell
By MICHAEL WILSON
Three detectives were found not guilty in the 2006 shooting of Sean Bell, who died on his wedding day in a hail of police bullets.
April 26, 2008
- 3 Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens
By AL BAKER
Two of the detectives were charged with second-degree manslaughter and a third with the lesser charge of reckless endangerment.
March 17, 2007
- 50 Bullets, One Dead, and Many Questions
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and AL BAKER
There was no early mention of a fourth man, and some officers said they did not remember firing, according to a report.
December 11, 2006
- Police Kill Man After a Queens Bachelor Party
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Hours before he was to be married, a man leaving his bachelor party at a strip club was shot and killed in a hail of police bullets.
November 26, 2006
- Police Kill Man After a Queens Bachelor Party
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Hours before he was to be married, a man leaving his bachelor party at a strip club was shot and killed in a hail of police bullets.
November 26, 2006
- When Police Put Their Own on Trial
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
A wood-paneled room on the fourth floor of One Police Plaza is where the New York City police punish or exonerate their own.
May 29, 2008
- Eleanor Bumpurs (August 22, 1918 - October 29, 1984) was an African-American woman who was shot dead by police officers called to assist her city-ordered eviction from her apartment in the Bronx on October 29, 1984. The New York City Housing Authority was evicting her because she was four months behind in her rent of $96.85 per month.
In requesting NYPD assistance, housing authority workers told police that Bumpurs was emotionally disturbed, had threatened to throw boiling lye, and was using a knife to resist eviction. When Bumpurs refused to open the door, police broke in. In the struggle to subdue her, one officer shot Bumpurs twice with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Two supervisors in the city's Social Services administration were later demoted for failing to seek an emergency rent grant for Bumpurs and for not getting her proper psychiatric aid.
Trial of officer Sullivan
Sullivan waived his right to a jury trial, choosing a bench trial before a judge only. The trial opened on January 12, 1987, over two years after Bumpurs' death. The trial hinged on whether Sullivan had used excessive force, especially in firing twice at Bumpurs. His fellow officers testified that Bumpurs was still not immobilized after the first blast hit her hand, and therefore still posed a threat to the police. In addition, two doctors testified that Bumpurs could have still made stabbing motions even after her hand had been injured by the first shotgun blast.
Verdict
On February 26, 1987 Judge Fred W. Eggert acquitted Sullivan on the charges of manslaughter. On August 4, 1987 federal prosecutors declined to investigate the Bumpurs case. Rudy Giuliani who was the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan at the time, stated that he had found "nothing indicating that the case was not tried fully, fairly and competently", and that there was no "proof of a specific intent to inflict excessive and unjustified force."
==========================
Although I am pleased about the board taking a look into this data, can we rely that this data is accurate? And what will be the result of such information.
============
A state appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court decision ordering the New York Police Department to turn over years of data identifying the race of suspects shot at by the police.
The New York Civil Liberties Union began trying to collect the data after the Sean Bell shooting in Jamaica, Queens, in 2006. After the group filed a lawsuit, the police turned over data on the race of suspects shot by the police from 1997 through 2008, but not that of suspects whom the police fired at but missed.
In December, Justice Joan A. Madden of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of the civil liberties group. The department appealed. The police argued that the shooting reports, because they could potentially be used in disciplinary proceedings against the police officers, amounted to personnel records, which are exempt from disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. But on Tuesday, a five-member appeals panel upheld the earlier decision.
The panel said that because the Police Department had turned over one category of data to the group, the police had “waived their right” to claim exemptions from releasing the additional data.
“Even were we to find that there was no waiver,” the panel wrote, “the record nonetheless demonstrates that the reports can be redacted to adequately protect their confidential nature.”
City officials said they were disappointed in the ruling.
“The Police Department has for as long as anyone can remember provided publicly, to the media, the race of individuals shot by police within hours of each shooting incident,” Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said in a statement. “This decision requires the police to provide the race of individuals that the police fired at but missed; data which we have not always recorded.”
In its lawsuit, the group presented testimony from a former police chief who said former Police Commissioner Howard Safir ordered the department to stop including the race of those killed by officers in police shooting statistics. The testimony did not say why Mr. Safir made the decision, but the change followed the public outcry over race and the department’s use of force following the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was killed in the Bronx in a hail of bullets fired by police.
“Ever since the Diallo shooting, the department has hidden from public view the race of shooting targets,” Christopher T. Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Today’s decision assures that that information will be public, which we believe is important in assessing the role of race in police shootings.”
Here are som examples of headlines of unjust police shootings.
===============================================
Minorities in New York and across the country, though, have the right to know whether their police are up to the job.
Before there was Sean Bell, there was Patrick Dorismond a security guard shot to death by undercover New York police in 2000 under questionable circumstances.
Before Dorismond, there was Amadou Diallo (pictured below), an unarmed West African immigrant who was killed by Bronx police in 1999 under questionable circumstances.
- Judge Acquits Detectives in 50-Shot Killing of Bell
By MICHAEL WILSON
Three detectives were found not guilty in the 2006 shooting of Sean Bell, who died on his wedding day in a hail of police bullets.
April 26, 2008
- 3 Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens
By AL BAKER
Two of the detectives were charged with second-degree manslaughter and a third with the lesser charge of reckless endangerment.
March 17, 2007
- 50 Bullets, One Dead, and Many Questions
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and AL BAKER
There was no early mention of a fourth man, and some officers said they did not remember firing, according to a report.
December 11, 2006
- Police Kill Man After a Queens Bachelor Party
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Hours before he was to be married, a man leaving his bachelor party at a strip club was shot and killed in a hail of police bullets.
November 26, 2006
- Police Kill Man After a Queens Bachelor Party
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Hours before he was to be married, a man leaving his bachelor party at a strip club was shot and killed in a hail of police bullets.
November 26, 2006
- When Police Put Their Own on Trial
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
A wood-paneled room on the fourth floor of One Police Plaza is where the New York City police punish or exonerate their own.
May 29, 2008
- Eleanor Bumpurs (August 22, 1918 - October 29, 1984) was an African-American woman who was shot dead by police officers called to assist her city-ordered eviction from her apartment in the Bronx on October 29, 1984. The New York City Housing Authority was evicting her because she was four months behind in her rent of $96.85 per month.
In requesting NYPD assistance, housing authority workers told police that Bumpurs was emotionally disturbed, had threatened to throw boiling lye, and was using a knife to resist eviction. When Bumpurs refused to open the door, police broke in. In the struggle to subdue her, one officer shot Bumpurs twice with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Two supervisors in the city's Social Services administration were later demoted for failing to seek an emergency rent grant for Bumpurs and for not getting her proper psychiatric aid.
Trial of officer Sullivan
Sullivan waived his right to a jury trial, choosing a bench trial before a judge only. The trial opened on January 12, 1987, over two years after Bumpurs' death. The trial hinged on whether Sullivan had used excessive force, especially in firing twice at Bumpurs. His fellow officers testified that Bumpurs was still not immobilized after the first blast hit her hand, and therefore still posed a threat to the police. In addition, two doctors testified that Bumpurs could have still made stabbing motions even after her hand had been injured by the first shotgun blast.
Verdict
On February 26, 1987 Judge Fred W. Eggert acquitted Sullivan on the charges of manslaughter. On August 4, 1987 federal prosecutors declined to investigate the Bumpurs case. Rudy Giuliani who was the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan at the time, stated that he had found "nothing indicating that the case was not tried fully, fairly and competently", and that there was no "proof of a specific intent to inflict excessive and unjustified force."
==========================
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
MAY 19th MALCOLM X REMEMBERED
Sankofa........
=======
I strongly believe it is important to remember our "Great Warriors for Justice and Equality". Brother "Malcolm fit's the Bill".
Malcolm legacy is one that doesn't get much air time, radio time etc...
So I feel that we should grasp on to their day of birth , their legacy,their sacrifices put forth to bring about a change for people of African ancestry.
Em-Hotep*
========
MALCOLM X Champion for Justice
=====
'He taught us how to think'
“In the minds of his people, he has been brought back to life.”
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 44 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the African American struggle for self-determination.
Complicated legacy
====================================
Malcolm X was one of the most charismatic and feared figures in the civil rights movement, a former convict who changed his name from Malcolm Little, and propelled the Nation of Islam from a 500-member sect in 1952 into a political and religious organization with 30,000 members by 1963.
=================================
On December 1, 1963, when he was asked for a comment about the assassination of President Kennedy, Malcolm X said that it was a case of "chickens coming home to roost". He added that "chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad."
The New York Times wrote, "in further criticism of Mr. Kennedy, the Muslim leader cited the murders of Patrice Lumumba, Congo leader, of Medgar Evers, civil rights leader, and of the Negro girls bombed earlier this year in a Birmingham church. These, he said, were instances of other 'chickens coming home to roost'."
===============
Pilgrimage to Mecca
===============
On April 13, 1964, Malcolm X departed JFK Airport in New York for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His status as an authentic Muslim was questioned by Saudi authorities because of his United States passport and his inability to speak Arabic. Since only confessing Muslims are allowed into Mecca, he was separated from his group for about 20 hours.
According to his autobiography, Malcolm X saw a telephone and remembered the book The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, which had been presented to him with his visa approval. He called Azzam's son, who arranged for his release. At the younger Azzam's home, he met Azzam Pasha, who gave Malcolm his suite at the Jeddah Palace Hotel. The next morning, Muhammad Faisal, the son of Prince Faisal, visited and informed Malcolm X that he was to be a state guest. The deputy chief of protocol accompanied Malcolm X to the Hajj Court, where he was allowed to make his pilgrimage.
On April 19, Malcolm X completed the Hajj, making the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinking from the Zamzam Well and running between the hills of Safah and Marwah seven times.[119] Malcolm X said the trip allowed him to see Muslims of different races interacting as equals. He came to believe that Islam could be the means by which racial problems could be overcome.[120]
======
Africa
======
Malcolm X visited Africa on three separate occasions, once in 1959 and twice in 1964During his visits, he met officials, gave interviews to newspapers, and spoke on television and radio in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco.Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria invited Malcolm X to serve in their governments.
In 1959, Malcolm X traveled to Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana to arrange a tour for Elijah Muhammad. The first of the two trips Malcolm X made to Africa in 1964 lasted from April 13 until May 21, before and after his Hajj. On May 8, following his speech at the University of Ibadan, Malcolm X was made an honorary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students' Association. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name "Omowale", which means "the son who has come home" in the Yoruba language. Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography that he "had never received a more treasured honor."
On July 9, 1964, Malcolm X returned to Africa.[127] On July 17, he was welcomed to the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. By the time he returned to the United States on November 24, 1964, Malcolm had met with every prominent African leader and established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora.
=================
When Malcolm visited Africa in 1964, he visited Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It was during that trip that he met with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, Ugandan President Dr. Milton Obote, and President Julius K. Nyerere and Muhammad Babu of Tanzania. Babu, Malcolm and Leroi Jones (now Amiri Baraka) held a meeting during this period in New York City. Malcolm talked about meeting President Kenyatta. Malcolm, however, was also aware of Kenya’s Oginga Odinga.
photo, taken June 1, 1963, reads: “Nairobi, Kenya – Waving his ‘wisk’ the newly-elected Premier of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta (R, foreground), greeted throngs of cheering citizens as he rode through the streets of Nairobi. Accompanying Kenyatta are Tom Mboya (L), Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs; A. Oginga Odinga, Minister for Home Affairs; and James S. Gichuru, Minister for Finance. The motorcade was part of the National Holiday celebrations which marked the start of internal self-government for the African nation.”
==================
France and the United Kingdom
==================
On November 23, 1964, on his way home from Africa, Malcolm X stopped in Paris, where he spoke at the Salle de la Mutualité.A week later, on November 30, Malcolm X flew to the United Kingdom, where he participated in a debate at the Oxford Union on December 3. The topic of the debate was "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue", and Malcolm X argued the affirmative. Interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC.
On February 5, 1965, Malcolm X went to Europe again. On February 8, he spoke in London, before the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations. Malcolm X tried to go to France on February 9 but he was refused entry. On February 12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, which had become a byword for racial division after the 1964 general election, when the Conservative Party won the parliamentary seat after rumors that their candidate's supporters had used the slogan "If you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote Labour."
=====================
“Malcolm didn’t build buildings or pass legislation,” said the activist Sharpton. “He taught us how to think. And when he changed our minds, we could build buildings and we could pass legislation.”
The Manhattan theater where Malcolm X was assassinated held a commemoration on Monday, the 40th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s death.
The Audubon Ballroom, where the activist was gunned down Feb. 21, 1965, is being turned into a history center that will re-examine his legacy by cataloging his life and work and showing how he championed human rights, his family said.
=======
I strongly believe it is important to remember our "Great Warriors for Justice and Equality". Brother "Malcolm fit's the Bill".
Malcolm legacy is one that doesn't get much air time, radio time etc...
So I feel that we should grasp on to their day of birth , their legacy,their sacrifices put forth to bring about a change for people of African ancestry.
Em-Hotep*
========
MALCOLM X Champion for Justice
=====
'He taught us how to think'
“In the minds of his people, he has been brought back to life.”
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 44 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the African American struggle for self-determination.
Complicated legacy
====================================
Malcolm X was one of the most charismatic and feared figures in the civil rights movement, a former convict who changed his name from Malcolm Little, and propelled the Nation of Islam from a 500-member sect in 1952 into a political and religious organization with 30,000 members by 1963.
=================================
On December 1, 1963, when he was asked for a comment about the assassination of President Kennedy, Malcolm X said that it was a case of "chickens coming home to roost". He added that "chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad."
The New York Times wrote, "in further criticism of Mr. Kennedy, the Muslim leader cited the murders of Patrice Lumumba, Congo leader, of Medgar Evers, civil rights leader, and of the Negro girls bombed earlier this year in a Birmingham church. These, he said, were instances of other 'chickens coming home to roost'."
===============
Pilgrimage to Mecca
===============
On April 13, 1964, Malcolm X departed JFK Airport in New York for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His status as an authentic Muslim was questioned by Saudi authorities because of his United States passport and his inability to speak Arabic. Since only confessing Muslims are allowed into Mecca, he was separated from his group for about 20 hours.
According to his autobiography, Malcolm X saw a telephone and remembered the book The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, which had been presented to him with his visa approval. He called Azzam's son, who arranged for his release. At the younger Azzam's home, he met Azzam Pasha, who gave Malcolm his suite at the Jeddah Palace Hotel. The next morning, Muhammad Faisal, the son of Prince Faisal, visited and informed Malcolm X that he was to be a state guest. The deputy chief of protocol accompanied Malcolm X to the Hajj Court, where he was allowed to make his pilgrimage.
On April 19, Malcolm X completed the Hajj, making the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinking from the Zamzam Well and running between the hills of Safah and Marwah seven times.[119] Malcolm X said the trip allowed him to see Muslims of different races interacting as equals. He came to believe that Islam could be the means by which racial problems could be overcome.[120]
======
Africa
======
Malcolm X visited Africa on three separate occasions, once in 1959 and twice in 1964During his visits, he met officials, gave interviews to newspapers, and spoke on television and radio in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco.Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria invited Malcolm X to serve in their governments.
In 1959, Malcolm X traveled to Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana to arrange a tour for Elijah Muhammad. The first of the two trips Malcolm X made to Africa in 1964 lasted from April 13 until May 21, before and after his Hajj. On May 8, following his speech at the University of Ibadan, Malcolm X was made an honorary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students' Association. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name "Omowale", which means "the son who has come home" in the Yoruba language. Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography that he "had never received a more treasured honor."
On July 9, 1964, Malcolm X returned to Africa.[127] On July 17, he was welcomed to the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. By the time he returned to the United States on November 24, 1964, Malcolm had met with every prominent African leader and established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora.
=================
When Malcolm visited Africa in 1964, he visited Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It was during that trip that he met with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta, Ugandan President Dr. Milton Obote, and President Julius K. Nyerere and Muhammad Babu of Tanzania. Babu, Malcolm and Leroi Jones (now Amiri Baraka) held a meeting during this period in New York City. Malcolm talked about meeting President Kenyatta. Malcolm, however, was also aware of Kenya’s Oginga Odinga.
photo, taken June 1, 1963, reads: “Nairobi, Kenya – Waving his ‘wisk’ the newly-elected Premier of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta (R, foreground), greeted throngs of cheering citizens as he rode through the streets of Nairobi. Accompanying Kenyatta are Tom Mboya (L), Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs; A. Oginga Odinga, Minister for Home Affairs; and James S. Gichuru, Minister for Finance. The motorcade was part of the National Holiday celebrations which marked the start of internal self-government for the African nation.”
==================
France and the United Kingdom
==================
On November 23, 1964, on his way home from Africa, Malcolm X stopped in Paris, where he spoke at the Salle de la Mutualité.A week later, on November 30, Malcolm X flew to the United Kingdom, where he participated in a debate at the Oxford Union on December 3. The topic of the debate was "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue", and Malcolm X argued the affirmative. Interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC.
On February 5, 1965, Malcolm X went to Europe again. On February 8, he spoke in London, before the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations. Malcolm X tried to go to France on February 9 but he was refused entry. On February 12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, which had become a byword for racial division after the 1964 general election, when the Conservative Party won the parliamentary seat after rumors that their candidate's supporters had used the slogan "If you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote Labour."
=====================
“Malcolm didn’t build buildings or pass legislation,” said the activist Sharpton. “He taught us how to think. And when he changed our minds, we could build buildings and we could pass legislation.”
The Manhattan theater where Malcolm X was assassinated held a commemoration on Monday, the 40th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s death.
The Audubon Ballroom, where the activist was gunned down Feb. 21, 1965, is being turned into a history center that will re-examine his legacy by cataloging his life and work and showing how he championed human rights, his family said.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Aiyana Jones, 7-Year-Old Shot And Killed By Detroit Police
SPIRIT OF SANKOFA...........
=================================================
As I viewed the report on this precious baby girl. I heard something that was even more disturbing then Aiyana being murdered in cold blood.
This is when they brought Aiyana's life-less body out of the house they carried like she was not human at all, but like a dead animal!
This Clearly sets off bells and whistles and it also shows, the lack of concern for what DPD did in cold blood, then tried to cover it up.
=================================================
Aiyana Jones Was Sleeping According To Family
DETROIT - A family in Detroit mourns the loss of a seven-year-old girl accidentally shot and killed by police during a raid. The death of Aiyanna Jones is making national headlines, and there are currently many questions. How could something like this happen? What went on inside an east side Detroit home early Sunday morning?
Relatives of Aiyanna met with attorney Geoffrey Fieger on Monday and re-created the scene for his investigators. The girl was sleeping on a couch around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 16 when officers with the Detroit Police Special Response Team threw a flash grenade through the window and an officer went inside, allegedly scuffled with her grandmother and then his gun went off. Aiyanna was hit in the neck.
Police were there looking for 34-year-old Chauncey Owens, suspected but not yet charged in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jerean Blake on Friday. Owens is the fiancee of Aiyanna's aunt, Lakrystal Sanders. He was arrested in the upstairs flat.
Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee says Detroit Police are handing their investigation over to Michigan State Police.
"We need an independent eye so, that from a community confidence standpoint, whatever findings are turned over to the prosecutor the community can have confidence that this was an independent investigation," he said.
Godbee says a thorough review of police tactics and procedures is underway.
The television show "The First 48" on A&E had been on scene with homicide investigators at Friday's shooting. "The First 48" videographers were also at the scene at the east side Detroit home. Detroit Police have given "The First 48" access to their investigations for several seasons. There is no financial component to the deal, and Detroit Police say their videographers did not go inside the flat and had no impact on their operation.
"'The First 48,' they were there. We're in the process of acquiring the footage so we can assess it, but we don't have that concern at this time," Godbee said.
The Coalition Against Police Brutality demonstrated outside an event where Attorney General Eric Holder was speaking, hoping to get the attention of the federal government.
"We want him to hear us. We want him to hear the pain of the people. We want him to hear about the young girl that was killed," said Ron Scott with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality.
We understand the officer involved in this shooting is a 14 year veteran and has been on the Special Response Team for about six or seven years. He was involved in a police shooting one other time. It involved a barricaded gunman. That person fired at police and they returned fire. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.
Meanwhile, Aiyanna's family has decided to take legal action against the Detroit Police Department. Their attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, says he has seen video of the raid and it goes against what police say happened Sunday morning.
This is what police say happened between the officer and the girl's grandmother: "Exactly what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact," said Godbee.
"That statement is a complete and utter falsehood," said Fieger.
The attorney is armed with at least two lawsuits that will be unveiled Tuesday and says he saw video tape from an unnamed source that shows a flash-bang grenade-type device was thrown into a window.
"And then within milliseconds of throwing that, firing a shot from outside the home while the Special Response Team was on the porch," Fieger said.
The bullet that killed Aiyanna, Fieger says, was fired before officers entered the home according to the video he saw. His case says there is a cover up by the Detroit Police Department.
Fieger also says the tape shows Aiyanna's body being removed by officers quickly.
"You see her being carried out by one officer, and it's not like she's a human being. She's out of that house faster than you would have expected," said Fieger.
Detroit Police late Monday said if Fieger does have video evidence, he should pass it along to the Michigan State Police for their investigation. Meanwhile, he is asking the department to tell what happened and leave the grandmother out of it.
"I would like the disclosure of how and why police officers came together in an attempt to blame a grandmother, who had nothing to do with anything for the death of a little girl," Fieger said.
So, there will be two lawsuits, one state and one federal, coming from Fieger's office against the police department. There will also be a lawsuit from the grandmother for being arrested on that night.
The family will be at Fieger's Southfield office Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. where they will be holding a news conference with their lawyer talking about Aiyanna and her untimely death.
But Fieger said the video shows an officer lobbing the grenade and then shooting into the home from the porch.
"There is no question about what happened because it's in the videotape," Fieger said. "It's not an accident. It's not a mistake. There was no altercation."
"Aiyana Jones was shot from outside on the porch. The videotape shows clearly the officer throwing through the window a stun grenade-type explosive and then within milliseconds of throwing that, firing a shot from outside the home," he said.
A woman brings balloons and flowers to a memorial at the house where a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed by police in Detroit, Monday, May 17, 2010. State police will take over the investigation of the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones by a Detroit police officer during a weekend raid at the girl's home, a prosecutor said Monday. Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family's apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst in and an officer's gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck, family members said.
RIP HOPEFULLY JUSTICE WILL BE DONE!
Report:
MyFox Detroit News
=================================================
As I viewed the report on this precious baby girl. I heard something that was even more disturbing then Aiyana being murdered in cold blood.
This is when they brought Aiyana's life-less body out of the house they carried like she was not human at all, but like a dead animal!
This Clearly sets off bells and whistles and it also shows, the lack of concern for what DPD did in cold blood, then tried to cover it up.
=================================================
Aiyana Jones Was Sleeping According To Family
DETROIT - A family in Detroit mourns the loss of a seven-year-old girl accidentally shot and killed by police during a raid. The death of Aiyanna Jones is making national headlines, and there are currently many questions. How could something like this happen? What went on inside an east side Detroit home early Sunday morning?
Relatives of Aiyanna met with attorney Geoffrey Fieger on Monday and re-created the scene for his investigators. The girl was sleeping on a couch around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 16 when officers with the Detroit Police Special Response Team threw a flash grenade through the window and an officer went inside, allegedly scuffled with her grandmother and then his gun went off. Aiyanna was hit in the neck.
Police were there looking for 34-year-old Chauncey Owens, suspected but not yet charged in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jerean Blake on Friday. Owens is the fiancee of Aiyanna's aunt, Lakrystal Sanders. He was arrested in the upstairs flat.
Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee says Detroit Police are handing their investigation over to Michigan State Police.
"We need an independent eye so, that from a community confidence standpoint, whatever findings are turned over to the prosecutor the community can have confidence that this was an independent investigation," he said.
Godbee says a thorough review of police tactics and procedures is underway.
The television show "The First 48" on A&E had been on scene with homicide investigators at Friday's shooting. "The First 48" videographers were also at the scene at the east side Detroit home. Detroit Police have given "The First 48" access to their investigations for several seasons. There is no financial component to the deal, and Detroit Police say their videographers did not go inside the flat and had no impact on their operation.
"'The First 48,' they were there. We're in the process of acquiring the footage so we can assess it, but we don't have that concern at this time," Godbee said.
The Coalition Against Police Brutality demonstrated outside an event where Attorney General Eric Holder was speaking, hoping to get the attention of the federal government.
"We want him to hear us. We want him to hear the pain of the people. We want him to hear about the young girl that was killed," said Ron Scott with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality.
We understand the officer involved in this shooting is a 14 year veteran and has been on the Special Response Team for about six or seven years. He was involved in a police shooting one other time. It involved a barricaded gunman. That person fired at police and they returned fire. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.
Meanwhile, Aiyanna's family has decided to take legal action against the Detroit Police Department. Their attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, says he has seen video of the raid and it goes against what police say happened Sunday morning.
This is what police say happened between the officer and the girl's grandmother: "Exactly what happened next is a matter still under investigation, but it appears the officer and the woman had some level of physical contact," said Godbee.
"That statement is a complete and utter falsehood," said Fieger.
The attorney is armed with at least two lawsuits that will be unveiled Tuesday and says he saw video tape from an unnamed source that shows a flash-bang grenade-type device was thrown into a window.
"And then within milliseconds of throwing that, firing a shot from outside the home while the Special Response Team was on the porch," Fieger said.
The bullet that killed Aiyanna, Fieger says, was fired before officers entered the home according to the video he saw. His case says there is a cover up by the Detroit Police Department.
Fieger also says the tape shows Aiyanna's body being removed by officers quickly.
"You see her being carried out by one officer, and it's not like she's a human being. She's out of that house faster than you would have expected," said Fieger.
Detroit Police late Monday said if Fieger does have video evidence, he should pass it along to the Michigan State Police for their investigation. Meanwhile, he is asking the department to tell what happened and leave the grandmother out of it.
"I would like the disclosure of how and why police officers came together in an attempt to blame a grandmother, who had nothing to do with anything for the death of a little girl," Fieger said.
So, there will be two lawsuits, one state and one federal, coming from Fieger's office against the police department. There will also be a lawsuit from the grandmother for being arrested on that night.
The family will be at Fieger's Southfield office Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. where they will be holding a news conference with their lawyer talking about Aiyanna and her untimely death.
But Fieger said the video shows an officer lobbing the grenade and then shooting into the home from the porch.
"There is no question about what happened because it's in the videotape," Fieger said. "It's not an accident. It's not a mistake. There was no altercation."
"Aiyana Jones was shot from outside on the porch. The videotape shows clearly the officer throwing through the window a stun grenade-type explosive and then within milliseconds of throwing that, firing a shot from outside the home," he said.
A woman brings balloons and flowers to a memorial at the house where a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed by police in Detroit, Monday, May 17, 2010. State police will take over the investigation of the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones by a Detroit police officer during a weekend raid at the girl's home, a prosecutor said Monday. Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family's apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst in and an officer's gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck, family members said.
RIP HOPEFULLY JUSTICE WILL BE DONE!
Report:
MyFox Detroit News
Monday, May 10, 2010
Singer, Actress, Civil Rights Activist Lena Horne dies at 92
Lena Horne appeared in “Jamaica,” a musical that ran on Broadway from 1957 to 1959.
============
Singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist Lena Horne
Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan.
Her death was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley.
Ms. Horne and Cab Calloway in “Stormy Weather.” The title song became one of her signatures.
Ms. Horne was stuffed into one “all-star" musical after another -- “Thousands Cheer" (1943), “Broadway Rhythm" (1944), “Two Girls and a Sailor" (1944), “Ziegfeld Follies" (1946), “Words and Music" (1948) -- to sing a song or two that could easily be snipped from the movie when it played in the South, where the idea of an African-American performer in anything but a subservient role in a movie with an otherwise all-white cast was unthinkable
Even before she came to Hollywood, Brooks Atkinson, the drama critic for The New York Times, noticed Ms. Horne in “Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1939,” a Broadway revue that ran for nine performances. “A radiantly beautiful sepia girl,” he wrote, “who will be a winner when she has proper direction
She had proper direction in two all-black movie musicals, both made in 1943. Lent to 20th Century Fox for “Stormy Weather,” one of those show business musicals with almost no plot but lots of singing and dancing, Ms. Horne did both triumphantly, ending with the sultry, aching sadness of the title number, which would become one of her signature songs. In MGM’s “Cabin in the Sky,” the first film directed by Vincente Minnelli, she was the brazen, sexy handmaiden of the Devil. (One number she shot for that film, “Ain’t It the Truth,” which she sang while taking a bubble bath, was deleted before the film was released — not for racial reasons, as her stand-alone performances in other MGM musicals sometimes were, but because it was considered too risqué.)
In 1945 the critic and screenwriter Frank Nugent wrote in Liberty magazine that Ms. Horne was “the nation’s top Negro entertainer.” In addition to her MGM salary of $1,000 a week, she was earning $1,500 for every radio appearance and $6,500 a week when she played nightclubs. She was also popular with servicemen, white and black, during World War II, appearing more than a dozen times on the Army radio program “Command Performance.”
“The whole thing that made me a star was the war,” Ms. Horne said in the 1990 interview. “Of course the black guys couldn’t put Betty Grable’s picture in their footlockers. But they could put mine.”
==================================
Touring Army camps for the U.S.O., Ms. Horne was outspoken in her criticism of the way black soldiers were treated. “So the U.S.O. got mad,” she recalled. “And they said, ‘You’re not going to be allowed to go anyplace anymore under our auspices.’ So from then on I was labeled a bad little Red girl.”
==================================
By the 1960s, Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant and in 1963 joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. Horne also spoke at a rally that same year with another civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, just days before his assassination.
==================================
Ms. Horne later claimed that for this and other reasons, including her friendship with leftists like Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois, she was blacklisted and “unable to do films or television for the next seven years” after her tenure with MGM ended in 1950.
This was not quite true: as Mr. Gavin has documented, she appeared frequently on “Your Show of Shows” and other television shows in the 1950s, and in fact “found more acceptance” on television “than almost any other black performer.” And Mr. Gavin and others have suggested that there were other factors in addition to politics or race involved in her lack of film work
Although absent from the screen, she found success in nightclubs and on records. “Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria,” recorded during a well-received eight-week run in 1957, reached the Top 10 and became the best-selling album by a female singer in RCA Victor’s history.
In the early 1960s Ms. Horne, always outspoken on the subject of civil rights, became increasingly active, participating in numerous marches and protests.
In 1969, she returned briefly to films, playing the love interest of a white actor, Richard Widmark, in “Death of a Gunfighter.”
Widowed in 1971, Horne moved to New York City and continued her stage and concert work, and even did the occasional movie role, including that of Diana Ross's fairy godmother in the 1978 'The Wiz.'
Horne's other roles included 'I Dood It,' a Red Skelton comedy, 'Thousands Cheer' and 'Swing Fever,' all in 1943; 'Broadway Rhythm' in 1944; and 'Ziegfeld Follies' in 1946.
RIP SISTER LENA HORNE**
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Malcolm X killer freed after 44 years
Sankofa's opinion.........
It seems strange to me after a 45 years span that authorities handling this case, only has one suspect. There were a combination of forces at work here.
Is it because it was Malcolm why there wasn't a thorough investigation of all possibilities? Whether or not who is implicated?
We all know this is wishful thinking.... In a land that claims "freedom of speech" why was he assasinated in cold blood? We should all remember our Ebony Prince, and what He stood for.
=========
There's outrage among some African-Americans, they said, that he being released. Would he be set free, if he had killed an iconic white leader?
Malcolm X is best known as the fiery leader of the Nation of Islam who denounced whites as "blue-eyed devils." But at the end of his life, Malcolm X changed his views toward whites and discarded the Nation of Islam's ideology in favor of orthodox Islam. In doing so, he feared for his own life from within the Nation.
Malcolm X remains a symbol of inspiration for black men, in particular, who are moved by his transformation from a street hustler to a man the late African-American actor Ossie Davis eulogized as "Our Own Black Shining Prince."
=============
(CNN) -- Thomas Hagan, the only man who admitted his role in the 1965 assassination of iconic black leader Malcolm X, was paroled Tuesday.
Hagan was freed a day earlier than planned because his paperwork was processed more quickly than anticipated, according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services.
Hagan, 69, walked out of the minimum-security Lincoln Correctional Facility at 11 a.m. The facility is located at the intersection of West 110th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.
Hagan had been in a full-time work-release program since March 1992 that allowed him to live at home with his family in Brooklyn five days a week while reporting to the prison just two days.
Last month, Hagan pleaded his case for freedom: To return to his family, to become a substance abuse counselor and to make his mark on what time he has left in this world.
He was dressed in prison greens as he addressed the parole board. He had been before that body 14 other times since 1984. Each time, he was rejected.
Hagan was no ordinary prisoner. He is the only man to have confessed in the killing of Malcolm X, who was gunned down while giving a speech in New York's Audubon Ballroom in 1965.
"I have deep regrets about my participation in that," he told the parole board on March 3, according to a transcript. "I don't think it should ever have happened."
Hagan had been sentenced to 20 years to life imprisonment after being found guilty at trial with two others in 1966. The other two men were released in the 1980s and have long denied involvement in the killing.
To win his release, Hagan was required to seek, obtain and maintain a job, support his children and abide by a curfew. He must continue to meet those conditions while free. He told the parole board he's worked the same job for the past seven years. He told the New York Post in 2008 he was working at a fast-food restaurant.
The ballroom where he was killed has now been converted into The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Board Chairman Zead Ramadan said the center doesn't have a position on Hagan's release.
"I personally find it strange that for a couple decades any person convicted in the assassination of such an iconic figure would be allowed such leniency," Ramadan said.
"It's really a struggle for Muslims to contemplate this issue, because our faith and our religion is full of examples where we have to exert mercy," he added. "The Malcolm X story has not ended. His populuarity has grown in death. ... Only God knows why this was allowed to happen."
The center is preparing for a special service next month to celebrate what would have been Malcolm X's 85th birthday. Would the center welcome Hagan if he asked to attend?
"We'd cross that bridge if he called us," Ramadan said, "Think about that: How far-fetched is it that he could meet one of the daughters of Malcolm X? And what's going to happen then? Mercy, fury, anger, emotions -- who knows?"
Killed in front of his family
======================
Malcolm X was 39 when he was gunned down in 1965.
==========================
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X took to the stage of the Audubon Ballroom, a site often used for civic meetings. His wife, Betty Shabazz, and four children were in the crowd.
Malcolm X was 39 when he was gunned down in 1965."I heard several shots in succession," his wife later told a Manhattan grand jury. "I got on the floor, and I pushed my children under the seat and protected them with my body."
Gunshots continued to ring out, she said. Her husband's body was riddled with bullets. The native of Omaha, Nebraska, was 39.
"Minister Malcolm was slaughtered like a dog in front of his family," A. Peter Bailey, one of Malcolm X's closest aides, told The New York Times on the 40th anniversary of the killing.
The assassination came after a public feud between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam's founder, Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X had accused Muhammad of infidelity and left the Nation in March 1964.
"For the next 11 months, there was a pattern of harassment, vilification and even on occasion literally pursuit in the streets of Malcolm by people associated with the Nation," said Claude Andrew Clegg III, author of a biography on Elijah Muhammad called An Original Man.
"Malcolm felt that if Elijah Muhammad snapped his fingers, then he could stop the escalation of the violent tone around the split of the two men. And I think there's some truth to that."
Over the years, the killing of Malcolm X has been the subject of much debate, with conspiracy theories involving the Nation of Islam and others. The Nation of Islam has repeatedly denied any involvement in Malcolm X's assassination.
On a deadly mission
===============
Hagan, then known by the name Talmadge X Hayer, was in his early 20s and a radical member of the Nation of Islam the day he entered the ballroom armed and ready to kill. His allegiance was to the Nation's founder, and he was outraged Malcolm X had broken from its ranks.
After the shooting, Hagan tried to flee the scene but he was shot in the leg. He was beaten by the crowd before being arrested outside.
Thomas Hagan is pictured here in a mugshot from 2008.Last month, he told the parole board he felt the urge to kill Malcolm X because of his inflammatory comments about the Nation's founder.
"It stemmed from a break off and confusion in the leadership," Hagan said. "Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam, separated from the Nation of Islam, and in doing so there was controversy as to some of the statements he was making about the leader."
====================================================
He added, "History has revealed a lot of what Malcolm X was saying was true."
====================================================
Two other men, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Kahlil Islam, were also found guilty of murder in 1966 and received 20 years to life. Both proclaimed their innocence. Hagan, who eventually admitted his part in the murder, testified at trial and subsequent parole hearings that both men were innocent. Aziz was paroled in 1985; Islam was freed in 1987.
At last month's parole hearing, Hagan again maintained that Aziz and Islam were not the other assassins. He said it was two other men who helped plot, plan and participate in the killing.
Did they receive orders from the Nation to carry out the killing?
"I can't say that anyone in the Nation of Islam gave us the idea or instructed us to do it. We did this ourselves for the most part, yes," Hagan told the parole board.
Hagan said he received a master's degree in sociology while incarcerated and that helped him deal with his actions from 45 years ago.
"I understand a lot better the dynamics of movements and what can happen inside movements and conflicts that can come up, but I have deep regrets about my participation in that."
He added, "Unfortunately, I didn't have an in-depth understanding of what was really going on myself to let myself be involved in anything like that. ... I can't really describe my remiss and my remorse for my actions -- basically a very young man, a very uneducated man. "
He is still a Muslim but no longer a member of the Nation of Islam. He volunteers at a mosque to help young men. He told the parole board he hopes to become a qualified substance abuse counselor.
His primary mission is to help his four children, ages 21, 17, 14 and 10. He has two other grown children.
"My focus is to maintain my family and to try to make things a little better for them. It's upward mobility, and to encourage my children to complete their education because it's a must."
(CNN)
==============================
Malcolm X's legacy ignored 45 years after his murder
==============================
Malcolm X speaks to television news men at Duffy Square, New York, Feb. 13, 1963.
====================
Apparently, Malcolm X does not exist. At least that's what you might think while visiting the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. During our rally for the Heather Ellis case, the young woman who faced 15 years in prison after cutting line at a Wal-Mart, I took a tour of the museum. After completing the hour-long tour, I realized that they'd forgotten something. Even though the museum had hundreds of pictures of other events representing the civil rights struggle in America, I saw only one picture of Malcolm X.
=============
This incredibly disappointing display at the Civil Rights Museum is a reflection of how Malcolm's legacy has been treated like the neglected step-child of the African-American struggle for freedom and equality. Malcolm fought for civil rights just as diligently as Dr. King. He was just as impactful as Dr. King. He gave his life like Dr. King. But for some reason, most of us don't remember Malcolm's birthday. We've never considered having a holiday to commemorate his contribution. He is rarely discussed in the same sentence with Dr. King. We just ignore him and this has got to change.
=============
It's easy to understand why mainstream America has been conditioned not to appreciate the legacy of Malcolm X. They dislike Malcolm for the same reasons that the British dislike George Washington. Malcolm wasn't an apologist and challenged black folks to respect themselves, which was in direct contrast to a strategy of constrained and oppressive integration.
Our goal was to get a seat at the table, even if we were given the scraps, and some are wondering if we are better off because of it. Malcolm kept a crystal ball in his mind which told him that a distorted, imbalanced marriage between blacks and whites would lead to terrible inner city schools, huge imbalances of wealth and unemployment and a lack of willingness by politicians to acknowledge serious concerns within the African-American community. Hence, you have the year 2010.
MALCOLM X DISCUSS JOBS & VOTER EDUCATION
=============================
While the social, economic and political relationships of blacks and whites have presented quite a few gains for African-Americans, they don't work when there is still a fundamental disrespect for black people themselves. Malcolm was not necessarily against these kinds of ties, but he might agree that this union should only take place when there is definitive proof of mutual respect.
Rather than embracing concepts such as ownership and institution-building, African-Americans have positioned themselves as an occupied state which leaves itself vulnerable to distorted economic and political condition. Many of us understand that the dreams of neither Malcolm nor Martin have been fully realized.
It's time for us to evolve our thinking. If we continue to use the same models, we will continue to get the same results. Martin Luther King was an undeniably great man, but to some extent, mainstream media has chosen him as an African-American hero.
In the same way Lil Wayne has been promoted extensively by non-black music executives, Martin Luther King is tossed at us like the latest Jay-Z song or those Democratic nominees that none of us have ever heard about. We've never been given the opportunity to choose our own iconic figures. Instead, we are taught that Dr. King fought the entire struggle for civil rights all by himself.
========================================================
We must make a collective effort to raise Malcolm from the dead to give him the appreciation he deserves. We can first start by learning Malcolm's birthday, which is May 19, 1925 and the date of his assassination, Febuary 21, 1965. We can also study his life, and his contribution to the country in which we live today.
========================================================
Malcolm gave black people pride and courage, which are just as valuable as eating at the same lunch counter at whites. He encouraged an honest recollection on our experience as slaves, which is far better than being taught that slavery should be forgotten. He helped us understand that black history is a living, breathing phenomenon, determining how we name ourselves, what we eat and what we think. In many ways, Malcolm gave black America a new beginning.
Malcolm, Martin and thousands of others fought to get us where we are today, and we know that. It's time to talk differently about our history. So, as we go to one MLK dinner after another, we must make a point to stop and give respect to Malcolm.
Source: THE GRIO
It seems strange to me after a 45 years span that authorities handling this case, only has one suspect. There were a combination of forces at work here.
Is it because it was Malcolm why there wasn't a thorough investigation of all possibilities? Whether or not who is implicated?
We all know this is wishful thinking.... In a land that claims "freedom of speech" why was he assasinated in cold blood? We should all remember our Ebony Prince, and what He stood for.
=========
There's outrage among some African-Americans, they said, that he being released. Would he be set free, if he had killed an iconic white leader?
Malcolm X is best known as the fiery leader of the Nation of Islam who denounced whites as "blue-eyed devils." But at the end of his life, Malcolm X changed his views toward whites and discarded the Nation of Islam's ideology in favor of orthodox Islam. In doing so, he feared for his own life from within the Nation.
Malcolm X remains a symbol of inspiration for black men, in particular, who are moved by his transformation from a street hustler to a man the late African-American actor Ossie Davis eulogized as "Our Own Black Shining Prince."
=============
(CNN) -- Thomas Hagan, the only man who admitted his role in the 1965 assassination of iconic black leader Malcolm X, was paroled Tuesday.
Hagan was freed a day earlier than planned because his paperwork was processed more quickly than anticipated, according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services.
Hagan, 69, walked out of the minimum-security Lincoln Correctional Facility at 11 a.m. The facility is located at the intersection of West 110th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.
Hagan had been in a full-time work-release program since March 1992 that allowed him to live at home with his family in Brooklyn five days a week while reporting to the prison just two days.
Last month, Hagan pleaded his case for freedom: To return to his family, to become a substance abuse counselor and to make his mark on what time he has left in this world.
He was dressed in prison greens as he addressed the parole board. He had been before that body 14 other times since 1984. Each time, he was rejected.
Hagan was no ordinary prisoner. He is the only man to have confessed in the killing of Malcolm X, who was gunned down while giving a speech in New York's Audubon Ballroom in 1965.
"I have deep regrets about my participation in that," he told the parole board on March 3, according to a transcript. "I don't think it should ever have happened."
Hagan had been sentenced to 20 years to life imprisonment after being found guilty at trial with two others in 1966. The other two men were released in the 1980s and have long denied involvement in the killing.
To win his release, Hagan was required to seek, obtain and maintain a job, support his children and abide by a curfew. He must continue to meet those conditions while free. He told the parole board he's worked the same job for the past seven years. He told the New York Post in 2008 he was working at a fast-food restaurant.
The ballroom where he was killed has now been converted into The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Board Chairman Zead Ramadan said the center doesn't have a position on Hagan's release.
"I personally find it strange that for a couple decades any person convicted in the assassination of such an iconic figure would be allowed such leniency," Ramadan said.
"It's really a struggle for Muslims to contemplate this issue, because our faith and our religion is full of examples where we have to exert mercy," he added. "The Malcolm X story has not ended. His populuarity has grown in death. ... Only God knows why this was allowed to happen."
The center is preparing for a special service next month to celebrate what would have been Malcolm X's 85th birthday. Would the center welcome Hagan if he asked to attend?
"We'd cross that bridge if he called us," Ramadan said, "Think about that: How far-fetched is it that he could meet one of the daughters of Malcolm X? And what's going to happen then? Mercy, fury, anger, emotions -- who knows?"
Killed in front of his family
======================
Malcolm X was 39 when he was gunned down in 1965.
==========================
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X took to the stage of the Audubon Ballroom, a site often used for civic meetings. His wife, Betty Shabazz, and four children were in the crowd.
Malcolm X was 39 when he was gunned down in 1965."I heard several shots in succession," his wife later told a Manhattan grand jury. "I got on the floor, and I pushed my children under the seat and protected them with my body."
Gunshots continued to ring out, she said. Her husband's body was riddled with bullets. The native of Omaha, Nebraska, was 39.
"Minister Malcolm was slaughtered like a dog in front of his family," A. Peter Bailey, one of Malcolm X's closest aides, told The New York Times on the 40th anniversary of the killing.
The assassination came after a public feud between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam's founder, Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X had accused Muhammad of infidelity and left the Nation in March 1964.
"For the next 11 months, there was a pattern of harassment, vilification and even on occasion literally pursuit in the streets of Malcolm by people associated with the Nation," said Claude Andrew Clegg III, author of a biography on Elijah Muhammad called An Original Man.
"Malcolm felt that if Elijah Muhammad snapped his fingers, then he could stop the escalation of the violent tone around the split of the two men. And I think there's some truth to that."
Over the years, the killing of Malcolm X has been the subject of much debate, with conspiracy theories involving the Nation of Islam and others. The Nation of Islam has repeatedly denied any involvement in Malcolm X's assassination.
On a deadly mission
===============
Hagan, then known by the name Talmadge X Hayer, was in his early 20s and a radical member of the Nation of Islam the day he entered the ballroom armed and ready to kill. His allegiance was to the Nation's founder, and he was outraged Malcolm X had broken from its ranks.
After the shooting, Hagan tried to flee the scene but he was shot in the leg. He was beaten by the crowd before being arrested outside.
Thomas Hagan is pictured here in a mugshot from 2008.Last month, he told the parole board he felt the urge to kill Malcolm X because of his inflammatory comments about the Nation's founder.
"It stemmed from a break off and confusion in the leadership," Hagan said. "Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam, separated from the Nation of Islam, and in doing so there was controversy as to some of the statements he was making about the leader."
====================================================
He added, "History has revealed a lot of what Malcolm X was saying was true."
====================================================
Two other men, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Kahlil Islam, were also found guilty of murder in 1966 and received 20 years to life. Both proclaimed their innocence. Hagan, who eventually admitted his part in the murder, testified at trial and subsequent parole hearings that both men were innocent. Aziz was paroled in 1985; Islam was freed in 1987.
At last month's parole hearing, Hagan again maintained that Aziz and Islam were not the other assassins. He said it was two other men who helped plot, plan and participate in the killing.
Did they receive orders from the Nation to carry out the killing?
"I can't say that anyone in the Nation of Islam gave us the idea or instructed us to do it. We did this ourselves for the most part, yes," Hagan told the parole board.
Hagan said he received a master's degree in sociology while incarcerated and that helped him deal with his actions from 45 years ago.
"I understand a lot better the dynamics of movements and what can happen inside movements and conflicts that can come up, but I have deep regrets about my participation in that."
He added, "Unfortunately, I didn't have an in-depth understanding of what was really going on myself to let myself be involved in anything like that. ... I can't really describe my remiss and my remorse for my actions -- basically a very young man, a very uneducated man. "
He is still a Muslim but no longer a member of the Nation of Islam. He volunteers at a mosque to help young men. He told the parole board he hopes to become a qualified substance abuse counselor.
His primary mission is to help his four children, ages 21, 17, 14 and 10. He has two other grown children.
"My focus is to maintain my family and to try to make things a little better for them. It's upward mobility, and to encourage my children to complete their education because it's a must."
(CNN)
==============================
Malcolm X's legacy ignored 45 years after his murder
==============================
Malcolm X speaks to television news men at Duffy Square, New York, Feb. 13, 1963.
====================
Apparently, Malcolm X does not exist. At least that's what you might think while visiting the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. During our rally for the Heather Ellis case, the young woman who faced 15 years in prison after cutting line at a Wal-Mart, I took a tour of the museum. After completing the hour-long tour, I realized that they'd forgotten something. Even though the museum had hundreds of pictures of other events representing the civil rights struggle in America, I saw only one picture of Malcolm X.
=============
This incredibly disappointing display at the Civil Rights Museum is a reflection of how Malcolm's legacy has been treated like the neglected step-child of the African-American struggle for freedom and equality. Malcolm fought for civil rights just as diligently as Dr. King. He was just as impactful as Dr. King. He gave his life like Dr. King. But for some reason, most of us don't remember Malcolm's birthday. We've never considered having a holiday to commemorate his contribution. He is rarely discussed in the same sentence with Dr. King. We just ignore him and this has got to change.
=============
It's easy to understand why mainstream America has been conditioned not to appreciate the legacy of Malcolm X. They dislike Malcolm for the same reasons that the British dislike George Washington. Malcolm wasn't an apologist and challenged black folks to respect themselves, which was in direct contrast to a strategy of constrained and oppressive integration.
Our goal was to get a seat at the table, even if we were given the scraps, and some are wondering if we are better off because of it. Malcolm kept a crystal ball in his mind which told him that a distorted, imbalanced marriage between blacks and whites would lead to terrible inner city schools, huge imbalances of wealth and unemployment and a lack of willingness by politicians to acknowledge serious concerns within the African-American community. Hence, you have the year 2010.
MALCOLM X DISCUSS JOBS & VOTER EDUCATION
=============================
While the social, economic and political relationships of blacks and whites have presented quite a few gains for African-Americans, they don't work when there is still a fundamental disrespect for black people themselves. Malcolm was not necessarily against these kinds of ties, but he might agree that this union should only take place when there is definitive proof of mutual respect.
Rather than embracing concepts such as ownership and institution-building, African-Americans have positioned themselves as an occupied state which leaves itself vulnerable to distorted economic and political condition. Many of us understand that the dreams of neither Malcolm nor Martin have been fully realized.
It's time for us to evolve our thinking. If we continue to use the same models, we will continue to get the same results. Martin Luther King was an undeniably great man, but to some extent, mainstream media has chosen him as an African-American hero.
In the same way Lil Wayne has been promoted extensively by non-black music executives, Martin Luther King is tossed at us like the latest Jay-Z song or those Democratic nominees that none of us have ever heard about. We've never been given the opportunity to choose our own iconic figures. Instead, we are taught that Dr. King fought the entire struggle for civil rights all by himself.
========================================================
We must make a collective effort to raise Malcolm from the dead to give him the appreciation he deserves. We can first start by learning Malcolm's birthday, which is May 19, 1925 and the date of his assassination, Febuary 21, 1965. We can also study his life, and his contribution to the country in which we live today.
========================================================
Malcolm gave black people pride and courage, which are just as valuable as eating at the same lunch counter at whites. He encouraged an honest recollection on our experience as slaves, which is far better than being taught that slavery should be forgotten. He helped us understand that black history is a living, breathing phenomenon, determining how we name ourselves, what we eat and what we think. In many ways, Malcolm gave black America a new beginning.
Malcolm, Martin and thousands of others fought to get us where we are today, and we know that. It's time to talk differently about our history. So, as we go to one MLK dinner after another, we must make a point to stop and give respect to Malcolm.
Source: THE GRIO
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Trail Blazer Dorothy Height, 'Civil Rights Pioneer', dies at 98
Leading Civil Rights Pioneer Dorothy Height, of the 1960s, died Tuesday at age 98, Howard University Hospita. Height, who had been chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, worked in the 1960s alongside civil rights pioneers, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., future U.S. Rep. John Lewis and A. Philip Randolph. She was on the platform when King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington.
"And even in the final weeks of her life -- a time when anyone else would have enjoyed their well-earned rest, Dr. Height continued her fight to make our nation a more open and inclusive place for people of every race, gender, background and faith."
One of Height's sayings was, "If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time." She liked to quote 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said that the three effective ways to fight for justice are to "agitate, agitate, agitate."
President Obama called her a hero and the "godmother" of the movement, noting she "served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement -- witnessing every march and milestone along the way."
Height's years of service span from Roosevelt to the Obama administration, the council said in a statement announcing her death and listing the highlights of her career.
Height was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 by President Clinton and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. She was among a handful of key African-American leaders to meet with Obama at the White House recently for a summit on race and the economy.
As a teenager, Height marched in New York's Times Square shouting, "Stop the lynching." In the 1950s and 1960s, she was the leading woman helping the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leading activists orchestrate the civil rights movement.
Her name is synonymous with the National Council of Negro Women, a group she led from 1957 to 1988, when she became the group's chair and president emerita. She was also a key figure in the YWCA beginning in the 1930s.
Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, and grew up in Rankin, Pennsylvania. Her civil rights work began in 1933 when she became a leader of the United Christian Youth Movement of North America. Among the issues she tackled were fighting to stop lynchings and working to desegregate the armed forces.
In 1937, while she was working at the Harlem YWCA, Height met famed educator Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had come to speak at a meeting of Bethune's organization. Height eventually rose to leadership roles in both the council and the YWCA.
She experienced discrimination and wrote in her memoir about being turned down for admittance to Barnard College in New York.
"Although I had been accepted, they could not admit me," she wrote in "Open Wide the Freedom Gates."
"It took me a while to realize that their decision was a racial matter: Barnard had a quota of two Negro students per year, and two others had already taken the spots."
At its 1980 commencement ceremonies, Barnard awarded Height its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction.
Under Height's leadership, the National Council of Negro Women dealt with the "unmet needs of women and their families by combating hunger and establishing decent housing and home ownership programs through the federal government for low-income families."
The organization spearheaded voter registration drives and started "Wednesdays in Mississippi" in which female interracial groups helped at Freedom Schools, institutions meant to empower African-Americans and address inequalities in how the races were educated.
"She was truly a pioneer, and she must be remembered as one of those brave and courageous souls that never gave up, never gave in," Lewis said. "She was a feminist and a major spokesperson for the rights of women long before there was a women's movement."
Dorothy Height "blazed many trails and opened many doors," Rep. Barbara Lee says
Thank you for all your time and undying efforts, they will never be forgotten.
Your life has been a true example for all of us to follow.
RIP GREAT TRAILBLAZER
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