http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/gops-racist-and-sexist-attacks-on-susan-rice-by-george-e-curry/
http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/black-youth-critical-to-obama’s-victory-by-maya-rhodan/
TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS
WAKE COMMISSION BOARD
APPROVES OLD YMCA PURCHASE FOR WCPSS
In
a 4-3 vote with a member of the Republican majority joining the Democrats, Wake
County commissioners Monday approved the $1 million purchase of the old Hargett
Street YMCA building for the Wake Public School Building. School system leaders
indicated they wanted to use the Southeast Raleigh facility to open a new
elementary school, citing seat shortage in the area. Republican board member
Joe Bryan sided with the board Democrats in voting for the purchase. The
Hargett Street YMCA closed earlier this year and filed for bankruptcy amid
financial difficulties.
COBLE SAYS NO SCHOOL
CONSTRUCTION BOND UNTIL 2015
Still
angry that the Democratic leadership of the Wake School Board fired Supt. Tony
Tata, Republican Wake County Commission Board Chairman Paul Coble says he won’t
back a school construction referendum being on the 2013 ballot until a new
superintendent is hired and student assignment plan is underway. School board
leaders say the system is already experiencing capacity issues, with the
150,000 pupil population expected to grow by at least 2,000 students a year.
The construction bond cannot go forward unless the Republican majority on the
county commission board agrees.
RETIRING ASST.
RALEIGH CITY MANAGER TO BECOME PART-TIMER
Assistant
Raleigh City Manager Julian Prosser has announced that he will officially
retire on Dec. 31st after 32 years working for Raleigh city
government. He has held his post since 2004. But retirement apparently doesn’t
mean goodbye to Prosser. He has agreed to work as an adviser to the city
manager’s office part-time starting in February. Prosser is credited with helping to turn Raleigh into a
redeveloped modern mid-size city, thanks to the tremendous growth of downtown.
During his retirement, Prosser says he wants to do some traveling with his
family.
-30-
SURPRISED REACTION TO
KROGER STORE CLOSINGS
By Cash Michaels
Editor
Residents
and nonresidents of Southeast Raleigh reacted on Facebook with surprise and
dismay with news that two Kroger supermarkets – one at 1610 Martin Luther King
Jr. Blvd and the other at 4111 New Bern Avenue – will be closing in January
because of inadequate sales.
“I do find it hard to believe they are losing
money because you can't go by there without the parking lot always being full,”
said Diann Freeman, whose parents she says shop there. “I think they are just
trying to move out of the Black community. I would like to contact the company
and ask them some questions about this. They carry very few name brand items,
so I don't get it.
Former
Southeast Raleigh City Councilman Brad Thompson, who said he and his family
shops the MLK Blvd. Kroger and always found it “highly patronized,” also had
questions about the Kroger closings.
“I
think Kroger should examine its business model to determine why this store is
not successful. Are the hours too long? Is the rent too high? Is the space too
big? Are the items being bought the ones with the lowest margins? Have their
been inordinate losses? Is there a reluctance to use self-service causing sales
per employee to be lower than normal?”
Thompson continued, “ Surely we are owed more than an
announcement of the closing. Having food available in our community is one
thing that makes it attractive. While Food Lion still continues to serve us
(and for that we should be thankful) we must investigate other options
(including co-ops) that will leave us less vulnerable to decisions from afar
that affect the health and well being of communities we care about.”
The
MLK Blvd. store in the heart of Southeast Raleigh opened in 2002, while the New
Bern Ave location opened in 1993. In 2011, Kroger also closed its Wake Commons
store in North Raleigh because of lackluster sales.
“Due
to lowering financial returns, the difficult decision was made to close the
locations in an effort to maintain the grocer’s commitment to low prices and
quality food products for customers across North Carolina,” a statement from
the Cincinnati-based company, which has 16 stores in the Triangle area, said.
“Although
Kroger has continued to use its resources to improve each location, both have been
unprofitable for the company,” the statement ended.
It
was suggested that now is the time for the African-American community to seize
this opportunity to create food co-ops, where farmers can come to sell their
produce, and black small businesses can help fill in the gap.
Some
on Facebook found that hard to believe, however, and even thought that the
Kroger move was actually political.
“[This]
is an example of disinvestment
of Southeast Raleigh,” wrote Carmen Cauthen. “I live in Oberlin, but shop at
both the MLK and Six Forks Kroger, and very occasionally the New Bern Avenue
store. I have been under the impression that the MLK store has been losing
money for quite a while. It is very often that I shop there and find a lot of
items on clearance because they aren't selling and that includes dairy
products, which is a very rare thing. I have also had problems with them taking
coupons that are not out of the newspaper (i.e., internet prints). That is a
problem that I had with the Food Lion on Raleigh Blvd. as well. It is not a
problem that I have with stores in predominantly white neighborhoods and I have
complained to Food Lion organization officials (but worked it out with the
Kroger store manager).”
Facebook’er
Abdulkarim Talib was more blunt.
“In today's political climate I can't help but
think it's a message, 'this is what you get for reelecting that black guy',
especially since they're been open for almost a decade and it's just now you've
discovered they're losing money? Yea, riiiigghht!
-30-
EXCLUSIVE
NAACP MOUNTS NATIONAL
WILMINGTON TEN PETITION
By Cash Michaels
Staff writer
The
national NAACP has once again joined its North Carolina conference of chapters
in supporting pardons of innocence for the Wilmington Ten.
Meanwhile
a distinguished UNC – Chapel Hill law professor who worked on the Wilmington
Ten case as a young law student, has agreed to write Gov. Beverly Perdue,
urging her to grant individual pardons of actual innocence to the ten civil
rights activists who were falsely tried, convicted and sentenced to 282 years
in prison for crimes forty years they did not commit.
And
sources
say there is opposition to the proposed pardons, primarily from former law
enforcement and state officials who still believe – despite no evidence
proving that the Wilmington Ten had anything to do with the 1971 firebombing of
a White-owned grocery store, or sniper shots at responding firemen – that they
are guilty.
This
week, the national NAACP tweeted out to its hundreds of thousands of members
across the country an appeal for them to sign a brand new petition in support
of the Wilmington Ten pardons effort.
“Wrongfully framed by the courts, we ask that North Carolina clear the
names of these ten innocent people - four of whom are now deceased - who
deserve their justice forty years later,” the NAACP petition states.
“Forty
years later we stand together in the name of justice for the Wilmington Ten and
their families. Let us put such issues to rest and move forward from the days
of racial tensions and injustices,” the NAACP petition statement continues.
“Pardon the Wilmington Ten and declare them
their warranted innocence. They deserve nothing less than to get an opportunity
to put this experience behind them, and have their names cleared for history,
once and for all.”
The
NAACP petition can be found at http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-petitions. It should be signed by Nov. 28th.
NAACP
President Benjamin Todd Jealous agreed to make the national appeal when he
visited North Carolina two weeks ago to join NCNAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber for
a pre-election press conference.
In
concert with Rev. Barber. Jealous was supportive of the cause months before it
was made public last spring.
“There are still too many black activists who are still being mistreated
in this country, who carry badges of shame, if you will, for spending time in
prison, who at the end of the day their only crime was standing up for the
people,” Jealous told The Carolinian last
March. “In the case of the Wilmington Ten, we will push [for pardons] and
support our state conference in their push to ensure that finally, their names
are cleared.”
Two
days after the pardons of innocence effort was made public last May, NCNAACP
Pres. Rev. Barber, along with civil rights attorney Al McSurely, and NAACP
Board Executive Committee member Carolyn Coleman, pushed through a resolution
that was unanimously adopted by the national NAACP Board of Directors.
Rev.
Barber also facilitated having the Pardon Project’s hard copy petitions setup
during the national convention in Houston, Texas last summer, and was the
keynote speaker during the June 26th prayer rally at St. Stephen’s
Church in Wilmington.
Support
from the nation’s oldest civil rights organization and its leaders hasn’t
stopped there.
On
Tuesday, Nov. 27th, the state NAACP will hold a press conference at
the state Capital to speak out about the newly discovered Stroud files, the
handwritten notes of Wilmington Ten prosecutor from the 1972 trials.
The
prosecutor’s notes document how he not only attempted to gerrymander a “KKK”
and “Uncle Tom” type jury to assure convictions of the Wilmington Ten, but
deliberately calculated a mistrial in the first trial because a jury of ten
blacks and two whites had been selected.
When
the second trial commenced in September 1972, Stroud was able to engineer a
jury of ten whites and two blacks, in addition to three witnesses he coerced
into committing perjury.
The
Wilmington Ten were ultimately convicted.
The prosecutor’s
notes are clear and convincing evidence that race was not just a factor
in his selection of the 10 Whites and two Blacks on the Pender jury that
convicted the Wilmington Ten,” veteran civil rights attorney Al McSurely says. “Race
was the only factor. Forty years later, we know his real motives. I
believe when the governor studies this evidence, she will do the right thing
and sign the pardons.”
While the US
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions in Dec. 1980, the
state of North Carolina never did. The Wilmington Ten have remained convicted
felons in the state ever since.
With
Gov. Beverly Perdue leaving office on Dec. 31st, the push is on
deliver all petitions and support letters to her by the first week in December.
UNC
– Chapel Hill School of Law Professor Richard Rosen, considered an expert in
criminal law, has agreed to join the other legal scholars, elected officials
and members of Congress is formally asking Gov. Perdue to grant pardons of
innocence to the Wilmington Ten.
For
Rosen, this case is more than just what he has read in a law book.
“I actually attended a few days of the trial, and when I was
a law student I worked with [Wilmington ten lead defense attorney] James
Ferguson on the appeals,” Prof. Rosen told The
Carolinian. “I also was involved in some of the post-trial
organizing. So I'm willing to do whatever I can to help.”
(To sign the
Change.Org online petition asking Gov. Beverly Perdue to grant pardons of
innocence for the Wilmington Ten, please go to https://www.change.org/petitions/nc-governor-bev-perdue-pardon-the-wilmington-ten
Those who would like to write a letter to Gov. Perdue before Dec. 1, asking her
to grant pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten, should send them to:
Hon. Beverly Eaves Perdue
Governor of North Carolina
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301)
-30-
STATE NEWS BRIEFS
COLEMAN CONCEDES; FOREST WINS LT.
GOV-ELECT
[RALEIGH]
Even though aggressive canvassing of outstanding provisional ballots from the
Nov. 6th elections cut the margin of votes between Lt. Governor
candidates Republican Dan Forest and Democrat Linda Coleman from 11,200 to just
7,000, Coleman conceded the race Monday. She could have called for recount, but
decided it was likely that she wouldn’t prevail. Forest said he was relieved
that the race could now be certified on Nov. 27th. He will be only
the second Republican Lt. Governor in NC history to serve under a Republican
governor, Pat McCrory. The two will be sworn-in in January.
GOP HOUSE SPEAKER TILLIS CHOSEN FOR
SECOND TERM
[RALEIGH]
Despite grumblings among the rank-and-file House Republicans that he was too
moderate, GOP House Speaker Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg County was re-elected to
his post for a second two-year term last Saturday. Tillis should have no
problem governing. Thanks to the Nov. 6th election, he’ll have a
super-majority of 77 out of 120 that he can override any gubernatorial veto
with, plus he’ll have Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, and state Senate leader Sen.
Phil Berger, also a Republican, to work with. Tillis is expected to push for a
new voter ID bill when the General Assembly gavels back into session in
January.
NCNAACP TO GOV.-ELECT MCCRORY: “LET’S
TALK”
[DURHAM]
Looking to start off with some sense of mutual understanding with Gov.-elect
Pat McCrory, the NCNAACP has called for a meeting with him before he takes
office in January. Rev. William Barber, president of the NCNAACP, says that
Republicans and the NAACP have worked together in the past to advance racial
equality, and there’s no reason to believe it can’t happen again with McCrory
once he takes office. At presstime Monday, there had been no response from
McCrory. The last time the former mayor of Charlotte was invited to appear with
the NCNAACP was in October during a candidates’ forum with Democratic opponent
Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton. McCrory chose not to appear, going to the NC State Fair
instead to campaign.
-30-
CASH IN THE APPLE
By Cash Michaels
HAPPY
THANKSGIVING – I hope, after all of the madness and turmoil, that you and your
family are about to take time out this Thanksgiving
season to take stock in who you are, and what you have, and indeed, thank GOD,
however you worship him, for all that you do have.
Happy
Thanksgiving, everybody.
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY, TIFFANY – A special Happy Birthday shout out to my oldest daughter, Tiffany, who turns 30 this weekend. Boy,
am I feeling like an old man. It was just yesterday that Tiff was attending
high school, getting great grades and doing high school musicals like “Annie”
and “Brighton Beach.”
She
has graduated college, earned her MBA, and gone on to be a successful sales
executive and media personality in the Washington, D.C. area. So I’m immensely
proud of her and all that she’s accomplished.
So
welcome to the “old folks” crowd, Tiff. Your mother, Felicia, would be very
proud of you.
I
know I am.
THE WILMINGTON TEN PARDON EFFORT - As you may
know, besides being editor/chief reporter for The Carolinian Newspaper
in Raleigh, and a staff writer at The Wilmington Journal in
Wilmington, I am also coordinator for The
Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project
- sponsored by the National Newspaper
Publishers Association (of which The
Carolinian and Wilmington Journal
are member newspapers) working to have Gov.
Beverly Perdue grant pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten before she
leaves office on Dec. 31st.
The Wilmington Ten, as you know, were nine black males and one white
female who, forty years ago, were falsely convicted and sentenced to 282 years
in prison - some of which they all served - for crimes they did not commit in
connection to racial violence in Wilmington in 1971.
History shows that the three witnesses who testified against the Ten
later admitted they committed perjury. In Dec. 1980, the US Fourth Circuit of
Appeals overturned the Ten’s convictions based on prosecutorial misconduct. But
the state of North Carolina never followed suit.
Since then, four of the Wilmington Ten have died, never seeing the
day when their names could be cleared.
We have been working hard since January of this year to change that.
Dec. 1st is our deadline for getting in all of our
petition signatures for the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project, so
we're trying to get as many signatures as possible before then.
Please, go to our Change.Org petition link at https://www.change.org/petitions/nc-governor-bev-perdue-pardon-the-wilmington-ten, sign it, and then send out the link via
your own email tree, asking everyone you contact to also sign it, and then
share the link with their contacts BEFORE Dec. 1st.
The governor will be making her decision in December, and we want to
have at least 1,000 online signatures. Currently we have over 730, so you see
we're hustling for the goal.
We are also asking, for those individuals, churches or institutions
who wish to beyond just signing the petition, to send letters to Gov. Perdue
asking her to grant pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten by Dec. 1st.
Here is that address:
Hon.
Beverly Eaves Perdue
Governor of North Carolina
20301
Mail Service Center
Raleigh,
NC 27699-0301
If
you want more information about the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence
Project, you can go to www.wilmingtonjournal.com or on Facebook
at https://www.facebook.com/TheWilmingtonTenPardonOfInnocenceProject
Please, as we enter this holy season of Thanksgiving and Christmas,
let us deliver peace and justice to those who have been forty years denied.
As a black journalist, and a proud member of the community, after
forty long years, I’d like to see justice done for the Wilmington Ten.
I sincerely hope that you do too.
DIRECTORS
OF COLOR – Two great holiday movies that opened on Nov. 21st by two
great directors of color.
The
first, “Rise of the Guardians,” I went to see with my youngest daughter KaLa and wife, Markita last weekend. The 3D animated feature about how Jack Frost,
Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and other classic characters come together to
fight the Boogey Man stars the voices of Chris
Pine (the new Capt. Kirk in the new “Star Trek” movies), Alec Baldwin, Jude Law and Hugh Jackman.
It
was great fun, and was directed by Peter
Ramsey, the first African-American ever to direct a major animated motion
picture.
But
I promised KaLa that she could write a review of the film, so here it is, “KaLa’s Kolomn”:
I think that “Rise of the Guardians” was a
100,000 out of 10! It was magnificent. Good effects, a heartwarming story,
wonderful characters and n awful villain.
I
recommend this to anyone that likes a good fright!!!
The
second great holiday film that KaLa and I went to see (and she’ll also review
for next week’s column) is “Life of Pi,” the story of an Indian boy who is
trapped on a small boat on the sea with a Bengal tiger. The trailer look
awesome, and the special effects folks did a bang-up job creating the tiger.
Distinguished
Academy Award winning Taiwanese director Ang
Lee of “Crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon” fame, helmed this film, and the
Oscar buzz is out for it already.
KaLa
loves to read a lot, so taking her to this kind of film is great. Most
importantly though, the big holiday films no longer belong exclusively to the
likes of Steven Spielberg and George
Lucas exclusively, and that’s a good thing!
Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m.
for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online
at www.myWAUG.com.
And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my new blog, ‘The
Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).
I promise it will be interesting.
Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing
of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash
Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of
2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for
Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.
Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your
heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment