http://nnpa.org/violence-against-women-law-needs-strengthening-violence-against-women-law-needs-strengthening/
http://nnpa.org/sending-military-equipment-to-police-questioned-by-freddie-allen/
http://nnpa.org/police-say-black-male-shot-himself-in-back-while-handcuffed-parents-demand-answers/
TILLIS VOTED "NO" TWICE
ON 1898 APOLOGY
By Cash Michaels
Editor
Earlier
this week, Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis was all smiles as he campaigned
in downtown Wilmington with controversial New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
And yet,
when Tillis had the opportunity during the 2007 session of the NC General
Assembly to have the state of North Carolina express “...profound regret that
violence, intimidation, and force were used to replace a
duly elected local government….” during the 1898 Wilmington massacre, he voted
no.
Twice.
That was
the reporting this week from the political online magazine, Mother Jones, which broke the explosive
story during the 2012 presidential elections that GOP candidate Mitt Romney,
seen on a surreptitious videotape speaking to potential donors, referred to
poor people as “…the 47 percent who will vote for [Pres. Obama] no matter
what…” because they would get things and not pay taxes.
Romney lost
the presidency decisively, observers say, as a result.
In the case
of Rep. Thom Tillis, Mother Jones
reporter Tim Murphy writes, it’s Tillis own written words, in addition to his voting
record, that are the smoking guns here.
In 2007,
after several years of research and public hearings, the 1898 Wilmington Race
Riot Commission, led by then Wilmington Rep. Thomas Wright and state Sen.
Luther Jordan, and co-chaired by State Sen. Julia Boseman and Sen. Jordan,
released a scathing report detailing how white supremacist Democrats in the
state plotted and executed a planned bloody takeover of Wilmington City
government.
The
supremacists were outraged that blacks were making significant progress in the
port city in the areas of business, politics and culture shortly after
Reconstruction, and they wanted to put a stop to it. The supremacists used an
editorial defending black men who dated white women, published in the Daily
Record, a black newspaper, as their reason for a violent massacre where an
untold number of blacks were killed or forced to flee for their lives.
History
records that neither the state nor federal governments did anything to
intercede.
The
Wilmington 1898 race massacre changed the course of North Carolina history,
ushering in Jim Crow and almost a century of racist policies that crippled
Wilmington’s African-American community for generations.
In 2002,
Rep. Wright and Sen. Jordan got the NC General Assembly to establish the
commission to investigate what happen, and then acknowledge the findings through a series
of measures, including an apology.
In 2007,
after the commission published its report, a bill was sponsored to indeed have
the General Assembly apologize, on behalf of the state, for the incidents of
1898.
A
first-term Republican lawmaker from Mecklenburg County during the 2007 session,
Tillis voted against the House version of the bill, and then voted again
against the final version of the bill after the state Senate had ratified its
version.
The state
Senate version, ironically, was co-sponsored by then state Sen. Kay Hagan, who
is now running for re-election as a US senator against Tillis, who is
challenging her for her seat.
According
to Mother Jones, in a message to
constituents, Tillis wrote, “It is time to move on. In supporting the apology
for slavery, most members felt it was an opportunity to recognize a past wrong
and move on to pressing matters facing our state. HB 751 and others in the
pipeline are redundant and they are consuming time and attention that should be
dedicated to addressing education, transportation and immigration problems
plaguing this state.”
Tillis offered another, more blunt reason
for opposing the 1898 apology measure, Mother
Jones reported.
“Not all whites had participated in the
riots,” the online mag stated. “So Tillis pushed for an amendment introduced by
a fellow state representative that would have added language to the bill
commemorating the heroic white Republican lawmakers who had opposed the
violence. "The proposed amendment would have acknowledged the historical
fact that the white Republican government joined with black citizens to oppose
the rioters," he argued. The amendment failed, and Tillis ended up voting
no on the final version. “
“This is yet
another example of Speaker Tillis’ wrong priorities,” wrote Justin Myers,
deputy Hagan campaign manager.
This is
just the latest log on the ever-growing fire of controversy concerning Thom
Tillis and race. He’s still recovering from his “divide and conquer” remark
concerning having disabled recipients of government aid to “look down’ on those
he says are lazy and don’t deserve it.
He’s also
had to deal with the fallout from remarks he made during a 2012 TV show where
he said, referring to white voters in the state, “"We need a focus on limited government and free markets, which is
something that's appealing to everybody. That kind of work will position us for
those growing sectors. The traditional population of North Carolina and the
United States is more or less stable. It's not growing. The African-American
population is roughly growing but the Hispanic population and the other
immigrant populations are growing in significant numbers. We've got to resonate
with those future voters."
Why blacks were not part of North
Carolina’s “traditional” population in Tillis’ mind was something his campaign
has yet to answer.
And the NC
House Speaker is also notorious for his marshaling in perhaps the most severe
voting law restrictions in the nation that many charged are designed to
suppress the ballots of traditional black and young voters. Tillis is also
blamed for leading the state Legislature in not extending Medicaid to over
500,000 North Carolinians, and denying over 170,000 of the state’s unemployed
jobless benefits.
-30-
EXCLUSIVE
SAYS SON WAS HUNG
By Cash Michaels
editor
Sept. 18, 2014
Sept. 18, 2014
About three
weeks ago, the body of 17-year-old Lennon L. Lacy was found in a Bladen County
mobile home park. Area media reports about the incident have all said the same
thing – that the Bladenboro Police Dept. and State Bureau of Investigation have
not released details of young Lacy’s death, and that the investigation is
ongoing.
But Lacy’s
mother has told The Carolinian
exclusively that her son was found hung, and she’s frustrated that authorities,
as of yet, have not told her why.
“What hurts
me [most] is not knowing,” she told The
Carolinian during a telephone interview last week, indicating that she was
not pleased with how the case was being handled.
“I just
want to get to the bottom of it.”
According
to Ms. Lacy, on Friday, August 29th, the local police chief came to
her home, “ …and informed me that I needed to follow him to the crime scene. At
that point they told me that one of the neighbors found [Lennon] hanging, which
she thought was someone standing. As she approached, she saw he was hanging.
She cut him down, and tried administering CPR or whatever to revive him, but
she was unsuccessful. She called the police dept.”
Press reports only said that the body was found near playground equipment. News footage showed a wooden swing set where the family had laid a tribute underneath to Lennon.
Press reports only said that the body was found near playground equipment. News footage showed a wooden swing set where the family had laid a tribute underneath to Lennon.
Ms. Lacy
says the body was discovered between 7 and 8 a.m. that morning. She says she
wasn't informed by Bladenboro police until 1 p.m. that afternoon.
Claudia
Lacy says Lennon was at home the night before, but left to go out. She says his
friends have told the family that Lennon visited a girl he was dating, then
walked over to a friend’s house to talk. Lennon was last seen between 1-1:30
a.m. that night.
She says
her family put what they were told in a statement, and submitted it to the
Bladenboro Police Dept. and State Bureau of Investigation for them to follow-up.
Claudia
Lacy says authorities told her that Lennon was hung with “a nylon rope-type
material.” But she says the SBI also told her something else that she and her
family find very hard to believe.
She says
that on Sept. 2nd, they told her Lennon’s death looked like a
suicide, and that a preliminary autopsy had been performed, but not completed.
Candace
Lacy, Lennon’s cousin, confirmed that he had been found hung, and expressed
concern that authorities had not released that information to the public. She
said it was if “they were covering up
something.”
Candace
Lacy says at the funeral wake, Lennon’s body was “really swollen…he didn’t look
like himself at all.”
She added
that there were “bruises on his arm” and “a few scratches on his face.”
Neither
Candace Lacy nor his mother believe that Lennon killed himself.
Based on
comments posted on a “R.I.P. Lennon Lacy” Facebook page, many of the young
man’s friends, apparently unaware of his mother’s statement to The Carolinian, also believe that he may
have been murdered.
“Finding
justice for Lennon Lacy and being there for his family and just being there for
each other and remember Lennon was a good friend/brother/cousin/nephew/uncle or
teammate,” is the Facebook public group description on the page, which at press
time lists 411 members.
Indeed, the
gravesite has already been vandalized, Claudia Lacy told The Carolinian, confirming in the minds of many that someone meant
her son harm.
Lennon Lee
Lacy, 17, was one of the youngest of four sons to Claudia Lacy and Larry Walton,
according to public records. The family lives in Bladenboro. Lennon, a junior,
attended West Bladen High School, and played on the football team there as a
linebacker.
He would
have graduated in 2016.
By all accounts, Lennon was well
liked and respected, both as a student and as a member of the close-knit team,
for his hard-work ethic.
So
close-knit, in fact, that on the day Lennon was found dead, the team met and
decided to still play the scheduled football game that evening, but play it in
his honor.
On Sept. 3rd,
a candlelight vigil was held for Lennon by his family and friends at the area
where his body was reported found.
One of his older
brothers, Pierre Lacy, told WECT-TV that “…he is at peace knowing that [Lennon]
knew he loved him.”
“The last
thing I was able to tell him was that I loved him,” Pierre told WECT-TV. “He
knew.”
“He made me proud to be his mom, “ Claudia
Lacy added.
Since
Lennon’s death, his friends and schoolmates have been selling “Winnin4Lennon”
wristbands to help offset the costs of his funeral, which was held Sept. 3rd.
Attorney
Allen Rogers of Fayetteville represents the Lacy family. He told The Carolinian Tuesday that even though
the funeral was held Sept. 3rd, he “…was not certain as to whether
or not a death certificate has been issued” for Lennon.
A
toxicology report usually takes weeks after an autopsy is performed, which may
be a factor in the delay.
Rogers did
say that in his conversations with the SBI, “…they have been hesitant to state
what the cause of death was
The Carolinian called and left word for
Bladenboro Police Chief Chris Hunt last week, but had not heard back from him
at press time. According to the Sept. 12th edition of The Robesonian Newspaper online, Chief
Hunt was quoted as telling the paper, “I can’t really say anything, but it’s an
ongoing investigation. We are awaiting the final results of the autopsy and,
when they are made available, the information will be turned over to District
Attorney Jon David’s office.”
Chief Hunt
would not confirm the cause of Lacy’s death to The Robesonian, saying that, “There are a lot of rumors out there,
and 99.9 percent of them are false.”
The paper
also reported that an SBI spokesperson “…confirmed that the agency’s Southeastern
District is investigating the death, but declined to release further details.”
The case
may get national attention shortly. A New York-based reporter for the British
newspaper, The Guardian, posted on
the Lennon Lacy tribute Facebook page that he wanted those who knew the young
man to contact him in New York.
-30-
TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS
9-18-14
SPECIAL MEETING ON FUTURE
OF RBTC TONITE AT CHAVIS PARK
There will
be a special meeting about the future of the Raleigh Business and Technology
Center tonight, Sept. 18th, 6 p.m. at Chavis Park Community Center.
The meeting is sponsored by the City of Raleigh. This meeting gives Southeast
Raleigh community residents a chance to give their input on why the RBTC is
still an important tool towards helping to build small businesses in the area. This
meeting is free and open to the public.
ST. AUG U’s
FUNDRAISER SATURDAY, SEPT. 20TH, 3-7 P.M.
Tickets are now available to attend Saint
Augustine’s University historical fundraiser on Saturday, September 20 from 3
p.m. to 7 p.m. This very special fundraising event will showcase the rich
legacy and highlight the contributions of Saint Augustine’s University locally,
nationally and internationally. Entertainment will be provided by vocalist
Barbara Weathers, former member of the 1990’s group, Atlantic Starr. Another
highlight of the event will be a live auction of a Mercedes SUV. Also, the
University will honor legendary Coach George “Pup” Williams.
WCPSS RECEIVES $9
MILLION GRANT FOR MAGNET PROGRAMS
The U.S.
Department of Education has announced a grant award of more than $9 million to
expand and revise magnet school themes in the Wake County Public School System.
The Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) award will provide funding over
the next three years to support three new magnet school themes. It also will
support revisions to two existing magnet themes. WCPSS enjoys a robust, national award-winning magnet
school program, operating in more than 35 schools across Wake County. WCPSS has
received $36 million from previous Magnet Schools Assistance Program Grant
awards, prior to this award.
-30-
STATE NEWS BRIEFS 9-18-14
NCNAACP WANTS BERGER
AD INVESTIGATED
[RALEIGH]
The NCNAACP filed a complaint with the NC Board of Elections this week alleging
that State Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger is misleading citizens to believe
that voter photo identification is required for voting this year, when in fact,
they are not required by law until 2016. Rev. William Barber, president of the
NCNAACP, and leader of the Moral Monday movement, told reporters that Berger is
airing a misleading television campaign that he wants removed immediately.
Barber also said that he wants a criminal prosecution if warranted.
A spokesman
for the Berger re-election campaign blasted Rev. Barber and the NCNAACP,
claiming that voter ID is the law, and that they were just trying to deny the
senator his right to “freedom of speech.”
WAKE D.A. CONSIDERING
DISMISSAL OF MORE MORAL MONDAY CASES
[RALEIGH]
Thanks to a steady pattern of court decisions ruling that Moral Monday
protesters were well within their constitutional rights last year when they
protested at the NC General Assembly, acting Wake County District Attorney Ned
Mangum is now considering not taking the remaining trespassing cases to trial.
Over 900 demonstrators were arrested and taken to Wake County jail in 2013. A handful
were found guilty, but overall, most have been either found not guilty, or had
their cases dismissed. Mangum said his office would determine which cases will
most likely be dismissed.
DARRYL HUNT’S WIFE
FILES RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST HIM
[WINSTON-SALEM]
The wife of former death row inmate Darryl Hunt has filed a restraining order
against him, alleging domestic violence, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. The pair were scheduled to appear before
a judge Wednesday. Attorneys for both agreed neither would have contact with
the other prior to the hearing. Hunt was falsely convicted in 1984 of murdering
a female newspaper editor. After 19 years, DNA evidence freed Hunt from prison in
2004.
-30-
CASH IN THE APPLE 9-18-14
By Cash Michaels
“PARDONS OF INNOCENCE” IN WASH.
D.C. NEXT WEEK - On Sept. 25th and 26th, we'll be in Washington, D.C. along with the National Newspaper Publishers Association for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, where our film, "Pardons of Innocence: The Wilmington Ten" will be screened and featured. We're certainly excited about this, and will tell you more next week.
MORE NONSENSE FROM THE NFL – Well
last week the issue was video of an alleged wife beater that stirred up the
controversy. This week, the indictment of an alleged child abuser.
In both cases, not to mention a few
extra cases of alleged abuse, all of them have two things in common – they’re
all black men, and they all draw a paycheck from the National Football League.
What is it about being an athlete
in the NFL, being black, and being more likely than anybody else in
professional sports (that we know about) to clobber your spouse or take a tree
branch to your four-year-old son? That part is a mystery, but this much we know
– the image of the black athlete, right now, is not exactly bright and shiny.
Earlier this year when Dwyane Wade , one of the most
upstanding players in the NBA, admitted to impregnating a girl while he was
still engaged to actress Gabrielle Union,
that was considered a major scandal. But compared to what we’ve been
hearing…and seeing in terms of alleged behavior among NFL players like Ray Rice
of the Baltimore Ravens and Adrian
Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings (not to mention Carolina Panthers
defensive end Greg Hardy – found guilty of assault on a female and
communicating threats; and San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald, also charged with
domestic violence), Wade’s problem pales in comparison by far.
So how does all of this affect our
community? Well, black men and women are finally opening up about all of the
facets of domestic violence. Interestingly enough, many men are now saying that
the whole story isn’t being told, and that while they firmly believe that no
man has the right to put their hands on a lady, if a woman viciously and
violently attacks them, all bets are off, and men should able to defend
themselves.
This is a worthy debate that needs
to be had. Men are expected by society to show restraint, but what restraint
are women expected to recognize? No one seems to be able to agree, but the fact
that the conversation is even being had is good.
And believe it or not, there seems
to be debate about whether corporal punishment is still worthwhile for
children. In Adrian Peterson’s case, a doctor examined his four-year-old son
and found welts and scars from alleged beatings by Peterson.
Some people, like former NBA star Charles Barkley, say black folks in the
South beat their children all the time, so what happened to Peterson’s son (and
at press time, we’re hearing that yet another son of Peterson’s may have also
been abused) was nothing new.
The question isn’t whether Adrian
Peterson allegedly beating his son is new? The question is…was it right? Many
parents, even in the black community, say no, and feel that no child in this
day and age were we know more than our foreparents did, deserves to be beaten
with belts, cords or even tree branches for the purpose of discipline. That is
definitely a debate worth having.
So let’s not waste this
opportunity, community. The issues about domestic violence and child abuse are
on the table now for all to see. These dirty little secrets no longer need to
stay secrets any longer.
Let’s do what we know we should
have been doing all along, and that’s finding solutions.
COSBY – This week a new book about
comedian Bill Cosby was released
titled, Cosby: His Life and Times, and
while I haven’t read it yet, I’ve read enough about it to stay in “can’t wait”
mode until I do.
Written by
former Newsweek Magazine editor Mark Whitaker, the book is the first major
autobiography about one of the most iconic entertainers in history. From his
truly humble beginnings in Philadelphia as a child who didn’t do so well in
school, to a young comedian with a rich storytelling talent, to the first African-American
leading man on television, to the star and producer of one of the most
successful sitcoms in television history, the story of Bill Cosby in this book
also tells of his many failures both in business (his manager spent all of his
money, almost bankrupting him), and character (Cosby carried on with women
beyond his wife).
And then
there were the personal heartbreaks, such as his daughter’s drug addiction that
took her away from the family for a decade, and the murder of his only son
Ennis, a young man Cosby called “my hero” because he overcame adversity to help
other young people.
Let’s face
it, all of our great heroes have had flaws and dark passages in their lives,
just like the rest of us. And yet, in many cases, they’ve learned from those
mistakes, and have grown. The life of Bill Cosby serves as a perfect example of
this, as he, at the age now of 71, is still going strong, preparing for another
sitcom to air on NBC sometime next year.
If any of
you get to read his book first, please let me know through Facebook what you
thought of it. Bill Cosby is one of my favorite people in life, and I’m anxious
to learn much more about his.
NEW FALL
SEASON NEXT WEEK – The new fall TV season is finally here next week on all
three major networks. A few of the new shows look enticing, but I more excited
about many of the returning shows that have been quite good in the past. On
CBS, that would include “The Good Wife,” “NCIS” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.” I’m
interested in what “NCIS: New Orleans” will look like, but I suspect it won’t
have the same energy that its predecessors have. So we’ll see.
On NBC,
“Law and Order: SVU” is the only show worthy of my time thus far, but that
could change.
Over at
ABC, I may or may not give “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” another try. It was
pretty hammy last season.
And on Fox,
the return of “Sleepy Hollow,” which is filmed in Wilmington (for now), is also
at the top of my list for must-see TV.
As per some
of the new shows to take a look at, Fox’s “Gotham” looks interesting, as does
“Blackish” over on ABC. “Madam Secretary” with Tea Leoni also looks promising
over on CBS.
So that’s
my new season TV list.
What’s
yours?
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.waug-network.com.
And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash
Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).
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.
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