Statement from President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on the Passing of Muhammad Ali

June 6, 2016

Statement from President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on the Passing of Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d “handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.”

But what made The Champ the greatest – what truly separated him from everyone else – is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.

Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.

In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him – the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was – still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.

“I am America,” he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me – black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.”

That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age – not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace.

Senate Republican Leader McConnell Denies Voting Rights Problems Zenitha Prince

June 6, 2016

Senate Republican Leader McConnell Denies Voting Rights Problems

Zenitha Prince

mitchmcconnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell ( R-Ky.)

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is praising the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act, dismissing concerns that the ruling has fueled laws that undermine the voting rights of minority voters.

In Shelby County vs. Holder the Supreme Court invalidated the formula that dictated which U.S. jurisdictions would be subject to federal pre-clearance before making election changes. The formula previously targeted jurisdictions with a history of discrimination against minority voters–many of them in the South.

“What was struck down were the provisions that absurdly treated the South differently,” McConnell told USA Today. “They don’t apply anymore. It’s 50 years later.”

The Kentucky Republican made the remarks while promoting his memoir, “The Long Game,” in which he lauded the 1965 passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act. McConnell attended the bill’s signing as a guest of then-Sen. John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.).

“I was overwhelmed to witness such a moment in history, knowing that majorities in both parties voted for the bill,” McConnell writes in the book, according to USA Today.

In contrast, legislation meant to update the VRA–as mandated by the Supreme Court in Shelby–has only one Republican co-sponsor and is unlikely to be advanced. And that lack of support is despite the fact that since Shelby several states have passed restrictive laws that stymie voting access for many minority, poor and elderly voters.

“As a result of the Supreme Court’s dreadful ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, Americans across the country are now vulnerable to racially discriminatory voting laws that restrict the franchise without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and sponsor of the Voting Rights Advancement Act, has said. “We cannot sit by as the fundamental right to vote is systematically undermined.”

McConnell scoffed at such concerns, however, saying Democrats were simply trying to stack the polls with their supporters.

“A lot of this in my view doesn’t have anything to do with anything other than their estimation of what would give them an electoral advantage,” McConnell said. “It’s not really about knocking down barriers. There are no serious barriers to voting anymore anywhere in America."

Diversity Remains Elusive in U.S. Churches By Zenitha Prince

June 5, 2016

Diversity Remains Elusive in U.S. Churches
By Zenitha Prince

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Churches in the United States remain bastions of segregation decades after the Civil Rights Movement produced legal barriers to the practice.

In 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning” and, according to experts, that assertion remains true today. About eight-in-ten American congregants still attend services at a place where a single racial or ethnic group comprises at least 80 percent of the congregation, according to findings from the most recent (2012) National Congregations Study, as cited by the Pew Research Center.

And a new study from Baylor University has found that churches that attempt to create more racially diverse congregations find themselves with scantier pews. Researchers based their findings on analysis of data from more than 11,000 congregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA) from 1993-2012, as well as data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

They found that while diversity doubled in the two-decade period, membership declined by 22 percent. “Racial diversity itself is not a detriment to growth,” said lead author Kevin Dougherty, associate professor of sociology in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, in a statement. “It is the process of changing the racial composition of a congregation that causes difficulties.”

The study, “Congregational Diversity and Attendance in a Mainline Protestant Denomination” tests the belief that homogenous congregations are more likely to grow, the researchers said. “That philosophy for a long time discouraged church leaders from striving for diversity,” said study co-author Gerardo Martí, associate professor of sociology at Davidson College. “But in coming to terms with the historic racial segregation of American congregations, white pastors in the 1990s aggressively committed to overcoming discrimination, urging members to bring in those from ancestral backgrounds and reaffirm the Gospel as rooted in relationships, unity and love. Racial diversity has become a central, and sometimes dominating, ambition for many White churches.”

Despite those ambitions, the researchers concluded that churches that start off as multiracial are more likely to be successful at increasing diversity in a denomination. “We conclude that new congregations started as multiracial represent the best opportunity for diversifying a denomination,” Dougherty said. “It may be that nondenominational congregations may be more adaptable, since they do not have a denominational heritage to sustain.”

The report was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

As Western Nations Drag Their Feet, African Children Drown

June 5, 2016

As Western Nations Drag Their Feet, African Children Drown

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – There’s no telling when the tidal wave of migrants embarking from Libya to hoped-for safe shores in Europe will end or even decrease.

In miserable camps on the Libya coastline, tens of thousands of migrants, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn of Africa, are said to be massed, waiting for the chance to cross to Italy while the weather is good and seas are calm.

A Nigerian migrant, in an interview, revealed the dangers prompting those taking the ultimate risk to flee. “I was held captive for six months in a basement of an abandoned building in Sabratha,” he told a reporter. “I saw many people executed, those who tried to escape were killed by the guards, who were all Libyans.”

And some of the worst places are the government-run detention centers for migrants.

Human Rights Watch has taken scores of testimonies that tell of whippings, electric shocks, beatings, strip-searches, "people being hung upside down from the trees".

The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 1,011,700 migrants arrived by sea in 2015, and almost 34,900 by land.

Many of the migrant women are pregnant or have babies – often the result of rapes by smugglers during the long internments.

Over the past week, hundreds were reported to have perished in boats that capsized with 40 children and many newborns aboard.

“We’ll never know the exact number, we’ll never know their identity, but survivors tell that over 500 human beings died,” Carlotta Sami, of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHRC), said on Twitter.

The Independent newspaper of London this week received an International News Media award for creating the hashtag #refugeeswelcome, which followed publication of the photo of Alan Kurdi, a 3-year old toddler whose body washed up on a Turkish beach.

“It was a graphic and tragic example of the many refugee deaths being roundly ignored by most European governments and many media outlets,” said deputy managing editor Will Gore. “It symbolized both the tragedy of the situation and the failure of authorities to get to grips with the reality of what was happening.

“As our report went viral, we set up a petition with Change.org . The response of our readers urging the government to act, and soon afterwards the Prime Minister's announcement that Britain would take in more refugees, vindicated the decision.”

“Shock tactics ought to be used sparingly,” he cautioned. “And yet it remains deeply shocking that, month upon month, hundreds more people die in overcrowded ships as they attempt to escape war, persecution and poverty.

“It is horrifying that they take the risk; it is mortifying that Western nations appear paralyzed in their attempts to find a lasting solution. In that context, shouldn’t it be a shock that the refugee crisis isn’t on the front page of every paper and the homepage of every news website almost daily?”

Muhammad 'The Greatest' Ali is Dead By Frederick H. Lowe

June 4, 2016

UPDATED June 4, 11 pm

Muhammad 'The Greatest' Ali is Dead

By Frederick H. Lowe

Muhammad Ali, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, is dead

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Muhammad Ali,”The Greatest,” is no longer with us. Ali, the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion, died Friday night in a Phoenix-area hospital, where he was being treated for respiratory complications. Ali was 74 and he died from septic shock.

“After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening,” Bob Gunnell, a family spokesperson, told NBC News.

Ali won the heavyweight title in 1964, 1974, and 1978. Between February 25, 1964, and September 19, 1964, Muhammad Ali reigned as the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion. He had a record of 56 wins and five losses.

His greatest fight was “The Thrilla in Manila,” which was held October 1, 1975, in the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines. It was the third heavyweight boxing match between Ali and “Smokin” Joe Frazier.

And it was a battle between two Black gladiators, with Ali lifting his arms in triumphant before the 15^th round when Frazier’s trainer Eddie Futch threw in the towel.

I watched the fight with three friends over pay-per-view at Chicago’s Auditorium Theater. I screamed so loud and so often I couldn’t speak above a whisper for three days. An elevated train runs behind the Auditorium Theater. The motorman stopped the train and opened a car door as fight fans walked out of the Auditorium Theater after the bout ended.

“Who won the fight?,” he asked. “Ali! Ali!” the crowd chanted. The elevated train riders also began chanting “Ali! Ali!”

A funeral service is planned for Friday in Louisville, Ky., where he was born January 17, 1942. Muhammad Ali, who was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr, was a boxer who transcended the sport becoming an international figure who created pride among blacks and anger among whites because he lived the courage of his convictions.

His celebrity, like his boxing skills were without equal. He coined the phrase “Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee.” He called himself “The Greatest” and “The Prettiest.” When he fought, his arms and fists were at his waist, not covering his face like most boxers, because he was such a fast puncher. He also started the “Ali Shuffle,” showing off his fast footwork in the ring. Black boys imitated his style and worshipped him. They called him “Champ.”

In one of many books written about Ali, the author discussed how people reacted to him when he walked near New York’s Central Park. Vendors left their hot dog carts; prostitutes stopped working; cab drivers got out their taxis and citizens chased after him begging for autographs.

At the age of 22, he won the world heavyweight championship in 1964 from Sonny Liston. Shortly after the fight, Clay joined the Chicago-based Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali in honor of one the great kings of Egypt.

In 1967, Ali refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, saying ‘no Vietcong ever called me nigger.’ He was arrested and found guilty of draft evasion, stripped of his title. His license to box was revoked. Ali remained free on bond as he appealed his conviction.

His courage in refusing to be drafted did not endear him to the nation’s overwhelmingly white sports writers employed by the nation’s major newspapers.

They called him Clay instead of Ali. Most of them wanted him in prison. The Chicago Tribune published at least 30 anti-Ali stories in one edition. When he showed the first signs of Parkinson’s disease, including slurred speech, many sports writers speculated that he was taking Heroin.

Heavyweight boxer Ernie Terrell refused to call Clay Muhammad Ali and Terrell paid for it. During a 15-round championship fight on Feb. 6, 1967, in Houston, Ali beat Terrell without mercy. Ali taunted him throughout the bout screaming “Uncle Tom! What’s my name?”

Both of Terrell’s eyes were swollen shut from the beating.

I first met Ali after he had been stripped of his heavyweight title. I was Minister of Information for the black student union at Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Wash. I wrote him a letter and said the Black Student Union would pay him $1,000 if he would come to Tacoma and speak to our group. He did. I introduced him to the audience.

In July 1970, a federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali’s boxing license.