Feb. 7, 2016

Predicting a 'Real Fight for the Black Vote' Former NAACP Leader Endorses Sanders for President

U. S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)  and former NAACP President Ben Jealous

 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Former NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous has announced his endorsement of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his quest for the Democratic nomination for president.

The endorsement from Jealous, a civil rights activist with a record of strong political activism, could continue to fuel the surprise shake up in the Democratic contest, largely because of Jealous’ influence with the Black vote. At one time, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was thought to be a shoe-in for the nomination. But, after her razor-thin win in Iowa, largely with the help of the Black vote, there is rising belief that Sanders could actually become the nominee.

“You’ll see a real fight for the Black vote and quite frankly, that’s the best thing for our community. The best thing for our community is for voters to really look at the records of each of these folks and to ask tough questions of the surrogates and of the candidates,” Jealous said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire. “There’s a lot of folks who’ve been suggesting that the Clintons should take our vote for granted. But our candidate will have the final word on whether or not they’re able to take it for granted or whether they will be forced to compete. I think you’re going to see people across the country force them to have to compete for our vote. No Black voter in the 21^st Century wants to feel like their vote is taken for granted.”

Jealous applauded Sanders’ 100 percent NAACP Legislative Report card record while describing the record of Clinton, also a former U. S. senator, as “complex”. Though Clinton also received straight A’s on the NAACP Legislative Report Card as a member of the U. S. Senate, Jealous said she fell short in key areas of importance to African-Americans.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave us a matrix for judging the agenda of leaders. Racism, militarism and greed. Bernie Sanders record on each of those is clear. His opposition to them, his history of fighting against them is clear. Hillary Clinton’s record on each of those is complex and also contradictory,” Jealous said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire.

Jealous detailed how Clinton, on one hand, built the Children’s Defense Fund; but on the other hand, “championed the super predator theory which said that a child at age 6 months could be a sociopath beyond redemption. And it’s only used to explain the actions of young Black men.”

On militarism, he said Clinton “opposed the war in Vietnam, but voted for the war in Iraq,” a vote that Clinton recently conceded was a “mistake” only based on information President Bush had given at the time.

As for greed, Jealous concluded, “I don’t think anybody can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that they believe Hillary Clinton did everything she possibly can to reign in our banks and to make sure that they do not send us whirling into another recession down the road.”

Jealous said Sanders has a stellar civil rights and economic justice record.

“From his days of going to jail with the Congress of Racial Equality to speed up the integration of housing in Chicago to supporting Jesse Jackson’s campaign for president in 1988, he is the only candidate that has a comprehensive racial justice platform today. He’s been extremely consistent. Militarism, he opposed the war in Vietnam, he voted against the war in Iraq. And on greed, well, quite frankly there is no one that the greediest leaders of the greediest banks fear becoming president more than Bernie Sanders,” Jealous said. “So I think at the end of the day I think the key difference is him being consistent and having the courage of his convictions.”

The Clinton campaign did not respond when asked by email for comment on the Jealous endorsement.

However, Clinton maintains a large share of Black support. They include former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

“She is the most qualified candidate, ready from day one to lead this nation, but also make sure that we’re save internationally and on the streets of America,” Nutter told a church congregation, according to media reports. He also told News Channel 6 in Philadelphia, “Lawyer out of Yale.  Didn’t go to the big law firm…She went to the Children’s Defense Fund.  She’s been focused on children and families all of her career.  Excellent service as First Lady in Arkansas.  Excellent service as First Lady to President Bill Clinton and then a United States Senator in her own right.”

Jealous, who is a venture partner with the Oakland, Calif.-based Kapor Center for Social Impact, is also co-leader of a Political Action Committee called the Southern Elections Fund. However, he said money from that PAC is on reserve for the general election – not for the primaries. “It will support whoever the eventual nominee is,” he said.

Acknowledging Clinton’s wide-spread support in the Black community, Jealous said, “She’s at her high water mark…She’s actually had so much of it that she can only lose it and Bernie Sanders can only gain it.”

 

 

 

Feb. 2, 2016

Veteran Black Politician in Iowa Says Clinton Squeaked by With Black and Latino Vote

By Hazel Trice Edney

Hillary Clinton claims victory in Iowa Monday night. PHOTO: Clinton Twitter

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Democratic Presidential contenders former Sec. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders ended the Iowa Caucuses in nearly a dead heat on Monday. But, the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) has confirmed that Clinton actually won the Iowa Democratic Caucus.

Meanwhile, a Black political veteran in Iowa says had it not been for Blacks and Latinos, Clinton would certainly have lost given the closeness of the race.

“We’re researching right now,” said Wayne Ford, a former veteran member of the Iowa Legislature who long served as its only African-American member. “A lot of young minorities came up to me and told me how they fought and argued to make sure they had the delegates to win those precincts. They were excited about that.”

A Clinton supporter, Ford said although some Blacks did support Sanders, his assessment and observation are that the Black and Latino caucus participants were engaged in supporting Clinton nearly on the same level as they were for Obama when he won Iowa over her seven years ago. Not quite as much, though, he said. If that had been the case “she would have had a landslide…But, yes, she won because the baby boomers didn’t sit home. And those minorities knew they had to get out.”

Ford knows well Iowa politics. In 1984, he co-founded Iowa's Brown & Black Presidential Forum. In 1996, he was elected to represent Iowa’s House District 71, which includes a mixture of some of the wealthiest and impoverished neighborhoods in the 92 percent White state. He was the only Black in the legislature and only the tenth elected to the body in the history of the state. He served for 14 years, becoming the longest serving African-American until his retirement in 2010.

On Monday morning, Sanders had also proclaimed a victory of sorts despite the fact that he had not won the balloting. In his view, to come so close indicated his ideals were being respected.

Iowa has 1,781 precincts in 99 counties. The result was Clinton, 49.8 and Sanders, 49.6, the IDP has confirmed. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley dropped out of the race with few votes.

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Dr. Andy McGuire said in a statement that the results are “the closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history.” 

McGuire said the Democratic Caucus also “featured one of our strongest turnouts ever and passion and energy from Democrats all across our state” as voters competed to choose between Clinton and Sanders.

Ford predicts the spiritedness of Iowa’s Democratic Caucus indicates the fervor of the Democratic electorate in coming months. African-Americans typically vote more than 90 percent Democratic. The next major Democratic votes will be casted in New Hampshire Democratic and Republican primaries Feb. 9.

Meanwhile, in a big surprise, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz defeated billionaire Donald Trump by a relatively wide margin. Polls had predicted an easy win for Trump. But pundits credit his defeat to his skipping a Fox News debate Friday night in an argument with station over who would moderate it.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, the Associated Press released the following results in the Republican Caucus: Cruz: 26 percent, Trump, 23 percent; Sen. Marco Rubio 23 percent and Ben Carson, 10 percent. Candidates Sen. Rand Paul and Jeb Bush received one delegate each, but other Republican candidates Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Rick Santorum were statistically insignificant.

The Iowa Caucus, casting the first votes in the 2016 presidential race, revealed widespread enthusiasm among voters in both parties. The final party nominees will be decided by delegates at the Republican National Convention starting July 18 in Cleveland, Ohio and the Democratic National Convention the week of July 25^th in Philadelphia. The following is the schedule for all primaries and caucuses through June 14. Source: The New York Times and wire reports.

Feb. 2 – Iowa Republican and Democratic caucuses

Feb. 9 – New Hampshire Republican and Democratic primaries

Feb. 20 – South Carolina Republican primary; Nevada Democratic caucus

Feb. 23 – Nevada Republican caucuses

Feb. 27 – South Carolina Democratic primary

March 1 – Super Tuesday: Alabama Republican and Democratic primaries, American Samoa Democratic caucuses, Alaska Republican caucuses, Arkansas Republican and Democratic primaries, Colorado Republican and Democratic caucuses, Georgia Republican and Democratic primaries, Massachusetts Republican and Democratic primaries, Minnesota Republican and Democratic caucuses, Oklahoma Republican and Democratic primaries, Tennessee Republican primary, Texas Republican and Democratic primaries, Vermont Republican and Democratic primaries, Virginia Republican and Democratic primaries

March 5 – Kansas Republican and Democratic caucuses, Kentucky Republican caucuses, Louisiana Republican and Democratic primaries, Maine Republican primary, Nebraska Democratic caucuses

March 6 – Puerto Rico Republican primary, Maine Democratic caucuses

March 8 – Hawaii Republican caucuses, Idaho Republican primary, Michigan Republican and Democratic primaries, Mississippi Republican and Democratic primaries

March 12 – District of Columbia Republican convention, Northern Mariana Islands Democratic caucuses

March 15 – Florida Republican and Democratic primaries, Illinois Republican and Democratic primaries, Missouri Republican and Democratic primaries, North Carolina Republican and Democratic primaries, Ohio Republican and Democratic primaries, Northern Mariana Islands Republican caucuses

March 19 – U.S. Virgin Islands Republican caucuses

March 22 – Arizona Republican and Democratic primaries, Idaho Democratic primary, Utah Republican and Democratic caucuses

March 26 – Alaska Democratic caucuses, Hawaii Democratic caucuses, Washington Democratic caucuses

April 5 – Wisconsin Republican and Democratic primaries

April 9 – Wyoming Democratic caucuses

April 19 – New York Republican and Democratic primaries

April 26 – Connecticut Republican and Democratic primaries, Delaware Republican and Democratic primaries, Maryland Republican and Democratic primaries, Pennsylvania Republican and Democratic primaries, Rhode Island Republican and Democratic primaries

May 3 – Indiana Republican and Democratic primaries

May 7 – Guam Democratic caucuses

May 10 – Nebraska Republican primary, West Virginia Republican and Democratic primaries

May 17 – Oregon Republican and Democratic primaries Kentucky Democratic primary

May 24 – Washington Republican primary

June 4 – U.S. Virgin Islands Democratic caucuses

June 5 – Puerto Rico Democratic caucuses

June 7 – New Jersey Republican and Democratic primaries, California Republican and Democratic primaries, Montana Republican and Democratic primaries,  New Mexico Republican and Democratic primaries. North Dakota Democratic caucuses. South Dakota Republican and Democratic primaries

June 14 – District of Columbia Democratic primary

Feb. 7, 2016

First Elected Black Governor Says the Black Vote is Clinton's Only Hope to Win Presidency
By Joey Matthews

Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who launched a four-month bid for president in 1992, has a piece of advice for Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder — the nation’s first elected African-American governor and one-time Democratic presidential candidate — issued a cautionary warning to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign prior to a talk and book-signing event at his alma mater, Virginia Union University.

When a Richmond Free Press reporter asked him to assess Mrs. Clinton’s skintight victory over Democratic rival U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, Wilder said, “I was shocked that it was that close.”

He continued, “I think everyone will see now that the only way Hillary Clinton will get the nomination is with a massive African-American vote,” he added. “Without that, it’s gone.”

The former U.S. secretary of state edged out Sen. Sanders by less than a percentage point in the first leg of the presidential nominating process. Voters then shifted their focus to the next contest — the New Hampshire primary, Feb. 9.

In 2008 and 2012, President Obama’s presidential victories were fueled largely by huge turnouts from African-American voters, where he earned well in excess of 90 percent of the black vote, including in Virginia.

Political pundits also have forecast Clinton will need substantial support from the African-American community if she is to prevail in the primary process or be successful in November’s general election against an as-yet undetermined Republican contender.

Riding the wave of popularity and national publicity, his election as governor brought in November 1989, Wilder announced midway through his four-year term that he was seeking the Democratic nomination for president. His candidacy lasted just under four months, from Sept. 13, 1991, to Jan. 8, 1992, when he announced he didn’t have time to seek the nation’s highest office and effectively run the state.

At the book signing, Wilder said that he is not ready to endorse a candidate for president at this point.

Minutes later, the governor broached the subject of the African-American vote again in his address to about 100 people in the L. Douglas Wilder Library & Learning Resource Center, where he also autographed copies of his new autobiography, “Son of Virginia: A Life in America’s Political Arena.”

When people talk about a candidate’s possibility of being elected president, “you hear, and I hear someone always saying, ‘We’ve just to have the young people’s vote for this to happen. We’ve just to get that millennial vote. We’ve just got to get the women’s vote. Don’t forget the Hispanic vote. We’ve got to have it.’

“Now I want you to raise your hands. How many of you have heard anyone publicly proclaim, ‘We have got to have the African-American vote?’

“And you won’t hear it,” he said. “People say, ‘Well, you know, they take us for granted.’ Well, what do you do about it? When you stand up, you’re not a team player.”

Wilder told the young people in the audience that it was important for them to attain the best education they can.

“When I was growing up, it was not are you going to college, but, where are you going to college?” he said.

“If you have no more than education,” he later added, “you are one step ahead of the person who doesn’t have it.”

In opening remarks, VUU President Claude G. Perkins introduced Wilder — who grew up in Church Hill in the East End section of Richmond, and served in the state Senate, as lieutenant governor and as Richmond’s mayor — as a “man from the East End who has gone to the far ends of the world to carry the message of hope, equality and dignity to mankind.”

Richmond residents and longtime friends LaVerne Cooper and Florence Neal Cooper Smith said they were thrilled they could come to see Wilder at the book signing event.

“We went to Armstrong High School with him from 1943 through 1947 and then went to Virginia Union with him from 1947 through 1951,” Cooper said. “And our husbands were members of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity with him and they were all friends. And we still stay in touch with him today,” she added.

“We’re so proud of him,” Smith said. “He’s always been a leader and a go-getter.”

Former Richmond Judge Willard H. Douglas Jr., who sat near the former governor, noted that when he was elected in 1974 by the General Assembly and became the state’s first full-time African-American judge, it was then-Sen. Wilder who had nominated him.

“He helped me and a lot of other people along the way,” the retired judge said. “He has been a great public servant for the state and the nation.”

After his address, about 70 people lined up to have their books signed by Wilder.

Dr. Gerard McShepard, chair of VUU’s Department of Natural Sciences, was first in line.

“We talk about him in one of my classes on African-American perspectives in science,” McShepard said. “He graduated from Virginia Union with a degree in chemistry and we talk about how he used his degree in the STEM field to accomplish all that he has.”

Behind him, Delores Llewellyn, an associate math professor, said, “He’s an inspiration to all of us on what you can become in life with hard work and determination.”

Jamal Ciego, a VUU junior majoring in history and political science, said he wanted to see “in person the first elected African-American governor in the nation, who has done a lot of great things. He’s an inspiration to a lot of people like me.”

Feb. 2, 2016

ASALH Director Encouraging Visits to the "Hallowed Grounds" of Black History
By Hazel Trice Edney

Sylvia Cyrus, director of ASALH PHOTO: Courtesy

African Burial Grounds, an NPS historic site in New York. PHOTO: NPS

Brown v. Board of Education Historic Site in Kansas. PHOTO: NPS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Thousands of priceless relics, artifacts and Black historic sites around the U. S. have been destroyed by accident, negligence or intention.

This is the reason that the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is calling for African-Americans and others to pay homage to those “Hallowed Grounds” of Black history during the entire year of 2016 – beyond Black History Month.

“There are a number of communities that have been completely eradicated off the map due to urban renewal, etc. There were places where Black people had thriving communities; that when change came they were completely just annihilated. We need to remember those sites,” says Sylvia Cyrus, executive director of ASALH, the 101-year-old organization founded by the “Father of Black History”, Dr. Carter G. Woodson. “We want to encourage people to find these sites and do something to support them and to increase the profile for them so that we can continue to show America and the world that African-Americans have made significant contributions and there are places that we can go that have significant importance to our history and to American history.”

Under the Black History Month theme, “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories”, Cyrus says ASALH is joining in support with the National Park Service (NPS) to encourage people across the U. S. to visit the approximately 400 federally designated historic sites in commemoration of the NPS’s 100^th anniversary this year.

“We are a spiritual people. And there’s no way in many of these instances that we can tell our story were it not for how hallowed these places are,” Cyrus says. “If you look at Annapolis, Maryland, the place where African slave ships came in. I mean that’s holy ground for us. You have to understand why that should be important to you, how that speaks to your soul, how that speaks to who we are as a people.”

However, Cyrus confirmed that only 25 of the 400 NPS-designated sites pertain specifically to Black history. Within, NPS, these 25 sites are called the African-American Experience Fund. There are efforts to add more, but she said budget shortfalls have made that difficult.

“The reality is that with the federal budget being what it is today that the National Park Service cannot even maintain the sites that they have now,” she says. “So, we know that the reality is we cannot depend upon the federal government to identify and support these sites. We have got to be able to do this through our own communities, through our states; through organizations like ASALH and walking tours and local history so that people know about these sites.”

Many historic sites and artifacts are privately owned, kept in Black families, or entrenched in communities, she points out. They may include places like a church in a local community; a place where a race riot started, or the site of some local activity that dealt with civil rights or education.

“We are charging Americans to look – not just nationally at these sites - but in your own communities; to start a dialog about places of importance that have impacted African-American Life and History.”

Robert G. “Bob” Stanton, who was the first African-American appointed as NPS director, has been credited with the growth of the NPS-designated Black history sites. The number of sites increased as well as their prominence and care during his four-year tenure between 1997 and 2001. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, Stanton established the African-American Experience Fund for that purpose.

“There are certainly more sites that need to be recognized,” says Cyrus. “We work every year to bring more on board.”

But, for now, the following are the 25 federally designated historic sites and state locations in alphabetical order:

African American Civil War Memorial, DC; African Burial Ground National Monument, New York;  Booker T. Washington National Monument, Virginia; Boston African American National Historic Site, Massachusetts;  Brown V Board of Education National Historic Site, Kansas;  Cane River Creole National Historical Park and Heritage Area, Louisiana;  Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site, DC;  Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, Ohio; Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, Ohio;  Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, DC;   George Washington Carver National Monument, Missouri;   Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, South Carolina; Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument, Maryland;  Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Arizona;  Maggie L Walker National Historic Site, Virginia; Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site, Georgia; Martin Luther King,Jr. Memorial, DC;  Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, DC; Natchez National Historical Park, Mississippi; National Underground Railroad: Network To Freedom, Nebraska; New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, Louisiana;  Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas;  Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, California;  Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, Alabama; Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, Alabama; and Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, Alabama.

“Our intent is to engage our community to certainly seek out hallowed grounds, visit them, support them, talk about them and share the history,” Cyrus says. “It’s only when we talk about this, only when we identify it that our history is not forgotten. Because we have already lost so much history, we don’t want to lose anything else.”