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Civil Rights Leaders Lament ‘Unfinished Business’ on MLK Holiday By Hazel Trice Edney

Civil Rights Leaders Lament ‘Unfinished Business’ on MLK Holiday
By Hazel Trice Edney

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Barbara Arnwine, president, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

lorraine miller

Lorraine Miller, president, NAACP

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U. S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), chair, Congressional Black Caucus

richard trumka

Robert Trumka, president, AFL-CIO

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – As millions of people around the nation enjoyed the day off on Monday - many volunteering or commemorating the Martin Luther King birthday holiday with educational activities - civil rights leaders issued clarion calls that America faces “substantial unfinished business.”

“Without a doubt, there’s substantial unfinished business ahead of us as a nation, particularly on issues like voting rights and political empowerment, health inequities, employment, and asset-building,” said a statement from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “Regrettably, some 45 years since his assassination, there’s clear evidence that many of Dr. King’s goals have yet to be achieved.”

The Joint Center, a think tank for national Black politics and economics, recently issued a report declaring “there is strong statistical evidence that politics is re-segregating, with African Americans once again excluded from power and representation. Black voters and elected officials have less influence now than at any time since the Civil Rights era.”

The extent of the outcries from rights leaders seem to have reached epic proportions. Barbara Arnwine, president/CEO of The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued a two- page essay on Monday, the first of what she said would be a series of statements in response to the King Holiday this week. She pointed to the 50^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s vision for a “Great Society” and among the greatest indicators of unfinished business.

“This vision of a ‘Great Society’ reflected Dr. King’s dream of economic prosperity, and established many programs that have significantly reduced poverty, including the Social Security Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and the nation’s first food stamp program to combat hunger, notably African American poverty dropped from a height of 56 percent in the 1960s to approximately 31 percent today,” Arnwine pointed out. “However, 50 years later, these very programs that resulted in profound improvements in quality of life for the needy are being declared failures to be terminated, despite their gains. In President Johnson’s 1965 speech on passage of the Voting Rights Act, he made clear that ending poverty is part of the campaign for human rights…We have made great strides in reducing abject poverty, but too many families remain unable to make ends meet.”

Civil rights leaders, who specialize on various issues, point to vast inequalities indicating the need for multiple strategies.

“Sadly in 2014 the ugly specter of racial injustice still haunts every aspect of American society,” Arnwine continued. “Fifty years later, the inequality Johnson described has persisted in unemployment and increased through homelessness in communities of color, communities both urban and rural, and for too many children and seniors. We have dismantled formal school segregation, but continue to struggle with providing a quality education to all. Informal segregation in housing further impacts our ability to provide educational opportunities. There are no longer poll taxes or literacy tests, but in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder, jurisdictions have enacted new discriminatory barriers to voting. We must honor Dr. King’s vision of a society free of racial discrimination and poverty by examining how efforts to solve those problems must be improved.”

The strategies are as vast as the problems themselves.

“We'll march for it. We'll sing for it. We'll shout for it and stand for it, when it's easy and when it's hard, and the harder it is, the louder we'll sing, and the longer we'll stand!” proclaimed AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking in San Antonio, Texas on Monday.

Reflecting on the words of the civil rights anthem, “We shall overcome someday,” Trumka thundered to the crowd, “The 99 percent need that new day now - the 10 million jobless workers. College graduates loaded with debt, and their parents, who want to retire but can’t. We need that day now - because too many people who work for a living are pursuing dreams that just keep getting farther away! And so we are here to celebrate the dream of Dr. King, on a day when the dreams of too many of us are slipping from our fingers!

Meanwhile, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) released a statement in which she questioned how Dr. King would respond to the conditions of today.

“I believe Dr. King would applaud the progress we have made toward racial and social equity, but he would strongly caution us about the shrinking equality of opportunity currently plaguing our world,” Fudge said. “He would question our nation’s persistently high unemployment rate, particularly for African- Americans. He would ask why Congress couldn’t agree on extending unemployment insurance to the long-term unemployed - the people who need it the most. Dr. King would ask why millions of Americans continue to live in poverty and seek work while corporations post billions in record profits. He would call for individuals to be paid wages that would prevent them from falling below the poverty line.”

She concluded, “If he were alive today, Dr. King would certainly be proud of who we are, but he would also say that we must commit to move forward together as one nation, we must not rest on our progress, there is still much work to be done.”

Regardless of the strategies it will take to move forward, NAACP Interim President/CEO Lorraine C. Miller says it must include Americans from all niches of society – following King’s example - in order to make serious progress.

“Of the chance to serve, Dr. King once said: Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve,” Miller said. “You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And serve, he did. Dr. King was a leader in service to others, to the causes of civil and human rights, and to making the United States a great nation—for all.”

Man Ordered to Stand Trial in Killing of Black Motorist Seeking Help By Frederick H. Lowe

Jan. 19, 2014

Man Ordered to Stand Trial in Killing of Black Motorist Seeking Help
By Frederick H. Lowe

Renisha McBride and Jonathan Ferrell. They were both shot to death while
seeking help following separate traffic accidents.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Theodore Wafer, a Dearborn Heights, Mich., man on Wednesday was ordered held over for trial on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the deadly shooting of an African-American motorist who knocked on his door seeking help, following an automobile accident.

Wafer, who has admitted to killing Renisha McBride, a 19-year-old Detroit woman, was arraigned before Wayne County, Mich., Court Judge Qiana Lillard. His jury trial is scheduled to begin June 2, 2014.

The 54-year-old Wafer shot his gun through a locked screen door, wounding Hunt in the head after she pounded on his door seeking help on November 2. Police responding to a 911 call found her body on Wafer's front porch.

Wafer said through his attorney he believed Hunt was attempting to break into the home, where he lived with his elderly mother, but Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said there were no signs of attempted forced entry. Wafer has pled not guilty to the charges.

He remains free on bond.

McBride was the second Black motorist shot to death iin 2013 while seeking help following an automobile accident.

In September, Randall Kerrick, a cop with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) Police Department, shot to death Jonathan Ferrell, who was seeking help after he had been in a traffic accident.

Ferrell, 24, knocked on the door of a woman homeowner. She panicked, fearing he was a burglar. She called the police. When Kerrick and two other police officers arrived, Ferrell ran toward them his arms outstretched, apparently thinking they were there to help him.

They weren’t.

Kerrick fired his pistol 12 times, wounding Ferrell 10 times, killing him instantly.

On Monday, Christopher Chestnutt, the attorney for Ferrell's family, sued Kerrick, Police Chief Rodney Monroe, the county and city of Charlotte over Ferrell's death. Police charged Kerrick with voluntary manslaughter.

Roy Cooper, North Carolina's Attorney General, issued a statement on Monday in which he said he would seek an indictment of voluntary manslaughter against Kerrick before the Mecklenburg Grand Jury.

Promise Zones: White House Announces New Focus on America’s Poor by Hazel Trice Edney

UPDATED Jan. 14, 2014

Promise Zones: White House Announces New Focus on America's Poor
Announcement comes in the 50th year after Johnson's War on Poverty and on the eve of the King birthday holiday.

By Hazel Trice Edney

President Barack Obama announces a new vision for girding up America’s poor. PHOTO: Mark Mahoney/Trice Edney News Wire.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Reminiscient of Pesident Johnson's 1964 "War on Poverty" that followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s. “I Have a Dream” speech, President Barack Obama has announced a new vision for girding up America’s poor.

With students from the Harlem Children’s Zone standing in the background Jan. 9, Obama has announced a new program, Promise Zones, in which the White House will focus on poverty in neighborhoods of at least 20 cities. The program, which comes in the fifth year of Obama’s presidency, also marks years since President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty in America”. Johnson’s declaration came a year after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was led by Dr. King.

“It’s now been 50 years since President Johnson declared an unconditional War on Poverty in America. And that groundbreaking effort created new avenues of opportunity for generations of Americans. It strengthened our safety net for working families and seniors, Americans with disabilities and the poor, so that when we fall - and you never know what life brings you - we can bounce back faster. It made us a better country and a stronger country,” he told the audience in the East Room of the White House. “Today’s economic challenges are different. But they’ve still resulted in communities where in recent decades wrenching economic change has made opportunity harder and harder to come by. There are communities where for too many young people it feels like their future only extends to the next street corner or the outskirts of town, too many communities where no matter how hard you work, your destiny feels like it’s already been determined for you before you took that first step.”

He continued, “I’m not just talking about pockets of poverty in our inner cities. That's the stereotype. I’m talking about suburban neighborhoods that have been hammered by the housing crisis. I'm talking about manufacturing towns that still haven't recovered after the local plant shut down and jobs dried up. There are islands of rural America where jobs are scarce. They were scarce even before the recession hit - so that young people feel like if they want to actually succeed, they've got to leave town, they've got to leave their communities.”

In a nutshell, the Promise Zones will bring together non-profit organizations, the government and schools in order to strengthen economic vitality, schools, and public safety – with a specific focus on children. The first five will be located in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Texas; Philadelphia; the state of Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. First mentioned in the President’s State of the Union Address last year, the White House describes it as “a way to partner with local communities and businesses to create jobs, increase economic security, expand access to educational opportunities and quality, affordable housing and improve public safety.”

As the U. S. Congress had so far failed to extend emergency unemployment benefits to more than a million people across the nation, the President’s announcement won strong applause from hopeful Black leaders who grapple with issues of economic deprivation every day.

“Necessary, long overdue, and a step in the right, direction,” was the initial reaction of John Hope Bryant, President/CEO of Operation HOPE, which works to strengthen the nation’s entrepreneurship and small businesses. “One of the things I think he’s doing is creating a framework of safety and basic infrastructure support around the kids’ education and aspirations. This is not one grand master plan because the neighborhoods will all need different strategies. But he is wrapping them around an enabling environment.”

Bryant is especially happy that the President is using terms that directly refers to the impoverished. For the past five years, Obama has been criticized by some for almost only referring to the “middle class.”

“It’s not in vogue to talk about poverty in America. But, that’s the conversation they need to be having. Because if we don’t empower the poor and create a true ‘ladder of opportunity’ – to borrow from the President’s phrase – from the working class and the working poor to the middle class, the whole bet’s off for America. So he’s beginning to talk about all the right things. He’s got to go deeper, harder, stronger, more consistent. I have hopes that he will do it.”

Pesident Obama's announcement also comes on the eve of the national Martin Luther King birthday holiday, Monday, January 20. NAACP Washington Bureau Director Hilary Shelton is elated about the timely announcement of a progam that he hopes will finally bring the help that Dr. King called for and that has been historically needed.

“This is a wonderful way to start this year,” Shelton said. “It’s exactly where it needs to be. Before the economic [crisis] hit, African-Americans were disproportionately poor and disproportionately underserved when the economic downturn hit. The number of African-Americans that were in the middle class was cut by half. And only 44 percent of African-Americans owned their homes then.

“So, this is a tremendous move in the right direction. We have to find ways to find folk to move them in to the middle class. The focus has always been on the folks living on Main Street. We all want to live on Main Street. But, we have disproportionately more of African-Americans living on back street that we still need to rise in that direction.”

African-American leaders aren’t the onlyy ones applauding the new program. The Promise Zone has the potential of establishing strange bedfellows. Senate republican leader Mitch McConnell and ultra conservative Sen. Rand Paul both attended the White House announcement. This week, Paul was set to give the keynote speech at an announcement of a similar program at the Heritage Foundation, the ultra-conservative D. C.- based think tank.

Heritage President Sen. Jim DeMint was to the announce “Economic Freedom Zones that would “reduce taxes and ease government regulation in distressed areas,” according to a release.

The statement added, “President Obama recently praised Sen. Paul for his bill currently moving through Congress to create "Economic Freedom Zones".

Obama also acknowledged Paul in the audience at the White House.

“And I’ve been very happy to see that there are Republicans like Rand Paul, who’s here today, who are ready to engage in this debate,” the President said. “That's a good thing. We’ve got Democratic and Republican elected officials across the country who are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. And this should be a challenge that unites us all. I don't care whether the ideas are Democrat or Republican. I do care that they work.”

Promising to give more details in his State of the Union Address on Jan. 28, the President concluded that he is excited about this year. “This is going to be a year of action. That’s what the American people expect, and they’re ready and willing to pitch in and help. This is not just a job for government; this is a job for everybody.”

Congressional Black Caucus Faces Tough Battles in 113th Congress by Zenitha Prince

Jan. 19, 2014

Congressional Black Caucus Faces Tough Battles in 113th Congress

By Zenitha Prince

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In a Congress likely to be steeped in the politics of this year’s midterm elections, the Congressional Black Caucus said it will continue to fight for issues important for communities of color.

“We all know that 2013 was one of the least productive years in the history of the Congress,” said CBC Chair Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) in a press call on Jan. 15. “Yet, the Congressional Black Caucus diligently worked on a number of issues and was successful in influencing policies that benefitted our communities and that would, but for us, be disregarded or completely ignored.”

Many of the priorities on the CBC’s 2014 agenda reflect ongoing concerns from 2013—reducing poverty and closing the income inequality gap, the challenges facing historically Black colleges and universities and increasing diversity in judicial nominations.

Poverty continues to be a scourge in Black communities—almost 10 million African Americans, including 4 in 10 Black children, live in poverty; almost 12 percent of African Americans are unemployed, etc.—cited Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who heads the CBC’s Poverty and the Economy Task Force.

Due to the CBC’s persistent efforts on reducing poverty, however, the issue has “gained momentum on Capitol Hill,” Lee said, and the CBC will continue to build on those gains.

The CBC will continue to advocate for an increased federal minimum wage, or living wage; it will continue to garner support for the Half in Ten Act, legislation – authored by Lee – which would create and implement a plan to cut poverty in half within 10 years, and it will continue to lobby for bills that create more high-earning jobs.

“We know the best pathway out of poverty is a job,” Lee said.

Deputy Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said the CBC will also continue to support the Affordable Care Act, and Medicare and Medicaid. The latter were key contributors to the gains made by the War on Poverty launched by President Lyndon Johnson a half-century ago, he said.

Another key initiative on the CBC’s “War on Poverty” will be its advocacy for the “10-20-30” initiative, which would require that at least 10 percent of federally appropriated money be spent in those communities where 20 percent or more the population has been locked below the poverty level for at least 30 years.

The targeted spending approach was first introduced by Clyburn as an amendment to the rural spending section of the Reinvestment Act. It resulted in funding for 4,655 projects totaling nearly $1.7 billion in chronically impoverished counties.

“We believe we have come upon a formula that can be used in our budget to direct resources to communities irrespective of the color or ethnicity of the people that live there,” he told reporters. “We are asking for that ’10-20-30’ approach to be included in other parts of our budget so that we can tackle poverty at the community level.”

Attempts to create income equality must also address education, and, for the Black community, HBCUs play an integral role. But the recent recession and changes in federal policy—such as changes in the credit eligibility criteria for Parent PLUS loans and a 5.1 percent cut in HBCU budgets due to sequestration—are endangering those higher education institutions, CBC members said.

“There is clearly a crisis at HBCUs as a result of Parent Plus loans,” said Fudge.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education made the underwriting standards for these popular loans more stringent and implemented those changes without input from or explanation to HBCUs. Within one year, Parent Plus loan denials skyrocketed by 50 percent for parents with students at HBCUs, Fudge said.

According to the Association for Public and Land-Grant Universities, 14,616 students at HBCUs learned their parents had been denied Parent PLUS loans in fall 2012; and HBCUs lost about $168 million as a result of the large number of students who were not able to start or continue their college education.

Overall, according to Education Department statistics, 101,740 fewer African-American students enrolled in higher education institutions in fall 2012.

In September 2013, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan apologized for the debacle to a group of HBCU presidents, administrators and faculty gathered for the annual National HBCU Week Conference in Washington, D.C.

“I know it’s been hard, it’s been frustrating, and some of you are angry,” Duncan told the group, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education. “I am not satisfied with the way we handled the updating of PLUS Loans, and I apologize for that.”

Despite the apology—and despite the CBC’s appeals to the department—revisions have yet to be made, Fudge said.

The CBC will continue to agitate for those changes as it will for a less homogenous judiciary, members said.

“We feel that it is pretty important to have African-American judges, both at the trial and the appellate level in every circuit in our country,” said Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.). “The problem is that we have Republican United States senators who have been blocking this progress.”

Out of the 55 African Americans nominated to the bench by President Obama, only 42 have been confirmed, Butterfield said. Additionally, 43 seats at the district and appellate levels remain empty.

“The president needs to be more proactive in nominating African Americans to the bench [and] we would hope he would be less conciliatory with those Republican senators who have demonstrated that they are obstructionists,” said the North Carolina Democrat. “What we’ve got to do is continue to put pressure on the White House…and at the same time we need to encourage the Senate leadership to proceed with confirmation proceedings.”

Study: Half of Black Men Arrested by Age 23 by Zenitha Prince

Jan. 12, 2014

Study: Half of Black Men Arrested by Age 23
By Zenitha Prince

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Nearly half of all African-American males are arrested by age 23, outpacing their White counterparts, according to a new study published Jan. 6 in the journal Crime & Delinquency.

Robert Brame, the study’s lead author and a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina, said the racial differences are the most striking aspect of the study. Compared to the 49 percent of the Black male population arrested at least once for a non-traffic offense by age 23, approximately 40 percent of White males are arrested by that age.

The disturbing findings present weighty implications for the Black community as arrests can severely impact an individual’s ability to find employment, pursue education and participate in their communities, researchers said.

“Many males—especially Black males—are navigating the transition from youth to adulthood with the baggage and difficulties from contact with the criminal justice system,” Brame said in a statement. “Criminal records that show up in searches can impede employment, reduce access to housing, thwart admission to and financing for higher education and affect civic and volunteer activities such as voting or adoption. They also can damage personal and family relationships.”

The study, which researchers said represents the first set of contemporary findings on the risk of arrest across race and gender, analyzed national survey data from 1997 to 2008 of teenagers and young adults ages 18 to 23, and their arrest histories. Excluding arrests for minor traffic violations, the study considered a range of offenses including truancy and underage drinking to more serious and violent offenses.

Among the study’s key findings was that, by age 18, almost one-third of Black males, 26 percent of Hispanic males and 22 percent of White males have been arrested. Some states consider adolescents as young as age 16 and 17 to be adults in the eyes of the law.

As the ages increase, so do the rates of arrest: by age 23, 49 percent of Black males, 44 percent of Hispanic males and 38 percent of White males have been detained by law enforcement, the study found.

Among females, the prevalence of arrests also increased as they aged, but the variations based on race were slight—arrests of White females actually slightly outpace their minority counterparts. At age 18, arrest rates were 12 percent for White females and 11.8 percent and 11.9 percent for Hispanic and Black females, respectively. By age 23, arrest rates were 20 percent for White females and 18 percent and 16 percent for Hispanic and Black females, respectively.

The study builds on a previous effort by the team, which includes Ray Paternoster at the University of Maryland, Michael Turner at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Shawn Bushway at the University at Alban. The earlier study was released in January 2012 in the journal Pediatrics and was the first that examined arrest prevalence since the 1960s; researchers found that one in three persons are arrested by age 23.

Brame said additional research needs to focus on developing an understanding of the economic, social and law enforcement factors that can influence arrests and what role gender and race play.

“As a society, we often worry a great deal about the effects of children watching television, eating junk food, playing sports and having access to good schools,” he said. “Experiencing formal contact with the criminal justice system could also have powerful effects on behavior and impose substantial constraints on opportunities for America's youth.”