Black Mayor Slams Majority White City Council

Jan. 12, 2014

Black Mayor Slams Majority White City Council

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Richmond, Va. Mayor Dwight C. Jones is stepping up his efforts to win support for a grand revitalization plan and overcome the reluctance and resistance he is facing from a majority White City Council.

On New Year’s Day, at an annual Emancipation Proclamation celebration, the mayor tongue-lashed the majority White City Council for failing to embrace the $200 million Shockoe Bottom plan he views as essential to raising resources to provide better schools and address the high level poverty that impacts one of every four residents. And he appealed for community backing for his vision of bringing a new minor leagueball park and $125 million in new development to this section of Downtown, including a new hotel, grocery store and apartments.

“All of us are in this together,” he said in seeking to rev up support for his proposal at the annual worship service at Fifth Street Baptist Church. A few days earlier, he took his campaign to a town hall meeting called by two South Side members of council, Kathy C.Graziano, 4th District, and Michelle R. Mosby, 9th District. Then, he led a Richmond delegation to Durham, N.C., to see that city’s downtown ballpark and surrounding development.

The 53 people who made the trip with him included five members of council. They were Mosby; Jonathan T. Baliles, 1st District; Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District; Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District; and Cynthia I. Newbille, 7th District. Council President Charles R. Samuels, 2nd District, Chris A. Hilbert, 3rd District, Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, and Graziano stayed home.

At the New Year’s event, Mayor Jones told the mostly Black audience that the council members who are pushing back against his plan might not have the community’s best interests at heart. In his brief remarks, he told the audience that the city is “still 50 percent African-American,” but there’s now a council majority “that does not look like us.”

He said that his plan is important for creating jobs and growth. “Don’t listen to people who tell youth is is a baseball plan,” the mayor told his listeners at Fifth Baptist Church who gathered for worship and praise in honor of the landmark proclamation President Abraham Lincoln issued in 1863 abolishing slavery in Virginia and nine other breakaway Southern states.

“It’s not about baseball,” Mayor Jones said. “It’s about economic development”and the creation of hundreds of new jobs. The plan he unveiled two months ago calls for the city to borrow and invest $80 million around 17th and East Broad streets to create a new home for the city’s minor league Flying Squirrels, accompanied by sufficient private development to generate the taxes to cover the city’s debt. His proposal also calls for clearingThe Diamond to create 60 acres along the Boulevard for additional private, tax generating development that would bring fresh revenue into city coffers.

The proposal also calls for the city, state and private sector to invest $30 million toacknowledge Richmond’s disgraceful pastas the hub of the slave trade, complete the Black History Museum’s new home andcreate a monument in honor of the Lincolnproclamation.The mayor, who also is a Baptist minister,happily accepted the endorsement of the plan by the nearly 200-member Baptist Ministers’Conference of Richmond and Vicinity, which puts on the New Year’s event.

“For us, it’s about bringing more jobs and economic development to the city,” said the Black ministers group’s president, Dr. Marlon Haskell, the pastor at Chicago Avenue Baptist Church on South Side. The three Black representatives on the nine-member City Council — Robertson, Newbille and Mosby — appear to be yes votes for the mayor’s plan.Two White members — Agelasto and Trammell — have said they welcome the private business development but are inclined to reject the plan if the ballpark must be included.

A third White member, Hilbert is also considered a likely no vote as well, sources have told the Free Press.The other three White members — Samuels, Baliles and Graziano —have not endorsed the proposal.Three no votes would effectively kill the proposal, since it would involve the sale or transfer of city property.

The state constitution requires at last seven of the nine council members to vote in support of a proposal when the title to city property is to change hands.The governing body has put off a vote until at least Jan. 27 on a resolution of endorsement.

Emergency Jobless Benefits Lead 2014 Congressional Agenda This Week by Hazel Trice Edney

Jan. 7, 2014

Emergency Jobless Benefits Lead 2014 Congressional Agenda This Week
By Hazel Trice Edney

unemployment

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As millions of Americans returned to work from holiday vacations this week, at least 1.3 million others are glued to a congressional debate to see whether their emergency unemployment insurance will be extended.

No doubt, with the approximate 12 percent Black unemployment rate, double that of Whites, African-Americans are disparately affected by the pending decision.

“This issue is particularly critical for our community. Although African-Americans make up fewer than 13 percent of the national population, we represent more than 22.6 percent of the long-term unemployed,” said Hilary Shelton, Washington Bureau director of the NAACP, which issued a statement pleading with Congress to restore the benefits.

Emergency unemployment, first enacted in 2008, makes 47 weeks of benefits available to people still looking for work when their state unemployment benefits end.

But, a bi-partisan budget deal struck in Congress in December did not include the emergency insurance, which ended Dec. 28. The scenario sparked new hardships for unemployed people who now face 2014 wondering how they will pay their bills, keep warm and feed their families without it.

The debate comes down to a partisan standoff. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was correctly optimistic as the Democratic-led Senate moved to discuss the emergency relief bill on Tuesday. But, although a bi-partisan group is working on a three-month extension, it was not clear how the Republican dominated House of Representatives will vote.

Democrats argue that denying the insurance not only hurts households, but puts a drag on the already beleaguered American economy. Republicans argue that continuing emergency unemployment insurance allows the Obama Administration and Congress to procrastinate on establishing new ways to build the jobs market. Republicans also say the $25 billion cost of the extension is too much.

Such is the familiar character of Washington politics in the second session of the 113th Congress. Meanwhile, President Obama, back from Christmas in Hawaii, is pushing for the extension of the emergency insurance. Saying it is “just plain cruel” to deny the continuation, he called for the same bi-partisan cooperation that led to the passage of the budget in December. He says he would sign the bill if it is passed.

“Just a few days after Christmas, more than one million of our fellow Americans lost a vital economic lifeline – the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet while they look for a job,” he said in his weekly address on Saturday. “Republicans in Congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire. And for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all.”

The Senate was set to return to session Monday and the House of Representatives was to return on Tuesday – the same day the President has set a White House gathering with some who have lost their unemployment benefits. With mid-term elections coming up Nov. 4, 2014, it’s difficult to predict whether enough Republicans will heed the pleas to pass the emergency relief or whether they will stick to their partisan stances to win votes.

Obama indicates the unemployment insurance crisis could cause a setback just as America is in striking distance of financial recovery.

“After five years of working and sacrificing to recover and rebuild from crisis, we have it within our power, right now, to move this country forward,” he said. “It’s entirely up to us. And I’m optimistic for the year that lies ahead.”

Youth Violence Higher in Communities With Few Black Men by Zenitha Prince

Jan. 5, 2014

Youth Violence Higher in Communities With Few Black Men

By Zenitha Prince

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University of Michigan School of Public Health. (Courtesy Image)

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In neighborhoods where men are missing in action, youth violence is more likely, a recent University of Michigan study has concluded.

A research team from the university’s School of Public Health zeroed in on Flint, Mich., a former auto industrial town, with a large Black population, that is now one of America’s most economically challenged and violent cities. They cross-referenced police data on youth assault arrests and U.S. Census Bureau data and found that in census tracts where there were low ratios of adult men to adult women, young people were 36 percent more likely to commit assaults.

When education attainment was added to the analysis, the results were even more pronounced: Adult male scarcity and the lack of a high school degree together accounted for 69 percent of the variation in the rates of violent behavior among 10-to-24-year-olds.

Daniel Kruger, research assistant professor at the university and an author of the study, told the AFRO that previous research has tied the absence of fathers to the increased likelihood that those children would be poor, would use drugs and would experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems and other adverse outcomes. However, he added, his study is the first to examine the impact of adult scarcity on youth violence at a community-wide level.

“Male scarcity is a powerful risk factor for youth violence that is currently unrecognized,” he said.

More than 24 million—or 1 in 3—children live apart from their biological fathers, according to 2011 U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The absence of these male figures are more pronounced in African-American homes, where 64 percent of children live without a father compared to 34 percent of Hispanic children and 25 percent of White children.

“It is definitely a factor that affects the African-American community in Flint,” Kruger said.

The professor pointed to several factors that may account for the male shortage in Flint and similar communities: Across the United States, men have been more likely to lose their jobs and were more likely to seek unemployment away from their communities. They also experienced higher mortality rates than women due to violence and disease; and higher incarceration rates have also siphoned men away from their neighborhoods.

In light of these findings, Kruger suggested that intervention programs that strengthen relationships between fathers and children could mitigate youth violence. He also said that officials need to rethink policies that over-criminalize and over-incarcerate men for low-level infractions.

“When you take men out of the community you have this scarcity of men who could be positive role models and provide economic stability,” he said.

Civil Rights Advocates Continue Fight for Voting Rights by Zenitha Prince

Jan. 5, 2014

Civil Rights Advocates Continue Fight for Voting Rights

By Zenitha Prince

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - With mid-term elections drawing closer, voting rights groups are advancing their efforts to disable voter ID and other laws that, they say, suppresses votes.

In a post-trial brief issued in late December, the Advancement Project, a national civil rights group, continued its campaign to nullify Wisconsin’s 2011 voter ID law, Act 23, using Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act as its basis.

The lawsuit, the merits of which were argued in a Nov. 4-15 bench trial before U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee, was the first challenge of its kind since the Supreme Court blocked enforcement of Section 5 of the VRA in June 2013.

Adelman, who didn’t make a ruling at the time, gave the opposing parties a month to make post-trial arguments.

Advancement Project and co-counsel Arnold & Porter, who represented four groups that represent minority voters, urged the judge to issue a permanent injunction against Act 23, arguing that it was an “engine of discrimination,” reminiscent of voter suppression laws of the segregation era.

“Wisconsin has long been recognized as the Selma of the North and this case illustrates just why the Midwestern state bears this harrowing distinction,” said James Eichner, the group’s managing director for programs, in a statement. “Wisconsin’s discriminatory voter ID law is virtually indistinguishable from Jim Crow laws of earlier eras which required poll taxes, property requirements, literacy tests and other contrived, racist measures designed to prevent African Americans from voting.”

In the post-trial brief, Advancement Project attorneys said the law would have a disproportionate impact on minority voters, citing experts who showed that based on the state’s 2013 data, African-Americans are at least 40 percent more likely than Whites to lack a driver’s license or state ID, while Latino voters are nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to lack one.

The disparity could result in the abridgement of those voters’ right to vote, the brief posited.

“African American and Latino voters are more likely to be unable to vote, to face additional burdens to vote, or to have their ability to vote determined in the discretion of individual poll workers, who will decide whether they may participate in Wisconsin’s elections,” it stated “And they are more likely to be denied the vote outright by Act 23.”

Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed Act 23 into law in 2011. The measure’s supporters say it is necessary to protect against voter fraud.

On March 12, 2012, Circuit Judge Richard Niess declared Act 23’s photo ID requirements “unconstitutional to the extent they serve as a condition for voting at the polls." The judge also permanently enjoined the defendants "from any further implementation or enforcement of those provisions."

Adelman’s ruling on whether to permanently ban Wisconsin’s voter ID law could have ripple effects on other states, where voter ID and other election laws are being challenged.

Tulane student, 22, Wins Seat in Mississippi Legislature by Mason Harrison

Jan. 5, 2014

Tulane Student, 22, Elected to Mississippi Legislature
By Mason Harrison
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Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Up-and-coming leaders who inject new ideas and energy into the political process are the lifeblood of American democracy. The phrase has been applied, at one time or another, to a number of political leaders on the current national stage and it is being bandied about in reference to a newly elected member of the Mississippi Legislature.

Jeramey Anderson is a senior at Tulane University’s campus in Biloxi, Miss., where he studies public relations and homeland security, and he won a seat in the state House of Representatives during a November special election.

Anderson, a Democrat, turned 22 when he was sworn in on Dec. 6, making him the youngest member of the state Legislature and an immediate stand-out in a profession known for valuing seniority and having wait-your-turn rules of operation. But Anderson, a native of Moss Point, Miss., didn’t wait for permission to seek elected office and bested a field of five candidates in the race, including the current mayor of Moss Point who garnered backing from local Democratic leaders.

“In the beginning, I considered running for a local position when I first started to look at getting into politics,” Anderson said. “But then, after having a conversation with my uncle, I started to look at something a little higher in terms of state politics where so many decisions are made that affect local issues.” Anderson said his interest in public service began in high school and stems from various community service endeavors that caused him to explore the impact of city and state laws.

“I started two nonprofit foundations that I am very proud of,” Anderson said. “The Purple Knights of America is a mentoring program for young men ages 11 to 18 and the Real South United Soccer Club provides exercise, athletic opportunities and camaraderie for folks in our area.” Anderson received a soccer scholarship to Pearl River Community College, earning an associate degree in criminal justice before enrolling in Tulane, where he will juggle college courses and the legislative calendar. “It will definitely be a challenge,” Anderson said, referring to his dual responsibilities.

The newly minted public official is looking forward to addressing the issues that brought him into public life. “I haven’t received my committee assignments yet, but I’m hoping to work on issues connected to education, including colleges and universities, youth and families, and insurance.” Anderson said he is cultivating mentors in the state Legislature who will assist him through his new career. “There have been some state senators and legislators who have offered their help,” he said, adding, “I’m looking forward to working with everyone as this process unfolds.”

Working with any and all comers has been Anderson’s key to success, according to Steve Guyton, a counselor at the Mississippi arm of Boys State, a civic engagement program run nationwide by the American Legion. Guyton, who also serves as public relations director for the organization, remembered Anderson, who attended Boys State during his senior and junior years in high school, as “an outstanding leader” and someone “who could bring all sides together.”

Guyton said he rarely witnessed the kind of leadership Anderson demonstrated in the more than five decades he has been involved in Boys State. “Here is a guy from south Mississippi who is also African-American, and underrepresented in terms of his race at Boys State, who was able to get himself elected lieutenant governor of the program with support from people in north and central Mississippi where most of our elected leaders in Boys State come from,” Guyton said.

“It was just amazing how he got himself elected and how he worked across racial lines and across socio-economic lines.” Guyton said he and many others from the 2009 Boys State conference attended Anderson’s swearing-in ceremony. “There were people from all over,” Guyton recalled. “You could see the diversity and enthusiasm for the kind of leadership he represents.”

Anderson is filling the unexpired term of a representative who vacated his seat in the state Legislature and is up for re-election in 2015. Guyton, however, said Anderson has a bright future in Mississippi politics. “I believe that he will bring to the statehouse the kind of leadership he demonstrated at Boys State.” Guyton, who is involved in state and federal Republican politics, said he followed Anderson’s entry into the legislative race from start to finish and was excited about the outcome. “We were all watching this race very closely and people were calling me to tell me that he was going to win. I know I’m not supposed to say this, but he’s one Democrat I can support.”