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Obama Promises to 'Stand Alongside' Civil Rights Lawyers 'Every Step of the Way' By Hazel Trice Edney

August 5, 2013 President Obama and Attorney General Holder speak to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. COURTESY PHOTO August 5, 2013 Obama Promises to 'Stand Alongside' Civil Rights Lawyers 'Every Step of the Way'By Hazel Trice Edney (TriceEdneyWire.com) – It was standing room only in the East Room of the White House. The passionate roar of conversations and the clink of forks filled the room. Then, a calm and burst of cheers and applause as the President strode onto the platform. It was the 50th Anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, being saluted in a special White House reception by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Shoulder to shoulder, civil rights lawyers, LCCR staff, board members and supporters from across the country stood in the same room where President John F. Kennedy and then Attorney General Robert Kennedy first met with 244 lawyers, first establishing the committee amidst the civil rights battles in the summer of 1963. With that historic backdrop and amidst major new civil rights issues a half century later, the guests in the packed room anticipated what this President would say in the August 1 reception. “In this very room President Kennedy brought together some of our nation’s top lawyers fifty years ago hoping to enlist them in the fight to make society more just,” he said. “Looking back it is clear why President Kennedy, during one of the most turbulent times in our history, turned to this profession. He knew that the prize of equality would not be won only in the streets. But, it also had to be won in the courts and the state legislatures and in Congress. And he knew that in order to protect fair and equal access to justice, we needed to do more than just change minds, we also had to change laws.” It’s been only eight months since the presidential election in which the Lawyers’ Committee and others fought major court battles against new voting law that would have undermined the Black vote. And with the recent Supreme Court ruling that effectively gutted the pre-clearance mandate of the Voting Rights Act; plus new concerns about racial profiling and stand-your-ground laws, civil rights lawyers are as passionate as ever. A lawyer himself, President Obama acknowledged the challenging road ahead. “From the Civil Rights Act, to the Fair Housing Act, to the Voting Rights Act, time and again, you have put your hands on the arch of history and bent it a little bit in the direction of justice. As Eric mentioned, we gather here today mindfully that our work is not yet done. There are basic rights like the right to vote that still have to be protected. There are too many Americans who are still facing discrimination,” he said. “As we mark this anniversary, it’s important to note that the civil rights movement wasn’t just about racial equality. It was also about jobs, economic justice; the civil rights movement was about equal access to the courts, the full protection of our Constitution. Those are all things that continue to challenge us today. And the good news is that we have an organization like this that is able to mobilize and galvanize leadership from all across the country.” These were words of revival coming from America’s first Black President, who only weeks ago candidly discussed the pain of racial profiling in America. At that time, he was opining on the reactions to the “not-guilty” verdict in the George Zimmerman second degree murder trial. Though less personal in his reception remarks, he was just as pointed. “I’m confident that you will, like Eric and me and others, want to continue to make the law work for all and I want to thank you for what this organization has accomplished and I look forward to watching you accomplish even more and stand alongside you every step of the way.” Lauded by the President as having been among the original group convened by President Kennedy, a beaming U. S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Robert Mucklestone, a Seattle attorney who is now a Lawyers’ Committee trustee, were especially proud of how the organization has remained strong. “It’s amazing what the Committee does now,” said Mucklestone in a brief interview. “It’s gone way beyond what was envisioned at the beginning. They’ve gotten very, very talented people and of course Barbara does a spectacular job,” he said, referring to LCCR Executive Barbara Arnwine, who has led the organization for 30 years. Congressman Conyers, whose string of hallmark bills since his 1965 election, include the “End Racial Profiling Act” stressed the importance of the Lawyers’ Committee for the past and the future. “What I want to see them do now is continue what they’ve been doing for these fifty years. To be invited to the White House by the President. These lawyers from all over the country, singled out for their civil rights work, is an honor that none of them will ever forget.” Other guests include civil rights royalty such as the SCLC Vice President Rev. C. T. Vivian, a lieutenant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; former Md. Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the daughter of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy; and Va. Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, the first Black mayor of Richmond, Va., who once shared a law firm with the late Oliver W. Hill, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in Brown vs. Board of Education that ended the “separate but equal” doctrine. In opening remarks, Arnwine focused mainly on the visionary work of the Lawyers’ Committee. “We, the board, staff and supporters of the great ‘Kennedy Vision’ that emanated from this room 50 years ago recognize the remaining immense challenge of achieving inclusion, racial justice and opportunity for all Americans,” she said. “The overt and subtle racial discrimination and racial disparities of our time requires that the private bar brings the best of our talent and dedication to dismantling these barriers and combatting discrimination in any and all forms. It is our duty and responsibility as lawyers to build the bridges that will transition our nation to a powerful model for the world of racial, ethnic and gender equality, inclusion for all people, and economic and political justice.” The White House reception culminated a string of events celebrating the organization’s 50th Anniversary this year under the mantra, “Moving America Toward Justice.” The anniversary coincides with the 50th anniversary of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” coming up August 28. “The East Wing of this White House is hallowed ground to the Lawyers’ Committee,” said Jane Sherburne, a Lawyers’ Committee co-chair, told the crowd. “We were founded in this room fifty years ago at a time when our profession had not yet consciously recognized a role, much less an obligation, to defend the rights of Black Americans in a harshly segregated society,” she said. “Mr. President, we have not stopped since…Last year, under the leadership of the lawyers in this room, we contributed more than 90,000 hours of legal services valued at 47 million dollars in support of Lawyers’ Committee work.” Helping to recognize the work was Eric Holder, who just last week announced that he will pursue federal court permission to force Texas to "pre-clear" its new voting laws. “Despite everything that the Lawyers’ Committee and so many others have accomplished over the last half century, there is no doubt that our journey as a nation and as a people are far from over. So our important work must go on,” he said. “I can assure you that this administration, this President and this Justice Department are firmly committed to using every tool at our disposal to continue to ensure that the civil rights and the voting rights of all Americans are protected.”

Justice Department to Press Texas to Seek Clearance of Election Changes by Zenitha Prince

Justice Department to Press Texas to Seek Clearance of Election Changes
U.S. Attorney General Holder—Latest Civil Rights Hero
By Zenitha Prince

Attorney General Eric Holder

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the Justice Department plans to ask a federal court to require Texas to obtain approval from the federal government before the state can implement future voting changes.

This “bail in” request is available under the Voting Rights Act “when intentional voting discrimination is found,” Holder said.

“Based on the evidence of intentional racial discrimination that was presented last year in the redistricting case, Texas v. Holder – as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities that the Supreme Court itself has recognized – we believe that the State of Texas should be required to go through a preclearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices,” said the attorney general during his address to the National Urban League Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

Holder’s announcement has come about a month after a controversial ruling by the Supreme Court in the case Shelby County vs. Holder that struck down a pivotal provision of the Voting Rights Act that empowered the federal government to take action against jurisdictions that adopted voting rules with a discriminatory purpose or effect.

Though the law had come into effect during the Civil Rights Movement, when such discriminatory laws were blatant and widespread, the measure has been applicable during contemporary times. Even the Supreme Court justices acknowledged, “Voting discrimination still exists.”

And over the past two years, the law became particularly necessary as Republican-led states such as Texas passed a slew of vote-suppressing laws, including restrictive voter IDs, questionable redistricting and voter purging.

With Congress still waiting to act on the high court’s directive to update Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, Holder said the Justice Department is doing what it can to continue upholding the voting rights of every American.

“This is the Department’s first action to protect voting rights following the Shelby County decision, but it will not be our last,” he said. “My colleagues and I are determined to use every tool at our disposal to stand against discrimination wherever it is found…. We cannot allow the slow unraveling of the progress that so many, throughout history, have sacrificed so much to achieve.”

Civil rights groups are praising Holder’s decision as a “bold step.”

“This bold request by the Attorney General sends an important message that the Department of Justice will aggressively protect the voting rights of voters of color made vulnerable by the Supreme Court’s devastating ruling last month,” said Ryan Haygood, director of the Political Participation Group at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which defended the Voting Rights Act before the Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder and successfully represented college students in the challenge to Texas’s discriminatory photo ID law before the 2012 elections.

“Texas is notorious for its repeated efforts to discriminate against voters of color,” Haygood continued in his statement. “Just last year, two separate federal courts rejected Texas’s attempt to enforce the most racially discriminatory photo ID measure in the country and to implement intentionally discriminatory redistricting plans. Within hours of the Supreme Court’s ruling that effectively struck the heart of the Voting Rights Act, Texas’s Attorney General announced that he would ‘immediately’ move forward with the previously-rejected discriminatory measures.

“The United States Attorney General’s strong statement today makes clear that the Justice Department will fight Texas’s attempt to undermine our hard-fought gains. We will stand and fight with him,” Haygood added.

Black Unemployment Down, but Still Above Others by Frederick H. Lowe

August 4, 2013

Black Unemployment Down, but Still Above Others
By Frederick H. Lowe

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in July improved for African-Americans, but joblessness among Blacks is still double or higher compared to other ethnic and racial groups.

The nation's businesses added 162,000 jobs in July compared to 188,000 jobs in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning.

Erica L. Groshen, BLS commissioner, said employment rose in retail trade, food services, financial activities and wholesale trade. The unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent, which was down from 8.2 percent a year ago.

The overall Black unemployment rate in July was 12.6 percent, down from 13.7 percent in June.

The jobless rate for black men 20 years old and older in July was 12.5 percent compared to 13.0 percent in June. Black women 20 years old and older fared better. In July, their unemployment rate was 10.5 percent compared to 12.0 percent in June, BLS reported.

Despite the improvement, the joblessness in the African-American community is double that of whites.

The overall white jobless rate in July was 6.6 percent, the same as in June.

White men 20 years old and older reported a July unemployment rate of 6.3 percent, up from 6.2 percent in June. White women 20 years old and older reported a July unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, down from 6.0 percent in June.

July's jobless rate for Hispanics was 9.4 percent, up from 9.1 percent in June, BLS reported.

The unemployment rate in July for Asians, which was not seasonally adjusted, was 5.7 percent compared to 5.0 percent in June.

Prison Population Drops for the Third Year by Frederick H. Lowe

August 4, 2013

Prison Population Drops for the Third Year
Blacks Are 13.1 percent of the nation, but 38 percent of the State-Prison Rolls
By Frederick H. Lowe

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The nation's overall prison population in state and in federal institutions dropped for the third-consecutive year in 2012, but it was not necessarily good news for African-Americans.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has reported that the inmate population in 47 state-prison systems and in the Federal Bureau of Prisons from 2011 to 2012 was an estimated 1,571,013 inmates, a drop of 1.7 percent or 27,770 prisoners.

Illinois, Washington and Nevada did not report their inmate counts in time to meet the Bureau of Justice Statistics' deadline, said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that seeks alternatives to incarceration. The bureau is scheduled to issue its final report before the end of the year.

The decline in incarceration rates at state prisons is being caused by a number of factors, Mauer said. Various states are using alternatives to sending individuals to prison, and states also are dropping unnecessary prosecutions. In addition, states are sentencing fewer individuals to prison in order to balance their budgets, he said.

California, Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, Arkansas, New York, Florida, Virginia and Maryland each decreased their prison populations by over 1,000 in 2012, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report, "Prisoners in 2012-Advance Counts."

California accounted for 51 percent of the drop in state prisoners with 15,035 fewer inmates in 2012, compared to 2011. As part of its Public Safety Realignment policy, California housed nonviolent offenders in jails instead of prisons.

"This is the third-consecutive year of a decline in the number of state prisoners, which represents a shift in the direction of incarceration practice in the states over the past 30 years," the bureau reported. "The prison population grew every year between 1978 and 2009, from 307,276 prisoners in 1978 to a high of 1,615,487 prisoners in 2009."

The U.S. prison-population rate dropped to 480 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 residents in 2012. The national imprisonment rate for men was 910 per 100,000 male residents and the female imprisonment rate was 63 sentenced female prisoners per 100,000 female residents.

The decline in state-prison populations, however, was offset by a 0.7 percent increase of 1,453 inmates housed last year in federal prisons.

In state institutions, African-Americans prisoners did not fare well.

Black inmates were 38 percent of the state-prison population in 2011, compared to whites who were 35 percent and Hispanics who were 21 percent. African Americans still are being sentenced to prison at a higher rate than white men but the gap is closing, Mauer said.

In 2011, 284,631 African Americans were in prison for violent crimes, exceeding the number of whites and Hispanics, although the number of Hispanic inmates sentenced for violent crimes in 2011 exceeded that of blacks and whites, the study reported. There were 228,782 whites sentenced for violent crimes, compared to 162,489 Hispanics.

Some 53 percent of state inmates were sentenced to prison for robbery, murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that more blacks are sentenced for drug offenses, compared to whites or Hispanics, although fewer blacks than whites were sentenced to prison for property crimes.

The states with the highest imprisonment rates were states with large black populations in the deep South and in the Southwest.

They are:

Louisiana with 893 inmates per 100,000 state residents

Mississippi with 717 inmates per 100,000 state residents

Alabama with 650 inmates per 100,000 state residents

Oklahoma with 648 inmates per 100,000 state residents

Texas with 601 inmates per 100,000 state residents

In the Deep South, states punish people more, Mauer explained. After the end of the Civil War, southern states also passed numerous laws designed specifically to arrest and imprison black men, sometimes for behavior that wasn't a crime, but politicians made a crime. A black man, for example, could be arrested and imprisoned for talking too loud around a white woman. That legacy of arresting and imprisoning large numbers of black men continues to exist.

Maine, Minnesota and Rhode Island reported the lowest prison incarceration rate per 100,000.

Maine reported 145 inmates per 100,000 state residents
Minnesota reported 184 inmates per 100,000 state residents
Rhode Island reported 190 inmates per 100,000 state residents

Minnesota, however, has a high incarceration rate for black men.

NAACP, NUL Declare Rebirth for ‘Protesting and Organizing’ By Hazel Trice Edney

July 28, 2013

NAACP, NUL Declare Rebirth for ‘Protesting and Organizing’
By Hazel Trice Edney

Rev. Roslyn Brock

Marc Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – As America prepares to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, civil rights leaders are declaring a rebirth of protests and demonstrations in the face of new injustices.

“Our protesting and organizing days are not over. They are beginning anew,” declared the Rev. Roslyn Brock, chair of the NAACP. “For 104 years, we have been keepers of the flame. We are those who burn with a desire to ensure justice for all. I challenge you tonight my friends, to take up the torches of freedom, liberty and justice. Go back to your neighborhood, towns, and states and shine a light on injustice where ever it may be found.”

That was the clarion call made by Brock in her opening speech at the NAACP Convention in Orlando in mid-July. Brock is not alone in her sentiments.

A week later, National Urban League President/CEO Marc Morial told thousands at his annual convention in Philadelphia that recent infringements on civil rights have reignited the movement.

“In less than 30 days, we’ve seen the United States Supreme Court gut and disable a core provision of the Voting Rights Act that improved our democracy and was one of the crowning achievements of a civil rights generation whose sacrifices – of both life and limb – propelled us to more progress in the past 50 years than we had experienced since our nation’s inception,” Morial said. “In less than 30 days, we’ve seen a decision in Florida in the killing of a young unarmed teenager – one of our sons – once again bring to light the inequities in America’s criminal justice system. These events have sparked the flame of the 21^st Century Civil Rights Movement. However, these events are not isolated – they join a growing list of old challenges.”

Asking the audience, “Can we count on you?” Morial echoed the song “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now!” and invited the audience to “Join us in Washington DC next month as we commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with the highest honor possible – by continuing its work and ushering in the change necessary for ongoing progress.”

In part, the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman in the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin has fueled the fiery moment. Even President Obama weighed in with a Black perspective on the racial disparities that remain.

But, as stated by Morial, it has been a convergence of civil rights events that has bought America back to a boil over the apparently digressing state of justice and equality. Among those events is the string of major civil rights anniversaries that have created an atmosphere of reflection and commemoration this year. Brock listed this year’s anniversaries as shining shine like “stars in the heavens”. Among them:

150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation (Jan. 1, 1863)
100th Anniversary of the death of Abolitionist Harriet Tubman (March 10, 1913)
100th Anniversary of the birth of Civil Rights Heroine Rosa Parks (Feb. 4, 1913)
50th Anniversary of the assassination of NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Wiley Evers (June 12, 1963)
50th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (August 28, 1963)
50th Anniversary of the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church (Sept. 15, 1963)
50th Anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 22, 1963)

The next commemoration, the August 24 march on the Washington Mall, launches a new season of unity and protest, predicts Ben Jealous, NAACP president/CEO.

“We will start this August by turning up the heat in every Congressional district, at every Senator’s Town Hall Meeting and on the National Mall at the March on Washington,” he said in his convention speech. “And we will continue to recruit new activists and dues-paying members into the NAACP family – with the energy and determination of an organization that understands that in a democracy. Organized people can win every time - but only if they are organized.”

The NAACP, at 104 years old, and the National Urban League, at 103, represent the oldest civil rights organizations in the country. But, they are joined in their sentiments by other Black leadership groups that are equally stable and respected. Those groups include Melanie Campbell’s Black Women’s Roundtable; Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network; Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; and Barbara Arnwine’s Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’ all of which have committed to uniting for an escalated movement.

Morial stressed that recent events are so impactful that they should not be exclusive to African-American protest.

“When I sat down to prepare these remarks and I started thinking about what I would say, I had no idea that the nation would be riveted and communities challenged in the way they have been in the past month. But the challenge before us now is to create a new “Civil Rights Movement for Economic Empowerment and Justice,” he said. “If 1963 was about Jobs and Freedom – two, zero, one, three is about economic empowerment and justice…a continuation movement standing on the shoulders of progress in which a new generation of Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, Jews, Gentiles, Protestants, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims – people from all walks of life, dispositions and orientations coalesce around working together to ensure that the promise of life, liberty and economic opportunity becomes real for this generation. We started it 50 years ago, and it’s time to finish our business.”