(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Federal regulators’ review of deficient practices in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing concluded in a $8.5 billion settlement with 10 of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers.

On King Day, Obama’s Black Agenda Yet Uncertain
By Hazel Trice Edney

NEWS ANALYSIS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – President Barack Obama is set to use the Bibles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln for his second swearing in January 21, no doubt symbolizing his pride as the nation’s first Black president.

The symbolic move also aligns his principles with the principles of the two most transformative leaders in American history as it relates to African-American people. Despite the noble symbolism, the country is abuzz pertaining to exactly what President Obama will do as African-Americans continue to suffer disparately.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s actual birthday was celebrated this week on January 15 and will be observed on the national holiday on Monday, January 21^st, which is also Inauguration Day. As more than a million people are expected to attend inaugural celebrations in D.C. and millions more will watch around the world, neither the President; nor leading Democrats have publically mentioned his most faithful constituents, whose votes for him surpassed 95 percent in both elections.

Marc Morial, who convened a summit of African-American leaders in November and released an African-American agenda, has not spoken publically about the agenda since then. Neither has Dr. Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World - 21^st Century, who convened the State of the Black World Conference in November to discuss the state of the African-American community going into Obama’s second term.

Meanwhile President Obama’s cabinet picks are appearing to decrease in racial diversity.

So far, less than a week before inauguration, the President has confirmed appointment of four of 15 new cabinet members for the next four years. None are African-American.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who replaced Congressman Emanuel Cleaver at the end of his chairmanship early this month, appears to be a lone voice as she has written a letter to the President actually recommending CBC members for the cabinet.

“As you consider candidates for your cabinet, it is with great privilege that I recommend Congressman Melvin Watt of North Carolina for the position of Secretary of Commerce and Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California for the position of Secretary of Labor,” Fudge wrote in a January 10 letter.  “Congressman Watt and Congresswoman Lee are exceptionally well-qualified, proven candidates. It is without reservation that I urge you to strongly consider this recommendation. I am available at your convenience should you desire further information.”

Last week, Obama announced his nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as secretary of Defense; White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew as Treasury secretary; Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security John Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as secretary of state, which is third in line to the presidency. Eric Holder will remain attorney general and Kathleen Sebelius will remain secretary of Health and Human Services. Other cabinet secretaries could be replaced.

Cabinet appointments are just one way a President can diversify his/her cabinet. The other way is influencing or establishing public policies that disparately affect varies minority groups. President Obama has done so in the cases of women; GLBTs (gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals and transgendered Americans); Latinos and veterans.

Dr. King said at the August 28, 1963 March on Washington that his dream was that his “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” While no one questions the President's principles in that regard, many hope his using the King Bible stacked on top of the Lincoln Bible for the swearing in might mean double sensitivity to on activity on behalf of African-Americans.

The official swearing in on the Jan. 20 date required by the Constitution, will take place in a private ceremony on Sunday. On that day, Obama will use the family Bible of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The black leather Bible he will lay his hand upon in the second swearing in next Monday was carried by Dr. King as a “traveling Bible” as he spoke from state to state on civil and voting rights for African-American people. Obama used the Lincoln Bible in 2009. It had not been used since Lincoln’s 1861 swearing in, just before the start of the Civil War.

Monday’s ceremonial swearing in will kick off a week of festivities, including balls, forums and panels to discuss the issues ahead. At the post-election Black leadership conference called by Morial, he laid out the situation on behalf of dozens of Black organizational heads who stood alongside him.

“Millions of African-Americans are still reeling in the wake of the great recession and trying to regain their footing after overwhelming losses in wealth, income and security,” Morial read.

Rev. Al Sharpton, also at the conference, promised that the group would hold the President accountable. Now that Inauguration Day is here, the jury is out whether Black organizational heads will hold the President accountable with sincerity and fervor despite their promises to do so.

“We believe that it is the responsibility of those that offer leadership to push the envelope forward. We cannot sit and ask the president to write an agenda to himself from us. It ought to come from us to him or the Congress from us to [them],” said Sharpton. “It is in that spirit a half century later we come to say that we’ll work together, we’ll come together and try to set an agenda that will alleviate the economic, electoral, as well as criminal justice disparities that yet plague our community a half century later. We have made a lot of progress in 50 years, but we’re nowhere where we need to be. We are closer, but we have not arrived.”

Conscious that African-Americans have yet to arrive, the King family is hoping the ceremonial swearing in on the Bible of their father will help the President remain focused on the goal of racial equality.

“We hope it can be a source of strength for the President as he begins his second term,” the King family said in a statement. “We join Americans across the country in embracing this opportunity. to celebrate how far we have come, honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. through service, and rededicate ourselves to the work ahead.”

Jan. 6, 2013

N. C. Governor Pardons the Wilmington Ten
By Cash Michaels

Dr. Benjamin Chavis

Special to Trice Edney News Wire from the Wilmington Journal

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In what civil rights leaders across the nation are calling a “significant” moment in the civil rights movement, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue has granted individual pardons of actual innocence to members of the Wilmington Ten.

“I have decided to grant these pardons because the more facts I have learned about the Wilmington Ten, the more appalled I have become about the manner in which their convictions were obtained,” Perdue, a Democrat who steps down on Jan. 5^th, said in her Dec. 31^st statement.

“Justice demands that this stain finally be removed. The process in which this case was tried was fundamentally flawed. Therefore, as Governor, I am issuing these pardons of innocence to right this longstanding wrong.”

The Wilmington Ten - nine black males and one white female – were activists who, along with hundreds of black students in the New Hanover County Public School System, protested rampant racial discrimination there in 1971.

In February 1971, after the arrival of Rev. Benjamin Chavis to help lead the protests, racial violence erupted, with white supremacist driving through Wilmington’s black community, fatally shooting people and committing arson.

A white-owned grocery store in the black community was firebombed, and firemen came under sniper fire. It wasn’t until a year later that Rev. Chavis and the others were round up and charged with conspiracy in connection with the firebombing and shootings.

The Ten were falsely convicted, and sentenced to 282 years in prison, some of which they all served.

It wouldn’t be until 1977, after years of failed appeals in North Carolina courts, that the three state’s witnesses all recanted their testimonies, admitting that they perjured themselves.

Amnesty International issued a blistering report declaring the Wilmington Ten “political prisoners of conscience.” The CBS News program “60 Minutes” did a one-hour expose’ proving that the evidence against the Wilmington Ten had been fabricated by the prosecution.

And after then NC Gov. James B. Hunt refused to pardon the Ten, but did commute their sentences in 1978, two years later, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned all of the convictions, based on gross prosecutorial misconduct and various violations of constitutional rights.

The appeals court directed North Carolina to either retry the defendants, or dismiss all charges, but the state did nothing for the past 32 years.

In March 2011, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, at the urging of Wilmington Journal publisher Mary Alice Thatch, voted to pursue pardons of innocence for the Wilmington Ten. That effort got underway in earnest in January 2012, and after a series of NNPA stories based on an investigation that revealed never-before-seen court records proving prosecutorial corruption, the mainstream media, including the New York Times, caught on, and began editorially pushing for pardoning the Wilmington Ten.

Change.org, the NAACP and the Wilmington Ten garnered over 144,000 petition signatures for the cause.

Gov. Perdue’s pardons legally mean that the accused did not commit the crimes they were convicted of.

The governor’s decision was roundly hailed.

“Gov. Perdue’s historic action today doesn’t remove the past forty years of injustice against ten innocent American citizens - North Carolinians who stood up for equal treatment under the law in our public education system,” the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project, a justice outreach effort of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and the Wilmington Journal newspaper, said in a statement.

“But [the governor’s pardon] does correct the historical record, that Connie Tindall, Jerry Jacobs, William Joe Wright, Anne Sheppard, Wayne Moore, Marvin Patrick, James McKoy, Willie Earl Vereen, Reginald Epps and the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis, were indeed innocent of all charges falsely assessed to them by a corrupt prosecutor who, to this day, has not answered for what he did.”

 Governor Perdue agreed that revelations of the racist and illegal trial tactics of Wilmington Ten prosecutor Jay Stroud – which included documented handwritten evidence of seeking “KKK and Uncle Tom-type” jurors; bribing witnesses to commit perjury; hiding exculpatory evidence of a witness’s mental illness from the defense; and deliberately forcing a mistrial so that he could get both the judge and jury that would guarantee convictions – corrupt the criminal justice system, and shamed the state.

 Perdue called it “naked racism.”

 “This conduct is disgraceful,” the governor said in her statement. “It is utterly incompatible with basic notions of fairness, and with every ideal that North Carolina holds dear. The legitimacy of our criminal justice system hinges on it operating in a fair and equitable manner, with justice being dispensed based on innocence or guilt – not based on race or other forms of prejudice.”

 “That did not happen here,” Perdue continued. “Instead, these convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina’s criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand any longer.”

“This is a great day for the people, and the movement,” Dr. Benjamin Chavis, leader of the Wilmington Ten, told the Wilmington Journal Monday. “This is a very rare victory.”

Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton agreed.

“It was a significant victory and all of you should be commended,” Sharpton, who pushed the pardon effort on both of his radio programs last weekend, said in congratulations.

NC NAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber, who partnered with the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence, noted the history.

“Not only will the civil rights and human rights communities honor this act, but history itself will record this day as groundbreaking,” Barber told reporters in Raleigh Monday. “On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Governor Perdue has proclaimed a contemporary emancipation for these freedom fighters.”

“These pardons are not only for North Carolina but also for the nation and for the world,” Barber continued. “We honor the Governor's noble, courageous and righteous decision today and we commend her heart's steadfast commitment to justice.”

African-American Descendants Sue to Save Revilletown Cemetery
By Susan Buchanan

Revilletown Cemetery within the Georgia Gulf plant in Plaquemines in Iberville Parish.
PHOTO: Courtesy/Marla Dickerson

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Former residents of Revilletown—an African-American community torn down 25 years ago in Iberville Parish—are trying to preserve a cemetery founded by ancestors there in 1874. The cemetery, started by ex-slaves, is now within the grounds of a vinyl-resin plant owned by Georgia Gulf Corp., based in Atlanta. The plant is in the city of Plaquemines, 17 miles below Baton Rouge.

The Mount Zion Baptist Association is exploring legal channels to maintain its original keep on the cemetery and prevent it from being swallowed by plant operations. The group says it was formed in 1874 and continues to own the cemetery, built on land purchased by its forefathers. Georgia Gulf, however, claims it owns the land.

Revilletown residents first sued the company back in 1987 after the plant contaminated their homes. “We raised our food there, and our vegetable gardens, chickens, grass and our health were all harmed by chlorine from the plant,” said Janice Dickerson, who was forced out and has lived in Brusly, La. ever since. She is a spokeswoman for the Mount Zion Baptist Association.

In a 1987 settlement sealed by the Iberville Parish Court, Georgia Gulf relocated about 30 households and leveled Revilletown. “They gave us 30 days to get out and then bulldozed the community,” Dickerson said. “All that’s left of Revilletown today is the cemetery and another piece of property, neither of which are owned by Georgia Gulf.”

Revilletown residents are scattered now but they’re still burying loved ones in the Revilletown cemetery, which is owned by the Mount Zion Baptist Association, Dickerson said.

“Georgia Gulf gave management authority for the cemetery to Mount Zion Baptist Church Number One, which was never affiliated with our association and was formed after the association,” she said. The church, located in Plaquemines, and the group are at odds over burial matters.

“We filed an injunction against Mount Zion Baptist Church No. 1 in Plaquemines in early October,” Dickerson said last week. “They’re burying people from outside our former community and charging $600 for it. They’re burying members of their own church there for free, however.” She said “we’re running out of room at the Revilletown cemetery to bury our own people. And we’re wondering what the church is doing with all the money they’re charging.”

Dickerson continued “Our association bought the cemetery in 1874 and has been in possession of it since it was purchased. The association was formally incorporated in 2009.”

“Georgia Gulf intervened in November and engaged us in a court battle for ownership of the cemetery,” she said. On Jan. 14, Judge William DuPont at Iberville Parish Court will try a case pitting the Mount Zion Baptist Association against the Georgia Gulf Corp. plant in Plaquemines. The company asked that the court date be extended from early December.

Last week, Georgia Gulf spokes-man Alan Chapple gave a different version of events than Dickerson. He said “Georgia Gulf is the owner of the cemetery, and either it or its predecessors have been in physical possession of the cemetery grounds for several decades.” Chapple didn’t explain how the company or predecessors ended up possessing the cemetery, however. Georgia Gulf was formed in 1985 after acquiring most of Georgia-Pacific Corp.’s chemical assets.

Chapple continued, saying “this issue really is a dispute among factions of local churches over burial rights at a cemetery located on the edge of our property in Plaquemines. Since the cemetery is within our industrial fence line, we also manage access to the cemetery but we don’t manage the activities and decisions concerning its operation. That is accomplished through an agreement we have with Mt. Zion Baptist Church No. 1 of Revilletown Park that allows them access to bury their deceased and visit the graves of their loved ones.”

Regarding the legal wranglings, he said “the church is being sued. The apparent issue is that a group calling itself Mt. Zion Baptist Association is demanding access to the cemetery, and they are at odds with the Revilletown church—which controls the rights to the cemetery. Georgia Gulf only involved itself because the plaintiff in the suit, Mt. Zion Baptist Association, is claiming ownership of Georgia Gulf’s property.”

Last week, Reverend George Barrett II, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church No. 1, said he had no comment about the Revilletown cemetery though he has presided over recent burials there.

As for the association, Dickerson said “we hope that Georgia Gulf will be declared non-owners of the cemetery, which has been in our possession for 137 years. My ancestors, former slaves, bought the property nine years after the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery in 1865. No one was giving away property then and it had to be purchased. Before that, slaves were buried on plantations.”

Dickerson said “our members have searched local government records and seen no evidence that the company or its predecessors ever bought the cemetery. And our association’s oldest member, 89-year-old Mrs. Mary Craig—whose husband Reverend Eli Craig was the Mount Zion Baptist Church pastor for 36 years—is absolutely certain that neither the church nor Georgia Gulf ever bought or owned the cemetery.”

Dickerson detailed some of the problems with the cemetery’s location within the plant. “We have to go through Georgia Gulf security gates to visit our ancestors, and we’re required to give the company two days notice before a burial,” she said. And she fears that access might be further restricted after an incident involving a security lock that the plant says was broken on the day of a burial in December.

“The company has deep pockets but we have mustered the resources to fight back,” Dickerson said. The association has two co-counsels now, including Dickerson’s daughter, Marla, a lawyer in Addis, La. For lead counsel, the group hired attorney Jerome D’Quila, based in New Roads.

“We will fight the company nip and tuck for the cemetery,” Janice Dickerson said. “All my ancestors on both sides are buried there, and I refuse to allow Georgia Gulf to expand its plant over them or to put a tank of chemicals on top of them.”

Dickerson said she’s worried that a nearly-completed merger between Georgia Gulf and Pittsburgh, Pa.-based PPG Industries might result in an expansion at the Plaquemines facility. She noted that shares in Georgia Gulf, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, dwindled in value in 2010 but are much higher now ahead of the merger.

Last week, Jeremy Neuhart, spokesman for PPG Industries, said “we currently expect the merger to be finalized in late January. PPG has not announced any plans for a presence in Plaquemines.” PPG operates a chlor-alkali and derivatives plant in Lake Charles, producing chlorine and caustic soda.

Dickerson said “the Georgia Gulf plant in Plaquemines is landlocked, and it goes back several miles west of the river. If the plant decides to expand, the only way it can do so is over the cemetery.”

Revilletown is one of several African-American river towns—including Morrisonville in Iberville Parish—that had to be abandoned in the 1980s and 1990s because residents were harmed by chemical pollutants. After a 2002 settlement, the predominantly Black community of Diamond in Norco in St. Charles Parish was bought out and dismantled by Shell Chemical.

“My ancestors would be very disappointed in me if I didn’t try to preserve the Revilletown cemetery for them,” Janice Dickerson said last week. “We hope that going to court and drawing attention to this company’s land grab will stop others from seizing property from Black folk.”

Jan. 6, 2013

Black Church and Youth Balls Among D.C. Inaugural Galas
By Afro American Newspapers and Trice Edney News Wire

Pernessa Seele is founder/CEO, The Balm in Gilead

Jermaine Crawford, founder, Code Blue

(TriceEdneyWire.com)- The leaders of African American churches will, once again, convene in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Weekend to commemorate one of the most extraordinary events in American history – the second term and inauguration of President Obama, America’s first president of African descent.

In an inaugural ball to be held Jan. 20, the gala celebration will mark the historic event and honor the Keepers of the Flame recipients, individuals whose lifetime achievements and contributions to society and culture have contributed to the realization of this moment in time.

“For certain, the African American Church must mark this moment with great pride, honor and power. For today, we stand on the shoulders of so many who bled and died for this moment of witness, of which we consecrate with our joy and commitment to continue to fight for equality and justice for all,” according to the organizers’ mission statement on the African American Church Inaugural Ball website. The Black church ball, to be held at the Grand Hyatt Washington, is a sequel to the premiere event in 2009 and will feature leaders from the religious, civic, business, arts, and entertainment communities.

Separately, a H.O.P.E. Inaugural Youth Ball, to be held Jan. 20 at the newly renovated historic Howard Theatre, will mark the occasion with a benefit for homeless teens. Jermaine Crawford, visionary of the event, is best known for his starring role on the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire. He played Duquan “Dukie” Weems, a homeless teen on the callous streets of Baltimore. While playing the character, Jermaine “was inspired to be a voice for his peers whose reality was that of which he only portrayed,” states an announcement from the organization.

Crawford founded Code Blue nearly five years ago. It is an organization that focuses on bringing solutions to eradicate the youth homeless problem. Crawford held a similar ball for President Obama’s first inauguration.

This year, he is holding the late afternoon ball in partnership with Out of the Box Design, Inc., a D.C.-based event decoration and design company, headed by Wanda Crawford, Out of the Box’s executive director.

“The Ball gives youth the opportunity to share in the inaugural festivities surrounding the swearing in of President Barack Obama and join with the rest of the nation in honoring his example of moving FORWARD,” said the release. “The Ball promises to be an evening of family-friendly elegance and entertainment. There will be souvenir photographs, celebrity appearances, performances and much more!”

Code Blue quotes statistics from national homeless agencies saying 1.8 million youth become homeless each year across the U. S. Proceeds from the event will be donated to The Sasha Bruce Youthwork. Sasha Bruce focuses on meeting the urgent needs of homeless youth and their families in Washington D.C. Past celebrity guests for the H.O.P.E Inaugural Ball were recording artist Wynter Gordon, comedian Dave Chappelle and musician Fredric Yonnet.

For more information about the H.O.P.E Inaugural Ball 2013, contact Wanda Crawford at 301.485.9565 or go to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Black church ball, themed, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” will honor leaders with the “2013 Keepers of the Flame” Award. The recipients are individuals who have sustained an unshakable commitment to our future and who have earned an undeniable place in the African American book of history. Confirmed honorees include: Muhammad Ali; Bishop George E. Battle, Jr.; Bishop Philip R. Cousin, Sr.; Andraé Crouch; Ed Dwight; Joycelyn Elders, MD; Bishop William H. Graves, Sr.; Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale; Hugh Masekela; Rev. Dr. Otis J. Moss, Jr.; Jessye Norman; Beny Primm, MD, and Cicely Tyson.

Other honorees to be confirmed include: The Honorable Andrew Young, Hon. William J. Clinton, Ruby Dee, Aretha Franklin, Rev. Dr. Cain Hope Felder, Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon, and Dr. Vernon J. Jordan, Sr.

In 2009, distinguished honorees included: Dr. Maya Angelou, Donna Brazile, Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, Dr. Marian Wright Edelman, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Earl Graves, Sr., Rev. Dr. William H. Gray, III, Bishop Barbara Harris, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, The Honorable Alexis Herman, Rev. Dr. Benjamin Hooks, Congressman John Lewis, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Marc Morial, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Gardner Taylor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker Sr.

“This inauguration is an extraordinary mark in American history, punctuated by those who so gallantly served so we could see such a time,” said Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, II, Inaugural Ball Chair and pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Mt. Vernon, NY. “This is certainly a time when the African American church community can be proud of its contributions to this great country and honor the work that has been done and those who have made an indelible footprint in the sands of history.”

The executive producer is Pernessa Seele, founder and CEO of The Balm In Gilead, Inc., the gala’s fundraising beneficiary. The Balm In Gilead, a nonprofit, international organization, is committed to a dynamic, community-driven approach, contributing a lasting response to health disparities and ensuring that African Americans will become fully knowledgeable about the Affordable Care Act.

“This African American Church Inaugural Ball not only celebrates history and President Obama’s second term, it also honors the work that he has enacted, such as The Affordable Care Act, an essential tool for decreasing the rates of preventable diseases in African American communities,” Seele said in a statement.

For more information on the African American Church Inaugural Ball, visit www.AACIB.org. For more information on Pernessa Seele and The Balm In Gilead, visit www.balmingilead.org. The Media should contact UniWorld Group, Inc. – Teresa Lyles Holmes, (212) 219-7239, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; or Camille Gray, (212) 219-7121, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..