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Congressional Black Caucus Walks Out on Holder Contempt Vote

July 1, 2012

Congressional Black Caucus Walks Out on Holder Contempt Vote

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Congressional Black Caucus outside after walking out on the Holder vote (Courtesy Photo)

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Furious over a House vote June 28 finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats walked out of the vote in protest.

In all, 108 Democrats including minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Civil Rights Era icon John Lewis (D-Ga.) joined the protest of an action they called “silly,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

“We don’t want history to record that we participated in something that is so silly and detrimental to one human being,” CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “There will be a number of people from the Democratic side who will do something dramatic and that, in all likelihood, would be walking out of the chamber.”

The remaining House members voted in favor of two contempt measures against Holder, one civil and one criminal, according to CNN. The House approved the criminal contempt measure, 255-67, according to multiple sources. 17 Democrats voted in favor of the measure, and two Republicans voted against it. The civil measure passed in a 258-95 vote.

Holder was found in contempt in connection with an investigation into a tactic called “Fast and Furious,” in which authorities tracked weapons purchased by gun traffickers without immediately intercepting them. Holder was questioned over his refusal to turn over documents that showed how the Justice Department reacted to the investigation, and the loss of more than 1,000 tracked weapons.

According to CNN, the criminal contempt measure directs the matter to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, who will decide whether to file charges against Holder—the man to whom he ultimately answers. The civil measure refers the dispute to a House committee, which could file lawsuits asking the courts to examine Holder’s failure to turn over subpoenaed documents.

Republican lawmakers, who pushed the contempt vote, said they wished the inquiry had never gotten to this point, but that they have laws to uphold.

“This vote was scheduled last week,” Speaker of the House John Boehner (R.) told Times. “We’d really rather have the attorney general and the president work with us to get to the bottom of a very serious issue.”

Not all Democrats protested the action. Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), said the contempt vote was necessary to find out what happened during the “Fast and Furious” investigation.

“While Republicans and Democrats argue over the scope of the people’s right to know what happened, the Attorney General has decided to withhold relevant documents,” Barrow said in a statement. “The only way to get to the bottom of what happened is for the Department of Justice to turn over the remaining documents.”

ANC Ponders 'Doing More' to Reduce Poverty and Inequality

July 1, 2012

ANC Ponders 'Doing More' to Reduce Poverty and Inequality

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from GIN

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - South Africa’s ruling Africa National Congress party is holding a four-day key conference to address demands by Black Africans for more ownership of the economy, two decades after the end of apartheid.

Some 3,500 delegates from the country’s nine provinces are said to be in attendance. President Zuma opened the meeting Tuesday saying his party would take the country “back to basics”, and chart a socioeconomic course that had not been feasible at the dawn of South Africa’s democracy.

“We can’t sit and say it will happen one day, when God allows it. We are in government, we need to do something about it. We must go back to basics in shaping our economy. And take those difficult decisions we could not take in 1994,” he said.

The president blamed an economy “largely owned by white males” with the structure of apartheid still in place for the nation’s problems. Still, the nation’s corporate class includes many Black millionaires, raising frustration among the growing ranks of the poor.

“The time has come to do what we think is right to make the majority happy,” Zuma said, announcing a discussion of a plan called “The second transition.”

But critics of the ANC took issue with this explanation. Mamphela Ramphele, one of the early founders of the Black Consciousness Movement, issued a scathing response. “The need for a ‘second transition’ is the closest we have come to an acknowledgement by the governing elites of their failure to govern, she wrote. “A democratic government that has presided over 18 years of system failure in four core functions – education, health, safety and security, and employment creation – should expect no further support from citizens.”

The “second transition” also faces opposition from party members on Guateng, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and the Young Community League. 

U. S. Rep. John Lewis is Grand Marshal for Lawyers’ Committee 50th Anniversary

June 24, 2012
U. S. Rep. John Lewis is Grand Marshal for Lawyers’ Committee 50th Anniversary

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WASHINGTON-The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a coalition of lawyers who fight for racial justice, has announced that civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) will serve as grand marshal of the organization’s 50th Anniversary Campaign and National Advisory Commission, it was announced in a news release this week.

“We are delighted and honored to have John Lewis as Grand Marshal for our 50th anniversary,” said Lawyers’ Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine, in the statement. “His historic leadership in the civil rights movement and lifelong commitment to human rights, equality, and civil liberties continues to be instrumental in the pursuit of racial justice and equality.  With amazing dedication, he has remained at the vanguard of progressive social movements and the human rights struggle in the United States.”

Since 1986, Lewis has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District and recently published a new book entitled Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change (2012).   He has championed legislation and initiatives central to voting rights, equal employment and workers’ rights, education, housing and foreclosure, LGBT rights, and more.

“I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity to serve as Grand Marshal of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s 50th anniversary,” said Representative Lewis.  “This historic organization has been ‘Moving America Toward Justice’ by consistently and persistently confronting injustice and inequality that still plagues this nation. The Lawyers’ Committee is creatively addressing the problems of our time. They do not hesitate to ‘get in the way’ to demand that this democracy respects the dignity and the worth of every human being, especially those who are locked out and left behind.”

Over the past 50 years, America has made substantial strides in achieving racial justice and equal opportunity. Yet significant barriers remain which must continue to be addressed. The Lawyers’ Committee plans to honor that progress and celebrate the dynamic history of the Committee in working to help realize a society unhampered by discrimination. Simultaneously, the Committee endeavors to look toward the future by engaging and increasing civil rights activism in new generations, particularly within the legal community, in the ongoing struggle for all racial, social, and economic justice.

The Lawyers’ Committee’s 50th Anniversary Campaign officially kicked off June 21, exactly one year leading up to the organization’s 50th anniversary founding date of June 21, 2013.  Commemorative 50th anniversary events will be held now throughout 2013, such as the annual A. Leon Higginbotham Corporate Leadership Award Gala, which recognizes corporations for advancement of diversity and equality in the workplace. Congressman Lewis will work closely with the Committee in the development and execution of the gala, a major legal symposium and other events.

“Nearly 50 years ago President John F. Kennedy met with 244 leading American lawyers in the East Room of the White House to consider what role lawyers could and should play in the civil rights crisis,” added Arnwine.  “People all across the nation were shaken by the media coverage of the protracted confrontation in Birmingham, Alabama, where peaceful protesters, led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were repeatedly attacked by police using batons, hoses and even dogs.  Shocking too was the spectacle of Governor George Wallace defiantly resisting a federal court order to admit black students to the University of Alabama, and the decision by the president and the attorney general to deploy the U.S. Army to enforce the order and the law.  And certainly the tragic assassination of Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963, just hours following President Kennedy's nationally televised civil rights speech, distraught many.”

Due to the silence of the private bar, Bernard Segal, chairman of the firm now known as Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis and  co-founding chair of the Lawyers' Committee, placed an ad in the Birmingham paper signed by other lawyers, decrying the defiance of the law by elected officials and calling instead for strong adherence to the rule of law.  This ad grabbed the attention of the attorney general and led him to persuade President Kennedy to issue a "Call to the Bar" for the now famous meeting on June 21, 1963.

During the meeting, President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy pointed to recent events in Birmingham and elsewhere as symptoms of a deepening crisis.  They recognized that because our constitutional system and the rule of law depends on peaceful obedience to court orders, official resistance requiring enforcement by armed force could lead to anarchy.  It was clear, they emphasized, that justifiable demands by blacks for equal access to public facilities, job opportunities, voting rights and other fundamental citizenship rights could no longer be denied.  Citing the unique role of lawyers within our constitutional system and the rule of law, the president, vice president and attorney general appealed to the assembled attorneys to mobilize the legal profession to support Black Americans in their struggle for justice.

As a result of the meeting, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was formed with the specific task of marshaling the resources of the private bar in the fight for racial equality.  Its members included former attorneys general, former presidents of the American Bar Association and local bar leaders from around the country.  No longer would the legal profession hold itself apart from the civil rights struggle. 

Immediately, the Committee began to issue public statements calling for peaceful compliance with court orders and voluntary desegregation of public facilities.  In addition, the Committee sent volunteer lawyers to Mississippi to represent ministers who had engaged in nonviolent civil rights demonstrations and had been charged with crimes.  In June of 1965 the Committee opened an office in Jackson, Mississippi which in its two decades of fearless advocacy contributed to the desegregation and transformation of that state including the election of its first African American congressman.

Now, almost a half century since the founding of the Lawyers’ Committee, after thousands of cases and public policy advocacy advancing racial equality for millions of clients, the organization continues to work with a significant network of legal volunteers to fight for racial equality and justice in the areas of employment discrimination, fair housing and lending, educational opportunities, voting rights, environmental justice and community development.  The modern context of this fight is more nuanced, more multicultural in perspective, but is still powerfully urgent as racial exclusion results in the denial for way too many to participate equally in the fulfillment of the American dream.

With great pride and gratitude the organization looks back across the history of the Lawyers' Committee and recognizes the impact of so many who have answered the call.  And it is with a sense of undiminished resolve and purpose that the Lawyers’ Committee will continue to engage legal professionals, along with society- at-large, in the struggle for racial justice and equal opportunity for all.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice under law, particularly in the areas of fair housing and fair lending, community development, employment discrimination, voting, education and environmental justice. For more information about the LCCRUL, visit www.lawyerscommittee.org.

Awaiting Health Care Ruling, Leaders Tell What Black People Have to Lose by Hazel Trice Edney

Awaiting Health Care Ruling, Leaders Tell What Black People Have to Lose

By Hazel Trice Edney

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The U. S. Supreme Court this week is expected to decide whether to repeal, uphold are alter President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, placing Black leaders of Congress on edge and preparing for a re-election battle whichever way the ruling comes down.

“For 99 years, presidents have been trying to do this. Finally, our president has made it possible for each and every American,” said Congresswoman Donna M. Christian-Christensen (D – V.I.), a medical doctor who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus’ Health Braintrust. “Racial and ethnic minorities who have been left outside the door of the health care system are now able to get in. And now there is this extra help for individuals who have not been inside the health care system. We could lose that…But, if we don’t have President Obama and Democrats running this country, we’ll never have the opportunity to fix anything that the Supreme Court might undo,” she said in an interview.

Opponents of the law include 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, Liberty University and the Thomas More Law Center. The Court is expected to rule Thursday, June 28.

U. S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), assistant Democratic leader of the House of Representatives and the highest elected Black representative said the health care issue is crucial to Black America – just as important as the economy – if not more.

“All of us need to be talking about health care more than anything else,” Clyburn said in an interview. “The fact of the matter is that health care is not about Obamacare. Health care is about those children born with juvenile diabetes being able to have insurance and they cannot have it otherwise; it’s about women with breast cancer, men with prostate cancer not being denied treatment [due to pre-existing conditions]. It’s about children being able to stay on their parents’ insurance policies up until their 27th birthday. That is what this is about; not Obamacare or any other sound bite.”

The Affordable Care Act, signed into law by the President on March 23, 2010, has been highly politicized, called “Obamacare” by many since President Obama pushed for it as his first major piece of legislation. Proponents, instead, have called the law “Obama Cares”, arguing that without the legislative African-Americans and the poor would be affected greater than other Americans.

Dr. Leonard Weather, former president of the National Medical Association, listed the following specific benefits of the law in the Black community in a column for the Trice Edney News Wire:

Lower Costs for African-American Families

  • Lifetime limits on insurance coverage is eliminated and bans insurance companies from dropping people from coverage when they get sick.
  • The new health insurance exchanges and all new plans will have a cap on out-of-pocket expenses such as co-pays and deductibles.
  • People who cannot afford quality health insurance will receive tax credits starting in 2014.
  • Medicare beneficiaries will receive a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs in the donut hole and complete closure in 2020.

Greater Choices

  • Insurance company discrimination is eliminated such as denying children coverage based on preexisting conditions.
  • Going forward, the Act will prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to all individuals.
  • It provides more affordable choices and competition by creating state based health insurance exchanges.

Strong Focus on Minority Health

  • The National Institute of Minority Health is created reflecting an enhanced focus on minority health.

Quality, Affordable Health Care for African-Americans

  • Preventive care for better health requires new plans to cover prevention and wellness benefits at no charge, exempting these from deductibles.
  • Co-payments for preventive services are eliminated.
  • It ensures that all Americans have access to free preventive services.
  • Community health teams are provided to improve management of chronic disease that will help 50 percent of African-Americans who suffer from them.
  • Primary care workforce is enhanced to ensure that all Americans have access to a primary care doctor.
  • Moves toward elimination of disparities that African-Americans currently face both in health and health care by investing in data collection and research about health disparities.
  • Strengthens cultural competency training to health care providers.

Despite the outcome of this week’s ruling, Christian-Christensen says CBC members are ready to push for President Obama’s re-election. She said, “We will go out after the convention to really get people charged up to get to the polls to vote.”

HBCU “Equality Lawsuit” Far From Over by Alexis Taylor

HBCU 'Equality Lawsuit' Far From Over
By Alexis Taylor

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Both sides locked in a battle over proper funding for Maryland’s historical Black institutions (HBI) have retreated to their corners to regroup and prepare for the next phase of the case.

Lawyers for the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education Inc., the plaintiff, and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), the defendant, submitted conclusions of law on June 6.

"The state is reviewing documents from the plaintiff's side and the plaintiffs are reviewing documents from the defendant's side," said Dr. Earl S. Richardson, president of Morgan State University from 1984 to 2010.

"It appears that the case is continuing on schedule and we hope that the lawyers on the plaintiff's side are persuasive enough in their arguments to convince the judge of the merit of this case."

The legal representation for both the Coalition and MHEC will have until July 13 to respond to each other’s submissions. Final oral arguments will be heard Oct. 19 of this year.

“The submissions are the first thing we've done since the case ended in February,”

said Kenneth Thompson of Venable LLP, lawyers representing the Maryland Higher Education Commission. “We have to file what we call replies, or rebuttals, this summer and we have closing arguments scheduled for Oct. 19.”

The State’s defense opens summary of conclusion by stating “nothing in the Constitution or in federal law requires that the State provide HBIs with the enhanced funding plaintiffs seek.”

“Plaintiffs’ filing included testimony from the four HBCU presidents about the conditions at the HBCUs, including inadequate libraries, science labs, IT infrastructure, faculty salaries, financial aid and overall resources,” said Michael D. Jones, legal representative for the Coalition.

“The plaintiffs’ filing also focused on Maryland’s 2000 Agreement with the Office of Civil Rights where Maryland agreed to enhance the HBCUs to the point that they could compete with the Traditionally White Institutions.”

The State’s defense opens its summary of conclusion by stating “nothing in the Constitution or in federal law requires that the State provide HBIs with the enhanced funding plaintiffs seek.”

The document numbers 103 pages and gives numerous examples of students who graduated from alleged substandard conditions at historical black colleges and universities (HBCU) and later excelled.

The State’s submission also says that forced compensation for past unsavory classroom conditions heard in alumni testimony would be unjust because no “discrete personal injury” occurred.

“If merely showing past inequities were enough to trigger present-day remedies, there would have been no need for a trial in this case,” said the defense in its submission. “The question this court must answer in its threshold inquiry is whether current policies or practices are traceable to the de jure era.”

The document also argues the alumni testimonies heard throughout the trial about give no reason to award a judgment to schools today because students now learn in different settings unknown to alumni.

A decision in the landmark trial is expected from Judge Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court after both sides give their rebuttal by July 13 and deliver oral arguments in October.

The case was originally filed in October of 2006, but took years to reach the trial phase that began on Jan. 3.

Alumni and current students from Bowie State University (BSU), Coppin State University (CSU), Morgan State University (MSU) and University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), the four HBCUs that filed the case, packed the court house for days to show support.

The institutions allege that by providing better funding and facilities to white schools and allowing the duplication of HBCUs specialty programs, the state of Maryland continued to perpetuate a system of de facto segregation, or segregation enforced by human behavior instead of law.

The HBCUs are asking the state for $2.1 billion in damages to help pay for upgrades and repairs to campuses.

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