March 31, 2013

Reality Check
April 4^th An Important Date To Remember
By A. Peter Bailey

NEWS ANALYSIS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - April 4, 2013 will be the 45^th Anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It always puzzles me why so many of those who so vocally celebrate Dr. King’s birthday, let the historic day of assassination go by so quietly. I am cynical enough to believe that their quietness is another payment for having President Reagan sign a bill making his birthday a national holiday.

I am using this opportunity not only to remember April 4 as the day when the Civil Rights Movement was, for all practical purposes, shattered. But I am also using this opportunity to remember the 33 Blacks and seven Whites murdered by White supremacist/racist terrorists between May 7, 1955 and April 4, 1968.

They are: George Lee, Lamar Smith, Emmett Till, Mack Charles Parker, Herbert Lee, Medgar Evers, Roman Duckworth, Louis Allen, Paul Gulhard, Rev. Bruce Klunders, Henry Hezekiah Dee, Charles Eddie Moore, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Vernon Dahmer, Ben Chester White, Wharlest Jackson and Benjamin Brown were murdered in Mississippi.

Also, Willie Edmonds, William Louis Moore, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Virgil Lamar Ware, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Rev. James Reeb, Viola Gregg Liuozzo, Willie Wallace Brewster, Jonathan Daniels and Samuel Younge Jr. in Alabama.

Also, Earl Reese in Texas, Lemeul Penn in Georgia, O’Neal Moore and Clarence Tiggs Louisiana, and Samuel Hammond, Jr., Delano Middleton and Henry Smith in South Carolina. Nine of the Blacks slain were between 11 and 19 years of age. All these names are documented on the walls of the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala.

When those Black people who get some big time job or appointment or other recognition begin thanking people for their good fortune, they almost never take the time to thank those listed above and the many others who were brutalized, often by those who were supposed to be enforcing the law, who lost their jobs and saw their homes and places of business firebombed by white supremacist/racist terrorists. Instead of giving thanks to the warriors for equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity, too many of those who benefit from their sacrifices go before mostly White audiences and give the impression that they got their news-making job or appointment because they prayed and worked hard. They often leave the impression that things in this country changed because the Whites voluntarily decided that “We haven’t been doing right to our Black citizens. Now we are going to repent and do the right thing.”

That delusionary position is a bald-faced falsification of history and a supreme insult to those who put their lives on the line in the late 1950s and 1960s. April 4 is an important day in our history and should be a day to remember and pay tribute to Dr. King and the other warriors for daring to confront what can only be described as terrorism in several of the former Confederate states.

 

 

 

March 26, 2013

Marie Johns receives "Beyond the Call of Duty" Award from the National Bankers Association

SBA Deputy Said to Go “Beyond the Call of Duty” for Black Businesses
By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – It is a story that has unfolded all too often across America. The owner of a small business finds it simply impossible to pull through the torturous economy. The doors shut or the website shuts down and another business venture comes to a close.

Without incubation and support, the nation’s small businesses – including Black-owned businesses which are doubly vulnerable due to a history of racism and discrimination – would go under at alarming rates. In short, they need an advocate.

This is the reason that when the leaders of the National Bankers Association, an organization of 37 mostly Black-owned banks, began pondering prospective recipients of their annual “Beyond the Call of Duty Award”, its president says they did not have to look very far. No question, it was Marie Johns, deputy administrator of the U. S. Small Business Administration, he said.

“I think Marie Johns has an extraordinary record of serving the small business community in our country. She has shown a genuine interest in working with all small businesses. She’s been fair and inclusive, she believes in diversity, she’s shown a great sensitivity to the struggle of small businesses,” says Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers Association after bestowing Johns with the award during the NBA’s Annual Legislative/Regulatory Conference last week.

In prepared remarks, he said, “Ms. Johns has developed a reputation for being a good listener. She not only listened to community bankers and small business owners, she acted,” he said. In fact, Grant says Johns has served so well in the position that he believes she should be promoted to the top of the agency. “I think she would be an excellent candidate to be SBA administrator,” he said in an interview, noting that the agency has even greater potential.

An article by Claudio E. Cabrera, originally posted last fall on business website TheStreet.com and re-published this month on BlackEnterprise.com, is headlined, “Minority Businesses a Big Driver in the U.S. Small Business Economy.”

The article reports that “the number of black-owned businesses rose a noteworthy 60.5% to 1.9 million from 2002 to 2007, more than triple the 18% rate for businesses established nationally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners.”

It continues, “During the most recent period for which there is Census data, black-owned businesses generated $137.5 billion in receipts, up 55.1%.”

But the down side is this: Most of the highly prosperous Black-owned businesses are concentrated in certain states.  New York, Georgia and Florida and cities like New York, Chicago, Houston and Detroit have the largest concentration of the nation's black-owned businesses, the article reports, based on Census calculations. Also, “of the 1.9 million black-owned businesses, little more than 100,000 had paid employees” and only “14,000 of those businesses had receipts of $1 million or more.”

Johns agrees that as Black and other minority businesses grow, the economy grows.

“In 2013, minority-owned small businesses are one of the fastest-growing segments of our economy, and an engine of opportunity for millions of hard-working men and women in our communities,” Johns said in a prepared statement issued after last week’s award. “Empowering these businesses, and embracing an inclusive view of entrepreneurship, is essential to our long-term economic growth and global competitiveness.”

She also agrees with Grant that more must be done. “We must ensure that more people across the country have access to the capital, technical assistance, and support networks they need to help them start businesses, create jobs, and grow our economy.”

Suring up Black banks in order to serve their communities is a part of that mission, she says. “Over the past four years, the U.S. Small Business Administration has been working hard to create more access for entrepreneurs and more opportunities for lenders to work with the small businesses in their communities. The NBA and our network of lending partners are on the frontlines of these efforts to revitalize our economy and communities.”

In her statement, Johns ticked off a list of services available to strengthen small businesses and “underserved communities”. They include the Small Loan Advantage (SLA) program and Community Advantage lenders, she listed.

In fiscal year 2013 alone, she reported, the SLA Program “has already surpassed total SLA loans and approved SLA dollars in FY 2012 and 2011 combined, with more than 1,000 loans approved for a total of nearly $150,000,000 since the start of the fiscal year.”

Deputy administrator Johns is already a presidential appointee, nominated by President Obama on December 17, 2009, and confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate. Her bio on sba.gov boasts more than $30 billion in lending to more than 60,000 small businesses across the country.

“That is the most capital going to small businesses in the history of the SBA,” it states. She doesn’t have to convince Grant: “At a White House news briefing three years ago, President Barack Obama announced a number of new initiatives designed to streamline SBA guidelines and render the agency more user-friendly. Working in tandem with the Administration, Ms. Johns used her business savvy and exceptional executive skills to bring a more modern and less cumbersome SBA to community banks and small businesses, in general, and minority banks and minority-owned business enterprises in particular.”

March 26, 2013

In Israel: President Obama Draws from African-American Struggle
By Hazel Trice Edney

In Jerusalem, President Obama drew from the struggle of Black Americans in order to relate to the history of the Jewish people. PHOTO: The White House

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama, standing before an audience of thousands of Israeli people in Jerusalem last week, drew from Black history in America in order to connect.

“In the United States - a nation made up of people who crossed oceans to start anew - we’re naturally drawn to the idea of finding freedom in our land.  To African-Americans, the story of the Exodus was perhaps the central story, the most powerful image about emerging from the grip of bondage to reach for liberty and human dignity - a tale that was carried from slavery through the Civil Rights Movement into today,” he said in the March 21 speech at the Jerusalem International Convention Center.

His first time in the Holy Land, the President made a rare move in speaking openly about the pains of Black Americans and how they made it from slavery to freedom with faith and hope.

“For generations, this promise helped people weather poverty and persecution while holding on to the hope that a better day was on the horizon. For me, personally, growing up in far-flung parts of the world and without firm roots, the story spoke to a yearning within every human being for a home,” he said to applause.

He made the comparison with the plight of Jewish people.

“As Dr. Martin Luther King said on the day before he was killed, ‘I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know that we, as a people, will get to the promised land,’” The audience applauded again. “So just as Joshua carried on after Moses, the work goes on for all of you, the Joshua Generation, for justice and dignity; for opportunity and freedom.”

On the “listening tour” to Israel last week, Obama’s intent was to spread good will and connect.

“Over the last two days, I’ve reaffirmed the bonds between our countries with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Peres. I’ve borne witness to the ancient history of the Jewish people at the Shrine of the Book, and I’ve seen Israel’s shining future in your scientists and your entrepreneurs.  This is a nation of museums and patents, timeless holy sites and ground-breaking innovation.  Only in Israel could you see the Dead Sea Scrolls and the place where the technology on board the Mars Rover originated at the same time.”

The message, billed as his speech “To the People of Israel”, carried a since of resolve and promise of the Passover season.

“Of course, even as we draw strength from the story of God’s will and His gift of freedom expressed on Passover, we also know that here on Earth we must bear our responsibilities in an imperfect world. That means accepting our measure of sacrifice and struggle, just like previous generations. It means us working through generation after generation on behalf of that ideal of freedom.”

 

 

 

 

 

March 24, 2013

Nearly Three Centuries Later, Black Press Still Pleading Cause
By Deniqua Campbell

Unarmed Wendell Allen was shot in the back, killed by a New Orleans Police officer.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Wendell Allen’s life came to an abrupt end on March 7 last year as he died shirtless, standing on a staircase, at his Gentilly home in New Orleans, La.

Unarmed, the 20-year-old basketball star was shot in his back by New Orleans Police Department officer Josh Colclough. For six weeks the Allen family believed their child was shot in his chest until the embalmer revealed that Allen was actually shot in his back.

Yet, newspaper readers in New Orleans noticed two starkly different news priorities on the stands and in the streets.  Louisiana Weekly, a Black-owned paper, had the Wendell Allen shooting on the front cover. Right beside it, was the Times-Picayune, a White daily newspaper that had no mention of the Allen shooting. Instead, the cover featured a Black male being charged with multiple counts of murder.

In interviews over the past year, seasoned journalists say the differences in coverage between White and Black-owned media - whether print or broadcast - continue to be clear.

News outlets like CNN, MSNBC, BBC and Fox News, all cover certain types of stories from a certain perspective. “Black press is the voice of the Black community,” said Ingrid Sturgis, journalism professor of new media and multimedia expert at Howard University. “Our story doesn’t always get heard in mainstream media.”

Award-winning Black press reporter Hazel Trice Edney agrees. “Both of these stories are important,” said Edney, editor/publisher of the Trice Edney News Wire. “It is typical across America that when Black newspapers come out they have distinctly different stories than White newspapers.”

On August 13, 1977 an article headlined A little About A lot—The Need for the Black Press, was featured in the Baltimore Afro-American that detailed former dean of the School of Communications, Dr. Lionel C. Barrow’s four reasons for Black press. According to Barrow the Black press functioned as a watch dog, answered attacks published in the White press, presented a view point different even from that of liberal whites and, the black press also served as the carrier and preserver of Black culture.

Marrow did not deny that there were still improvements that needed to be made, improvements on production, in investigating and in reporting, writing and editing. But considering other issues Black media has faced, its survival is incredible.

“The strength of the Black press would be that it always relied on context and providing perspective,” said George Curry, award-winning journalist who is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service.

Curry reflected on when he interviewed the family of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot dead by Neighborhood Watch captain George Zimmerman on Feb. 28, 2012, a highly publicized court case now set for court June 10.

“No one was doing a story on how the news broke to Martin’s father,” Curry said.

While reporters of White publications were sticking to the basics and investigating the case, Curry went for an intimate and personal story.

“Urgency is not such a big problem,” Curry said. “It’s worth the wait because we don’t come out with the same frequency as other newspapers.”

Today the Black press faces issues within its own agencies. Perhaps the biggest is technological advancement. According to the State of the News Media in 2007, an annual report by the Pew Research Center on American journalism, “the black press has been slow to technology, and its audience appears to be aging.”

Pew’s State of the Media 2013 reports a new Black press hurdle – how to attract the attention of new, younger readers.

“One of the broader challenges for African-American news media in general, and most notably the newspaper sector, is striking a balance between appealing to a younger generation with a contemporary product and fulfilling a mission to honor a history that includes the defining civil rights struggle of a half-century ago,” the report states.

‘“History has got to be a definitive weave in what we do,”’ said John J. (Jake) Oliver Jr., the publisher and chief executive of the Afro-American newspapers in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., was quoted in the Pew Study. ‘“We’ve got to redefine our personality from just a straight delivery of community news to helping people really educate themselves.”’

The Black press has an extensive history dating back to March 16, 1827. That is when the first Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was founded in New York City by John B. Russwurm, a journalist, and Samuel Cornish, a minister. It's first editorial stated, "We wish to plead our own cause. For too long have others spoken for us."

Because of its longevity, now 186 years old, some find it hard to fathom why the Black press isn’t the biggest and most advanced among all media in the U.S. But, there are many reasons its numeric growth has been stunted.

“Technological advancement is an issue and it remains an issue,” Edney said. “But we’re working on that. There are many black newspapers that are online and there are many that are not.”

According to Sturgis, it has a lot to do with resources. “A lack of resources, reporters, funding to do in depth pieces, and training in new media hampers the ability to cover what needs to be covered as well as the ability to grow,” Sturgis said.

Financial struggles due to racial discrimination in advertising have also been a complaint by NNPA, a federation of more than 200 Black-owned newspapers, founded in 1940. The organization has launched many strategic campaigns calling on fair share in advertising from major corporations.

But the Black press isn’t losing its older audience. Curry admits that the older audience is a lot more appreciative of news and Edney agrees that there are faithful readers of Black newspapers that have strong contingencies within the community. The biggest concern Edney has with the black press is getting online and becoming more technology savvy.

“Because of the urgency of our issues, we must use every opportunity available to get our message out,” Edney said.

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, 83 percent of U.S. adults own a cell phone. Of these adults, 35 percent of them own a smart phone and one quarter of them use their phone as their main source of internet access. This is a trend that is especially found among 18 to 29-year-old adults who identify themselves as Black.

Pew Internet research shows that “when someone has a mobile device connected to the internet, they are more likely to share, to forward, to create and to consume online information, from text to photos to videos.”

Curry said, “You’re not going to reach the younger audience through print…You have to reach them through a mobile platform.”

The Black press, aiming to play a vital role in the lives of African-Americans, has been serving the community to bring perspective and context for over 100 years. Black press continues to do its part in telling the story and keeping its readers loyal. “You have to give them something they can’t get anywhere else,” Curry said.

Two months into Wendell Allen’s death, the Allen family remained outraged at the slowness of the investigation.

“They feel that because their son is African-American, the police department is taking its time investigating the incident,” said the Rev. Raymond Brown, president and founder of National Action Now during a press conference at the Allen home.

According to Louisiana Weekly, the shooting took place inside the Allen’s home during an execution of a search warrant for marijuana. Since the shooting, Allen has not been linked to the marijuana allegedly sold in or near the home.

Eventually, Colclough was indicted by a state grand jury on one account of man slaughter regarding Allen’s death.

A year after the shooting Colclough awaits trial and no date has yet been set. Meanwhile, the family, early this month, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the City of New Orleans, accusing the New Orleans Police department of several civil rights violations.

Though the Times-Picayune has done extensive reporting on the case, the Louisiana Weekly – in keeping with the Black Press mission – has not only lead the way, but agitated for justice, Edney says.

“The White press [still] criminalizes and stereotypes us,” Edney said. “We need to bring a sense of fairness and balance to the media consciousness.”