SPLC Urges Alabama School District to End Policies Pushing Out Black Students

June 12, 2016

SPLC Urges Alabama School District to End Policies Pushing Out Black Students

Action Expected July 18

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Southern Poverty Law Center

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Southern Poverty Law Center has urged school officials in Dothan, Alabamaq to change its discipline policies after an SPLC investigation revealed that African-American students overwhelmingly receive harsh discipline that needlessly pushes them out of school for minor misconduct.

During a wide-ranging presentation at a recent Dothan City Board of Education meeting, the SPLC shared its findings, which showed that despite African-Americans representing 55 percent of all district students, they represent 85 percent or more of the students removed from class through practices such as suspension, in-school suspension and assignment to alternative school. The SPLC also found that students with disabilities were frequently disciplined for behavior related to their disability. In both instances, students were disciplined for broad and ambiguous infractions such as “defiance” and “disorderly conduct.”

The SPLC called for several reforms, including using suspensions only for the most serious offenses. The school board is expected to review the SPLC’s recommendations and take action at its July 18 meeting. The SPLC has asked that all policy changes be implemented by Jan. 5 to allow enough time for the district to train faculty.

“The evidence is clear: Pushing kids out of school for routine misbehavior is a formula for failure,” said Natalie Lyons, SPLC staff attorney. “We are encouraged that the school board is willing to work with us to ensure every student has an opportunity to succeed.”

The SPLC also urged the district to work with the city to ensure that police officers stationed in the schools are not used to address routine discipline matters. The Dothan Police Department reported there were 469 misdemeanor arrests in the school district from August 2011 to February 2012. From 2013 to 2016, the school district failed to report arrest data to the U.S. Department of Education as required by law.

During the presentation, the SPLC highlighted its success at another Alabama school district – Mobile County Public Schools. The school district made headlines in 2013 after a high school principal suspended more than 90 students in one day for uniform violations. A year later, suspensions dropped by more than 30 percent after the district reformed its policies as part of a settlement agreement to resolve an earlier SPLC lawsuit.

The agreement is part of the SPLC’s effort to eliminate harsh school discipline policies across the Deep South that disproportionately affect African Americans and children with disabilities.

“Pushing out children of color is not the answer,” Lyons said. “It is imperative that school districts find effective, even-handed ways to address behavior without depriving children of an education.”

Despite “Racially Toxic” Statements Lone Black Republican Senator Reaffirms Support for Trump By Zenitha Prince

June 12, 2016

Despite “Racially Toxic” Statements Lone Black Republican Senator Reaffirms Support for Trump

By Zenitha Prince

U. S. Rep. Tim Scott

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Just days after Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the U.S. Senate’s sole African American Republican member, labeled Donald Trump’s criticism of the Mexican-American judge overseeing the Trump University case as “racially toxic,” the lawmaker reaffirmed his support for the divisive presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Trump has come under fire by many in the GOP for his racially-tinged criticism of federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s handling of the lawsuit against Trump University. Among other things, he has called the judge a “hater” who has been “very hostile” and biased in his rulings.

“I’ve been treated very unfairly by this judge. This judge is of Mexican heritage, OK? I’m building a wall between here and Mexico. I’m trying to keep business out of Mexico,” Trump told CNN’s Jake Trapper, citing the reasons he believes Curiel is prejudiced against him. “I think he needs to recuse himself.”

Scott was among the Republican leaders who sounded off on Trump’s racist language.

“I think they were racially toxic,” Scott said of Trump’s remarks earlier this week. “Obviously his comments were in line with his primary language, which is not in our best interest either.”

On June 7, Trump issued a statement saying his comments were “misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage” when he was only questioning Curiel’s handling of the case.

Scott seemed quick to accept Trump’s non-apology, saying to CNN on June 7: “I think he’s done a good job in the last 24 hours of realizing the impact of those comments. I think it shows real leadership when he takes responsibility and walks those comments back. I think that’s a good direction, a new direction frankly and one that I am pleased with.”

He later told The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier that while he might find Trump’s words troubling, he would continue to support the GOP nominee.

“I’m not living in a silo,” Scott said. “The reality of it is, we have the impact of Trump’s policies and positions compared to Hillary Clinton’s policies and positions, and I am entirely convinced the country is better off under the policies and positions of the Republican Party than they are under the Democratic Party.”

Not every Republican is as encouraged by Trump’s explanation, however—most notably Scott’s fellow South Carolina senator.

“The bar is low,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), told CNN of his fellow GOP senators’ acceptance of Trump’s latest apology.

“I think it shows a conscience on his part that he stepped in it. Whether or not this is a major correction or not, I don’t know,” said Graham, who abandoned his own presidential campaign last year. “His excuse that his statement was misconstrued—nobody believes that. But it is some recognition that he needs to be more disciplined.”

Clinton and Trump Point America in Two Very Different Directions by Jesse Jackson

June 12, 2016

Clinton and Trump Point America in Two Very Different Directions
By Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The media has already dubbed Hillary Clinton the presumptive presidential nominee. Even before she won California, she had won more votes, more pledged delegates and more primaries than Bernie Sanders. Superdelegates will not overturn the choice of the voters unless the former secretary of state’s email scandal gets much worse. We are headed into a race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Most attention is focused on their personalities. The polls show that Americans feel unfavorably toward both of them. Trump calls Clinton “crooked” and has already begun a campaign of personal insult and slur. Clinton calls Trump “unfit temperamentally” for the job and has highlighted his changing ideas and lack of policy expertise. Trump wants to be seen as a strong outsider. Clinton wants to be perceived as experienced and responsible.

But this election is less a choice about personality than about direction, less about individuals than about movements. Trump presents himself as an insurgent in the Republican Party, but he carries that party’s right-wing agenda. He thinks climate change is a myth. He’s for massive tax cuts on the wealthy, and for more spending on the military. He has embraced the GOP’s race-baiting politics and carted them to new lows. He has no program for dealing with inequality. He’s built his campaign by pushing off against Hispanics, Muslims, women, environmentalists and African-Americans. He pledges to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, which would add tensions to the most volatile region of the world.

Trump sounds refreshing in his skepticism about America’s failed trade policies and about its interventions across the world. But his answers — that he’d cut a better deal — are postures, not policy.

Clinton, in contrast, offers herself as an experienced reformer who will build on the progress made over the last years, not reverse it. She’ll push for strengthening the Voting Rights Act, comprehensive immigration reform, equal pay for women and a stronger effort to address climate change. She’ll defend progress made on choice, gay rights, civil rights and the environment. She favors lifting the minimum wage and empowering workers to organize. She celebrates the Iran deal and the Paris agreement on climate.

Trump is far more a Caesar than a movement candidate. But he will be supported by and pressed by the conservative movements that drive the Republican right — the Tea Party, the Gun Lobby and the anti-choice, anti-immigrant, anti-gay and anti-black reactions.

Clinton is far more an establishment than a movement candidate. But she will be supported by and pressed by the civil rights, women’s, environmental, LGBT, union, Latino, pro-democracy and anti-Wall Street movements. Sanders was right to run in the Democratic primaries because that is where the reform movement energy gets expressed.

The choice in direction is clear. Activists have to decide whether it is preferable to fight against a leader supported and pushed by the right — even if it means supporting a candidate they deem less progressive — or to deny their vote to both nominees.

We know the cost of dismay and the power of hope. In 1960, John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon by 112,000 votes, the margin of our hope. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon by 800,000 votes, the margin of our despair. In 1980, Ronald Reagan won in large part because of Democratic Party divisions over Jimmy Carter. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African-American president on the basis of our hope.

We’re headed into a negative campaign featuring on personal insult and negative attacks. But we’re making a choice about direction. And we should not forget that.

Muhammad Ali: A Fighter in and Out of the Ring Marc H. Morial

June 12, 2016

To Be Equal

Muhammad Ali: A Fighter in and Out of the Ring

Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.” — Muhammad Ali, Championship Boxer, American Activist, International Icon, 1942-2016

How would you approach the colossal task of describing a man who once boasted that he, “wrestled with alligators, tussled with a whale, done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. Only last week murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick, so mean he made medicine sick”? I think that’s a man you allow to define himself—in his own colorful words—which is what Muhammad Ali did his entire life and throughout his legendary boxing career.

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born where he will be buried: Louisville, Kentucky. His mother was a cook and house cleaner and his father was a frustrated painter with big dreams, dreams he would pass on to both his sons along with this constant refrain— “I am the greatest.” Ali’s legendary boxing career began with a beloved, stolen bicycle. The $60 red Schwinn was a Christmas gift from his father, and it would set the wheels in motion for an angry 12-year-old kid who claimed he would “whup” the person who stole his bike, to step into a ring, pick up boxing gloves and fight for justice. It was a defining moment and a trope that would shape his professional and personal life.

Ali was a great fighter, but his fights were never limited to the inside of a boxing ring. Ali’s career was teeming with personal success, but every win in and out of the ring was a win for every man or woman who ever felt attacked, or had to bob and weave past the ferocious jabs of social injustice. Ali was a professional athlete, but he used that platform to make an impact that transcended pugilism. Famous people often take up causes, but Ali is the greatest because he stood up for his principles and made consequential sacrifices on behalf of those causes.

After winning a gold medal in the Rome Olympics and beating Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship, the newly crowned 22-year-old champ renounced his given name, Cassius Clay, as a “slave name” and revealed that he was a member of the Nation of Islam. His new faith and his new name drew intense controversy and lost him many fans, but he persevered and successfully defended his title every time he stepped in the ring. In 1967, Ali was drafted to serve in the Army during the height of our nation’s war in Vietnam.

He refused to serve, saying, “"I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong," and requested conscientious-objector status from fighting against people he said never lynched him or put dogs on him. No slight of hand in the ring, head fake or lightening quick shuffle was as bold as Ali’s refusal to fight in a war he did not believe in. The reaction was swifter and harder than the punches of any opponent Ali had ever faced. Many called him a traitor. Ali was convicted of draft evasion, stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from boxing. While he wasn’t locked up for sticking to his conviction, he was locked out of the sport the brought him to fame. He sacrificed four years of his career and untold millions rather than renounce his anti-war stance.

Ali would return to the ring in 1970 and would go on to thrill boxing fans, supporters, and critics, with his skill in the ring. Loud and unapologetic, Ali would continue to speak out against social injustice and preach the gospel of Black pride. Never forgetting those who were still “catching hell” while he had it made, Ali understood that “service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” The 12-year-old boy who lost his bike at the hands of an unknown thief may have changed his name, but never wavered from his purpose: to seek justice. His fight for justice was never his alone; it was for everyone.

It was during this period of his career that I, a star-struck 13-year-old, was thrilled to meet Ali at an Alpha Phi Alpha convention in Milwaukee. I was awed by him have considered him a hero all my life. One of my prized possessions is an autographed Ali boxing glove, a cherished wedding gift from my wife. Later, I was honored to serve as an Ali Center Board Member for several years.

Ali laid his gloves down for the last time in 1980. After retiring, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. As the progressive condition robbed him of his poetry, stinging provocations and physical dexterity, he became a more cherished figure, here and abroad, and the accolades poured in for breadth of Ali’s career as a boxer and activist. He was the first boxer on a box of Wheaties. He lit the Olympic flame during the Atlanta Olympics. President Bush presented Ali with the Medal of Freedom, and the National Urban League honored Ali with the highest commendation presented by the organization by giving him an Equal Opportunity Day (EOD) Award.

He was my idol and his courage has been a beacon for so many in my generation.

Ali fought his last battle against his most vicious foe in the public eye for over 30 years. While we mourn the time of his departure, we are reminded of what made him “the greatest of all time.” We should all draw comfort from knowing that he competed well. We take pride in the fact that he finished the race. And we recognize that we are all better because he kept the faith. Rest in peace, champ.

Hillary Clinton Claims Historic Win in Democratic Primary by Hazel Trice Edney

June 8, 2016

Hillary Clinton Claims Historic Win in Democratic Primary
Sanders continues to fight as Obama attempts to make peace
By Hazel Trice Edney

FILE PHOTO: Paulette Singleton/Trice Edney News Wire

(TriceEdneyWire.com) — Former First Lady, former U. S. Senator and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has finally won enough delegates to make history as the first woman to become the presidential nominee of a major political party.

“Thanks to you we’ve reached a milestone,” Clinton told a wildly applauding and cheering crowd in Brooklyn, N.Y. Tuesday night. “The first time in our nation’s history that a woman will be a major party’s nominee. Tonight’s victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of men and women who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible. We all owe so much to those who came before. And tonight belongs to all of you.”

She immediately offered an olive branch to her Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to stay in the race until the Democratic National Convention.

“I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for the extraordinary campaign he has run. He has spent his long career in public service fighting for Progressive causes and principles and he's excited millions of voters, especially young people. And let there be no mistake,” she continued. “Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the democratic party and for America. This has been a hard fought, deeply felt campaign. But whether you supported me or senator Sanders or one of the Republicans, we all need to keep working toward a better, stronger America. Now I know it never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and to come up short. I know that feeling well.”

Nearly eight years ago, it was Clinton who came up short in her Democratic primary race against then Sen. Barack Obama. This week, President Obama plans to meet with Clinton and Sanders in an attempt to begin healing between the two campaigns. He spoke to both candidates on Tuesday. An Obama endorsement of Clinton appears to be imminent.

Sanders knows what time it is.

“I am pretty good with Arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight,” Sanders said in California Tuesday night. “But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get!”

But, that comment was made before Clinton’s sweeping win in California with at least 56 percent of the vote to Sanders’ 43 percent. Sanders then congratulated her on her win in California, but has still not conceded the nomination.

Clinton also won New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota on Tuesday. He won Montana and North Dakota.

The Associated Press reported that Sanders was “disappointed” and “upset” at the news of the Clinton win in California. The only primary left is the D.C. primary June 14. With only 46 D.C. delegates at stake, that’s not nearly enough for a Sanders nomination.

Clinton already has 2,740 delegates, 357 more than the 2383 needed to clinch the nomination. Sanders has only 1800. He had hoped to win over some of the powerful super delegates who will cast final votes at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 25-28.

Meanwhile, in her race against Republican nominee Donald Trump, Clinton appears to be reaching for a broad tent of voters, similar to the Rainbow Coalition established by the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1988. In a video championing her historic win, Clinton says, "Women and men, young and old, Latino and Asian, African-American and Caucasian, rich, poor and middle class, gay and straight, you have stood with me. And I will continue to stand strong with you, every time, every place and every way that I can!"

Meanwhile, Trump is being dogged by allegations of “racism” from his own Republican Party leaders - including House Speaker Paul Ryan - who are angry over his criticism of an America judge that he repeatedly says his “Mexican” heritage disqualifies him for presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University. However, Trump suddenly toned down his attacks this week and started using a teleprompter. He says he will no longer speak of Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, but will do a speech next week targeting Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

But, Trump also has a major hill to climb. So far, Clinton has received 15.2 million votes in Democratic primaries, 1.3 million more than Trump’s 13.9 million received in Republican primaries.

In a speech on Tuesday, Trump tried to welcome Sanders’ millions of supporters into his campaign: "This election isn't about Republican or Democrat, it's about who runs this country: the special interests or the people," he said.

But, Sanders indicated that he will persuade his supporters to remain under the Democratic tent: Speaking of Clinton, he said, "Our fight is to transform this country and to understand that we are in this together, to understand that all of what we believe is what the majority of the American people believe and to understand that the struggle continues.”