Nov. 23, 2015

Thanksgiving Is More Than Just a Holiday
By Edna Kane-Williams

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from AARP 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When I think of all that our country has been through historically, I am humbled by how far God has brought us since that autumn day in 1621, which is credited as the first Thanksgiving.

We all know that there is still much progress to be made. But during this season, there is also much for which to be thankful.

Even as another election cycle is underway and the powers that be debate the critical issues of our nation, let us give thanks. And even as there is much to occupy our minds like family, work, bills, the holidays and who will win the next football game, let us take a moment to reflect beyond Thanksgiving on Nov. 26.

So, I’d like to list just a few of the people for whom I am especially thankful all year round, some of whom we may take for granted.

•Every time I think of the history of Black people — from slavery to emancipation and from Jim Crow to civil rights — I am so grateful for all of those who fought and the many who died for the cause of freedom.

•Despite the fact that there is clearly the need to remain vigilant to protect the right to vote, every time I go to the polls I am especially grateful to remember those activists who fought and continue to stand so that I can cast a ballot for the candidates of my choice.

•I am also thankful for all of those military men and women at home and abroad who are dedicated to keeping us safe and free.

•And I am thankful that — with help, hard work and perseverance — my three wonderful children and other youth across the nation are able to do anything or go anywhere that their gifts, talents and character will take them.

•I am thankful for the solid upbringing that I received from hardworking parents who taught me the values of education, respect and service.

•I’m thankful for friends, family and coworkers who, no matter what’s going on, are always there for me.

•Finally, I am thankful for those who were role models in that small church on the corner that served as the center of my family’s life as I grew up in North Philadelphia. The role that faith has played in my life and in the history of African American people has been key to our amazing progress.

So during this season, let’s recognize the fact that Thanksgiving is not just a holiday. It really should be a way of life all year round.

Edna Kane Williams is senior vice president, multicultural leadership, AARP.

Nov. 22, 2015

Malian soldiers rescuing hostages

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – An attack on the luxury Radisson Blu Hotel in the capital of Mali was carried out by some 10 Islamic militants said to be seeking revenge for French military operations in the country since 2012.

Before they were overwhelmed by Malian, French and U.S. coordinated actions, the militants took 170 hostages and killed at least 22, including one American. Five U.S. Department of Defense attaches staying at the hotel managed to survive Friday’s assault, according to the military publication Stars and Stripes.

One U.S. special operator aided Mali Special Forces as they moved hostages, including at least six Americans, to a secure location from the Radisson Blu in Bamako after militants stormed the building, AFRICOM spokesman Army Col. Mark Cheadle told reporters in Washington.

Colin Freeman of the UK Sunday Telegraph, stationed in Bamako, reported that the militants had questioned hotel security guards to know the whereabouts of an Air France crew staying there.

The guard’s account suggests that French citizens were singled out because of the country's two-year long military campaign against Islamists in northern Mali. It might also explain the Air France's decision to suspend its twice daily flights from Paris to Bamako shortly afterwards, Freeman said.

The assault began around 7 a.m. Friday morning, Nov. 20,  when two gunmen, approaching on foot, reached the entrance where five guards who had worked the night shift were waiting to be replaced by a new team, said Cheick Dabo, one of the guards.

The guards had just finished the morning prayer and had put their weapons — a shotgun and two pistols — away in their vehicle when the militants struck.

"We didn't see the jihadists until they started firing on us. We weren't concentrating and we didn't expect it," he said.

Four of the guards were shot, one fatally, while Dabo himself managed to hide under a car.

A Jihadi group, the Al-Mourabitoun (The Sentinels), took credit for the attack. The group, which split two years ago from al-Qaida’s North Africa branch, said it wants its fighters freed from Mali’s prisons and attacks against northern Malians to stop, according to a recorded statement by Algerian militant Moktar Belmoktar carried by Al-Jazeera. The statement said the attack was coordinated with the “Sahara Emirate,” which is affiliated with al-Qaida.

Meanwhile, all DOD personnel — 22 military and civilian workers — in Bamako were accounted for and uninjured, a defense official said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the situation.

The rescue effort puts a spotlight on a mission the governments in Washington and Bamako have quietly cultivated in recent years. French and U.S. troops have worked with the Malian military as it battles a growing insurgency.

The French military played a leading role in the response a year after the coup with U.S. air support. Up to 4,000 French soldiers were involved, along with 6,400 soldiers from African nations, according to a Rand Corp. study of the mission. Among the French units involved were the French Foreign Legion, which included at least one U.S. soldier who had deserted to join.

Among the dead in the Radisson attack were a 41-year-old American development worker, six Russian plane crew from a cargo company, and three senior executives from the powerful state-owned China Railway Construction Corp., officials said. 

The Mali attack came one week after 130 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Isis terrorist attack in Paris.

Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over the weekend, President Barack Obama acknowledged growing concerns about the "urgent threat of terrorism" around the world. He sought to assure his commitment to dealing with the threats of Isis as well as al-Quaida.

"Of course, given the events of this week, much of my work here in Asia focused on the urgent threat of terrorism," he said during a press conference at the U.S.-ASEAN and East Asia summits. "Today, families in too many nations are grieving the senseless loss of their loved ones in the attacks in France and in Mali.  As Americans, we remember Nohemi Gonzalez, who was just 23 years old, a design major from California State University.  She was in Paris to pursue her dream of designing innovations that would improve the lives of people around the world.  And we remember Anita Datar of Maryland.  She’s a veteran of the Peace Corps, a mother to her young son, who devoted her life to helping the world’s poor, including women and girls in Mali, lift themselves up with health and education."

Obama concluded, "All of which is to say that our coalition will not relent.  We will not accept the idea that terrorist assaults on restaurants and theaters and hotels are the new normal - or that we are powerless to stop them.  After all, that’s precisely what terrorists like ISIL want, because, ultimately, that’s the only way that they can win.  That’s the very nature of terrorism --they can’t beat us on the battlefield, so they try to terrorize us into being afraid, into changing our patterns of behavior, into panicking, into abandoning our allies and partners, into retreating from the world.  And as President, I will not let that happen."

Trice Edney News Wire Editor-in-chief Hazel Trice Edney contributed to this story.

Nov. 23, 2015

Forty Years Later, the 'Tarboro Three' Giving Thanks for Life After Death Row
The Southern Poverty Law Center and its founder, Morris Dees, Refused to Give Up on Their Freedom

Jesse Walston, Vernon Brown and Bobby Hines

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - They were sentenced to die in 1973 for a rape they didn't commit, but found freedom after the Southern Poverty Law Center and its co-founder, Morris Dees, took on the racially charged North Carolina case.

Jesse Walston sounds like many men in their 60s when he speaks.

He talks about life in semi-retirement. He talks about spending time with family and friends. When he speaks about his grandchildren, his voice swells with pride. And when he reflects on life, he speaks with the authority that comes only from life experience.

But what sets him apart from many men his age is what he has experienced.

Four decades ago, Walston and two other men were sentenced to die in North Carolina’s gas chamber. The Black men were wrongly convicted of raping a White woman in Tarboro, N. C. Walston and the others– who became known as the “Tarboro Three” – might have remained in prison awaiting their execution had it not been for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which appealed the case and freed them in 1975.

“There’s no point in feeling bitter about it,” said Walston, 65. “You just have to be happy that things turned out the way they did. I don’t hold no grudges or no ill feelings for anybody. I’m just glad that the truth came out.”

But it took time for the truth to come out.

Walston and his two friends – Vernon Brown and Bobby Hines – spent two years in prison before they were freed. Convicted of rape in 1973, they remained steadfast in declaring that they had not raped the woman they had given a ride to a popular late-night hangout after spotting her walking alone at night. They even rejected a plea deal that would have spared them the death penalty.

After the story of the Tarboro Three reached SPLC founder Morris Dees, he took the case.

“When I met these men, they were locked up only 30 feet from the gas chamber,” Dees said. “I am so proud that the Southern Poverty Law Center was able to free them and give them a second chance at life. I only wish that the racial injustice at the heart of this case was no longer an issue today. Unfortunately, our nation is still grappling with many of the same issues that almost cost the Tarboro Three their lives.”

Dees found evidence that wasn’t introduced at the trial, winning a new trial. Rather than retry the men, prosecutors agreed to release them from prison if they pleaded “no contest” to reduced charges. They accepted the offer, even though they had earlier refused to plead guilty to rape charges in exchange for a lighter sentence, saying they could not admit to a crime they didn’t commit.

“When Morris stepped in we felt a little more relaxed and we knew it was just a matter of time that the truth was going to come out because he let us know that he was going to get to the bottom of it,” said Walston, who still remains in contact with Dees today.

Life after the Tarboro Three

Once the case ended and the headlines faded, the Tarboro Three had to resume their lives. Walston was reunited with his wife, daughter and 2-year-old son, who was born just before he went to prison. He was even rehired to the job he held before the ordeal.

Today, he’s a part-time truck driver and lives in Camp Springs, Maryland, with his wife. A proud father of six adult children and grandfather of 10, Walston exudes a content and grateful demeanor. He speaks about summer vacations in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Virginia Beach, Va., as well as visits with family – time that he clearly savors.

“The whole life after that [case] has been happy,” he said.

On Labor Day, Walston visited Brown in Tarboro. The two men’s friendship, which began in high school, has endured over time.

“I guess we’ll be friends for life,” Walston said. The third member of the group, Hines, died in a work-related accident years after the case.

‘Looking forward’

As for Brown, he found work shortly after being released from prison. He took a job at a factory that created pressboard for use in furniture and worked there for 31 years. At age 64, this father of three adult children and grandfather of seven now works part-time at a rental car company.

“I’m so grateful for Mr. Morris Dees,” he said. “I’m indebted to him for the rest of my life. I’m just glad everything is behind me. I’m just looking forward.”

But Brown also admits life is never the same after such an experience.

“I’m never going to forget it,” he said. “But I’m doing OK.”

Brown still lives in Tarboro, which keeps him near family and friends. He describes himself as a “homebody” – echoing a comment his mother made in a story published by the SPLC four decades ago where she questioned how her son, who “stuck by the house,” could have ended up in prison.

There are still people who recognize Brown as a member of the Tarboro Three today, something that’s to be expected in a small town of about 11,000 residents. The younger generation, however, seems unaware, he said. Brown just pushes on with life, possibly finding strength and resolve from the memory of the day he was released.

“It looked like a whole new world,” he said of that day. “The air was sweet – everything!”

Despite the decades that have passed, both men recognize that the issues at the center of their case are still relevant today, issues such as the mass incarceration, racial injustice and the death penalty. Walston believes there have been some improvements to the justice system since the case but that there is still more work ahead. Brown is more apt to point out that the justice system doesn’t always work equally for everyone.

“I hate that it happens to people … but I know it can happen,” he said of people wrongfully convicted.

Walston offered one piece of advice for someone in a similar situation as the Tarboro Three.

“Never plead guilty to something you’re not,” he said. “Never.”

Nov. 22, 2015

Just a Word from the 'Grinch': Don't Believe the Holiday Hype
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The buildup began right after Halloween, when the newspapers got thicker; the advertising inserts longer, and emails touting shopping bargains coming more frequently.  Buy!  Buy!  Buy! The exhortations are almost hypnotic.  Buy, buy more, and buy even more.  Sellers have become far more aggressive in trying to separate consumers from their dollars because they depend on fourth quarter sales to make a profit.

The term “Black Friday” does not refer to black people, but to the Friday after thanksgiving when retailers can forecast whether they will end the year “in the black”.   Consumer confidence is higher than it has been in the past several years, and unemployment is lower.  Spending is up.  Have consumers yet shed the cautionary approach they had to holiday spending last year?

Whether you plan to spend or not, don’t fall for the holiday hype.  The big box stores will advertise unbelievable bargains, a 58” wide screen TV for $129, for example.  What they won’t tell you is that they have five of them.  Exactly five.  They are hoping that you will get to the store early, stand in line, and when you learn there are no more cheap TV bargains, you’ll buy something else.  Meanwhile, you and the other fools (yes, fools) who stood in line all day or night will perform for the cameras that record you stampeding through the store, trampling each other, in search of “deals”.

Why not, instead, consider the meaning of holidays, holy days?  Why not use these last few weeks of the year to do some of the good we neglected to do earlier in the year?  Why not show love, regard, respect through words and deeds, and not through stuff?  Why feed the great consumer machine that exploits consumers.  Wal-Mart, the largest of the mass retailers pays its workers little to nothing, adjusts their hours to avoid offering health care, and fires employees when they protest.  They are the easiest to call out, but they aren’t the only retailer that touts great prices but offers workers low pay and benefits.

If there is shopping that should be done (and don’t get me wrong – I like to shop as much as the next person does) why not spend your dollars with black-owned businesses, and also on Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after thanksgiving).  Why not gift your friends (especially children and young adults) with great books.  As you contemplate holiday giving, consider Maggie Anderson’s Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy.

Anderson’s book is both sobering and empowering.  Sobering – it was a chore to buy black because black folks don’t own things like gas stations.  Empowering – it was important to see how black business could be strengthened with more patronage.  Unfortunately, African Americans spend less than ten percent of our income with black businesses.  While there are “reasons”, there are also reasons we should go out of our way to support black business.  Supporting black business generates jobs in our communities, which means providing opportunities for some of the young people who desperately need employment.

According to a Gallup consumer survey, Americans plan to spend $830 on gifts this year, 15 percent more than we spent in 2014, and more than any year since 2007.  My snarly tone about holiday hype isn’t likely to change hearts, minds, or spending habits.  Without snarling, then, my suggestion is to think before you spend, and to let your spending reflect your values.  You appreciate small businesses?  Shop with them.  You care about black entrepreneurship?  Look for black businesses.  If you can’t find a bricks and mortar store, shop online.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist based in Washington, DC. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” will be released in 2015 and is available for preorder at www.juliannemalveaux.com