Jan. 13, 2013
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - One hundred and fifty years ago, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.  It was a flawed document that freed enslaved people in Confederate areas that he did not control. At the same time, it was a progressive document because it initiated discussion about the “freedom” Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteen Amendments.

One hundred years later, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King riveted the nation with his “I Have A Dream” speech during the August 28 March on Washington.  Many will remember that he said, “I have a dream that one day people will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  Somehow people forget that in the same speech he said, “We have come to the nation’s capital to cash a check that has been marked insufficient funds”.  If people said “cash the check” as often as they said “I have a dream”, we’d move more quickly forward in closing the economic gaps that African-American people experience.

We’ve been doing this 50-year thing for the past couple years, and we’ll be doing it for another few.  The “Greensboro Four” North Carolina A&T State University Students (with the help of Bennett College students, often ignored) sat in at Woolworth counters on February 1, 1960, more than fifty years ago.  The March on Washington happened 50 years ago. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, and beyond that the 1960s will resonate for the next few years with commemorations and anniversaries.

These celebrations are important historical moments, but who remembers?  The median age of the population in the United States is about 37 years old.  Many of these folks remember the civil rights moment through twice and thrice told tales.  Those who are under the median age see the civil rights movement as something like a fable, something they heard about, but doesn’t really matter to them.  Many of these young people see themselves as “post-racial”.  They hang out with their peers, race notwithstanding.  They have never experienced discrimination. Even when they experience it, they are slow to embrace it.  They are post-racial, whatever that means.

If some of these young people had been immersed in history, they might understand why the black unemployment rate is twice that of the White rate.  If they had read some Dr. Martin Luther King, who spoke of racial disparities in much of his work, they would understand the many ways the struggle continues.  But popular culture suggests that when black folks and white folks can both act extreme fools on reality shows (I think I blanked out after about a minute of “Bad Girls Club”); there is some measure of equality.

There has been a rich history and legacy of struggle and protest that has been swallowed by the notion of post-racialism in the first decades of this century.  It is laudable that President Obama will use both the Bible of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and that of President Abraham Lincoln, connecting the 150-year-old dots.  President Obama’s choice in using both Bibles in this anniversary year is a testament to his sensitivity and ability to juggle the tightrope he must manage as both President of the United States and the first African American President of our nation.

Most folks over 50 get it.  What about those who are both younger than our nation’s median age and unschooled in the nuances of history?  Is our conversation about race in America stuck in some kind of time warp, where we are unable to speak cross generationally because we have extremely different memories, recollections, and knowledge about that which happened 50 years ago?

Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author.

By Wilmer Leon III

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - On Sunday, January 20^th at 12:00 p.m., America’s 44^th President Barack Obama will be sworn in for his second term.  The public celebration of his inauguration will take place on Monday, January 21^st which is also the legal public holiday celebrating the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Many see the public swearing in of the first president who is African American taking place on the same day we celebrate the life of one of the greatest Americans as another invaluable symbol, a breakthrough for America, a double helix.  Some see the reelection of President Obama as the realization of Dr. King’s “Dream.”  Others see it as an incredible irony, an incongruity between the literal and the implied meaning of the events.

The symbolic significance of the re-election of President Obama cannot be understated. It took this country 219 years to elect its first African-American president (George Washington was elected in 1789). In spite of Americas schizophrenic perspective on “race” (race is really an artificial construct) this country swore in its first president who is African American on January 20, 2009 and will again on January 20, 2013.

As I reflect upon the historic election of Senator Obama, my thoughts go to the Constitution and three specific provisions. First, Article 1, Section 2, the Three Fifths Compromise; second, Article 1, Section 9 which allowed for the importation of slaves for 21 years after the Constitution was ratified; and finally Article 4, Section, the Fugitive Slave Clause that allowed for escaped slaves to be returned to slaveholders. These constitutional provisions come to mind since they were the legal and conceptual foundations of the oppression that Africans in America, and later African-Americans, have been subjected to since the founding of this nation.

The Obama administration has done great work.  It is able to claim a number of legislative successes during its first term.  For example it was able to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act // Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010; the Dodd-Frank (DF) Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the biggest financial reform law since the Great Depression; the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; Instituted equal pay for women; the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to include gender, sexual orientation and disability; supported the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and supported marriage equality; Provided $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; Appointed first black Attorney General, Eric Holder; and appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court.  These are all significant actions and should be recognized as such.

Some see Obama’s election and re-election in the context of Dr. King and the fulfillment of “The Dream.” Not so fast! Never confuse a down payment with the balance being paid in full. The Dream was never about electing an African-American president. The Dream was about brotherhood, freedom, justice and equality for the least of us, so that the true meaning of the American creed could be enjoyed by all of us. As Dr. King said, "And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true."

We must always remember that before Dr. King made reference to “The Dream” he said, “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free… the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination…the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity…the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.”

So the irony of America publically swearing in its first president who is African American for his second term on the legal public holiday celebrating the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is that the nightmarish conditions that led to articulation of The Dream still exist in America today!

The Dream cannot be fulfilled when a candidate for president has to run a deracialized campaign in order to make the masses comfortable with the obvious aesthetic. The second inauguration of President Obama does not negate the reality of Driving While Black.  It does not erase the fact that unemployment in America is 7.8 percent but over 17 percent for African Americans.

We cannot ignore the fact that African Americans make up 13 percent of the population and 53 percent of those incarcerated.  Dr. King’s dream was about using the power of government and its resources to eradicate poverty yet today 14.5 percent  of U.S. households—nearly 49 million Americans, including 16.2 million children—struggle to put food on the table and African-Americans and Latinos, nearly one in three children is at risk of hunger.  All of this while conservatives want to destroy the public safety net and create a permanent underclass in this country.

It’s ironic how as we celebrate the civil rights legacy of Dr. King, President Obama has a “kill list’, supports warrantless wiretapping, the indefinite detention of American citizens, death by drone, and the assassination of American citizens any place in the world without judicial review.

The irony is that in spite of these stark realities for the poor in America and specifically the African American community, African Americans gave President Obama 95% of its support and none of these issues were addressed during the 2012 presidential campaign. As leaders of an invaluable political constituency too many in African American leadership are either unwilling or unable to challenge this president to use his bully pulpit to address them.

He can proclaim his support for Israel to all corners of the world.  He can support marriage equality; immigration reform and through executive order support the Dream Act but African-Americans are supposed to sit quietly and Hope for Change.

Never confuse a down payment with the balance being paid in full. This inauguration is a great step forward in America but remember, we have "miles to go before we sleep".

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program "Inside the Issues with  WilmerLeon," and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C.  Go to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,  www.wilmerleon.com , email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. orwww.twitter.com/drwleon

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.”

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.”