Nov. 20, 2016

Gwen Ifill Tributes Continue Days After Her Funeral
By Monesha Woods

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Days after Gwen Ifill was laid to rest in a star-studded funeral at which First Lady Michelle Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder paid their respects, tributes to the award-winning journalist continue to pour in.

As many struggle to process her sudden death, focus has turned to the legacy that’s now left behind by the media icon, who broke racial barriers with her excellence instead of her race.

Ifill, who died Nov. 14, after a battle with cancer, spent decades climbing the ranks from print journalist to news anchor and famed political moderator. Ifill began as an intern at the Boston Herald-American while a student at Simmons College in 1977, a position that exposed her to opportunity and overt racism in the workplace.

The native New Yorker went on to work for several networks and newspapers including the Washington Post, Baltimore Evening Sun, and the New York Times. Ultimately she became a trusted voice and face of political commentary.

Gwen Ifill is probably best known as moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week” on PBS as well as her role alongside Judy Woodruff as co-anchor and co-managing editor of the NewsHour on PBS. They were the first women to co-anchor network nightly news.

Last spring, she and Woodruff moderated the Democratic primary debate between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders. Gwen Ifill had performed that role solo during vice presidential debates in the 2004 and 2008 general election campaigns. 

She was widely known and highly respected in journalistic circles - even by the politicians she covered.

"She was an extraordinary journalist.  She always kept faith with the fundamental responsibilities of her profession - asking tough questions, holding people in power accountable, and defending a strong and free press that makes our democracy work," President Barack Obama told reporters in the White House Press Room Nov. 14. "I always appreciated Gwen’s reporting, even when I was at the receiving end of one of her tough and thorough interviews.  Whether she reported from a convention floor or from the field, whether she sat at the debate moderator’s table or at the anchor desk, she not only informed today’s citizens, but she also inspired tomorrow’s journalists."

Obviously never one to be deterred, Ifill discussed how she pushed past the racism that could have held her back.

"You don't transcend being Black," she said in a 1999 interview with the Washington Post. "You broaden someone's stereotype of what it means to be Black. There are people who get nervous when you bring up the subject of race because we're schooled in this country to think it's a negative. I always think of it as a plus."

Ifill leaves journalism and media professors with a solid example for their students. Reflecting on her legacy this week, several spoke of how she will continue to teach by example.

"She was a quintessential example of what professional journalism is all about while at the same time keeping close connection to the fact that she is a Black journalist," said journalist and author A. Peter Bailey, who has taught journalism and Black Press history at the University of the District of Columbia. "She showed that there is no contradiction between being a journalist and being a Black journalist. You can have the interest of Black people at heart and still maintain your journalistic ethics. Gwen was a quintessential example of that," said Bailey.

Yanick Rice Lamb, associate professor and chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University's Cathy Hughes School of Communications, told The Hilltop that Gwen Ifill appeared to represent what it means to have it all.

"She was at the top of my list of ‘together sisters’ — naturally confident, smart, friendly, supportive and cool," she said. "I loved watching her on television and especially moderating political debates. Gwen made what appeared to be a seamless and successful transition from print to broadcast journalism — not an easy feat. She willingly shared her expertise with young journalists and the young at heart — dispensing sound wisdom and answering any and all questions. I’m glad that many Howard students had a chance to meet her."

Ifill was born in Queens, New York on September 29, 1955 to a father who was a pastor and emigrated from Panama, and a mother who was from Barbados. Though she and her five siblings grew up poor and moved around with occasional stints in subsidized housing, the newscaster said that their parents instilled the importance of being well-versed in world affairs.

As a result, Ifill discovered her passion for journalism at a young age and eventually embarked on a lifelong journey to prominence. After graduation from Simmons College, the veteran contributor landed her first job with the Boston Herald-American. Before long, she started covering politics for the Baltimore Evening Sun, the Washington Post, and then the New York Times where she took on Congress and the White House.

Then, Gwen Ifill made the jump to television when she covered Capitol Hill for NBC in 1994. Just five years later, she moved to PBS, where she would spend the rest of her career, to host "Washington Week." Ifill would go on to moderate the 2004 and 2012 Vice Presidential debates and began co-hosting Newshour with Judy Woodruff in 2013.

E.R. Shipp, Associate Professor at Morgan State University, observed how ferociously Gwen Ifill challenged the glass ceilings of discrimination.

"She broke barriers both as a woman and a Black person. Right now, we're seeing retrenchment as many media companies are changing the focus of their work and reacting to economic realities by downsizing. Many of those most affected by that are people of color. The fact that she broke barriers inspires a lot of us though there are still a lot of barriers to be broken.

A. Peter Bailey echoed this sentiment, saying Ifill’s legacy will be that of a stand-bearer for African-American journalists.

"Gwen Ifill is one of the best examples that you can provide of someone who conclusively proved that this whole idea that you have to be a journalist who happens to be Black in order to cover certain things is erroneous. She was a thorough professional."

It is Ifill herself who leaves the clearest description of how she wants to be remembered. She told The HistoryMakers on March 8, 2012: "I don't think much about legacy because I guess I'm not there yet.  I would like for another generation of young Black women to look at me and say, 'Oh, I can do that.' I would like for young Black men to look at me and say, 'Oh, I can do that.'  I would like for young White girls to look at me and say, 'Oh, I can do that,'...Not because they're color blind, but because color is just part of the thing that informs them about who I am."

Nov. 21, 2016

Uncertainty Reigns as President-elect Trump Prepares to Take Office
By Jeremy Lazarus

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President-elect Donald Trump has jangled nerves with his  unexpected Election Day victory and his appointment of a firebrand arch conservative, former Richmonder Steve Bannon, as his chief strategist.

Protests featuring chants of “Not my president” broke out in Richmond and other cities as disappointed supporters of defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton took to the streets in the days following the election to register their disapproval of the outcome. Thousands of students in Los Angeles and other cities walked out of schools to demonstrate against the appointment of Bannon, joining an array of critics in Congress and elsewhere who fear Bannon could lift the white nationalist movement and Ku Klux Klan sympathizers into the top levels of the Trump White House. At the same time, Trump supporters went on their own rampage, with the FBI reporting more than 400 incidents of hate-filled attacks on African-Americans, Muslims and others.

Meanwhile, rumors and speculation continue to swirl as the transition from President Obama to President-elect Trump moves ahead.
Lies were Mr. Trump’s verbal currency of choice during the campaign, and his comments since his election victory have swung back and forth, leaving uncertainty about the policies he intends to carry out.

Will he build a wall on the Mexican border? Destroy Obamacare? Privatize Medicare? Tear up international defense, trade, climate and nuclear agreements? Unleash police against African-Americans? Eliminate protections for children of illegal immigrants? Create a registry for Muslim Americans? Prosecute Mrs. Clinton?

For now, uncertainty also reigns when it comes to President-elect Trump’s picks for his cabinet and other top posts, the people who will carry out whatever his policies prove to be. So far, his other picks are his chief of staff, Washington insider Reince Priebus, chair of the Republican National Committee, and his pick to lead the Justice Department is Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), former Alabama attorney general and U. S. attorney. Sessions has also raised eyebrows and drawn significant concern from civil rights leaders, who point to the fact that In 1986, Sessions was denied a U. S. Senate committee's approval for a federal judgement. Then a U. S. attorney in Alabama, his former colleagues "testified Sessions used the n-word and joked about the Ku Klux Klan, saying he thought they were “'okay, until he learned that they smoked marijuana,'” reported the Washington Post recently. 

Though Sessions has insisted he's "not a racist," and not insensitive to African-Americans, his nomination only adds to the uncertainty of the impact of Trump's administration on the Black community. Also, adding to the transition uncertainty are stories of foreign allies who have struggled to reach Trump and worries from political veterans who have seen the operation up close. Meanwhile, there are worries about Trump and his sprawling business empire. While he has said he would turn over operations to his children to avoid a conflict of interest, questions remain about whether the policies he pursues will benefit his personal interests.

Reports that he has sought top security clearance for his children and a son-in-law who was a close confidante in his campaign — though denied by his transition team — are adding to the uncertainty about the incoming president.

President Obama, who will leave office Friday, Jan. 20, when Mr. Trump is sworn in, has urged calm and unity and advised his soon-to-be successor to do the same.

Nov. 20, 2016

Finally, the Coretta Scott King Story: 'My Life, My Love, My Legacy' is Shared With World Audience

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Coretta Scott King―wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), and twentieth-century American civil and human rights hero toward the end of her life commissioned Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds to write her memoir.  It will be released on January 17^th 2017.

Dr. Reynolds, a journalist and author of six books, first came into contact with Coretta King in 1975 when she was assigned to write a magazine article for the Chicago Tribune. From that encounter a 30-year life-changing relationship of mentorship and friendship evolved, resulting in King turning to Reynolds, an ordained minister, to write about her most note-worthy accomplishments but also her deepest pain and setbacks.

From the pages of this compelling book, Coretta King emerges from the shadows, the margins of history and more importantly from behind the labels of wife of...mother of...and leader of...which - while correct - never went deep enough to reveal the fullness of her life.

In her memoir, readers will see both character and courage, a woman who was not only married to Dr. King, but was married to the movement of which she was a partner.  She  was born in April 27, 1927  into the troubled and twisted times in Alabama, where her house was burned down as a teen-ager; she was in her home with her 2-year-old baby when her home was fire-bombed during the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Although she never knew if the same hate that killed the love of her life would also claim her life and those of her children, she refused to step aside even as threats continued long after the assassination of her husband.

In her own voice, the book reveals a Coretta, moving on through many lonely days as the architect of her husband’s legacy working tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a quasi-international West Point of Non-violence, lobbying for 15 years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband and campaigning for the rights of the disadvantaged around the globe and at home.

In this memoir, for the first time Coretta King talks candidly about her marriage and the rumored reports of Dr. King’s infidelity; she offers her thoughts on the reasons behind SCLC co-founder Ralph Abernathy’s unfavorable characterization of Martin in his autobiography, as well as some unproductive characteristics within the inner circle of the civil rights movement.

Legendary leaders, such as Maya Angelou, former U.N. ambassador and U.S. congressmen Andrew Young;  Myrlie Evers-Williams, a past chairman of the NAACP, whose civil rights active husband Medgar Evers was assassinated; Rep. John Conyers,  who played a major role in legislating the King Holiday bill as well as Dr. Bernice King, also provide reflections in this historic work.

Dr. Reynolds views Coretta King as one of the world’s most trusted moral leaders, and effective disciples of non-violent direct action, who left a model of self-less, compassionate leadership that is sorely needed today.  Dr. Reynolds is available for interviews and speeches on the King book through her representative Traycee Gales. To reach Dr. Reynolds, please contact Traycee at 301-741- 5254.

Nov. 20, 2016

Trump Taps Sen. Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General
Congressional Black Caucus and LDF Call Him a Racist

By Frederick H. Lowe

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions

CBC Chair G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.)

LDF Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions U.S. Attorney General, and his selection was immediately blasted by the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) given Sessions’ long history of making racist statements about African-Americans and his support of the Klu Klux Klan, a White terrorist organization.

President-elect Trump announced Nov. 18 that he planned to nominate Sen. Sessions, one of Trump’s earliest supporters.  The junior senator from Alabama is a 69-year-old Republican. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996. Prior to taking a seat in the Senate, Sessions, a native of Selma, Ala., served as Alabama Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1981 to 1993.

Opposition to African-Americans

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund issued a three-page rebuke of Sessions in which the organization posted a timeline listing his opposition to hate crime legislation, same sex marriage and the violence against women act.  Most of Sessions’ hatred, however, has been directed at African Americans.

In 1986, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Sessions’ nomination to serve as a U.S. district court judge in Alabama based on his record of opposing civil rights, making racist comments and general concerns about his ability to preside impartially, particularly with respect to civil rights and rights of African Americans, LDF reported.

During the same hearing, Thomas Figures, an African-American Assistant U.S. attorney, testified that Sessions had called him “boy.” Sessions also said he approved of the Klu Klux Klan until he learned members smoked marijuana. Figures said he took that as a serious statement.

Also at the 1986 hearing, Sessions called the NAACP and ACLU “un-American” and “communist-inspired” groups that “forced civil rights down the throats of people.”

“Jeff Sessions has a decades-long record—from his early days as a prosecutor to his present role as a Senator—of opposing civil rights and equality,” said Sherrilyn Ifill,  LDF president and director-counsel.”It is unimaginable that he could be entrusted to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for this nation’s civil rights laws. This is another signal from the incoming administration that it is not only prepared to turn its back on equality, it is actively working to continue to sow division and undo decades of progress.”

Congressional Black Caucus Opposes the Nomination

The Congressional Black Caucus also took issue with Sessions’ nomination.

“We face an alarming choice in the selection of Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as the chief law enforcer for the United States of America,” said G.K. Butterfield, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Senator Sessions’ civil rights record is appalling and should disqualify him from Senate confirmation.”

Butterfield added:  “Senators Sessions has continuously obstructed the progress that we’ve made since the historic Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s. Senator Sessions has blocked legislative efforts to ensure racial equality in minority communities, including opposition to President Obama’s judicial nominations and full enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.”

Butterfield predicted Sessions will face an uphill battle to be confirmed.  But he is a member of the Senate, and it is unlikely his fellow senators will deny him the nomination. Already, many of them were singing his praises.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called Sessions “principled, forthright, and hardworking.”

“He cares deeply about his country and the department he will be nominated to lead,” McConnell said.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said that he has known Sessions for more than two decades.

“He has the experience and ability to serve as Attorney General of the United States,” Graham said. “He was an early supporter of Donald Trump in the Senate and he has earned the right to serve President-elect Trump and our nation at the highest level.”

David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, also praised Sessions’ nomination. Duke said Sessions’ nomination is the first step in taking “America back.”