Feb. 14, 2016

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Jordan Chapman said her jaw dropped in incredulous disbelief the day she learned in her Hermitage High School history class about the late Harry F. Byrd Sr., the former Virginia governor, U.S. senator and avowed White separatist for whom H.F. Byrd Middle School in Henrico County is named.

“I learned that a school right down the street from where I live was named after a man who tried to keep schools segregated by shutting them down across the state,” Jordan, a 17-year-old senior, said during an interview at her Western Henrico County home.

There, she and four adults gathered to discuss with the Richmond Free Press their campaign — started by Jordan last fall — to have Henrico Public Schools rename the middle school at 9400 Quioccasin Road to rid it of the racist legacy of Mr. Byrd.

As a U.S. senator, Byrd was one of the chief architects of “Massive Resistance,” the fiercely backed, state-sanctioned policy to ignore the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ordering the desegregation of public schools because of inequities. Byrd met with members of the General Assembly to design the strategy to enact laws and policies that led to the closure of many public schools in Virginia between 1958 and 1964 rather than integrate.

Thousands of African-American children were denied a public education during that time, while state money was funneled to all-White private schools to support the education of many White students in places where the schools were closed.

During the next few years, state and federal courts eventually overturned most of the laws that fueled Massive Resistance, but aspects of the campaign against integrated schools in Virginia continued for decades.

“Why would you name a school for somebody who tried to stop some people from being educated?” Jordan recalled thinking.

The more she learned about Byrd’s efforts to deny public education opportunities to black children, the more she recoiled at the middle school’s name.

“It’s a moral issue to me,” she said. “It’s hard for me to believe that a school would honor someone like him. I think it’s time to change the name.” 

As an alternative, she offered the name Oliver Hill Middle School to honor the late trailblazing Richmond civil rights attorney who won numerous legal battles at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He also was among the lawyers representing plaintiffs in the Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, the Virginia case that was heard with the Brown v. Board of Education case.

“It’s amazing to me,” Jordan added, “that a school would not want to be welcoming to all of its students” by having that name.

According to Henrico Public Schools spokesperson Andrew Jenks, 20.3 percent, or 203 of Byrd Middle School’s 999 students, are African-American.
Jordan, who lives about a 5-minute drive from Byrd, explained that she was zoned to attend Byrd, but instead attended the International Baccalaureate program at Moody Middle School.

The honor roll student now attends the Hermitage High School Center for Humanities and is undecided about where she will attend college.

In August, she emailed the five members of the Henrico School Board to inquire about renaming Byrd Middle School, “but I got no responses.” 

She then asked Hermitage High School Principal Andy Armstrong what he thought of her idea and he said “it was cool for me to take the initiative and here are the next steps you can take.”

Jordan said her AP government teacher Jeannine Chewning also has encouraged her. Her parents also are supportive. The response from her classmates at Hermitage is “mostly positive,” she said.

Her campaign is gaining national attention, with articles about her campaign appearing in The Washington Post and The Huffington Post, among others.
The thoughtful teen also said she has received numerous posts on social media from people across the country praising her efforts. 

Jordan has spoken at three School Board meetings urging members to change the middle school’s name. She was joined by a growing number of supporters at the board’s Jan. 28 meeting.

Henrico School Board members said they would learn and discuss the estimated cost for a name change at a Feb. 11 board work session. Henrico School Board chair Michelle F. “Micky” Ogburn of the Three Chopt District told the Free Press that the cost estimate would be discussed near the end of the meeting in order to allow parents and students to attend after school ends. Afterward, neither she nor Henrico Schools Superintendent Patrick Kinlaw, who declined to discuss the issue with the Free Press, would disclose the estimate to a reporter.

However, Robert Voorhis, who lives in the Byrd Middle School district and is active in the name-change campaign, said a source estimated the cost at more than $120,000.

By comparison, Tommy Kranz, an assistant superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, told the Free Press on Tuesday it cost the city school district “less than $10,000” to rename Thompson Middle School last summer to Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School. That amount included changing the school signs, letterhead and the basketball court logo, he said. 

Voorhis said he backs the name change because the school should not honor someone “who was not only a lead segregationist, but also kicked thousands of Black children out of schools.”

The Free Press reached out to Fairfield District representative Rev. Roscoe D. Cooper III, the lone African-American on the Henrico School Board and its newest member, to ask for his opinion.

“I will reserve speaking specifically about my opinion until after I have shared my position with my colleagues on the board,” he stated in an email response. “Once I share with them my position, I will gladly share it with you and explain why I feel the way I do.”

Ogburn provided no timetable for when the name-change decision would be made.

Feb. 7, 2016

Montgomery Woman Recounts Devastating Debtors’ Prison Experience to Congressional Staffers

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - An Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) client who served time in a modern-day debtors’ prison in Alabama when she couldn’t pay fines for minor traffic tickets told her story to congressional staffers on Capitol Hill and called for action to prevent others from going to jail simply for being poor.

Harriet Cleveland spoke at a briefing that examined the practice of cities and counties hiring for-profit private “probation” companies to collect minor fines and fees. The grandmother from Montgomery was joined by Sam Brooke, SPLC deputy legal director, to highlight how these companies, which operate across the country, often use the justice system to extort payments from the poor – including fees for their own profit – under the threat of jail.

It’s apparent to Cleveland that Congress must act. “It has to be addressed nationwide so [people] don’t have to worry about going to jail because they can’t afford to pay,” she said after speaking to 50 staff members gathered in a packed meeting room in the Rayburn House Office Building. The briefing was held last month, the same week that U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., introduced legislation – the “End of Debtors’ Prison Act of 2016” – that would cut federal funds from municipalities that hire for-profit private probation companies.

“This is not a problem that is unique to Alabama,” Brooke said. “These same companies are working in many different states, particularly in the Southeast.”

When Cleveland couldn’t immediately pay her traffic tickets in the city of Montgomery, she was placed on pay-only probation. She made her payments to Judicial Corrections Services (JCS), a private probation company that collected fines for the city. She paid a $140 monthly payment – $40 of which went to the company.She was desperate to come up with the money for JCS.

“I lost my car to a title loan in order to come up with the amount they told me I had to come up with to keep from going to jail again, so I had to do that,” Cleveland said as she wiped away tears during the briefing. When she could no longer make the payments, a police officer arrested her in 2013 at her home while she was babysitting her grandson. A judge sentenced her to 31 days in jail even though debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States almost 200 years ago. She spent two weeks in jail before SPLC lawyers secured her release.

An SPLC lawsuit ended after a settlement was reached to change the city’s practices. JCS left Alabama last year after the SPLC filed a separate lawsuit against the company for violating federal racketeering laws with its business practices. JCS once had contracts with more than 100 local governments in the state.Despite this victory, people across the country are finding themselves in Cleveland’s situation. Governments hoping to generate more revenue are turning to these companies which typically don’t charge them for their services but rely on fees they charge probationers.

Hundreds of thousands of people fined in more than 1,000 courts are paying such fees. Private probation companies in Georgia collected almost $40 million in fees in 2012 alone, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

“Plain and simple, it’s a racketeering scheme where people are being extorted,” Brooke said. “The company is using the threat of jail. They are telling people if you don’t pay, you are going to go to jail. It’s clearly extortion because you can’t jail someone for not being able to pay.”

He also noted that private probation companies create a two-tiered justice system – one where people of means pay and go and one where low-income people ultimately pay more. The “End of Debtors’ Prison Act of 2016” would withhold Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants from governments contracting with these companies. The SPLC endorses the legislation.

Feb. 9, 2016

Black Unemployment Increases Overall, but Black Men See a Drop

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - January’s unemployment rate climbed overall for African-American workers, but dropped for Black men 20 years and older.  Unemployment rose for Black women in the same age group, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The jobless rate for African Americans was 8.8 percent compared with 8.3 percent in December, BLS reported.

For Black men 20 years old and older, the unemployment dropped to 8.4 percent in January compared with 8.7 percent the month before.

The jobless rate for Black women 20 years old and older, however, rose significantly to 7.9 percent, up from 6.9 percent last month.

On the other hand, the jobless rate for Whites still remains dramatically low at 4.3 percent in January compared with 4.5 percent in December. The unemployment rate for Hispanics also dropped. It was 5.9 percent in January, down from 6.3 percent in December. The jobless rate for Asians was 3.7 percent, down from 4.0 percent in December.

Generally, the unemployment rate fell below 5 percent for the first time in eight years as the longest streak of private-sector job growth on record continued, The White House reported. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 151,000 last month and the overall national employment rate was 4.9 percent.

Job gains occurred in the retail trade, food services, drinking places, health care and manufacturing. But unemployment increased in educational services, transportation, warehousing and mining.

Feb. 7, 2016

Predicting a 'Real Fight for the Black Vote' Former NAACP Leader Endorses Sanders for President

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Former NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous has announced his endorsement of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his quest for the Democratic nomination for president.

The endorsement from Jealous, a civil rights activist with a record of strong political activism, could continue to fuel the surprise shake up in the Democratic contest, largely because of Jealous’ influence with the Black vote. At one time, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was thought to be a shoe-in for the nomination. But, after her razor-thin win in Iowa, largely with the help of the Black vote, there is rising belief that Sanders could actually become the nominee.

“You’ll see a real fight for the Black vote and quite frankly, that’s the best thing for our community. The best thing for our community is for voters to really look at the records of each of these folks and to ask tough questions of the surrogates and of the candidates,” Jealous said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire. “There’s a lot of folks who’ve been suggesting that the Clintons should take our vote for granted. But our candidate will have the final word on whether or not they’re able to take it for granted or whether they will be forced to compete. I think you’re going to see people across the country force them to have to compete for our vote. No Black voter in the 21^st Century wants to feel like their vote is taken for granted.”

Jealous applauded Sanders’ 100 percent NAACP Legislative Report card record while describing the record of Clinton, also a former U. S. senator, as “complex”. Though Clinton also received straight A’s on the NAACP Legislative Report Card as a member of the U. S. Senate, Jealous said she fell short in key areas of importance to African-Americans.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave us a matrix for judging the agenda of leaders. Racism, militarism and greed. Bernie Sanders record on each of those is clear. His opposition to them, his history of fighting against them is clear. Hillary Clinton’s record on each of those is complex and also contradictory,” Jealous said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire.

Jealous detailed how Clinton, on one hand, built the Children’s Defense Fund; but on the other hand, “championed the super predator theory which said that a child at age 6 months could be a sociopath beyond redemption. And it’s only used to explain the actions of young Black men.”

On militarism, he said Clinton “opposed the war in Vietnam, but voted for the war in Iraq,” a vote that Clinton recently conceded was a “mistake” only based on information President Bush had given at the time.

As for greed, Jealous concluded, “I don’t think anybody can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that they believe Hillary Clinton did everything she possibly can to reign in our banks and to make sure that they do not send us whirling into another recession down the road.”

Jealous said Sanders has a stellar civil rights and economic justice record.

“From his days of going to jail with the Congress of Racial Equality to speed up the integration of housing in Chicago to supporting Jesse Jackson’s campaign for president in 1988, he is the only candidate that has a comprehensive racial justice platform today. He’s been extremely consistent. Militarism, he opposed the war in Vietnam, he voted against the war in Iraq. And on greed, well, quite frankly there is no one that the greediest leaders of the greediest banks fear becoming president more than Bernie Sanders,” Jealous said. “So I think at the end of the day I think the key difference is him being consistent and having the courage of his convictions.”

The Clinton campaign did not respond when asked by email for comment on the Jealous endorsement.

However, Clinton maintains a large share of Black support. They include former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

“She is the most qualified candidate, ready from day one to lead this nation, but also make sure that we’re save internationally and on the streets of America,” Nutter told a church congregation, according to media reports. He also told News Channel 6 in Philadelphia, “Lawyer out of Yale.  Didn’t go to the big law firm…She went to the Children’s Defense Fund.  She’s been focused on children and families all of her career.  Excellent service as First Lady in Arkansas.  Excellent service as First Lady to President Bill Clinton and then a United States Senator in her own right.”

Jealous, who is a venture partner with the Oakland, Calif.-based Kapor Center for Social Impact, is also co-leader of a Political Action Committee called the Southern Elections Fund. However, he said money from that PAC is on reserve for the general election – not for the primaries. “It will support whoever the eventual nominee is,” he said.

Acknowledging Clinton’s wide-spread support in the Black community, Jealous said, “She’s at her high water mark…She’s actually had so much of it that she can only lose it and Bernie Sanders can only gain it.”