Historic Civil Rights Law Firm Closes by Jeremy M. Lazarus

Dec. 5, 2011

Historic Civil Rights Law Firm Closes
Hill, Tucker & Marsh Played Key Role in Movement

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

sen.marsh

Virginia Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, who was also the first Black mayor of Richmond, says he decided to close the historic firm in order to dedicate more time to the work of his General Assembly seat.

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

RICHMOND, Va. (TriceEdneyWire.com) - The once trailblazing, prestigious law firm of Hill, Tucker & Marsh has shut its doors.

Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, the last surviving partner of the firm that included legal giants Oliver W. Hill Sr. and Samuel W. Tucker, closed the historic offices without fanfare last week.

Sen. Marsh called in movers Nov. 29 to pack up the office on the third floor of the Free Press Building in Downtown. They took the closed case files and furniture to storage.

Sen. Marsh, who will celebrate his 78th birthday Dec. 10, said he made the shutdown decision so he could spend more time on his work in the General Assembly, where he currently chairs the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.

The former Richmond mayor was just re-elected to a sixth term in the legislature’s upper house, trouncing a much younger challenger in the Nov. 8 election.

“Everything comes to an end,” said Sen. Marsh. “Fifty years is long enough, isn’t it?”

Marsh spent his entire legal career with the firm that he founded with Mr. Tucker in 1961 and which Mr. Hill joined in 1966 after returning to Richmond from a five-year stint as assistant Federal Housing Authority commissioner for racial fairness policies.

In its heyday, the firm roared defiance at White supremacists and faced them down in court in successfully dismantling segregation barriers in education, employment and government. A number of the lawyers who practiced with the partners went on to gain judgeships in Virginia. Hill was part of the NAACP legal team that won the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 in which the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed government-enforced segregation of public schools in overturning the racist doctrine of “separate but equal.”

But it was Hill, Tucker & Marsh, formed seven years later when Sen. Marsh was a freshly minted lawyer, that led the fight to enforce the Brown decision.

The firm was involved in more than 50 school desegregation cases, including the famed 1968 case, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, which finally forced school divisions in Virginia and across the country to obey the Brown decision.

The firm also was involved in the first legal case to successfully attack discrimination in the workplace, Quarles v. Philip Morris. That case led to equal pay for equal work for Black employees and ended the use of seniority systems to block promotions for Black workers.

The firm later successfully litigated 20 other employment class action cases that benefited thousands of Black and female workers. The firm also forced the Virginia legislature to adopt single-member districts, paving the way for the election of more black and minority representatives.

Most recently, Sen. Marsh represented a Muslim group in its successful fight to end religious discrimination in Henrico County to gain the right to build a mosque. The firm, though, has struggled since the deaths of the partners as Sen. Marsh juggled his legal work with his political duties. A few years ago, he sought to merge with another law group to secure the firm’s future, but that did not work out.

Keeping the firm viable became even harder after Sen. Marsh’s nephew and partner, Frederick H. Marsh, accepted a three-year suspension of his law license a year ago in a disciplinary action brought by the Virginia State Bar, which regulates attorneys. Sen. Marsh, who also was named in the case, denied that the closure of the firm was linked to that situation.

Obama Sets Lofty Goals to End HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Dec. 4, 2011

Obama Sets Lofty Goals to End HIV/AIDS Epidemic

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama called for an AIDS-free generation in a speech at George Washington University on Dec. 1, setting lofty goals for the eventual end of the epidemic.

“Back in those early years, few could have imagined this day—that we would be looking ahead to ‘The Beginning of the End,’ marking a World AIDS Day that has gone from that early beginning when people were still uncertain to now a theme, ‘Getting to Zero,’” Obama said. Few could have imagined that we’d be talking about the real possibility of an AIDS-free generation.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 34 million people living with HIV worldwide, a number that has prompted action by the United States government.

Obama announced that the U.S. has provided anti-retroviral treatment for roughly four million people worldwide. He also said the country has been successful in providing medication to 600,000 HIV-positive mothers so that 200,000 babies could be born without the disease.

Despite the nation’s assistance, there are still seven million people waiting for access to treatment according to the WHO. Only 47 percent of HIV patients in developing countries have coverage to receive antiretroviral drugs.

Nationwide, Obama touted the reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act, which provides funding for low-income, uninsured and under-insured HIV/AIDS patients and their families. However, he acknowledged that the federal government needed private support to continue battling the disease.

On a human rights note, he also noted the end of a law that prohibited HIV-positive individuals from entering the United States, allowing the country to host the international AIDS conference next year, the first time in 20 years it has done so.

Community Impact of Supercommittee Failure by Yanick Rice Lamb

Nov. 27, 2011

Community Impact of Supercommittee Failure
By Yanick Rice Lamb

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Dysfunction turned out to be Kryptonite for the supercommittee.

The Budget Control Act of 2011 gave six Democrats and six Republicans the power to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion before the Congressional Thanksgiving recess. However, lawmakers bickered while the market fell.

“It would be a sad commentary on our state of affairs if a decade-old political pledge to a corporate lobbyist were allowed to prevent bipartisan progress on our nation’s most pressing issues,” James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., one of the “Super 12” and Assistant Democratic Leader of the House, said in a statement. “Yet with massive across-the-board budget cuts hanging over us like the sword of Damocles, that seems a possible outcome.”

Amid global skittishness fueled partly by the debt crisis in Europe, the supercommittee’s impasse was linked to a 2.5 percent drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, which fell roughly 300 points to 11,500 around noon Monday. It also meant no extensions, at the moment, for unemployment benefits or payroll tax cuts.

With no super heroes to save the day, Democrats are blaming Republicans, and Republicans are blaming Democrats. They clashed primarily over tax breaks for the wealthy and spending cuts for domestic programs from Social Security to health care.

“The claim that Medicare, Medicaid and other health-care costs are major drivers of our debt crisis is an overstatement,” said Alfred Chiplin Jr., managing attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C. “We must be sure that philosophical differences about the nature, role and size of government are not taken out on the backs of the poor, the elderly, those with disabilities or on children.”

The National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) also opposes cuts in domestic programs and had been encouraging citizens to “tell the supercommittee NO cuts to HIV/AIDS programs” as lawmakers made 11th hour efforts to reach some sort of face-saving measure.

“NMAC opposes any cuts to discretionary budget line items, which fund domestic or global HIV/AIDS programs,” said Kali Lindsey, the council’s director of legislative and public affairs. “Research advancements demonstrate that thoughtful and strategic investments along with assured access to necessary care, treatment and support services can bring an end to the HIV epidemic in the United States and around the globe.”

Sentiment among the general public seemed to mirror that of their elected officials, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. Fifty-seven percent of Democrats opposed spending cuts in the poll released on Monday, while 59 percent of Republicans were against tax increases. Republicans favor extending the Bush tax cuts, which expire at the end of 2012, from 39.6 percent to 28 percent for the wealthiest Americans.

Among independent voters surveyed, seven in 10 favor cuts in domestic spending and increases in taxes on corporations and wealthy people. About six in 10 of all respondents are against reductions in defense spending.

If the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s failure to act leads to across-the-board cuts in 2013, also known as sequestration, some politicians might be relieved that voters technically couldn’t blame them at the ballot box next November for tampering with pet programs. Without legislative action in the interim, the automatic cuts would be split between defense and non-defense programs.

“Some programs will be exempted from the sequestration process that will benefit people living with HIV or AIDS, including Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps (SNAP), and Medicare's cut is limited to no more than 2 percent,” Lindsey explained.

“However, hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV or AIDS or in need of prevention services will be harmed with cuts to discretionary programs that fund programs like the Ryan White health-care programs, the already strained AIDS Drug Assistance Program and HIV prevention efforts funded at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Chiplin says that health-care reform could save the nation a great deal of money in the long run. “If we let health-care reform through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) work, we will see a general slowing of the rate of increase in health-care costs,” he said.

“The ACA has many cost-containment features that should help to rein in health-care costs over time, including payment and service-delivery model changes, such as exploring and implementing accountable care organizations, paying only for care that has a demonstrated value, focusing on prevention and care coordination (particularly as a tool to address health disparities) and pursuing strategies to address the problem of unnecessary procedures and services.”

World AIDS Day, Dec. 1: Will 2011's Magic Johnson Please Stand Up? by Kellee Terrell

Nov. 27, 2011

World AIDS Day, Dec. 1: Will 2011's Magic Johnson Please Stand Up?
By Kellee Terrell

Special Commentary

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Black AIDS Institute.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - It was the disclosure heard around the world.

On Nov. 7, 1991, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, then only 32 years old, stepped up to the microphone, addressed the press and uttered the words, "Because of the HIV virus that I have attained, I will have to retire from the Lakers today. I just want to make clear, first of all, that I do not have the AIDS disease ... but the HIV virus."

In "HIV/AIDS in Black America: The Uphill Battle," I wrote about my experience hearing Magic make this announcement. I was in the eighth grade at O.W. Huth Middle School in Matteson, Ill. We were in gym class when, all of a sudden, our teacher told us to stop playing, get in two lines and be very quiet. A few minutes later, over the speaker system, the principal played this press conference.

I was completely shocked. Growing up, all I "knew" about HIV was that it was a White disease, and a gay one -- except for Ryan White, who somehow contracted the virus through a blood transfusion. I was under the impression that this was not something that black folks, especially straight Black men, had to worry about.

While Magic's disclosure had a vast and varying impact on all of us at that time, the most amazing contribution that it brought about was that it diversified the face of HIV. This single act of bravery was needed, because by that time, the disease was indeed quite black, there was just very little media coverage focused on it.

But as I fast-forward to the present, a full 20 years later, it's quite disheartening that Magic's message of "black straight men can contract HIV through heterosexual sex" has gotten buried in our own homophobic rhetoric. Hell, even today, people still question whether Magic is really gay and lying about it, because it's too horrifying to imagine that straight sex can be a vessel for HIV. So instead, we have used the down low as a means to explain away the alarming HIV rates among Black women.

Think about it: How many times have we heard women say, "Well if my man ain't on the down low, I have nothing to worry about" or men say, "Dude, I'm not gay; I don't need to get tested for HIV or use rubbers."

It's ironic, because Magic didn't think he was at risk either. The only reason he was tested was because the Los Angeles Lakers took out a life insurance policy on him as protection for a 3-million-dollar loan they gave him to supplement his salary. Testing for HIV was a routine part of Magic's physical exam that just happened to garner an unexpected result.

Magic's story often makes me wonder just how many heterosexual African-American men have never asked for an HIV test or been offered one by their doctor because they didn't fit the profile. How many straight Black men have unknowingly been positive for years and therefore gone untreated and put their sex partners at risk for HIV? How many find out about their status when they enter the prison system because that's the first time they have ever been tested in their life?

These questions need to be asked, because there are many reasons why we comprise the majority of the newly diagnosed and the undiagnosed HIV cases in the U.S. And despite the mounds of trustworthy scientific data that explicitly state that undercover brothas are not fueling HIV rates in our community, we have yet to collectively experience our Oprah "Aha!" moment concerning this.

This is a fact: Straight men can contract HIV from women and then pass the virus on to other women and so on. Thus, straight men who do not get tested and treated help spread the disease in our community. Not to mention, other factors -- such as a lack of access to quality health care; undiagnosed and untreated sexually transmitted diseases; poverty; gender oppression; high community viral load; and drug use -- exacerbate the epidemic in Black America.

Sigh. HIV has been around for 30 years and yet so many of us still don't get it.

Maybe more HIV organizations need to set a better example by having more campaigns and programs that focus on heterosexual men and condom use. Maybe the media, TheBody.com included, needs to write more articles about straight men living with the disease. And maybe more health care professionals need to check their own biases at the door and be less worried about offending patients and just test them anyway.

Or maybe what we need to set all of this into motion is another Magic Johnson.

Someone who possesses the same level of fame, power and swagger as the Dwyane Wades, the 50 Cents and the Jay-Zs of the world, and who is willing to go public with his HIV status. While this person has yet to materialize, given the HIV prevalence rate in this country, I know he exists.

Obviously, there is a high price for being public. Just look at the lack of out gay and lesbian African-American celebrities. Publicly disclosing one's HIV status could potentially mean kissing those million-dollar sports drink endorsements goodbye; seeing a serious drop in album sales in an already suffering music industry; losing support from one's family, friends and fans; and constantly having to defend one's masculinity and sexual orientation. But most important, it could mean losing everything that one has sacrificed and worked so hard for. And such extreme loss may not be worth playing the role of the next great HIV poster boy.

But staying silent won't bring about the change that we so desperately need.

And no, I'm not saying that some tatted up rapper rocking jeggings who admits to being positive is going to make AIDS Drug Assistance Program waiting lists disappear, or help researchers create a cure, or even make stigma disappear overnight. But in our celebrity-obsessed culture, where Beyonce's (real and fake) baby bump runs the world, it would be naive of us to think that this generation's Magic Johnson couldn't drastically change our perception of this disease. Most important, a new Magic could give other straight Black men who are living with HIV an affirming reminder that they are not alone.

So then the final question remains: What will it take for him to come forward?

Maybe a seven-figure book deal or a hefty payment for an exclusive interview on ABC are the types of incentives he needs. Apparently, that's how the industry works nowadays. But thankfully, Magic came out with his status because he felt compelled to. In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said, "It was a difficult decision just to go public. Cookie and I had to decide. Finally we said, 'It's the right thing to do.' And then it wasn't difficult."

And he's right -- it was the right thing to do. It's just a shame that, after two decades, Magic remains the last standing famous straight man with HIV who stood up and spoke out.

Kellee Terrell is the news editor for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.

New Interim President Fights for Survival of HBCU by Jeremy M. Lazarus

New Interim President Fights for Survival of HBCU

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Eddie N. Moore Jr., the new interim president of historically Black Saint Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Va., is seeking to raise $5 million by June to save the private College from collapse.

“We need individuals who believe in the Saint Paul’s mission, and we need them to step up and support us now,” Moore said as he launched the emergency campaign and announced a $500,000 gift to jump-start the effort.

Moore came to Richmond with school officials recently to open the Saint Paul’s “Now and Forever” drive and thank the first big donor to the campaign for the 123-year-old liberal arts school in Lawrenceville, located 70 miles south of Richmond.

The donor is Jane Batten, widow of Virginia media mogul Frank Batten Sr., whose company’s holdings still include daily newspapers in Norfolk and Roanoke.

Batten offered $500,000 to support the Saint Paul’s “Now and Forever” campaign to shore up the school’s finances and pay for essential building repairs.

Separately, Batten also pledged $1 million to endow Saint Paul’s program that offers financial support to single parents pursuing degrees. It’s a good start for Moore, 63, who was president of Virginia State University near Petersburg, Va. for 17 years before retiring in June 2010.

A certified public accountant and former state treasurer, he is volunteering his time at Saint Paul’s, which has mainly served Black students since its founding in 1888 by Episcopal priest James Solomon Russell.

The school, where enrollment has plunged from nearly 700 students to around 400 students this year, desperately needs an infusion of new money. That’s the only way it can ward off the threatened loss of accreditation due to its precarious financial state.

Unless Moore can change that situation quickly, Saint Paul’s would be stripped of its accreditation in June by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. If that happens, Saint Paul’s will not be able to offer its students federal grants and loans to cover the $13,200 annual tuition, the school’s largest revenue stream.

A SACS review team will be on the campus in March to consider the school’s situation. That team’s recommendation is expected to play a big role in the SACS decision on whether to restore or remove Saint Paul’s accreditation.

Moore took office as interim president/CEO Nov. 10. “I’m intrigued by the challenge,” he told the Free Press a few days earlier.

Along with raising new money, he said the school would need to reduce spending to alleviate a current deficit and find ways to expand enrollment. He accepted a $1 salary to stay until SACS makes its decision.

A lot of people are hoping he has the financial magic to turn around the school. Saint Paul’s currently lists 150 people on its roster of staff and faculty.