Richmond Free Press Makes Racial Breakthroughs in Virginia Supreme Court by Jeremy M. Lazarus

Oct. 24, 2011

Richmond Free Press Makes Racial Breakthrough in Virginia Supreme Court

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

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Richmond Free Press Photographer Sandra Sellars and Free Press Editor/Publisher Raymond H. Boone approach an entrance at the Virginia Supreme Court before she became the first woman and first Black person to photograph, representing newspapers, to cover the Virginia Supreme Court's Investiture. PHOTO: Jerome Reid/Richmond Free Press

justice cleo e. powell

Virginia Supreme Court Justice Cleo E. Powell is applauded by fellow members of the court after she is sworn in Oct. 21 as the first Black woman to serve as a justice in the court's 232-year history. PHOTO: Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Richmond Free Press photographer Sandra Sellars has made history when she covered the historic investiture of Virginia Supreme Court Justice Cleo E. Powell on Friday, Oct. 21.

When the prize-winning photographer arrived at the state’s highest court to cover the Powell formal installation, she became:

· The first Black newspaper photographer to cover an investiture in the 232-year history of the court, which is located across the street from the State Capitol.
· The first woman newspaper photographer to cover a Supreme Court investiture, according to Free Press research.

Overton Jones, a retired Richmond daily editor, agreed that Ms. Sellars was a likely gender history maker in Richmond journalism. “I don’t recall any” woman photographer covering a Supreme Court investiture, said Jones, who worked first for the defunct Richmond News Leader and later for the Richmond Times-Dispatch a total of 55 years, beginning in 1938.

Sellars’ presence will add to the historical significance of the installation of Justice Powell, the first Black female justice elected to the court by the General Assembly.

Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser’s approval of Sellars represents a major victory for the decade-long Free Press campaign to change the court’s guidelines that previously barred photographers from the Free Press and other Black-owned newspapers, as well as those from non-dailies. Earlier, the chief justice, in response to another Free Press campaign, expunged sexist references from the court’s website.

The racial breakthrough in Virginia could - by example - open doors for Black newspapers across the country. Old rules, based on vestitures of racism remain in high courts and state houses around the nation.

The new Kinser guidelines, for the first time, allow a pool photographer for non-daily newspapers and one, as usual, for dailies. Previously, the court only allowed one pool photographer in the courtroom — and that photographer always came from a White-owned daily or The Associated Press.

For the Oct. 21 Powell investiture, Steve Helber, a veteran photographer for The Associated Press, has been designated to provide pool coverage for dailies.

The court notified the Free Press of the guideline change in an Oct. 6 email to Raymond H. Boone, Free Press editor/publisher. The email also notified Mr. Boone of the selection of Ms. Sellars to “serve as the pool photographer representing non-daily newspapers.” The email was sent by Katya N. Herndon, the state court’s director of legislative and public relations.

Sellars also represented the 200 newspaper members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association of which the Free Press is a member.

The ceremony took place inside the court’s marbled and pillared courtroom that was packed with more than 250 well wishers . They included U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, Federal Judge Roger Gregory, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, state judges and legislators, family and friends. Another 250 people watched the 80-minute ceremony in overflow courtrooms that received a live feed.

A solemn Justice Powell raised her right hand and put her left hand on the Bible belonging to her late father, Milas Powell Jr., a Bible held by her mother, Mary C. Powell, and husband of 22 years, Alvin L. Dilworth, a Chesterfield County deputy sheriff.

Then her three children proudly helped the trailblazing justice into her black judicial robe.

The court’s policy change stems from a Sept. 19 meeting between Chief Justice Kinser, Justice Powell and Boone, who was accompanied by Ms. Sellars and two other staff members — reporter Jeremy Lazarus and photographer Jerome Reid. At the rare face-to-face between the chief justice and the press, the chief justice also was accompanied by the court’s executive secretary, Karl R. Hade, and Ms. Herndon.

During the cordial, hour-long meeting in the chief justice’s office, the chief justice told Boone that the court was seeking to revamp its coverage policies to improve access to its ceremonies. She outlined the two-photographer policy for ceremonial events in the high court’s small courtroom during the meeting. At the time, she would only say the policy change was under consideration.

The Free Press challenged the court’s ban on the newspaper’s access to ceremonies as a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press. Boone also contended that the old policy promoted monopoly journalism.

The Free Press campaign began in 2003 when the state’s first black chief justice, the late Leroy Rountree Hassell, rejected a pledge to the Free Press to cover his investiture after the pledge had tentatively been offered by the court’s staff.

At the time, Justice Hassell did so to maintain the court’s tradition of allowing only one press pool photographer at such events. “I want to keep everything traditional,” he was quoted as saying. During his tenure that ended just before his death last winter, he refused to consider any change to the policy despite repeated Free Press editorials challenging his position.

The Free Press continued its campaign after Chief Justice Kinser took office Feb. 1, only to be rebuffed in seeking to cover the Sept. 1 investiture of new Justice Elizabeth A. McClannahan.

Chief Justice Kinser set up the meeting with Boone after he wrote her Aug. 30, protesting the Free Press’ exclusion from the McClannahan investiture and past ceremonies and urging her to lead the change in the court’s press policy.

The Free Press also gained support for its position from the NNPA, Virginia Press Association and the Coalition for Open Government.

A standing ovation resounded as Justice Powell was escorted to the bench by three men she said played important roles in her career success: Norfolk native John Charles Thomas, the first black Supreme Court justice who is now a Richmond lawyer; Richmond state Sen. Henry L. Marsh III of Richmond and Chief Justice Hassell, also a Norfolk native.

In his remarks at the investiture, Gov. McDonnell, a Republican, hailed Justice Powell’s arrival on the court as fresh milestone in the effort to develop “a more perfect union and provide more equal justice.” He noted a black woman on the court could never have been imagined in 1623 when the original colonial court of appeals was created or in 1779 when its successor, the state Supreme Court, was established by the legislature.“What a tremendous day,” he enthused. He pointed out that Justice Powell was being formally installed, while across the street at the State Capitol, a building designed by slave-holding Thomas Jefferson and built by slaves, filming was going on for a movie about the “Great Emancipator,” President Abraham Lincoln.

Supreme Court May Hear New Challenge to Affirmative Action

Oct. 24, 2011

Supreme Court May Hear New Challenge to Affirmative Action

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

John Payton, director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Supreme Court justices will likely agree to hear an affirmative action case of a White student who said she was denied admission to a top college due to her race, according to a New York Times report. A decision on whether affirmative action will be eliminated in public universities could be made by June.

Abigail Fisher, a White student, said she was not accepted by the University of Texas in favor of more diverse but less-qualified candidates, who the campus considers a minority. The lawsuit challenges whether policies and procedures at UT, which grants preferences to students based on race, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

John A. Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told The New York Times that studies show diversity is needed in colleges and universities.

“There is no longer any doubt as to the educational benefits of racially diverse students learning together and from each other,” he said.

But Peter Wood, the author of “Diversity: The Invention of a Concept” and a critic, said there is a problem with the educational value placed on racial diversity.

“The part of diversity that matters to me and a lot of academics is the intellectual diversity of the classroom,” he said. “The pursuit of a genuine variety of opinions that are well thought through and well grounded is essential. But that has an off-and-on, hit-or-miss connection with ethnic and racial diversity

Rev. C.T. Vivian Discusses 'How We Made It Over' at King Event by Dilane Mitchell

Rev. C.T. Vivian Discusses 'How We Made It Over' at King Event

By Dilane Mitchell

revctviivian

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Howard University News Service

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - About 200 people packed into the lobby of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown Washington, D.C. to hear Rev. C.T. Vivian speak about "how we made it over," the the theme of a program leading to the official dedication of the Martin Luther King Monument.

"It was always a marvel that we made it at all," said Vivian, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and civil rights activist.

"We refused to die, used whatever resources we had," he told the audience of all ages and backgrounds. "We did whatever we had to do to thrive and survive."

The event was a part of a series of programs related to the dedication of the King memorial on the National Mall. The dedication ceremony was originally scheduled for Aug. 28, but was rescheduled to Oct. 16 because of the weather caused by Hurricane Irene.

Before Vivian spoke, saxophonist Ginger Cornwell performed "My Help Comes From the Lord." She shared a story of being a little girl in the car with her parents and driving past several bathrooms that said "white only" before they found one she could use. The God's Miracle Gospel Quartet moved the audience with well-performed pieces, including "How We Made It Over."

U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Va., who also preceded Vivian, addressed the audience about Congress' role in the continued struggle for racial and social equality, including health care and education reform.

"Our leaders have led us well, but it is time to pick up that baton; we need to continue that fight for justice," Scott said.

Vivian also spoke about education, calling it the way through to the dream. He said that every successful struggle makes a new struggle necessary; the new struggle is rooted in the educational disparities between white and black students.

He shared statistics that 40 percent to 60 percent of black students drop out of high school and that only 4 percent of those who remain in high school meet the ACT benchmarks of being prepared for college.

Vivian then told a story about how his grandmother motivated him to stay in school and do well. "Who's going to be Grandma for this generation?" he asked. "It's about making sure they know something. … We are in charge of them. Whatever happens to them is because we allowed it to happen to them."

The statistics are high, he said, because black children are taught to avoid mathematics and science. "The great joy of living is overcoming the difficult," he said. Without the education in those subjects, black students are not prepared for today's science age.

"It's all there for us if we want it," he said. "The issue is not money; it's culture."

Are Schools Preparing Black Boys for Prison? by Starla Muhammad

Are Schools Preparing Black Boys…for Prison?

By Starla Muhammad

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Final Call

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - ‘In New Orleans, Sebastian and Robin Weston were plaintiffs in a 2010 class-action lawsuit alleging their then six-year-old son was handcuffed and shackled to a chair by an armed security guard after the boy argued with another student over a chair.’

(Special from FinalCall.com) — A Chicago mother recently filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education alleging a Chicago public school security guard handcuffed her young son while he was a student at George Washington Carver Primary School on the city’s far south side. In the lawsuit filed August 29, LaShanda Smith says the guard handcuffed her son March 17, 2010 which resulted in “sustained injuries of a permanent, personal and pecuniary nature.”

According to media reports, Michael A. Carin, the attorney representing Ms. Smith, says the youngster was among several six- and seven-year-olds that were handcuffed by the guard for allegedly “talking in class”. The students were also allegedly told they would never see their parents again and were going to prison.

In another incident on April 13 of this year in Queens, New York, a seven-year-old special education student in first grade was handcuffed and taken by ambulance to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after he reportedly became upset because he did not like the color of an Easter egg he decorated. The school says the child was spitting, would not calm down and was “threatening.”

In New Orleans, Sebastian and Robin Weston were plaintiffs in a 2010 class-action lawsuit alleging their then six-year-old son was handcuffed and shackled to a chair by an armed security guard after the boy argued with another student over a chair.

“This must stop now. Our children are not animals and should not be treated this way,” Mr. Weston said in a statement.

Are these incidents, in which young Black boys are treated like common criminals in America’s schools, subconsciously preparing them instead for life behind bars in the criminal justice system?

“The school system has been transformed into nothing more than a prison preparation industry,” says Umar Abdullah Johnson, president of National Movement to Save Black Boys.

“The job of the school district is to prep the children for prison just like a chef preps his food before he actually cooks it,” Mr. Johnson, a nationally certified psychologist, told The Final Call.

“Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education” states Black Male students are punished more severely for similar infractions than their white peers. “They are not given the same opportunities to participate in classes with enriched educational offerings. They are more frequently inappropriately removed from the general education classroom due to misclassifications by the special education policies and practices of schools and districts,” says the report.

In Chicago public schools, Black boys make up less than 25 percent of the student population but made up 57 percent of expelled students in 2009 according to Catalyst Chicago an online news magazine that reports on urban education. “In Chicago, Black Boys are 51 percent of those suspended at the elementary level,” noted Catalyst Chicago.

Mr. Johnson says a false image has been created that suggests Black boys are not interested in being educated, which is not true he argues. The emotional and psychological effects on a six- and seven-year-olds from unfair and out-of-control disciplinary action like handcuffing is setting them up for criminality, he explains.

“The first thing that type of behavior does is it socializes the boy at a very young age into criminal consciousness. He is nurtured by the school into an understanding that his role in society is that of a criminal,” says Mr. Johnson, a Pennsylvania certified school principal, lecturer and motivational coach. These methods and practices of handcuffing young Black boys takes away the stigma, sting and fear of incarceration, he adds.

Overly harsh disciplinary policies set the tone for students to become bored and frustrated with school which leads to increased dropout rates and in many cases leads to greater involvement in the criminal justice system say youth advocates. Mr. Johnson agrees.

“When you put handcuffs on a six or seven year old there’s no need for that six- or seven-year-old to fear incarceration when they’re 17 and 18 years old,” he says.
Schools are the number one referral source to jail and juvenile hall for Black children and teens. Therefore, Mr. Johnson urges parents to meet and establish a relationship with their child’s teacher. “Once you meet with a teacher, just the vibration from that teacher be [he or she] Black or white [is] going to let you know whether [the teacher is] there to get a paycheck or whether [he or she is] there to teach your child.”

‘No Justice, No Peace!’ Thousands Rally for Obama’s Jobs Bill by Naeshaun Briggs

Oct. 16, 2011

‘No Justice, No Peace!’ Thousands Rally for Obama’s Jobs Bill.

By Naeshaun Briggs

sharpton march

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.; Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III are joined by hundreds of other civil rights leaders in a "March for Jobs and Justice" on Saturday. PHOTO: Khalid Naji-Allah/Trice Edney News Wire

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “If you won’t get the jobs bill done in the suites, then we will get the jobs bill done in the street!” said civil rights advocate Al Sharpton.

With an employment rate at a reported 9.1 percent in the United States and consistently above 16 percent in the Black community - citizens are finding themselves out of options and taking action for real, lasting change.

In preparation for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication on Oct 16, Sharpton along with the National Action Network, labor leaders, and thousands of citizens and civil rights leaders rallied at the Sylvan Theater Stage by the Washington Monument and then marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in support of President Obama’s job bill.

“We’ve come to give our country back to the people!” Sharpton shouted to the crowd. “We cannot sit here with 1 percent of this country controlling 30-40 percent of the wealth!”

The march went on as planned despite the fact that the U. S. Senate had days earlier rejected President Obama’s $447 billion dollar American Jobs Act that was included of tax hikes for the wealthy, infrastructure investments, and extended benefits for organized labor unions.

Budgetary deficits in the educational system was among the primary concern of the people in the crowd.

Everett Goodwin, a young man from Philadelphia, said he was employed for the city for seven years before recently losing his job. He had also double majored at a university for three years, but had to drop to care for his retired father, Eric Pilgrim, who was also at the march with him.

“My son can’t go to college because of financial reasons,” said Pilgrim. Pilgrim was injured in a work accident, and had to settle for much less compensation than he was owed. Goodwin is also taking care of his own 3-year-old- daughter. “I need to find the resources that’s available to me so that I can find a career so I can support my family.”

People of diverse backgrounds and situations came to take a stance for what organizers called a march for "Jobs and Justice." Jennifer Lowery-Bell, a retired nurse and a substitute teacher of Largo, Maryland, was marching in support of her daughter, who has been deployed in Afghanistan as a naval officer since July 2011.

Her daughter is a single parent of two young children and was a physics teacher at Hampton University before she was deployed. “I’d like to know that when she comes back she has employment,” stated Lowery-Bell, “She’s given up time. She’s given up her life.”

From unemployment to civil rights, to labor laws, to education, speakers tried to cover a list of issues to speak to the concerns of the crowd.

Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education declared: "Transforming the way our schools work for our children is the most important civil rights issue of our generation.”

President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Warrington asked the crowd, “Is it radical to want our teachers to remain in classrooms where their students need and not in the unemployment line?”

Lee Saunders, treasurer of organized labor union ASCME, urged the crowd to take action against the economic disenfranchisement of union benefits. “We will fight the legislators who are stealing our collective bargaining rights,” he said. “Retirement security is under attack. Our work is not done!”

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League repeated his oft-heard message on unemployment. “The number one issue facing the nation is jobs!”

Morial the power of the vote as key to changing the economic situation. Pointing out recent attacks against voters’ rights, he said, “In the 21st century, the grandfather style clauses are reemerging. We must resist!”

Before the march took off, Martin Luther King III urged the crowd to continue marching because his father’s dream has yet to be recognized - for the poor and people from all walks of life. “Over 45 years ago, my father talked about the redistribution of wealth in our nation," he said, “Now it’s time to bail out working Americans.”