Aug. 1, 2011

New SCLC President Dies of Apparent Heart Attack; Dr. King Nephew Named Interim Successor

By Hazel Trice Edney

 The late Dr. Howard Creecy Jr.

Isaac Newton Farris, Jr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Rev. Dr. Howard W. Creecy, the new president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who just last month outlined his vision to revive the historic civil rights organization, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 57.

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., the 48-year-old nephew of SCLC founder Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has been named Interim President of SCLC. Farris, who was serving as national vice president of the organization, praised Creecy for his visionary leadership and said his aim is to continue growing the organization from the blue print set forth by Creecy.

“He had laid out a course. He had a vision that he obviously had shared with us all; a vision that we all were buying into and he had put some meat on those bones,” Farris said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire the day after the death announcement.

The SCLC family as well as his immediate family are shocked, Farris said. “Emotionally, we are rattled. But, institutionally, we are not rattled at all because although he is not here to implement, he did provide a blue print.”

Creecy, a third generation preacher at The Olivet Church in Fayetteville, a civil-rights activist and father of two, died at approximately 12:30 a.m. in his home, said a release. The cause of his death was initially undetermined, but family members suspected a heart attack and an autopsy was commissioned.

“We thank the community for the outpouring of compassion and condolences during this difficult time,” his wife Yolanda Grier Creecy and his family said in a statement.

A funeral is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday, August 6 at Jackson Memorial Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Farris credited Creecy for saving the life of the organization, which has been beleaguered with controversy and mired in court battles the past two years. Creecy took the helm of the 54-year-old civil rights organization in late January after the Rev. Bernice King decided to bow out. She had been elected president the previous year, but her presidency never took affect amidst court battles and rancor between board members.

“Howard saved the organization, quite frankly. Had he not done what he did when he did it, we might not be having this conversation,” Farris said.

In an extensive interview in late May, Creecy told the Trice Edney News Wire that his vision was to move African-Americans from a place of simple empowerment to equity. Among the plans he had already begun to put in place was an infusion of youth by setting up SCLC chapters on college campuses and in high schools.

His eyes on the 2012 presidential election, Creecy said the non-partisan SCLC would adamantly push for voter education, registration and get out to vote along with a coalition of other Black civic organizations.

If Obama wins a second term, Black leaders would need to encourage him to do more for Black progress “by continuing to encourage him; dialoguing with him by speaking truth to power, and creating the updraft to be the wind beneath his wings that lets him soar to the place of our expectation. But it cannot be done without our participation.”

Farris, the son of Dr. King’s sister, Dr. Christine King Farris, was president and CEO of the MLK Center in Atlanta until last year.

“I’ve had a pretty balanced and exposed background,” Farris said. “Howard was like a big brother to me. Our families are close. I grew up knowing Howard. We played together.”

He said he had the advantage of gleaning from Creecy for a lifetime. “One thing that I took from Howard, which I think is important for this organization, is his love for people - his genuine love for people. I guess that’s what made his ministry thrive as well.”

Farris was clear that he did not know whether he would take the long-term presidency after his interim term or whether it would even be offered. “I have not really had that formal discussion with the board; So, I would just feel kind of awkward getting ahead and answering that at this point.”

Creecy was the son of the late civil rights icon Rev. Howard Creecy Sr. also an SCLC stalwart.

Farris concluded: “Howard has been a prophetic leader who deeply inspired me along with countless others across this great nation and world. From his inspired leadership, which revitalized the SCLC, we will work to continue on the path that he and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. lay before us.”

FEATURE PHOTO - Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges Visits the White House

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama, Ruby Bridges, and representatives of the Norman Rockwell Museum view Rockwell’s "The Problem We All Live With,” hanging in a West Wing hallway near the Oval Office, July 15. Bridges is the girl portrayed in the painting. She was first escorted to school by federal marshals on November 14, 1960. She faced hostile crowds as the first black child to attend a previously all white New Orleans school. Instead of greetings, she was bombarded with jeers, death threats, and ended up as the sole child in her first grade class after parents kept her classmates home in protest.  (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

July 25, 2011

Black Bankers Aim to Empower Communities Through 'People's Economic Movement'

By Hazel Trice Edney

PHOTO CAPTION: Radio Talk Show Host Warren Ballentine, Black bankers, and civil rights representatives are teaming up to encourage an economic revolution by encouraging Blacks to do business with Black banks. Pictured front are: Hermond E. Palmer Jr., vice president, Industrial Bank; Michael Grant, president, National Bankers Association; Kim D. Saunders, president/CEO, M&F Bank; Ballentine; and the Rev. Deforest B. Soaries, Jr., senior pastor, First Baptist Church of Somerset, N.J.; Back: Victor E. Cook, executive director, NBA; Joe D. Briggs, Counsel, NFL Players Association; Hilary Shelton, vice president, NAACP; and B. Doyle Mitchell, Jr., president and CEO, Industrial Bank.

WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) - In his last public message the day before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called on Black people in Memphis to support Black banks.

"We've got to strengthen Black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank," he said in his "Mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple, April 3, 1968. Tri-State Bank, now 65 years old and still in operation, was among the institutions where civil rights demonstrations were planned during that time.

After encouraging people to also support Black insurance companies, Dr. King concluded in his speech, "These are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here."

Felled by an assassin's bullet the next day, the "follow through" for which Dr. King asked never really happened. Fast forward, 43 years later, an organization of Black and other racial minority banks and a radio talk show host have now united to take up the mantle amidst an economy that is still causing disparate suffering to African-Americans.  

Atlanta-based radio talk show host Warren Ballentine and the Washington, D.C.-based National Bankers Association believe reinvesting in Black-owned banks could inspire economic healing and strength in every aspect of the Black community. That's why they have started "The People's Economic Movement."

"If we want to change all the drugs in our community, if we want to change all the violence, if we want to change the educational abilities that our next generation will have, it starts with having the capital available to teach the proper things to do to make a difference," said Ballentine during a July 15 press conference at the NBA headquarters to announce the new movement.  

A lawyer and bankruptcy attorney, Ballentine knows well human behavior as is relates to money.

"If we all come together and just open up accounts - not give your money away, but just open up accounts so that the Banks will have the position to be able to lend of the money to help the community - then people will have accountability because they have ownership and they're tied into it. And once they have an ownership, they're going to treat it so much differently than they're treating it right now," he said.

In a nutshell, the NBA and Ballentine will officially announce "The People's Economic Movement," on August 28, coinciding with the unveiling of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in Washington. Ballentine will encourage people to open accounts in Black banks, which will in turn establish community programs to enrich their customers and neighborhoods.

NBA President Michael Grant sees the self-help movement as a catalyst to the stimulation of "much-needed economic development at our nation's urban core."

He said in a statement, "By depositing our money in minority banks, getting mortgages, small business loans or loans for college tuition from banks in our communities, consumers begin a process of harnessing the economic strength of the masses in a way that creates direct benefits to their communities which are still suffering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

Big banks have gotten a bad name during the economic downturn, largely due to their receiving bailout money while record numbers of people lost their homes due to predatory mortgage loans and unemployment. But, Black-owned banks are in a different category.

"Literally, the predatory lending, it wasn't from the small community banks. That was from the big banks...The banks that we're dealing with, the members of the NBA, were responsible and conservative and accurate in what they were doing as far as their lending practices in comparison to other banks," Ballentine said.

Blacks have suffered most in the economic downtown, including unemployment rates that are consistently nearly twice the national average.

The "People's Economic Movement" will bring hope, Grant said during the press conference. "This campaign is allowing us to give folks something to rally around that they can believe in...This is an opportunity for us. We've decided that the NBA can and should play a galvanizing role to pull together elements of our community to start making economic development and finance an issue of importance to our communities."

Ballentine's vision has already been put to the test.

Kim Saunders, president and CEO of the 103-year-old M&F Bank in Durham, was applauded by her colleagues at the press conference when she said her bank established more than 60 new accounts in one day as Ballentine used his radio show to encourage people to open accounts during a National Community Reinvestment Day. "In our Charlotte Branch, we had standing room only," she recalled.

She said her bank has a strong relationship with faith-based communities, does hundreds of financial literacy workshops a year, has more than 1,000 new accounts, including 225 youth savings accounts and have garnered more than a million dollars in deposits.

Saunders is now on radio every Friday featuring customers talking about their M&F experience in learning about banking and establishing relationships that put them in homes and their own businesses.

Small banks teach people everything from how to write a check, balance a check book or pay their bills, Saunders said. "It's been an amazing campaign...I think this is really what we are called to do."

The "People's Economic Movement" is also expected to benefit community development overall. There are approximately 38 Black-owned banks in America. Because of limited deposits, none of them has a lending capacity of more than $3.5 billion, but, in the past, they have pooled their resources in order to fund major projects.

The Rev. Deforest B. Soaries, Jr., senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Somerset, N.J., underscored the importance of the involvement of churches in the campaign.

"After you come to God, the second thing you do in our church is get out of debt and develop a budget and live within your means and pay yourself first," Soaries said at the press conference. "This is not just the role of the church, but the responsibility of the church. My lifestyle depends on people putting money into the plate, which means that my responsibility is to help them with the money they don't put in the plate."

A long time civil rights and community advocate Soaries said people need an option to institutions that set up in neighborhoods to rob people of their money.

"The unbanked and under-banked are using check cashing joints, rent to own, money orders and pay day lenders," he said.

He also quoted statistics that say one out of five African-Americans don't have a bank account and another 33 percent have bank accounts but don't use them. He calculated this to mean 54 percent of Black people in the U.S. are "unbanked or under-banked".

The NBA - with African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American and Native-American owned banks in 29 cities across the nation - is uniquely positioned to partner with Ballentine to change these conditions, Grant says. Yet, Black banks receive little support from potential customers. 

According to an NBA statement, "Economists have estimated that while the African-American community has over one trillion dollars in disposable income a year, it has been estimated that African-American owned banks manage less than 5 percent of the wealth in the communities that they serve."

That's about to change, said Grant, referring to the partnership between M&F and Ballentine: "We've got to take this model of success and build on it."

July 25, 2011

The Current Political Landscape, Ideology vs. Reality

By: Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

News Analysis

President Obama discusses the urgency of Democrats and Republicans coming together to take a balanced approach to cutting the deficit. White House Photo.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In describing the recent budget debate impasse between the Obama administration and the Republican-led Congress, House Majority Leader Boehner (R-Ohio) stated, "The gulf between the two parties now is about policy. It's not about process, it's not about personalities." Boehner is wrong; it's not about policy. It's about ideology, and has everything to do with personality.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) clearly made it about personality when he stated in 2010 that, "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." From that point forward, it became much easier to understand why the relationship between the White House and Congress has been so contentious. Instead of demonstrating to the country how Republican-supported policy would make the country stronger and safer, create jobs and provide much needed health care coverage for all Americans, Republicans turned their focus to ensuring that the president serves only one term. It's not about policy; it's about personality.

As Boehner continues to try to negotiate with President Obama, he is hamstrung by the members of the Tea Party Caucus and their uncompromising ideological stance for a constitutionally limited government. They are championing the position of "cut, cap and balance." According to the South Florida Tea Party, this plan calls for substantial spending cuts in fiscal year 2012, a statutory spending cap and Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Their inflexible position will not allow them to support any measure that includes an increase in taxes.

Most fiscal experts are stating that any serious balanced budget reduction plan must include an increase in tax revenues. Alice Rivlin from Brookings states, .".. any balanced budget plan has to include both spending cuts and tax increases - unpleasant medicine." Tea Party Caucus spokeswoman Rep. Michelle Bachmann has refused to sign on to any bipartisan deal stating, "It's time for tough love ... Don't let them scare you by telling you that the country's going to fall apart." When negotiating positions are grounded in ideology and not focused on the best long-term interest of all Americans, facts don't matter; reality does not matter.

Boehner has stated, "Most Americans would say a balanced approach is a simple one: The administration gets its debt-limit increase and the American people get their spending cut ..." Once again, his rhetoric is not consistent with the facts. According to the most recent USA Today/Gallup survey by a 2-1 margin, Americans want lawmakers in Congress to seek compromise (and not the compromise Boehner touts) to avoid a government shutdown. The most recent Quinnipiac University survey on this issue finds that 67 to 25 percent that an agreement to raise the debt ceiling should include tax hikes for the wealthy and corporations, not just spending cuts. The survey's overall sampling error is a very good plus or minus two percentage points.

The budget debate is not the only area where adherence to ideology matters more than the facts. Recently, Republican presidential candidates Bachmann and Rick Santorum signed the "The Marriage Vow - A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family." Of the many problematic elements of "the pledge" is the following: "Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President." In spite of the factual inaccuracy in this statement and its irrelevance to current circumstances, Christian ideologues find it necessary to promote this baseless and insulting statement in a feeble attempt to promote traditional marriage..

The problem with ideologies is that, when left to their own merit, they do not hold up to rational, fact-based scrutiny. They tend to focus on and confuse the imagery of the "should be" and "ought to be" with the practical "is." Without people who are able to inject pragmatism and tie logic and reason to an ideology, it can take an institution, group or country down some very perilous roads. This is why ideologues (people who profess ideologies) make terrible politicians and ideology can make for very bad public policy. Ideologues are so focused on the "should be" that they fail to take into account the practical applications of the "how." At their worst, they alter facts to fit their ideology, as was the case when Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Florida) falsely claimed on the Senate floor that, "If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood and that's well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does." Planned Parenthood has been prevented by federal law from using federal dollars for abortion services.

After several years of ideological babble such as "compassionate conservatism," "American internationalism," "ownership society" and "war on terror," Americans are finally beginning to focus on real issues such as home foreclosures, affordable health care, outsourcing American jobs, global warming and skyrocketing energy costs. Ironically, much of the blame for these problems can be traced back to some of the same ideologues that now threaten to shut down the government.

Facts matter, especially when part of your ideology claims to make you more American than those who disagree with you and is supposed to be based on an understanding of history and the Constitution. No, Mrs. Bachmann, the shot heard around the world was not fired in Concord, New Hampshire; it was Concord, Massachusetts. John Quincy Adams was not a founding father; he was only nine years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Finally, the founding fathers did not work "tirelessly to end slavery." Twelve owned slaves during their lifetime; eight owned slaves while in the White House; and of the first five presidents, four owned slaves.

When seeking clarity on American values and ideals, Americans should look to the document upon which the ideological basis of the country was founded. In the Declaration of Independence, ideology was combined with pragmatic application. The true ideological basis of the country is articulated as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The pragmatic manner to implement the ideology is stated as, "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ..."

We can also look to the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity and to accomplish this the Framer's practically ordained and established the Constitution for the United States of America." The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are where the real traditional ideals of America are articulated.

The current political landscape is being polluted with ideological babble by politicians trying to facilitate the transference of wealth from the working and middle class to the wealthy, and impose a narrow self-serving social agenda on the country as a whole.