Alabama
Memorial services will be held in Selma and Tuskegee over the next several days, Sept. 5-8, for civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson, who died last week. Robinson, 104, was one of several people brutally beaten during the “Bloody Sunday” march in 1965 when she and other marchers tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Beaten unconscious, photos of her lying on the road were seen around the world and became a symbol of the brutality of anti-civil rights actions. “To me, she was a hero” said her niece, Germaine Bowser. “She was fearless. We had the Klu Klux Klan shooting in our windows, throwing rocks, calling, threatening to bomb the house. She would say, ‘Well, they’re afraid of us.’ She was calm. She took it in stride.” Boynton’s house at 1315 Lapsley Street in Selma in 1965 served as a headquarters of the Selma march planning with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders convening there.
California
Karolyn Ali, a music video producer who was nominated as producer of the documentary “Tupac Resurrection,” died last month at the age of 70 of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles. She had a long career, collaborating on films, music videos, commercials and documentaries, and working with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach and Ziggy Marley. She was a music video pioneer and was involved in the production of more than 200 videos. Ali earned the Lillian Gish Award from Women in Film, as well as the NAACP/Legal Defense Fund’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. She also was a founding member and board chair of Theatre of Hearts/Youth First Artists-in-Residence, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that empowers underserved youth through mentoring and fine arts educational workshops.
ABS Entertainment, which owns the publishing rights to music from such artists as Al Green, Willie Mitchell and Ann Peebles, has filed a class action lawsuit over royalty rights in three federal courts against CBS Corp., Cumulus Media and iHeartMedia. The lawsuit alleges the three radio giants cheated musicians out of royalties for artists’ music that was recorded before 1972, which was before federal copyright laws began. “CBS’ conduct is causing and, unless enjoined and restrained by this court, will continue to cause plaintiff and the class great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money,” according to the lawsuit. ABS Entertainment claims that the three largest radio station owners in the nation are raking in revenue from using the music on radio stations that play ads, but they refuse to pay for the performance of those recordings.
Connecticut
The family of Gugsa Abraham “Abe” Dabela is questioning a ruling by police that the Ethiopian-American attorney took his own life after a car accident. Dabela, 35, was found in his overturned vehicle in April 2014 at 1:40 a.m. with a single gunshot to the back of his head. It was ruled suicide by the medical examiner, but the family says the young attorney had no reason to kill himself. As part of its “quest for justice,” the family has launched a website—www.justice4abe.com—which provides details of the case. In addition, the area NAACP has launched its own investigation. “Sixteen months of an anguished search for answers [has] only led to more questions,” said G. Dabela, his sister. “Now the public can share in the mystery and, hopefully, shed light on this tragedy.”
Illinois
After a 2012 study found that the state suspends more African American students than any other state in the U.S., a law was passed to help to ensure that all students are in school and off the streets as much as possible. “Constantly suspending and expelling the very kids that need to be in school is one of the most counter-productive practices of our education system,” said Illinois Senate Assistant Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, sponsor of the legislation. “We need to keep young people in school learning how to succeed and off of the street corner learning how best to end up in prison.” The new law is designed to address the situation in several ways, including: disciplinary removals of youth longer than three days must be limited to instances where the student’s presence is an ongoing threat to the school, and all other options have been exhausted; school districts must establish re-engagement policies for disciplined students; and suspended students must be given the opportunity to make up their work. “Expulsions and suspensions will now only be a last resort. This is a great victory for everyone in Illinois and all those children who hold out hope for their future in what has seemed, at times, like an elusive dream of a great education.” The law goes into effect Sept. 15, 2016.
Derek Rose, a guard for the Chicago Bulls, says he will be “proven innocent” after a woman brought a civil lawsuit against him last week, alleging that he and two friends sexually assaulted her two years ago in Los Angeles. “I am just focusing on staying healthy and getting ready for the season,” he said in a statement. “I am not going to comment other than to say, I know the truth, and am confident I will be proven innocent.” The woman, called Jane Doe, claims in the filing that Rose and his friends drugged her after breaking into her apartment. No criminal charges have been filed. The woman alleges that she dated Rose, and while they dated, he often tried to pressure her into having sexual relations with his friends. She reportedly refused.
Maryland
Frank E. Petersen Jr., the U.S. Marines’ first Black aviator, died last week at 83 in his home in Stevensville. Petersen enlisted in 1950, two years after President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces. He went on to make brigadier general in 1979. He started his decades of service in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program, and over the years moved up the ranks, serving in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, where he was awarded a Purple Heart. Petersen was known for his dedication; he flew some 350 combat missions and logged more than 4,000 hours. He retired from the military in 1988.
A judge this week denied motions to dismiss charges against six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, and will not recuse State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby from the case.
Defense attorneys for the six officers argued that Mosby had gone too far in her remarks announcing charges against the five men and one woman, and that her office had numerous conflicts that required her office to be recused from the proceedings.
Judge Barry Williams said he found some of Mosby’s comments “troubling,” but also said they did not prevent the officers from receiving a fair trial. Regarding the alleged conflicts of interest, Williams said the defense “didn’t come close” to justifying a removal of the prosecutor’s office. The dismissal motion focused on statements Mosby made while announcing the charges against the officers. The arguments on the recusal motion focused on the role Mosby and prosecutors allegedly played in her office’s independent investigation of Gray’s death.
Andrew Graham, a defense attorney for Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., argued that when Mosby publicly announced the charges against the officers on May 1, she “adopted and encouraged the public’s cry of ‘no justice, no peace’” and that her statements tainted the jury pool.
Gray, 25, suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody on April 12 and died from his injuries a week later.
New York
Last month it was announced that for the first time in its Broadway history, the popular musical “Les Miserables” would feature a Black actor in the role of Jean Valijean. Unfortunately, last Friday, the 21-year-old actor, Kyle Jean-Baptiste, died in a freak accident outside his mother’s home. Producers of the long-running musical said, “The entire ‘Les Miserables’ family is shocked and devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of Kyle, a remarkable young talent and tremendous person who made magic—and history—in his Broadway debut . . . .” According to media reports, Jean-Baptiste fell from a fire escape.
The ninth annual ADCOLOR Awards are set to take place in New York City on Sept. 19 at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers, celebrating diversity in the advertising, marketing and media industries. The ADCOLOR awards also hope to inspire the next generation of multicultural professionals in these arenas. This year’s honorees include MC Lyte, Brian Eller, Maurice Marable, Pam El, Cathy Hughes, Bethan Hardison, Alberto Pont and Vann Graves.
Texas
According to the Root, a violent social media threat against Black students at a Killeen high school last Friday prompted parents to keep their kids home from school. Some 352 of the school’s approximate 2,000 students were absent that day in response to since-deleted Instagram posts by user “jakedajesus254” that included a picture of a man holding a gun and another with the message: “This is a final warning to all the [n-word] out there. I’m gonna beat UR a— I wanna fight every [n-word] who thinks he can take me. I will be fighting everyone I can tomorrow after school in front of the school.” The school day on Friday ended without incident and no one was arrested at press time. Killeen Independent School District Superintendent John Craft said the school district, its police department and the Killeen Police Department are investigating. “At this time, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure the safety of the campus, and classes will proceed as scheduled. All entities are dedicated to ensuring appropriate security measures are in place, and the safety of our students and staff remain a top priority.”
Shannon L. Miles, 33, has been charged with capital murder in the death of a sheriff’s deputy in Houston. According to the Associated Press, Miles ambushed Darren Goforth, a 10-year veteran of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office while he was pumping gas at a service station. Miles was captured within 24 hours of what authorities are calling “a senseless and cowardly act.” Miles has a criminal history that includes resisting arrest and disorderly conduct with a firearm. Miles is Black and the deputy was White, so authorities are not discounting the possibility that Miles motivation might have been racial. “I think that’s something that we have to keep an eye on,” said Ron Hickman, Harris County Sheriff. “The general climate of that kind of rhetoric can be influential on people to do things like this. We’re still searching to find out if that’s actually a motive.” Hickman said investigators are working on the assumption “that [Goforth] was a target because he wore a uniform.”
Virginia
Before killing himself, newscaster Vester Lee Flanagan, known on-air as Bryce Williams, ambushed and killed two TV reporters and wounded an area chamber of commerce executive last week in a little town near Roanoke. According to multiple media reports, Flanagan had been fired from the TV station more than two years ago where the two murdered victims worked, and he had also been fired from other media outlets as well. During his time at the different TV stations, he often complained of racial discrimination; however, his claims were never substantiated, neither by his past employers or the EEO, which he filed a complaint with on at least one occasion. In a 23-page fax that Flanagan sent to ABC News in New York right before the killings, he allegedly expressed racially motivated rage at the two, as well as others.
It sounds like a broken recording, but once again a family wants answers after a young Black man was found dead while in custody of local law enforcement. This time it’s the case of Jamychael Mitchell, 24, who was found dead in his cell last week at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. According to court documents, Mitchell was awaiting court proceedings after being arrested in April for allegedly stealing $5 worth of merchandise from a convenience store. The family is awaiting autopsy results, but jail officials claim he died of “natural causes” and that there is no apparent injury to his body. Mitchell’s family, however, says that the young man had mental issues and that he probably did not receive needed care. Medics at the jail said Mitchell refused to take his medication and officials also confirmed he refused to eat, according to the Guardian newspaper. The publication also reports that Mitchell was to be transferred to a mental health hospital for treatment, but there wasn’t room for him.
National
In schools across the United States, Black students are punished more severely than their peers. But nowhere are Black students suspended or expelled more than in the South. Fifty-five percent of the 1.2 million Black students suspended in the U.S. live in just 13 Southern states. In a new report, the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education offers a state-by-state, school district-by-district examination of school discipline for Black students in the South. Researchers Edward Smith and Shaun Harper found Black students were consistently suspended and expelled at higher rates than their peers across the region. This held true beyond the South in urban, suburban and rural districts, for both Black boys and Black girls. The study is an analysis of every public school district in the South. “The findings in our report point to the residual effects of Jim Crow, slavery and unequal schooling,” Harper said. “They are further explained by poverty trends, structural inequities in the education workforce and a longstanding history of racial injustice that cyclically reproduces itself, especially across these 13 Southern states. Read the full report—www.gse.upenn.edu/equity/SouthernStates.
Lee Daniels will direct Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy, Mike Epps and Kate Hudson in a new biopic about the life of legendary comic and actor Richard Pryor. The film will not begin production until next March, when Daniels finishes shooting the second season of his hit Fox series, “Empire.” Winfrey plays Pryor’s grandmother, who raised him while running a brothel, and Murphy plays his father. Epps will take on the role of Pryor, while Hudson will play his wife Jennifer, whom he married twice in his lifetime.
