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Across Black America

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African American news for the week of Sept. 25, 2014

Alabama

State Senator Vivian Figures (D-Mobile) is planning to introduce a bill that will better inform the public and law enforcement in response to missing children after the disappearance and subsequent discovery of the body of 8-year-old Hiawayi Robinson in Prichard. The child’s family reported her missing on Sept. 16 when she didn’t come home that evening. Hundreds of volunteers searched for her until her body was found the next day behind an abandoned building. “Nobody but God knows if we were able to put out that alert late Tuesday night, maybe things would’ve been different,” Sen. Figures told Alabama news sources. “My goal is to have a law so that we can start looking for a child as soon as possible.” After Hiawayi was reported missing, area citizens criticized authorities for failing to send out an AMBER Alert. Interim Prichard Police Chief Michael Rowland said no alert was issued because authorities had no information on any possible abductors. Under Alabama law, authorities are required to put descriptive information into the Alabama Center for Missing and Exploited Children database and the National Crime Information Center when dealing with missing persons. Hiawayi’s information was entered into a statewide database on Sept. 17, a day after she went missing.

California

In a groundbreaking effort to combat gun violence, 23 prosecutors representing major jurisdictions throughout the U.S. announced last week the formation of Prosecutors Against Gun Violence (PAGV), an independent, non-partisan coalition founded and co-chaired by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and Manhattan (New York City) District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. The organization is designed to identify and promote prosecutorial and policy solutions to the national public health and safety crisis of gun violence. PAGV also announced that it will convene the first-ever national prosecutorial summit on gun violence prevention in Atlanta on October 21-22, focusing on best practices, gang violence reduction, illegal weapons trafficking, the nexus between domestic violence and gun violence, the link between mental health issues and gun violence, and other initiatives. The growing coalition includes prosecutors from Atlanta, Boston, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Portland, Queens, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle and Staten Island.

According to Los Angeles police, R&B singer Keyshia Cole was arrested on suspicion of battery after an altercation early on Sept. 19. Officer Nuria Vanegas says that Cole, a Grammy nominee, was arrested around 5 a.m. and booked on suspicion of battery and released from custody that afternoon. Police did not release any further details about the incident. The singer posted bail and was at the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta the next day, where she presented the award for Best Producer.

An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty issued to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick during San Francisco’s loss on Sept. 14 to the Chicago Bears was reportedly for using a racial slur, according to the San Jose Mercury News. According to the report, after Kaepernick threw his third interception, he had a heated exchange with Chicago Bears player Lamarr Houston. A nearby official reportedly heard the exchange and threw the flag on Kaepernick. The 49er QB told the Mercury that he did not say anything to Houston, but video shows the two exchanging words. Referee Carl Cheffers attributed the penalty only to inappropriate language. Kaepernick is appealing his $11,025 fine for the penalty.

Florida

The West Palm Beach-based Black Shopping Channel (BSC) announced that it has successfully completed a $125 million deal. Proceeds will be used to expand TV viewership nationwide on Comcast, DirectTV, and Time Warner. BSC currently airs on Dish Network. “The added $125 million to the company’s balance sheet raises the Black Shopping Channel’s market value to a $700 million dollar company and growing,” said Cleveland Gary, CEO in a press release. BSC is also currently negotiating with other interested hedge funds and banks to secure more capital for global expansion on television, as well as the Internet. By the end of 2015, the Black Shopping Channel anticipates 200 million unique visitors per month on its website. The channel is designed to be a gateway for small business owners that own a free virtual store to promote their products and have their products seen by that many shoppers monthly in the BSC online mall. Gary says that every small business owner’s free BSC virtual online store page can be valued more than each Facebook users page because it is monetized with a free e-commerce shopping cart. The Black Shopping Channel is expecting to do an IPO in the near future to have the stock listed and traded on NASDAQ. For more info, visit www.blackshoppingchannel.com.

Georgia

Sisters Network Atlanta Southern Region Chapter, a non-profit organization for African American breast cancer survivors, will host its Gift for Life Block Walk on Oct. 4, at the Riverdale Town Center in Atlanta. Riverdale Mayor Evelyn Winn-Dixon, the honorary chair, will kick off the fundraising event. During the month of October the chapter begins its Stop the Silence program by collaborating with organizations and community groups to promote breast health awareness in the Black community. The programs allow breast cancer survivors and volunteers to canvas door-to-door and distribute breast health education information, a resource list and pink ribbons. Every individual reached is invited to the Riverdale Town Center where refreshments will be served and breast cancer related agencies will be there to discuss their resources and services. Research strongly suggests that breast cancer in African American women is more aggressive than in white American women. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among African American women and the second leading cause of cancer deaths surpassed only by lung cancer.

Michigan

A prosecutor announced last week that no criminal charges will be brought in the case of an unarmed Black man killed by mall security guards at the Northland Mall in Southland in January. According to the Huffington Post, McKenzie Cochran, 25, died after being restrained by mall security after refusing to leave the mall. Cochran was initially asked to leave after a store clerk said he was acting strange and had threatened to hurt people. Cochran returned and wouldn’t leave, so the mall security guards pepper-sprayed and restrained him. He reportedly struggled on the ground as three security guards held him for several minutes, one with a knee in his back. On cell phone video, Cochran is heard crying out and saying, “I can’t breathe,” as shown on TV station WJBK. On the video, he calls out to bystanders to call 911 and that was dying. “Stop resisting,” a guard is heard saying several times during the video. The Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Cochran’s death an accident in March, naming the cause of death as position compression asphyxia. According to the CBS affiliate in Detroit, Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said there was no criminal intent. “This in not an issue of whether these security guards were negligent, it’s whether they were criminally negligent,” Cooper told the Detroit News. According to Huffington Post, Cooper said that the guards were not trained to restrain a person properly, and that while local police were called, because dispatch misidentified the location of the incident in the mall, it took 10 minutes for police officers to arrive on the scene. Cochran’s family’s attorney, Gerald Thurswell, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Cochran’s family against the mall, the individual guards and the security company, IPC International.

Minnesota

The St. Paul Public School District and Timothy Olmsted, a sixth grade teacher at the Heights Community School in St. Paul, are being sued by his students’ families after the educator told students in his class it was easier to teach White children. The lawsuit comes after the students themselves reported Olmsted’s discrimination against them. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Olmsted resigned earlier this year, but he is still on school district’s payroll and will be through the first week of October. Parents are reportedly upset that no disciplinary action was taken against Olmsted. One parent, Latasha Tolbert, whose daughter was a student in Olmsted’s class, told the CBS affiliate in St. Paul that Olmsted, “told the entire class that it is easier for him to teach rich white folks, than poor Black people,” and that’s not all. He also told Tolbert’s daughter that she would be standing on the corner and begging for money one day. Tolbert told the CBS TV station she tried again and again to bring these incidents to the attention of school officials. According to the Star Tribune, in the lawsuit that was filed by parents, Tolbert alone made 98 calls to Heights Principal Jayne Ropella about Olmsted’s behavior from September through December. The lawsuit also alleges Olmsted called Black students “fat, black and stupid,” even made African American students sit in the back of his room or turned their desks to face the wall.

Missouri

Amid the U.S. Justice Dept.’s ongoing criminal investigation into last month’s police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a new federal initiative to study racial bias and build trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. Holder cited growing divisions between police and local residents as a topic of national importance since the protests in Ferguson, sparked by the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager shot by a White police officer. Holder said he hoped that the new program, supported by a $4.75 million grant in five pilot communities, will help defuse future confrontations. Holder’s new program, called the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, is a three-year effort that will start with five as-yet-unnamed cities to train police and community leaders. In addition to police training, the program will help communities reduce police bias and ease perceptions of unequal treatment in the local court system, both of which surfaced as deep problems in Ferguson. A board of advisers will include national law enforcement officials and faith-based and community leaders.

National

Four African Americans will be among those receiving a no-strings-attached, $625,000 stipend—paid out in installments over the next five years—to be able to keep doing what they do best: creating life-changing products and services to better mankind. The MacArthur Foundation named 21 “extraordinarily creative people” as the 2014 recipients of its annual MacArthur Fellows, often referred to as the “genius” grants.

Jennifer Eberhardt is a social psychologist investigating the unconscious ways that people racially code and classify others with a focus on how race and visual perceptions affect policing and criminal sentencing. She is based at Stanford University.

Rick Lowe uses art to reimagine and revitalize struggling communities. His program transformed derelict properties in Houston’s predominantly African American 3rd Ward into a visionary arts venue and community center. He has since begun similar work in other cities, including current projects in Dallas and Philadelphia.

Steve Coleman is a jazz composer and sax player who infuses traditional jazz with an eclectic range of other musical styles, including music from West Africa, South India, Brazil and Cuba.

Terrance Hayes is a Pittsburgh-based poet who uses musical verse that delves into issues of race, gender, current events and family.

Compiled by Carol Ozemhoya.

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