Skip to content
Advertisement

Across Black America week of Nov. 5.

Advertisement

California

According to media sources, the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Oakland, a mostly Black church, is facing fines of $3,500 reportedly due to complaints from area White residents about “loud singing.” Thomas A. Harris III, the church’s pastor, says that the 65-year-old worship has received letters from the city stating that the music coming from the church is violating the city’s noise ordinance. Church members are claiming that the complaints are because of gentrification, and that the complaints are coming from local White families who have recently moved into the neighborhood. “Kind of hard to believe because we’ve been here about 65 years in the community, and all of a sudden we get some concerns about the noise,” Harris says.


The Brotherhood Crusade has announced the development of a mobile giving platform, which comes on the heels of the death of one of its youth leaders, Semaj Clark, who was shot in Savannah, Ga., Clark came from an at-risk background, through Brotherhood Crusade programs and mentoring, had distinguished himself to achieve a number of accomplishments, including meeting President Barack Obama and attending Cal Poly University, as well as participating in several public speaking engagements to inspire his peers. “My heart is broken over the tragedy of Semaj Clark,” says Charisse Bremond Weaver, CEO of Brotherhood Crusade. “Brotherhood Crusade helps youth that others forget about. These young people often come through great obstacles, but still have the audacity to hope for better and take the necessary steps through education and training to move their lives in the direction of their dreams. Yet, despite our progress, there is a growing attack on our young Black men. And we have to posture ourselves to help these kids win this war on their lives and their futures. We hope our new mobile giving platform will draw new donors who recognize the struggle.” Founded in 1968, the Brotherhood Crusade’s principal mission is dedicated to building and sustaining an institution that raises funds and resources from within the community and distributes those funds directly back into the community. The Brotherhood Crusade is committed to enriching the lives of at-risk youth, seniors, homeless populations, and economically disadvantaged families in South Los Angeles and surrounding communities.

Georgia

The U.S. Supreme Court listened to oral arguments this week in Foster v. Chatman, a case in which an all-White jury in Georgia convicted and sentenced a poor, intellectually disabled teenage Black defendant to death for the murder of a White woman, after the prosecutor had excluded all of the available Black prospective jurors. Using the state’s open records law, Timothy Foster’s attorneys later obtained the prosecutor’s notes, which showed that the prosecutor misrepresented the reasons he struck out the Black jurors. From the notes, it was clear that Black jurors were excluded because of their race. The notes also show that a number of the race-neutral reasons that the prosecutor offered to justify his exclusion of Black jurors also applied to White jurors that the prosecutor accepted. For example, the prosecutors said they struck a 34-year-old Black woman because she was near the age of Foster, who was 19 at the time of the trial. But the prosecutors accepted eight White prospective jurors who were 35 or younger, including a White man who was just two years older than Foster and who served on the jury. “There is extensive, powerful evidence in this case that the prosecution intentionally employed racially discriminatory practices in securing an all-White jury and in arguing to that jury that it should sentence Mr. Foster to death. Racial discrimination must have no role in the criminal justice system, especially in death penalty cases, and state courts must not turn a blind eye to evidence of discrimination when it is presented to them,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that provides information and analysis on the administration of the death penalty nationwide. More information about Foster v. Chatman is available at this site https://www.schr.org/resources/us_supreme_court_to_consider_schr_death_penalty_case_on_race_discrimination_in_jury.

Louisiana

Otha Anders, a 73-year-old Black man in Ruston, has spent the last 45 years saving his pennies, literally. And last week he cashed them in to the tune of $5,136.14, according to USA Today. The pennies were collected over 45 years and kept in 15 five-gallon jugs. Employees at the Ruston Origin Bank were surprised to see Anders come in with the jugs on a dolly, but were happy to oblige him since he is a longtime customer, according to the bank’s vice president, Jennie Cole. Anders told USA Today that he never spent a penny, that he’d break a dollar before he’d use a penny.

Missouri

St. Louis police have arrested African American David Lopez Jackson, 35, in connection with seven Black church fires in the area. The first of the fires occurred on Oct. 8 at the Bethel Non-Denominational Church in Jennings, a suburb of St. Louis. When officials identified the suspect, they indicated that there was “no evidence of a hate crime” involved, according to Fox 2 TV. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office has charged Jackson with two counts of second-degree arson, and he is accused of setting fires at New Life Missionary Baptist  and Ebenezer Lutheran churches. According to prosecutors, evidence at both scenes links Jackson to the fires. All of the fires originated at the exterior door of each church and were set at a time when the facilities were church were empty.


According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis County Police are saying that Amonderez Green died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The story goes that police got a call that Green, 18, was walking around a Normandy neighborhood with a gun and that he was possibly suicidal. Police arrived and allegedly tried to talk to Green, but he began firing at officers. They exchanged gunfire and then Green ran, and when officers got to him, he was laying on the ground with a bullet that went through his chin. He died at the hospital. Green’s family, however, is disputing the police version.  “What they’re saying is a total lie,” Green’s father, Jermell Simpson, said, according to the newspaper. Simpson added that he and other family members told an arriving officer that they “had it covered” prior to Green’s confrontation with authorities.

New Jersey

A coalition of groups called on President Barack Obama last week to remove the conviction history check-box from federal agency/contractor job applications in an effort better known as “Ban the Box.” And recently, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced that she supports the “Ban the Box” imitative, introduced officially by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and known as the Fair Chance Act. Even before the formerly incarcerated have a chance to apply for jobs, they face a range of legalized discrimination that keeps them cut off from mainstream society and the economy, says the group, which represents a variety of organizations including Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, All of Us or None, the ACLU, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, PICO, Center for Community Change, #FREEAMERICA, Take Action Minnesota,  National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Racial Justice Action Center, MoveOn.org, and Presente.org. There are currently 44,000 laws on the books that prevent people with records in this country from re-integrating into their communities after serving time, which is key to reducing recidivism, says those in the coalition. Employment offers a pathway out of poverty for many low-income families living on a single or severely limited income. Research shows a White male with a criminal record is more likely to find a job than a Black male without one. Coupled with the employment discrimination that Black job seekers face even without a criminal record, these hiring policies create an insurmountable obstacle for returning citizens. Ban the Box campaigners want a “washout period,” a set time of how long an employer can consider a past conviction. For example, if someone came out of prison 10 years ago and the washout period for the state he/she is in is five years, an employer cannot consider that conviction when making the hiring decision. View the petition here:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/tell-obama-ban-the-box.

New York

NBC News is reporting that more than 100,000 people have signed a petition asking Barbara Walters to fire Raven Symone from “The View.” The petition says that Symone doesn’t represent the views of African Americans. “Raven Symone has been spouting her ignorant and self-hating spiel on ‘The View’ for long enough … African Americans and Black people around the diaspora need a voice representative of their views,” the petition on change.org reads. Most recently, Symone has been criticized for her comments on various topics, including one where she said she would not hire a person with an ethnic name such as “Watermelondrea.”

North Carolina

One person is dead and another hurt as a result of a shooting at historically Black college Winston-Salem State University last Sunday. Shot and killed was 19-year-old Anthony White Jr., who was a second-year student studying information technology from Charlotte. Another student was hit but suffered only minor injuries and was treated and released at a nearby hospital. Police had not made an arrest at press time. A motive has yet to be established.


The Rt. Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, has been elected president bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church of the 78th General Convention. He is the first African American to hold that position. Curry will also serve as the president and CEO of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, as well as chair of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.

South Carolina

Last week in Columbia, a school security officer was fired after he was seen on video flipping a disobedient student out of her chair and dragging her out of a classroom after she refused to stop using her cell phone and leave the room. The girl is Black and the officer is White. As the story developed, it came to light that two school officials had asked her to leave the room, and when she refused Officer Ben Fields was called. An attorney for her family claims she was injured and that her civil rights were violated. However, CNN later reported that Fields is engaged to an African American woman. Also, a few days after the incident, about 100 of the school’s students staged a walkout in a show of support for Fields, with some of them wearing T-shirts that said “#bringfieldsback” and “#bringbackfields.” The protest lasted about 10 minutes before school officials asked the students to disperse, and they peacefully returned to their classrooms. Video and photos of the students involved showed both Black and White students.

Texas

The Black Police Association of Greater Dallas will host its 40th anniversary gala, co-chaired by Sen. Royce West and Toni Brinker Pickens, founder and CEO of Operation Blue Shield, at the Hyatt Regency-Reunion Tower in Dallas, Nov. 7. “We will be commemorating four decades of commitment to our members and community, and respectfully pay homage to our founding members and former presidents of our esteemed organization,” said Cletus Judge, president of the BPA. The event will feature keynote speaker Michael Eric Dyson, named by Ebony as one of the 100 most influential Black Americans, who is a Georgetown professor, author, New York Times contributing opinion writer and MSNBC political analyst. “The BPA was founded and forged in the basic principles of fairness and equality. At a time when the disparate treatment of people of color and women was the open norm at the Dallas Police Department; our founders, who were mocked and warned to not organize, pressed forward despite opposition and birthed the organization of which we are now the benefactors,” Judge added. For more info, visit www.BPADallas.org.

National

Last week, leaders from the major Black church denominations went to Capitol Hill to present more than 10,000 clergy signatures to members of the Congressional Black Caucus urging support of President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Bishop George Battle, senior bishop, A.M.E. Zion Church; the Rev. Samuel C. Tolbert Jr., president, National Baptist Convention of America; and Dr. Timothy Tee Boddie, general secretary, Progressive National Baptist Convention are among the signatories. The signatures represent more than 13 million Black church members, all of whom agree climate change is a threat to the health and economic well-being of the Black community and must be addressed. Nearly 40 percent of the six million Americans living close to coal-fired power plants are people of color, and are disproportionately African American. The toxins from these plants are reportedly responsible for thousands of premature deaths, higher risks of asthma attacks and other respiratory diseases, as well as hundreds of thousands of missed work and school days. “Environmental concerns are not abstractions for African Americans; they are real, and they affect us in very real ways, particularly our children and seniors,” said Rev. Jesse Bottoms, vice president, National Baptist Convention, USA. “We are responsible for the care and protection of God’s creation and of his children. We are proud to stand alongside members of Congress and President Obama as we work to reduce the harmful physical and economic impacts to our community.” To learn more, visit www.blackchurchclimate.org.

Advertisement

Latest