Greene County Democrat

Month: September 2016

  • Inmates strike in prisons nationwide over ‘slave labor’ working conditions

    By: Tom Kutsch, The Guardian

    national-prison-strike National Prison Strike graphic

    A nationwide prison strike over conditions and wages behind bars, which organizers tipped to be the biggest of its kind in US history, was under way in at least several correctional facilities across the country on Friday, according to prison rights advocates.

    Inmates from several states, who had bound together with the help of activists and organizing groups, aimed the national strikes – which had been in the making for several months – against what they said amounted to slave labor conditions amid mass incarceration in the country.

    The coordinated events, which organizers targeted in as many as 24 states, occurred on the 45th anniversary of the riots at Attica prison in New York – the largest prison uprising in American history – over grievances today’s protesters say are similar, including poor sanitary conditions and prison jobs that amount to forced labor.

    In April, one of the main national groups organizing the campaign, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), under the banner of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, announced its call to action.

    “This is a call for a nation-wide prisoner work stoppage to end prison slavery,” it said. “They cannot run these facilities without us.”

    “Work is good for anyone,” Melvin Ray, who is incarcerated at the WE Donaldson correctional facility in Bessemer, Alabama, told Mother Jones on Friday. “The problem is that our work is producing services that we’re being charged for, that we don’t get any compensation from.”

    Ray is a member of the group called the Free Alabama Movement, which has been instrumental in leading the strike efforts, along with other groups formed with the help of incarcerated individuals such as the Free Ohio Movement, the Free Mississippi Movement and the End Prison Slavery in Texas movement.

    According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, prisoners at federal facilities can make between 12 and 40 cents an hour for their work, while state prison rates can be higher or lower. In several states, including Texas and Arkansas, inmates are paid no wage for their labor.

    But the issue is not merely about earning meager amounts of money on the side. Inmates and outside organizers say that many US prisons simply would not run without the labor of inmates, including the work of building maintenance, cooking and cleaning.

    “These strikes are our method for challenging mass incarceration,” Kinetik Justice, a founder of the Free Alabama Movement, who serves at the Holman correctional facility in Alabama, told Democracy Now in May, during a prior 10-day strike which mirrors what he and others planned for Friday.

    Justice said that effort to push for a coordinated strikes came after “we understood that our incarceration was pretty much about our labor and the money that was being generated through the prison system”. He added that the prisoners, as a result, “began organizing around our labor and used it as a means and a method in order to bring about reform in the Alabama prison system”.

    A press release from the Free Alabama Movement said that a widespread strike at Holman correctional facility had been launched a minute after midnight on Friday. The Alabama department of corrections subsequently said that at least 45 inmates had gone on strike.

    The Free Alabama Movement also said also that strikes were under way at other prisons in Florida, South Carolina and Texas. It is difficult to get information from inside these prisons on the strike. Strike leaders are being placed in solitary confinement as punishment for striking and to disrupt the strike.

    An IWOC statement on Friday said the South Carolina prisoners who were striking had released a set of demands before they would return to work, including the end of “free labor”. The IWOC also said on Friday that inmates at the Fluvanna correctional center for women in Virginia had gone on strike.

    A report from the Miami Herald said that two prisons in the state had put their facilities on lockdown, a day after it reported that prison guards across the state were gearing up for possible strikes in conjunction with the national protests.

    The full scope of Friday’s planned protests, however, has not yet emerged. Strikes have happened at many prisons across the country over wages and conditions in the past several years.

    In 2013, one of the largest coordinated inmate resistance actions to date occurred when some 30,000 inmates across California went on hunger strike to protest at penal conditions, including a heavy reliance upon solitary confinement.

     

     

  • Black Congressional Caucus holds press conference to blast Donald Trump on the ‘birther issue

    By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

    black-congressional-caucus

    Black Congressional Caucus hold news conference

    On Friday, September 16, members of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee (CBC PAC) took a break from the CBC Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference and hastily called a press conference to address Donald Trump’s recent comments about the “Birther Movement.” The Republican presidential nominee and reality television star said that President Barack Obama was born in the U.S., but not before claiming that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton started the Birther Movement. Mainstream media treated Trump’s announcement like some groundbreaking revelation, and it dominated the news cycle for the rest of the day.

    Trump has been called the leader of the Birther Movement for his role in promoting the falsehood that President Obama was not born in the United States. Trump continued these attacks, even after President Obama released his birth certificate in 2011.

    “Donald Trump is nothing more than a two-bit racial arsonist who has done nothing, but fan the flames of bigotry,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Then Jeffries ran down Trump’s legacy of racial discrimination and reminded journalists about the racially-charged, full-page advertisement that the real estate developer purchased in a number of newspapers in New York City that called for the reinstatement of the death penalty during the controversial “Central Park Five” case. The five teenagers, who were interrogated until they delivered forced confessions about the sexual assault and then convicted of the crime, were later proven innocent.

    “Run to the polls and make sure this hater is not elected President of the United States…he’s not man enough to render an apology to the President of the United States,” Jeffries added.

    Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), speaking as a board member of the CBC PAC, called Donald Trump “a disgusting fraud” and noted that the Republican presidential candidate began to question President Obama citizenship almost from the very beginning of his first term.

    “He would never have done this to Mitt Romney…he would have never done this to any other White [person] running for president,” said Butterfield.

    Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) said that Trump wanted to delegitimize the most iconic African American in history. Moore and several other members of the CBC PAC called what Trump was doing “classic dog whistle politics.”

    Moore added: “This is not just about degrading the reputation of Barack Obama, it’s about degrading the hopes of all African Americans.”

    Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) went even further and compared Donald Trump’s rhetoric and racist chants that are often heard at his rallies to the howling of wolves.

    “These are in-your-face kinds of efforts who are misusing the media in order to heap indignities onto the President of the United States,” said Clyburn. “[Trump is] floating a narrative that has been a part of this country for over two hundred years.”

    Many Democrats and some Republicans feel that Trump has led a campaign of inaccuracy that began with his effort to call into question the very legitimacy of President Obama. From asking to see his college transcripts to the so-called “Birther “issue, Trump has tried to lead a communications effort to promote the idea that President Obama is not a real American.

    “Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been based on the Birther campaign, which he founded,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). “Our work now should be about unifying the country.”

    Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said that there has never been this low level of electioneering at this high a level.

    Jackson Lee then made a call to all minorities to get out and vote on November 8, adding that, “Mr. Trump has given up his right for running for President of the United States. He is unfit.”

    Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is retiring at the end of the year, said that this issue is bigger than politics and the press.

    “We’re talking about the future of the United States,” said Rangel. “When Trump put out that Obama wasn’t President, he knew it wasn’t true at the time…what they did was to say we’re going to send the signal out and remind people his ancestors were from Africa.”

    Rangel continued: “I hope this is not reported as a Black issue. This is an American issue.”

    Lauren Victoria Burke is a writer and political analyst. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke.

  • Anger grows in Tulsa as police release video of fatal shooting of unarmed black man

    By: Kristi Eaton and Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times

     

    tulsa-police-photoIn this photo from a Sept. 16 police video, Terence Crutcher, left, is followed by police in Tulsa, Okla., moments before an officer shot and killed him. (Tulsa Police Department)

    terrance-crutcher-with-his-sister-tiffany-crutcherTerrance Crutcher with his sister, Tiffany Crutcher

     

    A fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man by a white officer has reopened fresh wounds in this city with a fraught history among African Americans, white residents and police officers.

    A graphic police video shows Terence Crutcher, 40, being fatally shot by a police officer Friday night as he walks with his hands up toward his SUV, stalled out in the middle of the road.

    The incident quickly became the latest flashpoint in a string of controversial police shootings of Black Americans. Protesters chanted Tuesday evening in downtown Tulsa, the ACLU asked that criminal charges be filed against the officer, and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said news of the shooting was “unbearable.”

    “We have got to tackle systemic racism,” Clinton said on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show.” “This horrible shooting again. How many times do we have to see this in our country?”

    An attorney for Officer Betty Shelby, who shot Crutcher after responding to a dispatch call about an abandoned car, said Crutcher failed to heed police commands and that she and another officer, Tyler Turnbough, felt threatened and fired simultaneously. Turnbough used a stun gun.

    The city’s police chief, who released both helicopter and dash-cam video of the shooting, called the images “disturbing” and vowed to “achieve justice.”

    Protesters quickly demanded that Shelby to be fired, and the Crutcher family called for criminal charges against the officer, who has been put on routine administrative leave. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation and local authorities are independently investigating the shooting.

    The last night of life for Crutcher, a father of four who was on his way home from a class at Tulsa Community College, began with a pair of 911 calls reporting an abandoned car with its engine running and doors open in the middle of the road.

    “I got out and was like, ‘Do you need help?’ reported one caller, who said Crutcher “took off running” after asking her to “come here, come here,” and saying the car was going to “blow up.”

    “I think he’s smoking something,” the same caller said.

    Police videos show Crutcher walking toward his SUV with his hands up. Four officers, three male and one female, approach Crutcher he walks to the driver’s side and seems to lower his hands and put them on the car. The dash-cam video is blocked by officers, and Crutcher is partially blocked by his own car in the the helicopter video, making it difficult to see his movements. A man in the helicopter video suggests it’s “time for a Taser” before saying, “That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something.”

    Within seconds, Crutcher drops to the ground. “Shots fired!” a woman yells on police radio as officers slowly back away while holding their guns up. Officers wait more than two minutes before approaching Crutcher again.

    He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

    Police say the videos did not capture Shelby arriving on the scene because she did not turn her dash cam on.

    Shelby’s attorney, Scott Wood, says that when she showed up and asked Crutcher whether the car was his, he did not respond. Crutcher put his hands in his pockets as he walked toward her, then removed them and put his hands up before walking toward the back of her patrol car and putting his hands back in his pockets, Wood said.

    He said she planned to arrest Crutcher, who she thought was intoxicated, and called dispatch. Crutcher did not comply when Shelby took out her gun and told him to get on his knees, but instead walked toward his car, the attorney said.

    Wood said Shelby fired her gun at the same time that Turnbough fired a Taser at Crutcher because she had “tunnel vision” and did not realize other officers had arrived on scene.

    “When unarmed people of color break down on the side of the road, we’re not treated as citizens needing help. We’re treated as, I guess, criminals — suspects that they fear,” said Benjamin Crump, one of the attorneys representing the Crutcher family.

     

     

  • Obama: Low turnout by Black voters would be ‘a personal insult’; ‘You want to give me a good send-off? go vote!’

    By: Elise Foley Immigration & Politics Reporter, The Huffington Post

    obama-at-bcc-dinner

    President Obama at Black Congressional Caucus Dinner

    President Barack Obama told a predominantly black audience on Saturday that if they want to protect everything the community has fought for over the past eight years, they can’t let voter turnout fall now that he’s off the ballot.

    “I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election,” he said at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation conference. “You want to give me a good send-off? Go vote.”

    It was Obama’s last speech as president at the annual event, and served as both a reflection on his presidency and a rallying cry for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who spoke earlier in the evening and who he said is the only candidate who can continue his legacy. Although Obama isn’t running for re-election, “Hope is on the ballot, and fear is on the ballot too,” he said.

    The line about fear was one of many references to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, a man who tried for years to delegitimize Obama’s presidency by claiming he likely lied about being born in the United States. Trump finally said on Friday that he accepted that Obama was born in the U.S. ― while still lying about his own history as a birther and patting himself on the back for his role in urging the president to release a long-form birth certificate in 2011.

    Obama kicked off his speech by feigning relief over Trump’s comments, as he did on Friday.

    “There’s an extra spring in my step tonight. I don’t know about you guys, but I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over,” Obama said. “I mean, ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change ― none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate. And to think that with just 124 days to go, under the wire we got that resolved. That’s a boost for me in the home stretch.”

    “In other breaking news, the world is round, not flat,” he added with a laugh.

    Obama also mocked Trump’s claim that being a black person in the U.S. is so bad now that black voters should support the Republican because, in Trump’s own words, “What the hell do you have to lose?”

    Trump must have “missed that whole civics lesson about slavery and Jim Crow ― but we’ve got a museum for him to visit so he can tune in,” Obama said, referring to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which he said he’d toured earlier.

    “[Trump] says we’ve got nothing left to lose, so we might as well support somebody who has fought against civil rights and fought against equality and who has shown no regard for working people for most of his life,” Obama said. “Well, we do have challenges. But we’re not stupid.”

    “We know the progress we’ve made, despite the forces of opposition, despite the forces of discrimination, despite the politics of backlash,” he continued, “And we intend to keep fighting against those forces.”

    Clinton’s speech was shorter and not as fiery, and was spent largely praising Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for what they’ve done for the country.

    “I know I speak for not just everyone in this room but so many tens of millions of Americans: Mr. President, not only do we know you are an American, you’re a great American and you make us all proud to be Americans too,” Clinton said after receiving the organization’s Trailblazer Award.

    She said she would not take for granted the vote of anyone in the room, and contrasted her vision with Trump’s.

    “We need ideas, not insults. Real plans to help struggling Americans in communities that have been left out and left behind; not prejudice and paranoia,” Clinton said. “We can’t let Barack Obama’s legacy fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand that ― whose dangerous and divisive vision for our country will drag us backwards. Instead, we need to come together.”

     

  • Moral March for Higher Ground unveils ‘Healthcare Justice Quilt’ on the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery

    quilt

     

    On Monday, September 12 a group of a hundred or more clergy and lay leaders marched from the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to the State Capitol steps in Montgomery, Alabama.
    The group carried a letter to Governor Bentley entitled “Higher Ground Moral Declaration” signed by more than 10,000 Alabama citizens and unfurled a quilt with a thousand pieces representing people in Alabama who had died because they did not have health insurance. Governor Bentley has not extended Medicaid to reach people up to 138% of the poverty level. There are 250,000 people in this gap between Medicaid coverage for the very poor and working poor people who do not make enough to qualify for insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The actions in Montgomery were coordinated with demonstrations in more than twenty states by Rev. William Barber, North Carolina NAACP leader and head of the “Moral Monday Movement” to raise moral concerns about the future direction of America.
    In the Higher Ground Moral Declaration it states, “Following moral traditions rooted in our faith and the Constitution, we are called to stand up for justice and tell the truth. We challenge the position that the preeminent moral issues today are about prayer in public schools, abortion, and homosexuality. Instead, we declare the deepest public concerns of our faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of these, women, children, workers, immigrants and the sick; equality and representation under the law; and the desire for peace, love and harmony within and among nations.”
    “This Higher Ground Moral Declaration provides a moral agenda for our nation on issues including: democracy and voting rights; poverty and economic justice; workers’ rights; education; healthcare; environmental justice; immigrant rights and challenging xenophobia; criminal justice; LGBTQ rights; and war-mongering and the military. For each issue area, an individual moral and constitutional foundation is established. The positions are neither left nor right, nor conservative or liberal. Rather, they are morally defensible, constitutionally consistent, and economically sound. Most importantly, they represent, as Dr. King urged, a revolution in values.”
    At the Capitol steps, the persons who unveiled the Healthcare Justice Quilt made this statement, “The quilt has 1000 squares. We chose this figure to represent the minimum 1000 lives prematurely lost every year in Alabama, due to lack of health insurance. The quilt is also intended to remember additional lives lost due to inability to afford co-pays and deductibles, hospital closures, and all financial barriers to healthcare.
    “We would like to recognize quilters around the state who have contributed to this project, including Mopsy Forsee, Linda Harman, Katherine Weathers, Pippa Abston, and the members of Project Linus in Huntsville.
    “Our plan for the quilt is to write names of those who have died prematurely because of financial barriers to healthcare in our state. This is not restricted by year. We have pens here for any of you who wish to contribute names today. We will use this quilt as both a memorial for those named and unnamed, and as a call to action.
    “We plan to have it at events in the state and to take it to government officials, so they have a visual reminder of the consequences of their policy decisions. Please contact us if you want to set up a meeting with your legislator or other government official or if you have an event in mind.
    We will initially focus our efforts on the Medicaid Expansion. Even the expansion, however, will not bring health insurance to everyone; and full health insurance coverage that includes co-pays and deductibles will not make quality healthcare affordable to everyone. So this quilt will be used as long as it is needed—as long as there is anyone whose healthcare is limited due to money. We hope that one day, it will live in a museum, as a remembrance of what we did before we learned better.
    “Our quilt is made of many different fabrics and by many hands, and it was stitched with love. Notice how the different fabrics, brought together, create a new and beautiful whole! We in Alabama are also of many colors, textures and patterns, all connected with the common thread of our humanity. When we come together, we are as beautiful as this quilt. We commit ourselves today to the love and care of all human beings!”

  • Commission recognizes two employees for completing bridge inspection certification

    commissioner-bridgesL to R: Commissioners Corey Cockrell, Michael Williams Tennyson Smith, County Engineer Willie Branch, Jamichael Jones, Tauri Powell, Commissioners Lester Brown and Allen Turner

    At their regular meeting on Monday September 12, 2016, the Greene County Commission recognized two employees – Jamichael Jones and Tauri Powell – for completing a five-year training and certification program to be bridge inspectors for the county.
    The two men who live in Eutaw had to take periodic courses, a written examination and work under the supervision of the County Engineer or another previously certified inspector for five years. Willie Branch, County Engineer said, “We are very proud of these employees for completing this course. They will be able to take on additional responsibilities related to bridges in the county. As inspectors they have the power to close a bridge if they determine it is unsafe.”
    The Commission also recognized three of its own members for training with the Alabama Local Government Training Institute. Commissioners Lester Brown and Michael Williams completed 120 hours of training and Commissioner Corey Cockrell completed 50 hours of training relative to the regulations, issues and concerns facing county government officials.
    The Commission received and approved a detailed financial report from Paula Bird, Financial Officer. She reported that revenues and expenses for the eleven months of the fiscal year ending August 31, 2016 were in the 90 to 96% range, which closely matches the budgetary time period. Greene County has $4,072,710 cash in a variety of bank accounts not including accounts set up to retire bonds The Commission approved payment of $900,000 in bills and claims submitted.
    The Commission appointed Shirley Ann Edwards (District 3) and Pinnia Hines (District 5) to the Greene County Hospital and Health System Board of Directors.
    In other actions, the Commission:
    • tabled consideration and approval of its 2016-2017 fiscal year budget, which begins on October 1;
    • approved purchase of a Certificate of Deposit from Robertson Bank at 1.25% interest;
    • approved purchase of a Boom Mower at $118,632.81 and an Asphalt Zipper at $108,990.00 for the Highway Department;
    • approved travel for staff to various conferences and trainings;
    • approved negotiating a loan with Merchants and Farmers Bank to purchase new trucks;
    • approved a contract with the Department of Youth Services for youth detention services.

  • Gov. Bentley appoints Judy Spree as Greene County Probate Judge

    judu

     

    By: John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    Governor Robert Bentley appointed Julia ‘Judy’ Burke Spree to be the Probate Judge of Greene County effective Friday, September 16, 2016. Spree will be sworn in on Thursday at 6:00 PM at the William M. Branch Courthouse.
    Spree will serve out the remaining term of Judge Earlean Isaac who retired in August, after serving 47 years in the office of Probate Judge, the last 27 as the Probate Judge. District Judge Lillie Osborne has served as Probate Judge in the interim period.
    Spree, in an interview with the Democrat, said, “My education and life experiences have prepared me to serve as Probate Judge. I am willing and happy to learn from reading materials, looking at webinars, consulting with other probate judges and the current staff in the office to do the best possible job for the people of Greene County.”
    Spree said that she did not intend to run for the position when her term ends. “ I hope to be a fair and good judge for all the people of Greene County.” She also said that she would retain the current office staff because everyone she has spoken with has told her that they are doing a great job.
    The Probate Judge’s office maintains the official records of the county – such as deeds, mortgages, marriage licenses, car titles and other records. The Probate Judge is also involved in deciding probate issues for citizens who die with or without a will. The Probate Judge also grants adoptions; appoints and can remove guardians for minor children and incompetent or incapacitated adults; conducts hearings on committing persons with mental health problems; to hear and decide on petitions for condemnation of privately owned land; and hear and decide name change and legitimization petitions.
    Some Greene County political observers commented that Governor Bentley has appointed a white person to serve in a position held by Black people since 1970, in a county that has a majority Black population.

    In his appointment letter, Bentley states, ”This position comes with great responsibility because you will be making important decisions that affect the citizens of Alabama. Honesty and integrity are two virtues that I prioritize for my Administration to exemplify… I encourage you to be a good steward of taxpayer’s money and work to maintain the trust that I, and the people of Alabama have in you.”
    Spree was born in Roanoke, Alabama but spent her early years in Talladega and then moved to Jackson, Alabama where she graduated from high school. She attended Livingston University (now University of West Alabama) and graduated with a B.S. degree in Physical Education and Recreation.
    She worked briefly with Delta Airlines as a flight attendant and then joined the Peace Corps, where she served for two years in teacher training in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Upon returning from the Peace Corps, she enrolled at Auburn University to get an M.Ed degree in Guidance and Counseling while teaching Special Education in Lagrange, Georgia.
    Judy also worked at the Alabama Department of Human Resources, West Alabama Mental Health, United Cerebral Palsy and other programs, which gave her experience with some of the family issues she will be dealing with in the Probate Judge’s office. Her most recent employment for the past nine years has been as the Greene County agent for ALFA insurance.
    Judy is married to Robert Thetford ‘Thed’ Spree, a leading catfish farmer in Greene County. They have three children – Sage, Mary Kennon and Kee – and five grandchildren.

     

     

  • National Museum Of African American History & Culture still needs support

    By:  Kenon White, NewsOne

    nmaahc
    The Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture officially opens on Sept. 24 with President Barack Obama and other dignitaries scheduled to be on hand to dedicate the museum at an outdoor ceremony at 9 a.m. (Alan Karchmer/NMAAHC)

    The much-anticipated opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. is just days away.

    President Barack Obama will be on hand for the September 24th dedication ceremony. In preparation for the grand opening and beyond, the museum is designating today, September 13th, Giving Day.

    Beverly Morgan-Welch, ‎Executive Director at the National Museum of African American History, joined Roland Martinon NewsOne Now to discuss the upcoming grand opening of the museum and what the public can do to help.

    Hyundai has partnered with the National Museum of African American History and is providing up to $500,000 in matching donations to help make Giving Day a success.

    Bank of America, Kaiser Permanente, Prudential Financial Inc., Target and Toyota have each provided $2 million in sponsorships to support the grand opening and inaugural events for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

    Each company is a founding donor of the museum and their sponsorship not only includes support for the grand opening, but officials said it would also provide assistance for other needs that the museum may encounter.

    “These corporations have been longstanding, essential partners in the campaign to build this museum,” Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of the museum, said in a statement.

     

     

    Morgan-Welch revealed the capital cost for the museum is approximately $500 million and they have raised $325 million of that estimated cost thus far.

    At the current moment, the museum has amassed 37,000 artifacts by way of donations. Morgan-Welch said the authentication and preservation process for these items is “absolutely astronomical.” Among the thousands of artifacts are an Edisto Island SC slave cabin, a plane flown by the Tuskegee Airmen, Chuck Berry’s red Cadillac, parts of a slave ship and many more exhibits.

    But Morgan-Welch said the museum is “alive” and not just a celebration of relics. She added part of the purpose is to tell people the history of Africans in the United States, “because it’s largely unknown.”

    “By having [an] object that you can see, what Harriet Tubman wore, where Nat Turner prayed, causes you to have and make your own experience,” she said.

    The public is invited to gather on the Washington Monument grounds across the street from the museum to witness the ceremony on Jumbotrons. They’ll also be able to take in a three-day festival.

    Congressional legislation signed by President George W. Bush in 2003 established the NMAAHC, the 19th Smithsonian museum. Groundbreaking occurred in 2012 and the museum occupies a prime location in the nation’s capital on the National Mall at the corner of Constitution Avenue at 14th Street, a short distance from the Washington Monument.

    The nearly 400,000-square-foot museum will be the nation’s largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to exploring, documenting and showcasing the African American experience.

    “African-American history did not stop with President Barack Obama’s election, and so we won’t stop either,” Bunch said in a televised interview this week. “There will be plenty for us to talk about in the future, and we’re looking forward to helping Americans understand the contributions of African-Americans to the rich tapestry of our culture.

    To support the National Museum of African American History, visit www.givenmaahc.org.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • The full cost of incarceration in the U.S. is over $1 trillion, study finds

    By: Matt Ferner National Reporter, The Huffington Post

    A new study examining the economic toll of mass incarceration in the United States concludes that the full cost exceeds $1 trillion ― with about half of that burden falling on the families, children and communities of people who have been locked up.

    The United States is the biggest jailer on the planet, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population but nearly 25 percent of its prisoners. Another 7 million Americans are either on probation or on parole. Operating all those federal and state prisons, plus running local jails, is generally said to cost the U.S. government about $80 billion a year.

    But in a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that the $80 billion price tag is likely a gross underestimation, because it does not factor in the social costs of incarceration.

    “We find that for every dollar in corrections costs, incarceration generates an additional $10 in social costs,” Carrie Pettus-Davis, director of the university’s Concordance Institute for Advancing Social Justice and a co-author of the study, said last week.

    At $1 trillion, the broader costs of incarceration dwarf the operational costs of the U.S. government. And disturbingly, more than half of that cost, researchers say, is borne by the families, children and communities of incarcerated people.

    A growing body of research has established that formerly incarcerated people who get jobs tend to have significantly diminished incomes, even long after they leave prison. Researchers at Washington University found that incarcerated people lose about $70 billion in wages they would have otherwise earned as part of the workforce. And people who do find employment after incarceration miss out on an estimated $230 billion in reduced earnings over the course of their lifetime.

    “Formerly incarcerated persons earn lower wages because they face occupational restrictions, encounter discrimination in the hiring process, and have weaker social networks and less human capital due to their incarceration,” the researchers note.

    The formerly incarcerated also have a mortality rate 3.5 times higher than that of people who have never been incarcerated. Their shortened life spans collectively add a cost of almost $63 billion.

    But the single greatest cost the researchers found has to do with the fact that high levels of incarceration may actually increase crime, not deter it, by “reinforcing behavior and survival strategies that are maladaptive outside the prison environment.”

    The researchers note that there may be an additional destabilizing effect on communities where many people have been jailed, imprisoned or otherwise detained, thereby “weakening the social controls that bind neighborhoods together.”

    Altogether, researchers put those costs of the criminogenic nature of prison at a whopping $285 billion.

    The children of incarcerated people pay enormous costs. They are five times more likely to go to prison than their peers. They’re likely to be stigmatized and suffer long-term emotional and behavioral challenges. They also have a greater chance of living in poverty or general instability at home or becoming homeless themselves.

    Ten percent of children of incarcerated parents are unable to finish high school or attend college. Many teenage children of incarcerated parents forego their education and enter the labor force early in order to make up for lost family income. And incarcerated people have triple the divorce rate of people who are convicted of a crime but not placed behind bars. Altogether, costs involving the children of the incarcerated reach over $185 billion.

    In the researchers’ estimation, the full economic burden of mass incarceration in the U.S. comes to about 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. It’s also over 11 times larger than the operational costs of correctional facilities.

    “Recent reports highlighting the costs to incarcerated persons, families, and communities have made it possible to estimate the true cost of incarceration,” Pettus-Davis said. “This is important because it suggests that the true cost has been grossly underestimated, perhaps resulting in a level of incarceration beyond that which is socially optimal.”

  • Obama Administration steps in after Federal Judge rules against Standing Rock Sioux tribe on pipeline

    By: Dierdre Fulton, Common Dreams

    A series of “game-changing” developments impacting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) battle on Friday afternoon were testament to the power of organizing.

    Striking a blow to the vibrant, Indigenous-led resistance movement that has sprung up against the four-state oil pipeline, a federal judge on Friday denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s attempt to halt its construction.

    Shortly afterward, however, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army, and the Department of the Interior issued a joint statement indicating that “important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding [DAPL] specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain.”

    As a result, the statement read, construction on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe—which straddles North and South Dakota—will be halted until the Corps “can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws.”

    “In the interim,” the agencies continued, “we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe.”

    The statement continued: Furthermore, this case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects. Therefore, this fall, we will invite tribes to formal, government-to-government consultations on two questions: (1) within the existing statutory framework, what should the federal government do to better ensure meaningful tribal input into infrastructure-related reviews and decisions and the protection of tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights; and (2) should new legislation be proposed to Congress to alter that statutory framework and promote those goals.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders, who on Thursday proposed legislation that would prevent the Army Corps from approving the pipeline until the agency has completed an environmental impact statement, praised the agencies’ decision:

    As Common Dreams has reported extensively, the Standing Rock Sioux had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline, saying that the project violates federal laws—including the Clean Water Act and National Historic Preservation Act—and would endanger both water supplies and ancient sacred sites.

    But in his decision (pdf), U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., said “the Tribe has not carried its burden to demonstrate that the Court could prevent damage to important cultural resources by enjoining the Corps’ DAPL-related permitting.” He ordered the parties to appear for a status conference on Sept. 16.

    Still, those who have voiced their opposition to the controversial project said they’d fight on.In the lead-up to the ruling, tribal chairman David Archambault II declared: “Regardless of the court’s decision today, we will continue to be united and peaceful in our opposition to the pipeline. Our ultimate goal is permanent protection of our sacred sites and our water. We must continue to have faith and believe in the strength of our prayers and not do anything in violence. We must believe in the creator and good things will come.”

    Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said in the days before the ruling that it would be challenged.

    A press conference and protest will take place at the North Dakota Capitol starting at 3pm local time on Friday. Solidarity events are planned nationwide next week.

    Updates are being shared under the hashtags #NoDAPL, #RezpectOurWater, and #StandWithStandingRock.