Greene County Democrat

Month: February 2020

  • Do not forget to vote – next Tuesday, March 3rd is a primary election day in Alabama

    Next Tuesday, March 3, 2020, is a primary election day in Alabama and 14 other states which has earned the nickname of ‘Super Tuesday’.
    In Alabama, there is a Democratic Presidential primary, where voters will award 52 delegates to a set of candidates including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttagieg, Amy Klobuchar, Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer.
    In the Republican primary voters will choose a candidate to run against incumbent U. S. Senator, Doug Jones, among the candidates are Jeff Sessions, Bradley Byrne, Tommy Tubberville, Roy Moore and others.
    There are some statewide races for Public Service Commission, Supreme and Appellate Court judges.
    In Greene County, there are local contests for Revenue Commissioner, School Board seats in Districts 3 and 5. Incumbent Revenue Commissioner, Mary McShan is opposed by challenger, Arnelia ‘Shay’ Johnson. In School Board District 3, incumbent William Morgan is opposed by Veronica Richardson and in School Board District 5, incumbent Carrie Dancy is challenged by Mary Edwards Otieno.
    Another issue on the ballot is Amendment No. 1, which would move from an elected State School Board to a State School Board appointed by the Governor. The Alabama New South Alliance (ANSA) is recommending a ‘No’ vote on this amendment because it would limit democratic choice by the people of Alabama and give all of this decision making authority to the Governor.
    The ANSA has endorsed Joe Biden for President, Laura Casey for Public Service Commission and Billie Jean Young for State School Board – District 5.
    The local Greene County ANSA chapter has endorsed Arnelia ‘Shay’ Johnson for Revenue Commissioner, William Morgan for School Board District 3 and Mary Edwards Otieno for School Board District 5.

  • Alabama Civil Rights Museum presents Black History program

    Circuit Judge John England, Jr., receives Certificate of Appreciation from Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement. Shown L to R; Lorenzo French Judge England, Spiver Gordon, Fred Daniels and Rev. James Carter.
    LaVondia B. Smith, Artistic Director of Nathifa African Dance Company, leads a performance at Black History Program

    The Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement of Greene County presented a program honoring Black History on Sunday, February 23, 2020 at the Eutaw Activity Center.
    The theme of the meeting was “Voting because a Voteless People is a Hopeless People” and most of the speakers highlighted these thoughts in their comments.
    Circuit Judge John England of Tuscaloosa was the keynote speaker. Earlier in his legal career he served as County Attorney for Greene County. He also was one of the first Black City Council members in Tuscaloosa and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama.
    Judge England spoke to some legal cases he was involved in relating to Greene County, after Black voters attained political control, which showed the continuing struggle for voting rights since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
    “I have learned a lot of Black History working with Greene County over the years,” said England. He cited his legal defense of Spiver W. Gordon and Frederick Douglass Daniels in the 1985 absentee balloting cases. He was also involved with the defense of Albert Turner, Evelyn Turner and Spencer Hogue in a similar absentee ballot case in Perry County, which was initiated by Jeff Sessions, when he was U. S. Attorney in Mobile.
    The Greene County absentee ballot case led to a case against the government for striking all Black members from the jury. England also reviewed cases involving blocking Richard Osborne from serving as Greene County District Judge because of a juvenile conviction for stealing a $50 hub-cap. Osborne was eventually seated after a case against Ralph Banks II who was awarded the seat because he came in second, which England challenged in court and had overturned.
    England reviewed his work in a case, which allowed the local legislative delegation to name the Greene County Racing Commission rather than the Governor. This happened after the 1986 elections after which Blacks were elected to the state legislative seats representing Greene County. England reviewed these cases and others to show that Black history must include a continuing vigilance for efforts to disenfranchise and dilute the votes of Black people, especially in places like Greene County and the Alabama Black Belt where Black people have used the ballot to win political power.
    “There is a continuing effort to limit the power of Black voters in Alabama through voter ID laws, changing polling places, purging voter rolls and other strategies which we must be aware of and challenge,” said England.
    He concluded by saying, “No matter how hard and high the odds are stacked against you – you can still succeed and win if you have faith in God and each other that truth and justice will prevail. AS the song says – We have come too far to turn back now!”
    As part of the program, the Nathifa African Dance Company of Birmingham gave a thrilling performance of drumming and African dance.
    The Greene County Community Choir sang and participated by offering Gospel musical selections. They also sang, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, the African-American national anthem together with the audience.
    Local candidates in the upcoming March 3 primary election were introduced and allowed to make short remarks.

  • Eutaw City Council reinstates City Clerk; takes no clear action to resolve water problems

    By John Zippert,
    Co-Publisher
    At its regular meeting on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, the Eutaw City Council voted to reinstate City Clerk, Kathy Bir, to her position. Mayor Steele had dismissed her earlier in the week. The vote was 4-1-1 with the Mayor voting no and all other Council members voting yes, except Joe Lee Powell who abstained.
    This action is part of a long running dispute between the Mayor and City Council over who is responsible for making decisions to operate the city. Mayor Raymond Steele asserts that he has “day-to-day” decision-making authority over city operations.
    The Council asserts that they have fiscal responsibility and control over the affairs of the city. The Council has removed the Mayor as a check signer on most city bank accounts as a way of controlling his actions and determining which bills get paid. This conflict between the Mayor and Council makes it difficult for the city to make major decisions and move ahead to resolve problems.
    This disagreement resurfaced around the issue of contracting with Water Management Services (WMS), headed by Kathy Horne and the Alabama Rural Water Association (ARWA) to correct problems in the operation and finances of the City of Eutaw Water System. At a February 18, Eutaw City Council Work Session, Rob White, Executive Director of ARWA and Kathy Horne of WMS presented a devastating report on the status of the City of Eutaw Water System.
    They reviewed data on the Eutaw Water System for the period October 2018 to August 2019 and found:
    • A water loss for the system of over 50% for each of these months, which compared water pumped at city wells with water billed by the system, 15% loss is considered ideal.
    • A significant number of the new digital water meters are installed incorrectly; for others the meter number does not match up with the computerized billing system; in other cases there is a disconnect in the billing software for some of the meters.
    • A monthly discrepancy between the total residential water customers (1353) and the average number billed (850) for water.
    • A monthly loss of revenue for the system of more than $85,000 a month.
    Council members who have been concerned for some time about the problems of the water system requested that the city attorney prepare documents to contract with Water Management Services to correct the problems. At Tuesday’s meeting, when this item came up for discussion, Zane Willingham, City Attorney, advised that since the water service contract would cost over $50,000, it would need to be competitively bid by the city and could not be awarded to Kathy Horne’s group (WMS) without a bidding process.
    Mayor Raymond Steele pointed out that he was named Superintendent of the Water System, at the start of his term as Mayor and that “you cannot take away my authority to manage the water system on a day-to-day basis by bringing in a consultant to take over operation of the system.”
    The City Council instructed Zane Willingham, City Attorney to draw up the necessary papers for their next regular meeting to bid out the management of the water system. Mayor Steele continued to assert that he was in charge of the water system and would meet with Kathy Horne and others to determine what management and technical assistance is needed to operate the system.
    Speaking from the audience, Danny Cooper, Chair of the Industrial Board implored the Mayor and Council, “As a lifelong resident of Eutaw, I am distressed that you cannot get together to address the obvious and serious condition of the water system. We are losing revenues every month that we need to run the city. I receive the same minimum bill every month for water, which means the water system is not functioning properly. You need to come together to address this crisis.”
    People at the meeting, including this reporter, left the meeting without a clear idea of what the next steps will be to resolve the City of Eutaw Water System problems.
    In other actions, the Eutaw City Council:
    • approved a liquor license for J&S Bartenders for a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority event on March13, 2020;
    • approved a contract for Greene County Foster Parents to rent space, for $100 month, in the Robert Young Community Center;
    • approved a contract from Jasper Means Construction for $25,000 to repair the street crossing at Sears Drive;
    • approved purchase of equipment from the State of Alabama Surplus Property Agency consisting of a street sweeper ($15,000), lawnmower ($4,000) and trailer ($1,500);
    • approved installation of surveillance cameras in Branch Heights, King Village and Carver Circle to reduce crime; and
    • did not approve an ordinance to raise the salary of city council members, beginning with the next elected city council.

  • Jeff Sessions remains silent as leaked emails show his Director of Communication and Trump’s immigration policy adviser, Stephen Miller, spreads White Supremacist views

    By Zack Carter

    About the author.  Zack Carter is a community organizer who helped bring national attention to unjust Katrina and BP recovery policiesHe was trade union activist in Mobile during the 1980’s and advocated for Labor to speak out against the Klan lynching of Michael Donald. See also related article Carter co-authored: “Questions remain on Jeff Sessions’ role in prosecuting Michael Donald’s Klan lynching in Mobile in the 1980’s” :/

     Posted on January 26, 2017 by greenecodemocratcom, Carter has also taught history at the high school and university level. He can be reached at zcarter8@gmail.com….

    Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition written by U.S. Representatives and activists, calling for the removal of Stephen Miller, as White House immigration adviser to President Donald Trump. The petition states:

     …in his emails with Breitbart News in 2015-16 ( the two years he worked for then AL Senator Jeff Sessions, at taxpayers expense ! ) Miller trafficked stories from white nationalist websites promoting violent conspiracy theories…He panicked about confederate monuments being taken down in the wake of Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage in Charleston. And he praised a racist immigration plan from 1924 that was backed by Adolf Hitler. Stephen Miller is the mastermind of Donald Trump’s policy of family separation…”

    millermustgo.com/?akid=345. 504395.5tyBOX&rd=1&source= em20191121-345&t=5; (For all of the Miller emails published see: splcenter.org/stephen-miller- breitbart-emails) 

    On June 17, 2015, nine black worshippers at the historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., were murdered during Bible study by a white supremacist, Dylann Roof. Now, a new documentary tells the story of that tragic day through the eyes of the survivors and family members of the nine victims. theroot.com/watch-trailer-for- emanuel-the-viola-davis-and- steph-c-1833936588 At the beginning of the video, one of the surviving church members, describes her moment of horror as Dylann Roof stands over her:

    “When he spoke to me I was on the floor, looking up at him from under the table. He just stopped and he said: ‘Did I shoot you yet’ ? I said ‘No’. And he said: ‘ I’m not going to. I’m going to leave you here to tell the story.’ ”

     The leaked emails reveal that right after Roof’s heinous murders Miller coldly schemed with Breitbart News to push sales of the Confederate flag — with which Roof had posed on his website along with Nazi symbols. Miller’s dangerous white supremacy is further illustrated in the following recent letter by 107 members of Congress to President Trump: 

    “what is driving Mr. Miller” is “not national security, it’s white supremacy—something that has no place in our country, federal government, and especially not the White House.”

    At one point Miller suggested that Breitbart write about “The Camp of Saints” a fascist French novel that depicts feces-eating brown people taking over Europe. “It is simply appalling that a senior advisor to the President advanced parallels between this book and contemporary events,” states the letter the senators sent to the White House on Monday. huffpost.com/entry/stephen- miller-kamala-harris-senators- letter-white-nationalist_n_ 5ded8571e4b00563b8534265

    Sessions Silent As Fascist Book is Praised During Breitbart News Interview 

    On Sept. 6, 2015 Pope Francis spoke to thousands in front of St Peter’s Square, pleading refuge for the millions fleeing war and preached the: ‘gospel calls us to be close to the smallest and to the abandoned’. On the same day Stephen Miller, while working for then Senator Jeff Sessions, insulted the Pope’s humanitarian plea, by writing to his Brietbart partner — “Also, you see the Pope saying west must, in effect, get rid of borders. Someone should point out the parallels to ‘Camp of the Saints.’ ” latimes.com/politics/story/ 2019-11-12/stephen-miller- white-house-racist- immigration-emails; 

    Scholars have issued alarming warnings about this fascist novel “Camp of the Saints” since its first publication in 1973 — exposing its promotion of genocide of of non-whites, and drawing comparisons to Hitler’s Mein Kamph. The warnings have intensified as this dangerous vile book is now promoted from Trump’s White House, and earlier by then Alabama Senator in this Jeff Sessions Breitbart interview Oct 2015 during which Sessions remained silent as Bannon, with bizarre enthusiasm, compared today’s desperate fleeing refugees to the ‘subhuman black and brown invaders’ depicted in “Camp of the Saints”. See Huffington Post article cited below: 


    “…Only white Europeans like Calgues [the hero of the book] are portrayed as truly human in The Camp of the Saints…Poor brown children are spoiled fruit “starting to rot, all wormy inside, or turned so you can’t see the mold”…Calgues…glorifies colonial wars of conquest and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan.

    The book received a second life in 1983 when Cordelia Scaife May, heiress to the Mellon fortune and sister to right-wing benefactor Richard Mellon Scaife, funded its republication and distribution. This time it gained a cult following. https://www.huffpost.com/ entry/steve-bannon-camp-of- the-saints-immigration_n_ 58b75206e4b0284854b3dc03

    Joint Senate House Resolution Feb. 13, 2020Denounces Miller’s White Supremacy

    The proposed Senate and House Resolution of Feb.13, 2020, demands immediate removal of Stephen Miller’s as senior advisor to President Trump. It cites as one of several examples of his white supremacy, Miller’s promotion of the racist 1924 Immigration Act of 1924, while working, at taxpayer expense, for then Senator Jeff Sessions. This current proposed resolution states in part:

    Whereas, President Coolidge wrote, ‘‘Our country must cease to be regarded as a dumping ground [for new immigrants] . . . . Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend’’;Whereas, in his manifesto entitled ‘‘Mein Kampf’’, Adolf Hitler described the Immigration Act of 1924 (43 Stat. 153, chapter 190) as a model for Nazi Germany to make his eugenics ideology a reality; harris.senate.gov/imo/media/ doc/MCC20031.pdf; and huffpost.com/entry/democrats- call-for-stephen-miller- resignation-new-resolution_n_ 5e45b82ac5b64ba2974c699c

    In the above cited October 2015 interview with white supremacist Steve Bannon, Sessions, backed by Stephen Miller, goes on for several minutes praising Hitler’s favored American law, Immigration Act of 1924. Sessions continues the interview mirroring the theme of “Camp of The Saints” — by scapegoating immigrants for American workers’ job loss. In addition, Session’s complete silence about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) conceals the well documented fact that, by subsidizing giant American agribusinesses, NAFTA drove millions of small Mexican farmers from their land, as it shipped out millions of American jobs to sweatshops.See for example the detailed article published in the Nation, in Jan 2012, written by renown investigative journalist David Bacon, who has spent over 25 years documenting the devastation of NAFTA on Mexican and American working people:

    How US Policies Fueled Mexico’s Great Migration…..

    By 2010, 53 million [ half the Rural population ] Mexicans were living in poverty. In the 20 years after NAFTA went into effect, the buying power of Mexican wages dropped—the minimum wage’s buying power plummeted by a staggering 24 percent.

    In NAFTA’s first year [1994], 1 million Mexicans lost their jobs. … Yellow corn grown by Mexican farmers then had to compete with corn from huge US producers, subsidized by the US farm bill. Corn imports into Mexico rose from 2 million to over 10 million tons, driving 2.5 million Mexican farmers and farm workers off their land. “The New NAFTA Won’t Protect Workers’ Rights Trump’s new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement repeats the disasters of the original agreement”. Nov. 8, 2019, By David Bacon  

         Jeff Sessions End Your Silence ! Denounce Stephen Miller’s Deadly White Supremacy — Pushed While Employed by You, as a U S Senator ‘Representing All of Alabama’

    The NAACP and 59 other Civil Rights groups wrote Trump in November stating: “ Unless and until you fire Stephen Miller — and all who promulgate bigotry — and abandon your administration’s anti-civil rights agenda, you will continue to be responsible for the violence fueled by that hate,” the letter continues, adding: “Stephen Miller’s racist, deadly agenda is contributing to this violence and must be stopped.” https://civilrights.org/ resource/letter-to-the-white- house-civil-rights-groups- call-for-stephen-millers- removal/.

    Senator Joaquin Castro, who along with Senator Kamala Harris introduced the recent above cited Feb. 13, 2020 Congressional resolution, denounced in specific words the deadly impact of white supremacy:Americans, and in particular the Latino community, will never forget it was President Trump and Stephen Miller’s hateful rhetoric that helped inspire the deadly attack in El Paso where 22 individuals were killed for being Latino,” said Castro, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. huffpost.com/entry/democrats- call-for-stephen-miller- resignation-new-resolution_n_ 5e45b82ac5b64ba2974c699c

    Jeff Sessions, as you campaign to reclaim your Senate seat, will you denounce Stephen Miller’s hateful white supremacy that he pushed while working in your office, or will you remain in silence and consent?

  • Newswire : Kenya makes risky bet on pesticides to exterminate locust swarm

    Locust swarm in Africa

    Feb. 24, 2020 (GIN) – Desperate East African governments are weighing their options as farmers beg for the most deadly agro-chemicals in a last ditch effort against swarms of desert locusts which have already begun to eat into thousands of acres of pasture and farmland.
    “This is the best time to kill them,” said Mehari Tesfayohannes Ghebre, Information and Forecasting Officer for the Desert Locust Control Organization in East Africa. After Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, swarms are now reaching Uganda, Tanzania, and southern Sudan, while billions of eggs are maturing, promising the arrival of a devastating second wave.
    The pro-pesticide voices have already taken hold in three counties in Kenya – Wajir, Samburu and Marsabit – where the government has launched a large-scale spraying operation.
    The Kenyan government set aside 200 million Kenyan shillings to combat the invasion, but its response was delayed for several weeks due to a lack of adequate pesticides and an insufficient number of spraying planes. This enabled the swarms to spread throughout the country. The pesticides used are numerous: fenitrothion, chlorpyrifos, fipronil, deltamethrin, diflubenzuron, teflubenzuron, triflumuron.
    “With locusts, because they come in swarms of millions, we are supposed to use a ‘blanket’ of chemicals to stop them,” said Timothy Munywoki, senior agronomist with Amiran Kenya Ltd, a major horticultural agribusiness in Kenya, who advocates the use of microencapsulated pesticides to limit the spread of these toxic products.
    There is, however, debate in Kenya about this solution. “These products don’t only affect locusts, they kill ‘useful’ insects, such as bees and beetles,” says Munywoki. And without bees, there is no pollination, so no fruit.
    The massive use of pesticides may unbalance the ecosystem and create a vicious cycle.
    “If you kill the ‘beneficial’ insects that feed on other ‘harmful’ insects, it means that you will have to continue spraying chemicals to chase them away,” warned Munywoki.
    The Department of Agriculture says all the tests have been done and the products are safe for humans and animals.
    Meanwhile, Somalia is planning to control the locusts with biopesticides – a fungus which produces a toxin that kills only locusts and related grasshoppers. Since the last major locust outbreak in Africa in 2003–05, researchers have been able to make the biopesticide cheaper, more effective, longer lasting in the desert, and easier to store.
    “Large-scale use to control an invasion of desert locusts would be a first,” says Michel Lecoq, a retired entomologist who worked on locust control. “If successful, it will be a big step forward.”
    The moment is crucial, because the next generation of locusts is now maturing and could devastate crops planted at the end of March. “We have a short window of opportunity to act,” Dominique Burgeon, director of emergencies at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. said at a briefing Monday in New York City.

  • Newswire : Katherine Johnson, a pioneering NASA mathematician featured in “Hidden Figures,” dies at 101

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    Katherine Johnson receiving Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015


    Katherine Johnson, the legendary NASA physicist and mathematician whose work played a key role in the early successes of the U.S. space program, passed away at 101 years old on the morning of February 24 in Newport News, Va. Johnson played a pivotal role in helping the U.S. land men on the moon during the space race in the 1960s and was portrayed by actress Taraji P. Henson in the 2017 film “Hidden Figures.” The book based on the film by the same name was written by Margot Lee Shetterly.
    With little more than a pencil and a slide rule Johnson calculated the exact trajectories for Apollo 11 to land on the moon in 1969. The lives of three brilliant African American women were featured in the book and subsequent film. They were Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, who passed in 2008, and Mary Jackson who passed in 2005. Vaughan and Jackson were from Hampton, Va. and Johnson was from West Virginia. Johnson graduated from West Virginia State University and West Virginia University.
    Johnson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on November 8, 2019, after House Science Committee Chairwoman Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’s passed legislation to honor her.
    “We’re saddened by the passing of celebrated #HiddenFigures mathematician Katherine Johnson. Today, we celebrate her 101 years of life and honor her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers,” tweeted NASA after news of Johnson’s passing.
    In September 1960 mathematician Katherine Johnson published NASA’s first scientific paper to name a woman as author. Johnson’s trajectory calculations were vital to the US space missions.
    “There were no textbooks, so we had to write them,” Johnson said.
    “It is with deep sadness that I learned of the passing of Katherine Johnson, a truly brilliant mathematician and pioneer. She broke down barriers as one of the few African-American women mathematicians working at the Flight Dynamics and Control Division at NASA Langley,” wrote Congressman Bobby Scott who represents Newport News, Va.
    “Her work helped put the first Americans in space and send the Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon, thereby helping the United States win the Space Race. While I knew Katherine Johnson and her family personally for many years, like so many Americans I never fully appreciated the work that she, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, Christine Darden and the many other African American women at NASA trailblazed for so many until their untold story was revealed in Hidden Figures. Mrs. Johnson was a true American hero, and we were so proud to have her call Hampton Roads home. I want to send my deepest condolences to her family and friends, and to everyone who was inspired by her remarkable life and work,” Rep. Scott added.
    “Today we mourn the loss of an American hero and a pioneer for women and African Americans in STEM fields. Katherine Johnson played a pivotal role in the outcome of the space race during her 35-year career at NASA and its predecessor, NACA. Without her accomplishments and those of her fellow Hidden Figures, which went largely unrecognized until the last decade, the outcome of the Space Race may have been quite different. Her achievements and impacts on our country are great, and her loss will be felt by many. I send my heartfelt condolences to her loved ones and colleagues,” NASA said in a statement.
    “We’ve lost an icon and brilliant mathematician with the passing of Katherine Johnson. A barrier breaker and inspiration for women of color everywhere, Katherine’s legendary work with NASA will forever leave a mark on our history. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones,” said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)

  • Newswire: White House budget proposal cuts $8.6 Billion from HUD

    Programs serving low-and-moderate income consumers to end or suffer severe cuts

    By Charlene Crowell

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Once again, the White House Budget Proposal slashes funding and programs that many low-and-moderate income consumers rely upon.
    From higher education to a repeated attack to deny the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau its full funding and financial independence from the annual congressional appropriations process, efforts to increase support to businesses continue while retreats from programs that citizens have come to rely upon is the crux of the proposal’s fiscal priorities.
    And among federal agencies, one of the most severe budget cuts would occur at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A proposed 15% reduction from current funding levels will mean $8.6 billion would either eliminate or severely cut programs serving many of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens and communities.
    “This Budget advances our key priorities, including empowering HUD-assisted families to achieve self-sufficiency,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said. “For generations, the idea of the federal government providing housing assistance meant only one thing—helping to pay the rent so families can have a roof over their heads.”
    Housing experts have a different perspective.
    “With this proposal, President Trump and Secretary Carson make clear their willingness to increase evictions and homelessness – through rent hikes for some of the lowest income people in subsidized housing, and slashing or eliminating funding for programs that keep the poorest people in our country affordably and safely housed,” said Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
    For example, Public Housing’s Capital Improvement Fund that provides revenues for major repairs, would end, while the Public Housing Operating Fund would be slashed 21%. Together, these two cuts would worsen housing conditions for the estimated 1.2 million households living in public housing units, managed by some 3,300 local Housing Authorities across the country.
    The biggest portion of the HUD cuts would end the $3.3 billion Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program that uses a formula to support over 1,200 metropolitan city, county and state governments. An additional 214 counties receive direct CDBG grants.
    Begun in 1974, CDBG has earned longstanding bipartisan praise for its ability to lure much-needed private investment. According to the National Association of Counties, every CDBG dollar leverages $4.09 in non-CDBG revenues. Further, it is one of the few federal programs that enable local communities to design community development services that respond to local priorities and needs.
    Other HUD programs proposed to end include: Choice Neighborhoods Initiatives, Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers, Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity, and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA).
    Although HUD would not shutter its Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity efforts, its capacity to pursue equal housing would be cut 7% in FY2020. Tenant-based Rental Assistance would also have 21% fewer renewed contracts.
    Even before the February 10 budget proposal’s release, Lisa Rice, President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance sounded an alarm on the heels of HUD’s announcement to abandon its rule promulgated during the Obama Administration, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH).
    “Access to fair housing determines where we live, which in turn determines the quality of education and health services our children have access to, among other resources. That’s why HUD’s proposed AFFH rule is so troubling,” said Rice. “By seeking to dismantle the 2015 requirements put in place specifically to address discrimination and segregation, HUD’s plan could negatively impact the lives of millions of children.”
    Nikitra Bailey, an EVP with the Center for Responsible Lending also spoke out about HUD’s troubling actions against fair housing.
    “The 2015 AFFH rule was designed to address the impact of residential segregation and the harmful inequities that result from the discrimination behind it. Discrimination in housing is not a thing of the past, it is ongoing and real,” noted Bailey. “[L]ow-income communities and communities of color now more than ever need the government to provide them with critical tools to combat discrimination in housing and the insidious harms that result. Instead we’ve seen HUD, under the current Administration, do the opposite.”
    Hannah Matthews, Deputy Executive Director for Policy with the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing policy solutions for low-income people pointedly summarized the budget proposal.
    “The roadmap laid out in the administration’s budget proposal is not a viable path forward, said Matthews. “Instead, we need a federal budget that invests in America’s future. We need investments that reduce poverty, promote economic opportunity, and reduce racial and ethnic disparities.”
    Charlene Crowell is the deputy communications director with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

  • Newswire: Outgoing Mississippi Governor says state faces ‘1,000 years of darkness’ if Black Man (Mike Espy) is elected U. S. Senator

    Mike Espy and former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent
    @StacyBrownMedia


    Fifty-two years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and 55 years after Jim Crow, Mississippi is burning again.
    Phil Bryant, the now-former governor of Mississippi – a state that was one of the flashpoints of the civil rights movement, and a haven for the Ku Klux Klan – has sparked understandable outrage after tweeting a racist claim that if the Magnolia State elects its first Black senator, there would be 1,000 years of darkness.
    “I intend to work for @cindyhydesmith as if the fate of America depended on her single election,” Gov. Phil Bryant tweeted on January 2. “If Mike Espy and the liberal Democrats gain the Senate, we will take that first step into a thousand years of darkness.”
    Bryant, a Republican, left office on January 14 after serving two terms.
    Espy lost to Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s special U.S. Senate runoff election in 2018. After announcing that he was running again this year, Espy said he could win by building a diverse coalition of voters.
    With a victory, Espy would become Mississippi’s first Black senator in more than 139 years.
    “We’re going after everybody — white, black, Democrat, persuadable Republican, persuadable moderates and those in the middle,” Espy told the AP in November 2019.
    “But I know where they are now. I’m not flying blind.” During his first campaign against Hyde-Smith, a video surfaced showing her praising a supporter by saying she’d attend a “public hanging” if he invited her.
    Bryant rekindled those sentiments with his tweet, setting social media ablaze with anger.
    Many pointed out the state’s history of racism and recent and ongoing problems at Parchman Prison, a former plantation that housed hundreds of slaves and whose population includes more than 60 percent Blacks; the state’s debtor’s prison that punishes mostly African Americans; and a recent state Supreme Court decision to affirm a 12-year prison sentence for a Black man who turned over a cell phone to a corrections officer.
    “Darkness follows Mississippi Gov Phil Bryant around,” feminist Paula Cain wrote on Twitter. “Every time that old white man opens his racist, uneducated mouth — darkness flows out.
    Alvon Phillips, a medical technician, said the comments are in line with what the state represents. “Anyone can clearly see how racist and prejudiced this Mississippi governor is and what race of people he truly represents; the only race whose interest he cares to advance,” Phillips stated. “Now, you can understand why Mississippi is last in everything. Last in education, wages, and development.”
    Journalist Joe Jurado analyzed Bryant’s comments in a January 9 article for The Root.
    “Mississippi has a very long and very violent history of racism: 600 black people were lynched between 1877 to 1950, the most of any state,” Jurado recalled.
    “Up until 2017, the state still had predominately segregated schools. This makes it all the more surprising than the governor believes Mike Espy being elected to the Senate would open the doors of Guf and bring about the fourth impact,” Jurado stated. “We’re talking about the same man who, after Hyde-Smith came under fire for her lynching comments, went on a podium and compared Black women getting abortions to genocide. Hyperbolic racism just seems to be this dude’s go-to.”
    In a June 1964 profile, The New York Times called Mississippi “the most segregated state, and noted that, “Through most of the state’s history, the White supremacists have been able to control government at the local and state levels.”
    A 2019 lawsuit filed by three Black residents challenged Mississippi’s requirement that candidates running for statewide office must win both a majority of the popular vote and at least 62 of 122 state House of Representatives districts. The law, which was put into place in 1890 when White politicians openly sought to suppress the Black vote, states that no candidate fulfills both requirements, the House then decides a statewide election, and representatives aren’t required to vote along with their districts. “This racist electoral scheme achieved, and continues to achieve, the framers’ goals by tying the statewide election process to the power structure of the House,” the plaintiffs stated in the lawsuit.
    “So long as white Mississippians controlled the House, they would also control the elections of statewide officials.”
    In an op-ed about Mississippi for The Atlantic late last year, Jesmyn Ward, an author who teaches creative writing at Tulane University, said racism makes itself known very vocal and confrontational ways.
    “But perhaps the most tragic manifestation of racist sentiment in Mississippi is silent. Built into the very bones of this place. My state starves its people and, in doing so, actively resists Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy,” Ward stated.
    “Our Republican lawmakers have made an effort to undercut programs that serve the poor, maybe because so many people of color in Mississippi live in poverty and depend on social programs for help.”

  • Beware of Social Security Phone Scam

    Beware of Social Security Phone Scams

  • 55th Bridge Crossing Jubilee to be held in Selma February 27 to March 1, 2020

    Stacey Abrams, Georgia Voting Rights activist, Martin Luther King III and family, Nobel Prize laureate, Leymah Gobwee of Liberia among honorees at Sunday’s Unity Breakfast


    The 55th Bridge Crossing Jubilee, to commemorate the 1965 ‘Bloody Sunday March’ for voting rights will be held in Selma from Thursday, February 27 to Sunday March 1, 2020.
    This is the largest national event to celebrate voting and civil rights.
    The Jubilee will consist of church services, workshops on civil rights related issues, a street festival, breakfasts, dinners, a parade, golf tournament and other events, culminating in Sunday afternoon’s re-enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights March, from Brown’s Chapel AME Church across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
    A key part of the program is the Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast at Wallace Community College Selma on Sunday, March 1st, which begins at 7:30 a.m. and opens the commemoration of Bloody Sunday.
    Several persons are slated to receive the Martin and Coretta King Unity Award at the breakfast and will speak, among them are Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Martin Luther King III, his wife Arndrea Waters King and their 11-year-old daughter Yolanda Renee King, Leymah Gobwee of Liberia and Columba Toure of Senegal.
    “Stacey Abrams was the first Black woman in the nation to win major party’s nomination for governor, and she came very close to being elected the governor of Georgia, a Deep South state. Abrams is also one of the foremost leaders in the country in voter registration and voter participation and is a strong contender for Vice President in this year’s presidential election,” said Hank Sanders, co-founder of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and the Selma-to-Montgomery March Foundation. 
     Foundation and President of Wallace Community College Selma, said: “Leader Abrams is one of the speakers most in demand across the nation. She always has something powerful and worthwhile to share. We look forward to hearing her strong vision for our nation on March 1st in Selma.” 
    “Martin Luther King, III, his wife, Arndrea Waters King and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King have been deeply involved in Civil Rights, the Voting Rights struggle and human rights for a lifetime. The three members of the King family, all became very active and effective in the struggle for justice for all from very young ages. Martin Luther King, III, has attended almost all of the Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfasts since the very beginning,” according to Hank Sanders.
    Noble Peace Prize Recipient Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and international leader Coumba Toure of Senegal will be honored at the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast in Selma on Sunday, March 1st, at Wallace Community College Selma. Leymah Gbowee will receive the inaugural International Peace and Justice Award, and Coumba Toure will receive the International Unity Award. 
    Gbowee, the 2020 inaugural Peace and Justice Award recipient, was one of three women awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”
    Dr. James Mitchell, Chair of the Selma-to-Montgomery March Foundation and President of Wallace Community College Selma (WCCS), said: “Leymah Gbowee organized women in her native Liberia to end Liberia’s civil war. Her fearless, remarkable and creative efforts and women-led movement transformed Liberia and gave the Liberian people a future that had been ripped from them through civil war, rape and other violence and oppression. The power of her work, vision and courage cannot be overstated.” 
    Working across religious and ethnic lines in Liberia, Gbowee led thousands of Christian and Muslim women in praying and in working non-violently for peace, using Muslim and Christian prayers. They held daily nonviolent demonstrations and sit-ins in defiance of orders from the tyrannical Liberian President at that time, Charles Taylor. Their efforts succeeded in ending 14 years of war and removing Taylor from office in 2003.
    Gbowee’s powerful memoir is Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War, and she is also the subject of the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Gbowee’s influential work and service across Africa includes her being Founder and President of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa based in Monrovia, Liberia, which provides educational and leadership opportunities to girls, women and the youth in Liberia. She has served as the Executive Director of the Ghana-based Women Peace and Security Network Africa, which supports women’s capacity to prevent, avert, and end conflicts in West Africa and has also served as the commissioner-designate for the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 
     Coumba Toure, the 2020 International Unity Award recipient, has worked for more than two decades to promote social change in West Africa. She is Coordinator for Africans Rising for peace, justice and dignity based in Dakar, Senegal. Hank Sanders, co-founder of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and the Selma-to-Montgomery March Foundation said: “Coumba Toure has dedicated her life to serving others and improving the lives of women, children and all people of all ages from West Africa to right here in Selma. Much of her work focuses on positive change in the nations of West Africa, and her service also reaches across the world to include helping young people through the Institute for Popular Education in Mali, the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement in Selma and more.” 
    More information on all of the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee events and tickets are available through the website: http://www.selmajubilee.com