The Greene County Democrat

Author: greenecodemocratcom

  • Newswire : Ben Jealous fired as Sierra Club’s first Black Executive Director; Many say racism at play

    by Jason Ponterotto, Amsterdam News 


     (New York Amsterdam News/Trice Edney News Wire) – The Sierra Club board of directors voted unanimously to fire its first Black and overall person of color executive director, Benjamin (Ben) Jealous, after he was placed on leave in July. 
    Club Board Chair Patrick Murphy announced the August 11 decision to terminate the employment of Jealous with cause in an email to staff. It comes after public disagreements between Jealous and staff members from local chapters.
    The Sierra Club has operated as one of the largest and oldest environmental justice organizations in the United States since its founding in 1892. Jealous took on the role in 2023. Jealous wrote a weekly column on environmental issues of concern to Black and other people of color. The Greene County Democrat regularly  published his column.
    Representatives from the group have not provided details about why Jealous was terminated. However, Jealous released a statement pushing back. He highlighted his record in his short tenure, including bolstering membership and staff positions in several red states where there had been none.
    “It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support. I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail,” Jealous said. He has also retained legal representation in the case.
    Jealous, 52,  has a prominent career in civil rights and activism, having served as president of the NAACP from 2008 to 2013 and People for the American Way from 2020 to 2022. He also had an unsuccessful bid in the Maryland gubernatorial race in 2018. In environmental justice, he began as a forest protection activist in high school. There are no previous scandals of note regarding his leadership. 
    Former Club board members Aaron Mair and Chad Hanson released a statement in support of Jealous, calling the decision wrongful and discriminatory, and citing a smear campaign from specific union groups. 
    “Where past white executive directors followed particular procedures and practices that were treated as sound, acceptable, and wise, Ben has been severely criticized for following the very same fiscally prudent and professional practices,” the statement in defense of Jealous reads. 
    “Instead of recognizing and appreciating the fact that Ben is both a civil rights leader fighting for racial justice and a longtime defender of wild places and lover of Nature, Ben’s vision was met with a troubling resistance from some who made the racist assumption that he would shift the organization away from environmental work, simply because he is Black and was a former NAACP executive.”
    Mair and Hanson discussed a “Phantom Staff Letter,” used to oust Jealous, that was allegedly signed by 117 club staff members, to which they point out there is no way of verifying any signature, because no names were included. They also called out the Progressive Workers Union (PWU), a separate group that says it represents around 200 national and state chapter employees and volunteers, although there has not been verification.
    “The Sierra Club’s first Black Executive Director is being treated like a fall guy, unfairly blamed for Board and past management decisions made before he began his job,” the statement reads. 
    Some of the issues of contention that PWU has highlighted with Jealous’s leadership include the multiple rounds of layoffs at the organization, supposed mismanagement of the budget, dismantling the Equity Department, halting the work of the Restorative Accountability Recommendations Tracking & Implementation Team, and “gutting” the Healthy Communities program, which provided funds for much of the chapters’ work on the ground. 
    In a letter released on August 12, the PWU BIPOC Caucus responded to the allegations of racism against Jealous. “BIPOC staff and allies alike have been voicing our concerns about Mr. Jealous’s leadership and actions, not because of his identity, but because of the impacts of his choices. We believe the former Board Members making these accusations are weaponizing racial justice in an attempt to silence those raising concerns, including BIPOC staff,” the statement read. 
    The caucus claims, based on their independent analysis, that nearly half of the firings under Jealous involved BIPOC staff. 
    Jealous’s claims of racism corroborate other claims of similar treatment in the organization by former employees. 
    Montravius King, who served as South Carolina chapter director from 2023 to 2025, told the AmNews he experienced several hurdles, including racial discrimination, in attempting to lead his chapter, and that the local board of the Sierra Club in South Carolina was never responsive. 
    Virginia Sanders, 82, who has worked with the Sierra Club in volunteer and staff roles on and off since 1981 in South Carolina, said she saw firsthand how racism affected both Jealous and King’s tenures. She cited an instance where news of Jealous’s appointment in 2023 was intentionally kept silent from South Carolina members and another where he was not invited to a Freedom Fund Banquet. 
    “The welcome mat was not laid out for Ben Jealous,” Sanders told the AmNews. According to Sanders, she has long been pro-union but that her experience with PWU was that they were inexperienced and focused on complaining instead of using resources.
    Other officials, including Dr. Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, chair and manager of the Delta Chapter, have expressed frustration with the decision.
    “Honestly, this process has been cloaked in such silence and lack of transparency and communication and empty platitudes,” Bradford said. “Patrick’s announcement email appears to reflect very little understanding of the gravity, impact, grief, and humiliation tied up in the vastness of this decision to fire the Club’s first Black ED. This is tragic. Not a ‘moment of renewal.’’’
    Others, including Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network, have reacted to the firing, releasing a statement calling for an independent party to mediate a resolution between both sides. 
    “There are serious racial implications in firing a Black man of Ben’s caliber, in this fashion, at a time when diversity is under attack,” Sharpton said.

  • Newswire : Honoring Emmett Till

    By: Blackmansstreet.today.com
     Emmett Till would have been 84 this year.

    On August 28-30, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center will be hosting Remembering Emmett, a series of programs commemorating 70 years since Emmett Till’s murder and Mamie Till-Mobley’s courage in sharing her son’s beaten corpse with the world. 

    The programs will be held on the campus of Mississippi Valley State University with a concluding event on August 30 in Drew, Mississippi.
    For more information and to register for the event, visit 
    https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/1

    Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old Black boy who was visiting from Chicago, was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling and touching Carolyn Bryant, a White woman, in her family’s grocery store. 

    Outraged, Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, abducted Till and tortured him to death. 

    The two men were indicted and tried in September 1955. During the three-day trial, prosecutors presented courageous testimony from Moses Wright, Till’s great-uncle, who witnessed his abduction, and Willie Reed, an African American sharecropper who overheard Bryant and Milam torturing Till. An all-white jury set the men free.


    Following the trial, Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market went out of business when locals boycotted the store. 

    The remaining structure barely stands today, and is just four crumbling brick walls with trees growing inside of them. 

    A sign was installed in 2011 to signify that the location was part of the Mississippi Freedom Trail. 

    Since then, the marker has been destroyed by bullet holes, and a second sign was vandalized in summer 2017. Despite efforts to revitalize the dilapidated property as a true Civil Rights landmark, the current owners are unwilling to sell the building to preservationists. 

    The brutality of Till’s murder and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. 

    Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement.


    Five decades later, according to a new book, she confessed to a Duke University historian, “That part’s not true.” that never touched for whistling at her. Carolyn Brant died at 88 on April 27, 2023.

    Till became an icon of the civil rights movement.
    July 25 of this year marked what would have been Emmett Till’s 84th birthday and the two-year anniversary of the monument’s designation.
     

  • Newswire : As Democrats return to Texas, Republicans get closer to erasing the seats of four Black Members of Congress

    By Lauren Burke, NNPA Congressional Correspondent

    Republicans in Texas, on orders from President Donald Trump, are now closer to approving a new congressional map that would eliminate five seats’ Democrats have won over several cycles. The hyper-partisan move is designed to assist Democrats in boosting their chances in the midterm elections in 2026, as Democrats in Texas ended a two-week boycott aimed at stalling the plan.
    The Texas Republicans’ reaction to their boycott turned bizarre today as Texas Republicans who control the Texas House, led by GOP House Speaker Justin Burrows, mandated that police would escort Democrats over the next two days if they wanted to depart the Capitol. Much like the rising levels of disrespect that white Republican lawmakers in the south demonstrated in Tennessee towards Black Democrats Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson in 2023, Texas Republicans appear to be operating on a level of partisanship that is racially driven — though lawmakers on the right deny it.
    Texas Democrats left the state to delay the play — but not to stop it — on August 3. A disagreement emerged among the Democrats about whether to return with a segment of the group, arguing that winning national attention was the goal of their August 3 departure. Other Democrats in the Texas House regard the moment as a loss and say that a “moral victory” is not satisfactory.
    “We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape,” said Texas Rep. Gene Wu, Chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, in a statement on August 18.
    After leaving Texas for two weeks to stall the Republicans’ redistricting plans, the Democrats have now returned. Their return means that Republicans can procedurally move forward with changes in congressional maps that are likely to flip and/or eliminate at least four seats now held by Democrats. They include the seats of Congressional Black Caucus members Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Marc Veasey.
    Texas Republicans also moved the seat of Rep. Al Green, a Black Democrat who protested President Trump during his address to Congress on March 4, 2025, even further to the right. That change in the maps revealed on August 18 will make it even more difficult for Rep. Green to be re-elected.
    Republicans are in the majority in the U.S. Congress with 219 members versus 212 Democrats. The 2026 elections in the U.S. House are all but guaranteed to be close. As President Trump’s polling numbers fall, he remains fully aware that, as Gov. Newsom put it, his “presidency is over” if Democrats win the majority in the U.S. House starting in January 2027.
    The moment represents one of the most unheard-of partisan moves in modern politics. Texas Republicans are barely shielding the intended purpose of their unprecedented mid-decade redistricting. Congressional redistricting usually takes place every ten years in tandem with the annual CENSUS.
    But the moves by Texas Republicans will be challenged in court. The question is, will the challenge be met with the same partisan results as the maps that have been redrawn — and if the case makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, will they remain consistent with the previous precedents regarding racially redrawn districts?

  • Newswire : Trump targets Black-led cities despite record crime declines

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington, D.C.’s police force and his threats to extend the same approach to other Black-led cities are being denounced as racially motivated and tied directly to the Project 2025 blueprint. The facts tell a different story: under Black mayors, these cities have recorded some of the most dramatic drops in violent crime in decades.
    In the nation’s capital, Trump declared what he called “liberation day in D.C.,” vowing to “wipe out crime, savagery, filth, and scum.” But his rhetoric is at odds with his own Justice Department’s data, which shows the District reached a 30-year low in violent crime in 2024. Overall violent crime fell 35% from the year before. Homicides dropped 32%, robberies 39%, and armed carjackings an astonishing 53%. Assaults with dangerous weapons also declined, continuing a trend of steep reductions since a post-pandemic peak in 2023.
    Chicago has seen similar success. Mayor Brandon Johnson noted that the city reduced homicides by more than 30% and shootings by almost 40% in just one year, calling the progress historic. The results reflect investments in youth employment, community outreach, and neighborhood-based violence prevention programs.
    In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass reported that homicides dropped 14% between 2023 and 2024, crediting expanded gang intervention programs and community-based initiatives aimed at preventing retaliatory shootings. Bass dismissed Trump’s federal intervention as nothing more than a “power grab,” a political stunt meant to undercut local leadership.
    Baltimore has also posted consecutive annual declines since 2022. Officials report that homicides and nonfatal shootings have fallen significantly, carjackings were down 20% in 2023, and other major crimes decreased further in 2024. Only burglaries saw a slight rise. Mayor Brandon Scott pointed to the city’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan, launched in 2021, which treats violence as a public health crisis and invests in community interrupters, victim services, and neighborhood stabilization. Scott accused Trump of using crime as a “wedge issue and dog whistle” while cutting federal support for anti-violence programs.
    Oakland stands as another example. According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, homicides fell 21% and all violent crime dropped 29% in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. The gains are credited to the Department of Violence Prevention, created in 2017, as well as partnerships with grassroots organizations. “The things we are doing are working,” said Nicole Lee of the Urban Peace Movement, while warning that Trump’s threat to send in troops or impose youth curfews would only create “an environment of fear” and put young people of color in the crosshairs.
    Despite the hard data, Trump has smeared these cities as “crime-ridden” and “horribly run.” His words have been matched by actions — stripping authority from local leadership in D.C., deploying National Guard troops on city streets, floating youth curfews, and threatening to replicate the model elsewhere. For Black mayors, the motive is clear. “It was not lost on any member of our organization that the mayors either were Black or perceived to be Democrats. And that’s unfortunate,” said Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, president of the African American Mayors Association.
    Trump’s moves track directly with the hardline agenda of Project 2025, which aims to consolidate federal power and weaken local autonomy. Black mayors say they will continue to stand together and defend the progress their cities have made. “We need to amplify our voices to confront the rhetoric that crime is just running rampant around major U.S. cities,” Johnson stated. “It’s just not true. It’s not supported by any evidence or statistics whatsoever.”

  • Charity Days provide $116,00 in grants Greene County Racing Commission distributes $720,000 for first 2 quarters of 2025

    Front Row – Commissioner Donald F. Means, Commissioner Linette Brown, Commissioner Morris Hardy, State Representative Curtis Travis Back Row – Johnny Isaac, Lameka Bryant, Cortnei Hood, Mollie Rowe, Reginald Spencer, Marquita Lennon, Christopher Jones, Marcia Pugh, Andrea Woods, Charlie McAlpine, Miriam Leftwich, Darlene Robinson, Johnnie Knott, Marilyn Gibson, Brandon Merriweather, Hodges Smith, Hattie Samuel, Howard Crawford, James Morrow, Teresa M Atkins, Brenda Burke, Anita Lewis.

    The Greene County Racing Commission (Linette Brown–Chairperson, Morris Hardy–Vice-Chairman, and Donald Means–Secretary), was joined by Alabama State Representative Curtis Travis, legal counsel Brenda M. Pompey, Esq., and Office Manager Gerry Coleman on August 8, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. to welcome recipients of its 2025 Charity Awards disbursements. Also, welcomed were recipients of disbursements under Senate Bill #40, Act No. 223-206 (“Bill”) for the first and second quarters of 2025. These awards were made possible through proceeds generated from licensed gaming activities at the Palace.
    Chairperson Brown explained that the Racing Commission hold two charity days each year – one in March and one in July – which are advertised approximately two weeks in advance. The funds raised during these events make up the money distributed as charity disbursements. The Commission’s goal is to assist as many qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations as possible that provide vital services to the community. These organizations offer a range of support, including health initiatives, food drives, parenting and adoption guidance, housing assistance, youth development and camps; fire and emergency services, educational, and social services. The Racing Commission encourages everyone to support charity days at the Palace.
    This year, the Racing Commission was proud to support a total of 12 charities, including the Greene County Volunteer Fire Association which represents 14 volunteer fire departments. Chairperson Brown said, “We’re proud to support the important work being done across our communities, and we recognize the impact these funds have for those in need.” The Commission remains committed to ensuring that these proceeds benefit organizations that align with its mission to promote public welfare and community enrichment. The total amount for charity this year was $116, 500.00.
    The second group of disbursements, based on the Bill, covered both the first and second quarters of 2025. Under the Bill, each recipient’s percentage is determined by legislation. Chairperson Brown reminded the mayors representing the various municipalities across Greene County of the importance of encouraging their constituents to complete the Census survey, as each municipality’s award is determined by its population – the larger the population, the larger the award.
    The Statement of Distribution details the amounts allocated to each recipient under the Bill. The distributed for the first two quarters of 2025 was $720,000.00.
    Future allocations under the Bill will be made quarterly, subject to the continued availability of funds. The Commission has requested that the Greene County Commission issue payments within the next 10 days (by August 18th) to recipients who receive funds under the Bill.
    On behalf of the Greene County Racing Commission, Chairperson Brown said, “Though it’s been a long time coming, the Commission is grateful that the road has led to this moment, where we can give back to the people of Greene County. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank the citizens of Greene County for their patience, kindness, and support along the way. Every bit of the funds shared today is meant for the citizens of Greene County, and for the good of the county we all call home.”
    Chairperson Brown thanked everyone for attending, for the work they do in their communities, and for their continued partnership. She said the Racing Commission looks forward to seeing the positive impact these funds will make in our county.
    Linette Brown, Chairperson
    Morris Hardy, Vice-Chairman
    Donald F. Means, Secretary

     

     

  • Rally to “Fight for the Vote” held August 6 in Selma

    Over two hundred people attended the “Fight for the Vote” rally in Selma at the Civil Rights Memorial Park at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on August 6, 2025.
    The event was sponsored by twenty organizations across the state including the NAACP, Save Ourselves Movement for Justice and Democracy, Alabama New South Coalition, Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Black Voters Matter, Lift the Vote, Foot Soldiers Park, Bridge Crossing Jubilee, Ordinary Peoples Society, Southern Poverty Law Center and many others.
    The rally was held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, and to plan and fight to strengthen the VRA based on the challenges and attacks by the Supreme Court (Shelby vs. Holder) and many state legislatures.
    Speakers from the sponsoring organizations were interposed with rap and hip-hop performances, raffles of cash and other door prizes. There was food and a giveaway of children’s books and school supplies.


  • Newswire : Rep. Jolanda Jones: ‘We’re not going anywhere’ as Texas Democrats fight racial gerrymandering

    Texas Rep. Jolanda Jones

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

     

    Texas State Rep. Jolanda Jones said she isn’t budging—not until Republican lawmakers end what she calls a blatant effort to strip voting power from Black and Brown communities.
    “We’re all safe and we ain’t going nowhere,” Jones declared during an interview on the Let It Be Known news show, just hours after a bomb threat forced an evacuation of her hotel. “This is about racism. This is about taking Black folks back to before we had voting rights and before we had the Civil Rights Act.”

    Jones, a Democrat elected to the Texas House in 2022, blasted the GOP-led redistricting push as a targeted attack on communities of color. “Let me be clear,” she said. “The only way they get the five seats that Trump wants is if they go find Black people and Brown people where they are concentrated in Houston and Dallas and crack our communities and put us in districts with a whole bunch of white folks. It’s that simple.”

    She called the effort “racism 101” and rejected criticism that she’s playing the race card. “I grew up playing Spades. I’m from Texas. And guess what? I’m going to pull that card from the bottom of the deck, the top of the deck, the middle of the deck,” she said. “If I have to pull it from those French cut sections, I’m gonna pull a race card every single solitary time—as long as you’re a racist. If you don’t want me to pull a race card, then stop being racist.”
    Jones is part of a group of Texas Democrats who have once again broken quorum, denying the Republican majority the minimum number of lawmakers required to conduct legislative business. She said the GOP may have the votes, but without a quorum, they have no power. “There are 150 of us in the state House. It takes 76 votes to pass anything. There are 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats. The key is they have to get 100 people there to conduct business, and they only have 88,” she explained. “So, they need 12 of us to show up. That’s not going to happen.”
    In response to Governor Greg Abbott’s threat to arrest the Democratic holdouts, Jones, a lawyer for more than 30 years, dismissed the possibility. “There is no warrant that goes outside of Texas. Most warrants in Texas only go 150 to 200 miles. Let somebody arrest me. I’m suing them,” she said. “Trump ain’t the only person who can sue people.” She said quorum-breaking isn’t a crime, but a tool the minority party has when it’s otherwise powerless. “They’re mad and they’re whining because they have the numbers to pass it if we get back—but we’re not coming back,” she said. “Y’all might have the numbers, but we got the power.”
    Jones spoke of the long history of resistance that informs her actions—from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the civil rights marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. “I’ve been Black all my life. It’s been a struggle all my life. But I can’t let this struggle stop me,” she said. “I Facetimed with my granddaughter last night. I miss her, but I’m doing this for her.” She called out the national consequences of unchecked gerrymandering, pointing to North Carolina, where GOP redistricting flipped three seats, giving Republicans a narrow House majority.
    “Congress is the only place that can stop the president. We can investigate him. We can impeach him,” she said. “And every day he’s alive, he’s doing something illegal.” Jones didn’t hold back on Trump, calling him “racist” and warning voters to believe what he says. “He told y’all what he was gonna do. When somebody tells you who they are, believe them,” she said. “Who thought he’d be deporting U.S. citizens? Who thought a backpack that used to be $15 now costs $50?”
    While focused on the quorum break, Jones confirmed she is running for Congress in Texas’s 18th District, a seat long held by Democrats. Her run was planned before the current standoff, she noted, and she’s continuing to serve her constituents remotely while fighting on the front lines of the redistricting battle. “They’re saying we abandoned our duties. Boy, bye,” she said. “My district office is working. I’m in constant communication with my staff. We didn’t abandon anything.” Jones credited her public education, legal background, and life experiences, including witnessing her father’s suicide and losing multiple family members to violence, as shaping her resilience and commitment to public service.
    “Any day above ground is a good day. God helped me see through the tragedy of my life. And I think God made my life really hard for this moment in time where I would not be sad,” Jones exclaimed. “If I can survive that, these people threatening to arrest me or calling me names—sticks and stones.”
    She urged the public to support the fight by donating to www.riggedredistricting.com and her campaign at www.jolandajones.com. “I’ll take anything—a dollar, five dollars. I’m the same wherever I go. I ain’t scared,” she said. Jones, the first openly LGBTQ Black member of the Texas Legislature, said she represents more than just a political district.

    “If I go to Congress, when Medicaid or Medicare ain’t working, or your private insurance isn’t working, it’s a problem,” she said. “We paid into it. How dare you, Donald Trump, take what we’ve paid into. You are literally stealing from our savings. This is no different than Enron.” As the fight drags on, Jones said she and her colleagues are prepared to stay away for as long as it takes. “We’ll take it day by day. It’s not the best situation, but we’ve overcome more as Black people,” she said. “And I’ve been Black all my life.”

     

  • Newswire : What Trump’s control of D.C. Police means for the City, Its Mayor, and Black Residents

    National Guard arrive in Washington, D. C.

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Donald Trump today seized direct control of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, removing authority from Mayor Muriel Bowser and placing the force under the command of Attorney General Tom Cotton. The move comes under a “crime emergency” declaration that allows the president to invoke Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act — a rarely used law that exists only because the District lacks full statehood.
    For Mayor Bowser, this means she no longer has operational control of her own police department. All decisions on how and where officers are deployed now run through the Justice Department. That includes the ability to redirect D.C. police from neighborhood patrols to guard federal buildings, secure national monuments, and police protests — even if it leaves fewer officers in local communities. For African Americans in the District — who make up nearly half the city’s population — the change places local policing under the direct control of a president who has repeatedly called for racial profiling, attacked other predominately Black-led cities such as Baltimore and Chicago, and used “law and order” policies that disproportionately target Black communities.
    Residents could see federal priorities override local crime prevention strategies, with increased policing around demonstrations and broader latitude for aggressive enforcement tactics. Trump justified the takeover by citing D.C.’s 2024 homicide and vehicle theft rates, even though other cities he has singled out — all with large Black populations and Black leadership — have seen major crime reductions this year. The order has no end date, meaning the District’s police could remain under federal command indefinitely. This is only possible because D.C. is not a state — a political reality that leaves its leadership vulnerable to federal override and its residents without full control over their own local government.

  • Newswire : Statue of Confederate general, Albert Pike, toppled in 2020 to be reinstalled in D.C.

    Demonstrators tore down and burned statue in 2020

    By NBC Washington

    WASHINGTON — A statue of a Confederate general that demonstrators toppled and burned in D.C. in 2020 will be reinstalled, the National Park Service announced Monday.
    The bronze statue depicting Confederate Gen. Albert Pike is being restored, the Park Service said in a statement Monday. Officials shared a photo of a worker removing corrosion and paint.
    “The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and re-instate pre-existing statues,” the agency said in a statement.
    In June 2020, demonstrators used ropes to tear down the statue outside Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. On live TV, they doused the statue in lighter fluid and set it ablaze.
    Mayor Muriel Bowser at the time decried property destruction and defended city police. Donald Trump, in his first term, called for the statue to go back up less then a week later.
    Now crews are aiming to have the statue up in October, the Park Service said.
    “Site preparation to repair the statue’s damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements,” the statement said.
    The Pike statue, dedicated in 1901, has been a source of controversy for years. The Confederate general also was a longtime leader of the Freemasons, who revere Pike. It was built at the request of Masons, who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing.
    D.C. officials tried to remove the statue for years. The D.C. Council said it first called for its removal in 1992. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced multiple bills in Congress to get it removed.
    One proposed resolution calling for the removal of the statue referred to Pike as a “chief founder of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan.” The Klan connection is a frequent accusation from Pike’s critics and one which the Masons dispute.

  • Newswire : Trump memo asks recipients of federal funds to ban DEI programs

    By Reuters

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department issued a memo on Wednesday that asked recipients of federal funds to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which President Donald Trump has aimed to dismantle since taking office in January.
    Trump has already issued executive orders aimed at restricting DEI but Wednesday’s memo laid out specific examples of actions that it said federal fund recipients should restrict — such as some training sessions and policies aimed at protected groups. It also said federal funds should not be used to support third parties that engage in DEI.
    Recipients of federal funds range from schools, colleges and universities to nonprofit organizations and private firms that are government contractors. The memo was released publicly by the Justice Department.
    In an example to support one of its recommendations, the memo said that “a scholarship program must not target ‘underserved geographic areas’ or ‘first-generation students’ if the criteria are chosen to increase participation by specific racial or sex-based groups.”
    It added: “Instead, use universally applicable criteria, such as academic merit or financial hardship, applied without regard to protected characteristics or demographic goals.”
    In another recommendation, it said a program targeting low-income students “must be applied uniformly without targeting areas or populations to achieve racial or sex-based outcomes.”
    Federal law already bars discrimination on grounds of race, gender and ethnicity. The Trump administration has eliminated DEI-related programs in the government and fired many people who worked in those initiatives. It has faced some legal pushback. Several private firms have rolled back such initiatives in recent months.
    DEI programs have been part of workplace diversity efforts to ensure fairer representation for groups seen as historically marginalized, such as African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the United States, LGBTQ+ community members, women, and people with disabilities.
    Civil rights advocates say DEI helps address the continued effects of historical and generational inequity and aims to remove systemic barriers for groups affected by a legacy of racism, sexism and xenophobia.
    Trump and his allies say DEI unfairly discriminates against other Americans, including white people and men, and weakens the importance of merit in job hiring or promotion. DEI practices include training on how to combat discrimination, addressing pay inequity along gender or racial lines and broadening recruitment and access for underrepresented ethnic groups.
    The Trump administration has threatened to cut federal funds given to institutions over a range of issues like pro-Palestinian protestsagainst U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza, climate initiatives, transgender policies and DEI programs.