The Greene County Commission has recently received a response from Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway, LL (AGR) following repeated inquiries concerning the train derailment that occurred on March 21, 2025 near Greene County Road 107. After six months and reportedly numerous attempts by the county’s engineer’s office the derailed train cars had not been removed.
On September 25, 2025, County Attorney, Mark Parnell, on behalf of the Commission, submitted a communication to Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway citing the derailed railcars are obstructing the right-of-way and posing public safety, environmental and infrastructure risks and required the following of the Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway: “AGR and/or its contractors and insurers are the responsible parties for removal, remediation and all damages arising from the incident. Demand is nearby made that, within 48 hours, AGR mobilize appropriate crews and equipment to remove all derailed rolling stock, debris and spilled materials from the right-of-way and adjacent areas and provide the contact information for your on-scene incident commander and slain lead.”
On September 26, 2025, a representative of AGR communicated that the process of removal of the railcars is the responsibility of a third party and the process has begun.
Commissioner Roshanda Summerville, who represents District 5 where the trainer derailment occurred, remarked that the county has been working diligently to expedite the clean-up. “We are very concerned about school buses and other motorists that travel that route crossing the tracks daily. We need an immediate cleanup process,” she said.
The Greene County Board of Education met in a called session, Wednesday, September 24, 2025 and selected Mr. Darryl Aikerson as interim superintendent, effective immediately in order to allow for a smooth transition with Dr. Corey Jones, whose last official day as superintendent is September 30, 2025. Following the preliminary opening, including removing the executive session item from the agenda, Mr. Aikerson was asked to give a presentation to the board, staff and community members present. He noted that he has served in multiple leadership positions in public education, including teacher, principal and superintendent. Specifically, he served for six years as superintendent of Tuscumbia City Schools (2015-2021). Prior to that, he served as Director of Federal Programs for the Bessemer City Schools for 21 years. More recently, Aikerson served three months in 2024 as interim superintendent for the Selma City School System. According to Aikerson, Selma City Schools were having financial challenges once the ESSER Funds were depleted. “Much of these funds had been applied to high salaries, which the system could not continue,” he said. He also stated that he left the Selma City Schools in a good condition. Responding to board inquiries on his style of administrative leadership, Aikerson noted the following: Leadership starts with building relationships; that always comes first; that’s more important. I will communicate regularly with individual board members, meet principals and administrators, connect with parents including attending PTA meetings, athletic and other school events.” In closing, Aikerson said, “ I am available to contract with the board as a consultant to help with the seamless transition with the new superintendent.” Following questions from the community members, Board Vice President, Veronica Richardson, moved to accept Mr. Aikerson as interim superintendent. Ms. Carrie Dancy seconded. There was unanimous approval. A second motion, authorizing the Board President Leo Branch and Vice President Richardson, along with Board Attorney Hank Sanders, to work out the details with Mr. Aikerson, was made by board member Brandon Merriweather, seconded by board member Veronica Richardson. The board gave unanimous approval. President Branch stated that the timeline of the arrangements with Mr. Aikerson will be worked out in the negotiations. The meeting was adjourned.
School board calls meeting to transfer investments and update bank signatures
The Greene County Board of Education held a called meeting on Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. in the Central Office Auditorium with a focus on administrative issues. Board member present included Robert Davis, Veronica Richardson, Brandon Merriweather and Board President Leo Branch. Carrie Dancy was absent. Administrative items included: – Closure of a Certificate of Deposit (CD) with Synovus as of September 23, 2025. Opening of Certificate of Deposit (CD) at the 13 month term rate with Merchants and Farmers Bank in Eutaw and necessary signature updates; out of state travel of GCHS football team and coaches to attend Atlanta Falcon game on November 16, 2025. Richardson made a motion to approve the items as a blanket; Davis seconded, and there was unanimous approval. The meeting was adjourned.
Assata Shakurs’s NJ mug shot; Assata Shakur later in life in Cuba – Delphine Fawandu
By Jack Linly, Newsone
Activist, revolutionary, Black Panther Party leader and member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), Assata Olugbala Shakur, has died at age 78, according to her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, meaning the ancestors have gained a fierce warrior in the fight against white supremacy. Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron on July 16, 1947, in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, New York, was the sister of fellow Black liberation movement icon Mutulu icon Shakur, who died in 2023 at 72, and the godmother and step-aunt of late legendary rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, whose mother, Afeni, was Mutulu’s wife. Assata represents one of the most iconic names associated with the Black Panthers and the fight to truly liberate Black people from white overseers. That is how Black American people see and celebrate her. For America, she’s a far more controversial figure, and to many, she’s a notorious criminal who broke out of prison and fled the country after murdering a police officer, an act that kept her on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and New Jersey’s Most Wanted List until her dying day. According to EBSCO Knowledge Advantage, she was the first woman to be placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. On May 2, 1973, Shakur and two other BLA members were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike by State Trooper Werner Foerster and another highway officer. A confrontation occurred between the officers and Shakur’s group, which resulted in a shootout that left Forrester and another individual dead. In 2019, FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Gregory Ehrie characterized the shooting as “a heinous execution of a law enforcement officer, cut and dry.” “This is without dispute,” Ehrrie continued. Oh, but this certainly has been disputed. In fact, supporters of Shakur have and continue to argue that the trial was flawed, citing a lack of physical evidence and eyewitness inconsistencies, and the history of efforts by law enforcement, including the FBI, to undermine and outright sabotage the civil rights movement and Black power movements. At any rate, Shakur escaped from prison in 1979 and ultimately sought asylum in Cuba, where she lived out her life. As written by our sister site, Bossip: But despite the government’s efforts to silence her, Assata Shakur’s words and work lived on. Her 1988 autobiography Assata became a blueprint for resistance and self-determination, widely studied by activists, scholars, and young people searching for a voice in the struggle. Her life inspired movements like Assata’s Daughters in Chicago, and her name was shouted in protests in Ferguson and across the world. Assata was a human rights activist and freedom fighter who stood in solidarity with oppressed people worldwide — and for that, her legacy will endure. “People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave,” Shakur once said, according to her book, Assata: An Autobiography. In honor of her legacy, here’s the beautiful tribute to Assata Shakur, her story and her legacy, “A Song for Assata,” by Common. Rest well, Assata, and be free.
Publisher Simon & Schuster announced that the campaign memoir of former Vice President Kamala Harris, 107 Days, has sold 350,000 copies in one week. The sales total includes print, ebooks, and audiobooks. The numbers released by the publisher reflect that Harris’ book will be the top political book of 2025. The book goes into the details of Harris’ unexpected 107-day 2024 presidential campaign. The former Vice President became a famous nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race for The White House on July 21, 2024. Biden dropped out after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden appeared confused and was slow to answer many questions and many attributed his issues to his age. Shortly before Biden’s withdrawal there was internal debate on whether there should be a hastily put together Democratic primary. But with only a short time left in the campaign before Election Day — Vice President Harris became the nominee. But the campaign was only 107 days because of Biden’s late timing in exiting the race. While there has been internal criticism within the Democratic Party pushing back against what Harris relays in her book, the strong interest and response by the public in the form of strong book sales and packed appearances is evidence of strong public interest. According to Simon & Schuster, the book has already been ordered for a 5th printing. A 5th printing of “107 Days” will bring the number of hardcover copies in print to 500,000. Harris’ book has a chance to be a historic best seller. Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming” is widely considered the most-read political memoir of all time. The 2018 book sold over 8 million copies globally and discussed issues of identity, race, ambition, family, and public service.
By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
The nation trembles, and the numbers do not lie. A new Quinnipiac University national poll reveals that 79 percent of voters believe the United States is in the grip of a political crisis, a judgment cast in the shadow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Across partisan lines, the consensus is chilling: 93 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of independents, and even 60 percent of Republicans agree the country is spiraling. “The Kirk assassination lays bare raw, bipartisan concerns about where the country is headed,” said Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy. Seventy-one percent of voters now call politically motivated violence a “very serious” problem, a sharp rise from just 54 percent in June. The voices of politicians, amplified and sharpened, are seen by 82 percent of respondents as feeding the violence that stalks the streets and corrodes the public square. A majority—58 percent—no longer believe the temperature of political rhetoric can be lowered. Instead, more than half of voters expect political violence to worsen in the coming years. Malloy captured the mood bluntly. “From a perceived assault on freedom of speech to the fragility of the democracy, a shudder of concern and pessimism rattles a broad swath of the electorate,” he insisted. Freedom of speech, once assumed inviolable, now carries the weight of doubt. Fifty-three percent of voters said they are pessimistic about its protection in America. Just six months ago, the numbers were reversed. The very machinery of democracy is also under suspicion. Fifty-three percent of voters say the system is not working. Democrats and independents share that belief by strong margins, while Republicans—mirroring their president’s claims—remain largely convinced it functions. President Donald Trump’s approval rating stands at 38 percent, with 54 percent disapproving. Disapproval is strong on nearly every front—foreign policy, the economy, immigration, and gun violence. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, fares little better: 54 percent of voters disapprove of his performance, and nearly six in ten say they have little or no confidence in the medical information he provides. The crisis extends beyond politics. Asked about the economy, 53 percent of voters pointed to the price of food and consumer goods as their greatest worry, while another 28 percent named housing costs. And when it comes to the fate of those convicted of murder, 55 percent favor life in prison without parole over the death penalty. Gun violence, foreign conflicts, and the direction of democracy itself weigh heavily. Eighty-three percent of voters believe political leaders are more interested in blaming others than finding solutions. The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,276 registered voters nationwide from September 18–21, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. “Nearly 80 percent of registered voters feel they are witnessing a political crisis, seven in ten say political violence is a very serious problem, and a majority say this discord won’t go away anytime soon,” Malloy noted.
By Sahil Kapur, Julie Tsirkin and Gabe Gutierrez, HBCU News
The U.S. government officially shut down at midnight on September 30, 2025, after Congress and the White House failed to reach an agreement on how to extend federal funding. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress, but it needs Democratic support to pass a bill in the Senate, where 60 votes are required. And the two parties failed to craft a bipartisan bill, with the Senate rejecting both a GOP proposal and a Democratic proposal just hours before the shutdown deadline. It’s the first government shutdown since 2018, in Trump’s first term, which was the longest ever at 34 days, lasting into early 2019. There is no clear path to a resolution, with the two sides fundamentally at odds over how to resolve the impasse. Federal employees will go without pay for the duration of a shutdown, while members of Congress and Trump will still receive their salaries. About 750,000 employees will be furloughed each day, the Congressional Budget Office said, while others who work essential jobs, like Transportation Security Administration agents, air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement officers and members of the military, will be forced to work without pay. Under federal law, they are all scheduled to receive back pay once the government reopens, even for the time some didn’t work. Compensation for furloughed workers will cost taxpayers $400 million, according to the CBO. National parks will remain partially open during the shutdown. Medicare and Social Security benefits are unchanged, as they aren’t subject to the annual funding process, though new applicants could face delays due to workers’ being on furlough. Trump, meanwhile, suggested Tuesday he could fire “many” federal employees in a shutdown. The clash comes after months of political warfare between the two parties, with Democrats demanding provisions to extend health care funding — most notably Obamacare subsidies set to expire and raise people’s premiums at the end of this year. They also sought assurances that Trump won’t keep unilaterally withholding spending directed by Congress. GOP leaders declined to haggle over a short-term bill to prevent a shutdown temporarily, offering a proposal that would keep the government open at current spending levels until Nov. 21. They said they’ll negotiate spending policy only through the regular federal funding process. Democratic leaders said that’s not enough, vowing to oppose any bill that failed to include their priorities. The West Wing has seemed to relish the coming battle, believing Democrats will shoulder the blame and eventually cave in. A White House official said it’ll be hard for Democrats to defend why they’re not agreeing to a “clean” funding bill to keep the government open. A second White House official noted that Trump held two health care-related events Tuesday, related to drug prices and pediatric cancer. Still, three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted for the Republican bill Tuesday night: John Fetterman, D-Pa., Angus King, I-Maine, and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. That means they’ll need at least five more Democrats to pass it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., suggested that more Democrats could support the GOP bill once the pain of a shutdown begins. “The cracks in the Democrats are already showing,” Thune told reporters. “There are Democrats who are very unhappy with the situation. … Tonight was evidence that there is some movement there.” Thune has said he won’t negotiate policy with Democrats while they take the government “hostage,” an analogy he has made repeatedly in recent days. But the Senate’s top Democrat vowed to hold firm against a bill that lacks Democratic input. “Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown — rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America’s health care worst of all,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “They’ve got to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to come to a bill that both parties can support.” The next steps could be dictated by the court of public opinion, as each party believes the other will take more of the blame for a shutdown. A New York Times survey released Tuesday found that 26% would blame Trump and the GOP, while 19% would blame Democrats, 33% said they’d blame both equally, and 21% more were undecided. A Marist University poll found that 38% would blame Republicans, 27% would blame Democrats, and 31% would blame both equally. The shutdown came after a White House meeting Monday between Trump and leaders of both parties, the first time Trump had discussed the issue with the minority leaders, Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. The meeting yielded no breakthroughs and even led to a new round of partisan sniping, which Trump initiated hours later by posting an insulting artificial intelligence-generated video of the two Democrats. The next morning, Jeffries called Trump a coward. “Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video. When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face,” he said Tuesday on the Capitol steps. “Say it to my face.” The second White House official dismissed any criticism of the video. “It was funny,” the official said, adding that despite the backlash, it had the intended effect: Many news channels replayed it, making the Democrats look foolish. The bitter fighting and the lack of any further bipartisan talks foreshadowed the shutdown. White House budget director Russell Vought issued a memo hours before the midnight deadline saying agency heads should “execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.” “It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict. Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities,” Vought said in his memo. Less than an hour later, the Senate adjourned, calling it a night with no solution. It will return Wednesday, but with no clear plan to break the impasse. Thune said he hopes Democratic lawmakers will take a stand against their leadership. “I just think they’re under so much pressure from the left in the country,” Thune told NBC News. “But I do think that they have rank-and-file members who really want to be in a different position than the one they’re in right now.” It is unclear when the government will reopen. Republicans feel compelled to defend Trump’s policies that the opposition party is seeking to undo, like his Medicaid cuts. And Democrats face pressure from their base to take a more aggressive posture against second-term Trump, who they say is behaving like an autocrat. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that he expected the shutdown to last until at least next week. “I don’t think anything’s going to happen until the House gets back,” he said, predicting Democrats would soften. “Then people can sit down and find a way to get it done.”
Since the unfortunate assassination in Utah of Charlie Kirk, leader of Turning Point USA, a right-wing youth organization, there has been a great deal of attention focused on the detriment of political violence in our nation. We agree with the many political leaders who have condemned the direct political violence of shooting a youth leader, who was using his free speech rights on a college campus to express right-wing nationalistic and sometimes racist points of view. No one in America should condone this type of direct political violence from anyone across the political spectrum, from the extreme right to the extreme left. President Trump has attempted to blame the problem of political violence in America on “left wing radical lunatics”, without evidence and without reference to the political right in this country, which has a much clearer record of political violence with guns – study January 6, the Buffalo supermarket shooting, many attacks on schools, synagogues and other houses of worship. Upon reflection on the killing of Charlie Kirk, I came to the revelation of the political violence of Trump-Vance’s policy choices, as a factor in the continuing violence against vulnerable people in our society. And a continuing factor in how we stop and deescalate political violence going forward. Is there not a degree of political violence, when you cut off a family’s food stamps and leave them hungry; or cut off people’s health care when they are sick and may die; or end the LIHEAP program which provides heating assistance in the cold of winter to pay utility bills; or cutting Title I educational programs and school lunches to help our children learn more and better; or cutting off USAID assistance to hungry and diseased people around the world. All of these are actions that the Trump-Vance Administration celebrates. There is evidence that people will die – political violence – based on the policies of the President, Vice-President and their enablers and supporters. Will those pollical assassinations of poor families, homeless people, hungry people, sick people, get as much attention and condemnation as the killing of Charlie Kirk. As one who has called for the citizens arrest of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey for “mass murder” because she refused to extend Medicaid services to 250,000 working people in our state, I am using my free speech rights to call attention to her failing. These families are in a coverage, because they do not make enough money to pay for their health insurance premiums on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace and are going without needed and critical health care services. National studies by health care experts have calculated that 300 to 500 hundred people each year have died in the decade from 2014 until today, because the state government of Alabama has not expanded Medicaid. In the decade since these funds have been available – 3,000 to 5,000 in our state have died; that is mass murder to me! The Trump-Vance Budget Reconciliation bill will reduce Medicare/Medicaid spending by 20% and deprive millions of their healthcare. This is not justice. This is political violence by policies! We must resist this and fight these dangerous, anti-humane, violent policies, non-violently, but with determined social action and mobilization in the streets, civil disobedience, voting and every other peaceable, proactive, productive and creative means we have available to us.
Lorenzo French with 103 votes defeated (60.5%) Sarah Duncan Brewer with 67 votes (39.4%) in the runoff election, yesterday for District 4 on the Eutaw City Council. The total number of votes cast were 170 in the runoff to 167 in the election on August 26, which included incumbent Larrie Coleman, who finished third. This completes the 2025 Eutaw Municipal elections, with Corey Cockrell elected as Mayor. Council members: Valerie Watkins, District 1, Jonathan Woodruff, District 2 and Tracey Hunter, District 3, were re-elected to another term. Lorenzo French, District 4 and Carrie Logan, District 5, are new members elected to the Council for an initial term of four years. The Eutaw City Council will meet on Tuesday, September 30 at Noon at City Hall to certify the results of the runoff election. The Mayor and Council members take office as of November 1, 2025, and will plan for their installation and their first meeting as a newly elected Eutaw City Council. Lorenzo French, contacted after his victory said, “ I thank the voters of District 4 for coming back out a second time to vote in the runoff. I am thankful for the confidence the voters have in me. “I plan to take a broad perspective of my duties to represent District 4 but also the larger entire community of Eutaw. I will be vigilant and aggressive in my leadership to insure progress for the residents of my district and the city as a whole. I look forward to working with the new mayor and councilmembers to move our city forward with unity and hard work on solving problems facing us.”
The 2025 Airing of the Quilts Festival is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 4, in the Gee’s Bend community of Wilcox County. The event is free with a recommended contribution of $40 to support the Gee’s Bend quilt-making community. Photo courtesy of the Airing of the Quilts Festival
The 2025 Airing of the Quilts Festival—set for Saturday, October 4, in the Gee’s Bend community of Wilcox County—promises to spotlight the area’s world-renowned quiltmakers while also celebrating the community’s cultural significance.
Now in its fourth year, the 2025 Airing of the Quilts Festival added global sportswear brand Adidas as its presenting partner for an event that honors the living history of Gee’s Bend from the area’s origins to its significant role in the American Civil Rights Movement and its current fame as one of America’s most renowned artist communities.
“The festival gives visitors the opportunity to meet quilters, learn about the area’s history, and become immersed in the area’s incredible cultural significance,” said Kim V. Kelly, executive director of the Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy.
The festival, which was named to Garden & Gun magazine’s 2025 Bucket List, drew 2,100 people to Gee’s Bend in 2024, and organizers expect at least 2,500 visitors this year.
Gee’s Bend quilters have garnered international fame for their unique quilt- making, and the festival honors the community’s history of quilt-making with interactive programming, food trucks, entertainment and live musical performances. Visitors to the Airing of the Quilts also take part in quilting demonstrations and storytelling from the descendants of generations of Gee’s Bend quilters.
This year’s festival features the unveiling of an exhibition dedicated to Dinah Miller (née Jenkins), who was kidnapped in Africa and brought to Alabama in 1860 aboard the last known slave ship to enter U.S. waters, the Clotilda. The exhibit is titled “Between History and Memory: Dinah Miller’s Legacy in Gee’s Bend.”
Miller settled in Gee’s Bend in 1890 and is the earliest known quilter in the area. Her descendants rank among the area’s most renowned quilters.
“This new exhibition will clearly celebrate Dinah’s life, tell her unique and inspirational story, and honor her immense contributions to the Gee’s Bend community,” Kelly said.
On October 2, during the week before the festival, Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy will also debut its newly designed quilt workshop/learning space and posthumously dedicate the facility to the Reverend Lonnie Brown Jr., a community advocate who passed away earlier this year. The facility was built thanks to funding from The Daniel Foundation of Alabama and a grant from the Alabama State Council of the Arts.
The new workshop space will be open for use and tours during the festival. “This facility will give visitors an opportunity to sit down and learn about them, learn about their history and get an intimate lesson in their artistry throughout the year, not just during the festival,” Kelly said. The Airing of the Quilts Festival is hosted by organizing sponsors Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy, Sew Gee’s Bend Heritage Builders, and Souls Grown Deep. This festival is open to the public.
The event is free with a recommended contribution of $40 to support the Gee’s Bend quilt-making community. For the second straight year, the festival will offer a hop-on/hop-off bus service for $25 that will visit the homes of Gee’s Bend quilters, as well as the festival.
The Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy is an associate member of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and Alabama State Association of Cooperatives. The Freedom Quilting, a women’s handicraft workers cooperative, was a founding member of both groups. The Federation helped nurture and support the Freedom Quilting Bee for many years and continues to support the Legacy project.
On Friday, September 19, 2025, over 400 revelers attended a gala honoring Felecia Lucky for 21 years as the founding CEO/President of the Black Belt Community Foundation.
The BBCF board announced in June, 2025 that Felecia Lucky would be stepping down from her role, effective September 30, 2025. The September 19 gala, held at the Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Montgomery, AL, overflowed with tributes to Ms. Lucky from Community Associates representing the 12 counties served by BBCF, as well as from other sponsors and supporters. She has been a visionary leader and a tireless champion for the Black Belt, securing more than $100 million in support of community generated projects. The BBCF board has selected Christopher Spencer to assume the lead role of the Foundation. Photo shows Felecia Lucky acknowledging past and present BBCF board members at the gala.
