The Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • Newswire: Is the Postal Service slowing mail delivery?

    Return envelop for a mail-in ballot

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent

    Already frustrated with late, delayed or lost mail? Residents who depend on the U.S. Postal Service can expect even more frustration.
    As first reported by the Associated Press, mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general.
    “The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a different mindset to ensure the Postal Service’s survival during the coronavirus pandemic,” The Associated Press reported, citing a confidential memo circulated throughout the postal service.
    Late trips will no longer be authorized. If postal distribution centers are running late, “they will keep the mail for the next day,” Postal Service leaders wrote in a document.
    “One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that — temporarily — we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks,” another document says, the AP reported.
    In a livestream interview, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) told BlackPressUSA that Congress had approved new funding for the U.S. Postal Service and hoped to do more.
    Congress authorized a $10 billion loan to the postal service as part of a coronavirus relief package. Still, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin steadfastly has refused to hand over the money until the USPS turns over much of its operations to him.
    Reports of significant problems at the postal service under newly appointed postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a major Trump donor, has exacerbated claims that the slowdown is intentional.
    “The Week,” an online publication, called it “yet another example of how Trump’s authoritarian rot is dissolving the American state – and raising the possibility of interference with the 2020 election.”
    Trump has voiced strong opposition to mail-in voting.
    Additionally, many said the slowdown impacts minorities more than anyone else.
    “As a small business owner who utilizes USPS to ship many of our products to customers, this will significantly affect us,” Calvin Harris, the founder and managing director of Reveille Trading Company, a coffee importing operation that offers specialty coffee and single-origin by partnering directly with farms around the world.
    “It is my opinion that it will disproportionately harm minority businesses. Black-owned businesses often have harder times securing financing, and we generally secure financing at higher rates than white-owned companies,” Harris opined.
    “This means that we run on tighter margins, so many businesses will be forced to either have slower shipping or decrease our already small margins if possible, to offer faster shipping.”
    Harris added that USPS priority mail had enabled his company to offer free shipping on all orders. He noted that UPS and FedEx are more expensive options and are much slower.
    “For many minority businesses, we have to compete with much larger companies, and we need every advantage that we can get. If I can at least offer free shipping, then it’s one less customer objection that we have to overcome,” Harris said.
    Elizabeth Weatherby, who works for the integrated marketing development company, Youtech, recanted a recent move across the country from Massachusetts to Arizona. She said she sent her security deposit overnight via the post office and expected it to arrive long before her week-long journey.
    “By the time I had arrived in Arizona, the check was still not delivered to my housing management company. What’s even more strange is that when I called USPS, no matter what number, what office, what location, I could not get through to anyone,” Weatherby stated.
    “I was waiting on hold forever and couldn’t even speak with a representative. In-person, I had to go to every single post office in my new town to track down my check. I am lucky my housing management still let me move in. I definitely think this could be due to the Trump Administration slowing down the ability to vote by mail.”

  • Newswire: Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses the impact and severity of COVID-19 disparities in African Americans

    Dr. Anthony Fauci

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent

    During a 30-minute interview with BlackPressUSA that was streamed live over Facebook, YouTube, and http://www.BlackPressUSA.com, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke of the importance of convincing African Americans to participate in clinical trials. He also said that school re-openings should depend mainly upon the location and the infection rate in a given area.
    Fauci also said a viable coronavirus vaccine is likely only a few months away.
    “The fundamental principle is that we should try as best as we possibly can to get children back to school because we know the psychological aspect of that and the unintended consequences for mothers and fathers who may need to stop working, so we should try to get back to school,” Dr. Fauci said when asked about the impact of the pandemic on the upcoming school year.
    “However, paramount needs to be the safety, health, and welfare of children, teachers, and families,” Dr. Fauci added.
    “We live in a big country. Some places have low incidents and can open schools while some are high. Some areas rate of infection is so high where it’s not prudent to open schools. You don’t want to endanger their health.”
    A member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Fauci has at times found himself at odds with President Donald Trump. For example, earlier this year, the president announced that he would withdraw U.S. funding and support for the World Health Organization (WHO). However, Dr. Fauci told BlackPressUSA that he still maintains a close relationship with the organization.
    “I still work closely with the World Health Organization,” said Dr. Fauci. “I’m on a weekly phone call with them, and I signed a memorandum of understanding. We’re all in with the WHO.”
    During the interview, which included National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., Dr. Fauci also demonstrated the proper way to wear a facemask. “Early on, there was a shortage of masks because we didn’t want to take masks away from health providers who needed them,” Dr. Fauci remarked. “It’s easy to get a cloth mask now.”
    Dr. Fauci explained further that, “when there are droplets when someone sneezes or coughs, you [are protected]. You can take it and wash it with soap and water or stick it in the washing machine.”
    Addressing the disparities surrounding COVID-19 and other illnesses, Dr. Fauci pointed to many African Americans, Latinx, and Native Americans occupying essential jobs that provide employees with little — or no — protection.
    “On the one hand, there’s a greater opportunity and risk of getting infected, but even as important is that once you get infected, you have prevalence and incidence of co-morbidities that make it more likely you’ll get a severe outcome from the infection,” Dr. Fauci noted.
    “Those co-morbidities are like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, chronic kidney disease, and lung disease. It’s very clear that African Americans have a higher incidence, and the reality is that you suffer more.”
    The hospitalization rates per 100,000 people are stunning when comparing African Americans and Caucasians, Dr. Fauci proclaimed. “In many respects, it’s unacceptable that it should be that way,” he said, noting that the hospitalization rate per 100,000 African Americans stands at 247, compared to 53 per 100,000 whites.
    “In other words, that’s almost five times the chance of getting hospitalized even though African Americans comprise just 13 percent of the [U.S.] population,” Dr. Fauci observed. “That’s more than something we need to deal with.”
    Dr. Fauci added that there are five fundamental things everyone could do to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
    “Wear a mask, avoid crowds of more than 10, keep a distance of at least six feet, locations should seriously consider closing bars and getting people who go to bars to stop or do it outside, and wash hands frequently either with soap and water or alcohol Purell.”
    Clinical trials are vital, Dr. Fauci said. “We hope that we will have an effective vaccine by the end of the year, which means that as we get into 2021, we want to distribute it for those who could benefit,” he added.
    “We need to spend extra effort to protect African Americans, and the way you find out if the vaccine is effective is the enrollment in a vaccine trial. It would be a terrible shame if African Americans stayed away from clinical trials, and they didn’t provide for themselves the vaccine that could protect them.”
    Dr. Fauci suggested that he wears a mask everywhere goes and demanded that doing so shouldn’t be about politics. “This is about protecting each other. We’re all in this together,” Dr. Fauci said.
    “I’m pleased to see that we now have the president talking about wearing a mask where he didn’t before, and the vice president wears a mask everywhere he goes. We’ve got to pull together.”

  • Newswire : Obama gives passionate eulogy as John Lewis honored at funeral in MLK’s Atlanta church

    President Obama speaks at John Lewis’ funeral

    By Minyvonne Burke and Doha Madani, NBC News

    Former president Barack Obama gave a searing eulogy for John Lewis, urging Americans to honor the legacy of a civil rights giant by engaging in the “good trouble” that leads to a more perfect democracy in the face of powerful institutions that seek to oppress.
    Obama spoke from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church during the funeral for Lewis in Atlanta on Thursday, where he said he was there because he owed a debt to the 16-term congressman and his “forceful vision of freedom.” Obama, the country’s first Black president, remarked on the instructions given to Americans enshrined in the constitution to create a “more perfect union.”
    “John never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country can do,” Obama said. “I mentioned in the statement the day John passed, the thing about John was just how gentle and humble he was. And despite this storied, remarkable career, he treated everyone with kindness and respect because it was innate to him. This idea that any of us can do what he did, if we’re willing to persevere.”
    The former president spoke on the current threat to voting rights in America, a cause that Lewis nearly gave his life for as a young man, and the responsibility citizens have to continue to engage in the fight for equality.
    “Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans,” Obama said. “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.”
    While some may criticize those who “dwell on” such injustices during Lewis’ funeral, Obama said they were the same attacks on American democracy that Lewis devoted his entire life to combating. Obama took aim at recent efforts to disenfranchise voters and called on leaders to honor Lewis by revitalizing and protecting voting rights.
    “We may not have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting — by closing polling locations, and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws,” Obama continued.
    “And attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.”
    Remembering a friend, lawmaker, warrior of peace
    The private funeral began at 11 a.m. at the church that was once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
    “We have come to say goodbye to our friend in these difficult days,” the Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor, said. “Come on, let the nation celebrate, let the angels rejoice … John Lewis, the boy from Troy, the conscience of the Congress.”
    Lewis, who represented Atlanta in the House of Representatives after serving as a young leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, died on July 17 following a monthslong battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80.
    In addition to Obama’s eulogy, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton spoke at the funeral that will conclude memorial services held for Lewis over six days in several cities. President Donald Trump did not attend the funeral.

  • Newswire: U.S. Postal Service to review stamp honoring Supremes Florence Ballard

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent

    Original Supremes, with Florence Ballard


    Supremes legend Mary Wilson is on a crusade that she hopes will end with the United States Postal Service commemorating her late bandmate and close friend Florence Ballard on a Forever Stamp.
    “I get so emotional when I speak about Flo,” said Wilson, who received a 2020 NNPA Lifetime Achievement Award during the Black Press of America’s recently completed virtual convention.
    “I’ve been working hard to get that recognition for her because she deserves it.”
    Wilson noted that the U.S. Postal Service has done a brilliant job of issuing commemorative postage stamps about iconic pop culture heroes who have helped shape the world.
    In the past, there have been U.S. Postage Stamps to celebrate the lives and accomplishments of several music business legends, including Elvis Presley, Sarah Vaughn, Patsy Cline, Jimi Hendryx, Marvin Gaye, and Janis Joplin.
    Wilson’s quest to get the U.S. Postal Service to issue a stamp to celebrate Ballard, a founding star of The Supremes, has gained momentum.
    “We have received a proposal from the public, and it will be reviewed at our next Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee meeting,” Roy Betts, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman, told BlackPressUSA.
    The U.S. Postal Service and the members of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) have set specific criteria used in determining the eligibility of subjects for commemoration on all U.S. stamps and stationery, Betts added.
    Among them are that stamps and stationery would primarily feature American or American-related subjects. The Postal Service will honor extraordinary and enduring contributions to American society, history, culture, or environment.
    U.S. stamp programs are planned and developed two to three years in advance and, consideration would occur if suggestions are submitted three or more years in advance of the proposed stamp.
    In 2018, the Postal Service began considering proposals for deceased individuals three years following their death.
    Officials noted that the stamp program commemorates positive contributions to American life, history, culture, and environment.
    Born in Detroit in 1943, Ballard was the eighth of Jesse and Lurlee Ballard’s thirteen children.
    Almost from the start, music played an essential part in her life, according to her biography.
    Her father was her first teacher, and a young Ballard displayed a keen interest in his music. Jesse Ballard would play particular songs and teach his daughter to sing them.
    Those early lessons made a deep impression, and legend has it that Florence Ballard was soon out-singing her father.Ballard’s musical gift was hard to go unnoticed. As she grew older, she found an outlet for her singing in school music classes and choirs.
    While in her early teens, Ballard’s career was set in motion.
    Two of her neighbors, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, sang in a group called the Primes (later to become the Temptations). They introduced her to manager Milton Jenkins, who was so impressed with the 14-year-old’s voice that he asked her to perform as a soloist along with the Primes. After Ballard appeared with the group for a few engagements, Jenkins knew he had found an outstanding talent, her biography read.
    Since groups were popular in the late 1950s, Jenkins suggested that Ballard form a sister group to the Primes. Immediately she asked her friend, Mary Wilson, to be a member of the group. Betty McGlown and Mary’s friend, Diana Ross, were also recruited. After gaining their parent’s permission, the four teenagers, in the spring of 1959, became officially known as the Primettes. They began rehearsals with Ballard as the lead singer.
    McGlown departed just before the group found fame at Motown with the name, The Supremes. Ballard died in 1976 at the age of 31. “The memories are so vivid,” Wilson said. “Florence Ballard was such a wonderful person. It’s my sincere hope that we can get the Postal Service to honor her now.”

  • Newswire: West African leaders rush to save President of Mali from expulsion

    Mali opposition leader M. Dicko

    July 27, 2020 (GIN) – Presidents from five West African countries are stepping up efforts to end a crisis in Mali which threatens to topple the President of that troubled country.
    The five regional leaders, Malian government officials and members of the opposition were meeting since the previous week following a month of street protests by tens of thousands of Malians that sparked clashes with police in which the United Nations says at least 14 protesters died.
    Malians are said to be furious over government foot dragging on entrenched corruption, disputed local election results and army losses to jihadists.
    Mahamadou Issoufou, President of Niger and current chair of ECOWAS, a 15-member regional, political and economic union, pledged that strong measures were being planned to resolve the crisis.
    The opposition, called M5-RFP and headed by Mahmoud Dicko, a Muslim cleric, warned that protests would continue until Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita stepped down. After a final meeting late last Thursday, Dicko told journalists there had been no progress, and nothing had been offered at the moment that was acceptable to them.
    “M5-RFP demands the resignation of Keita or the satisfaction of our demands,” which include the establishment of a committee of inquiry into civilian deaths and a transitional government, the group’s spokesman Nouhoum Togo told Reuters news service.
    Niger’s Issoufou rejected the call for President Keita’s resignation. “There will be no unconstitutional change of power in the ECOWAS region,” Issoufou declared.
    This won’t be the first time that ECOWAS has intervened to settle problems in Mali. A coup by disgruntled military over the management of the Tuareg rebellion in 2012 and raging inter-ethnic conflicts, predominantly pitting the Fulani against the Dogon communities, brought harsh sanctions by ECOWAS leaders.
    According to Human Rights Watch, Mali’s human rights situation deteriorated in 2019 as hundreds of civilians were killed in numerous attacks by armed Islamists in northern and central parts of the county allied to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The Islamists targeted Malian security services, peacekeepers, international forces, and increasingly, civilians.
    Malian security forces, in counterterrorism operations, also subjected numerous suspects to severe mistreatment and several died in custody or were forcibly disappeared.
    A U.N. force, called MINUSMA, established by the U.N. Security Council in 2013, continues to work in the country with a total of more than 15,000 personnel and 15,209 military personnel, police and others.

  • Newswire: Rep. Sewell Calls on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take up and pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020

    Headshot of Congresswoman Terri Sewell

    Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by unanimous consent House Concurrent Resolution 107 to rename H.R. 4 the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07), who introduced and shepherded H.R. 4 through the House of Representatives last year, praised the decision to rename the legislation for her late colleague, mentor and friend.
    “There is no better way to honor Congressman Lewis’ legacy than to restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 so that every American – regardless of color – is able to make their voice heard at the ballot box. It is fitting that the House moved today to rename H.R. 4 in John’s name,” Sewell said. “The bill has been languishing in Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s legislative graveyard for 234 days. McConnell has taken to the floor to honor John, but the most significant thing he can do is to bring up the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020 for a vote. Now is the time for action to honor John’s legacy!”
    The Supreme Courts’ 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlined the qualifications needed to determine which states are required by the Justice Department to pre-clear elections changes in states with a history of voter discrimination.
    Since the Shelby decision, nearly two-dozen states have implemented restrictive voter ID laws and previously-covered states have closed or consolidated polling places, shortened early voting and imposed other measures that restrict voting.
    The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020 seeks to restore the VRA by developing a process to determine which states must pre-clear election changes with the Department of Justice. It will also require a nationwide, practice-based pre-clearance of known discriminatory practices, including the creation of at-large districts, inadequate multilingual voting materials, cuts to polling places, changes that reduce the days or hours of in person voting on Sundays during the early voting period and changes to the maintenance of voter registration lists that adds a basis or institutes a new process for removal from the lists, where the jurisdiction includes racial or language minority populations above a certain percent threshold.
    Under the legislation, there are three ways to become a covered jurisdiction that is required to pre-clear election changes:
    States with a history of 15 or more violations at any level in the previous 25 years; or
    States with a history of 10 or more violations, if one violation occurs at the state level in the previous 25 years; or
    Political subdivisions or localities with 3 or more violations in that subdivision in the previous 25 years.
    The bill is supported by more than 60 national organizations, including the NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, NALEO Educational Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Native American Rights Fund, League of Women Voters of the United States, AAUW, ACLU, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, Communications Workers of America, SEIU, UAW, Democracy 21, Democracy Initiative, End Citizens United Action Fund, Sierra Club, and League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.

  • Newswire: NNPA teams with Magic Johnson to fund over $100 Million in PPP loans for Minority and Women-Owned Businesses

    Benjamin Chavis and Magic Johnson

    July 25, 2020 (Washington, DC) — Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) announced today that he and the NNPA have agreed to assist the efforts of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, majority owner of EquiTrust, the nation’s largest minority-owned insurance company, and MBE Capital Partners (MBECP), the largest certified minority-owned asset-based lender, in funding over $100 million in PPP loans.
    EquiTrust, MBECP and the NNPA together today are focused on informing and encouraging minority- and women-owned businesses throughout the United States to take advantage of the current PPP loan opportunities for businesses in underserved communities.
    Dr. Chavis emphasized, “I have the highest regard and respect for the entrepreneurial leadership and courage of Earvin Magic Johnson. The NNPA, therefore, is enthusiastic and pleased to assist Johnson’s EquiTrust and with MBE Capital to enhance the economic recovery of African American and other minority owned businesses amidst the devastating COVID-19 pandemic in America. Our businesses are the lifeblood of our communities.”
    Johnson’s EquiTrust is providing critical financial support to underserved communities and businesses that have been traditionally neglected. These small and diverse businesses often have difficulty developing strong lending relationships with big banks. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, up to 90% of businesses owned by people of color have been, or will likely be, shut out of the PPP program.
    MBE Capital is perfectly positioned to help small and diverse businesses take advantage of this latest round of PPP funding; and the company is an approved SBA lender with over 20 years of experience serving diverse and minority businesses. They can process up to 5,000 loans per day, utilizing end-to-end online technology to accept, underwrite and transmit the applications to the SBA. MBE Capital has already processed over $300,000,000 in PPP loans — including the EquiTrust partnership funding $100,000,000.
    The NNPA is the nation’s largest trade association of African American-owned newspapers and media businesses that reach 22.4 million readers per week across the nation.
    MBECP has also partnered with The Enterprise Center (TEC), a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), providing them with technology and resources to help them process over $100,000,000 in PPP loans. This will allow TEC’s CDFI to process more SBA loans in two weeks then they have in the last 10 years.
    By working with Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s EquiTrust, MBECP’s pipeline is over $500,000,000. MBE Capital is committed to providing vital funding for small businesses in underserved communities. With almost $100 billion left in the second round of PPP funding, it is imperative that vulnerable small businesses are able to secure resources needed to sustain themselves.
    According to Rafael Martinez, CEO of MBE Capital: “I contacted EquiTrust, to be an additional strategic partner because I know that EquiTrust believes in changing outcomes for underserved communities the way I do. The team at EquiTrust and my direct contact Kenyatta Matheny were incredible, and we put this deal together from first call to contracts in a week.” He added: “After receiving hundreds of emails and calls from applicants asking if they can receive their PPP loans as soon as possible because this was a last hope to stay open – and in some cases to keep food on the tables of their employees – I was moved to expand this and look to fund over 20,000 PPP loans for minority companies.”
    “This is a unique SBA-backed opportunity to use the vast resources of EquiTrust’s to prudently provide real and much needed cash to deserving minority and women-owned businesses that find it difficult to secure such funding through traditional means,” said Eric Holoman, President and Chief Executive Officer of EquiTrust. “The jobs saved will make a significant difference to their families and communities. Equitrust is excited to partner with Rafael Martinez and MBECP to do this and more as we try to level the playing field for businesses that are the backbone of America.”

    APPLY FOR A PPP LOAN TODAY OR LEARN MORE: https://mbeppp.com/go/nnpa/ Loan Referral Code: NNPA

  • Newswire: John Lewis makes final crossing over Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma

    By Eric Velasco, The Washington Post

    John Lewis casket crosses Selma bridge for last time
    Congressman John Lewis casket

    Fifty-five years ago, Alabama state troopers beat John Lewis and hundreds of protesters as they crossed Edmund Pettus Bridge. On Sunday, troopers saluted the late civil rights leader after he made his final journey across the span.
    The body of the 17-term congressman was carried on a horse-drawn caisson from Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church to the bridge, where rose petals had been scattered. Two horses and a driver led the flag-draped casket, which paused a few minutes on the bridge above the Alabama River. On the other side, the words of “We Shall Overcome” could be heard as family, hundreds of onlookers and several troopers greeted Lewis.
    A military honor guard moved the casket from the caisson to a hearse for the trip to Montgomery. Alabama state police were accompanying Lewis to the state capital.
    “It is poetic justice that this time Alabama state troopers will see John to his safety,” Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.) said.
    The ceremony is the second day in six days of tributes to the son of sharecroppers, fighter for civil rights and lawmaker widely hailed as the conscience of Congress. Lewis (D-Ga.) died July 17 at the age of 80 after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
    The honors began Saturday in Lewis’s birthplace of Troy, Ala., with prayers, family recollections, songs and a plea to carry on his legacy of fighting for a more just society. It will end Thursday with a service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached.
    In between, Lewis will lie in state in two state capitols — Montgomery and Atlanta — and in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, where the nation has paid tribute to past presidents, lawmakers and other distinguished citizens, including civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks in 2005.
    Lewis’s crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge 55 years ago was a defining moment for a nation and the young activist. The ceremony on Sunday comes amid a national reckoning over systemic racism in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, a black man, and weeks of protests nationwide.
    On March 7, 1965, Lewis, then the 25-year-old chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, led about 600 protesters in a march across the bridge for civil rights. State troopers beat the demonstrators, and Lewis suffered a cracked skull on what became known as Bloody Sunday.
    “I was hit in the head by a state trooper with a nightstick,” Lewis said decades later. “I really believe to this day that I saw death.”
    Within months, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which was meant to end the obstacles preventing black people from voting.
    John Lewis nearly died on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Now it may be renamed for him.
    In subsequent years, Lewis has led an annual march of Republicans and Democrats, current and former presidents across the bridge. Most notably, in 2015 on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he walked across the span with the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama; former president George W. Bush; and many of the foot soldiers of the 1960s movement.
    “We just need to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to know that this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us,” Obama said. “We know the march is not yet over; we know the race is not yet won. We know reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character requires admitting as much.”
    In the days after Lewis’s death, there have been renewed calls for Congress to act on voting rights and name the legislation in Lewis’s honor. In 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated a crucial component of the landmark law, ruling that Congress had not taken into account the nation’s racial progress when citing certain states for federal oversight.
    The House passed legislation in December to restore those protections, but the bill has languished in the GOP-led Senate.
    There also have been calls to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge for Lewis. Pettus was a Confederate officer and a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
    At the service at Troy University on Saturday, Lewis’s flag-draped casket was carried by men in masks, and attendees were seated six feet apart, a reminder that the country is still in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 150,000 Americans, a disproportionate number from low-income, minority communities.
    Lewis’s brother Freddie Lewis implored people to continue his legacy by voting. His sister Rosa Mae Tyner recalled that he “lived with the never-ending desire to help others.” Another brother, Henry “Grant” Lewis, said Lewis “would gravitate toward the least of us.”
    The late congressman’s young great-nephew, Jaxon Lewis Brewster, called Lewis his “hero.” “It’s up to us to keep his legacy alive,” the 7-year-old said.
    Henry Grant Lewis recalled his last conversation with his brother the night before he died. Lewis was, as always, concerned about others, asking how the family was doing and wanting his brother to tell them he’d asked about them.
    Henry Grant Lewis also shared an exchange he’d had with his brother when he was first sworn in to Congress. The new lawmaker looked up at his family watching from the gallery above the House floor and flashed his brother a thumbs up. Afterward, Henry Grant Lewis asked his brother what he was thinking when he made that gesture. “I was thinking,” he recalled his brother saying, “this is a long way from the cotton fields of Alabama.”

  • Newswire: France returns remains of Algerian resistance fighters, killed decades ago

    Coffins of fighters returned to Algeria


    Jul. 6, 2020 (GIN) – “The martyrs are returning home.” Those were the words of noted historian Malika Rahal on learning that the remains of 24 Algerian resistance fighters, killed in the Algerian independence war of 1954-62, would be flown back to Algeria after years kept by the French in a museum’s storage area.
    “The body parts of those who fought the conquest of their country are returning home after a very long stay in cardboard boxes at the Musee de l’Homme in Paris,” Rahal said.
    Algeria had officially asked for the return of the remains in 2018, as well as a handover of colonial archives but bureaucratic obstacles blocked their return until now, when a worldwide reexamination of the legacy of colonialism since the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer is taking place.
    The remains – skulls of decapitated fighters – were viewed as war trophies by French colonial officers.
    “This is the monstrous face of colonization,” Algerian army chief Said Chengiha said in a speech on July 3.
    Algerian historian Ali-Farid Belkadi, the first to make the grisly discovery while doing research, alerted Algerian authorities. He said the skulls were kept in “vulgar cardboard boxes that resemble shoe boxes”.
    On July 5, Algeria’s 58th anniversary of independence, the fighters’ remains will finally be laid to rest in the martyrs’ section of the capital’s El Alia cemetery, local media reported. They were flown into Algiers airport from France on a Hercules C-130 transport plane, escorted on arrival by Algerian fighter jets, an AFP correspondent said.
    To a 21-gun salute, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and a military guard of honor gave the war heroes an official welcome. Tebboune bowed in front of each coffin and a Muslim cleric recited a prayer for the dead.
    France’s 132 years of colonial rule, and the brutal eight-year war that ended it, have left a lasting legacy of tensions between the two governments and peoples. The French presidency described the handover as an effort to “reconcile the memories of the French and Algerian people”.
    Historians welcomed the return of the remains, but say they are just part of Algeria’s history that is still in French hands. “We have recovered part of our memory,” historian Mohamed El Korso told the AP news agency.
    “But the fight must continue, until the recovery of all the remains of the resistance fighters, which number in the hundreds, and the archives of our revolution.”

  • Newswire: Thousands of essential workers walk off jobs in ‘Strike for Black Lives’

    by Derek Major, Black Enterprise News Service

    Participants in ‘Strike for Black Lives’


    Thousands of essential workers walked off the job Monday in the Strike For Black Lives, demanding corporations raise wages, provide healthcare and paid sick leave, and the right to unionize.
    According to CNN, the walkout, called the Strike for Black Lives, took place in more than 100 cities across the U.S. Protesters included Black and Latino fast-food workers, home health aides, janitors, and others in industries where Black workers are disproportionately represented.
    The Strike For Black Lives was organized by the Movement for Black Lives along with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Fight for $15, the Poor People’s Campaign, and other labor advocacy organizations.
    “Black people are dying, Black communities are in danger, and workers of all races have had enough,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of the SEIU—which represents almost 2 million service workers—in a statement. “With the Strike for Black Lives, we are uniting the interconnected fights for racial and economic justice.”
    In addition to striking workers, organizers said thousands more walked away from their job for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin laid his knee on George Floyd’s neck.
    The strike was mostly aimed at large corporations such as McDonald’s, Amazon, Uber, and Lyft, who have fought against healthcare plans, paid sick leave, hazard pay, and unions.
    “If you’re concerned about life, you have to challenge corporations that will put up a hashtag or slogan but do nothing about workers having healthcare or a living wage or decent employment,” Rev. Dr. William Barber II, leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, told CNN.
    A study in May found Black Americans, who make up a disproportionate percentage of essential workers, are more likely to die from the coronavirus, representing 60% of deaths and only 13.4% of the population.
    Many large corporations have ended the pay raises and sick leave policies they instituted at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Kroger and Rite Aid ended the pay bumps in May and Amazon and Albertsons ended the hikes in June. Stop & Shop ended its pay raises earlier this month.
    “The danger facing essential workers hasn’t diminished. Any job where a worker is interacting closely with the public or coworkers for an extended period of time elevates the possibility of contracting coronavirus,” said Indeed economist AnnElizabeth Konkel.