The Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • Newswire :Shooting death in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery, is defined as a “Modern Day Lynching”

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    Ahmaud Arbery


    Months after the U.S. House passed a new lynching law, which has been held up by the Republican led U.S. Senate, and a day after investigative journalist Ida B. Wells was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize — a lynching story dated February 23, 2020 is in the news.
    The shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, went viral on social media on May 6, months after his murder. The video shows Arbery jogging down a street in Brunswick, Georgia. It appears to demonstrate the involvement of three men — two on a pickup truck and another filming the scene from behind.
    Arbery’s death took place on February 23rd about three miles from where he lived. Arbery was an avid jogger and played football.
    The two men on the pickup truck have been identified through numerous media reports as Greg McMichael, a retired investigator in the Brunswick District Attorney’s office, and his son Travis McMichael. They appear to follow Arbery from behind as he is jogging down a suburban street. Travis McMichael, the alleged shooter, is seen confronting Arbery and part of a struggle ensues in and outside of the camera’s range. The sound of shotgun fire is heard. Arbery is then seen on video collapsing after the sound of the gunshot in front of the truck.
    Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself because one of the men seen in the video of the fatal shooting pointing a gun at Arbery worked in the district attorney’s office.
    During an exclusive interview on Roland Martin Unfiltered on May 7th with Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones confirmed there was no support of her from anyone in the small Georgia community after her son died. That is changing. Since the viral video has been widely seen everyone from LeBron James to former Vice President Biden and President Trump has commented on Arbery’s death.
    “Initially I was told there was a burglary and a struggle over a firearm,” Cooper-Jones said on Roland Martin Unfiltered. She confirmed she has not watched the video of her son’s death but the description of it from others did not line up with what authorities told her after her son died.
    “I need to get these men indicted. They need to go to jail. Two months has been too long,” said Jones on Martin’s show answering a question from Dr. Gregg Carr, the Chairman of the African American Studies Department at Howard University.
    Late on May 7, Greg and Travis McMichael were finally arrested. Many observers of the breaking news warned that the exotic charges and where any future court case is likely to take place matters.
    The Congressional Black Caucus had demanded arrests the day before and released a statement that in part read, “the killing of Ahmaud Arbery shows us that the spirit of lynching is still alive and well in our nation and something that we cannot tolerate.”
    “The scary thing for me is the they thought the video would help his client. The culture is so backwards down there they actually thought that,” said Arbery family attorney Lee Merritt on Roland Martin Unfiltered. The case has widely been compared to the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida by George Zimmerman.
    “What happened to #AhmaudArbery is a MODERN DAY LYNCHING. This February, the House overwhelmingly passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which would make lynching a federal crime,” wrote Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)
    South Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Tim Scott wrote, “ Every.single.time. The excuses pour in – ‘he looked suspicious’… ‘we thought he was committing a crime”…The fact remains, #AhmaudArbery was hunted down from a pickup truck and murdered in cold blood. My heart breaks for his family, and justice must be served.”
    Likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said, Arbery was “shot down in cold blood,” and his killing reflected a “rising pandemic of hate.”
    “AhmaudArbery should still be alive right now. This is tragic and unacceptable. It should ignite us all in demands for justice. I’m calling on the Department of Justice to investigate. We need justice for Ahmaud and his family,” wrote Sen. Cory Booker on twitter.
    Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

  • Newswire : $420 million needed to implement Covid-19 strategy in Africa

    Map of Africa

    by BlackmansStreet.Today

    Implementation of the Africa Continental Strategy on Covid-19, will cost $420 million over the next six months, said Moussa Faki Mahamat, commission chairperson of the African Union, which is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
    “The economic dimension aims to realize debt relief for the continent, and the provision of sufficient liquidity to get Africa through the crisis,” Mahamat said.
    African Union Chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also president of South Africa, has appointed four special envoys to advocate with partners and the international community to provide substantial support to Africa in the face of the potential crisis caused by Covid-19.
    As of April 21, the African Union reported 23,505 Covid-19 cases and 1,158 deaths in 52 African countries.
    The five African countries with the highest number of cases are: Egypt (3,333; 14%), South African (3,300; 14%), Morocco (3,064; 13%), Algeria (2,718; 12%) and Cameroon (1,163; 5%).
    The World Health Organization reported that as of May 1, there were 40,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,600 deaths in Africa.
    The African Union announced that it is in discussions with the Republic of Madagascar to obtain technical data concerning the safety and efficiency of Artemisia annua, an herbal remedy to prevent and treat Covid-19.
    The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention will review the scientific data gathered so far on the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 organics, the African Union reported.
    Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, unveiled an unproven cure for COVID-19 that is derived from a plant, also known as Sweet wormwood.The remedy is called Covid Organics and it is marketed as an herbal tea that people drink.
    Madagascar has a low number of confirmed Covid-19 cases — just 121 out of a population of 26 million — and no reported deaths as of April 20. Madagascar is an Island nation off the coast of Africa.
    Sweet wormwood, which is grown in Africa and in China, is successfully used to treat fevers.

  • Newswire : Little Richard, one of the most Influential Founding Fathers of Rock n’ Roll, dies at 87

    Little Richard

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, was one of the most influential singer songwriters in popular music. He was one of the founders of Rock n’ Roll in the 1950s and one of the most memorable performers in rock history. Little Richard was born in 1932 in Macon, Georgia.
    “Tutti Frutti” (1955), one of Richard’s signature songs, became a hit reaching the No. 2 on the Billboard chart. Another hit, “Long Tall Sally” (1956), hit No. 1 on Billboard. “Tutti Frutti” was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010 and cited for its “unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music”. Two of his songs,”Tutti Frutti” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
    Little Richard’s music was covered by several artists thereafter and his influence included The Beatles, who opened for Little Richard as he toured Europe in 1962. He also advised Paul McCartney on his distinctive vocalizations. Little Richard influenced Otis Redding, James Brown, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, John Lennon and Cliff Richard and those influences frequently showed up in their music.
    Legend has it that James Brown came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, “Please, Please, Please”, after Richard had written the words down on a napkin. Redding started his professional career with Little Richard’s band, The Upsetters. Bob Dylan performed covers of Little Richard’s songs on piano during a high school talent show with his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords. In 1959, Dylan wrote in his yearbook under “Ambition”: “to join Little Richard.”
    Many Rock critics noted the similarities between Prince’s androgynous look and vocal style to Little Richard.
    In 1963, Richard agreed to assist a failing tour effort by The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and The Rolling Stones and was given his own TV special after the tour ended.
    Little Richard received all the honors possible in music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of legendary inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
    Little Richard is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2015, Richard received a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from the National Museum of African American Music for his key role in the formation of popular music genres and helping to bring an end to the racial divide on the music charts and in concert in the mid-1950s changing American culture significantly.
    At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Little Richard sent a demo to Price’s label, Specialty Records, in 1955. Producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, who worked at Specialty Records, thought Little Richard was Specialty’s answer to Ray Charles, but was told by Little Richard he was a fan of the sound of Fats Domino. In 1955, he recorded “Tutti Frutti” in three takes and it was released as a single in November 1955.
    Penniman’s performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated audience reaction during an era of strict segregation in the South. On tours that included groups of music stars, Little Richard and other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry would allow audiences Black and white to enter buildings via the same door but sit in separate places — but everyone would dance.
    Vocal supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council warned that rock and roll “brings the races together.” The universal popularity of Little Richard killed the myth that black performers could not successfully perform at white-only venues.
    Little Richard’s high-energy performances while playing the piano included dancing on top of the piano, running on and off the stage and throwing souvenirs to the audience. He also dressed flamboyantly onstage. Some of what is taken for granted now in popular music was invented by Little Richard.
    Little Richard was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and Rolling Stone listed three of Little Richard’s recordings, “The Girl Can’t Help It”, “Long Tall Sally” and “Tutti Frutti”, on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
    Little Richard was the third of 12 children of Leva Mae and Charles Penniman. His father was a church deacon and his mother was a member of Macon’s New Hope Baptist Church.

  • Newswire: Trump vows complete end of Obamacare law despite pandemic

    By Devlin Barrett, The Washington Post
    President Trump said last Wednesday he will continue trying to toss out all of the Affordable Care Act, even as some in his administration, including Attorney General William P. Barr, have privately argued parts of the law should be preserved amid a pandemic.
    “We want to terminate health care under Obamacare,” Trump told reporters Wednesday, the last day for his administration to change its position in a Supreme Court case challenging the law. “Obamacare, we run it really well. . . . But running it great, it’s still lousy health care.”
    While the president has said he will preserve some of the Affordable Care Act’s most popular provisions, including guaranteed coverage for preexisting medical conditions, he has not offered a plan to do so, and his administration’s legal position seeks to end all parts of the law, including those provisions.
    Democrats, who view the fight over the Affordable Care Act as a winning election issue for them, denounced the president’s decision.
    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement that “the President’s insistence on doubling down on his senseless and cruel argument in court to destroy the ACA and every last one of its benefits and protections is unconscionable, particularly in the middle of a pandemic.”
    Trump’s declaration caps months of debate within his administration about the best course of action, in which the stakes have only become greater now that the nation’s health-care system is struggling to deal with the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 80,000 Americans.
    On Monday, Barr attended a meeting of senior officials in which he argued the administration should temper its opposition to Obamacare, leaving some parts of the law intact, according to people familiar with the discussion, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversation was private.
    The case before the court was brought by a group of Republican states, and as part of that case, the Trump administration is seeking to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act, which passed in 2010 and became one of President Barack Obama’s most significant legislative victories.
    Barr and others in the administration have argued that killing Obamacare completely could be politically damaging to Republicans in an election year, particularly when there is a national health crisis. In two previous case, the Supreme Court upheld the law, but if the high court were to strike it down, millions of people could find themselves without affordable health care.
    The high court plans to hear arguments in the case later this year, and a decision may not come until 2021, well after the November election.
    The latest ACA suit was organized by Republican attorneys general in Texas and other states. When the Trump administration declined to defend the law, a coalition of Democratic-led states entered.
    The case began after the Republican-led Congress in 2017, unable to secure the votes to abolish the law, reduced to zero the penalty for a person not buying health insurance. Lawyers for the state of Texas argued that in doing so, Congress had removed the essential tax element that the Supreme Court had previously ruled made the program constitutional.
    A district judge in Texas agreed and said the entire law must fall. Eventually the Trump administration agreed with that assessment.

  • Newswire: Congresswomen Terri Sewell criticizes state plans for $1.8 billion CARES virus funds, suggests this would be the perfect time to expand Medicaid

    Special to the Democrat By: John Zippert

    Congresswoman Terri Sewell


    In a Zoom press conference, held on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, Alabama Congresswomen Terri Sewell criticized and questioned the plans of the Alabama Legislature to use $1.8 billion in Federal funds, allocated by the CARES Act to cover
    costs related to the coronavirus pandemic.
    Sewell who represents Alabama’s 7th Congressional District stretch from Birmingham, through Tuscaloosa to the Black Belt has a Black majority popular and many of the urban and rural people who live in the state. Calling the Legislature’s wishlist of potential projects “an outage and an abomination” Sewell said the worst item on the list was $200 million to build a new building to the house the State Legislature. “We need to prioritize healthcare and economic development related assistance to city and county governments. Nowhere on the Legislative wishlist were any measures to close the gaping holes in our disease testing plans nor any mention of initiating a needed and meaningful contact tracing program to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus,” said Sewell. She pointed out that there was a need for Federal oversight of the CARES funds to insure they were used for purposes related to dealing with the immediate healthcare crisis caused by the virus. “ I also did not see any mention of expanding Medicaid to serve the people of Alabama whose health in endangered by the coronavirus pandemic. Expanding Medicaid with these funds would also help those people with underlying medical conditions that have not been insured in the past and therefore did not seek needed medical attention. It would help to prioritize healthcare in health disparity areas in my district,” she said. “Expanding Medicaid immediately would also help hospitals in the state, especially rural hospitals that are serving the uninsured but running up financial losses providing uncompensated care. The need for expanding Medicaid has been increased by the large number of newly unemployed people in Alabama, who have lost the healthcare coverage along with the jobs in this crisis,” said Sewell. In answer to a reporter’s questions, Sewell said, “This would be a perfect time for the State of Alabama to expand Medicaid and help provide health insurance for more than 300,000 people in the state, who need this health coverage because of this pandemic. This is what the CARES Act funds were supposed to be spent for. This was part of the Congress’ legislative intent.” Sewell said she was working on including testing, contact tracing and treatment;
    direct assistance to county and cities; expansion of the Child Care Tax Credit; hazardous pay and bonuses for front-line workers, especially in healthcare and other provisions in the next round of coronavirus funding from Congress.

  • Newswire : Two white men arrested for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Black jogger in Brunswick, GA

    By Frederick H. Lowe, BlackmansStreet.Today

    Ahmaud Arbery



    The Georgia Bureau of investigation on Thursday arrested a father and son, charging them with the murder of a black jogger more than three months after the deadly shooting, but only two days after a cellphone video surfaced that sparked national outrage and demands for justice.
    Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, were charged with murder and aggravated assault for the February 23 deadly shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, as he jogged through the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia, according to the GBI. The McMichaels were booked into the Glynn County Jail.
    Arbery, who would have celebrated his 26th birthday Friday, was out for a run when Gregory McMichael,64, a retired Glynn County cop, and now an investigator for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit district attorney, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, and another man only identified as “Roddy” chased down Arbery in their pickup truck and another vehicle before confronting and killing him.
    The elder McMichael claims Arbery had been burglarizing houses in the neighborhood and that’s why they chased him down. Gregory McMichael was armed with a .357 Magnum revolver and Travis was armed with a shotgun. It is not known what type of weapon, if any, Roddy carried.
    When the men caught up with Arbery, the video, which appears to have been shot from inside a vehicle, shows he jogged around the truck. Travis, however, got out of the vehicle, struggled with Arbery over the rifle before Travis shot him twice, killing him.
    Police refused to charge the McMichael’s for Arberry’s murder, arguing that Travis Michael shot Arberry in self-defense. The police did not say anything about Arberry having the right to defend himself from two men with guns accosting him.
    Police arrested the McMichaels following the release of a video on Tuesday.
    Alan Tucker, an attorney and friend of the two men, said he released the video to clear up any misconceptions about what had happened.
    The video, however, alarmed elected officials, including Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Others said Arbery had been lynched.
    The politicians demanded that police arrest the McMichael
    A Black woman district attorney was named as the lead prosecutor handling the Ahmaud Arbery murder case in which two white men have been accused in the killing of an unarmed Black man while he was jogging in Georgia. This is after three white prosecuting attorneys in the Glynn mitigate the County area withdrew from the case citing prior relationships with the accused killers.
    Joyette Holmes, the district attorney in Cobb County and a former judge, was appointed on Monday to take over prosecuting the case surrounding the killing in the town of Brunswick. She is also a Republican who was selected for her current position by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
    According to her official bio, Holmes “was sworn in as District Attorney of the Cobb Judicial Circuit on July 1, 2019. She has been both a prosecutor and a defense attorney in Cobb. Most recently, she served for four years as Chief Magistrate of Cobb County.” She is the county’s first African American district attorney and its first woman district attorney. Holmes’ predecessor left to take over the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), prompting Kemp to appoint her to fill the role. Prior to becoming the Cobb County district attorney, Holmes was the chief magistrate judge of the Cobb County Magistrate Court from 2015-2019.

  • Alabama National Guard sanitizes Greene County Health System facilities

    Members of the Alabama National Guard prepare to clean and sanitize the Greene County Health System facilities.

    On Thursday, April 30, 2020, ten members of the Alabama National Guard, 46th CERFP Infection Control Team, under the direction of Colonel Chris Coshatt came to sanitize the three facilities of the Greene County Health System in Eutaw.
    “We really appreciate the work of the guard members who came and cleaned and fogged our Hospital, Nursing Home and Physicians Clinic. It was a sunny day, so we were able to take the patients and residents outside while the cleaning process took place,” said Dr. Marcia Pugh, CEO and Administrator of GCHS.
    Dr. Pugh also said, “They let us know what cleaning agents and chemicals that they used so we can continue to maintain the utmost cleanliness and sanitation of our facilities.”
    Dr. Pugh also advised that “We have tested all the residents of the Nursing Home. There were 25 positive cases and 17 of these were asymptomatic. We sent 8 residents to DCH. We have separated the negative and positive people in the Nursing Home. Some of the 17 asymptomatic are at the end of their 14-day quarantine. Half of those we sent to DCH have now been returned and unfortunately, two have passed on. These two had underlying conditions that contributed to their deaths from the coronavirus.”
    As of this morning, Wednesday, May 6, 2020, the State of Alabama had 8,449 confirmed cases with 339 deaths; 108,296 people in the state have been tested and 1,138 are hospitalized. The 7 and 14 day average increase of cases in the state remains above 200 new cases per day.
    For Greene County, as of today, there are 61 confirmed cases with 2 deaths and 258 total tests. For Sumter County, these are 85 cases, 4 deaths and 355 have been tested. In Hale County, there are 59 confirmed cases with 2 deaths and 375 total tests.
    Gov. Kay Ivey’s polices have called for a loosening of some restrictions on retail stores, opening the Gulf Coast beaches and maintaining social distancing requirements. On May 15, the Governor will make another evaluation of health conditions in the state and determine which additional restrictions to remove, despite the fact that new cases have steadily increased and the infection has not yet subsided in the state.
    People will need to remain vigilant of social distancing requirements, facial masks and limitations on public gatherings or the coronavirus epidemic may significantly increase again.

  • Black Farmer Organizations propose a response to coronavirus pandemic

    Black Farmer in a field of Cabbage

    Special to the Democrat by: John Zippert,
    Co-Publisher

    The Network of Black Farm Organizations and Advocates, spearheaded by the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, has developed a statement in support of Black farmers and rural communities impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
    Cornelius Blanding, Executive Director of the Federation, which works regionally in the Southeast with 10,000 of the remaining Black farmers, organized into 30 agricultural cooperatives said, “ We have been meeting with and surveying our membership about their condition and needs in the midst of this pandemic. We found many detailed and specific emergency and longer-term needs of Black farmers, farmworkers and rural communities that must be addressed during and as we move through the recovery from this pandemic.”
    “We plan to bring this list of specific programmatic demands to the attention of the Black Congressional Caucus and other members of Congress, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdew and the program administrators at USDA, Joe Biden and his Presidential campaign and the general public to make sure that people understand the special needs of Black farm families and the rural communities where they live,” said Blanding.
    The Democrat, presents the Network’s statement in full below.
    “We, the undersigned, represent the Network of Black Farm Organizations & Advocates and stand in solidarity with ALL in this nation and around the world who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We especially stand with all of those farmers, farmworkers and communities that are the backbone of our food system during these challenging times. More specifically, we represent and/or serve many of the black farmers and rural communities that have been or expect to be disproportionately impacted by this pandemic and its economic impact.

    The statement was signed by these members of the Network of Black Farm Organizations and Advocates:

    Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (Southeast Region)
    Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation (AR)
    Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project (OK)
    Land Loss Prevention Project (NC)
    Kansas Black Farmers Association (KS)
    Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc. (GA)
    Operation Spring Plant (NC)
    Landowners Association of Texas (TX)
    Rural Advancement Fund (SC)
    Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association (NC)
    Mississippi Association of Cooperatives (MS)
    Alabama State Association of Cooperatives (AL)

    Blanding said based on past experience with natural disasters as floods, hurricanes and droughts, that the Network will be vigilant to assure these concerns are addressed in the immediate emergency as well as during the long recovery period. “Over the years, we have seen disproportionate responses to the needs of Black and other minority farmers and we want to be sure that the response is fair and inclusive in response to this pandemic,” he said.
    For more information and to support this statement, contact the Federation of Southern Cooperatives through their website at: http://www.federration.coop.

  • Newswire: Catastrophic floods, linked to human activities, submerge Lake Victoria region in Africa

    Map of Africa, showing countries bordering Lake Victoria and man bailing water out of house near Lake Victoria

    May 4, 2020 (GIN) – Pounding rains over the last two months have set off catastrophic flooding of biblical proportions, surging over the weekend into some 20 of the 47 Kenyan counties bordering Lake Victoria – a massive trans-boundary body of water shared by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Some 23 rivers empty water into the lake.
    “These floods are the worst to hit the country since 1997 when heavy rains linked to the El Niño phenomenon killed more than 80 people in 24 hours”, said Abbas Gullet, Secretary General of the Kenya Red Cross after viewing the disaster area.
    Hundreds have been displaced and farmland is underwater, ruining prospects for food self-sufficiency.
    For decades, scientists have warned of the impact of human activities and climate variability causing unusual levels of rainfall.
    “Loss of forest cover, encroachment on wetlands, lakeshores and river banks including poor land use practices, have resulted in soil erosion leading to siltation of our water bodies,” Uganda’s water and environment minister, Sam Cheptoris, said. “This has resulted in the rapid movement of water into the lakes and rivers with a lot of silt, which reduced water storage capacities of our water bodies.”
    “The level is going up. We cannot stop the water,” warned Dr. Callist Tindimugaya, Ugandan commissioner for water resources planning. “Move to other areas if you are near the shores. Because water levels will increase as we release the water (from the Nalubaale Power Station) in Jinja.”
    “People have built all around the lake because the level had gone down previously,” he continued. “People encroached on the protection zone… The water is coming back to reclaim its position.”
    “It is eroding shorelines, altering ecosystems and causing flooding and economic damage,” Raphael Kapiyo, an environmental scientist in Kenya, told the Standard Media.
    There is special concern about villages and towns near the Tana River where three hydroelectric dams could be topped over by water running down from Mount Kenya.
    Waterfront properties, luxury hotels and a Protea Hotel, part of Marriott International, have also been submerged in the last few weeks.
    Leonard Ogolla, a village elder, is still counting losses incurred from the flooding.
    “Everything I owned, including my house, has been swept away. We are hoping that we can get some help to get back on our feet,” he said.
    Kenya’s meteorological department has warned the rains could continue for the next two months.

  • Newswire: Ida B. Wells awarded posthumous Pulitzer Prize for lynching investigations

    The pioneering Black journalist is revered for her reporting that exposed lynching as a white tool of political terror against Black people.
    By Sanjana Karanth, Huffington Post

    Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter of the civil rights pioneer, holds a portrait of Wells in her home in Chicago’s South Side on Dec. 2, 2011. (Charles Rex Arbogast, Associated Press);
    Ida B Wells, 1862-1931, African American Journalist, Civil rights Leader and one of the Founders for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, Illustration, 1891. (Photo by: GHI Vintage/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)



    The 2020 Pulitzer Prizes, announced on Monday, included one very important posthumous winner: Ida B. Wells, a Black woman who became one of the most prominent and intrepid investigative journalists in American history.
    Wells (1862-1931) was honored with the 2020 prize in the Special Citations and Awards category “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching,” the Pulitzer Prize Board said.
    Wells was born into slavery in Mississippi during the Civil War. She moved to Tennessee as a young woman to teach school and later to work as a journalist. After three of her friends were lynched in Memphis, Wells set out to investigate white mob violence and lynchings across the South, the work she became most famous for.
    Wells’ data reporting sought to debunk the pernicious stereotype of Black men as rapists, which was often used by white mobs as an excuse to carry out lynchings. She found that in the majority of white mob murders, rape was not even an accusation against the victim. In fact, she often found evidence that there had been a consensual interracial relationship, according to The New York Times. Wells exposed the lie that white mobs were lynching Black men because of crimes they’d committed and showed that these killings were part of white communities’ attempts to reinforce the racial caste system.
    “It is with no pleasure that I have dipped my hands in the corruption here exposed,” Wells wrote in 1892 in the introduction to “Southern Horrors,” one of her best-known pamphlets about lynching. “Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.”
    Wells also published her findings in a series of bold editorials in her newspaper, The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. While many readers were drawn to her in-depth exposés, enraged white locals burned her press and drove her away from Memphis. Wells eventually ended up in Chicago, where she continued to reveal the truth behind lynching and helped found the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs to fight for civil rights and women’s suffrage, according to the National Women’s History Museum.
    Today, Wells is widely regarded as a fearless leader and dogged reporter who shined a light on lynching as a white tool of political terror against Black people, even as she faced racism and sexism herself as a Black woman.
    “What an amazing honor for my great-grandmother … to be recognized by @PulitzerPrizes almost 90 years after she gained her wings,” writer Michelle Duster, Wells’ great-granddaughter, tweeted on Monday. “Her life is a testament to the importance of #truthtelling, even in the face of danger. May she continue to be an inspiration!”
    Nikole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for The New York Times Magazine, also won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for the 1619 Project, a groundbreaking series that sought to reframe how the U.S. understands the legacy of slavery and the role Black people have played in American democracy.
    In 2016, Hannah-Jones co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. The goal was to raise awareness of, and opportunities for, investigative reporting by journalists of color “and to foster the desire for social justice journalism and accountability reporting about racial justice,” according to the society.
    “In a time when mainstream newsrooms remain disproportionately white, where racial inequality continues to permeate every aspect of American life, and where investigative coverage of racial injustice is still lacking, The Ida B. Wells Society hopes to help steer more journalists toward the tradition of our spiritual founder,” the society’s website says.
    Last year, the Special Citations and Awards category had two winners: music legend Aretha Franklin, “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades,” and the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, “for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018, and for demonstrating unflagging commitment to covering the news and serving their community at a time of unspeakable grief.”