The Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • Newswire: Four Black men receive posthumous pardons for a rape that never happened

    The Groveland Four. In this undated image released by the State Library and Archives of Florida, Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, far left, and an unidentified man stand next to Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Charles Greenlee, from left, in Florida. The three men along with a fourth were charged with rape in 1949.
    Thurgood Marshall, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who would later become the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice

    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com
    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Florida’s governor and his cabinet, acting as the state’s Clemency Board, on Friday, Jan. 11, issued posthumous pardons to four young Black men who were interrogated, tortured and wrongly convicted for the 1949 rape of a White woman by an all-white jury. One of the boys was murdered before he was charged.
    Friday’s vote came nearly two years after the Florida Senate and the State House voted to apologize formally to the relatives of the men, known as the Groveland Four, after determining the woman was never raped 70 years ago. Then Governor Rick Scott was asked to pardon the men, but he did not take any action and did not provide an explanation for not doing so. Scott is now a U.S. Senator.
    Rick DeSantis, Florida’s new governor, who was sworn into office last week, made the pardons a priority. “I think the way this was carried out was a miscarriage of justice,” DeSantis said.
    In 1949 in Lake County, Norma Padgett, then 17, claimed she had been raped by the four men after a car in which she a passenger driven by husband broke. The four men offered to help but instead raped her, she claimed.
    Three of the accused men were arrested. Ernest Thomas, a fourth man, escaped, but he was hunted down by a posse of 1,000 men. He was shot 400 times as he slept under a tree.
    White mobs also terrorized black neighborhoods, burning down houses and firing bullets into the homes.
    Walter Irvin and Samuel Shepherd were convicted of rape and sentenced to death on Padgett’s word. Charles Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison because of his age.
    Padgett, now elderly and confined to a wheelchair, attended the hearing, still claiming she had been raped. Surrounded by male relatives, Padgett pleaded with the cabinet not to pardon the men.
    Shepherd’s cousin, Beverly Robinson, called Padgett and her family liars, which almost led to a fist fight between members of the two families.
    A physician who examined Padgett at the time of the alleged assault said she wasn’t raped. Padgett held onto the belief that she had been raped although medical evidence proved she had not been. During the trial, Judge Truman Futch refused to let the defense call the examining physician as a witness.
    This is not unusual. In another earlier and now-historic case, Irene Tuskin, 19, claimed she had been raped by three black men on June 15, 1920 in Duluth, Minnesota. A physician determined that she had not been raped after examining her.
    A white woman’s accusation against a black man, however, was law. A mob knocked the sheriff out of the way and lynched the three men —-Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie. Duluth, where singer Bob Dylan lived as a child before his family moved elsewhere. Later, Duluth erected a monument to honor the three men.
    Thurgood Marshall, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who would later become the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice, handled the appeals for Irvin and Shepherd.
    In 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered new trials. Before the trials began, Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall shot Irvin and Shepherd, claiming the handcuffed men were trying to escape. McCall shot to death Shepard. Irvin played dead and lived.
    Greenlee was paroled in 1960 and he died in 2012. Irvin was paroled in 1968 and died a year later.
    The story about the four men was told in the 2013 Pulitzer-prize winning book “Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America,” by Gilbert King.

  • Newswire: NAACP President Derrick Johnson responds to Federal Judge Jesse Furman’s ruling on the 2020 Census

    Derrick Johnson, NAACP President
    Derrick Johnson, President of NAACP, issued the following statement on federal Judge Jesse M. Furman’s ruling to block of the Trump Administration’s plan to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 census:
    “The ruling by Judge Jesse M. Furman is a step in the right direction to stopping xenophobic rhetoric and policy at all levels of government. The addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census only increases the likelihood of a substantial undercount of immigrant communities, particularly immigrants of color including those from the African Diaspora who are essential todetermining U.S. elections, congressional seats and federal funding decisions for a decade.
    “Any citizenship question compounds the already inadequate preparation for Census 2020 and further dilutes the votes of racial and ethnic minorities and deprive their communities of critical federal funds and undervalue their voices and interests in the political arena. We must continue to stay vigilant and not let this administration use yet another mechanism to devalue and stifle the voices of people of color.”
    Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. You can read more about the NAACP’s work and our six “Game Changer” issue areas at http://www.naacp.org.

  • Newswire : CBC Chair Karen Bass responds to Trump’s new offer to reopen the government

    Rep. Karen Bass
    WASHINGTON – Sunday, the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), issued the following statement after President Trump announced a new offer in exchange for $5.7 billion for a border wall.
    “The President’s proposal is yet another example of his willingness to use the well-being of Black and brown communities as a political pawn. DACA recipients deserve a permanent solution and Black Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by this shutdown, need to have the government immediately reopened.
    “There are federal workers without paychecks, businesses unable to provide services for the government, and millions of families that depend on food stamps that don’t know when they’ll be able to afford their next grocery trip. That’s the crisis this shutdown has caused. The President could end it if he wanted to but unfortunately, today, he made it clear that he doesn’t.”

  • Newswire: Kamala Harris announces she is seeking Democratic Nomination for President

    By Frederick H. Lowe
    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

    Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA)

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) –Kamala Harris U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris announced today on “Good Morning America” she is seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, adding to the growing list of women who want to call the White House home.
    “I’m running for president of the United States, and I’m very excited about it,” said Harris, who is 54. Harris, who is a graduate of Howard University and Hastings School of Law, was elected to the U.S. Senate from California in 2016. She is a Democrat. Before moving to Washington, she was elected California Attorney General and had previously served as San Francisco District Attorney. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
    She is the second black woman to seek the Democratic nomination for president. In 1972, New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm sought the nomination, declaring that she was “unbought and unbossed.”
    Harris gives the impression that she is a progressive, but some would disagree with that view of herself. Lara Bazelon, an associate law professor at the University of San Francisco, wrote in a New York Times Op-ed that progressives urged Harris to adopt criminal justice reforms as district attorney and state’s attorney but she either opposed them or stayed silent. For example, Harris opposed statewide legislation requiring the AG’s office to investigate shootings by police officers, Brazelon wrote.

    Brazelon also wrote that Harris “fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.”
    A Harris spokesperson dismissed the allegations. “Kamala Harris has spent her career fighting for reforms in the criminal justice system and pushing the envelope to keep everyone safer by bringing fairness and accountability,” said Lily Adams, Harris’ spokeswoman, in a statement.
    In the U.S. Senate, she is a member of Judiciary Committee, the Budget Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the Select Committee on Intelligence.
    She was born October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California to Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer research scientist, and Donald Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University. Her mother is from India and her father is from Jamaica.
    Harris will formally kickoff her campaign for president Sunday in Oakland.
    She joins Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii who already have announced they are seeking the presidential nomination in 2020.
    One of the problems Harris may face is that she is dramatically attractive. In 2013, President Barack Obama called Harris “the best-looking attorney general.” He was criticized for that remark and had to apologize.

  • Newswire: Soar Like an Eagle: 12 African American teens reach the pinnacle of success in the Boy Scouts

    By Jeffrey L. Boney, Associate Editor via Houston Forward Times

    Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Boy Scout Troop 242

    Here in the United States, the Boy Scouts of America is considered to be one of the most revered institutions for the development of young boys.
    In the Boy Scouts of America, the highest achievement or rank that one can attain is the designation of Eagle Scout and reaching that accomplishment is not an easy task.
    The Eagle Scout designation is highly respected because only 4 percent of all Boy Scouts are ever granted this prestigious rank after fulfilling the many years of requirements that must be achieved. On Saturday, January 5th, twelve African American young men reached the ultimate milestone of being awarded the Eagle Scout distinction.
    Shane Bennett, Dameion Crook II, Dylan Gaines, Kyle Gaines, Chandler Green, Daniel Hinton, Marshall Hudson, Marcellus Jordan III, Eron Lord, Eric Sims, Asa Singleton and 242Benjamin White are all a part of Boy Scout Troop 242, a historic troop located at Wheeler Ave Baptist Church.
    Boy Scout Troop 242, led by Scoutmaster Dameion Crook, Sr., presented the 12 African American Eagle Scouts during the Eagle Court of Honor ceremony that was held at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. His son was one of the newest Eagle Scouts, which is the cherry on the top of Scoutmaster Crook’s two years leading Boy Scout Troop 242.
    “This event marks a tremendous milestone in the history of our troop,” said Scoutmaster Crook. “We have a long tradition of creating Eagle Scouts and to have these 12 young men complete the Boy Scouts of America program is a testament to our legacy and our scouting program.”
    Twelve Eagles at one time is pretty much unheard of for any troop and definitely for an African American troop like Troop 242. All 12 of these young men have had their “eye on Eagle” through years of hard work, fulfilling their obligations with more than just the minimum obligations required for the honor to be called an Eagle Scout.
    This group of talented young men not only achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, they did so in historic and memorable fashion.
    The Boy Scouts requires a minimum of 21 merit badges, but most of these Eagles have more than 30 merit badges. Only through planning and carrying out a community service project, coupled with demonstrated leadership in and out of the Troop, can a scout who lives the scout oath be considered for an Eagle Board of Review that consists of the District and Council representatives from the Boy Scouts. All of these things must be done before the Scout turns 18.
    Although the average age for attaining the rank is 17.5 years old, at least five (5) of these new Eagle Scouts fulfilled the commitment before turning 16.
    These young men have gone beyond their Troop and have represented scouting locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in various endeavors such as Order of the Arrow (scouting’s Honor Society), National Youth Leadership Training (premier leadership training for Scouts), participating in the Philmont Trek, representing Troop 242 in Switzerland, etc.
    Often overlooked by families seeking to engage their sons in meaningful, positive activities, the Boy Scouts have proven to be an old, but tried and true method that has not lost its effectiveness. These twelve young men have taken full advantage of all that the scouting world has to offer.
    Troop 242 and the parents of these young men should be extremely proud of their accomplishments and dedication. We look forward to all they will achieve in the future.

  • Newswire : U.S. Senator Tim Scott critical of GOP on racism and Rep. Steve King

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    Senator Tim Scott (R-SC)

    Stating what has become even more of an issue for the GOP during the presidency of Donald Trump, Sen. Tim Scott, wrote, “We are often still struggling when it comes to civility and fairness. This was driven home once again Thursday as Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) wondered aloud: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”’
    In a blistering op-ed in The Washington Post, the U.S. Senate’s only African American Republican, took the Republican Party to task on the issue of racism. Sen. Scott has been openly reluctant to support Donald Trump. He notably skipped the Republican National Convention in 2016.
    On January 10, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa wondered out loud when the term “white supremacists” became a negative during an interview with The New York Times.
    “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said during the interview.In a familiar pattern, Rep. King sought to “clarify” his comments a day later.But the U.S. Representative has a long history of comments that can easily be defined as racist.
    “I want to make one thing abundantly clear; I reject those labels and the evil ideology that they define. Further, I condemn anyone that supports this evil and bigoted ideology which saw in its ultimate expression the systematic murder of 6 million innocent Jewish lives,” Rep. King said on January 11.
    In July 2013, King said of Mexican immigrants that, “For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds—and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
    Rep. King displayed the Confederate flag on his office desk in 2016 removing it later after a Confederate flag-waver shot two law enforcement officers in Iowa. In March 2017, he wrote “culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies” and, “you need to teach your children your values” and “with the inter-marriage, I’d like to see an America that is just so homogenous that we look a lot the same.”
    Rep. King’s words are familiar to that of the rhetoric of David Duke and Richard Spencer and other prominent white supremacists. Though he was been criticized by Speaker Paul Ryan for his past comments, many Republicans have remained silent during Rep. King’s racial controversies.
    Sen. Scott has become tired of that practice.
    Sen. Scott cataloged recent racist incidents in the U.S. saying, “Three months ago, a white supremacist killed two black people in a parking lot in Kentucky. We are only 18 months from Charlottesville, where white nationalists killed a white woman with a car and severely beat multiple black people. Almost four years ago, a white supremacist murdered nine African Americans in a church in Charleston, S.C. In 1998, white supremacists dragged James Byrd Jr., behind a pickup truck through Jasper, Tex., decapitating him in the process.”
    “I will admit I am unsure who is offended by the term “Western civilization” on its own, but anyone who needs “white nationalist” or “white supremacist” defined, described and defended does lack some pretty common knowledge,” Sen. Scott continued.
    “When people with opinions similar to King’s open their mouths, they damage not only the Republican Party and the conservative brand but also our nation as a whole,” Sen. Scott continued. “Silence is no longer acceptable,” Sen. Scott concluded.
    The backdrop of Rep. King’s latest racially-motivated comments is President Trump’s insistence on building a wall at the border of Mexico. Trump ran on a platform that defined Mexican immigrants as violent and dangerous. Noteably, after white supremacists marched with torches in Charlottesville, Va., President Trump was not only slow in denouncing their message but declared that — “both sides” — were “violent.”s
    On Tuesday, January 15, the Republican Party in the U. S. House of Representatives stripped Rep. Steve King of his committee assignments in the 116thCongress. He served on the House Agriculture and Judiciary Committee

  • Newswire : Birmingham Civil Rights Institute cancels gala honoring Angela Davis after outcry from Jewish community Michael Harriot, The Root

    Angela Davis

    One of the nation’s most prominent civil rights museums has reneged on its plans to celebrate one of America’s most outspoken freedom fighters, igniting a national controversy after seemingly genuflecting to grumbles from the area’s Jewish community.
    On Jan. 4, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute released a weirdly nonspecific statement canceling its plans to bestow the institute’s highest honor upon Angela Davis, a Birmingham, Alabama, native. The ceremony was supposed to serve as the centerpiece of the museum’s annual gala, planned for Feb. 19.
    “In September of 2018, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s Board of Directors selected Angela Davis to receive the prestigious Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual gala in February 2019,” said a statement posted on the BCRI website.
    In late December, supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that BCRI reconsider its decision.
    Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis’ statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based. Therefore, on January 4, BCRI’s Board voted to rescind its invitation to Ms. Davis to honor her with the Shuttlesworth Award. While we recognize Ms. Davis’ stature as a scholar and prominent figure in civil rights history, we believe this decision is consistent with the ideals of the award’s namesake, Rev. Shuttlesworth.
    We regret that this change is necessary, and apologize to our supporters, the community and Ms. Davis for the confusion we have caused. We will move forward with a keen focus on our mission: to enlighten each generation about civil and human rights by exploring our common past and working together in the present to build a better future.
    The associated gala event, scheduled for February 16that Haven has been cancelled. Ticket purchasers will received a full refund.
    Because the BCRI was less than transparent in its statement, many people wondered why the institute would moonwalk back its support for the hometown heroine. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin cleared up some of the confusion in expressing his discontent with the Institute’s decision. In a statement Sunday, Woodfin said:
    As I consider the controversy over the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s decision to honor Dr. Angela Davis with the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award and its subsequent decision to rescind that honor after protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies, my overriding feeling is one of dismay.
    “I am dismayed because this controversy is playing out in a way that harks backward, rather than forward,” Woodfin continued, adding that the decision “portrays us as the same Birmingham we always have been, rather than the one we want to be.”
    According to people familiar with BCRI’s decision, the institute’s reversal is centered around the local Jewish community’s opposition with what the Associated Press describes as Davis’ support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which seeks to rectify Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Soon after the institute announced their plans to honor Davis, Southern Jewish Life magazine published what could only be described as a “hit piece” detailing Davis’s support of policies that are often seen as anti-Israel.
    According to AL.com, local organizers have vowed to protest the institution if the author and internationally known academic does not receive the award. Activists and academics around the country were outraged by the organization’s decision to bow to outside pressure, noting, among other things, Davis’ long history in the struggle for equality for people of all colors, races, religions, and gender.
    Davis was born and raised in Birmingham’s “Dynamite Hill,” whose nickname comes from the more than 50 bombings by white supremacists trying to thwart integration during the civil rights era. She became a professor at the University of California’s Los Angeles campus and was known for her radical feminism and her involvement with both the Communist Party USA and the Black Panthers.
    After authorities accused Davis of purchasing weapons used in a 1970 courtroom takeover and police shooting, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover made Davis the third woman to ever be listed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. She briefly went on the run, was arrested, and placed in solitary confinement.
    Davis was acquitted of all charges.
    Last week, a coalition of community and civil rights groups in Birmingham decided to hold an alternative event to honor Angela Davis in Birmingham on February 16, the same date that the BCRI had originally chosen to honor her.

    The Birmingham City Council passed a resolution unanimously supporting Davis and condemning the BCRI, which is a major tourist attraction in the city. Several BCRI Board members resigned in protest since the institution rescinded its award to Davis.

  • Newswire : African leaders confront a ‘blue wave’ demanding democratic change

    Sudanese women protesting government actions

    Jan. 7, 2018 (GIN) – When Democrats captured one House seat after another in the midterm elections, observers brushed it off as a “blue trickle.” Later they had to admit: it was a giant blue wave.

    Africans are also yearning for change and their frustration is erupting across the continent with a new crop of activists challenging the old order.

    In Ethiopia, reforms are already underway since the installation last year of 42 year old Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Women have been named to some of the government’s key positions – president, chief justice and half of all ministers. Thousands of political prisoners and journalists have been freed while senior officials accused of human rights abuses and corruption no longer enjoys immunity.

    Ahmed overturned bans on opposition groups. His overture to Eritrea led to the end of a long-running conflict of neighbors.

    U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it “a wind of hope blowing in the Horn of Africa.”

    Since the unpopular Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was coaxed from power in 2017, a liberation fighter and former defense minister, Joao Lourenco, next in succession, stepped into the job. Today, even the toughest critics of the government say that in just more than a year, President Lourenco has accomplished more to stop corruption than any previous administration.

    In Sudan, President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is facing a determined movement of opposition on the heels of his third decade in power enabled by disputed elections. His late-arriving “reforms” fell flat as prices for bread and fuel were jacked up as per the advice of the IMF. Spontaneous, leaderless crowds are turning out in the thousands — not just in the capital, Khartoum, but countrywide.

    “It’s like someone who has found himself on the back of a lion,” said one observer. “He can’t get off without the lion devouring him.”

    Democratic reforms are also high on the wish list of people in Togo, who are fighting for term limits that would effectively end President Faure Gnassingbé’s nearly two decades in power. In Gabon, President Ali Bongo who remains in Morocco since suffering a stroke in October while traveling abroad, barely managed to survive a coup this week by a handful of young officers. Nigeria meanwhile goes to the polls on Feb. 16.

    Finally, 46 million Congolese cast ballots on Dec. 30 only to learn that the electoral commission has counted less than half the votes and a winner will not be announced until a week or two or three, if ever.

    So which way for the blue wave in the Congo? Stay tuned…. w/pix of protesting Sudanese women in the U.S.

  • Newswire : A petulant President shuts down government and insults working people

    NEWS ANALYSIS by: Rev. Jesse Jackson

    The U. S. Department of Agriculture’s disaster relief program is
    one of the essentials of the federal government. PHOTO: USDA.gov

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – The partial government shutdown continued this week. Meanwhile, some 800,000 federal employees are going without pay, either furloughed and forced not to work or deemed
    “essential” and forced to work without pay.

    On Christmas Day, President Trump suggested that the workers supported the shutdown that he earlier said he would be “proud” to cause: “Many of those workers have said to me, communicated,
    stay out until you get the funding for the wall.”

    This is a billionaire’s conceit. Federal employees are not wealthy. Like most Americans, many live paycheck to paycheck. The shutdown, which started on Dec. 22, stopped all paychecks just as the holiday approached. It also terminated all paid time off for workers, even for those who have scheduled leave for the holiday and will lose the paid time off if they don’t use it by the end of the year. It is hard to imagine anything more disruptive, or more callous.

    Unlike the president, Trump’s Office of Personnel Management recognizes the plight that workers face in the shutdown.
    It issued suggestions on how employees might negotiate with landlords and creditors over missed payments, even suggesting that they offer to do “painting or carpentry” in lieu of rent. Even if Congress eventually votes to reimburse employees for back pay, it isn’t likely to cover the fines, penalty fees, late fees, and hit to credit ratings that the shutdown will cause. For years, conservatives have maligned federal workers as overpaid, inefficient and intrusive. Ever since President Ronald Reagan quipped that the most dangerous words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” federal workers have been scorned and mocked.

    This is just plain ignorant. Federal workers are public servants — they do the public’s work. They are air traffic controllers, park rangers, border patrol officers and prison employees. They guard our coasts, they protect our air and water, they care for public lands, they administer our Social Security and Medicare.We rely on them
    in big and little ways.

    When Republicans cut the public servants in the Internal Revenue Service, the wealthy and corporations find it easier to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. When OSHA inspectors are cut, employees are at greater risk in the work place.When the Justice Department cuts back on anti-trust, private monopolies and fraud fleece
    millions of Americans.

    When we get stuck waiting in lines or find getting help from a federal official difficult, we should remember that it isn’t because the employees are incompetent, it’s because right-wing attacks on government and cuts in resources have rendered them less able to do their work. Conservatives say they believe in markets, not government, but free and efficient markets depend on government to enforce laws, break up monopolies, police against fraud. Without an active and efficient government, the criminal and the grifters drive out the honest and the decent from the marketplace, and we are
    all worse off as a result.

    Trump’s shutdown is simply the most recent of his assaults on the employees of the government that he was elected to run. He’s scorned them as part of the “swamp, ”sought to freeze their pay, cut their retirements and undermine their labor organizations.Instead of paying tribute to their service, he’s demeaned their capacity, even while cutting the resources needed to do their jobs. Not surprisingly, the non-partisan Best Places to Work report finds a decline in employee engagement and morale under Trump.

    The shutdown will do real damage to many federal employees and their families. And it will do real damage to the services that we need and expect from our government. For Trump and the right, this is a sucker’s play.They demean federal employees, shut down parts of the government, cut back resources and staffing to do needed tasks and then use the resulting inefficiency as evidence that government can’t work.

  • Local Black state legislators will hold leadership positions in 2019

    State Senator Bobby Singleton
    Christopher England
    Senator Vivian Figures

    Several local state legislators will hold key leadership positions in the upcoming 2019 state legislative session.
    State Senator Bobby Singleton of Greensboro (District 24), who represents Greene and surrounding counties, will serve as Minority Leader of the Alabama State Senate.
    Representative Christopher England of District 70, which includes most of southern and eastern Tuscaloosa County, was chosen to head the Democratic Caucus in the Alabama House of Representatives.
    Singleton, who was first elected to the state Senate in 2005, was chosen for the post by the eight members of the Democratic caucus.
    “I just want to thank my colleagues for having the confidence in me to be able to lead them for the next four years,” Singleton said in a statement. “As the minority leader, we will be looking at a robust agenda; not just for the Democrats, but for the state of Alabama. Hopefully, we can work across the aisle with the majority. I look forward to working with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Greg Reed and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh.”
    Singleton replaces Sen. Billy Beasley of Clayton. Beasley will assume the duties of deputy minority leader.
    Singleton earned his bachelor’s degree from Alabama State University and his law degree from Miles Law School. He served in the state House of Representatives from 2002-05 before being elected to the state Senate. He represents District 24, which includes parts of Choctaw, Clarke, Greene, Hale, Marengo, Pickens, Sumter and Tuscaloosa counties.
    Marsh congratulated Singleton on his appointment as Senate minority leader.
    “There are many tough issues facing the Alabama Senate in the year to come and I look forward to working with Sen. Singleton as we develop legislation that improves the lives of all Alabamians,” Marsh said in a statement. “Sen. Singleton and I have worked well together for several years and I have no doubt that will continue as we strive to ensure that the Senate runs smoothly and that all Senators are represented equally.”
    Representative Chris England, who begins his fourth term in the House of Representatives, said, “I am honored and humbled to serve our caucus in this capacity. I am looking forward to working with the members of the leadership team and the caucus overall to build a better Alabama,” England said in a news release.

    England graduated from Howard University in 1999 and earned a juris doctorate degree from the University of Alabama in 2002. He was first elected in 2006 and ran unopposed in the November general election.
    Members of the caucus also re-elected Rep. Anthony Daniels of Huntsville as minority leader and Rep. Merika Coleman of Pleasant Grove the assistant minority leader.
    Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, was elected chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, which includes both senators and House members.
    Figures will serve in that position for two years. A House member will chair the Black Caucus the following two years, as is customary.
    Despite losing a number of influential Black legislators to retirement and election losses, including Senator Hank Sanders of Selma, Rep. John Knight and Rep. Alvin Holmes of Montgomery, there are younger leaders who are asserting themselves and coming forward to lead on critical issues facing the Black community.