Greene County Democrat

Category: School

  • Newswire : From Tulsa to Ghana, Mother Fletcher’s long Journey comes to a close at 111

    By Stacy M. Brown
    Black Press USA National Correspondent

    Mother Viola Fletcher, who carried the memory of Tulsa’s shame and the nation’s unfinished business longer than any other living soul, died on November 24 at age 111. She stood as the oldest known survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the burning of Greenwood, and the attempted erasure of Black prosperity that white mobs tried to silence forever.
    Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said her death marks a moment of mourning for a city still learning how to reckon with its own truth. “Today, our city mourns the loss of Mother Viola Fletcher, a survivor of one of the darkest chapters in our city’s history,” Nichols stated. “Mother Fletcher endured more than anyone should, yet she spent her life lighting a path forward with purpose.”
    She spent that long life fighting for justice that too many leaders tried to bury along with the bodies from Black Wall Street. In Greenwood, she was a child watching terror reshape a world that had promised her nothing but possibility. For more than a century, she bore witness so the country could never again pretend not to know. “Her legacy will be carried forward with the courage and conviction she modeled every day of her life,” Nichols said.
    Mother Fletcher’s mission reached the halls of Congress when she demanded reparations for survivors and descendants of the massacre. She testified with a steadiness that shamed a nation still unwilling to repair what it helped set ablaze. She reminded lawmakers she had lived through state-sponsored violence and had lived long enough to see the excuses that followed. She co-authored her memoir “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story”  with her grandson, refusing to allow America the comfort of forgetting.
    She left her words in the archives of Oklahoma State University through oral histories that insisted history would not escape the sound of her voice. Her labor began early. During World War II, she worked in a shipyard as an assistant welder. Later, she cleaned houses with a determination that carried her well into her eighties. She built a life out of the ashes she was never meant to rise from.
    The world took notice of her strength. During a 2021 journey to Ghana, she received the title “NaaLamiley,” translated as someone strong enough to stand the test of time. Her vision inspired the Viola Ford Fletcher Foundation, which promotes education, health, and economic opportunity. Community members honored her in ways large and small, including the gift of custom dentures created to recognize her legacy and impact.
    Three years ago, she stood with her brother, Hughes Van Ellis, known as Uncle Red, inside Ghana’s embassy in Washington. She was 108 then. He was 101. Both were sworn in as citizens of Ghana in a ceremony filled with music, dancing children, and the full weight of ancestral return. It was the first time anyone had been sworn in as a citizen inside the Ghanaian embassy. “I’m so grateful to all. I thank you so much for this honor,” Fletcher said before signing her citizenship papers. Her brother echoed her sentiment. “I’m so thankful to Ghana, and all of you,” Ellis stated.
    Oklahoma State Rep. Regina Goodwin attended the ceremony, along with journalist Tiffany Cross and Ambassador Erieka Bennett. Bennett spoke of heritage that surpasses borders. “You don’t have to be born in Africa to be an African,” Bennett declared. “Africa is born in you.”
    Cross spoke of feeling the presence of ancestors moving through the room, a presence made sharper by the endurance of Fletcher and Ellis. Goodwin said their lives proved that the African spirit cannot be broken. “This is what it’s all about,” Cross stated. “The spirit of Africa, its powerful and rich history.”
    Their citizenship ceremony became more than a celebration. It became a reminder that the diaspora carries stories the world still needs to hear, and that the road home is long but never closed. Bennett told the gathering that Ghana opens its doors to all who seek connection. “Welcome home,” she said.

  • Newswire : Dr. Benjamin Chavis celebrated as ‘Father of the Environmental Justice Movement’ – ‘Don’t cop out, cop in,’ Chavis calls for activists to use their power at the upcoming United Nations COP30 conference

    Dr. Ben Chavis, center, honored during the Mississippi Statewide Environmental Justice Climate Change Summit 2025 and  –Ben Chavis

     

    By: Siena Gleason,
     

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Dr. Benjamin Chavis, president/CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), was celebrated as the father of the environmental justice movement at the Mississippi Statewide Environmental Climate Justice Summit organized by Jesus People Against Pollution (JPAP) October 24-26, 2025, headquartered at Tougaloo College. 
    Aaron Mair, the first African American president of the Sierra Club and an early environmental justice leader from Albany, NY, celebrated Chavis for his contribution to the movement, specifically citing his 1987 study, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States of America.
    “What really gave [the environmental justice movement] force was the Toxic Waste and Race study providing a foundational, as they say, evidence-based approach which could then be replicated by frontline communities,” said Mair.
    Mair described how Chavis bravely demanded that the environmental poisoning of Black and poor communities must be looked at through the lens of civil rights, creating the movement that is now known as the environmental justice movement.
    “During the 1980s, you couldn’t make just an allegation of discrimination; you had to prove it. You had to statistically show that it existed,” said Chavis. “Nobody ever asked, was there a correlation between the proximity of toxic waste facilities, toxic emissions, and climate emissions to public health?”
    Karenna Gore of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary traced back Chavis’ founding of the environmental justice movement even further.
    Gore praised Chavis for catalyzing the environmental justice movement when he organized and led a nonviolent sit-in protest in 1982 against the planned dumping of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls in Warren County, North Carolina. This sit-in is widely understood to be the launchpad for the modern-day environmental justice movement, said Gore.
    During the protest, Chavis was arrested and put into the Warren County Jail. While he was in his cell, he came up with the term “environmental racism”. It quickly became widely used by activists and later was replaced with the phrase “environmental justice” which also includes the way in which poor people of all colors are systematically poisoned by corporate and government polluters.
    Gore reminded people of the courage it took Chavis to get arrested that day given he had been a political prisoner in North Carolina just a few years before as part of a group of persecuted civil rights activists known as the Wilmington Ten.
    The Wilmington Ten were arrested in February 1972 during racial unrest over school desegregation in Wilmington, North Carolina. The group – Chavis, eight Black students, and one white female – were charged with arson and conspiracy after firebombs were set downtown and firefighters received sniper fire. All ten were convicted in October 1972 and sentenced to a combined 282 years in prison, with Chavis receiving 34 years. Amnesty International designated them as political prisoners in 1978. After key witnesses recanted their testimony in 1977, admitting police pressure and bribery, their convictions were overturned in December 1980 due to prosecutorial misconduct. In 2012, they received full Pardons of Innocence.
    However, his time in prison has never discouraged him from continuing his activism. Chavis has been arrested over 30 times and continues to fight for environmental justice.
    The summit took place at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, and was organized by Dr. Charlotte Keys, founder of Jesus People Against Pollution. Dr. Keys is one of Mississippi’s earliest leaders in the environmental justice movement. Like Chavis, she has never stopped. She is still fighting for change in Columbia, Mississippi, and throughout the state. Her community in Colombia became a notorious cancer cluster after a Reichold chemical plant explosion.
    On Oct. 25, Chavis added meaning to a panel hosted by Gore, a discussion intended to generate recommendations for the 30th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Brazil, focusing on the Global Ethical Stock Take initiative. He was joined on the panel by his fellow, former national president and CEO of the NAACP Ben Jealous.
    During the panel, Chavis said he believes that acknowledging the struggle against climate change is essential for uniting and creating global solutions.
    “To COP30: don’t cop out, cop in,” said Chavis. “Cop in to lay the groundwork and the reaffirmation of a global struggle to prevent climate crisis, climate injustice, and to respond to the environmental injustices that are growing all over the world.”
    Chavis also said that COP30 offers an opportunity for younger generations to get involved and continue fighting for environmental justice.
    “It’s very important for each generation to rise to the occasion,” said Chavis. “Quite frankly, the first voices that came out against climate change and the climate injustice were young people because young people realized that they may not live to be old if we don’t solve this situation.”

  • School Board receives report on Superintendent Search Community Input Process

    The Greene County Board of Education held a called session, Monday, November 10, 2025 to receive a report on the Community Input Process of the Superintendent Search for Greene County School System conducted by the Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB). Ms. Susan Salter, AASB Consultant, coordinated local stakeholder engagements in October and November with 33 attendees as well as a stakeholder survey with 76 respondents. Salter noted that although there was a small number of parent and community participants, the responses were similar. “There was a consistency in views,” she said.
    Regarding superintendent traits desired, the community input listed the following: strong communication skills, good listener, relationship builder, approachable, committed to accountability and transparency, creates a good work environment, leadership ability – has strength to make difficult decisions but can be flexible, and have strong visibility in community.
    In responding to challenges the new superintendent will face, the participants listed declines in enrollment; issues at the middle school; special education services; parent involvement. Other challenges include student achievement (academic and behavior), teacher recruitment, morale and retention and improving communications with parents and the public.
    When asked if the superintendent should be hired from among existing employees, from outside the school system, or no preference, approximately 44% indicated no preference; 32% said from within the system; 25 % said from outside the system.
    Ms. Salter stated that next steps include accepting applications through December 10, 2025. All applications must go through AASB. In this process the board does not accept superintendent applications.The link to apply is on the board’s website and can be widely distributed. AASB will screen and vet all applicants (checking credentials and references) and select five finalists. Salter and the board will compile a list of questions for the finalists. She suggested creating about 10 questions for an hour interview with each finalist.
    On December 15, Susan Salter will give the board the final list of the top five candidates screened and recommended by AASB. The board will schedule the interviews beginning December 17. The interviews of the top five applicants for superintendent will be open to the public.

  • Newswire : Millions suffer as Trump’s economy crumbles

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    America’s economy is not collapsing by accident. Under President Donald Trump, Russell Vought, and Stephen Miller, a deliberate plan has taken hold, a plan that weakens the labor market, starves families of food and health care, and rewards the wealthy with power and profit. What was once called “economic populism” has become an organized campaign of cruelty that has left the country broken and millions of Americans in despair.
    The labor market is in free fall. UPS cut 48,000 workers, the largest reduction in its 117-year history. Amazon is firing up to 30,000 corporate employees. Intel eliminated 24,000 positions. Nestlé slashed 16,000 jobs. Ford and Accenture each let go of 11,000 workers. Novo Nordisk terminated 9,000 employees. Microsoft cut 7,000. PwC laid off 5,600. Salesforce dismissed 4,000. Paramount reduced 2,000. Target eliminated 1,800. Kroger cut 1,000. Applied Materials reduced 1,444, and Meta let go of 600.
    The layoffs have rippled across every major industry, devastating workers, families, and communities nationwide. According to Intellizence data, more than 4,200 companies have announced mass layoffs since January. The Associated Press reported that executives cite Trump’s tariffs, erratic trade actions, and federal instability as the leading causes of widespread job losses and frozen hiring.
    While the job market collapses, Trump’s government shutdown has unleashed a humanitarian crisis. More than 42 million Americans, many of whom supported Trump, will lose access to food assistance through SNAP and WIC. Another 25 million people will lose their health care.
    Trump also canceled nearly 94 million pounds of food aid, including meat, eggs, and dairy, that were supposed to reach food banks across the country. For those working on the front lines of hunger relief, it was an invisible theft—food promised but never delivered.
    The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed it will not release $6 billion in contingency funds, claiming the money can only be used for “unforeseen events” such as natural disasters. Yet Trump approved $40 billion for Argentina, spent $1 billion for a private jet stationed in Qatar, and at least $300 million to destroy historic White House property and construct a new ballroom for himself.
    Taxpayers have been forced to pay an estimated $30 million for his golf trips, $520 million for unnecessary National Guard deployments, and $172 million for jets requested by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. None of those expenditures has lowered health care costs or provided relief to struggling families.
    While ordinary Americans lose jobs, food, and medical care, Trump’s personal income has skyrocketed. The Trump Organization reported $864 million in revenue in the first half of 2025, a 17-fold increase from the previous year. Most of that money came from cryptocurrency ventures. Financial filings show $463 million from sales of World Liberty Financial tokens and another $336 million from TRUMP meme coins.
    The investigation revealed that foreign investors were heavily involved. Hong Kong-based billionaire Justin Sun, who reportedly was charged with fraud by the SEC in 2023, bought $75 million worth of Trump tokens. Abu Dhabi’s state-controlled MGX used Trump’s stablecoin to fund a $2 billion investment in Binance. Chinese businessman Guren “Bobby” Zhou, reportedly under investigation for money laundering in Britain, purchased $100 million in tokens. Trump, meanwhile, eliminated federal crypto enforcement teams, withdrew regulatory warnings, and pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after his conviction for anti-money-laundering failures. Ethics experts have called it the most blatant conflict of interest in U.S. history.
    Vought, Trump’s former budget director and the author of Project 2025, created the framework for this collapse. His plan dismantles federal oversight, guts safety nets, and funnels public funds into private and partisan interests. Miller, Trump’s longtime political enforcer, has turned those ideas into action by starving agencies, blocking aid, and tightening control of the economy under the White House.
    Wall Street, meanwhile, is celebrating the pain. UPS shares surged nine percent after its mass firings, and Amazon’s stock climbed on news of more job cuts. Economists say this “profit from pain” economy has become Trump’s defining legacy, an America where corporate success depends on working-class suffering. The fallout is everywhere. Food banks are running out of supplies. Hospitals are closing departments. Families are skipping rent to pay for prescriptions. Millions who once believed Trump would protect them are now struggling to survive policies that favor billionaires, foreign investors, and the politically connected.
    Georgetown University business professor Jason Schloetzer told the Associated Press that uncertainty has replaced confidence in every corner of the job market. “A lot of people are looking around, scanning the job environment, scanning the opportunities that are available to them, whether it’s in the public or private sector,” he said. “And I think there’s a question mark around the long-term stability everywhere.”

  • Newswire : Halloween Parade canceled in Chicago because ICE is still deploying tear gas and ‘running wild’

     Immigrants protest ICE in Chicago

    By Zack Linly, NewsOne

    Today’s report on the ongoing situation in Chicago — where Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents keep running wild  like rabid dogs off their leashes,’ and residents keep responding by, well, not having it at all — seems to be getting worse as clashes intensify between agents, protesters and, often, people who were just trying to get to work or school.
    As we’ve noted previously, while the Trump administration has claimed repeatedly that its immigration crackdown is about ridding America of the worst kinds of “criminal illegal aliens,” we’re not seeing evidence that hardened criminals represent the bulk of who is being accosted by agents, arrested, and disappeared to who knows where.
    Instead, immigration officers seem to be going after any and everyone who they think looks wrong, and subsequently arresting workers and people raising families, who may or may not have all their paperwork in order, and they seem to be dumbfounded by the lack of support they’re getting from the community, including the protesters they seem to be attacking first and vilifying as agitators later.
    For example, according to the Chicago Sun-Times,  a Halloween costume parade for children that was supposed to take place on a usually quiet residential block has been canceled because just hours before it was scheduled to begin, tear gas had been deployed by agents moved to detain Luis Villegas, a construction worker who agents chased down the 3700 block of North Kildare Avenue and tackled on a lawn. It was reportedly the first of two incidents in the same area where agents deployed tear gas, purportedly to defend themselves against enraged bystanders who took issue with ICE agents behaving more like criminals than the “criminal illegal aliens” they claim to be arresting.
    Of course, the Department of Homeland Security is claiming agents were “boxed in by agitators,” a claim the department has made about previous incidents, only for witnesses and video footage to contradict the narrative.
    “These weren’t activists, these weren’t paid protesters, these were literally my neighbors coming out of their homes at 10 o’clock in the morning because they saw lawless agents acting in violent ways,” Kolp said, claiming the people officers deployed tear gas on were mostly neighbors who had stepped out of their homes to film and shout at agents. “There are only so many ways we can hold these folks accountable. If the courts can’t do it, Congress can’t do it, then it’s up to the community to do it.”
    Erin Sarris, a resident who has lived in the neighborhood for eight years, said she was on her way to the Halloween parade with her two 8-year-old daughters and 6-year-old son when she saw the cloud of tear gas from down the street.
    “It’s impossible to explain the concept of this to school-age kids like that and make them feel OK about it, because it’s not OK,” Sarris said. “It shatters their worldview of what’s right, fair, and appropriate in witnessing this.”
    Again, this was only the first incident involving ICE agents seemingly ignoring a federal judge’s previous order limiting their use of tear gas near schools and residential areas. 
    These clashes between citizens and border cops are not limited to Chicago, of course. In large cities across the country, video footage of federal agents swarming citizens and non-citizens alike as angry onlookers heckle them and, sometimes, get themselves personally involved is being shared across social media on a daily basis

  • Newswire : ASU lands largest ever donation from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott

    Alabama State University and  MacKenzie Scott

    By Josh Moon, Alabama Political Reporter

     

    It’s been a good few days for Alabama State University. 
    After trouncing in-state rival Alabama A&M in the Magic City Classic on Saturday, ASU president Quinton Ross announced in a letter to alumni on Monday that the school was the recipient of a $38 million donation from Mackenzie Scott. 

    Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has gifted billions of dollars in recent years to various organizations and universities, and she has been particularly generous to historically Black colleges and universities. The $38 million donation to ASU is the school’s single largest donation, according to Ross’s letter. 

    “Today marks a defining moment in the history of Alabama State University,” Ross wrote in his letter. “I am filled with immense gratitude and proud to announce that Alabama State University has received the largest single donation in its 158-year history.

    Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated an extraordinary $38 million gift to our great University. Ms. Scott’s generosity affirms Alabama State University’s reputation as a catalyst for excellence and innovation in higher education. This is truly a pivotal moment in ASU’s history.”

    Scott has given to a number of organizations and universities in Alabama and around the country. Last year, as part of more than $640 million in donations through her Yield Foundation, Scott donated to the First Light Foundation in Birmingham and the Alabama ACLU. She also previously donated $20 million to Tuskegee University. 

    Last week, Scott gave Morgan State University, another HBCU, $63 million, and earlier gave Maryland-Eastern Shore a donation of $38 million. 

     

  • Newswire : The clash: Museum Advocates vs The Smithsonian Board of Regents

    Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. C.

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

    Today is an all-day board meeting for the Smithsonian Regents. Advocates and lawyers are advocating for this quarterly meeting to save over a million artifacts and specimens, particularly at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
    A group forming a broad-based coalition called America’s History SOS is presenting over 70,000 signatures to members of Congress who serve on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to save artifacts at what is affectionately called the Blacksonian (NMAAHC), which opened in September 2016.
    America’s History SOS says We Demand:
    – That the NMAAHC and the Smithsonian remain free from political interference.
    – That Congress and the Smithsonian Board of Regents act to protect the Museum’s independence.
    – That President Trump immediately rescind Executive Order 14253. Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History – The White House

    – That all efforts to censor or sanitize African American history be met with unified, unflinching resistance.
    Questions circulate as to why there has been no legislation this year to preserve the history at the museum. A person familiar with the Congressional Black Caucus emphasized “that the caucus is ready, willing, and able to help.” However, the CBC has received “cautionary direction from the Museum hierarchy about how to support.” Even before the government shutdown, a general sense of fear had already been prevalent among Smithsonian Museum workers. A source, who wishes to remain anonymous at the Smithsonian, has warned that emails are now being monitored. The question is, why and by whom?
    However, in March of this year, Congresswoman Nikema Williams led the Call for Protection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Also, a letter in May, led by Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, announced the Democrats’ probe into Trump’s Executive Order on Museums, asking the Smithsonian Inspector General to investigate the EO’s implementation. The CBC source also states that this year, Black federal lawmakers have “not had any official conversation with the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch.”

    As far as today’s meeting, the regents include Chief Justice John Roberts. The Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents will preside over a meeting. Vice President J.D. Vance is also an ex officio member of the Board of Regents. The meeting is typically public, unless the Regents enter into an executive session, in which case the meeting will then go into a secret session.
    Concerns have arisen regarding the anticipated intense scrutiny of Secretary Bunch’s job performance since Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025. The Trump administration’s request for the itemization of all the specimens and artifacts has been one of several sticking points. The president’s Executive Order specified a specific time period for compliance.

  • No Kings Rally in Selma, Alabama, one of 15 in Alabama, one of 2,700 nationwide, attract 7 million people opposed to Trump’s authoritarianism

    The photos above are of the “No King’s Rally” in Selma, Alabama on Saturday, October 18, 2025. Over 100 protestors in Selma, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, joined millions nationwide in opposing the authoritarian, dictatorial, un-Constitutional and immoral policies of the Trump-Vance Administration.

  • ANSC schedules Fall Membership Convention

    The Alabama New South Coalition’s 41st Fall Membership Convention will be held Saturday, October 18, 2025, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm, at Wallace Community College, 3000 Earl Goodwin Pkwy, Selma, AL, in the Hank Sanders Technology Center. The convention is open to the public, registration fee is $50, which includes lunch. For more information contact ANSC State Coordinator, Ms. Shelley Fearson at 334-262-0932 or email:

    alabamanewsouth@aol.com.

     

  • SOS to sponsor Black Belt Caravan on October 10; also ‘No Kings Rally’ in Selma on Oct 18 at 3:00 p.m.

    The Save Ourselves Movement for Justice and Democracy (SOS) together with other social justice organizations is sponsoring a Caravan from Selma to Marion to Eutaw on Friday, October 10, 2025.The purpose of the Caravan is to alert people in the western Alabama Black Belt of the many funding cuts in Federal programs and services that are coming in the Budget Reconciliation Act, passed by Congress in August.
    This legislation, which President Trump calls, “My Big Beautiful Bill” makes cuts over the coming years in healthcare (Medicaid, Medicare, cancer research), SNAP (Food Stamps) and other nutrition programs, including school lunches, LIHEAP (a program to assist people to pay their utility bills), HUD housing subsidies, education programs including Title I, Pell grants and others, all programs directed toward assistance to poor, Black, Brown and other vulnerable people.
    The SOS “We Care Caravan” scheduled for October 10, 2025, will alert people at the grassroots level of these coming cuts and onerous requirements to work 20 hours per week to get certain benefits like SNAP.
    The Caravan will begin with a rally at 9:00 AM in Selma at the Monument Park, at the Montgomery side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Then the caravan of cars with signs, will drive through neighborhoods in Selma and drive through Uniontown en route to Marion. The caravan will travel through Marion neighborhoods and hold a rally at Noon in Marion.
    The Caravan will leave Uniontown at 1:00 PM after the rally, wend its way through Greensboro and Sawyerville on its way to Eutaw in Greene County. From 2:00 to 3:00 PM, the caravan will drive through low-income communities of Eutaw. At 3:00 there will be a rally at the William M. Branch Courthouse in Eutaw, Greene County to alert people to the coming cutbacks.
    At 4:00 the Caravan will return to Selma through Demopolis. The Caravan will distribute materials on the coming cutbacks at every stop. The first 25 people at each rally will receive a lucky $2 bill for attending. People from around the state are invited to join the caravan at any point along the way.

    No Kings Rally in Selma on October 18th at 3:00 PM

    SOS will also be sponsoring a rally, with other groups, on No Kings Day, Saturday, October 18, 2025, from 2:30 to 5:00 PM at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge – west side, to protest the authoritarian, illegal and unjust policies and practices of the Trump-Vance Administration. This rally is in conjunction with over 2,000 similar actions across the country to resist the actions of the Trump-Vance Administration.
    The October 18th. ‘No Kings Rally” will be a follow-on to a similar rally held on June 14th in the same place. SOS invites members of Alabama New South Coalition which will be holding its Fall Convention, that same day in Selma, to also attend the protest rally.
    Persons with questions about either event may contact, John Zippert for more information at 205-657-0273.