Jan. 28, 2019 (GIN) – The rich are getting richer, businesses are thriving, but it’s hard not to notice that discontent is growing among the expanding poor and middle class and could soon pose a threat to the well-to-do.
At the exclusive World Economic Forum, an annual event held in Davos, Switzerland, income inequality was the talk among many corporate leaders, and the good jobs being lost to trade and automation.
“We’re living in a Gilded Age,” said Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of Guggenheim Partners, which manages more than $265 billion in assets. “I think, in America, the aristocrats are out of touch. They don’t understand the issues around the common man.”
In fact, a new Global Risks Report declares that humanity is “sleepwalking its way to catastrophe” referring to extreme weather, failure to act on climate change, among other threats.
For the jobless poor, a new buzzword - “upskilling” - was bandied about. Training could help people obtain better jobs in the digital economy, some assert.
Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of Blackstone, doubled down on the need for digital education which would lessen the inequalities that people have in terms of job opportunities.
It’s “up to the grown-ups” to make digital upskilling happen in K-12 schools, said Schwarzman, whose net worth is estimated at $13 billion.
But what most of the elites are uniformly against is a solution to be found in taxing wealth.
Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, couldn’t disagree more. “We’re in a world where governments do not tax wealth enough, do not tax the rich enough.”
Billionaire fortunes are spiraling by $2.5 billion daily, according to Oxfam in a new report. The share of wealth held by billionaires increases by $2.5 billion a day, while the share of wealth among the 3.8 billion of the world’s poorest decreases by $500 million a day.
“Our economy is broken,” said Byanyima, originally from Uganda. “Hundreds of millions live in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top.
Governments are fueling this inequality crisis, she insists. “They are under-taxing corporations and wealthy individuals, while underfunding vital public services like healthcare and education… The human costs are huge, with women and girls suffering the most.”
Countries cited by Oxfam with the greatest income inequality gap were Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana and Kenya.
The Forum runs from Jan. 22 to 25. To read the Oxfam briefing paper released this month, visit www.oxfam.org
The home where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. raised his family with Coretta Scott King will be made accessible to the public for the first time as part of Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, a part of the National Park System. (Katie Bricker Photography for the National Park Foundation)
By PR Newswire The National Park Foundation, National Park Service, and King family have announced that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s home in the historic Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, will be made accessible to the public for the first time as part of Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, a part of the National Park System. The addition of the home helps to tell a more complete story about the King family’s experiences and contributions to our nation’s history. The National Park Foundation purchased the home, via private philanthropy, from the estate of Coretta Scott King on January 8, 2019, and immediately transferred it to the National Park Service. This follows the National Park Foundation’s purchase and transfer of Dr. King’s birth home in late 2018. “African American history is U.S. history, and the family home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King is a touchstone for us all to better understand our shared heritage,” said Will Shafroth, president of the National Park Foundation. “The acquisition of both Dr. King’s birth home and the family home he shared with Coretta Scott King and their children advances the National Park Foundation’s commitment to telling a more comprehensive American story through national parks. With greater access to Dr. King’s life and legacy, we can learn more about this country’s past and how his work continues to echo through time.” “The National Park Service’s dedication to preserving historic properties is unmatched,” said Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., on behalf of the King family. “We are very pleased to have worked with the National Park Foundation to ensure that the family home that my siblings and I grew up in will be open and available to the public. My brothers and I are honored to have fulfilled my mother’s wish to allow future generations to know the story of our dad as a father, a husband, a minister, and a civil rights leader.” “The addition of the homes where Dr. King was born and where he raised his family with Coretta Scott King provides the National Park Service sacred spaces to more fully tell the story of Dr. King’s life and legacy,” said National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith. “Thanks to the efforts of the National Park Foundation and the generosity of the King family, these areas are now among the many civil rights sites that are preserved as part of the National Park System and will be accessible to the American people in perpetuity.” This article originally appeared in the Charleston Chronicle.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
Historic building on Bennett College campus A drive to help raise $5 million and save the accreditation of Bennett College received a boost this week as donations began to pour in ahead of the Friday, Feb. 1 deadline. The Papa John’s Foundation and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation of Winston-Salem, each pledged a $500,000 donation to the school, and each said they will recruit additional donors. The pledges increased the overall total raised to date to $2.7 million– a little more than half of the $5 million needed. “Bennett College has an outstanding tradition of academic excellence for African American women,” said Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade organization that represents 215 African American-owned newspapers and media companies around the country with more than 21 million weekly subscribers. “The college is funded by the Presbyterian Church and my great-great-great grandfather, the Rev. John Chavis, was the first ordained African American Presbyterian minister in the United States, and so I appeal to all Presbyterians, to all Episcopalians, to all Methodists, to all Baptists, and to those of all faiths, to help save Bennett College,” Chavis said. The privately-owned four-year historically black liberal arts college for women that’s located in Greensboro, was founded in 1873 as a school to educate recently freed slaves and train both men and women as teachers. An integral part of its community since its founding in 1873, Bennett transitioned into a women’s school in 1926. Reduced enrollment levels in recent years have sapped the college’s coffers, resulting in budget shortfalls and placing Bennett at risk of permanently losing its accreditation. Students, alumni and others associated with Bennett have developed a websitewhere donations can be made and information about the college can be found. Using the tagline and hashtag, “Stand with Bennett,” the group also presents evidence that Bennett has made significant gains in addressing its financial stability over the past two years. Some of the significant strides made by Bennett to achieve sustainability include: · Bennett generated a surplus of $461,038 and had no audit findings. · Bennett was approved for a capital loan deferment over a six-year period with a financial benefit of nearly $9 million. · Bennett has steadily increased its fundraising from $3.47 million to $4.25 million over a 3-year period. · Bennett’s enrollment has been trending upward for 2 years from 409 in 2017 to 471 in 2018. · The college’s retention rate is significantly up from 44 percent in the Fall of 2017 to 53 percent in the Fall of 2018. · The average GPA of new freshwomen increased from 2.8 in 2017 to 3.2 in 2018. · Bennett continues to support mission activities, and academic and student programs. · The Editorial Board of the college’s local newspaper, the Greensboro News & Record,said Bennett is raising the money as a show of good faith to an accrediting agency that the college is working, urgently, to address its fragile finances. That agency – the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges – has threatened to revoke Bennett’s accreditation because of the college’s tenuous fiscal footing. Bennett plans to appeal that ruling in mid-February and began the quick-strike campaign to help make its case, according to the Greensboro News & Record. Without accreditation, Bennett would lose eligibility for federal grants and student loans and could be forced to close. “We have made the case before for Bennett,” the editorial board wrote. “It is one of only two colleges for African-American women in the nation and it has been an integral part of this community since it was founded in 1873.” To donate, visit http://www.bennett.edu/standwithbennett/
BIRMINGHAM — An Alabama civil rights museum reversed course after a public outcry and reinstated a human rights award to activist Angela Davis that it had previously rescinded, the organization announced Friday, January 25, 2019.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) said in a statement that its board has voted to reaffirm Davis, a Birmingham native, as the recipient of the award and has invited her to personally receive it. The statement said the board has not heard if Davis will accept.
“Dr. Angela Davis, a daughter of Birmingham, is highly regarded throughout the world as a human rights activist,” Institute President Andrea L. Taylor said in a statement.
The Birmingham museum sparked protests and criticism earlier this month when it announced that it was abruptly canceling the award to Davis that was supposed to be given at a February gala.
The board withdrew her award after a local Holocaust education group asked it to reconsider. Davis is an outspoken supporter of a movement criticizing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Davis, who turns 75 on Saturday, has spent decades fighting for civil rights. She was an active member of the Black Panther Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Communist Party USA.
Board members on Jan. 14 issued a public apology for the discord that resulted from its decision to rescind the award. They said there said there should have been more conversation with diverse points of view before making the decision.
In Friday’s statement, the board said its decision to give Davis the award is “in keeping with its commitment to learning from its mistakes.”
The award is called the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award. It is named for the late minister and prominent civil rights activist who led demonstrations in Birmingham and across the South.
Civil rights and community groups were arranging an “alternative award celebration” for Ms. Davis in Birmingham on February 16, after the BCRI withdrew its award. Ms. Davis has not commented on whether she will accept the Museum’s apology and receive the award as originally planned.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia
U. S. Capitol with shutdown sign
The longest government shutdown in American history is over – and President Donald Trump did not get his Wall. Trump announced on Friday a short-term deal to temporarily reopen the government. NBC News was the first to report that a stop-gap agreement with congressional leaders will last three weeks, until Feb. 15, and would allow talks to continue over security on the southern border. The deal includes no money for his border wall. “In a short while, I will sign a bill to reopen the government for three weeks until Feb. 15,” Trump said in the Rose Garden, according to NBC News. “I will make sure that all employees receive their back pay very quickly or as soon as possible.” Trump announced the deal 35 days into the longest-ever partial government closure that has left an estimated 800,000 federal employees without pay and created a host of problems. On Thursday, the president said that if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were about to reach a reasonable agreement to end the shutdown, he would support it. The shutdown began just before Christmas and has left approximately 400,000 workers home from work without pay, while another 400,000 were required to be on the job without pay. The workers will receive back pay, under the agreement. Trump and congressional Democrats have been at a standoff over the president’s demand for $5.7 billion to build his wall along the southern border. The news was met with joy from government workers, including the thousands of African Americans who have gone without pay since the shutdown began. “Are you serious?” Sharon Clifford, a TSA worker who sought babysitting jobs during the shutdown, told NNPA Newswire. “Thank God,” said Clifford, who said she was visiting her parents in North Carolina to ask for a loan to get her through the end of the month.
Robert Brown Middle School students demonstrate walking and dancing robots they created.
In keeping with recognizing January as School Board Appreciation Month, each of the Greene County schools honored the local school board members with special accolades at the monthly meeting held Tuesday, January 22, 2019. Eutaw Primary students Ja’Siyah Spencer and London Gould, under the direction of 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Keisha Williams, rendered a poem. Principal Barbara Martin invited board members to a special luncheon. Robert Brown Middle School Students Jami Williams, Omar Elnaham, Kailee Coleman, Jocelyn Pelt and Anthony McMillian, Jr., under the direction of 7th & 8th grade teacher, Ms. Janice Jeames, demonstrated the walking and dancing robots they created in science class.
The group presented board members with sweets and certificates of appreciation. Representing Greene County High School, Mr. Alphonzo Morton, III, science/biology teacher and Mr. Siegfried Williams, Choir Director, rendered a poem and song and presented board members with bags of sweets and certificates of appreciation. Superintendent Dr. James Carter, Sr., representing the Central office staff, presented board members certificates of appreciation and fruit baskets. Phillis Belcher, Executive Director of the Greene County Industrial Development Authority, also recognized the school board members with bags of healthy treats and copies of the spiritual guide, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Returning to its regular order of business, the board acted on the following personnel recommendations of the superintendent. Approved resignations of Sondra Green, Health Science Instructor, Greene County Career Center, effective January 15, 2019; Lesley Carlisle, Maintenance Supervisor, effective January 31, 2018. Approved catastrophic leave for Tyreice Mack, 5th grade Teacher, Robert Brown Middle School. Approved employment of Derrick Williams, Bus Driver, Department of Transportation. Approved salary adjustment for Accounts Payable Clerk, for duties outside regular duties. Approved supplemental contracts for Shayla McCray, Charlayne Jordan-Riley, and Angelia Hood for duties performed outside regular contract. Approved supplemental contract for Fredrick Square as School Safety Coordinator. Approved supplemental contract for Alfonzo Noland, for duties outside regular duties. The board also approved Dr. Carter’s recommendation that supplemental contracts for coaches remain as is with the caveat that coaches be given extra pay consideration upon completion of annual evaluation, number of students who earn scholarships, won and lost record, practice schedule, and morale of students and coaches within the program. CSFO LaVonda Blair presented a financial snapshot for the period ending November 2018: General Fund Balance – $659,662.79 (reconciles to the summary cash report); Check Register Accountability Report – $486,097.48; Payroll register – $898,072.90; Combined Fund Balance – $2,950,901; Local Revenue for the month included property taxes – $202,633.59 and bingo collections – $58,620. Statement ending balance in Merchants & Farmers Bank – $592,538.82 with ending book balance at $659,662.679. The School system’s reserved fund balance is $2,950,901.15 Morgan attempts to buy-out superintendent’s contract When the board members returned from executive session, board member William Morgan offered a motion which in effect would buy-out Superintendent Carter’s contract and end his services in the system as of Feb. 1, 2019. In the December board meeting, the majority of the board voted to non-renew Dr. Carter’s contract when it ends in June, 2019. Morgan’s motion was deemed out of order, since discussion of the superintendent’s contract was not on the agenda and to add it would required unanimous consent of all board members. Morgan proceeded to expound on the reasons for his motion. He stated that the school system is in great disarray; teachers do not get support they need; principals don’t do their jobs; students don’t get resources needed and all this, according to Morgan, is failure of the superintendent to do his job. Morgan made several disparaging statements against the superintendent, implying the system needed someone new immediately before everything just fell apart. Mr. Leo Branch, board president, had to resort to gaveling Morgan back to order, with the latter insisting he had the floor. Superintendent Carter followed with his own remarks, refuting Morgans statements of how bad the school system is. Carter pointed to the new and continuing initiatives and the progressive work going on in the system. Board member Carol Zippert indicated that she wanted clarity that Morgan did not represent her views on the school system. She said that are lots of good things going on in our schools and problems and issues cannot be corrected overnight. It takes a process for progress to continue, with everyone playing a part. She stated that the system is continuing to improve. During public comments, several members of the audience, including Ms. Hattie Edwards, former Mayor or Eutaw, District Judge Lillie Jones Osborne, Commissioner Lester Brown, community leader Spiver Gordon and retired teacher Mary Otieno, challenged the statements made by Morgan and noted specifics of how they viewed progress in the school system. Each speaker indicated that many entities are responsible for students’ success, including parents, teachers, administrators, the community and students themselves. They all said it is not entirely up to the superintendent. One speaker urged the board to find a way to work together for the students.
Rev. Michael Lavender, Pastor of St. John Baptist Church in Clinton, served as keynote speaker at the Freedom Unity Breakfast held Monday, January 21, 2019 in Eutaw commemorating Dr. Martin L. King’s birthday. Mr. Spiver Gordon presents him with a Certificate of Appreciation for his inspiring messageRev. Millicent Owens (center) is shown with her husband, John Owens at the Godly Women of West Alabama Religious Rally in Eutaw, January 21, 2019. Mr. Spiver Gordon, organizer of the event presents Rev. Owens with Certificate of Appreciation for her inspiring message as guest speaker.
The Alabama Civil Rights Museum of Eutaw, Alabama sponsored several programs and a march this past week to honor the 90th birthday of civil and human rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On Tuesday, January 15, 2019 the Museum held a program at New Peace Baptist Church for young people on the actual date of Dr. King’s birthday. Students from the 11th and 12th grades were bused to the program to learn more about the life of Dr. King and his connection to the development of the civil rights and voting rights struggle in Greene County. On Sunday, January 20, 2019 there was an evening program at Pine Grove CME Church in Dollarhide to honor the life and legacy of Dr. King. Rev. Joe Webb of New Generation Church in Eutaw gave a stirring message. Rick Sexton of Dayton, Ohio gave a performance on his saxophone and also did a pantomime to a religious song. The Greene County Community Choir sang several rousing songs. On Monday morning, January 21, 2019, the day of the national holiday for Dr. King, the Museum held its Annual Freedom Unity Breakfast with more than a hundred participants in very cold weather. Rev. Michael Lavender, Pastor of St. John’s Baptist Church in Clinton gave the message, Rick Saxton played a musical tribute on his saxophone accompanied by a young guitar player from the Christ Temple Church of Eutaw, and many others gave greetings and remarks. After the breakfast, a group marched from the Eutaw Activity Center to the William M. Branch Courthouse in Eutaw to symbolize that the struggle and direct action by people marching has not ended. At the Courthouse, the Museum held a women’s program in honor of Dr. King. Rev. Millicent Owens of Greensboro gave the message and various groups sang, spoke and gave greetings. At each of the programs, Spiver W. Gordon, President of the Alabama Civil Rights Museum recognized a list of “movement foot soldiers” that passed on in the previous two years. He also distributed certificates to ‘Godly Men and Women of West Alabama” at each of the programs. The Democrat will include more photos of the honorees in the coming weeks as space allows.
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.
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.
