Category Archives: Uncategorized

Countywide program honors retired Probate Judge Earlean Isaac for lifetime of services

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Shown L to R: Sons, Johnny Jr, and Jamaine, Judge Earlean Isaac, husband, former Sheriff  Johnny L. Isaac and daughter Janetha Isaac

On Sunday, February 11, 2024, the Greene County Commission and the Greene County Historical Society jointly honored retired Probate Judge, Earlean Isaac, with a celebratory program for a half century of service to Greene County and its residents. There was a standing room only crowd of more than 200 people who filled the courtroom.
Judge Isaac with the Greene County Commission unveiled a portrait of the judge to be hung in the Courthouse corridor leading to the Probate Judge’s office.
The Greene County Historical Society unveiled a brass historical plaque to be displayed on the Courthouse Square to honor Judge Isaac.
Judge Isaac came from a large family in the Forkland area of Greene County. She served for 17 years as assistant and chief clerk for Judge William M. Branch, the first Black Probate Judge of Greene County and then 30 years as the elected Probate Judge. Judge Isaac was the first Black female Probate Judge and second Black Probate Judge in the nation.
The program included greetings and comments from the current Probate Judge, Rolanda Wedgeworth, who was represented by Mia Jordan, her chief clerk. Former Probate Judge Judy Spree also spoke. Three prior Circuit Clerks – Johnnie Knott, Etta Edwards and Mattie Atkins added greetings.
Sheriff Jonathan Benison and former Sheriff Johnny L. Isaac, who is Judge Earlean’s husband, also added greetings. Commissioners Cockrell, Spencer and Turner helped unveil the portrait. Spiver W. Gordon, speaking on behalf of the Civil Rights Movement urged everyone present, Black and White, to “work together to move everything that was wrong to everything right.”
Lloyd Dawe of the Greene County Historical Society unveiled the bronze plaque honoring Isaac.
In her closing remarks, Judge Isaac acknowledged God, her family, and friends for their support and assistance over the years. She also indicated that the day of the program was her 74th birthday, which made it extra special to her.

 

Learning Black History every day of every month: Ancestral History guides our living

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Pictured: Judge William Branch, Wadine Williams, Sheriff Thomas Gilmore,  Clarence Davis, Blue Musician, Glory 2 Glory Gospel group, Odessa Rice,  Quilter, Basket Weaver and  Martha Kimbrough, Quilter

There is a well known adage that has the message – If you don’t know your history you are doomed to repeat it. Greene County is noted for its political accomplishments mainly from 1965 through 1970, and to some extent beyond. In 1965, Black students from then Carver High School, joined later by Black students from Greene County Training School and Eatman Jr. High School, boycotted their places of learning to call attention to oppression and discrimination in Greene County and initiate change. The young people took a stand, assisted by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and thus began the Civil Rights Movement in Greene County.
The outcomes are manifested in Black citizens, as 80% of the county’s population, registering to vote, organizing a political party, The National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA), running as candidates and winning local elections. Of course, none of this was easily gained. The young marchers were harassed, attacked, arrested and jailed. When the adults joined the local movement, many were also harmed and terrorized in various ways. Some were evicted off white-folk’s property; some lost very needed jobs. Those foot soldiers, young and older, knew fear and danger, but they embraced the cause for rights due them and justice denied and they had a victory.
There is a litany of the First Black Elected Officials in Greene County, but if you ask any scholar in Greene County schools to name one or two of the first Black elected officials, you are likely to be disappointed in the non-response. Approximately eight years ago, the Greene County Board of Education approved a policy that mandated the infusion of Black History into the curriculum. The intent is not to offer one course in Black History, but to incorporate the role and contributions or connections of Black people throughout each course. Sadly, there is no evidence that this policy is being implemented.
Many of our young people today don’t carry the significance of what the Civil Rights Movement in Greene County prepared them for. Nor do they carry the significance of our ancestral history from the African Continent.
Because of our ancestral history, in 1966, Rev. Peter J. Kirksey became the first Black school board member in Greene County and Rev. W. D. Lewis was elected to the Greene County Democratic Executive Committee.
Because of our ancestral history, in the 1969 Special Election ( held because Black candidates on the NDPA ticket were left off the state’s ballot in 1968) the first Black elected County Commissioners were Rev. Vassie Knott, Mr. Harry Means, Mr. Franchie Burton and Mr. Levi Morrow, Sr. Mr. James Posey, Sr. and Mr. Robert Hines were elected to the school board that same year.
Because of our ancestral history, in 1970, Rev. William McKinley Branch was able to become the first Black elected Probate Judge in this nation; Rev. Thomas Gilmore became the first Black elected Sheriff in Greene County; Mrs. Wadine Williams was elected as first Black Circuit Clerk and Mr. Robert Cook became the first Black Tax Collector. Rev. Harold (Abner) Milton was the first Black Coroner.
Because of our ancestral history, Deacon John Head and Mr. Earsrie Chambers also joined the school board in 1970 and the all Black board members hired Mr. Robert Brown as the first Black Superintendent of Schools in Greene County.
Because of our ancestral history, In 1978, Rev. John Kennard became the first Black elected Tax Assessor in Greene County.
Our children should know our people were survivors long before the early political revolution in Greene County and other parts of the Black Belt and the nation.
Because of our ancestral history, we survived enslavement (chattel slavery) in this country and other parts of the world. We survived the Jim Crow era and segregation. As the wise elders proclaimed: We took what we had and made what we needed.
At the annual Black Belt Folk Roots Festival, held in Eutaw, Greene County, AL, produced by the Society of Folk Arts & Culture, we can witness some ways our ancestors made it over. Their artistically designed quilts had a key role in the Underground Railroad through which our people manipulated the passage of our enslaved ancestors to areas of this country where slavery was not mandated. The design of the quilts and how they were positioned for view held messages for the special conductors who led others toward a semblance of freedom land.
The hand crafted baskets, carved wooden utinsels, wooden furnishings were all created from what the Earth of the region provided. At the annual festival elders continue to showcase their stories through baskets created from pine needles, bullrush grass, and cornshucks.
The ole timey blues and gospel music that draws so many to the festival each year recounts how our ancestors exhaled the weight of pain, grief and loss brought through enslavement and disenfranchisement. Those melodic voices then and now carry strong faith, hope and deep spiritual strength from an Almighty power.
The annual festival is one mirror to view history. There are many others, including the annual Bridge Crossing Commemoration and Jubilee held in Selma, AL the first week end in March each year.
We owe our children the exposure of our history. The children must learn from us there are shoulders to stand on, footsteps to follow, guides to build upon. They must learn from us how to live to make history that celebrates who we are and from whom and where we have come. History leads, preparing us to follow. We must know our history to travel our way.

 

NNPA recognizes Democrat Co-Publishers with ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’

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L to R in photo: John and Carol P. Zippert, holding award, with Bobby Henry, NNPA President and Publisher of the Westside Gazette in Ft. Lauderdale Florida and Dr. Ben Chavis, NNPA CEO and President.

At the National Newspaper Publishers Association Mid-Winter Training Conference, last week in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the association of 230 Black newspapers and media organizations, presented its “Lifetime Achievement Award” to John and Carol P. Zippert, Co-Publishers of the Greene County Democrat, weekly newspaper.

John and Carol Zippert were part of a community group that purchased in late 1984, the existing Greene County Democrat newspaper, started in the 1890’s. The Co-Publishers have been producing the newspaper weekly since January 1985, a 39 year period.

“We have tried to make the Democrat representative of the people of Greene County, 80% or more are African-American, in the western Alabama Black Belt,” said Carol P. Zippert. We look forward to many more years of providing this newspaper.

Newswire: Spelman College to receive $100 million, largest single donation to an HBCU

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By Claretta Bellamy, NBC News


Spelman College in Atlanta will receive the largest single financial donation ever made to a historically Black college or university, the school announced on Thursday. 
Billionaires Ronda Stryker and William Johnston will donate $100 million to the women’s college. Stryker is a member of Harvard Medical School’s board of fellows and a member of the college’s board of trustees. She is also the granddaughter of the founder of Stryker Corp., a medical device company. Her husband, Johnston, is the founder and board chairman of Greenleaf Trust, a wealth management firm in Michigan. 
The college is both “invigorated and inspired” by the generous donation, Spelman College’s President Dr. Helene Gayle said in a statement.
“This gift is a critical step in our school’s mission to eliminate financial barriers to starting and finishing a Spelman education,” Gayle added. “We can’t thank Ronda Stryker enough for her selflessness and support as both a trustee and friend. There’s no doubt that Spelman College is better because of her.”
Spelman is a private liberal arts college. The college has received other significantly large donations in the past, including a $10 million donation last February from Rosemary K. and John W. Brown to support the construction of its Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., Center for Innovation & the Arts, which is scheduled to open this fall.
Most of Stryker and Johnston’s donation, $75 million, will fund endowed scholarships for future students, while the remaining $25 will be used to “develop an academic focus on public policy and democracy, improve student housing and provide flexible funding to meet critical strategic needs,” according to a statement. 
Stryker said she cares deeply for the sisterhood the college has created and that education is powerful and transformational for women.
“I have seen first-hand the enormous impact financial investment has generated for Spelman’s highly talented students,” Stryker said in a statement shared with NBC News. “It’s important to me that all women be provided an opportunity to explore their talents, challenge their self-doubts and realize the power of achieving individual success.”
Several Spelman students and alumni shared their excitement about the historic donation on social media. “Congrats to my beloved Spelman College on a $100 million dollar donation!,” one student tweeted. “Incredible!”
HBCUs have small endowments compared with other colleges, but have seen an increase in donations since the racial justice protests spurred by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Spelman, which has about 2,400 students, has been relatively well-funded though, reporting an endowment of $571 million in 2021.
Stryker has been a Spelman trustee since 1997. She and Johnston gave Spelman $30 million in 2018. They also gave $100 million in 2011 to create the Homer Stryker medical school at Western Michigan University.
The Spelman donation comes a week after the United Negro College Fund announced a donation of $100 million from the Lilly Endowment Inc. That gift will go toward a pooled endowment for the 37 historically Black colleges and universities that form UNCF’s membership, including Spelman, with the goal of boosting the schools’ long-term financial stability. The fund is trying to raise $370 million for a shared endowment.
Other big donations to HBCUs in recent years include the $560 million MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, gave in 2020 to 22 Black colleges, the UNCF and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, another fundraising arm. Netflix founder Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, split $120 million among the United Negro College Fund, Spelman and Morehouse College. Former New York mayor and entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg pledged $100 million for student aid at the four historically Black medical schools.

Delta local chapter shares Thanksgiving gifts

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On Tuesday, November 21, 2023, the Greene County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. provided a Thanksgiving Dinner for families in their service area. The dinners were coordinated through the respective county’s Department of Human Resources (DHR), whose staff selected the recipient families. The Thanksgiving Sharing is an annual service provided by the DST Alumnae Chapter. Schiquetta Burrell and Glenda Hodges serve as Co-Chairpersons of the Chapter’s Thanksgiving Sharing the Senior Citizen Celebration Committee. Loydleetta Wabbington is a committee member. Dr. Florence Williams is Chapter President. Also present at the event were DHR Representatives Keltanishaline Bates, Modesta Smiley and Latonya H. Wooley.

Newswire : DeSantis suspends Florida’s only Black Woman State’s Attorney

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Governor DeSantis locked State’s Attorney  Monique Worrell out of her office


By: BlackmansStreet Today

Last Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended State’s Attorney Monique Worrell.

Worrell was based in the 9th judicial district, which is located in Central Florida and covers Orange and Osceola Counties. Worrell is the only Black woman state’s attorney and she is being replaced with Orlando judge Andrew Bain, a conservative Black judge.

“I guess Ron DeSantis thinks if he swaps out one Black person for another, then that will make voters happy,” she said, adding that she was told not to go into the office and to return all state property.

It is the second time in less than 14 months that the governor has removed a duly elected prosecutor — the first was State’s Attorney Andrew Warren of the 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County, Florida.

Worrell’s policies do not align with DeSantis’ aims, but her policies since taking office have remained consistent with the mandate she received from voters and with decades of research on what does and does not work in criminal justice.

Based on data from the Prosecutorial Performance Indicators project, out of the more than 11,000 felony cases referred to and filed by Worrell’s office in 2022, 91% were disposed of as felonies, i.e., only 8% were reduced to misdemeanors. 

This means that the office is making good filing decisions upfront to avoid the waste of limited prosecutorial resources. 

The office declined to file approximately half of the felonies in 2021. However, by doing so, prosecutors were able to focus on violent offenses, which is reflected in falling crime rates across Orlando
 

Newswire : Riots in France were fed by racism, police brutality and the law, after North African teenager was shot

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July 3, 2023 (GIN) – Tens of thousands of police clashed with young protestors after a teenager of North African descent was shot and killed at point blank range by officers during a traffic stop.

A funeral was held for Nahel M., age 17, in the Paris suburb of Nanterre as police made more than 700 arrests nationwide. It was the worst social upheaval in France in years.  

The protest ended with police firing tear gas and cars being set on fire.

The teen’s murder was caught on videos and contradicted the initial police report. The videos shared online show two police officers leaning into the driver-side window of a yellow car before the vehicle pulls away as one officer fires into the window. The videos show the car later crashed into a post nearby.

The driver died at the scene, the prosecutor’s office said. This led the prosecutor, Pascal Prache, to conclude that “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met” in the shooting.

The police officer has been placed in provisional detention, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The incident provoked the headline: ‘France faces a George Floyd moment’ – “as if we were suddenly waking up to the issue of racist police violence,” observed writer Rokhaya Diallo. “This naive comparison itself reflects a denial of the systemic racist violence that for decades has been inherent to French policing.”

Meanwhile, continued Diallo, “the number of cases of police brutality grows relentlessly every year. In France, young men perceived to be black or of North African origin are 20 times more likely to be subjected to police identity checks than the rest of the population… Why would we not feel scared of the police?

“In 1999,” continued Diallo, “our country, the supposed birthplace of human rights, was condemned by the European court of human rights for torture, following the sexual abuse by police of a young man of North African origin.  Now, after the death of Nahel, a UN rights body has urged France to address “profound problems of racism and racial discrimination” within its law enforcement agencies.

More recently, in December 2022, the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination denounced both the racist discourse of politicians and police ID checks “disproportionately targeting certain minorities”.

Despite such overwhelming findings, our president, Emmanuel Macron, still considers the use of the term “police violence” to be unacceptable… Yet I fear that the focus is being placed on an individual police officer instead of questioning entrenched attitudes and structures within the police that are perpetuating racism. And not a single one of the damning reports and rulings has led to any meaningful reform of the police as an institution.

Worse, a law passed in 2017 has made it easier for police to shoot to kill without even having to justify it on the grounds of self-defense. Since this change in the law, the number of fatal shootings against moving vehicles has increased fivefold. Last year, 13 people were shot dead in their vehicles.

“Whatever our age, many of us French who are descended from postcolonial immigration carry within us this fear combined with rage, the result of decades of accumulated injustice.

“This year, we mark the 40th anniversary of the murder of Toumi Djaïdja, a 19-year-old from a Lyon slum, who became the victim of police violence that left him in a coma for two weeks. This was the genesis of the March for Equality and Against Racism, the first antiracist demonstration on a national scale, in which 100,000 people took part.

“The crimes of the police are at the root of many of the uprisings in France’s most impoverished urban areas”, said Diallo said, “and it is these crimes that must be condemned first.”

Newswire: Mass shooting at Louisville bank heightens gun control issue

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By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire

In the wake of still another mass shooting in America, this time at an Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, the nation is left reeling.
At least five people were killed, and eight others were injured, two of whom are in critical condition.
The shooter, who police believe had a connection to the bank, is dead, and authorities are working to establish the motive behind the shooting.
Police responded quickly to the call this morning, arriving within three minutes of the first reports. They encountered the shooter almost immediately and exchanged gunfire, which ultimately led to the shooter’s death. Police are still investigating whether the shooter died from the gunfire or a self-inflicted wound.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear expressed grief over losing two close friends in the shooting and having another friend injured. The bank where the shooting occurred is also his bank, making the tragedy even more personal for him.
The mayor of Louisville, Craig Greenberg, asked people to pray for those fighting for their lives. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said he was heartbroken when he heard the news.
The shooting comes as a Nashville City Council is expected to decide whether to reinstate former Tennessee Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones, whom Republican majority leaders ousted after he urged them to act on gun control. Later this week, Jones’ former colleague, Democrat Justin Pearson, could also be re-seated after the GOP ousted him.
The pair protested the lack of action by the Republican-led body on gun control following a school shooting in Nashville that left three elementary school students and three adults dead.
The Louisville shooting is just the latest in a string of mass shootings that have rocked the nation in recent years, with gun violence continuing to be a divisive and contentious issue.
Some politicians and interest groups have pushed back against calls for stricter gun control. They say that doing so would violate their rights under the Second Amendment.
As the nation mourns the victims of the Louisville shooting and grapples with the ongoing issue of gun violence, many are left wondering when, if ever, meaningful action will be taken to address the issue.

Civil Rights leaders say keep ‘Bloody Sunday March’ sacred at all costs 

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“We have received a number of calls from around the country with people saying they are being told the Bloody Sunday March is going to be on Saturday. We want to assure those tens of thousands of people who come to Selma because of Bloody Sunday that the Bloody Sunday March will be on Sunday, March 5th.

“We have been told that certain people are trying to move it to Saturday, but we strongly oppose that. We must do whatever is necessary to protect, maintain and lift the sacredness of Selma’s Bloody Sunday,” said Hank Sanders, former Alabama State Senator, and co-founder, with his wife, Faya Rose Toure (Sanders) of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

“Bloody Sunday is sacred now. Bloody Sunday has been sacred for 58 years. We must keep Selma’s Bloody Sunday sacred now and into the future. We cannot allow anybody or anything to reduce or limit or change the sacredness of Bloody Sunday,” said SCLC National President and CEO Dr. Charles Steele Jr.
 
“The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized the 1965 Bloody Sunday March in Selma as well as the Selma to Montgomery March, and we know firsthand the sacredness of Bloody Sunday. That is why every year SCLC is in Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery March. SCLC is also a key sponsor of the Bloody Sunday March and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.” Dr. Steele has been the National President and CEO of SCLC for nearly 20 years, before that he operated a funeral home business in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was a member of the Alabama Legislature.
 
Bridge Crossing Jubilee Co-Founder and former 35-year Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders said: “Bloody Sunday is sacred. We have commemorated the Bloody Sunday March on the first Sunday in March for 50 consecutive years. It has been the heart of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee for 30 years. People all over the world recognize Selma’s Bloody Sunday and the Bloody Sunday March as sacred even though there were many places of struggle in the Voting Rights Movement and a number of lives lost. Selma’s Bloody Sunday March is sacred to millions of people across the country and beyond.”

 Dr. Joe Reed, Chair of the Alabama Democratic Conference, said: “We cannot compromise that which is sacred, and Selma’s Bloody Sunday is sacred. I was at the organizing of SNCC on the campus of North Carolina’s Shaw University in 1960, and I have seen firsthand the power of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I know the sacrifices that were made, the blood that was shed and the lives that were lost to get the Voting Rights Act. We must do whatever is necessary to ensure Selma’s Bloody Sunday March remains sacred and on Sunday.” 
 
The Bloody Sunday March occurs because of the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was murdered by an Alabama State Trooper in Marion, Alabama, and people decided to march from Selma to Montgomery as a result and were beaten bloody on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma by law enforcement. A number of national Civil Rights Leaders and Voting Rights Leaders insist that Selma’s Bloody Sunday March is sacred and cannot be compromised. The leaders spoke at a 10:00 am. press conference in the Auditorium at 424 South Decatur Street in Montgomery last week.

The Bridge Crossing Jubilee including workshops, a parade, Freedom Flame Dinner, Foot soldiers Breakfast, golf tournament. mock trial, Martin and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast, music festival on Water Street, church services and the commemorative march for ‘Bloody Sunday’ on Sunday, will be held from March 2 to 5, 2023, in Selma, Alabama.