Volume Volume 124 123 No. No. 47 20–22
June 25, 2016 - June 25, 2016, The Afro-American A1 $1.00
www.afro.com
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JUNE 25, 2016 - JULY1, 2016
Inside
Sit in for Gun Control
The AFRO’s Senior Guide
Washington
• AFRO Speaks with Miss USA
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Bobby Brown Tells His Side of the Story in ‘Every Little Step’
Baltimore
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• Shannon Sneed
Rep. Chillie Pingree via AP
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., center, and Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn. participate in Democratic sit-down protest seeking gun control.
Rebellious Democrats, Led by Rep. John Lewis, Disrupt House Over Gun Control
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By Matthew Daley The Associated Press
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Rebellious Democrats shut down the House’s legislative work on June 22, staging a sit-in on the House floor and refusing to leave until they secured a vote on gun control measures. Exasperated Republicans were forced to recess while cutting off cameras that showed the protest. Nearly 100 Democrats led by Georgia Rep. John Lewis demanded a vote on measures to expand background checks and block gun purchases by some suspected terrorists in the aftermath of last week’s massacre in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people in a gay nightclub.
It was the worst shooting in modern U.S. history. “No bill, no break,” shouted Democrats, who demanded that Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., keep the House in session through its planned weeklong recess next week to debate and vote on gun legislation. Democrats accused Republicans of political cowardice by failing to schedule a vote. “Are they more afraid than the children at Sandy Hook?” asked Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., referring to the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 elementary school children, in Newtown, Connecticut. “What is so scary about having a vote?”
Lewis, a veteran civil rights leader revered by Democrats, said action on gun violence is long overdue. “We have lost hundreds and thousands of innocent people to gun violence,” Lewis said as he urged fellow Democrats to stand with him in the area near the podium, known as the well. About 30 minutes after the sit-in began, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, tried to start the House’s work at noon. The customary prayer and pledge of allegiance went ahead, but Poe was forced to recess the House when dozens of Democrats refused to leave the well. By 3 p.m., the protest was still going on with the Republican leadership Continued on A3
Voter Suppression is a Threat to 2016 Elections, Activists Say Your History • Your Community • Your News
Justice to enact voting laws changes have been free to implement measures activists assert could have a negative impact on the American voters will cast their ballots 2016 presidential elections. in the 2016 presidential elections on Nov. Within hours of the high court ruling 8. However, voting rights activists, voters, in 2013, state legislators in a number and analysts fear the U.S. Supreme Court of states, including Florida, Virginia, has opened the door to voter suppression Georgia, and North Carolina, began that if unchecked, will deny significant – Wade Henderson introducing bills that a new report says are numbers of citizens their right to vote. signature tools of voter suppression. Since the John Roberts-led Supreme Court invalidated A new report entitled Warning Signs: The Potential Impact Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 2013, states of Shelby County v. Holder on the 2016 General Election, once required to get permission from the U.S. Department of Continued on A3
afro.com
By Barrington M. Salmon Special to the AFRO
Caring for Maryland’s Aging Veteran Population By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent
Listen to Afro’s “First Edition” Join Host Sean Yoes Monday-Friday 5-7 p.m. on 88.9 WEAA FM, the Voice of the Community. 11
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“We’re witnessing a virtual renaissance of voter restrictions.”
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Vice Adm. (Ret.) Adam Robinson is a historymaker in the military world, becoming the first AfricanAmerican surgeon general of the Navy and of any of the military branches in the United States in 2007. But, if life had gone as he as envisioned as a young man growing up in the South, he never would have had a career in the Armed Services. “If everything had worked out the way I thought it would, I would have been a musician,” said Robinson,
who grew up in a musicallyinclined family, told the AFRO. “It’s been the type of life where you don’t know what you don’t know. I never intend[ed] to have the military career. It was supposed to be a quick in and out, a drive-by but it was a long drive-by,” the doctor added with a laugh. Dr. Robinson grew up in Louisville, Ky., the fourth of five children, during a time when the civil rights movement was transforming Black communities and the broader United States. “Growing up in the U.S. during a time of social
Courtesy photo
Since becoming director of the VA Maryland Health Care System, Vice Adm. (Ret.) Adam Robinson has focused on staff training and patient care.
change and great awakening within the African-American community and within the U.S. to the fact that the disparities in education, legal rights and in health care were wrong, these things went into play in how I think, what I think and how I’m viewed,” Robinson said. He decided to make his mark as a physician, following in his father’s footsteps. In 1972, Robinson was among the first cohort of Americans to receive the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program. The scholarship Continued on A4
Copyright © 2016 by the Afro-American Company
Seeks New Direction for District 13
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Rift Between Police, State on Display in Freddy Gray Trial By Juliet Linderman The Associated Press A judge gave himself until June 22 to decide the fate of an officer in whose van the neck of a young black arrestee was somehow broken. It could take much longer to repair the tense and uneasy relationship between Baltimore’s prosecutors and police, now that they’ve traded accusations of sabotage, misconduct and dirty dealings during the third trial of an officer in the death of Freddie Gray. The betrayal of the symbiotic relationship police and prosecutors maintain in most cities has been particularly unwelcome in Baltimore, where murders reached a 40-year high last year and some neighborhoods have yet to recover from the riots that followed Gray’s death. “The citizens of the city have to wonder: If the two agencies can’t work together to investigate and prosecute crime, where do we stand?” said Warren Alperstein, a prominent attorney in the city. If Circuit Judge Barry Williams acquits Officer Caesar Goodson, who also is Black, of “depraved-heart” murder, manslaughter, assault and misconduct in office, prosecutors may have to reconsider trying officers who were less involved in Gray’s death. Continued on A3