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Volume 121 No. 45
June 8, 2013 - June 8, 2013, The Afro-American A1 $1.00
JUNE 15, 2013 - JUNE 21, 2013
A Royal Tribute for Rev. Harold Carter
Mayor Rawlings-Blake Won’t Sign Local Hiring Bill Bill to Go into Effect in Two Weeks By Krishana Davis AFRO Staff Writer A city council bill to mandate the hiring of Baltimore residents appears poised to take effect June 24. The measure, sponsored by City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, will require contractors with $300,000 in city contracts or $5 million in city subsidies to hire Baltimore residents for 51 percent of all new jobs. Facing a city government legal department ruling that the measure would violate the U.S. Constitition, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has been silent about enacting
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Mayor Stephanie RawlingsBlake the measure. According to Young spokesman Lester Davis, the mayor will neither sign nor veto the bill, which cleared the council June 3. As a result, the bill takes effect, said Young, “three city
council meetings after it is approved, even without the mayor’s signature.” After the city council approved the local hiring bill on June 3, Young released a statement that he is pleased that his colleagues decided to put the needs of the Baltimore’s “unemployed” and “underemployed” residents first. “Tonight’s passage of this landmark bill represents a renewed sense of hope for the countless families who continue to struggle to pay for basic necessities,” said Young in a statement. “I look forward to working with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on the law’s implementation.” The bill sparked
By Joseph Green-Bishop and Larry A. McMillian Special to the AFRO
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Every moment of the 48 years that Pastor Harold A. Carter Sr. spent preaching to, and adoring, the people of the New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore was engagingly returned to him in abundance by thousands of mourners who came out in a torrential rain storm on June
State Center Project Stuck in Court By Zenitha Prince Special to the AFRO Development of the $1.5 billion State Center in midtown Baltimore has been stymied by litigation since a group of downtown landlords and business owners, led by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos, filed a lawsuit in December 2010 claiming the project would create unfair competition and impair downtown’s already hobbling economy. “The lawsuit has been disappointing and surprising,” said Caroline Moore, president and CEO of Ekistics, State Center’s lead developer. The project underwent five Board of Public Works approvals and more than 200 public meetings with stakeholders since the public-private partnership deal was first conceived
under the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in 2004. “There were certainly plenty of opportunities for people to raise their hands and voice any objections,”
and business owners, said he could not comment on matters pending before the court. Since the suit was filed, however, things have been going the plaintiffs’ way. In the past two years, Circuit Court Judge Althea Handy denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case and threw out a $100 million countersuit by the state, which argued that the delay caused by the lawsuit had Andrew Scott increased the costs of said Moore. “[But] this group came construction, financing and building up after we had invested millions of maintenance. And, in January, Handy dollars and lots of time.” sided with the plaintiffs and voided Attorney Alan Rifkin, who is the project’s development contracts, representing the disgruntled landlords saying they did not adhere to state law.
“With developments of this magnitude, it is like riding a rollercoaster with a lot of ups and downs. But a good project will overcome them and push on through.” –
Founding Member of Baltimore’s ‘Goon Squad’ Passes By Alexis Taylor Special to the AFRO Baltimoreans and members of the Civil Rights Movement nationwide are mourning the death of original “Goon Squad” member, Dr. Homer Eli Favor. The economist, professor, and civil rights legend succumbed to heart disease at age 88 on June 8, but local and state leaders say his legacy is sure to be timeless. “There’s a saying that goes ‘There once were giants that walked the Earth.’ He was one of those giants,” said Carl Snowden, who now works in Annapolis as chairman of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee.
Snowden first met Favor as a teenager many years ago with an introduction by the late Congressman Parren J. Mitchell, also a founding member of the Baltimore civil rights group that came to be known as “The Goon Squad.” Their friendship would span two decades. “The kind of leadership that he and others of that era represented was a leadership that talked about needing change ‘now,’” said Snowden. “They were not willing to wait or postpone the civil rights that they were entitled to. They fought very hard and made it a front-page issue.” Snowden said he had a tremendous Continued on A6
Photo by Alexis Taylor
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9 to say goodbye and “we love you” to a man who was considered by many one of the greatest preachers in America. Nearly every type of person, including the politically powerful and the potently poor filled the sanctuary of the church as tributes were given by people whose lives had been Photos by J.D. Howard touched by Pastor Carter. Among them was Kweisi Mfume, a former member of the United States Congress who was influenced by Pastor Carter to join the church and later become a member of a 200-voice choir that sang during Pastor Carter’s final service. “Pastor Carter helped to change my life,” said Mfume, who before becoming the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus,
Lalit H. Gadhia, Dr. Homer Favor and O. Patrick Scott, discuss the Goon Squad at a February event at the University of Baltimore.
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Despite the obstacles—if Handy’s decision is upheld, the plan will have to be reconfigured—state officials remain hopeful that the project will come to fruition. “With developments of this magnitude, it is like riding a rollercoaster with a lot of ups and downs. But a good project will overcome them and push on through,” said Andrew Scott, director of the Office of Real Estate with the Maryland Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the midtown overhaul. The design for the mixed-use, 28acre development received an award for excellence in urban, sustainable design, for its inclusivity and transitoriented, “green” design. Under the plan, the state would Continued on A6
Fathers and Sons Opine About Dads’ Day By Zachary Lester AFRO Staff Writer
dynamic relationships, each one dependent on the other for purpose and strength,” said Dr. Alvin Thornton, associate provost for Academic Affairs at Howard University, nationally known for
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin T. Jealous has two little children. Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III has a son and two daughters. Rev. Derren A. Thompson, a Chesapeake Bay-area clergyman, has two sons. Each has achieved a high level of success and each said that being a father has been the icing on the cake. As Father’s Day approaches on June Dr. Alvin Thornton and his daughters 16, men, women and children across the nation his education reform work in Prince are contemplating the meaning Geoge’s County and Maryland. of fatherhood. Though Father’s “Fatherhood must be grounded in Day doesn’t create the same giftrespect and love for the extended giving frenzy of Mother’s Day, the family unit and the mother of the celebration does, none the less, offer children.” families a formal opportunity to Thornton, who has worked for thank the men whose traditional role more than 25 years to improve the is to protect and guide us. plight of children and young adults, “Fatherhood is a series of Continued on A6
Copyright © 2013 by the Afro-American Company