www.afro.comOctober 26, 2013 - October 26, 2013,
Volume 122 No. 12
The Afro-American A1 $1.00
OCTOBER 26, 2013 - NOVEMBER 1, 2013
Slayings of Women Up in Baltimore
Economic Quagmire Deepens for Blacks By Zenitha Prince Special to the AFRO About a week ago, Ernest, a 40-year-old husband and father of two girls, lost his job. For three years, the Baltimore man, who has a degree in accounting and years of experience, said he worked in a series of menial, part-time jobs because he could not find employment in his field. About a month ago, he left his janitorial job for an office position that promised upward mobility, permanency and the ever-important benefits. But the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be a train. The company that just hired him hit a rough patch and had to let him go. Now, he is on the unemployment rolls again, and he and his family are living in a transitional housing facility operated by the nonprofit St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore. “As a man it hurts. I want to be a provider. I want my family to have the best. I don’t want to depend on the government or anyone for assistance,” said the African-American man, who asked not to be identified by his last name. “I want a 401 (k), I want a pension plan, I want a health insurance plan, I want to pay my bills and take care of my family. [But] I’ve been having a hard time finding permanent employment.” Sadly, Ernest’s story of unemployment, homelessness President
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and poverty is becoming all too familiar, as reflected by a recently released U.S. Census Bureau survey on poverty, incomes and health insurance that bears witness to the ongoing toll of the Great Recession on American families. “It’s not a positive report,” said Elise Gould, economist and director of health care research at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. “All the trends in the data have been pretty flat. Incomes have not increased. The poverty rate has been pretty much the same the past couple of years. [And] it’s not a good place for it to settle because it is relatively high and that’s a sign that the recession has had a devastating impact.” “The only group that has seen a return to some type of normalcy is the top 5 percent of Americans,” she added. “[But] economic growth that does not reach the vast majority of Americans is not real economic growth.” In 2012, median household income in the U.S. was $51,017, Continued on A4
Thirty-two year old Latreshia Gowdy was allegedly fatally stabbed during a brawl with another woman over her ex-husband. Natafre Green, 30, was found in her car shot multiple times. Diamond Williams, 16, was found dead in her West Baltimore neighborhood with her throat gashed. These three cases are among 24 so far this year in Baltimore that represent what authorities are calling a disturbing trend—women as murder victims. Of the 187 homicides reported as of Continued on A3
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Diamond Williams
Ravens Safety Urges Students to Stay in School By Blair Adams AFRO Staff Writer
Baltimore Ravens safety James Ihedigbo interrupted a routine school day with a visit to a Baltimore high school, challenging students to attend school each day and, as an extra motivation, dangled a chance for a seat at a Ravens game this season for students who respond to what he calls the “Diggz Attendance Challenge.” On Oct. 15 at Ben Franklin High School in south Baltimore, nearly 300 students crowded into the auditorium to hear Ihedigbo, called Diggz in the locker room, encourage Baltimore youth to not only stay in school but to show up each day. “This will encourage them to see the benefits of their attendance,” Ihedigbo told reporters. “When you miss school you are missing assignments and you’re giving up on your responsibility.” He said, as a Ravens player, this was his opportunity to impact children. “I hope we all can do it,” Jahmal Eggleston, 18, told the AFRO. “I already have perfect attendance, and the hopes of going to a football game for free is cool.” During the hour-long speech, he told students that when he was growing up he knew that in order to achieve any goal, he would have to work hard.
“While my friends would have the summer off, I was in summer school getting my grades up because I knew I wanted to play college football,” he said. “It was up to me to do the things I hoped to accomplish,” Ihedigbo told students. Ihedigo will visit a total of 10 Baltimore
City public high schools throughout the football season. The school with the best attendance wins the challenge. He will select a group of students from the winning school to receive VIP treatment at a Ravens game. “One lucky school and a few lucky Continued on A5
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James Ihedigbo speaks to students at Ben Franklin High School.
NAACP Names Interim Prez/CEO
Black Clergy Pushes Affordable Care Act
Declare Support as Glitches Are Worked Out
By Zachary Lester AFRO Staff Writer Lorraine C. Miller, an NAACP national board member and real estate executive who served as the first Black clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been named interim president and CEO of the NAACP. She will oversee the organization until a successor is found for retiring President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. Miller’s appointment was announced by NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock at the civil rights organization’s national board Wikimedia Commons of directors meeting recently in Las Vegas. Lorraine Miller, interim prez Theresa Dear, of Bartlett, Ill., was designated to head the search committee. Washington, D.C. resident Lamell McMorris will serve as the committee’s vice chair. Both are members of the NAACP national board. “Lorraine is a natural fit as interim president of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization,” Jealous said in a statement. “She comes into this position with two decades of experience working for the U.S. House of Representatives and an even longer career in civil rights advocacy and policy. She will have the honor of leading the dynamic staff of this great organization.” According to a bio posted on Historymakers.com, Miller’s parents “believed ardently” in the NAACP. A devoted member of the Baptist church, she graduated from the University of North Texas in 1975 with a bachelor’s in
By Hazel Trice Edney Trice EdneyWire.com A group of African-American preachers recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama affirming their “commitment to the Affordable Care Act” even as the President has ordered the website overhauled. “We believe that access to quality health care is a fundamental civil and human right in America. Historically, over 7 million African Americans have been uninsured and denied access to care with devastating consequences,” the letter said, which was signed by 14 Black preachers, who each lead major clerical or civic organizations. “We affirm our support for the Affordable Care Act. We understand that over time aspects of the Act will be revised as government learns more and to-be-expected administrative glitches will be appropriately addressed, but it is essential that we work aggressively with what we have right now. We cannot afford to put this off any longer. Any further delay will have catastrophic effects on the nation’s uninsured.” The three-page letter, headed “Dear Mr. President”, was released to the media Oct. 21.
“Historically, over 7 million African Americans have been uninsured and denied access to care with devastating consequences.”
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