Prince George's Afro American Newspaper September 21, 2013

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PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY EDITION

Volume 122 No. 7

SEPTEMBER 21, 2013 - SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Navy Yard Shooting Victims Had Long Careers There The Associated Press

A dozen people died in a shooting rampage Sept. 16 at the Washington Navy Yard. The shooter also was killed. It was the deadliest attack at a domestic military installation since November 2009, when an Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded 30 others at Fort Hood, Tex. The stories of the 12 who were gunned down and a police officer who survived are told here. __ Michael Arnold, 59, of Lorton,

Va., was a Navy veteran and avid pilot who was building a light airplane at his home, said his uncle, Steve Hunter. “It would have been the first plane he ever owned,” Hunter said in a telephone interview from Rochester, Mich., Arnold’s hometown. “It’s partially assembled in his basement.” Hunter said his nephew retired from the Navy. He worked at the Navy Yard on a team that designed vessels such as the USS Makin Island. Arnold and his wife, Jolanda,

HistoryMakers Program Sends Black Leaders into Maryland Schools

had been married for more than 30 years, Hunter said. They had two grown sons, Eric and Christopher. ___ Martin Bodrog, 54, lived on a quiet, tree-shaded cul-de-sac in Annandale, Va., where family and friends gathered Sept. 17. Jeff Prowse, a close friend, said Bodrog was a hardworking Navy veteran and graduate of the Naval Academy. “A heart of gold, and one of Arthur Daniels, the most humble, self-effacing Sylvia Frasier and Continued on A4 Kenneth Proctor

By AFRO Staff Sculptor and painter James Earl Reid remembers his first experience with drawing. “My earliest experience with drawing was witnessing my mother draw for kids in the projects,” he said. “She would sit down and draw the project houses that we lived in. And I saw coming out of that, magic.” As Reid told The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive, “drawing, experiencing drawing, and beginning to see the world in the eyes of an artist was magic.” Today, Reid is a renowned artist. In the late 1970s, he received his first commission from the City of Baltimore. His resulting work, the Billie Holiday Statue, stands at the corner of Lafayette and Pennsylvania avenues. On Sept 26 and Sept. 27, students in Baltimore, Prince Continued on A4

N.C. Activists: ‘Make Police Accountable’ Charlotte Shooting Sparks Calls for Improved Citizens Review

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CBCF Investment to Spur Black Banking

Charlotte-area activists are lobbying for changes in police training and oversight after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer shot an unarmed African

INSIDE ‘It Starts with You’ CBC Annual Conference 2013

Soulful Symphony Kicks Off New Season

By Byron Scott Special to the AFRO The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation announced Sept. 17 that it will invest $5 million dollars in what it is calling a major investment in African American banking institutions. The CBCF will purchase certificates of deposit at five Black banks in an effort at

Jonathan Ferrell

Continued on A3 Linda Evans, Kacey Williams and Ersky Freeman performing in 1001 Black Inventions

afro.com

Photo by Rob Roberts

S.E. Theater Company Fills Knowledge Gaps in Play About Black Inventors By Teria Rogers AFRO Staff Writer

Photo by Byron Scott

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A poll of CharlotteMecklenburg residents cited by Matt Newton, an activist with crbreform.com, found that 30 percent of respondents have a negative view of police. “That bond of trust has broken here and it continues to erode to the tune of a quarter of a million people,” he said. Race has become an issue in the debate over how and why deadly force Continued on A3

kickstarting lending to people of color, CBCF Chair and Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) said. “The pillars of power have to be both political and economical,” Fattah said. “We are leaning forward to say we are going to make an investment and expect others to follow.” The financial institutions selected for the investment are City National Bank of

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and released on $50,000 bond on Sept. 14, hours after he shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell, 24, in East Charlotte. Ferrell, who was unarmed, approached three officers after crashing his car early Sept. 14. Police responded around 2:30 a.m. to a call by a woman who reported someone banging on her door. CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe reported police tried unsuccessfully to stop Ferrell with a Taser before he was shot multiple times. Ferrell

died at the scene. “We’re not asking, we’re demanding they initiate an independent citizens review board,” said John Barnett, founder and president of Gastonia-based Truth and Healing Under God. “Why? To oversee the CMPD.” Since its initiation in 1997 as a response to a spate of deadly confrontations between police and African Americans, the review panel has been roundly criticized for its findings in favor of police.

American. Organizations ranging from Mothers of Murdered Offspring to the Nation of Islam and CharlotteMecklenburg NAACP urged greater authority for the Citizens Review Board and improved training for officers at a Sept. 16 press conference at the Government Center. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Randall Kerrick, who has been on the force two years, was charged with voluntary manslaughter

By Herbert L. White Special to the AFRO

(l to r) B. Doyle Mitchell Jr., President and CEO, Industrial Bank; Russell D. Kashian, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin; Michael A. Grant, J.D. President of the National Bankers Association; Rep. Chaka Fattah Chair CBCF; A. Shuanise Washington, President and CEO, CBCF; Ronald Busby, CEO, U.S. Black Chambers Inc.

Pin Points Theater, based in Southeast Washington, presented 1001 Black Inventions at Greater Mt. Nebo AME Church in Bowie Sept. 15. The play, which has been touring for 30 years, sheds light on the ingenuity of African-American inventors. The church’s Deaf, Christian Education and Youth & Young Adult ministries presented the production. More than 300 people of all ages packed into the church, anxious to learn about black inventors. Even one youngster attending wore a T-shirt decorated with items invented by African-Americans. Pin Points’ production of the play they call 1001 was sought “because they don’t teach African-American history in the schools anymore,” said Ann Powell, Co-Chair of the Deaf Ministry at the church.

Copyright © 2013 by the Afro-American Company

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