PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY EDITION
Volume 122 No. 46
June 21, 2014 - JUNE 27, 2014
Freedom Summer 1964
Remembering Fannie Lou Hamer – Part I By Marsha Rose Joyner Special to the AFRO “History does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that
we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history
is literally present in all that we do.” –James Baldwin
Hill Harper Brings Youth Empowerment Foundation to D.C. Story on A3
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Fannie Lou Hamer became the inspiration to millions in the poverty-stricken towns of Mississippi, the Civil Rights struggle and the women’s political movement.
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Since “winners” write the history, and they are usually male, very little is written about the women who played an important part in our struggle. Everyone knows about Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King. In Baltimore, there was Juanita Mitchell and Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson. Every January and February, the media fills us with the stories of Martin Luther King Jr. as if he was the lone star in the movement. But it was Black women who sacrificed the most in the bus boycott. The women who worked in the basements of the churches to move this movement along; the women who walked picket lines in the rain, mud, and snow; women who were secretaries and receptionists who dealt with foul-mouthed Whites on the phone, who did the dirty work that was not recalled; these women were written out of the history books. “Women? Of course, there are thousands of us,” wrote Gloria Xifaras Clark. “That is what makes a movement. Most of us shall remain nameless. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’ Women in the movement did everything, like we do in real life to this day. Some cooked, some Continued on A4
High Point High Teacher Awaits Arraignment for Sex Abuse of a Minor By Jonathan Hunter Special to the AFRO
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High Point High School special education teacher and former football coach Andre Brown, 32, was arrested May 22 charged with sexual assault of a minor. He was indicted on a single count of sexual abuse. He awaits his July 3 arraignment, according to State’s Attorney spokesperson John Erzen, out on a $75,000 bond. According to reports, the alleged abuse occurred during homecoming weekend September 2013. Brown allegedly
“According to police, Brown admitted his involvement upon arrest.”
Andre Brown was arrested May 22.
Continued on A3
Select Balto. Leaders Line Up Behind Braveboy By Roberto Alejandro Special to the AFRO There is a palpable buzz in Baltimore City regarding the candidacy of Delegate Aisha Braveboy for the position of Maryland Attorney General. In conversations with the AFRO, a Continued on A3
First Two of Three Black Inmate Executions Carried out within An Hour of Each Other By Jim Salter and Kate Brumback Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Within an hour, Georgia, then Missouri carried out the nation’s first executions since a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma in April raised new concerns about capital punishment. Neither execution had any noticeable complications. At press time, another execution, the third in a 24-hour span, was scheduled for June 18 in Florida. Georgia inmate Marcus Wellons, 59, who was convicted of the 1989 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl, received a single-drug injection June 17 after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his late appeals. HIs sentence was carried out about an hour before John Winfield, who was convicted of the 1996 killing two women, was executed early June 18 in Bonne Terre, Missouri. Nine executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting that the lethal injection drugs weren’t being administered into his vein properly. Lockett’s punishment was halted and he died of a heart attack several minutes later. Georgia, Missouri and Florida all refuse to say where they obtain their drugs, or if they are tested. Florida inmate John Ruthell Henry, 63, who was convicted of killing his estranged wife and her son in 1985, was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. EDT June 18 at a prison in Starke, Florida.
Traditional Parental Roles are Changing By Jazelle Hunt Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – A cache of new research from the Pew Center paints a picture of the modern American family—a picture in which the historically rigid roles and responsibilities of moms and dads are meeting in the middle. But that picture has always been a bit different for Black moms and dads, and the ways this cultural shift is unfolding reflects those
differences. “As such roles change, African Americans are included too,” says George Garrow Jr., executive director of Concerned Black Men. The nonprofit seeks to uplift children and families by building Black male role models. “I would point out there’s an uncounted group of fathers who are staying at home with their children, or they have custody,” Garrow continues. “We focus so much on fathers who are not with their children—and admittedly, Black fathers are
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disproportionately not in the home—but that group of fathers with primary care is not an insignificant number.” In fact, those dads are now being counted. According to Pew research, Black fathers account for 16 percent of stay-at-home dads, and 9 percent of fathers who both work and live with all their children. The number of stay-at-home dads has nearly doubled since 1989, with 2 million fathers comprising 16 percent of stay-at-home Continued on A4