PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY EDITION
Volume 122 No. 42
MAY 24, 2014 - MAY 30, 2014
Town Hall Meeting: Protecting Our HBCUs
NAACP Presidential Selection Process Again Mired in Controversy By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) – A search firm hired by the NAACP ranked the Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of FriendshipWest Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, as the top candidate five years ago to become president and CEO of the NAACP. But Haynes wasn’t the favorite of Julian Bond, then chairman of the board of directors, who preferred Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of a small, private foundation in California, for the spot.
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So when the selection process shifted from the search committee to the NAACP’s executive committee, the NAACP’s legendary political maneuvering came into play. At Bond’s urging, the executive committee opted to present only Jealous’ name to the full board for an upor-down vote. To no one’s surprise, Jealous was elected (34-21). Though Benjamin L, Hooks, one of the association’s most popular leaders, pastored two churches – one in Memphis and one in Detroit – while serving as executive
A Demand For Equity and Equality In Higher Education
Cornell William Brooks, newly elected NAACP president director of the NAACP from 1977 to 1992, Haynes was told he did not reach the final round of the selection process because he wouldn’t agree to give up his church duties in Dallas. Haynes felt that was a ruse and the experience left a bitter taste in his mouth, with him vowing to never go through that process again. He could
Continued on A4
Major Gen. Warren Freeman, Dead at 66
By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent
Retired Maj. Gen. Warren L. Freeman, a former commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, died May 17 at his Maryland home. He was 66. Freeman was born Aug. 20, 1947, in Jackson, Ga., but was raised in the Washington, D.C. area. The general’s military career spanned three decades -- with a majority of it in the service of the D.C. Guard. That career began as an enlisted soldier in 1966. After two years he moved on to a commission as a second lieutenant from Officers Candidate School in July 1969, at which time he was awarded the Erickson Trophy U.S. Army photo by Scott Davis for Distinguished Graduate of his class. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Warren Following commissioning, L. Freeman Continued on A4
The panelists focused on the ongoing 2006 lawsuit. By Jonathan Hunter AFRO Staff Writer A town hall meeting on the plight of the state’s HBCUs and their future was the site of much discussion, May 13, at Coppin State University in Baltimore. State Del. Aisha N. Braveboy, attorney John C. Brittain, State Sen. Joan Carter Conway, Dr. John Organ, attorney A. Dwight Pettit, Dr. Earl S. Richardson and Mr. David Burton, president of the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, served on the panel that was moderated
Photo by JD Howard
by George E. Curry, editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers of America. The focus was the ongoing 2006 lawsuit in which the Coalition, representing students, alumni and supporters of Bowie, Coppin and Morgan state universities, along with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), sued the State of Maryland for violating its legal mandate to provide equal protection and equal educational opportunity for all its citizens by maintaining and perpetuating a separate and unequal system of higher education that is segregated by Continued on A6
Forestville Native Serves Aboard USS Columbia By Sunday Sawyer Navy Office of Community Outreach
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - A 2010 Suitland High School graduate and Forestville, Md., native is serving aboard a U.S. Navy attack submarine, the USS Columbia (SSN 771). Petty Officer 3rd Class Rhett M. Smith is a culinary specialist aboard the Hawaii-based boat, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, and was specifically named in honor of Columbia, S. C., Columbia, Mo., and Columbia, Ill. Measuring 361 feet long, 33 feet wide, weighing 7,000 tons when submerged and Continued on A3
Rhett M. Smith is a culinary specialist aboard the USS Columbia.
Ebenezer Women to Retreat, Rest, Regroup
Spiritual Retreat and Restoration Conference, herself. “The inspiration came from the Lord, of It has been 30 years since God prodded course,” she said. the Rev. Dr. Jo Ann Browning’s spirit to The first retreat saw an attendance that develop something beyond the typical was shy of the 75 women she planned Women’s Day to acknowledge and for. However, news about the retreat administer to the needs of women. began to spread by word-of-mouth as “I could never imagine what God Ebenezer women told their sorority sisters, would do when he dropped this in my co-workers, relatives and others. Three spirit,” said Rev. Browning, who codecades later, hundreds of women flock pastors Ebenezer African Methodist to the event from all 50 U.S. states, the Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere, Rev. Md., along with her husband the Rev. Dr. Browning said. The Rev. JoAnn Browning ministers Grainger Browning Jr. The retreats mainly comprise worship during a worship service. Rev. Browning sought the advice of services and workshops “solely designed Courtesy Photo her spiritual mothers, Doris Porter, former and focused on the spiritual needs of first lady of Hemingway AME Church women,” the minister said. “Everything in District Heights, Md., and the Rev. Dr. Cecelia Williams Bryant, senior is designed to give women what they need”—to be affirmed, built up; to episcopal supervisor, Fourth Episcopal District, AME Church. fellowship with other women and to be spiritually, mentally and physically Then, with prayer and meditation, she proceeded to plan the first Women’s Continued on A3 By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent
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