November 16, 2013 - November 16, 2013, The Afro-American A1 PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY EDITION
Volume 122 No. 15
NOVEMBER 16, 2013 - NOVEMBER 22, 2013
Greenbelt Seats First African American Mayor By Blair Adams AFRO Staff Writer For the first time in the history of Prince George’s County’s government, Greenbelt, a town that grew out of the post-Depression New Deal era, has a Black mayor. On Nov. 11, former councilman and former mayor pro tem Emmett V. Jordan, 56, was sworn in as mayor of Greenbelt. “I want to express my gratitude to the residents of Greenbelt who again placed their trust in me and the other members of city council,” Jordan said during the news conference—after assuming his new role as mayor. “We will continue to work hard together on your behalf for the best interest of the city.” Jordan thanked his fellow Continued on A3
INSIDE A8
Blacks Honored in Veterans Day Celebrations By Zachary Lester and Blair Adams AFRO Staff Writers
The year Richard Overton was born, President Theodore Roosevelt dismissed three companies of Black soldiers for rioting against segregation in Texas, seven African-American students at Cornell University founded Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and 73 lynchings were recorded. Thirty-five years later, in 1942, Overton volunteered for the military. Now 107, he made news and history Nov. 11 when he was welcomed to the White House by President Obama for a celebratory breakfast with other veterans before he accompanied the Chief Executive to Arlington
Emmett V. Jordan
Protesters Urge Justice in Michigan Killing The Associated Press
D.C.’s Therrell C. Smith Celebrates 96th Birthday With a Dance
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The Best Man Holiday Review
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Protestors march after Renisha McBride’s killing.
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — Protesters and civil rights groups are calling for justice after a suburban Detroit homeowner fatally shot a 19-yearold woman on his porch. No charges have been filed after authorities said Renisha McBride, of Detroit, was killed by a shotgun blast to the face early last Saturday in Dearborn Heights. A man told investigators that he thought someone was trying to break into his home and accidentally discharged the gun, according to police. McBride’s family said she likely approached the home to
seek help after getting into a car accident nearby. “She was shot in the front of the face, near the mouth,” police Lt. James Serwatowski told the Detroit Free Press. Friends and family filled a Detroit church Friday for a threehour funeral, which was closed to reporters. Outside the service, an aunt, Kay Lumpkin, said McBride was a former cheerleader who graduated from Southfield High School in 2012. The theme of the funeral “was, it’s a tragedy that didn’t have to happen and not to let this be swept under the rug,” Lumpkin said. Police made a request for Continued on A4
Bishop Sarah Frances New Trial Sought for Black SC Boy, Davis, President, AME 14, Executed in Electric Chair in 1944 Council of Bishops, Dies hearing will show he is COLUMBIA, S.C. killing two girls are asking — (AP) Supporters of a 14-year-old South Carolina boy put to death in the electric chair in 1944 for
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a judge to grant him a new trial. The family of George Stinney hopes the court
George Stinney AP Photo
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AP Photo
Richard Overton, the oldest living WWII veteran, Continued on A6 listened to President Obama on Veterans Day.
innocent. The motion says Stinney was convicted on a shaky confession in a segregated society that wanted revenge on a Black boy accused of beating to death two White girls, ages 11 and 7 in Clarendon County. The request includes sworn statements from two of Stinney’s siblings, saying he was around them all day the girls were killed. Stinney was executed 84 days after the girls disappeared. Records of Stinney’s confession and other evidence from the trial have disappeared.
By AFRO Staff Bishop Sarah Frances Davis, president of the Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and vice president of the World Methodist Council, died Nov. 9 after a brief illness, the World Methodist Council said in a statement. A clerical trailblazer, she was only the third woman in the 218-year history of the AME Church to reach its highest level, the office of bishop on July 6, 2004, and at the time of her death was the presiding prelate of the16th Episcopal District. That district is made up of churches and schools in Continued on A4
Bishop Sarah Frances Davis
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