Volume Volume 124 123 No. No. 49 20–22
July 9, 2016 - July 9, 2016, The Afro-American A1 $1.00
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JULY 9, 2016 - JULY 15, 2016
Inside
Washington • Pepco Proposes Rate Increase for Residents
We Have the Power to Save Lives By Rep. Elijah Cummings
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Black Lives Matter - Still
• Lor Scooter Laid
Cam’ron Scheduled to perform in Baltimore
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to Rest
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Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP
People gather in protest outside of the Triple S Food Mart on N. Foster at Fairfields Avenue in Baton Rouge, La., July 5 and July 6, after the officer-involved fatal shooting of Alton Sterling on July 5.
Louisiana Officer Fatally Shoots Another Black Man The Associated Press
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A Louisiana police officer shot and killed a Black man during a confrontation outside a Baton Rouge convenience store, authorities said, prompting hundreds to protest at the site where the man died. An online video that surfaced purporting to show the killing of Alton Sterling, 37, of Baton Rouge on July 5 added to protesters’ outrage. The protest lasted into the night, with people chanting and holding up signs. The Associated Press has not been able to authenticate the video. The Advocate reported the crowd that gathered late Tuesday afternoon at
the store where Sterling died grew to more than 200 people. They chanted “Black lives matter” and “hands up don’t shoot” and waved signs late into the night, according to the newspaper. An autopsy shows Sterling died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back, East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. William Clark said. Officers responded to the store about 12:35 a.m. after an anonymous caller indicated a man selling music CDs and wearing a red shirt threatened him with a gun, Cpl. L’Jean McKneely said. Two officers responded and had some type of altercation with the man and one officer fatally shot the suspect, McKneely said. Both officers have
been placed on administrative leave, which is standard department policy, he said. The store’s owner, Abdul Muflahi, told WAFB-TV that the first officer used a stun gun on Sterling and the second officer tackled the man. Muflahi said as Sterling fought to get the officer off of him, the first officer shot him “four to six times.” The owner said Sterling did not have a gun in his hand at the time but he saw officers remove a gun from Sterling’s pocket after the shooting. McKneely said late Tuesday that he could not confirm Muflahi’s description of the event or any other details of the investigation.
AME Church Celebrates New York Times Bicentennial at 50th Quadrennial Failed to Capture Conference in Philadelphia
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Two centuries ago, former Delaware slave Richard Allen and other Black worshippers formed the African Methodist Episcopalian Church in Philadelphia, fleeing discrimination in the segregated Methodist Church. Today, the AME Church has membership in 20 Episcopal Districts in 39 countries on five continents. And, from July 6-13, thousands of those AME congregants will return to the birthplace of their denomination to celebrate its bicentennial during the 50th Quadrennial Session of the church’s general conference. “It is a significant moment for us to gather in Philadelphia,” said the Rev. Ronald Braxton, senior pastor of Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C. “Two hundred years for an African-American institution to survive but to also be thriving is pretty significant.”
The bicentennial milestone will be a key focus of the conference and has already been celebrated at preconference activities, including the dedication of a Richard Allen statue at founding church, Mother Bethel AME in Philadelphia, a torch run from Delaware to Philadelphia and a Bicentennial Banquet at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on July 5. Beyond the anniversary festivities, luncheons, worship services and other opportunities to fellowship, the general conference is the forum where much of the church’s business is conducted. A chief part of that business is legislating new church by-laws, debating religious, community and even political issues and deciding on official church positions on those matters. This year, conference delegates—who are chosen at the annual district conferences—will have to grapple with 402 pages of legislation. “I’m hoping that the church will make good decisions as it relates to
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Problems Facing Black Press By George E. Curry Editor-in-Chief EmergeNewsOnline.com
WASHINGTON – Sunday’s front-page story on the Black Press failed to accurately portray the accomplishments of and the depth of the problems facing Black-owned media, according to scholars, Black media owners and editors. The Times story was published under the headline, “Pillars of Black Media, Once Vibrant, Now Fighting for Survival.” Linn Washington, Jr., a professor of journalism at Temple University, said one of the most glaring shortcomings of the article was that of approximately 200 Black-owned newspapers in the United States, no Black editor or publisher was quoted. Nor were any of the leaders of their trade organization, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). “The failure to note legacies of the historic Black Press in an article purportedly about pillars of Black Media is yet another omission by commission cited as a major failing of mainstream media as far back as the 1968 Kerner Report on race relations in America,” Washington said. “Such Continued on A3
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Judge: Police Records Can’t Be Used in Next Freddie Gray Trial The Associated Press Baltimore prosecutors are facing mounting obstacles in their manslaughter case against the highest-ranking officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams ruled July 5 that prosecutors can’t enter into evidence 4,000 pages of documents involving the training of Lt. Brian Rice, the fourth of six officers — three black, three white — to be tried in the young black man’s death. Gray died after his neck was broken inside the metal prisoner compartment of a police van. Prosecutors say the officers were criminally negligent when they bound Gray’s hands and feet with handcuffs and shackles, but left him unrestrained by a seatbelt, thus vulnerable to injury. Prosecutors are expected to argue that the 17-year Baltimore Police veteran knew or should have known that he and the officers he commanded were violating orders by intentionally leaving Gray unbuckled. Examining his in-service training records in court might have helped. After three trials, Williams has yet to rule that the officers committed any crimes. The first, heard by a jury, ended in a mistrial. The next two officers let Williams alone decide their fates, and he acquitted both. Now Rice wants a bench trial as well, on charges Continued on A3