November 16, 2013 - November 16, 2013, www.afro.com
Volume 122 No. 15
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The Afro-American
NOVEMBER 16, 2013 - NOVEMBER 22, 2013
Streetcars Set to Roll Blacks Honored By Angela Swinson Lee Special to the AFRO
Streetcars will begin to run along H Street and Benning Road as early as next month, as the testing phase begins in the process of bringing the vehicles back to the city, a District Department of Transportation spokesperson said. Transportation officials also announced that as of Nov. 13, D.C. Streetcar construction workers will begin installing head span wiring along the corridor
INSIDE A8
D.C.’s Therrell C. Smith Celebrates 96th Birthday With a Dance
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The Best Man Holiday Review
that has been dubbed “H/ Benning.” The work is expected to snarl traffic because of “rolling closures”
DDOT spokeswoman Cherie Gibson said the testing of the vehicles will give streetcar operators a chance to drive the vehicles in live traffic. “Motorists will be able to become familiar with the traffic patterns,” Gibson said, adding that the cars will begin taking on passengers next year. An exact timeline could not be determined because testing will take several months, she said. As construction moves ahead, some residents in the Kingman Park neighborhood of Northeast, who live in the area that will be seriously impacted by the streetcars, continue to voice concerns about the safety of the streetcars, the negative impact they will have on the community and what they characterize as a lack of concern by streetcar Continued on A4
“D.C. Streetcar construction workers will begin installing head span wiring along the corridor that has been dubbed “H/Benning.” along H Street on the north and south sides of the street between 3rd and 14th streets NE. “Each closure will take approximately 2-3 minutes, and stop traffic going eastbound and westbound, as the construction team moves along the corridor hanging wire,” a statement posted on the D.C. Streetcar website said.
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
Protesters Urge Justice in Michigan Killing The Associated Press
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Protestors march after Renisha McBride’s killing.
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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
a judge to grant him a new trial. The family of George Stinney hopes the court
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Richard Overton, the oldest living WWII veteran, Continued on A6 listened to President Obama on Veterans Day.
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George Stinney
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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
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Bishop Sarah Frances Davis
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