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Volume 121 No. 44
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JUNE 8, 2013 - JUNE 14, 2013
Ground Broken for Tech Prep Addition By Ariel Medley Special to the AFRO Friendship Schools broke ground May 30 on expansion of the Friendship Technology Preparatory Academy to make way for the addition of eleventh and twelfth grade classes at the Southeast Washington facility. Opened in 2009, Technology Preparatory Academy currently serves students in the sixth through tenth grades. After the scheduled completion of construction in August 2014, the school’s student body will include 620 students in grades six
“We highly invest in our students. We have the highest standards for our children. ”
Robert L. Wilkins By Zenitha Prince Special to the AFRO
Friendship founder Donald Hense at groundbreaking
— Doranna Tindle, principal through 12. Tech Prep Academy is one of six schools in the Friendship Charter School system. It focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics with an emphasis in environmental science. The new building is to include a high-tech SMART lab, a robotics lab, two chemistry labs, two biology labs and a greenhouse. Continued on A4
INSIDE A3
Washington View
The Supreme Court and Privacy Violation
B5
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Robert Wilkins Nominated to Court of Appeals
African-American federal judge Robert L. Wilkins has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, regarded as one of the most important federal appellate courts and a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. President Obama on June 4 nominated Wilkins, a judge on the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., along with female lawyers Patricia A. Millett, a partner at the firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who has litigated frequently before the Supreme Court; and Cornelia T.L. Pillard, a law professor at Georgetown University, who previously worked at both the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and in the Office of the Solicitor General. The choices, many experts said, reflect the president’s commitment to diversity and to the fair and equitable application of the law. “These nominations reflect the kind of president he has been and who he wants to be,” said Orlan Johnson, an adjunct professor of law at Howard University School of Law and a former presidential appointee in the Obama administration. “These three individuals are highly qualified to serve on the D.C. Circuit,” the president said during the formal ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. “They have broad bipartisan
Teen Lands Participating in the groundbreaking for Tech Prep (l in Space to r): Kathy Arnold, community relations rep for Ward Councilmember Marion Barry; Rose Gregory, Eric Camp After 8McKinley King, Dr. Gregory Prince, Donald Hense, Ed Walter and Victor Long, board of trustees; and Principal Science Doranna Tindle Continued on A3 Project Arlington National Cemetery Event Triggers Expulsion Honors Civil Rights Martyr Medgar Evers By Blair Adams Special to the AFRO
By Zachary Lester AFRO Staff Writer
The arrest of 17–yearold Kiera Wilmot and her expulsion from Bartow High
Medgar Evers served his country in the U.S. Army in World War II and returned to his home state of Mississippi to do battle against discrimination and segregation. He was recognized around the country for his efforts and hated by racists determined to keep Blacks from attaining the rights they deserved as citizens. Early on the morning of June 12, 1963, Evers, the field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi, was fatally shot in the driveway of his home in Jackson by
Kiera Wilmot School in Florida on bombmaking charges when her science project went horribly wrong, could have been avoided if authorities had asked a few simple questions, according to the girl’s mother. “My daughter is not a bad kid,” said Marie Wilmot, Kiera’s mother. She said her daughter wouldn’t have a felony arrest record if the authorities had asked what the 17-year-old was doing and why. The morning of April 22, Kiera was just another student bringing her science project idea to her teacher for approval. Kiera brought aluminum foil, toilet bowl cleaner and an eight-ounce plastic water bottle to demonstrate the action of a volcano. But when she tried to assemble the ingredients outside the school building, just to see if it would work, the mixture exploded. In a statement to the AFRO, Wilmot’s mother said, Continued on A4
a coward hiding in some bushes with a rifle with a telescopic lens. His wife, Myrlie, and their children, Darrell Kenyatta, Reena Denise, and James Van, had been waiting up for him to come home from an organizing meeting. On June 5, his widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, former President Bill Clinton, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, NAACP Chairman Roslyn Brock, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous and others gathered at his grave at Arlington National Cemetery to honor his memory at a wreathContinued on A5
NAACP Photo
L to R: President Bill Clinton; Derrick Johnson, president of Mississippi NAACP; Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and CEO; James Van Evers, son of Medgar Evers and Myrlie Evers-Williams, who was presented an NAACP flag by Jealous.
Supreme Court OK’s DNA Sampling During Arrests Critics Say May Adversely Impact Minorities By Krishana Davis AFRO Staff Writer Civil rights experts and privacy advocates say the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to approve DNA sampling during arrests for “serious” crimes will disproportionately impact minorities. Larry Gibson, law professor at the University Of Maryland School of Law, said he was disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision in the ruling on Maryland’s DNA collection law. He said minorities could be negatively impacted by the ruling based on the continued use of racial profiling by law enforcement officers against people of color. Meredith Curtis, spokesperson for American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, agrees. “There is a disproportionately high number of minorities who are arrested and you would have a database full of minorities,” said Curtis. “There is something intrinsically wrong with that.” Over the first three years of implementation, the state has extracted DNA samples from more than 33,000 men in Maryland; 61 percent of those men are African American. The Supreme Court ruling reverses a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling in Maryland v. King, which nullified the conviction and life sentence of Jay Alonzo King in a 2003 rape case. King was arrested in Wicomico County in April 2009 on assault charges. DNA evidence taken during his arrest then
connected him to the 2003 rape. The ACLU-MD, Maryland NAACP and the Legislative Black Caucus were instrumental in lobbying for a contingency in the 2009 Maryland DNA collection law, which placed limits on DNA swabbing only on those arrested for serious crimes including murder, rape, first-degree assault, kidnapping, arson sexual assault and other similar crimes. In the majority opinion by the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy compared the DNA sampling to other methods of identifying offenders such as fingerprinting. “DNA identification of arrestees is a reasonable search that can be considered part of a routine booking procedure,” said Kennedy. “Taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a dissent, stating the ruling will create a precedent for abuse in law enforcement powers leading to increased DNA testing in violation of the Constitution’s amendment against unreasonable searches. “Make no mistake about it: because of today’s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason,” said Scalia. “This will solve some extra crimes, to be sure. But so would taking your DNA whenever you fly on an Continued on A4
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