R4
7 EDITORIAL
JUNE 30 – JULY 6, 2016
Murder and the judgment of history “Investigation of the 1964 Murders of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman: Case Closed.” So stated federal and Mississippi state officials this past week in declaring at an end their long attempt to bring to justice all the men who had committed one of the most notorious crimes in modern American history – the murder of three civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Miss. in June 1964. Although seven men involved in the murder were convicted in 1967 of federal conspiracy charges, most of the mob of at least 19 escaped justice. Four decades later, however, the Mississippi attorney general’s office revived the investigation and, based on new evidence, arrested Edgar Ray Killen, the ringleader of the death squad, and charged him with three counts of manslaughter.
Old, locked up In 2005, a Mississippi jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to serve 60 years in the Mississippi state prison. He is, at 91, still alive. The Justice Department decision is only the latest in its long investigation of more than 100 suspected racist murders in the South in the postwar decades to encounter witnesses holding to past lies or refusals to cooper-
ate, and the time-driven obstacles of witnesses having died or no longer able to reliably remember, and of pieces of physical evidence having vanished. (Independent scholars said they’ve identified hundreds more cases that also deserve federal investigation.)
The dread and the certainty that racial violence, especially in the South, could and would strike at any moment – were part of being a Black American in those years as they had always been. That was the barbarism Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to in his “Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial when he said, “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. ... from areas where your quest for freedom has left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.”
A declaration
Never redeemed
LEE A. DANIELS GEORGE CURRY MEDIA COLUMNIST
I suggest we adopt another perspective. We should make a parallel declaration to that of federal and state officials about the murder of the three civil rights workers: “Investigation of the 1964 Murders of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman: Case Never Closed – The Judgment of History.” What I remember most about the night of June 21, 1964 – when my brother and I heard that three civil rights workers in Mississippi were missing – is the feeling of dread and certainty. They’re dead, of course. They’ve been murdered for sure. Their bodies would not be found for 44 days, buried 15 feet beneath an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Miss.
Diversity, race – or privilege? Our country is convulsing over issues of diversity and race. Police departments from Baltimore to Minneapolis are talking about diversity hiring as the antidote to anti-Black police brutality. Last year, Hollywood scrambled to find diverse Academy Award presenters after realizing its nominees were mainly White. Last week, a deeply divided United States Supreme Court upheld the use of racial preferences in admissions at the University of Texas, giving an unexpected reprieve to the type of affirmative action policies it has allowed for nearly four decades.
A polite term “Diversity” sounds polite and hopeful. It is how we talk when we cannot talk about race, or when Whites get nervous. The term “affirmative action” was first used in the United States in “Executive Order No.10925”,
DR. E. FAYE WILLIAMS, ESQ. TRICE EDNEY WIRE
“Diversity” sounds polite and hopeful. It is how we talk when we cannot talk about race, or when Whites get nervous. signed by President John F. Kennedy in March of 1961, which included a provision that government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and em-
Why Warren should be Clinton’s VP Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, is now sorting out her pick for her running mate and potential vice president. She’s launched the “search,” the traditional and often irritating public surfacing of various possibilities, paying respect to different constituencies and different personalities, before settling on a choice. One possibility being floated clearly merits serious consideration. Consider the résumé: Raised in a family struggling to get by, this prospect started working while still in high school, went to college on a debate scholarship, graduated from law school, and became a Harvard Law professor and expert on bankruptcy law, particularly as it relates to how the financial industry preys on families in crisis.
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: AMERICA’S LIFEGUARD SHORTAGE
REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR. TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM
Worked hard This person wrote path-breaking books on the economic pressures on working families, then chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel monitoring the federal bailout of the U.S. banking system and created the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), ushering it from conception to passage into law. Then elected as U.S. senator, immediately gaining a national reputation as a progressive leader willing to take on the big banks
Last week’s development underscores the extraordinary and damning fact of America’s history that its White majority for so long tolerated a substantial chain of crimes against Black Americans that will never be redeemed by the legal system. But something else can be done to redeem the tragedy of the three civil rights workers, and others who perished. Scholars and other writers can continue to build on such works Taylor Branch’s magnificent trilogy of King and the civil rights movement that does describe what happened the night the men were murdered to add new details, and expand the responsibility for these crimes against hu-
ployees are treated during employment, without regard to race, creed, color or national origin.” In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 which required government employers to take “affirmative action” to “hire without regard to race, religion and national origin.” In 1967, gender was added to the anti-discrimination list.
Equal access Affirmative action is intended to promote the opportunities of defined minority groups within a society and to give minority groups equal access to that of the majority population. The significance of upholding the University of Texas case and the importance of having a Supreme Court at full strength is that in past decisions, at least four Supreme Court justices believe affirmative action is unconstitutional. In his concurrence to the first Fisher opinion, the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “The Constitution proscribes government discrimination on the basis of race, and state-provided educa-
and stand up for working people, this leader has demonstrated a tough mind, a full heart, a strong will and a gift for inspiring people. What’s not to like? Sen. Elizabeth Warren is, of course, a woman. Some suggest it’s impossible to have two women lead the party’s ticket. But haven’t we gone far beyond that? We’ve had two men lead parties forever, so there’s no tradition of gender balance. Hillary Clinton should be looking for the strongest candidate. And on that criterion, Warren is hard to beat.
High credibility Warren would help Clinton heal the divisions of the primaries. She appeals to the Bernie Sanders wing of the party, to independents and the young. Indeed, before Sanders announced, progressives organized across the country to urge Warren to run. She speaks with a credibility earned by her willingness to take the side of working families against powerful interests and the Washington establish-
DAVE GRANLUND, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM
manity in the ‘court’ of history. Further, federal and state officials’ decision should remind us of several other things that occurred after the murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
Activism continued For one thing, a week after they disappeared, 300 more volunteers from across the country arrived in Mississippi to reinforce the civil rights groups’ “Freedom Summer” project, and 400 more came within a month. For another, within two weeks, President Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Finally, throughout the South, civil rights activism continued, leading the next year to the land-
tion is no exception.” Never mind that it was state discrimination to begin with! On the same grounds, Justice Clarence Thomas said affirmative action is equivalent to Jim Crow.
‘Just stop’
CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.
Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Cassandra CherryKittles, Charles W. Cherry II, Managing Members
Shouldn’t be heard The audacity of the decision is that it even reached the Supreme Court! This case not only threatened the use of racial preferences at the University of Texas-Austin, but across the nation. In that sense, the 4-3 decision targeting only the Texas policy amounts to a partial victory for proponents of affirmative action. To fully understand the significance of this decision, one must understand that privilege is defined as a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group. Had it not been for her “privilege,” this case would have been stricken at the lower level!
ment. She’s already demonstrated the fire needed to call out Donald Trump and the party that is about to nominate him. Warren exemplifies Clinton’s goal to be a “progressive with results.” She had to take on the banking lobby, Barack Obama’s treasury secretary, entrenched regulators, and Republican and more than a few Democratic members of Congress to get the CFPB enshrined in law. Already that agency has helped consumers recover more than $10 billion from credit card companies and banking institutions that had defrauded them. Warren has been a leader in the effort to expand Social Security, now an emerging consensus in the Democratic Party. She led the effort to reduce student debt from college. She’s been a strong supporter of lifting the minimum wage and creating a floor under workers.
al security. But what is required there is intelligence and judgment. No one doubts she has the intelligence to learn what is at stake in any crisis. She exhibits the judgment – and a skepticism about foreign military adventures – that is badly needed in any White House. And, of course, she’s already shown she will call them as she sees them, ensuring that Clinton would get her best informed and unvarnished opinion, no matter who is lined up on the other side. Clinton, like most presidential candidates, will make her choice on the basis of political judgment, extensive vetting and personal affinity. She will want to choose someone who will add strength to the ticket, and to the administration if elected, and have her confidence. She should not let the fact that Warren is female get in the way of giving her strong consideration.
Good judgment
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is president and CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
Warren has less experience in international affairs and nation-
Dr. Valerie Rawls-Cherry, Human Resources
Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder
diums; that has a 70 percent chance or more of getting hired; that can rely on help from passers-by if she’s assaulted in public.
Dr. E. Faye Williams is national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. Contact her via www.nationalcongressbw.org.
Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Sales Manager
W W W. DAY T O N AT I M E S .C O M
Lee A. Daniels is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the New York Times. He is writing a book on the Obama years and the 2016 election. Contact him at leedanielsjournalist@gmail.com.
In reference to voluntary school desegregation plan – which he struck down – Chief Justice John Roberts has said, “The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” as if race-consciousness is the same as racism. If I understand correctly, the dissenting Justices believe Ms. Fisher is part of an oppressed class. A class that has endured years of unequal access to education, housing and employment and the like; a class in which women are paid on average only 77 percent of what men are paid, with Black women paid only 64 cents and Latinas just 55 cents. A part of an oppressed class that can turn on the TV and continuously see her ‘sisters’ wellrespected and widely represented in the News and all other me-
Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher
Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.
mark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Ensuring that Black Mississippians would have the unfettered right to vote was the primary focus of the 1964 Freedom Summer project there. In other words, the civil rights forces’ work to make America a democracy went on. It went on because its activists took to heart the words of one of the movement’s most powerful anthems: “Keep your eyes on the prize, fight on.”
Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Angela van Emmerik, Creative Director Cassandra Cherry Kittles, Willie R. Kittles, Circulation Andreas Butler, Staff Writer Duane Fernandez Sr., Kim Gibson, Photojournalists
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