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LOCAL + NATIONAL + WORLD
Challenger Community News • March 2, 2016
Remembering Norman McConney: Policy Expert was a Champion for Minority Students
HE SPEAKS…Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas created quite a stir last week when he spoke for the first time in a decade during oral arguments, CNN reports. Thomas reportedly directed his questions to government attorney Ilana H. Eisenstein in the caseVoisine v. United States. His questions concerned whether a previous domestic-assault convictionbased on reckless conduct could block plaintiffs from having a firearm. According to the New York Times, Thomas last asked a question in court Feb. 22, 2006, in a death penalty case. He has reportedly offered numerous reasons for why he rarely speaks.
The Last Buffalo Soldier Tomie L. Gaines Dies at the Age of 93 The last living Buffalo Soldier passed away last weekend at the age of 93, in Greenville, South Carolina. Tomie L. Gaines served from March 1943 to December 1945 with the 27th Calvary, an all-Black unit, according to the Daily Kos. Gaines is survived by his wife of 51 years, Clara. The Buffalo Soldiers included two regiments of all-Black cavalries, the 9th and 10th cavalries, which were formed after Congress passed legislation in 1866 that allowed African-Americans to enlist in the country’s regular peacetime military.History.com states that many of the men in these regiments, commanded primarily by white officers, were among the approximately 180,000 AfricanAmericans who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. The four infantry units — the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st regiments — were reorganized in 1868 as the 24th and 25th infantry. Black soldiers enlisted for five years and received $13.00 according to the American West website.
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orman McConney Jr., longtime chief of staff for AssemblymanArthur O. Eve, who used his connection to the legislative power broker from Buffalo to advance educational opportunities for minority students across the state, died on New Year’s Day atMemorial Hospital of congestive heart failure. He was 69. “He and Arthur Eve did more good things for the people of the state of New York than any other political team I know,” said H. Carl McCall, chair of the State University of New York Board of Trustees and a former state comptroller. When McCall was elected to the state Senate in 1975, he was told to seek out McConney “in order to find out how Albany works.” The devil is in the details in public policy and McConney knew how to parse budgets and the arcane language of bills better than almost anyone in Albany, McCall said. “Norman’s power came from his font of great knowledge and information. He understood the way things worked and how to get things done quietly behind the scenes,” said McCall, who spoke at McConney’s funeral. “Norman had the most incisive political mind of anybody I met in Albany,” said David Langdon, counselor for the former Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink, who met McConney soon after he came to work in the Legislature in 1974. “He used his incredible political skills to advance the causes of the disadvantaged. He also made me laugh harder than anybody else.” When Eve became Fink’s deputy speaker in 1979, McConney helped push through major initiatives, including the creation of the SUNYwide Educational Opportunities Program, or EOP, which has assisted more than 5,500 graduates at the University at Albany, with a 78 percent graduation rate, since 1968. McConney himself was an EOP student and 1971 UAlbany graduate “He was a
passionate advocate for theprogram,” said Maritza Martinez, director of EOP at UAlbany. There are currently 750 EOP students at UAlbany and a $1 million budget, with average aid of $2,000 for tuition and $600 for books for each freshman from a disadvantaged background. There are more than 5,000 applicants for 200 UAlbany EOP slots each year. “He fought for this program, even after he retired,” said Martinez, who often sought out McConney’s wise counsel. McConney also was a driving force behind the creation of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, which became theNew York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators in 1985. The group gave McConney its Man of the Year award. McConney also developed the People’s Budget, which shed a light on social justice investment. He was the architect of the state Science & Technology Entry Program, which encouraged minority students to pursuecareers in science. “He was a warrior-angel for African-Americans in New York state,” said L. Lloyd Stewart, an Albany historian who met McConney in 1969 doing community action work. “He brought the plight of the poor and minorities to light and helped them achieve their dreams.” “Norman was a great thinker and strategist, the perfect combination for my husband,” said Constance Eve, wife of the retired Buffalo legislator. “They worked side by side for more than 25 years and were an unstoppable force. My husband could not have accomplished all he did without Norman. They improved lives of the poor across generations.” McConney is survived by his wife, Cathleen, two children and two grandchildren. He was buried in Albany’s Graceland Cemetery.
DO YOU REMEMBER…
Norm McConney
Former US Attorney General Speaks Out About The Criminalization of Marijuana The war on drugs has been a war on Black people, with clear racial disparities in how whites and people of color are treated in the criminal justice system. Part of the problem has been the criminalization of marijuana, which has been used to arrest and jail a multitude of young Black and Latino men, even as white entrepreneurs are poised to make a killing in states that have legalized the substance. Now, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says it is ridiculous that marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance like heroin — reserved for the most dangerous and highly abusive drugs which have no medical use. Of course, he is no longer in charge of the Justice Department and was in a position to do something about it, but better late than never. “I certainly think it ought to be rescheduled,” Holder told PBS’ Frontline. “You know, we treat marijuana in the same way that we treat heroin now, and that clearly is not appropriate. So at a minimum, I think Congress needs to do that... .”
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