Week of April 12, 2017 Vol 28 • No 20 • www.thechicagocitizen.com
CHURCH: THE AFRICAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR TO PERFORM AT SHILOH SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH + P8 BUSINESS
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NEW ENTREPRENEUR SEMINAR FOR STUDENTS AT DYETT HIGH SCHOOL +P4
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CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS MEET WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)
Earlier this month, leaders from six civil rights groups met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Justice Department to discuss a range of issues that are critical to the Black community. The meeting was attended by Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under the Law; Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League; Melanie Campbell, the president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Reverend Al Sharpton, the president of the National Action Network; and Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. The leaders expressed their concerns about the future of the civil rights gains made under the Obama Administration. They also expressed concerns about the recent rash of hate crimes, the consent decree involving Baltimore’s police department and the impact that any potential, “mythical” voting fraud investigation could have on voters’ rights. During an interview with Fox News earlier this year, President Donald Trump announced that Vice President Mike Pence would lead a commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud. ThinkProgress.org reported that President Trump claimed that he would have won the popular vote if it were not for three to five million illegal votes. President Trump has never offered any evidence to support this claim. “I asked [Attorney General Sessions] to counsel the president against the creation of such a task force and a commission, because that commission will be seen to intimidate our communities,” said Ifill. “In the absence of
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In downtown Chicago, hundreds rallied at Federal Plaza to honor Dr. King’s legacy and to send a clear message that they’re still fighting for the dream--$15 for Illinois and an end to racism. They also mounted protests over what they called, “Governor Rauner and President Trump’s, antiworker and anti-union policies.”
PROTESTORS RALLY IN
FIGHT FOR $15 D rawing on the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., who was killed 49 years ago, thousands of workers, racial justice activists, elected officials and clergy waged marches, rallies, teach-ins and vigils Tuesday as two of the nation’s most powerful social movements united in a “Fight Racism, Raise Pay” protest that echoed across twodozen cities. The protests stretched from Boston
to Chicago to Los Angeles, culminating in a march by thousands on the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where Dr. King was killed April 4, 1968 while supporting striking black sanitation workers. The Rev. William J. Barber II, founder of the social justice movement Repairers of the Breach; Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry, who has supported the Fight for $15 since the movement started nearly five years ago; and the Great Talladega College Tornado
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