defendernetwork.com
FEBRUARY 16 | 2017 | DEFENDER
national
U.S.briefs THE WHITE HOUSE IS IN CHAOS after the abrupt resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned after it was revealed that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Democrats are calling for a thorough investigation to see who else knew about Flynn’s actions……. HOUSE MEMBERS WANT TO BAN JUVENILE SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. Members of Congress, including Houston U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, introduced the Maintaining Dignity and Eliminating Unnecessary Restrictive Confinement of Youths Act of 2017 (MERCY Act), which would prohibit the solitary confinement of juveniles who are tried in the federal system and held in pretrial facilities or juvenile detention facilities, barring some extremely exceptional temporary circumstances. “When our youth are incarcerated, they are often already forced to reckon with the stark reality of the consequences of their actions – such as being separated from their friends and family and grappling with uncertain futures,” Rep. Elijah Cummings said……..THE OBAMAS ARE GETTING READY for a series of public speaking engagements according to a spokesman for the Harry Walker Agency. Barack and Michelle Obama are also in talks to sign book deals. The agency has a storied history of working with those who have been in the White House. No word on when the Obama speaking engagements will take place or when their books will be published…….GUN VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO CONTINUES to outpace last year as 27 people, including two young girls, were recently shot. Takiya Holmes, 11, was sitting in a parked car with family members when she was hit in the head by a stray bullet. A half hour later, 12-year-old Kanari Gentry Bowers was shot in the head while playing with friends at a school in the West Englewood neighborhood. Both girls remain in critical condition.
VOLUME 86 • NUMBER 15 FEBRUARY 16, 2017 Publisher Sonceria Messiah-Jiles Ad/Client Relations Selma Dodson Tyler Digital Editor LaGloria Wheatfall Art Director Tony Fernandez-Davila Proofer Maia Shelby
Editors ReShonda Billingsley Marilyn Marshall Contributing Writers Aswad Walker Jasemine Knowles Amber Vernon Sports Editors Max Edison Darrell K. Ardison
The Defender newspaper is published by the Houston Defender Inc. Company (713-663-6996.. The Defender is audited by Certified Audited Circulation. (CAC). For subscription, send $60-1 year to: Defender, P.O. Box 8005, Houston TX 77288. Payment must accompany subscription request. All material covered by 2012 copyright. (No material herein may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher).
3
Census looks at Black population, other numbers
E
NNPA News Service
ach year, the Census Bureau recognizes Black History Month by releasing up-todate statistics that reveal facts about the total Black population, the number of Blackowned businesses and even how many African-American military members are serving the country. Currently, the Black population stands at 46.3 million, up about 1.3 percent from the previous year. Census officials project that the population will increase to 74.5 million by July 1, 2060 and, on that date, African-Americans will account for 17.9 percent of the nation’s total population. Blacks currently comprise 12.3 percent of the population. The Census Bureau looked at other facts and figures, including one area where Blacks are lagging behind. The annual median household income for African-Americans is $36,544, compared to $55,775 for the rest of the country. More than 25 percent of the Black population lives below the poverty level, while the national average is 14.7 percent. Closing such gaps would be a tremendous challenge even in a reasonable political environment, and the current political climate is anything but reasonable, according to Congressman Cedric Richmond, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). “The battles fought and won by Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, and Martin Luther King Jr. are being waged again today,” Richmond said. “An unjust criminal justice system continues to decimate African-American families and communities.” Education is one area that has seen improvement among African-Americans. The Census Bureau reports that 87 percent of the Black population age 25 and over has at least a high school diploma, more than 20 percent hold a bachelor’s degree and 1.9 million have attained advanced degrees. Currently, nearly 3 million African-Americans are enrolled in an undergraduate college. Maryland civil rights activist Carl Snowden said the graduation numbers for African-Americans are encouraging, but he is concerned about other indicators of success, such as test scores. “I would be thrilled if the achievement gap was
closing at the same rate, which it’s not,” he said. Richmond cited another problem with the educational system. “Schools in many parts of the country look as though Brown v. Board of Education never happened,” he said. In the area of voting, 66.2 percent of the Black population cast ballots in the 2012 presidential election, higher than the 64.1 percent of the non-Hispanic white population who did so. Former President Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2012, and it marked the first time that the Black population voted at a higher rate than the white population since the Census Bureau started publishing statistics on voting by the eligible citizen population in 1996. Richmond, however, is concerned about the assault on voting rights, which includes the implementation of such deterrents as voter ID laws. He said the CBC would continue to push for the restoration of the Voting Rights Act and work to end discriminatory voting practices. Other Census Bureau statistics include: • The estimated number of Black-owned employer firms was 108,473 in 2014. Additionally, there’s an estimated 31,216 Black-owned health care and social assistance firms, the largest sector of Black-owned businesses. • The health care and social assistance sector is followed by professional, scientific and technical support (15,078 firms) and administrative, support, waste management and remediation services (9,644). • There were 2.2 million Black military veterans residing in the United States in 2015.
defendernetwork.com • Serving the Houston area for over 85 years