Final Valuation of Prince’s Estate Pegged at $156.4 Million
Asm. Gipson Demands Probe Into Bomb Threat at California’s Only HBCU
News Observer Page A3
Page A7
Bakersfield
Volume 48 Number 20
Serving Kern County for Over 48 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
2022 Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Breakfast More Photos on page A10
From left to right: Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, SCLC Committee Chair Reverend Wesley Crawford Sr., Director of Public Relations and Business Development Michael T. Bowers, and C.E.O. & Founder at Upside Production Natesha Johnson (Mayor Karen Goh Courtesy Photo)
Mistress of ceremony C.E.O. & Founder at Upside Production Natesha Johnson (Mayor Karen Goh Courtesy Photo)
Voting Rights Takes Center Stage at Black Caucus MLK Breakfast Aldon Thomas Stiles California Black Media Voting rights was the central theme at a virtual breakfast the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) held Jan. 12 to celebrate the sacrifices and impact of Martin Luther King Jr. on American life and politics. “It is not enough to evoke Dr. King’s name on his birthday, post on social media and then take the day off,” said Sen. Steve Bradford (D-Inglewood), CLBC chair, reminding the audience of King’s activism and how his efforts led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Bradford said there are forces still attacking the rights of some Americans to vote, and more work needs to be done to make sure the voices of all Americans are heard and that all voters have access to the ballot box. “His birthday should be about a day on, a day of activity in our community, of activism and continuing to push for real change in this country,” he continued. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who is a former chair of the CLBC, said “the crisis of democracy is center stage, we are still fighting for our fundamental rights.” “In 1965, we secured [the vote] and now we find ourselves debating the same issue over again and with great concern about the fact that we are faced with the rolling back of what we had thought was just old stuff that people would never go back to,” said Weber. A day before the CLBC breakfast, President Biden and Vice President Harris visited Atlanta to emphasize the importance of protecting voting rights. Although, the House of Representatives voted a day later to pass the Freedom to Vote: John Lewis Act, the legislation is in jeopardy of not passing in the U.S. Senate as two Democratic Senators -- Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) -- refuse to change the rules allowing a minority of senators to block legislation. Weber said there are about 400 bills making their way through state legislatures across the country that are attempting to restrict voting rights. “Here we are now in this century, in this timeframe, in 2022, and we are talking about something that took place in 1965 in terms of the Voting Rights Act,” said Weber. “Dr. King told us, ‘I see governors with the words of interposition and nullification dripping from their lips.’ In other words, ‘I see Jim Crow laws. I see governors trying to overturn federal law with regards to what is right and what is just in this country.’” Civil rights activist and friend of Dr. King, Rev. James Lawson, also spoke at the virtual breakfast and encouraged Black leaders to fight for their communities.
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Poor People’s Campaign Hopes to Draw Big Crowd to June March RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The national Poor People’s Campaign has kicked off a season of activism the group hopes will draw a huge crowd to march in the nation’s capital in June to demand political reform. “We’re not begging the government. We’re trying to save the nation,” said the Rev. William J. Barber II, who led an online event Friday with Poor People’s Campaign co-founder, the Rev. Liz Theoharis. On the eve of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Barber, Theoharis and other activists quoted King and echoed the slain civil rights leader’s unrealized dreams of an equitable American society. The News & Observer reports that Barber described the plan to hold the Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and To the Polls on June 18. “We are committed to mobilizing the largest mass assembly of poor people and low-wage workers in this country’s history,” Barber said. Barber, who pastors Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, is a social justice advocate who received a 2018 MacArthur Foundation grant. The Poor People’s Campaign is pushing Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, the Protecting Our Democracy Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, three pieces of federal legislation aimed at preserving voting rights, preventing abuses of presidential power and international interference with elections, and other reforms.
Four hundred-eighty people from different walks of life and ethnicities attended the patriotic-themed event titled, IT STARTS WITH ME: Shifting Priorities to Create the Beloved Community (Mayor Karen Goh Courtesy Photo)
2022 Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Breakfast to commemorate the legacy of Dr. King (Mayor Karen Goh Courtesy Photo)
Take One!
Photo caption: Washington, D.C. | U.S.A. - Aug 28, 2021: March On for Voting Rights “Protect Voting Rights”
“Black elected officials must support the community of Black people all around the country, organizing continuous campaigns,” said Lawson who shared intimate details of his work with Dr. King and how much King’s ideas, strategizing and activism secured the human rights of all Americans. During a press call on the same day, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Cedric Richmond spoke about the historical weight of the current voting rights standoff among lawmakers in Washington. “Our democracy has faced defining moments many times in
our history and this is one of those,” said Richmond. “This will be a question of what side you want to be on.” Lawson called for community leaders to “dismantle plantation capitalism” and praised the work of other Black leaders that led to civil rights legislation during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. “The greatest use of law and nonviolent tactic was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many movements were in it, and we must not forget Little Rock Nine, Jackie Robinson’s desegregation of baseball and so on. It helped the Black community come together,” said Lawson.
Florida Teacher Quit After Yelling Racial Slur ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – A substitute teacher in Florida has resigned after students said she yelled a racial slur in the classroom. The 59-year-old white woman continued using the slur after going to the principal’s office Wednesday at Lealman Innovation Academy, Pinellas County school officials told the Tampa Bay Times. Principal Connisheia Garcia is Black, as are about 75% of the students at the school in St. Petersburg, which focuses on personalized learning for students in grades six through 12. District spokeswoman Isabel Mascarenas says the principal reported the substitute teacher to human resources and she was put on a do-not-use list. “They were setting up a time to review” the complaint, she told the newspaper. “Before they could set a date, she resigned.” The woman had worked in several schools without incident after being hired on July 1, Mascarenas said.
Judge Allows Video Release in Black Man’s Shooting Death FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – A judge on Thursday granted a request from the police chief of a North Carolina city to release body camera video recorded in the aftermath of the shooting death of a Black man by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy. Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins filed the petition with the courts on Tuesday. She wanted to publicly release footage that she says will show exchanges between Fayetteville police officers and three witnesses at the scene of last Saturday’s fatal shooting of Jason Walker by off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Jeffrey Hash, The Fayetteville Observer reported. Two witnesses have made comments on social media, released a video and spoken at a demonstration, creating “significant public attention,” according to the petition. Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons told the newspaper that he approved the release “in the interest of justice.” Under a North Carolina law passed in 2016, body and dash camera footage is not public record. Anyone can ask a court to order its release, however. Fayetteville police said Monday that a preliminary investigation determined that Walker, 37, “ran into traffic and jumped on a moving vehicle.” Hash shot Walker and then called 911, police said. Walker was pronounced dead at the scene. Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney who represented the family of George Floyd and has been retained by the Walker family, told a rally at a Fayetteville church that Walker was the single father of a 14-year-old son. “There are a lot of reasons why Black children have to grow up without their fathers,” Crump said. “But this reason is unacceptable. This is unacceptable that we have to tell that young boy that his father was shot unnecessarily, unjustifiably and unconstitutionally by somebody who was supposed to protect and serve him.” Floyd, a Black man, was killed in 2020 by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe and eventually went limp. Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison on murder and manslaughter charges. Walker’s family attended the rally, as did Floyd’s brother, Philonise, and a nephew.