CELEBRATING
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
News Observer Bakersfield
Volume 45 Number 25
Serving Kern County for Over 40 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
At 88, Toni Morrison Personifies the Strength of Black Womanhood With each masterful stroke of her pen, typewriter or (later) her computer keyboard, Legendary author, Toni Morrison keeps readers of her works and listeners of her words spellbound. “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives,” she once said. By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent Black Girl Magic, Black Girls Rock, and other slogans have surfaced in recent years to describe the power, resilience and steadiness of the Black woman. But, 88 years ago, a legend was born who would eventually embody the spirit and definition of strength of Black womanhood: Toni Morrison. “Being, a black woman writer is not a shallow place but a rich place to write from. It doesn’t limit my imagination; it expands it,” Morrison famously said. With each masterful stroke of her pen, typewriter or (later) her computer keyboard, Morrison kept readers of her works and listeners of her words spellbound. “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives,” she once said. This week, this month and likely throughout Women’s History Month in March, Morrison will undoubtedly be talked about. Her words will flood social media and other platforms, and somewhere a young Black girl will be inspired. Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, on February 18, 1931, Morrison earned a B.A. in English from Howard University in 1953 and a Master of Arts from Cornell University in 1955. She later taught at Howard for seven years. In 1958, while she was teaching at Howard, she married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect and the couple had two sons before they divorced in 1964. In 1988, Morrison won the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Beloved, which was later adapted for a film starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Her first novel was The Bluest Eye in 1970. Other celebrated novels include Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Jazz, Paradise, and God Help the Child. The first Black woman to ever be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Grammy Award, Morrison’s list of accolades are nearly endless. Some of those awards include: • 1977: National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Missing Plane,Body Found on Mountain BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP)– Authorities say search and rescue teams have discovered the remains of one person near the wreckage of a missing plane in Southern California’s Tehachapi Mountains. The Kern County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday that the search continues for two other occupants of the twin-engine Beechcraft found on a slope in several feet of snow. KBAK-TV reports the small plane was heading from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles when it was reported overdue Thursday. Sgt. Steve Williams says crews finally spotted the wreckage Saturday and found the body about an hour later. Authorities believe the plane was carrying three people. Williams says finding the others will be tough because the plane is on the side of a mountain with no access roads. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board plan to send investigators to the scene Sunday.
Judge Allows Smollett to Travel
Toni Morrison/Granta
Solomon • 1977: American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award • 1987–88: Robert F. Kennedy Book Award • 1988: Helmerich Award • 1988: American Book Award for Beloved • 1988: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Race Relations for Beloved • 1988: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved • 1988: Frederic G. Melcher Book Award for Beloved. • 1989: MLA Commonwealth Award in Literature • 1989: Honorary Doctor of Letters at Harvard University • 1993: Nobel Prize for Literature • 1993: Commander of the Arts and Letters, Paris • 1994: Condorcet Medal, Paris • 1994: Rhegium Julii Prize for Literature • 1996: Jefferson Lecture • 1996: National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters • 2000: National Humanities Medal • 2002: 100 Greatest African Americans, list by Molefi Kete Asante • 2005: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University • 2008: New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee • 2009: Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement
• 2010: Officier de la Légion d’Honneur • 2011: Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction • 2011: Honorary Doctor of Letters at Rutgers University Graduation Commencement • 2011: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Geneva • 2012: Presidential Medal of Freedom • 2013: The Nichols-Chancellor’s Medal awarded by Vanderbilt University • 2014 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award given by the National Book Critics Circle • 2016 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction • 2016 The Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry (The Norton Lectures), Harvard University • 2016 The Edward MacDowell Medal, awarded by The MacDowell Colony “At the wisdom-age of 88, the creative courage and genius of Sister Leader Toni Morrison continues to awaken the consciousness of millions of people in America and throughout the world,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. “Morrison personifies what it means to be a long-distance freedom-fighting author. The NNPA salutes and wishes Toni Morrison a happy birthday,” Chavis said.
Fresh Hopes and Familiar Disappointment Following DNA Testing in Cooper Case By Manny Otiko California Black Media Sacramento - On Friday, Feb. 22, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered new DNA tests in a 35-year-old quadruple murder case involving African-American death row inmate Kevin Cooper. Newsom’s decision could lead to the overturning of Cooper’s 1985 conviction in the killing of a rural Chino Hills family and their 11-year-old house guest. The case has the potential, some political watchers say, to divide Californians. Both the California and United States supreme courts and more than a dozen lower courts have rejected Cooper’s past appeals. “I take no position regarding Mr. Cooper’s guilt or innocence at this time,” Newsom said in his executive order about the high-profile case that has drawn international interest. New York Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristof, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and reality TV star Kim Kardashian have all called for re-testing using current, more sensitive forensic technology. The ACLU and other human rights and social justice groups have also urged California state officials to launch a deeper investigation into Cooper’s conviction. Gov. Newsom’s order Friday expands previous direction issued by former Gov. Jerry Brown in December to test four pieces of crime scene evidence. Brown’s order allowed analysts to perform DNA re-testing on a tan T-shirt; an orange towel; and the handle and sheath of a hatchet prosecutors say Cooper used in the murders. In this new investigation, analysts will look at strands of hair from the victims’ hands, blood samples and a green button Cooper’s attorney Norman Hile maintains investigators planted at the scene of the crime. A retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge will oversee the investigation. Cooper, 61, has maintained his innocence over the years. His lawyers hope the results of the re-testing ordered by Gov. Newsom, which could take several months, will help prove their client’s innocence and finally exonerate him. In 1985, a San Diego County jury convicted Cooper on four counts of murder. At the time of his arrest, he was 26 and an escaped prison inmate. His lengthy criminal record - including several burglaries and the rape of a minor in Pennsylvania – did not help his case. Cooper, formerly named Richard Goodman, was born in 1958 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When he was six months old, he was adopted and renamed Kevin Cooper. During his childhood, his parents physically abused him and he spent a good part of adolescence living in several juvenile detention centers. In 1982, Cooper escaped from a mental health facility in Pennsylvania before moving to California. During his murder trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Cooper killed husband and wife Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and an 11-year-old neighbor Christopher Hughes. Police found the bloodied
FREEEE!!
CHICAGO (AP) – A Chicago judge says “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett can travel out-of-state to meet his lawyers while he’s free on bond on charges he falsely reported being attacked by two masked men. Anne Kavanagh is a spokeswoman for Smollett’s attorneys, who say he’s innocent. Kavanagh says attorney Mark Geragos, who’s based in Los Angeles, is Smollett’s lead attorney. She says a defense lawyer asked Monday that Smollett be allowed to travel to California and New York for meetings with his legal team. Smollett was charged last week with disorderly conduct. Chicago police say Smollett, who is black and gay, staged the attack then told police his attackers yelled racial and anti-gay slurs and referenced President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan. He was released last week after posting $10,000 cash. He was ordered to surrender his passport.
Barry White Playing Cop Let Couple Neck in Patrol Car FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) – A Florida police officer has been suspended for allegedly playing Barry White while letting an arrested couple smoke and make-out in the back of his patrol car. According to an internal affairs report released Friday, Fort Myers Police Officer Doug McNeal placed the couple in the back of his patrol car after they’d been charged with shoplifting in July. Authorities said 23-year-old Zachery Moellendick and 24-year-old Krista Leigh were not placed in seatbelts and that Moellendick was not in handcuffs and had a lighter and a cigarette. The alleged incident was captured on video. Florida Today reports the video shows the couple making out. Authorities say the officer played “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love” and agreed to let them smoke.
Man in Gorilla Suit Breaks in Home, Hides Under Bed
bodies in the Ryen’s home with a total of 143 stab wounds. Joshua Ryen, the victims’ 8-year-old son, suffered a slash wound on his throat. He was the only survivor of the attack. After Coopers’s jail break, investigators found, he illegally stayed in a house next door to the victims. They also say they found evidence in the Ryen’s home and in the family’s station wagon that tied Cooper to the murders. For some, Gov. Newsom’s order to broaden DNA testing in the case is being met with dismay. The lone survivor of the murders Joshua Ryen and family, friends and supporters of the Ryens and Hughes all across the state say they are disappointed with the governor’s decision. “Unfortunately, over time it seems the victims’ desire for justice in this case matters less and less,” San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a statement. “Prior DNA testing that Mr. Cooper sought, agreed to and claimed would exonerate him have all confirmed Mr. Cooper’s guilt.” Yet persuasive arguments based on conflicting testimonies and allegations of evidence tampering, keep raising reasonable questions about the methods and stories investigators used to nail Cooper. Three weapons were used in the attack, and in sworn testimony, Joshua Ryen said he saw three attackers who were White. He later testified that they could have been Hispanic. Further complicating the prosecutions’ claims, a woman named Diana Roper came forward with bloody clothing belonging to her former boyfriend who was a violent criminal. She turned the evidence over to the police, but they destroyed it. African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities liv-
ing in the San Bernardino County are not surprised about the allegations Cooper’s attorneys are making about their D.A.’s office. Many of them frequently complain about racial biases and discrimination in the way their cases or complaints are handled. Just last month, a San Bernardino gang prosecutor Michael Selyem, who is White, resigned under pressure for making crude and racist and comments on social media. His insults targeted former First Lady Michelle Obama, U,S. Rep. Maxine Waters and an unnamed Black shooting victim. Thomas R. Parker, a former deputy head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, believes Cooper. This guy is innocent,” he told the New York Times. “The evidence was planted, he was framed, the cops lied on the stand.” What has kept the case going - and Cooper alive - is a federal appellate court’s decision in 2004 to stay his execution and review the case with more scientific evidence. Gov. Newsom’s decision to allow another round of DNA testing comes early in the term of the progressive California Governor whose supporters on the political Left have high expectations. “DNA testing should immediately take place to resolve the Ryen case and finally ensure justice is served,” Chiang said during the campaign. “Not only is it proven that DNA evidence can help law enforcement solve crimes, but testing in this case would come at no cost to the state.” Even though Newsom’s decision in the Cooper case is bold, he is treading carefully on a potentially polarizing issue that California voters across the political spectrum are watching. He is keeping his focus on fairness and justice Continued on page A2
SULPHUR, La. (AP) – Police say a man wearing a gorilla suit broke into a Louisiana home and hid under a mattress before officers arrested him. News outlets quote Sulphur Police Department spokesman Mel Estes in Thursday reports as saying that officers saw Jeremie Moran walking through yards in the costume. They had received calls about a suspicious person looking into homes. Estes says Moran ran into a home as officers approached but was discovered hiding. He was jailed on charges including resisting an officer, unauthorized entry, meth possession and wearing a mask. In Louisiana, a person convicted of wearing a mask in public can be sentenced to three years in prison at most. Exceptions are allowed for religious purposes or on holidays like Halloween and Mardi Gras. It’s unclear if Moran has a lawyer who could comment.
Bobcat Recovering After Being Hit by Police Car LAKE FOREST, Calif. (AP) – Officials say a bobcat is recovering after being struck by a police car on a canyon road in Southern California. Laguna Beach Police Officer Thomas McGuire tells the Orange County Register he initially thought he’d hit someone’s pet when the cat darted in front of his vehicle Feb. 19. McGuire says when he got out to check, he realized the animal was bigger than a house cat. Animal Control officers rushed the bleeding bobcat to an animal hospital, where it was diagnosed with head trauma. Dr. Kristi Krause, a veterinarian, tells the newspaper she expects the 11-pound (5-kilogram) cat to be released back into the wild after it regains strength. McGuire visited the bobcat on Friday. He joked that if he sees it again, he’ll issue a ticket for jaywalking.