Supreme Court Have Fanned the Flames of Racism in America
Mishael Morgan is 1st Black Lead Winner at Daytime Emmys
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News Observer Bakersfield
Volume 48 Number 43
Serving Kern County for Over 48 Years
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Supreme Court Officially Overturns Roe V. Wade By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
“Stripping away a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion and to make our own health care decisions will have especially dire consequences for Black women and women of color across our country,” said Jessica Knight Henry, Deputy, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Americans no longer have a constitutional right to abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday, June 24, to overturn the landmark Roe V. Wade, taking away reproductive rights that have been in place since 1973. The decision mirrored a leaked draft opinion circulated earlier this month, with all the conservative justices on the high court approved. Immediately following the initial leak of draft, and continuing over the weeks since, crowds have gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington to protest. “Stripping away a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion and to make our own health care decisions will have especially dire consequences for Black women and women of color across our country,” said Jessica Knight Henry, Deputy, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “With Roe overturned, the stakes of this election have never been higher – Black voters will stand with Senate Democrats against Sen. Mitch McConnell and Republicans’ agenda that would make abortion illegal and impose new, cruel, and punishing restrictions on women of color and their families,” Henry stated. Florida Democratic Rep. Val Demings said she’s furious and disappointed. “I am ready to fight,” Demings declared in a statement. “We
The decision mirrored a leaked draft opinion circulated earlier this month, with all the conservative justices on the high court approved. won’t go back. We must work relentlessly to preserve our right to choose and our right to privacy. We must protect Roe v. Wade in federal law.” Demings asserted that America can’t go back to a time when women were treated as second-class citizens who don’t have control over their bodies. “Freedom means the ability to live your life as you choose,” Demings insisted. “You have a fundamental, God-given right to your own life, your family, your religion, your circumstances, your privacy, your values, your health, your body. I’m going to fight for that freedom and so will millions of others. This isn’t over.” Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for the 6-3 majority, in which each of the liberal judges offered their dissent. Alito called Roe v. Wade “egregiously wrong from the start.” “Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote.
Dissenting Justice Stephen Breyer disagreed. “After today, young women will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers,” Breyer wrote. “The majority accomplishes that result without so much as considering how women have relied on the right to choose or what it means to take that right away.” The court’s decision ends core protection for women to make their own health care decisions, Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock stated. “It is a departure from our American ideals to recognize and protect basic rights,” Warnock stated. “This misguided decision is devastating for women and families in Georgia and nationwide. Across the country, states have already passed dangerous and uncompromising restrictions that put politicians in charge of health care, instead of women and doctors.” Warnock’s staff called the congressman a “stalwart champion” of protecting women’s right to choose, including cosponsoring the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify a woman’s right to reproductive health care. Karen Carter Richards, NNPA’s Board Chair along with Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., the association’s president and CEO, issued the following joint statement: “The latest Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V. Wade is a bad decision that will impact the civil rights of communities of color and particularly women. This is why elections have consequences. The NNPA will increase our efforts to turn out the Black vote in 2022. Marcela Howell, president, and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Health Imperative and a conglomerate of other women’s rights groups, joined in a statement rebuking the high court’s decision. “Overturning the historic Roe decision after 50 years of legal precedent impacts women’s and birthing people human and civil rights,” the statement said. “The Supreme Court’s ruling declares open season on women and birthing people’s rights and lives,” she continued. “While we call on Congress and the Biden administration to take immediate action to uphold the Constitution, we will not depend on governing bodies to protect our rights.”
Protests, Outrage Follow Supreme Court Roe v. Wade Ruling Tanu T. Henry California Black Media Last week’s Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 51-year-old decision that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion, continues to draw outrage. It has sparked protests around the country and united opponents determined to use their political power to push back against it. Critics say the decision disregards decades of legal precedent and opens the door for nearly half of U.S. states who have stated their desire -- or instituted proceedings -- to ban the procedure. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement showing his displeasure with the ruling and spoke out against anti-abortion policies in Texas, which is among the 11 states that have banned or enacted restrictions on abortion. “I am outraged by yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Texas’s ban on most abortion services to remain in place, and largely endorsing Texas’s scheme to insulate its law from the fundamental protections of Roe v. Wade,” the governor’s statement read. “But if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” the statement continued. Newsom followed with a tweet reiterating California’s commitment to providing abortion care and protections for women. “Abortion is legal in California. It will remain that way. I just signed a bill that makes our state a safe haven for women across the nation. We will not cooperate with any states that attempt to prosecute women or doctors for receiving or providing reproductive care,” he wrote. To hold gun manufacturers accountable, Newsom says he plans to use tactics similar to the ones Texas employed to target, attack and box in abortion providers. “I have directed my staff to work with the Legislature and the Attorney General on a bill that would create a right of action allowing private citizens to seek injunctive relief, and statutory damages of at least $10,000 per violation plus costs and attorney’s fees, against anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in the State of California. If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, we should do just that,” Newsom said. Congresswoman Barbara Lee District 13 (Oakland) released a statement listing steps individuals outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision can take to fight back. In it, she also blasted lawmakers responsible for taking away citizens’ rights to make their own healthcare decisions. “Now, we must support local clinics, health providers, abortion funds and nonprofits doing the groundwork to connect those in states with draconian abortion bans to safe-haven states like California or provide access to medication abortion. We must ensure safe abortions are still accessible to the most vulnerable,” Lee said.
Los Angeles, CA United States - May 14, 2022: Protesters at the Bans Off Our Bodies Rally. (Shutterstock Photo)
“This is NOT over. We must fight this in state legislatures. We must organize and elect a pro-choice Senate in the midterms and every election thereafter. Rep. Karen Bass District 37(Los Angeles), who is running for mayor of Los Angeles, said biases related to race and class are factors that influence access to health care. “Today is a devastating day in the history of this country, especially for the most vulnerable communities. The reality is that affluent women will always have the right to choose even in states that establish bans on abortion,” she said. “Today’s decision is an attack on lowincome women and women of color by the same people who don’t believe in accessible childcare or affordable food programs in schools. The idea that we are still fighting in 2022 for our right to access to reproductive health care -- a battle that was resolved fifty years ago—is an absolute tragedy and sets a potentially unconscionable precedent of decisions impacting equal rights under the law.” Alexis McGill Johnson, President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, warned that the Supreme Court’s decision may be
a precursor to other protections being overturned in the future. “Knowing this moment would come does not make it any less devastating. The Supreme Court has now officially given politicians permission to control what we do with our bodies, deciding that we can no longer be trusted to determine the course for our own lives,” she said. While the SCOTUS’ decision saddens Johnson, she is hopeful that the ruling will mobilize people to make their voices heard and exercise their power to create change. “But in stripping away our rights, the Supreme Court and anti-abortion politicians have also unleashed a movement. We are a movement that will not compromise on our bodies, our dignity, or our freedom,” she said. “We are a movement that will show up at every town hall, every legislative session, and every ballot box to demand we are treated like equal citizens. We are a movement that will do what we can to get abortion care to people and people to abortion care.” Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, abortions remain legal in California.
Take One!
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
African American Museum is Planned for Las Vegas WSide
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Las Vegas’ Historic Westside community is paving the way for an African American Museum and Cultural Arts Center, as part of its road map to revitalization. The center is one of many implementation strategies under the community’s HUNDRED Plan – a comprehensive agenda, developed in 2016, to breathe new life into the Historic Westside. The city of Las Vegas issued a request for proposals on June 6 from interested parties to develop a master plan for the museum. The application deadline is July 7. Las Vegas Councilman Cedric Crear refers to it as “changing the course of the river.’’ “If you look at the Historic Westside and you look at what all has taken place throughout the city, the growth of the city, everything has been sort of built up around it,’’ said Crear. “Then you’ll see that a lot hasn’t happened within the Historic Westside for decades.’’ The center will serve as an educational opportunity for museum goers to experience and celebrate the contributions of African Americans. A timeline or cost of the project could not be confirmed by Crear, but he hopes the museum will materialize by within the next five to ten years. The idea of a cultural epicenter for African Americans to celebrate their culture has been in talks since 2016. “This is talking about the cultural – not only locally, but around the state as well as nationally – the contributions that African Americans have made to our society,’’ said Crear. With the Historic Westside having a minority-majority population, Crear and other city councilmembers thought it important to have the museum there. And community members have been “overwhelmingly supportive’’ of the new initiative, according to Crear. “If you look at the Historic Westside, it is one of the most historic areas of the city. It helped build this entire city,’’ he said. “You’d be hard pressed outside of downtown, maybe the Strip and some other areas, to find a trade area that has played such a definitive role congruence of (the African American) community.’’ Specific details about the museum are slim, but the city has outlined some expectations on its website. One of them includes connecting the Walker African-American Museum and Research Center, on West Van Buren Avenue and H Street, to a new facility or possibly repurposing Ethel Pearson Park for the museum. It also hopes to incorporate “standing and rotating collections’’ from “African American art and artists of all varieties,’’ according to the website.
University Renames Newest Dorm for First Black Graduate and Wife NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A Jesuit university in New Orleans has renamed its newest residence hall after its first Black graduate, his late wife, and their family. Norman C. Francis graduated from the law school at Loyola University of New Orleans in 1955 and was president of the nation’s only Black and Catholic university – Xavier University of New Orleans – from 1968 until 2015. His wife, Blanche Francis, was a civic activist and community leader in New Orleans. The Loyola University building formerly called Carrollton Hall, after a nearby neighborhood, is now the Blanche and Norman C. Francis Family Hall. “Norman Francis embodies everything we strive for here at Loyola,’’ the Rev. Justin Daffron, Loyola’s interim president, said in a news release. “He and his late wife, Blanche, have set an example for us all, showing us how to live and love in the way the Gospels have taught us, with compassion, kindness, hope, courage and service to others.’’ Daffron said the Francis family, which also includes six children and 11 grandchildren, has made many contributions to both schools, the city, state, country and Catholic Church. A resolution passed by Loyola’s Board of Trustees recognized Norman Francis for a “life and vocation distinguished by his selfless and successful service’’ in a variety of capacities. Blanche Francis, a volunteer for many organizations, was “the take-charge Mom who made it easy for her husband to be the take-charge president,’’ the resolution said. Norman Francis served in the Army and U.S. Attorney’s Office after getting his law degree, and became deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement while dean of men at Xavier, his college alma mater. After Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, he chaired the Louisiana Recovery Authority. He was Xavier’s first Black and first lay president and the second African American president of a Catholic university in the United States. Under Francis, Xavier produced more African American graduates who went on to medical school than any other college or university. Francis has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame. He has served as adviser to eight U.S. presidents on education and rights issues and received more than 40 honorary degrees. In 2020, New Orleans renamed a street along Xavier’s campus for Francis, changing the name from that of Confederate President Jeff Davis.