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Los Angeles
Volume 36 Number 11
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
Hank Aaron Dies at 86
Baseball legend Hank Aaron joined us as the Tom Johnson Lecture Series speaker at the LBJ Presidential Library on January 22, 2015. The program was introduced by LBJ Foundation Chairman Larry Temple and UT baseball coach Augie Garrido and moderated by LBJ Library Director Mark Updegrove. Photo by David Valdez / LBJ Library / Wikimedia Commons
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Baseball’s recognized home run king and an African American hero, Henry “Hank” Aaron, has died at the age of 86. Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record on April 8, 1974, was not just a baseball legend but a hero to superstars. “He’s the one man that I idolize more than myself,” the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali once said about Aaron. While with the Atlanta Braves, Aaron tied Ruth’s mark of 714 homers on April 7. A day later, he slugged No. 715 against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Al Downing. Before and throughout his chase of Ruth’s longstanding record, Aaron was subjected to racism and hate. Death threats were common, and even some teammates and those throughout baseball despised Aaron as he approached their white hero’s record. Despite beefed up security at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, some fans breached the outfield walls as Aaron trotted around the bases following his record-setting dinger. Legendary footage shows at least two fans were able to physically greet Aaron as he rounded second base and fireworks exploded in the Atlanta night. “A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol,” Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, who called the game, proclaimed as Aaron’s mother, family, and teammates greeted him at home plate. Born Henry Louis Aaron on February 5, 1934, in a poor Black section of Mobile, Alabama, called “Down the Bay,” Hank Aaron was the third of eight children born to Continued on page A2
Rise of Vice President Harris By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Vice President Kamala Harris will be the most influential vice president of the 49 that we have had, declared a proud Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick. With 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans seated in the Senate, Vice President Harris holds the tiebreaking vote, which adds to the power she now wields. “The power in politics is from influence,” Frederick remarked. “I think, for that reason, she could potentially be the most influential vice president in our history.” Following President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris’s inauguration, The Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel on Howard’s campus rang its bell 49 times to honor Harris. More than 3,000 miles away, in San Francisco, many remember when the nation’s first Black vice president cut her teeth as a valiant prosecutor. The daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father who taught at Stanford University, Vice President Harris’ mother, a cancer researcher, was the daughter of an Indian diplomat. And, the new Vice President has never forgotten her roots, nor has she forgotten those who helped her achieve the American dream. During a 2018 National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) award ceremony honoring Harris as “Newsmaker of the Year,” Vice President Harris talked about her years as a San Francisco’s district attorney. As San Francisco’s top prosecutor, Vice President
Harris worked to reduce recidivism by offering nonviolent, low-level drug trafficking defendants’ job training and other life skills education as an alternative to jail. Her office reported that during the first two years of the program, “less than 10 percent of those who graduated from the program were re-offenders — compared to 53 percent of drug offenders statewide who returned to prison or jail within two years of release.” In 2010, she defeated Steve Cooley to become the first woman, the first African American, and the first Indian American in California history to win the attorney general’s seat. She later joined other state attorneys general in brokering a $25-billion nationwide settlement deal with the nation’s five largest mortgage institutions for improper foreclosure practices during a housing market crash. Born October 20, 1964, in Oakland, the overachiever attended Howard University, where she earned a degree in political science and economics. Three years later, she earned a law degree from Hastings College in San Francisco. The tenacious California native entered the national spotlight in 2012 when she delivered a remarkable address at the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina. During the address, she touted President Barack Obama’s desire to hold Wall Street accountable and argued how everyone deserves a chance to live the American dream. “The American dream belongs to the student in Sacramento who doesn’t have much money but who goes to bed each night dreaming big dreams. It belongs to the men and women across this country who know it shouldn’t
Free!
Serving Los Angeles County for Over 36 Years
Vice President Kamala Harris receives the oath of office during the inauguration ceremonies.
be against the law to marry the person you love,” the thenaspiring Senator Harris proclaimed. “It belongs to the immigrants, young and old, who come to this country in search of a better life. And it belongs to little girls who have the joy of watching their mother, like I did, buy her first home. The American dream belongs to all of us.” In 2017, Harris easily won election to the U.S. Senate Continued on page A2
Thursday, January 28, 2021
CA May Prioritize Age Above All for COVID-19 Vaccine
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Advocates for farmworkers, teachers, grocery store clerks and other essential workers are worried they will have to wait until this summer to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as California considers giving priority to older residents. State officials said the move makes sense given older people have a much higher rate of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. But with California struggling to get and give the vaccine, it could take until June to vaccinate all Californians 65 and older, the Sacramento Bee reported Sunday. That could mean teachers and school workers will probably not be vaccinated until this summer, said Debra Schade, a school board member at the Solana Beach School District in San Diego County and a director at the California School Boards Association. “It will be a heavy lifting to get those districts open ... without risk mitigation that the vaccine would provide,” she said. Some local governments have already started vaccinating essential workers and Fresno County said it will begin offering vaccines on Monday to about 3,000 farmworkers. But Noe Paramo, an advocate at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, said without clear guidance from the state to prioritize vaccinating farmworkers, counties could decide to leave them fall by the wayside. Three-quarters of those who died from COVID-19 in California were 65 or older, according to data recently presented to a state vaccine advisory committee. By vaccinating older adults first, the state could push down the number of those hospitalized, which could benefit the community as a whole, California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Tomas J. Aragon said at the meeting. The state reported 429 deaths on Sunday, two days after reaching a one-day record of 764, according to the Department of Public Health. California’s death toll since the start of the pandemic rose to 36,790, while total cases reached over 3.1 million. Meanwhile, the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 was 17,810 statewide, a drop of 17% in two weeks.
Black Teens Wrongly Detained at LA Target VENTURA, Calif. (AP) – The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department has said three teens, who are Black, were wrongly detained at a Target store in Westlake Village during a grand theft investigation last week. The teens – a 17-year-old and two 16-year-olds – from Thousand Oaks were walking home Jan. 17 after attending church with friends when they decided to stop at Target to buy snacks, the Ventura County Star reported. The teens said they were the victims of racial profiling by Target staff and county deputies. One of the boys told the Star that he and his friends were unaware there was a shoplifting incident while they were in the store, where the suspects smashed through the glass in the electronics section and stole smartphones. “We were being followed in the store by an employee who told us, `Hey, I can’t have you guys loitering,’’’ he said. He explained the group decided to leave but found the exit barricaded with shopping carts. The teen said Target security staff did not let the teens leave despite other visitors exiting. Three deputies then arrived and detained the teens at the front of the store, including handcuffing one and putting him in a police vehicle for up to 20 minutes before releasing him. Authorities later said they were identified as the suspects by the store’s loss prevention officers. Capt. Sal “Chuck’’ Becerra said in a statement on social media on Friday that the teens were released and an internal investigation found no evidence of excessive force. Target issued a statement saying the company has apologized to the teenagers, fired one of the security team members involved and will require the store’s employees to retake security and racial bias training. The mother of the teen who was handcuffed has since retained attorney Toni Jaramilla to file a lawsuit alleging a violation of her son’s civil rights. She disputes the deputies’ account determining excessive force was not used. “The way they were detained was very aggressive and beyond necessary for the situation,’’ Jaramilla said.
Black American Poet Laureate Performs at Inauguration Cop Who By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent Amanda Gorman was born in Los Angeles and studied sociology at Harvard University. In 2017, the now 22-year-old became the first national youth poet laureate. On Wednesday, Jan. 20, Gorman, an African American, was the youngest poet to perform at a presidential inauguration. Gorman performed alongside Lady Gaga, who sang the national anthem, and Jennifer Lopez. The young poet delivered “The Hill We Climb,” which included lines about the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, / Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. / And this effort very nearly succeeded. / But while democracy can be periodically delayed, / It can never be permanently defeated,” Gorman has written. It is not the first time Gorman will have a national stage. In 2017, she read at the inauguration of the 22nd U.S. poet laureate, Tracy K Smith. She has also performed for Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and LinManuel Miranda. Reportedly, Dr. Jill Biden selected Gorman to perform during President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ inauguration. “I wasn’t trying to write something in which those events were painted as an irregularity or different from an America that I know,” Gorman told the Los Angeles Times. “America is messy. It is still in its early development of all that we can become. And I have to recognize that in the poem. I cannot ignore that or erase it. And so, I crafted an inaugural poem that recognizes these scars and these wounds. Hopefully, it will move us toward healing them.”
Amanda Gorman
Arrested Black Man Collecting Signatures is Fired SPRINGFIELD, Mich. (AP) – A Michigan sheriff’s deputy has been fired after arresting a Black man who was collecting signatures to form a tenant organization in a neighborhood, authorities said Friday. “We hold ourselves to high standards of professionalism to the communities we protect,” Calhoun County Sheriff Steve Hinkley said. “When we are right, we are right. When we are wrong, we admit we are wrong. On January 2, we were wrong.’’ The deputy’s name wasn’t released. La’Ron Marshall of Springfield was arrested and spent a night in jail after someone called police to report a suspicious person. A deputy, one of two at the scene, told him he was soliciting without a permit, according to a video recording. “Soliciting what?’’ Marshall asked. “Whatever you’re soliciting,’’ a deputy said. Marshall believes he was racially profiled. Hinkley apologized two weeks ago, and a charge of obstructing police was dismissed. “No law – local, state or federal _ prohibited Mr. Marshall from exercising his constitutional rights on January 2,’’ the sheriff said. Marshall said he was pleased with the firing. “It’s messed up that he had to lose his job, but something has to happen. ... As a Black man, we are under attack and you have to root out all the bad apples for the fruit to prosper,” Marshall told the Battle Creek Enquirer.