Winnie Mandela is Dead at 81
Martin Luther King Jr. 50 Years after Assasination
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Volume 33 Number 23
Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California
NAACP Sues Trump Over Census By William J. Ford The Washington Informer/NNPA Member The NAACP announced that the group has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, the U.S. Census Bureau and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, “to combat the imminent threat that the 2020 Census will substantially undercount African Americans and other people of color in communities throughout the United States,” a press release about the lawsuit said. Prince George’s County, the NAACP’s Prince George’s County branch and two county residents (branch President Bob Ross and Elizabeth Johnson), also joined the suit. Prince George’s County experienced one of the highest undercounts in the nation at 2.3 percent during the 2010 Census, according to the suit. The figures are based on counties with a population of at least 100,000. “Such a dramatic undercount will especially dilute the votes of racial and ethnic minorities, deprive their communities of critical federal funds and undervalue their voices and interests in the political arena,” the suit alleges. During a press conference about the lawsuit at the National Press Club in Northwest D.C., Bradford Berry, general counsel of the NAACP said that this lawsuit is unique, because the plaintiffs seek action before work on the 2020 Census begins. For instance, the suit claims the federal government has decreased resources and manpower for the 2020 Census and “cancelled crucial, pre-Census field tests and is rushing to digitize the Census without adequate cybersecurity protections, thus undermining public confidence in the privacy of Census data” the press release said. The lawsuit also states that the Census Bureau doesn’t have sufficient staffing; the agency’s acting director, Ron Jarmin, was also named as a defendant in the suit. On Capitol Hill last week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved $2.8 billion for the bureau, an increase
Hundreds Rally for Reform after Police Killing NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson (at podium) talks about the NAACP’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and the U.S. Census Bureau over management of the 2020 Census, during a recent press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Elizabeth Johnson, (left) a resident of Prince George’s County and Rushern Baker, the county executive for Prince George’s County also delivered remarks. (Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA)
more than double the amount of the Trump administration’s request of $1.1 billion. “Proposing a bill and passing a bill are two different
things,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. “Once the final bill passes, we would like to evaluate to see if it’s Continued on page A4
which she was fined. She faced these allegations again during the 1997 hearings before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that investigated apartheid-era crimes. As a parliamentarian after South Africa's first all-race elections, she was convicted of fraud. Still, Madikizela-Mandela remained a venerated figure in the ruling African National Congress, which has led South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. She continued to tell the party “exactly what is wrong and what is right at any time,” said senior ANC leader Gwede Mantashe. The ANC, which was the main movement against apartheid, had lost popularity in recent years in part because of scandals linked to former President Jacob Zuma, who resigned in February. Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, described Madikizela-Mandela in a televised tribute as a “champion of justice and equality” and a “voice for the voiceless.” Nobel laureate and former archbishop Desmond Tutu, a periodic critic of the ruling party, noted her passing by describing Madikizela-Mandela as “a defining symbol” of the fight against
apartheid. “She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, bannings and banishment,” Tutu said. “Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists.” Madikizela-Mandela had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year, according to her family. She had back surgery a year ago. After hearing of her death, some people gathered Monday evening outside Madikizela-Mandela's home in the Soweto area of Johannesburg to sing tributes. She had attended Easter services in Soweto over the long weekend. The family said it will release details of her memorial and funeral services when they are finalized. Madikizela-Mandela's story was told in biographies and novels as well the Hollywood movie “Winnie,” starring Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson. The young Winnie grew up in what is now Eastern Cape province and came to Johannesburg as the city's first black female Continued on page A2
On the 50th anniversary of the Assassination of the global icon Civil Rights Leaders Remember
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Contributor On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his prophetic but inspirational “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” speech at the historic Masonic Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. One day later, the famous civil rights champion was assassinated. While gunman James Earl Ray’s bullet silenced the legendary leader, his legacy continues to live on through contemporaries like Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. and organizations like the NAACP. Younger organizations, like Color of Change have picked up the mantle, pushing for justice, freedom and equality around the nation. “In challenging political moments like this one, it can be tempting to give into despair, which makes it all the more critical for our communities to remember our powerful legacy and draw inspiration from leaders like Dr. King, especially now on the 50th anniversary of his assassination,” Rashad Robinson, the executive director of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. “What people too often forget is that beyond inspiring speeches and letters, Dr. King held a deep understanding of strategy and an expert execution of his vision.” Robinson continued: “From the Montgomery bus boycott that brought a city and industry to its knees to leveraging media as a megaphone for the Civil Rights movements, every day at Color of Change we strive to learn from Dr. King’s proud legacy and all those that stood with him. We hold corporations accountable and demand they do more than just steal Dr. King’s voice for ads, but implement his demands for treating workers fairly and equally.” Robinson added that today, civil rights groups work to elect district attorneys around the country that are accountable to the community they represent and focused on ending mass incarceration. “From the classroom to the ballot box to corporate boardrooms and capitol buildings, King’s work to build power and change the rules is the legacy we honor as we create a next generation movement to make justice real,” Robinson said. The NAACP is honoring King with a series of special events in Memphis. “As we join our spirit of activism with so many in Memphis for [a] march and rally, our overarching goal is to lift up Dr. King’s legacy of active participation in our democracy,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. Joined by organizations like AFSCME, COGIC and a host of workers’ rights leaders, the NAACP will commemorate King
Charles Barkley Gives to Black History $250,000
HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) _ Charles Barkley has donated $250,000 toward educating Mississippi and Alabama high school students about African-American history. The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tennessee reported Thursday the basketball Hall of Famer and TV analyst’s donation to the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi will help fund a digital course on African-Americans’ contributions to public service, science, art and sports. The course is taught through a partnership between the foundation and education technology company EVERFI. Barkley says in a statement every child in his home state should have an opportunity to know their history. The Alabama-native says he was born during the civil rights era and has gratitude for Medgar Evers, Congressman John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation CEO Tom Pittman and EVERFI CEO Tom Davidson say thousands of students will be involved.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Dies at 81 By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) _ Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist in her own right whose reputation was sullied by scandal, has died. She was 81. The woman many South Africans have described as the “Mother of the Nation” and a champion of the black majority, died “surrounded by her family and loved ones,” according to a statement released by Madikizela-Mandela's family. Madikizela-Mandela was the second of Mandela's three wives, married to him from 1958 to 1996. Mandela, who died in 2013, was imprisoned throughout most of their marriage, and Madikizela-Mandela's own activism against white minority rule led to her being jailed for months and placed under house arrest for years. “She kept the memory of her imprisoned husband Nelson Mandela alive during his years on Robben Island and helped give the struggle for justice in South Africa one of its most recognizable faces,” the family said. However, Madikizela-Mandela's political activism was marred by her conviction in 1991 for kidnapping and assault, for
Thursday, April 5, 2018
during a three-day event beginning Monday, April 2 in Memphis. “The NAACP is proud that through the calendar of activities drawn from the striking sanitation workers’ iconic slogan, ‘I Am a Man,’ we’ll be able to connect the movements of the past with today’s youth and movements for social change, while symbolically passing the mantle, and strengthening and energizing our Youth and College Division Leadership,” Johnson said. Meanwhile, Jackson who stood on that Lorraine Motel balcony in Memphis the day before the assassination said King’s death redefined America. “On this anniversary…it always hurts. He was 39-years-old, he was hated by our government, attacked by our government, media, shot, killed in cold blood,” Jackson said. The Rainbow Push leader and one-time aide to King recalled the “Mountaintop” speech in which King declared that, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…longevity has its place. But, I’m not concerned about that now…” Jackson said that some people thought that King was anticipating his death the next day. “He had just come from a plane which had been emptied, because of the threat of the plane being hit by a terrorist attack,” Jackson said. Jackson continued: “He was aware, but he felt that a coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. He refused to be afraid because of the risk of ambush and sabotage. He refused to stop what he was doing out of fear because he did it out of courage.” Dr. Wornie Reed, the Director of the Race and Social Policy Research Center within the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech University who met King during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and joined him on the historic 1963 March on Washington, said in a news release that there remain many myths about King. “Many years ago, he would answer people who would say… Reverend King we can’t legislate morality and he would say we ‘are not asking for the government to make my neighbor love me, we are asking the government to keep my neighbor from killing me,’” Reed said. “So, King was dealing with real issues not the symbolic stuff that people talk about today.” In a tweet, Valerie Jarrett who served as senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, wrote about King’s final speech and what it means to those who follow in his footsteps. “Those who fight for social justice today stand on the shoulders of many, including Martin Luther King Jr.,” Jarrett said. “I hope King’s last speech will give you strength for the hard journey ahead.”
King’s daughter, Bernice A. King, tweeted that her father was a nonviolent practitioner, a social change strategist and a courageous speaker of truth to power. King’s tweet about her father continued: “And, when the truth he was speaking plus the work he was doing regarding economic justice, racism, war and poverty became too much for those in power to bear…#MLK50Forward #MLK.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) _ The family of Stephon Clark joined hundreds of people in renewing calls for reforms nearly two weeks after the 22-year-old unarmed black man was killed by Sacramento police. Clark’s fiancee, Salena Manni, stood on stage with his two young sons, grandmother and uncle for the gathering Saturday organized by Sacramento native and former NBA player Matt Barnes. Barnes amplified calls for charges against the two officers who are on administrative leave. The peaceful demonstration that drew between 200 and 300 people to a downtown park came a day after a private autopsy released by the family showed Clark was shot from behind. About 150 people attended another vigil and protest Saturday night outside a sheriff’s department office.
Blacks Largely Left Out Among High-Paying Jobs
By BOB SALSBERG and ANGELIKI KASTANIS Associated Press BOSTON (AP) - Fifty years after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, black Americans are still struggling to gain a foothold in the nation’s more prestigious and lucrative professions. That’s according to an Associated Press analysis of government data that found black workers are chronically underrepresented compared with whites in technology, business, life sciences, and engineering, among other occupations. Meanwhile, black are proportionately overrepresented in lower-wage fields, such as food service and maintenance. In Boston - a hub for technology and innovation _ white workers outnumber black ones by about 27-to-1 in computer- and mathematics-related professions, compared with the overall ratio of 9.5-to-1 for workers in the city. King earned his doctorate in Boston in the 1950s. Experts cite numerous causes, including lack of educational opportunities and systemic discrimination in hiring and promotions.
California Father Released from Immigration Detention
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A father arrested by immigration officials after dropping off his daughter at day care in California has been released from a detention center and will be allowed to remain in the U.S. Fernando Carrillo walked out of a U.S. immigration office in San Francisco on Monday and hugged his daughter as dozens of supporters cheered around him. His attorney, Hedi Framm-Anton, said Carrillo proved to an immigration judge he would be persecuted if he returned to Mexico. Carrillo was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in October after he was convicted of a drunken-driving offense. Officials said he had been previously deported.Carrillo’s wife, Lourdes Barraza, told KTVU-TV that the ruling in her husband’s case was an “Easter miracle.”
Possible Sighting of Mother Before Deadly SUV Crash
MENDOCINO, Calif. (AP) _ Authorities are investigating whether a surveillance video from Fort Bragg, California, shows a woman the day before her family’s sport utility vehicle was found at the bottom off a cliff along the Pacific Coast at a scenic viewpoint. Mendocino County Sheriff Lt. Shannon Barney told The Oregonian/OregonLive Tuesday the woman in the video looks like Jennifer Hart but that the footage is “very grainy.” Sarah and Jennifer Hart were found dead at the crash scene March 26 along with three of their children. Three other children remain missing. Authorities have said the crash was probably deliberate. One of the missing children is 15-year-old Devonte Hart, a black youngster who drew national attention after he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest. (AP File Courtesy Photo)