Chicago crusader 03-14-15 E-Edition

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CHICAGO CRUSADER 03-14-15.qxp_Sheriff 9/8/07 2007 3/12/15 5:19 AM Page 1

www.chicagocrusader.com

Blacks Must Control Their Own Community

•C•P•V•S• AUDITED BY

To The Unconquerable Host of Africans Who Are Laying Their Sacrifices Upon The Editorial Altar For Their Race VOLUME LXXIV NUMBER 47—SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2015

PUBLISHED SINCE 1940

25 Cents and worth more

In Selma Obama proved that he is ‘Black enough’ By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief NEWS ANALYSIS SELMA, Ala. (NNPA) – Throughout his campaign for the presidency, Barack Obama was dogged by one question: Is he Black enough? The question was repeated so often that after showing up late for an appearance at the 2008 annual convention of the National

Association of Black Journalists in Las Vegas, Obama said, “I want to apologize for being late, but you guys keep asking whether I am Black enough.” After a 33-minute speech Saturday in Selma, Ala. commemorating the Selma to Montgomery March and passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, nobody was asking: Is Barack Obama Black enough? President Obama rarely discussed the issue

of race in his first six years in office except in reaction to a major racial catastrophe such as the shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. or the arrest of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for breaking into his own home. On Saturday, however, the President seemed comfortable discussing race in public, showing he has a deep appreciation for the accom-

plishments of the Civil Rights Movement and quoting or referencing the Bible, Black spirituals, James Baldwin, Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer, Langston Hughes, the Tuskegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson and even his favorite hip-hop artist Jay-Z. While connecting with African Americans, President Obama also underscored the significance of civil rights warriors making America (Continued on page 2)

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND FAMILY march hand in hand with Congressman John Lewis and thousands of supporters, marking the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in a quest to secure voting rights for African Americans in the South led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

THE CHICAGO CRUSADER TURNS 75 A Crusader Staff Report “The Chicago Crusader will be 75 years old this year and we plan to celebrate,” said Dorothy R. Leavell, Editor and Publisher of the Crusader Newspapers – Chicago and Gary. “For 75 years the Chicago publication has reported the news without fear or favor and been a community resource to tell ‘our’ story from a Black perspective,” she continued. Mrs. Leavell celebrated 50 years of working at the Chicago Crusader in 2011 and recounted her career that did not include “newspaper” when she was first employed in 1961. She tells the story with so much passion that one has to remember that that was 54 years ago, because she tells it as though it was yesterday. What is interesting is the history of the publication that had its beginning in the Ida

THE CHICAGO

CELEBRATING OUR

SEVEN & ONE-HALF DECADES OF COMMUNITY SERVICE

B. Wells project at 37th and King Drive in the home of one of the its founders, Balm L. Leavell, Jr. Mr. Leavell and Joseph H. Jefferson, who was a Republican at first, began this publication to support campaigns that the Negro Labor Relations League waged in Chicago against companies that were unfair in wages and working conditions for Blacks. One of their most successful campaigns was against Agar Meat Company in the stockyards. The Crusader and the Negro Labor Relations League fought them and “brought them to their knees.” The end result was (Continued on page 2)


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