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Memorial Remembers Those Lost Piscataway Hills Day Declared After to Gun Violence in 2015 Page 5 Mudslide Battle Page 12
VOL. 51, NO. 30 MAY 5 - 11, 2016 Washington Informer Bridge Celebrates 1 Year Page 28
MY WHITE HOUSE EXIT: I DROP THE MIC - PAGE 27
Norton Calls for Probe of Government Advertising
WASHINGTON INFORMER EXCLUSIVE
Sybrina Fulton: ‘The Hurt is Real but We Heal’
Today’s Rosa Parks Lends a Shoulder to Other Mothers By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor After the death of her teenaged son, Trayvon Martin, and the acquittal of his murderer, George Zimmerman, Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said she didn’t want to address her pain or the loss she and her husband [Tracy Martin] felt in a public forum. But as more Black youths had their lives tragically snuffed out, many by the
hands of police and several others who died while in the custody of police, Fulton realized that she couldn’t remain silent anymore. Today she heads the Trayvon Martin Foundation, a nonprofit social justice organization committed to ending senseless gun violence, strengthening and mentoring families through holistic support and S.T.E.A.M. education for women and minorities.
FULTON Page 11
Minority Publications Largely Ignored in Agency Spending By Stacy M. Brown Special to the NNPA
5Sybrina Fulton, mother of slain teenager Trayvon Martin at the 11th annual Jazz In The Gardens Music Festival at Sunlife Stadium on March 20 in Miami. / Photo by Gregory Reed
Train Derailment Upends Commuters
5Amariyanna Copeny, 8, wrote a letter to President Obama about the Flint water crisis that prompted a visit from him May 4. / Photo courtesy of LuLu Brezzell
Basketball Star’s Mother Shares Tale of Triumph Page 31
See Page 9 for Full Story Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah
District of Columbia Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on Thursday fired off a letter to the Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO] demanding a new report detailing federal advertising contracts and subcontracts with minority-owned newspapers and media companies. The Democrat’s missive to the GOA comes a little more than a month after she held a press conference on Capitol Hill with leaders from the National Newspaper Publishers Association – an organization made up of more than 200 black-owned newspapers – and the National Association of Hispanic Publications [NAHP] – which represents the largest Spanish language publications in the country. At the press conference, Norton called on the GAO to perform a new study and update a 2007 report that revealed government agencies spent $4.3 billion in advertising but just a pittance of that amount was spent with minority media publications. She reiterated that call on Thursday. “The federal government is the largest advertiser in the United States, and it is important that news outlets and media companies
NORTON Page 38
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