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DOVI7 12/01/11 **CHILL
UNC--CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT
DAVIS LIBRARY CB# 3930
208 RALEIGH STREET
CHAPEL HILL NC 27599
Cows
VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 24
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 2012
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30
Rodney King’s plea measures his lasting meaning
By Jesse Washington
JEnty years later, Rodney King's simple yet profound question
still lingers, from the street where Trayvon Martin died all the way
to the White House:
"Can we all get along?"
Spoken as fires of rage and frustration wrecked huge swaths of
Los Angeles, the plea distilled centuries of racial strife into a chal
lenge - and a goal. Today, the various answers to his question mea
sure the lasting significance of King, who died in California June 17
after he was found at the bottom of his swimming pool. He was 47.
"It was a critical question at a moment of crisis that forged our
human bonds with one another." said Georgetown professor Michael
Eric Dyson. "It grew up out of the hope and the desire, especially of
people of color, to see this nation come together."
And it came from an unemployed construction worker who.
through an accident of history, now stands among the unforgettable
names of America's racial journey - names like Emmett Till. Medgar
Evers, and even larger figures who died too young.
The nation first saw King as a black man curled up on the ground
by his car. being beaten by four white police officers. On parole for a
robbery conviction, he had been drinking, then speeding, and had re
fused to pull over. Police finally pulled King from his car. then struck
him more than 50 times with batons and boots.
One of King's legacies is that he raised the curtain on the video
age: If a man had not stepped outside of his home and videotaped the
beating. King would have been lost to history.
"The biggest impact was that it was actually on tape." said Dom
Giordano, a talk radio host in Philadelphia. "It was so rare, except for
something like Bull Connor, to have this type of footage."
King became an enduring symbol of police brutality - proof posi
tive. to many people, that the dogs and fire hoses loosed by Connor,
the Birmingham police chief, on civil rights marchers in 1960s Ala
bama had merely been updated, not eliminated.
“He represented the anti-police brutality and anti-racial profiling
movement of our time,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said June 17.
The videotape was the central piece of evidence at the four offi
cers' trial, which became a classic piece of modern racial drama. Did
King bring the beating on himself by resisting arrest, symbolizing
that black people blame racism for the consequences of their own
actions? Or was there an ingrained police culture of violence against
black people, backed by a system designed for black people to lose?
There were no blacks on the jury in the predominantly white sub
urb of Simi Valley. Calif. After the police were acquitted - one got
a mistrial - Los Angeles was engulfed in a fiery uprising that lasted
three days, killed 55 people and injured more than 2,000.
"There was the articulation of a pent-up rage that had not been
heard before." Dyson said. "A sense that we do count, a sense that
you're going to pay attention to us."
Yet many viewed it as a spasm of lawless, pointless self-destruc
tion, with much of the damage done to black areas. The aftermath
highlighted a fundamental division in the way justice, and progress,
is often viewed through the lens of race.
"I don’t think white America said, now we have to make changes
because they rioted,” said Giordano. Instead, he sees change as a
result of people living, working and starting families with other eth
nicities.
Can we all get along? Giordano says yes.
“What has changed is more the meat and potatoes, day to day
things," he said. "For every instance like a Trayvon Martin. I do see
things routinely that indicate that we are getting along, that we are
moving past racial tensions."
A few weeks ago, Giordano had King on his show, which draws
a largely conservative audience, to promote his new autobiography.
Nobody called in to revisit the trial or to say that King deserved what
happened to him.
“That’s progress," Giordano said. "I think the audience would
have rejected him 20 years ago.”
But Michael Coard, a Philadelphia attorney and activist who has
brought numerous police brutality charges against police, is not so
hopeful.
"That videotape showed white America what black America al
ready knew," he says. "But the sad part is. it showed what white
America has been and still is in denial about."
Coard named several unarmed blacks who were killed by police in
the past 20 years - Amadou Diallo, Elanor Bumpurs, Sean Bell, and
others. "Nothing has changed," he said.
But what about the election of the first black president? "Barack
Obama had to get Secret Service protection before any other can
didate," Coard responded. "He got four times the amount of death
threats as George Bush. Why is that?”
“The video and the verdict grabbed America by the throat and
said, what are you going to do about this?" Coard said. "And the
answer was", not a damn thing."
Los Angeles' police department certainly changed. Years of inves
tigations revealed corruption and "a significant number of officers
in the LAPD who repetitively use excessive force." according to a
federal government report. The Justice Department forced the LAPD
to implement reforms.
“Some good came out of a very tragic situation. There have been
positive changes,” said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Lev
enson, a former federal prosecutor who attended the officers' trials.
“(King) himself was never viewed as a hero. But what happened
in that case changed the LAPD and Los Angeles forever.
And what about the nation? Did it heed King's challenge?
“The jury is still out,” said Dyson.
He places King's question alongside some of the seminal black
expressions of the past century, from W.E.B. DuBois identifying "the
problem of the color line." to Martin Luther King's “I have a dream"
and Malcolm X's “by any means necessary.”
The keynote speaker for the junteenth celebration was NC NAACP President
L- William Barber talking about “The Eradication of Modern-Day Forms of
Bondage.”
Southern Baptists elect 1st black president
Trying to Move Away from Support of
Slavery and Segregation
By Travis Loller
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - At the end of the day June 20. the presidency of the Southern Baptist
Convention will pass to an African-American pastor for the first time.
The nation's largest Protestant denomination voted June 19 to elect the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. to lead
them, an important step for a denomination that was formed on the wrong side of slavery before
the Civil War and had a reputation for supporting segregation and racism during much of the last
century.
In a news conference after the vote. Luter said he doesn't think his election is some kind of token
gesture.
"It we stop appointing African-Americans. Asians. Hispanics to leadership positions after this,
we've failed." he said. "... I promise you I'm going to do all that I can to make sure this is not just a
one-and-done deal."
Faced with declining membership, the SBC has been making efforts to appeal to a more diverse
group of believers.
Some Southern Baptists also believe a proposal to adopt an optional alternative name. Great
Commission Baptists, will bring in believers who have negative associations with the current name.
The results of a vote on that proposal was to be announced June 20.
Luter was unopposed when he was elected by thousands of enthusiastic delegates June 19 at the
SBC annual meeting in his hometown of New Orleans.
He spoke about the decline in SBC membership and his own efforts to grow his church, which
included intensive outreach to men. and his concern that men in his inner-city neighborhood were
not taking responsibility for their children.
He began to cry as he recalled growing up with a divorced mother and no father in the house, say
ing he asked God. “Let me be that role model to my son that I didn't have." And he recounted how
his son followed him into ministry and asked Luter to be his best man at his wedding.
Luter described what he hopes to achieve for the convention, saying he has always had the abil-'
ity to get along with everyone. He plans to use that skill to bring denominational leaders together to
discuss how they can leave aside their differences and work together to spread the Gospel.
Pastor David Crosby of First Baptist New Orleans nominated Luter. calling him a "fire-breathing,
miracle-working pastor" who "would likely be a candidate for sainthood if he were Catholic."
Crosby said the SBC needs Luter at the head of the table as it increasingly focuses on diversifying
its membership.
Many leaders are convinced this nomination is happening now by the provenance of God." he
said.
Luter wiped tears from his eyes as he accepted the position. Two female ushers from the Franklin
Avenue congregation embraced, swaying and weeping with joy.
"I think I'm just too overwhelmed by it right now to speak." said another member. Malva Mar
salis.
A minister from Luter's church. Darren Martin, said the SBC's past support of slavery and seg
regation are well known, but Luter's election was "a true sign ... that change from within has really
come. ...Christ is at the center of the SBC."
The proposal to adopt an alternative name was more controversial than Luter's election. The June
19 vote was too close to call by a show of hands so paper ballots were cast.
Those who supported the alternative name argued that "Southern Baptist" can be a turn-off' to
potential believers.
They said adopting "Great Commission Baptists" as an optional name would help missionaries
and church planters to reach more people for Christ.
An online poll by the SBC's Lifeway Research of 2.000 Americans found that 44 percent said
knowing a church was Southern Baptist would negatively affect their decision to visit or join.
Those who opposed the alternative said Southern Baptists should be proud of the denomination's
name and reputation.
The "Great Commission" refers to Matthew 28:16-20. in which Jesus instructs his disciples at Galilee
to go forth and make disciples of all nations.
Online:
Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting: http://www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbcl2/default.asp
NC NAACP
speaks out for
man in prison in
Georgia
WILSON (AP) - North Caro
lina leaders of the NAACP spoke
out June 15 in support of a Wil
son man who they say was pro
tecting himself and his son when
he shot and killed a man outside
his home in Georgia in 2005.
At a news conference on
the courthouse steps in Wilson,
the leaders of the state chapter
and the Wilson chapter of the
NAACP said they believe the
justice system is treating John
McNeil differently than it does
white people who defend their
homes.
"The McNeil case ought to
concern all of us - black, white.
Latino — anybody concerned
about justice." said the Rev.
William Barber, president of
the state chapter of the NAACP.
"It's a prime example of the age
old unequal justice in the court
system."
The NAACP said Brian Epp
was armed and had threatened
McNeill's son just before the
shooting. And McNeil has said
he had little choice but to open
fire when Epp charged at him
with a knife during a December
2005 shouting match in Cobb
County.
But The victim's knife was
found in his pocket after the
shooting, and prosecutors de
cided to charge McNeil with
murder. He was convicted and
sentenced to life in prison, a
decision the Georgia Supreme
Court later affirmed in a 6-1 rul
ing.
The lone dissent came from
then-Justice Leah Ward Sears,
who argued prosecutors failed to
prove McNeil wasn't defending
himself.
McNeil's wife. Anita, who's
been rediagnosed with cancer,
said June 15 that she and their
two sons are devastated.
"John is incarcerated today
because he chose to use his rights
as a homeowner." she said.
An attorney has appealed Mc
Neil's conviction and is seeking
a new trial, his supporters said.
Cobb County District Attor
ney Pat Head, though, stands by
the decision to charge McNeil.
He told the Associated Press in
May that the case is a reminder
of the potential pitfalls of self-
defense arguments.
"Just because someone hits
you in the face doesn't mean you
pull a .45 and shoot him in the
head," he said. "It can be hard to
prove it's self-defense because
the jury puts themselves in the
same footing as anybody else."
2 nursing homes
opening in NC for
veterans
RALEIGH (AP) - Two nurs
ing homes will open in North
Carolina in the next few months
to serve veterans.
A local newspaper reported
the North Carolina Division
of Veterans Affairs is opening
homes in Kinston and Black
Mountain.
The skilled nursing homes
each will be able to serve 100 el
derly veterans.
Greg Hughes with the Dur
ham VA Medical Center says
he's glad for the additional
spaces. The Durham VA Medical
Center will supervise medical
care at the home in Kinston.
The Ashville VA Medical
Center will handle the new facil
ity in Black Mountain.