DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2017
VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 47
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
DR. JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN
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The N.C. Department of Transportations
Invites to the public to attend a
dedication ceremony for the
Dr. John H. Franklin Highway
Monday, Nov. 27,1 p.m.
Hayti Heritage Center
804 Old Fayetteville St.
For more information call 919-707-2681
Ms. Sazia Bashar at sbashar@ncdot.gov
Civil rights attorney
running for North
Carolina high court
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - A longtime civil rights attorney who successfully
sued in striking down North Carolina legislative district boundaries
for excessive racial bias announced Nov. 15 she’s running for the
state Supreme Court next year.
Anita Earls of Durham, who is seeking the position currently
held by Associate Justice Barbara Jackson, also helped challenge
North Carolina’s 2013 voter identification law and has sued counties
over other voting rights matters. The successful redistricting lawsuit
forced Republican lawmakers to redraw dozens of General Assembly
boundaries last summer.
Earls’ candidacy comes as Republicans who control the Legislature
canceled next May’s partisan primary elections for trial and appeals
court judgeships up for re-election because lawmakers are debating
whether to remap judicial election districts. The cancellation means
there will only be a November 2018 election that could attract
multiple candidates to each race.
GOP lawmakers also are considering whether to do away with
head-to-head court elections all together, replacing them with
retention elections that could include some General Assembly
involvement with judicial nominees. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper
and others accuse Republicans of scheming to hijack the judiciary,
citing previous judicial election changes as proof. GOP legislators
dismiss such allegations.
Speaking outside state Democratic Party headquarters, Earls said
she’s running now because it’s “important to stand up for the right to
vote and for the importance of the independent judiciary, and those
are things that I see under attack.”
Earls, founder and executive director of the Southern Coalition
for Social Justice, said her 30-year legal career working for the poor
and disenfranchised shows her how important an independent court
is to carry out laws fairly to all, not just to the wealthy or politicians.
“I believe my record demonstrates that I have rmflinching
dedication to the principle of equality before the law,” Earls said.
Elected in 2010 and seeking re-election, Jackson is one of three
Republicans on the seven-member Supreme Court, which currently
has a Democratic majority for the first time in almost 20 years.
Earls, 57, previously worked in private practice and at the
University ofNorth Carolina Center for Civil Rights. She also served
briefly on the State Board of Elections.
To focus on campaigning, Earls plans to withdraw by year’s end
from representing plaintiffs in the legislative redistricting case and
in another lawsuit alleging excessive partisanship in how North
Carolina’s congressional districts were drawn.
In the legislative remapping case, a three-judge federal panel this
month ordered an outside expert to propose fixing several House
and Senate districts they worry are still unlawful. The partisan
gerrymandering trial went to trial last month but no ruling has been
isSued "S'
FBI report on black extremists’
raises new monitoring fears
Black Panthers, NAACP, SCLC Previous Surveillance
By Sadie Gurman and Russell Contreras
WASHINGTON (AP) - An FBI report on the rise of black
“extremists” is stirring fears of a return to practices used during the
civil rights movement, when the bureau spied on activist groups
without evidence they had broken any laws.
The FBI said it doesn’t target specific groups, and the report is one
of many its intelligence analysts produce to make law enforcement
aware of what they see as emerging trends. A similar bulletin on
white supremacists, for example, came out about the same time.
The 12-page report, issued in August, says “black identity
extremists” are increasingly targeting law enforcement after police
killings of black men, especially since the shooting of Michael
Brown roiled Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. The report describes
cases in which “extremists” had “acted in retaliation for perceived
past police brutality incidents.” It warned that such violence was
likely to continue.
Black leaders and activists were outraged after Foreign Policy
revealed the existence of the report last month. The Congressional
Black Caucus, in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, said
the report “conflates black political activists with dangerous
domestic terrorist organizations” and would further erode the frayed
relationship between police and minority communities.
“I have never met a black extremist. I don’t know what the FBI is
talking about,” said Chris Phillips, a filmmaker in Ferguson.
Before the Trump administration, the report might not have caused
such alarm. The FBI noted it issued a similar bulletin warning of
retaliatory violence by “black separatist extremists” in March 2016,
when the country had a black president, Barack Obama, and black
attorney general, Loretta Lynch.
But black voters overwhelmingly opposed Donald Trump. And
they are suspicious of his administration, which has been criticized
as insensitive on racial issues, including when Trump was slow to
condemn white nationalist protesters following a deadly rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former Alabama senator whose
career has been dogged by questions about race and his commitment
to civil rights, did not ease lawmakers’ concerns when he was
unable to answer questions about the report or its origins during a
congressional hearing this past week.
Sessions said he was aware of “groups that do have an extraordinary
commitment to their racial identity, and some have transformed
themselves even into violent activists.” He struggled to answer the
same question about white extremists.
It wouldn’t be unusual for an attorney general not to have seen
such an FBI assessment, which the FBI creates on its own to circulate
(Continued On Page 2)
ATTY. ANITA EARLS
Earls also will resign from leading the Southern Coalition. While
she’s been in the spotlight recently fighting laws and maps passed by
Republicans, Earls said she knows wearing a robe would require a
different role: “I understand the difference between being an advocate
and being ajurist.”
On Nov. 15, Earls’ campaign quickly announced endorsements
from top Democrats such as former Gov. Jim Hunt and current U.S.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield, an ex-state justice. The state Republican Party
said in a release that adding Earls to the court would “be catastrophic
for our state” and criticized her unsuccessful effort to get judges to
order special General Assembly elections this fall under new districts.
Country’s oldest black college to
remain accredited
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The nation’s oldest historically black
college will remain accredited after a state commission decided to
work with the school, citing “significant progress” after a two-year
probationary period.
Cheyney University has grappled with financial and administrative
woes in recent years. In August, Pennsylvania’s state-owned
university system agreed to forgive $30 million in loans if the school
maintained a balanced budget over the next four years.
Losing accreditation would likely have signaled the death knell
for Cheyney, founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth.
President Aaron A. Walton began his tenure in May. The Middle
States Commission on Higher Education says Cheyney is “making a
good-faith effort to remedy existing deficiencies” in its letter Nov. 17.
The school must continue to make improvements and report back to
the commission next September.
's'
REV. JESSE JACKSON
Rev Jesse Jackson
discloses Parkinson’s
disease diagnosis
By Sophia Tareen
CHICAGO (AP) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson disclosed
publicly Nov. 17 that he has been seeking outpatient care for
two years for Parkinson’s disease and plans to “dedicate”
himself to physical therapy to slow the progress of the
disease.
In a letter to supporters, the 76-year-old civil rights
icon said family and friends noticed a change in him about
three years ago, and he could no longer ignore symptoms
of the chronic neurological disorder that causes movement
difficulties.
“Recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been
painful, and 1 have been slow to grasp the gravity of it,” he
wrote. “For me, a Parkinson’s diagnosis is not a stop sign
but rather a signal that I must make lifestyle changes and
dedicate myself to physical therapy.”
Jackson, who declined to be interviewed, also released a
letter from Northwestern Medicine confirming his diagnosis
and care.
He vowed to use his voice to help find a cure for the
disease.
About 60,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with
Parkinson’s annually, according to the Parkinson’s
Foundation.
It can start with tremors, and symptoms generally worsen
over time. The exact cause is unknown. Treatments include
medications, surgery and physical therapy.
The disease itself is not fatal but people can die from
complications. Jackson said Parkinson’s “bested” his father.
Noah Lewis Robinson Sr. died in 1997 at age 88 after
suffering a heart attack.
It was unclear how his treatment would affect his
leadership of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Chicago-
based civil rights group he founded more than two decades
ago. Jackson has remained active in his advocacy and
travels, including traveling to Puerto Rico last month for
a hurricane-relief mission and hosting a symposium in
Washington, D.C., earlier this week.
A protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jackson was
instrumental in guiding the modern civil rights movement on a
wide variety of issues, including voting rights and education.
Twice a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination
in the 1980s, he has remained a strong voice in numerous anti
discrimination efforts, including advocating for affordable
housing. He’s often seen at protests nationwide and has continued
regular forums at Rainbow/PUSH’s headquarters.
He said Nov. 17 in the letter that he is also working on a memoir.
“I will continue to try to instill hope in the hopeless, expand
our democracy to the disenfranchised and free innocent prisoners
around the world,” he wrote. “I steadfastly affirm that I would
rather wear out than rust out.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton said he spent the last few days with
Jackson in New York City.
Jackson “has changed the nation and served in ways in which
he never got credit,” Sharpton said in a statement. “We pray for
him, just as he fought for us.”