Charlottesville police put DNA testing of
large number of black men on hold
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Police temporarily stopped
asking some black men to voluntarily provide DNA samples as part
of the search for a serial rapist.
Longo
Police Chief Timothy J. Longo Sr. said
April 14 he is re-examining the( months-long
policy following criticism from the black
community and others.
The testing will continue once th&depart
ment develops more "stringent, well-defined
criteria" regarding which men will be asked
to provide genetic samples, Longo told The
Washington Post.
Charlottesville police had asked 197
black men to provide a DNA sample obtained
by a cheek swab as part of the search for a
rapist who has attacked six women since IW7. In most of those
requests, police said, officers were responding to tips about men who
resembled a composite sketch of the rapist or who seemed to be act
ing strangely.
Ten of the 197 refused to submit to the swabs, officials have said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is preparing a flier
that will be distributed in the Charlottesville area to inform black men
that they do not have a legal obligation to let police take a DNA sam
ple.
SCLC calls for investigation
into Georgia police killings
ATLANTA (AP) - The Southern Christian Leadership Confer
; ence is calling for the state to investigate the deaths of several black
? men they say died at the hands of law enforcement officials under
mysterious circumstances.
Surrounded by the families of men killed either during arrests or
while in custody, leaden; of the civil rights group said Georgia needs
? to do more to get to the bottom of what they
!' call a trouhling trend.
"We're not here to say the police are bad
? all the time, because we know they're not,"
said the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. interim
president of the group founded by the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. and others in 1957.
"But we have to hold law enforcement
responsible for their actions."
Shuttlesworth called on Georgia Attorney
General Thurbert Baker to create a task force
to study deaths that occur while in police cus
; tody. Tlie attorney general's office said it was
Shuttlesworth
looking into the request but did not have an immediate comment.
The organization also plans to produce a national report docu
menting questionable deaths in police custody before its 2004 con
vention in Jacksonville. Fla.. and to push for stricter state and federal
laws and fines for unlawful deaths that occur in police custody.
Members of the group cited deaths ranging from that of Surafel
Assaminew. a native of Ethiopia shot 1 5 times by Cobb County police
last year, to Dexter Brown, a Tifiton native whose mother said he died
of what jailers called a suicide just hours after he assured her he was
guilty of no crime.
Dodd apologizes for Byrd tribute
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Christopher J. Dodd apologized
last week, saying he was sorry if anyone was offended by his trib
ute to a fellow senator who once voted against civil rights legisla
tion.
Dodd, D-Conn., has been criticized by some conservative
broadcast and, Internet commentators for saying April 1 that Sen.
Robert Byrd. D-W. Va., would have been a great senator and leader
at any time in history, including the Civil War.
?Byrd, who at one time was a member of the Ku Klux Klan,
opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He has repeatedly apologized
for his brief KKK membership and said his vote against the civil
rights bill was one of only two votes that he regrets having made
during his 45 years in the Senate.
"Words can sting and hurt," Dodd told The Associated Press.
"If in any way, in my referencing the Civil War, I offended any
one, I apologize."
He said he was trying to make the point that Byrd would have
been a good senator at any point, and "I was not thinking of the
KKK or his vote against the civil rights act."
White males given 96 percent of
Philadelphia contracts, report says
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Firms owned by white males were
given % percent of city contracts from 1998 through 2003, a new
city report found.
The overwhelming majority of the city's $2.78 billion in con
tracts for construction, goods and services
Street
were awarded to white males despite a
pledge from Mayor John Street, who is
black, to increase diversity in the govern
ment.
Minority-owned businesses received 2.3
percent of the contracts, and 1.8 percent
went to firms owned by women. Street was
elected in November 1999 and was in office
for four years during the study penlxl
Administration officials have said the
long-standing problem would take time to
fix. They plan to use the report to reorganize
the Minority Business Enterprise Council.
the city agency that implements, monitors and enforces the city's
contractor-diversity laws. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in its
Sunday editions.
A. Bruce Crawley, chairman of the African-American Chamber
of Commerce in Greater Philadelphia, called the report's findings
"outrageous." Crawley, a one-time political ally of Street's, has
been criticizing the mayor of late, claiming he has not done enough
to help minority businesses.
The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest
H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published
every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co.
Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Peri
odicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual sub
scription price is $30.72.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636
Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636
Blacks still color-conscious?
BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY
NNPA CORRESPONDENT
This is the first of two articles on how
one's complexion still colors how many
African-Americans view themselves and
others in their community.
- The Editor
WASHINGTON - Atima Omara
Alwala had just left her office at the State
Capitol in Richmond, Va., and was on her
way to lunch when she heard a voice from
a passing car scream, "Blackie!"
It was the kind of insult that she has
come to expect but not accept.
A few years earlier, as a sophomore at
the University of Virginia in Char
lottesville, 40 miles away, she heard some
guys in a passing car laugh as one yelled,
"Darkie!"
That anyone would stoop to that level of
behavior was disappointing enough. But
what made these insults doubly painful was
that they were uttered by black men.
"It's not surprising anymore, but it's
still somewhat painful," Omara-Alwala
admitted. "I kind of wince or flinch on the
inside. Even when I work in black commu
nities, I'm always conscious that there
might be some reason that I'll be picked on
- not because of any fault in my personali
ty - just the fact that 'I'm this complexion.
And, of course, I'm no good if I'm this
complexion."
Omara-Alwala's complexion is dark.
She was born in Providence, R.I., to par
ents from Uganda in East Africa.
C. Yvette Taylor, a psychologist who
counsels many women of color at the Uni
versity of Virginia, and has heard many sto
ries similar to Omara-Alwala's, says
See Color on A9
Ashcroft asked again to re-open Till case
BY GEORGE E. CURRY
NNI'A EDITOR IN-CHIEF
WASHINGTON - Rep
Bobby L. Rush has rejected Attor
ney General John Ashcroft's
assertion that the Justice Depart
ment has no authority to open a
federal investigation into the mur
der of Emmett Till, the 14-year
old African-American who was
beaten, shot to death and thrown
into a river in 1955 for allegedly
whistling at a white woman in
Money, Miss.
Rush's appeal lo Ashcroft was
joined last week by Congressman
Charles Rangel and Sen. Charles
Schumer.
"Emmett Till's murder seared
into the minds of all Americans
the hate and violence of racism in
the South," Rangel said. "But
because of the efforts of the black
press especially, the crime, not
solved in the courts, raised the
consciousness of Americans and
triggered the Civil Rights Move
ment."
In February, Rush, a Chicago
Democrat, filed a bill in Congress
asking that body to formally
request that Ashcroft launch a fed
eral investigation into Till's brutal
murder. However, a spokesperson
for the Justice Department told the
Chicago Tribune that "the statute
of limitations. . barred the depart
ment from investigating the case
further."
In a letter to Ashcroft, Rush
says, "After consulting with Leg
islative Counsel for the House of
Representatives and with the Con
gressional Research Service, I
respectfully disagree with this
assessment, and I remain firm in
my call upon the Justice Depart
ment to investigate the murder of
Emmett Till."
Rush said, "18 U.S.C. 3282
states that 'an indictment for any
offense punishable by death may
be found at any time without lim
itation.' 18 U.S.C. 214 as estab
lished by the Civil Rights Act pro
claims that the type of lynching
and murder that took place with
Emmett Till is punishable by
death. As such. I fail to understand
why the department finds the,
statute of limitations as a bar to
investigate the murder."
In addition, another federal
statute. 42 U.S.C. 1 988 (a), gives
"the federal courts jurisdiction to
entertain, as an original matter,
civil or criminal actions under
state law in any case affecting the
deprivation of civil rights." * *?
The Illinois congressman
cited the 1963 murder of civil
rights leader Medgar Evers and
the bombing of Sixteenth Street
Baptist, even though the cases
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were more than 30 years old.
"In the case of the Sixteenth
Street Church bombing, the U.S.
Attorney's Office actually prose
cuted the case in state court under
state law," Rush stated. "The Jus
tice Department did not seem to
think that statute of limitation
issues barred its involvement in
these cases, so I see no reason why
the department would think differ
ently with regard to Emmett Till."
In an interview with the
NNPA News Service. Rush said:
"The federal government has the
resources, it has the authority and
should have the will to re-open
this case. Emmett Till cannot and
will not rest in peace. Mamie Till
Mobley (his deceased mother)
cannot and will not rest in peace
until there's justice. We cannot
rest in peace."
The bludgeoned and disfig
ured face of Till was flashed
across the country in 1955. His
mother shocked the nation when
she insisted on an open casket
funeral so that the world could see '
what had happened to her son."
Rush is also pushing for the
awarding of a Congressional
Medal of Honor to Till's mother
"for her courage, but also for her
commitment to young people
across this country."
Rush
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