OP/ED
0^Ta\ Ernest H. Pitt
? fjTo S Elaine Pitt
o ?Vea/\f < t kevin walker
Vi,y W*
Publisher/Co- Founder
Business Manager
Managing Editor
Why No Uproar
For Heaven?
Kalvin
[ Michael
| Smith
Guest
Columnist
Aeaven Sutton was the
seven-year-old African
American girl who was.
shot and hilled in Chicago
last year while fleeing with
her mother.
"Why no uproar for
Heaven?"
Not downplaying the
Trayvon Martin ordeal
because it was a horrific
injustice. But why is it that
there is no outrage over the
black-on-black fatalities
occurring throughout the
country?
People traveled from
far and wide to denounce
the actions of George
Zimmerman against
Trayvon Martin. Why do
we downplay the actions
against little Heaven as the
norm? Most of us have
become content with the
violent actions of many
African-Americans
towards one another. Even
though Heaven may not
have been the intended vic
tim, some other African
American was.
? The violence that is
being perpetrated in the
streets of our communities
will continue to get worse
the longer everyone turns
their head the other way
and accepts these actions as
a part of our culture.
Violence towards one
another and self-genocide
is not the culture of our
people nor a part of it. Our
ancestors, all the way back
in Egypt, Timbuktu,
Alexandria, and beyond, all
the way up into slavery and
beyond, were a people of
love, spiritual awareness,
self-awareness, family ori
ented and culturally
Family Photo
Heaven Sutton was a victim of senseless violence last
summer in Chicago. ,
grounded. So I ask you,
why no national uproar?
Not only have most
African-Americans strayed
away from the values of
our ancestors.
We have strayed after
things that bring us nothing
but spiritual and physical
destruction. As I always
say, "We glamorize things
that are of no worth." Many
of us are so mentally and
spiritually poor, that we
live out our lives daily to be
accepted by others, never
taking the time to learn and
accept ourselves.
Our youth must learn to
love instead of hate. They
must leant to love them
selves first, because until
then they can never love
one another. Black-on
black violence has been an
issue at the top of the list of
improvements within the
African-American commu
nities for years and that's
pan of the problem: that it's
only at the top of the list
and only being talked
about.
Everyone must become
hands-on, foot soldiers.
Ending the epidemic of
black-on-black violence
could help improve educa
tional opportunities. Safer
neighborhoods are essen
tial to creating better learn
ing environments. A mass
campaign to end these
senseless murders could
save the lives of thousands
of victims of black-on
black violence. Lily Tomlin
once stated; "1 always won
dered why somebody does
n't do something about
that, then I realized that I
was somebody." Why No
Uproar For Heaven?
Kalvin Michael Smith is
a Winston-Salem man serv
ing time in the Caswell
Correctional Institution for
the 1997 beating of Jill
Marker. Smith has always
maintained his innocence
and a growing number of
local residents are ques
tioning his conviction and
the investigation that led to
it.
The Black Press at its Best
George
Curry
Guest
Columnist
When then-National
Newspaper Publishers
Association Chairman
n? D?t?...Aii
LSOJUIJ UOKCWC1I
Sr. asked me to
emcee the Black
Press Week
luncheon at the
National Press
Club in 2011, I
had no idea that I
would be wit
nessing history.
At the urging of
Wilmington
Journal Publisher
Mary Alice Thatch, the
NNPA decided'to launch a
national campaign to win
pardons for the Wilmington
10, a group of activists who
were falsely convicted and
sentenced to a combined
total of 282 years.
Everyone Knew it
would be an uphill battle,
but it was a battle the
NNPA was willing to wage.
It established The
Wilmington Ten Pardon of
Innocence ProjecT with a
goal "to generate national
and worldwide support for
the petition, to the state of
North Carolina, and specif
ically the governor, to grant
individual pardons of inno
cence to the Wilmington
Ten."
NNPA publishers saw a
t r
video about the
Wilmington Ten at the
luncheon and its leader.
Benjamin Chavis Jr., was
interviewed by me and the
publishers. When I asked
Ben, a longtime friend,
about his lowest point in
prison, he tried to steer me
away from the question by
saying he preferred to
focus on the future, not the
past.
For Chavis.
the trouble
began after the
all-Black high
school was
closed as part of
the court
ordered deseg
regation of New
Hanover
County, N.C.
crKnnlc TKi?
iYVIIWia. A 11V
Black students
were forced to attend the
previously all-White high
school, where they were
harassed. In February
1971, the United Church of
Christ dispatched Chavis. a
native of Oxford, N.C., to
help organize a school boy
cott. During that period of
unrest, someone fire
bombed Mike's Grocery, a
White-owned business
located a block away from
Gregory Congregational
Church, where Chavis had
set up headquarters. When
fire fighters and police offi
cers arrived, they were
attacked by snipers.
Chavis and nine others
were charged and convict
ed of arson and conspiracy
in connection with the inci
dent. Most ofj the defen
Cash Michaels
dants received a 29-year
sentence, with Ann
Shepard. the White woman
from Auburn, N.Y., receiv
ing the lightest sentence of
15 years and Chavis, then
only 24 years old, getting
34 years, the longest sen
tence. In 1980, a federal
appeals court overturned
the convictions of the
Wilmington Ten and direct
ly contradicted at least 15
of his allegations.
After taking up the
cause of the Wilmington
Ten. NNPA newspapers
gave prominent display to
stories written about the
case by Cash Michaels,
editor of the Wilmington
Journal, and distributed to
member papers by the
NNPA News Service.
Through talent and dogged
persistence, neither Cash
nor his publisher, Mary
Alice Thatch, would let the
campaign for pardons stall.
Without Michaels'
exceptional reporting and
the national exposure,
many of the facts about the
Wilmington Ten injustice
would still remain
unknown - and Gov.
Perdue would not have par
doned the civil rights
activists.
This was the Black
Press at its best.
George E. Curry, for
mer editor-in-chief of
Emerge magazine, is edi
tor-in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association News Service
(NNPA.) Reach him at
www.georgecurry.com. |
Competition _
from pageA4
Development Division will
be available to provide
technical assistance to par
ticipants throughout the
competitidn.
Executive summaries
and business descriptions
are due on Friday, Feb. 15
to be considered for
advancement to the final
stage. The final round
requires the submission of
a completed business plan
in May. The winning busi
ness plan will be
announced in early July.
An informational meet
ing for the Small Business
Plan Competition is sched
uled for Tuesday, Jan. 15 at
6 p.m. in the fifth floor
conference room of the
Bryce Stuart Municipal
Building, 100 East First
St. There, further informa
tion about the competition
and what a winning busi
ness plan should include
will be given.
To learn more about
the Small Business Plan
Competition, contact
Business Development
Supervisor Ruben
Gonzales at 336-747
7474 or rubeng?city
ofws.org.*
Singers
from page A1
star who has sold millions
of CDs - is sending the
wrong message to her
legions of young female
fans.
The reunion has
become a hot topic*~of
conversation on 102
Jamz's WildOut Wake-Up
Show, according to
ToshaMakia Acevedo, a
domestic violence sur
vivor and the hip hop sta
tion's lone female morn
ing show host.
"It's not cool with
me," she said of the rela
tionship. "That's why at
this moment, it's so much
more important for me as
the woman on the morn
ing show to get out there
and talk to the kids and let
tKam L-rwxtir tKic
MIUY* 11113
is not how you
should be treat
ed"
Brown was
roundly
ridiculed in 2009
after he beat
Rihanna inside
of a rented
Lamborghini on
a Hollywood
street a few days
before the
Grammy
Awards, where
they both were
set to appear.
Photos of the
Barbados-born
songstress'
bruised and
swollen face
made the social
media rounds
soon after the
incident. Brown
was ordered to
take anger man
agement classes
and perform
community serv
ice.
"It's so
funny. I remem
ber when they
first went
through every
thing ... people were very
angry." related Acevedo, a
Bridgeport, Conn, native.
"Now, it seems like peo
ple are like okay, more so,
'people deserve a second
chance.'."
Acevedo said she
spent 15 years in a rela
tionship 'that began as
controlling and ultimately
escalated to physical vio
lence before she found the
courage to leave.
"It's not something
that you can easily get out
of once you're in it,
you're stuck. I really
believed that 1 was born to
die with this man, and not
in a good way," she relat
ed. "It was to the point
that I wanted to take
myself out ... I prayed to
God. 'If You get me out of
this. I promise I will help
other girls.'"
This widely-seen photo
shows the injuries Brown
inflicted on Rihanna.
Kimberly Hinton
Robinson founded LIFE
(Living is Finally
Enjoyable, Inc.), a non
profit organization that
seeks to help and support
battered women, after
being a victim of a stalker.
She says a man who
beats a woman
once will
almost certain
ly be a repeat
offender.
"I feel like
if a person vio
lates you once,
then they'll do
it again," she
said. "...1
believe in for
giveness too,
but that (rela
tionship) does
n't sit well with
me." ft
DeWanna
Hamlin, coordi
nator of
Prevention and
Education for
Family
Services Inc.'s
Safe
Relationships
Division, said
Brown and
Rihanna are
following a pat
tern that is
often played
out within abu
sive relation
ships.
"It's con
cerning to me
u/h#?n anv ahiu
sive relationship goes
through the cycle of vio
lence," said Hamlin. "It is
not uncommon for the
victim to take seven to 10
attempts before they can
completely extricate
themselves from the
domestic violence rela
tionship. There's a lot of
leaving and going back."
Victims of domestic
violence return to abusive
relationships for a variety
of reasons. Hamlin said.
Many victims cite love,
children and not wanting
their relationship to be a
failure. Too often, Hamlin
said, the focus is on the
victim who returns to the
relationship, and not the
abuser who continues to
lure him or her back.
"We're much quicker
to judge the victims and
why they stay than we are
Hinton-Robinson
Hamlin
Crump-Peebles
to look at the perpetrator
and why it is acceptable
to do violence to people
that we love," she
remarked. "I think that's
the deeper issue."
Arlene Crump
Peebles, founder of
Alabaster Place, Inc., a
domestic violence train
? ing and advocacy center,
said it is important that
not only victims of .
domestic violence get
help, but perpetrators as
well.
"It provokes me to .
really just speak with the >
advocates and those who
we have trained to remind
them how serious this is
and how important this is. w
In spite of the media say
ing that this is okay, it's
not," said Crump-Peebles,
who is also a domestic
violence survivor. "...If
you are the' abuser, you
need to be held account
able. If you're the victim,
you need to know life has
so much more to offer
you."
Acevedo, a mother of / ?
three, has made it her mis
sion to help as many
women as she can escape
the horrors of domestic
abuse, primarily by
speaking out against
domestic violence at
every opportunity given to
hpr
Today, "I'm free; I'm
strong; I'm confident,"
she said, "I have a story to
share, but most important
ly, I have a job to do. 1
believe that God has
brought me to radio ... to
be the voice Of women
that don't even know *
they're, in (an unhealthy
relationship). I swear on
my last breath that noth
ing filh me up more than
helping somebody get out
of this because I swear I
was lost."
Though unfortunate,
the Rihanna-Chris Brown
relationship can serve as a
teaching tool to educate
people - especially
women - about the dan
gers of domestic violence
and the importance of
avoiding such relation
ships. Hamlin said.
"I use her as an exam
ple a lot in my training or
education because it's
something people can
relate to. It opens up a
great conversation for
people who don't think
they know somebody
that's experiencing
domestic violence," she
said of Rihanna. "...I
think this is a great time
to have conversations
with our youth about what
is healthy."
If you or someone you
know is experiencing
domestic violence, please
contact Family Services'
confidential. 24-hour cri
sis line, 336-723-8125.
Free Health Screenings
Saturday, January 12, 2013 10 am-4 pm ?
at the Downtown Health Plaza
1200 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Join us at our 14th annual Share tha Health Fair
for free health screenings, health education
and physician consults. Kids are welcome!
? Blood Pressure a Hearing
a Diabetes/Blood Sugar a Sleep Apnea
a Cholesterol _ \ a Asthma/Lung function
a Vision and Glaucoma a Bone Density/
a HIV and Syphilis Osteoporosis
Interpretes que hablan espanol estarein disponibles
Registration closes at 3 pm. for more information, including directions to the
Downtown Health Plaza, visit www.sharethehealthfair.org Further questions?
Email us at info#sharethehealthfair.org. See you at the fair!
Wake Forest* ^
School of Medicine NORTHWESTAHEt
: \ - -
? Physical Therapy/
Mobility
* Body Mass Index (BMI)
? Skin Exams
? Mental Health