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DPVI7 12/01/16 **CHILL
UNC--CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT
DAVIS LIBRARY CB# 3938
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2016
VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 16
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
North Carolina legislative
redistricting trial concludes
Dr. Elmira Mangum
University President Dr. Elmira
Mangum to Speak at NCCU’s
Graduate and Professional
Commencement
Dr. Elmira Mangum, North Carolina Central University (NCCU)
alumna and president of Florida A&M University (FAMU), will
provide the keynote address for the NCCU 127th Graduate and
Professional Commencement on Friday, May 13.
The ceremony for approximately 450 graduates of the university’s
35 master’s and professional programs will take place at 3 p.m. in
McDougald-McLendon Arena.
In 2014, Mangum, a Durham native, was selected as the first
permanent female president of FAMU. Prior to her appointment as
president, Mangum served as vice president for planning and budget
at Cornell University.
Prior to working at Cornell, Mangum served in various
administrative roles for nine years at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, including senior associate provost. She also worked
in various leadership positions at the University at Buffalo in New
York, where she served as an assistant dean, associate provost for
resource management and vice provost.
Magnum has served in executive positions for higher learning
organizations for more than 30 years. Her career in higher education
leadership began at the University of Wisconsin Extension Geological
and Natural History Survey as an operations specialist.
Mangum is involved in various organizations including The
American Council of Education, National Action Council for
Minorities in Engineering, Inc. and the United Way Board of Directors
- Tompkins County to name a few. She also is a life member of Zeta
Phi Beta Sorority Inc.
In 2014, Mangum was named on Ebony magazine’s “Power
100” list. In 2015, she received the Women of Distinction Global
Leadership Award in Education from Celebrating Women
International, an organization that honors the contributions of women
across the world. Also in 2015, the Oasis Center for Women & Girls
named Mangum as a Trailblazer Award honoree.
Mangum received a Bachelor of Science in geography from
NCCU, Master of Science in public policy and public administration
from University of Wisconsin-Madison and Master of Science in
urban and regional planning. Magnum received a Ph.D. in educational
leadership and policy from University at Buffalo.
For more information on Commencement Exercises, please visit
httD://web.nccu.edu/commencement.
By Gary D. Robertson
GREENSBORO (AP) - A
federal trial scrutinizing nearly
30 North Carolina legislative
districts concluded April 15 after
attorneys presented conflicting
arguments over whether increas
ing the number of majority-black
districts reinforces outdated
race-based political divisions or
is a sensible legal strategy.
The three-judge panel gave
no timeframe on when it would
rule at the close of the weeklong
trial spurred by a voters’ lawsuit,
but any decision is at least sev
eral weeks away and could be
appealed.
The timing of the ruling could
determine whether Republican
lawmakers have to scramble to
redraw boundaries in time for
the November general elections.
The state’s lawyers, who are de
fending the current boundaries
as legal, have said that if any
adjustments are ordered, they
should be delayed until the 2018
elections.
Some of North Carolina’s
congressional boundaries were
struck down as illegal racial ger
rymanders by a different federal
judicial panel in February, based
in part on arguments similar to
what the plaintiffs used in this
week’s case. The legislature,
forced to redraw the congressio
nal districts right away, delayed
the primary for the seats until
June 7. Legislative primaries un
der the current maps were held
last month.
Current and former Demo
cratic legislators, some of the
voters who sued, and redistrict
ing experts testified during the
week as the plaintiffs offered
evidence showing there was no
need for GOP legislative lead
ers to draw so many House and
Senate districts with black vot
ing-age populations above 50
percent.
There were 32 such districts
in the 2011 maps, compared to
just 10 in the maps drawn by
mostly Democratic legislators,
in the 2000s, when black can
didates were winning seats in
districts where black voting-age
populations were closer to 40
and 45 percent, according to the
lawsuit. That’s because the pre
ferred candidates of black voters
were winning with a coalition ol
white voters, said Anita Earls,
one of the voters’ attorneys. She
said some majority-black dis
tricts were legally necessary.
(Continued On Page 3)
DC statehood advocates
to march on Pennsylvania
Avenue
WASHINGTON (AP) - Advocates for District of
Columbia statehood will be marching up Pennsylva
nia Avenue to call attention to their cause.
The statehood advocates will join activists who’ve
been demonstrating at the Capitol this week about the
role of money in politics and other issues.
Friday morning’s demonstration also coincides
with a local holiday, D.C. Emancipation Day, which
commemorates President Abraham Lincoln’s freeing
of more than 3,000 slaves in the nation’s capital.
The District’s 672,000 residents pay federal taxes
and fight in wars but lack voting representation in
Congress. Statehood advocates argue that making the
nation’s capital a state is the best solution. But the
effort has gone nowhere in Congress, in part because
the city is overwhelmingly Democratic and Republi
cans don’t want to hand two Senate seats to Demo
crats.
Rev. William Barber
‘Moral Monday’ leader
removed from American
Airlines flight
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - The archi
tect of the progressive move
ment known as “Moral Monday”
said he was removed from an
American Airlines flight after he
responded to a passenger who
made disparaging remarks.
The Rev. William Barber said
in a statement he was removed
April 15 from a flight from
Washington Reagan to Raleigh-
Durham.
A nearby passenger said
loudly that he had problems with
“those people” and criticized
Barber’s need for two airline
seats, said Barber, who is also
president of the state chapter of
the NAACP.
Before the crew gave safety
instructions, he said he stood up
and turned around to respond.
An arthritic condition prevented
him from turning around in his
seat to address the other passen
ger, Barber said.
A crew member apparently
called police, who came on the
plane and asked Barber to leave,
he said.
“The American Airlines team
at the desk was very gracious,”
Barber said. “Many said they
were concerned and some said
they did not agree with the deci
sion.”
American Airlines spokes
man Matt Miller said April 17
that a passenger who didn’t fol
low crew instructions was re
moved from a flight. He said the
passenger also grabbed a flight
attendant but was allowed to
travel the next morning on an
American flight.
When asked why a passenger
who grabbed a flight attendant
(Continued On Page 3)
The AfroFuturist Program Series was announced at Hayti Heritage Center
April 18. On hand for the announcement from left to right are: Ms. Angela Lee,
executive director, Hayti Heritage Center; Darrell Stover moderator/AfroFutur-
ist/Cultural Historian; Ms. Cicely Mitchell, co-founder Art of Cool; Ms. ,Marisa
Brickman, Moogfest; Justin Robinson, co-founder the Chocolate Drops; and Ms.
Jamila Renee Davenport Series starts April 23 at Hayti Heritage Center.
The Hayti Heritage Center Announces New
Program Identity With Afrofuturist Series
The Hayti Heritage Center launches a new program series focused through the lens of Afrofutur
ism, the aesthetic defined as “an intersection of imagination, technology, the future and liberation.”-
The details of this year-long series and partners were presented in a press conference on Tuesday, April
19 at the Hayti Heritage Center in the St. Joseph’s Performance Hall.
“We’re excited to unveil this 21st century approach to African American cultural programming in
literature, the visual arts, film, music, literacy,STEAM, and performance,” states Executive Director
Angela Lee.
“The Hayti Heritage Center has ‘traveled the spaceways’ with Afrofuturists in the past, such as
black science-fiction fiction Nalo Hopkinson and Sheree R. Thomas as well as Afrofuturist jazz musi
cian Pharoah Sanders,” says cultural historian Darrell Stover. “Now the objective is to provide rich,
consistent and expansive programming along those lines for the community of all ages to investigate,
celebrate, and enjoy.”
More perspectives on Afrofuturism will be given at an April 23rd panel discussion of “The New
Black Panther Comic Book and Heroes in Our Time.”
This first in a new year-long series of programs will feature local scholars, artists, and activists in
a fun discussion of black superheroes and superheroines in comic books to encourage reading skills
in the young and older, explore Afrofuturist themes in literature, debate the significance of the just
released Black Panther comic book written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, award winning author of “Between
the World and Me,” and generate community definitions of heroism. Copies of the comic book will be
given to the first ten families arriving at the event.
The first program happens 9:30am on Saturday, April 23 at the Hayti Heritage Center. With empha
sis on reading, it revisits and redefines the Raise-a-Reader programs of the past. Moderated by Darrell
Stover, Afrofuturist and cultural historian, the panel includes activist Omisade Burney, playwright
Howard Craft, artist/educator Malcolm Golff, and artist Zayd Shakur.
Prosecutor: White officer
shot black man in self-defense
By Jonathan Drew
RALEIGH (AP) - A white North Carolina officer acted in self-defense and won’t face charges for
shooting a black man in a case that sparked outcry in his predominantly black neighborhood, a prosecu
tor said April 13.
Police have said previously that 24-year-old Akiel Denkins pulled out a gun and reached for Officer
D.C. Twiddy’s weapon before the officer shot and killed him in late February. Twiddy was trying to ar
rest Denkins after he failed to appear in court on felony charges related to selling cocaine.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman concluded that Twiddy shouldn’t face criminal
charges after reviewing evidence that included DNA matches for Denkins on the officer’s gun and on the
revolver that police said he pulled from his waistband. Freeman said in a news release that Twiddy shot
Denkins “as a matter of last resort and only because he reasonably believed his own life was in danger.”
Forensic evidence also shows at least two of the four shots that hit Denkins entered the front of his
body and traveled backward.
Many in the neighborhood where Denkins was shot expressed anger over the shooting, which fol
lowed other high-profile police shootings and a national debate over how officers treat black men.
Twiddy told investigators he knew about the warrant for Denkins and pursued him on foot after see
ing him in the neighborhood of modest houses south of downtown, authorities said.
(Continued On Page 3)