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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2016
VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 30
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Athletes using sports
platforms to push for
social change
By Kareem Copeland
Athletes today are using their platforms as sports celebrities to bring attention to the violence that has
erupted across the country and recently Carmelo Anthony has been one of the most outspoken.
The New York Knicks All-Star is taking a break from his preparation with the Olympic basketball
team Monday to host a meeting in Los Angeles with athletes, politicians and people in the community to
advance the conversation about what he’s called a broken system.
University of California-Berkeley professor emeritus Dr. Harry Edwards said today’s athletes have a
level of power that Muhammed Ali and others didn’t have in the 1960s, and they have begun using it to
speak out against violence both by and against police.
How much change they can effect remains to be seen, as Ali changed the world.
The newfound power of today’s athlete comes from monetary wealth, celebrity status and having the
vehicle of social media to communicate directly with the masses. They can reach hordes of people, en
couraging them to get involved in social change.
“Joe Louis and Jack Johnson and Jesse Owens struggled for legitimacy,” Edwards said. Then “you
began this struggle for access. Which is what Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby and Kenny Washington
and all those guys were involved in. In the 1960s, the struggle was for respect and dignity.
“Now the struggle is for power. And these men have power. So they have a different forum than we
had in the late 1960s to be able to go on network television and make a statement concerning violence
and the killing of black men, women and children in this country. ... That’s an exercise of power. They
have the capability today that we only dreamed about in the 1960s when only one or two athletes even
had endorsements.”
Anthony, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade gave an anti-violence speech at the ESPYS
and expressed their support of the values behind the Black Lives Matter movement. University of Mis
souri football players threatened to boycott games last year in support of student groups protesting the
school’s racial environment. School President Timothy Wolfe eventually retired. Serena Williams spoke
out against the violence at Wimbledon. Members of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, New York Liberty and
Phoenix Mercury recently wore black warm up shirts in the wake of recent shootings by and against po
lice officers, and were fined by the league.
(Continued On Page 3)
Weary of protest, Baltimore
activists seek change elsewhere
By Juliet Linderman
BALTIMORE (AP) _ Under
the beating summer sun, retired
steelworker Arthur B. Johnson
Jr. stood outside the Clarence
Mitchell Courthouse in Bal
timore, clutching the fraying
wooden handle of a homemade
sign.
“Justice for Freddie Gray,” it
read. Inside, a fourth officer
was about to be cleared of crimi
nal charges in Gray’s death last
April, a week after Gray’s neck
was broken while he was hand
cuffed and shackled but left un
restrained in the back of a police
van. Johnson has shown up for
every trial, in pouring rain and
sweltering heat.
Thousands took to the streets
last spring. The refrain of “No
Trail to promote African-
American legacy at
Kansas sites
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A trail promoting African-
American history at Kansas sites has recently received
a grant for more than $134,000 from the Institute of
Museum and Library Services.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas African-
American History Trail will be linked to 10 sites in the
state that are important to the African-American legacy.
Some of the proposed sites for the trail include the
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, the
Buffalo Soldier Monument and museum at Fort Leav
enworth and the community ofNicodemus.
Nicodemus was Kansas’s only all African-American
community and is listed as a National Historic Park site.
Fort Scott may also become a site on the trail. It is
the hometown of photographer, poet and filmmaker
Gordon Parks, and the site of the 1st Regiment Kan
sas Colored Infantry became the first regiment of black
men from a northern state to fight for the U.S. Army.
Kansas African American Museum director Mark
McCormick says other site histories may be added as
the trail progresses.
McCormick said he came across a trail that Angela
Bates helped create while he was looking at old docu
ments. Bates is the director of the Nicodemus Histori
cal Society.
“Here was a map where people could see points of
interest with regard to African American history,” Mc
Cormick said. “I took her map and contacted people.”
The grant will help provide funding for a project
manager to coordinate activities, marketing materials,
a website and a year’s worth of events at each site.
“We wanted to point out to people that it is very dif
ficult in this country to talk about the African American
experience without talking about Kansas,” McCormick
said.
justice, no peace” rang through
corridors on the city’s east and
west sides for more than a week;
after a riot broke out, Mayor
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake insti
tuted a 10 p.m. curfew. The Na
tional Guard rolled into town to
restore order.
But these days, Johnson and
his sign typically stand alone.
The most recent acquittal,
for Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-
ranking officer charged in Gray’s
death, was rapidly preceded by
two others, including Officer
Caesar Goodson, who drove the
wagon in which Gray’s spine
was snapped.
Still, where once the streets
exploded in fire and fury, the
sidewalks are calm; the flames
extinguished and the palpable
rage dissipated.
Some activists say the an
ger many citizens feel is simply
manifesting itself in different
ways, and that the focus has
shifted from the streets of Bal
timore to the state’s capital: due
to increasing pressure, this year
lawmakers enacted reforms to
the Law Enforcement Officers
Bill of Rights for the first time
since its inception nearly 40
years ago. Others say the fever
ish momentum of last spring was
simply unsustainable.
But all agree on one thing:
although initially emboldened
by the criminal charges brought
against the officers by a fresh-
faced state’s attorney eager to
make her mark, the procession of
acquittals has left nearly hope
less the residents most familiar
with the problematic police prac
tices that landed the city under
federal review in the first place.
“There were hopes and ex
pectations that these officers
wouldn’t just be indicted, but
convicted,” said Tawanda Jones,
a well-known Baltimore activist
whose brother died three years
ago after an encounter with Bal
timore police.
“People felt hopeful, because
this is the first time we’ve ever
seen officers get prosecuted.
But watching them one by one
walk away, there’s mournful
disappointment,” Jones said.
“They’ve lost hope.”
(Continued On Page 2)
President Barack Obama greets Armanii Chisholm, age 3, as his grandmother,
Chief Religious Program Specialist Tameca Brown, looks on during a tour with
wounded warriors and their families in the Cross Hall of the White House, July 25.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Analysis: Congressmen unite after Baton
Rouge shootings - An AP News Analysis
By Melinda Deslatte
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - While the congressional candidate signup period often can be a
scene of partisan politics and trash-talking, Louisiana’s two congressmen who represent Baton Rouge
showed a largely united front for a city torn apart by recent shootings.
Republican Garret Graves and Democrat Cedric Richmond aren’t natural allies in the red versus
blue environment of Washington’s political scene.
But as the two men each separately registered for their re-election bids last week, they described
conversations about how they could work together to respond to the shooting death of a black man
by white police officers, the protests that death sparked and the ambush-style killings of three law
enforcement officers only days later.
The men had different viewpoints, formed by different backgrounds and political philosophies, but
they also both talked about the need for the capital city to grieve, to heal and to use the tragedies to
improve the community.
Graves, R-Baton Rouge, talked of having “some very candid conversations’ about tensions in the
city and taking “lessons learned from this.’ Richmond, D-New Orleans, said leaders “have to initi
ate the conversation’ about how to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the black
community.
The show of bipartisanship between Baton Rouge’s two U.S. House members comes after an un
settling two weeks that put Louisiana at the forefront of a national debate about race and law enforce
ment.
On July 5, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot and killed by white officers who
struggled with him on the pavement outside a Baton Rouge convenience store where he sold CDs. The
killing was captured on cellphone video and widely circulated online.
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the death. Thousands of people
turned out at several locations around Baton Rouge in the aftermath to protest what they believed was
excessive force by police.
The next blow hit July 17, when a masked former Marine ambushed law enforcement along a busy
highway, killing three officers and wounding three more before he was shot and killed. Officials say
they don’t know if Gavin Long’s attack came in response to Sterling’s death, but they say the officers
were clearly targeted by the 29-year-old black gunman.
Killed by Long were East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, 45; and two officers
from the Baton Rouge Police Department: Montrell Jackson, 32; and Matthew Gerald, 41.
After Sterling’s death, Graves and Richmond introduced legislation together, to beef up grant
spending on the development of non-lethal technologies for law enforcement agencies and training on
de-escalation tactics for police.
Richmond said the goal is to “find some measures in between Tasers and deadly force.’
“We do not need to wait for the findings of a federal Department of Justice investigation to realize
that this tragedy could have turned out very differently,’ Graves said in a statement when the legisla
tion was announced.
In the aftermath of the officer deaths, the congressmen said they also are working together on other
items. They’re trying to get money to city, parish and state law enforcement to repay some of their
expenses for responding to the protests after Sterling’s death and the shootings of their officers.
On July 21, Graves announced that $650,000 in federal cash was on its way, but he said that’s not
enough, estimating the response costs could reach anywhere from $3 million to $5 million.
“Nobody planned for this crisis,’ Graves said after registering for the Nov. 8 ballot. “If you are go
ing to drain their accounts, they’re not going to have the resources they need’ for public safety.
Richmond said: “The costs are going to be great, and they definitely need some help.’
The men also said they’re looking at the funding available for survivor payments for the families
of the slain police officers and sheriff’s deputy. State and federal dollars are available, and Graves and
Richmond said they wanted to make sure the families got the aid.
Getting federal money may be the easy part. The harder problem to solve is how to lessen the ten
sions that have frayed the city.