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VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 38
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2016
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
North Carolina’s Congress
map again facing a challenge
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Another
legal challenge was filed Sept.
22 to boundaries for North Caro
lina’s congressional seats drawn
by Republicans who control
the state legislature, with the
plaintiffs again arguing politics
played too great a role in draw
ing the lines.
But authors of the new litiga
tion offer a little something more
- a method to measure exces
sive partisanship, one that courts
could use going forward.
Similar allegations of illegal
partisan gerrymandering sur
faced in a federal lawsuit filed
last month by the national elec
tion reform group Common
Cause, the state Democratic
Party and voters. Both lawsuits
focus on comments and actions
taken by Republican lawmakers
last February when they were
ordered to redraw the boundar
ies because federal judges ruled
two majority-black districts were
racial gerrymanders.
The lawsuits want the updat
ed map thrown out and replaced,
although it’s too late for it to
happen before the November’s
elections.
The new map didn’t consider
race, redistricting leaders said,
and was designed so Republi
cans could retain their previ
ous 10-3 seat advantage in the
state’s congressional delegation.
Democrats comprise 40 percent
of registered voters, with the re
maining number of registrants
essentially split as Republicans
and unaffiliated, save for a few
Libertarians.
“It’s clear that the intent and
effect of creating North Caro
lina’s 2016 congressional maps
were to manipulate the demo
cratic process,” said Anita Earls,
an attorney with the Durham-
based Southern Coalition for
Social Justice who represents
the League of Women Voters of
North Carolina and Democratic
voters in Thursday’s lawsuit.
Lawyers for the Campaign Legal
NCCU Featured in Smithsonian National Museum
North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is part of the new Smithsonian National Museum of Afri
can American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., opened Sept. 24.
A photograph of noted educator and presidential advisor Dr. Booker T. Washington during a visit to
Durham in 1910 that is held jointly by NCCU and Duke University for North Carolina Mutual Life Insur
ance Company will be included in the museum display.
Additionally, a video from the university’s student web series, Eagle Access, is featured as part of a
focus on football in the museum’s Sports Gallery. This four-minute video explores the African-American
relationship with football with commentary by sports journalists, including ESPN’s Jemele Hill.
Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit, an NCCU artist-in-residence who teaches in the Department of His
tory, has participated in the museum’s executive committee for hip hop and rap since 2014. Douthit is
also featured in a video exhibit in the museum’s music section discussing the history of hip-hop culture.
The interview was taped in Raleigh at Douthit’s Brightlady Studios, which is named after his late sister.
Yaba Blay, Ph.D., who serves as Dan Blue Endowed Chair and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Col
lege of Behavioral and Social Sciences, is featured in a video displayed in the “1968 and Beyond” exhibit
located in the museum.
Obama: African-American
museum tells "story of all of us ’
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on Friday celebrated the pending opening
of the Smithsonian’s new African-American museum and said the institution, decades in the
making, is a powerful place because it tells “the story of all of us,” not just the famous.
Obama also said he hoped the museum would help people bridge divides that were re-ex
posed by the latest fatal, police-involved shootings of black men.
The country’s first black president, Obama was scheduled to preside over an outdoor ribbon-
cutting ceremony Saturday morning for the National Museum of African American History and
Culture, which was built on the National Mall in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
“The thing about this museum is that it’s ... more than just telling stories about the famous.
It’s not just about the icons,” Obama said at a White House reception celebrating the museum.
He added that the museum has plenty of space to feature black icons like Harriet Tubman, Mar
tin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and others.
“What makes the museum so powerful and so visceral is that it’s the story of all of us, the
folks whose names you never heard of, but whose contributions, day after day, decade after
decade, combined to push us forward and the entire nation forward,” Obama said, mentioning
maids, porters and others who stood up for themselves despite daily assaults on their dignity.
Obama pointed out that the hundreds of people who were invited to the reception in the
Grand Foyer included artists Quincy Jones and Phylicia Rashad, astronaut Mae Jemison and
Oprah Winfrey, “the woman who owns the universe.” Civil rights legends like Rep. John Lewis,
D-Ga., and Jesse Jackson attended, along with representatives of a new generation of activists,
including DeRay Mckesson of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Everyone in the room can think of an unsung hero, Obama said. “But the point is that all of
us cannot forget that the only reason that we’re standing here is because somebody, somewhere
stood up for us,” he said. “Stood up when it was risky. Stood up when it was not popular. And
somehow, standing up together, managed to change the world.”
Obama said the museum opening this weekend, following the shootings of black men in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina, would allow Americans to “put our current
circumstances in a historical context.”
“My hope is that, as people are seeing what’s happened in Tulsa or Charlotte on television,
and perhaps are less familiar with not only the history of the African-American experience but
also how recent some of these challenges have been, upon visiting the museum, may step back
and say: T understand. I sympathize. I empathize. I can see why folks might feel angry and I
want to be part of the solution as opposed to resisting change,’” the president said.
Obama took his wife, Michelle, their daughters, Malia and Sasha, and his mother-in-law,
Marian Robinson, on a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum earlier this month. He and the
first lady returned Thursday, where they were interviewed by “Good Morning America” co-host
Robin Roberts.
The museum features Obama’s groundbreaking presidency. He told Roberts in the interview broadcast
Friday by ABC News that the museum put into context his presidency and what he has tried to do for the
country, and “explains that we’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”
He said he and Mrs. Obama were “humbled” to be included but “we think of ourselves as a pretty
small part of the story.”
Mrs. Obama, the descendant of a slave, said the museum is “one of the few places on earth that tells
the complete story of my existence.” She said it will be a “point of pride for this nation.”
Later Friday, the Obamas attended a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts that chronicled the experiences of black Americans through song and dance. Patti Austin, Mary J.
Blige, Usher, John Legend, Dave Grohl and Dave Chappelle were among those who performed.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, right, makes donation to How
ard University. (Howard U. Photo)
Puff Daddy donates $1 million
to Howard University
WASHINGTON (AP) - Puff Daddy is donating $1 million to
Howard University, where he once was a student.
The rapper and music mogul, whose real name is Sean Combs,
made the announcement alongside Howard President Wayne
Frederick at his Bad Boy Records reunion tour show Thursday
night in Washington, D.C., where the historically black college
is located.
Howard says the money will go toward creating a Sean Combs
Scholarship Fund, which will award money to undergraduate
business majors with a financial need. The school also says re
cipients will get an internship with one of Combs’ companies and
mentoring through Combs Enterprises.
Combs spent two years at Howard before dropping out in 1990.
He received an honorary doctorate and served as commencement
speaker in 2014.
Center in Washington also are
handling the case.
The lawsuit names General
Assembly leaders, lawmakers
who drew the map and the State
Board of Elections as defen
dants. The map’s defenders have
said previously it’s not an illegal
partisan gerrymander because
Republicans must rely on unaf
filiated and Democratic voters to
win North Carolina elections.
“No matter how many costly
and duplicative lawsuits special-
interest groups continue to file
against our congressional map,
it doesn’t change the fact that it
splits fewer counties and fewer
precincts than any map in mod
em state history - it just may not
elect enough Democrats for their
liking,” said Sen. Bob Rucho, R-
Mecklenburg, and Rep. David
Lewis, R-Harnett, the map’s au
thors, said in a statement.
U.S. Supreme Court justices
have expressed concern over
the excessive use of politics in
drawing maps, but maps have
not been declared illegal on that
basis.
That’s in part because there
hasn’t been a workable standard
to calculate when partisanship is
excessive, according to Thurs
day’s lawsuit, which like last
month’s lawsuit was filed in U.S.
District Court in Greensboro.
The plaintiffs offer a three-
pronged test to determine wheth
er district maps cross that line,
based on the premise that the per
centage of overall votes a party’s
candidates receive shouldn’t be
out of whack with the percentage
of seats to which they are elect
ed. Those percentages can be un
balanced by boundary shifts that
either spread thinly voters of one
party across several districts or
by packing them in one district,
which help the controlling party
more seats.
Based on calculations looking
at maps since the early 1970s,
the lawsuit says, the current con
gressional map is “by any mea
sure, one of the worst partisan
gerrymanders in modern Ameri
can history.”
At least four other lawsuits
have been filed since 2011 chal
lenging North Carolina congres
sional and legislative districts
drawn by Republicans. A panel
of federal judges last month
struck down nearly 30 General
Assembly districts as racial ger
rymanders. The U.S. Supreme
Court has said it will review the
racial gerrymander case involv
ing the previous congressional
districts.
Doubts remain after Charlotte
police shooting video released
CHARLOTTE (AP) - Charlotte police released dramatic video Saturday that shows officers with guns
drawn surrounding a black man with his hands at his side before shots are fired and he buckles and falls.
It’s unclear if there was anything in the man’s hands in the footage, which has done little to assuage his
relatives.
The footage of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott was released amid days of protests,
including an outpouring by hundreds earlier Saturday, which coalesced around demands for the public tc
see the video. Police said Scott had a gun, though residents have said he was unarmed.
In the dashboard camera video released Saturday night, Scott could be seen slowly backing away from
his SUV with his hands down, and it’s not apparent if he’s holding anything. Four shots are heard, and he
falls to the ground.
Police also released photos of a handgun from the scene, saying it was loaded and contained Scott’s
DNA and fingerprints. They also said Scott had marijuana.
The dashboard camera footage starts with a police car pulling up as two officers point their guns at
Scott, who is inside the SUV with the doors closed and windows rolled up. Scott gets out and starts walk
ing backward before shots are fired.
From a different angle, newly released police body camera footage shows an officer approach with his
gun drawn and another officer already pointing his gun at Scott. When Scott comes into view, his hands
are at his side and he’s standing beside his SUV. The body camera footage doesn’t show the moment shots
are fired, and Scott is next seen on the ground.
An attorney for Scott’s family, Justin Bamberg, said the footage leaves questions unanswered more
than it provides clarity.
“One of the biggest questions,” Bamberg said, “is do those actions, do those precious seconds, justify
this shooting?”
Ray Dotch, Scott’s brother-in-law, objected to reporters’ questions about Scott’s background, saying
he shouldn’t have to “humanize him in order for him to be treated fairly.”
“What we know and what you should know about him is that he was an American citizen who de
served better,” he added.