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EARLY VOTING BEGINS OCT. 20
A Noteless People Is A Hopeless People - L.E. Austin
17 years after
devastation, historic
Princeville floods
again
By Jonathan Drew
TARBORO (AP) - Amanda
Brown clutched a green folder
with personal documents while
she waited to speak to a FEMA
representative along the banks
of the river threatening to inun
date her town.
She lives in Princeville, a his
toric town of about 2,000 that’s
considered one of the oldest
chartered by blacks in the U.S.
It was devastated in 1999 after
Hurricane Floyd’s torrential
rains, and it has started flooding
again after Hurricane Matthew.
Officials said water was flow
ing around a dike that protects
the town, and aerial photos from
Oct. 13 show brown water sur
rounding many of homes and
buildings. Still, forecasters and
authorities are hopeful the river
level will fall before causing a
failure of the dike.
Brown and her fiance, David
Corey, fear the worst for the mo
bile home where they live with
their 7-year-old son.
“The water didn’t come up
'til a day ago. We’ve been watch
ing: No water in Princeville, no
water in Princeville. Now, it’s
coming,” she said, standing
about 100 yards from an orange
High Water sign and a cluster of
law enforcement vehicles block
ing a bridge into Princeville.
They don’t have flood or rent
ers’ insurance, so they’re hoping
FEMA can reimburse them for
clothes or food or hotel accom
modations.
At a news conference Oct. 13
afternoon, North Carolina Gov.
Pat McCrory said Princeville
was under water.
“We’re going to have a lot
of work to do,” McCrory said.
“We’re going to have to rebuild
a town.”
The flooding triggered by
heavy rain from Matthew -
which killed more than 500 peo
ple in Haiti - has left at least 38
dead in the U.S.
McCrory said the number
of power outages was down to
about 55,000, from a high of
nearly 900,000 when the storm
hit last week. He reported the
death toll climbed to 22.
But McCrory said flooding
continues to be a major problem
in poor areas in the eastern part
of the state.
“It’s a surreal experience to
see this on a sunshiny day,” Mc
Crory said.
Theodore Rowe moved from
Princeville to the outskirts of
nearby Tarboro after Floyd hit in
1999. He said his current neigh
borhood hasn’t flooded, and he
came down to the river to see
how high it had risen.
“I used to live in Princeville
when Floyd came. That’s why
I left. I said I’d had enough of
it,” said the retired U.S. Marine
Corps drill sergeant who has
lived in the area for about 30
years. “The last time this hap
pened, it was two weeks before
we could get back. When we got
back, the house had made a 180
degree turn. It faced the street,
but when we went back, the
back of it was facing the street.”
Floyd roared ashore on Sept.
15, 1999, not long after another
hurricane saturated the state.
Two days later, the rising Tar
(Continued On Page 12)
Private autopsy: Man
killed by police shot
in back, abdomen
By Tom Foreman Jr.
CHARLOTTE (AP) - A black man shot and killed by a North
Carolina police officer last month suffered fatal gunshot wounds to
the back and abdomen, according to results released Oct. 12 from an
independent autopsy conducted for his family.
Attorneys for the family of Keith Lamont Scott said in a statement
that the family “authorized this release of information because, as
they have maintained from the very beginning, they are simply seek
ing transparency.”
Scott was shot to death Sept. 20 by a black Charlotte-Mecklenburg
police officer. The shooting set off two nights of unrest in Charlotte
and a series of marches and protests.
The autopsy, performed in the morgue at Newberry County Me
morial Hospital in South Carolina on Sept. 30, was signed by foren
sic pathologist Kim Collins. Collins said the cause of death “is best
deemed homicide.”
According to the report, Scott suffered gunshot wounds to his left
back, left abdomen and left wrist. He also suffered rib and wrist frac
tures.
Scott’s wife, Rakeyia, said in an interview excerpt shown Oct.
12 on “CBS Evening News” that she and her family are still seeking
answers from police about the shooting. Police have said Scott had a
gun, which his wife denies.
“All we want to know is why,” Rakeyia Scott said. “Why did you
have to take Keith that day? ... Give us a reason, because everything
that you’re saying right now, it just makes me angrier each day be
cause I just keep hearing more stuff.”
The county medical examiner’s autopsy results have not been re
leased. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police didn’t immediately respond to
a request for comment Oct. 12 night.
Scott’s funeral, which was postponed because of Hurricane Mat
thew’s approach to the South Carolina coast, was scheduled for 11
a.m. Oct. 14 at First Baptist Church of James Island in Charleston,
South Carolina.
NCCU students enjoy the Homecoming Parade on Oct. 15. See photos from the parade on page 9.
Obama: 6 My Brother’s Keeper’
will benefit US economy
By Darlene Superville
GREENSBORO (AP) - Pro
moting his initiative for boys
and young men of color, Presi
dent Barack Obama said Oct. 11
that helping these males stay out
of trouble and on the right path
is an “American challenge” that
will pay off for the U.S. econo
my in the long run.
Speaking about the “My
Brother’s Keeper” program
during an ESPN-hosted forum,
Obama said the economy could
grow about 2 percent faster if the
U.S. closes documented achieve
ment, wealth and employment
gaps that often consign minori
ties to lives that are less stable
and less financially secure.
He acknowledged that 2 per
cent “doesn’t seem like a lot” but
said “it would mean trillions of
dollars of additional wealth for
everybody.”
Young people today are the
workers, taxpayers and business
customers of the future, Obama
said, adding that everyone will
benefit if they have money in
their pockets, including “old
heads” like himself who in the
future will rely on them for So
cial Security checks.
“So if they’re unemployed
or underemployed, if they’re in
prison, that is bad for all of us,
not just for them,” Obama said
. “This is an American chal
lenge.”
Obama launched “My Broth
er’s Keeper” in February 2014
to address persistent opportunity
gaps facing boys and young men
of color. Some 250 communi
ties in all 50 states, the District
of Columbia, Puerto Rico and
19 tribal nations have their own
“My Brother’s Keeper” pro
grams, the White House said.
Before leaving Washington,
the White House announced that
Sprint Corp, will do its part to
help close the digital divide by
providing free tablets, smart-
phones and other mobile devices,
along with four years of service,
to 1 million low-income, high-
school students who can’t get on
the internet at home.
Obama also praised the value
of the nation’s historically black
colleges and universities during
the forum, which was taped at
North Carolina A&T State Uni
versity, an HBCU with a highly
regarded engineering program.
The event was hosted by “The
Undefeated,” an ESPN website
that explores the intersection of
race, sports and culture. ESPN
broadcast the forum Oct. 11.
Obama pushed back against
the notion that his administration
has been insufficiently support
ive ofhistorically black colleges,
Louisville plans festival
to celebrate Ali s legacy
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Louisville will host a 10-day fes
tival next year to celebrate the legacy of native son Muham
mad Ali.
City officials and the Muhammad Ali Center say the “I Am
Ali” festival will be July 5-15 in 2017. It will include local arts
and cultural groups, performances and events, along with two
girls’ basketball tournament events.
The humanitarian and former heavyweight boxing cham
pion died in June at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson’s
disease.
The city’s inaugural “I Am Ali” festival was held at the Ken
tucky Center during the week of Ali’s death and memorial, at
tracting 15,000 young people. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer
says next year’s festival will build on that success and will
become an annual event for the Kentucky city.
which are under enormous fi
nancial pressure.
He called HBCUs a “foun
dation stone” for building the
black middle class and black
wealth, and said he had in
creased federal funding to them
to $4 billion annually. Obama
said these schools are facing dif
ficult financial decisions, as are
non-HBCUs, because states are
cutting funding
for higher education.
The president urged students
worried about the cost of a col
lege education to vote. “If you
don’t vote, then you will not have
any say in the decisions that are
made in state capitals or in Con
gress about the kind of support
that you receive,” he said. “You
don’t have to be an engineering
major to figure out the math on
this one.”
Democrats, civil rights groups
want more registration time
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina Democrats and civil rights
groups are criticizing the State Board of Elections for not extend
ing a voter registration deadline this week in light of Hurricane
Matthew’s destruction, saying they want the board to reconsider.
Democratic state legislators, members of Congress, former
Gov. Jim Hunt and state NAACP president the Rev. William Bar
ber are among those urging that a Friday deadline be extended.
They say displaced residents need additional time and may lack
access to documents proving their residence for registration pur
poses because those documents are in flooded homes.
Barber also said Oct. 13 early in-person voting should be ex
panded and Saturday and Sunday early voting occur in storm-
affected counties. He said poor people, African-Americans and
Latinos are more likely to be disenfranchised.
“Streets are out, people cannot get where they need to go,” Bar
ber said at a Legislative Building news conference. “People will
have a lot of devastation to deal with once the waters recede.”
Board staff announced this week that mailed-in applications
postmarked after Oct. 14 be accepted as long as they are received
by next Wednesday and the applications are dated by Friday. Peo
ple can still register to vote and cast ballots during the early-voting
period starting Oct. 20 through Nov. 5.
There is no registration on Election Day, Nov. 8, so the Friday
deadline would apply to people who choose not to take advantage
of registering during early in-person voting or who want to vote by
mail-in absentee ballot.
During a conference call meeting Thursday, the five-member
board discussed the voter registration situation with Executive Di
rector Kim Strach, who has the authority to make such weather-
related schedule changes. She said the board had received letters
from the state Democratic Party and state NAACP seeking further
extensions and were reviewing their requests.
Strach also pointed out that registration applications can be
turned in by Friday to public libraries, DMV offices and public
assistance offices. Board member Joshua Malcolm, who lives in
storm-battered Robeson County, urged board staff to get registra
tion and voter information out to the public through social media
to alert people in flood-ravaged areas.
Barber on Thursday said by email that he and other clergy were
prepared to go to court or participate in actions of civil disobedi
ence if “these constitutional rights are blocked and undermined
and the people not protected.”
MCG
Moir