VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 45 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Black clergy made last second
push to get out the vote
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - Black
clergy are taking to the pulpits
and the streets nationwide this
weekend in hopes of energizing
black voters ahead of Election
Day, aiming to make a differ
ence in the presidential contest
between Hillary Clinton and
Donald Trump.
Many expect a drop in black
voter participation this year, pri
marily because Barack Obama,
the nation’s first African-Ameri
can president, is not on the ballot.
His historic candidacy in 2008
and re-election in 2012 helped to
fuel record black turnout.
“Voting, for us, is both a spir
itual and a political issue,” said
Rev. William Barber, president
of the North Carolina NAACP
and architect of the Moral Mon
day Movement in North Caroli
na. Barber will be one of several
clergy at the historic Riverside
Church in New York City Nov.
6 for a revival service to encour
age voting on Nov. 8.
In battleground states like
Florida, Ohio and North Caro
lina, other black clergy are ex
tending “Souls to the Polls” ef
forts for a second weekend to get
black churchgoers to cast ballots
early or on Election Day. Souls
to the Polls events are based
around black churches that en
courage their parishioners to
vote - although they cannot tell
them who to support - and try to
make it easier for elderly, busy
or just reluctant voters to cast
ballots.
The number of African-
American voters has increased
steadily: 12.9 million in 2000,
14 million in 2004, 16 million in
2008 and 17.8 million in 2012.
In the last presidential election
year, blacks for the first time
voted at a higher rate, 66.2 per
cent, than did whites, with a rate
of 64.1 percent, or Asian-Amer-
icans or Hispanics, with rates of
about 48 percent each.
No one expects those num
bers for blacks this time around,
said Derrick L. McRae, pastor of
The Experience Christian Center
in Orlando, Florida. “But I’m
pretty confident we’re going to
show up.”
Obama will travel to Florida
on Nov. 6 to campaign for Clin
ton and encourage get-out-the-
vote efforts. Clinton and Trump
will be crisscrossing the country,
too, with the Democrat in Michi
gan as well as Pennsylvania and
Trump camp calls
KKK newspaper
‘repulsive ’ after
praise
WASHINGTON (AP) - Don
ald Trump’s campaign is firmly
rejecting the embrace of a Ku
Klux Klan-affiliated newspaper.
The latest issue of The Cru
sader used Trump’s “Make
America Great Again” campaign
slogan as its headline for an edi
torial praising the catchphrase
and the Republican presidential
candidate. The newspaper bills
itself as “The Premier Voice of
the White Resistance.”
The newspaper didn’t specifi
cally call for readers to vote for
Trump.
In a statement, the Trump
campaign calls the newspaper
“repulsive.” It said its “views do
not represent the tens of millions
of Americans who are uniting
behind our campaign.”
Trump had been criticized
earlier in the campaign for fail
ing to immediately denounce the
endorsement of David Duke, a
former Grand Wizard of the Ku
Klux Klan.
Ohio and the Republican in New
Hampshire, North Carolina,
Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Get-out-the-vote efforts are
underway outside the churches
as well, in vote-rich places like
Ohio, where Clinton will appear
this weekend with hip-hop mo
gul Jay Z and other artists who
she hopes can persuade black
millennials to vote for her.
At several historically black
colleges and universities like
North Carolina Central Uni
versity and Bethune-Cookman
University, students have held
marches to the polls to encour
age early voting not just for pres
ident but for other issues they
care about.
“For Floridians the issues of
social justice, criminal justice
reform and economic parity are
also critical,” said Salandra Ben
ton, convener of the Florida Na
tional Coalition on Black Civic
Participation and the Florida
Black Women’s Round Table.
Florida and North Carolina
are considered key states for
both Trump and Clinton, with
the potential to push either of
them toward the electoral votes
needed to win the presidency.
In addition to helping people
vote, several black churchgo
ers also plan to monitor polling
places to ensure potential voters
are not intimidated by anyone
trying to depress turnout through
trickery or misinformation.
“If it’s an older woman who’s
on a cane, if it’s somebody who’s
thirsty, if it’s someone who just
needs some encouragement,
we’re there to do just that,” said
Rev. Dr. Alyn E. Waller of Enon
Tabernacle Baptist Church in
Philadelphia. “And if anyone
comes around to do anything
that would deter from the free,
fair opportunity to vote, we will
shut that down.”
Lawsuits have been filed
More than 45 percent of NC
voters have cast ballots already
By Emery P. Dalesio
RALEIGH (AP) - More than 45 percent ofNorth Carolina’s
nearly 6.9 million registered voters have already cast their bal
lots ahead of election day, with Democrats and Republican
turning out in roughly equal proportions, the state’s elections
board said Nov. 6.
Almost 3.1 million voters have made their choices at early-
voting locations or by mail-in absentee ballots, the State Board
of Elections said Nov. 6, a double-digit increase over the early
voting period during the last presidential election in 2012.
But percentages for Democratic and black voters remained
lower compared to four years ago. Blacks comprised 22 per
cent of the early vote compared to 27 percent during the last
presidential election, when Republican Mitt Romney won the
state.
About 7 out of 10 voters submitting absentee ballots have
come from white voters during early voting this year, an in
crease of about 17 percent over their 2012 totals. Meanwhile
early ballots from black voters decreased by 9 percent from
four years ago.
Ballots cast by voters who declared themselves unaffiliated
with either of the two major political parties surged by 40 per
cent.
The major remaining question is how many more people
will cast ballots on Nov. 8 and whether it will be more or less
than the 4.5 million who cast ballots in 2012, Catawba College
political scientist Michael Bitzer wrote in an email.
With close campaigns for North Carolina’s next governor
and U.S. senator also on the line, the state was ground zero
for the presidential fortunes of Republican Donald Trump and
Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, was
scheduled to hold a rally Nov. 8 at the airport in Hickory, set
ting up a frantic slate of campaign rallies on Nov. 7.
Trump appeared Nov. 7 afternoon at an arena on the State
Fairgrounds in Raleigh, wedged between stops in other battle-
ground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New
Hampshire.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine campaigns
in Charlotte and Wilmington on Nov. 7. Hillary Clinton closes
out her campaign rallies in Raleigh, where she speaks at a mid
night rally ending in the first minutes of Election Day on the
campus of North Carolina State University.
around the nation over allega
tions of voting intimidation,
including in Ohio where a fed
eral judge issued a temporary re
straining order against Trump’s
campaign and his friend Roger
Stone. It says that anyone who
engages in intimidation or ha
rassment inside or near Ohio
polling places will face contempt
of court charges.
In other states including
Michigan, Nevada and Arizona,
judges are considering similar
complaints.
East Carolina
University faculty
supports band
protests
GREENVILLE (AP) - The
faculty senate at East Carolina
University is supporting stu
dents’ free speech rights after
a protest in which some band
members knelt during the na
tional anthem at a football game.
The News & Observer of Ra
leigh reported that the Greenville
school’s faculty resolution Nov.
1 also condemned violence or
intimidation directed at the stu
dents or the community. Kneel
ing protests against police shoot
ings of African-Americans have
occurred at other universities.
Nineteen band members knelt
Oct. 1 and the crowd booed and
the band had to be escorted out
by police.
Chancellor Cecil Staton ini
tially said the university would
protect the students’ free speech
rights. Two days later he said no
protests by the band would be
tolerated.
The newspaper said most of
the emails Staton received about
the protest were negative.
Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron Janies speaks as Democratic presidential can
didate Hillary Clinton listens during a campaign stop at Cleveland Public Hall in
Cleveland, Sun., Nov. 6. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
Janet Reno, former US attorney
general, dies at age 78
By Curt Anderson
MIAMI (AP) - Shy and admittedly awkward, Janet Reno became a blunt prosecutor and the first
woman to serve as U.S. attorney general and was also the epicenter of a relentless series of political
storms, from the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, to the seizure of 5-year-
old Cuban immigrant Elian Gonzalez.
Reno, 78, died early Nov. 7 of complications from Parkinson’s disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle
D’Alemberte told The Associated Press. D’Alemberte said Reno spent her final days at home in Miami
surrounded by family and friends.
Reno, a former Miami prosecutor who famously told reporters “I don’t do spin,” served nearly eight
years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, the longest stint in a century.
Her sister, Maggy Reno Hurchalla, told The Associated Press that Clinton called over the weekend
said to “tell Janet I love her” and that many others from her career visited or called, including former
Florida governor and Sen. Bob Graham.
“When I tucked her in at night, I said T love you,’” Hurchalla said. “She looked like she was asleep
and raised one eyebrow and said, T love you too very much.’ She was surrounded this weekend by people
who love her.”
One of the Clinton administration’s most recognizable and polarizing figures, Reno faced criticism
early in her tenure for the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, where sect
leader David Koresh and some 80 followers perished.
She was known for deliberating slowly, publicly and in a typically blunt manner. Reno frequently told
the public “the buck stops with me,” borrowing the mantra from President Harry S. Truman.
After Waco, Reno figured into some of the controversies and scandals that marked the Clinton ad
ministration, including Whitewater, Filegate, bungling at the FBI laboratory, Monica Lewinsky, alleged
Chinese nuclear spying and questionable campaign financing in the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election.
In the spring of 2000, Reno enraged her hometown’s Cuban-American community when she autho
rized the armed seizure of young Elian. The boy was taken from the Little Havana home of his Miami
relatives so he could be returned to his father in Cuba.
During her tenure, the Justice Department prosecuted the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case, cap
tured the “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski that same year and investigated the 1993 terrorist attack on
New York’s World Trade Center. The department also filed a major antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft
Corp, and Reno was a strong advocate for protecting abortion clinics from violence.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch praised Reno’s integrity and status as a female trailblazer, calling
Reno in a statement “one of the most effective, decisive and well-respected leaders” in Justice Depart
ment history.
Reno, added Lynch, approached challenges “guided by one simple test: to do what the law and the
facts required. She accepted the results of that test regardless of which way the political winds were
blowing.”
Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer, who worked for Reno in Washington from 1995-2000, recalled
her compassion for the nation’s dispossessed, her warm relationship with employees and her practical
approach to problems.
“Even if you agreed or disagreed with her, you knew she was coming from a place of integrity,” Ferrer
said in an interview. “’’Through her work, through her decisions, she exhibited a lot of strength and a lot
of courage. And that is also inspiring.”
After leaving Washington, Reno returned to Florida to run for governor in 2002 but lost in a Demo
cratic primary marred by voting problems.
The campaign ended a public career that started amid humble beginnings. Born July 21, 1938, Janet
Wood Reno was the daughter of two newspaper reporters and the eldest of four siblings. She grew up
on the edge of the Everglades in a cypress and brick homestead built by her mother and returned there
after leaving Washington. Her late brother Robert Reno was a longtime columnist for Newsday on Long
Island.
After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in chemistry, Reno became one of 16 women
in Harvard Law School’s Class of 1963. Reno, who stood over 6 feet tall, later said she wanted to become
a lawyer “because I didn’t want people to tell me what to do.”
In 1993, Clinton tapped her to become the first woman to lead the Justice Department after his first
two choices - also women - were withdrawn because both had hired illegal immigrants as nannies. Reno
was 54.
“It’s an extraordinary experience, and I hope I do the women of America proud,” Reno said after she
won confirmation.
Clinton said the vote might be “the only vote I carry 98-0 this year.”
A little more than a month after taking office, however, Reno became embroiled in controversy with
the raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco.
The standoff had started even before Reno was confirmed as attorney general. On Feb. 28, 1993,
agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms made a surprise raid on the compound,
trying to execute a search warrant. But during the raid gunfire erupted, killing four agents and six mem
bers of the religious sect.
That led to a 51-day standoff, ending April 19, 1993, when the complex caught fire and burned to
the ground. The government claimed the Davidians committed suicide, shooting themselves and setting
the fire. Survivors said the blaze was started by tear gas rounds fired into the compound by government
tanks, and that agents shot at some who tried to flee. Reno had authorized the use of the tear gas to end
the standoff and later called the day the worst of her life.