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VOLUME 96 - NUMBERS
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017
£
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Rep. Larry Hall
Rep. Larry Hall named
Cooper’s veterans,
military secretary
RALEIGH (AP) - The Democratic minority leader in the North
Carolina House for the previous two legislative sessions will leave
the General Assembly to join Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration as
secretary ofveterans and military affairs.
Rep. Larry Hall of Durham was by Cooper’s side Jan. 13 when
the governor named him the department’s next leader and Dr. Mandy
Cohen the state health and human services secretary.
Hall is a Durham attorney who served in the Marine Corps for 16
years. He joined the House in 2006 and became minority leader in
2013. He didn’t seek the leadership job again last month.
Hall “will be working closely with people in Washington concern
ing our military bases and he will be working to make sure that North
Carolina veterans are treated like they should be because of their cou
rageous service on behalf of our country,” Cooper said at an Execu
tive Mansion news conference.
Hall, 61, said he understands the military’s importance to North
Carolina’s economy and well-being. He grew up at Fort Bragg while
his father served in the Army and was stationed at Camp Lejeune.
“I’m certainly glad to serve in another capacity here in North
Carolina, and one of my great loves is the veteran population and the
military population” in the state, Hall said.
The veterans and military affairs agency became a Cabinet-level
department in 2015. Gov. Pat McCrory appointee Cornell Wilson
was the department’s first secretary.
Hall said later Jan. 13 that he would resign from the House early
next week as he begins his new job. Durham County Democratic
activists will meet to pick someone who will serve out the remainder
of his term through the end of 2018.
Black lawmakers say Sessions
unfit to be attorney general
By Mary Clare Jalonick
WASHINGTON (AP) - Black lawmakers said Jan. 11
that Sen. Jeff Sessions at times has shown hostility to
ward civil rights, making him unfit to be attorney general,
as a 1986 letter from the widow of Martin Luther King Jr.
surfaced strongly expressing opposition to the Alabama
senator.
In the second day of confirmation hearings, New Jer
sey Sen. Cory Booker, Sessions’ colleague, and Rep. John
Lewis, D-Ga., who was beaten when he marched for civil
rights in the 1960s, warned that Sessions could move the
country backward if confirmed as Donald Trump’s top
law enforcement official.
Booker said the “arc of the universe does not just nat
urally curve toward justice, we must bend it,” and the
country needs an attorney general who is determined to
bend it.
“Senator Sessions’ record does not speak to that desire,
intention or will,” Booker said, noting his opposition to
overhauling the criminal justice system and his positions
on other issues affecting minority groups.
Lewis told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the
country needs “someone who’s going to stand up, speak
up and speak out for the people that need help, the people
who have been discriminated against.”
And Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, the chairman of
the Congressional Black Caucus, urged senators to reject
Sessions’ eventual nomination because he has “advanced
an agenda that will do great harm” to African-Americans.
The lawmakers’ criticism echoed Cornell Brooks, the
head of the NAACP, who told the panel earlier in the day
that the organization “firmly believes” Sessions is unfit
to serve.
The Alabama Republican was rejected by the Judiciary
panel in 1986 for a federal judgeship amid accusations
that he had called a black attorney “boy” - which he de
nied - and the NAACP and ACLU “un-American.”
Sessions on Jan. 10 called those accusations “damna
bly false” and said he is “totally committed to maintain
ing the freedom and equality that this country has to pro
vide to every citizen.”
The lawmakers’ testimony brought two days of con
firmation hearings for Sessions to a close. He has solid
support from the Senate’s Republican majority and from
some Democrats in conservative-leaning states, and is ex
pected to easily win confirmation. But Democrats are us
ing the hearings to try to show that Sessions - and Trump’s
administration - won’t be committed to civil
rights, a chief priority of the Justice Department during
the Obama administration.
On Jan. 10, the NAACP released a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott
King, widow of the civil rights leader, in which she said that Ses
sions’ actions as a federal prosecutor were “reprehensible” and that
he used his office “in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten
elderly black voters.”
“Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill
the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now
seeks to serve as a federal judge,” Mrs. King wrote. Mrs. King died
in 2006.
Richmond complained during his testimony that putting the all-
black panel at the end of the hearings was akin to being made to go to
the “back of the bus,” a reference to 1960s segregation laws. During
his testimony, many members of the Congressional Black Caucus sat
in the audience.
Not everyone on the panel criticized Sessions. Three men who had
worked with Sessions in Alabama and Washington, all black, testi
fied in support. Jesse Seroyer, a former U.S. marshal for the Middle
District of Alabama, said Sessions is a “good honest person who is
going to give all he has to make sure everyone is treated fairly under
the law.” pen
Discipline and Suspensions in Durham
Public Schools: Past, Present and Future
Thursday, January 19
6: PM
Hayti Heritage Center
804 Old Fayetteville Street
Members of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of
Black People and the Durham People’s Alliance’s Education
Committees invite you to attend a presentation by the co-chairs
of the Superintendent’s Code of Student Conduct Task Force,
Superior Court Judge Elaine O’Neal and Executive Director of
Student Support Services Elizabeth Shearer. They will present
on the work of the task force and the five-year implementation
plan Durham Public Schools launched this past school year.
The presentation will be followed by a panel consisting of the
presenters, Superintendent Bert L’Homme and other key school
and community actors in the education system.
This event is an exciting opportunity for the community
to learn more about what has been done by our schools to stop
the flow of children into our court systems and away from out-of
school suspensions. We hope to hear how Durham Public Schools
plans to address racial disparities in school suspensions and how
a more positive, supportive school climate can be fostered for al
children. We as a community are invested in seeing all students
succeed without regard to race, socio-economic status or statior
in life. Don’t miss this powerful community gathering in support
of our children!
President Obama Says
Farewell, But Not Goodbye
First Lady Michelle Obama (center) and Malia Obama join President Barack Obama on stage after his
farewell speech at McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill. (Tito Garcia/Chicago Defender/Real Times Media)
By Mary L. Datcher (Chicago Defender/NNPA Member)
On Tuesday, the world set eyes on Chicago, and this time it wasn’t
about the discussion of the latest homicide stats or a family member
being lost violently to gunfire. This time is all about President Barack
Obama returning to the town where his political career was birthed
nearly 20 years ago.
The moment the announcement was made public ofthe president’s
farewell speech, taking place in his hometown, the race was on and
popping to snag a ticket to McCormick Place.
In a packed-out audience of 18,000, supporters waited as
patiently as they did on Saturday, to again be a part of history. As he
addressed a much smaller crowd than that fatefill historical night of
his presidential win on Nov. 4, 2008, in Grant Park, Tuesday night’s
address drew hordes of media outlets from around the world.
Showing his stance on the importance of standing on our nation’s
democracy, Obama said, “For 240 years, our nation’s call to
citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation. It’s
what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek
west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom. It’s what
pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande,
pushed women to reach for the ballot, powered workers to organize,”
he said. “It’s why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima)
Iraq and Afghanistan - and why men and women from Selma to
Stonewall were prepared to give theirs as well.”
Economic Revival
Not losing a beat, Obama drives home the reboot of the economy
under his administration as the nation teetered on the worst recession
since the Great Depression upon entering the Oval office.
“If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great
recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of
job creation in our history... If I had told you that we would open
up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear
weapons program without firing a shot, and take out the mastermind
of 9/11... If I had told you that we would win marriage equality,
and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our
fellow citizens - you might have said our sights were set a little too
high.” The audience cheers and a quiet calm looms over the audience,
waiting for his next words.
“But we’re not where we need to be. All of us have more work to
do. After all, if every economic issue is framed as a struggle between
a hardworking white middle class and undeserving minorities, then
workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy
withdraw further into their private enclaves. If we decline to invest
in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us,
we diminish the prospects of our own children - because those brown