VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 8 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Racial bias alleged in N. Carolina county’s election method
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - A na
tional civil rights organiza
tion sued Feb. 13 on behalf
of black voters in a rural
North Carolina county, al
leging how local officials
are elected constitutes ra
cial discrimination.
The federal lawsuit, one
of many filed recently by
North Carolina black vot
ers or their allies alleging
Voting Rights Act viola
tions, seeks to eliminate the
method by which the five
commissioners are elected
in Jones County, 100 miles
southeast of Raleigh.
A federal appeals court
struck down a 2013 law ap
proved by the Republican-
controlled legislature, re
quiring photo identification
to vote, reducing the num
ber of early voting days
and eliminating same-day
registration during early
voting. A trial judge is now
weighing whether Greens
boro council districts were
redrawn improperly by
state lawmakers for racial
and political reasons.
Boards and officials in
Jones County, with a popu
lation of 10,000, are defen
dants in Monday’s (Feb.
13) lawsuit.
Nearly one-third of
county residents are Afri
can American. They con
stitute a cohesive voting
bloc, but a black candidate
hasn’t been elected to the
county commission since
1994, and the at-large elec
tion method is to blame,
according to the lawsuit
filed for four voters in part
by the Washington-based
Lawyers’ Committee for
Civil Rights Under Law.
“Voting discrimination
is alive and well in North
Carolina,” committee ex
ecutive director Kristen
Clarke said in a confer
ence call announcing the
lawsuit. “This case makes
clear the real barriers to de
mocracy that we continue
to see today.”
The commission races
are county-wide, with
each voter choosing up to
five candidates in party
primaries and the general
election. The top five vote-
getters win. While black
candidates have been sup
ported strongly by the Afri
can American voters, “bloc
voting” by other members
of the electorate consis
tently defeat them, the law-
suit says.
Democrats comprise the
largest party by registration
in the county at just over
50 percent. In 2010 and
2014, a black Democrat
advanced to the general
election, but “white voters
overwhelmingly did not
support the African-Amer
ican nominee,” leading to
an all-white commission
of four Democrats and one
Republican. The next com
mission election is in 2018.
“Countywide elections
in Jones County show
a clear pattern of racial
ly-polarized voting,” the
lawsuit says, alleging the
voting system dilutes the
black vote in Jones Coun
ty, which would be a Vot
ing Rights Act violation.
Jimmie Hicks, an at
torney representing Jones
County, said the county
was reviewing the lawsuit
but declined further com
ment.
Black voters petitioned
the commission in 2014 to
change the voting system
so commissioners are elect
ed in specific districts, but
it hasn’t been addressed,
according to the lawsuit.
The voters who sued say at
least one district could be
majority-black.
“We don’t have a voice
in the direction of the
county,” plaintiff Lindora
Toudle, a lifelong Jones
County resident, said in
the conference call. “They
don’t have to listen to
us and as result, nothing
changes.”
The litigation cited last
July’s ruling by the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals throwing out the
General Assembly’s wide-
ranging 2013 voting law.
The ruling, which state of
ficials have appealed to the
U.S. Supreme Court, quot
ed another Supreme Court
opinion involving North
Carolina redistricting that
cautioned “racial discrimi
nation and racially polar
ized voting are not ancient
history.”
Death row
inmate
resentenced
amid
discrimina
tion
allegations
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A
judge has resentenced an
inmate on North Carolina’s
death row amid allegations
that prosecutors discrimi
nated on the basis of race
during jury selection.
The Charlotte Observer re
ports the N.C. Center for
Death Penalty Litigation
said prosecutors purpose
fully excluded the only
qualified black juror from
the 1997 jury that decided
the sentence for 39-year-
old Phillip Antwan Davis.
In a news release sent
Monday, the center said
prosecutors had attended a
training session where they
learned how to give excus
es for striking jurors. It said
such excuses were used to
hide the intent of keeping
blacks off the jury. It’s il
legal to strike jurors based
on race.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Black lawmakers
dismayed by Trump’s
invite to black reporter
By Erica Werner
WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of the Congressional Black
Caucus expressed bafflement and dismay Feb. 16 after President
Donald Trump asked a black reporter to set up a meeting with
them.
Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said there is “an element
of disrespect” in Trump’s comment to journalist April Ryan, ask
ing her whether she was friends with CBC members and could
convene a get-together.
“He’s not going to ask any other reporter to do that for any other
group, so why did he do that to her? I think that was pretty instruc
tive to me,” said Clyburn, a veteran lawmaker and member of the
House Democratic leadership.
When asked whether Trump was implying that all black people
know each other, Clyburn said, “I don’t know what his implica
tions were but that’s my interpretation.”
The chairman of the CBC, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., is
sued a statement late Feb. 16 saying the White House reached out
to schedule a meeting with the 49-member organization and dis
cussions were underway about a possible date.
Ryan is a longtime White House reporter and Washington bureau
chief for American Urban Radio Networks. She asked Trump at his
East Room press conference on Thursday whether he planned to
include the CBC “in your conversations with your urban agenda,
your inner-city agenda.”
The president responded by asking Ryan whether the CBC are
“friends of yours” and remarking, “I tell you what, do you want to
set up the meeting?”
Ryan herself responded over Twitter: “I am a journalist not a
convener! But thank you for answering my questions.”
And the CBC noted over Twitter that the group sent Trump a
letter in January outlining areas where they could work together,
“but you never wrote us back. Sad!” The organization later issued
a statement saying they were in talks with the White House about
a possible meeting.
Richmond’s statement said it was remarkable that Trump had
not responded to their letter.
“President Trump has been in office for almost a month and
the Congressional Black Caucus - which at a historic 49 mem
bers is almost a fourth of the House Democratic Caucus and repre
sents millions of African-Americans - did not hear from the White
House until we introduced ourselves on Twitter after the White
House press conference today.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio said: “We have a rich history, we
have some almost 50 members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
We’re not new. What a president should say is, yes, it’s already on
my agenda to talk to them.”
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., called Trump’s remarks another
“abuse of protocol.”
“Donald Trump knows how to call Cedric Richmond, our chair,
and that is what he should do. And then we’ll (the CBC) sit togeth
er and see if it’s in our interest” to meet with Trump, Ellison said.
Trump specifically mentioned a meeting with Rep. Elijah Cum
mings, D-Md., and said the lawmaker canceled because it would
be bad for him politically. Cummings, in response, said, “I have no
idea why President Trump would make up a story about me like
he did today.”
Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Richard Lard
ner contributed.
NCCU Trustee Michael
Johnson Provides $1
Million Endowment for
NCCU School of Business
North Carolina Central University Board of Trustees
member Michael R Johnson made a $250,000 gift to the
School of Business that became the catalyst for establish
ing a new $1 million endowment.
Johnson’s original donation was matched by a gift from
the University of North Carolina General Administration.
An additional match was received by the U.S. Depart
ment of Education’s Title III Part B program - creating
the $1 million total endowment.
“Trustee Johnson’s gift has created energy - and syn
ergy - at NCCU, where we provide our students a high
quality education and produce leaders who are equipped
to compete in the global marketplace,” said NCCU In
terim Chancellor Johnson 0. Akinleye.
“The positive impact from this gift will be felt by our
students in this decade and for many decades to come.
Our goal is to continue growing the university endow
ment and the generosity of Mr. Johnson enables NCCU to
do just that,” said NCCU Vice Chancellor for Institutional
Advancement Dr. Harriet Frink Davis.
The Michael P. Johnson Endowment will boost NC-
CU’s growing School of Business just as plans are un
derway to construct a new state-of-the-art facility for the
school on campus. Johnson said his determination to as
sist students attending NCCU stems from personal expe
rience.
“NCCU not only provided me with a great education,
but with a vision of what I could achieve,” said Johnson,
a football recruit from East St. Louis, Ill., who graduated
with a degree in business administration in 1969 before
launching a successful career in corporate leadership.
“I had never seen a black business person in corpo
rate America until I came to N.C. Central,” Johnson says.
“While in school, I encountered many role models who
helped clear the way for me to follow my vision.” His
first job was at RCA Corporation.
Johnson, who now lives in Tulsa, Okla., has been a
longtime supporter of the university, often assisting with
key academic initiatives and student scholarship needs.
He rose through the ranks at companies such as Lockheed
Martin, Amoco Corp., and The Williams Companies. In
2008, he founded J&A Group LLC, a management and
business-consulting firm. He also has served on several
corporate boards, including CenterPoint Energy, Buffalo
Wild Wings and Quiktrip Corp. Johnson was awarded
NCCU’s Distinguished Alumni honor at the Mid-Eastern
Athletic Conference basketball finals in spring 2016.
Watchdog: Number of anti-Muslim
hate groups on the rise
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of anti-Muslim hate groups
in the United States has nearly tripled since 2015, due in part to radi
cal Islamic attacks and the incendiary rhetoric of last year’s presiden
tial campaign, the Southern Poverty Law Center says.
The number of anti-Muslim groups increased from 34 in 2015 to
101 in 2016, the SPLC said in a report released Feb. 15. The number
of hate groups overall tracked by the watchdog group also increased
to 917 last year from 892 the previous year, the report said.
“2016 was an unprecedented year for hate,” said Mark Potok, a
senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The report blamed the increase in part on “incendiary rhetoric”
from the campaign of now-President Donald Trump, which included
threats to ban Muslim immigrants and “mandate a registry of Mus
lims in America.” It also cited as factors “the unrelenting propaganda
of a growing circle of well-paid ideologues” - well-paid employees of
anti-Muslim groups, the group said - and radical Islamist attacks such
as the June 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
The SPLC’s findings come as anti-Muslim posters were discov
ered this week at a mosque in Bossier City, Louisiana, and on the
campuses of the University of Texas and Rutgers University.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants campus offi
cials to assure the safety of Muslim students and to investigate the
mosque posters as a hate crime. “It is clear that these signs, which
were used to vandalize a house of worship, are part of a nationwide
campaign by racists and Islamophobes to intimidate the American
Muslim community,” spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit organization based
in Montgomery, Alabama, monitors the activities of hate groups and
other extremists across the country. The SPLC defines hate groups as
those that vilify entire groups of people based on immutable charac
teristics such as race or ethnicity.
“Patriot” or anti-government groups are on the downswing, ac
cording to the report. “The groups had skyrocketed from a low of 149
in 2008 to a high of 1,360 in 2012, in large part as a reaction to the
November 2008 election of Barack Obama,” the report said.
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