VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 9
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 2017
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Ms. MaryAnn Black, associate vice president for community
relations at the Duke University Health System, was appointed to
the North Carolina House of Representatives.
The Durham County Democratic Party voted to appoint Black
on Feb. 13 to fill the seat opened by the departure of Democrat
Larry Hall, who was appointed as Secretary of the North Caroli
na Department of Military and Veteran Affairs by Governor Roy
Cooper. District 29 includes much of central Durham County, as
well as East Campus.
uding Duke.”
Representative MaryAnn Black
N.C. House of Representatives
300 N. Salisbury Street, Room 501
Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
919-733-5872
MaryAnn.Black@ncleg.net
Butterfield Congratulates NC Representative-
elect MaryAnn Black
WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman G. K. Butterfield (NC-01)
released the following statement congratulating MaryAnn Black on
her selection by the Durham County Democratic Party to fill the un
expired term for North Carolina House District 29. The seat was
previously held by Secretary Larry D. Hall who now heads the North
Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs:
Conservative North Carolina laws
spur NAACP call for boycott
By Jonathan Drew
RALEIGH (AP) - An economic boycott by the NAACP is the lat
est fallout over North Carolina’s so-called bathroom bill and other
conservative policies.
The civil rights organization urged religious conferences, athletic
events and musicians Feb. 24 to take their business elsewhere. They
cited a state law that limits protections for LGBT people as well as
ongoing legal fights over voting rights. The group stopped short of
telling its members to cease all travel and spending in North Caro
lina - a component of previous boycotts — but said it might add other
economic measures later.
The NAACP’s national president Cornell Brooks also warned that
the group would consider similar actions in any other state that seeks
to limit voting access or pass discriminatory laws, calling the use of
boycotting “a serious matter.”
“The NAACP does not take this matter cavalierly,” he said.
His comments came two days after Republican President Don
ald Trump’s administration rescinded federal guidance that public
schools nationwide should allow transgender students to use rest-
rooms matching their gender identity.
North Carolina has been at the center of the transgender rights
debate because of the state law that says transgender people must use
restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate in many
public buildings.
“Right now in the state ofNorth Carolina we have children - Dear
God, children! - who are being imperiled, who face the prospect of
being bullied as a consequence of politicians using them as political
pawns while we talk about bathrooms,” Brooks said.
The Rev. William Barber, who leads the state’s NAACP chapter,
proposed the boycott late last year after a deal fell apart to repeal
the law, often referred to as House Bill 2, which also excludes gen
der identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination
protections.
But Barber stressed that the boycott would also pressure the Re
publican-controlled legislature over efforts to limit the new Demo
cratic governor’s power as well as legal battles over voting rights and
how electoral districts are drawn.
“What has happened in North Carolina makes this state a battle-
ground ... for the soul of America,” said Barber, who has drawn thou
sands to rallies protesting conservative policies in recent years.
The NAACP was part of a coalition that successfully sued to over
turn much of a 2013 North Carolina elections law that required photo
ID from voters who cast ballots in person. A federal appeals court
said that provision and others disproportionately targeted black vot
ers. Republicans have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republican Senate leader Phil Berger called on Democratic Gov.
Roy Cooper to “condemn William Barber’s attempt to inflict eco
nomic harm on our citizens, and work toward a reasonable compro
mise that keeps men out of women’s bathrooms.”
Asked about the boycott, Cooper’s spokesman Ford Porter said
in an email: “While Governor Cooper continues to urge business to
come to North Carolina in spite of HB2, Republican legislative lead
ers need to stop holding our economy hostage to this disastrous law.”
The NAACP’s boycott resolution says the group won’t hold future
national meetings in North Carolina and urged other large groups to
take their business elsewhere, too. The resolution says the organiza
tion could take other steps, such as urging the divestiture of North
Carolina-related investments.
Brooks declined to offer further specifics or a timetable for decid
ing whether to escalate the effort, but suggested the group’s previous
boycotts could serve as a model.
The NAACP boycotted South Carolina for 15 years over flying
the Confederate battle flag on Statehouse grounds. When that boy
cott was approved, the group urged all of its members nationwide to
avoid visiting or spending money in the state. The flag was removed
in 2015.
Already, House Bill 2 has caused numerous conventions, concerts
and sporting events to pull out ofNorth Carolina, depriving it of hun
dreds of millions of dollars in economic impact. The state also lost
several large-scale business projects with hundreds of jobs because
of the law.
Andrew Young Talks about King’s
Legacy, Trump’s White House
Young Says Lack of Jobs, Not
Racism, America’s Biggest Problem
HBCUs, advocates looking for
help from Trump on funding
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation’s historically black colleges and universities are pushing for President Donald Trump to set aside more
federal cohtracts and grants for their schools, and take a greater hand in their welfare by moving responsibility for a key program for those
colleges to the White House.
The presidents of the nation’s 100-plus HBCUs, pressing their case for greater attention from the new Republican-controlled government,
met with Trump briefly in the Oval Office and later with Vice President Mike Pence.
“Know that beginning today, this administration is committed to ensuring that historically black colleges and universities get the credit
and the attention they deserve,” Pence said after the meeting. “Our administration at the president’s direction is working to find new ways to
expand your impact so that more students, especially in the underserved communities of this country, have a chance at a quality education.”
The college presidents, as well as the United Negro College Fund, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and other HBCU advocates,
planned to express their support for migrating the White House Initiative on HBCUs from the Education Department to the White House
itself.
Such a move would give the initiative “greater impact for our institutions,” said Johnny Taylor, head of the Thurgood Marshall College
Fund, a nonprofit organization that has supported public historically black colleges and universities since 1987.
“Anything that the Trump administration could do to channel more federal dollars in form of grants and contracts to and through the HB
CUs would really benefit our institutions and in many cases, our communities, as well,” said Mickey L. Burnim, president of Bowie State
University, in Bowie, Md.
Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, who donated $250,000 to his alma mater, South Carolina State University, said Monday
night: “When you have it in the White House, you have that creditability, that weightiness that goes with it.”
There were more than 231,000 students enrolled at black colleges and universities in 2014, according to the National Center for Education
Statistics. Almost 80 percent were black.
Total HBCU enrollment declined from 326,614 to 294,316 between 2010-2014, according to the latest information available from Nation
al Center for Education Statistics. The percentage of black college students attending a historically black college or university also dropped
from 18 percent of the overall total in 1976 to 8 percent in 2014.
Trump got 8 percent of the African-American vote in his presidential election.
The UNCF and the Marshall fund also have been lobbying for the new president to devote some direct attention to the well-being of
HBCUs. Trump is expected to soon release an executive order aimed at helping black colleges and universities. One of Trump’s most vis
ible African-American aides, Omarosa Manigault, holds degrees from two of these colleges: Central State University in Ohio and Howard
University in Washington, D.C.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that the White House would likely “look at the various resources throughout the
federal government that support HBCUs.”
He said they may look to ensure “there’s a direct pipeline to the president of the United States that those programs are being executed in
a way that’s benefiting the future of HBCUs and the various projects and teaching that goes on there.”
It is time for HBCUs to have a more robust discussion with Republicans, Taylor said. In the past, HBCUs leaned heavily on the heavily-
Democratic Congressional Black Caucus to defend them in Washington. “In this environment, if you don’t have Republican support, you
may not have any support at the federal level,” Taylor said.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., said it was time for Republicans to step up to help majority-black colleges and universities. North Carolina
has one of the nation’s largest HBCUs in North Carolina A&T University.
“We want our tone to match our work, and that means more than just an awareness or lip service,” said Walker, one of the lawmakers
behind the meeting Tuesday between the HBCU presidents and the GOP. “We want our actions to speak just as loud.”
The CBC said it was ready to help the Trump administration push through help for the black colleges and universities. They suggested
that, as a start, Trump should increase the maximum Pell Grant award for students and double the funding for Pell Grants, or provide two
years of free tuition at HBCUs.
By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor)
It’s forever a burning question, particularly as many African-
Americans soul search, reminisce and speculate during Black History
Month.
“What would Martin Luther King Jr. say today?”
According to former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young,
one of the few still alive who knew the slain civil rights leader
intimately, King answered the question himself—60 years ago and
nearly a dozen years before his assassination in Memphis, Tenn.
“In 1957, when King was organizing, he said he was doing so to
redeem the soul of America from the triple evil of racism, war and
poverty,” Young said. “The problems I see now are not racism and I
think we’re getting on top of war. It’s not that racism doesn’t exist,
but what happened in Ferguson, for instance, was not a race problem,
it was a job problem.”
Young continued: “You have an explosive situation that took on a
racial connotation, because they’re not enough jobs.”
Young continues to seek solutions to Black unemployment and
also promotes economic empowerment around the globe.
Through his Andrew Young Foundation, the man who helped
draft both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of
1965 works to support, promote and develop global institutions and
leaders.
He then helps to infuse in those institutions and leaders’ knowledge
to improve and enhance social and economic justice and human
rights through nonviolent action, democratic institutions and social
responsible for-profit corporations.
“We work to one day see a just and prosperous global society
made whole through humanitarian service, civic participation,
philanthropy and good works,” Young said.
Born in 1932 in New Orleans, La., Young attended Dillard
University and later earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from
Howard University in Washington, D.C. He also attended the
Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut.
Young began working with voter registration and voter education
projects as a staffer for the National Council of Churches, where he
worked with King.
A former executive director of the SCLC, Young won a seat in
Congress in 1972 and, four years later, President Jimmy Carter
named him ambassador to the United Nations. In 1981, Young won
election as mayor of Atlanta and served two terms.
He later spearheaded Atlanta’s successful bid for the 1996
Olympics.
“I worked with Andy Young in the Freedom Movement in the
United States and Africa,” said Dr. Benjamin Chavis, a civil rights
leader, who worked closely with King, and the current president and
CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)—a
conglomerate of 211 African-American-owned newspapers and
media companies in the United States. “We both are ordained
ministers in the United Church of Christ and Andy Young was one of
Dr. King’s most trusted co-workers in the Civil Rights Movement.”