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DAV 17 1L'/01/17 ##CHILL
UNC-CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2017
VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 18
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
LA peace parades mark 25th
anniversary of Rodney King riots
By Robert Jablon
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Twenty-five years ago, a jury acquitted four white police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King,
sparking looting and violence that would turn into one of the deadliest race riots in American history.
On April 29, hundreds of people marked the anniversary with marches advocating peace and hope.
A “Future Fest” began at Florence and Normandie avenues - the South Los Angeles intersection where rioting erupted - and was followed
by a community festival.
Organizer Eric Ares, 34, is a lifelong resident of the area. He remembers the electricity going out in his house at the start of the rioting,
leaving his family essentially cut off from the outside world without lights or a TV.
“For the next couple of nights, there was this fear going on,” he said. “We were huddled up in the living room.”
When he did venture outside, Ares saw plumes of smoke coming from places where buildings had been torched. But a small restaurant on
the corner, a liquor store and other local businesses were untouched, he said.
People had a “real feeling of anger and frustration,” but it was mainly directed at police, politicians and businesses they believed op
pressed, neglected or exploited them, Ares said.
Graffiti on walls warned: “No justice, no peace,” he said.
“I remember being at the park on the third day, people screaming: 'We’re not gonna let them do it to us anymore,” Ares said.
But while the march and festival marks the events of a quarter-century ago, the commemoration also looked to a future where community
organizations are working to deal with problems still confronting South L.A., Ares said.
“There’s still extreme poverty. There’s still issues of law enforcement... education and health care and access to good jobs,” he said. “But
the difference is, we have a plan.”
About five miles north of the intersection, a peace parade was held in the Koreatown neighborhood, where tensions between black resi
dents and Korean-American immigrant storekeepers led to markets, shops and gas stations being looted or burned. Some merchants stood
guard with guns to protect their stores.
In the wake of the riots, community groups reached out and tried to mend fences.
On Saturday, several hundred people marched in an enthusiastic show of unity that included Korean drummers in traditional costume, a
South Los Angeles drumline, taekwando students and schoolchildren from Watts.
K. Choi, 73, of Arcadia, was among the marchers. He helped organize the original peace march days after the rioting and said he believed
racial relations had vastly improved.
“At that time it was different,” he said. “The politics and the social problems, whatever, all commingled together and then things exploded.”
“But now is a very different situation,” he said. “All those relationships are getting better between (the) Korean and black community,
including (the) Spanish community ... we’re getting along very good, and I hope we’re getting a better future.”
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SEVE?4VE"T 4NE PEA’3 EE THE USURPERS
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RECOGNIZEE WHTE SUPREViDY T THE SOUTH
AND GAVE US DUR STATE.
ascription on “Battle of Liberty Place” monument, 1936, as
photographed by Dorothea Lange. (Farm Security Administra-
tion/Wikimedia Commons)
New Orleans Begins
Removing Racist
Confederate
Monuments
NCCU’s Communication Disorders Program Faculty
NCCUs Communications Disorders Program Receives Award
The Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders honored North Carolina Central University’s (NCCU)
Communications Disorders Program with its Diversity Incentive Award.
The award was presented at the organization’s annual conference in New Orleans on April 20, 2017. This recognition acknowledges indi
viduals and academic programs making significant contributions to diversity in the communication sciences and disorders field.
“We are grateful to have the Department of Communication Disorders recognized for its contributions to diversity,” said Dr. Audrey W.
Beard, School of Education dean. “This award motivates us to continue advancing our efforts in diversity.”
NCCU’s Department of Communication Disorders offers master’s degrees in speech and pathology. Students working in the Hablemos!
Speech Clinic, housed in the School of Education, receive course credit for providing high-quality treatment for speech and language delays
to children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families in North Carolina, predominantly those of Hispanic descent. While delivering
these services, students are being trained in therapeutic intervention techniques that are grounded in evidence-based practice.
“NCCU’s Communication Disorders Program exemplifies diversity in its curriculum, service offerings, clients, students and faculty,” said
Katrina E. Miller, Communication Disorders Clinical director and associate professor. “Diverse learning and work enviromnents are key to
reaching mass audiences.”
The NCCU School of Education offers degree programs in communication disorders, as well as elementary and middle-grades education,
educational technology, school administration, community, career and school counseling; and five concentrations in special education. All
programs are fully accredited by their respective bodies.
Trump makes puzzling claim about Andrew Jackson, Civil War
By Jonathan Lemire
NEW YORK (AP) - President Donald Trump made puzzling claims about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War in an interview, sug
gesting he was uncertain about the origin of the conflict while claiming that Jackson was upset about a war that started 16 years after
his death.
Trump, who has at times shown a shaky grasp of U.S. history, said he wonders why issues “could not have been worked out” in
order to prevent the secession of 11 Southern states and a war that lasted four years and killed more than 600,000 soldiers.
“People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Ex
aminer, according to a transcript released May 1. “People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that
one not have been worked out?”
Trump ruminated after lauding Jackson, the populist president whom he and his staff have cited as a role model. He suggested that
if Jackson had been president “a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War.”
“He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, 'There’s no reason for this,”’ Trump
continued.
But Jackson died in 1845, and the Civil War didn’t begin until 16 years later, in 1861.
Jackson was a slave-holding plantation owner. Some historians do credit him with preserving the union when South Carolina threat
ened to secede in the 1830s over an individual state’s ability to void federal tariffs. That controversy, though, was not about slavery,
and the eventual compromise that preserved states’ rights is viewed as a milestone on the way to the Civil War.
The Civil War was decades in the making, stemming from disputes between the North and South about slavery and whether the
union or states themselves had more power. The question over the expansion of slavery into new western territories simmered for
decades and Southern leaders threatened secession if anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860.
After Lincoln won without carrying a single Southern state, Southern leaders believed their rights were imperiled and seceded,
forming the Confederate States of America. War erupted soon afterward as the North fought to keep the nation together.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation of Trump’s reasoning.
Trump, during an African-American history month event, seemed to imply that the 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass
was still alive. Trump said in February that Douglass “is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized
more and more, I notice.”
While justifying the need for a southern border wall, Trump said last week that human trafficking is “a problem that’s probably
worse than any time in the history of this world,” a claim that seemed to omit the African slave trade.
By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)
Against a backdrop of death threats and under the cover of
night, officials in New Orleans have begun to dismantle Con
federate monuments honoring racists of the Civil War and Jim
Crow eras of United States history.
Workers removing the first of four monuments wore bullet-
proof vests, helmets and hid their faces. By 5:45 a.m. on April
24, the monument was gone. Three more monuments are set to
disappear, but the city is not announcing publicly which statues
will be next and what date the removals will take place.
“The removal of these statues sends a clear and unequivocal
message to the people of New Orleans and the nation: New
Orleans celebrates our diversity, inclusion and tolerance,” said
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu in a statement on April
24.
At a press conference the morning after the first monument,
the Battle of Liberty Place Memorial, was removed, the Mayor
stated that the other monuments would be removed, “sooner
rather than later.”
“Relocating these Confederate monuments is not about tak
ing something away from someone else. This is not about poli
tics, blame or retaliation. This is not a naive quest to solve all
our problems at once,” the Mayor said. “This is about showing
the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to
acknowledge, understand, reconcile—and most importantly—
choose a better future. We can remember these divisive chap
ters in our history in a museum or other facility where they can
be put in context—and that’s where these statues belong.”
The Liberty Place Monument celebrated an 1874 insurrec
tion of a group of all-White, mostly Confederate veterans call
ing themselves the Crescent City White League. The group
fought against the racially integrated New Orleans Metropoli
tan Police. The monument honored members of the Crescent
City White League who died during the battle.
In 1932, a plaque was added to put an even finer point on the
racist motivations behind the monument. The plaque in part
read that the battle was fought to “overthrow of carpetbag gov
ernment, ousting the usurpers” and that “the national election
of November 1876 recognized white supremacy in the South
and gave us our state.”
According to The New York Times, “In 1993, the City Coun
cil voted to remove the obelisk, but instead the plaque was cov
ered with a new one that read: Tn honor of those Americans on
both sides who died in the Battle of Liberty Place’ and called
it ‘a conflict of the past that should teach us lessons for the
future.’”
The reactions on social media to the monument’s removal
were quite animated.
“It is more nuanced than that. One can support keeping the
statues for accuracy...as a historical reminder of a shameful
part of our history,” wrote one commenter on Twitter.
Much social media discussion dealt with the issue of wheth
er negative parts of American history should be commemo
rated.
“When are we gonna put up some Hitler statues, ya know,
to remind us of those dark times in History?” another Twitter
user stated.
Others debated the role of poor White southerners who par
ticipated in the Civil War.
“It was the North who refused to recognize blacks as peo
ple, resulting in the appalling 3/5 compromise. The South obv
wanted,” wrote Erin Greer of Atlanta on Twitter.
A Twitter user, who identified himself as Clayton Barnes,
responded: “And the South just wanted to own them, treat
them terribly, and work them like mules.”
Lauren Victoria Burke is apolitical analyst who speaks on politics
and African American leadership. She is also a frequent contributor
to the NNPA Newswire and BlackPressUSA.com. Connect with Lau
ren by email at LBurke007@gmail. com and on Twitter at @L VBurke.
(-Nee
JMcU