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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 2017
VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 23
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Nooses showing up more in
hate incidents around country
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Nooses have appeared recently
around the nation’s capital - in
cluding the Smithsonian’s new
African-American history mu
seum - in a rash of incidents that
experts say shows the growing
use of hate symbols in the U.S.
to try to intimidate minorities.
“We’ve seen a spike in the
use of symbols of hate lately,
and the noose is one more ex
ample,” said Denison University
professor Jack Shuler, who has
studied lynching and noose im
agery in the U.S.
Two nooses were found at
Smithsonian museums in the
past week, one outside the Hirsh-
horn Museum last Friday (May
26) and one inside the Smithson
ian National Museum of African
American History and Culture
on May 31.
Bananas tied to nooses were
discovered at American Univer
sity in Washington last month,
while a noose was found at the
nearby University of Maryland
and a suburban middle school in
Crofton, Maryland.
Two 19-year-old white men
were arrested and charged with
hate crimes for allegedly hang
ing the noose at the Crofton
school. No arrests have been
made in the other cases.
This comes as other episodes
of bigotry have shaken the coun
try, including the spray-painting
of a racial slur on the gate of
basketball superstar LeBron
James’ mansion in Los Angeles
on May 31.
In Portland, Oregon, two
white people were stabbed to
death last Friday 9May 260 af
ter they tried to stop a white man
from shouting anti-Muslim slurs
at two young women. One of the
women was wearing a Muslim
head covering, and both were
black.
The Southern Poverty Law
Center, which tracks bigotry,
said it has seen an increase in
hate incidents in the U.S. since
the election of President Donald
Trump. Between Election Day
and Feb. 1, the SPLC said, it
collected information on about
1,800 hate-related episodes from
almost every state.
“In the past, it would be a
couple hundred at most, and that
would be high,” said Heidi Bei-
rich, director of the Intelligence
Project at the Southern Poverty
Law Center.
Loops of rope have long
been used to intimidate African-
Americans because they evoke
lynchings. The nonprofit Equal
Justice Initiative said there were
4,075 lynchings of blacks in the
South to spread racial terror be
tween 1877 and 1950.
For blacks, the noose is
“comparable in the emotions
that it evokes to that of the swas
tika for Jews,” the Anti-Defama
tion League said.
“I’ve seen in the last couple
of months more instances of
nooses being used to intimidate
people,” said Shuler, author of
“The Thirteenth Turn: A History
of the Noose.” “I think we’re in
a situation right now where peo
ple who express hateful opinions
Judge upholds $1.5M
award in whistleblower
lawsuit
CHARLOTTE (AP) - A fed
eral judge has upheld a jury’s
$1.5 million award to a North
Carolina fire investigator who
said she was fired after com
plaining about the safety of con
struction work at an office build
ing.
The Charlotte Observer re
ports ) that Friday’s (decision by
Chief U.S. District Judge Frank
Whitney is a further setback for
the city of Charlotte.
are being allowed to speak freely
and it’s become OK again.”
Beirich blames the rhetoric
from Trump’s presidential cam
paign, during which he pledged
to build a wall on the Mexican
border and ban Muslim immi
grants. Trump also claimed for a
long time that President Barack
Obama was not born in the Unit
ed States.
“Putting those sentiments in
public from a presidential cam
paign has sanctioned a lot of
people,” Beirich said. “Things t
Bill Cosby
Louis E. Austin, Editor & Publisher 1927-1971
Bill Cosby goes on trial, his
legacy and freedom at stake
By Maryclaire Dale and
Michael R. Sisak
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -
Bill Cosby went on trial June 5
on charges he drugged and sexu
ally assaulted a woman more
than a decade ago, with a pros
ecutor warning the jury not to
fall into the trap of confusing the
79-year-old comedian with the
beloved family man he played
on TV.
Cosby used his power and
fame to violate an employee of
Temple University’s basketball
program, Assistant District At
torney Kristen Feden said in her
opening statement. The TV star
previously admitted under oath
that he gave Andrea Constand
pills and touched her genitals as
she lay on his couch at his sub
urban Philadelphia mansion, the
prosecutor said.
“She couldn’t say no,” Feden
said. “She can’t move, she can’t
talk. Completely paralyzed. Fro
zen. Lifeless.”
Defense lawyer Brian Mc-
Monagle immediately attacked
what he said were inconsisten
cies in Constand’s story, disputed
that Constand was incapacitated,
and made the case that she and
Cosby, who was married, had a
romantic relationship. McMona-
gle said Cosby gave her the cold
and allergy medicine Benadryl
only after she complained she
couldn’t sleep.
McMonagle said Constand
changed the date of the encoun
ter from mid-March to mid-Jan-
uary of 2004. And he said Con
stand initially told police that
she and Cosby had never spoken
afterward, when, in fact, phone
records show the two talked 72
times after mid-January - with 53
of those calls initiated by Con
stand.
Cosby is charged with three
counts of aggravated indecent
assault. He could get 10 years in
prison if convicted.
The TV star carried a wooden
cane and grabbed his spokes
hey might have kept inside
themselves, that they have kept
quiet about, have burst out.”
The noose didn’t stop some
visitors to the black history mu
seum.
Stephen Middleton, who
brought his extended family to
the museum from Georgia and
Maryland, said he wasn’t sur
prised someone targeted the mu
seum. But “we’re not going to
be deterred, we’re not going to
be wavered and not going to be
intimidated,” he said.
man’s arm for support as he
walked past dozens of cameras
into the courthouse. Cosby’s
wife, Camille, was not in court.
But actress Keshia Knight Pul
liam, who played his daughter
Rudy on the top-rated “Cosby
Show” in the 1980s and ‘90s,
was at his side as he made his
way into the building.
Cosby smiled but said noth
ing when someone asked how he
was feeling.
Pulliam told reporters she
came to the trial to support her
TV dad.
“I want to be the person that
I would like to have if the tables
were turned,” she said. “Right
now it’s the jury’s job and the
jury’s decision to determine guilt
or innocence. It’s not mine or
anyone else’s.”
Constand, 44, of the Toronto
area, is expected to take the stand
this week and tell her story in
public for the first time. A wom
an who claims Cosby drugged
and assaulted her in 1996 will
also testify in an effort by pros
ecutors to show that he had pat
tern of behavior.
Cosby built a good-guy rep
utation as a father and family
man, on screen and off, during
his extraordinary 50-year career
in entertainment. He created TV
characters, most notably Dr. Cliff
Huxtable, with crossover appeal
among blacks and whites alike.
His TV shows, movies and com
edy tours earned him an estimat
ed $400 million.
Then a deposition unsealed
in 2015 in a lawsuit brought by
Constand revealed that Cosby
had a long history of extramari
tal liaisons with young women
and that he obtained quaaludes
in the 1970s to give to women
before sex. Dozens of women
soon came forward to say he had
drugged and assaulted them.
The statute of limitations for
prosecuting Cosby had run out
in nearly every case. This is the
only one to result in criminal
charges against the comic.
You Ye Invited
Museum of Durham History
Dedication of the
Louis E. Austin History Grove
Solite Park, 4704 Fayetteville St.
Saturday, June 10, 10 A.M.
Call 919-682-2913
Justices’ ruling could help N
Carolina Democrats rein in GOP
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina Democrats could face better odds of winning more legislative seats
and helping Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper thwart the GOP’s conservative agenda because of U.S. Su
preme Court actions June 5 in a case about racial bias in election districts drawn by Republicans.
In a one-sentence order, the justices upheld a lower court ruling that struck down 28 state House and
Senate districts because they were illegal racial gerrymanders that violated the rights of black voters.
But voters may have to wait nearly 18 more months for the ruling to yield results, since the justices
separately rejected an order by the same three-judge panel to hold special elections this fall in districts
that must be redrawn by lawmakers. They wrote that the three judges should have done a better job evalu
ating whether moving up the schedule was warranted.
The lower court, “addressed the balance of equities in only the most cursory fashion,” the justices
wrote in an unsigned opinion vacating the scheduling order. “We cannot have confidence that the court
adequately grappled with the interests on both sides of the remedial question before us.”
The three-judge panel could still order new districts in time for the regular cycle of elections that
would end in November 2018. While Monday’s (June 5) opinion doesn’t prevent the judges from reaf
firming a special election schedule this fall, the window to carry it out is small.
The high court’s actions follows last month’s ruling in which the justices struck down two North Caro
lina congressional districts - the 1st in the east and the 12th in the Piedmont - because they also dimin
ished the voting strength of the state’s black residents. The legislature already redrew its congressional
boundaries in February 2016 and used them in last November’s election.
The legislative districts were initially drawn in 2011 when Republicans controlled the legislature, as
they do now. Civil rights groups and voters challenged the districts, complaining that they packed too
many black voters into some districts and made surrounding districts whiter and thus more likely to elect
Republicans.
The maps have helped Republicans expand and retain majorities they initially won in 2010, when the
GOP took control of both chambers simultaneously for the first time in 140 years. Republicans have used
the advantage to cut taxes, restrict abortion and create taxpayer-funded scholarships for children to attend
private schools.
The lower court judges unanimously declared that GOP legislators had failed to justify creating so
many districts with black voting-age populations above 50 percent.
Democrats need to capture three House seats or six Senate seats currently held by Republicans to
eliminate the GOP’s veto-proof majorities and enhance Cooper’s power. He has vetoed four bills since
taking office in January, and legislators overrode all of those vetoes.
“Whether the election is November 2018 or earlier, redrawing the districts is good for our democracy
by leveling the playing field for free and fair elections,” Cooper said in a statement.
In previously ordering that maps be redrawn quickly and elections be held in the fall, the lower court
wrote that the costs of holding special elections “pale in comparison to the injury caused by allowing
citizens” to remain represented by lawmakers in gerrymandered districts.
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