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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2017
VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 33
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50
Analysis: Trump f s slow walk to
condemning white supremacists
By JULIE PACE
AP Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON (AP) _ It took President Donald Trump two days to do what both Republicans and Democrats said should have come
fast and easy.
In his carefully worded statement Monday, Trump condemned members of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as
"repugnant.” He vowed that his administration would crack down on those who perpetrate "racist violence.” He called for national unity.
It was the type of statement Americans have come to expect from their presidents after racially charged incidents, like the deadly
violence that erupted Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia. But Trump struggled mightily to meet the moment, glaringly omitting any direct
condemnation of white supremacists in his initial comments on the incident and decrying bigotry "on many sides.”
As the most unconventional president in modern American history, Trump has at times thrived off low expectations. He is often cheered
by Republicans when he fulfills basic functions of the office. And GOP lawmakers in particular have often tried to explain away his missteps
as a function of his lack of experience in Washington and politics.
But he has found himself with few allies after his botched handling of the Charlottesville violence. Several Republicans challenged Trump
directly to be more strident in calling out white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner said the president needed to "step
up” and call the groups "evil.”
The president got to that place on Monday, declaring that "racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and
thugs.”
It’s unclear whether his cleanup efforts will ease the political pressure he has faced in recent days. In addition to the disapproval from his
own party, three members of a White House advisory council _ Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Intel CEO
Brian Krzanich _ announced they were resigning from the panel in protest.
The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black
People will celebrate its 82nd Founders’ Anniversary
with three events. The first of the three events on this
weekend will be a youth forum held in the student
union on the campus of NCCU. Immediately following
the forum, a free party for the students will take place.
Saturday morning we will be hosting our 1st Annual
Golf Classic at Fall Village Golf Course in Durham off
Hwy 98. 6 p.m., at The Durham Convention Center,
located at 301 Morgan Street, Durham, NC 27702. The
Keynote speaker for this event will be Congresswoman
Maxine Waters. The honorees will be Dr. Lorenzo
Lynch and Dr. Howard Fitts.
Members of the NCCU Kaw School hold a rally Monday, Aug. 14 at the Law School whey they laid out
legal and moral reasons for fighting racism and supporting the cause of the Charlottesville massacre. NCCU
Rally participants from left to right are: Professor Irving Joyner, NCCU Professor of Law; Ms. Aviance Brown,
President, NCCU School of Law Bar Association; NCCU School of Law Dean Phyllis Craig-Taylor; and C.
Scott Holmes, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law & Supervising Attorney Civil Litigation Clinic
Later Monday, Trump tried to pin the blame for the controversy on one of his favorite targets: the media. He tweeted that the media "will
never be satisfied ... truly bad people.”
The trouble for Trump is that his struggle in responding to the Charlottesville violence seems to fit a pattern of uncharacteristic caution
when it comes to handling racial tensions and condemning the fringe groups that have rallied around his candidacy.
Indeed, it was striking that one of the few signs of support for Trump after his comments Saturday came from the white supremacist
website Daily Stormer. The website noted that Trump avoided reporters’ questions about whether he condemned the groups leading the
protests. "Really, really good. God bless him,” the website wrote.
Trump denies that he’s racist or sympathetic to such groups. Son-in-law Jared Kushner, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and daughter
Ivanka, who converted to Judaism, are among those who have defended the president against those charges.
Still, he has a history of engaging in high-profile, racially fraught battles.
Early in his career as a developer, Trump fought charges of bias against blacks seeking to rent at his family-owned apartment complexes.
He long promoted the lie that the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama, was not born in the United States. As a candidate, he proposed
temporarily banning Muslims from the United States. He retweeted a post from accounts that appeared to have ties to white nationalist
groups. And he was slow to reject the endorsement of former KKK leader David Duke.
Some of the president’s friends and advisers have argued that Trump is simply refusing to bend to liberals’ desire for political correctness.
A boastful, proudly disruptive politician, Trump often has been rewarded for saying impolite and impolitic things. Some supporters cheer him
for being someone who says what they cannot.
Democrats frequently assert that Trump sees a political advantage in courting the support of the far right. Indeed, he has benefited
politically from the backing of media outlets such as Breitbart or Info Wars. They have consistently promoted Trump and torn down his
opponents, sometimes with biased or inaccurate reports.
Charlottesville’s mayor, Democrat Mike Signer, said Sunday that Trump made a choice during his campaign to "go right to the gutter, to
play on our worst prejudices.”
Resident asks NC county to replace
Confederate statue
ASHEBORO, N.C. (AP) - A request to remove a Confederate monument at a North
Carolina county courthouse is a new entrant into the nationwide debate over the presence and
preservation of such monuments.
WFMY-TV reports former local NAACP president Dr. Wesley Fennell asked Randolph
County commissioners at their meeting Monday to remove the bronze Confederate soldier
from the courthouse and replace it with one honoring the Quakers.
Randolph County Manager Hal Johnson says commissioners have not made a decision or
discussed the issue yet. Johnson says Randolph County was part of an 1861 vote in which 90
percent of its citizens voted to stay in the Union. Johnson says the county’s Historic Preservation
Commission should compile the history and meaning of community monuments to provide
information to citizens.
The statue was erected in 1911.
NC remapping rules
include election
results but not race
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Past election results can be considered
in drawing North Carolina’s new General Assembly districts later
;his month but not racial information about voters, according to
ground rules Republicans pushed through redistricting committees
Thursday.
The party-line votes on the GOP-controlled House and Senate
panels for mapmaking criteria run counter to the wishes of most
speakers during a public hearing last week who pleaded for politics
:o be left out of the process. And Democratic committee members
scratched their heads when Republican leaders said racial data
wouldn’t be examined at all even though the boundaries still must
comply with the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
"How are you going to prove to the court that you did not
violate their order in terms of racial gerrymandering?” Rep. Mickey
Michaux, a Durham County Democrat, asked House Redistricting
Committee chairman David Lewis. "You cannot escape the fact
frat race has to be in there somewhere.”
Federal judges last year struck down 28 House and Senate
listricts because they said GOP legislators relied too heavily on race
when drawing them in 2011. Their ruling, which wasn’t finalized
antil a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June, means legislators are
scrambling this month to adjust those and several dozen adjacent
listricts and approve them before a Sept. 1 deadline.
Lewis said his reading of the August 2016 ruling by a three-judge
oanel found that legislators had not offered substantial evidence to
ustify their focus on using race in drawing districts to comply with
fre Voting Rights Act.
"Therefore, we do not believe it is appropriate given the court’s
order in this case for these committees to consider race when
Irawing districts,” said Lewis, a Harnett County Republican.
All but one of the 28 challenged districts had majority black
voting-age populations. Although Democrats have said that
Republicans needlessly drew too many such districts to benefit GOP
candidates in surrounding districts, they say protections to ensure
fre political influence ofblack voters doesn’t erode are still needed.
The approved maps are subject to review by the three-judge panel
ind would first be used in the November 2018 elections.
"We live in the South,” said Forsyth County Sen. Paul Lowe,
who like Michaux is black. "When in the South has race not been a
factor? Because what I’m hearing doesn’t really add up.”
Republican mapmakers last year also reversed course on using
•acial data in February 2016, when another three-judge panel tossed
:wo congressional districts as unlawful. Instead, Lewis and other
Republicans decided they would rework congressional boundaries
with the goal of the GOP keeping 10 of 13 U.S. House seats.
Lewis didn’t go so far this time as to offer criteria to specifically
:ry to keep the party’s current supermajorities in the state House and
Senate, which were helped by the current 2011 maps. But despite
calls by speakers last week, Lewis said redistricting isn’t politically
:flind. Statewide election results for governor, president and U.S.
Senate routinely have been used to project whether a district leans
io the left or right.
"Every result from where a line is drawn will be an inherently
oolitical thing,” Lewis said. "It is right and relevant to review past
performance in drawing districts.”
NCC