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VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 50
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2017
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) (pictured) and Rep. Bennie Thompson
(D-Miss.) declined invitations to attend the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
dedication ceremony, when they learned that President Donald Trump was
also invited. This photo was taken during a Congressional Black Caucus press
conference on police brutality at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. in
2016. (Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA)
CBC Members Call Trump Presence
at Museum Opening an Insult
John Lewis and Bennie Thompson Spar with President
Trump Over Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Dedication
By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)
When two members of the Congressional Black Caucus, longtime Mississippi
Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis (D-
Ga.), heard that President Donald Trump planned to attend the Mississippi Civil Rights
Museum dedication ceremony, they both announced that they would forego the event.
The White House was critical.
On December 7, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “We think
it’s unfortunate that these members of Congress wouldn’t join the president in honoring
the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history.
The president hopes others will join him in recognizing that the movement was about
removing barriers and unifying Americans of all backgrounds.”
From that statement, you might never have guessed that the White House spokesperson
was referring to a civil rights leader: Congressman John Lewis.
“It’s laughable that the White House is criticizing John Lewis and Bennie Thompson
for not attending the opening of a civil rights museum that honors the sacrifices of
...wait...John Lewis, Bennie Thompson, and many others,” said CBC Chairman Cedric
Richmond (D-La.). “This White House is not serious about civil rights. From dismantling
the civil rights division in [the Department of Justice] to equating peaceful people who
protested racism to neo-Nazi’s and White supremacists, they just don’t get it.”
In a joint statement on December 7, Thompson and Lewis wrote: “After careful
consideration and conversations with church leaders, elected officials, civil rights
activists, and many citizens of our congressional districts, we have decided not to attend
or participate in the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.”
The statement continued: “President Trump’s attendance and his hurtful policies are
an insult to the people portrayed in this civil rights museum. The struggles represented
in this museum exemplify the truth of what really happened in Mississippi. President
Trump’s disparaging comments about women, the disabled, immigrants, and National
Football League players disrespect the efforts of Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry,
Medgar Evers, Robert Clark, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner,
and countless others who have given their all for Mississippi to be a better place. After
President Trump departs, we encourage all Mississippians and Americans to visit this
historic civil rights museum.”
Trump visited a few southern states the weekend before the special election to fill
the Alabama Senate seat of former Senator Jeff Sessions, who is now the U.S. Attorney
General.
Lauren Victoria Burke is the White House Correspondent for NNPA Newswire and a
writer and political analyst. Connect with Lauren by email at LBurke007@gmail.com
and on Twitter at @L VBurke.
Financial worries lead to North Carolina school’s probation
CHARLOTTE (AP) - Financial concerns have led to probation for a historically black university in
North Carolina.
Media outlets report the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges
placed Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte on probation this week.
The accrediting organization will visit the school next year and decide whether to issue a 10-year
renewal of accreditation or revoke the school’s accreditation if concerns about finances and control have
not been resolved.
The school said in a news release Dec. 5 that the probation will allow it to improve its quality and
effectiveness.
School president Ron Carter said last year that the university was ordered to repay nearly $2 million in
student aid that auditors said the school received in violation of federal regulations.
Aided by scandal,
Dems fighting
math and history
in Alabama
By Steve Peoples and Kim Chandler
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Renegade Republican Roy Moore may be plagued by
scandal, but scandal alone will not convince the voters of 44th Place North to show up
for Democrat Doug Jones.
In a state where Democrats are used to losing, malaise hangs over this quiet African-
American neighborhood in suburban Birmingham, even three days before Alabama’s
high-profile Senate contest. It is supposed to be a Democratic stronghold, yet the Jones
campaign signs are hard to find.
“A lot of people don’t vote because they think their vote don’t count,” Ebonique Jiles,
27, said after promising a Jones volunteer she would support the Democrat in Tuesday’s
election. “I’ll vote regardless of whether he wins or loses.”
With history and math working against them in deep-red Alabama, Democrats
fought Saturday to energize a winning coalition of African-Americans and moderate
Republicans - a delicate balancing act on full display as Jones and his network of
volunteers canvassed the state. Moore, by contrast, held no public events, a familiar
strategy as he bets big that the state’s strong Republican leanings will carry him to the
Senate, despite his shortcomings.
During an appearance near the staging ground for Selma’s landmark “Bloody Sunday”
civil rights march, Jones declared that Alabama has an opportunity to go “forward and
not backward.”
“This campaign has the wind at its back because we are bringing people together
from all across this state,” Jones said after a meeting at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church.
“The other side is trying to divide us more than they bring people together.”
He was later joined by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, one of only two African-
American Democrats in the Senate, who offered a warning to voters gathered at Alabama
State University: “Bad people get elected when good people don’t vote.”
Saturday evening, Moore’s camp organized two get-out-the-vote concerts expected
to draw overwhelmingly white voters - including some open-minded Republicans - in a
state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than a quarter century.
Moore got a big boost the night before in nearby Pensacola, Florida, where President
Donald Trump encouraged voters to “get out and vote for Roy Moore.” Trump has also
recorded a phone message on Moore’s behalf set to be distributed to Alabama voters on
Monday, said White House spokesman Raj Shah.
The White House support comes even as the 70-year-old Moore faces multiple
accusations of sexual misconduct, including allegations that he molested two teenage
girls and pursued romantic relationships with several others while in his 30s. He has
largely denied the allegations.
The explosive charges, which many Washington Republicans describe as credible,
are giving Democrats a rare opportunity to pick up a Senate seat in the Deep South,
where Republicans significantly outnumber Democrats. Even if Jones wins on Tuesday,
many Democrats expect the GOP to re-claim the seat when the term expires at the end
of 2020.
Beneath Jones’ biracial and bipartisan balancing act is a complex numbers game that
has vexed Alabama Democrats for decades.
The party’s core of black voters and white liberals - plus a. smidgen of old-guard,
more conservative “Southern Democrats” who’ve held on amid the region’s partisan
shift - is worth no more than 40 percent in statewide elections. That’s been true in high-
turnout elections, with former President Barack Obama twice landing between 38 and
39 percent, and the most recent governor’s race in 2014, when the Democratic nominee
pulled just 36 percent.
African-Americans make up about 25 percent of eligible voters, though Democratic
pollster Zac McCrary said Jones needs black voters to comprise 27 percent or more of
those who show up at the polls on Tuesday. Jones then needs to win one in three white
voters in the state, which would require capturing about 15 percent of Republicans,
McCrary said.
Such dynamics are difficult to overcome, said Democratic strategist Keenan Pontoni,
who managed the campaign of Georgia congressional hopeful Jon Ossoff earlier
this year. Ossoff aimed for an upset in the 6th Congressional District of Georgia, but
ultimately came up short in Atlanta’s Republican-leaning northern suburbs.
“The only way you win in these kinds of districts and states is a coalition that is
obviously very hard to put together,” Pontoni said. “You’re going after voters who think
and vote very differently.”
Much like Jones, Ossoff used an extensive, data-driven ground game to maximize
Democratic support, while using television advertising to strike a moderate, non-
partisan tone. Ossoff didn’t have a controversial opponent like Moore, but he ran against
Washington dysfunction as a way to reach moderates.
On the ground in Alabama on Saturday, Jones dispatched hundreds of volunteers
across the state to knock on doors to identify likely supporters in neighborhoods that
featured high concentrations of African-Americans and Republicans who supported
Moore’s GOP primary opponent, current Sen. Luther Strange.
Jones volunteer Dana Ellis, a 64-year-old nurse, navigated icy sidewalks in
Birmingham’s Kingston neighborhood, which is overwhelmingly African-American, to
ensure likely Jones supporters vote on Tuesday. Unlike many states, Alabama doesn’t
offer early voting.
“Roy Moore will not win if people turn out to vote,” Ellis said.
Many voters on the list provided by the campaign didn’t answer their doors Saturday
morning. Those who did suggested they would support Jones, even if they didn’t know
him well.
Oweda Clark, who lives just around the corner from 44th Place North, admits it’s
hard being a Democrat in Alabama. But she told Ellis that she plans to vote for Jones
anyway.
“I don’t like Roy Moore. I don’t like what he stands for,” she said.