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VOLUME 97 - NUMBER 5
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2018
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Chicago businessman and philanthropist Dr. Willie Wilson
(at podium) gives remarks during a press conference about Rep.
Danny Davis’ “Bail Fairness Act of 2018” on Capitol Hill as Rep.
Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) looks on. (Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA)
2 of 3 men who
helped desegregate
university have now
died
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - Two of the three men who successfully
challenged racial segregation as undergraduates at North .
Carolina’s flagship university have now died in less than
a month.
John Lewis Brandon, 80, died Tuesday at a hospital
outside Houston of complications from cancer, his son
Christopher Brandon said Wednesday.
On Dec. 29, LeRoy Frasier died at a New York City
hospital. His brother Ralph Frasier lives in Jacksonville,
Florida.
The three were students at Hillside High School in
Durham when they applied to the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1955. They were rejected until
a federal court judge ordered their admission.
In the decades since, the school has taken steps to
make amends by inviting them to speak and naming
scholarships after them.
Brandon didn’t talk much about his time at UNC-
Chapel Hill, his son said. But Christopher Brandon said
he could tell that his father appreciated a dinner the school
held to honor him and the Frasier brothers, and he liked
being back in North Carolina.
“He has a very strong love of home,” Brandon said.
Four black students had been admitted to the law school
when the Frasiers and Brandon applied, but no black
undergraduates had been accepted. After his brother’s
death, Ralph Frasier recalled how their legal challenge
came about.
He said a group of white UNC-Chapel Hill students who
opposed segregation approached the Durham Committee
on Negro Affairs to find black students willing to fight
it. The group then met with the principal of the all-black
Hillside High School to find students whose families were
strong enough to endure the pressures of such a fight.
They chose Brandon and the Frasier brothers.
None ofthe three graduated from the school. Christopher
Brandon said his father got a master’s degree from the
University of Texas-Clear Lake and worked at Dow
Chemical. Both Frasier brothers graduated from what
is now North Carolina Central University, a historically
black school in Durham.
In addition to his son, Brandon’s survivors include
his wife, Margie Yarborough Brandon, and a daughter,
Tracye Brandon.
Register to Vote
Racial comment: College men’s tennis
player suspended
BOONE (AP) - A white men’s college tennis player has been
suspended after a black opponent tweeted that his on-court rival
told him “at least I know my dad” during their weekend match.
Appalachian State_Universitjf_ in North Carolina issued a
statement Monday saying Spencer Brown, who’s white, was
suspended indefinitely after Sunday’s match with North Carolina
A&T State University, a historically black college. Appalachian
State apologized in its statement, calling the conduct “derogatory
and offensive.”
John Wilson, the black player who is also A&T’s senior class
president, said Brown made other offensive comments during
Sunday’s NCAA Division I match. The tweet included a photo
of Brown.
A school spokeswoman says there’ll be no additional
comment. A recording heard on a call to Appalachian State’s
men’s tennis coach said his number was disconnected.
Trump wants Jay-Z to know black
jobless rate at record low
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is urging his
followers to inform rapper Jay-Z that “because of my policies,”
unemployment among black Americans is at the “LOWEST
RATE EVER RECORDED!”
The president’s tweet Sunday appears to be in response
to a CNN interview in which the rapper said the president’s
vulgar comments about African countries and Haiti were
“disappointing” and “hurtful.”
Jay-Z said on the debut episode of “The Van Jones Show” on
Saturday that lower unemployment among blacks doesn’t make
up for the president’s attitude. Jay-Z says, “It’s not about money
at the end of the day,” and it “doesn’t equate to happiness.”
Asked about the president’s tweet as he attended the Grammys
Sunday night, Jay-Z’s producer No I.D. says the back-and-forth
is “a conversation that needs to occur.”
North Carolina Democrats had cash
advantage entering 2018
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina’s two major political
parties brought in lots of money during the second half of 2017,
but Democrats had a large cash advantage entering this year’s
elections.
The state Republican Party’s report at the state elections
board said it raised $2.1 million for the six months ending Dec.
31, compared to $1.4 million the Democratic Party raised. But a
strong first six months means Democrats had $2.4 million in the
bank starting January. The GOP had $982,000.
Democrats have been energized thanks to new Democratic
Gov. Roy Cooper and opposition to President Donald Trump.
Cooper is raising money to help legislative candidates end the
GOP’s veto-proof majorities.
The GOP benefited from $890,000 coming from the founder
of a Durham private investment firm who’s given millions to
other Republican groups.
North Carolina bridge named for
pioneering jurist
ELLERBE (AP) - A bridge in North Carolina has been named
for a judicial pioneer.
Ceremonies were held on Jan. 23 renaming a bridge over
Interstate 73/74 in Richmond County for Judge Henry E. Frye,
who grew up in the county.
Frye was one of the first black lawyers in the South to serve
as assistant U.S. attorney, and was later elected to the state
legislature. He was named to the state Supreme Court in 1983 by
then-Gov. Jim Hunt and served 17 years, as the court’s first black
associate justice. He was named chief justice in 1999 before he
retired the next year.
The bridge was previously known as the Green Lake Road
Bridge.
Rep. Danny Davis
Introduces Bail
Reform Bill
W
A
By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor),
During a recent press conference on Capitol Hill, Rep. Danny
Davis (D-Ill.) said that at any given time there are roughly 500,000
people sitting in local jails waiting for their day in court.
“These are people who have been charged with a crime, but are
not convicted,” said Davis. “Many of the people waiting in jail are
forced to wait simply, because they cannot afford to post bail.”
On January 18, Davis introduced the Bail Fairness Act of 2018 *t#
alleviate some of the burdens associated with the cash bail system.
The Chicago congressman was joined on Capitol Hill by Reps.
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) and Chicago
businessman and philanthropist Dr. Willie Wilson. The four of them
were flanked by two large posters; one poster read: “Taxpayers
Spend $17 billion on Pre-trial Detentions”; the other poster simply
said, “Bail Fail” in large letters. Wilson said that he has paid the bail's
of non-violent Cook County Corrections inmates who were too poor
to bail themselves out.
Davis’ legislation would require states to release individuals
charged with a non-violent misdemeanor on non-monetary conditions
prior to their court date.
Civil rights groups and lawmakers are increasingly putting pressure
on businesses operating in the cash bail system and becoming more
vocal about problems in the industry. ‘"1
As more cities begin to do away with the cash bail practice,
some federal legislators are taking notice. Senators Kamala Harris
(D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have voiced similar concerns
regarding the problems of money bail in the Senate. In September
2017, Harris joined with Republican Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
on the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act. The bill would overhaul
America’s bail system just as Rep. Davis’ legislation hopes to do.
A May 2017 report by Color of Change and the ACLU entitled,
“Selling Off Our Freedom: How Insurance Corporations Have Takeri
Over Our Bail System ” outlined the for-profit incentives behind the
bail system.in.Amcrica,, .
The report revealed that there are fewer than 10 companies
involved in the administration of over $14 billion in bonds posted by
for-profit bail each year. The bail industry collects approximately $2
billion in profit, annually.
“The result of bail corporations’ control is that millions of people
are no longer free: people stuck in jail and families stuck in debt to
create profit for these corporations,” the report read. The study also
pointed out that, “the national median for bail for a felony arrest is
now $10,000, while the Federal Reserve has found that nearly half
of Americans would be unable to pay for an unexpected expense of
$400.”
The United States remains number one in the world in the rate Of
incarceration, with over two million people behind bars, in large part,
because poor people are unable to pay their way out of incarceration.
The money bail system disproportionately impacts the poor. There
are currently over 43 million Americans living under the poverty
line; nearly 30 percent of African Americans live in poverty.
“The original purpose of bail was to serve as an incentive to return
to court when a person is arrested, released, and their case proceeds.
However, the current money bail system has little to do with this
original intent...people with money can almost always buy their way
to freedom, regardless of the charges against them,” wrote ACLU
Deputy National Political Director Udi Ofer on December 11, 2017:
Rep. Davis has continued to focus on justice reform
issues during his 20 years in Congress. Davis’ “Second
Chance Act” was signed into law by President George
W. Bush in 2007. The legislation assisted formerly
incarcerated individuals to successfully re-enter society.
In November 2016, after his 15-year-old grandson
was murdered in Chicago, Rep. Davis pushed for more
funding for neighborhoods struggling with poverty. His
focus was on the “10-20-30” policy proposed by South
Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn. The “10-20-30” plan would
focus cash on 10 percent of all government funding to be
allocated to areas where 20 percent of the residents have
lived in poverty for over 30 years. if
Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist,
political analyst and contributor to the NNPA Newswire
and BlackPressUSA.com. She can be reached by email
atLBurkeOO?®,zmail.com and on Twitter at(a),LVBurkej
Likely gubernatorial candidate
Forest touts fundraising
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - The latest fundraising numbers released by
likely 2020 North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Dan Forest could
make fellow Republicans think twice before getting into the race
withhim. JW
The lieutenant governor’s campaign committee said this week he
had raised more than $3 million during 2017 for the committee and
two other political groups, including a ‘super PAC” that promoted
Forest during this successful 2016 re-election bid.
That group, an independent expenditure committee called Truth
and Prosperity, received only one donation last year, a $1 million
contribution in late December from a private investment firm
executive, according to a report filed with the state elections board.
Committees had until Jan. 26 to turn in reports for the six months
ending Dec. 31. ^
An email to supporters announcing the 2017 figures had Forest
taking credit for raising money for all three committees. •.
‘We issued a public statement to be transparent with the general
public,” i?i
^