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VOLUME 97-NUMBER 16 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2018 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Judges won’t halt North Carolina
county’s legislative elections
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North
Carolina trial-court judges
refused April 13 to delay state
legislative elections in and
around Raleigh next month while
litigation challenging several
House districts continues.
A three-judge panel declined
to halt the May 8 primary for at
least four Wake County House
races because voting is already
happening. The decision also
likely preserves the use of those
and surrounding Wake districts
in the November general
election. General Assembly
boundaries have been redrawn
since last summer by Republican
legislators and federal courts,
the result of other lawsuits.
In the latest case, state
NAACP, League of Women
Voters of North Carolina and
other groups and voters argued
the GOP-controlled General
Assembly went too far last
August when lawmakers altered
four Wake House districts.
Since those districts didn’t
touch two others that courts had
found to be racial gerrymanders,
their lawsuit says, altering the
four violated a provision in the
state constitution otherwise
prohibiting redistricting during
the middle of a decade.
Attorneys for legislative
leaders disagree and have said
lawmakers were within their
responsibilities to redraw them.
In their order, the Superior
Court judges gave the plaintiffs
hope they would be ultimately
be successful, writing they
“have demonstrated a reasonable
likelihood of success on the
merits of their claims.”
But their request for a
preliminary injunction was
denied because if granted it
would halt ongoing House races
“and more importantly, would
interrupt voting by citizens
already underway,” according
to the order by Superior Court
Judge Paul Ridgeway, Joseph
Crosswhite and Alma Hinton.
Mail-in absentee voting for the
primary began last month, and
in-person absentee voting starts
next week.
The chief attorney
representing those who
sued highlighted the court’s
comments about future success.
“We will aggressively litigate
this case to final resolution to
ensure there are fair districts
in place by the time voters
go to the ballot box in 2020,”
Allison Riggs with the Southern
Coalition for Social Justice
said in a release. “Basic legal
principles of equality demand
that voters in Wake County
have the same right to vote in
constitutional districts as every
other resident in the state.”
Riggs’ . clients said
Republicans altered three of the
four districts to improve chances
for Republican election victories
because the districts had become
politically more competitive
during the decade. The plaintiffs
want the lines of those four
districts returned to how they
were first drawn in 2011. That
would require adjoining districts
to be adjusted, too.
Had the injunction been
granted, primary choices in
the four districts wouldn’t
have been counted, and special
primary elections may have been
required in the summer for those
and other Wake County districts
that also had to be altered to
comply.
The boundary lines are
gaining more importance as
optimistic Democrats seek to
end the GOP’s veto-proof
majorities in November and
Republicans try to remain
in charge at the Legislative
Building.
GOP Rep. David Lewis
of Harnett County, the House
redistricting committee chairman
and a lawsuit defendant, praised
the court’s ruling and again
accused Democrats of suing
repeatedly to regain electoral
advantage. Democrats or
their allies have been in court
challenging North Carolina
legislative and congressional
districts continuously within
months of maps based on 2010
census figures were approved.
“Wake County voters will
vote in clean, compact, and
competitive races this fall,”
Lewis said in a release. “I am
confident the General Assembly
will ultimately prevail against
these claims.”
A panel of three federal
judges agreed with plaintiffs in a
related lawsuit that Republicans
violated the state constitution by
altering the four Wake County
districts and one House district
in Mecklenburg County. But
in February the U.S. Supreme
Court blocked those changes
while there’s a broader appeal of
the General Assembly maps.
Beyonce
gives
$100,000 to
4 historically
black
schools
By Mesfin Fekadu
NEW YORK (AP) -
Beyonce paid tribute to
historically black colleges
during her groundbreaking
Coachella performance,
and now the singer is
donating $100,000 to four
black universities.
The superstar singer
announced April 16 the
Homecoming Scholars
Award Program for the
2018-2019 academic year
through her BeyGOOD
initiative. She plans to give
$25,000 each to Tuskegee
University, Bethune-
Cookman University,
Xavier University of
Louisiana and Wilberforce
University. One student
from each school will
receive the scholarship
money.
Beyonce’s Coachella
festival set was critically
acclaimed, as Beyonce
paid tribute to the
marching bands, the dance
troupes and step teams at
historically black colleges.
Last year, the singer
launched the Formation
Scholars Awards Program,
supporting creative and
bold young women, in
celebration of the one-
year anniversary of her
“Lemonade” album.
Local Black Lives Matter activist Asa Khalif, left, stands inside a Starbucks, Sunday April 15,2018, demanding
the firing of the manager who called police resulting the arrest of two black men on Thursday. The arrests were
captured on video that quickly gained traction on social media. (Mark Bryant/The Philadelphia Inquirer via
Robinson’s daughter says black
MLBers reluctant to speak out
NEW YORK (AP) - Jackie Robinson’s daughter thinks black
baseball players are more reluctant to speak publicly about racial
issues than their NFL and NBA colleagues because they constitute a
lower percentage of rosters.
She spoke at Citi Field on Apri;l 15 to mark Jackie Robinson Day,
the 71st anniversary of her father breaking Major League Baseball’s
color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
While more than 200 NFL players protested racial inequality last
season by kneeling or sitting during “The Star-Spangled Banner,”
Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell was the only baseball
player to take a knee.
“I don’t think they have much choice,” Sharon Robinson said.
“They are in the minority and where in football and basketball you
have a group and therefore you can take a group action. So players if
they speak out individually, they could be the only African-American
player on their team and it could be a difficult spot for them to be in.”
The percentage of black players from the United States and
Canada on opening-day active rosters rose to 8.4 percent, up from
7.7 last year and its highest level since at least 2012.
The percentage peaked at 19 in 1986, MLB said last week, citing
Mark Armour of the Society of American Baseball Research.
“It’s definitely a small representation at this level,” Pittsburgh All-
Star second baseman Josh Harrison said. “For younger guys coming
U P, if guys with 10 years or so in this league haven’t really done
much, you lean on those guys for advice. If you don’t have anybody
telling you one way or the other, you’ll keep your mouth shut. You
don’t want to ruffle any feathers. If you don’t have anybody to help
you in that regard, you’ll see a lot of guys be quiet.”
“Guys feel it’s a lose-lose situation for them,” Harrison said. “It
sucks because you want to have a voice, but some people feel they
can’t.”
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig retired Jackie Robinson’s No.
42 throughout the major leagues in 1997, made Jackie Robinson Day
an annual event in 2004 and five years later started asking all players
to wear No. 42 each April 15.
An educational consultant to Major League Baseball, Sharon
Robinson attended the first-pitch ceremony before the Mets-
Milwaukee game with her mom, 95-year-old Rachel Robinson, and
brother David. On a chilly afternoon, the game time temperature was
Sharon Robinson said action among African-American players is
more an individual undertaking.
“They do it around their involvement in community themselves,
and talk about why that’s important,” she said.
Part of the protest with the NFL or the NBA is how do we funnel
some of these proceeds from the games, where we’re helping to
bring these proceeds, and funnel them into the African-American
community? So some of the baseball players do that through their
own charities or their own work within communities that they’re
playing (in).”
Edward Robinson, a son of Jackie’s brother Mack, attended the
Los Angeles Dodgers’ game against Arizona and wouldn’t address
Sharon Robinson’s comments.
“However, I will tell you that Jackie stood for strength and
education. I’ve seen some progress,” he said. “It comes and goes.
What we need to do is maintain the high levels of progress and
continue to show unity.”
Multidisciplinary
Conference to Connect
Black Communities
Community leaders, academic researchers and other stakeholders
will work together to document, preserve, safeguard and enhance the
life of Black communities at Black Communities: A Conference for
Collaboration, April 23-25 in Durham.
(Chapel Hill, N.C. -April 17, 2018) Black communities have led
many of the most important social and political struggles of our time,
and are responsible for countless cultural and philosophical influ
ences that resonate around the world. Today, Black communities also
face critical questions about their legacies, their health and even their
very existence.
On April 23-25, a global network of community leaders and mem
bers, researchers and other stakeholders will gather in Durham, N.C.,
to explore the past, understand the present and imagine the future of
Black communities.
The multidisciplinary conference is hosted by the Institute of Af
rican American Research and NCGrowth, an affiliated center of the
Frank H. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. The event will fea
ture presentations, discussions, workshops, film screenings and other
programming. Participants will learn the stories of celebrated Black
communities, discover the opportunities and issues facing Black
communities today, and discuss ways to prepare those communities
for the future.
“We’re excited about the breadth of backgrounds of the partici
pants,” says Mark Gabriel Little, conference co-chair and director of
NCGrowth. “We think collaboration across geographies and profes
sions is critical to our communities’ success.”
Conference sessions will cover such diverse topics as public pol
icy, health and the environment; entrepreneurship; Black identity;
archiving family history; and community development. In addition,
participants will have the opportunity to tour several Durham sites
of significance to the African American community, such as North
Carolina Central University, and enjoy performing arts events.
The conference will feature prominent researchers, presenters and
performers from across North America, including documentary film-
makers Thomas Allen Harris (“That’s My Face,” “Twelve Disciples
of Nelson Mandela,” and “Through a- Lens Darkly: Black Photogra
phers and the Emergence of a People”) and Byron Hurt (“Soul Food
Junkies,” “Barack & Curtis,” “I Am a Man: Black Masculinity in
America”), and North Carolina State Senator Valerie Foushee. Most
sessions will be highly interactive.
“We’ve designed this conference to be a rich, participatory ex
perience,” explains Co-chair Karla Slocum of the Institute of Afri
can American Research. “We hope to facilitate a global network of
individuals, all interacting and sharing knowledge, to convert those
conversations into future collaborations.”
In addition to NC Growth and the Institute of African American
Research, the conference is hosted by the Kenan Institute of Private
Enterprise, the Southern Historical Collection, and the Center for the
Study of the American South.