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West Point
Graduatees
Most Diverse
Class
1
WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) - Vice President Mike Pence
told the most diverse graduating class in the history of the
U.S. Military Academy on May 25 that they are “the best
of the best.”
Pence congratulated the West Point graduates on be
half of President Donald Trump, and told them, “As you
accept the mantle of leadership I promise you, your com
mander in chief will always have your back. President
Donald Trump is the best friend the men and women of
our armed forces will ever have.”
More than 980 cadets became U.S. Army second lieu
tenants in the ceremony at West Point’s football stadium.
Pence noted that Trump has proposed a $750 billion
defense budget for 2020 and said the United States “is
once again embracing our role as the leader of the free
world.”
He told the graduates that the world “is a dangerous
place” and they should expect to see combat.
“It is a virtual certainty that you will fight on a battle-
field for America at some point in your life,” Pence said.
“You will lead soldiers in combat. It will happen. Some
of you will join the fight against radical Islamic terrorists
in Afghanistan and Iraq.” He added, “Some of you may
even be called upon to serve in this hemisphere.”
The class was the most diverse in West Point’s history, and Pence
said he wanted to acknowledge “the historic milestones that we’re
marking today.”
The 2019 cadets included 34 black women and 223 women, both
all-time highs since the first female cadets graduated in 1980. The
academy graduated its 5,000th woman May 25.
The 110 African Americans who graduated were double the num
ber from 2013.
Pence said the graduates also included the academy’s 1,000th
Jewish cadet.
Pence did not serve in the military but noted that his late father
served with the Army in the Korean War.
“And as I stand before you today here at West Point I can’t help
but think that First Lt. Edward J. Pence, looking down from glory, is
finally impressed with his third son,” Pence said. “So thank you for
the honor.”
The ceremony was Pence’s second visit to West Point and his first
as commencement speaker.
Some supporters of the recent teacher’s rally in Raleigh. See photos on page 13.
Photos By Artije Photography - Ronald Parker
NC African
American
Heritage
Commission
gets new
director
RALEIGH (AP) - North
Carolina’s African Ameri
can Heritage Commission
has a new director with her
own history with the agen
cy-
The state Department of
Natural and Cultural Re
sources said in a news re
lease this week that Angela
Thorpe is the commission’s
new director. Thorpe has
been the acting director
since September 2018 and
previously was the com
mission’s associate direc
tor.
Thorpe was the first Af
rican American historic
interpreter at the James K.
Polk State Historic Site in
Pineville. The agency says
that while there, she used
inclusive programming to
attract diverse audiences.
In 2016, she was award
ed a diversity and inclusion
fellowship by the Ameri
can Alliance of Museums.
Black official:
Annexation
could change
Starkville
politics
REP. JOHN LEWIS - COURTESY LINCOLN UNI
VERSITY
Rep. John Lewis tells
graduates to ‘get in trouble’
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - U.S. Rep. John Lewis urged gradu
ates of Framingham State University in Massachusetts on May 26 to
“get in trouble” and to build “bridges, not walls.”
The Georgia Democrat, a veteran of the 1960s civil rights move
ment, was the keynote speaker at the school’s commencement at the
DCU Center in Worcester.
He hearkened back to his days growing up in a segregated South,
and remembered being told not to question the status quo.
“They said, ’Boy, that’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way, don’t
get in trouble,’” Lewis said. “But I was inspired to get in trouble:
Good trouble, necessary trouble.
“I’d advise each and every one of you young people to go out and
to get in trouble, come make our country a better place,” he said.
Lewis was arrested dozens of times and was physically attacked
during the civil rights movement, but told students to follow the non-
violent examples of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Inspired by King, he joined and then rose to become a leader of
movement.
Longest-running housing
discrimination case
outlives judge
By Ed White
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (AP) - A federal judge who worked until his recent death at age 96 left
a historic trail of groundbreaking legal opinions. But one case outlived Damon Keith: the longest-
running housing discrimination lawsuit in the United States.
Keith declared in 1971 that Hamtramck, a tiny Detroit-area city long known for Polish culture,
had intentionally forced out blacks or cut them off from the community to make room for Interstate
75 and so-called urban renewal projects in the 1950s and ’60s.
Hamtramck finally agreed to offer 200 family housing units, as well as housing for senior citizens,
for violating the constitutional rights of black residents. Yet even today - decades later - there still are
three houses left to build. Keith, who died on April 28, won’t see the keys change hands, an unfortu
nate postscript for a judge whose steadfast enforcement of civil rights was the emblem of his career.-
“The finish line will probably be this summer,” said Michael Barnhart, an attorney who has repre
sented generations of black families in the litigation. “I know his health was declining, but I wanted
him to be there after all these years.”
Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski said: “It’s bittersweet. The end really is around the comer.”
Keith, the grandson of slaves, was a judge for 52 years, first at the U.S. District Court in Detroit,
followed by 42 years on a federal appeals court. He made history on the bench, ruling against the
Nixon administration’s use of warrantless phone taps and ordering George W. Bush’s administration
to open deportation hearings.
In the Hamtramck lawsuit, filed in 1968, Keith noted that blacks made up less than 15% of the
city’s population but represented more than 70% of residents whose neighborhoods were broken up
because of the path of I-75. He also cited other examples.
“The judge referred to it as the 'black removal case,’” Barnhart said. “It was an extreme example
of racial discrimination.”
After nearly a decade, Hamtramck agreed to offer housing at below-market rates to families that
wanted to return. But that solution languished for many more years, due to political opposition and
the city’s poor finances. By 2010, half of the 200 units were complete, and Keith proudly attended a
ribbon-cutting at a new home on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Then work stalled again.
“The problem always was the city was broke,” Barnhart said. “Through the whole case we’ve
tried to identify federal programs or county programs or state programs to help us put together the
housing that was needed. That has been the fundamental problem.”
Keith had the case for virtually his entire career, keeping it until 2018 despite his promotion to the
appeals court. In his 2014 biography, “Crusader for Justice,” the judge scoffed at critics who accused
him of “social engineering.”
“If I see inequities ... as it relates to discrimination and violation of the law, then I have broad
authority to fashion a remedy,” Keith said.
Lemuel Sawyer, 61, and his sisters are among those who have benefited from Keith’s decision.
His family was forced out when he was a boy, but he returned to Hamtramck in 2014 to live in a new
two-story home. His parents are dead.
“To me, this is my mother’s home. This is my family’s home,” Sawyer said, speaking in his door
way on Goodson Street. “Judge Damon Keith - he saved the day. He gave us optimism.”
• STARKVILLE, Miss.
, (AP) - An African Ameri
can elected official in north
Mississippi says he thinks
a city’s annexation plan
could diminish black po
litical power.
Starkville Alderman
Henry Vaughn says taking
in more territory could in
crease the strength of five
wards that have been rep
resented by white aider-
men while decreasing the
strength of two wards with
black aldermen.
Starkville Mayor Lynn
Spruill tells the Commer
cial Dispatch that redis
tricting is “nothing more
than an opportunity for the
city to grow.”
The 2010 Census showed
Starkville’s population was
59.6% white, 34.6% black
and 5.7% other. Combined
with the annexation area,
the city would become
60.2% white, 34.1 % black
and 5.8% other.
With or without annexa
tion, Starkville officials
will redraw aldermen ward
lines after the 2020 Census
to balance out other popu
lation changes.
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