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VOLUME 98 - NUMBER 48
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, DECEMBER14, 2019
TELEPHONE 919-682-2913 PRICE 50 CENTS
2 people charged in
fatal shooting get
suspended sentences
(AP) - Two people charged in the murder of a North
Carolina man received suspended sentences Dec/ 5 after
pleading guilty to reduced charges.
According to prosecutors, Kenneth Gibbs and Monet
Wise had cooperated with investigators in the case against
the gunman, Khalil Knight.
Bernabe Dubon, 62, was shot in June 2017 as he head
ed for a Durham store to send money to family members
outside the U.S, news outlets reported. Prosecutors said
Knight, Gibbs and Wise had been smoking marijuana, ran
out of money and decided to rob a Hispanic person.
Dubon was a teacher and a principal in Honduras but
worked as a carpenter in North Carolina.
Assistant District Attorney Kendra Montgomery-Blinn
said the three saw Dubon and targeted him. Court records
said Dubon fought back, then threw $20 at Knight from
the thousands of dollars in cash he had for his relatives.
Montgomery-Blinn said Knight shot Dubon twice. Po
lice found him with gunshot wounds to the foot and pel
vis.
Multiple charges were filed against Knight, Wise and
Gibbs, including first-degree murder. In August, Knight
pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sen
tenced to a maximum of 23 years in prison.
On Dec. 5, Wise and Gibbs pleaded guilty to attempted
robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy. Both
of their sentences were suspended in lieu of two years of
supervised probation.
WRAL reported that prosecutors offered a deal to the
two defendants because they cooperated with investiga
tors and are working to support their families.
The evidence showed Gibbs and Wise were part of
planning the robbery, according to a statement from the
District Attorney’s Office.
“They never possessed a weapon. They were around
the corner when shots were fired and were not aware until
police told them, that someone had died,” the statement
said.
The DA’s Office worked closely with Dubon’s family
“to reach a disposition in this case that was fair and in the
interest of justice,” the statement said.
The conditions of their probation include not contact
ing Knight or Dubon’s family and participating in coun
seling and other programs.
UNC students march, protest
Confederate statue settlement
CHAPEL Hill (AP) - Protesters at the Un iversity
ofNorth Carolina-Chapel Hill marched to an administra
tion building to criticize a legal settlement that will turn a
toppled Confederate statue over to a group of Confeder
ate descendants.
Ajudge approved the settlement last week in response
to a lawsuit filed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The decision allows the group to “forever maintain pos
session of the monument,” news outlets reported. The
university system also will use non-state funds to endow
a $2.5 million trust for its preservation and possibly a fa
cility to house it.
The university system said the settlement complies
with a 2015 state law restricting the removal of Confed
erate monuments.
• About 200 campus community members met Dec. 5 at
the location where the monument once stood and marched
from there while chanting and toting signs.
Leaders of black student groups at the protest expressed
outrage and disappointment with the decision, The News
& Observer reported. One student leader said the decision
shows the university has “invested in white supremacy.”
Others called for would-be benefactors to cease donating
to any university causes that don’t support marginalized
students.
Silent Sam stood in a main quad of the campus for
more than a century until activists toppled it overnight in
August 2018.
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College Heights Historic Distract installed. See story and photos on page 6.
House passes bill to restore
key parts of Voting Rights Act
By Matthew Daly
dWASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic-controlled House ap
proved a bill Dec. 6 that would restore key sections of the Voting
Rights Act that once required officials in all or parts of 15 mostly
Southern states to receive federal approval before making changes to
the voting process.
The bill would amend the 1965 law to impose new obligations on
states and local jurisdictions, essentially reversing a 2013 Supreme
Court decision that tossed out a “pre-clearance” provision that de
termined which jurisdictions needed federal oversight of elections.
The bill was approved, 228-187. Veteran Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.,
an icon of the civil rights movement, announced the tally in a sign of
the importance Democratic leaders place bn the measure.
Just one Republican, Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, joined
Democrats in voting for the bill. It now goes to the Republican-con
trolled Senate, where it is unlikely to move forward.
Lewis and other supporters said the measure would help prevent
voter suppression in the South and other areas by developing a pro
cess to require states and localities with a recent history of voting
rights violations to pre-clear election changes with the Justice De
partment.
Strict voter registration requirements, polling place confusion and
other obstacles faced by Georgia voters last year show why federal
oversight of elections is still needed in places with a history of dis
crimination, supporters said. Problems also were reported in Florida,
where elections officials came under withering criticism for their
handling of a legally required recount in close races for governor and
U.S. Senate.
“No right is more precious to our citizenship than the right of all
Americans to be able to vote,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the
bill’s chief sponsor. “When Americans are not able to cast their bal
lots, their votes are silenced.”
Elected officials “should be alarmed if any American who wants
to cast a ballot is unable to cast a ballot,” she said.
The White House opposes the bill, calling it an example of federal
overreach. The Democratic-backed measure would give the federal
government “too much authority over an even greater number of vot
ing practices and decisions made by states and local governments
without justifying the current needs for such policies,” the White
House said in a statement.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that similar restrictions im
posed by Congress on states and localities are unconstitutional, the
White House said.
Sewell said the 2013 Supreme Court ruling in Shelby v. Holder
has led to renewed discrimination against minority voters in her state
and throughout the South. Some of the laws were passed in the name
of combating voter fraud, but Sewell said the real issue was voter
suppression - not fraud.
The laws passed by Republican-leaning states were aimed at “sup
pressing the voice of certain Americans, and that’s un-American,”
Sewell said on the House floor. Whether African Americans in Geor
gia or Native Americans in North Dakota, members of minority
groups have continually faced barriers to voting, she said.
“This is a seminal piece of legislation that will restore, for the
people, the right to vote,” Sewell said, adding that Republicans and
Democrats alike “should be making sure it’s easier to vote, not harder
to vote.”
Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Illinois, said he agreed with that sentiment.
“Every eligible American who wants to vote should be able to cast a
ballot,” he said, calling the Voting Rights Act “a great example of a
bipartisan solution that is working today to protect Americans from
voter discrimination.”
Black church believed to be
oldest in US finishes repairs
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - A 160-year-old church believed to be
the oldest black church in the United States and built by enslaved
Africans has been restored to a version of its former glory.
A fresh coat of paint covers the freshly carpeted First African Bap
tist Church in Savannah, Georgia, which also had its bell tower fixed,
water damaged ceilings repaired and stucco replaced, the Savannah
Morning News reported Dec. 7.
It cost nearly $600,000 to repair numerous issues, the Rev. Thru-
mond Tillman said. The church, a National Historic Landmark, was
organized in 1773, according to the website, which says the church
gained a pastor in 1775 and a congregation two years later. The sanc-
tuary was completed in 1859.
Some historic pieces were left untouched during the restoration,
such as the pews the church says are carved with West African Arabic
script, one of the earliest forms of writing. The original sanctuary
still is dotted with holes that were arranged in the shape of an African
prayer symbol of life, death and rebirth, according to the church’s
website. It was those holes that allowed runaway slaves to breathe
as they traveled along the Underground Railroad and stopped at the
church, according to the newspaper.
The church would continue to play a central role in Savannah’s
black community, later acting as a meeting place for civil rights ac
tivists, including pastors who took part in sit-ins and marches.
Sheila Jackson’s father, the Rev. Curtis J. Jackson, led the church
between 1957 and 1961, during which she says she spotted the writ
ing that she later identified as West African Arabic script. That mo
ment of realization made her appreciate the church.
“First African is much more than a church building,” said Jackson,
who now lives in Atlanta. “It was built by slaves, it was part of the
Underground Railroad, and it served as the foundation for the civil
rights movement in Savannah. It tells the story of who we are as a
people.”
The congregation turns 242 on Thursday and is set to celebrate the
birthday with four days of events, including a movie night and wor
ship on Sunday morning.