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July 19, 2012

  • Florida A&M Names Interim President

    Florida A&M Names Interim President by Frederick H. Lowe During an emergency meeting on Monday, Florida A&M University’s board of trustees named Provost Larry Robinson interim president, replacing James H.

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  • The NorthStar's Books

    The NorthStar's Books Hurston/Wright Announces Nominees for Its Annual Book Awards The Hurston/Wright Foundation recently announced nominees for its 11th annual Legacy award, which honors exemplary works of literature by black writers.

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  • Wells Fargo Agrees to Pay $175 Million to Mortgage-Bias Victims

    Wells Fargo Agrees to Pay $175 Million to Mortgage-Bias Victims By Frederick H. Lowe Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

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  • Cameroon Plans Restoration of Notorious Slave-Trade Port

    Cameroon Plans Restoration of Notorious Slave-Trade Port By Frederick H. Lowe A Cameroon port that was one of the busiest slave-ship departure points on Africa’s Atlantic Coast to plantations in North and South America during the 18th century will become a cultural heritage site for tourists and for scholars to study the brutal realities of slavery. Cameroon, a country of more than 15 million located in West Central Africa, will begin restoration of the Port of Bimbia after officials received $76,400, or 40 million Cameroonian francs, from the U.S.

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  • It’s the Jobs Act, Stupid!

    It’s the Jobs Act, Stupid! By Julianne Malveaux TriceEdneyWire.com - The unemployment rate has hovered above 8 percent for several months, most recently holding ground at 8.2 percent, the same as last month.

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  • Institute of the Black World Schedules Conference

    The Institute of the Black World 21st Century will hold its State of the Black World Conference III Nov. 14-18, 2012, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

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  • The NorthStar's Obituaries

    The NorthStar's Obituaries William Raspberry William Raspberry, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post, died on Tuesday at his home in Washington, D.C. Mr.

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  • Health Care Act Will Erase Inequities for People of Color

    Health Care Act Will Erase Inequities for People of Color By Brian Smedley TriceEdneyWire.com - The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) represents a significant advancement in the effort to repair the deeply broken U.S.

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  • N.C. Senate Republicans Block Payments to Sterilization Victims

    TriceEdneyWire.com – By passing a budget June 20 without funds to compensate victims, the North Carolina Senate dashed the hopes of those harmed by a government program that, for nearly 50 years, sterilized mostly poor and black residents. Senate Republicans refused to support a measure cleared by state House members to earmark $10 million in the state budget that would have awarded sterilization victims $50,000 each, according to NewsObserver.com.

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  • Nelson Mandela Marks His 94th Birthday

    Nelson Mandela Marks His 94th Birthday Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who devoted his life to ending apartheid in his native country, celebrated his 94th birthday on Wednesday, July 18.

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History July 19 through July 25 July 19 1941 ----- The first U. S. Army flight-training school for black cadets was dedicated in Tuskegee, Ala., on this date.

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  • The Motown Sound is Broadway Bound

    The Motown Sound is Broadway Bound Motown: The Musical, which will chronicle the life of the company founder, Berry Gordy, Jr., is scheduled to open in the spring of 2013 on Broadway in New York.

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  • Actor Michael Clarke Duncan Suffers a Heart Attack; Omarosa Saves His Life

    Actor Michael Clarke Duncan Suffers a Heart Attack; Omarosa Saves His Life Asiaone Showbiz is reporting that actor Michael Clarke Duncan suffered a heart attack, but quick work by his girlfriend, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, saved his life.

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  • Witness: George Zimmerman Did Not Like Blacks

    Witness: George Zimmerman Did Not Like Blacks Attorneys for George Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, filed a motion to block release of a statement by an individual identified as witness 9.

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  • Oprah Interviews Mitt Romney

    Oprah Interviews Mitt Romney Oprah Winfrey interviewed Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president, and his wife, Ann, recently in Wolfeboro, N.H. The interview was not filmed, but it will be published in Winfrey's O Magazine, according to news reports.

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Even when the cell doors open for black men, freeing them, they still cannot vote.
Even when the cell doors open for black men, freeing them,
they still cannot vote.

Black Ex-Cons Are Free But Usually Not to Vote

By Frederick H. Lowe
More than 2.2 million African Americans had felony convictions in 2010, which most likely will prevent them from voting in this year's presidential election, depending on what state they call home.

The percentage of African Americans who were disenfranchised represented 7.66 percent of the black voting age population of 29.1 million, according to a report titled, “State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010,” by the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system. Christopher Uggen and Sarah Shannon of the University of Minnesota and Jeff Manza of New York University wrote the study.

The Sentencing Project reported that as of 2010, 587,730 African Americans were prisoners, 203,282 were parolees, 445,493 were on federal probation, 18,059 were jail inmates, 976,458 were ex felons. 

Only Maine and Vermont allow prisoners to vote. Less than .5 percent of ex-convicts are denied the right to vote in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Utah. On the other hand, Florida, Kentucky and Virginia disenfranchise more than 20 percent of the black adult voting-age population. In 2010, more people were disenfranchised in Florida than any other state, the report stated.

The Sentencing Project noted that felony disenfranchisement is a growing industry. In 2010, 5.85 million individuals were disenfranchised, compared with 3.34 million in 1996 and 1.17 million in 1976.

"The number of people disenfranchised due to a felony conviction has escalated dramatically in recent decades as the population under criminal supervision has increased,” the report said. “Voting disenfranchisement dropped between 1960 and 1976 as states expanded voting rights during the civil-rights era. The total number of individuals who were prohibited from voting because of felony convictions, however, began to rise with the expansion of the nation's prison system."

The study found that:

•    Ex-felons who live in 11 states that disenfranchise people after they have completed their sentences make up about 45 percent of the disenfranchised population or 2.6 million people.

•    Approximately 2.5 percent of the total U.S. voting-age population -- 1 out of every 40 adults -- is disenfranchised due to a current or previous felony conviction

A state either approves or disapproves voter disenfranchisement depending on who is occupying the governor's mansion. 

Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack eliminated disenfranchisement for inmates who have completed his or her prison sentence, but his successor Governor Terry Branstad reinstated disenfranchisement.

Republican Florida Governor Charlie Christ in 2007 enacted procedures to restore voting rights to felons more quickly, but Christ's successor Rick Scott, also a Republican, reversed the process. Scott also instituted a five-year waiting period before former felons can apply for restoration of their civil rights.

African Americans have suffered more than others under disenfranchisement. In 1980, blacks exceeded 10 percent of the disenfranchised adult population in Arizona and Iowa.

Now it is much worse.

“Much of the nation now disenfranchises at least 5 percent of its African American adult citizens,” the report said.

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