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A Broken Promise in Texas: Race, the Death Penalty and the Duane Buck Case

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September 20, 2012

  • Judge Issues Certificates of Innocence to Four Men

    Judge Issues Certificates of Innocence to Four Men The men are entitled to nearly $200,000 each under Illinois law by Frederick H. Lowe A Cook County, Ill., judge has issued certificates of innocence to four black men who served long prison terms for a crime that DNA evidence proved they did not commit. On Friday, Judge Paul P.

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  • Obama Camp Fires Back After Romney’s “47%” Diatribe

    Obama Camp Fires Back After Romney’s “47%” Diatribe by Barry Cooper The Obama campaign wasted little time striking back at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday. Within hours after a secret videotape emerged of Romney making seemingly disparaging remarks about nearly half the U.S.

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  • Jackson Gets Two Men Freed from a Gambia Prison

    Jackson Gets Two Men Freed from a Gambia Prison by Frederick H. Lowe Two men who were serving long prison sentences in Gambia have left the West African Country after the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. negotiated their release with the country’s President, Dr.

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  • The Real Count of Monte Cristo Was a Black Man

    The Real Count of Monte Cristo Was a Black Man Alexandre Dumas wrote the story based in part on his father’s life The Count of Monte Cristo, one of literature’s most-enduring novels, is based on the real life of a black man, who rose from private to general in the French Army, became a valued aide to Napoleon Bonaparte and later, an object of Napoleon's envy, according to the book, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, which hit bookstores on Tuesday.

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  • Feds Hammer Tool Company Because of Its Racist Hiring Practices

    Meyer Tool Inc., a federal contractor that displays on its website photographs of a smiling President George W.

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  • Homes Headed by Single Black Men See Drop in Poverty

    Homes Headed by Single Black Men See Drop in Poverty by Frederick H. Lowe The poverty rate for families headed by single-black men has declined since 2010, while poverty rates for households headed by single white and Asian men have increased.

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  • Transportation Can Help Black Men Find Better-Paying Jobs

    Transportation Can Help Black Men Find Better-Paying Jobs by Frederick H. Lowe The Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, will host a special forum on Wednesday, September 26, in Washington, D.C., focused on black men.

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  • Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments on Affirmative Action

    Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments on Affirmative Action New America Media Q & A  by Khalil Abdullah Editor’s Note: On October 10 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Fisher v. University of Texas, a case that could upend affirmative action policies nationwide.

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  • FAMU: Drum Major Actively Participated in Hazing

    FAMU: Drum Major Actively Participated in  Hazing Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Capital Outlook by Kanya Stewart (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Robert Champion, Jr.

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  • Statue of Frederick Douglass to Be Placed in Capitol

    Statue of Frederick Douglass to Be Placed in Capitol President Obama must sign the legislation Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper (TriceEdneyWire.

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  • Worldwide Employment Outlook Still Bleak for Youth

    Worldwide Employment Outlook Still Bleak for Youth (TriceEdneyWire.com) - The employment outlook for young people worldwide is grim, according to an analysis released September 4 by the International Labor Organization.

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  • Michigan Business Associations Merge

    The Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Black Suppliers on Thursday announced they have merged to increase member access to capital and to help them compete worldwide.

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  • 100 Black Men to Get a New Man

    100 Black Men to Get a New Man Curley M. Dossman, Jr., vice president of community affairs at Georgia Pacific Co., later this month will be installed as chairman of 100 Black Men of America Inc.

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  • IRS Asked to Investigate Texas Church That Called for Obama’s Defeat

    Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate an El Paso, Texas, Roman Catholic church after an item in the church bulletin called for the defeat of President Barack Obama in November’s presidential election. St.

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  • President Obama Fails to Score a Touchdown With Convention Speech

    President Obama Fails to Score a Touchdown With Convention Speech by A. Peter Bailey (TriceEdneyWire.com) - To use a football analogy, during the Democratic National Convention, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden advanced the ball for President Obama to the ten yard-line.

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  • Double Whammy for African Americans

    Double Whammy for African Americans by Julianne Malveaux (TriceEdneyWire.com) - We have learned that African-American unemployment rates stayed level last month with an absurdly high official unemployment rate of 14.1 percent.

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  • The Poor Could Be Strong Swing Vote

    The Poor Could Be Strong Swing Vote by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Nearly 50 million Americans now are in poverty. One in four children will grow up in an impoverished household. Redressing poverty is a national emergency and a moral imperative.

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  • Netanyahu’s “Red Line” Is Just a Red Herring

    Netanyahu’s “Red Line” Is Just a Red Herring by Wilmer J. Leon, III (TriceEdneyWire.com) - News sources have reported that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu requested a meeting with President Obama to discuss tightening restrictions on Iran and that President Obama has rejected his request.

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History September 20 through September 26 September 20 1943 ----- A German submarine, U-238, torpedoed the Frederick Douglass, a U. S. cargo ship, on this day.

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  • Pennsylvania Voter-ID Law Remanded to a Lower Court

    Pennsylvania Voter-ID Law Remanded to a Lower Court by Frederick H. Lowe The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated a lower-court decision, upholding the commonwealth’s restrictive voter Photo-ID law, in a case that easily could be called "The Pennsylvania bureaucracy strikes back." Because the law does not meet PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) issuing guidelines, the law faces significant challenges from the bureaucracy, which could block its implementation.

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Michelle Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama Will Address the CBC

WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) – For the first time during his administration, President Barack Obama will not be the keynote speaker at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner this Saturday, an event that brings to a close the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference (CBC-ALC). Instead, it will be First Lady Michelle Obama going solo as the keynote speaker before the audience of approximately 3,000 guests.

The gala, held annually at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, will close the Foundation’s 42nd Annual Legislative Conference (ALC).

“We are so pleased that Mrs. Obama will serve as the keynote speaker for the awards dinner,” said Elsie L. Scott, president and chief executive officer for CBCF in a statement. "As a former CBC spouse, Mrs. Obama is quite familiar with our mission at the Foundation, and we are certain that her remarks will be both thought-provoking, and most importantly, inspire our audience to do their part to prepare the next generation of leaders.”

Mrs. Obama, still basking in rays of accolades for her speech at the Democratic National Convention, was involved with the CBC spouses group when husband served in the U. S. Senate. Since his election as President, she has accompanied him every year to speak at the dinner. He is now heavily engaged on the campaign trail as he makes a bid for four more years in the White House.

Notably, last year the President gave a speech at the dinner that some perceived as a chiding to the CBC. The speech came after a series of summer job fairs held around the country by the CBC during which its members had become very vocal about the high unemployment rate in the black community.

His dinner speech appealed for the legislators to “pass the jobs bill,” but the President went a step further: “I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC.”

The audience responded with rousing applause and standing ovation, but not without some criticism. U. S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was quoted in the Florida Courier as saying the President’s language toward the CBC was “curious.”

Reporting on her interview on Meet the Press, the Courier quoted Waters as saying, “I’m not sure who the president was addressing…(he) spoke to the Hispanic Caucus…he certainly didn’t tell them to stop complaining about immigration. He never would say that to the gay and lesbian community who really pushed him on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ Even in a speech to AIPIC (the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee), he would never say to the Jewish community, ‘Stop complaining about Israel.’”

A year later, Democrats -- black and white -- appear to have set aside all quarrels, uniting to assure maximum participation by African-American voters. At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, CBC members showed up in full force and Chairman Emanuel Cleaver delivered compelling remarks directed to the President, pressing him to “Hope on!”

This Saturday’s dinner will be yet another chance to rally the troops as the dinner will no doubt pack in thousands at the close of the four-day series of issues forums and brain trusts by day with parties, receptions and networking by night. The Caucus, themed “Inspiring Leaders, Building Generations," takes place Sept. 19-22.

Though the annual dinner is widely seen as the staple event, the National Town Hall meeting also draws thousands. This year’s town hall will focus on "Voting Rights and New Age Discrimination." Information on all events, including the annual prayer breakfast, which will feature keynote speaker Bishop Noel Jones, can be found at www.cbcinc.org.

The four Phoenix Awards recipients this year are:

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., will receive The CBCF Chair's Award for “an individual whose work and accomplishments stand as a role model for the African-American community and the African Diaspora.”

Writer and director George Lucas will also receive The CBC Chair's Award for “an individual who exhibits the highest standards of dedication, ability and creativity.”

U. S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) and Charlotte, North Carolina’s first black mayor, Harvey Gantt, will each receive The Harold Washington Award for individuals who have “contributed immeasurably to African-American political awareness, empowerment and the advancement of minorities in the electoral process.”

Phoenix award recipients in past years have included Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson; athlete, entrepreneur and humanitarian George Edward Foreman Sr.; civil rights activist the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery; and civil-rights activist U.S. Rep. John Lewis, (D-Ga).

A release describes the Phoenix Award as symbolizing “the immortality of the human spirit and an eternal desire to reach its full potential.”

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