The NorthStar News and Analysis

Flex Your (Political) Muscles

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:45:41 GMT

by Cheryl Pearson-McNeil

November is only six short months away, so the 2012 campaign for the White House is moving full-speed ahead. Because we live in the miracle of this fantastically dizzying digital age with news and information at our fingertips and coming at us from infinite sources; and because more than 274 million Americans are connected to the Internet, you probably won’t be surprised that we have converged upon the Internet for any and all tidbits surrounding the presidential candidates since the beginning of the year. Even though Mitt Romney is the presumed Republican nominee, I think it’s fascinating to see which candidates attracted the most visitors to their sites. Don’t you? Aw, come on, aren’t you a little curious?

Nielsen recently profiled the voter-age audience (18+) to see who was checking out which of the (once upon a time not so long ago) five presidential candidates. The sample was extensive, covering 15 different sites during January 2012, including: ABCNEWS Digital Network, CBS News Network, CNN Digital Network, Daily Kos, drudgereport.com, Fox News Digital Network, Google News, Huffington Post, MSNBC Digital Network, NPR, NYTimes.com, Politico, USATODAY.com, Wall Street Journal Digital and Yahoo! News Websites. Any of those among your favorites?

•   In January, President Obama’s site received more unique American adult visitors than the four Republican candidates’ sites combined. (“Unique” is defined by web analytics as unduplicated or counting only once to a website over a specified time period, as opposed to “new” or “returning.”)

•   Hispanics comprised 17% of MittRomney.com, 37% more Hispanics than were active online during the entire month of January 2012 (12%).

•   RickSantorum.com attracted the lion’s share of women visitors (60%), which was the largest male/female split among the candidates.

•   Interestingly, 76-year-old Ron Paul, the oldest of the Republican hopefuls, drew the youngest visitors. More than a third of his hits were from members of the 18-34 group. Though it was almost neck-and-neck with Newt Gingrich with male visitors, 56% and 51%, respectively, RonPaul2012.com won by 4.3 percentage points.
•   Newt Gingrich’s website guests were the most affluent and educated. Twenty-seven percent reported earnings of more than $100K and half had either a Bachelor’s or Post-Graduate degree.

The analysis of why American voters visit which sites is up to the political pundits. Part of the research Nielsen conducted also focused on the News & Information sites that feature political content. Are you surprised to learn that Google News wins the race for the highest concentration of young visitors, those 18-24? Survey results showed that 23% more 18-34 year olds visited Google News in January 2012 than were active online.   (It is heartening to me to know that our young people are interested, engaged and involved in our political process. My son is only a few years away from legally casting his first vote. Sigh.) More results:

•   The next age demographic, Americans 25-49, are most likely to visit Politico and Drudge Report (31%).

•   Of all the sites studied, NPR enjoyed the largest growth in visitors (up 21% since October 2011).

•   28% of visitors to Wall Street Journal Digital have a household income of $100K or more.

•   Surfers who land on the Drudge Report page were most likely to have a Bachelor’s degree, which is more than double the percentage of all active college grad Internet users (36% vs. 17%).

•   College graduates were more likely to visit a specific candidate’s site than visit a News & Information site.

I’m always telling you that knowledge is power, and stressing how you wield power as consumers and how important it is that we pick and choose to use that power wisely. Well, I hope you don’t tire of hearing me stress this point. This election is important – no matter which side of the political aisle you may stand on.   Read. Watch. Listen. Learn – so you can make the most informed decision possible. The choice and power are in your hands.
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Cheryl Pearson-McNeil is senior vice president of Public Affairs and Government Relations for Nielsen. For more information and studies go to www.nielsenwire.com

The President, Gay Marriage and the Politics of the November Election

Thu, 17 May 2012 01:35:16 GMT

Opinion

The President, Gay Marriage and the Politics of the November Election

While many of us and African Americans in particular, disagree with the position that President Obama has taken on the issue of “Gay Marriage”, we do not have the luxury of not voting for him in the November election. When we consider the political agenda of the conservative Republican Party and their opposition to such issues

as the Affordable Healthcare Act, Consumer Advocacy, Economic Stimulus and extended unemployment benefits which this President has had to fight for against extended tax benefits for the wealthy, it is clear that those who support further economic recovery cannot afford to make the re-election of President Barack Obama a one issue campaign. For the record, President Obama is wrong both in making the statement that he made as President, even though he said it was his personal view. His Oath of Office demands that he “Protect and Defend” the Constitution of the United States. He does not provide for his personal opinion in the process. For example, the

Defense of Marriage Act is law. It has been challenged in the courts. The Justice Department as a part of the Obama Administration has refused to defend this law in the courts which is its duty as the legal arm of the United States Government. This should not be the case.

We may never know the politics and reasons behind his decision, but we do know that he has done a good job in areas of critical importance to the survival of

individuals, families and businesses in this country. So let’s put the issue of his mistake on gay marriage behind us and support his re-election. Neither we, nor this nation can afford Mitt Romney in the Presidency.

Childa R. Warren-Darby
Managing Editor
The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint

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HBCUs to Co-Host 1st Golf Tournament

Thu, 17 May 2012 01:28:56 GMT

HBCUs to Co-Host 1st Golf Tournament

African American Golfers Digest and 31 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) will host the 1st Annual HBCU Golf Challenge on Friday, July 27, at the Lake Presidential Golf Club in Upper Marlboro, Md.
Among participating colleges and universities are Alcorn State University, Morehouse College, Alabama A&M University, Howard University and Shaw University.

Registration through May 31 is $150 and after June 1, the tournament fee is $175. It includes breakfast, lunch buffet, green fees and a cart. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Thurgood Marshall College Fund http://www.thurgoodmarshallfund.net/

For additional information, email info@HBCUGolfChallenge.org or call 240 461 3020.

Chicago Man Cleared of Rape after Spending Nearly Two Decades in Prison

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:29:13 GMT

by Frederick H. Lowe
A Chicago man who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit was cleared on Tuesday of one charge, but he still faces another charge related to the same crime.

Lake County, Ill., prosecutors dismissed rape charges against Bennie Starks, 52, who spent nearly two decades of his adult life in prison after being convicted in 1986 for sexual assault of a 68-year-old woman.

Starks was in his 20s when a jury convicted him of rape, Jed Stone, one of Starks' post conviction and appeals court attorneys, tells The NorthStar News & Analysis.

In 2006, the Illinois Appeals Court reversed Starks 'conviction and ordered a new trial after semen found in the victim's underwear and analyzed in 2000 excluded him as the rapist. The court also ordered Starks released on bond, which Stone said was a very unusual step for the appellate court.

As Starks waited for a new trial, the Innocence Project attorney, Vanessa Potkin, who also served as one of Starks' lawyers, located in 2004 the rape victim's vaginal swabs in a crime lab. The swabs also excluded Starks as the rapist, Stone said.

The Lake County State's Attorney initially dismissed the semen found on the underwear, arguing that if semen were found in the victim's vagina excluded Starks, he would stand with the defense.

When the vaginal swabs were located, however, he opposed having them tested, said Paul Cates, a spokesperson for the Innocence Project, which is based in Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law School at Yeshiva University. The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing.

Despite scientific evidence excluding Starks as the woman's attacker, the Lake County State's Attorney's Office continued to develop new theories about how Starks may have raped the woman, who has since died. One of the Lake County State's Attorney's theories is that the victim accidently came into contact with Starks' semen after he had masturbated some time earlier in a wooded area.

"This is a reversal for the prosecutor's office, which had threatened to retry Starks on the charges even though multiple rounds of DNA testing definitively excluded him as the perpetrator of the rape. The Innocence Project first obtained DNA test results, suggesting Starks' innocence in 2001," said officials of the Innocence Project. "Starks' [case] is one the Innocence Project's oldest active cases, having represented him since 1996."

Stone said, "The Lake County State's Attorney's mindset is that they are more concerned with finality than they are with justice." After the prosecutors dropped the rape charge, Starks told a Chicago television station that he is going to enjoy his grandchildren. He also purchased a mountain bike to exercise, Stone said.

Starks has not been completely exonerated so his name cannot be added to the 102 individuals in Illinois and 289 individuals nationally, including 180 African Americans, who have been released from prison after being found innocent, Cates said.

That is because Starks still faces a charge of battery related to the rape conviction. Although the appellate court reversed the rape conviction, the court did not reverse the battery conviction.

The court claims those charges were not properly brought before the court, Starks' attorneys maintain that he is innocent of all the charges because they stem from an incident committed by a single perpetrator, which DNA testing confirms was not Starks.

Oral arguments were heard on Monday, May 14, to overturn the battery conviction, Cates said.
If the court overturns the battery conviction, Starks would be exonerated of all charges and he would become eligible for compensation from Illinois for his unlawful imprisonment.

It would be more good news for Starks.

"He does not have much money. He is just getting by. It has not been easy for him," Cates said.

Poll Finds Democrats Happier With Obama on the Ticket Than GOP Is With Romney

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:06:55 GMT

Eighty percent of Democrats are satisfied with President Barack Obama as the party's presidential nominee, compared with 59 percent of Republicans who are happy with Mitt Romney as the party's standard bearer, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll.

“These results from May 10-13 in part reflect the fact that Romney faced a highly competitive primary fight that resolved itself only in early April, while the incumbent President Obama faced no significant primary competition,” according to the story headlined, “Dems Happier With Obama Than Republicans Are with Romney.”

Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney is the presumed Republican Party nominee for president.

The article said the poll's results raised the possibility that Republicans will be less motivated than Democrats to turn out to vote this November and that Obama's supporters reported being at least slightly more enthusiastic about voting than Romney's were.

“At the same time, nine in 10 Republicans in the survey say they will vote Romney, almost identical to the percentage of Democrats who say they will vote for Obama, suggesting that even Republicans who wish there had been another GOP nominee will end up voting for Romney on Nov. 6,” poll results show.

USA Today and Gallup, which is based in Princeton, N.J., conducted a telephone survey of 1,012 adults 18 years and older in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

They were asked four questions. If they were satisfied with Romney, would have preferred another candidate, didn't like any of the candidates and had no opinion. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they preferred a candidate other than Romney, 3 percent said they did not like either candidate and 2 percent said they had no opinion.

As for President Obama, 19 percent said they preferred another candidate, 0 percent said they did not like any of the candidates and 1 percent said they had no opinion.

The Sound of Silence Hangs Over FAMU Band After Drum Major's Hazing Death

Tue, 15 May 2012 19:06:03 GMT

by Frederick H. Lowe
The Florida A&M University (FAMU) marching band, which has been under suspension since November, following the hazing death of a drum major, will remain on suspension through the 2012-2013 academic year, James H. Ammons, FAMU's president, told the school's trustees on Monday.

Extension of the suspension was necessary because of a number of issues, including the recent retirement of the long-time band director, Julian White, the dismissal of two unnamed faculty members and unresolved issues surrounding the operation and regulation of the band, Ammons said.

“Paramount was the death of Robert Champion, Jr.,” he explained. “As president, my goal is to implement the best conditions by which we can create a safe environment for teaching, learning and research to take place and to ensure that such safety carries through to all of our student organizations, including the band.”

Florida A&M is located in Tallahassee. The 26-year-old Champion died Nov. 19, from internal injuries from punches sustained during a hazing ritual in Orlando, Fla.

The 375-member Marching “100” Florida A&M band traveled there to participate in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Florida Classic against Bethune-Cookman University. After returning to the band’s bus, Champion complained that he could not breathe. He then collapsed, and an ambulance rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Prosecutors have charged 11 band members with felonies and two with misdemeanors.

Champion was gay, and the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization, had pushed law-enforcement officials to file charges against some of the band members. Champion's death also affected band members not implicated in his death.

Band Fraternity Drops Florida A&M
Kappa Kappa Psi, the honorary band fraternity, also announced on Monday that it voted to remove the Delta Iota Chapter at Florida A&M from its roster of active chapters for at least five years or until May 3, 2017.

“This decision was based primarily upon hazing activities that occurred, as well as other related issues, including a failure to follow policies of the national organization and uncertainty of the future leadership and direction of the university and music department,” fraternity officials said. “All undergraduate members of Delta Iota chapter in the spring semester of 2010 have been expelled. All prospective members—those in the joining process—during the spring semester of 2010 have been expelled. Any members of the fraternity, including alumnus members who were present at the incident that led to the investigations and sanctions have been expelled. A total of 28 individuals have been expelled from Kappa Kappa Psi.” The fraternity, which was founded in 1919, is based in Stillwater, Okla.

Florida A&M also will set conduct guidelines before the Florida A&M Marching 100 will be reinstated.

They are:
•    Academic standards to be eligible to participate in the band
•    Length of time an individual is permitted to participate
•    The length of practice time
•    The number of adults accompanying the band on out-of-town trips
•    Enforcing travel procedures

The Marching 100 is world famous because of its colorful uniforms, its talented musicians and its choreography on the football field. Ammons said FAMU is working with unnamed groups to produce alternative entertainment for football games pending the band's return.

“The administration will present a plan for the band's return and a restructuring of the music department to the board of trustees at its June meeting,” he said.

Thurgood Marshall College Fund Receives $400,000 Grant for Science, Math Interns

Tue, 15 May 2012 19:01:23 GMT

The United States Department of Agriculture and the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service recently awarded $400,000 to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to pay for the organization's 10-week college internship summer program.

The college fund will use the money to place 37 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students who attend public historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service of the USDA, which was established in 1972 to preserve American agriculture.

Students will receive extensive hands-on training in one of 20 locations across the country, where they will work in their selected area of interest, said scholarship fund officials.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., the fund's president, said the money would ensure the selected students receive the attention and guidance they need to graduate and find jobs in STEM fields.

Bayer Corp., a $9 billion, research-based company with major businesses in health care and life sciences, concluded two years ago that significant numbers of women and non-whites are missing from STEM jobs in the U.S. because they were not identified and encouraged to pursue careers in these fields.

Although nonwhite students express a desire to pursue careers in these areas, African Americans often are not taught fundamentals of science and math in elementary school, leaving them unprepared for courses in high school and in college.

“The country's public historically black colleges and universities know this reality well, and have developed programmatic interventions to help fill this education gap so that their graduates are prepared to compete after earning STEM degrees,” fund officials said.

The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which is named in honor of Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, has offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and Houston.

Nicholas Katzenbach Dies; He Confronted Gov. George Wallace at the University of Alabama

Tue, 15 May 2012 02:36:49 GMT

Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach, who helped write the 1965 Voting Rights Act, died May 8 at his home in Skillman, N.J. Katzenbach was 90 years old.

Participation in the crafting the Voting Rights Act, the landmark legislation that outlawing discriminatory voting practices that resulted in widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans, probably was Katzenbach's most-important work.

Katzenbach (R) confronts Alabama
Gov. George Wallace (L), standing
behind a lectern).

However, his confrontation with Alabama Gov. George Wallace, witnessed by millions on black and white television, was his most dramatic.

As the U.S. Deputy Attorney General, Katzenbach escorted black students Vivian Malone and James Hood, who were enrolling in the University of Alabama, on June 11, 1963.

Gov. Wallace stood at the front door of the Foster Auditorium at the university in Tuscaloosa, blocking Malone and Hood from desegregating the all-white school. Katzenbach ordered Wallace to move, but Wallace cut him off because he wanted to live up to his campaign promise of refusing to desegregate Alabama schools.

In his Jan. 14, 1963, inaugural address, Wallace said, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” a popular phrase among whites that had been written by Asa Earl Carter, a Cherokee Indian and the founder of a Ku Klux Klan chapter that castrated black men.

(Katzenbach (L) with Vivian Malone
(R). a lectern).

Katzenbach called President John F. Kennedy, who federalized the Alabama National Guard.Katzenbach, accompanied by federal marshals and the Guard, ordered Wallace to step aside. Wallace said a few more words about states' rights before moving.

Katzenbach served as U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson from 1965 to 1966, but his frequent fights with J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, forced Katzenbach to resign after a year. He held several other posts in the Johnson Administration before going to work for I.B.M. Corp.

Katzenbach was born Jan. 17, 1922, in Philadelphia, but his parents raised him in Trenton, N.J. He is survived by his wife, Lydia, daughters Anne and Maria and two sons, Christopher and John, and six grandchildren.

Federal Court Orders Louisiana to Provide Voter Forms to Welfare Recipients Who Apply Online or by Telephone

Tue, 15 May 2012 02:32:41 GMT

A U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana has ruled that state officials must provide voter-registration materials and assistance to welfare recipients in person, online, through the mail and over the telephone to comply with Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993.

Judge Jane Richie Milazzo said the NVRA requires that all public-assistance recipients must be provided with a voter registration application whether they seek benefits in person or over the Internet, by telephone or through the mail.

“The court's ruling will ensure that low-income individuals will not be denied voter-registration services because of advancing technology,” said Sarah Brannon, director of the Public Agency Voter Registration Program at Project Vote, which is based in Washington, D.C. “The court recognized that the mandates of the NVRA are not limited to in-person visits to public-assistance offices.” Project Vote is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes voting in historically underrepresented communities.

Dale Ho, assistant counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), said, “The vast majority of Louisiana's public-assistance clients never step foot in a state office….Louisiana's refusal to enforce NVRA risks denying tens of thousands of our poorest citizens a clear path to voter registration.”

In a case titled Ron Ferrand, Et AL versus Tom Schedler, ET AL, Louisiana officials argued that state public-assistance agencies only were required to offer voter-registration forms and assistance to clients who registered in person or in one of the local offices. Schedler is Louisiana Secretary of State.

Ferrand, Luther Scott, Jr. and the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP, which is based in Baton Rouge, on April 19, 2011, sued Schedler, as well as Ruth Johnson, Louisiana Secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and Bruce D. Greenstein, Louisiana Secretary of Health and Hospitals (DHH). The lawsuit charged that the defendants have engaged in systemic and ongoing violations of their obligations under Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act.

The plaintiffs successfully argued that DCFS and DHH routinely failed to provide required voter- registration services to each person who applied, recertified, renewed or changed an address in connection with a public-assistance benefit. Scott applied for food stamps through DCFS.

“He met all of the requirements to register to vote, but DCFS neither provided him a voter-registration application form nor offered him assistance in completing the form,” the lawsuit said.

In enacting the NVRA 19 years ago, Congress ruled that all United States citizens have a right to vote and that it is the duty of federal, state, and local governments to promote and exercise that right.

In her ruling, Judge Milazzo wrote, “That mandating ‘in person’ requirements to Section 7 frustrates the plain intent of the NVRA. It is evident to this court that Congress’s purpose in enacting the NVRA was to ensure that all Americans are affirmatively provided an opportunity to register to vote. Congress made this intent clear when it uses such language as ‘in addition’ and ‘each.’ Thus, the reading of section 7 as applying to each transaction, whether it be in person or remote serves to accomplish the clear goal of Congress by ensuring access for public-assistance clients to the appropriate forms, no matter how they contact the public assistance offices.”

The LDF noted that despite consistently high numbers of participants on Louisiana's food stamp and Medicaid programs, voter-registration applications that originated from public-assistance offices were surprisingly low.

“As of 2008, voter-registration applications originating in these agencies had dropped 88 percent from 1995, despite increased participation in public-assistance programs,” said LDF officials. “Nationwide, as of October 2011, more than one million low-income people in five different states have registered to vote as a result of proper NVRA enforcement.

NorthStar's Week in Black History

Tue, 15 May 2012 01:51:00 GMT

May 17 through May 23

1864 ----- John William “Blind” Boone, was born on this day in Miami, Mo., to a fugitive slave woman who had been owned by descendents of Daniel Boone and to a man who was a bugler in the 7th Missouri State Militia Calvary (Union). Boone became a well-known pianist and composer of ragtime music despite his blindness.

Boone was reared by his mother, who worked as a domestic for prominent families in Warrensburg, Mo. As an infant, he suffered a life-threatening fever that caused his brain to swell dangerously. Physicians attending him removed his eyes in a desperate attempt to reduce the swelling in his brain and to save his life.

Reportedly a happy child who was gifted intellectually, “Blind” Boone demonstrated an early interest in music by making drums of any upended container and by mastering the tin whistle, readily playing recognizable tunes.

John William "Blind" Boone Album

When he reached adolescence, the city fathers of Warrensburg funded Boone’s transportation to the St. Louis School for the Blind, where he studied for two and a half years. Though trained there to make brooms, he was also permitted to play piano. He was able to replicate nearly any piece of music, including ragtime compositions, he heard played on the instrument. He also taught himself to play the harmonica.

In 1879, when Boone was 15, he was invited to perform in an annual music festival at the Second Baptist Church in Columbia. John Lange, Jr., a prosperous local builder, sponsored the festival and later appointed himself as “Blind” Boone’s manager, supporting his further education in classical music and launching the young musician’s successful career.

Boone, traveled extensively, performing in concerts Lange had pre-arranged and publicized on his behalf. Boone performed almost continuously from 1885 to 1916, throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland and Wales, earning $150 to $600 per performance. Traveling 10 months of each year, Boone performed in six concerts a week, for a total of 8,650 concerts for that period.

Boone married Lange’s youngest sister in 1889. In 1912, he became one the first black musicians to cut piano rolls, having been contracted to do so by the QRS Piano Roll Company.

When Lange died in 1916, Boone stopped performing for a protracted period and settled permanently with his wife in Columbia, Mo. He donated generously to black churches in the community and was active in fraternal organizations. In 1919 and 1920, he performed regularly again. During the years that followed, he gave concerts intermittently and toured only throughout the eastern United States, giving a final concert in October 1927, just months before his death on May 31 at age 63.

In 2000, the city of Columbia purchased and renovated “Blind” Boone’s home, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The John William Boone Heritage Foundation was established to preserve the history of Boone and to honor his influence in the development of both ragtime and jazz as music genres. A life-sized bronze sculpture of Boone, seated at a stylized keyboard, is installed permanently in a park in Warrensburg, Mo.

Frederick McKinley Jones

1892 ----- Frederick McKinley Jones was born on this day. He invented an automatic refrigeration system for long-haul-trucks, transforming the food industry and the eating habits of Americans. Jones earned 61 different patents for inventions during his lifetime.

Born in Covington, Ky. and orphaned at nine, Jones was raised by a priest until he was 15. He left school at 12, studied independently and found work as a mechanic’s apprentice in Cincinnati. Naturally gifted mechanically, he excelled in his work and gained a reputation for diligence and innovative problem solving.

In 1912, he moved to Hallock, Minn., where he worked as a mechanic on the 50,000-acre Kittson County farm of railroad magnate James J. Hill.

Jones served in France during World War I. After the war, he returned to Hallock, where he worked as a garage mechanic. During his spare hours, he taught himself electronics and eventually built a transmitter for the town’s single radio station. He also experimented with automotive engines, developing a self-starting gasoline motor, a design he later patented.

Frederick McKinley Jones

During the late 1920s, Jones designed devices for the early film industry. One device adapted silent movie projectors to make use of talking movie stock. He also developed a device for movie box offices that dispensed theater tickets and made change for customers. During this period, he also designed a snowmobile.

Jones' work attracted the attention of Joseph Numero, a businessman in Minneapolis, who hired him to improve the quality of the sound equipment he manufactured in his firm, Cinema Supplies, Inc.

As successful as he was at developing and improving devices for the film industry, Jones became increasingly interested in developing refrigeration units for trucks and railway cars that helped the food industry. It was this work for which he became best known.

With Joseph Numero, Jones founded the Thermo Control Company, which was later renamed Thermo King. While working at the Minneapolis-based company in 1935, he became the first person to invent a practical, portable, mechanical refrigeration unit for long-haul trucks and railroad cars. This made it possible to transport fruits, vegetables and medicines long distances without risking spoilage. Eventually, these refrigeration units were adapted for ships and airplanes.

Jones earned more than 40 patents for refrigeration units. He also designed air-conditioning units for military field hospitals and kitchens.

Thermo King cooler

His company, Thermo King, became an international corporation, boasting over $1 billion in annual sales when it was acquired in 1997 by the Ingersoll-Rand Co.

In 1944, Jones was the first African American elected to the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers. During the 1950s, he worked for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Bureau of Standards.

Though Jones died of lung cancer in 1961, President George Bush in 1991 posthumously awarded him and Numero the National Medal of Technology. Bush presented the medals to Jones’ and Numero’s widows during a special ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

In 2007, Frederick Jones was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. In 2011, he was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame.

May 18

Homer Plessy

1896 ----- In a landmark decision, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Plessy v. Ferguson, a “separate but equal” Louisiana decree that marked the beginning of Jim Crow segregation laws in the South and an end to Reconstruction.

The Plessy case grew out of a deliberate attempt to test the legality of an 1890 Louisiana law that required the railroad companies to provide and maintain separate train cars for blacks and whites.

In protest of this law, a group of African Americans in New Orleans formed an organization, the Citizens Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law. The citizens’ group raised $3,000 to mount a legal challenge to the law and therefore to segregation. A white attorney, Albion Tourgee, an advocate for black civil rights, agreed to take the case pro bono and represent the group.

In June 1892, Homer A. Plessy, a biracial man who appeared white to many, purchased a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad and sat in a car reserved for whites. Earlier, the committee, wanting to test the “separate but equal” law, alerted railroad officials that Plessy would be traveling in a whites-only train car.

Plessy was arrested and brought to court before Judge John H. Ferguson of the U. S. District Court of Louisiana. In his case, Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana, Plessy held that the state law that required the East Louisiana Railroad to segregate train cars on the basis of race denied him his rights under both the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Judge Ferguson, however, ruled that the state of Louisiana had a right to regulate railroad transportation and all that pertained to it within its state’s boundaries. Plessy was convicted and fined $25.

The Citizens Committee appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court and was met by an unresponsive court that upheld the earlier court decision, saying that the law merely separated whites and blacks as a ‘matter of public policy’ without an intention to confer inferiority on the black race.

The landmark decision laid the groundwork for a long-standing separate-but-equal doctrine and therefore to widespread segregation practices throughout the South before it was overturned in 1954 by Brown vs. the Board of Education.

A marker was installed at the corner of Press and Royal Streets in New Orleans on Feb. 12, 2009,
commemorating the arrest of Homer Plessy on June 7,1892, for violating the 1890 Louisiana Separate Car Act.

Richard Wright

1935 ----- The Federal Writers Project, or FWP, is celebrated on this date. The project, an extension of the New Deal’s Works Project Administration, or WPA, provided employment from 1935 to 1939 to approximately 4,500 American writers, 106 of whom were African-American.

Many prominent writers were hired by the Federal Writers Project. Those involved in the project wrote The American Guide Series that described the history, folkways and points of interest of each state.

African-American writers of note who were a part of the project in Illinois, for example, included Margaret Walker, Richard Wright, Frank Yerby and Katherine Dunham.

Frank Yerby

The New York project also hired Richard Wright as well as Claude McKay, Ralph Ellison and other African-American writers who were well known at the time. Zora Neale Hurston wrote for the Florida project.

African-American writers, having had the time and opportunity to conduct extensive research while funded by the project, produced a number of studies of black history and culture. Studies of blacks in urban settings included Claude McKay’s Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940) and Richard Wright’s Twelve Million Black Voices (1941).

Rural studies also were conducted on a massive scale. More than 2,000 ex-slaves were interviewed extensively, and each state involved with the project produced one or more volumes based on these ethnographic studies.

Dozens of volumes were published by different states, including North Carolina’s These Are Our Lives (1939), Savannah, Georgia’s Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies among the Georgia Coastal Negroes (1940), and George P. Rawick’s stunning 41-volume work, The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. These volumes, edited by Rawick, a historian, were published beginning in 1972, but the texts were based on the interviews conducted and recorded by FWP’s writers during the early 1940s.

The Colored American magazine cover

May 19

1900 ----- The nation’s first monthly magazine for African Americans, The Colored American, was first published on this date and circulated in Boston and New York City.

A prominent black businessman, Walter Wallace, in partnership with three other black men, established the Colored-Cooperative Publishing Company in Boston with the intent of publishing a magazine for African Americans.

The magazine sold for 15 cents an issue and a yearly subscription cost $1.50. At the height of its popularity, The Colored American's circulation was 15,000.

The magazine’s masthead read: “An Illustrated Monthly Devoted to Literature, Science, Music, Architecture, Facts, Fiction and Traditions of the Negro Race.” The monthly’s wide-ranging offerings included short stories, serialized novels, poetry and articles on social and political issues of the day.

Pauline Hopkins, an African American writer, served until as the magazine’s women’s editor and literary editor for the first four years of publication. She contributed short stories and serial novels that were exceptionally popular.

Debt-ridden, the magazine was sold in 1903 to Colonel William H. Dupree, a wealthy black businessman. In 1904, Fred R. Moore, an agent for Booker T. Washington, bought a controlling interest in The Colored American magazine and moved the publication’s offices to New York City.

When the magazine was published in Boston, it featured mostly arts and literature. In New York, the articles focused on business and politics and offered profiles of individuals successful in business.

The Colored American published it final issue in 1909. In 1910, W. E. B. Du Bois founded the NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis, which replaced The Colored American as the preeminent publication for African Americans. The Crisis is still being published as a quarterly journal. It celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2010.

May 20

1862 ----- Congress passed the Homestead Act, which some historians argue was the nation's biggest welfare program for whites, on this date. President Abraham Lincoln signed the legislation on May 20, 1862, and it took effect on Jan. 1, 1863.

The law allowed any adult 21 years old and older, who was a United States citizen, to claim 160 acres of land for an $18 filing fee. Claimants had six months to occupy the land and after five years of improvements, they could claim it as their own. The law, however, did not benefit blacks for several years.

African-Americans did not become citizens until the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The act was backed two years later by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Black farmers primarily homesteaded farms in Kansas and Oklahoma, according to the book, In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990, by Quintard Taylor, PhD, of the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1900, there were 1,782 black-owned farms in Kansas worth about $3.7 million.

May 21

Mary Jane Patterson

1862 ---- Mary Jane Patterson became the first black women in the United States to earn a bachelor's degree on this day in 1862 from an established four-year college, although some argue that Grace W. Mapps, another black woman, was the first to graduate from college. Mapps graduated from New York Central College at McGrawville in the 1852.

Patterson graduated with highest honors from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, according to Oberlin College archives.

In 1857, Patterson studied for a year in Oberlin's preparatory department before becoming an undergraduate student. Her course work included Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Patterson was one of 28 students who graduated. At her graduation ceremony, Patterson gave a speech, which was titled, “The Hero of Italy.” It referred to Giuseppe Garibaldi," a 17th century Italian general, politician and patriot.

Patterson was born in 1840 in Raleigh, N.C. Her parents, Henry Irving Patterson and Emmeline Eliza (nee Taylor) Patterson, were believed to have escaped slavery and come to Oberlin, home to a growing number of free African-American families. Henry Irving, a skilled mason, was a boyhood friend of President Andrew Jackson, according to Oberlin's archives. Other black Oberlin students lived in the Patterson home.

After graduation, Mary Jane Patterson taught briefly in Chillicothe, Ohio, before moving to Philadelphia, where she taught for seven years at the Institute for Colored Youths. In 1884, she was named the first African-American principal at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth in Washington, D.C. The institution was later re-named Dunbar High School.

She served as the school's first black principal, from 1871 to 1872. Patterson was demoted, and she served as assistant principal under Richard Theodore Greener, the first black Harvard University graduate. In October 1873, Greener left to accept a job as a professor at the University of South Carolina, becoming the school's first black professor. Patterson was reappointed principal, serving from 1873 to 1884. During her administration, the school grew from fewer than 50 to 172 students. Patterson died in 1884 in Washington.

May 22

Langston Hughes

1967---- Poet Langston Hughes, who won the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, died on this date. A prolific writer, Hughes was born Feb. 1, 1902, in Joplin, Mo. He wrote poetry, short stories, novels and plays. His first collection of poems, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926.

Although Hughes, a black, gay man, was closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance that began in the 1920s, he later became a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936 and ended in 1939. In 1937, Hughes traveled to Spain, writing for the Baltimore Afro-American and other African-American newspapers.
Hughes wrote about the black combatants he interviewed during the Spanish Civil War. He also crossed paths with Ernest Hemingway, who was also a war correspondent.

Langston Hughes
testifying before Congress

In his 1989 book, Mississippi to Madrid: A Memoir of a Black American in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, James Yates writes about the approximately 100 African Americans who were volunteers in the unit, the first non-Jim Crow military organization in U.S. history. The brigade fought for Republican forces against Francisco Franco and the Spanish Nationalists. The Republican forces saw this as a war against fascism. Franco later became Spain's dictator.

May 23

Eubie Blake

1921----- Shuffle Along, which would become the first major successful African-American musical on Broadway, opened on this date.

Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles wrote the play, while Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake provided the music and lyrics.

The musical became so popular that three separate companies toured the United States, and it ran continuously on Broadway until 1928. Shuffle Along included the song, “I'm Just Wild About Harry.” In 1948, when Harry Truman was running for re-election as president of the United States, it became his campaign theme song, according to Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African-American Experience.

Shuffle Along

1871 ----- Landrow Bell, a diversified inventor based in Washington, D.C., patented an improvement to the locomotive smoke stack on this date, according to book The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity.

The improvement prevented locomotive cinders from harming passengers and the surrounding land, making train travel much safer, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation.

NorthStar's Week in Black History is compiled
and written by Frederick H. Lowe and Susan M. Miller.

NorthStar Letters

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:33:34 GMT

President Obama's Support of Same-Sex Marriage
I just sent a message to President Obama beginning with God bless you! I am a straight, gray-haired granny. And I think love and the option for marriage are a wonderful thing: heterosexual or same sex. It is a matter of social justice. I am proud of President Obama and Vice President Biden for speaking out on its behalf. I hope, really hope, Obama will remain our president for another four years. I know he will be a memorable part of history.Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Mr. Lowe for your article.

Helen Lambin
hrlamb@sbcglobal.net

President Obama Supports Gay Marriage, Stunning Opponents and Drawing Praise From Supporters

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:07:40 GMT

by Frederick H. Lowe

President Barack Obama on Wednesday stunned political opponents by saying that he supports gay marriage. The National Black Justice Coalition, the nation's leading black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) organization, praised President Obama's position, calling him a 'courageous leader.'

"I've just concluded for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married," President Obama told Robin Roberts, co-host of the ABC-television's Good Morning America.

President Obama elaborated further, saying that a number of his staff members are gay, in committed same-sex unions and are raising children together. He also stated that he and Michelle Obama have discussed the issue of same-sex marriage over the years. He said, "In the end, the values I care most-deeply about, she cares most deeply about, that is how we treat other people."

He continued, saying that as practicing Christians, their support of same-sex marriage may put them at odds with some other Christians, but that he and Michelle believed in the Golden Rule, treating others as they themselves would wish to be treated and that they have taught this value to their daughters. President Obama's complete interview will air today (Thursday) on Good Morning America.

President Obama announced his support for marriage between gay couples four days after Vice President Joe Biden told NBC-television's Meet The Press that he was personally comfortable with same-sex marriage. The next day, Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, said he also supported gay marriage.

Their support contrasted sharply with what recently occurred in North Carolina.

On Tuesday, North Carolina voters passed an amendment that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. President Obama said he was disappointed by the vote. The Democratic National Convention will be held in Charlotte, N.C., the week of September 3rd, and delegates will nominate the president for a second four-year term.

North Carolina residents voted against gay marriage at the same time 50 percent of Americans said they believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by law as valid, having the same rights as traditional marriage, according to Gallup Daily Tracking.

Vice President Joe Biden

The White House on Wednesday scheduled an interview in which President Obama agreed to discuss his position on gay marriage. The interview was arranged to clarify to bring the president's position more in line with Biden's. President Obama's statement shocked opponents, but it did not prompt them to change their positions on the controversial subject.

Mitt Romney, the presumed Republican Party nominee for president, reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage several hours after the president announced his support of marriage between committed same-sex couples.

"My view is that marriage itself is a relationship between a man and a woman and that's my own preference," Romney said. "I know other people have differing views. This is a very tender and sensitive topic, as are many social issues, but I have the same view that I've had since running for office."

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), however, applauded President Obama, calling his position on gay marriage 'historic.'

"It is an honor to witness our president take such a strong stand in support of gay and lesbian couples across the country," said Sharon Lettman-Hicks, executive director and CEO of NBJC, which is based in Washington, D.C. "This affirmation reinforces the administration's ongoing commitment to LGBT Americans and our families."

Lettman-Hicks added: "Here is President Obama, the nation's first black president, taking a position that no sitting president in history has had the fortitude to ever take. If anyone in America has ever wondered what courageous leadership looks like, here it is."

Employment-Population Ratio is Mixed in April for African Americans

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:14:28 GMT

Job cuts by the public sector, where blacks are overrepresented, are factors

The employment-population ratio, which is the best indicator the percentage of the population that is working, was mixed in April for black men and black women 20 years old and older, according to Work in the Black Community by the University of California at Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.

The employment-population ratio for men was 58.1 percent in April, compared with 58.9 percent in March, Work in the Black Community reported. The organization's report is based on data provided by U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. The highest employment-population ratio for men was 64.7 percent, which was recorded in December 2007.

For black women, the employment-population ratio in April improved to 56.1 percent, up from 55.4 percent in March. The highest employment-population ratio for women was 59.1 percent, which also was recorded in December 2007. The combined employment-population for both black men and black women 20 years old and older in April was 57 percent, which was unchanged from March's figure of 56.9 percent. The highest combined employment-population ratio for black men and black women was 61.6 percent, which occurred in December 2007.

Work in the Black Community did not provide an explanation for the mixed results, but the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, on May 2 released a policy paper, which reported that African-Americans have lost jobs because they were heavily employed by state and local governments. As public-sector jobs disappear, blacks are having a difficult time finding work in the private sector, which is hiring.

The public sector hired African Americans because of the government's commitment to equal opportunity. This was not voluntary. Legislation and executive orders mandated equal employment practices in the public sector.

EPI noted that in response to lower revenues and budget shortfalls, African Americans have been disproportionally affected by the cuts because they have been overrepresented in public sector employment.

"Since the official end of the recession in June 2009, the private sector has slowly recovered some of the jobs it lost during the downturn, while the public sector has continued shedding jobs at a rapid pace, according to the briefing paper, “The Public-Sector Job Crisis: Women and African American Hit Hardest by Job Losses in State and Local Governments," by EPI analysts Algernon Austin, David Cooper and Mary Gable.

The study reported that in 2011, state and local governments experienced the worst job decline on record. Prior to the recession, state and local governments eliminated 765,000 jobs. “Women and African Americans comprised about 70 percent and 20 percent, respectively, of those job losses,” EPI reported.

Blacks have suffered disproportionately from the state and local budget cuts. In 2011, African Americans comprised more than 10.9 percent of the employed and 12.8 percent of state and local public-sector employment.

“They, however, accounted for 19.8 percent of the overall decline in state and local government jobs between 2007 and 2011 among racial groups who lost jobs,” reported EPI." Its report states. “This loss of 177,000 jobs represents a decrease in African Americans' state and local government employment of 7.6 percent, which is the largest percentage change for all racial groups.”

Poll: Voters Really Like Obama

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:05:38 GMT

If November's election was based on likeability, President Barack Obama would win in a landslide, according to a Gallup Daily Tracking Poll released on Tuesday.

“Registered voters are nearly twice as likely to say Barack Obama, rather than Mitt Romney, is the more likable of the two presidential candidates,” Gallup reported in story headlined, “Obama Has Big Likability Edge Over Romney.”

Obama's 60 percent to 31 percent advantage on this characteristic is the largest for either candidate on five separate dimensions tested in a USA Today/Gallup Poll.

The poll also found that 51 percent of registered voters believe Obama cares about the average person, compared with 41 percent of voters who believe Romney does. Forty-nine percent believe Obama is a strong, decisive leader, compared with 40 percent of voters who feel the same way about Romney.

In addition, 47 percent of voters said President Obama cares about issues they care about, versus 45 percent of voters who think Romney does. The former Massachusetts Governor, however, leads in the category measuring who can manage the economy more effectively. Romney had a three point edge, 46 percent to Obama's 43 percent.
Gallup Daily Tracking, which is based in Princeton, N.J., surveyed 872 registered voters 18 years and older.

Wells Fargo Could Face Federal Lawsuit Over Fair-Lending Issues

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:58:49 GMT

Wells Fargo & Co. disclosed on Tuesday in a United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that it faces possible civil penalties and monetary damages for alleged violations of fair-lending laws.

“The Department of Justice has advised Wells Fargo that it believes it can bring claims against Wells Fargo for monetary damages and civil penalties under fair-lending laws,” Wells Fargo said in its SEC filing. “We believe such claims should not be bought and continue seeking to demonstrate to the Department of Justice our compliance with fair-lending laws.”

The two areas of concern are:

• Whether Wells Fargo may have violated fair-lending laws or other laws and regulations, relative to mortgage origination practices;

• Whether Wells Fargo properly disclosed in offering documents for its residential mortgage-backed securities the facts and risks associated with those securities.

In a 2009 federal lawsuit, black homeowners in Baltimore charged that Wells Fargo employees steered them into high-interest, subprime mortgages and did not provide home buyers with loan options.

In 2010, the City of Memphis, Tenn., sued Wells Fargo, charging that bank officials steered blacks into applying for high-interest, subprime mortgages, which caused many African Americans to lose their homes when mortgage-interest rates reset to amounts homeowners could not afford.

Wells Fargo also was one of five banks that agreed to pay a $25 billion settlement relative to mortgage-loan servicing and mortgage-foreclosure abuses.

Wells Fargo, which is based in San Francisco, is the largest servicer and originator of home loans in the country.

Third World Press Foundation Convening National Summit on Black Male Achievement

Wed, 09 May 2012 03:13:39 GMT

Third World Press Foundation will host a national summit on black male achievement, the second such conference focusing on black men in Chicago to be held within the next month.

The conference, which is titled, “Toward a Definition of Black Manhood,” is being held in conjunction with Kennedy-King College on Friday, June 15, and Saturday, June 16. The foundation is the non-profit arm of the Chicago-based book publisher and bookseller Third World Press, the nation's largest black-owned book publisher.

Charles J. Ogletree

Invited speakers include Charles J. Ogletree Jr., PhD, who is a professor at Harvard University Law School; Carl C. Bell, MD, president and CEO of the Community Health Council, which is based in Chicago; Haki Madhubuti, founder of Third World Press, and Phillip Jackson, founder of the Black Star Project.

The Black Star Project is hosting its second-annual Midwest Black Male Education Conference on Saturday, May 19, at the Ramada Inn, 4900 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.

The Third World Press Foundation's conference will hold workshops focusing on ways to build strong families, violence prevention and gang intervention, entrepreneurial outreach, education and health and the criminal justice system. The conference is free for students and $45 for other attendees. For registration information, call 773-651-0700.

Third World Press Foundation’s initiatives include:

•    establishing prison literature program;
•    aiding and building culturally specific libraries in elementary and secondary schools, women's shelters, halfway houses and in state and federal prisons;
•    supporting literacy programs, writing conferences, seminars and workshops in African- American neighborhoods;
•    providing resources to teachers and others whose primary goal is the development of literacy throughout the African-American community.

NorthStar's Week in Black History

Wed, 09 May 2012 02:57:37 GMT

May 10 through May 16

1819 ----- Justin Holland, the first African-American man to make an important contribution to the classical guitar, was born on this day in Norfolk County, Va.

Holland's Method, which was published in 1876, stands as one the finest mixtures of guitar pedagogy to appear in America in the 19th century.

At 15 years old, Holland moved to Boston, where he became acquainted with guitar after hearing Spanish guitarist Mariano Perez. Holland began studying the guitar with composer William Schubert. He later studied at Oberlin College before moving to Mexico to learn the language.

May 11

1885 ----- Alonzo "Lonnie" Clayton became the youngest ever jockey to win the Kentucky Derby.

Alonzo "Lonnie" Clayton

Clayton rallied Azra to an impressive nose victory in a three-horse field. Azra finished the "Run for Roses" in 2:41.50, according to This Week in Thoroughbred Racing. Clayton had four Derby mounts in his in his career with one victory, two seconds and a third, finishing in the money in all four of his Derby starts. Clayton is considered one of the best jockeys in racing history.

May 12

H.Rap Brown

1967 ----- H. Rap Brown succeeded Stokley Carmichael as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), according to the Encyclopedia of the Black America.

Born in Baton Rouge, La., Brown was active in the 1960s and admired by younger blacks because of his militant rhetoric. Brown was famous for saying, "violence is as American as cherry pie," as well as once stating that "If America don't come around, we're gonna burn it down!"

SNCC played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, a leading role in the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party over the next few years. SNCC's major contribution was in its field work, organizing voter-registration drives throughout the South, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

May 13

James Charles Evers

1969 ----- James Charles Evers, older brother of slain civil rights worker Medgar Evers, was elected mayor of Fayette, Miss., becoming the first African-American mayor since Reconstruction.

Vote for Evers Button

Fayette had a majority of black residents, but African Americans had been effectively disfranchised in Mississippi from 1890 until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Evers' election as mayor had enormous symbolic significance statewide and national resonance. The NAACP named Evers its 1969 Man of the Year. Evers popularized the slogan, "Hands that picked cotton can now pick the mayor."

May 14

John B. McLendon

1969 ----- John B. McLendon was named head coach of the Denver Rockets of the American Basketball Association.

He was fired after the team started the season 9-19. Despite the fact that he was only 54 when dismissed, this was the last college or professional head coaching job in his career. The team changed its name to the Denver Nuggets after joining the National Basketball Association.

May 15

Mary Fields

1832 ----- Mary Fields, born on this day, was known as "Stage Coach Mary" and was the first African-American woman employed as a mail carrier in the United States.

Fields' stagecoach mail route went from Cascade, Montana to St. Peter's Mission, Montana. She was only the second American woman in all to work for the United States Postal Service. She drove the route with horses and a mule named Moses and never missed a day, earning the nickname "Stagecoach" for her reliability. This was despite heavy snowfalls that sometimes made it necessary for her to deliver the mail on foot, once walking 10 miles back to the depot.

May 16

A. Philip Randolph and President
Lyndon B. Johnson

1979 ----- Asa Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and co-organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, died on this day in New York. He was 90-years-old.

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was considered a radical black union that fought for equal pay for its members. It was founded in 1925 and after 10 years of struggle, the union negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the Pullman Palace Car Company, which was based in Chicago, according to the Encyclopedia of Black America.

NorthStar's Week in Black History was compiled
and written by Frederick H. Lowe.

Art Institute Will Exhibit Its New Dawoud Bey Photos of Harlem

Tue, 08 May 2012 22:53:29 GMT

The Art Institute of Chicago has purchased for its permanent collection Dawoud Bey's Harlem, U.S.A. photographs, and his work will be on exhibit until Sept. 9, 2012.

The purchase, announced April 24, includes 25 black-and-white photographs taken in Harlem that were part of a five-year project (1975 to 1979). The Art Institute will exhibit the photographs in the Modern Wing's Bucksbaum Gallery.

“The acquisition of the Harlem, U.S.A. photographs by the Art Institute of Chicago is a very gratifying moment for me," Bey said. "The acquisition was spearheaded by the Leadership Advisory Committee, the African-American Support Group of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was gratifying to see this group come together to raise the resources needed to make both this acquisition and the publication possible."

Mr. Moore's Bar-B-Que

The museum’s acquisition was made possible by donations from more than a dozen patrons. In addition, Bey donated five additional photographs that have never been printed or seen to the Art Institute.

Harlem, U.S.A. premiered in 1979 at the Studio Museum in Harlem as Bey's first solo exhibition. The Art Institute is remounting the entire collection.

Bey, a native of Queens, N.Y., began pursuing a career in photography in 1969 at 15 when he saw the Harlem on My Mind exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit combined the works of various African-American photographers, including James VanDerZee.

Woman waiting

“The Harlem U.S.A. project was inspired by two things: my family's history in Harlem and seeing the Harlem On My Mind exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art," Bey said. “My mother and father had lived in Harlem, and met there, but when I was born they moved out to Queens so I wanted to reestablish my connection to the Harlem community by making photographs there.”

Harlem, NY

Bey, a professor of Art at Columbia College in Chicago, said a number of photographers have affected his work.

“I was influenced initially by seeing the photographs of James Van DerZee at the Metropolitan Museum in 1969 and later Roy DeCarava, the first African-American photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship,” Bey said. “I was determined to not only make photographs of African Americans, but to have them hang on the walls of museums along with other works of art that have been considered significant. I wanted there to be a black presence in those institutions through my work, and to show that black artists were indeed capable of hanging on the walls with other works that had been deemed worthy of collecting, exhibiting, and preserving.”

man in a bowler hat

Bey wanted to show individual residents of Harlem --- the barber, the patrician, the church ladies and the hip youth, Art Institute officials wrote in a news release. He was searching for a way to combine the specificity of photography with the diversity of Harlem, a neighborhood as varied as any in the country.

woman with hanging overalls

Bey has had one-person shows at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, among other institutions.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1990 from Empire State College, which is part of the State University of New York, and a masters degree in fine arts from Yale University in 1993.

(All photos are courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago and Dawoud Bey)

Jobless Rates Declines for Blacks in April and from a Year Ago

Tue, 08 May 2012 22:11:29 GMT

115,000 Jobs Created In April, but Mid-Winter Hiring Dampened Spring Job Increases

By Frederick H. Lowe
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for African-American men and women dropped in April, compared with March. The jobless rate among blacks also declined significantly from a year ago, the U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics reported on Friday.

The April unemployment rate for black men and black women 20 years old and older was 13 percent, compared with 14 percent in March, bureau officials said. April's decline was significant, compared with the black unemployment rate of 16.2 percent in April 2011.

The government reported that April's jobless rate for black men was 13.6 percent, compared with 13.8 percent in March. April's unemployment rate for men dropped dramatically from 17 percent in April 2011.

As for women 20 years old and older, April's jobless rate was 10.8 percent, compared with 12.3 percent in March. For the same 30-day period a year earlier, the unemployment among black women 21 years old and older was 13.5 percent.

Although unemployment dropped for black men and black women, it still was higher than those for other major worker groups. The jobless rate for whites was 7.4 percent in April, and it was 10.3 percent for Hispanics. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.2 percent, but it was not seasonally adjusted.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics disclosed the jobless rate for the African Americans and other ethnic and racial groups at the same time it reported that nonfarm payroll employment rose 115,000 in April and that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent from 8.2 percent in March.

“The job-creation rate was lower than what we have been seeing, but we shouldn't freak out because we are not slipping back into recession,” said Dr. Heidi Shierholz, a labor-market economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Shierholz explained that the nation's mild winter affected hiring in the spring. “Warm weather increases economic activity,” she said. “People shop. The warm weather forced employers to hire workers in the winter they planned to hire in the spring. Hiring normally increases in the spring, not in the winter.”

The White House Council of Economic Advisors noted monthly jobless figures are volatile, and employment estimates are often revised.

The U.S. Bureau of Employment Statistics said there were 968,000 discouraged workers in April. They are individuals who have given up looking for work because they don't believe jobs are available.

There also were 2.4 million marginally attached workers who are available for work and have looked for a job in the past 12 months, but have not found one.

Nevertheless, the council said the April's jobs report reflected the 26th consecutive week the private sector has added jobs.

To challenge expected Republican Party criticism that job growth is weak, the White House posted a chart on its website showing that in April 2008, the private sector shed 200,000 jobs and in April 2009, the economy lost nearly 800,000 jobs.

“Today's employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but much more remains to be done to repair the damage caused by the financial crisis and the deep recession,” the White House Council of Economic Advisors said.

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, the presumed Republican Party nominee for president, jumped on the jobs report, telling Fox & Friends that the economy should be creating 500,000 jobs per month. The website Think Progress said there only have been four months since 1939 that the economy has added 500,000 or more jobs.

Shierholz said 500,000 jobs per month would lead to 5 percent full employment in two years. She explained there is a lack of demand for work, and Romney is not talking about making investments in the nation's infrastructure that would create demand. “There's a real disconnect there,” she added.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in April professional and business services added 62,000 jobs, retail trade added 29,000 jobs, health care added 19,000 jobs, restaurants and bars added 20,000 jobs and manufacturing added 16,000 jobs.

Transportation and warehousing, however, lost 17,000 jobs because of declines in passenger transportation and courier/messenger services. Employment in mining, logging, construction, wholesale trade, information, financial activities and government remained flat.

Barry Bonds' Lawyers Appeal His Felony Conviction

Tue, 08 May 2012 21:48:02 GMT

by Frederick H. Lowe

Lawyers for Major League Baseball's home-run king Barry Bonds have appealed his conviction for federal obstruction of justice, arguing that Bonds was found guilty of a felony based on conduct with which he was not charged in the indictment, as the grand jury clause requires.

Bonds' lawyers filed the appeal with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on May 3, 2012, to overturn his April 13, 2010, conviction for obstruction of justice. On Nov. 15, 2007, federal prosecutors indicted Bonds on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The four perjury counts eventually were dismissed.

Federal prosecutors accused Bonds of obstruction justice based on his Dec. 4, 2003, testimony before a federal grand jury. The grand jury was investigating the use of steroids by athletes sold by Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (Balco), which is headquartered in Burlingame, Calif. Bonds admitted receiving supplements from Balco, but he denied being injected with steroids.

During the grand jury proceedings, prosecutors asked Bonds if Greg Anderson, his personal trainer, gave him anything that required a syringe to inject himself with. The transcript of Bonds' response follows:

“I've only had one doctor touch me,” Bonds answered. “And that's my only personal doctor. Like I said, we don't get into each others' personal lives. We're friends, but I don't, we don't sit around and talk baseball, because he knows I don't want—don't come to my house talking baseball. If you want to come to my house and talk fishing, some other stuff, we'll be good friends. You come around talking baseball, you go on. I don't talk about his business. You know what I mean."

The next statement was “Right” made by an unnamed prosecutor.

Bonds continued: "That's what keeps our friendship. You know, I am sorry, but you know, that ---I was a celebrity child, not just in baseball by my own instincts. I became a celebrity child with a famous father. I just don't get into other people's business because of my father's situation, you see.”

The response is called statement “C.”

Bonds' lawyers Riordan & Horgan argue in their 70-page brief that at the time Bonds digressed there was no question pending and the remark was immaterial.

“The indictment on which Mr. Bonds was tried did not mention statement 'C,'” Bonds' lawyers wrote. “The indictment simply stated that Mr. Bonds gave testimony that was ‘intentionally evasive, false and misleading, including but not limited to the false statements made by the defendant as charged in counts one through four in this indictment.’ Thus, the indictment only gave specific notice that the government would pursue an obstruction conviction based on the four statements alleged in the false declaration counts.”

They were:
•    Bonds never knowingly took steroids provided by Anderson (count 1)
•   Anderson never injected him with anything (count 2)
•   Anderson never gave him human growth hormone (count 3)
•   And that prior to the 2003 baseball season, Anderson never gave him anything but vitamins (count 4)

The government dismissed count four during the trial, and a jury deadlocked on the counts one, two and three. Those counts were subsequently dismissed by federal prosecutors.

Riordan & Horgan, a San Francisco-based law firm, argued that “truthful statements [statement ‘c’] do not constitute obstruction of justice” and that the conviction must be reversed because the evidence was insufficient to establish that statement “c” was unresponsive, intentionally obstructive and material.

On Dec. 16, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston sentenced Bonds to two years’ probation, including home confinement, for his count 5 conviction.

Bonds, who played for the San Francisco Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates, holds Major League Baseball’s single-season home run record of 73 swats into the bleachers. In addition, he holds the career home run record of 762 round trippers.

It’s Dr. Shaq

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:53:12 GMT

It’s no longer just a Shaq Attack. It’s now a Dr. Shaq Attack.

Shaquille O'Neal, one of the greatest players in National Basketball Association history, has won four NBA championships. Now he has enhanced his standing as a scholar/athlete after being awarded his doctorate.

O'Neal graduated with an Ed.D degree in organizational learning and leadership with a specialization in human resource development on Saturday, May 5, from Barry University, a Catholic liberal-arts college based in Miami Shores, Fla. School officials were clearly excited about the attention O'Neal brought to the university. His graduation was the lead headline on its website. "Shaquille O'Neal graduates with a doctoral degree from Barry University."

“This is for my mother who always stressed the importance of education,” said O'Neal, who walked down the aisle to “Pomp and Circumstance” with 1,100 other students at the James L. Knight Center in Miami. “I am proud to have achieved a doctoral degree, and I wish to thank my professors and Barry University for helping make this dream a reality. I'm smart enough to know that even at my tender age, my pursuit of education is never finished.”

O'Neal is 40. For the past four and a half years, he pursued his doctoral degree in education while juggling his NBA schedule. He retired last year from the Boston Celtics. He also is an entrepreneur and a broadcaster. And with moniker Shaq Diesel, he also released four rap albums.

O'Neal completed his 54 hours of course work via satellite classrooms, video conference, on-campus courses and Blackboard. Blackboard Inc. is a Washington, D.C.-based company that extends teaching and learning online.

His dissertation is titled, “How Leaders Utilize Humor or Seriousness in Leadership Styles.” O'Neal graduated with a 3.813 grade point average. O'Neal is a perfect example of a scholar-athlete.

In addition to his doctorate, O'Neal earned a bachelor's degree in general studies from Louisiana State University, and in 2005, the University of Phoenix awarded him a master’s degree in business administration.

During his career, O'Neal, who is 7 feet one inch tall, won NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002 with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won his fourth NBA championship in 2006 playing with the Miami Heat.

NorthStar News & Analysis Briefs

Wed, 02 May 2012 21:09:13 GMT

Felony Charges Announced in Florida A&M Hazing Death
A Florida prosecutor announced on Wednesday that he will charge 13 Florida A&M University band members with the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion, Jr. Champion, 26, died on November 19, 2011, from internal bleeding while aboard a chartered bus in Orlando, Fla. Prosecutors said 11 band members will be charged with felonies and two will be charged with misdemeanors. Champion was gay, and the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization, had pushed law enforcement officials to file charges against some of the band members.

Junior Seau

Junior Seau Found Dead
Junior Seau, a former National Football League linebacker, was found dead on Wednesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, the San Diego Chargers reported on the team's website. The 43-year-old Seau's body was found in his home in Oceanside, Calif. Seau played 20 years in the NFL, including 12 years with the Chargers and on 12 Pro Bowl teams.

President Obama Signs Deal in Afghanistan and Visits Troops

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:03:02 GMT

By Frederick H. Lowe

President Barack Obama on Tuesday made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he signed a partnership agreement with the government that will end America's role in the Afghan War.

The president also visited an Air Base to give a brief speech before shaking hands with the troops deployed there.

Obama met with the Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, the capital, where the two leaders signed the nine-page Strategic Partnership Agreement under which the United States will turn over responsibility for security to Afghans.

The “Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement Between The United States of America and The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” was discussed and drafted in 2010 in London and in Kabul and in Bonn, Germany, in 2011.

The agreement, which includes a preamble and eight sections, calls for the United States to designate Afghanistan as a “Major Non-NATO Ally,” and that beyond 2014, the U.S. shall seek funds on a yearly basis to support the training, equipping, advising and sustaining of the Afghan National Security Forces.

Until 2014, Afghanistan must provide U.S. forces continued access to and use of Afghan facilities. The United States deployed troops in Afghanistan in 2001.

After the signing ceremony, President Obama traveled to Bagram Air Base in the ancient city of Bagram. The base is one of the largest the U.S. has in Afghanistan.

The president spoke to troops deployed with the First Infantry Division, the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing, the Task Force Muleskinner, the 101st Army Field Sustainment Brigade, the Task Force Paladin, Task Force Defender and the 82nd Airborne.

He praised the military men and women and their families for their sacrifices, telling them that what they are doing makes America more secure and that the nation appreciates them.

He then told the troops that he was in Afghanistan to turn the security of the country over to the Afghans, although it would not occur right away.

“We're not going to do it overnight. We're not going to do it irresponsibly,” the President said. “We're going to make sure that the gains, the hard-fought gains that have been made, are preserved. But the reason we're able to do that is because of you. The reason that Afghans have an opportunity for a new tomorrow is because of you. And the reason America is safe is because of you."

President Obama also told them how proud he was being their Commander and Chief, before ending his speech of a little more than 10 minutes.

“God bless you, and God bless the United States of America,” he said. “Now I want to shake some hands.”

Black Star Project to Host Black Male Education Conference

Wed, 02 May 2012 16:47:43 GMT

The Black Star Project will host its second-annual Midwest Black Male Education Conference, on Saturday, May 19, in Chicago.

Dr. Umar Abdullah Johnson of Philadelphia, Dr. Ivory Toldson of Washington, D.C., and Dr. Gerrard McClendon of Chicago are scheduled to speak at the conference, which will be held at the Ramada Inn, 4900 S. Lake Shore Drive.

Umar Abdullah Johnson, Ph.D.

Johnson is a nationally certified school psychologist and a recognized authority on the education of black boys.

Toldson is an associate professor at Howard University and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Negro Education.

Gerrard McClendon,
Ph.D.

McClendon is an Emmy award winning talk show host, author of the book, Ax or Ask: The African-American Guide to
Better English, and is an assistant professor and research fellow at Chicago State University.

Black Star is charging $200 to attend the conference, which has drawn a standing-room-only audience. The price of admission includes breakfast and lunch. Individuals who wish to attend may reserve a place by calling 773-285-9600. Black Star Project is based in Chicago.

Open Society Launches Website for Black Male Achievement

Wed, 02 May 2012 16:44:08 GMT

The Open Society Foundations' Campaign for Black Male Achievement and Root Cause have launched a website for the Leadership and Sustainability Institute, which is a national initiative designed to bolster the efforts of advocates and organizations, working to improve the outcomes of black men and boys in the United States.

The website address is www.leadershipandsustainabilityinstitute.com

The website is a collaborative, open-engagement platform for individuals and organizations interested in advancing black male achievement. Materials from the planning process are posted to the site, including summaries of past events, recordings of webinars and lessons from research and surveys.

The site is continually updated to keep visitors apprised of new developments, and site users are encouraged to contribute to the site.

The Open Society Foundations were started by George Soros, a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor and philanthropist.