Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - Sunday, September 07 2008 - Index

Page 6-C
RETURNING HOME
Hurricane Gustav evacuees arrive at the train station in Memphis,
Tenn. Thursday, as federal, state and local emergency workers direct
them to an Amtrak train bound for New Orleans, the first of a series
of trains scheduled to return evacuees who left New Orleans ahead
of Gustav. — AP PHOTO/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, JIM WEBER
Councilwoman
alleges racial bias
CENTERVILLE, Ala. —
Centreville’s mayor faces
harassment charges after a
councilwoman accused him of
threatening to burn a cross in
her yard during an argument
at a council meeting.
Mayor Dalton Murphy
turned himself in Wednesday
on misdemeanor charges of
harassment and disorderly
conduct. He posted $500 bail
and spent no time behind
bars. Murphy did not immediately
return phone messages
left Thursday.
Councilwoman Linda Renn-
Pierce, who brought the
charges, said the threat was
made Tuesday during a heated
discussion about the firing of
three Black city workers.
West Virginia State
gets $100K grant
INSTITUTE, W.Va. — West
Virginia State University is
among 15 historically Black
land-grant schools to receive
economic development and
business promotion grants
from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Rural Development.
Agriculture Under Secretary
for Rural Development Thomas
C. Dorr announced the grants
Thursday. West Virginia State
received $100,000.
Rural Development state
director Rick E. Rice says the
university will continue to
focus on small business training,
specialty foods development
and agri-tourism/artisan
development.
Blacks reject north
Hunstville schools
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. —
Hundreds of Black students
each year continue to reject
north Huntsville schools, often
leaving behind half-empty
buildings for a bus ride to
higher-performing classrooms.
While the transfers are
increasing integration in south
Huntsville, the demand outstrips
the room for extra desks.
Each year more than 1,000
transfer requests from Black
children are denied. Each year
about 20 percent of the Black
students in Huntsville request
a new school.
Last school year, 1,856
Black children applied but
only 506 were approved. Some
ask for permission to leave a
failing school. Others ask to
leave a majority Black school.
Meanwhile, only 300 to 350
other students request a
switch each year. Most are
approved.
Superintendent Ann Roy
Moore and school board members
say perception problems
fuel the requests.
But parents have said that
academic and economic differences
between the mostly
Black and the mostly white
schools drive the requests.
Chicago schools
boycott cut short
CHICAGO — Public school
students who skipped classes
to protest unequal education
funding were urged to return
to their desks Thursday after
the boycott was prematurely
called off.
State Sen. James Meeks,
who led what was supposed to
be a four-day boycott, said late
Wednesday that he ended the
protest after two days because
Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he
wouldn’t meet while it was still
in effect.
Meeks had threatened to
prolong the boycott until state
leaders, including the governor,
take some action, such as
supporting a $120 million program
to pump funding into
key ailing schools.
Organizers said the two-day
boycott was effective and
brought attention to the issue of
school funding at the country’s
third-largest school system.
Property taxes make up
about 70 percent of school
financing in Illinois, so rural
and inner-city schools are
usually less well-funded than
suburban schools.
Smiley begins
HBCU tour in Fla.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —
Talk show host Tavis Smiley is
in Florida to kick off his tour
of historically Black colleges
and universities that will bring
him to one school in South
Carolina.
It’s dubbed Talented Tenth
HBCU Tour, based on the writings
of W.E.B. DuBois that
emphasize the need to develop
a crop of leaders through education.
Smiley spoke at Bethune-
Cookman University on Friday.
He talked about the characteristics
of successful role models
in public service, religion, academia
and business.
Later this fall, Smiley plans
to visit Alabama A&M
University, the University of
the District of Columbia,
Southern University at Baton
Rouge and South Carolina
State University.
Calif. algebra
testing challenged
SACRAMENTO — Groups
representing school administrators
and local education
boards are challenging
California’s requirement that
all eighth-graders be tested in
algebra.
The California School
Boards Association and the
Association of California
School Administrators filed the
lawsuit Thursday. It seeks an
injunction to prevent the state
Board of Education from
imposing the requirement.
About half of California’s
eighth-grade students enroll in
full algebra, up from a third
four years ago. O’Connell said
only about 23 percent of those
students score as proficient or
above on standardized tests.
The rate is even lower for
Black, Hispanic and poor students.
— Compiled from The
Associated Press by Jordan
Ingram
GOP TALKS
Joe Watkins, of Philadelphia,
speaks at the Republican
National Convention in St. Paul,
Minn., Thursday. — AP PHOTO/RON EDMONDS
Sunday, September 7, 2008
“G
od forbid you say a Republican has juice with Black people. I
think he has more juice than people give him credit for. People
will probably laugh at that, but let them keep on laughing. I think they’ll
be surprised at how well he’ll connect.”
— Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
Republicans struggle to add
color to ranks, convention
A projected image of a waving American flag is used as the Republican National Committee unveils its national convention lectern
and podium at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday. – AP PHOTO/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST
Nancy Benac
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Republican
National Convention showcased a Native
American color guard, a Black preacher
and video footage of civil rights pioneer
Rosa Parks, all part of its effort to present
the Republican Party as a picture of diversity.
What it hasn’t offered is many minorities
speaking from the podium in prime
time, or sitting among the delegates.
The convention has a decidedly homogenous
look to it, coming hard on the heels of
a Democratic gathering where minorities
were prominent on the podium and in the
crowds, and the spotlight focused squarely
on Barack Obama’s historic racial breakthrough.
Not that Republicans have been deliberately
denying broad exposure to prominent
party members from minority groups —
there just aren’t that many.
The party had hoped to showcase
Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal,
the first elected Indian-American governor
in the United States. But he stayed home to
help coordinate the state’s response to
Hurricane Gustav. The Republicans have
no Black governors or members of
Congress to put on stage.
It’s a problem for the party that goes
deeper than the challenge of coming up
with a diverse speaker’s lineup.
“It is what it is,” said Michael Steele,
Maryland’s Republican former lieutenant
governor and the first Black person elected
to statewide office there. “You can’t sugarcoat
this stuff.”
Steele, who chairs GOPAC, which
recruits and trains Republican candidates
nationwide, got 10 minutes on the podium
in prime time Wednesday night.
Earlier in the evening, a number of
Blacks and Hispanics had a chance to
Detroit mayor talks of his comeback
Ed White and Corey Williams
DETROIT — Only hours after agreeing to resign and serve
time in jail as part of plea deal, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
expressed regret for the scandal that has engulfed the city —
and left the door open for a return to public life.
Kilpatrick walked into a City Hall conference room Thursday
to thunderous applause and thanked his family, backers and
staff members for sticking by him during his rocky 6?-year
tenure.
“I truly know who I am. I truly know where I come from. In
Detroit I know who I am. And I know because of that, there’s
another day for me,” he said in a 20-minute speech on live television.
“I want to tell you, Detroit, that you done set me up for
a comeback.”
In exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction
of justice, the Democrat will get four months behind bars, pay
the city $1 million in restitution, lose his license to practice law,
and cannot run for any elected office for five years.
His resignation will take effect in two weeks and his sentence
will be officially imposed on Oct. 28. Under the city charter, any
mayor guilty of a felony is automatically expelled from office.
“I always said I would stand strong for the city of Detroit,” the
38-year-old mayor said in his address. “But sometimes standing
strong means stepping down.”
Coming after nearly eight months of turmoil and demands
that Kilpatrick resign, the plea bargain was met with relief from
politicians and ordinary Detroit residents alike.
His departure could also remove a major embarrassment for
Barack Obama and the Democrats in Michigan, a crucial battleground
state in the presidential election.
address the convention, albeit briefly.
Among them: a nurse from Pennsylvania, a
California state senator, the head of a
Hispanic medical organization and an
entrepreneur whose mother was an orphan
of Mexican descent.
Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael
Williams, who is Black, also spoke, and
later had the opportunity to place McCain’s
name before the delegates in nomination.
He alluded to the historic significance of
Obama’s breakthrough as the first Black
presidential nominee for a major party, a
nomination he accepted at the Democratic
convention in Denver.
“But I am here with you in St. Paul,
(Minnesota) rather than being in Denver
last week, because I believe values and
ideas take precedence over the politics of
demography and identity,” Williams said.
“And because I know John is ready to
lead.”
It is a message the Republicans hope will
be embraced more broadly among Black
Americans, many of whom are captivated
by Obama’s path-breaking course and are
predominantly Democrats.
The predominance of white faces on the
podium in St. Paul was reflected in the
faces staring back from the audience.
About 13 percent of Republican delegates
identify themselves as belonging to a
minority group, according to convention
organizers, who provided no further details
on the ethnic breakdown. (According to the
U.S. Census, about a third of Americans as
a whole identify themselves as minorities.)
Joanna Burgos, a spokeswoman for the
convention, said the convention figure is
more than double the minority participation
at the Republicans’ 1996 convention.
“We look forward to continuing and
expanding these relationships — and nominating
John McCain, a Republican leader
who values the diverse backgrounds of all
Americans and will lead on issues important
to them,” she said.
However, minority representation is
down from 2004, when about 17 percent of
delegates and alternates were minorities.
Joseph Wood, a Black delegate from
Arkansas and treasurer of the state
Republican Party, said there are more
important things to consider than how
many minorities are standing on the podium.
“Would we like to see more now at the
senior level at the conventions?” he asked.
“That would be great, but we already know
that they’re in prominent positions in the
Cabinet under George Bush and his dad
and Ronald Reagan. I’m not sure we’re
missing anything at this meeting just
because there’s not a whole platform
onstage of minorities.”
Nearby, fellow Arkansan Robert E. Smith
Jr., another Black delegate, labeled it “a
short-term problem.”
“You just haven’t dug deep enough.
Because at the grassroots level there are
those who can articulate” a strong message
to minorities, he said.
Steele, the GOPAC chairman, said
McCain has demonstrated his ability to
connect with Blacks and other minorities
in his appearances before groups such as
the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People and the
Urban League, although he doesn’t always
get credit for it amid all the focus on
Obama’s history-making candidacy.
“God forbid you say a Republican has
juice with Black people,” Steele said. “I
think he has more juice than people give
him credit for. People will probably laugh at
that, but let them keep on laughing. I think
they’ll be surprised at how well he’ll connect.”
— (AP)
“This gives us hope. He’s not a king,” said Monica Smith, 24,
of Detroit, a college student. “This is a huge victory for the city
of Detroit. He was not a role model. He was a thug. I’m definitely
optimistic.”
Ken Cockrel Jr., the 42-year-old president of the Detroit City
Council, will take over as mayor. He said people need to put
aside the anger and bitterness of Kilpatrick’s sex scandal.
“What we’re going to have to focus on really is restoring the
credibility not only of the mayor’s office, but also of the city of
Detroit,” Cockrel said. “There is going to be a need for a healing
period in the city of Detroit.”
The plea bargain came just one day after Democratic Gov.
Jennifer Granholm convened an extraordinary hearing on
whether to oust Kilpatrick as mayor.
“I would hope that Michigan citizens will demonstrate our
compassion as a people and pray for the mayor’s family,”
Granholm said after the deal.
The son of a Detroit congresswoman, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks
Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick was 31 when he was elected in 2001,
becoming the youngest mayor in Detroit history. His youth,
energy and diamond stud earring endeared Kilpatrick to many
fellow Blacks, especially young ones.
But Kilpatrick’s first term was tumultuous. He came under
fire for racking up thousands of dollars in travel on his cityissued
credit card and leasing a luxury Lincoln Navigator for his
wife.
Under his leadership, though, Detroit landed baseball’s 2005
All-Star Game and the 2006 Super Bowl. And Kilpatrick’s ability
to work with business leaders also has been credited with an
overhaul of the city’s riverfront and development downtown. —
(AP)