Volume Volume 125 123 No. No.45 20–22
June 10, 2017 - June 10, 2017, The Afro-American A1 $2.00
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JUNE 10, 2017 - JUNE 16, 2017
Inside
Washington
Commentary
Defending the Soul of our Democracy Part II
• Southeast D.C.
Uneasy about Council’s Budget Proposal
By Rep. Elijah Cummings
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Baltimore
King of the Blues Wife of D.C. Sniper: ‘I’m Still Standing’
AP Photo/G-Jun Yam
Chicago is dedicating a mural to the blues legend Muddy Waters ahead of the city’s annual blues festival this weekend. Waters, known as the father or king of blues music in Chicago, died in 1983 at age 70.
HBCU Equity Lawsuit
Closing Arguments Set to Be Heard in Long Running Discrimination Case
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By Deborah Bailey Special to the AFRO
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Students, alumni and advocates of Maryland’s four HBCUs will be back in U.S. District Court June 8 to hear closing arguments for the remedial phase of (Coalition for Equity & Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, et al. v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, et al.), commonly referred to as the HBCU Equity Trial. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2006, has been part of the higher education landscape in Maryland for the past decade. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has dubbed the HBCU Equity Trial the “Brown vs Board of Education for Higher
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Haitian Embassy Launches Movement To Change Island’s Image, But Is It Enough? By Lenore T. Adkins Special to the AFRO Haitian Ambassador Paul Altidor wants Americans to help him dispel the notion that Haiti, the first Black republic in the Western Hemisphere, is rife with disaster and always has her hand out for aid. But Haiti experts say Altidor faces an uphill battle on changing
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the island’s image in the United States. Altidor spent the District’s first-ever Haiti Week in May educating the public about Haiti’s contributions and enlisting residents to help him correct misperceptions about the island, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. “No more ‘Haitians are Continued on A3
Cosby’s Accuser Stands by Her Story Under Cross-Examination By The Associated Press
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The woman who accuses Bill Cosby of drugging and violating her more than a decade ago stood by her story at his sex-crimes trial June 7, withstanding hours of often ponderous cross-examination that didn’t produce the stumbles the TV star might Continued on A3
Education” denoting its significance in the field of education. Attorneys representing the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education will summarize and defend remedies they were asked to propose by order of the Court to address a systemic pattern of discriminatory practices of academic program duplication advanced by the State of Maryland. In 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake determined that academic program duplication and failure to invest in offerings of unique academic content at HBCUs represent practices and policies that continue to negatively impact these institutions. “I see the plaintiff’s proposed remedy as that which is necessary to reverse the unconstitutional system of higher education that the State has maintained for so many decades,” Pace McConkie, director of the Robert M. Bell Center for Civil Rights in Education at Morgan State University, told the AFRO. Students and alumni from Morgan State University are one of four HBCUs involved in the case, along with Bowie State University, Coppin State University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The Coalition’s remedy includes moving upwards of 100 Continued on A3
Park Ponders Way Forward Following Killing of Collins
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Study: Blood Pressure Lowered by Racial Integration By Shantella Y. Sherman Special to the AFRO ssherman@afro.com A study involving more than 2,000 Blacks found that those who moved from the most-segregated neighborhoods to lesssegregated neighborhoods later experienced lower systolic blood pressure, a factor in heart attacks and strokes. The report, published on June 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed Black people over time to see how leaving segregated
Continued on A5
Several nooses have been found in the District, Maryland and Virginia area recently, including at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The below story recounts, in graphic detail, why the noose remains a potent symbol of racism.
AFRO Archived History
Miss. Mobsters Invite Press to Witness Hanging Sheriff’s Office Knew the Lynchers Had Victim; Takes No Action FARMHAND DIES ON SCHOOLYARD TREE Jeerers Riddle Body with Bullets March 23, 1935 (Special to the AFRO)
SLAYDEN, Miss. While the two factions argued whether to turn Ab Young, 29-year-old farmhand over to officers or to burn him, about 50 men left here, last week, and drove to the Nellie Mahon School, three miles east of here, strung him up and riddled his body with bullets. AP Photo/Matt Rourke
• College
Continued on A5
Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial, June 7.
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