November 11, 2017 - November 11, 2017, The Afro-American A1 PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY EDITION
Volume 127 No. 26
FEBRUARY 3, 2018 - FEBRUARY 9, 2018
Inside
Prince George’s
Jackson Calls On Voters to Mobilize
Florence Kasumba Shines as Part of Stellar ‘Black Panther’ Cast Allies of Maryland’s HBCUs Need To #StayWoke
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In spite of a harsh Southern segregationist environment, Memphis Black sanitation workers in 1968 protested their treatment so the world could see the abuses they were required to endure. A group of the surviving members of the heroic Memphis protesters was recently honored at the NAACP Image Awards. (L to R) Rev. Cleophus Smith, Ozell Ueal, James Winton, Elmore Nickleberry Photo by Lon Walls
An AFRO Special 3 Part Black History Month Series
Remembering the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike A War for Black Respect—“I Am A Man”
The Environment-Southern Segregation Abuses in Midst of the Garbage
Part 1 By Toni Marshall Special to the AFRO In cities across the country, sanitation workers and their supporters will pause at 4:20 p.m. on Feb. 1, for a moment of silence to
honor the 50th anniversary of the tragic deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker. Cole and Walker were two Memphis sanitation workers who sought shelter from a storm in the back cover of a faulty garbage truck. They were crushed and mangled, just like the garbage they collected. Their deaths, in part, set in motion the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike in 1968. The salute will surely jar
CBC Creatively Protests Trump’s State of the Union Address By James Wright Special to the AFRO jwright@afro.com The members of the Congressional Black Caucus, offended by President Trump’s statements about people and countries of color as well as his policies toward civil and human rights, protested as the president delivered his first State of the Union Address on Jan. 30. Most of the members of the CBC who attended the address wore Black suits draped with a kente cloth or wore kente ties and bow ties and wore red and white buttons signifying Continued on A3
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Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., wore a ‘RECY” button the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and members of the Democratic Caucus wore red pins in memoriam of Recy Taylor. Taylor was abducted and raped while walking home from work in Alabama in 1944.
efforts helped to catalyze change beyond the streets of Memphis. The videos can be found on afro.com. Nickleberry, Smith and Ueal are three of the few remaining sanitation workers who braved club-wielding police and teargas, while striking in the streets of Memphis in nonviolent protests. Today, when they tell their story of what led to the strike, their voices
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are void of the drama that incited them and their fellow workers to duck and dodge flying objects and angry words - but measured with the sage reflection of men who have done and continue to do. “One reason ...we didn’t have no place to take a shower and cleanup,” said Nickleberry, explaining working conditions. The trash was not brought to the front curb of the house by the owners; the sanitation workers had to go to backyards, sometimes guarded by snapping dogs. They lifted oozing containers often leaking with putrid
Continued on A3
African Dictator Praises Trump? By J. K. Schmid Special to the AFRO President Donald J. Trump received praise from an unexpected corner of the world Jan. 23. Yoweni Museveni, the 30-year president of Uganda, gave Trump seemingly glowing accolades before an audience last week. His remarks were captured in a clip published by Uganda’s NTV, a leading national news
station. “America has got one of the best presidents ever: Mr. Trump,” Museveni told the audience. “I love Trump.” The remarks were received with strained laughter, and while some news publications have taken the opening and ensuing remarks at face value, President Museveni’s subdued grim tone seems the style of a man speaking somewhere between ironic and sardonic. Continued on A4
Former Educator Wants ‘Negro National Anthem’ Played During Black History Month At NBA Games By Mark F. Gray Special to the AFRO
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the memories of heroes like the Rev. Cleophus Smith, Elmore Nickleberry and Ozell Ueal who, egged on by Cole’s and Walker’s death and other horrid conditions, marched with civil rights activists to demand a better working environment for Memphis sanitation workers. The AFRO presents a three-part video documentary on these three giants, whose names may not be well known, but whose
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“Alexa, play ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’” Eugene Williams Sr., a retired Prince George’s County educator and former Howard University professor, spoke those words into his new voiceactivated streaming Internet device and, to his surprise, it played. The song, known as the “Negro National Anthem,” not only gave him an inspirational lift that cold winter morning, it led to his embarking on a personal mission.
“I want to teach this generation of [Black] athletes and Americans the words of this beautiful song,” Williams told the AFRO. “I was shocked how many young people don’t know the words and have never even heard of it.” Williams hoped to convince all NBA franchises to make “Lift Every Voice and Sing” a part of the pre-game ritual to honor America along with the “Star Spangled Banner” beginning this February. Armed with a “tenacity”
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Photo by Mark Gray
Eugene Williams is the man behind the movement to have “Lift Every Voice and Sing” played before NBA games during Black History Month.