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Wright skips inauguration – calls on Obama to promote peace
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THE 57TH PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION
MOUNTAINTOP MOMENT FOR US As the country paused to celebrate MLK’s dream, the world watched President Barack Obama officially take on his second term. His inaugural speech, which touched on inequality, was a reminder Dr. King’s dream remains just that for too many Americans.
BRIAN CASSELLA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to President Barack Obama as first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha (far right) and Malia look on Monday during ceremonies on the West front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY TRICE EDNEY NEWS SERVICE
INSIDE A perfect day for history B1 President Obama: ‘Our journey is Not complete’ A3
On the birthday holiday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Barack Obama, America’s first Black president, was inaugurated for a second time boldly declaring on the steps of the U.S. Capitol that it’s time to take up the quest for equality where King and others left off. “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths
– that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth,” he said. “It is now our generation’s task to carry on
Hundreds of job applicants BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Florida’s unemployment rate dipped to 8 percent in December – the lowest rate in more than four years. The drop in the unemployment rate also lowered the gap between the state’s jobless figure and the national number, which edged up to 7.8 percent in December. The difference between the state and the national unemployment number had been 0.4 percent in November. The unemployment rate was the lowest it’s been since November 2008, state officials said.
Thousands still jobless Currently, 749,000 Floridians are unemployed, with slightly fewer than 7.4 million people holding non-agricultural employment. “Trends show that we are also experiencing growth in many different economic indicators that are key to job creation,” Gov. Rick Scott said. “Housing starts are on the rise, businesses and families continue to move to Florida and more jobs are being created. The changes we are making to improve our state’s business climate are helping Florida families pursue the American dream.” The number of jobs in the state has actually increased by 54,900 over the last year. The number of non-ag-
ALSO INSIDE
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JANUARY 25 - JANUARY 31, 2013
VOLUME 21 NO. 4
what those pioneers began.” He continued, “Each time we gather to inaugurate a president we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional - what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a See OBAMA, Page A2
Scott calls for $2,500 teacher pay raise Governor accused of political ‘pandering’ BY MICHAEL PELTIER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday called on state lawmakers to give every full time public school teacher a $2,500 raise – a request that was met with encouragement, caution and more than a little skepticism by lawmakers and teacher advocates. Visiting Ocoee Middle School in Central Florida, the governor said he would push lawmakers to approve the across-the-board pay increase for full-time teachers, who have gone several years without raises and been asked to pay more for retirement as the state and local school districts have scrambled for cash. “Ultimately, I want all Florida families to have more opportunities to pursue their dreams,” Scott said in remarks prepared for delivery at the school. “That means more job opportunities. It is impossible to connect more Floridians with great jobs without a strong education system that supports student achievement.” The raise, which would have to be approved by the Florida Legislature and subject to local collective bargaining agreements, would cost taxpayers about $480 million – money not everyone is certain can be found.
Union ‘encouraged’ “This begins to repair the damage that has been done to our students and those who work in our schools,” said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union. The union has clashed frequently with Republicans in Florida over the last decade or so, over teacher pay, as well as many other issues. See SCOTT, Page A2
PRO TENNIS / 2013 AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Eyes locked on the ball
FLORIDA COURIER FILES
Unemployment rate falls to 8.0 percent. ricultural jobs dropped by 15,300 since November, but state economists generally underscore the longterm trend in both numbers. While the U.S. Census Bureau calculates the unemployment rate for Florida using a survey, the number of jobs comes from a survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. December marked the 29th month where Florida had more jobs than it did a year ago.
Leisure, hospitals lead According to the Department of See JOBS, Page A2
AP PHOTO/ROB GRIFFITH
Sloane Stephens of Plantation (Broward County) eyes the ball during her fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia. She went on to defeat fellow Floridian Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.
COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 OBITUARY: Former Ebony managing editor Hans Massaquoi dies at 87 | B2
FOCUS
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JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
What would Django do? Guns and ‘The Man’ Why do African-Americans side with liberal proponents of gun control? Historically, guns have been the African-American’s greatest friend. The great Ida B. Wells – who, like me, had to flee Klan supporters in Tennessee after writing a newspaper article – said, “a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every Black home….” The National Rifle Association should try to win over Black support by officially condemning the 1967 Mulford Act, the shameful law of the California Assembly banning the public display of loaded firearms. The campaign –“What Would Django Do?” – would also neatly disarm the bogus charge of racism, because the Mulford Act was a successful attempt to disarm Black America’s last best hope for redemption, and predictably preceded the decimation of that hope by the notorious cross-dressing racist, J. Edgar Hoover. In 1997, I organized a commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of a protest
DR. JONATHAN DAVID FARLEY GUEST COMMENTARY
against the Mulford Act.
Look at us The disarmament of Black America led to its spiral of internecine violence, not the arms. NAACP officials who blame gun makers for the 8,000 lives lost every year should take the plank out of their own eye and listen to Bill Cosby’s “pound cake” speech. (Editor’s note: Bill Cosby criticized Black America’s unwillingness to help itself in a 2004 speech to the NAACP.) Almost everywhere AfricanAmericans predominate is rife with drugs. As Johnny, a field marshal for the group that protested the Mulford Act, said at my Berkeley event: “In the 1960s, we and the drug dealers had an understanding. They didn’t deal
drugs in our community, and we didn’t shoot them.” Recently, Larry Ward, convener of the Gun Appreciation Day rally in Washington, D.C., said on CNN that if African-Americans had had guns, slavery might not have happened. He’s not the only one. John Brown agrees with Ward. So does the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who cried, “Men of Color, To Arms!” Larry Ward’s interlocutor criticized him for saying that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would support gun rights. Ward is completely correct, according to the book “Gunfight,” King actually applied for a gun permit – which the prosegregation authorities denied him. Regulation precedes extermination, as King’s idol, the Mahatma Gandhi, knew: “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.”
Helped the movement Ward pointed out that gun
crackdowns by jackbooted thugs helped set the tinder of the civil rights movement afire. The New York Amsterdam News backs him up, writing of a pastor crushed by a bulldozer at a civil rights protest, explaining that local racists were “worried by the formation of a Negro Rifle Club.” And guns helped keep the fire lit. When KKK-type racial nightriders shot up the home of John Salter, a youth organizer for the NAACP in Mississippi, he let it be known that he packed a 44/40 Winchester carbine. “The racist attacks slackened considerably,” Salter observed wryly. Racism in America is now gone like an exorcised ghost, but African-Americans would do well to remember our history when it comes to gun control. Instead of turning schools into zero-tolerance zones for guns, we should let the NRA teach special classes in gun use, sort of like Drivers’ Ed, and there should be ROTC in all schools.
SCOTT
Ownership not illegal A Gun Appreciation Day is in the spirit of Malcolm X, who said, “Article number two of the constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle…. [W]e don’t do anything illegal.” Gun Appreciation Day not only honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It honors Robert F. Williams, the Deacons for Defense, and the thousands of African-Americans like Secretary of State Colin Powell who got a chance at life, even success, because at some point they owned a rifle. If African-Americans had had the right to keep and bear arms from the founding of the republic, America today might be the Promised Land for AfricanAmericans.
Dr. Jonathan David Farley is a principal of The Warren Group, a political consulting organization.
Key lawmakers said they support the governor’s efforts, but stressed that any discussion of teacher pay and benefits has to be part of a large budget discussion – and some aren’t sure the money is available. Though revenues are expected to increase in the coming fiscal year, lawmakers say that years of budget deficits and austerity have affected all branches of government.
“They’re basing that additional money on projected revenue gains,” Galvano said. “And that very well may be the case, and we certainly support increased funding for education, but again we have to … run all the traps before we can work it into the education budget.” “We look forward to working with the governor and seeing his entire budget recommendations and seeing how that works, how he is putting that together,” said Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz, and chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
Local approach?
Merit pay
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Senate President Don Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County schools superintendent, said he prefers an approach of providing more funding to local school boards, which would then make decisions about pay increases. When told of its expected cost, Gaetz acknowledged that it could be challenging to find the money. But he said it could involve making tradeoffs in deciding how to spend state funds. “$480 million is a lot of money,’’ said Gaetz, RNiceville.” It’s more money than some people think we’ll have.” Scott is expected to re-
OBAMA from A1 declaration made more than two centuries ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Hand on MLK’s Bible Standing before nearly a million flag-waving people packed onto the National mall as millions more watched around the world by TV and the Internet, Obama articulated an aggressive agenda after being sworn in with his hand on the “traveling Bible” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The speech, punctuated with applause from the massive crowd, was peppered with references to issues of inequality, hinting at a social and civil rights agenda that he will likely address over the next four years. “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said in obvious reference to the same-sex marriage debate. “Our journey is not complete until no citizen
FILE PHOTO
Gov. Rick Scott will push the Florida Legislature to raise teachers’ salaries across the board. lease his full budget recommendation next week. Lawmakers, who convene in March, are not required to do anything with his spending blueprint. Historically, however, legislative leaders have at least given the governor’s plan some consideration.
Political move? The governor, who plans to run for re-election in
is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote,” he said, referring to the revelations of extremely long lines of people who waited hours to vote on Election Day. “Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country,” he said in reference to immigration reform, long pushed by the Latino community. “Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm,” he said in reference to gun violence that has disrupted the lives of children across America. The president has taken up the issue of gun control since the massacre of 20 kindergartners in Newtown, Conn.
Civil rights reference He did not specifically mention African-American people by race although it was clear that the disparities of Blacks are on the mind of the president. In addition to using the King Bible, he invited Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers to pray the invocation. The 50th anniversary of
2014, began putting education issues on the front burner last year with calls on lawmakers to restore $1 billion to education coffers that had been trimmed by more than that following the collapse of the Florida housing market and subsequent recession. State economists are predicting an uptick in revenues for the coming fiscal year as the state’s real estate market rebounds, business-
es get back on their feet and consumers feel more confident. But lawmakers say counting on that additional revenue right now is a little premature. “We need to make sure those funds are there,” said Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, the chairman of the Education Appropriations Subcommittee that would decide whether or not to include the raises in the Senate budget.
Scott’s push for across the board pay raises follows an earlier policy focused more on merit pay. “I believe in merit pay, I believe in measurement I believe in accountability,” Scott told reporters earlier Wednesday. “We’re going to continue to work on that, but right now the right thing to do is across the board pay raises for all of our full time teachers.” House Speaker Will Weatherford has also expressed interest in a merit pay proposal.
‘Pandering’ to teachers? Some Democrats said the
versy when it was learned that her version of “The Star Spangled Banner” was lip-synched.)
POOL PHOTO/CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES/MCT
The Obamas wave at the crowd as the inaugural parade makes it way to the White House on Monday. Evers’ assassination will be June 12 this year. Evers was a civil rights activist and field secretary for the NAACP in Jackson, Miss., when he was shot in the back by a White supremacist while walking from his driveway to his house. He was 37 years old. In concert with the president’s speech, Evers-Williams prayed for diversity and also focused on people who are still woefully affected by inequities. “We ask, too, almighty, that where our paths seem blanketed by [throngs] of oppression and riddled by pangs of despair we ask for your guidance toward the light of deliverance. And that the vision of those that came before us and dreamed of this day, that we recognize that their vi-
sions still inspire us,” she prayed. “We ask that you grant our president the will to act courageously but cautiously when confronted with danger and to act prudently but deliberately when challenged by adversity. Please continue to bless his efforts to lead by example in consideration and favor of the diversity of our people.”
Star-Spangled moments Other special guests included the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir of New York, which wowed the crowd with the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.’’ Superstar Beyoncé’ rendered a version of the National Anthem. (The flawless performance sparked contro-
Temperatures were in the 30s, but not nearly as cold as four years ago. Still the crowd remained riveted on the president and first lady, who were cheered by the hundreds of thousands on the mall every time they were shown on the Arbitron. “I’m ecstatic and thankful to God to witness it a second time around,” said Wanda Montgomery, a retired schoolteacher, who traveled from Lexington, Ky. “He’s a people president for all people and I’m in agreement with any decision he makes.” The president, whose tone was much more confident and bolder than four years ago, indicated that since the war era of Afghanistan and Iraq are ending, America will quickly establish a now focus inward once again. “This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending…An economic recovery has begun… America’s possibilities are limitless,” he said. “For we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.”
governor is pandering to teachers as he seeks to stay in the governor’s mansion. “You have to step back and look at it that way,” said Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach. “It is a political move, especially since he doesn’t appear to want to any (raises) for police, firefighter and other public employees. “It’s almost an affront to their intelligence,” Pafford said. “Waving dollars after a clear anti-public education agenda and expecting them to jump on the Scott bandwagon. Public educators know where he stands.”’ But regardless of any political motive, some say the proposal is the first step in getting teachers some compensation after they were required to put 3 percent of their salaries into their pension plans and absorb a 2 percent increase in the federal social security tax. “I’m sure there are those who would consider this to be a political move,” said Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, and a former teacher, principal and school superintendent. “I can’t judge the governor on that but what I can say is that it is good for public education to recognize teachers in this manner.”
JOBS from A1 Economic Opportunity, the leisure and hospital industry added the most jobs over the last year, adding 29,900 positions for a 3.1 percent increase. Trade, transportation and utilities gained 22,200 jobs, while professional and business services tacked on 18,100 jobs and private education and health services added 13,200. The biggest drop came in the total government sector, with 10,600 jobs shed and construction, with a decrease of 6,800 jobs. The lowest unemployment rate in the state belonged to Monroe County, at 4.5 percent, while the highest went to Flagler County with 11.2 percent. DEO said three Florida counties now face doubledigit unemployment rates, half of the number that did a month earlier. The other counties with double-digit rates were Putnam County at 10.1 percent and St. Lucie County at 10.0 percent. Twelve of the state’s 22 metro areas added jobs over the last year, from a boost of 21,000 in the Tampa Bay area to 18,900 jobs in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford region, DEO reported. The largest job loss came in the Miami area, where 3,700 jobs were shed, but the CrestviewFort Walton Beach-Destin area saw a 2.1 percent decrease in losing 1,700 jobs.
JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
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THE 57TH PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION
‘Our journey is not complete’ President Obama remembers Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall in second inauguration address President Barack Obama, the United State’s 44th president, was ceremonially sworn in for his second term Monday. Here is the entire text of the inaugural address that the president delivered at the Capitol. Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Never-ending journey Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been selfexecuting; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed. For more than two hundred years, we have. Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive halfslave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together. Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers. Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play. Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.
New challenges Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character. But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that
ALEX GARCIA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT
President Barack Obama delivers his inauguration speech during his second inauguration at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 21. fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people. This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.
We, the people For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own. We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax
code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.
Hard choices We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
‘We must lead it’ We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and
sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared. We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
Source of hope We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but
because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice. We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.
Journey is not complete It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. That is our generation’s task – to make these words, these rights, these values – of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or fol-
low the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time.
We must act For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat namecalling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall. My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction – and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service. But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrant realizes her dream. My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride. They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope. You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals. Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom. Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.
EDITORIAL
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JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
The history of inaugurations Every four years on Jan. 20, our nation engages in peaceful continuation or exchange of presidential authority. Despite current acrimony in the legislative branch, most political observers marvel in the relatively orderly process of transition of power from one president to the next. The significance of presidential inaugurations is firmly rooted in history, and reflected in almost every important event since George Washington took office in 1789. Though several presidents were less than distinguished in service, few would minimize the impact of those who served in this office. At some point in history, U.S. presidents, generally, were recognized as “the most powerful” men in the
swearing-in conducted by our Chief Justice and an inaugural parade moving ceremoniously down Constitution Avenue, it didn’t always happen that way.
Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. TRICE EDNEY WIRE
world. Their leadership has played an ever increasing role in shaping the world. For those who voted for the winning candidate, Inauguration Day is a festive occasion that reaffirms hopes and dreams for national success and prosperity. It’s a day to celebrate the person who’ll lead us for the next four years. It’s a day when most of us subordinate our own interests for “the common good.” Although most of us have seen inaugurations take place on the West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol, the
First inauguration in New York The first three inaugurations occurred outside Washington, D.C. George Washington took his first oath in New York and was sworn in by the Chancellor of that state. His second inauguration took place in Philadelphia. John Adams took his oath in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to take the oath of office in Washington. His inaugural address was the first to be reprinted in a newspaper. His second inauguration was the occa-
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: GOP AND WOMEN AND MINORITIES
Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons
Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 166 The inauguration speech you missed – Congrats to Bro. Prez on getting sworn in again – and allowing approximately $170 million to be spent on an unnecessary inauguration. (Half was paid with our tax dollars; corporations like Microsoft and AT&T and secret donors paid the other half. He took the actual oath of office on Sunday at the White House. Monday’s oath was just for the cameras.) I know $85 million is a drop in the federal budget’s bucket. But Bro. Prez missed an opportunity to start the second Obama administration on the right foot by canceling the festivities. Right after taking the actual oath, he could have given a speech from the Oval Office. “My fellow Americans,” he could have said, “I cancelled the formal inauguration because it was an unnecessary celebration that would have been paid for from our grandchildren’s governmental savings account. America’s deficit is unsustainable. I am setting an example by tightening the federal government’s belt. “Tonight, I’ll celebrate with the girls, then privately with Michelle (wink wink). I go back to work in the morning and immediately work with the GOP to develop a budget that will include defense cuts and massive infrastructure funding to repair our crumbling nation and create new private-sector jobs that will ripple through
quick takes from #2: straight, no chaser
Charles W. Cherry II, Esq. PUBLISHER
our economy. I will propose both immediate and long-term fixes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that will make those programs healthy well into the future. “Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and good wishes. God bless America – and the whole world.” Now THAT would have been impressive. Instead, a long invocation. Some glass-shattering high notes. “Blah. Blah.” A long poem. A long benediction. Still, it wasn’t a total waste, especially for Black America. How? By the media’s focus on the Obama family. The most powerful man in the world is in love with his Black wife, who is, respectfully, his “ride or die” chick. They are real and whole, including mom-in-law and two refreshingly normal, respectful young girls who are growing up before our eyes. Priceless.
Contact me at ccherry2@gmail.com.
Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.
THE CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS
The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.
sion of the first inaugural parade. The first Inaugural Ball, held the same day as the inauguration, was in honor of President and Mrs. Madison, in 1809. For those who bemoan the cost of ball tickets now, suffer in the knowledge that the first ball tickets cost $4 each. Andrew Jackson was the first president to take his oath on the East Portico of the Capitol – a tradition lasting for 152 years until 1981 when Ronald Reagan became the first president inaugurated on the West Terrace. John F. Kennedy was the last president to wear the traditional stovetop hat to his inauguration. Historians assumed President Franklin Roosevelt would hold the record for three inaugural firsts. He
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Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Cassandra CherryKittles, Charles W. Cherry II, Managing Members Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Chief Executive Officer Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher Dr. Valerie Rawls-Cherry, Human Resources Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Lynnette Garcia, Marketing Consultant/Sales Linda Fructuoso, Marketing Consultant/Sales, Circulation Angela VanEmmerik, Creative Director Chicago Jones, Eugene Leach, Louis Muhammad, Lisa Rogers-Cherry, Circulation James Harper, Andreas Butler, Ashley Thomas, Staff Writers Delroy Cole, Kim Gibson, Photojournalists MEMBER National Newspaper Publishers Association Society of Professional Journalists Florida Press Association Associated Press National Newspaper Association
Obama sets record In 2009, we saw an inauguration of ground-breaking significance – that of Barack Obama, our first African-American president. It was an event many believed would not happen in their lifetime. The 2013 inauguration is just as important or more significant, as it marks the reelection of the first African-American president. It’s made even more significant because it takes place 150 years and 21 days after the effective date of the Emancipation Proclama-
tion. President Obama ties FDR’s record of oaths and sets one of his own. By close of business Jan. 21, he will have taken the oath four times. He took the oath twice in 2009 when the Chief Justice’s error in reading the oath created the need for the president to repeat it in the Oval Office to forego any challenge because of the error. I look forward to the day women, Hispanics, Asians and others will stand as peers beside presidents who’ve preceded them in history.
Dr. Williams is chair of the National Congress of Black Women. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.
Whites pretend to love King during events in his honor Did everybody enjoy their chicken and beer on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday? The life and times of one of America’s greatest Black civil rights leaders has been reduced to parties, picnics and parades. The struggle continues! You know it and I know it. That’s why clowns masquerading as modern day freedom fighters love to sing “We Shall Overcome” every year at about this time. If Negro clowns are not performing at MLK celebrations, your community’s closet klansmen or devious politicians go to the stage, take the microphone and tell you how much they loved Martin Luther King.
Who to honor? Hmmm? King loved Malcolm X but the White folk featured at MLK events didn’t love Malcolm X. King loved Nat Turner, Denmark Vessey and Marcus Garvey but there will be no celebrations to recognize other freedom fighters. You can’t even show me a photo, or a drawing, of Denmark Vessey because the people you’re locking arms with and swaying from side to side at the MLK birthday program don’t even want you to see how Vessey looked!
However, most of the times I went to King celebrations was to report on the events as a journalist.
Lucius Gantt
MLK events disappointing
THE GANTT REPORT
Black youth a disgrace Not only is Martin mad, he is probably turning over in his grave! The people that King is maddest about are Black youth. Most if not all liberation and moral struggles involve youthful participants. Jesus was “young,” Stokely was young, Martin was young, Malcolm was young, Angela and Rosa were young, Mandela was young when he started fighting and protesting and now no one plans to attend MLK rallies but senior citizens because Black youth would prefer to hear Little Wayne or Nicki Manaj at a King event then the present day Toms and Jemimas sitting next to the modern day overseers! Well, I used to go to the Martin Luther King programs and celebrations. I respected Dr. King. My grandmother lived two doors up from his family house on Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue and I attended Grady High School with his daughter Yolanda King.
Now there is nothing there to cover. The recent MLK events don’t do anything to inspire and motivate Black youth and adults, they don’t raise money to help the poor and disadvantaged and they don’t educate people that attend about the economics of a civil rights struggle in a capitalist society. And, in the eyes of some, MLK events are not even Black any more. It is just a once a year opportunity for White preachers, teachers and politicians to pretend they loved King in the past and pretend to love you now! Don’t worry Dr. King, you taught us not to be afraid to fight the oppressor and there are many of us that are never scared! The struggle does continue and we know it!
Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” at any major bookstore and contact Lucius at www. allworldconsultants.net. “Like” The Gantt Report on Facebook. Click on this story at www.flcourier. com to write your own response.
Change in culture doesn’t mean changing Constitution It’s obvious that President Obama wants to curtail our Second Amendment freedoms. It’s now completely believable that Americans’ constitutional right to own and use firearms might even be diminished with the stroke of Obama’s auto-pen signature. American democracy is called a “grand experiment.” It is not called this out of some romanticized fascination with ourselves, but from the understanding that the natural condition of mankind throughout history has been for man to govern himself in a non-democratic fashion. Physics teaches us that nature abhors a vacuum. Where there is empty space, something will always quickly enter that space to fill it. Herein lies the problem.
History repeats itself
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was the last President to take the oath on March 4 (1933) and the first to take the oath on Jan. 20 (1937). He was also thought to be the only president to take the oath four times!
CHRISTOPHER R. ARPS GUEST COMMENTARY
ily-regulated that many may no longer be allowed to own them. I especially understand this emotional panic in light of the recent schoolhouse tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. But we cannot forget that criminals don’t follow laws. That is why they are criminals. Heavy-handed gun control will disarm law-abiding citizens, leaving open the potential of eventually making good people prisoners in their own homes should criminals run amok in their communities. The Obama Administration, nonetheless, seeks to rush efforts to weaken the Bill of Rights and specifically our right to keep and bear arms. Should there be a challenge from the democratically elected lawmakers in Congress, the White House seems to feel comfortable with issuing unilateral executive orders to hinder lawful gun ownership. Our culture has changed. The reasons for this change are debatable. We should have that debate, and we should have it before diving into rash decisions that can affect our liberty. We must also change our security measures where guns are allowed — especially when it comes to the safety of our children and our families.
From biblical times up until today, too many nations have been brutally ruled either by a king, warlord, despot or small cabal with the tendencies of all three. Of the approximately seven billion people on this planet, researchers with the Economist magazine’s determined that only 12.3 percent of them lived under democratic governments such as (and including) ours in 2010. In the book of Ecclesiastes (New Living Translation), it is written: “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” It is the height of arrogance to think that America will always somehow be allowed to go against the grain of history and that despotism could never be foisted upon our nation. The framers of the Constitution underChristopher Arps is a member of the stood this peril. This is the main reason Project 21 Black leadership network the Second Amendment was added to our and is a co-founder of Move-On-Up.org. Constitution. This is a New Visions Commentary paper published January 2013 by The NaCriminals break laws tional Center for Public Policy Research. I understand the knee-jerk reactions and Click on this story at www.flcourier.com the demands by some that guns be so heav- to write your own response.
JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
King would have demanded equal economic playing field As we reflect on Martin Luther King Day, many of us remember his famous and stirring “I Have A Dream Speech.” This speech is memorialized as the centerpiece of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” which spoke of the twin evils of racial discrimination and economic deprivation that prevailed because of the defaulted promissory note that stipulated equality for all. In an earlier speech in Detroit (1963), Dr. King linked the “twin evils” stating that “I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere their money will carry them and they will be able to get a job.”
Economic justice
BARBARA R. ARNWINE TRICE EDNEY WIRE
nomically vulnerable racial minorities of the shredding of the social safety network cannot be ignored. The fruition of the December 2012 compromise allowed racial minorities to avoid a compound of injustice and discrimination that could have manifested without a decision. According to the Congressional Budget Office’s August 2012 report, “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022 Report”, the cuts could have sent the entire country into another recession. As we have learned from the Great Recession, racial minorities are disproportionately impacted by downturns in the economy. In 2001, nearly 65 percent of White adults and just over 60 percent of Black adults were employed. The Great Recession caused the share of Black working adults to slide down to 52 percent, nearly seven points behind Whites.
Then and now the civil rights movement is about much more than ending racial discrimination, a major tenet of the movement has been also advocating for economic justice and opportunities for all people. Until there is equal access to economic opportunities for all Americans, our nation cannot call itself a post racial society. The modern form of racial discrimination is realized through an economic proxy. Double digit We find evidence of this in the fiscal cliff compromise, which was hard unemployment fought and difficult to reach. Throughout the recession, the The devastating implications for unemployment rate for AfricanAfrican-Americans and other eco- Americans continued to rise in
the double digits, with the December 2012 unemployment rate at 14 percent for African-Americans, while it was only 6.9 percent for Whites. Even though racial minorities can count this fiscal cliff compromise as a win, the political showdowns surrounding the compromise have fostered a breeding ground of animosity that may preview continual struggles ahead. Debates in coming months concerning spending cuts and raising the nation’s limit on borrowing are raising legitimate concerns in minority communities. Those who opposed the compromise and were against raising taxes on the wealthy, have vowed that in any future debates they would stalwartly seek to include significant cuts in government benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which could potentially have a disparate impact on minorities and low-income families.
Economic deprivation This debate illustrates the twin evils of racial discrimination and economic deprivation that Dr. King spoke of so eloquently. Many of Dr. King’s remarks are almost prescient of today’s economic issues. His remark that “God never intended for one
The way we were in 2012 Our brand-new year is in full swing – full of promise and new beginnings. Even as we move forward with shining, new resolve, it’s always fun to look back at our consumer behaviors and trends over the previous 12 months. Let’s start with how we rang in the New Year. No matter how you brought in 2013, chances are it involved an effervescent, grown-up libation. You are not alone. It will probably come as no surprise to you that consumers around the world celebrated with a lot of cork popping on New Year’s Eve.
Alcohol sales rise Here in the U.S., we enjoyed our bubbly throughout the year. Sparkling wine sales are strong, rising 4.6 percent over the last 52 weeks. It will also come as no surprise that the data shows that the last eight weeks of the year – the holiday season – account for one-third of annual sales. Our palates and our pocket-
CHERYL PEARSONMCNEIL NNPA COLUMNIST
books have an array of choices in the sparkling wine category in both country of origin (real champagne only comes from the champagne region of France; other countries, like ours, use the Méthode Champenoise) and price point. The biggest sparkling wine seller throughout the year is the $1025 category. However, the report shows that folks are willing to spring for a little more over the holidays, as sparkling wines in the $20-$60 range triple in sales during this time versus the rest of the year. Let’s see how some of your favorites stacked up in 2012: Prosecco: This Italian favorite, averaging $11.78 a bottle, has grown almost 40 percent over the
Editor’s note: This op-ed is the second part of a 20-part series written in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The Lawyers’ Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963. In looking at the overall state of race and justice in America, clearly a lot of progress has been made. On Nov. 4, 2008, the United States elected its first African-American President Barack Obama, who is just beginning his second term. But the job of equality and justice is not the job of one man. Nonetheless, since his election, President Obama has taken a number of steps that make the state of race and justice a positive one. If we simply look at the Supreme Court, which decides much of our legal issues that impact us greatly, the President has had the opportunity to appoint two people. On both occasions, he appointed women; including a woman of color. When we look at the United States Circuit Courts, which are one step away from the United States Supreme Court, President Obama has appointed the first African-American for Mississippi to the Fifth Circuit, an African-American with Haitian connections to the Second Circuit, the first woman in Massachusetts to the First Circuit, and an African-American woman to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. This only begins to show the diversity and quality of his appointments.
CHARLES J. OGLETREE JR. TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM
tem. While many of these issues are influenced by local and state legislation, they are still troubling when you see the African-American unemployment rates in double digits, housing foreclosures increasing, and the state of equality in our criminal justice system leaves all of us at peril. The good news, of course, is that under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, the first African-American Attorney General, the disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine has been reduced from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1. This is a step in the right direction. But leveling the playing field to a 1 to 1 ratio is still necessary. And we hope will be accomplished in the coming years.
Leveling playing field
President Obama has made clear his views on the kinds of justices he wants for the courts, what kinds of tax cuts he wants, as well as his views on a woman’s right to choose, immigration, and now, stricter gun laws. Voters carefully assessed and made their decision for themselves and for their children and grandchildren for generations to come. Indeed, Commitment to justice it is the best of times and the worst of times. We More importantly, the president - in his first have made a lot of progress on many issues, but term - persuaded Congress to support a $787 the job is not done. billion stimulus package, has had healthcare apCharles Ogletree Jr. is the Jesse Climenko proved, and prevailed in the Supreme Court on protection of rights of immigrants. These suc- Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, cesses reveal the commitment to the state of jus- and executive director and founder, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, equality, and progress in our country. Despite the progress of the past four years, tice. He was a professor of Obama at Harthere is still much work to be done. We still have vard Law School. For more information, visa problem in terms of employment, housing, and it www.lawyerscommittee.org. Click on this an increasing negative reflection on the African- story at www.flcourier.com to write your own American presence in the criminal justice sys- response.
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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: HERE COMES THE SUN
Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons
group of people to live in superfluous wealth while others live in abject deadening poverty” resonates soundly with the fiscal cliff compromise to tax wealthy Americans at a higher rate in order to supplant the harrowing growth of the minority poverty rate, which had previously been narrowed prior to the recession. In a similar fashion, his observation that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” speaks to how politicians should approach future economic debates. Decisions in any upcoming fiscal debates should ensure that all Americans are treated fairly and should not create an undue burden on those in our country who are already struggling to survive economically. That type of injustice only impedes the growth our more information.
Top DVD titles of 2012
last 52 weeks; garnering 8 percent of sparkling wine sales, up two points from this time last year. Sparkling Moscato: This sweet, fizzy offering, which goes for under $10, is also gaining sales growth in the sparkling wine segment. No wonder, it grew over 100 percent in the last 12 months and now accounts for almost 6 percent of sparkling wine sales, double its share a year ago. Rosé sparkling wines: These wines are a bit pricier at more than $17 per bottle. But, their sales are also growing in the realm of sparkling wines, carving out 9 percent of sales. Overall sales for this choice grew three and half percent over the last 52 weeks. I don’t like the taste of alcohol, so I very rarely indulge and it’s simply not worth the calories. But there is an exception to every rule and for me, Moscato is it. Let’s move on to entertainment trends for 2012. As always, I invite you to visit Nielsen’s website for
Best of times, worse of times for equality, justice in US
EDITORIAL
nation in becoming a post-racial society. Dr. King’s speeches push beyond issues of economic inequality, calling for parity in all facets of life. However, it is hard to envision the dream of equality manifesting without an equal economic playing field.
Barbara R. Arnwine is president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Tahirah Marston, a Business Major at George Washington University and intern for the Lawyers’ Committee, contributed to this editorial. For more information on the Lawyers’ Committee, visit www.lawyerscommittee.org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response. paperback), E. L. James 2. “Fifty Shades Darker” (trade paperback), E. L. James 3. “Fifty Shades Freed” (trade paperback), E. L. James 4. “Fifty Shades Trilogy” (boxed Set), E. L. James 5. “Gone Girl” (hardcover), Gillian Flynn 6. “The Casual Vacancy” (hardcover), J. K. Rowling 7. “Bared to You” (trade paperback), Sylvia Day 8. “The Racketeer” (hard cover), John Grisham 9. “The Lucky One” (mass market paperback), Nicholas Sparks 10. “The Last Boyfriend” (trade paperback), Nora Roberts I hope your New Year’s Resolution was to continue to wield your consumer power with every choice you make!
“Avengers” “Hunger Games” “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” “Brave” “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” “Puss in Boots” “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” “Hop” Now, let me just preface the adult fiction rankings for book sales by saying you have got to give props to E.L. James for giving such a major shot-in-the-arm to the publishing industry, and for almost sweeping this entire category – no matter how you feel about her Cheryl Pearson-McNeil is seerotic trilogy of books. Here’s how nior vice president of public afthe adult fiction category broke fairs and government relations out: for Nielsen. For more information and studies, visit www. Top 10 print book sales nielsenwire.com. Click on this of 2012 – adult fiction story at www.flcourier.com to 1. “Fifty Shades of Gray” (trade write your own response.
Obama stands on shoulders of 50 years of history “You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea.” – Slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers When President Obama took the oath of office on Monday, he was surrounded by an extraordinary legacy of 50-year civil rights milestones that helped make possible his second inauguration. It was fitting that the inaugural invocation was delivered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol by Myrlie EversWilliams, the widow of civil rights hero, Medgar Evers. After years of risking his life to end discrimination against Black Mississippians, Evers was felled by an assassin’s bullet in the driveway of his home 50 years ago on June 12, 1963. President Kennedy himself was assassinated only five months later, 50 years ago, on Nov. 22, 1963. Whether serving his country as a soldier in World War II, or leading the fight to desegregate the University of Mississippi, or working to end Jim Crow as the state’s first NAACP field director, Medgar Evers was a fearless, peaceful warrior who paved the way for President Obama and countless others who have been inspired by his example. President Obama took the oath of office holding a Bible belonging to another champion of civil rights and American democracy – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fifty years ago, on August 28, 1963, Dr. King inspired America and the entire world with his “I Have a Dream Speech” delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in front of more than 250,000 people during the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The March was organized by Dr.
MARC H. MORIAL TRICE EDNEY WIRE
King with help from the National Urban League’s Whitney M. Young, along with A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality, John Lewis of the Southern Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP. The March on Washington was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Finally, President Obama was sworn-in 50 years after one of the most horrific events of the civil rights era, the 1963 bombing of Birmingham, Alabama’s 16th Street Baptist Church, which resulted in the deaths of four little Black girls – Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, all 14 years old, and 11-year-old Denise McNair. As Dr. King said in his eulogy, their deaths, “…say to each of us, Black and White alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.”
Marc Morial is president/CEO of the National Urban League. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.
TOj A6
NATION
JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
Wright skips inauguration – calls on Obama to promote peace BY KATHERINE SKIBA CHICAGO TRIBUNE (MCT)
WASHINGTON — The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the president’s former pastor whose sermons touched off a firestorm in the 2008 political campaign, urged Monday that Barack Obama heed the words of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and transform the country into the world’s “No. 1 purveyor of peace.” Wright, in the capital but CAREY WAGNER/SUN SENTINEL/MCT skipping the inauguration, The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is received by a crowd as he spoke at the National Bap- recalled a speech by King tist Convention at the Broward Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale on June during the Vietnam war, 16, 2011. when the civil rights leader
denounced the U.S. as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” During his first run for the Oval Office, Obama parted ways with Wright, now pastor emeritus at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Spoke at Howard Wright said he hasn’t seen Obama in person since 2008. “I think that the media created a firestorm that caused him to distance himself from me,” he said Monday. The minister noted that he had predicted in 2007 that Obama would have to
distance himself from him or Obama would never get elected. Wright called the inauguration a “very important event,” but said he was sitting it out to travel to Richmond to teach an intensive course at Virginia Union University on theology from the Black perspective. He said he was in D.C. to lecture and preach at Howard University in connection with Monday’s King federal holiday. Lots of photos to choose from. Maybe use two. Can send third story in morning.
Spelman’s civil rights ‘foot soldiers’ share their stories Documentary describes students’ involvement In Atlanta protest
THE FOOT SOLDIERS
BY GRACIE BONDS STAPLES ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION (MCT)
ATLANTA — They were 16-, 17-, and 18-year-old freshmen when they entered Spelman College that summer. Some had grown up in mixed neighborhoods. Others knew segregation like the back of their hands. Education promised all of them a better life. That’s why they were there. The fight for equality could wait. All of them, though, knew better. Life had taught them at least that much. “All my life I had to be colored,” said Dolores Young Strawbridge of Decatur, Ga., recently. “I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t do that. It was time for me to be treated like a human being with respect and dignity.” And so despite their parents’ stern warning not to participate, Strawbridge, now 70, and other members of the freshman class eagerly joined the student protests sweeping the country.
PHOTOS BY BITA HONARVER/ATLANTA CONSTITUTION/MCT
Alvelyn Sanders, right, listens and watches her mother Georgianne Thomas describe the first time she ever saw the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s.
PBS documentary Their story is the subject of the independent documentary “Foot Soldiers: Class of 1964” airing on PBS through January. The documentary, written, produced and directed by Alvelyn Sanders, was selected recently for screening Feb. 7-18 at the 21st Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles. It screened at Atlanta’s BronzeLens Film Festival in November. With its emphasis on nonviolent social change, the student movement was like fire to the civil-rights movement, fueling a new focus and energy. Still, those students, many from middle class families who’d lost their belief that America could work even for Blacks like them, have for decades remained nameless. Sanders, though, had grown up seeing those faces and hearing the stories. Her mother is one of them, Georgianne Thomas. “What intrigued me most was what made these young women want to follow their upper-class leaders,” Sanders said. “They arrived on campus in August 1960 to pick a major, maybe join a club. What made them willing to face the Ku Klux Klan, to be spat upon, to be arrested? What moved them to action?”
Appeal for justice Strawbridge had grown up in a middle class family in the small segregated town of Louisburg, Tenn., near Nashville. Her mother was a schoolteacher, her father a Methodist minister. By the time she and the dozen or so women seated with her recently entered Spelman College in 1961, history had already taken a giant leap forward.
Gloria Knowles Bell was a “foot soldier” in the civil rights movement. The sit-ins sparked by four Greensboro, N.C., college students the year before had forced the Woolworth department store to desegregate its lunch counters. And the written appeal “to end the scourge of desegregation” that set in motion Atlanta’s student movement had been published in this newspaper. “I had just returned from Paris, where no one told me where I couldn’t go or what I couldn’t do,” said Roslyn Pope, who authored the appeal. “I had been unshackled. I was looking for a movement.” Pope, however, graduated in 1960 and it fell to Strawbridge, Sadye Beasley Gray, Thomas and these other women to carry out what Pope had started. Pope, whose appeal would
Valjean Williams talks about her role as a “foot soldier” in the civil rights movement at Spelman College
eventually end up in the Congressional Record, said in many ways the students’ protests were symbolic. “We were Rich’s credit card carriers,” she said. “We spent money there but we couldn’t try on anything.” The protests, then, were never really just about eating at lunch counters or Rich’s famed Magnolia room. They also were about obtaining fair wages and hiring practices. “The appeal targeted education, law enforcement, hospitals and employment practices,” said Pope, who worked mostly as an organizer behind the scenes.
KKK experience Strawbridge joined the protest against Grady Hospital for refus-
ing to treat African-Americans. So did Malinda Clark Logan, now 68. She said the pain of seeing her parents having to be afraid of white people primed her for the protests at Rich’s and Grady Hospital. Logan recalled her first experience with the KKK. Her family turned out the lights in their small wood-frame home, pulled the shades down and waited for the KKK to parade through the South Georgia town of Cairo. “I remember feeling this intense fear and foreboding, not knowing if they were going to stop, shoot or burn a cross,” she said. Although her father was a school principal and her mother was a teacher, she said, “When-
A partial list of the Spelman grads featured in film: Dolores Young Strawbridge, 70, Decatur, Ga., retired Atlanta Public Schools teacher. Psychology major with a minor in elementary education and masters from Georgia State University in early childhood education. Sadye Beasley Gray, 70, Decatur, retired national board certified teacher with DeKalb County Schools. Roslyn Pope, Ph.D.,74, Atlanta, professor of English and humanities at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. Music major with minors in English and French. Georgianne Thomas, 70, Atlanta, French major with minor in secondary education; professor of humanities at Clark Atlanta University and French at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. Retired from Delta Air Lines, Inc. Gloria Knowles Bell, 68, College Park, Ga. Majored in biology and minored in chemistry and math. Retired from Delta Air Lines, Inc. Billie Pitts Williams, 70, Atlanta. Majored in sociology and minored in secondary education. Retired Atlanta Public Schools teacher. Valjean Wiliams, 70, Atlanta. Majored in home economics and secondary education. Retired Atlanta Public Schools teacher. Malinda Clark Logan, 69, Atlanta. Music major. Retired Atlanta Public Schools music teacher. Now teaching part-time at APS. Deborah Dorsey Mitchell, 70, Atlanta. Majored in psychology, minor in elementary education, masters in early childhood education. Retired Atlanta Public Schools teacher.
ever White people were around, they had to say yes sir, no sir, no matter the age.” Gray, who grew up in Massachusetts, had never been to the South when she came to Spelman. Segregation greeted her the moment the pullman porter dropped her bags in front of the colored-only dining room at the train station. “I noticed this other room was well lit and so large it drew you in,” Gray said. “Everybody was looking at me but I continued on and then suddenly God sent someone to me and said, ‘Miss, you have to go into the other room.’” Gray went from that dingy colored room to the picket line at Rich’s. By Sept. 28, 1961, all Atlanta lunch counters, schools and state and federal office buildings were desegregated. Sanders said the documentary, which debuted Dec. 27, is her way of thanking each of the women. “This is my digital libation for the ancestors and the women in this room.”
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POOL PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES/MCT
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave at the large crowd as the inaugural parade makes it way to the White House on Monday. The parade included 59 groups and 8,800 people. It went west along Constitution Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue and ended at 17th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House.
THE 57TH PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION
A perfect day for history Here’s a glance at some Inauguration Day highlights On the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday, the world witnessed more American history as the country’s first Black president was inaugurated for his second term. Hundreds of thousands of people congregated on the National Mall on Monday to cheer and support President Barack Hussein Obama. The mall is the site where the civil rights leader delivered his famous “I Have A Dream’’ speech in August 1963.
Those present and those who watched Monday’s inauguration events from the comforts of their televisions were part of a significant day of history and culture. A sea of spectators packed the mall to watch the 51-year-old president be sworn into office a few minutes before noon on the west side of the U.S. Capitol. This page gives a glance at some of the highlights of Inauguration Day for the country’s 44th president.
POOL PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/ GETTY IMAGES/MCT
GABRIEL B. TAIT/MCT
First lady Michelle Obama arrives Monday night on stage at the Commander in Chief’s Ball in D.C.
OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT
The president and his family leave the stage following his swearing-in on Monday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
POOL PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/ GETTY IMAGES/MCT
Recording artist Alicia Keys sings “Obama’s on Fire’’ during the Commander in Chief’s Ball.
Diane Thomas of Plant City, Fla., cheers with the announcement that Obama has taken his oath of office during the 57th presidential inauguration festivities on the National Mall.
MARY F. CALVERT/MCT
Sydney Bailey, 20, of Georgia stands on the National Mall and listens to President Obama make remarks and take the oath of office on Monday.
POOL PHOTO BY PAT BENIC/UPI/MCT
President Obama kisses Myrlie EversWilliams before being sworn-in for a second term. The widow of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers delivered the inauguration prayer.
POOL PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES/MCT
Time to party: President Obama and the first lady dance while Jennifer Hudson sings “Let’s Stay Together’’ at the Inaugural Ball.
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CALENDAR & OBITS
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JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
Former Ebony managing editor Hans Massaquoi, dies
MLK Events Eatonville: The 24th Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities takes place Jan. 26 to Feb. 3. Celebrity chef Martin Wood will be part of interactive programming focusing on nutrition and healthy lifestyles. Complete www.zorafestival. com. Cocoa: Celebrate Mardi Gras in Cocoa Village. The event will be held Feb. 9 from 5 p.m. – midnight, 100 Harrison St., to include food, the Central Florida News 13 Mardi Gras Parade of Floats at 9 p.m. and live entertainment by the Soul Rebels Brass Band. More information: 321639-3500. Tavares: An African-American Heritage Festival will be held Feb. 2 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Wooton Park. Oviedo: The Oviedo-Winter Springs Optimist Club with the Oviedo Police Department and Winter Springs Police Department will host the Central Florida Law Enforcement Car Show Jan. 26 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Oviedo Mall 1700 Oviedo Mall Blvd. The show will include hundreds of vehicles of all types, numerous law enforcement and military vehicles. Sanford: A Native American Culture Festival featuring dance and activities will be held at the Public History Center, 301 W. 7th St. Jan. 26 from 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. More information: 407-9361679. Tampa: The American Brain Tumor Association hosts its inaugural Breakthrough for Brain Tumors Tampa 5K Run & Walk on Feb. 9 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. More information or registration: www.breakthroughforbraintumors. Orlando: Comedian Bruce Bruce joins Sheryl Underwood and Tony Rock at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre on Feb. 1 for an 8 p.m. show. St. Petersburg: First Fridays are held in downtown St. Petersburg at 250 Central Ave. between Second and Third Avenues from 5:30 p.m.10:30 p.m. More information:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
‘THE AMEN CORNER’
Photo by JUAN E. CABRERA
The African American Performing Arts Community Theatre presents its production of “The Amen Corner’’ Feb. 20-March 17 at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22nd Ave., Miami. More information: www.aapact.com.
LAVELL CRAWFORD
BEL BIV DEVOE
Bel Biv Devoe (above), Dru Hill, El Debarge and various other artists will be at Funk Fest 2013 at Tinker Field in Orlando on April 6 beginning at 5 p.m. Concerts also are scheduled in Jacksonville and Tampa. Complete lineup: http://funkfestconcerts.com.
Comedian Lavell Crawford will be at the Improv Comedy Club Feb. 21 at 8 p.m.
727-393-3597. Mount Dora: The Battle of Townsend’s Plantation & Civil War Festival featuring Civil War re-enactments, historical exhibits, folk music and camp re-creations will be held Feb. 1-3 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the Renninger’s Antique Center, 20651 U.S. Highway 441. Cost: $6 adults, $4 ages 12 and younger. More information: 407-418-2075. Miami: The Miami Jazz Society presents a free weekly film series and a free
monthly jazz series at the Miami Tower, 100 SE Second St., downtown Miami. A schedule is online at www. miamijazzsociety.com. More information: Keith Clarke, 305-684-4564.
sic and live acts will be a part of the Brazilian Carnival at Villa 221 on Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. Site: 221 NE 17th St. Ages 21 and up. More information: Carnivalvilla.eventbrite.com.
Fort Lauderdale: Live jazz, blues, pop and everything in between along Hollywood’s signature 2.5 mile Boardwalk is every Friday of every month. More information: 954-924-2980.
Miami: Downtown Miami invites the public to the first Flagler Street Jazz & Blues Block Party Jan. 25 from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. Free music, raffles and tastings from local restaurants will be held at this South Miami Avenue and Flagler Street event.
Miami: Art performances, a samba show and various mu-
MIAMI – Hans Massaquoi, a former managing editor of Ebony magazine who wrote a memoir about his unusual childhood growing up Black in Nazi Germany, died Jan. 19. He was 87. His son said Massaquoi died last Saturday, on his birthday, in Florida. He had been hospitalized over the Christmas holidays. “He had quite a journey in life,” said Hans J. Massaquoi, Jr. “Many have read his books and know what he endured. But most don’t know that he was a good, kind, loving, fun-loving, fair, honest, generous, hard-working and open-minded man. He respected others and commanded respect himself. He was dignified and trustworthy. We will miss him forever and try to live by his example.”
Influenced by Haley In an interview in 2000, the elder Massaquoi told The Associated Press that he credited the late Alex Haley, author of “Roots,” with convincing him to Hans share his experience of being “both an Massquoi insider in Nazi Germany and, paradoxically, an endangered outsider.” His autobiography, “Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany,” was published in the U.S. in 1999, and a German translation was published. Massaquoi’s mother was a German nurse and his father was the son of a Liberian diplomat. He grew up in working-class neighborhoods of the port city of Hamburg. Massaquoi recounted a story from 1933, when he was in school in Hamburg. Wanting to show what a good German he was, Massaquoi said he cajoled his baby sitter into sewing a swastika onto his sweater.
Saddest moments When his mother spotted it that evening, she snipped it off, but a teacher had already taken a snapshot. Massaquoi, the only dark-skinned child in the photo, is also the only one wearing a swastika. He writes that one of his saddest moments as a child was when a teacher told him he couldn’t join the Hitler Youth. “Of course I wanted to join. I was a kid and most of my friends were joining,” he said. “They had cool uniforms and they did exciting things - camping, parades, playing drums.” Germany was at war by the time he was a teenager, and he describes in the book the near-destruction of Hamburg during the Operation Gomorrah bombing attack in the summer of 1943.
Life as ‘swingboy’ He wrote about becoming a “swingboy” who took great risks by playing and dancing to versions of American swing music, which was condemned by the Nazi regime. After the collapse of Germany at the end of the war, he said he was able to save his mother and himself from starvation by playing saxophone in clubs that catered to the American Merchant Marine. Eventually he left Germany, first joining his father’s family in Liberia, before going to Chicago to study aviation mechanics. He was drafted into the U.S. Army while on a student visa in 1951. Afterward, he became a U.S. citizen and eventually became a journalist. He worked first for Jet Magazine before moving to Chicago-based Ebony, where he rose to managing editor before retiring in the late 1990s.
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JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
STOJ
PERSONAL FINANCE
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Paper Social Security checks going bye-bye Electronic payments to become norm on March 1 BY CLAUDIA BUCK THE SACRAMENTO BEE (MCT)
Ready or not, millions of America’s seniors are being pushed into the age of digital banking. Starting March 1, in a cost-cutting move by the U.S. Treasury, most Social Security checks will no longer arrive by mail. Like IRS forms and U.S. savings bonds before them, it’s bye-bye paper. That means some 5 million Americans who still get a Social Security, disability or other federal benefit check in their mailbox must switch to electronic payments: either direct deposit into their bank account or onto a Treasuryissued debit card. For those unaccustomed to ATMs or online banking, the prospect is a bit unnerving. “Older seniors like having that check in their hand,” said Patricia Beal, executive director of the Senior Center of Elk Grove, Calif. “As we age, we lose control over a lot of things and this is just one more.” And it’s got some folks riled up.
Fighting the mandate Michigan resident Mike Clement, after reading online that the Sacramento Bee wanted to talk with those who prefer paper checks, emailed and called to say that he and his elderly mother are “hopping mad” that she is being forced to switch to electronic payment. “It really should be a matter of personal choice,” Clement said. “Unfortunately, the feds seem not to care a whit about personal preference.” There’s even organized opposition to the switch. A group called Consumers for Paper Options, based in Washington, D.C., has been fighting the paperfree mandate for more than a year. Many Social Security recipients “are unbanked, while others are simply un-
JED KIRSCHBAUM/BALTIMORE SUN/MCT
Thelma Knight, from left, and Jean King, play a game as seniors meet for socializing and discussing Social Security during an event last year at the Allen Senior Center in Baltimore, Md. comfortable in the digital world,” John Runyan, president of the group, said in an email to The Bee.
PINS, ATMS, etc. In testimony to a House committee last year, he said it’s unfair to force seniors to navigate “a new and potentially confusing world full of PINs, ATMs and online statements.” He also pointed to instances of direct-deposit-related fraud with Social Security payments. The Treasury Department, however, says that, unlike paper checks that can be lost or stolen, electronic payments are easily traced and quickly restored in the rare instance of fraud.
The Treasury’s paperless campaign is primarily billed as a federal cost-cutter, saving an estimated $1 billion in check-processing and mailing costs over 10 years. It also is touted to be safer, easier and more convenient. Currently, 65 million federal benefit recipients — or 93 percent — receive their payments electronically. That includes Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, veterans’ and railroad retirement, all of which are subject to the switch.
‘They’ll adjust’ California has the largest number of residents — roughly 399,000 — receiving a benefit check by
mail, followed by New York (308,000), Texas (300,000) and Florida (196,000). There are some exemptions to the paperless requirement, such as those who are age 91 or older. Those who ignore or miss the mandatory deadline won’t get cut off or face penalties. “We can’t stop sending their payments. They depend on them,” said Walt Henderson, director of the Treasury’s GoDirect campaign in Washington, D.C. “But we will be communicating with them in a more direct way via letter.” The paper-free move is partly to address the wave of baby boomers who are retiring and entering their
Social Security years. Since the paperless plan was announced in April 2011, all new applicants for federal benefits are required to choose an electronic payment method. Beal, from the Elk Grove senior center, said that while seniors may complain about the change, most of them are resilient and will adapt. “They’ve already been through so much transition in their lives — the Depression, world wars, the loss of spouses, the loss of children — that is far bigger than this. They’ll adjust, but it’ll take time.”
Peace of mind Certainly, not every senior is upset by the
Why does a flu shot cost so much?
Among the long list of reasons the fearful give for reasons they’re not getting a flu shot — hatred of needles, skepticism about vaccines, laziness — there’s one that relates more closely to economics: cost. For while doctors urge everyone to get a flu shot, flu shots, like many other things in life, are not free. Stop by your local drugstore and you’ll shell out $30 or so for the pleasure of getting poked by a needle behind a suggestion of a curtain. So why aren’t flu shots free, or nearly free? After all, they’ve been around for a while, and there’s a lot
“I was so afraid someone would steal it from my mailbox. (With direct deposit,) I didn’t have to go the bank to cash my check. You always know your money is there. It’s peace of mind,” said Comstock, a former Aerojet telephone operator. She predicts that once paperless payments go into effect for all Americans on March 1, “They’re going to kick themselves: ‘Why didn’t I do this before?’ ” son and fewer people decided to get the shot.
Doses destroyed
Vaccines are about $30 at drugstores, but some people wonder why they aren’t free or cheaper BY ALANA SEMUELS LOS ANGELES TIMES (MCT)
change. At 82, Sacramento, Calif., resident Frances Comstock said she has had her monthly Social Security check automatically deposited into her bank account for nearly 20 years.
MARK BOSTER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
Downey Regional Medical Center RN Connie Meinke holds a syringe filled with the flu vaccine before injecting a fellow employee on Jan. 17. Like many hospitals across the U.S., the Downey, California, facility is preparing for the flu onslaught. The hospital is asking all of their employees to be vaccinated. of demand — isn’t it about time flu shots cost the same as, say, generic Tylenol?
Made anew each year If only, says Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The real question should probably be — why does the flu shot cost so little? That’s because the process of manufacturing and distributing the flu shot is a huge headache for pharmaceutical companies. The
influenza vaccine must be made anew each year, beginning in February. Researchers determine what strains to put in the vaccine after looking closely at what types of flu are most prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere throughout its winter, which is the Northern Hemisphere’s summer. Then the handful of pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccine have to estimate how many doses to make. Make too many, and they’ll have to throw away a bunch if peo-
ple don’t get the flu shot; make too few, and they’ll cause a panic about vaccine shortages.
‘Risky business’ Vaccines for other illnesses, such as measles, mumps and rubella, can be used until their expiration date, which is often years after they’re made. Influenza vaccines are usually only used September through January and then go in the trash. And there are no regulations saying people have to get
flu vaccines, meaning it’s very difficult for companies to estimate how many they should make. “It can be a risky business,” Allen said. “They have to make a decision on the number of doses to make many, many months before the flu season actually happens.” This year, companies have produced about 145 million doses, he said. Only about 129 million have been distributed. Last year, companies lost even more on the flu vaccine because it was such a light flu sea-
Only about 42 percent of the U.S. population got an influenza vaccine last year, which meant that about 30 million doses were never used and had to be destroyed. “One of the primary challenges for influenza vaccines production is gauging the demand for vaccine,” said Donna Cary, a spokeswoman for Sanofi Pasteur, one of the companies that makes the influenza vaccine. “The single most important thing a person can do to help product themselves against influenza and to ensure that vaccine will be available for them next year … is to get an annual flu shot so that vaccine supply and demand are more closely aligned.” Influenza vaccines cost health care providers from $10 to $16 per dose, according to the CDC. They’re by far the cheapest vaccine on the list. The tetanus vaccine costs a provider $38, human papillomavirus vaccine is $130 and Hepatitis B vaccine is $52. “The question is: Why is it so cheap?” Allen said. Still, there might be an economic argument for giving away the vaccine for free, even if it is already cheap. The province of Ontario, in Canada, tried that in 2000 and found that giving away the vaccine for free reduced influenza cases by 61 percent and decreased the cost of health care services by 52 percent, a study shows.
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JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
Plenty of tributes to MLK Obama inauguration dominated the media coverage on Monday, but there were lots of nationwide salutes to King over holiday weekend ASSOCIATED PRESS
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he youngest daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. hailed the inauguration of the nation’s first Black president to a new term as one of the achievements made possible by the civil rights struggle her father helped lead decades ago. Bernice King spoke at an Atlanta service Monday on the federal King holiday, urging Americans to draw inspiration from her slain father’s nonviolent campaign after a difficult year of military conflicts abroad and natural disasters at home. “We pray that this day will be the beginning of a new day in America,” she said. “It will be a day when people draw inspiration from the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. It will be a day when people realize and recognize that if it were not for Dr. King and those who fought the fight, fought in that movement, we would not be celebrating this presidency.” Monday’s King holiday — marked by parades, rallies and service projects around the nation — coincided with celebrations of President Barack Obama’s inauguration to a second term in Washington. Many paused to take stock of the progress made by the country since the 1960s fight to end racial segregation — and of challenges ahead as Obama assumed a second term.
‘Great day for America’
POOL PHOTO BY BILL CLARK/CQ ROLL CALL/MCT
From left, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., First lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Jill Biden pause to pay their respects at the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue in the Capitol rotunda as they leave the 2013 Inaugural Luncheon following President Obama’s inauguration on Monday.
In Washington, Obama spoke proudly of having taken the oath of office using a Bible that had been owned by King. It was one of two he used for the ceremonial inauguration Monday, watched by hundreds of thousands. “I had the great privilege that the Bible we used was his Bible and they asked for it to be inscribed,” Obama said after the ceremony. The other Bible belonged to President Abraham Lincoln. Dozens in the crowd thronging outside the U.S. Capitol to see Obama sworn in stopped first outside the King Memorial for photographs. Across the nation, many Americans paused to reflect on King and the changes wrought in the nation since the civil rights era. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley called the King celebration in that state “a great day for America.”
Above left: Martin Luther King III holds his daughter, Yolanda Renee King, during a wreath laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Monument on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C. The tribute was made in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during festivities for the 57th Presidential Inauguration.
‘Paved the way’ Hundreds of people rallied in Montgomery, Ala., not far from where King spoke at the end of a march in 1965 between the Alabama cities of Selma and Montgomery against the racial segregation once prevalent across the South. An Alabama state representative, Thad McClammy, said King’s speech there in 1965 was one of the first steps in a nonviolent campaign that opened the way for new opportunities for minorities. “It paved the way all the way from Selma to Montgomery to Washington, D.C.,” said McClammy, referring to Obama’s inauguration. Parades and rallies were held across many states to salute the slain civil rights leader. Chief among them was the 45th annual service for the civil rights leader at the Atlanta church where King was pastor. There, Bernice King stressed her father’s commitment to nonviolence, saying that after the 1956 bombing of the family’s home in Montgomery, Ala., her father stood on the porch and urged an angry, armed crowd to fight with Christian love — not guns. “This apostle of nonviolence perhaps introduced one of the bravest experiences of gun control that we’ve ever heard of in the history of our nation,” she said.
History at Ebenezer The keynote speaker was the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a socially conservative evangelical association. It marked the first time a Latino had been invited to deliver the King Day address at Ebenezer Baptist Church. He urged those listening to complete King’s dream. “Silence is not an option when 30 million of our brothers and sisters live in poverty,” he said. “Silence is not an option when 11 million un-
GABRIEL B. TAIT/MCT
Above: Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, the parents of Trayvon Martin and their attorney Ben Crump were the special guests at an MLK celebration banquet in Daytona Beach. DUANE FERNANDEZ/ HARDNOTTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Above: Civil rights activists Dick Gregory, center, and actor Chris Tucker, right, hold hands in solidarity during a wreath laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Monument on Sunday. GABRIEL B. TAIT/MCT
Right: Opa-locka youth lead the City of Opa-Locka’s MLK WALK on Saturday, Jan. 19. An early morning drizzle did not dampen or diminish the determination of devoted marchers during the city’s 30th annual march. COURTESY OF CITY OF OPA-LOCKA
documented individuals continue to live in the shadows.” The Atlanta service kicked off a year of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. Students led by King’s great-niece Farris Christine Watkins delivered sections of the speech in turn.
By the end, the crowd was on its feet, shouting “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Afterward many stayed to watch Obama’s second inauguration on a big-screen TV.
‘Anything is possible’ In Columbia, S.C., civil rights
leaders paused during their annual King Day rally to watch the inauguration on a big screen. “You feel like anything is possible,” Jelin Cunningham, a 15-year-old girl, said of Obama’s presidency. Elsewhere, visitors thronged the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., the city
where King was assassinated in 1968. In Detroit, students beautified schools. Others painted murals honoring King in Arkansas, donated food bank items in Texas, and conducted a community health fair in Pennsylvania.
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JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
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dustin kenya
Dustin Wilson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a major in African-American studies. One of his favorite pastimes is long boarding. He also wants to be involved in the music industry as a rapper and likes to model. Contact Dustin at facebook.com/dustin.f.wilson or smalltownboii@gmail.com. Credit: 429media
Kenya Thomas is currently the face of Organic Root Stimulator’s new Worldwide Campaign Curls Unleashed. She has been on the cover of and featured in international and national publications as well as modeled for celebrities like T.I. and for BET’s “Monique’’ show. The model/actress was cast in Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married Too,” among others. Kenya can be reached at info@kenyathomas.com. Credit: Anna Hajiyev
Blues singer gets a rush out of life, his music Nick Cannon, Boris Kodjoe, Duane Martin, Robin Thicke, J.B. Smoove and Kevin Hart star in BET’s “Real Husbands of Hollywood.’’
‘Real Husbands’ an amusing peek into lives of famous friends BY ROBERT LLOYD LOS ANGELES TIMES
Kevin Hart’s amiable, looselimbed “Real Husbands of Hollywood,” which premiered Jan. 15 on BET, is not so much a parody of the Bravo franchise, whose name it echoes and structure it borrows, as it is a kind of (mostly) Black “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” As with Larry David’s HBO comedy, the successful entertainers play themselves as unremarkable, petty, confused, obsessive, argumentative and rarely bothered with actual work. (Which does pretty much describe the cast of any “Real Housewives” series you might name.) And, indeed, “Curb” executive producer Tim Gibbons is an executive producer here as well. “Before my daddy got on drugs,” says Hart, “he once told me that for every boss there’s a hundred wannabe bosses. I had no idea that those wannabe bosses would be my boys.” He is one of those wannabes himself, of course. Comedian Nick Cannon, actors Boris Kodjoe and Duane Martin, recording artist and producer Robin Thicke (Alan’s sound-alike, look-alike son, weirdly) and comic and “Curb” alum J.B. Smoove, shooting here for the world’s biggest spit take, round out the main cast, All have well-known wives — the most well known of them being
TV REVIEW ‘Real Husbands of Hollywood’ Where: BET When: 10 p.m. Tuesday Rating: Not rated Mariah Carey, who is married to Cannon — all of whom remain offstage.
Hart the main target of jokes Actor-comic Hart (“Think Like a Man,” “Undeclared”), divorced, is the series odd man out, its narrator and the main target of its jokes. Playing yourself as a loser is one of the great luxuries of being a winner. Mr. New Money is Hart’s “reality show nickname” here; he is a kind of wound-up terrier, small and scrappy, hysterical, befuddled, boastful, covetous, competitive, easily bruised and lacking perspective. The show is amusing without seeming to aim for anything more. Its greatest charm is in showing people who really do seem to be friends hanging out and making fun of one another and themselves. It is at its best when they all seem to be talking over one another, without actually talking over one another, which lets the viewer feel in on the joke and present at the party.
BY WALTER TUNIS LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER (MCT)
LEXINGTON, Ky. —Yes, he’s a bluesman. But you might not pick up on that right away when speaking to Bobby Rush. Take for instance, his response to that most common and obligatory of greetings: “How are you?” “Man, I’m on fire,” he says. “I can’t help it. I’m a blessed man. I’m just on fire.” That little blast of jubilation is indicative of a blues and R&B stylist who, at age 77, feels like he is the luckiest singing soul out of Homer, La. In his lifetime, Rush — born Emmitt Ellis Jr. — befriended blues icon Elmore James after Rush’s father, a pastor, moved to Arkansas. Then came lessons from the great electric bluesmen of Chicago when his family moved to Chicago. Finally, after an R&B single called “Chicken Heads” became a radio hit in 1970, Rush set up base in Mississippi and established revue-style bands that steered closer to the groove-conscious soul of James Brown than to the amped-up blues of Muddy Waters.
Unlikely ally To everyone’s good fortune, Rush has been grooving ever since. “There is really not that much difference between Chicago and Mississippi,” said the Grammynominated singer and bandleader. “Chicago has those hot streets. Mississippi has those hot cotton fields. But the people are all the same,” Rush said. “They are all in love and out of love. I just love bringing these songs and stories to people.” While he has been a touring mainstay of the blues and R&B circuit for decades and has played everywhere from the shiniest of Las Vegas nightspots to the most remote and rural Southern juke
Bobby Rush, 77, recently issued a new album, “Down in Louisiana.” joints, Rush found a powerful but unlikely ally in Hollywood who would introduce him to a new audience: Martin Scorsese. The famed film director produced “The Blues,” a seven-part series for PBS that aired in 2003. In the fourth segment, “The Road to Memphis,” director Richard Pearce offered a detailed slice-oflife portrait of a working bluesman. In this case, the bluesman was Rush. “That was the biggest thing that ever happened to me in my life,” he said. “I thought it was kind of a fluke. There wasn’t really any money in doing it. But I agreed as long as the guys filming spent the day with me. I wanted them to come out to my home and come on the bus with me. I wanted them to come with me to church. I guess I just wanted people to see what I was really about, that the same people I play for in the juke joints on Saturday nights were the same folks I saw at church on Sunday morning.”
New album Rush recently issued a new album, “Down in Louisiana,” that offers more of the old-school blues (“Don’t You Cry”) and earthycountry funk (“Rock This House”) that has defined his music throughout the years. Tunes
like “Tight Money,” though, add a touch of swampy, neo-Cajun spice. “You put it all together and you get kind of a Bobby Rush stew. It’s Bobby Rush up and down. “I didn’t want some big production with this record. I was looking for a deep-woods kind of sound instead. A lot of my records have crossed over, which helps me bring in younger audiences. But as you do that you can’t forget the people, especially the R&B crowds, that have always been with you. You can cross over but you can never cross out.” While the album title suggests a sense of homecoming to the singer’s Louisiana roots, an even deeper flashback was provided once recording sessions got under way in Nashville. That’s because Rush tuned into the city’s longstanding radio giant, WLACAM, as a child. It offered equal helpings of blues and country tradition. “I came up with WLAC as a kid,” he said. “It educated me in all these great R&B and blues musicians. That’s where I first heard Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and Junior Parker. But that’s also where I heard Roy Acuff and Willie Nelson. There really wasn’t much difference between any of them. They were all singing about the same things.”
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FOOD
JANUARY 25 – JANUARY 31, 2013
TOJ
HEART-SMART RECIPES YOU'LL
LOVE
FROM Family Features
Eating for heart health is actually easier — and more delicious — than you might think. When you have a good plan and plenty of mouthwatering recipes, you’ll enjoy taking care of your heart. According to the FDA, diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may help reduce the risk of heart disease. Here are some tips to help you make these kinds of heart-smart choices: • Choose leaner cuts of meat. You can find plenty of delicious options such as skinless chicken, lean pork and beef. And you can make smart substitutions, too — use ground turkey instead of ground beef to make meatloaf or burgers even leaner. • Add fruits and veggies to every meal. Strawberries in yogurt, blueberries on a salad, carrots
Apple Crisp Total Time: 65 minutes Makes: 6 servings 5 cups peeled apple slices 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar, divided 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon tapioca 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 1/2 cups Post Original Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Cereal, finely crushed 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine, melted Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix apples, 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice, tapioca and cinnamon in large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes. To make topping, stir crushed cereal, remaining 1/4 cup sugar and margarine in medium bowl until well blended. Spread apple mixture in ungreased 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with cereal topping. Bake for 45 minutes or until topping is browned and apples are tender when pierced with fork.
These recipes include Post Original Shredded Wheat cereal: At top is the Savory Meatloaf. The Grab ’n Go Peanut Butter Bars is shown in the center. Above: Banana Bread.
Savory Meatloaf Total Time: 75 minutes Makes: 12 servings 2 eggs 1 cup milk 2 pounds lean ground beef 3 biscuits Post Original Shredded Wheat Cereal, crushed 1 can (8 ounces) stewed tomatoes, undrained 1 medium onion, chopped 1/4 cup chopped green pepper 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat eggs and milk in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Shape meat mixture into oval loaf in shallow baking pan. Bake 1 hour or until cooked through (160°F). Variation: Prepare as directed, using fat-free milk and substituting 1/2 cup cholesterol-free egg product for the eggs and 2 pounds thawed frozen ground turkey for the ground beef.
and hummus as a snack, roasted sweet potatoes with dinner — it’s easier than you think to add nutrient-dense produce to your diet. Eat plenty of different colored produce for variety and a wider range of health benefits. • Enjoy more whole grains. Whole grains add carbohydrates for energy, fiber to fill you up, and nutrients important for good health. And, according to a recent national survey, 4 out of 5 doctors recommend Post Shredded Wheat as part of a healthy, low-sodium diet, to maintain a healthy heart, reduce the risk of heart disease, and support healthy blood pressure levels. These recipes are a great start to adding more whole grains — and they’re so good, you might forget they are heart smart. Get more tips and heart-smart recipes at www. PostShreddedWheat.com.
Grab ’n Go Peanut Butter Bars Total Time: 10 minutes Makes: 16 servings (1 bar per serving) 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter 3 cups Post Original Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Cereal, coarsely crushed 3/4 cup raisins Mix sugar, honey and peanut butter in large microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until bubbly at edge; stir until well blended. Stir in cereal and raisins. Press firmly into 8-inch square pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cool. Cut into bars. Store in airtight container. Take Along Tip: After completely cooled, wrap bars individually in plastic wrap. Leave in bowl on kitchen counter for a great grab-and-go snack. Banana Bread Total Time: 65 minutes Makes: 16 servings (1 slice per serving) 1 3/4 cups flour 1 cup Post Original Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Cereal, finely crushed 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine 2 eggs 1/4 cup fat-free milk 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas) Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, cereal, spice, baking powder and baking soda in medium bowl; set aside. Beat sugar and margarine in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs; mix well. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Blend in bananas. Pour into greased 9x5-inch loaf pan. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 5 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely. Special Extra: Toast the bread slices and top each with a scoop of vanilla or chocolate sorbet and a drizzle of strawberry sauce for a different kind of banana split.