Florida Courier - March 03, 2017

Page 1

FC

EE FR

PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID DAYTONA BEACH, FL PERMIT #189

www.flcourier.com

READ US ONLINE

Like us on Facebookwww.facebook.com/ flcourier

A new era for soul food See Page B1

Follow us on Twitter@flcourier

www.flcourier.com

MARCH 3 – MARCH 9, 2017

VOLUME 25 NO. 9

FIVE YEARS LATER COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

SANFORD – In 2012, Francis Oliver took to the streets of Sanford with more than 8,000 other people at a rally demanding the arrest of the man who killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black 17-year-old. Martin was gunned down on a rainy night by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator in a gated community in Sanford. Feb. 26 was the fifth anniversary of the tragic homicide. Martin was visiting his father and was walking back from the store when, despite requests by local police not to do so, Zimmerman began following Martin because he appeared “suspicious.” The two ended up in a physical confrontation, and the unarmed Martin was shot in the chest and killed.

On the fifth anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s killing, the struggle to make Black lives matter continues. Black firm retained

firm of Parks and Crump as the family’s attorneys. They went on national television with their story: An unarmed Black high school kid who was doing nothing unlawful was fatally shot, and Sanford police wouldn’t arrest the light-skinned Hispanic man who did it. Zimmerman went into hiding, but cooperated with police. He told them that he shot Trayvon Martin in selfdefense after the Miami Gardens teenager punched him, knocked him to the ground then climbed on top and begun hammering his head against a sidewalk. Photos showed him with a swollen nose and blood coming from the back of his head.

Story picked up

A few days after the shootAttorney Benjamin Crump ing, Tracy Martin and Syb- was concerned that Trayrina Fulton, Trayvon’s fa- von’s killing was not getting ther and mother, retained the Tallahassee-based law See TRAYVON, Page A2

CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

Cemetery visitors take pictures of Trayvon Martin’s crypt at a mausoleum at Dade Memorial Park North in Opa-Locka. The inscription on his grave reads, ‘Rest my son, job well done.’

POMPANO BEACH

Closing out Black History Month

Praise – but no cash Trump meets with HBCU leaders BY WILLIAM DOUGLAS AND ANITA KUMAR TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to increase support and oversight of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) within his administration – but stopped short of providing the federal money the schools badly need. Nor did administration officials hold the in-depth meeting that some presidents and chancellors of the Black schools had sought. And Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary, ignited firestorms.

Time-consuming photos

COURTESY OF ETA NU CHAPTER

The Eta Nu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and the City of Pompano Beach presented their Fourth Annual Black History Festival last week. Participants enjoyed food and music, got health screenings college information, and viewed Black history exhibits.

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Controversial law helps free Miami teens NATION | A6

Dems elect new leadership Public tired of President Trump’s tweets HEALTH | B3

New diagnosis: ‘Postelection stress disorder’

ALSO INSIDE

Bethune statue proposed for US Capitol THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, would replace a Confederate general as one of Florida’s representatives in a set of statues at the U.S. Capitol, under a proposal filed Wednesday by state Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale. Thurston’s proposal (SCR 1360) came after measures were filed in the House and Senate (HCR 507 and SCR 760) that call for a statue of environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who wrote “The Everglades: River of Grass” and campaigned tirelessly for environmental protection, to replace Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith in the National Statuary Hall in Washington. Statues of Smith and John Gorrie, widely considered the father of air conditioning, have long represented Florida in the hall.

Committee favorite The Florida Legislature voted last year to replace Smith’s statue amid a backlash against Confederate symbols following the 2015 shooting deaths of nine AfricanAmerican worshippers at a historic Black church in Charleston, S.C. Last June, Bethune appeared to be the favorite to replace Smith, Dr. Mary getting the votes McLeod of all the members Bethune of the Great Floridians Committee. The committee was charged with helping pick Florida’s new figure. Bethune, Douglas and George Washington Jenkins Jr., founder of the iconic Publix grocery stores that dot Florida’s cities, were the committee’s finalists for the honor. In addition to being the only nominee to get the votes of all

four members of the committee, Bethune was also the runaway leader among members of the public who submitted names to a website last June. She received 1,237 recommendations, more than a third of the total. Jenkins was third with 418 recommendations and Douglas was fourth with 270. The Douglas statue resolutions are sponsored by Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, and Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami.

Another ‘first’ Bethune was born in 1875 in South Carolina and was the child of formerly enslaved Africans, according to the website of Bethune-Cookman University. She died in 1955. If selected, Bethune would be the hall’s first African-American woman commissioned by a state. Rosa Parks was added by Congress. Bethune is also honored at Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C.

Nearly 90 HBCU presidents and chancellors came to Washington seeking $25 billion in the upcoming budget to help their schools improve their infrastructure and ability to provide financial aid for students. Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University in New Orleans, said scheduled time to engage administration officials in a listening session about the challenges HBCUs face blew up when it was decided to take the large group of college presidents and chancellors to the Oval Office for a group photo with Trump. “Needless to say, that threw the day off and there was very little listening to HBCU presidents today. We were only given about two minutes each, and that was cut to one minute, so only seven of maybe 15 or so speakers were given an opportunity today,” Kimbrough said in a statement. DeVos created a social media explosion with her statement about HBCUs on Monday. She called the institutions the “real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” glancing over the fact that government-enforced segregation laws for decades prevented African-Americans from attending many majority-White colleges and universities.

‘Like no other’ Trump’s administration was eager to stress the president’s order moving the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which pushes the federal government to do more business with the colleges, from the Department of Education directly into

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: RAYNARD JACKSON: WHY IS TRUMP’S TOP BLACK STAFF A DEMOCRAT? | A5

See HBCU, Page A2


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.