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Remembering Harriette and Harry T. Moore Page B1
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APRIL 12 - APRIL 18, 2013
VOLUME 21 NO. 15
WELFARE QUEENS? BY JAMES HARPER FLORIDA COURIER
PART 1 Florida legislators are considering giving millions in tax breaks over 30 years to at least four pro sports corporations, with no commitment that the companies will hire local, minority, or women-owned businesses for their projects.
Florida state legislators soon will decide whether giving 30 years of tax breaks and rebates to the owners of a professional sports franchises and venues is more important than funding public education or children’s programs. The NFL’s Miami Dolphins are seeking $3 million a year in sales tax rebates for 30 years (Senate Bill 306) for Sun Life Stadium improvements. Two million dollars a year for 30 years also has been requested by the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars for EverBank Field in Jacksonville (House Bill 721). The Orlando Lions are seeking $2 million a year in sales tax rebates for 30 years for the construction of a stadium in Central Florida (House Bill 219) with a goal of attracting a Major League Soccer expansion franchise. Daytona International Speedway officials are asking for $2 million a year in sales tax rebates in addition to seeking refunds on sales taxes for construction materials esti-
Black progress is uneven Urban League report says ‘equality gap’ remains constant SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER
ROBERT DUYOS/SUN-SENTINEL/MCT
The National Football League’s Miami Dolphins want taxpayers to give them millions of dollars for 30 years to improve Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens. mated at $10 million that can only be requested after a planned $250 million track improvement project is completed. A measure (Senate Bill 1394)
that could land more than $60 million in sales tax rebates for the speedway was unanimously supported by the Senate Commerce See WELFARE QUEENS, Page A2
Pathway to citizenship
Immigrant advocates rally in D.C.
The National Urban League’s (www.nul.org) “State of Black America” report released Wednesday concludes that despite social and economic gains, the AfricanAmerican equality gap with Whites has changed little since 1963 – the year of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the height of the civil rights movement. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march, this year’s “State of Black America Redeem the Dream: Jobs Rebuild America” includes a 50-year retrospective analysis conducted through the lens of the Urban League’s Equality Index. The report shows that while the African-American condition has improved, including achievements in educational attainment and employment, this progress has occurred largely within the Black community.
Serious gains
Thousands of people of all ages from across the country took to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to ease the path to citizenship for the 11 million residents living in the country without proper documentation.
Double-digit gains in education, employment and wealth contrast sharply with the single-digit gains made in those same areas compared to Whites. The report credits civil rights measures enacted to open the doors of opportunity for Blacks for the progress made in education and standard of living. In education, the high school completion gap has closed by 57 percentage points. There is more than triple the number of Blacks enrolled in college. For every college graduate in 1963, there are now five. With regard to the standard of living, the percentage of Blacks living in poverty has declined by 23 points since 1963. The percentage of Black children living in poverty has fallen by 22 points. The percentage of Blacks who own their home has increased by 14 points.
OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT
Gaps still exist These gains stand in stark contrast to the decided lack of progress in closing the equality gap with White Americans. In the past 50 years, the BlackWhite income gap has only closed by 7 points (now at 60 See PROGRESS, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3
BOOKS | B2
Report: Bright Futures change will hurt minorities
Book explores new identity of the South
FINEST | B5
NATION | a6
Meet Kelley
States competing to be testing site for drones
ALSO INSIDE
New strategies necessary to tackle old issues FROM THE TRICE EDNEY NEWSWIRE
ROY LEWIS/TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
Female leaders discussed the future of civil rights at a Trice Edney Communications forum in Washington, D.C.
When Barbara Arnwine sensed the pending attack on voting rights across the country by a string of Republican politicians attempting to enact voter identification and other questionable laws last year, she immediately tried to warn everybody who would listen. It was her 25-year-old son Justin who gave her the ultimate tool by which to warn the nation. “He said, ‘Mom, you need a map’…and he said it would go viral,” she recounted at an annual forum at the National Press Club last week. From that concise suggestion was born the now-famous “Map of Shame.”
With this map, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and its partner organizations charted and fought the legislative movements of dozens of states as they attempted voting changes that would ultimately result in a civil rights backlash. That backlash included a grassroots ground operation, church-to-church “get out the vote” inspiration, social media strategies, phone banking and word of mouth that helped galvanize the largest Black turnout in voting history in the 2012 presidential election.
Youth ingenuity Arnwine, president/CEO of
COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: AFRICAN CONQUEST, 21st CENTURY STYLE | A4 COMMENTARY: BILL FLETCHER JR.: OBAMA SHOULD TALK WITH NORTH KOREAN LEADER | A4
See ISSUES, Page A2