Florida Courier - December 30, 2016

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DECEMBER 30, 2016 – JANUARY 5, 2015

VOLUME 24 NO. 53

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FROM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Florida Supreme Court Justice James E.C. Perry will retire this week and be replaced by C. Alan Lawson, who has served as chief judge of the 5th District Court of Appeal. Perry, 72, is forced to leave the Supreme Court because the state Constitution requires justices to retire when they turn 70. The law allows justices like Perry to fulfill the remainder of their terms, depending on when their birthdays fall. Perry was appointed by

Retiring Florida Supreme Court Justice James E.C. Perry gives a history lesson as he looks toward the future.

former Gov. Charlie Crist to the state’s high court in 2009. Nine years earlier, then-Gov. Jeb Bush tapped Perry to serve as a trial judge in the 18th Judicial Circuit. Born in North Carolina, Perry – who said he decided to become a lawyer the night Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated – graduated from Columbia Law School and returned to the South and went to work for Georgia Indigent Legal

Obama says he could have beaten Trump

Services. He later became Seminole County’s first Black judge after being appointed by Bush. Perry is among five jurists who make up a majority of the seven-member court, which has drawn the wrath of Republican Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP-dominated Legislature. Perry answered one question of particular interest to Florida Courier readers during an interview with The News Service of Florida

reporter Dara Kam. You can read the entire interview at flcourier.com. Q: Among your numerous accomplishments, many people have given you high praise for representing a voice thus far absent from the state’s highest court. Can you elaborate on the perspective you brought to the Florida Supreme Court? PERRY: That’s a loaded question. I hear about these labels of liberal, conservative. I think those are political terms that the other two branches of government use in order to box peo-

Top 10 stories and Kwanzaa

Played safe? But he also said a kind of complacency set in that made the Clinton campaign too cautious and thus unable to get its message out enough. “If you think you’re winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer,” Obama said. Obama spoke of his family, the strength he’d gotten from wife Michelle, and the improbability of his own political career. Obama also said the spirit that his candidacy originally inspired, especially among young people, was “never snuffed out” despite the last eight years of turmoil. “The idealism and the dedication stayed with the staff and got us through some really hard times,” he said.

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“You know, I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I – if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said. His comments were part of a wider discussion of what he called “ugly” sentiments of racism and xenophobia that resurfaced during the 2016 campaign. Obama repeated his assertion that Clinton faced a double standard as a woman that put her at a disadvantage.

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‘Confident’ in vision

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FLORIDA COURIER / 10TH STATEWIDE ANNIVERSARY

BY TRACY WILKINSON TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU / TNS

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he could have defeated Donald Trump in last month’s election by recapturing the same “vision of hope” that twice carried him to the presidency. Obama also was mildly critical of the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, saying her campaign didn’t do enough to get her message out. The remarks were notable because Obama has been careful since the election to avoid criticizing Trump, or to deliver a postmortem on Clinton’s failed bid. Obama spoke in an interview with Democratic political operative and former senior adviser David Axelrod for his The Axe Reports podcast. The interview was released by CNN Monday.

“I’m a public servant who likes the public. And my mission in life is to serve the public, to make this world a better place,” says James E.C. Perry.

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Nine years ago, the Florida Courier listed its Top 10 stories for the year and recognized Kwanzaa ceremonies happening around the state.

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50 years of Kwanzaa Celebrations promote pride, culture BALTIMORE – This time of year, 14-year-old Amir Ralph is all about Kwanzaa. He embraces the celebration of African culture, which is marking its 50th anniversary this year, and works tirelessly to spread the word about the holiday, visiting schools and communities throughout Baltimore. He and his mother, Tiffany, will be lighting the kinara, whose seven candles represent the seven days and seven guiding principles of the holiday. There will be gifts and lots of celebrating. But ask Amir what makes Kwanzaa so special, and none of that comes up. “It’s a holiday surrounding community and family,” says Amir. “It’s also one of the only holidays that connects me to my heritage, and to my past.”

Meaningful holiday Fifty years since Kwanzaa was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga, its adherents say the holiday holds as much meaning as ever, offering the AfricanAmerican community a chance to celebrate its accomplishments and remember where it came from. Kwanzaa – which officially began Monday, Dec. 26 and runs through Jan. 1 – is centered on seven guiding principles, known as the Nguzo Saba: unity (in Swahili, umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (ujima), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), faith (imani) and collective economics (ujamaa). During the weeklong celebration, stories are shared, with music and dance often a key part, and presents are exchanged, often books on African-American history and culture.

Intentionally created “Kwanzaa was intentionally created for the African-America population,” says Jeff Menzise, an associate professor at Morgan State University’s Institute for Urban Research, “as something cultural, something to help with better understanding of their cultural origins, and a practical way of applying it to their daily lives.” Like Christmas and Hanukkah, other major holidays with which it shares a season, Kwanzaa has its symbols. Besides the kinara (which evokes comparisons to the Jewish menorah and Christian Advent wreath), there are fruits and vegetables, corn, and a cup (called the kikombe cha umoja, or unity cup), all traditionally placed on a mat (mkeka) laid atop a piece of African cloth. But it’s the underpinnings of Kwanzaa, and its proud embrace of African identity and pride, that seem to speak the loudest to those who celebrate it.

First exposure “That is exactly what Kwanzaa pro-

COMMENTARY: LUCIUS GANTT: WE MUST FIND THE GREATNESS IN OURSELVES | A2 COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4

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