VOLUME 22 NUMBER 15
FREE
JULY 9, 2016
Published Since April 1995 Serving DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale Counties • www.facebook.com/ocgnews
Fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota spark outrage locally and across nation By Mackenzie N. Morgan
The latest news of two police-involved shootings that left two black men dead—one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the other in Falcon Heights, Minnesota—has prompted protests, anger and cries for justice from across the nation. Alton Sterling, 37, was fatally shot by police outside a Baton Rouge convenience store on July 5. Police say two officers responded to an anonymous caller who said a man selling CDs outside the store threatened him with a gun. After police arrived, a struggle ensued and Sterling was shot. The shooting sparked protests by angry residents in Baton Rouge and prompted the U.S. Justice Department to conduct a civil rights investigation. Philando Castile, just days away from his 35th birthday, was fatally shot on July 6 in Falcon Heights,
Congressman Hank Johnson
Mawuli Daivs
just northwest of St. Paul, Minnesota, after he and his girlfriend were pulled over for a broken tail light. Castile told police he had a gun and a permit. He was shot as he complied with police to produce his license. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, livestreamed the incident via Facebook as her 4-year-old daughter watched the shooting and cried in the back seat of the car. The video shows Castile slumped over the steering wheel bleeding profusely from multiple gunshot wounds. Castile became the 559th person to be killed
Dorothy Buckhanan Wilson
Amos King
by a police officer this year. Officers involved in both incidents are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, authorities said. Congressman Hank Johnson, who lives in DeKalb County and represents Georgia’s Fourth District, criticized police for being quick to tlanta will become a sea of pink and green as Alpha pull the trigger when it comes to Kappa Alpha Sorority blacks. (AKA) sisters from around the world “Nowadays everybody has a converge on the city for its internagun…but there’s still a problem for tional convention July 9-16. More than 22,000 members of the organization, known for their signature pink See Fatal Police Shootings , page 10 and green attire, are expected during the organization’s 67th Boule, which will honor the late Dr. Mary Shy Scott, a prominent educator and motivational speaker who served as the sorority’s 23rd international president. Members from as far away as Germany, Japan, South Korea, Liberia, South Africa and Dubai are expected to attend the convention, which will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center, as well as several other hotels in the metropolitan area, organizers say. Atlanta was selected as the host site for the conference because of its deep Civil Rights roots and historical significance to the sorority, members said. The city has served as home to icons such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Alpha Kappa Alpha founder Marie Woolfolk Taylor, who is buried in Atlanta; and the late Dr. Scott. Led by AKA’s International President Dorothy Buckhanan Wilson, attendees will join hands to uplift the needy through the organization’s planned “23 Moments of Service.” Members will package 100,000 meals in collaboration with Stop Hunger Now, participate in five playground restoration projects at local parks and schools, hold a school ancestral home of the Rev. T.A. Bryant, Jr., who was supply and backpack donation drive Tucker’s great-grandfather, will be rededicated during and receive hands-on CPR training, the reunion. Byrant donated the house, built in 1917, to among other service activities. Reachthe Archives to house the collections of the Flat Rock ing beyond Atlanta, they also will be community, Waits said. participating in the “Little Dresses “DeKalb County was born in 1822 and had a popu- for Africa” project. Sorority sisters lation of 10,000. Our family was part of the 2100 slaves from all around the world are creating who were here at the time,” said Waits, who guides 29,000 pillowcase dresses for girls visitors who come to the Flat Rock Archives through a in Africa and bringing them to the history of the African American community including a biennial conference. The dresses will slave cemetery. be sent to villages in Tanzania, South Waits said family members are coming from Wash- Africa, and Liberia. ington, California, Texas, Ohio, New York and Illinois to attend the reunion. The Flat Rock Archives is located at 3956 Crossvale See AKA Convention , page 10 Road, Lithonia.
Flat Rock reunion to celebrate DeKalb’s oldest African American families
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eKalb County’s oldest African American families, which include the bloodlines of comedian/actor Chris Tucker, Warren Moon and Willie Gault, will be celebrated at a family reunion hosted by the Flat Rock Archives in unincorporated Lithonia on July 22-23. “All three of them (Tucker, Moon and Gault) are coming to the reunion,” said Johnny Waits, who is a cousin of Tucker and president of the Flat Rock Archives. “We’re very excited about recognizing our family members. We’re hoping to make the reunion a bi-annual event.” Although the reunion will be private, Waits said he wants the community at large to know about the event because of the families’ historical importance to DeKalb. The Flat Rock Archives, which is housed in the
22,000 AKA members to converge on Atlanta for international convention
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