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VOL. 57, ISSUE 11
FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2011
Sharpton stresses education at SU By Breanna paul
JAGUAr yEArbooK MANAGING EDITor
After being rescheduled twice, Reverend Al Sharpton spoke Wednesday at the F.G. Clark Activity Center as part of the 2010-2011 Chancellor’s Lecture Series. The lecture was originally scheduled for February 2 but due to the snowstorm in the East Coast, Sharpton was unable to fly into Louisiana. The lecture was rescheduled for February 16 but then cancelled because he was needed at The White House. One of the things that troubles Sharpton is to hear people that are experts on what we’ve done, but can’t recite what we do. He mentioned how low the numbers were for Dr. King’s march from Selma to Montgomery. “We brought more people to Jena, Louisiana than Dr. King did to Montgomery,” Sharpton firmly stated. Sharpton said there is the
misnomer that you need to have everybody with you to make a difference and there’s always been a committed minority that paid the price for the rest of us. “Only 20,000 marched from Selma to Montgomery. Everybody got the right to vote,” he said. Sharpton spoke about arriving at a destination and knowing when to get off. “When I left NYC, it was pouring down raining and there was turbulence. We flew about a half hour, there was sunshine and it was clear and a smooth ride. Just because I got through the storm and the rain doesn’t mean I got off the plane. I waited until we landed and pulled up at the gate. To get off the plane because the sun is shining and the turbulence stopped doesn’t mean you’ve arrived at a destination of a full and equal society. We still have battles to fight,” Sharpton told the audience. Sharpton spoke about the struggles our ancestors fought
Ceremony turns into rally at SUNO by ThE ASSoCIATED prESS
photo By treVor JameS/DiGeSt
rev. Al Sharpton challenges audience members to not just remember history but make their own.
and the fight that the current generation is pursuing. “Dr. King fought Jim Crow. Today, you have to fight his son, James Crow Jr., He’s a little more polished, refined,
articulate but the results are still the same,” he said. “If the policies result in the same, you See Al ShArpton page 3
Residents march against violence, plant By Samantha Smith DIGEST STAFF WrITEr
A group of concerned residents of the University Park subdivision gathered to march in protest around Southern University -Wednesday night. The group planned the march to coincide with the chancellor’s lecture series event featuring the Rev. Al Sharpton. Residents marched from the back gate on Mills Avenue to the F. G. Clark Center in protest of the North Baton Rouge water treatment plant. Organizer Gregory Mitchell says that his hope is that the march will bring about positive change for the community. The North Baton Rouge water treatment plant has been the cause of major concern for the residents of the University Park neighborhood. The foul smell and the unbearable infestation of sewer flies in their homes and throughout the neighborhood
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have plagued residents for more than 20 years. Mitchell says that the sewage plant has torn his neighborhood apart and depreciated the value of his home. “The treatment plant disrupts our lives on a daily bases,” said Mitchell. “We simply ask that our elected officials stand up and let us resolve this issue positively.” The North Baton Rouge Water Treatment plant is run by the city of Baton Rouge. The Mayor of Baton Rouge and President of the plant, Kip Holden, is a resident of Scotlandville and lives near the University Park subdivision. Mitchell had this to say to Holden, “It time that you have a heart, you live in this neighborhood and you know how the community is suffering, we as citizens need your help to eliminate this horrible environmental disaster.”
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photo By polite D. SteWart Jr./DiGeSt
University place residents march to protest the community violence and industrial negligence present in the community. The march was held on Wednesday; March 16.
Student Dadrius Landus said Landus Mitchell and said that community leaders his neighbors filed a law suit have a moral obligation to the against the sewer plant in residents in this community. “It October 1996. The lawsuit was is not only a community issue it recently settled in favor of the sewage plant. is a team and a family issue. Many of the residents Southern University and the community of Scotlandville are a family and we are going See cAmpUS mArch page 3 to stick together on this issue,”
INSIDE S O U T H E R N
NEW ORLEANS—A ribbon cutting for a new building Wednesday on the Southern University at New Orleans campus became more of a political rally a day after the state’s main higher education board voted to consolidate the historically black college with the neighboring University of New Orleans. SUNO officials and opponents of the proposed campus merger said the dedication of the new Information Technology Center proved the campus was coming back after floods submerged it when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Gov. Bobby Jindal floated the idea of a merger earlier this year, asking the Board of Regents to study the matter. On Tuesday, the Regents, after hearing a report from a consultant, voted in favor of a consolidation. But the Legislature gets the final say and New Orleans area lawmakers made clear they would oppose it. “This is a political attack on this region,” state Sen. J.P. Morrell told the crowd of about 150 outside the new building, which is next to a parking lot where several temporary classrooms are still in use as a result of Katrina. Jindal has repeatedly backed consolidation as a move to provide better higher education opportunities in New Orleans, citing among other reasons, SUNO’s low graduation rate of around 7 percent. Morrell complained that Jindal never talked to the New Orleans legislative delegation before pitching the idea of a merger. Morrell said Jindal felt safe backing a merger because he doesn’t do well politically in New Orleans. “This shouldn’t be about politics, turf or management boards,” said Kyle Plotkin, See SUno rAllY page 3
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