OpEd

Whether the Name is Emmett or Trayvon, Black Parents Still Fear for Children at Hands of Racists

Had white supremacists not abducted, tortured and lynched 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, today he may have been sitting on his front porch in a rocking chair, playing with his grandchildren and preparing to celebrate his 79th birthday next week on July 25.

The brutality of his murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the long history of the violent persecution of Blacks in the U.S. But for Blacks it was nothing new.

As the news of his horrific murder on August 28, 1955, spread across the country, African-American parents reinforced their instructions on survival – an essential rite of passage for all Black children – warning them of an omnipresent danger which thrived in America’s soil that could end their lives at any moment.

It was a centuries-old sickness, parents told their little ones, often passed on from one generation to another called racism. But the best Black parents could do was to instruct their children to always be on their guard lest they meet the same tragic end that young Emmett did.

Generations later, parents still have “the talk” with their young boys and girls, even though they may have replaced the name “Emmett” with another, like “Trayvon,” for example. Trayvon Martin had the misfortune of crossing paths with a man who, while he was not white, believed that as a white Hispanic, he was still higher up the totem pole of color than the 17-year-old Black youth.

White privilege with all of its rights was still within George Zimmerman’s reach – or so he believed. Thus, feeling empowered, he confronted the youth, fought with him and murdered him.

How dare this intruder attempt to “walk while Black” in his precious, Floridian cul-de-sac?

The names continue to change. But sadly the epilogues remain hauntingly familiar.

We’d like to believe that Emmett, Trayvon and thousands of other lynched Black boys and girls now rest in peace. But sometimes, it’s almost impossible to believe.

And so, Black parents continue administering lessons of survival to their children, all the while wondering, “how long?”

WI

TO THE EDITOR

Leon Harris: Redemption and Recovery

When award-winning news anchor Leon Harris was arrested and charged with a DUI several months ago, he undoubtedly let many people down. The popular and respected fixture in local news pleaded guilty to one of six charges he faced for reportedly causing a three-car collision and leaving the scene. No one was apparently injured except Harris, whose career has been tarnished by his arrest and conviction.

Nonetheless, NBC4 has invited Harris back on the air where he will return to the daily primetime news slot once held by the late Jim Vance, Harris’s predecessor, who NBC4 also supported years ago during his battle with cocaine addiction.

Harris, 61, is married and the father of two adult children. He pleaded guilty to the DUI charge and recently spent 10 days in jail. There is no doubt that it was his family about whom he was thinking as he fought back the tears during an interview with NBC4 anchor Doreen Gentler this week. Harris agreed to discuss the details of his arrest, with no holds barred, about what happened the night of his arrest and his road to recovery from addiction to alcohol.

Harris said he now undergoes three hours of therapy every morning, where he meets people who give him a new perspective on the crises which many continue to face. He apologized to those he disappointed and said, “I will try to show you I deserve a shot at earning your trust again, through patterns, not promises.”

Drug use and abuse are severe problems in America. According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, among Americans aged 12 years and older, 37.309 million were current illegal drug users (used within the last 30 days) as of 2020, and the numbers keep rising. Be it marijuana, opioids, fentanyl prescription drugs, or alcohol, more Americans are becoming addicted every day. But like Harris, as bad as their lives may be, addiction can be addressed, and their lives “can be fixed.”

Harris must spend three years on supervised probation. An ignition interlock device will be installed on his vehicle to monitor his blood alcohol level through a breathalyzer he must use every day before starting his car.

We commend Harris for his honesty and transparency. There is no doubt someone will listen and know there is hope for them, too. And we salute the fact that even a large company like NBC4 has put its reputation on the line to show compassion for someone like Harris who’s committed to living a more fruitful life in recovery. WI

The Next Pandemic?

Whenever we feel like we're overcoming one hurdle, here comes another. COVID-19, now monkeypox. Why is it that we are seeing such catastrophic public health issues with the most technology and advanced systems in the world than at any other time in history? This doesn't make any sense.

Louise Bright Washington, D.C.

A Well-Informed Voter

I appreciate The Washington Informer's coverage of Maryland politics. We have big elections ahead of us, from governor to state and local offices. It's critical that our community is informed about what's happening and what's at stake.

Paula Raddick Largo, Md.

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Guest Columnist

Rep. James E. Clyburn

Overturning Roe v. Wade Weakens Our Union

The statement of purpose in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution says, "in order to create a more perfect Union." While I often focus on the words "more perfect," equally important is the word "Union." I fear that the Supreme Court's recent opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is a step back from that pursuit and significantly weakens our Union.

Ill-advised Supreme Court decisions have torn our Union asunder in the past. And anything that has happened before can happen again. The Supreme Court's decisions in Citizens United and Shelby County started the most recent erosion of our constitutional rights and democratic values, and its decision in the Dobbs case strips away another long-held right. The Court is reverting to a dark chapter in its history and risks thrusting our Union down another dark path.

During the Reconstruction era immediately after the Civil War, our Union made significant progress toward greater perfection through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and congressional action to enforce their protections. These efforts granted more Americans a greater ability, as the Supreme Court observed with respect to abortion rights more than a century later in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, "to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation."

Yet the Supreme Court of that time issued decisions that contributed to halting this progress in its tracks, and which aided and abetted the return to power of Confederates and their white supremacist governing ideology — and the ultimate rise of the Jim Crow era. In the Slaughterhouse Cases and Bradwell v. Illinois in 1873, the Court severely limited the privileges and immunities clause of the 14th Amendment, stripping this constitutional source of rights from those Americans whose privileges and immunities were under threat. In United States v. Cruikshank in 1876, the Court exonerated members of a white supremacist mob that had perpetrated a local insurrection, holding that Congress could not protect Americans against violations of their constitutional rights by non-government actors, no matter how organized or how violent.

The Court's endorsement of white supremacy was sealed with Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, upholding the establishment of second-class citizenship with its "separate but equal" holding. The Court followed with Giles v. Harris in 1903, upholding Jim Crow voter suppression schemes that were disenfranchising African American voters throughout the South, rendering the 15th Amendment a dead letter for more than 60 years.

The effects of these decisions were that the rights of African Americans — the right to vote, the right to equal education, the right to be protected by law from deadly violence, the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" — were dependent upon the states in which they lived. This states' rights approach was highly detrimental to our Union and lethal to thousands

Guest Columnist

His Name Is George Floyd

George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer just over two years ago. His killing sparked a movement to end unjustified police killings and racist law enforcement practices. Sadly, the killings have not stopped. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was blocked by Senate Republicans last year. The struggle continues in communities large and small.

During racial justice protests that sprung up after video of Floyd's murder spread around the world, millions of people spoke his name as they demanded accountability and justice. Now, a remarkable book examines Floyd's life and death in the context of our history and what one of the authors calls the "complex, tangled web" created by racism in this country. "His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice" was written by Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and

Ben Jealous

Toluse Olorunnipa. It draws on the reporting of their colleagues and on intimate interviews with Floyd's family, romantic partners, and circle of friends. At a time when politicians are making it illegal for educators to acknowledge that systemic racism exists, Samuels and Olorunnipa document in painful detail the ways in which racially discriminatory policies on housing, education, health care, addiction, policing and more contributed to "a life in which Floyd repeatedly found his dreams diminished, deferred, and derailed — in no small

Guest Columnist

David W. Marshall

Childhood Is Not Meant to Be Deadly

In every child's life, there comes a point where innocence succumbs to life's cruelty and pain. It is the moment when the child starts to become aware of the cold-hearted world in which we live. "It takes a village to raise a child" is the African proverb that means that an entire community of people must provide for and interact positively with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. It means we care for children even when the child is not our own. It also means that, as adults, we make sacrifices for the child's welfare. So many times, the failure of the "village" destroys a child's innocence and life.

The senseless death of any child, regardless of race or class, is heartbreaking, yet it never ends. In 1944, the death of three children from Alcolu, South Carolina, reminds us of how children are affected by America's long history of violence, its hate-driven criminal and judicial systems, and the cruel influence of people with power. Mary Emma Thames, 7, and Betty June Binnicker, 11, were murdered by severe blunt force trauma to the face and head, while George Stinney Jr., 14, was executed by the electric chair. Stinney was the youngest person in the United States to be sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century. Thames, Binnicker part because of the color of his skin." "For example," Samuels says, "you could not disentangle police departments' disproportionate use of force against African Americans from the junk science that is still taught about black people being more resistant to pain. We could not ignore that those same instincts led to the inadequate mental health treatment in George Floyd's life, nor could we separate that society both encouraged George Floyd to bulk up to pursue his athletic dreams and then stereotyped him as dangerous when he was off the field."

and Stinney were like any typical kid, but Stinney, who was Black, was accused of murdering the two girls who were white. For decades, civil rights lawyers have cited the George Stinney case as one of the most blatant examples of racially biased justice, yet it is a widely unknown story.

Binnicker and Thames' bodies were found in a ditch after the girls had failed to return home the night before. The two girls were last seen alive riding their bikes looking for flowers when they CLYBURN Page 45

The book doesn't try to make Floyd a saint. It doesn't have to. He was a human being. He did nothing to deserve being murdered on the street by an abusive police officer who shouldn't have been wearing a badge. "His Name Is George Floyd" is worth reading for many reasons. It gives us a fuller picture of the person George Floyd was. It introduces us to many people who loved him and sought a measure of justice for his murder. And it points to some important

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saw Stinney and his younger sister near their home. The two girls asked Stinney if he knew where they could find flowers. After police learned from a witness that Binnicker and Thames were seen talking to Stinney, the 14-year-old was arrested while his parents were not home. He was interrogated alone for hours without the presence of his parents or an attorney. Police later claimed that Stinney confessed to the murders,

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Guest Columnist

Absurdities

Years ago, I stated that the damage of a Trump presidency wouldn't be in his initial term(s), but in the future evil that he would sanction. It now appears that "crazies," especially in the political arena, are crawling from under rocks around the nation.

There are those who would present to us or attempt to force-feed us information which, on its face, is so ridiculous or incredible as to be believed by only the most dimwitted or propagandized among us. I will not claim that absurdities only come from one side, but the majority of the absurd statements I process daily come from Republicans, racists, Christian fundamentalists, or right-wing extremists.

Pastor Mark Burns, who notoriously lied about his membership in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity during the 2016 campaign, is currently presenting as a candidate for Congress. In addition to his past lies, he is now spewing hate and advocating execution for political opponents. I only question what he will say after the Republican primary.

Trump-endorsed Republican Jacky Eubanks is a candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Eubanks states, "You cannot have a successful society outside of the Christian moral order … things like abortion and things like gay marriage are outside the Christian moral order. They lead to chaos and destruction and a culture of death; we've abandoned the Christian moral order as a nation and we are reaping that destruction."

Eubanks added, "We need to return to God's moral order. That's not radical. God's morality is for everybody." She also advocates a total birth control ban and abstinence until marriage.

Eubanks has obviously forgotten that the first European invaders came to North America seeking religious freedom and that the freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution provides for the freedom OF religion and FROM religion. Eubanks seems focused on the imposition of her religious beliefs on everyone.

Instead of a fundamentalist fervor, in Georgia citizens are challenged to consider ignorance as a reasonable choice. Hershel Walker who has been labeled as unprepared as a candidate for the U.S. Senate has also been plagued with challenges to his character and ethics. The old saying "it's better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and proven a fool" applies to Walker. The following statement, given at a recent campaign rally, provides his justification for opposition against Clean Air initiatives: "We in American have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world. So what we do, we're gonna put, from the Green New Deal, millions of billions of dol-

E. Faye Williams

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Guest Columnist

Marian Wright Edelman

Proctor Institute: Providing Sustenance and Hope

When I was a child my father was pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Bennettsville, South Carolina, and my mother was director of the youth and senior choirs, church organist, founder and head of the Mothers' Club, and fundraiser-in-chief. We watched Daddy and Mama staying up to date by subscribing to theological and church music publications and buying the latest books by leading theologians and thinkers, and they did not confine their self-improvement to reading. They went to Union Theological Seminary, to a Black Mountain, North Carolina, conference center, and to Oberlin College for summer courses and other enrichment, and they went away every year for a week to the Minister's Institute at Hampton Institute in Virginia, sometimes taking me along. I would wander along Hampton's waterfront and through the chapel and library at the college Booker T. Washington attended and where he later taught while my parents listened to the latest developments in their fields. I'd join them in the evenings to listen to great sermons and choirs.

Today, the Children's Defense Fund shares some of the same opportunities for learning, development, great preaching, singing, and much needed fellowship at the annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry. At the Proctor Institute, civil rights icons and students, community organizers and seminarians, and advocates and artists come together in an intergenerational, interracial, multi-ethnic, ecumenical Beloved Community committed to pursuing justice for our nation's children. This year's Proctor's Institute will be a hybrid event with both virtual and in-person options July 18-21. Everyone is welcome!

The 2022 theme is "Raising Democracy by Resurrecting Hope." Study sessions, plenaries, and the Great Preacher Series will all reinforce this theme while workshops give participants a chance to build organizing skills, deepen understanding of policy concerns, discover programs and strategies to try back home, and share perspectives on justice, community, children, and the work to which we are called. As CDF says: "Movement building is hard work. We can't do it alone. One generation alone can't get it done. We need each other, and we need deep spiritual sustenance to keep going and create the just world our children deserve. CDF's Proctor Institute is where we can sing and pray, strategize and struggle, organize and advocate. It's where we can share our stories — our hurts and hopes, pain and passion for justice — in Beloved Community. The Proctor Institute refreshes and renews us so we can continue the hard, hopeful, sacred work of

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Guest Columnist

Marc H. Morial

NUL's First-Ever Hybrid In-Person and Virtual Conference Kicks Off in D.C.

“I thank you, Urban League, for all of your leadership, and I look forward to fighting with you. ... Part of the strength of this organization and all of the leaders in this room is we have always been motivated by knowing what can be, unburdened by what has been. This is a fight that is born out of optimism. This is a fight that is born out of knowing that we must fight for the soul of our country also out of love of country. And this is a fight we will win.” — Kamala Harris, address to the National Urban League Conference

The last time the National Urban League convened for an in-person conference in July 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller was taking a seat to testify to the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the then-president's efforts to obstruct that investigation.

That president was then engaged in a racist campaign of slander against four congresswomen of color and spreading lies about immigrants and voter fraud.

The first cases of the deadliest pandemic in American history were months in the future. An insurrection against the United States government was still an unimaginable prospect.

On July 20-23, the National Urban League and our network of affiliates and allies gather in Washington, D.C., with the nation's most influential voices in government, business, social activism, and the arts. Our task: to confront the transformation of the nation's political, social and economic landscape and chart a path toward a more equitable and resilient society.

The nation is only beginning to grapple with the aftershocks of the past few years. The 2022 Conference is an opportunity to highlight and redefine the National Urban League's role in responding not only to the medical and economic crises wrought by the COVID pandemic, but to the rise of extremism and an unprecedented assault on democracy and civil liberties. The Conference kicked off Wednesday, July 20, with the Urban League Fights For You Rally on Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Women's Rights & Economic Justice at the Martin Luther

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