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After 114 Years, Buffalo Soldiers Honored with Statue at U.S. Military Academy at West Point

After 114 Years, Buffalo Soldiers Honored with Statue at U.S. Military Academy at West Point

By goodblacknews on September 1, 2021

Yesterday, 114 years after coming to then-segregated West Point to teach horsemanship to White cadets, the U.S. Military Academy honored the contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers by raising its first statue of a Black man.

Created by sculptor Eddie Dixon, the statue is of Staff Sgt. Sanders H. Matthews Sr., who is believed to be the last known Buffalo Soldier to serve at West Point.

The words etched into the granite say: “In Memory of the Buffalo Soldiers who served with the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments as part of the United States Military Academy Cavalry Detachment at West Point.”

“Everybody has a right to have their story told,” said Dr. Aundrea Matthews, West Point’s cultural arts director and Matthew’s granddaughter. “Because it’s a powerful story. Just what [the Buffalo Soldiers] endured, their determination and their commitment to prove to the world that African American men can contribute and are viable citizens of this country.”

To quote washingtonpost.com:

Dixon pored over old photographs of Sanders Matthews to get the facial image right.

A model was built on an inner structure of carved foam, over which Dixon spread a layer of light-brown clay. Molds were made from the model, and the statue was cast with molten bronze at Schaefer Art Bronze Casting, in Arlington, Tex.

It was transported by truck and arrived Monday morning, escorted by eight motorcycles from the National Association of Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club.

The sculpture, which features an image of Matthews carrying a swallow-tailed cavalry flag that reads “USMA Detachment,” is the culmination of a project that was started by him before he died at age 95 in 2016.

Matthews hoped for the day when a monument honoring the Buffalo Soldiers of West Point would come to fruition, not knowing he would be the image for the tribute, his granddaughter said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/31/west-point-buffalo-soldiers-statue/

[Photo: Jackie Molloy for The Washington Post]

Willie O’Ree, the National Hockey League’s 1st Black Player, Receives Unanimous Support from U.S. Senate for Congressional Gold Medal

Willie O’Ree, the National Hockey League’s 1st Black Player, Receives Unanimous Support from U.S. Senate for Congressional Gold Medal

By goodblacknews on August 2, 2021

While the U.S. Senate hasn’t agreed on much of anything for several years, this week it unanimously passed legislation granting the Congressional Gold Medal to Willie O’Ree, the first Black player to compete in the National Hockey League.

The legislation now moves to the U.S. House of Representatives for approval so O’Ree, 85, and known as the “Jackie Robinson of hockey,” can receive this much deserved honor.

O’Ree broke the NHL’s color barrier in 1958 by playing as a winger for the Boston Bruins, one of six teams at the time. O’Ree, who is Canadian, played professional hockey in his home country before joining the NHL and retiring from the sport in 1979. He has spent the past two decades as the NHL’s diversity ambassador with his Hockey is for Everyone youth program.

To quote cnn.com:

In every game he played in, O’Ree… heard name calling from opposing players and from fans in the stands. “Besides being Black and being blind in my right eye, I was faced with four other things: racism, prejudice, bigotry and ignorance,” he said.

The legislation would award O’Ree the nation’s highest civilian award that Congress can bestow “in recognition of his extraordinary contributions and commitment to hockey, inclusion, and recreational opportunity.”

O’Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 for his off-ice contributions to the sport. The Bruins retired O’Ree’s No. 22 jersey in February of this year.

In addition to his 2020 memoir Willie: The Game-Changing Story of the NHL’s First Black Player, O’Ree has also been the subject of children’s books like Willie O’Ree: The story of the first black player in the NHL by Nicole Mortillaro and Scholastic Canada Biography: Meet Willie O’Ree by Elizabeth MacLeod.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/31/politics/willie-oree-congressional-gold-medal-nhl-senate/index.html

https://www.theroot.com/willie-oree-nhls-1st-black-hockey-player-set-to-recei-1847384678

(paid amazon links)

Zaila Avant-garde Wins Scripps National Spelling Bee, Becomes 1st African American Champion

Zaila Avant-garde Wins Scripps National Spelling Bee, Becomes 1st African American Champion

By goodblacknews on July 8, 2021

Zaila Avant-garde, 14, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida today, becoming the first African American winner and only the second Black champion in the bee’s 96-year history.

Avant-garde, who hails from Harvey, Louisiana, describes spelling as her side hobby. Basketball is her main extra-curricular focus — she holds three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple balls simultaneously.

Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won the bee in 1998, was the competition’s first Black champion.

This was the first Bee held since the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020.

Read more: https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/31786472/louisiana-teen-zaila-avant-garde-correctly-spells-m-u-r-r-y-win-scripps-national-spelling-bee

“Seeding by Ceding”: MacKenzie Scott Donates $2.7 Billion to Racial Justice Organizations, Arts Groups and Community-Based Non-Profits

“Seeding by Ceding”: MacKenzie Scott Donates $2.7 Billion to Racial Justice Organizations, Arts Groups and Community-Based Non-Profits

By goodblacknews on June 17, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

MacKenzie Scott, novelist, former teacher and ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, is a real one.

Scott’s net worth since her divorce settlement from Bezos stands close to $60 billion, and Scott has vowed to give away her wealth in her lifetime -“until the safe is empty” – because she believes “it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands.”

This week Scott and her team, lead by herself and her current spouse Dan Jewett, donated $2.7 billion to 286 organizations “including major universities, distinguished arts groups, and nonprofits working to combat racial injustice and domestic violence.”

Scott announced the donations in her Medium blog post “Seeding by Ceding,” where she states “major universities, distinguished arts groups, and nonprofits working to combat racial injustice and domestic violence” are among those receiving grants.

The recipients include the Apollo Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Alternate ROOTS, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and Women’s Funding Network.

This is the third time Scott has donated along these lines. In July 2020, Scott donated to “116 Organizations Driving Change,” which all fell under nine categories: racial equity, LGBTQ+ equity, gender equity, economic mobility, empathy and bridging divides, functional democracy, public health, global development and climate change.

She followed that up in December of last year with “384 Ways to Help.” To see the complete list of Scott’s 2021 donation recipients, click here.

Katori Hall, Les Payne and Tamara Payne, Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris and More Win Pulitzer Prizes in 2021

Katori Hall, Les Payne and Tamara Payne, Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris and More Win Pulitzer Prizes in 2021

By goodblacknews on June 11, 2021

Mitchell S. Jackson’s winning essay from June 2020, Twelve Minutes and a Life, offered a deeply affecting account of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery that combined vivid writing, thorough reporting and personal experience to shed light on systemic racism in America.

A formerly incarcerated person, Jackson is also a social justice advocate who engages in outreach in prisons and youth facilities in the United States and abroad.

Georgetown University professor Marcia Chatelain’s Franchise offers a nuanced account of the complicated role the fast-food industry plays in African-American communities, a portrait of race and capitalism that masterfully illustrates how the fight for civil rights has been intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.

Hall’s Hot Wing King is a deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.

Tania Leon’s Stride premiered at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City on February 13, 2020, a musical journey full of surprise, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate Black music traditions from the US and the Caribbean into a Western orchestral fabric.

To see the complete list of 2021 Pulitzer Prize recipients and more details about them, click here.

[Photo collage: top l-r are Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris, Tania León; bottom l-r are Katori Hall, Michael Paul Williams, Marcia Chatelain via pulitzer.org]

(paid links)

U.S. Justice Department Indicts Four Former Minneapolis Police Officers on Federal Charges for George Floyd’s Death

U.S. Justice Department Indicts Four Former Minneapolis Police Officers on Federal Charges for George Floyd’s Death

By goodblacknews on May 7, 2021

The U.S. Department of Justice, lead by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, has indicted four former Minneapolis police officers in connection with the killing of George Floyd.  The charges allege the officers violated Floyd’s constitutional rights, according to court documents filed in federal court in Minnesota.

According to cnn.com, the indictment says Derek Chauvin — who was convicted on second-degree murder charges in Floyd’s death — deprived Floyd of the right to be free from “unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.”

Former officers Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were also charged in connection with their failure to intervene in Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, per the indictment. Chauvin, Thao, Kueng and the fourth officer, Thomas Lane, all face a charge for failing to give Floyd medical aid.

Such federal charges are rare, notes npr.org, because it is difficult to meet the high legal bar they require. Prosecutors are charged with proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin acted “willfully” to deprive Floyd of his civil rights and used force that was “constitutionally unreasonable.”

Additionally, Chauvin faces a separate federal indictment related to a 2017 incident where he allegedly used a neck restraint “without legal justification” on a 14-year-old and beat the teenager in the head with a flashlight.

Several weeks ago, the Justice Department also filed federal hate crime charges against the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed Redirects $3.75 Million from Law Enforcement to Black Businesses as Part of Dream Keeper Initiative

San Francisco Mayor London Breed Redirects $3.75 Million from Law Enforcement to Black Businesses as Part of Dream Keeper Initiative

By goodblacknews on May 6, 2021

San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed announced yesterday the awarding of $3.75 million to serve San Francisco’s Black and African American small business community.

This investment by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is part of the Dream Keeper Initiative, which is reinvesting $120 million from law enforcement into San Francisco’s African American community.

In June 2020, following the killing of George Floyd, Mayor Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton announced a plan to prioritize the redirection of resources from law enforcement to support the African-American community. Following that plan, HRC led an extensive and collaborative process with the community to identify and prioritize funding needs and developed a report to guide the reinvestment.

The community engagement process included more than 60 community meetings, listening sessions, coalition convenings, and surveys with over 700 respondents. As part of the budget process, Mayor Breed redirected $120 million from law enforcement for investments in the African American community for Fiscal Years 2020-21 and 2021-22.

This funding is aimed at mitigating the economic hardships facing San Francisco’s African American community and will support rebuilding of the community’s economic power in San Francisco.

Chicago Rep. Bobby Rush Introduces Bill to Congress to Compel FBI to Disclose Fred Hampton Files

Chicago Rep. Bobby Rush Introduces Bill to Congress to Compel FBI to Disclose Fred Hampton Files

By goodblacknews on May 5, 2021

[Photo: Fred Hampton (l), U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (r) via revolt.tv]

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democrat from Illinois and an Illinois Black Panther Party co-founder, yesterday introduced a bill to Congress to force the declassification of FBI files related to the death of Party Chairman Fred Hampton. 

Additionally, Rush sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in which he requested “that you release unclassified and un-redacted versions of any files or papers in the possession of the U.S. Department of Justice or the FBI pertaining to this assassination.”

Hampton and Mark Clark were assassinated on Dec. 4, 1969 in Chicago by federal agents, and renewed public attention to this event comes on the heels of the 2020 release of the Academy Award-winning film Judas and the Black Messiah, for which Daniel Kaluuya won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Hampton.

According to thegrio.com, Rush, who was first elected to Congress in 1992, said it was important that “the American people know about the odious and inhumane legacy of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO operation and its assault on our nation’s civil liberties.”

Rush’s bill would require the FBI to release all files related to now-disbanded counterintelligence programs, including those related to the Black Panther Party and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

The bill also calls for the removal of Hoover’s name from FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/5/4/22419671/bobby-rush-fbi-doj-release-files-black-panther-fred-hampton-killing-chicago

U.S. Department of Justice Charges Three Georgia Men Accused of Killing Ahmaud Arbery with Federal Hate Crimes

U.S. Department of Justice Charges Three Georgia Men Accused of Killing Ahmaud Arbery with Federal Hate Crimes

By goodblacknews on April 28, 2021

The U.S. Department of Justice, lead by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, today indicted three Georgia men Travis McMichael, 35; Travis’s father, Gregory McMichael, 65; and William “Roddie” Bryan, 51, via federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia and charged them with hate crimes and the attempted kidnapping of Ahmaud Arbery.

Each were charged with one count of interference with rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping. Travis and Gregory McMichael were also charged with one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing—and in Travis’s case, discharging—a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

All three defendants have also been charged in a separate state proceeding with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony. No trial date has been set for the state case.

Counts One and Two of the new federal indictment allege that the defendants used force and threats of force with firearms to intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race.

Count One also alleges that the offense resulted in Arbery’s death. Count Two alleges that William “Roddie” Bryan joined the chase and used his truck to cut off Arbery’s route.

In addition to the hate-crime charges, Count Three alleges that all three defendants attempted to unlawfully seize and confine Arbery by chasing after him in their trucks in an attempt to restrain him, restrict his free movement, corral and detain him against his will, and prevent his escape.

Counts Four and Five allege that during the course of the crime of violence charged in Count One, Travis used, carried, brandished, and discharged a Remington shotgun, and Gregory used, carried, and brandished a .357 Magnum revolver.

The announcement was made by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela S. Karlan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Acting U.S. Attorney David Estes of the Southern District of Georgia, and Special Agent in Charge J.C. Hacker of the FBI.

This case was investigated by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tara Lyons of the Southern District of Georgia, and Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein and Special Litigation Counsel Christopher J. Perras of the Civil Rights Division.

William Walker Sworn in as 1st Black Sergeant-At-Arms for the U.S. House of Representatives

William Walker Sworn in as 1st Black Sergeant-At-Arms for the U.S. House of Representatives

By goodblacknews on April 27, 2021

Former National Guard General William Walker was sworn in as House of Representatives Sergeant-at-Arms by Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday, making him the first African-American person to hold the post.

Pelosi selected Walker for the position in March in the wake of the January 6 Capitol insurrection and the resignation of former Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving. Timothy Blodgett served as temporary Sergeant-at-Arms until Walker officially took over the position.

“His historic appointment as the first Black American to serve as Sergeant-at-Arms is an important step forward for this institution and our nation,” said Nancy Pelosi in a statement.

An officer of the House whose history extends back to the First Congress, the Sergeant-at-Arms is the chamber’s principal law enforcement official, charged with maintaining security on the floor and for the House side of the Capitol complex.

The modern Sergeant-at-Arms serves on the Capitol Police Board and the Capitol Guide Board along with the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol.

The Sergeant-at-Arms also enforces protocol and ensures decorum during floor proceedings. The Mace, which symbolizes the authority of the House, is maintained by the Office of the Sergeant at Arms. On occasion, the Sergeant-at-Arms has presented the Mace to restore order on the floor.

The Sergeant-at-Arms also is empowered to compel absent Members onto the House floor to conduct business. The office’s duties also include administrative functions: arranging Capitol funerals, managing parking facilities, and issuing identification to Members and staff.