December 22, 2024
Former police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty on all counts for the murder of George Floyd. This is an excellent day for justice and accountability.
Continued love and healing to George Floyd’s family, loved ones, the city of Minneapolis and the United States. May this be a true beginning and reckoning for justice in the United States.
To quote washingtonpost.com:
The structure, of unknown form, was owned by [Tubman’s] father. A timber foreman and lumberjack who had been enslaved, he had been given his freedom, the house where he lived and a piece of land near the Blackwater River by his enslaver.
Officials said bricks, datable pieces of 19th-century pottery, a button, a drawer pull, a pipe stem, old records and the location all pointed to the spot being the likely site of the Ben Ross cabin.
The find is a crucial piece of Tubman’s story, experts said. And it illuminates the role that her father, and her family, played in her development into the fearless Underground Railroad conductor that she became.
The Underground Railroad was the clandestine network of guides, like Tubman, and safe houses mostly across the eastern United States that rescued thousands of enslaved people from bondage in the South in the years before the Civil War.
Between about 1850 and 1860, using stealth and disguise, Tubman made 13 trips home, spiriting 70 people out of enslavement, historians believe. Among those she saved were several brothers and her parents, who, while no longer enslaved, were still in danger in Maryland.
Her father was a devout patriarch who taught Tubman the ways of the marshy woodlands where they lived and struggled to keep his family together within the machinery of slavery, experts said.
Once free, Ben purchased his enslaved wife, Rit, and for a time sheltered Tubman and several of her siblings, all still enslaved, in his cabin in what is now the federal Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, south of Cambridge, Md.
Kate Clifford Larson, author of the Harriet Tubman biography Bound For The Promised Land, is quoted as saying: “That landscape became her classroom. Those years she lived with her father were absolutely crucial to the development of Harriet Tubman.”
The project began last year when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought for $6 million a 2,600-acre tract adjacent to Blackwater and refuge manager Marcia Pradines heard the Ben Ross cabin might have existed in the tract. She contacted Maryland experts to see if an archaeologist wanted to investigate.
Schablitsky and her team went have been working in the area since last fall and dug over 1,000 test pits. Only recently, after scouring the area with a metal detector, did something finally turn up — a coin from 1808 — that finally lead them on the right path to the right place.
The coin was found about a quarter-mile from where the cabin would eventually be located, and last month as the team dug further, more artifacts were uncovered from the 1820s-1840s time period.
The combination of records, location and artifacts finally added up, Schablitsky said. “It’s not just one artifact that tells us we have something. It’s the assemblage. It’s the multiple pieces.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/04/20/harriet-tubman-maryland-home-found/
According to Variety.com, Kimberly Godwin, who has worked at CBS News since 2007 in multiple capacities, will be the next president of ABC News starting in May — and the first Black executive to run a broadcast-network news operation.
Godwin will oversee ABC News mainstays Good Morning America and World News Tonight, both of which are the most-watched programs in their category, as well as ABC’s The View, 20/20 and This Week. Goodwin will have also have say over the news unit’s live-streaming, audio and special programming.
https://twitter.com/NABJ/status/1382425149719384070?s=20
“Kim is an instinctive and admired executive whose unique experiences, strengths and strategic vision made her the ideal choice to lead the outstanding team at ABC News and build on their incredible success,” said Peter Rice, chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content, in a statement.
“Throughout Kim’s career in global news organizations and local newsrooms, she has distinguished herself as a fierce advocate for excellence, collaboration, inclusion and the vital role of accurate and transparent news reporting.” Godwin will report to Rice.
Godwin’s ascension to a top network news position was presaged earlier this year when Rashida Jones took over as president of MSNBC, making her the first Black executive to oversee one of the nation’s big cable-news networks.
Read more: https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/kim-godwin-abc-news-president-1234951553/
Police officer Kim Potter resigned yesterday after shooting and killing Daunte Wright, 20, at a traffic stop on Sunday, officials in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, announced. Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon also submitted his resignation, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott announced at a press conference.
As the Derek Chauvin trial over the police killing of George Floyd proceeds only 10 miles away in Minneapolis, hundreds of people showed up for a memorial protest at the police department in Brooklyn Center in spite of a 7 p.m. curfew that had been called across much of the Twin Cities area.
Protests also spread across the country Monday night after police officials in Brooklyn Center, Minn., said they believed Potter, who shot and killed Wright, had intended to use her Taser but accidentally fired her handgun instead.
Wright’s parents Katie and Aubrey Wright and their attorneys Ben Crump and Jeff Storms discuss the death of their unarmed son during a traffic stop and how they are seeking justice with ABC‘s Robin Roberts below:
Commander Tony Gruenig has been named acting police chief as the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension continues to investigate the homicide.
Mayor Elliott is asking for the attorney general to be assigned the case:
https://twitter.com/mayor_elliott/status/1382034692170514436
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officer-shot-killed-daunte-wright-resigns/story?id=77048421
On Friday, State Senator Steven Bradford (D-CA, Gardena) reintroduced a bill to the California State Legislature that would pave the way for the City of Manhattan Beach to return ownership of coveted oceanside property to the descendants of its former owners, Willa and Charles Bruce.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Bruces originally purchased the land in 1912 and ran a cafe, dance hall and lodge on the oceanfront lots to provide resort space and activities to African Americans, and the area started being called “Bruce’s Beach.”
To quote the LA Times:
But white neighbors resented the resort’s popularity. Tires were slashed. The Ku Klux Klan purportedly set fire to a mattress under the main deck and torched a Black-owned home nearby.
When harassment failed to drive the Bruce’s Beach community out of town, city officials in 1924 condemned the neighborhood and seized more than two dozen properties through eminent domain. The reason, they said, was an urgent need for a public park.
The Bruces sought $70,000 for their two beachfront properties and $50,000 in damages. They received $14,500.
For decades, the properties sat empty. The Bruce parcels were transferred to the state in 1948, then to the county in 1995. A county lifeguard center occupies the land today. As for the remaining lots, city officials eventually turned them into a park, worried that family members might sue to regain their land unless it was used for the purpose for which it had been originally taken.
Though a plaque designating the and renaming the park area as “Bruce’s Beach” was erected in 2007, this symbolic acknowledgment ]did not address the underlying issues of injustice and racism at the core of why “eminent domain” was invoked by the local government to strip the Bruce’s of their property.
In recent years there has been a grassroots effort to bring the full history of Bruce’s Beach to light as well as a push towards reparations for the Bruce family.
[Photo: Killer Mike, Andrew Young, Ryan Glover via bankgreenwood.com]
Greenwood, the digital banking platform introduced last year by co-founders activist/rapper Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Bounce TV President Ryan Glover, has raised almost $40 million in Series A funding since its website launched in October 2020, according to a joint announcement last week.
The burgeoning financial startup — named for the Black business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma that existed in the early 20th century (before the 1921 Tulsa Massacre) and earned the nickname “Black Wall Street” — received investments from Truist Bank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, PNC, Wells Fargo, Mastercard, Visa, and SoftBank, six of the seven biggest banks among others on a growing list of major financial institutions now invested in Greenwood.
https://youtu.be/xVbXaP-zHlE
“The net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family and eight times greater than that of a Latino family. This wealth gap is a curable injustice that requires collaboration,” said Greenwood Chairman Glover.
“I am elated that many of the world’s top fintech companies have invested in Greenwood and join us in this mission. The backing of six of the top seven banks and the two largest payment technology companies is a testament to the contemporary influence of the Black and Latino community. We now are even better positioned to deliver the world-class services our customers deserve.”
Greenwood delayed its planned January 2021 launch date because of overwhelming demand after more than 500,000 people signed up for an account before launch.
To learn more and join the Greenwood community and product waitlist, visit www.bankgreenwood.com.
“The past year has reminded us just how important it is to have a safe and stable place to call home. But, right now — for millions of Americans — that sense of security and peace of mind is out of reach,” Fudge said in a video statement released after she was sworn in Wednesday evening.
It has been a privilege, pleasure, and distinct honor to serve the people of Ohio’s 11th District in Congress for the last 12 years.
— Former Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (@RepMarciaFudge) March 10, 2021
Thank you for placing your trust in me. pic.twitter.com/lESLKoFW6q
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Joyce Beatty and the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus issued the following statement on Fudge’s confirmation:
“The Congressional Black Caucus congratulates former CBC Chair and our beloved sister Marcia Fudge on her historic confirmation as the 18th Secretary of HUD and the first woman to serve in that important role in forty years. Although she and her scholarly counsel will be sorely missed here in Congress, her command of the issues impacting our most vulnerable, at-risk Americans will undoubtedly have a life-altering impact on countless individuals and families,” the statement said.
“Secretary Fudge is uniquely aware of the critical importance of Housing in our constituents’ lives and to the American people. She will be an invaluable member of the Biden Administration and a fierce advocate for the American people. The CBC could not be more pleased by her successful confirmation.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/10/hud-secretary-marcia-fudge-confirmation/
According to NBC Connecticut, earlier this week the Connecticut state Senate officially passed the CROWN Act, which makes workplace discrimination against natural hairstyles illegal.
The bill, which stands for Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, passed in the State senate in a near-unanimous vote and is now on its way to Connecticut governor Ned Lamont.
The bill is the same as those that have passed in New York, California, Virginia, New Jersey, Colorado, Washington and Maryland; it protects those wearing natural or protective hairstyles from discrimination at their workplace or school and makes said discrimination illegal.
Rep. Robyn Porter of New Haven, who sponsored the bill, told NBC Connecticut that she had been told to “settle on a hairstyle” when she first joined the Senate. “Many of us are judged, reprimanded, and passed over for promotion or even fired for the way we wear our hair to work,” she said. “Conformity is often a means of survival.”
Other members were equally passionate about the bill’s passing. “Unfortunately, when you have hair that isn’t straight and when you have skin that’s Black or brown, it isn’t simply hair. It’s judgment,” said Rep. Tammy Exum of West Hartford to NBC Connecticut.
“I look at the hair of those around me and just accept it as is. It doesn’t speak to their ability, their competency, their performance, or their knowledge.”
Governor Lamont is expected to sign the bill into law, and he shared his thoughts on Twitter, writing, “This measure is critical to helping build a more equitable society, and I look forward to signing it into law in the coming days.”
The CROWN Act passed the United States House of Representatives in September 2020, and now waits for a vote in the United States Senate.
If you want to see the CROWN Act passed in your state, you can contact your representatives or sign this petition.
Vernon Jordan, a civil rights movement activist and leader, former National Urban League president and adviser to former President Bill Clinton, died yesterday evening according to CNN. He was 85. His cause of death has not yet been released.
To quote cnn.com:
Born on August 15, 1935, Jordan grew up in the segregated South and graduated from DePauw University in Indiana in 1957, the only Black student in his class.
He then studied law at Howard University and began his career fighting segregation, starting with a lawsuit against University of Georgia‘s integration policy in 1961 on the behalf of two Black students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter. Jordan accompanied the two students to the UGA admissions office that year through an angry mob of White students.
He worked as a field director for the NAACP and as a director of the Southern Regional Council for the Voter Education Project before he became president of the National Urban League. In 1980, he survived an assassination attempt on his life.
“Today, the world lost an influential figure in the fight for civil rights and American politics, Vernon Jordan. An icon to the world and a lifelong friend to the NAACP, his contribution to moving our society toward justice is unparalleled,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement Tuesday. “In 2001, Jordan received the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for a lifetime of social justice activism. His exemplary life will shine as a guiding light for all that seek truth and justice for all people.”
To read more about Jordan:
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
On Veteran’s Day in 2018, I posted the following to the Good Black News Facebook Page with the photo above:
This is Harriet Tubman in her later years. She lived into her early 90s and of course is best known for leading over 400 enslaved people to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
What is less well known is that during the Civil War she worked as a scout and spy for the Union Army, and was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war by guiding the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 slaves.
So GBN honors this Veteran on Veteran’s Day (observed), her grit, her bravery, her purpose. A true American hero who should be on our $20 already!! #patriot#americanhero #veteransday
As this nation continues to reckon with so much of its unexamined history, it is heartening to report that according to The Washington Post, Harriet Tubman has been inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame.
Additionally, the Biden administration committed in late January to speed up the process to get Tubman on the $20 bill as the Obama administration sought to do by the year 2020 (the plan was not carried out by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
This week, Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Ben Sasse (R) in a show of bipartisanship sent a letter to current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to make the case that America’s currency should reflect the diversity of the nation.
No date for the issue of the Tubman $20 has been released as of this publication. Update to come.
