Virginia Military Institute Votes to Remove Confederate General Stonewall Jackson Statue from Campus
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[Daniella Frazier; photo courtesy pen.org]
The literary and free expression organization PEN America announced today that Darnella Frazier, the quick-thinking and courageous young woman who filmed the murder of George Floyd, will receive the 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award. PEN America will bestow the award on the 17-year-old Frazier at its virtual gala celebration on December 8.
“With nothing more than a cell phone and sheer guts, Darnella changed the course of history in this country, sparking a bold movement demanding an end to systemic anti-Black racism and violence at the hands of police,” said PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All.
“With remarkable steadiness, Darnella carried out the expressive act of bearing witness, and allowing hundreds of millions around the world to see what she saw. Without Darnella’s presence of mind and readiness to risk her own safety and wellbeing, we may never have known the truth about George Floyd’s murder. We are proud to recognize her exceptional courage with this award.”
Frazier documented the death of the 46-year-old Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, one of whom—Derek Chauvin—pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck, well after Floyd lost consciousness. Frazier’s video quickly spread across social media and led to a wave of community outrage, a major investigation, and Chauvin’s arrest, as well as the dismissal of the three other officers.
Floyd’s killing, along with the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson, and others, drove a wave of activism across the country crying out for racial and economic justice.
Frazier will receive the award at the 2020 PEN America Gala, this year being held virtually on December 8 and, for the first time, combining the annual Los Angeles and New York Galas, streamed to supporters around the world. The all-virtual gala will include special guests, performances, readings, and the presentation of multiple PEN America honors.
According to the Associated Press, Juneteenth has officially become a state holiday in Virginia after lawmakers unanimously approved legislation during the Virginia General Assembly special session.
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation and the abolition of slavery reached Texas via a Union Army general Gordon Granger, setting off celebrations among the newly freed.
Governor Ralph Northam proposed making Juneteenth a state holiday in June during a press conference that included musician and Virginia native Pharrell Williams, and issued an executive order that gave executive branch employees and state colleges the day off. Northam signed the statewide legislation on Oct. 13.
https://twitter.com/WTOP/status/1318492155321536512
[Me Too Founder Tarana Burke photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images]
The Me Too Movement against sexual violence and sexual harassment gained widespread attention three years ago. In 2020, the movements against racial violence, police brutality and the ongoing struggle with the coronavirus pandemic have also emerged as dominating issues of our times.
According to the Huffington Post, Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too Movement and a longtime activist, knows people are outraged ― and overwhelmed. So Burke and the Me Too organization, in collaboration with creative data marketing agency FCB/SIX, are launching a new digital platform called “Me Too Act Too” that allows activists, experienced and new, to educate themselves and get involved.
To quote from Huff Post:
“I think one of the mistakes that we make on the movement side is that there’s so much judgment around what it means to be an activist or what it means to be active. And if you’re not doing it a certain way, then you’re not really contributing. And that’s not true,” Burke told HuffPost.
Me Too Act Too is a crowd-sourced digital platform that gives “survivors, advocates and allies tools to work toward a world free of sexual violence,” according to the organization. The website is meant to be an accessible tool for people who may not see themselves as career activists or who do not have the ability to devote a large amount of time to this work.
[Justice Martin Jenkins. Photo Credit: Jason Doiy / ALM]
According to latimes.com, California Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed Martin Jenkins to the State Supreme Court.
Currently serving as Newsom’s Judicial Appointments secretary, Jenkins, 66 would become the first openly gay man on the California Supreme Court, and only the third Black man ever to serve on the state’s highest court.
To quote the Los Angeles Times:
“Justice Jenkins is widely respected among lawyers and jurists, active in his Oakland community and his faith, and is a decent man to his core,” Newsom said in a statement. “As a critical member of my senior leadership team, I’ve seen firsthand that Justice Jenkins possesses brilliance and humility in equal measure. The people of California could not ask for a better jurist or kinder person to take on this important responsibility.”
Jenkins was leading the search to fill a vacancy on the court left by the Aug. 31 retirement of Justice Ming W. Chin, a Republican appointee who was the court’s most conservative member.
Jenkins is viewed as generally less liberal than the four justices Brown appointed to the court. From Alameda County prosecutor, to federal judge to the San Francisco-based Court of Appeals, Jenkins did not publicly discuss his sexual orientation.
After his confirmation, the court will have two Black justices, two Asian Americans, one Latino, one white woman and one white man.
“I am truly humbled and honored to be asked by the governor to continue serving the people of California on the Supreme Court,” Jenkins said in a statement. “If confirmed, I will serve with the highest ethical standards that have guided me throughout my career, informed by the law and what I understand to be fair and just.”
A San Francisco native, Jenkins earned his undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University and at one point had a contract to play NFL football for the Seattle Seahawks, but chose instead to become an attorney and got his Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
To read more, click here.
[Photo: Reparations bill author and CA Assembly member Shirley Weber (D-San Diego)]
According to latimes.com, California Governor Gavin Newsom today signed Assembly Bill 3121, which makes the Golden State the first in the U.S. to formally adopt a law to study and develop proposals for potential reparations to descendants of enslaved people and those impacted by slavery.
Newsom said the new law, authored by CA Assembly member Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), and the bipartisan support for its passage are proving “a paradigm that we hope will be resonant all across the United States.”
To quote the Los Angeles Times:
In a year of national protests against racial injustice, state lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 3121 to force the state to begin to confront its racist history and systemic disparities that persist today.
Although California entered the Union as a “free state” in 1850, slavery continued there after the state Constitution outlawed it the previous year. Slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865.
The new law creates a task force to recommend appropriate remedies to the state Legislature and determine who should be eligible to receive compensation, which advocates hope will become a model in a country where movements to make amends for centuries of slavery have failed to gain traction at the federal level.
“California has come to terms with many of its issues, but it has yet to come to terms with its role in slavery,” said Weber. “We’re talking about really addressing the issues of justice and fairness in this country that we have to address.”
According to thehill.com, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) will take over as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee‘s subcommittee on cybersecurity, infrastructure protection and innovation.
Underwood, who serves as vice chair of the full Homeland Security panel, will take over the subcommittee chair position from Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.). Richmond in turn is taking a position on the House Ways and Means Committee, to fill the seat previously held by the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Author and award-winning journalist Farai Chideya has created and will host Our Body Politic, a weekly podcast debuting this weekend that is “unapologetically centered on reporting not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those issues.”
Our Body Politic will focus on women of color as a super-demographic in American politics and ask how we can save and improve our own lives and that of our nation. Episodes will feature in-depth conversations about the economy, healthcare, politics, the environment and education every Friday. To listen to the trailer below:
The podcast will be available through a host of sponsor stations including KCRW, KPCC, KQED and WITF among others. You can also subscribe by clicking here.
For anyone who want to call in with questions or to tell the show what’s on your mind, you can leave a message at the number Chideya is posting on Twitter: 929-353-7006.
San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed, in partnership with Expecting Justice, announced this week the launch of the Abundant Birth Project, a pilot program that provides targeted basic income to women during pregnancy and after giving birth.
The pilot will provide an unconditional monthly income supplement of $1,000 to approximately 150 Black and Pacific Islander women in San Francisco for the duration of their pregnancy and for the first six months of their baby’s life, with a goal of eventually providing a supplement for up to two years post-pregnancy.
Expecting Justice, a collective impact initiative led by Dr. Zea Malawa at the San Francisco Department of Public Health and supported by the Hellman Foundation and the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative, will study the resulting health impacts of the pilot program, which is the first of its kind in the United States.
The Abundant Birth Project is a simple, yet novel, approach to achieving better maternal health and birthing outcomes: provide pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women a monthly income supplement for the duration of their pregnancy and during the postpartum period as an economic and reproductive health intervention.
Prematurity is a leading cause of infant mortality and has been linked to lifelong conditions, such as behavioral development issues, learning difficulties, and chronic disease. In San Francisco, Black infants are almost twice as likely to be born prematurely compared with White infants (13.8% versus 7.3%, from 2012-2016) and Pacific Islander infants have the second-highest preterm birth rate (10.4%).
Furthermore, Black families account for half of the maternal deaths and over 15% of infant deaths, despite representing only 4% of all births. Pacific Islander families face similar disparities.
Yesterday, city workers in Charlottesville, VA brought down a Confederate statue near the site of a violent white nationalist rally three years ago, where dozens were injured and one woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a self-avowed white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the rally.
The removal of the bronze figure of a Confederate soldier known as “At Ready,” is what is being seen in Charlottesville as a milestone in eliminating oppressive symbols of the Civil War from public properties shared by all taxpayers.
According to the Washington Post, Albemarle County supervisors voted earlier this summer to take down “At Ready,” even though the statue was not the focal point of the 2017 rally, but a block away from the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups said they were defending in the clash.