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A ugust 9, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver
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Civil Rights Journal:
J) e r 5 j> e c t i v e
“Oregonian Shakeup” Are We Training Gatekeepers?
Death Row Countdown
B ernice P owell J ackson '
C jU
magine a steam engine
'll moving steadily down
C*"
its track. Once it gets
by
rolling, it’s nearly impossible
to stop that train.
The machinery o f death row is
like that steam engine and that ma­
chinery is rolling down the track in
the case o f Mumia Abu-Jamal. The
question is whether Governor Tho­
mas Ridge and the state o f Pennsyl­
vania w ill stop the train o f death.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a respect­
ed African American journalist and
an advocate for racial and economic
justice He describes him self as a
journalist, husband, fatherand grand­
father who lives in the fastest grow­
ing public housing tract in America.
He is a man living on death row and
scheduled to be executed on August
17 for a crime he probably did not
commit -- the murder o f a Philadel­
phia police officer.
Yet death penalty machine rolls
on, impervious to the many irregu­
larities o f Abu-Jamal’s trial, to the
probable misconduct o f the Phila­
delphia police and prosecutors in his
case Irregularities such as ofthe 125
eyewitnesses who gave statements to
the police a, the scene o f the crime,
the prosecution used only two o f
them, both o f whom had previous
convictions and pending charges
against them and both o f whom iden­
tified Abu-Jamal as the shooter. Ir­
regularities such as the reports by at
least four witnesses that they had
seen the shooter run away, while
Abu-Jamal, who was also wounded
and unable to run, was found sitting
on the curb at the crime. Irregulari­
ties such as the fact that the police
department did not do ballistics tests
which could have eliminated Abu-
Jamal’s gun and hid other evidence
concerning the bullet’s trajectory and
the caliber ofthe gun used. Irregular­
ities such as the fact that while a
police officer who had been with
Abu-Jamal after the incident had
made a deposition saying Abu-Jamal
had made no statements, an alleged
confession was reported by other
officers only several months after the
shooting occurred. There are other
legal irregularities as well.
Yet, the death penalty machine
rolls on, unswayed by the fact that
Abu-Jamal had a long history o f po­
litical activity in Philadelphia, which
meant that he had been targeted by
law enforcement officials in the city
and had been under constant surveil­
lance and harassment by that c ity ’s
police department for many years.
Indeed, the judge who presided over
Abu-Jamal’s trial. Judge Albert Sabo,
is called the hanging judge because
he has sentenced more people to death
than any other judge in the United
States, all but two o f whom are peo­
ple o f color.
Yet, the death penalty machine
rolls on, uninfluenced by the factor
o f race in this case. H a lf o f those on
death row in the U.S. are people o f
color — African American men alone
make up 40 percent o f death row
prisoners although they represent less
than 6 percent o f the population. In
Pennsylvania, 61 percent o f death
row is African American. Almost all
are poor and most receive inferior
legal assistance since only about 80
ofPhiladelphia’s 8,000 lawyers both
qualify and are w illing to represent
defendants in capital cases as it takes
months or years to get paid. In addi­
tion, poor defendants do not have
access to the funds needed to do their
by
own investigations to dispute the
prosecution cases.
I t ’s no wonder that after hearing
dozens o f death penalty cases during
his years on the Supreme Court that
form er Justice H arry Blackmun
wrote, “ Even under the most sophis­
ticated death penalty statutes, race
continues to play a major role in
determining who shall live and who
shall die.” I t ’s n(>wonder that anoth­
er Supreme Court Justice, W illiam
O. Douglas, once said, “ One search­
es our chronicles in vain for the exe­
cution o f any member o f the affluent
strata o f our society.”
A11 direct appeals have now been
exhausted and Abu-Jamal’ s appeals
are before the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court. Meanwhile, the clock ticks
and the death penalty train rolls for
Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Pennsylva­
nia Supreme Court can stop the train.
Governor Ridge can stop the train.
Write him and ask him to stop the
execution o f M um ia Abu-Jamal
Write him , in the name o f justice.
Write him. (Governor Thomas Ridge,
Main Capitol Building, Room 225,
Harrisburg, PA 17120. Fax: 717-
783-1396.)
V a n t a g e P o in t: Universal African Flag Day Takes Shape
by
R on D aniels
or several years I have
j l j been prom oting the
C ? J idea that August 17, the
birthday of the Honorable
Marcus Garvey, should be
Universal African Flag Day.
Marcus Garvey was the greatest
mass leader that the Pan African
Nation has ever produced. A t a time
when only three African nations in
the w o rld , E gypt, E thiopia and
L iberia, were semi-independent,
Garvey boldly proclaimed that A fri­
can people must rise up to liberate
our homeland to create a base for
global Black P o w er-“ Europe for the
European, Asia for the Asians, A fri­
ca fo r the A frica n at home and
abroad.”
Garvey created the Universal
Negro Improvement Association and
A fric a n C o m m u n itie s League
(U N IA -A C L ) to promote his philos­
ophy o f African redemption and to
create the infrastructure for an emerg­
ing Black Nation. The UNI A held its
first International Convention o f the
Negro People’ s o f the W orld in
Harlem beginning August l, 1920.
On August 2, Marcus Garvey ad­
dressed 25,000 Africans in Madison
Square Garden. A t Garvey’ s urging,
this historic convention adopted the
Red, Black and Green Flag as the
official flag o fth e African race: Red
for “ the color o f the blood which men
must shed for their redemption and
liberty, “ Black for “ the color o f a
noble and distinguished race to which
we belong,” and Green for “ the lux­
uriant vegetation o fou r motherland.”
1995 marks the 75th anniversary o f
the Black Liberation Flag.
Last year, the idea o f Universal
African Flag Day began to take hold
as the December 12th Movement in
New York embraced the idea and
organized a series Flag Day activi­
ties on Garvey’s birthday. The Garvey
fam ily also took note o f the concept
and expressed an interest in spread­
ing the idea nationally and interna­
tionally. This year Garvey’ s sons,
Dr. JuliusGarvey and Marcus Garvey
Jr. have taken the initiative to create
a Committee to Promote Universal
African Flag Day. The Committee is
vigorously working to use the occa­
sion o f the 75th anniversary o f the
Red, Black and Green to institution­
alize the idea o f Universal African
Flag Day. A Commemorative jo u r­
nal has been prepared with articles
from prominent African scholars and
activists including: Dr. John Henrik
Clarke, Tony Martin, Molefe Asante,
Elombe Brath, Dr. JuliusGarvey and
Marcus Garvey Jr
Though the focal point for the
Un.versal Flag Day organizing is in
New York City, where Garvey estab-
lished his headquarters and devel­
oped a formidable base, the Commit­
tee is anxious for Black organiza­
tions in other cities in the U.S. and
other countries to embrace the idea
and hold Flag Day ceremonies and
other political activities. Among the
organizations which have endorse
Universal African Flag Day are: The
Universal Negro Improvement As­
sociation, The National Black U nit­
ed Front, The National M alcolm X
Commemoration Commission, The
National Coalition for Reparations
for Blacks in America, The Decem­
ber 12th Movement and Campaign
for a New Tomorrow.
On August 17, in New York, the
Universal Flag Day activities w ill
begin with a Flag Raising Ceremony
in the Africa Court in Queens Park
The Ceremony w ill be broadcast live
on the Drive Time Dialogue Show on
radio station W WRL. Other Flag rais­
ing ceremonies and Flag Day activi­
ties w ill fo llo w in Brooklyn and
Harlem. On the same day, a Flag
Raising Ceremony w ill also occur in
Jamaica, the birthplace o f Marcus
Garvey, where he is recognized as a
national hero. Hopefully, Africans
all over the U.S., Canada, the Carib­
bean and Africa w ill get busy pro-
m oting/building Universal African
Flag Day as a cultural and political
event to promote the philosophy o f
Marcus Garvey.
Garvey intended that the Red,
Black and Green serve as a unifying
symbol for African people the world
over and as an expression o f Pan
African Self-reliance, self-determi-
nation, and Nationhood. Nothing
more than the current rise to hegemo­
ny o fth e radical right, the prolifera­
tion o f racist hate groups and m ilitias
and the overt assault on the “ civil
rights” o f Africans in America dem­
onstrates the urgent need for African
people to have unifying symbols to
catalyze the Black Liberation Move­
ment. That urgency is rendered more
real this year because the racist Gov-
e m o ro f Pennsylvania, with the bless­
ing o f the racist U.S. Government,
has signed the death warrant for the
execution o f the freedom fighter
Mumia Abu Jamal. This insult is
merely indicative o f the low regard
with which Africans are held in the
U.S. and the world.
It was to correct this condition
that Marcus Garvey advocated Pan
African Nationalism and developed
an organization and the Red, Black
and Green as concrete contributions
to a Black Nation in becoming. As
we organize to stop the murder o f
Mumia Abu Jamal and prepare to
celebrate Garvey’s birthday, let the
Flag that Garvey gave to African
people, the Red, Black and Green be
in evidence everywhere like a mighty
river determined to reach its destina­
tion - freedom, self-determination,
nationhood. “ Up you mighty race,
you can accomplish what you w ill.”
For further information about
Universal African Flag Day call: 516-
759-6631.
Celebrating The 30th Anniversary Of The Voting Rights Act
D on F ow ler , C hairman of
D e m o c r a t ic N a t io n a l
C o m m it t e e __________________
by
the
August 6 marked the 30th anni­
versary o f the passage o f the historic
Voting Rights Act. But there would
be no celebration o f this anniversary
o f the tremendous accomplishments
o f the African-American community
had it not been for the man who made
it all happen: President Lyndon
Baines Johnson.
M illio n s o f Americans have
bene fitted from th is momentous m i le-
stone enacted 30 years ago, but few
realize how much President Johnson
used the power o f the presidency to
advance the cause o f c iv il rights.
After using all o f the political
resources at his disposal to ensure
that Congress passed th eC ivil Rights
Act o f 1964, and the specific provi­
sion that prohibited discrimination
in employment based on race and
sex. President Johnson still was not
satisfied.
Countless demonstrations erupt­
ed in the South to protest rigid barri­
ers imposed by local jurisdictions to
prevent blacks from voting. Many o f
the frustrations felt by African Amer­
icans at not being able to vote freely
came to a head in the march from
Selma, Ala. As the nation watched in
horror, c iv il rights marchers crossing
the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma,
were viciously attacked.
The violence inflicted on the
marchers on that historic trek to
Montgomery on March 5, 1965, was
a sight that many Americans would
never forget. Neither would Presi­
dent Johnson.
One week later a somber but
determined President Johnson spoke
before a televised jo in t session o f the
United States Congress on the civil
rights crisis facing America and his
legislative remedy for the situation.
This was a special moment in histo­
ry. I remember that night very well.
As I watched the President from my
home in Columbia, South Carolina, I
was aware o f the situation in South
Carolina for I was actively working
with leaders o f the N A A C P and the
Southern Voter Education Project.
In his rem arks, President
Johnson said: “ Many o f the issues o f
c iv il rights are very complex and
most d ifficult. But about this there
can be no argument. Every American
citizen must have an equal right to
vote.
There is no reason which can
excuse the denial o f that right. There
is no duty which weighs more heavi­
ly on us than the duty we have to
ensure that right. Wednesday I w ill
send to Congress a law designed to
eliminate illegal barriers to the right
to vote.”
The president then ended his
m oving speech by uttering a familiar
refrain: “ And we shall overcome.”
It was a d iffic u lt fight, but five
months later, President Johnson in­
vited civ il rights leaders to the White
s
House for what proved to be a signif­
icant turning point in the struggle for
equal voting rights: The signing o f
the Voting Rights B ill!
A t that ceremony, attended by
Roy W ilkins o f the NAACP, Dr.
M artin Luther King, Jr., o f SCLC,
Whitney Young o f the National U r­
ban League, and leaders o f both par­
ties, President Johnson in a moment
o f great pride, said: “ Today is a tri­
umph for freedom as huge as any
victory that has ever been won on any
battlefield.”
To emphasize that he meant
business, President Johnson an­
nounced that he had directed the U.S.
Attorney General to file lawsuits chal­
lenging the constitutionality o f the
poll tax in the states o f Mississippi,
Texas, Alabama, and Virginia. He
also ordered the Justice Department
to work all through the weekend to
designate counties in these and other
states where experience showed that
federal action was necessary.
P rof . M c K inley B i rt
s is usually the case -
- and as reported here
C j
last w eek -- the
question of "viable leader­
ship” quickly arises whenever
a cultural group feels that its
welfare has been threatened.
And in the
particular case,
an
im p lie d
threat to the
precarious eco­
nom ic s itu a ­
tio n o f P ort­
land’s African
American Community has seen last
week’s“ spiriteddiscussion” acquire
leadership” focus.
This sort o f assessment is d iffi­
cult at best in respect to the black
community for it has never recov­
ered (healed) from the traumatic
social and economic disintegration
occasioned by the “ Great Society
Urban Renewal” . It is not that often
mentioned that this is when the grand
removal’ saw the personal urban
planning and the wealth-building
dream o f black people go down the
drain (and into the coffers and bot­
tom line o f the corporate giants that
straddle the Coliseum’ area).
So it is a d iffic u lt matter, espe­
cially for the younger generation,
for some residents to understand
why others are so perturbed over a
single newspaper article ano be­
come so apprehensive that here may
not be a continuity ofeffecti ve lead­
ership. Others, who have memories
or family histories o f yesterdays
black urban planners” who built
and developed housing and busi­
ness establishments for the innercity.
In the past, I ’ ve described the pro­
cess here in detail; “ Acme Business
Club, Pullman Porters, Red Caps -
W ilbur Marshall, C liff Jackson,
Clarence Ivy, et al.”
B e late d ly, it has penetrated
the most abuse brains that there
is a reason that ‘ th e y ’ d o n ’ t per­
m it blacks to w rite the textbooks
used in Schools o f U rban P lan­
ning. E sp ecia lly im p o rta n t in
that a m eaningful analysis o f
black leadership in any c ity must
determ ine how e ffe c tiv e it is in
d ealing w ith the “ p la n n in g ’ es­
ta b lis h m e n t — h ow w e ll the
leads o f the tra d itio n a l so cial
agencies (im p u te d w ith reader-
ship q u a litie s by the e sta b lish ­
ment and d a ily m edia) u nd er­
stand or neu tra lize the tnachi-
®lje
nation o f the ty p ic a l urban plan
nin g triu m v ira te o f C ity G ov
ernm ent, the Bankers and the
Real Estate interests.
B u t, therein we fin d the
very fly in the oin tm en t, d o n ’
we? For those blacks w ho are
most know ledgeable in these
m atters are em
p lo y e e s o f th
very p u b lic sec
ßy
to r that we have
Professor described as en
Mcklnley
dangered, a clas
Burt
sic ‘ C a tc h -2 2 ’
So those “ s p irit
ed c o n v e rs a tio n s ” c e n te rin g
around a lack o f leadership o f­
ten ta p e r o f f to th o u g h tfu l
frow ns.
It was w ith great interest
that I noted the ethn oce n tric
a tte n tio n (c o m p re h e n s io n ?
paid to the w rite r ’ s race-based
econom ic niches em phasized in
that O regonian a rtic le , “ A f f i r
m ative A c tio n In P u b lic-S e cto r
Jobs M ay Dam age B la c k s ” :
“ Jews in law and teaching, Ita l
ians in tru c k in g and co n stru c­
tio n , Chinese in restaurants and
apparel, blacks in the P u blic
S ector” . A discussion o f th is
has come to the fore w herever
the a rtic le has been discussed,
“ It w ill be that way as long as
th e b a n ks and re a l e s ta te
interestests have a nyth ing to do
w ith i t ” .
1 noted w ith interest that
the occupants o f those ethno­
ce n tric econom ic niches do not
have bla cks s ittin g on th e ir
boards o f d irectors — or in any
other key a dvisory position s.
Since a num ber o f young blacks
w ere sons and daughters o f
fo rm e r students and acquain­
tances o f m ine and were aware
that part o f m y outreach con­
tracts w ith the U.S. Forest Ser­
vice required interactio n w ith
o the r m in o rity groups (re c ru it­
m ent), I was asked “ how th e ir
org an izatio ns handled o u ts id ­
ers” ” .
I was able to in fo rm them
that none o f these groups K o re ­
ans, Vietnam ese, Chinese, Jap­
anese, etc. Perm itted the k in d
o fo v e rs ig h t and d ire c tio n (c o n ­
tr o l) that blacks c h e e rfu lly en­
dured, and often so lic ite d . They
do not tra in gate keepers and
p la ntatio n managers.
To be continued
(©bseruer
(USPS 959-680)
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