February 21, 2018 The Skanner Page 9
News
Former FBI Director Addresses
Spying on Black Activists
‘I tried to make the FBI stare at that history,’
Comey tells Howard students
By Alexa Imani Spencer
and Kayla Irby
Howard University
News Service
PHOTO BY KAYLA IRBY, HUNS
WASHINGTON
–
Former FBI Director
James Comey, speaking
to Howard University
students,
professors
and staff, this week dis-
tanced himself from
an FBI report that said
“black identity extrem-
ists” were responsible
for “increased violence” Former FBI Director James Comey (right) and Justin Hansford,
by African-Americans executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center,
against law enforce- discussed the FBI’s role in spying on AfricanAmerican organizations
ment.
and the ongoing tension between black communities and police.
The report, entitled
community members, Jews and Cath-
“Black Extremists Likely Motivated to
Target Law Enforcement Officers,” has olics for over a century, committing
atrocities designed to induce a state
raised concern among many, including
of terror, no white supremacist
the 49-member Congressional Black
Caucus, which met with the current groups have ever been designated as
a terrorist organization.
FBI directly shortly after the report’s
Comey, the Gwendolyn S. and Col-
release last August.
bert I. King Endowed Chair in Pub-
Comey said he was not aware of it
lic Policy at Howard, was joined in a
while he was with the FBI.
discussion on law enforcement and
“The memo that generated all of the
race by Justin Hansford, executive
controversy was written after I was
director of the newly-opened Thur-
fired, so I don’t know exactly,” said Com-
good Marshall Civil Rights Center in
ey who was released May 2017 by Presi-
dent Donald Trump following Comey’s the Howard University School of Law.
Comey said his life had been affected
refusal to drop an investigation into
by issues of race when he was a student
Russian tampering in U.S. elections. “I
at College of William and Mary, the na-
never heard the term ‘black identity ex-
tion’s second oldest college. A friend-
tremists’ while I was director.”
ship with one of few Black students on
Still, Comey offered his interpreta-
campus had a major impact on his life,
tion of what the report might have been
he said. Comey said he had almost no
trying to say.
interaction with African Americans
“I think what it is, is an effort in the
early in his life.
domestic terrorism part of the coun-
“There was only one other Black fam-
terterrorism division to understand
ily that lived in my town on my street,
the threat that might be coming from
the Jacksons,” he said, “almost an en-
people who by a distorted view of their
tirely White high school. William and
own race believe they have to engage in
Mary just by accident puts me in a suite
acts of violence,” Comey said.
Ironically, the FBI’s counterterror- with another 18-year-old from inner
city Philadelphia named Greg Samson,
ism division assessment made news
who’s African American, and our lives
shortly before a 32-year-old woman
was killed and 19 others were injured couldn’t have been more different,” he
when a white supremacist rammed his said.
Comey stated that his friendship with
car into a group of counter-protesters
Samson
affected him tremendously.
in August of last year during the “Unite
“It lit a flame in me to understand dif-
the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Despite terrorizing minorities, LGBTQ
See COMEY on page 10
Rauch
cont’d from pg 6
“The opportunity to
move to New York to lead
the Perelman Center is
tremendously exciting,”
Rauch said. “I’m honored
to be able to create trans-
formative art and culti-
vate a community gath-
ering space at a site that
has such powerful emo-
tional resonance for our
country and the world.”
“Bill’s time as OSF’s ar-
tistic director has been
and will continue to be
extraordinary,” said OSF
Board President Peter
H. Koehler, Jr. “Thanks
to his talent, vision, pas-
sion and unflagging en-
ergy, OSF is now at the
center of the national
theater
conversation.
We’ve been honored
with the Festival’s first
Tony Award for Best Play
and first Pulitzer Prize,
seen numerous world
premieres go on to great
success across the coun-
try, begun a decade-long
journey through Shake-
speare’s entire canon,
and become a leader in
the field with our equity,
diversity and inclusion
efforts.”
“I so look forward to
the heights we will con-
tinue to scale in our next
18 months together,” add-
ed Koehler. “And I know
that our future after Bill
will be just as exciting,
thanks in part to his phe-
nomenal contribution to
OSF for 13 years as our
artistic director.”
OSF Executive Director
Cynthia Rider praised
Rauch for his achieve-
ments and is grateful
to continue working
together for 18 more
months. “I’m so fortunate
to have had the oppor-
tunity to partner with
Bill these last five years,”
Rider said. “He is a truly
remarkable artist, a pas-
sionate leader and one
of the kindest people you
will ever meet. His tire-
less work in producing a
record number of plays
written and directed by
women and artists of col-
or will be a huge part of
his legacy. I’m so glad we
have a year-and-a-half to
keep this collaboration
going.”
Rauch became OSF’s
fifth artistic director in
2007, after five seasons
at the Festival as a guest
director. He has directed
seven world premieres—
Off the Rails, Roe, Finger-
smith, The Great Society,
All the Way, Equivoca-
tion and By the Waters
of Babylon—and 17 other
plays. In the 2018 season,
he is directing Rodgers
and Hammerstein’s Okla-
homa! and Shakespeare’s
Othello.
Among his initiatives
at OSF, Rauch, along with
longtime
collaborator
Alison Carey, commit-
ted to commissioning 37
new plays to dramatize
moments of change in
American history. Amer-
ican Revolutions: the U.S.
History Cycle has pre-
miered nine plays at OSF
to date, many of which
have moved on to other
theaters across the coun-
try as well as Broadway,
including a Tony-win-
ning production of All
the Way that was direct-
ed by Rauch.
Read the rest of this story at
TheSkanner.com
In Loving Memory of
Willie Rutherford on his Birthday
Known as George and G.W.
Born February 22, 1941, Died August 5, 2016
Happy Birthday, Love
Wish you were here to celebrate it with your
wife and family. Your Sis and Bro wish you Happy
Birthday. We miss you so much. It’s not the same
without you. I love you.
Your Wife, Ann Rutherford