Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Obama Back to School Speech Reveals Racial Fears

While school teachers across the nation were turning on their classroom televisions so students can see the message President Obama prepared for them, others quietly went on with their lesson plans as if it was just a regular day.


This article, my fellow AP intern, Arelis Hernandez wrote for Diverse Issues in Higher Education

discusses America's reaction to Obama's education speech earlier this week.


Here's an excerpt from the article:

African-American political expert Ronald Walters says race and politics are the two issues behind the contention.

I've never seen something like this when a president wanted to speak to children and there was any kind of noticeable opposition, Walters says. With an African-American president there are going to be some firsts.

The back-to-school address had school districts around the country asking for the first time for many whether to allow students to hear their country's leader speak. In some states, like Texas, schools opted out completely from airing the speech or interrupting the school day for the live webcast.


To read the full article:
http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_13034.shtml

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Justice Dept. to Recharge Enforcement of Civil Rights

The Obama administration is planning a major revival of high-impact civil rights enforcement against policies, in areas ranging from housing to hiring, where statistics show that minorities fare disproportionately poorly. PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s appointees had discouraged such tactics, preferring to focus on individual cases in which there is evidence of intentional discrimination.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Mo. activist pushes FBI to probe hate crimes cases

By Sheila EllisJuly 13, 2009
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City man who was the driving force behind an effort to bring civil rights-era offenders to justice is preparing to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder to jump-start efforts to find criminals because “people are dying and memories are fading.”

Alvin Sykes is widely credited with the idea behind the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which authorized up to $135 million over 10 years for investigations of civil rights-era killings and established a permanent cold case unit in the Justice Department.

The law is named for the black 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was lynched for whistling at a white woman while visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955. Sykes persuaded the Justice Department to re-investigate Till’s case in 2004. No one has been convicted.

Sykes plans to meet with Holder to urge him to focus more energy on finding witnesses, victims and evidence before it’s too late. The meeting with Holder had been set for Tuesday, but the two sides are rescheduling because Holder will be traveling.

“People are dying and memories are fading,” Sykes said in an interview last week with The Associated Press. “The president of the United States and the U.S. attorney general need to step up to the plate and tell this country that we mean business and that this is not just show.”

more

Globe Reporter On Covering Gates' Arrest: 'Dobbs Caught Me Off-Guard'

Globe Reporter On Covering Gates' Arrest: 'Dobbs Caught Me Off-Guard'

The higher-education beat at The Boston Globe produces its fair share of weighty stories as the economic crisis eats away at university endowments and the specter of swine flu casts a shadow on handshake-laden commencement ceremonies. But the last thing that Tracy Jan, a higher education reporter at the Globe, expected to fall onto her beat was the explosive controversy that followed the arrest of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

read more

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Obama admits racial inequalities in the U.S.

The 100th year anniversary of the oldest Civil Rights organization was definitely a milestone for our nation. But I think the question I have have and many other young Black Americans have is now what? What is next for this organization who fought for our rights? What are the new issues plaguing minorities today and what is the NAACP's role in coming up with solutions?

Pres. Obama addressed these concerns eloquently during his address to the NAACP earlier this month.

Watch Obama's speech to the NAACP at their 100th year anniversary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW1qo1jdEVI&feature=player_embedded



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/opinion/l27naacp.html

Monday, June 1, 2009

Eventful first day of AP internship

Today is my first day as an intern for the Associated Press.

While I was sitting in church yesterday, I received a text message from the Kansas City Star stating that "Wichita doctor George Tiller was shot to death this morning."

I couldn't believe my eyes as I read the text. I understand that Dr. Tiller was hated by many anti-abortion activists because his clinic in Wichita provided late-term abortions, but why would someone think it was right to commit one sin -- murder -- to fix another sin -- murder of innocent unborn babies?

I knew that the AP office would be pretty chaotic with this type of news happening. Throughout the day I listened in as editors assigned follow-up story after follow-up story.

It was pretty interesting to be in the office as a fly on the wall to see how the AP wire news stories unfold and how they break news.

While following the news there seemed to be a few side notes that I found interesting...

1. Scott Roeder, the man accused in the shooting death of abortionist George Tiller was from Topeka and graduated from Topeka High School. Here's the Topeka Capitol-Journal story on Roeder with exclusive interviews with his family:http://http://cjonline.com/news/2009-06-01/family_shares_accused_killers_history

2. The clinic will re-open next Monday and "What people need to know is... the women's services that we provided for 30 years are not going to change," said LeRoy Carthart a Nebraska physician who has work side-by-side with Tiller. "The same abortion services will remain available in Wichita."http://www.kansas.com/news/tiller/story/835055.html

3. The Wichita Eagle's coverage was pretty good. They had up-to-the minute updates. One thing that I liked was how they asked for reader feedback in their coverage: http://www.kansas.com/news/tiller/story/835201.html