TATA EXPECTED TO CARRY OUT DIVERSITY DIRECTIVE

                                      WAKE SUPT. ANTHONY TATA

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            The first line of the News and Observer’s June 20th Wake Ed Blog, the same day the Wake School Board voted 5-4 to reincorporate diversity in student assignment, said it all - Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata literally played the good soldier at today’s press conference as he didn’t criticize the school board’s call to develop a base school assignment plan.

            Indeed, even though Tata, after the Democrat-led board gave him new marching orders to scrap his floundering school choice plan, maintained that it was beginning to bare fruit after a rocky start with a “high satisfaction rate” among a majority of Wake County parents, he reluctantly conceded that he and his staff, “…work at the direction of the board.”

            More specifically, a Democratic board majority with which Tata, a conservative Tea Party sympathizer who sources say has US senatorial aspirations in a few years, has had several very public nasty fights with in the six months they’ve been in charge.

            With his heart really not into establishing a base school model with aspects of choice, and elements of stability, proximity, student achievement and diversity, will Tata drag his feet in meeting the 2013-14 school year deadline, or will the retired US Army brigadier general be the “good soldier,” and follow the directive?

            No matter what Tata’s personal feelings, some community leaders expect him too, beginning with his boss.

            “I’ve talked with Supt. Tata a little bit about this,” Wake School Board Chairman Kevin Hill told The Carolinian last week. :”I think he’s a professional. My expectation, as chairman…is as superintendent, you take our direction from the Board of Education, and whatever direction the Board of Education points Wake County in, I need you to enthusiastically and wholeheartedly work to make that happen, and he understands that, that’s his intention.”

But Chairman Hill also added a cautionary note to Tata’s “intention.”

“I’m going to take him at his word, and look to partner with him, again with the caveat that somewhere along the line, every superintendent has to make a decision if they’re comfortable with what the board is directing them to do or not,” Hill said, reminding of Tata’s predecessor in the job, Del Burns, who resigned shortly after a Republican-led majority on the board, with intentions of scrapping diversity and instituting racially segregated neighborhood schools, took over in 2010.

That board majority hired Tata, who had no classroom experience, and only 18 months of any school administration experience, to run the nation’s 16^th largest public school system.

Chairman Hill seemed to suggest that he wouldn’t be surprised if Tata, now given the change in board majority leadership, had a change of heart.

“I compare superintendents to major league baseball managers - they kind of come and go,” Hill told The Carolinian. “I respect Tony, I respect the service that he has given to our country, I like him an individual, and want to take him at his word that he will work in the best interests of the children of Wake County.”

Even Tata’s staunchest critics expressed the belief that the “good soldier,” no matter what his personal beliefs, will get the new directive done.

“It would be my thought that he understands that [in] the governance process that the board dictates what [is done]… and as an employee of the Wake County Public Schools, I’m sure he understands…the protocol of what that demand means,” said Calla Wright, president of Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African-American Children. 

Yevonne Brannon, chair of Great Schools in Wake Coalition - a frequent adversary of Supt. Tata and his school choice plan - agrees that it is his job to now come up with a workable base assignment plan that connects student addresses to particular schools.

That’s Tata’s job, but she’s not so sure he’s going to do it!

“I don’t know, because I don’t know Mr. Tata,” Brannon told The Carolinian. “He seems to be more interested in following his own beliefs, his own interests. His personal will seems to be stronger than listening to the board’s will. So I’m not so sure that he’s good at following direction and following orders. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know him personally.”

But Brannon added, “ I would say, I hope so. I hope that he has taken an oath as superintendent that serves the best interests of the Board of Education…and I hope he will do what he can to make [WCPSS] successful.”

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NC DEMOCRATIC PARTY ADOPTS RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE WILMINGTON TEN PARDONS

NC DEMOCRATIC PARTY ADOPTS RESOLUTION SUPPORTING

PARDONS FOR THE WILMINGTON TEN

By Cash Michaels

            Among the seventy-seven resolutions adopted at the NC Democratic Party State Convention last weekend in Raleigh was one calling for Governor Beverly Perdue to grant pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten.

            This resolution is the first for any political party, and comes on the heels of the national NAACP Board of Directors, which unanimously adopted a similar resolution on May 19 support pardons for the ten civil rights activists who were falsely charged and convicted with conspiracy forty years ago in connection to racial violence in Wilmington.

            It also comes just over a week before the “Faith Community Rally Supporting the Wilmington Ten,” scheduled for Tuesday, June 26^th, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Stephen A.M.E. Church, 501 Red Cross Street in Wilmington.

            The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the NC NAACP, is the featured keynote speaker.

            Under the title of  “Civil Rights,” the 43^rd resolution adopted June 16^th by the NC Democratic Party Convention reads:

            WHEREAS, a group of ten civil rights activists were charged with inciting the violent Wilmington race riots in 1971; and WHEREAS, the racist organizations, the Ku Klux Klan and the Rights of White People, were the primary perpetrators of the violence during the race riots; and

         WHEREAS, the Wilmington Ten case is one of the most glaring travesties of justice in North Carolina history; and WHEREAS, the Wilmington Ten were convicted as the result of a highly controversial trial held in Burgaw, North Carolina; and

         WHEREAS, the State produced three eyewitnesses at the trial who testified to the guilt of the Wilmington Ten; and WHEREAS, two of the State’s witnesses were coerced and coached into presenting perjured testimony at secret meetings held at the private residence of the Grand Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan; and

         WHEREAS, the prosecuting attorney bribed State’s witnesses to coerce perjured testimony; and WHEREAS, the Trial Judge prevented certain crucial facts from being placed before the jury; and WHEREAS, Amnesty International declared the Wilmington Ten to be political prisoners in 1978; and WHEREAS, all three State’s witnesses recanted their testimonies; and

         WHEREAS, the Wilmington Ten served considerable time in prison; and WHEREAS, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of the Wilmington Ten citing “prosecutorial misconduct;” and WHEREAS, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals discovered that the misconduct of the prosecutor was aided and abetted by the Trial Judge; and

         WHEREAS, the impact of prosecutorial misconduct aided by the miscreant Trial Judge resulted in wrongful convictions for the Wilmington Ten; and WHEREAS, distinguished civil rights attorneys have filed a petition for pardon for the Wilmington Ten; and

WHEREAS, the Wilmington Ten have presented their petition for pardon to Governor Beverly Perdue; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we, the North Carolina Democratic Party, call upon Governor Beverly Perdue to grant pardons for the Wilmington 10 in advance of the 40th anniversary of the original conviction in September 2012.

In a statement, the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project thanks the NC Democratic Party for its support.

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NC NAACP PRES. REV. WILLIAM BARBER SUPPORTS THE WILMINGTON TEN

EXCLUSIVE

RALLY FOR THE WILMINGTON TEN PARDON EFFORT JUNE 26

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            Rev. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP, will be the keynote speaker during a faith community rally in support of the Wilmington Ten pardons of innocence effort, scheduled for Tuesday, June 26^th, 7 until 8:30 p.m. at Gregory Congregational United Church of Christ at 609 Nun Street in Wilmington.

            The event, still being planned at presstime, is a joint effort of the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Pardon Project, the New Hanover County NAACP chapter, the Local Advisory Committee of the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project, and the NC NAACP.

            Rev. Barber, along with attorney Al McSurely of Chapel Hill, and national NAACP Board member Carolyn Q. Coleman of Greensboro, was instrumental is securing a May 19^th unanimous resolution from the national NAACP Board of Directors in support of a petition for ten individual pardons of actual innocence for the Wilmington Ten that was filed with Governor Beverly Perdue’s office last month.

            Letters of support have already come in from three North Carolina congresspeople, several members of the NC General Assembly, and others.

            An online petition at Change.Org has already netted over 350 signatures from as far away as Canada.

            During the June 26^th event, beyond Rev. Barber’s keynote, there will be gospel singing, and remarks from members of the Wilmington Ten, their families and supporters.

            Gregory Congregational UCC is historically significant because is was the only black church in Wilmington in 1971 that would allow demonstrating black students who were protesting racial bias in the New Hanover County Public Schools to meet, and coordinate their protest efforts during the height of racial tensions there.

            Authorities would later allege that after a white-owned grocery store down the block had been firebombed, snipers from the roof of Gregory Church fired upon firefighters. In 1972, several of the black students, a white female community worker, and their leader, UCC minister Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis, were arrested and charged with conspiracy in connection to the firebombing.

            When they went to trial forty years ago, they became know as the Wilmington Ten. They were falsely convicted, and sentenced to a total of 282 years in prison. Individually, they served between four and six years in prison before an early release by then Gov. Jim Hunt.

 These convictions and sentencing sparked national protests and gained international attention and condemnation. In 1977, the three State’s witnesses, who testified against the Ten, recanted their testimonies in court. The CBS News’ program “60 Minutes” then exposed the State’s evidence as “fabricated” by prosecutors, and in 1980, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions based upon that Court’s independent determinations that the Prosecutor and the Trial Judge allowed the introduction of perjured testimony and with-held critical evidence which defense attorneys were entitled to receive.

For the past forty years, the Wilmington Ten have had to live with a cloud over their heads. The state of North Carolina has never declared them innocent.

For more information about the Wilmington ten case, go to https://www.change.org/petitions/nc-governor-bev-perdue-pardon-the-wilmington-ten.

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EXCLUSIVE

RALLY FOR THE WILMINGTON TEN PARDON EFFORT JUNE 26

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            Rev. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP, will be the keynote speaker during a faith community rally in support of the Wilmington Ten pardons of innocence effort, scheduled for Tuesday, June 26^th, 7 until 8:30 p.m. at Gregory Congregational United Church of Christ at 609 Nun Street in Wilmington.

            The event, still being planned at presstime, is a joint effort of the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Pardon Project, the New Hanover County NAACP chapter, the Local Advisory Committee of the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project, and the NC NAACP.

            Rev. Barber, along with attorney Al McSurely of Chapel Hill, and national NAACP Board member Carolyn Q. Coleman of Greensboro, was instrumental is securing a May 19^th unanimous resolution from the national NAACP Board of Directors in support of a petition for ten individual pardons of actual innocence for the Wilmington Ten that was filed with Governor Beverly Perdue’s office last month.

            Letters of support have already come in from three North Carolina congresspeople, several members of the NC General Assembly, and others.

            An online petition at Change.Org has already netted over 350 signatures from as far away as Canada.

            During the June 26^th event, beyond Rev. Barber’s keynote, there will be gospel singing, and remarks from members of the Wilmington Ten, their families and supporters.

            Gregory Congregational UCC is historically significant because is was the only black church in Wilmington in 1971 that would allow demonstrating black students who were protesting racial bias in the New Hanover County Public Schools to meet, and coordinate their protest efforts during the height of racial tensions there.

            Authorities would later allege that after a white-owned grocery store down the block had been firebombed, snipers from the roof of Gregory Church fired upon firefighters. In 1972, several of the black students, a white female community worker, and their leader, UCC minister Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis, were arrested and charged with conspiracy in connection to the firebombing.

            When they went to trial forty years ago, they became know as the Wilmington Ten. They were falsely convicted, and sentenced to a total of 282 years in prison. Individually, they served between four and six years in prison before an early release by then Gov. Jim Hunt.

 These convictions and sentencing sparked national protests and gained international attention and condemnation. In 1977, the three State’s witnesses, who testified against the Ten, recanted their testimonies in court. The CBS News’ program “60 Minutes” then exposed the State’s evidence as “fabricated” by prosecutors, and in 1980, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions based upon that Court’s independent determinations that the Prosecutor and the Trial Judge allowed the introduction of perjured testimony and with-held critical evidence which defense attorneys were entitled to receive.

For the past forty years, the Wilmington Ten have had to live with a cloud over their heads. The state of North Carolina has never declared them innocent.

For more information about the Wilmington ten case, go tohttps://www.change.org/petitions/nc-governor-bev-perdue-pardon-the-wilmington-ten.

                                    -30-

            

THE DEATH OF BLACK MUSIC

 CASH IN THE APPLE

By Cash Michaels

            BLACK MUSIC MONTH - If you want to know what’s popular in music now, just drive around with your nine-year-old daughter one day, listening to the radio.

            Lots of pop hits featuring artists, quite frankly, who can’t sing.

            But they’re selling CDs.

            One thing to take note of, however...the days of the great black singers are over.

            Gone are the Michael Jacksons, the Luther Vandrosses and the Whitney Houstons.

            And the once great singers that are still around are too old to make new records.

            So exactly where is today’s great black music coming from?

            That’s easy…THERE ISN’T ANY!

            Let’s be serious, who can you name from today’s generation of black singers who can hold a candle to treasured artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye? Are there any James Browns or Smokey Robinsons out there? What happened to the great girl groups? The LaBelles, Supremes and Three Degrees.

            There’s one thing our generation could count on during the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, and that’s that we knew that each musical generation was creating more great artists, just by example.

            So when an Alicia Keyes or India Ari give all praise and honor to the masters like Stevie and Smokey, it’s because as children, they listened to the greats with amazement, and were inspired to learn their crafts.

            Today, what is there to learn from? There is very little, if any artistry out there for young people to emulate.

            It’s sad.

            It is also sad that the songs today are pure crap, undeniable garbage. There is no great songwriting. There aren’t any great, meaningful lyrics anymore.

            What passes for black music today is trashy rap. There is no advancement of the black music culture.

            What’s more, the formula for making good black songs seems to be exploited by folks like Disney and Nickelodeon, who are making a fortune creating teeny bopper TV shows with songs that easily could have passed for black pop 30 years ago.

            And what is really funny (but sad) is listening to some of the new music on pop radio, and realizing that it really is old 80’s disco in terms of composition and beat. The proof is when the station decides to go “old school,” playing a song twenty or thirty years old.

            You really can’t tell the difference.

            That’s bad. That means that old music is definitely being recycled for today’s audiences.

            I bring all of this up because this is supposed to be Black Music month. June is supposed to be the time when we celebrate the rich history of black music, and take time to remember, if not discover, if not rediscover, the greats like Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington and Count Basie.

            We should be sharing REAL music with our children. We should breaking out the old Motown tunes by the Temptations and Tammie Terrell.

            We should be insisting that our children memorize Aretha’s, “To be Young, Gifted and Black” as an anthem of cultural and educational excellence.

            And we should remind ourselves that the reason why the world embraces black gospel, funk, soul, pop, classic rap and of course jazz, is because they are all music of love. Some of the greatest black songs were written and produced by extraordinarily gifted white songwriters and producers like Carole King (who wrote Aretha’s classic “Natural Woman”) and the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David (who penned many of Dionne Warwick’s greatest hits like “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” and “There is Always Something There to Remind Me?”)

            Instead, we’re allowing our music to die on the vine.

            So I don’t know what we’re going to do this Black Music month. We’re losing one of our greatest resources, and doing little to save it.

            Trust me, when our children hear and see our vintage music, it is like opening a whole new world to them.

            I know. I spent time on YouTube with my youngest daughter, watching old video clips of Gladys Knight and the Pips, Diana Ross, Wilson Pickett and others. It was pure delight watching her get into the classics.

            That is the timeless, boundless power of black music.

            Let’s do all we can to preserve it, shall we?