COLEMAN BLASTED FOR SCHOOL BOARD SUPPORT

By Cash Michaels

editor           

            Editor’s note - In recent months, members of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association have raised serious questions about the direction of the esteemed civic organization, and the leadership of its president.
            In last week’s Part 1 of The Carolinian’s examination, we look at those questions, including if the RWCA is being crippled as an effective community organ for progress.
              In this week's Part 2, we focus on Pres. Danny Coleman's close relationship with the Republican-led Wake School Board, and why many RWCA members consider it a problem.

When the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association (RWCA) celebrated its 75^th anniversary four years ago, members were brimming with pride, excitement and anticipation. The legacy of the powerful civic and political predominately-black organization, harkening back to 1932 when it was originally founded as the Negro Citizens Committee, was one of accomplishment and vision.

            Members, including then-RWCA Pres. Daniel Coleman, envisioned the work continuing beyond political endorsements into education, health care and economic development.

            "Until the day when we look at the population and don't see subsets, the role of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association will continue, Coleman was quoted as saying.

            Fast-forward to today, however, and several RWCA members say they envision something very different.

            Many of them tell The Carolinian they want their president out, and they want to vote him out now. But Coleman, they say, hasn’t held an RWCA meeting in over three months because he knows a significant portion of the membership will try to make the move when he does.

            As reported last week, The Carolinian asked Pres. Coleman for an interview to balance the record, and even offered to submit written questions in advance. Coleman declined, choosing instead to submit an off-topic letter touting his leadership.

            Members who’ve spoken to The Carolinian over the past several months not only point to allegations of irregularities with the organization’s finances and leadership structure, but also accuse Coleman of using the prestige of the RWCA to further his own political agenda.

            They also allege that Coleman is misrepresenting the RWCA position on several issues.

For instance, despite his strong backing of President Barack Obama, Coleman turned many a head in the African-American community on April 15, 2010 when he spoke at a right-wing anti-Obama Tea Party rally in Raleigh, and said that Americans should, “pay [for] your own healthcare,” a clear stab at the president’s health care policy.

But it’s been the GOP-led Wake School Board’s neighborhood schools policy, which the RWCA opposes, that has caused the most tension between Coleman and his membership.

Since the Republican-led majority took over the Wake School Board in 2009, Coleman has been vocal, and at times, even forceful in his denunciation of the old student socioeconomic diversity policy that for the past ten years had delivered stellar achievement grades overall, and with it, national attention for the school system.

"We have to ask ourselves where is the benefit of an assignment policy based on economic diversity when the end result produces the worst scores in the system?" he wrote in a Sept. 2010 email to RWCA members. Coleman was referencing how black students, particularly those being bused from Southeast Raleigh to outlying schools in the county to prevent the occurrence of inner city high poverty schools, were not performing academically as well as their white counterparts bused into magnet schools in Southeast Raleigh.

Wake’s black and Hispanic students actually were doing very well on state end-of-grade tests from 2000-2005, before growth distracted school officials thereafter, and that academic progress plummeted. Republican school board candidates seized on that to win the majority in 2009, even though there has been significant incremental progress independent of their elections that they refuse to acknowledge

In a Sept. 2010 N&O letter to the editor, a defensive Coleman, siding with the Republicans, strengthened his call for neighborhood schools, even though he knew it was directly contrary to the majority will of the RWCA membership.

 “How do you handle the data when it shows that the child from Southeast Raleigh, whether educated there or in the county at large, scores at the bottom of the charts?,” he wrote. “How do we examine this without being called re-segregationist or Uncle Toms?”

Attorney Irving Joyner, head of the NCNAACP’s Legal Redress Committee, didn’t waste time setting Coleman straight.

“It is clear that he misapprehends the distinctions associated between disparity in academic achievement for minority students and the need for diversity in assignments,” Joyner wrote in a letter to News & Observer education reporter T. Keung Hui.

“It is shocking that Dan Coleman is so out-of-touch with the thoughts and feelings of the African American community and the academic needs of our students,” said Calla Wright, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African-American Children, in a Sept 3^rd press release.

“Anyone familiar with the decades of national research knows that student achievement falls as a school’s poverty level rises. Yet in essence, Mr. Coleman is making the claim that resegregating our schools will improve student achievement. No reasonable person believes that segregation is good for academic achievement—or for anything else.”

             Wright concluded, “Mr. Coleman and others who share his views simply wish to condemn our most vulnerable children to a second-class education.”

            And even Coleman’s longtime friends, like Raleigh businessman Bruce Lightner - who once made a motion at a September 2010 RWCA meeting for a vote of no confidence in Pres. Coleman, have had to read the riot act to him.

            “…[B] e forewarned, it is now a matter of public record that you have been secretly meeting with Wake County Republican officials, even found it politically expedient to speak at a recent Raleigh Tea Party Rally and are perceived to have become the black community's confidant to [Wake School Board Chairman] Ron Margiotta and John Tedesco,” Lightner continued.  “If this is how you want to roll ... more power to you. But as I hope you would expect ... I would be the first to call your hand if you try to chump off this community.”

When the NCNAACP made national headlines last July by marching in downtown Raleigh for student diversity, and then having four prominent members, including NCNAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber, arrested and taken to jail, unlike other black Raleigh leaders, Coleman was far from sympathetic.

“Begging white people to send their children into the inner city, offering them more than we offer those we send out only re-enforces the 3/5's doctrine, the manifest destiny and white man's burden concepts that memorializes the blacks are not equal to whites,” Coleman wrote in an email then, furthering his crusade against the magnet schools program.

Coleman may have his staunchest critics in the African-American community, but in the broader community and Republican circles, he’s lauded for standing alone.

“I applaud Dan Coleman, president of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, for his courageous criticism of the Wake County socioeconomic diversity policy,” wrote Paul Kretzschmar of Raleigh in a Sept. 2010 letter to the editor of the News & Observer. “He knows he will be criticized by the Wake diversity leadership.”

Conservative blogs have also heralded Coleman’s singular stand against student diversity.

Last March in an email to RWCA members announcing the cancellation of the first of three subsequent meetings, Coleman wrote, “ I have enjoyed my two terms that may or may not be the constitutional limit of my service, and feel the RWCA has made great strides in representing the broader community’s interests.”

Members tell The Carolinian, however, that the interests of the African-American community is why they joined, and with crucial local school board elections coming this fall, what they need is clear, decisive leadership now so that RWCA can properly fulfill it role.

With Coleman canceling the last three meetings, they say, it may be too late.

For his part, Coleman has informed his members that any new election of officers won’t be held until this November. Because the first Nominating Committee chair, Michael Leach, refused to share his panel’s list of recommendations with the president last April (Coleman was not re-nominated for president on that slate) because he insisted that it be presented to the body first, Coleman appointed a new Nominating Committee chair to start the process again.

That has created more controversy. Though there is now a second report, the new Nominating Committee chair hadn’t been able to attend regular meetings in months before the cancellations, understandably because of family obligations, raising more questions.

Several RWCA members tell The Carolinian that they fully expect there to be a meeting June 16^th, the third Thursday of the month as is custom. According to the RWCA Constitution, ten members present constitutes a meeting, and they say they will come, even if Coleman sends out a last minute notice of cancellation.

If it happens, it would be the first RWCA meeting held in over 90 days.

But what they can accomplish is not clear. The RWCA Constitution doesn’t provide a specific chapter and verse which allows for the immediate removal of any sitting RWCA officer, which some say would be embarrassing if one were ever criminally charged.

The agenda of that meeting, per a May 16^th email from Coleman to membership, is “to be dedicated to the new WCPSS Assignment plan.” But expect there to be a battle over which report from which Nominating Committee should be ultimately heard, even though Coleman has said he wants it tabled until November.

With word that Coleman has started his own political action committee apart from RWCA’s M-PAC, through which he can endorse the candidates he chooses, and tensions high about his continued support for the Republicans on the Wake Public School Board, expect another rousing RWCA meeting like the one last September when Wake School Board member John Tedesco spoke, member say.

That is, if there is one.

            -30-

NC HOUSE HONORS RALPH CAMPBELL JR.

A HOUSE RESOLUTION HONORING THE LIFE AND MEMORY OF RALPH CAMPBELL, JR., FORMER STATE AUDITOR.

            Editor’s note - On Wednesday, June 8, 2011, the North Carolina House took time to honor the memory of Ralph Campbell Jr., the first African-American to serve as NC state auditor, and to serve on the NC Council of State.

            Sponsored by House representatives H.M. “Mickey” Michaux, Jr., Deborah Ross, Jennifer Weiss and Grier Martin, the resolution as read on the NC House floor read as follows…

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was born on December 7, 1946, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Ralph Campbell, Sr., and June Kay Campbell; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., graduated from J. W. Ligon High School in 1964, earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from St. Augustine's College in 1968, and furthered his education by attending the graduate program in business at North Carolina Central University; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., served as an SP-4 in the Field Artillery Unit of the United States Army Reserves from 1971 to 1977; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., served as a Field Auditor for the North Carolina Department of Revenue from 1977 to 1986, as a Plan Auditor for the State Health Benefits Office from 1986 to 1990, and as an Administrative Officer for the North Carolina Department of Insurance from 1990 to 1992; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was elected to the Raleigh City Council in 1985, reelected to three additional terms in 1987, 1989, 1991, and served as Mayor Pro Tem from 1989 to 1991; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was elected as State Auditor in 1992, becoming the first African-American to be elected to a statewide executive office in North Carolina; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was reelected State Auditor for two additional terms in 1996 and 2000; and

            Whereas, during his tenure as State Auditor, Ralph Campbell, Jr., helped upgrade technology in the State Auditor's Office and completed more than 3,600 audits of various State departments and agencies; and

            Whereas, in 2005, Ralph Campbell, Jr., founded R. Campbell and Associates, a firm that specialized in auditing, information systems, and consulting services, and served as the firm's CEO and President; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., later worked with the Government Accounting Office in Washington, D.C.; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., served as a member of several professional organizations, including the National State Auditors Association, as president; the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers; Southeastern Inter-Governmental Audit Forum, as chair; Association of Certified Fraud Examiners; National Forum for Black Public Administrators; the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council; and the Electronic Benefits Transfer Council's Fraud and Audit Committee, as chair; and Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., rendered distinguished service to many State boards and commissions, including the North Carolina Information Resource Management Commission, serving as chair; the North Carolina Local Government Commission; the North Carolina Capital Planning Commission; the North Carolina Educational Facilities Finance Agency Board; the Public School Administrators Task Force; and Local Government Partnership Council; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was devoted to his community, serving on the Downtown Raleigh Alliance; the St. Augustine's College Board of Trustees; the Shaw Divinity School Board of Trustees; the North Carolina Black Elected Municipal Officials, as Treasurer; the Triangle J Council of Governments, World Class Region; the Raleigh United Negro College Fund, as co-chair; the North Carolina Black Leadership Caucus, as treasurer; the National League of Cities Human Development Steering Committee; the Wake County Education Foundation; the Wake United Way; and the Occoneechee Council of the Boy Scouts of America; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was active in several fraternal organizations, including Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Widow's Son Lodge No. 4, and Kabala Temple No. 177; and

Whereas, as a result of his commitment to his community and public service, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was honored with several awards and distinctions, including an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Livingstone College in 2003, the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association's Award for Public Leadership in Technology in 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Auditor General's Integrity Award in 1995, an Honorary Doctor of Christian Letters from Shaw University Divinity School in 1991, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Augustine's College in 1990, the State of North Carolina's Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 1985, and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity's Omega Man of the Year in 1984; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., was a member of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., died on January 11, 2011, at the age of 64; and

            Whereas, Ralph Campbell, Jr., leaves to mourn his loss two brothers, Bill Campbell and Edwin Campbell; a sister, Mildred Campbell Christmas; and five nieces and nephews; Now, therefore, Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

            SECTION 1. The House of Representatives honors the memory of Ralph Campbell, Jr., and expresses the deep gratitude and appreciation of this State and its citizens for his life and service to North Carolina.

            SECTION 2. The House of Representatives extends its deepest sympathy to the family of Ralph Campbell, Jr., for the loss of a beloved family member.

            SECTION 3. The Principal Clerk shall transmit a certified copy of this resolution to the family of Ralph Campbell, Jr.

         SECTION 4. This resolution is effective upon adoption.

                                                            -30-

RWCA MEMBERS QUESTION PRESIDENT'S LEADERSHIP

Coleman's Backing of Board's Neighborhood Schools Policy Just One of Many Concerns 

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            Editor’s note - In recent months, members of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association have raised serious questions about the direction of the esteemed civic organization, and the leadership of its president. In this week’s Part 1 of The Carolinian’s examination, we look at those questions, including if the RWCA is being crippled as an effective community organ for progress.

            To hear Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association President Daniel Coleman tell it, he has “…boldly taken the first steps in leading the organization to new levels of awareness and involvement in the civic, economic and political arenas.”

            “The president, past and present, has always executed the duties of his office with diligence, honor and integrity,” Coleman wrote in a published letter to the editor of The Carolinian newspaper last week, though he mistakenly dated his missive “March 25, 2011.”

            “Our organization has moved forward over the last five years under the leadership of our current president,” Pres. Coleman, referring to himself, later continued, “and has embraced change.”

            To several of the RWCA’s veteran members, however, Coleman’s “change” is not only misrepresenting the proud 79-year-old Southeast Raleigh community group, but holding it hostage to his personal and political agenda.

            They point to Section III of the organization’s constitution which states, “All power herein granted is founded upon and derived from the will of the membership of the Association.”

Traditionally, the RWCA has proven to be the most potent political arm of black power in Wake County for decades. An endorsement from its political action committee (PAC) has elected many a mayor, governor and even US senator.

But with both the crucial 2011 Wake School Board elections just four months away, and the critical 2012 presidential elections just over a year down the road, disgruntled members today say the RWCA is already seriously behind the curve in needed planning and preparation that is not being done.

            “[Pres. Coleman] has not given the membership an opportunity to have a voice,” veteran RWCA member Doris Burke, told The Carolinian. “He’s doing things, and hiding behind the executive committee.”

            “I think the major dilemma is the membership has put forth a platform in terms of its recommendations, and those recommendations are not being carried out by the president,” adds member Michael Leach.

            When asked why that is, Leach said of Coleman and the RWCA membership, “ I think we have different political and philosophical views.” The result, Leach adds, “... is a great deal of discomfort and mistrust.”

            The complaints don’t stop there. Members say beyond Coleman as president, there is no vice president that they know of; they have no idea what funds the organization has from their membership dues because they haven’t gotten a treasurer’s report, nor political action committee report on contributions, in months; and they also have little idea who serves on the executive committee.

            Apparently the organization’s website, which Coleman personally maintained, www.raleighwakecitizensassociation.org, no longer exists either. Key in the website address, and a page comes up saying the domain name “is for sale,” giving further information on where to go to purchase it.

            Last September, Coleman was directing people to go to that RWCA web address for the latest data from the Wake County School System.

            And to top it all off, Coleman has canceled every monthly meeting for the past three months. The RWCA meets every third Thursday of the month. Technically, its next meeting should be the 23^rd of June. But, as of press time early Wednesday, Coleman has yet to advise his membership if it is meeting, and what the agenda will be.

            “What kind of organization can go three months without having a meeting?” Ms. Mary E. Perry, another veteran RWCA member, asked rhetorically. “The RWCA is too old, and too viable to the community, to allow Danny to do what he’s doing!”

            “Danny thinks he is RWCA,” Perry added.

            “It has been a one-man show ever since he’s been there [as president],” Ms. Burke concurred. “If he doesn’t want something to happen, it don’t get on the floor.”

            Last week, after speaking with various disgruntled RWCA members on and off the record for months, The Carolinian emailed Coleman requesting an interview, either by phone or submitted written questions, about the allegations to balance the record.

            Rejecting both options, Coleman instead sent a misdated letter to The Carolinian that didn’t address why he’s held no meeting in the previous 90 days (which was specifically asked in the interview request), but instead, touted his leadership of the organization in a new direction.

            Coleman has refused to answer questions posed about his RWCA leadership before.

            In June 2009, The Carolinian exclusively reported how Coleman’s handpicked RWCA political action committee canceled a special call meeting to choose a candidate for the open state House District 33 seat when he did not like the person who won the organization’s straw poll. That meeting was delayed two days so another candidate could be nominated.

            Coleman, in response to a member’s emailed complaint, said the bylaws prohibited a special call meeting on two days notice, even though that’s literally what the RWCA did not once, but at least twice before to nominate candidates, as documented by The Carolinian then.

            Realizing that the RWCA president wasn’t telling the truth, the member wrote Coleman, “Personally and unequivocally I find that to be a dishonorable way of treating our friendship...”

            An angry Coleman warned the RWCA member, “If I were u I would be careful about attacking the few friends u do have, especially me.”

            Coleman refused to explain his actions then, instead writing another of his letters.

            In his off-the-subject letter to The Carolinian last week, Coleman touted the RWCA’s “new era” under his leadership.

            “We have sought to increase the negotiating power of this organization by becoming more active in discussions with organizations and individuals of power across the board,” the RWCA president wrote, noting that at his invitation, people like Ron Margiotta, the Republican chairman of the GOP-led Wake School Board; Republican Wake School Board member John Tedesco; and former Wake Republican Party Chairman Claude Pope, among others, have come before the RWCA to speak.

            Coleman continued, “The new era of the RWCA is unfolding with a new paradigm in place, the foundation of which has been laid by the leadership of all past presidents, the current president and the unflinching loyalty and dedication of the members of the RWCA.”

            Apparently the “unflinching loyalty and dedication” of the RWCA membership has its limits.

            Members accuse Coleman of taking public positions on issues in the name of RWCA, like the Wake School Board’s neighborhood schools policy, contrary to the long held, well-known membership support for the old student socioeconomic diversity policy, which the GOP-led board dismantled last year.

            That was clearly evident last September when outraged RWCA members angrily tore into Coleman in front of school board member John Tedesco, whom Coleman personally invited to speak, and the press, for writing letters to the editor published by The News and Observer clearly in support of neighborhood schools and the Republican board majority.

            One RWCA member, Bruce Lightner, even called for a vote of no-confidence in Coleman on the floor, but the audience was so angry, they forgot to follow-up.

            “Articles that Danny Coleman writes, come from Danny Coleman,” Ms. Burke said. “They don’t come from the organization.”

Members tell The Carolinian that they want to vote Coleman out now, and, as Ms. Burke said, “Move on.”

            She and others add that Coleman knows that, which is why, they say, he’s been canceling monthly meetings, and sidestepping the confrontation.

            By his own admission, Coleman has been president for the past five years. The RWCA Constitution provides that all RWCA officers, including the president, “…shall be for two (2) years and until their successors are duly elected and installed.”

            The RWCA Constitution adds that, “Officers shall be elected at the first regular meeting in November of every off numbered year…”

            No one The Carolinian has spoken with remembers an RWCA election for president in 2009, but they all say they badly want one now.

                                                            -30-

            

WAKE’S BLUE AND GREEN ASSIGNMENT PLANS FALL SHORT

By Cash Michaels

An analysis

            If Wake School Board District 4 school board member Keith Sutton is correct, and the board adopts either of the two proposed student assignment plans Supt. Anthony Tata unveiled this week, then low-performing schools with significant free-and-reduced lunch populations could be a thing of the past.

            “Those plans take into account the use of student achievement in determining how we assign students,” Sutton, who represents predominately-black Southeast Raleigh on the board, told The Carolinian last week. “So, we will not have free-and-reduced lunch anymore.”

            “Those days are gone.”

            But it maybe a bit early to pop the champagne corks. The proverbial “blue” and “green” Wake assignment plans are admittedly nowhere near finished, and may not be until late June. Feeder patterns for both middle and high schools have yet to be determined, hindering parents who have gone online to figure out what would work best for their children.

            Both plans are touted as offering student achievement, stability and proximity, in compliance with the board’s neighborhood community-based schools policy.

            The reaction to the incomplete presentations at the school system’s website has ranged from confusion to anger, with some parents commenting that Tata should not have presented anything if it wasn’t ready.

            Tata counters that the two plans are only “samples” to give parents an idea of how each student assignment could work, as opposed to would work. The public’s input will be factored into any final details and fine tuning before the plans are presented to the board in late June.

Touted as the best of nine proposals that Supt. Tata’s task force developed after the Republican-led Wake School Board failed to do so all last year, the plans offer two rather simple alternatives.

            Parents either get school choice or school predictability.

            The blue plan, based in part on the school choice model of Massachusetts consultant Dr. Michael Alves, offers parents an array of school choices in which they can enroll their children.

            The green plan offers base school assignments according to a family’s address, so every child automatically has a school assignment.

            Four of the five school board Republicans like the blue plan because of the choice feature. They say it gives parents the power to decide, not the school system.

            Debra Goldman, the fifth GOP board member, has not indicated her choice of late, but in the past she’s been insistent on parents having a base school assignment.

            Three of the four Democrats on the board are open to either the blue or green.

            District 4’s Keith Sutton, the fourth Democrat, prefers the green plan.

            “I think that it just makes sense that we assign students based on their address. It just makes sense that if you’re after a stability and proximity model, then you want an address,” he said.

            Sutton added that his problem with the blue school choice plan is management, given Wake’s size and 143,000 student capacity.

Sutton added that using student achievement as a tool could ensure that the proper resources equitably go where they are academically needed, contrary to high poverty school situations where low-performing, high poverty students are dumped in a failing school with scant resources and second-class administrative support.

           

             

           

            

BREAKING NEWS - OBAMA COMING TO RALEIGH!

This just in from the White House...

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 25, 2011

President Obama will Meet with Jobs and Competitiveness Council in North Carolina

WASHINGTON -- On June 13th, President Obama will travel to Raleigh-Durham, NC to meet with the Jobs and Competitiveness Council to discuss initiatives and policies to strengthen the economy, promote and accelerate job growth and bolster America’s competitiveness around the world.  The President will hear from a variety of leaders and continue the discussion focused on identifying practical ways the government and business can work together to foster growth and create jobs.  The Council will also focus on the importance of educating and training America’s workforce to ensure the jobs and the industries of the future are created in the United States.

The President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council, led by GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt, was created to provide non-partisan advice to the President on ways to strengthen the economy and ensure the competitiveness of the United States.  The Jobs Council is made up of representatives of the various sectors of the economy who offer diverse perspectives of the private sector, employers, and workers on how theFederal Government can best foster growth, competitiveness, innovation, and job creation.

The Jobs Council held their first meeting at the White House on February 24th, focusing on finding new ways to promote growth, to encourage hiring, to educate and train our workers to compete globally, and attract the best jobs and businesses to the United States.

Additional details on the trip will be forthcoming.

CASH MICHAELS BIO

 Cash Michaels is the award-winning editor, chief reporter/photographer and columnist for The Carolinian Newspaper, the twice-weekly African-American publication that has been covering Raleigh and the state of North Carolina for over 70 years.

Michaels also serves as staff writer and award-winning columnist for the Wilmington Journal newspaper in Wilmington, NC, and a frequent contributing writer to the Amsterdam News in New York. Many of his stories are also carried across the nation via the 200-member National Newspaper Publishers Association.

When he is not reporting or providing commentary, Michaels produces a wide range of video and documentary projects through his CashWorks HD Productions, based out of Cary, NC.

His latest, and most ambitious production ever is the highly acclaimed feature-length documentary, “Obama in NC: The Path to History,” (www.ObamaInNC.com) which debuted in Raleigh on Jan. 16, 2010, and made its first theatrical debut on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010 at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary.

On Feb. 21, 2010, the film was voted Second Best Feature Film at the 16^th Annual Hayti Heritage Film Festival in Durham.

On Feb. 27, 2010, a deal was signed with Thunderball Films LLC in Los Angeles, CA to market distribution of the film worldwide.

Some of Michaels’ other filmworks focusing on public policy include “The CSI Story” for the nonprofit group Community Success Initiative; “NCNAACP July 20th Mobilization” for the NCNAACP; “Child Support and the Courts” for Wake Count District Court Judge Honorable Kristin Ruth; and 2010’s “Costs and Consequences: What’s at Stake in Wake,”  for the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, a pro student diversity group.

“The CSI Story” was featured during the 2011 Hayti Heritage Film Festival.

CashWorks latest production in the 2011 documentary short, "Stephon Ferguson: The King Experience." 

Among Michaels’ special community service accomplishments is volunteering as media coordinator for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 50^th Anniversary Conference at Shaw University in April 2010; the Oct. 2008 partnership with the NC NAACP in coordinating the massive “Millions Voting March,” a nonpartisan effort to mobilize and maximize the African-American vote in North Carolina during the 2008 presidential elections.

That effort was formerly acknowledged and endorsed by national NAACP President/CEO Benjamin Jealous.

In April 2008, Michaels, working on behalf of the NC Black Press Association, coordinated back-to-back “NC Black Press Presidential Roundtables” with Democratic presidential primary candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Sen. Barack Obama, exclusive interview sessions between the candidates and 10 of North Carolina’s top African-American newspapers and magazines.

Michaels later produced a video of the historic sessions titled, “Obama: Black Issues and the President.”

On the television side since January 2008, Michaels has served as a regular panelist on WRAL-TV’s “NC Spin,” the weekly public affairs program which airs statewide.

From Sept. 1999 to Sept. 2007, Michaels co-hosted NBC 17 News “At Issue” with Donna Martinez and weekend anchor Verna Collins.

In Oct. 2003, Michaels and Martinez provided live commentary for NBC 17 News live coverage of the verdict in the nationally televised Michael Peterson murder trial in Durham. He has also been a part of NBC-17’s live Election night coverage from 2004 to 2007.

Michaels also wrote, produced and reported two five-part series for NBC-17 News at 6 p.m. - "And Still They Rise" in February 2000, about outstanding black leaders who are making history today; and "Why Johnny's Got a Gun," in May 2000, examining the reasons behind youth gun violence in schools.

During that report, Michaels scored an exclusive interview with a 17 year-old teen serving a life sentence in prison for fatally shooting a Raleigh police detective in 1997.

In the 2006 Duke Lacrosse alleged rape case, Michaels’ coverage from the African-American perspective was carried by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization of 200-plus Black newspapers across the nation.

That coverage attracted the attention of major news outlets across the country. As a result, Michaels was interviewed by, or provided analysis for CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now,” ABC News Law & Justice Unit; Byron Pitt for  “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric”; CBS ”48 Hours” segment on  “The Early Show;” Court TV’s “Nancy Grace’s Closing Arguments” and “Bloom & Politan;” Catherine Herridge of Fox News; Juan Williams of NPR; “Keepin’ It Real with the Rev. Al Sharpton; ”’The Tom Pope syndicated radio show; WNYC-AM in New York, Imhotep Gary Byrd on WBLS-FM/WLIB-AM in New York; Armstrong Williams on WWRL-AM in New York, among others.

Throughout his over thirty-year career, Michaels has covered many of the top stories in Black America, including the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., the Amadou Diallo case in Bronx, N.Y., the Megan Williams torture/rape case in West Virginia; the 2008 presidential election; and the Miss Collegiate African-American Pageant in Hollywood, Calif.

He has also interviewed notables like Ms. Coretta Scott King, Min. Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Muhammad Ali, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, actress Alfre Woodard, Sen. Joe Biden and many others.

Michaels April 8, 2008 interview with Michelle Obama has been seen by over 21,000 people on YouTube.

Michaels even directed comedian Bill Cosby in 1987 for a "Jesse Jackson for President" radio commercial, part of which is featured in his film, Obama in NC: The Path to History.”

In 1998, Michaels was one of 22 contributing writers to "Keeping America’s Promise to North Carolina’s Children," published by the N.C. Child Advocacy Institute, and hailed by such luminaries as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, writer Maya Angelou, and former UNC President William Friday.

During his career, Michaels has received numerous awards for his work and community service, most notably the North Carolina Black Publishers Association’s Excellence in Journalism Award in August 1997; the Triangle Association of Black Journalists in March, 2003; in June 2007, the National Newspaper Publishers Association chose Michaels’ “Cash in the Apple,” carried by both The Carolinian and Wilmington Journal, as the Best Column Writing of 2006; and in June 2010, Michaels’ three-part series on the death of singer Michael Jackson, gained him the NNPA Award for Best Features Story of 2009.

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, Michaels was writing for The Carolinian from his mother's home in Brooklyn, N.Y. when the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists across the river in Manhattan.

With most phone lines jammed in New York, television stations knocked off the air and bridges, tunnels and highways shutdown by order of NY Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Michaels not only succeeded in developing the paper's front page coverage as the true scope of the tragedy was unfolding around him, but he was also able to get pictures and stories back to Raleigh by deadline that night despite daunting telephone line problems, producing one of The Carolinian's most historic editions.

The next day, Michaels reported live via telephone what the mood in New York was like in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on NBC-17 News at Six with Bill Gaines and Sharon Delaney.

Michaels is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., where he attended Brooklyn College for two years. In August 1981, after working at several small radio stations in New York and New Jersey, Michaels moved to Durham, N.C. to do the morning drive program on WSRC-AM.

Before he left there in 1983, Michaels served as WSRC program director, news director and production manager. Michaels holds the distinction of giving popular national radio and television personality Bo Griffin her first job straight out of broadcasting school.

Griffin died on Feb. 16, 2010 of a long-term illness.

In March 1984, he joined WLLE-AM in Raleigh as a morning drive personality, and eventually becoming program director, news director, and host/producer of his own evening talk show called "Hotline P.M."

Michaels took a leave of absence from 1988-90 to work with students as program director at WAUG-AM, the commercial radio station of St. Augustine’s College. He returned to WLLE in 1990, and then took over as editor/chief reporter of The Carolinian in January 1993.

Michaels stayed with WLLE-AM until August 1997 when the station was sold and changed formats.

From February 1998 until April 2001, Michaels served as morning news anchor for WAUG-AM in Raleigh.

Michaels is happily married to his wife of eight years, Markita. They are the proud parents of their daughter, KaLa, born Feb. 14, 2003. Cash's oldest daughter by a previous marriage, Tiffany, is a 2005 graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, and earned her MBA from the UM School of Business in 2008. Currently Tiffany is employed as an account executive for a major media company in Maryland.

The family currently lives in Cary, NC.

STATE NAACP PRESIDENT, SIX OTHERS, ORDERED ARRESTED BY GOP

REV. BARBER, PROTESTERS, ARRESTED AT GENERAL ASSEMBLY

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            Saying that North Carolina was a “state in emergency” because of drastic budget cuts by the Republican-led General Assembly, the president of the NCNAACP and six others openly challenged NC House Speaker Thom Tillis, a Republican, to meet with them, interrupting a House session at the Legislature Tuesday.

NCNAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber, NCNAACP Second Vice President Rev. Curtis Gatewood, and five others were arrested by state Capitol Police and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and second-degree trespassing. All seven were held in jail overnight, and released on $12,500 bond Wednesday morning at 2 a.m.

            The “State in Emergency Seven,” as they’ve been called, chanted, “ Fund education, not incarceration,” and “save our children, don’t cut education,” stopping House proceedings.

            In past weeks, Rev. Barber has blasted the Republican-led state Legislature for “draconian” cuts to the budget that would detour hundreds of millions from public education K-12 and cut the UNC System by as much as 15.5 percent.

            The proposed cuts would eliminate 20,000 jobs across the state, including thousands of teachers and teachers’ assistants.

            The NCNAACP leader decried GOP measures that would cripple One Stop Early Voting, repeal the NC Racial Justice Act, and require citizens to display a voter ID at the polls.

            Barber was also critical of GOP leadership blocking federal unemployment benefits to at least 45,000 out-of-work citizens in an effort to force Governor Beverly Perdue to comply with their budget cuts.

            Perdue has refused, blasting the GOP for making the unemployed “hostages,” and has promised to veto any budget bill she disagrees with.

            According to a NCNAACP press release about the incident, “Barber and the other leaders were on their way to a mass rally in the Legislative Auditorium, attended by over 350 people from across the State.  When Barber and the other leaders were dragged out of the legislative chambers, and off to jail,  other HKonJ and NAACP leaders stepped up and led a People's Hearing where over 30 North Carolinians gave short reports on how the budget bills and direct attacks on public services to the poor and disenfranchised will devastate their families and neighbors.”

The NCNAACP press release continued, “Tillis later told the protesters that they needed to show more respect for "my house."  Several protesters reminded him that this was the People's House--this is "Our House," they said.”

            "I think it's sad that Rep Tillis said it's his house," Rev. Barber told reporters after bonding out of jail. "It's not his house, it's the people's house, and the people will be heard."

            In a release from his office Tuesday, Speaker Tillis said, “Today’s disruption was one of the most disrespectful displays I have witnessed during my tenure in the House of Representatives. It was a clear violation of the rules of the House, and those rules will continue to be enforced to ensure safety and dignity in the people’s House.”

Tillis told reporters Wednesday that Rev. Barber owes “his chamber,” according to press reports, for disrupting House proceedings the previous day. He said he will not meet with Barber now because of the Capitol police investigation into the incident, but may meet with other representatives of the NCNAACP.

            Previously, Tillis alleged that a meeting had been set with Rev. Barber, but that the civil rights leader had canceled. Barber alleges that he has requested a sitdown with Tillis and the GOP leadership at least three times, and had been rebuffed each time.

Published reports said state Rep, Larry Womble (D-Forsyth) went to the Wake County jail Tuesday night to make sure Rev. Barber and his colleagues were all right. Womble reportedly told reporters that he supported what Rev. Barber did.

            "The cuts that the General Assembly is calling for, at least on the Republican side - education, health care and jobs - will affect North Carolina in a very negative manner," Womble told The News & Observer. "I think (Barber) is trying to call attention to this. I believe he is justified."

            Those arrested and charged with Rev. Barber include Rev. Curtis Gatewood, HKonJ Coordinator; Rob Stephens, Associate Director of the Anti-Death Penalty Project; Rev. Kojo Nantambu, President of Charlotte NAACP; Timothy Hodges, Past President of Johnson County NAACP; David Lamotte, NC Council of Churches; and Rev. T. Anthony Spearman.

            Rev. Barber has previously participated in acts of civil disobedience when he and others protested during two Wake County Public School Board meetings in April and July of last year. On both occasions, Rev. Barber was arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing.  No court dates have been set.

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